Fateful (41 page)

Keeping the phone to his ear obviously
listening to whatever Beon’s response was, he collected her hand
and began pulling her further into the woods surrounding them. “I
think we’re in Epping Forest … yes…” He paused and changed
directions slightly, but it wasn’t long before they came out onto a
two-lane road. After making his way to a road marker, Ethan recited
numbers on it to Beon. “Please hurry … okay … ’bye.” He then hung
up and tugged Danielle back into the trees.

“We need to wait here for them.” He sat down
on a rock and pulled her onto his lap, but kept checking their
surroundings carefully.

“Why did they let you keep that?” she asked,
referring to his cell phone.

“They didn’t care because there’s no service
in that basement.”

“They took my phone away,” she complained.
“And my purse. I’ll need to cancel my credit cards.”

“Would you like me to get it back for you?”
he asked with mischief twinkling in his blue eyes.

“Did you lose a few brain cells while you
were held captive? I wouldn’t want you to risk that. You’re mortal
now, remember?”

His brows drew together. “Actually it is hard
to remember that. I don’t feel any different.”

“Well, hopefully you will feel different at
night.”

“Yes, I hope so.” He brushed her hair out of
her face, and tucked it behind her ear.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“For getting us out of there alive. That was
quite an act.”

“Did you think I needed to be committed?” A
wicked smile came to his lips.

She laughed. “Yeah.”

“Good, I was aiming for unhinged.” Falling
silent, his gazed shifted toward the road at the sound of a
vehicle.

“Is that them?” she asked.

“No, Beon drives an Aston Martin DB9 Coupe.
I’ll know it when I hear it.”

Maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised by that
because wouldn’t most guys know the sound of different makes of
cars? Probably. “Will we fit? I thought those only sat two.”

“That’s the Vanquish, the Coupe seats
four.”

“Oh.”

“Speak of the devil,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Lifting her from his lap, he set her feet on the ground, gathered
her hand into his again and took off toward the road. Because his
stride was longer than hers she had trouble keeping up. Ethan
stepped into the street, and she stumbled along behind him as a
black car sped toward them, slowed and then stopped.

“Whoa! What’s wrong with her?” Max exclaimed
when he jumped out of the passenger side to help her into the
backseat with Ethan.

After they pulled on seatbelts, Ethan
attempted to wipe the stuff off her again while he answered, “We
smeared her with cement dust to fool Celeste and Lucas into
thinking she’s dead.”

“Brilliant!” Max chuckled. “Good one,
Ethan.”

As Danielle settled into the seat cushion,
Ethan continued scrubbing at her skin and she feared she’d wind up
with a friction rash.

“So what happened?” Max asked. “We’ve all
been wracked with worry when we realized Danielle was missing.”

“They tricked us both,” Ethan said. Finally
he then gave up on trying to get the dust off and wrapped his arm
around her shoulders. Sighing with relief, Danielle snuggled
closer.

“How did you get away?” Beon asked, steering
the vehicle around a tight bend.

Ethan then explained everything. Beon peered
at Ethan through the rearview mirror and Max swung around as both
men studied Ethan more closely when he brought out the fact that he
was now mortal.

“How could the transformation take place so
quickly?” Beon asked. Danielle watched his dark eyebrows draw
together in the small reflection of the mirror.

“It took less time, and it was less painful
than becoming a vampire. I can only guess that getting mortal
saliva into the bloodstream is what reverses the curse, which seems
to work faster than venom does in a mortal—maybe because the venom
changes more of the physiology,” Ethan replied.

“Hold on! She bit you?” Beon shouted,
aghast.

“I asked her to, and that’s what broke the
curse.”

Beon fell silent then, probably trying
to sort this new information out in his head, and started mumbling
to himself on the way to their mansion. She couldn’t understand any
of what he was muttering, but she gathered that he wasn’t used to
feeling so baffled by anything, and
this
baffled him.

As soon as they got there Ethan towed
Danielle inside and shouted for Sophia as he ran up the stairs.
“Sophia! Do you have that bath ready?”

Emerging from her bedroom as they approached,
Sophia took in her appearance and screamed, her hands flying to her
mouth.

“Sophia, it’s okay, she’s okay, but we need
to get this off her. I fear it may be toxic. Is the bath ready?”
Ethan asked.

“Yes, of course.” Sophia grabbed her by the
arm.

“Ow,” she groaned. That’s where the bruising
was. It really didn’t hurt that bad until someone actually grabbed
onto it.

Sophia let go as panic filled her expression.
“Ethan, you said she wasn’t hurt!”

“I’m all right. I’m just bruised up a bit on
my arms,” Danielle replied.

Sophia was afraid to touch her then, and led
her, at a distance, to the tub which was filled with hot water and
bubbles.

The bathroom smelled wonderful to Danielle,
and the bath was a welcome sight. She removed her jacket and
sweater, but Sophia screamed again when she saw the ripped
blouse.

“It’s okay, really,” Danielle repeated.

But when Sophia saw the spots of blood on her
neck her blue eyes rounded in horror as she shrieked, “You’re
bleeding! Who bit you?”

“No one...”

“You’re not turning?”

“No.”

Apparently Ethan decided it was time to
rescue her when he entered from the bedroom. “Sophia, let Danielle
take a bath and come talk to me. I’ll explain everything.”

As soon as they were gone, Danielle sighed
and slipped all of her clothes off. It felt wonderful to sink into
the hot water, but a frown creased her brow when her thoughts
wandered to her relatives. Of course they’d probably been just as
frantic, if not more so, with the news of her disappearance. Had
they found out the same time as the Order had? Not ready to deal
with that at the moment, she sank deeper until the nicely
fragranced water lapped at her chin. She was alive and Ethan was
mortal, and by some miracle they’d escaped.

Chapter
2
5

Mortality

Danielle dipped beneath the surface of the
water to wash her hair and face, but not long after that she heard
voices muffled through the water and emerged to find Ethan trying
to enter the bathroom, but he was blocked by Sophia.

“Sophia, please let me through. I need to
talk to Danielle. She’s mortal. She’ll understand. I promise I
won’t look,” Ethan pleaded. With the tone of his strained voice and
the lines of stress on his face, she realized he was in pain.

“No, Ethan! Let her have her solitude, she
hasn’t a stitch of clothing on,” Sophia argued sternly.

“Um … what’s going on?” Danielle asked,
bewildered.

At her query his gaze shot her way.
“Danielle!” An arm clenched around his middle. “What’s wrong with
me? I felt fine before.”

“Sophia, let him in. There are lots of
bubbles, see? It’s okay.” She looked down to make certain they
really did cover her completely, but it wasn’t necessary. Sophia
had put so much bubble bath into the tub there was a thick, four to
six inch layer of foam covering the entire surface of the
water.

“Are you certain, Danielle?” Sophia
asked.

“Yes, it’s fine. Thank you.” Danielle
appreciated her old-fashioned concern, but knew she could trust
Ethan.

Sophia hesitated, then stepped aside. Ethan
sprang toward the tub and dropped to his knees. Like a gentleman,
he kept his eyes to the floor.

“My stomach is twisted into tight, painful
knots, my head hurts, and I feel off balance when I stand up.” His
nostrils flared on what looked like a deep pain-filled breath. “I
don’t remember feeling like this. What is it? What’s wrong with
me?”

Danielle recognized his symptoms right away
and couldn’t help but start laughing.

A look of hurt confusion twisted his
expression as he lifted his eyes cautiously to hers. “What’s so
funny?”

“Well, Ethan, you’re just hungry,” she said
between more giggles. “Remember you haven’t had anything to eat for
two and a half weeks. If you’re mortal, you need food.” She looked
past Ethan. “Sophia, would you please feed him?”

“Yes, of course.” Sophia promptly gathered
Ethan by the arm and led him out.

“Have some chocolate, babe, that’ll help you
feel much better,” she called out as they left.

She recalled Ethan telling her that vampires
only felt thirst, and never hunger, so he hadn’t felt hunger pangs
for several decades. It’s no wonder he didn’t recognize it. She
giggled to herself again, and realized she would need to teach him
more about being mortal.

Danielle didn’t really want to get out of the
luxurious tub, but she wanted to check on Ethan. She finished
cleaning the cement off, stepped out and rubbed with the towel,
trying to get all of the bubbles off. She’d come out of the tub
still covered in thick mountains of suds. Clearly Sophia had put
way too much product in water. Danielle would guess about half the
bottle.

Wrapping the thick bathrobe around her, she
towel dried her hair, and then glanced at her clothes. Realizing
she couldn’t put that dirty and ripped outfit back on, she
tightened the sash on the robe and left the bathroom.

Barefoot, she made her way to the dining room
looking for Ethan, and found him seated at the long table, stuffing
food into his mouth like a famished person might, but as soon as he
saw her, he corrected his table manners.

“Feeling better?”

“Yes, Sophia took care of me.”

Danielle took in the wide variety of dishes
littering the wooden surface. Only one thing concerned her, the
slice of chocolate cake which looked just like the one Ethan had
made for her, more than two weeks ago.

Sophia walked in from the kitchen, wearing
her infamous filthy apron. “Are you hungry too, love? I’d be happy
to get something for you.”

“Yes, please. I’m famished” Her eyes again
landed on the cake. “Uh, Sophia? Did you make the chocolate
cake?”

“No, that’s the one Ethan made for you,”
Sophia replied sweetly, apparently ignorant to the fact that baked
goods shouldn’t be kept for that long.

“Um, you can’t have that, Ethan.” Danielle
removed the cake from the table.

“Is that the cake I made the day of the
ball?” Obviously, by his tone, he knew from culinary school that he
couldn’t eat something that old.

“Yes.”

He turned to Sophia. “We’ll be sick. Most
things can’t be kept for that long. The general rule is two or
three days.”

“Well … in that case…” Sophia quickly removed
two more plates from the table, taking them to the kitchen.
Danielle followed with the cake, and every expired food item was
scraped into the garbage.

“I’m sorry, dear,” she whispered, shamefully
hanging her head, causing her auburn curls to sway with the
movement.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s an easy mistake
to make.”

“It is strange seeing Ethan as a mortal, he
looks the same, but things like this are different.” Sophia paused,
her brows reflecting worry. “I’m so glad you made it back alive. We
were very worried about you.”

Danielle hugged her. “Thank you for
everything.” After she felt like she’d sufficiently comforted
Sophia, her thoughts returned to Ethan. “I’d better go make sure he
doesn’t eat too much. That could make him sick too.”

Returning, Danielle sat next to him and could
see that these rich flavors and textures were a whole new
experience for him.

“I’d forgotten how good food is. This is so
much better than blood.” He bit into a little cookie, and then
smiled and hummed happily while he chewed.

“Now just remember, you won’t feel good if
you eat too much either. You need to learn what it feels like when
you’re full, so you’ll stop,” she advised, then took a cookie just
like the one he’d eaten.

“Yes, ma’am … um … would you please describe
that feeling to me?”

“Hmm, it’s kind of hard to explain.” She
thought about how she felt after eating Thanksgiving dinner and
said, “I guess you just feel full, like not much more will fit, but
if you go too far you could get nauseated. And you don’t want your
pants to feel tight because that would also be too full, but may
not make you sick. And you usually won’t want to eat any more, but
not always.” She wondered if that made any sense at all.

“I think maybe I’m full now then.” He leaned
back into his chair to look at her.

“So, do you like being mortal so far?”
Secretly she wondered if he regretted it. Did he miss the
advantages of being immortal? The decision had been rather last
minute....

“I love this.” He waved a hand over the feast
on the table. “But I didn’t realize it would be so agonizing to
feel something as simple as hunger. I knew injuries were painful,
like your bruises, but I’d forgotten about hunger and little things
like that.”

“It hurts to be mortal,” she said, wondering
if she should really be so honest with him. “But don’t worry,
you’ll get used to it. You get to the point where you can just
ignore most of the little discomforts of life.”

“That’s encouraging,” he said, but there was
a cynical tone to his words.

“Would you rather go back? I’m sure you could
get someone to bite you,” she offered sadly.

“No. I wanted this. I want to be with you. I
knew the consequences before I told you to bite me, but I also knew
if I didn’t have you do it, I’d have killed you.”