Forever (Book #3 in the Fateful Series) (30 page)

“But Nadia came from that way.” He jabbed a finger in the other direction.

“The poor girl wandered around a bit.”

Folding his arms, Max said with anger etching lines around his mouth, “That might have been true, and if it was, you could have done something to help her.”

“I left long after she had, and honestly, I didn’t really know where you were either. I just got lucky enough to notice her coming your way.”

“We don’t have time for this,” snapped the prince.

“Do you trust her?” Cedric asked Ethan in a low whisper.

“No.” But he couldn’t completely discount her either. “Maybe we should split up.”

“Let’s do it,” said Max. They had seventeen men from the Hungarian vamps, seven Order members, and cellular communication between them. Half continued following the fairies, and the other half followed the witch.

Ethan still ignored the redhead as he worked his way over mossy, fallen trees and pine needle-covered stones. He could feel the fairy dust wearing off, but now they didn’t have the fairies with them to renew it. Another curse slipped past his lips as his feet smacked harder against the ground in his anger.

Renewed tension snapped into his shoulder blades when the witch said, “I thought you should know that they’re selling her.”

“What?” Ethan swung a narrowed look over his shoulder, but kept moving. The witch kept following, even though she probably should have been leading at this point. Her sage-green eyes touched on his fisted hands before swinging up to meet his gaze.

“You’ll need funds to get her back. Pounds actually.”

“What?” Ethan practically screamed in outrage.

“At an auction,” she tacked on before he said more.

Redirecting his focus on the path in front of him, Ethan clenched his teeth together as he struggled to regulate his breathing, his nostrils flaring. “Do you mean to say as a slave?”

“Well,” started the witch matter-of-factly, “there are other magical beings very interested in the one who discovered the cure. And the werewolves are in need of money.”

Ethan spat out three vile curses in a row. Without his direction, Cedric called the others to inform them of this new concern. Ethan increased his pace to a sprint just as the other men did the same. They couldn’t afford to slow down now. It was extremely unfortunate the sun was up because they couldn’t send vampires zipping ahead to find Danielle faster, and had to rely on this fairy magic that was evaporating fast, forcing them to now use their own steam.

Chapter 16

The End

Danielle sucked at her pricked finger, but every cell in her body was on high alert. The werewolves were not happy the spell to cure them hadn’t worked. After arguing with the men over something she couldn’t hear, the witch, who was probably wise beyond her years for doing so, had just left so fast the door was still partly open. Could she make it out just as quickly? They’d let the witch leave, and somehow Danielle doubted they would let her do the same. But what reason did they have to keep her here? Her gaze landed on Lucas, who was still staring at her. The look in his dark eyes made her skin crawl.... It’s true that the werewolves didn’t seem as bad as him, but Danielle still hadn’t figured them out well enough to read what they might do next.

Deciding it was now or never, she ran for the door. The good-looking blond guy with dimples was the first who noticed her move and beat her to it, snapping it shut. He wasn’t showing any dimples. Danielle swallowed, her fingers going to the buckle of her belt. It was the only weapon within easy reach at the moment. She’d already considered the fire poker, and the wooden chair in the corner. Besides those two things, there wasn’t much available because she’d already broken the only lamp in the room.

Unbuckling the belt, she noticed the way Dimple Boy raised his eyebrow. Clearly he’d misinterpreted what she was doing. That was, until she drew the leather from her belt loops and started spinning it like a nunchaku. “I think I’ll be leaving now, if you don’t mind,” she said.

She
had
felt sorry for the poor guys, and had cooperated during the spell the witch tried. But it didn’t work, and when the witch split, the tension was so heavy it was almost tangible. Plus, Danielle couldn’t get the look on Lucas’ face out of her head. Whatever he had planned, she didn’t want to know. As she thought about him, she was fully aware of the fact that he approached. “Open the door, please,” she tried, feeling the breeze she was creating as each pass of the belt blew her hair back.

“Maybe we should let her go,” said Collin, or was it Darwin. She still didn’t know, and she still didn’t really care.

“We can’t let her go,” said Lucas. “We just need another witch, a more capable witch.”

The flicker of hope that rose to life in the other werewolves’ eyes didn’t give her much hope that she could talk her way out of this. Dimple Boy confirmed that when he said, “Lucas is right. We can’t give up on this yet.”

“I
can’t
help you.”

Angry blue eyes turned on her. “We can’t know that for sure. We liked Red Riding Hood, but she may not have had the skills we need.”

Danielle felt her mouth twitch at the interesting nickname for the red-headed witch. Partly because there really was a hood on that sweater she’d been wearing. All of the men were closing in on her now. There were more of them than the five she’d first met. She hadn’t exactly counted, but it seemed like there were about twenty men packed into the great room of this cabin. And she didn’t really feel very confident in her weapon. It would be easy for any of them to simply grab the strap of her belt and besides a minor bruise from the buckle, he wouldn’t likely be injured much.

Lucas was the first to go for it. Reacting, Danielle stepped back to avoid his hand and swung the belt at his face when he missed. The metal connected with his cheek, scraping the skin. It wasn’t a serious wound, but it would sting, the welting of his flesh being the worst part.

“Damn it!” he howled, his hand covering the injury. Next he did what she’d worried he’d do. He grabbed the leather and yanked it out of her hands, throwing it aside. Immediately her fists went up. “Look,” she began, “how about I promise to come back when you find a new witch?” The suggestion was a long shot, but she decided to try it anyway.

The men laughed. Her shoulders slumped a little.

Someone grabbed her arm from behind. She twisted, and tried to hit him. He caught her fist. Lucas grabbed her next. She elbowed him in the ribs. Danielle really didn’t know why she’d tried to fight, because it was easy for so many to subdue her, re-tie her wrists and ankles, and dump her back in the bedroom. Just as before, they hadn’t retaliated, but she suspected Lucas would find a way to get back at her for hitting his cheek as well as for taking the vampire curse from him.

As soon as she was alone again, Danielle searched the room for a way out. They’d removed the remaining lamp. They’d also removed the mattress frame. She’d managed to untie her legs even with her hands bound, but she couldn’t reach the knot on the ones around her wrists. Staring at the way her fingers were losing color because the binding was cinched too tight, a regret-filled sigh left her lungs. She couldn’t think of any way to escape because getting her legs loose didn’t seem like much help.

As the cabin grew quiet, she figured the men were leaving. She stared at the door. Danielle knew Lucas would come back as soon as he could get away with it. She hoped and prayed it wouldn’t happen until Nadia found Ethan and brought them to find her.
If
Nadia could find them. She tried to shake off the fear churning inside her belly. She couldn’t allow herself to think like that.
They will find me, they will find me
, she chanted in her head, trying to keep from emotionally melting down. Dropping her head back against the pillows, she let the tears fall as worries chipped away at her confidence. Would Nadia be able to lead them back here? Would they get here before Lucas returned? Would—

A tiny sound drew her attention to the doorknob as it twisted.

No. Please, not yet.

Danielle used the edge of her sleeves to rub her cheeks dry of tears, but she couldn’t release the breath she held as Lucas entered, grinning, triumphant. When she became lightheaded, she expelled the air held in her lungs as her brain scrambled for any escape she could dream up. At least she’d freed her legs.

With his dark eyes, he studied her before his expression twisted with mocking amusement and he pointed out, “You’ve been crying.”

She bit her lip to keep it from quivering as a suffocating fear sank into her stomach like a dose of poison. Werewolves had been disturbing on a full moon, but having met the men behind the monsters, she wasn’t as scared of them as she’d been before. Lucas had frightened her from the very beginning. First as a vampire and now as a werewolf, he was a completely different breed of terror, because he was driven by revenge. She knew he and Ethan had been friends once, and that something had gone terribly wrong. What that was, she didn’t exactly know, because Ethan had never explained more than the fact that Lucas had become a murderer. Danielle knew Ethan had kept the details of the story to himself because he was trying to protect her, and she suspected that the information wouldn’t help in this situation anyway.

“I think it’s time for your punishment,” he said.

“Won’t the others be angry if you take away their chance for a cure?” she tried, feeling completely desperate.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders, shutting the door, moving forward. “I never said anything about killing you.”

“Just beating me up then.” Danielle immediately thought of her baby. Another tear tracked down her left cheek as she imagined losing a second child.

When Lucas simply smirked at her question instead of answering it, she worried that he might do more than just beat her, and the fear coursing within her veins intensified. Trying to keep him talking so she could think of a way out of this, she asked, “Is your plan to punish me or Ethan?”

Lucas laughed. “We’ll start with you, but what I do to you will have the brilliant side benefit of punishing him as well.” His long fingers touched the welt on his face. His eyebrows angled down as the line of his mouth tightened. “In the beginning it was just him I wanted to destroy, but since then, you’ve earned my wrath as well.”

She swallowed, watching him sit down on the edge of the bed. The mattress sank under his weight. Danielle braced her feet against the quilt trying not to slide his way. It seemed he hadn’t noticed that she’d unbound her feet, and she wanted to keep it that way. She’d already thought of running for the door, but she also knew he was closer to it than she was and she’d never be able to get past him fast enough.

“Did Ethan ever tell you about our past?”

Danielle just stared at him, unwilling to answer.

A wicked smile lifted half of his mouth. “No. I know him well enough to know he wouldn’t share that with you.” The smile shifted, revealing teeth. “I’ll enlighten you, shall I? Ethan and I had a ... disagreement, and he crossed a line...” he began.

As Lucas told her the details of the story Ethan had spared her, she understood why he’d remained unwilling to share it. She understood why he’d told her to fear Lucas and to never be alone at night. She understood why he’d spared her this horrible tale from his past. She loved him for that, for sparing her, for protecting her. More tears that Lucas ignored soaked her face as he described in brutal detail what he'd done to Phoebe, how he'd enjoyed it, and how he planned to do the same thing to her.

Narrowing her focus on Lucas for his next move, Danielle drew a shuddering breath before slowly releasing it. She really wanted to cover her ears, but couldn’t with the way her hands were bound.

Danielle’s eyes flew wide when Lucas suddenly captured her ankle and dragged her feet to the edge of the bed. He wasn’t fast enough to stop the kick that landed in his gut, but he managed to avoid the next one aimed for his jaw. Lunging forward, he pinned her down and his hands gripped her throat. She coughed, trying to get breath into the pinched airway. The back of his hand snapped against the side of her face as she continued to struggle. A ringing started in her ears but she managed to wedge her leg up between their bodies. Planting the flat of her foot against his abdomen, she shoved.

With a look of surprise on his face, Lucas went flying back and smacked against the table behind him. The edge of it connected with his ribs and he crumpled. Danielle knew he wasn’t out, but he was stunned. She sprang from the bed, wrenched the door open and ran out of the room. The great room was empty at the moment. Danielle could hear that Lucas was still coming, so she ran for the only good weapon she knew of, the fire poker. Vaulting over the sofa, she was relieved to find they didn’t have a coffee table but she nearly tripped on a rug stretched out over the floor between the sofa and the fireplace. Danielle was only vaguely aware of the fact that it was a real bearskin rug. She didn’t get to the poker before Lucas got to her. Just as she picked it up, he knocked it out of her hands. The long metal object clattered to the floor. Lucas threw fists at her. Danielle kicked at him since her hands were tied together. Some of his punches missed, but some of them didn’t. Danielle had about the same amount of success in landing kicks. His lip was bleeding. She could feel the bruise developing around her eye. Remembering the ways of escape and potential weapons she’d seen in the kitchen, Danielle ducked to avoid his left hook and ran that way.

Lucas remained right behind her.

Once she got into the kitchen, she went straight for the door. Lucas’ arms caught her about the waist and he threw her against the table; it slid, which was good because it lessened the impact she felt when her hip collided with it. She was able to recover her balance enough to yank out a drawer. With her hands still bound, Danielle pulled out a spoon. Lucas looked at the wooden mixing utensil and laughed. She threw it at this head. It smacked against his forehead and he narrowed his eyes at her, bearing his teeth. Danielle went for something else. This time she found a long but thin knife. Yes!

Stalking toward her, he paused when he saw the blade in her hands. Danielle lunged forward and tried to slash him with it. Even though she hated Lucas, she cringed at the idea of cutting him, of feeling the blade slice through skin and muscle. She had never attacked anyone with a knife before and it seemed she didn’t have the stomach for it. The form of karate training she’d studied was for defense in almost every situation, not killing; stun and run was the most common goal. The distress in her head weakened her grip and Lucas knocked it out of her hand, forcing her to back up. The knife smacked against the hardwood floor and skittered away.

Spotting a frying pan on the stovetop, Danielle snatched it up. But from the same drawer she’d abandoned, Lucas revealed a much longer knife than the one she’d just had. Trying to decide if she should give up or keep fighting, she jumped in surprise when the back door opened.