Fateful 2-Fractured (32 page)

Again, she wanted to arch up into him, and
just let him keep doing that, but he left her and lifted her arm.
This time he bit the inside of her other wrist. With each bite he’d
kissed her skin before he sank into her skin with his needle-sharp
canines. After the first bite, none of the others had hurt and the
level of magic thrumming through her made her want more. Somewhere
in the back of her mind she knew this was how the victim begged for
death, but as before, she couldn’t find it in herself to care much.
“More?” she heard herself say, knowing she shouldn’t ask.

“Don’t tempt me,” he said not smiling. A
moment of sad anger flamed within his gaze. “How do you feel
now?”

Danielle matched her eyes to his thinking,
loopy and lusty, but she couldn’t seem to get any more words out.
The curse magic had a strong grip on her now.

“Sweetheart, I need to warn you. Death at
this point would be easy. Wanted,” he added taking in the dazed,
probably wishful look on her face. “But the poison of the curse is
like a living evil as it transforms you and because of that, it’s
not the most pleasant of experiences. Plus I fear losing the baby
is going to add to your suffering.” He dropped his weight to his
hip next to her, and drew her close to his side tugging the sheets
over the both of them. “But I’m here for you. I’ll fight to make
you as comfortable as I can.”

The next stretch of time drifted by in a
potion-filled haze, but she was aware of her husband’s efforts to
comfort her through all of it. It seemed his lips almost never left
her ear as he whispered gentle and loving words to her. And when
his mouth was not sending his breath into her lungs it was
traveling her flesh with tender kisses. She also remembered him
bathing her with a warm, wet washcloth.

Danielle remained paralyzed as her body was
reworked, as the curse changed her with a strange magical kind of
gnawing. She wouldn’t have called it horribly painful, just
disturbingly uncomfortable. Besides that and Ethan’s doting
presence, she wasn’t conscious of much else….

Chapter 21

Is This Life?

“Mmm,” she groaned. It seemed as though
every cell in her body was waking up. The sensation was oddly like
the prickly feeling one gets when a sleeping appendage arouses,
except not as painful or itchy. And there was a weight on her
chest. She lifted one hand and lost her fingers in a tangle of
hair. “Ethan?”

“How are you feeling?” His voice cracked
with emotion.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, feeling like she
was waking up from having strange, disturbing dreams she couldn’t
remember.

“It’s nothing.” She felt his hands on her
ribs tighten as if he was reacting to ... to what he was hearing?
“It’s just ... can’t you feel it?” he added with his ear still
pressed against her over her….

Ethan tensed again, his breath caught, and
then he said nothing more, but she felt him give one more squeeze
before he released his hold and then moved up her body to rub his
cheek against hers. He ran his right hand up her arm to then bury
his fingers into her hair just before ravishing her lips and face
with a volley of heavy kisses. This is what he did when he was
trying to wake her and she couldn’t stop the smile that tugged up
the corners of her mouth.

“Morning,” he said, then paused, “or rather,
good evening.”

“Mmm,” she moaned again and lifted her
eyelids to study him through her lashes.

He smiled, but only halfheartedly.

Danielle frowned because she’d only just
realized what it was that he was listening to. The sound of her
heart—stopping. She’d been turned, but the reasons why remained out
of reach.

She widened her gaze and took in the
setting. They were in their bedroom—right, she knew that. And she
was tucked under the sheets, naked … still naked, she recalled. He
was on top of the covers, on top of her, dressed to go …
hunting?

As Ethan shifted and then tugged her
upright, he said, “Let’s get you dressed. We’re going out.”

Danielle clutched the sheets up under
her chin. “Not that kind of out?” She hoped, nervously, that her
imagination was getting away from her. She didn’t want to
feed
. She didn’t feel any different
so she couldn’t
really
be
cursed, could she?

“Aren’t you thirsty?”

Frowning, Danielle considered that. Her hand
landed on her stomach. “I’m not hungry.”

With an exhale, Ethan grumbled, “Of course
you’re not hungry, only thirst, if you recall?”

So she had been turned. Her frown deepened
as her palm settled over her heart. There was no beat thumping
back. “I’m really—” She pressed harder, still, nothing.

“You really are.”

“Can’t I starve myself and get bitten to go
back?”

The muscles in Ethan’s jaw flexed and then
he shoved a hand into his hair and stood from the bed, paced a
circled around the room and then settled back down next to her on
the mattress. “I—I don’t want you to go back, just yet.”

Panic swelled up in her throat.
Why not?
Did she look better? Did he
prefer her this way? Danielle shoved the blankets aside and ran to
the big mirror in the bathroom where she skidded to a halt and
stared, gaping at herself.

She didn’t look different at all.

Lifting her hand she examined the place
where that scar had been. The one that she’d always had, that she
didn’t remember how she’d gained. But it was gone. So that was
different.

“I—I ... do I look different to you?” she
asked as Ethan entered the bathroom and stood behind her, then
enveloped her with the fabric of her robe and his arms.

“Oh,” he said, apparently understanding.
“You thought…. No, you look the same to me. But you can defend
yourself now. And it would be better for you to stay this
way—since—”

Danielle gasped. That’s what she’d
forgotten. Her vision blurred with tears and her abruptly trembling
fingers pushed into the robe and found the flesh just below her
bellybutton, the now flat part of her that hadn’t been before.
Tears coursed down her cheeks. “No.”

His arms cinched more firmly around her, and
his brows knitted together. “When this blows over, we’ll go back
and try again.”

After shoving her fists into the arms of the
bathrobe, she turned her wet face into his chest and locked her
arms around his waist. Sobbing.

Such deep loss…. The death of an
innocent new life, a tender fragile being that she’d only just
begun to feel tickle around inside her. This was horrible. Why did
he have to stab her there? She
might
have survived a stabbing; hadn’t she heard
of that happening before? And what if the next time they were
expecting a child they were simply attacked again? And the second
baby was also murdered? “What if this never blows over?” she asked
against his now tear-stained shirt.

“I’ll make sure it does.” His tone rang with
that fierce determination that she’d admired before. His hands
rubbed her back.

They stood like that for several moments,
crying together, mourning together.

Then Ethan pulled away, curled his fingers
under her chin and tipped her face toward his. “I’m so very sorry,
but I must take you hunting. It isn’t something that can wait.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want ... I
can’t see myself—” biting and killing. “Can’t we purchase blood
from a bank? I mean you’re a doc—”

He shook his head sharply. “I’m sorry, no.
It must be fresh. Otherwise it lacks what is necessary to sustain
you. It is how the sorceress intended, and it’s one aspect to her
curse that she did not mistake. It’s not so much about the blood
itself but the life-force within it. That is lost in bagged and
chilled blood.” As he spoke, he towed her to the closet and began
selecting “hunting” clothes for her too. Ethan stuffed jeans, a
black thermal t-shirt and a pair of boots into her hands. “Please
get dressed.” While his choices of words were gentle the tone
conveyed a promise that if she didn’t do it, he’d just do it for
her. And she knew better than to argue when he spoke like that.
This was another “This is what’s best for you” scenario in which
Ethan could not be swayed.

Silently she dressed and then raked her hair
back into a ponytail. “All right, I’m ready,” she lied.

With one firm hug, Ethan showed his approval
and then took her by the hand. “I think there is some of this
you’ll enjoy.”

Danielle was having a hard time believing
that.

“Is Nadia sleeping?” she asked as they moved
through the tomb-quite house.

“Max took her to their home.”

“Why?”

The look he tossed toward her answered
that question.
Oh, right
, she
thought,
because Nadia was now the only
mortal, and
…. “Could I harm her?”

“I don’t think you would—”

“But, it’s safer for her this way.”

“Correct.”

* * * * *

Ethan led her into the woods, but his
vigilant searching of their surroundings spooked her. What was he
still worried about? And then she saw movement in the shadows.
“What was that?”

“You saw that?”

“Well, it was just over—”

“Danielle, you just noticed Richard and some
of the other guards checking the perimeter, far enough away that if
you were mortal, you would not have seen it.”

Only then did she realize that she was much
more aware of everything going on around them. She must have been
distracted by the loss of their baby to really notice. But with
that thought, another burst of sadness slammed into her. She drew a
breath and attempted to force it to the back of her mind.

Danielle opened her eyes, ruthlessly shoved
the tear from her cheek and let the new sights and sounds wash over
her in a wave of awareness. The melee of insects not only touched
the night, but dominated it, and she was forced to fight back a
shudder. Apparently her fear of creepy crawlies remained.
Danielle’s gaze dropped to the forest floor where she saw only dead
leaves, moss and a worm. Instinctively she took a step closer to
Ethan, and then noticed a large black beetle, striped with
iridescent blue and green. She took another step, then became aware
of how loud Ethan’s breathing was and looked at him. Only to see
that he was drawing breath calmly and quietly, it just wasn’t
silent to her any longer.

She lifted her eyes from his chest to his
face. He was watching her. “You’re not much of a nature girl, are
you?”

“You knew that.”

“Of course I did. And I know this is going
to be difficult for you to do, but you must. First, however, I will
demonstrate how easy it is when you use your now hypnotic
gaze.”

“On an animal?”

“The deer are there.” He pointed to the
north. “Can you sense them?”

She nodded.

“Very good,” he praised. “Let’s go have
dinner.”

She drew in a shaky breath, and her gaze
shot upward when she caught the scents and sounds of creatures
scurrying through and along the tree branches. Birds, more insects,
and squirrels seemed distressed by their presence.

Ethan ignored her distraction. “Follow
me.”

She tugged her attention from the numerous
critters causing a racket and locked it on her husband as he moved
silently through the undergrowth. But flinched when she snapped a
twig and the sound it made echoed like a gunshot through the softer
sounds of the nightlife.

“Mind your feet, darling. We don’t want to
frighten away our meal.”

Swallowing, Danielle remembered how he’d
said that dinner served up on a plate was much more preferable to
scrounging up your own in the dark woods. While she imagined how
disgusting this was going to be, she focused on the placement of
her feet and was able to trail behind Ethan just as silently as he
was advancing.

It wasn’t long before they encountered one
of the deer. Slowly the brown female lifted her head from the grass
she was munching on and turned toward Ethan. He tipped his head so
that its gaze met with his. Instantly the doe was entranced, just
as Danielle had been when meeting his magical stare. Ethan exhaled
into its face and then dropped to one knee in front of the creature
before it collapsed, his hand went out to its neck to support it,
and he stroked its fur in a gentle manner with the other.

Was he soothing it, before he took its
life?

This wasn’t as violent as she’d thought it
would be, but almost touching, just as it was when he’d bitten
her.

“Select the largest vein, you’ll be able to
feel it,” he whispered to her as he lowered his head to the deer’s
throat. “I’m sorry,” he said to the animal, before he sank his
fangs through the fur to the flesh beneath.

The deer made no sounds of distress, and no
struggle as its big brown eyes slid shut. Forever.

After several moments of silence, Ethan
stood, turned to face her and brushed the fur from his mouth.
Besides the bracken on his knee, he was very clean.

Ethan returned to her side, and she realized
with an attack of terror that it was her turn next. “How—how do you
get past the hair?”

“That was nauseating at first, but you get
used to it, and it’s important to focus on the energy that flows
into you. That will help.”

“I don’t think I’m ready for this,” she
hedged.

Slipping his hand around hers he said,
“Come. I’ll awaken the curse in you. It will make you want it.”

Danielle resisted as Ethan pulled her toward
the dead creature.

He dropped to his knee again and drew a
small blade from his boot.

“What are you doing?” she asked, horrified
at the thought of seeing gore.