Fateful 2-Fractured (20 page)

“I feel great. Don’t worry about me.”

“You’re certain? I was worried you’d catch
that wretched bug.” Ethan curled tighter around her back in a
protective manner and tickled her neck with kisses and his hot
breath.

“There’s a reason why I said ‘no’ when you
were begging me to kiss you better. Truthfully, for someone who
worked as a doctor, you’re kind of clueless.”

“I wasn’t in my right mind then, and those
drugs you gave me made me loopy.”

“Yes, the wonderful advancements in science
and medicine…. This is a much better time to be mortal.”

“I must agree, and I think this is a fine
time to be married and with my lovely wife,” Ethan said in a
seductive tone, then pushed her back to the mattress so he could
blanket her with his body and tickle her collar bone with his lips
and tongue.

Danielle giggled and rocked her head
to the side to give him better access, but frowned when the room
seemed darker than usual, as if someone was standing in front of
the window. Her eyes moved in that direction and she screamed when
she saw that a large figure
was
standing there.

Ethan, reacting quickly, shoved her behind
his back and scanned the room for whatever threat had made her
scream.

“We’re sorry, Ethan, Danielle, but Beon has
requested an emergency Order meeting. The threats against you have
developed into something much worse.”

“Get out! Can’t this wait? How dare you
invade our bedroom!”

The guard frowned and stepped forward.
Danielle peered over Ethan’s shoulder and her eyes grew when she
noticed that this guard wasn’t alone. They were surrounded by six
men.

“Leave so we may dress. You can’t see my
wife like this,” Ethan growled.

She then remembered that all she had on was
a thin silky nightdress, which barely covered much of anything, and
was relieved when the security detail filed out.

“We’ll be just outside the door. Be quick
about it.”

Ethan shoved the blankets aside, then helped
Danielle from the bed.

“What could this be about?”

“My guess is that things have worsened to an
unnerving degree, or I don’t think Beon would do this to us.” Ethan
was pulling on his pants while he spoke, and had handed Danielle
her dress. “It seems the honeymoon is over.”

“We don’t have time for a shower, do we?”
she asked, hesitating to put the dress on.

“I don’t think so. I wouldn’t put it past
them to walk back in here if we took too long.”

Sighing, Danielle reluctantly donned the
dress, and then ran for her vanity to drag a brush through her
hair. She was in the process of applying lipstick when the door
opened.

“Let’s go. We have a car waiting in the
garage.”

“Nonsense, we can drive,” Ethan said,
passing Danielle’s boots to her.

“Beon said he wanted you escorted to him in
something you’re not normally seen driving.”

“It’s really bad then.”

“I’m afraid it is,” the tall dark vampire
said as he took Danielle by the arm.

Ethan didn’t like that, and to her, it
looked like he barely resisted a completely violent reaction to it.
Forcing a measure of calmness, it seemed, he did tug the guards
hand loose and gather Danielle to his side.

They were silently led through their home
and to the garage where a large black SUV was waiting, already
running. Danielle could see from the look on the guard’s face that
if they didn’t get into the backseat quickly, they would be
assisted physically with that too. This troubled her. What
happened? And how was Beon going to change things this time? They’d
enjoyed a few months of blissful marriage with some of the privacy
they’d been craving, and fighting for. It seemed that was all going
to end. She couldn’t help but worry about this, and shoved her face
into Ethan’s shoulder before the emotion overtook her and she wound
up crying in front of all of them just as she had in front of Max.
Ethan tugged her closer with one hand on her back and the other
around her nape.

“It’ll be fine. We’ll be fine, Danielle,
I’ll make certain of it.”

She could only laugh sarcastically at that,
unfortunately, the laugh came out sounding like a desperate, wet
sob.

* * * * *

Once they arrived at the mansion, they were
led to the drawing room for another one of the Order’s tense
meetings. She hated those, and had hoped they’d seen the last of
them. But Danielle knew it was foolish to expect that. They’d
really gotten themselves into something when they cured Ethan, and
then spread that blessing by giving the cure to others. It was only
a matter of time, and she knew she had to accept it.

Beon was seated on the sofa with his fingers
clenched tightly in his dark brown hair. His body posture said a
lot to her, and so did Sophia’s. The young-looking, though
grandmotherly vampire was seated next to her husband, and her arms
were folded around her middle as though she were suffering from the
same flu that had tortured Ethan. Clearly, this was much worse than
she’d thought.

The room was filled with many men, some she
knew and some she didn’t. Max and Nadia were also there, along with
Cedric and Seth. Danielle tried to decipher what it was she saw in
their expressions. One guard caught onto her gaze and then danced
away with what looked like regret.

With a long agonized exhale, Beon lifted his
head and faced them as they sat down across from him in the
loveseat.

“They’re building an army against us,” he
announced in a flat, tired tone. “We’re out numbered. We’ve got
almost every trustworthy vampire I know working with us, and still
their numbers exceed ours.”

“Who’s standing against us?” asked
Ethan.

“Celeste and Lucas, but they’re backed by
many. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of vampires who
oppose what we’ve done. They’ve been plotting to murder both of
you. You can’t stay at your home any longer, not even with every
man we have available to guard you. It’s just not enough. You could
be killed so easily. A sniper, a package with a bomb in it,
poisoned food…”

Ethan straightened his back. “What would you
like us to do?” He was squeezing her fingers so tightly that the
normally comforting gesture was growing painful.

Beon hesitated, and alarm seized her chest.
Her fingers began squeezing Ethan’s back now, and she was sure that
was causing pain for him too, though he too didn’t show it.

With a signaling glance to two of the
biggest guards, Beon cleared his throat, and then waited for them
to flank Danielle and Ethan. Their movements appeared almost
threatening, as if they expected her and Ethan to suddenly make a
run for it. Then Beon continued, “I’m afraid we need to turn both
of you.”

“What?” Ethan bellowed, surging to his full
height taking on his own threatening stance. The two hulking men
glanced at Beon as their hands rose to subdue Ethan.

Beon shook his head, stalling them. “Hear me
out, Ethan. We know how to reverse it. This will be safer. If
you’re both more difficult to kill then we can take our time in
solving this problem—”

“There’s no bloody way in hell I’m going to
let you turn Danielle!” He seized Danielle by the arm, jerked her
upright and made for the door. “We’re leaving! We’ll move, and no
one will know where we’re at!”

Six men stepped into his path. Two of them
were Cedric and Seth.

Betrayal snagged at her heart when she
looked at Cedric. Ethan shoved Danielle behind him, but it didn’t
exactly help when four more guards stood behind her.

“I can’t give you a choice this time. We’ve
exhausted our resources. If you go out on your own, you’ll be in
even more danger. You know that as well as I do, Ethan,” Beon said
in a low voice, as if his tone might tame Ethan’s outrage.

“Max! Help me out here!”

“Ethan.” Max shook his head. “I— We’ve all
been discussing this for hours now. This is the best option we’ve
come up with.”

“Fine! Turn me, but you can’t turn
Danielle!”

“That’s not enough, Ethan,” Beon stood and
stepped toward her.

This sent Ethan over the edge. He cursed
profusely in French and German as he wrapped himself around her
trying to protect her. With one arm thrust forward in a show of
defense, he shouted, “You can’t do this! You’ll kill the baby!”

Aside from a shriek from Sophia, the room
became dead silent.

With a hand dropping onto her chest, Sophia
beamed with joy and said in a shrill voice, “A baby? An infant?
It’s a miracle!” Then her eyes widened. “Beon! You can’t!”

Beon looked completely dumbfounded.
Obviously his plans had been shattered because he certainly
wasn’t
a baby killer, and turning
her into a vampire would definitely do it.

“Beon,” Ethan said, as the quiet dragged
on.

“I’ll go back too. You need my knight
training to help strategize and carry out an alternate plan,” Max
said and Nadia frowned. She said nothing, however, and then began
chewing her lip.

Scrubbing his face with one hand, Beon
looked at her. “This really changes things…” Danielle believed Beon
wanted to say more, but didn’t know what to say now that he was
forced to rethink this situation from scratch.

“I’ve got it,” Max said. “Let’s take a page
from Ethan’s book and fool them into believing we turned both of
them. We’ll, send” —he slid a glance over the only females in the
room— “Gillian out hunting with Ethan dressed as Danielle.” He
sized them up, and continued, “They’re almost exactly the same
build. The others could be fooled. And we’ll spread the word that
they’ve both been changed to protect them.”

Danielle swallowed as her gaze passed over
Gillian, whom she’d never met. She was curvy and beautiful, making
her wonder if she really wanted Ethan going out with her? Even if
it wasn’t for real.

“Do you really think they’ll fall for that
twice?” Cedric asked, drawing her mind back to the discussion.

Max continued, “I think this is different.
Plus they wouldn’t think that we’d be fool enough to try the same
con twice. And because of that, it should work. I think it would be
the first thing they’d expect, and therefore the last.”

Seth nodded. “This could work.” Scratching
his chin, he added. “And we’ll send them to live in Colorado with
guards. That may give us some extra time.”

“Won’t seeing guards around make them wonder
if she’s still mortal?” Ethan interjected.

“Good point, we’ll need to make sure they’re
well hidden, or better yet, we’ll send Nadia with them and make it
look like the guards are for her,” Seth said.

“And we need Richard. If anyone can do this
with small numbers, it’s him,” Max said.

“The Black Prince?” Ethan asked.

“The one and only,” Max said with a bit more
excitement in his voice than she would have expected to hear.

Danielle remembered who Richard was from her
history lessons. The first son of King Richard the III who’d died
early from an illness he supposedly contracted in Spain. “But I
thought…”

“He died in 1376?”

She almost laughed at that. “I had no
idea what the
actual
year
was, but yes, I thought he was dead, or he would have been king
after his father.”

“Well, he did die a kind of mortal death. He
was dying from a disease and no one knew what it was, but it was
eating away at his strength at an alarming degree. Luckily for him,
one of the knights of the Order of the Garter was a vampire and
offered to turn him. He accepted and then had to go into hiding
until his face was forgotten. Though I’m not sure that ever really
happened here in England, they remember him. He lives in
Spain.”

Max then recounted the history as
though it were his favorite bedtime tale, as though he had been
there to witness the event first hand.
Hadn’t he been too young for that?
she wondered,
not really knowing for certain. “With only ten thousand men he
defeated an army that was led by the French king himself, whose men
of fifty-thousand were splendidly armored. Richard did it then, and
I think he could do it now. We need him.”

“Can he be trusted? He hasn’t exactly
volunteered.”

“Of course. He’s one of the founding fathers
of the Order of the Garter. The man hasn’t loosened his code of
honor for as long as he’s lived. He hasn’t offered his help because
he still wants to remain in seclusion, but people shouldn’t
recognize him in the States. I think I can talk him into it,” Max
announced as enthusiastically as a small boy with his first set of
plastic army men. And that’s when she realized he reveled in this,
in the prospect of battle.

“How will we hide the pregnancy?” Ethan
asked, returning the topic to her, and slightly releasing his tense
pose.

“Hopefully they buy the ruse, and back off
long enough for us to come up with another plan.”

Beon didn’t appear to be completely
satisfied with this plot, but accepted it anyway. “That’s good for
now. I don’t see any other plausible options at the moment. Max and
Ethan, we’ll turn you both tonight.”

Both men nodded in reply.

Danielle was already crying. She couldn’t
help it. She was losing her mortal husband, and the hormones didn’t
help at all. She was finding herself more emotional than before and
things like this were just too much.

* * * * *

After this distressing meeting, she followed
Ethan to one of the empty rooms in the west wing, because Beon
wouldn’t even let them go to Ethan’s old room. There they were
allowed to spend their last day together as mortal husband and
wife.

Sophia had ordered out and cooked up what
she could on short notice. Danielle perceived she was eager to give
Ethan the chance to enjoy as many of his favorite foods before he
couldn’t eat like that anymore.