“I love you. I can’t let you go,” he whispered right before he fanned his breath into her face.
She pulled it in, let it take over. And like a drug it calmed her and sent her into that familiar daze where she remained alert but couldn’t move. Secretly she wished Ethan’s affect on her was stronger than it was, and figured the pain would have been more dulled if Max had done it.
Ethan had one hand cradling the back of her head as he pressed upward on her back with the other, lifting her closer to his mouth. Danielle cried out. But Ethan said nothing about the pain he’d caused her as he kissed the side of her neck and then parted his lips.
His fangs slid into her flesh with a momentary pinch and then … pleasure took over.
What a way to go! Danielle fully understood how the victim would beg for this, would plead for the vampire to continue and take their life. Right then she wouldn’t have cared if Ethan finished her off. She wanted desperately to clutch at his shoulders to keep him close, but couldn’t lift her hands.
When Ethan pulled away, he fed another dose of his breath to her, kissed her mouth, and then lowered his face to her ear. “One bite should turn you—”
“Again,” she managed to whisper, barely shoving past the magic of his breath.
His head lifted. His eyes rounded slightly. After a moment of silence he said, “I suppose more than one bite could make it go faster.”
Ethan then kept his eyes locked with hers as he lifted the inside of her wrist to his lips, kissed the skin there and then sank his fangs in.
An involuntary shudder moved through her as she watched his eyes slide shut, as though he were enjoying it as much as she was. So this is what happens when the frog bites the princess….
“We’re home,” Max said as the vehicle rocked from going over the gutter to enter the driveway.
Ethan slid his fangs from her wrist and lifted her into his arms. There was still pain in her abdomen, but it was slightly dampened by the vampire magic now coursing through her veins.
Max opened the door, and Ethan stepped out. They entered the house. The rocking movement of his stride forced another moan from her.
Nadia shrieked. “What happened!”
“We were ambushed,” Max replied.
“Who bit her! Oh, no! No! This will kill the baby!”
“I did,” Ethan muttered, without slowing his pace. “The baby was already dead.”
The sound of Nadia’s cries faded away as Ethan continued on.
“Max, get a towel,” Ethan ordered. “And lay it on the bed.”
After a short pause, Danielle felt herself being lowered onto the mattress. Mentally she figured the towel was to protect the bedding from her blood-soaked clothes. She must look terrible, she imagined.
She heard the door softly click as she supposed Max had left, and then without a word, Ethan began stripping her shoes and clothes off.
When he finished he left momentarily, and the sound of water running traveled from the bathroom. Danielle realized that he’d also removed his clothes as she was lifted to his nude chest. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” he said as he entered the shower with her in his arms and the hot spray began to pelt her flesh.
Ethan shifted her weight so that she was facing him and was held up by his left arm while he gently rubbed the blood from her skin with the other; all the while he kissed her face and neck, murmuring words of comfort and apology to her. Then he turned her around to clean her stomach too. Danielle remained unable to move or speak, and it seemed that the venom in her system was magnifying the power of his breath. Her chin dropped to her chest and she noticed that the stab wounds were healing as if by magic.
He turned off the water, lifted her from the shower, toweled her off, then took her back to the bed. He reached down to toss the sheets back and she felt herself sink into the bed again. Her limbs felt like limp noodles.
It sounded as though Ethan had tugged on a pair of pants before he came back into view and climbed over the top of her. “How do you feel now?” he asked with his arms braced on either side of her head.
“Please, bite me,” she slurred out unable to stop thinking about how much she wanted to be bitten with his magic in her veins and in her lungs.
A frown drew the corners of his mouth down. “I don’t want to risk draining you. I don’t think that would help.”
“Just two more?” she pled, staring at his mouth and the fangs she could still see half hidden behind his parted lips.
A knowing smirk tilted his mouth. “I’m afraid you like that too much.”
“Please.”
When his head rocked to the side she knew he was considering it. “I suppose two more won’t hurt.” And that’s when she realized he liked biting her as much as she liked being bitten. His hand cradled the back of her head and neck as he exhaled into her mouth, then kissed her. Next he moved to the other side of her neck, planted another kiss and pierced her with his fangs again.
Again, she wanted to arch up into him, and just let him keep doing that, but he left her and lifted her arm. This time he bit the inside of her other wrist. With each bite he’d kissed her skin before he sank into her skin with his needle-sharp canines. After the first bite, none of the others had hurt and the level of magic thrumming through her made her want more. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew this was how the victim begged for death, but as before, she couldn’t find it in herself to care much. “More?” she heard herself say, knowing she shouldn’t ask.
“Don’t tempt me,” he said not smiling. A moment of sad anger flamed within his gaze. “How do you feel now?”
Danielle matched her eyes to his thinking, loopy and lusty, but she couldn’t seem to get any more words out. The curse magic had a strong grip on her now.
“Sweetheart, I need to warn you. Death at this point would be easy. Wanted,” he added taking in the dazed, probably wishful look on her face. “But the poison of the curse is like a living evil as it transforms you and because of that, it’s not the most pleasant of experiences. Plus I fear losing the baby is going to add to your suffering.” He dropped his weight to his hip next to her, and drew her close to his side tugging the sheets over the both of them. “But I’m here for you. I’ll fight to make you as comfortable as I can.”
The next stretch of time drifted by in a potion-filled haze, but she was aware of her husband’s efforts to comfort her through all of it. It seemed his lips almost never left her ear as he whispered gentle and loving words to her. And when his mouth was not sending his breath into her lungs it was traveling her flesh with tender kisses. She also remembered him bathing her with a warm, wet washcloth.
Danielle remained paralyzed as her body was reworked, as the curse changed her with a strange magical kind of gnawing. She wouldn’t have called it horribly painful, just disturbingly uncomfortable. Besides that and Ethan’s doting presence, she wasn’t conscious of much else….
Chapter 21
Is This Life?
“Mmm,” she groaned. It seemed as though every cell in her body was waking up. The sensation was oddly like the prickly feeling one gets when a sleeping appendage arouses, except not as painful or itchy. And there was a weight on her chest. She lifted one hand and lost her fingers in a tangle of hair. “Ethan?”
“How are you feeling?” His voice cracked with emotion.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, feeling like she was waking up from having strange, disturbing dreams she couldn’t remember.
“It’s nothing.” She felt his hands on her ribs tighten as if he was reacting to ... to what he was hearing? “It’s just ... can’t you feel it?” he added with his ear still pressed against her over her….
Ethan tensed again, his breath caught, and then he said nothing more, but she felt him give one more squeeze before he released his hold and then moved up her body to rub his cheek against hers. He ran his right hand up her arm to then bury his fingers into her hair just before ravishing her lips and face with a volley of heavy
kisses. This is what he did when he was trying to wake her and she couldn’t stop the smile that tugged up the corners of her mouth.
“Morning,” he said, then paused, “or rather, good evening.”
“Mmm,” she moaned again and lifted her eyelids to study him through her lashes.
He smiled, but only halfheartedly.
Danielle frowned because she’d only just realized what it was that he was listening to. The sound of her heart—stopping. She’d been turned, but the reasons why remained out of reach.
She widened her gaze and took in the setting. They were in their bedroom—right, she knew that. And she was tucked under the sheets, naked … still naked, she recalled. He was on top of the covers, on top of her, dressed to go … hunting?
As Ethan shifted and then tugged her upright, he said, “Let’s get you dressed. We’re going out.”
Danielle clutched the sheets up under her chin. “Not that kind of out?” She hoped, nervously, that her imagination was getting away from her. She didn’t want to feed. She didn’t feel any different so she couldn’t really be cursed, could she?
“Aren’t you thirsty?”
Frowning, Danielle considered that. Her hand landed on her stomach. “I’m not hungry.”
With an exhale, Ethan grumbled, “Of course you’re not hungry, only thirst, if you recall?”
So she had been turned. Her frown deepened as her palm settled over her heart. There was no beat thumping back. “I’m really—” She pressed harder, still, nothing.
“You really are.”
“Can’t I starve myself and get bitten to go back?”
The muscles in Ethan’s jaw flexed and then he shoved a hand into his hair and stood from the bed, paced a circled around the room and then settled back down next to her on the mattress. “I—I don’t want you to go back, just yet.”
Panic swelled up in her throat. Why not? Did she look better? Did he prefer her this way? Danielle shoved the blankets aside and ran to the big mirror in the bathroom where she skidded to a halt and stared, gaping at herself.
She didn’t look different at all.
Lifting her hand she examined the place where that scar had been. The one that she’d always had, that she didn’t remember how she’d gained. But it was gone. So that was different.
“I—I ... do I look different to you?” she asked as Ethan entered the bathroom and stood behind her, then enveloped her with the fabric of her robe and his arms.
“Oh,” he said, apparently understanding. “You thought…. No, you look the same to me. But you can defend yourself now. And it would be better for you to stay this way—since—”
Danielle gasped. That’s what she’d forgotten. Her vision blurred with tears and her abruptly trembling fingers pushed into the robe and found the flesh just below her bellybutton, the now flat part of her that hadn’t been before. Tears coursed down her cheeks. “No.”
His arms cinched more firmly around her, and his brows knitted together. “When this blows over, we’ll go back and try again.”
After shoving her fists into the arms of the bathrobe, she turned her wet face into his chest and locked her arms around his waist. Sobbing.
Such deep loss…. The death of an innocent new life, a tender fragile being that she’d only just begun to feel tickle around inside her. This was horrible. Why did he have to stab her there? She might have survived a stabbing; hadn’t she heard of that happening before? And what if the next time they were expecting a child they were simply attacked again? And the second baby was also murdered? “What if this never blows over?” she asked against his now tear-stained shirt.
“I’ll make sure it does.” His tone rang with that fierce determination that she’d admired before. His hands rubbed her back.
They stood like that for several moments, crying together, mourning together.
Then Ethan pulled away, curled his fingers under her chin and tipped her face toward his. “I’m so very sorry, but I must take you hunting. It isn’t something that can wait.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want ... I can’t see myself—” biting and killing. “Can’t we purchase blood from a bank? I mean you’re a doc—”
He shook his head sharply. “I’m sorry, no. It must be fresh. Otherwise it lacks what is necessary to sustain you. It is how the sorceress intended, and it’s one aspect to her curse that she did not mistake. It’s not so much about the blood itself but the life-force within it. That is lost in bagged and chilled blood.” As he spoke, he towed her to the closet and began selecting “hunting” clothes for her too. Ethan stuffed jeans, a black thermal t-shirt and a pair of boots into her hands. “Please get dressed.” While his choices of words were gentle the tone conveyed a promise that if she didn’t do it, he’d just do it for her. And she knew better than to argue when he spoke like that. This was another “This is what’s best for you” scenario in which Ethan could not be swayed.
Silently she dressed and then raked her hair back into a ponytail. “All right, I’m ready,” she lied.
With one firm hug, Ethan showed his approval and then took her by the hand. “I think there is some of this you’ll enjoy.”
Danielle was having a hard time believing that.
“Is Nadia sleeping?” she asked as they moved through the tomb-quite house.
“Max took her to their home.”
“Why?”
The look he tossed toward her answered that question. Oh, right, she thought, because Nadia was now the only mortal, and…. “Could I harm her?”
“I don’t think you would—”
“But, it’s safer for her this way.”
“Correct.”
* * * * *
Ethan led her into the woods, but his vigilant searching of their surroundings spooked her. What was he still worried about? And then she saw movement in the shadows. “What was that?”
“You saw that?”
“Well, it was just over—”
“Danielle, you just noticed Richard and some of the other guards checking the perimeter, far enough away that if you were mortal, you would not have seen it.”
Only then did she realize that she was much more aware of everything going on around them. She must have been distracted by the loss of their baby to really notice. But with that thought, another burst of sadness slammed into her. She drew a breath and attempted to force it to the back of her mind.
Danielle opened her eyes, ruthlessly shoved the tear from her cheek and let the new sights and sounds wash over her in a wave of awareness. The melee of insects not only touched the night, but dominated it, and she was forced to fight back a shudder. Apparently her fear of creepy crawlies remained. Danielle’s gaze dropped to the forest floor where she saw only dead leaves, moss and a worm. Instinctively she took a step closer to Ethan, and then noticed a large black beetle, striped with iridescent blue and green. She took another step, then became aware of how loud Ethan’s breathing was and looked at him. Only to see that he was drawing breath calmly and quietly, it just wasn’t silent to her any longer.
She lifted her eyes from his chest to his face. He was watching her. “You’re not much of a nature girl, are you?”
“You knew that.”
“Of course I did. And I know this is going to be difficult for you to do, but you must. First, however, I will demonstrate how easy it is when you use your now hypnotic gaze.”
“On an animal?”
“The deer are there.” He pointed to the north. “Can you sense them?”
She nodded.
“Very good,” he praised. “Let’s go have dinner.”
She drew in a shaky breath, and her gaze shot upward when she caught the scents and sounds of creatures scurrying through and along the tree branches. Birds, more insects, and squirrels seemed distressed by their presence.
Ethan ignored her distraction. “Follow me.”
She tugged her attention from the numerous critters causing a racket and locked it on her husband as
he moved silently through the undergrowth. But flinched when she snapped a twig and the sound it made echoed like a gunshot through the softer sounds of the nightlife.
“Mind your feet, darling. We don’t want to frighten away our meal.”
Swallowing, Danielle remembered how he’d said that dinner served up on a plate was much more preferable to scrounging up your own in the dark woods. While she imagined how disgusting this was going to be, she focused on the placement of her feet and was able to trail behind Ethan just as silently as he was advancing.
It wasn’t long before they encountered one of the deer. Slowly the brown female lifted her head from the grass she was munching on and turned toward Ethan. He tipped his head so that its gaze met with his. Instantly the doe was entranced, just as Danielle had been when meeting his magical stare. Ethan exhaled into its face and then dropped to one knee in front of the creature before it collapsed, his hand went out to its neck to support it, and he stroked its fur in a gentle manner with the other.
Was he soothing it, before he took its life?
This wasn’t as violent as she’d thought it would be, but almost touching, just as it was when he’d bitten her.
“Select the largest vein, you’ll be able to feel it,” he whispered to her as he lowered his head to the deer’s throat. “I’m sorry,” he said to the animal, before he sank his fangs through the fur to the flesh beneath.
The deer made no sounds of distress, and no struggle as its big brown eyes slid shut. Forever.
After several moments of silence, Ethan stood, turned to face her and brushed the fur from his mouth. Besides the bracken on his knee, he was very clean.
Ethan returned to her side, and she realized with an attack of terror that it was her turn next. “How—how do you get past the hair?”
“That was nauseating at first, but you get used to it, and it’s important to focus on the energy that flows into you. That will help.”
“I don’t think I’m ready for this,” she hedged.
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