“Will it hurt?” 

Vaydren drew his timid bride closer and made a quiet confession.  “A little.”  Though a lie, it seemed kinder than restating a truth of which she was well aware.

            The clasp of Magdalen’s fingers tightened around his raised hand and the tuxedo-covered crest of his shoulder, while heat and color blossomed in the cheek she pressed to his.  Beneath jeweled, billowing layers of silk chiffon, her body tensed, transforming their unchoreographed glide across the lantern-lit garden into a cautious sway.

Though her face wore warmth for the benefit of their guests, Vaydren knew Magdalen, as well as any creature could know another.  Her flesh feared what it had yet to face.  Nevertheless, her heart remained attuned to his, assuming its ease as if it were her own.    

            “How long will this ‘little’ hurt last?”  Magdalen’s whisper breezed across the shell of his ear and into the waved black locks tucked behind it, tugging at his weakness for her. 

Among all his kind and hers, it was an ability she alone possessed.

Intent on bringing her comfort, he drew their clasped hands into the space between their beating hearts and met her fretful gaze.  “In retrospect, you will think the time too brief to consider.”

“And in the moment?”

“In the moment, you will remember how deeply I love you and count the pain a small ransom to pay for the oneness of our flesh and the surety of our future.”

Magdalen’s hand drifted from Vaydren’s shoulder to the nape of his neck, her eyes still tethered to his.  “Will you be gentle?”

            “As gentle as a whisper’s caress,” he vowed.  “Still, my care and affection, while great, cannot defeat nature.  Yet, I promise to bear with you this burden I regretfully cannot make mine alone.”

            She fell silent and lay her head on his shoulder, weary with anticipating the agony she must endure, but resigned to it. 

Vaydren sensed her dread.  Felt it as if the emotion were his own.  But unlike the moment when he’d faced his own adaptation, there was no hesitation.  Her love for him wouldn’t allow it.

            From their beginning, Magdalen had relinquished all to Vaydren, with no concern for the home from which he came and must return.  When he revealed himself to her, she looked on in wonder untainted by fear.  And on being asked to follow him to the ends of the earth and beyond, she’d agreed.  All she’d asked in return was this night.

            For months, Magdalen had sat at the center of an array of bridal books, swatches, and favors, planning and perfecting.  For her loved ones, the result was a celebration of romance and commitment.  For Vaydren, it was a peculiar ceremony far removed from his ways, but one to which he happily submitted for the joy it afforded her.  Yet, for Magdalen, the day was a commemoration of the bond they’d long ago sworn to honor, in this world and the next, and a farewell to the woman she was.  A farewell that drew closer as their final dance and reception ended.

            Hand-in-hand, husband and wife wandered through darkness along a brick path, toward the manor house that would serve as honeymoon suite and place of preparation.  Many times he’d known the intimate feel of her and committed to what she called “making love,” though love had been made the moment her eyes answered the call of his.  Tonight, however, would be the first time he’d share intimacies with the being she would become.

            A compound created by the ancients would restructure Magdalen’s cells, making her more like them and capable of surviving the variant atmosphere of his planet.  Though it pained him to cause her a second’s suffering, it would be Vaydren who administered the injections and comforted his mate through the fire of transformation—a task he would gladly assume, along with ensuring she never found reason to regret the decision to abandon her world and become a part of his.

            “You mourn the end of life as you have known it?”  Vaydren inquired, hoping the answer might somehow ease his guilt over taking her from all she knew.

Alight with love’s serenity, Magdalen paused on the path and caressed Vaydren face, unburdening his soul and calling forth the crimson hue of his kind.  “I cannot mourn what has not been lost.  The only life I’ve ever known, my love, is in you.”