Page 88 of Bite Me

The final detail nagging Ky was the ring for Jada.

It killed him that he couldn’t find that for her. He’d searched his own treasure up and down and up again to see if there was any possibility a ring had been left behind. He found plenty of diamonds and jewels, but no ring.

He was sitting on the back terrace of the house, looking out over the water when Jada came and found him.

“Hey, Ky. Look what Nana Kiki and I found.” The two women walked out together, granted Nana Kiki was quite a bit slower than Jada. She was at least a hundred years old, although no one knew her real age.

Nana had loved Jada on sight. They’d spent almost as much time together this week as Jada and Ky had.

“What is it,aroha?”

“Nana Kiki and I were digging around in some old boxes you have trying to find a dress she wanted to wear, and I found this.”

Jada held out a ring, made of pure water. It swirled and sparkled, but held its shape, even as she laid it in his hand.

“She found that right away, she did,” Nana said and sat in the chair opposite him. “Why don’t you put it on her finger, boy? I think it would look fine.”

Ky’s hands shook as he slipped the ring onto Jada’s finger.

“Say the words, boy. Jada, repeat after him.”

“Ni, Jada,” Ky paused. “I don’t know your last name.”

“Oh, uh. I don’t really have one. I’ve always been identified by my coven. How about Leonardo?”

Ky nodded and smiled at her.

“Ni, Jada Leonardo, cad men anna ni gud Ky Puru.”

Jada said the words back to him and a blue light as strong as the one in his soul poured from the ring, surrounding them both.

Ky said the vow back to her. “Ni, Ky Puru, gud tammabuki, cad men anna ni ilati sinnis, Jada Leonardo.”

The light filled them both, and their souls danced again. As it faded, it gathered and sank into the water of Jada’s ring.

Ky kissed Jada and held her tight to his chest. Then he looked over at Nana Kiki.

She had an awfully familiar gleam to her eye. Was that a new white dress she was wearing?

“Ky, what were those words. What did we say? They felt familiar, right.”

“They are the vows of the Wyvern mating ritual. You promised yourself to me and I to you.”

“I love that. But, shouldn’t we have said them tomorrow at the wedding?”

Nana Kiki rose, without the help of her cane. “Jada, your gift, what your offer is what every human wants, what every being in the Universe is looking for, hoping for. What you offer is love. No one, mortal or not, can resist the allure of true love. Ky needed that in his life. He’d gone far too long without it.”

“Nana? How did you know about the ring, and that I should put it on Jada? And the words? You were my father’s companion. He had no mate.”

She laughed and the air around her glowed. “While I enjoy you calling me Nana Kiki, it’s not quite one of my true names., although I have many. One is Inanna, another is Ki.”

Holy First Dragon. Ki was a little-known name for Papatuanuku, the Maori primordial earth mother. The mother of all things.

A warmth washed over both Jada and Ky as Nana Kiki transformed before their eyes. She was a beautiful young woman in moments. She was the White Witch.

“I should know, youngling.” She kissed them both on the forehead. “I should know who your mates are. I’m working on that for your brothers now. Who better than me? I used to be the goddess of love.”

In a blink, the White Witch disappeared, leaving Ky and Jada to gape in her wake.

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