Fateful (26 page)

A sad smile lifted her cheeks at Danielle’s
words. “Lovely, I shall return shortly then.” Sophia moved from the
room to retrieve whatever delectable things she’d destroyed the
kitchen to make, and Nadia followed.

Danielle sighed and turned to Ethan. “They
seem really nice.”

Ethan reached over and brushed some
hair from her forehead. Now that wasn’t doctor-like behavior—she
liked that. He bowed his head and stared down at the comforter a
moment. When his brow crinkled and as his eyes became brooding, she
wondered what he was thinking about. Watching as he laced his
fingers with hers, he said, “I should have considered this
situation beforehand. Clearly I underestimated the level of her
jealousy, and truly, Danielle, I
never
thought she would try anything with so
many Order members around. If she had found you alone somewhere
else, certainly … but this…. Je n’y crois pas.” Ethan shook his
head in disbelief.

“What does that mean? That and the other
things you said?”

“It means ‘I don’t believe this’ and to
Celeste I said, ‘Have you lost your mind?’ I may have tossed in a
few other words, but you don’t need to know what those mean,” he
said with a guilty smirk.

Suspecting they were likely crude curses, she
let it slide.

“It seems you have two vampires after you
now.”

“Great, just what I need,” she grumbled.

“And I hope we don’t have to take you in for
an MRI.”

Her eyes doubled in size. “No! No hospitals!”
A sudden sickness filled her stomach.

After a quick study of her eyes, he said,
“You don’t care for doctors much, do you?”

“No, and I hate hospitals.”

“What horrible thing happened to you to make
you this traumatized?”

She didn’t answer that, and a long pause
ensued.

“All right, no hospital.” She felt relieved
until he added, “Unless I start seeing concussion symptoms. Then
I’m taking you whether you like it or not.”

She groaned as he began the head-injury
questioning. “How many fingers am I holding up?” Ethan asked while
he held up two fingers.

After sighing, she answered, “Two.”
Thickheaded vampire thinks he’s a doctor and right after she just
told him she hated doctors.

“Good. Feeling weak?”

“Not really.”

“Do you know where you are right now?” he
asked, his tone held an annoying note of professionalism in it.

“Ethan! Stop playing doctor! It’s a major
turn off!”

“Well, you have your choice then, me or a
doctor in the ER.” Perfect manipulation, and the jerk hadn’t even
used his magic to do it this time.

“You then,” she said, choosing the lesser
evil.

“Good, now answer the question.”

“Do you honestly think I could argue with you
right now if I didn’t know where I was?” She really hoped he
noticed how afflicted her tone sounded.

“Danielle, answer the question,” he
persisted.

“Fine! I’m in your room, at your place, in
London, in England, on the planet Earth! Are you happy now?” she
answered hotly.

“What galaxy?” he queried, now provoking
her.

Danielle glared at him and folded her arms.
“Ow,” she mumbled under her breath, it hurt to do that. Ethan took
hold of her chin to stare into her eyes. “What? Are you checking my
pupil dilation now?” she asked, growing more and more frustrated
with his coddling.

A cunning smile lifted the corners of his
mouth and he turned the daytime force of his gaze on her. When the
action quickly muddled her brain, he leaned in fanning his magical
vampire breath into her face. Ethan followed that up with a press
of his mouth against hers. Relaxation saturated every cell of her
body, and she decided even though this wasn’t a conventional
medical treatment, she felt better healed by it.

When Ethan pulled away, she could feel the
loopy smile of pleasure on her face. “Thanks.”

Keeping his face close to hers, he offered,
“Need another?”

“Please,” she breathed, staring at his
delectable lips.

But Sophia returned before he reached her.
Ethan withdrew, teasing her by holding back. She knew he didn’t
have a problem with kissing in front of Sophia. Danielle
reluctantly shifted her attention to Sophia accompanied by Nadia
who carried tea.

“I hope you like these. I made more biscuits
this time—or cookies as you call them in the U.S.” Sophia presented
a china platter filled with little sandwiches of all shapes, and
cookies in even more varieties. It seemed she had a fetish for
finger foods. Danielle knew this had to take her longer than before
to create and secretly wanted to see how the kitchen survived
it.

“And of course, I have your favorite tea.”
She turned to Nadia, took the teacup and handed it to Ethan.

They both stood anxiously waiting for her to
dig in. Danielle realized she couldn’t make Sophia wait long for
her review, so she took a fancy little cookie with chocolate
marbled through it and bit into it. “Mmm! Wonderful, as expected.
Thank you, Sophia.”

They all stared at her as she took something
else from the tray. “Mmm, that’s really good too,” she said after
swallowing the small bite she’d taken.

Nadia had her head tilted to the side as she
watched her eat. Her lips had fallen open, but only slightly.
Sophia stood watching with a huge grin on her full lips, and she
held her hands clasped in front of her, like she was praying. Ethan
was watching more slyly than the others. Danielle began to feel
weird about eating alone as three vampires watched with interest.
“Uh, I don’t mean to be rude, but why is my eating so fascinating
to watch?”

Sophia answered, “I’m sorry, Danielle, it’s
just that we had such a fondness for food, but it doesn’t taste the
same as it did anymore. It looks like it should taste so delicious,
because it is just so … wonderfully colorful.” Her brows pressed
together as if she thought “colorful” may not be the best word to
describe food, but it seemed it was all she could come up with.
“The truth is ... an all blood diet gets horribly tiresome. I guess
we are a bit envious you get to enjoy so much variety.”

“I see.” She wasn’t sure what made her do
what she did next, but she felt they wanted her to explain what
flavors she experienced. Danielle lifted another item off the tray
and bit into it. “Mmm, this one is sweet and tart at the same time
because of the lemon. That’s always a nice combination.”

She swallowed and put another cookie into her
mouth, chewed for a moment, then said, “This one is buttery and
sweet, I like that too.”

She picked up a sandwich next. “I like the
cucumber in this one, and the dill, it’s very cool and crispy, but
not sweet.”

Danielle reached for another sandwich. “Um, I
actually don’t like that one,” she said honestly, checking Sophia’s
face to see if her feelings were hurt.

She looked even more intrigued. “Really, what
do you not like about it?”

“I just don’t like that kind of meat, I
prefer turkey.”

“Oh, I will make a note of that,” Sophia said
happily.

Danielle continued in this matter—eating and
explaining what she tasted—until she was getting too full to keep
going. She finished off the tea, and pushed back into the pillows.
“I’m sorry. Nothing more will fit. But really, Sophia, you are a
very talented cook. You have my deepest gratitude.”

Sophia’s face glowed with joy, to Danielle’s
relief. “Let me take that for you, dear.” She lifted the tray and
turned to leave, but paused to say, “Thank you, Danielle, for doing
what you did. I will save the rest of this for later…. Ethan, let
me know if she needs more pain medication.”

He nodded and then she left. Also smiling,
Nadia followed.

Danielle examined the new look that had
overtaken Ethan’s face. She wasn’t sure what she saw there, but it
seemed to be a mix of admiration and wonder. “You never cease to
amaze me,” he said.

“Why?”

“No one has ever done that for them
before.”

“What? Explain the food?” Danielle pressed
her brows together wondering how something so simple could mean so
much to them.

“Yes. Sophia is very fascinated with food. I
think it’s one thing she misses the most about her mortal life, but
she can’t remember the rich taste that she knew she loved. It has
just been too long … and your explanation of it was just—just a
real treat for her—for all of us actually.”

“Really? But how can they know what I mean
when I say something is sweet or buttery?”

“We can taste the food, but it’s not rich and
flavorful like it used to be. Blood is our only choice for
sustenance. But it’s a thirst, a craving, an urge.” He leaned back
into the pillows next to her. “What satisfies thirst for you?”

“Water, or some other type of drink.”

“And what satisfies your hunger?”

“Food.”

“See, we don’t feel hunger anymore, only
thirst. While blood is flavorful for us, it doesn’t vary much. It
would be like living on an all meat diet, but even in that you have
an advantage. You can season your meat, or soak it in marinade, or
cover it in sauce to change the flavor. Do you see how our diet
might get a little boring?”

“Yes.”

“With food, you get to experience all kinds
of flavors and textures. They’re probably in the kitchen right now
tasting the ones you described trying to experience it.”

“Are you serious?” Danielle was amazed.

Ethan nodded.

“Well, I’m glad I could actually give
something back to her for all the trouble she’s gone to for me.”
But while they were on the topic of food, she thought back to the
times he’d fed her and selected things she’d like, then asked, “So
how did you know what foods I would like better than I did
myself?”

“When I was in culinary school I watched the
other students closely. I didn’t have the advantage of taste the
other students had, so I schooled myself by being more observant of
them. I learned that I could guess what they would and wouldn’t
like by paying close attention to their food preferences. Most
people like certain things, and their taste for food seem to follow
the same line. There is a scientific aspect to food that I could
understand better than the flavors.”

“Wow,” was all she could say. However, it
didn’t take long for her mind to wander back to the kiss he’d
deprived her of before Sophia returned. “May I have that kiss
now?”

Ethan chuckled. “Of course,” he said, before
bending toward her.

When he pulled away, she suddenly remembered
the whole reason she’d come to his place. “And what about my
surprise? Do you still have a surprise for me?”

“Yes, I dropped that in the hall when I
realized…” he trailed off when his previous anger returned briefly.
“I’ll go get it. Are you okay here alone for a minute?”

“Is Celeste gone?”

“Yes.”

But she thought about the others and wondered
aloud, “Are there more? Like her, who might...?” Are there any
“repentant killers” who could...?

“Do you remember our creed?”

“Yeah.”

“When many of the Order members are knights
and Highlanders, Danielle, you can pretty much bet they’ll stick to
their creed.”

A flicker of doubt touched her heart, but she
said, “I’ll be fine.”

Ethan left and returned promptly carrying a
large box. He settled himself back on the bed next to her. “I went
to Paris to get this for you.”

“Paris?” she asked with astonishment.

“Yes, it was made to fit you perfectly.” Her
eyes widened and she reached for the box. But Ethan stopped her. “I
need to tell you what it’s for first.”

She slouched. “Okay, what’s it for?” she
asked, trying to sound polite while feeling impatient.

“Beon deeply misses the grand balls of the
nineteen hundreds. So, he’s planned one themed with early
twentieth-century dress, music and dances. It’s scheduled to take
place here in our ballroom. It will be an incredible sight to
behold, like going back in time a hundred years into the past. I
want you to go with me.”

Danielle gasped. “I would love to! So this is
a dress?” she asked elated.

“Yes.”

“May I see?” She stretched her hand toward
the box, but Ethan stopped her again.

“Hold on a minute. You need to know more
about this ball.”

Danielle frowned because he was taxing the
limits of her patience.

“It will be at night, and all of the guests
will be vampires, except for you.”

Of course she was speechless as she tried to
envision this. He was inviting her to an event with vampires, who
will be at their strongest, and she just got clobbered by one
during the day? “Are you nuts? Celeste—”

“—
is not invited. Look, this was
planned before what happened today, and the only threats against
you are still her and Lucas. No one else—”

“But you’re talking about bringing everyone’s
favorite drink—”

“No one would dare show up thirsty to
something like this.”

“Can’t they do it during the day?”

“The invitations have already gone out.” He
placed his hand over hers. “I understand your fear, but it’s simply
unfounded. All of the guests will be loyal members of the Order,
and if you can trust them to protect you at night as they have been
doing, then you can certainly trust them at this ball,” he
explained. “In fact, it will actually be easier for them to watch
over you with you here rather than at your uncle’s.”

Thinking about his words and how Mr. Ethan
Possessive wouldn’t likely put her in unnecessary danger, she
finally said, “If you’re satisfied I’ll be safe, then I’ll go.”
Sitting taller now, she asked, “Now can I see the dress?”

“Sure.” Ethan opened the box to reveal an
exquisite silver-blue dress. The bodice was beaded with many
crystals and the delicate silk was embroidered with an intricate
design. There were matching beaded shoes in a mule style with
half-inch heels. The crystals captured the light and playfully
tossed it about the room. Danielle forgot to breathe, never before
had she seen a dress that touched her girly tendencies more. She
reached in to experience the feel of it and smiled as the luscious
silk material felt as incredible as it looked, like rubbing a rose
petal between her fingers.