Forever (Book #3 in the Fateful Series) (18 page)

Wading in until the water was up to their thighs, they paused as heads broke the surface of the water ahead of them, revealing some of the loveliest faces she’d ever seen. Their beautiful mouths were pursed as they sang and she realized vaguely that was where the music was coming from. Wet fingers closed around hers and she looked into eyes of the most brilliant sea-green, like a pair of precious stones set into a gorgeous and perfectly symmetrical face. With a little tug on her hand, Danielle found she was willingly bending closer. She gasped, but didn’t resist when another wet hand locked around the necklace the fairies had given her and yanked. Without comprehending what was going on, Danielle watched as the lovely being peered at the broken necklace in her hand, smirking with something like triumph showing in the way she held it above her head. Shimmering rivulets of water ran down her elegant arm. Sunlight bounced off scales of blue and silver that covered the creature’s torso showing above the waterline. Danielle blinked as the light hit her eyes.

As though her head was below water, she could just barely hear the shouts of men disturbing the beautiful song filling her ears. Thankfully, the song didn’t stop, in fact, she was grateful about that because she didn’t want it to
ever
stop.

Brutal hands seized her about the waist and she was hauled away from the magical beings against her will.... Again she lost consciousness, and then as she regained it, her fingers closed around something that didn’t make sense. It felt prickly and cold against her palm and it tangled around her fingers. Grass? It took everything she had to push up onto her elbows. There was a strange ache in her chest, but she had no idea why she would feel that way. After blinking to get her vision to clear, she looked around. The four of them had been lined up on a spot of ground within the trees, as though they’d been carried there.

Max was stringing curse words together in a creative and angry rant, probably because he’d lost control, and she knew he really hated to lose control. Nadia was seated next to her, her arms curled around her knees, her chin resting against the wet material of her designer jog pants. She was soaked, as they all were. Ethan touched her arm and asked, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”
I think.
“You?”

“Aside from being drenched in—” he paused to smell his wet clothing “—seawater, I’m okay. I suppose.”

A few feet away stood all of their guards huddled in a circle as they enthusiastically discussed something that seemed important and urgent to them.

“What happened this time?” demanded Max while sitting up.

Four angry faces turned in their direction. Richard tunneled a hand in his hair and stalked toward them. “What happened?” he ground out. “That’s what
we’d
like to know! How did you all wind up wading into the water toward mermaids? They nearly managed to drown all of you!” The prince’s voice rose several notches in volume as each word was released. His eyebrows were drawn low in wrath as he looked at each of them in turn, waiting for an answer.

Danielle believed none of them had an answer for him, mainly because she had no idea how it had happened either. Biting her lip, she could taste the saltwater and knew it had to be true, but she couldn’t remember anything from the experience. But maybe that was why her chest ached, she thought, pressing a palm over her lungs. Had she sucked in water?

Pointing at her neck, Casanova said, “Now all of your fairy protection is gone. They took the necklaces.” He swung a look at Ethan and Max. “And your spelled Order rings are gone too.”

Ethan and Max stared at their ring-less fingers in confused surprise. Nadia’s eyes met with hers as they both touched their naked necks.

“Let’s get them back to camp and see if the fairies can make them new ones,” suggested Cedric.

“Does anyone need help walking?” offered Merrick with a scowl on his face.

“How did you save us from mermaids if they were singing?” she asked, taking Merrick’s offered hand as he helped her gain her footing. “Wouldn’t you have been entranced too?”

“Earplugs,” said Cedric.

“Oh,” she said.

The guards grilled them as they trekked back through the woods: What were you doing within hearing range of their songs? Did you not take the warnings seriously? Why didn’t you have one of us with you? Now what are we going to do? Will the fairies kick us out this time? On and on the guards went until Danielle was tempted to just go back to the mermaids and surrender so she didn’t have to hear four men rant any longer. They finally got back to camp and changed into dry clothes. The sun was setting by then and Danielle was relieved to see the fire come to life. She moved toward it and sat down on the fairy-crafted chair beside it.

“We’ll make replacements for you as soon as we can,” announced Alora. “But it does take some time. They won’t be ready until tomorrow morning, so we’ll need to spell your chamber for the night.” The fairy smiled at her and then turned, her little wings a blur as she moved away.

A sense of relief touched her soul at the idea of getting a new necklace to protect her, but it wasn’t quite enough to fully soothe the unease within her mind. Danielle had been worried about another encounter with spiders sent to seek her out, but even more than that, she worried about things worse than spiders coming after her. Terrifying images of Lucas still played in her mind as well, and that was compounded by the fact that Ethan was plagued by the idea of Lucas as a werewolf just as much as her. He hadn’t exactly confessed to that fact, but she could sense it when she looked into his eyes.

The fairies had been extremely helpful in protecting them, but not all of their plans had been fail-proof. What if something else got through? She shuddered at the idea even as the heat from the flames licked at her skin, warming her. Knowing how close they’d come to death, without knowing how it had actually happened was overwhelming to her. She tried to swallow the fear clogging her airway, but it seemed to be lodged there, and she was finding it hard to breathe evenly. Drawing her legs up, she rested her cheek against her knees and stared at the row of lanterns lighting the path to their bedroom, the light shining from each one growing smaller and dimmer as they got farther away.

Danielle heard Ethan’s approach before he reached down and enveloped her in his arms, lifted her from the chair, and settled her onto his lap. Her eyes locked with his as he cradled her face in his hand, studying her expression. Some of the tension slipped from her muscles at his nearness. The firelight danced across the lenses of his glasses, but she could still see his eyes which looked more gray than blue in the subdued lighting. She could see that his soul wasn’t at any more peace than hers at the moment. Danielle didn’t know why she felt so emotional about it, but she just couldn’t seem to help it. Her eyes stung from the stress of it all, and she tried to blame it on the fire. Rubbing at her eyes, she said, “Ugh, the smoke.”

His teeth flashed at her with a knowing smile. “You little liar.”

It had been a lie, and she felt guilty every time she stretched the truth.

“Spill it,” he said, or rather, commanded, his arm tightening around her. Instinctively she tensed, and as he probably sensed that, his tone softened. “Please tell me. I just can’t bear to see you weep, darling. Tell me how to make it right.” She knew Ethan never liked it when she cried, and it wasn’t because he couldn’t tolerate tears, it was because of this Victorian need of his to care for her. Her finger traced the contour of his bicep. Yes, she could fight most of her own battles without his aid, but she would never crush his male need to protect either. She liked his old-fashioned and overprotective side.

Danielle took a breath and dropped her head against his chest. She could hear his heart thumping away beneath her ear. She could feel his chest expand and deflate with each breath. She could feel the heat from his body soaking through her clothes. He did smell of flowers, but that male muskiness of his still lingered. When his lips pressed gently against the top of her head, she felt cherished, but still not at peace over their situation. And she wasn’t sure if she could confess this to him because she also knew it played into his deepest fear.... That she might actually leave him because he wrongly blamed himself for the danger they were in. Like she could ever leave him ... the idiot....

A finger caught beneath her chin and nudged up. Blue-gray eyes captured hers and held. Deciding she may as well confess before he read her anyway, she whispered, “I just don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

Of course she could read him too, and she saw that the deep fear of losing her remained as it poisoned his peace of mind. Ethan swallowed like something was caught in his throat. “What can I do to make it better?”

Like he or any of them could do anything to stop the things chasing her. Like the fact that mermaids and pixies wanted her was
his
fault. She did not see it that way. Trailing her fingers through his hair, she let the soft strands caress her skin. How could she get him to understand this? It seemed that when the fairies had drugged them, this internal fear had developed, or awakened, in his heart. “I’m tired of running, of being constantly hunted,” she paused, not missing the fact that he gulped as she spoke, “but there isn’t anything you or I can do about it.”

A mixture of worry and determination filled his expression. “I’ll figure something out, I swear it.” Apparently kissing her was his first idea for accomplishing that, because his mouth claimed hers and never released her until she was lost in sensation and could only think about the way his lips moved over hers, the way he tasted as his curse-tainted breath filled her, the way he smelled, and the way his hands traveled her body as though he worshiped her.

Chapter 9

Maybe It’s Time to Leave

Ethan felt sick to his stomach the day after the mermaid attack; because the tension surrounding their group had escalated with unknown fears ... and regret. How had he let that happen? They’d all come very close to drowning, and he couldn’t remember any of it. If the guards hadn’t found them when they had ... he shook his head, mentally berating himself about it as worry made his mouth go dry.

The perils encircling him and Danielle were endangering all of them even more than in the past. They didn’t feel safe here any longer and all of them had pulled their weapons from their luggage. Of course the fairies were probably still capable of protecting them in most cases, it seemed, but that was the problem. It also seemed like there was a lot the fairies couldn’t protect them from, and they had to be prepared, even though much of what they possessed may or may not work against the things hunting them. The fairies hadn’t exactly been pleased about their wielding things of violence on their land, which was why they’d remained concealed in the luggage until now. But they hadn’t offered any sort of fey magic that would help either. Well, except for replacing the enchanted jewelry, but that hadn’t done much to protect them from mermaids, just pixies and werewolves.

His eyes touched on the weaponry they carried as all eight of them made their way to the waterfall. Richard’s weapon of choice was his sword. The long blade was secured in a scabbard that was strapped around his hips and bounced against his leg as he walked. Even in the leaf-filtered light, the jewel-encrusted pommel winked at him from shiny rubies. Merrick had tucked his thumb under the wide leather strap that secured his claymore to his back. Max was fiddling with the strips of leather wrapped around the handle of a long knife he kept strapped to his leg. Because of Max’s jacket, Ethan couldn’t see the handgun secured in a shoulder holster, but he knew it was there because he wore one very much like it. Cedric, Casanova and Nadia also carried guns in some sort of holster, and inside her small backpack, Danielle had her nunchakus.

Once at the waterfall, Ethan lowered to his knees on the edge. Looking down, he loosened the strap on his holster so he could bend forward to cup water into his hands. He’d opted for simply washing his face over an exposed dip with the newly fortified guard schedule. None of them could be separated from the others. Granted, after yesterday’s blunder he wouldn’t argue it, but he was beginning to wonder if perhaps Danielle was right. They’d never be left alone to just live their life....

After splashing water on his face, he peered at himself in the reflection on the surface. The cool liquid ran down his cheeks and dripped from his chin, but it didn’t do much to make him feel refreshed because he looked like hell. With bruising beneath each eye, and the lines of stress bracketing his mouth, he looked as old as he was feeling at the moment. Living here was wearing him down, and their safety nets were unraveling at an alarming rate. Bracing both hands on the edge of a rock, he wondered how he was supposed to keep his wife safe from things he had no powers to fight against. He suspected this gun would be useless against everything they’d faced so far. Mermaids, bewitched spiders, werewolves, pixies, witches ... what was next? Bloody zombies?

“What did you say?” asked Danielle, alarm in her tone as her fingers froze mid-twist while she braided a thin section of tresses from the back of her hair.

Only then did he realize he must have been muttering to himself and might have said zombies out loud.

“Did you just say zombies?” she asked.

Yes, unfortunately, he had. What an idiot he was. He knew full well that she would see something like zombies a hundred times more terrifying than spiders. Ethan sighed. “They don’t exist,” he said, hoping it wasn’t a lie.

“Are you sure? Because it really sounded—” she began, her fingers slowly working the three sections together again.

He wasn’t exactly sure, but he wasn’t about to own to that. “I was just grumbling to myself about a bit of nonsense, nothing to worry about.” Certainly he had never heard of anything like them in more than a hundred and seventy years, and because of that, he suspected he was right in the matter. They couldn’t possibly exist. He just didn’t know for certain. Making an effort to change the subject, Ethan leaned back on his heels and looked at her while drying his hands on his pant legs. “What would you like to paint today?” he asked in the most optimistic tone he could find.

Big brown eyes just stared at him as though she couldn’t believe he would suggest such a thing at a time like this. “I’m not really in the mood to paint,” she finally said as she wrapped two different finished braids up from her nape to crisscross over the top of her head like a headband. She secured them with bobby pins, leaving the rest of her hair to cascade down her back in natural waves. The way she primped each morning made a smile tug at his mouth. It was rather adorable that she had this feminine need to always look her best, even in times of peril. What a silly girl she was.

Deciding he loved her silly, feminine side, and hoping to uplift her mood, even if he wasn’t his chipper self either, Ethan found a grin and aimed it at her. “I know you haven’t done the waterfall from this angle. I think you should.”

After turning to face the water as it tumbled from the cliff’s edge, her shoulders slumped and he knew there was something there that just didn’t appeal to her artist’s eye. “I’ve done six paintings of this waterfall, Ethan. I just don’t want to do another.”

“Six? Really?”

“Yes,” she said, lifting her fingers to tick them off. “I did it from over there,” she pointed, “in watercolors. Then I did it from the other side in acrylic paint on canvas. Then—”

“All right,” he said, interrupting. “You’re done with the waterfall. What about the trees?”

“Did it.”

“And the fairies as they dance around the fire?”

“Done.”

“And the things the fairies make, the furnishings, the—?” An odd buzzing noise interrupted him this time and drew his gaze into the woods behind Danielle. His hands went out to push off from the rocks so he could stand up. As his spine straightened, his fingers brushed beneath his shirt to the hilt of the gun there. Something was coming, something that sounded like a swarm of bees. Ethan swore under his breath as this short moment of peace and quiet was shattered with something new.

“What is it?” asked Danielle as she stood as well and slung the backpack around her shoulders. All she had to do was reach into the top and she would have her nunchakus.

“What should we do?” Nadia asked in a panic, her pistol held in a trembling hand.

“I’ll kill whatever it is,” growled Max with a weapon in each hand—a gun in one, a wicked-looking knife in the other. Violence radiated off of Max, but it softened just a little when the knight noticed Nadia’s wobbling gun. Maintaining his angry expression, a flicker of tenderness lit his eyes as he reached over and carefully steadied the shaking in his wife’s fingers. “Keep it steady, my sweet,” he murmured.

Wide green eyes touched on Max’s as Nadia visibly forced herself to take a breath that calmed her enough to at least slow the trembling.

Redirecting his focus to the danger at hand, the guards herded them together and surrounded them with their weaponry drawn as well. He noticed that Max likely felt the same sense of humiliation at being treated like he was weaker than the vampires guarding them. Unfortunately it was probably true.

Within moments, hundreds of fairies exploded from around the trees and low-growing plants in a burst of color. “Run!” Ethan thought they shouted, but he wasn’t sure because of all of the buzzing sounds jumbled with the command shouted from a small voice.

Slightly stunned, and more than a little baffled, Ethan gawked as the fey beings swung around and took up a protective barrier in front of them as though all of the men, vampire or not, were not capable of fighting whatever it was that pursued them. The idea was disheartening. His palm cupped Danielle’s face when he bent to kiss her swiftly. Their eyes met, and his shoulders slumped at the fear holding any possible smile she might have for him captive. “I love you,” he said because he just had to. Somehow his soul knew this battle would have a different outcome than all the others.

“I love you too,” she replied, breathless at what he suspected was the same sinking feeling that had just seized him.

The louder buzzing sound drew his eyes back to the trees. Ethan didn’t know exactly what he’d expected to see burst into the clearing after the fairies, but thousands of pixies hadn’t been it. The fairies had easily chased them off before, so how had they turned into such a threat? Taking aim, he hoped to pick off a few pixies like a game of skeet practice, but the fairies had engaged them and he feared he might hit one of them by mistake. Reengaging the safety, he slid the gun back into its holster. He knew it would be useless, just as he’d feared.

Again the fairies commanded that they run, and this time the command was unmistakable. As a battle began with showers of pixie and fairy dust colliding in the air like glittering sparks, Ethan decided perhaps that was the best thing to do.

“Seriously?” asked Merrick as they all made a frantic path of escape through the trees and tangled grasses growing from the forest floor. “Pixies
again
? I’m beginning to feel like I’m in some demented Disney film. Vampires should
not
be dealing with dishonest fairies, sadistic pixies, and vicious mermaids!”

“Much less running from them,” added Cedric.

If Ethan hadn’t felt so much concern that the fairies could no longer fend off the pixies for some unknown reason, he might have laughed at that. As it was, he grabbed Danielle’s hand into his and tried not to trip as they moved as fast as they could from the fray of battling magical creatures.

The pixies were in pursuit. He only knew because the scent of rotten apples had assaulted his nose. He spared a backward glance and swallowed as his focus returned to the way in front of him. Zigzagging around the trees were hundreds of colorful streaks of movement. The dull, bluish ones he knew to be pixies. It was obvious that the fairies were still struggling to stop them, and it was quite clear the pixies were relentless this time. His breath sawed in and out of his lungs as they ran, and his legs began to burn. Mentally he vowed to run harder in their workouts to better condition himself for things like this—which were, unfortunately, becoming a common occurrence.

“Should we head for the campsite?” he asked. Ethan didn’t know if that was the best place to go, but he couldn’t think of anywhere else they might be able to hide from these things.

“The spelled bedchambers?” asked Casanova.

Ethan responded with, “Can you think of a better place?” frowning at how he was starting to sound winded already.

“No,” replied the French vampire as he ran alongside him at a slightly faster pace due to his longer stride.

“I concur,” said the prince. “We must get within those magical barriers.”

Nadia squealed and began swatting at pixies catching at her long black hair. One buzzed past Ethan’s ear and then he felt tugging at the fabric of his clothes. The pixies had caught up with them. Ethan tried to smack them away before they lifted him off the ground like they had last time.

“Bloody hell!” bellowed Merrick. “I’ve been dusted!” Ethan looked and saw that the back of Merrick’s head and the side of his cheek were covered in a glittering substance. Ethan figured it was pixie dust, but the highland warrior kept running. As he also kept moving, Ethan wondered if the magical substance would affect Merrick later, and in a bad way.

Ethan had sent many of the little blue beasts flying by smacking at them with the back of his hand, but they still surrounded him in increasing numbers, and he was forced to stop running to fight them off.

Drawing his sword, Richard hacked at pixies, slicing through several of them with one slash of the blade. This seemed to make them angrier and a good portion of their attack shifted and focused on the prince. The little blue beasts managed to wrench the weapon from his grip and then they latched onto his clothes. Fairies were unable to stop Richard from being the first to leave the ground.

With the fairies outnumbered and the pixies using what seemed like a new kind of magic, Ethan realized they might lose this battle. Swinging around, Ethan let go of Danielle’s hand to try and fight the things off. He searched the ground for some kind of weapon besides the gun. Again, a stick seemed like the best choice and he bent to pick up the longest one he could see.