Forever (Book #3 in the Fateful Series) (21 page)

Her eyes flew open when the dream faded to black. Immediately she knew where she was. Trapped by the pixies. Despite that distressing knowledge, she lay there for a moment listening to her heart thud within her chest, and her almost erratic breathing become more regular. Pale moonlight filtered down from above, lighting the world in shades of bluish-gray as she wondered if he’d shared this dream with her. If he had all of the others, then of course he’d shared this one, she reasoned. He must have done something to turn up the volume like they’d discussed. Whatever it was, she mentally thanked him for it, because, in a way, she now felt closer to him than ever before.

 It was still very quiet here, and it seemed the pixies had not returned. Turning her face, her chin bumped against the top of Nadia’s head. Apparently her friend was using her shoulder for a pillow. Carefully sliding out from under Nadia, Danielle supported her head until she was resting on the ground beside her. While Nadia appeared to be sleeping peacefully, her eyes danced back and forth behind her eyelids, and Danielle believed her dreams were tormented with distressing things.

A small rustling sound drew her attention to movement outside the cage of webs. Leaves on the forest floor were being moved by something, but she couldn’t see what. Without touching the walls, she moved closer trying to see. Whatever it was, it was very dark in color and any hopes that it could be fairies coming to free them slipped away, because fairies glowed. As the things neared, she realized several small ... creatures, the size of insects, crept through the leaves and grass toward her. Breath lodged in her throat when she saw long, thin legs carrying round bodies above the ground. Spiders. More of them than they’d seen on the fairies’ land crept her way. Rocking back onto her heels, her hand swung out and landed on Nadia’s arm. With fingers clasping onto Nadia’s sleeve, she gave Nadia a firm shake.  “Nadia, wake up. We have a problem.”

“Mmm, what is it?” Nadia asked, rubbing at her eyes.

“Spiders, look! Tons of them!”

Surging up to a seated position, Nadia looked out where she was pointing. She gasped. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Danielle replied slowly.

In shocked horror, they watched as spiders crawled up the walls to the top of the cage where they killed the spiders that had created it and then began eating away at the webs. What? Within moments, the cage was gone and the spiders divided, creating a path for them.

“Are they helping to set us free?” Nadia asked, the stunned note of her words unmistakable.

“I—I don’t get it.”

When the spiders stayed out of the way, Danielle decided it was worth a try and, after taking Nadia’s hand into hers, they moved cautiously forward. Her eyes darted to every dark shadow with the fear of something springing out at them. If only she still had her nunchakus she’d feel a bit safer. As it was, the dark shapes surrounding them could be anything, or anyone. Her imagination brought them to life and she was motivated to move faster. They broke into a run. Sparing a look backward, she wondered where the pixies were and how long it would take for them to realize they’d escaped. Apparently not long. When they got perhaps fifty feet, that buzzing sound they’d first heard near the waterfall came from behind them. In a swarm formation, the pixies took pursuit and were gaining fast. They’d simply be captured again, because there was no way they could outrun those things. Trying anyway, they increased their speed. Suddenly an explosion of light hit them. Surprised as she was, Danielle dug her heels in and came to an abrupt halt. The sudden stop made her lose her balance and she fell backward. Nadia fell with her. Scrambling up to her elbows, she froze when a new sound drew her attention. Footfalls. Watching in curious wonder, or horror, she hadn’t decided which one fit the situation yet, she watched six figures materialize from a glowing mist drifting along the forest floor. The mist hadn’t been there before, and it appeared as though these people had been the ones to create the light and the mist.

Peering down at them like they thought it was funny they’d fallen stood six beautiful women, all of them clad in snug-fitting black leather and spandex. Witches. Danielle’s breath hitched, because witches were the most beautiful women she’d ever seen in her life. The beauty of vampires and mermaids couldn’t surpass, or even compare to their flawless skin, their full red lips and their perfectly symmetrical features. Had she really thought the mermaids were pretty? In comparison to witches, they were rather plain.

The witches’ attentions shifted from her and Nadia to the pixies. Frowning, each one of them jammed their hands into a leather pouch hung from their hips and withdrew a handful of something that slipped out from the cup of their palms like salt. In an arcing motion they tossed whatever it was at the pixies. Closing her eyes, she dropped her chin so it wouldn’t get in her eyes when it struck the pixies just above her. Immediately the pixies hissed and screeched in pain and she thought that perhaps this was more than just ordinary salt. Salt had repelled them before, but it hadn’t ever made them shriek out as though it burned them. When she stopped feeling the shower of salt hitting her, she looked up and watched as the pixies fled.

Trying to decide if she should be grateful or not, Danielle’s gaze swung back to the witches, and she noticed something else. They wore bows and arrows strapped to their backs. She hadn’t expected that at all. Ethan had only told her they liked to dress in black, and that she should avoid them. That appeared to be true. But at first sight, witches seemed too pretty to be dangerous. The fact that they were armed proved that that probably wasn’t true.

“They sent the spiders to find you, not the pixies,” said Nadia. Danielle felt Nadia tense when she noticed the spiders going to their masters like loyal dogs. She decided perhaps it wasn’t time to be grateful yet. They’d been wrong, and apparently both pixies and witches had used spiders to hunt and capture her.

Shoving to her feet, Danielle stared into a pair of brilliant blue eyes. “Let Nadia go. All you want is me.”

“Danielle!” complained Nadia.

Turning to her friend she gritted out, “Run!”

“I can’t leave you—” Nadia tried to whisper so the witches wouldn’t hear.

“It’s true, she can’t leave you,” said one of the witches, proving they’d heard her anyway.

Swinging her eyes to the witch who’d spoken, she gaped at the gorgeous brunette. “What do you mean?”

“She’ll be coming too. We want both of you,” the brunette said, tucking her thumb into the edge of her belt in a casual manner.

“Why?” Danielle asked, anger surging up from the depths of her soul. “What do you want with us?”

“The pixies meant to keep you imprisoned until you too turned into pixies. We can’t have them turning you into pixies, can we, ladies?”

The others laughed, their lovely smiles brighter than sunshine.

Grinding her teeth on the frustration within her, she said, “I didn’t ask what
they
had planned for us. I asked what
you
did.”

A wicked smirk twisted the brunette’s pretty mouth, but she didn’t answer the question as she motioned for the other witches to come forward. Hips swinging with each lithe step, they encircled Danielle and Nadia as they linked hands and began chanting words in a language she couldn’t understand. The words sounded gothic and old to her, and she couldn’t pinpoint the origin or accent.

Just as Danielle thought about trying her karate on them, blinding light forced her to shield her eyes. When she blinked them open again, still seeing blotches in her vision as though she’d looked directly at the sun, she realized they stood in a different place than the woods they’d just been in. Somehow the witches had transported them away from the pixies and their forest to a garden behind a historical-looking mansion. Again, she didn’t think this was an improvement to their situation. Reaching forward, she latched onto one of the witch’s wrists in an attempt to sweep her. Nadia followed her lead, just as Danielle had trained her, but they were both struck with a blast of air when the witches shouted, “Ököl a szél!” She and Nadia were thrown about ten feet, landing hard on their backs and skidding along the well-manicured lawn.

The witches didn’t give her a chance to catch her breath before they were lifted from the ground and backed up against a great tree that stood in the middle of the grounds. Her head touched the bark of the tree as she looked upward. This tree was thick-trunked and tangled with ancient-looking knots. Embellished with twinkling lights, it glowed like a tree decorated for Christmas. Silver stars, which danced in a breeze and glimmered as though they had a layer of glitter glued to the surface, hung from many of the larger branches. If she hadn’t believed the witch’s intentions were ugly in nature, she might have thought this place was beautiful.

Returning her attention to their captors, she watched as the witches giggled and sang with the voices of angels as they bound them to the tree with ropes. The one with flowing blonde hair chanted a series of words as she conjured a fire before joining her sisters in the song and dance around the tree. This was most likely a ritual of some kind, and this was bad....

Their dance made her think of eastern European dances she’d seen performed at folk festivals. It would have looked more appropriate had they been wearing full skirts with embroidered aprons and white peasant blouses, instead of all black leather and spandex.

After skipping around and around the tree until she felt dizzy from watching them, Danielle closed her eyes, her head resting against the bumpy bark behind her. The witches stopped chanting, and the sudden silence startled her. Her eyelids sprang open. Danielle’s gaze fixed on the medieval-like cups the women held. Each one was made of silver and studded with bright rubies and emeralds. They were probably something passed down by generation after generation of witches from medieval times, and they were probably used to hold some sort of potion or poison they meant to feed her and Nadia.

“Any ideas, Danielle?” asked Nadia from her right.

Catching Nadia’s green eyes with hers she yanked at the very tight ropes and shook her head. “Wish I had something, but I don’t.”

Cool fingers latched onto her chin and forced her eyes way from Nadia’s. A breathtakingly beautiful redhead flashed white teeth at her in a smile that promised a painful death if she did not comply. “You poor thing, you must be so very thirsty,” whispered the witch as she pressed the rim of the cup to her lips. The metal wasn’t as cold to the touch as the witch’s fingers were and she realized the drink was heated. As the scent of butterscotch and cream filled her nose, her stomach grumbled for a taste and her mouth watered.

“I’d rather not, thanks though.” She tried for politeness, but the hint of sarcasm could still be heard. It smelled so good she knew she’d likely fail in resisting.

“Drink, darling.” The witch’s head tipped to the side, her pretty blue eyes twinkling with menace. A cascade of red hair dripped down past her shoulder. “Or I’ll force you to.”

“What will it do to me?” she asked, doubting she’d really get an answer.

“It won’t kill you, or cause pain...” the witch’s words trailed off as though there was more that she was unwilling to share. The cup was pressed more firmly to her bottom lip, to the point it pinched her skin against her teeth and she was forced to part them.

With the delicious smell becoming overwhelming, and the knowledge that she couldn’t move disheartening, she opened her mouth and let the warm liquid slide over her tongue. Slowly and almost lovingly the wicked witch gently fed sips to her until she downed every last drop. With her head lulling against the tree, her tongue swept out and gathered up a bit of what tasted like cream before it got away.

It wasn’t long before her vision blurred and her eyelids began to weigh a ton each. It was even less time before unconsciousness swept over her and she slipped into a dreamless slumber.

Chapter 11

Sir Roland

Leaving immediately, the fairies led them to an unpopulated forest in France where a team of vampires met up with them. The sun was setting and the curse would soon awaken in the Order members who’d come to join their search. Half of his mouth lifted in a wicked smile. He was going to enjoy watching the evil little things die. Ethan was fed up with beings threatening his wife. It ended tonight, he decided, determination making him pick up the pace in his stride.

“They came this way,” said Alora, “I can sense the lingering light from their auras.”

“I can smell them,” said Alaric, the German vampire who’d joined their ranks more than a century ago, his magical gaze downcast.

“Don’t you know where they live?” asked Casanova who was clearly irritated with how long it was taking them to find the pixies.

“Our kind don’t get along well, so no, we’ve never cared to discover where they dwell,” replied Alora. “And,” she added, smirking a little, “they fear vampires at night.”

Good, thought Ethan.

A branch snapped beneath Ethan’s boot as he worked his way through the thick undergrowth.

“Watch your step, my lord, we don’t want to alert them to our presence,” said Prince Richard.

Ethan grimaced when another twig broke under his foot, sending out a loud cracking noise that seemed to ricochet off the trees.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Elrick, “They already know we’re here.”

Ethan wanted to ask how he knew this, but decided it didn’t matter. Ethan, Max, and the four guards who’d been slowed by fey food kept moving at their mortal pace as the vampires zipped ahead of them in a blur of blues and grays. Stars filled the night sky as the sunlight diminished. A cool breeze danced around them, seeping through his shirt. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

“Why don’t they attack, then?” asked Max, his fingers balling into fists like he relished the idea, even though it hadn’t gone well for them last time. Ethan knew Max acted tough, but inside, it was obvious this was tearing his friend apart. The knight maintained a level of noble vigilance intensified by a dose of aggression that practically surged around him like a living thing, but Ethan knew his friend was worried about Nadia, and that gave his purpose a reckless edge, making the knight even more volatile and dangerous. Max had also told him that he knew his wife was pregnant already. It’s no wonder then, that Max’s outward cool was unraveling.

Ethan was feeling rather frayed at the edges as well, because even though he didn’t know it for a fact, he believed Danielle was probably expecting a child by now too. The idea cinched around his lungs and made it hard for him to breathe. Their second child at risk, he thought, shaking his head. How could he have let this happen again? It didn’t seem to matter that they kept themselves surrounded by vampire guards at all times, they remained in danger as new threats arose.

Sulking like children who’d lost their favorite toy—the gift of vampirism—the four guards who had accompanied them to the fairies followed along. A small group of fairies had joined their ranks, along with five fresh vampires from Order Headquarters—Beon, Seth, Alaric, Lydia, and Carlo.

For what seemed like miles, they hiked the sloping terrain until the moon began to slide from its peak. Through all of this time, Ethan imagined what could be happening to the women and his muscles pushed past the burn to a second wind. They had to find them, and it had to be tonight. Sulking a bit like the vampires were doing, Ethan had pondered asking the fairies to dust them, like they had when he and Danielle needed to get back to his vehicle before the sun set when he’d first taken her to meet them. But with unhindered vampires there to aid them, he didn’t think they’d agree to that, so he’d held his tongue. For now. And that was only because he also knew there were drawbacks to relying on magic that wasn’t a part of him. The magic in their dust was a temporary thing, and he wanted to save that for a time when they really needed it. With the other vampires there, this wasn’t that time.

Flashes of the dreams they’d continued to have since their time with the fairies played in his mind. Most of them appeared to be of happy times, of laughing, and of quiet talks in the white world they’d forgotten, except for the ones where she’d clearly been upset about something.

Reaching into his jacket pocket, his fingers curled around the small fruits the fairies had given him. He’d asked if there was anything he could eat to make it so they could hear each other in their dreams, and they’d brought him four small fruits. Even from his past explorations and world travels, he’d never seen anything like them. Suspecting they were impossibly rare, he’d eaten two of them paying close attention to the flavor, because he believed he would never taste a fruit like them ever again. They looked like flat cherries with a dark purple skin. One side had a long, thin, and pliable stem; the other had a little tuft of green leaves. Both of which, he’d plucked free of the fruit before eating it. They’d tasted just like blackberry jam, as though they’d been sweetened with sugar. There was a bean-shaped pit in the center, which he’d discarded. Of course after that, he’d wondered if he should have kept them so he could try growing more.

His thumb moved over the smooth surface of the fruits in his pocket as he decided he would keep these pits after Danielle had eaten the fruit. Since she’d been taken, he hadn’t slept, so he didn’t know if this would work or not, but he was willing to try anything if only he could understand why she’d been crying in some of the memories.

For a moment, he was startled by a sudden movement ahead of him. Figuring the blurred being had to be one of the vampires, Ethan watched as the shape neared. Returned from scouting ahead, Alaric stopped abruptly in front of him and Max. Ethan’s insides paused to hear the news. “We found where they were being held.”

“
Were
?” Max asked, and Ethan was fairly certain he could hear the man’s teeth grinding.

“Come,” Alaric said without responding to the question.

Running, they followed the vampire who slowed his pace so they could keep up. He turned to face them before stopping near an area where the dirt was trodden down. Ethan shown his flashlight on the ground and shoved his glasses back into place. He’d never found the pair that fell when he was in the tree, so he was wearing his spare.

Crouching down, his fingertips touched on a footprint he recognized as Danielle’s. “They were here, but they’re gone now,” said Beon.

Upon standing, Ethan swung the light out, inspecting the surrounding area. When he found another footprint, he stepped forward. He and Max trained their flashlights downward as they followed the trail. It led about forty feet away before the prints got mixed up with several others.

Max swore. “Who else was here?”

“They definitely smell mortal,” said Seth.

“How the hell did other mortals get here before us?” asked Max.

“Witches,” said Alora.

Ethan died a small death in his soul at that. If the witches had them, then so would the werewolves, or so he thought. None of them really knew if witches were working with the werewolves, but they suspected as much when the werewolves were able to immobilize their guards during the last full moon. His fingers tunneled through his hair as his panic turned into desperate prayers inside his head. If Lucas had their wives, all could be lost....

Almost as though in a trance, Ethan made his way back to where the women had been held. He knew Max followed, but he couldn’t face his friend at the moment. From the very beginning, this was his fault for the way he’d dealt with Lucas so many years ago. And not only could he lose Danielle because of his mistakes, Max could lose Nadia as well. Ethan could sense Beon’s stress over the whole thing too, because Nadia was his daughter.

As he approached, his gaze landed on the female guard inspecting the ground where the women had been. Ethan knew her name was Lydia and she was one of the few female vampires to be an active member of The Order. That was probably because most of the women helping The Order were much older, and therefore more old-fashioned. Lydia wasn’t that way. With her background in MI6, the British Secret Service, she was the perfect vampire to have here and helping them find the women. She stood, staring at her fingers, which she rubbed together and then smelled. The action prompted him to ask, “What is it?” as the bottom of his stomach dropped out wondering what else was wrong.

“Blood,” she said, not meeting his gaze to protect him from her magic.

“Whose is it?” Max asked, moving past Ethan, likely to get a better look.

The vampire’s gaze skittered to Max as he approached, then touched on Beon’s as he too entered the area. When she looked away quickly, the action made it clear whose blood it was. Nadia’s. “No,” said Max.

“Bloody hell,” said Beon.

“Is it only hers?” Ethan asked, worry surging through his veins like a poison.

Lydia nodded. Max stumbled to a halt, and Ethan could only imagine what was going through his friend’s mind.

“How bad is it?” asked Max as he collapsed to his knees and looked at the ground, probably expecting the see the soil soaked in red.

“Not bad.” Lydia said. “There’s barely a drop here. Well, it wasn’t really a drop. It seems more like she’d scraped herself, touched the wound with her hand, and then set her hand down. That’s how it got in the dirt.”

Max’s shoulders sank with apparent relief

 
I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
With Danielle’s words echoing through his thoughts, Ethan wondered right along with her. How much more of this could
he
take? With fingers curling around his left arm, he also pondered how all of this stress was affecting his blood pressure. Not only did he need glasses, but if things kept going like this, he might need to start a prescription to regulate that as well.

Lydia left as she inspected the path they’d taken before the witches took them. After a few moments, she returned and started a low conversation with Alaric, Carlo, Beon, and Seth. Even so, he could hear them.

“They must have teleported them away from here,” said Lydia.

At that, Alaric rubbed his neck. It was one of those things the man did when he was thinking. “Do we know where the witches live?”

Seth shook his head. “I only know of a few covens in Europe, and there’s no way of knowing which one has them.”

“That should help us narrow it down though, shouldn’t it?” asked Beon.

“Let’s start here in France, and then fan out,” suggested Lydia.

The others grumbled out agreements, then Beon turned to them, keeping his eyes downcast. “When we know who has them, we’ll liberate your women and bring them back to you. We expect you to go wait for us at Order Headquarters.” And with that instruction, they disappeared into the night like fast-moving wraiths, leaving Ethan, Max, the fairies, and the other guards behind. Of course he’d wanted to go with them, but they could cover more ground in a shorter amount of time than him, or Max, or any of the handicapped guards could.

Again feeling weak and incapable of protecting his own wife, Ethan swallowed some more of his pride and redirected his attention to Alora. It seemed as though she was conducting her own investigation because she was walking around where the edge of the cage, or whatever it was, had been. “How did the witches get them away from the pixies?” Ethan asked the fairy.

Before answering, she took flight, her little wings beating the air as they lifted her to eyelevel with him. “The pixies had them trapped here within a spider’s web cage. They only do that when they mean to turn someone into a pixie.”

Feeling taken aback, Ethan asked, “But they hadn’t yet, because we see their footprints, right?”
Please tell me my wife isn’t a pixie.

“It takes time to do it,” she responded. “They didn’t have enough time to turn them.”

A small sense of relief slid into place, but it wasn’t enough to untie his insides. “So what do you think happened?”