Fateful (43 page)

Wow. Beon could lie as well as, if not better
than Ethan. She never would have thought of something like
that.

The police officer joined the conversation
then. “What fraternity was this? They can’t kidnap Americans as a
joke. We’ll need to prosecute,” he said severely.

“We don’t know which fraternity it was, I’m
sorry,” Beon replied.

“Miss, can you identify the kidnappers? Would
you like to press charges?” The officer said, directing his
question toward Danielle.

Her eyes grew wider, he was asking her to add
to the lie she didn’t create. “Um…” She hesitated, but then it came
to her. “Uh, no they kept their faces hidden. I wouldn’t be able to
recognize any of them, even if I tried. They didn’t hurt me and so
I don’t care about pressing charges.” She then felt immediately
ashamed with how well that lie came out. There goes another chip at
her conscience, maybe two for that one.

“I see. Well, Mr. Darcey, you have your niece
back and she is just fine, so let me just get the necessary
paperwork filled out and I’ll be on my way. I will need proper
statements from most of you.” The police officer then began filling
out his forms and asking questions as he did.

Then he left.

As soon as he was gone, Uncle Nick addressed
Danielle sternly. “We had to inform your parents when you couldn’t
be found. They’re nervous wrecks! Why didn’t you call as soon as
they’d set you free? We could have picked you up.”

“I couldn’t, they took my phone.” She choked
out the words past a lump in her throat. This was only getting
worse. She dropped her face into her hands with her elbows on her
knees. Danielle never liked being in trouble, and felt like Nick
was terribly infuriated with her.

Beon interjected to save her again. “Nicolas,
I called you as soon as she arrived here.”

She felt Ethan place a comforting hand
on her back, but apparently his touch provoked Nick further.
“Did
he
have anything to do
with this?” Nick ranted with an accusing finger aimed at
Ethan.

Danielle hadn’t expected him to lash out at
Ethan, especially since her uncle had seemed so impressed with him
before. In her mind, Ethan was the hero, and she couldn’t help but
defend him. “No! Ethan had nothing to do with it!”

“Fine! Let’s get you home right now, young
lady!” He snatched her by the arm, and she hissed at the pain that
action caused in her bruises.

“I’d rather stay here,” she said, wrenching
her arm free, and folding them defiantly.

“Excuse me?”

She knew he was appalled with her disobedient
tone, because she’d never spoken to him like that, but she couldn’t
tolerate this stern side of him, especially knowing she and Ethan
weren’t to blame.

Charlotte interrupted this time. “Nicolas
Clairmont Darcey! Were you not listening? Beon just explained that
it wasn’t her fault! Some foolish frat boys did this! Now stop
taking your frustrations out on poor Danielle, she’s been through
enough!”

Nick let out a huge sigh, and then
apologized. “You’re right, Charlotte dear, I’m terribly sorry.” A
trembling hand raked through clouds of gray hair. “I’ve just been
sick with worry. Danielle, I know this wasn’t your wrongdoing, and
I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’re all right. Let’s go
home and have some tea, shall we?” He reached out to her in a now
calm manner. Danielle hesitated and then took his hand. She turned
to Ethan as she was pulled from the room. He signaled that he’d
call her, by forming the words with his lips silently.

Danielle moped in her bedroom that night, her
feet alternately kicking the mattress while she lay on her stomach.
It seemed the princess had broken the spell that fractured her
fairytale. She’d bitten the frog and turned him back into Prince
Charming. “Sheesh,” she muttered to herself. “Kissing a bumpy toad
would have been more pleasant than biting it.” But with the cure
came new problems. They were under new restrictions meant to keep
them safe from the wicked witch and her demonic boyfriend.

It was frustrating to know that Ethan could
now be near her at night without any fear of harming her, but they
would never be allowed the same freedoms they had before. Her
guardian angel had been restored to his humanity, but lost his
superhuman powers in the process, and as a weaker mortal, couldn’t
serve as her protector any longer. He wouldn’t be taking his shift
outside her bedroom window, and Danielle couldn’t help but be
saddened by the thought.

As promised, Ethan called. “Hello, darling,
it’s me,” he said after she answered.

“Hi.”

“Did Nick settle down?”

“Yes, but only after he’d set down some rules
to keep me away from frat boys, and my parents agreed to let me
stay.”

“Ouch. If it’s any consolation, I’ve lost a
great deal of freedom too, they won’t let me go anywhere by myself.
I feel like I’m under house arrest.”

“I had been looking forward to dating you at
night now, but Beon isn’t going to allow that, is he?”

“Actually, I asked him about that and managed
to talk him into permitting one public outing on Friday nights.
However, we will be followed by guards, and we’ll be limited as to
where we can go, and how long we can be out.”

“Really? I can live with that, I guess.”

“He knows how difficult this is for us.”

“How difficult is this for
you
? I know you haven’t told me
everything you sacrificed by doing this.”

“We can now have a real courtship without the
burden of my being cursed. That makes all of this worth it to
me.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” She realized
he was just putting on a brave face and swallowing his pride. It
had to suck to go from being a superhero to an ordinary man. When
he’d first suggested the idea of a cure to her she’d been excited
by the idea. But now, she worried he hadn’t been completely
truthful with her or with himself. He’d accepted immortality even
if he hadn’t made that choice in the first place, and now she’d
forced him to give it all up. “You shouldn’t have to sacrifice this
much for me. Maybe you should reverse this.”

“Stop it. I knew what I was doing when I made
this choice. But truthfully, this affects both of us now. I should
have, but I didn’t realize we’d be seen as legends for breaking
this curse. Neither one of us can escape what we’ve done. Some
vampires will be pleased, while others will not like it, and
therefore pose further threats to us. But we have vampires who can
protect us. I believe everything will be fine.”

“Won’t they be satisfied if you go back?”

“No, you will always be seen as the one who
cured a vampire. You’ll never be safe, neither one of us will. I’m
sorry.”

She fell silent as the truth sank in. Celeste
and Lucas were starting to look like a minor problem in comparison
to having multiple vampires after them.

“Danielle, are you still there?” Ethan asked
when her silence went longer than usual.

“I’m still here.”

“Are you okay?”

“How can Beon even let us go out at all?”

“Beon and Max have led armies, Danielle. This
isn’t a big deal for them.”

“Not a big deal? This is huge!”

“Look, there’s nothing we can do about it
now, except deal with it. I have every confidence that we’ll be
fine. We just need to be careful, and let them command the
arrangements. Beon said we could go out on Fridays and we will …
now what would you like to do on our date?”

She said nothing.

“Please, Danielle, trust me, trust Beon and
Max and the others. This isn’t like before. We know what we’re up
against and we can handle it.”

Another hesitation held back her reply. But
realizing he was probably right, she said, “Fine, I want to hang
out at your place after my morning classes and then go out to a
movie.”

“I think that can be arranged. Shall I pick
you up at the library then?”

“Yes.”

Chapter
2
6

Constant Shadows

At school the next day, she noticed Beon
keeping a fair distance from her as he covertly watched her and her
surroundings. No one seemed to notice the extra student in her
large classes. She wondered if he’d taken time off from teaching
just to watch over her, and figured that he most likely had such
freedoms since he probably didn’t need to work anyway. He followed
her to the library and then lingered until Ethan arrived.

She gathered up her things and Ethan led her
to his Jaguar. The only strange thing was that he’d managed to park
exactly where Lucas and Celeste had when they snatched her. When
she mentioned this to him, he pointed out Beon and Max following
them in Beon’s black Aston Martin. “That won’t happen ever again,”
he promised.

Danielle watched the two men in the side view
mirror of the Jag and couldn’t help but feel a little more secure
under their vigilant guard. “Who’ll be watching besides them?” she
asked.

“I don’t know exactly, but I’m sure they’ll
be careful about their choices, and I’ll probably be pestering Max
every night so I know who’s watching over my girl.” A smile lifted
one side of his lips.

She didn’t smile. “Doesn’t that drive you
crazy?”

He glanced at her while shifting gears.
“We’ve been over this. It was a curse.”

“But you had so many advantages—”

“And disadvantages, I choose the advantages
of being mortal.”

“Which are…?”

“Being with you day or night, no longer
feeling out of control … food … and the chance to become a
father.”

This caught her attention. “You couldn’t have
children before?”

“Do you think Lilith wanted Benjamin to
experience the joys of parenthood when she’d cursed him?”

“Well, no, I guess not.”

“Do you see, Danielle? We can have the life
we never could have had together if we were cursed. Sophia won’t
admit it, but it is one thing she regrets. I can see the longing in
her eyes when she watches a mother with an infant in her arms.”

“I see.” Danielle knew Sophia well enough to
know that the beautiful immortal had a very motherly instinct. And
she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She too wanted children,
and couldn’t imagine missing out on such a blessing.

Once they’d arrived at the mansion and gone
inside, their security detail relaxed their watch. Apparently they
were safe inside a building full of vampires. Danielle wished she
could just stay there permanently, but also knew they couldn’t be
there at night. It was safe at his place during the day, and safe
at her house during the night—well to a degree—they still needed to
have vampires circling the home.

Danielle immediately noticed, when she
entered Ethan’s bedroom, that he’d taken her painting of the ruins
and had it framed. It hung on the wall directly across from his
bed.

“I see you found a place for your
painting.”

“Yes, I can look at it when I wake in the
morning, and when I lay down to rest at night.”

She then noticed the framed pictures of them,
which they’d taken at the ball. There was one of her and one of
them together. She lifted the five-by-seven of her and him together
to examine it more closely. “I’ve wanted to see these for a while.
I like how they turned out.”

“I do also. I printed copies for you, they’re
over there.” He pointed at two identically framed portraits as the
ones he had displayed on his nightstand, except there wasn’t one of
her alone, but one of him instead.

She smiled. “Thank you.”

Ethan began playing a selection of romantic
music for their quiet time together. This was one of the few
chances they had to be alone, now that their circumstances had
changed. However, Sophia did manage to interrupt them, quite a lot.
Her excuse was that she was just trying to “keep the mortals fed”,
as she brought tea, meals, and snacks. Danielle suspected that she
had ulterior motives, but she couldn’t imagine what that could
be.

She’d stretched out on his settee, and when
Ethan joined her, he reclined next to her, and she decided she was
quite comfortable with this arrangement.

“I’m not falling asleep, or kissing your
armoire again.”

“No injuries allowed on this visit, Danielle.
You’ve managed to get hurt two out of four visits so far.”

“Only one of those was my fault,” she said in
defense.

He chuckled softly, and began tantalizing her
face and ticklish neck with his gentle fingertips, apparently
making this type of caressing into a tradition.

Danielle giggled, wiggling her feet as he ran
his hand softly along the side of her neck. His fingers then curled
over her shoulder as he glided his thumb along her collarbone. She
couldn’t resist the shudder that followed. He chortled at her
reaction as a noble, yet impish, smile touched every aspect of his
expression, and she gathered that he loved watching her squirm and
giggle while he touched her in this innocently seductive
manner.

He became more staid as he focused his
attention on her face, which wasn’t as ticklish for her. This is
what had made her so sleepy the last time he did this, and she
wasn’t going to let that happen again, so she focused in on Ethan’s
blue eyes, which stole her breath away. The feelings that washed
over her then didn’t make her drowsy, or muddled, but she was held
spellbound with the sight of his familiar soul.

“I wish I could remember what it was like for
us—before we had physical bodies,” she said. “All I know is that it
did exist because I can’t deny the feelings I get when I look into
your eyes.”

“Yes, somehow our souls knew each other
before this life, but those memories have been veiled from us. It
must have been something incredible for us to recognize each other
without that memory.” He traced her lips as he spoke and continued
to gaze into her eyes.