Fateful (17 page)

Danielle blinked and then managed to squeak
out, “Thank you.”

Sophia bustled to the refrigerator, and
pulled out an elegant silver tray filled with tiny hors d’oeuvres.
They looked delicious, though the state of the kitchen had cast
doubts in her mind regarding taste. “I’ve been working all day
making these for you. I hope you like them.”

All day? So Ethan had told them he was
bringing her here. He’d made it seem like it was a last minute
idea.... Danielle’s focus returned to Sophia and she realized she
needed to say something, “I’m very grateful, but you didn’t have to
do this for me.”

“I wanted to do it for you, darling.” The
vampire tucked a stray curl back into her bun. “We get so few
mortals here and I do so love to cook.”

Um, interesting.

“Now be a good girl, and take these back to
Beon and Ethan. I’ll follow you in a minute with tea,” she sang,
like she was the grandmother who delighted in spoiling her
grandchildren.

“
All right. Thank you, Sophia.”
Danielle left the kitchen as Sophia placed a teakettle on the
stove. After taking several steps, she glanced back to make sure
Sophia wouldn’t see her sniff at the hors d’oeuvres…. They smelled
okay.

As she made her way down the hall, she
realized she hadn’t gotten dizzy when she looked into Sophia’s eyes
like she did with Ethan. While Sophia used words a vampire might
say, she seemed like any other mortal person. Pondering this, she
walked back to the drawing room.

Danielle paused at the double doors because
they’d been closed, and she could hear Ethan’s voice through the
door. Curious, she listened a moment.

“No, Beon! I’m not okay with that! Leave me
my hope!” Danielle flinched—with the angry tone in his voice,
except for the last part, which sounded deeply pained, she knew
they’d been arguing.

Then silence, Beon’s reply never came.

“Danielle, come in!” It was Ethan’s voice,
which was now as kind and gentle as usual. Clearly they knew she
was standing behind the doors. If they were more like mortal men
right now, then how...? She looked down and noticed the gap between
the floor and the bottom of the doors. So they’d seen her feet.

Feeling like a dork, she shifted the tray to
one hand and opened the door. Expecting to be greeted with angry
faces, she was surprised to see grins instead. Ethan outstretched
his arms as he beckoned for her to join him. Both men were
standing, as she should have anticipated.

She went to Ethan and stopped to set the tray
on the table in front of him. The second she released it and
straightened, Ethan slipped his arms around her and dropped into
the overstuffed chair behind him, pulling her onto his lap.

Startled by Ethan’s forward intimacy in front
of this stranger, she looked Beon’s way. Apparently the argument
was forgotten because Beon grinned crookedly while he watched the
exchange, like he was happy for Ethan? No, that wasn’t it; it was
more like he was curious. About what?

Distracting her from that, Ethan snuggled her
closer, shared a knowing look with Beon, that pretty much said
“watch this” as he cupped her cheek into his hand and then matched
his gaze with hers. One look into his eyes, however, and that
spellbound feeling that only he gave her returned, reminding her of
her thoughts before she’d reentered the drawing room. “Ethan?”

“Yes,” he whispered with a return of mischief
dancing in his blue gaze.

“Why doesn’t Sophia do this to me?”

“Do what?” he asked, like he already knew the
answer but wanted to hear her say it.

“Make me feel all hazy and dizzy?”

“Remember when I said it’s only you?”

Her brows drew down. She’d thought he
meant he only affected
her
like this, as though she could pick up on this secret
vampirism when others couldn’t. “Well, yeah.”

“You shouldn’t be influenced like this now,
but for some reason you can only detect it in me. I can only guess
it has to do with the connection we have.” He turned to Beon,
reluctantly taking his eyes from hers. “Beon, what do you
think?”

“Danielle, look into my eyes,” Beon
instructed kindly. She did as he asked. “Do you feel dizzy
now?”

“Yes, but...” She pointed to Ethan.

“All right, Ethan, let her go a minute. Stand
up please, Danielle.” She stood and felt Ethan’s influence leave
her then looked at Beon again.

He raised his eyebrows as he made eye contact
with her.

“Sorry, nothing now.”

“Hm,” Beon said, his hand lifting to his chin
in a thoughtful pose. “And you say you recognize her soul?”

A playful smile filled Danielle lips when
Ethan hooked an arm around her waist and returned her to his lap,
enjoying his greedy need to hold her. As his blue eyes locked with
her brown again, he said, “Yes.”

“Fascinating.”

“This isn’t just a vampire thing?” she
asked.

“Certainly not,” said Beon.

Ethan leaned his forehead against hers and
traced his fingers around the contours of her cheeks and jaw. It
seemed he was becoming just as muddled as her. “I suspect if we’d
met as mortals we’d still recognize one another, but the curse
magic would be gone.” Besides tickling her skin with his fingers he
was now painting her face with soft kisses. Forgetting about Beon,
Danielle was melting in his arms. She sighed and closed her eyes
because if he kept this up she was likely to faint.

Ethan laughed gently at her sigh. “You all
right?”

“Uh.” Her voice trembled and she couldn’t
find any more words than that.

Ethan snickered again. He was playing with
his magical effect on her and it really wasn’t very fair.

Beon spoke as if he didn’t notice or care
about what Ethan was doing, “This really is rather odd. I haven’t
seen anything like it. I must agree that it probably does have
something to do with this ‘connection’ between the two of you.”
Danielle tried to look at Beon as he spoke, but Ethan wouldn’t
allow it. She managed to get her eyes in his direction without
turning her head and was surprised to find that he was smiling, but
a hint of wise concern could be seen in his eyes.

Ethan continued to torture her in front of
Beon, until she was finally saved by Sophia when she entered the
room with tea service for one. The woman stopped dead in her stride
and snapped, “Ethan!” Her finger flashed accusingly to the tray of
hors d’oeuvres. “Why have these not been touched? Don’t you dare
waste them! For propriety’s sake, stop tormenting the poor girl and
feed her!”

Smirking, Ethan grabbed a tiny rolled
sandwich from the tray and started feeding it to Danielle
carefully. “Sorry,” he mumbled to Sophia.

Amazed to find that it was delicious,
Danielle looked to Sophia and smiled her approval as she didn’t
want to talk around a mouthful of food.

Smiling at that, Sophia then proceeded to
prepare a cup of tea for Danielle. “You prefer peach with cream and
honey. Is that correct, my dear?” Her words were smooth and sweet
like the honey she added to the tea.

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” She glanced at
Ethan, knowing he must have told Sophia how she liked it.

Sophia handed her the dainty teacup, which
Danielle tasted promptly, knowing from the expectant look on
Sophia’s face that she was eager for her review. “Perfect,”
Danielle said.

With a face consumed with delight, Sophia
turned to seat herself next to Beon, but not without flashing one
more scolding glance in Ethan’s direction.

As Ethan fed another appetizer to her, others
began to enter the room. Ethan whispered the names of many of them
into her ear, but not all of them, there were so many. That’s when
this place seemed more like Order headquarters than a private home
or even a bed and breakfast. Certainly cursed, they were all rather
good-looking, but all in different ways. And not all of them had
come to meet her, she realized as some of them went to gather a
book from the shelf before leaving.

Beon and Sophia’s daughter, Nadia, approached
them first. Her emerald green eyes stood out in strong contrast to
her black hair and fair skin. Danielle secretly envied the green
eyes that were so much prettier than her boring brown. She found it
difficult to believe Nadia could have ever been human because to
her she looked more like a forest-elf, and wanted to check under
her smooth ebony hair for pointed elf-ears.

Nadia strolled gracefully to them. “Hi,
Danielle, I’m so pleased to meet you.”

“Thank you, Nadia.”

Max, who was husky in build and very tall
came next. He sported a longer haircut than Ethan, the brown curls
drifted over his ears in a handsomely messy way. His eyes were also
brown, she noticed when he looked her way. A keen awareness of
everything around him flickered in his eyes. A whiskered face
enhanced his sharp, dangerous look, and Danielle could easily
picture him donned in chain-mail carrying a long sharp sword. No
wonder Lucas ran when he saw this guy coming.

The knight strode over, dropped to one knee
in front of Danielle, snatched up her hand and planted a kiss on
her knuckles.

Ethan stiffened and she turned to look at
him. Why did he look sort of irritated? With Max?

“Greetings, Miss Darcey,” the knight said,
drawing her attention back his way. He then stood and turned to sit
on the chair next to Ethan. Flopping himself down he threw his
large feet, heavily donned in massive black boots, up onto the
table with a bang, jostling everything on it.

“Maximilian! Mind the furniture!” Sophia
ranted.

“Yes, ma’am, sorry.” He removed his feet from
the table, hanging his head with shame, but his lips were graced
with a smirk. He looked at Danielle from the corner of his eye.
“Very nice, Ethan…” His gaze shifted to hers as he addressed
Danielle directly, “Never fear, my sweet, we’ll keep the wicked
vampires at bay.” What a funny thing for a vampire to say! And then
he offered a sexy wink. Unable to resist smiling in return,
Danielle was surprised when Ethan’s grip tightened.

Thinking the action was due to that
possessiveness she’d seen earlier and that perhaps he was jealous
of the knight, but then a blonde woman neared them and she realized
she was the one distressing Ethan. Danielle had actually forgotten
about Celeste and feared this had to be her.

She was just as beautiful as the others
outwardly, but something inside made her uglier. Platinum blond
hair was cropped short and styled like Marilyn Monroe’s—she even
had the curves. She wore a lot of makeup on her face, complete with
false eyelashes, and her seductive eyes were an eerie pale shade of
blue. Although her eyes were lovely, something sinister lurked
within them. The limpid color was like shallow water, reflecting a
shallow soul and she could easily see how Ethan sensed the darkness
in her.

Celeste reached out a graceful hand to stroke
Danielle’s hair; petting her like she was a dog. “How sweet. Ethan
brought home a pet. She’s so adorable!” Her tone was harsh and
demeaning and not meant in a kind light. Danielle shuddered at her
touch.

“Back off, Celeste!” Ethan spat with enough
venom to make any normal person cower. Celeste wasn’t intimidated
at all. She simply rolled her eyes and glided out of the room,
tossing her blond ringlets with a snobbish flick of her wrist.

Ethan promptly put his lips to Danielle’s
ear, and whispered soothingly, “Don’t even spend another second
thinking about her. She’s not worth it.”

Several others introduced themselves. With
the different inflections in their voices she realized some of them
were from England, but mostly they appeared to be an odd mixture of
many countries and eras.... Men and women continued to filter in
and out of the room. Some eyed her with curiosity, while others
seemed downright irritated she was there. Was Celeste really the
only problem here? Or was it simply that they knew she wasn’t one
of them? Or, even worse, were the ones that made her nervous the
repentant killers Ethan had told her about before?

Chapter 10

Questions

The room was silent for a few moments until
Beon sliced into it with a question. “Danielle dear, would you like
to be turned?”

She stiffened, as did Ethan, and then
realized this is what they’d been arguing about earlier. Her
immortality.

She glanced at Ethan and saw he was shaking
his head, mouthing the word “no” to her. Danielle closed her eyes
to release herself from his influence and took a deep breath before
answering, “Thank you very much, Beon ... but, I don’t think that
is something I want. I’m sorry.”

“Darling, surely you must think it through
more carefully. It’s not so bad—“

“Beon,” Ethan said dangerously. “She said
no.”

“Yes. She said no, Ethan, or is it
rather
you
who said
no?”

It was true, Ethan hadn’t exactly asked her
opinion on this, but she also knew he understood her wishes. “He’s
right, sir, I don’t want this.”

When Beon’s jaw clenched she feared she could
have offended him and watched his face for signs of anger. His
brown-eyed gaze lifted to hers but she only saw concern residing
there as he said, “Please don’t take this risk—”

“I asked you to drop this earlier. I’m not
turning her.”

“Deveroux, you fool. Are you forgetting the
risk Lucas poses to her ... as well as yourself? You cannot keep a
mortal this close and expect to resist temptation indefinitely.
You’ve gone for more than a century resisting mortal blood, now you
put it all at risk! I thought you were more responsible. Bite her
at sunset and solve the riddle later, it will be safer that
way!”

Danielle’s stomach churned at the mention of
Lucas. Couldn’t they keep her safe from him? She also became aware
of the brutal fact that she was sitting in a place full of
vampires, and biting her had just become the topic of discussion.
For her safety?