บททั้งหมดของ A Date with the Future: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

The break in the Thessaly investigation came from an unexpected source: Vessa Kell, the herbalist whose testimony had first led them to Grey Hollow months earlier, returning to Selene's attention with a fresh delivery request that matched, disturbingly closely, the pattern of ingredients she'd once supplied to Malachar's own preparations."Someone's buying the same rare compounds," Selene reported, spreading Vessa's latest ledger across the war table with grim satisfaction. "Different courier this time, careful to avoid the exact pattern that exposed Draven and, eventually, Malachar. But the ingredients themselves are distinctive enough that I don't believe this is coincidence.""The same blood magic Malachar used?" Elena asked, tension coiling immediately through her posture."Not identical. Some overlap, but Vessa says this new buyer has requested different compounds as well, ones she doesn't recognize from her previous dealings with Malachar's people. Which suggests either a differ

The security walkthrough, on the surface, proceeded exactly as scheduled: both full Councils gathering at the Hollow Bridge under a crisp, early winter sky, reviewing the elaborate pavilion plans and guard rotations that would, in three months' time, transform this same stone crossing into the site of Elena and Damon's wedding.Beneath that ordinary surface, considerably more careful preparation had gone into the day than any casual observer would have noticed: Rhys and Selene's joint task force positioned in overlapping rings around the bridge's perimeter, disguised among what appeared to be ordinary wedding vendors and support staff, and Damon himself wearing, beneath his formal coat, considerably more protective gear than the occasion's apparent informality suggested."Everyone's in position," Selene murmured, falling into step beside him as the Council elders began their formal walkthrough of the proposed pavilion site. "If Thessaly intends to strike today, she'll find considerabl

The morning of the wedding arrived clear and cold, frost silvering the grass along the Hollow Bridge's approach, and Damon, dressing in Ashgrove Hall with Selene fussing over the formal coat's precise fit with more nervous energy than he'd ever seen from her, found himself struck by the particular strange calm that had settled over him despite everything still hanging over the day."You're remarkably composed," Selene observed, adjusting his collar with brisk efficiency. "Given that we're expecting a political sabotage attempt sometime in the next several hours.""I've had considerable practice remaining composed under threat, these past months." Damon studied his own reflection, struck by how little the calm certainty in his own eyes matched the frantic uncertainty he remembered feeling on that first bridge meeting, months ago. "Besides, we're prepared this time. Thessaly's plan is already anticipated, the joint statement ready the moment she attempts to spring it. Today isn't Grey H

They took eight days after the wedding before either of them mentioned Thessaly's name again, an unspoken agreement neither had voiced aloud but both had honored regardless, choosing instead to spend that first stretch of married life exactly the way Elena had insisted the wedding itself should be spent: deliberately, joyfully, refusing to let a still-loose enemy dictate the shape of their happiness.They spent those eight days at a small, secluded lodge along the northern edge of Voss territory, a wedding gift from Garrick that had, Damon suspected, been arranged with rather more sentimental care than his gruff presentation of the deed had let on, and Damon found himself, waking each morning beside Elena with no war table waiting downstairs, no Council session demanding his attention, discovering an entirely new rhythm to a life he'd spent three centuries assuming would only ever hold duty and careful restraint."You're staring again," Elena said, on the eighth morning, not opening h

The vampire purist sect proved considerably harder to approach than Elena's negotiation with the Kestrels, if only because Damon's own name and lineage made any direct inquiry immediately suspect among a group whose entire philosophy rejected the Council his family had helped found."They call themselves the Old Blood," Selene reported, three days after Elena's successful return from the southern settlement, spreading a fresh set of documents across the war table with the particular careful precision she brought to any subject requiring delicate handling. "A splinter sect that split from the mainstream vampire houses generations before either of our current Councils held power, built around the belief that vampire kind was never meant to bow to any shared governance with wolves, or honestly with each other. They've operated quietly for centuries, small, insular communities scattered across both our territories and beyond, mostly avoiding direct conflict with the Council in exchange fo