Fateful (29 page)

“Why is Beon okay with this life? He chose
it,” she asked with a churning in her stomach from the morbid
topic.

“Many people hunt, even your father hunts.
It’s a common recreational sport. I did too. It was a way of life
back then. Beon sees it like that. I don’t judge him or any other
vampire who chose this life. I understand Beon’s perspective. But I
take a life every night, and I detest that aspect of this curse.
Most people hunt occasionally, I’m forced to hunt every night. And
I don’t like feeling out of control. When I’m thirsty that is how I
feel. Like some fiendish monster,” he said intently, his brow
creased.

After a heavy pause, he went on, “I hunt
daily so I do not become that bloodthirsty beast, and since we only
hunt animals it’s easy for us to keep our eating habits private. We
don’t have to drink every night, we can go longer without feeding,
but we would also be more likely to lose our restraint. Lucas, and
others like him don’t hunt daily. Partly because, as I told you
before, it is quite a bit more difficult to take human prey and
remain hidden. If too many people went missing all the time, they
could figure out what the problem was. But this waiting also makes
him more dangerous when he is out in the city. Sadly that is not an
issue for him; he has no remorse for what he is.”

She nodded as she began to grasp both
perspectives. She understood why Beon thought Ethan should make her
into a vampire, and she understood why Ethan didn’t want that for
her. She was also more frightened of Lucas because he truly was a
curse to humanity, exactly as the sorceress meant vampires to
be.

Silently she walked around the room examining
the other items on display. She stopped in front of a shield with a
crest painted on it. A deep gouge marred the design. This shield
had been used in battle.

“That was the shield Max carried when he was
injured, the injury that prompted Seth to make the offer to change
him,” Ethan told her.

She still wanted to see Max in the armor, and
tried to imagine him holding this shield, but knew she couldn’t
press it or Ethan might get jealous again. Watching them duel with
swords was also still appealing. She decided Ethan may be less
likely to take that personally unless he happened to lose. But she
could picture that he was likely just as skilled a swordsman as
Max, and decided to brave the question. “Nadia said you two fight
with swords sometimes. I’d kind of like to see that.”

“We might be able to arrange that,” he said,
an impish grin pulling at his lips.

“Cool.” she said, relieved he wasn’t
angry.

“Would you like to see the dungeons
next?”

She stared at him.

“Just fooling, we don’t have dungeons.” Ethan
snickered. “But we do have secret passageways.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but I’ll show you those another time.
Would you like to see the garden today?”

“Sure.” A vampire’s garden? This should be
interesting.

Ethan led her outside, unbelievably allowing
her to walk by herself. Beon was there, trimming a sculpted,
bunny-shaped shrub just as she’d pictured when she first visited
their home. She laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Ethan asked.

“Well, when you said he did the gardening,
that’s exactly what I pictured—even the bunny.”

He looked at her with a confused expression.
It seemed he couldn’t see the humor in it.

“You had to be there,” she muttered.

“All right.” He shrugged his shoulders and
then strode toward Beon. “How is the planning going? Need any
help?”

“We’re all set. It should be a lovely
evening.” His gaze passed over Danielle briefly and she noticed
what looked like a flicker of irritation or concern. “Nicolas
called me.”

“What about?” Ethan asked, but she figured he
likely knew as much as she did. Her Uncle wanted to keep tabs on
her for his brother, her father.

“I’m not supposed to allow you two to be in
your room alone, and it has been requested that I make sure you
don’t cross any inappropriate lines of physical intimacy. You are
to be supervised by either me or Sophia at all times,” he replied,
smirking while he meticulously trimmed his shrub.

Ethan burst out laughing. “Well, no worries
then. We can’t risk that anyway.”

While she was embarrassed, Danielle could
understand Uncle Nick’s way of dealing with this. She was his niece
and he was responsible for her. He naturally thought of Ethan as a
typical young man, and from that perspective he should have been
worried. But what he didn’t know was that besides being a vampire,
Ethan was really a twenty-three year old from the nineteenth
century who held to the same moral values from that long ago era,
making his fears unfounded.

Ethan nodded a farewell to Beon, took her
hand and began guiding her further into the yard. This garden was
three times the size of her uncle’s which made sense really,
because so was the house.

The design of the landscaping was formal, and
there were sculpted shrubs in animal shapes dotting a green lawn to
the left, a fountain in the center, and a rose garden to the right.
There was more to the landscaping further back, but she couldn’t
quite make it out.

Ethan led Danielle to a bench by the
fountain. They sat quietly enjoying the outdoors, listening to the
birds and the gurgling water. It wasn’t sunny, it rarely was in
England, and she wondered if it was going to rain again.

“I’m sorry about my uncle,” she said.

“Don’t be, if I were him I’d do the same
thing.”

“I guess it’s true you can’t really trust
most young men these days, or young ladies for that matter,” she
conceded.

Ethan was silent for a moment and then leaned
back on the bench, it seemed so he could watch her more
carefully.

“What are you thinking now?” she asked.

“I’m just wondering.”

“Wondering what?”

“Well, your uncle brought the topic up. So I
was just wondering if … you’ve ever been with anyone else?” he
questioned suggestively. He stretched his long arms along the back
of the bench with his piercing eyes fastened on her.

Her lips tightened as she squirmed
under his stare and she flushed. She glanced to where Beon had
been.
Could he hear this
conversation?

“He’s gone, he can’t hear us,” Ethan informed
her.

She sighed and then answered. “I know you’ll
find this hard to believe, but no, I haven’t.”

She then tried to look away but Ethan
took her chin carefully, yet quickly and locked their gazes
together. She knew he believed she was telling the truth, but he
questioned her anyway. “That
is
hard to believe, you’re too beautiful to convince me you
haven’t been pursued before.”

Danielle knew it was unusual in this modern
world, where morals didn’t matter much any longer. Attempting to
explain it, she said, “I learned a long time ago that many guys
want a ‘play thing’ to date, but they want to marry the sweet girl
who doesn’t mess around with every one she happens to date. I
didn’t want to be the ‘toy’ no one wanted to marry so I cut off my
relationship with any guy who fit into that category. What a scummy
way to treat girls, I wouldn’t want to marry a guy like that.”

“Any guy like that doesn’t deserve you.” She
watched as he developed an angry twitch in the muscles along his
jaw. “It is interesting to note that some men were like that in my
era, it’s a rather Victorian notion, is it not? Strange to think
men haven’t changed much, even while the world seems to have become
more … free with their standards. A bunch of lousy rakehells,
they’ll ruin any lady they like, but no, they must marry an
innocent.”

“I was looking for someone with more
self-control and respect. It’s important to me; I know it’s not the
norm for this century. But I’d rather be peculiar than easy.”

“How did you know when a guy fell into this
‘scummy’ category? And did you ever meet any who didn’t?”

“I knew because they usually turned into an
octopus on the first date, or soon thereafter, their hands all over
the place.” Her lip curled in disgust as she spoke. She was
remembering such dates and the effort it took to block their
advances. “After meeting a few too many creeps I didn’t date much
for a while and just concentrated on my homework.” She paused to
look at Ethan. “I’ve only dated one guy who didn’t fit into this
category.”

Ethan actually looked angry. “Who?” He forced
the query through his teeth, his jaw tightening again.

“You,” she replied softly and leaned back
against his outstretched arm to smile up at him.

“Truly?” His jaw relaxed with a smile.

“Yes, truly.”

However, she was surprised to see the anger
return as the smile wilted. An enlightened look brightened his
eyes, but it wasn’t a good thing, he was fuming. “That was a scummy
octopus at the dance club, wasn’t it?”

“You saw that?”

“Of course. I watched you for a while before
I danced with you. Remember, I was following you.”

“Oh, right, yeah I remember. I just didn’t
know you were there, so I forget. But … why didn’t you step in
then?”

“Well, firstly, I didn’t think he would try
anything so quickly either, and secondly, that loser was mortal and
I knew you could handle him without my help. But, from now on,
you’ll have to point out any of these slimy creatures from the deep
next time you meet one,” he said, an ominous tone filling his
British accent as the dangerous Ethan emerged.

“So you can do what?” she asked
nervously.

“So I can toss it back into the ocean where
it belongs,” he said, a murderous glare glazing over his innocent
blue eyes. His powerful hands balled into fists and then
relaxed.

“Most of them live in Colorado. I haven’t
dated anyone but you since I’ve been here. Well, except for Peter,
but I don’t think he counts.” She realized the guy from the dance
club, whom she didn’t actually date, was now in peril.

“Hm, lucky for them.” He sounded
disappointed. “And yes, I would agree, Peter behaved himself.”

She remembered that he’d been watching then
too, and realized it was a good thing she’d told him about Peter,
she could have been in trouble for that if she hadn’t.

All this talk about her made her wonder
about him. He was
much
older
than her, and the world had left his childhood values behind a long
time ago. Well, most of them, while there were many “rakehells” in
his time it seemed the world was currently flooded with even more.
She knew he was a gentleman, and she believed he mostly followed
the old ways, with only a few updates. She knew she could trust his
hands to not be wandering ones and he had already told her there
had never been anyone else before her, but did that just mean he
hadn’t taken any other girls to the fairies? She still had doubts,
and wanted to know more about his past. “So, what about you?” she
asked.

“What about me?” he answered with teasing
mischief dancing in his eyes.

Danielle groaned and rolled her eyes, he was
going to make this difficult.

“Well, you are much older than me … you can’t
tell me no one hasn’t ever pursued a handsome guy like you,” she
said, using his tactics against him.

“Nope. Never. I told you before—there was no
one before you.”

“But Celeste was pursuing you, didn’t any
other female vampires try to do the same?” she asked coyly.

“I don’t get out much,” he responded
promptly.

“Oh come on! You said you traveled the world!
You’re saying you’ve never been tempted to update your principles,
not even just once?”

“Danielle, I’ve kept to the same values I did
in the eighteen hundreds. I was never a licentious man. Do you
doubt me?” he asked, injured.

Blowing out a puff of air, she said, “I guess
not. I’m sorry I just wanted to know for certain, that’s all.” He’d
had plenty of time to change that, and most men certainly would
have. It wasn’t hard to see why she’d doubt him.

Ethan paused, watching her as the hurt
evaporated from his expression. “Danielle, I had chosen to be moral
before I became a vampire. I couldn’t bear the thought of ruining a
young lady. She would be shunned by the
ton
,” he said while slipping into a
nineteenth-century argot. “And the tarts who didn’t care about
their innocence … well … I’d heard of some of the diseases going
around. That tainted any temptation they may have
provided.

“I’ve watched as people have changed their
values over the centuries. People seem to be less content nowadays
than they were when their lives were simpler. Celeste has never
been happy, and I know she’s been a very busy girl. So I’m even
more convinced that the old values were better,” he said
confidently, and then frowned. “Celeste brings up another factor
that has kept me clinging to the choice I made then. As a vampire,
the heightened sense of smell became a contributing deterrent. I
could smell when a woman had been with another man. When Celeste
came home from an encounter, she reeked of it. We all knew. Of
course,” he added slowly, “it was expected with Beon and Sophia,
they were married. But with Celeste it was a different man every
time. When you can smell another man on a woman, for me anyway, it
is downright nauseating and distracting.”

Ethan slipped one arm firmly around her
shoulders, tugged her close and then used his other hand to brush
her hair from her neck. He then slid his nose along the curve of
it, drawing in a long breath of the fragrance that clung to her
skin. When he pulled away, he lifted a handful of hair to his nose
and smelled from that too. Letting the strands fall against her
shoulder and cheek, he said, “Now you, my dear, smell of me. And I
know from breathing in your bouquet that you have never been soured
by another. That appeals to me. I do get hints of Brianna, and even
your aunt and uncle, but it’s not the same as the odor that clung
to Celeste.” His fingers continued to play with her hair. “Yet,
beneath the smells of your environment, it’s sugar I detect most.”
He chuckled. “You make me crave confections that I no longer eat as
a vampire.”