Fateful (37 page)

She never stopped tracing his skin with the
pads of her fingers, dragging them along his nape and then into his
hair. With palms sliding up her back, he grasped handfuls of hers.
She sighed, and rolled her head back. Had she really just exposed
her neck to a vampire? Did her curse-poisoned brain care? When
Ethan accepted the invitation and pressed his lips to her skin, her
breaths came faster as he tickled her throat with feathery
kisses.

During the day this contact would have been
perfectly fine, but at night … they were playing with fire. And it
seemed that neither one of them was willing to stop. It’s possible
that they sensed an impending change headed toward their
relationship, a change they couldn’t stop.

He traced his lips down to her collarbone and
tickled her further, gliding them across her sensitive skin. He
slid his powerful fingers along her neck, across the top of her
shoulder and onto her arm, where he gave her a tender squeeze. The
chemise had slipped from her shoulder. Never had his fingers
touched that bare skin before, and she knew she was enjoying this
way more than she should. Ethan was driving her crazy, and she
completely forgot about her nightmare. She felt safe, not
vulnerable, even with her throat unprotected. Of course, she soon
noticed that her heart was now racing, and she wondered dazedly if
he could hear it, if it bothered him....

When she placed her hand on the side of
his cheek, trying to bring him back to her, Ethan hesitated, and
turned his face away as if he feared he had bad breath. Watching
his expression, she thought she saw an internal battle wage within
before he took a big breath of air, held it and turned back like he
was diving deep under water. As Ethan pressed firmly closed lips to
hers, Danielle wondered if maybe they
were
underwater. But the thought was almost too
far away to really grasp with the logical and responsible parts of
her brain.

In a sudden move, his mouth again found her
neck ... her jugular? She felt his lips part right before cold air
sank through the blankets and she realized he was gone. Now
standing, Ethan stumbled a couple of steps backward. He looked down
at her briefly before looking away.

“What’s wrong?”

“Y-you’re d-driving me insane.”

“I’m sorry,” her mouth said, but her mind
said, get back here and....

Dragging hands through his hair, he ground
out, “Your dream will come true if we keep doing this. I need to
leave. We can’t repeat last night either, you could have been
killed.”

But I want you to bite
me
, she wished to cry, yet found some way to keep the
words inside.

“I need to see Benjamin. It’s the only hope
we have left right now.”

She leaned up on her elbow, barely resisting
the instinct to throw herself at him. “I’m scared.” The tide of
tears returned. “I have a bad feeling about this. What if I never
see you again?” Covering her tear-soaked face with her hands, she
sobbed.

Gentle fingers closed around her wrists and
drew her hands away from her face. Stroking the hair from her moist
cheeks, he crooned, “Please don’t cry. I’ll be back. I swear
it.”

“When are you leaving?”

“Today.”

“But what about Lucas?” she tried, knowing
the move was a desperate one.

“The Order will watch over you, you needn’t
worry about Lucas or Celeste. Just be careful, as before.” Could
she really trust the merry band of repentant killers? When she
thought of Max and even Beon she knew deep down she could. She
still didn’t like the idea when she watched him leave via the
window.

As the rising sun brightened her room,
Danielle finally dragged herself out of bed, knowing she’d slept
in. She paused in front of the mirror to see what she’d done to
herself with all that crying. Sure enough, she looked terrible.
Tracing the dark circles under her tear-ravaged eyes, she thought
of that dream. That stupid dream! Ethan isn’t like that. He could
never be like that. She wanted to forget about it, but it was the
event that made him determined to go, determined to visit Benjamin,
determined to find the cure to his evil curse.

Deciding she’d better take a shower to try
and wash the tears away so her family wouldn’t ask questions, she
wished she’d lied and said it wasn’t about him. Too bad she sucked
at fibbing. He would have seen through it.

Chapter
2
1

Premonition

Patience remained a major weakness of hers as
she tried not to think about Ethan and what he might be doing as he
searched for a cure she wasn’t sure existed. She spent a lot of
time painting and doing homework trying to quell the distress her
personality flaw caused.

Creating another sad painting, she decided it
made her feel a little better. But only a little. This time a
distraught fairy emerged from her pencil. The little sprite sat
curled up under a brown mushroom, her arms wrapped around her bent
legs, her cheek resting on her knees, and desperate tears trickled
down her tiny cheeks. Even her little wings drooped sadly. Danielle
understood how she felt as she filled the fairy in with the wash of
soft watercolors.

Her workouts became more aggressive, as did
the music she listened to, but she was forced to do those inside
since it seemed to rain constantly after Ethan left. Danielle hoped
that wasn’t a bad omen. She also wanted to wear her favorite white
cardigan to fight off the chill from the drizzle, but she couldn’t
find it. Now she’d lost Ethan and her favorite sweater.

When three days had passed and she’d heard
nothing from him, her prayers for Ethan’s safety increased,
especially because he never answered his phone when she tried to
call, or responded to her texts. And he never called. She wanted to
hurl the phone across the room in frustration after another failed
attempt to contact him.

Two and a half weeks? Had it really been that
long? By now, worry had taken up residence in her gut. Could
something be really wrong? He’d been so reliable and consistent in
the past, that this seemed very out of character for him. But maybe
she didn’t know him at all. Maybe it was just an excuse to leave
her…. Wrapping one arm around her middle, trying to keep her
insides under control, Danielle forced down the last bit of
chamomile tea she’d been drinking, hoping it would help her
sleep.

She’d thought of contacting the Order to see
if they’d heard from him, but she just couldn’t bring herself to
make the call. Were they still watching out for her? If they were,
they never showed themselves and that simply added to her
concerns.

The only relief Danielle had was that her
restless sleep wasn’t ever again tormented with that horrible
nightmare. Groaning as the morning sunlight slanted through her
lace curtains, Danielle threw one arm over her eyes. Forcing
herself to sit up, she stretched, then frowned when she glanced at
her door. Why was it slightly open? She’d closed it, hadn’t she?
Then her eyes landed on a folded paper on her bed. Danielle
snatched it up and nearly ripped it open. Her heart soared when she
recognized his signature at the bottom, and—she drew it to her
nose—oh, how she’d missed the smell of his essence.

Danielle,

Meet me today at noon at the Library
entrance. I’ll be waiting for you there.

Love always,

Ethan

P.S. Sorry it’s been so
long.
I’ll make it up to you.

He was back! Finally, he was back! It’s about
freaking time, she mused angrily as she moved from the bed to her
closet.

Wanting to look pretty and old-fashioned,
which she knew Ethan liked, Danielle decided on her ruffled skirt
that had a vintage-inspired floral print over a cream background.
She topped that off with a white blouse with lace insets. She left
her hair down to naturally cascade over her shoulders, and for
makeup, just a simple rose-colored lip tint. She looked for her
favorite cardigan again, but it was still missing, and opted for
her denim jacket instead.

Brianna and Will dropped Danielle off
at the library a little before noon with the plan that she’d just
have Ethan take her home. However, after having waited for several
minutes, she checked her phone for the time. It was now just after
noon and Ethan hadn’t arrived. Could he be late? But he was
never
late. This can’t be right, she
thought, and a sudden chill crawled up her spine, settling at the
back of her nape.

Whirling around, she made for the library
entrance, and gasped when a strong arm twisted around her waist
simultaneously with a palm slapped over her mouth. Being pulled
backward toward the street, she tried to see who it was, hoping it
was Ethan, but was pulled into a car parked next to the curb before
she could see. Her purse was ripped from her fingers as the car
door slammed closed. Lifting her horrified gaze, she recognized
Lucas on one side of her and Celeste on the other. Her stomach
turned upside down as she wondered.... Had her two worst enemies
actually teamed up?

“I was waiting for Ethan,” she said
hanging onto the crazy hope that the note
was
from him.

A wicked grin split Celeste’s painted
lips.

“Who left the note for me?” she asked,
already knowing the answer.

But that didn’t stop her heart from sinking
when Celeste confirmed it. “I did, of course.”

The very idea of that made her shudder. Just
as she was wondering how Celeste had gotten in, the vampire
answered the question. “Someone should really lock that window.” As
Danielle realized it was probably the same one Ethan had come
through when her windows had been locked, Celeste added, “All I had
to do was wait for your guard to leave after sunrise and then it
was way too easy. Your uncle sure does snore loud.”

Ignoring that comment, she wondered about the
other things that didn’t make sense. Like how did they fake Ethan’s
handwriting and his smell? Could Celeste have broken into Ethan’s
place too? Figuring she’d never know the answers to those
questions, because Celeste wasn’t offering them up, she shifted her
thoughts to something more important. Escape.

They had her seated between them in the
backseat, and she knew she would have to reach over one of them to
get to a door. Even if she could manage that, the car was moving
dangerously fast through the busy traffic. She would never survive
the jump.

Of course, even if she could get to a door,
she’d never get past two vampires however weakened by the sun their
magic was. Ethan had proven that to her in Uncle Nick’s garden when
he’d sparred with her.

Noticing the driver, Danielle realized these
two no longer worked alone. Returning to her earlier thought, she
wondered if maybe a member of the Order was helping them and that’s
how they got access to Ethan’s handwriting and fragrance.

But that didn’t matter either and the
information, even if she did figure it out, wouldn’t help her get
away. She decided to pay attention to where they were going, and
then when the car stopped, she would fight.

What a miserable car ride this was, Danielle
mused as Celeste started stroking her hair in the same belittling
way she’d done before, raising goose bumps along the back of her
neck. Danielle hated that the first time, and she hated it now. She
could also feel the evil vampire staring at her with those
sinister, yet beautiful eyes of hers. Keeping her eyes focused out
the front window, trying to memorize the street signs as they swept
past far too fast for her to even read most of them, she wrapped
her arms around herself. She had to keep calm or her chances for
escape would be hindered.

The car pulled into a tree lined driveway,
and a house rose up at the end of it. Surrounded by thick woods, it
was three stories tall. The dark stone walls were covered with moss
and ivy. The landscaping was simple and plain. It wasn’t cheerful
at all and Danielle decided it looked like the perfect place for
vampires to dwell. Figures.

“Welcome to Lucas’ place,” Celeste
whispered.

Danielle shivered again as that formidable
tone drifted uninvitingly into her ear.

When the vehicle came to a halt, Celeste
opened her door and pulled Danielle out with a tight grasp on her
arm. Danielle was sharp enough to see this as her chance to fight.
As soon as she cleared the car, she shoved her weight into Celeste,
trying to knock her off balance. It worked. Celeste stumbled
backward, not having expected Danielle to do that. She pried
Celeste’s loosened grip from her arm, and lunged to jump past
her.

Unfortunately, Lucas was quicker. He tackled
her to the pavement and shoved a grunt from her lungs, then jerked
her to standing and kept his grip in place while Celeste collected
herself. Danielle knew she’d made her angry with that move, and
wasn’t surprised when Celeste drew her hand sharply across her
face. It hurt, but she just clenched her teeth and glared back.

“Come willingly, Danielle, or this will be a
more painful experience for you,” she threatened.

More painful? Less painful? What difference
did it make when she knew they meant to harm, or more likely kill,
her? Danielle said nothing as she felt her molars clench.

They escorted her to the front of the
building, and she reasoned that if she was going to try anything
else, she had better try it now. There would be little hope left
for her if they got her inside. Quickly she moved into one of her
techniques meant specifically for the way they were holding her.
She managed to get her arm away from Celeste’s grip again, but not
Lucas’. He was just too strong. Celeste recaptured her arm, digging
her polished fingernails into her skin.