Forever (Book #3 in the Fateful Series) (10 page)

While snuggling as they drifted toward sleep, he decided to accept this trek to this unknown place, especially if it meant they could enjoy a quiet bliss alone. Perhaps they could even send the guards away too. A smile hitched up one side of his mouth as he imagined life without handsome vampires gawking at his wife.

Chapter 6

Side Effect

When they’d returned home from the fairies, Beon, Seth and several more guards were there, as well as Max and Nadia. Due to the events putting Danielle and Ethan in greater danger, the rest of The Order feared the werewolves could try to use the now-mortal Max and Nadia as a way to get at Ethan and her. So now they had to go with them to Derry Glen Cove.

Danielle could feel the pout forcing down the corners of her mouth. She really had tried to hide what she was feeling for Nadia’s sake, but it seemed she couldn’t help it.  Nadia was watching her too closely and Danielle’s bottom lip slid between her teeth. She really wanted to explain everything, but they were waiting for Ethan to join them, and she didn’t want to do that without him.

Nadia’s round, green eyes touched on all of the decorative accents they’d added since her last visit to their home. She and Ethan had done their best at
pretending
this was
their
space by decorating it, even though it sometimes felt more like Order Headquarters with numerous guards coming in and out at whim. They’d found the French grandfather clock that was painted in a pretty shade of bluish-green at a flea market. The new drapes with the pattern scrolling the fabric were from Harrods. The ornate and Victorian candlestick holders on the fireplace mantle flanked the painting she’d done. It was of the beautiful and lush landscape visible from the front door. Danielle had picked up the colors of the drapes and the clock when she’d chosen the paints.

A stale silence stifled the air in the people-filled room. Danielle sat on the sofa across from Beon, and nervously smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt while they waited for Ethan. The sounds of china clinking against the serving tray could be heard from the kitchen as Ethan prepared tea and scones for those of them who were mortal.

Max sat on the left side of the loveseat, his arms folded over his broad chest. Nadia sat next to him. She was leaning forward with her chin propped on the palm of her hand. One might think the pose was a bored one, but it wasn’t. Nadia was clearly worried about why she’d been summoned here. They were being snatched from the comfort of their own home too.

While Danielle absolutely loved the fairies, even after the antics of their last visit, she’d never imagined they’d be stuck living with them for safety. Sinking into the comfortable chair she knew she was going to miss this, miss their home, even when it was usually overrun with vampire bodyguards. She could always shut a door, or crank up her music when she was painting. They rarely bothered her when she was sketching out a landscape or a fairy. She crossed her legs, deciding that she’d better pack a lot of art supplies so she could make good use of this time with the fairies and draw them a lot. At least they’d been allowed a few more nights at home before they were expected to move to this enchanted cove.

Ethan finally stepped into the living room carrying a tray laden with tea service. The lid on the teapot stopped rattling with his steps when he settled it on the coffee table in front of her. As he sat next to her, she paused when she realized her favorite teacup wasn’t there.

Obviously noticing her hesitation, Ethan whispered, “It broke.”

Attempting to mask her disappointment, she gathered the teacup closest to her and one of the peach teabags. His tone said enough, and she knew exactly when it had broken without him explaining it. She wasn’t surprised the shattering glass had struck her teacup, even though she hadn’t noticed at the time. She removed the teabag from the package and dropped it inside the white teacup. Nadia was preparing her own tea and scone as Danielle reached for the teapot.

“Where was it you said the fairies planned to take you?” Beon asked Ethan.

She felt Ethan stiffen at the question and she measured his expression for the reason. Was he worried Beon would still try to turn them? “The fairies wish to keep that a secret.”

It appeared as though Beon was grinding his teeth at that.

“We’re going with them,” said Richard, “You need not worry about their safety.”

The comment earned him a nod from both Seth and Beon. “Very well then—”

Seth was interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. Danielle watched as the vampire fished the device out of his pocket and murmured a greeting. His dark gaze lifted to her and then danced away. As she wondered what that was all about, he turned to Beon and said something she couldn’t hear.

Beon rubbed his neck like it pained him and also looked at Danielle before he sighed and said, “You have a visitor.”

“What?” she asked, her eyes rounding.

“Who?” Ethan asked, a note of worry rising in his voice.

“Celeste.”

“Why?” Ethan bit out. Worry had replaced the tone in his voice with angry suspicion.

“She said she has information for us about Lucas.”

“We’d best hear it then,” said Richard.

Seth nodded and one of the guards went to the door.

“Is she here
now
?” Danielle asked, feeling shock at the sudden intrusion of another villain from her past.

“It was one of the guards outside who gave me a ring just now.”

“Oh,” she said, trying to decide if she really wanted to see Celeste or not. She’d almost died the last time she’d seen the mean-spirited.... Danielle took a bite of her scone, hoping to enjoy it while it was warm, even though the mention of Celeste had spoiled the taste of it anyway.

A tall black-haired vampire opened the front door and ushered a hat-wearing woman into the house. Was that Celeste? It couldn’t be. The woman who entered looked too skinny to be her. When the woman’s head lifted, Danielle gasped and nearly choked on her food. Celeste didn’t look very ... healthy.

“Frisk her,” ordered Richard.

Hate-filled blue eyes clashed with Richard’s hazel ones, but Celeste still maintained a cocky lift of her chin in defiance, even as she lifted her arms for the guard to pat her down.

Having not found anything, the guard stepped back and nodded to Beon.

Beon acknowledged the guard with a slight nod and then he watched Celeste in open curiosity as she moved forward. “I need your help,” she murmured in a meek-sounding voice. Was she faking it? Danielle wondered about that when Celeste said, “I’m very sick, and it’s terminal.”

Sadness flickered within Beon’s gaze, but it was quickly replaced with anger when he shot to his feet. His arm swung out to halt Celeste’s advance. “Is it contagious?” Beon snapped, his eyes landing on Ethan’s glasses as horror overtook his expression. “Has the Black Death returned?”

It took a moment for Danielle to understand Beon’s panic, and then it struck her. She remembered Ethan saying that both Celeste and Nadia had been turned because they were dying of the Black Death. Had that deadly illness returned when she’d returned to being mortal just as Ethan’s need for glasses returned to him? Her eyes met with Nadia’s shocked ones. Clearly Nadia was worried about the same thing as she studied Celeste’s condition with growing green eyes.

Celeste groaned and rolled her eyes like they were all a bunch of morons. “My illness is not related to the Black Death. I’m not contagious. I have an extremely rare blood disease. I can’t even remember what it’s called.” When Beon didn’t lower his arm, Celeste took another breath, her bony torso heaving in and then out with it. “Seems I didn’t know about the problem with my blood because it hadn’t manifested itself yet, but I do recall my aunt dying from something like what I have. They just didn’t know what it was back then.”

Danielle shared a surprised gaze with Ethan. She noticed a small tremor in his hand when he adjusted his glasses.

Beon finally lowered his arm. “What you have isn’t viral then?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve been diagnosed.”

Beon ran fingers through his hair. It was obvious Beon was trying to analyze what this meant by the look on his face.  His eyes widened a fraction when he said, “Bloody hell! I hadn’t thought of this. So it seems viruses, or bacteria, die off when one is turned into a vampire, but... ” Beon’s dark eyes fixed on Ethan, his glasses in particular. “Things like vision and diseases that are subject to heredity, which is a problem within the body, return.”

Celeste folded her arms over her slim torso and glared at Beon. “I need your help,” she demanded.

“How bad is it?”

Fingers lifted to the strands of blonde hair sticking out from under her hat. “Treatment is not working.”

“What is the treatment for what you have?” Ethan asked.

After heaving another sigh, she said, “I’d rather not talk about it. The symptoms are bad enough.”

A look of panic filled Nadia’s face. She looked from Max, to Beon, and Seth, probably hoping for more explanation. “It’s all right, darling. Don’t you see? Both of our problems had been viral,” said Max, obviously noticing her growing fear.

“But what if—?”

“What if we have something in our family history too?”

Nadia nodded.

Max shrugged his shoulders. “Then we just go back to being vampires, I guess.”

“But
I
can’t do that!” complained Celeste in a snobbish tone Danielle thought she would have lost by now. Apparently not. “I need you to contact Lilith for me so that I don’t die!”

Richard scowled at her tone. “I doubt Lilith will help you, so why should we?”

Celeste was playing with her hair rather nervously at this point. Frail-looking fingers rose and latched onto her hat. Celeste drew it off, twisting the stiff fabric as though she meant to wring water from it.

A round of surprised gasps filled the room. Danielle’s hand slapped over her mouth. Huge chunks of Celeste’s brittle tresses were missing, leaving large, bald spots of pale, shiny skin visible. Her blue eyes shifted to Danielle. Danielle’s inner voice screamed out a warning at the look of desperation there.

Having been focused on the hair, or her lack of it, shock sucked the breath from her lungs when her eyes lowered and she noticed the barrel of the pistol pointed at her. Ah, she’d had that small weapon hidden in her hat, Danielle realized. Tricky, but typical of Celeste. As Danielle wondered why the guard hadn’t checked the hat, she glanced at him and could see that he was mortified by his mistake and was trying to sneak up on Celeste. Danielle halted his advance with a gentle shake of her head.

It was daylight, so even if the vampires had wanted to zip over and disarm Celeste, they couldn’t, and if the guard startled Celeste, the gun could go off. Knowing she had to deal with this on her own, Danielle slowly stood from the sofa because even if these big strong guards didn’t think she was capable of it, Danielle knew moves just for this situation. “Relax, Celeste. We’ll help you,” Danielle said, lifting her hands, palms forward.

“You’ll get me to a sorceress, or sorcerer, or whatever.... If you don’t, I’ll shoot Danielle right now!” screeched Celeste.

Danielle pictured what she needed to do a split second before she did it. First she snapped Celeste’s wrist by pounding one fist on the inside of her wrist and the other on the back of her hand. The action had the desired effect as it forced Celeste’s hand sideways, taking Danielle out of the line of fire. At the same time she kicked Celeste in the stomach, which forced her to double over. Danielle wrenched the weapon free and tossed it to the floor as she twisted Celeste’s arm and swept her legs out from under her. Celeste landed flat on her back and began wheezing because the sharp contact with the hardwood flooring had knocked her breathless.

She watched Casanova pick up the gun with an amused smirk on his face. Feeling the corner of her mouth twitch in response to Casanova’s visible mirth, she looked at Celeste as the blonde struggled to even get up onto her elbows. Danielle felt a pang of regret. She didn’t feel regret for defending herself, but she did feel sorry for Celeste. The guards helped Celeste to her feet, but they kept her arms pinned behind her back like she was a criminal, which in a way, she was.