Forever (Book #3 in the Fateful Series) (28 page)

“I found something,” Nadia said, a tone of pride unhidden in her voice.

Realizing Nadia didn’t know about the visit from Lucas, she rolled to her elbow, pushing up to a more seated position, but it was a little difficult to do with her hands bound and pain rolling over her torso. Even though it hurt, she was fairly sure nothing was broken. Danielle didn’t think she’d be able to move at all if that were the case. “What is it?” she asked, trying to keep her mind on Nadia and not how she was feeling at the moment.

“Something sharp,” Nadia said, beaming.

That drew an interested smile to her face and renewed hope to her soul. “You mean something to cut the ropes?” Even with excitement surging through her veins, a sense of caution tamed it. Her gaze touched on the door. She wondered where their captors were, and even more than that, she wondered when Lucas would show himself again. She hadn’t forgotten his threats, and getting away from here would be a great way to avoid him.

“Here.” Her friend then bent forward and rubbed her wrists against something under the bed. “There are sharp edges on the metal frame.”

Danielle scooted off the mattress to do the same. “Brilliant,” she praised in a hushed voice.

Together they sawed at the ropes until they’d loosened them enough to work them off. The scratchy material still rasped over her scrape, but she clenched her teeth together and bore the pain regardless. They untied their ankles and stood, kicking the ropes free. Danielle stretched, testing her injury. Nope, not cracked, she decided. Good.

“Window or door?” Nadia mimed, pointing at each.

Creeping toward the door, Danielle pressed her ear to the wood and listened. She heard nothing, but her gaze moved to the window anyway. That would be the quickest way out. She stepped to the window and parted the curtains just enough to peer out, but when she saw plaid fabric she dropped the curtain like it had burned her. They had two men posted there to guard them. Nadia made a tiny sound of distress that drew her eyes.

“What now?” her friend lipped without making any noise.

With eyes returning to the door, she reached for the handle, but paused when Nadia’s fingers latched onto her sleeve. “What if there are men there too?”

Then we use karate
, was her first thought, but then she remembered the lamps. The idiots had left those in the room even though Nadia had already tried using one as a weapon. Without speaking, she pointed at them. An excited smile lifted Nadia’s cheeks and crinkled around her eyes. Once armed, Danielle again reached for the handle, but as before, she hesitated. What if it was locked? If she tried to open it, they would know they’d gotten free of their bonds when they heard it jiggle.

“What’s wrong?” Nadia asked barely audibly.

“Maybe we need a distraction.”

Nadia cocked her head to the side, considering it. “What if I say I need the loo?”

“That’s not a bad idea, except we were bound.”

With slumped shoulders, Nadia returned the lamp to one of the nightstands and laid down on the bed. “Then tie me up again, and you can clobber them over the head when they come in.”

Considering that, Danielle snatched up the ropes from off the floor. It was a good plan, and it was all they had. “I’ll make them look tight but you’ll be able to slip them off easily and we’ll both run for it.”

“After you dispatch the guards,” Nadia lipped with a level of confidence Danielle wasn’t sure she deserved.

“Right,” she said wondering if she’d really be able to do that with her bruises. But they had to try something before Lucas decided to come back. Thinking of all of the things that could go wrong with this, Danielle decided she needed to say more to Nadia, and they had a volume-less conversation by reading each other’s lips. “This could get violent. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Danielle began.

“You taught me well—”

“Not well enough, these guys are stronger than mortal men.”

“How can you know that?”

Danielle thought of how hard Lucas had hit her, but Nadia was obviously thinking about the exchange between the men before that. “I just know.”

“Are you suggesting we don’t try to escape then?”

“No, of course not. I just need you to promise me you’ll run if you get the chance.”

A soft mocking chuckle came from Nadia. “I can’t leave you behind.”

“You
have
to. You could get the others to help and lead them back here. Please promise me that if you get the chance to run, you will.”

Nadia sighed, her chest lifting and falling with the quiet action. “Very well. I see your point.”

“Thank you,” she lipped to her friend. As Danielle collected one of the lamps and made her way back to the door, a floorboard creaked and she froze with rounding eyes. When nothing happened after a few minutes of tense quiet, she lifted the lamp up above her head and stood where she would be hidden behind the door when it opened. Trembling in her fingers showed the uncertainty hidden inside. Forcing courage into her spine, she steadied her hands and gave a nod to Nadia.

Watching the muscles work in Nadia’s throat when she swallowed, Danielle waited, every inch of her filling with adrenaline.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Nadia belted out, “Excuse me, guards? I need a moment in the ladies’ room?”

When the door almost immediately opened, Danielle knew there had been a guard posted there as well as the window. She lifted the lamp higher waiting to see his head move into view, knowing he wouldn’t likely be alone and she’d need to plan her next move now if she successfully took out the first. During her time with vampire guards, she’d learned that if she could get them off balance, she could take them down during the day even though they were still immensely stronger than her when the curse was at its weakest. Danielle hoped that same tactic worked with the werewolves.

It was the second blond guy who entered and she brought the lamp down onto his head. The glass part of the lamp shattered and the blond guy crumpled. She discarded the now-useless remains of her weapon.

“Hey!” shouted the black-haired guy who entered next, his brown eyes swinging her way. Because he was forced to bend forward to see around the door, he was already off-balance and she acted fast. Danielle kicked him in the face. His head snapped back, but instead of crumpling, he just stood there with a dazed look on his face. She kicked him three more times, the toe of her shoe connecting with his jaw each time and finally, he collapsed on top of the other guy.

Nadia had stayed put, still pretending to be bound, which made Danielle believe there were probably more guys coming. She noticed a flicker of warning in Nadia’s expression before she caught the movement of the next guy’s entrance. Apparently he’d seen what she’d done to his friends, because the first blond guy shot a hand out and captured her wrist. Using that to her advantage, she tugged and swung a roundhouse kick to his head. Her foot connected and it sent his face smashing into the edge of the door with a resounding and sickening crack. He bounced off and almost fell on top of the other men out cold on the floor, but stepped wide, avoiding the obstacle. He came at her again. Three more joined the struggle and when she noticed the unconscious guys waking up, she lifted her fists even though she felt cornered and sorely outnumbered. Luckily, the door wasn’t open all the way, so Danielle threw it wider so it slammed against the wall and shot out into the adjoining room through the gap she’d just created.

A violent wrestling match ensued and Danielle knew she was going to lose even though she’d been successful in causing quite a bit of damage to their house by throwing guys into tables, knocking down and breaking another lamp and a full mug of something that smelled like coffee.

As she ran for the front door, one of them tackled her to the hardwood floor. Danielle threw her arms out to break her fall, but the impact knocked the air from her lungs. Before she’d had a chance to recover, another guy grasped onto the back of her shirt, rolled her over and straddled her hips, pinning her arms on either side of her head. It wasn’t long before a total of six men held her down, and she couldn’t budge. Danielle wasn’t surprised she’d failed, but she’d also noticed, in all of this, that none of the guys has struck her like Lucas had, and she thought perhaps these werewolves didn’t want to hurt her, just as they’d first promised.

“Stop!” an unfamiliar female shouted.

Like quarreling brothers caught by their mother, the men snapped to attention and quickly released her. Instinctively, Danielle wanted to keep fighting. She scrambled to her feet, lifted her fists and backed up a few steps. The guys actually let her, and she looked through the open doorway behind the woman with longing in her heart. Could she run for it?

“If you want her to cure you, you can’t harm her.”

“We weren’t trying to hurt her, Red. She was trying to escape,” replied the black-haired guy. Danielle couldn’t remember if his name was Collin or Darwin and she really didn’t care to find out.

A twinge of panic shot through her stomach at the name of Red, and that’s when she really looked at the woman in the doorway. Dressed all in black, Danielle thought she was probably another witch. But while the red-headed woman was very pretty, she was not drop-dead gorgeous like the other witches had been. Danielle’s thoughts also called up how this witch didn’t seem to go by her name either. That was weird. Not that it mattered. All Danielle could think about was getting out of there, so she started inching her way around the sofa toward the doorway, hoping she could dash out behind the witch.

Red looked at her, and clicked her tongue in a chastising sound. “Can’t you see how much these men need your help?”

“There isn’t anything I can do for them,” she tried, still moving as some of the earlier tension slipped free of her shoulders. She didn’t feel threatened at the moment and meant to use that to her advantage.

“I’ve been working on a spell to release them from their curse, and I believe you
can
help.”

So this was the witch who’d helped the werewolves get past her vampire guards. Some of the tension came back. While there was something about this witch that didn’t frighten her, she couldn’t trust her. Big hands curled around her upper arms, stopping her escape and she realized the werewolves weren’t going to let her go any farther. The first blond guy flashed his dimples at her and said, “Sorry about earlier, but we need your help.”

Was he bipolar or something? First he’d been nice, then he’d been bossy, and now he was back to Mr. Nice. “I don’t see how I can help you.” Danielle’s eyes danced over to the bedroom she and Nadia had been held captive in as she wondered where her friend was. Movement outside caught her attention and she recognized Nadia’s green top disappearing into the trees. Danielle couldn’t stop herself from exhaling in relief.

“Catch her!” shouted Collin, or was it Darwin? Danielle’s breath caught in her throat as she worried about Nadia completing her escape.

The witch lifted her arm to block the doorway. “Let her go. We only need Danielle.”

Danielle watched in stunned confusion as the witch came forward and pried the men’s hands from her arms. “Come, we’ll have some tea and discuss this.”

Mutely, Danielle let Red link her arm around hers and lead her to the kitchen like two ladies agreeing to have a quaint luncheon.

Scrambling like devoted sons, the werewolves began preparing the hot water and collecting mugs from the cupboards.

As they waited, Danielle studied the witch. She did seem to have a gentle nature about her, compared to the brutality of the more beautiful witches. “What’s your name?” Danielle asked trying to figure out the mystery behind the anonymity the witches seemed to favor.

“Only my sisters know my given name,” she said.

“Why?”

A soft smile graced Red’s pink mouth. The witch had a natural beauty about her. She wore no make-up and no mascara, but she didn’t need them. Her lashes, though a spicy shade of brown, were the perfect dark frame to sage-green eyes. A slim finger traced over the scarred wood of the table, it was tipped with polish-free pink nails, perfectly filed down to a short length.