Fateful

by Cheri Schmidt

  Clutching his shirt, she held her breath so she could listen without distractions. Was she really hearing his dead heart restart after many long decades of being silent and still at night? The sun wasn’t up yet and the curse holding him should have kept his heart silent.

  She held her ear pressed to his chest as the thumps became louder and stronger and more regular. Finally … thump thump … thump thump … thump thump! It was a mortal heartbeat, consistent and strong!

  Danielle sat up with a smile forcing the corners of her lips up. It had been many long hours since she’d been able to smile and now that she could it didn’t feel natural. “Ethan, your heart! I can hear it!”

  “I can feel it,” he said peacefully. “It wasn’t like this during the day, the beat wasn’t this strong.”

  On a sudden intake of air, she then noticed his sapphire eyes as he looked into hers. Not only were his eyes no longer silvery, but his complexion was back to normal too. “Are you mortal now? What did that feel like?”

  Ethan chuckled faintly. “I guess I’m mortal, but I don’t feel any different … and I don’t think I can describe what that felt like. It was a little painful, but then it wasn’t. Being transformed into a vampire was much worse.” He placed his hand over his chest to feel his heart beating and smiled. With another chuckle, he wrapped his arms around her and tugged her down for a hug. “You saved me, Danielle. In so many ways—you have saved me.” After raking fingers through her hair, he rubbed her back.

  A gentle hand came to her cheek and he found her lips with his. Even with the moon reigning rather than the sun, Danielle discovered she wasn’t overpowered by dark magic and parted her lips to deepen the kiss. To her amazement, however, his kiss still tasted sweet to her, and she wondered if he smelled the same. Pulling away, Danielle pressed her nose to the skin below his ear, and inhaled his delectable fragrance. Weird, he still smelled delicious. “Ethan, how do you smell and taste the same? I thought those were vampire traits.”

  “I have no idea. Do you still get dizzy when you look into my eyes?”

  Worry filled her soul suddenly. “Do you still recognize me?”

  “Yes, I still know you … but are you muddled, Danielle?” he repeated because she hadn’t answered the first time.

  “No, that’s gone.”

  They laid there embracing for several long moments, savoring the miracle. Danielle closed her eyes, and Ethan traced his fingers around her face in the manner that she’d loved from before.

  Chapter 24

  Escape

  However, Danielle soon realized they had to come back to reality at some point because this ordeal wasn’t exactly over. “Ethan, how are we going to get out of here? We’re mortals trapped in a vampire’s basement.”

  “I’ve been thinking about this, and I may have a plan.”

  She waited while he appeared to be calculating the finer details of it, but her patience was growing thin again. “Tell me, please.”

  “Hmm…” An impish grin touched his lips. “We need to make them think you are dead.”

  At that her eyes rounded.

  “If they think I actually did kill you, then they should let me leave. That’s what they wanted all along. They wanted me to suffer alone—without you. They don’t want me dead. I’ll tell them that I want to bury your body. They should let me have at least that much.”

  “Shouldn’t I look really pale if I’m dead? How do we fake that?”

  Ethan chortled as his lips pulled into an almost evil smile. “The cement.”

  “Oh!” Her eyes found a pile of the broken debris. “The dust!” she said, catching on to his brilliance.

  “Yes.” His laugh was slightly diabolical, but she liked it.

  However, her smile slipped when she thought of something else. “But, won’t they sense that you’re mortal now, and I’m not dead?”

  “There is a small risk they could figure that out, but I don’t think they will. They’ll wait until the sun is up to check on us, and their powers will be weakened by then. There’s a chance they won’t notice at all. Neither one of them strikes me as very observant, and they’ll be distracted by the drama I display as I mourn the loss of my love.” He winked at her.

  Taking a glimmer of hope from the confidence in his grin, she climbed off his chest and sat on the rug next to him. “How much time do we have?”

  “I don’t think we have much time. We need to get started.” But he paused as the focus of his thoughts appeared to have changed. He leaned up from the floor with a look of worry in his eyes. “Danielle?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did I … hurt you?”

  Looking down at her torn blouse she did recall that while he’d damaged her clothes, he wasn’t the one who hurt her physically. Rubbing at her sore arms while shaking her head, she said, “No. I was bruised before they tossed me in here.”

  He ran long fingers through his golden hair as anger replaced concern.

  “Ethan, I provoked them.”

  “You shouldn’t have,” he said as fury continued to flicker in his gentle blue eyes. “I’ll deal with them later. We need to get out of here alive first.”

  The room became quiet as he studied her, probably plotting how to make her look deceased. His words proved she’d been right. “Dark circles under your eyes would help with the con, any ideas for that?”

  Danielle looked around the barren room, and then her gaze dropped to the soles of her shoes. “Oh! I know!” She rubbed her finger onto the dirty bottom of her shoe and then lifted her blackened finger.

  Ethan rewarded her ingenuity with a crooked smile. “Perfect.”

  After rubbing the street grime underneath her eyes, she turned to him and asked, “How’s that?”

  “Nice, you look sick already.” Rising from the floor, he said, “Let’s work on your complexion.”

  They walked over to one of Ethan’s dents and started rubbing the cement dust all over her exposed skin. It gave her a sickly look, as if she’d paled from having her blood drained.

  “You’re definitely starting to look like a corpse now.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  He chuckled as he planned the next effect. “Blood. We need to make it look like you have puncture wounds.” He knelt over his blood that she’d spat onto the floor, and dipped his finger into it to paint two dots on Danielle’s neck, letting some of it drip from the spots.

  “Do I look like a vampire victim?” she asked.

  “Yes.” After gulping, he added, “it’s distressing to think I almost really did do that to you. The sight of you now is nearly unbearable for me.”

  “Good, so it’s convincing then?”

  “Disturbingly so, yes,” he confirmed.

  “And I do think the bloodstain on the floor makes it look like a real murder scene, but…” She thought of her torn blouse, if a piece of this were lying next to the blood, it could add to the theatric backdrop. Danielle tore it further until she’d ripped a section off and dropped it on the floor next to the crimson stain.

  “Nice touch.”

  Beaming proudly at him, she attempted to keep herself covered with her now partial top. A look of tortured regret continued to strain his features. Part of that may have been due to the fact that her bruised upper arm was now exposed.

  Not saying anything about that, however, Ethan took her by the hand and led her to the sofa. “Put your sweater and jacket on, the layers should help to mask any breathing, but try to take shallow breaths.”

  As the glow of morning began filtering through the skylight, Danielle glanced at the door nervously while she worked the buttons closed on first her sweater and then her jacket. They could be coming in any second now. Ethan sank down onto the sofa and pulled her onto his lap. “The hardest part is next, Danielle, you need to play dead, and I don’t know for how long. I’m going to act deeply upset and devastated, but you can’t respond to my acting. You must remain completely limp.”

  Danielle swallowed, cou
ld she really do this? Banishing the negative thoughts, she decided she had to do this. “My lifeless body is in your hands,” she teased, in an attempt to lighten the intense moment.

  He didn’t smile at that but instead focused in on one word. “Your lifeless body.” It wasn’t until his brows furrowed and a tear dripped from his eye that she realized what he was doing. Apparently forcing his thoughts to the dark possibility he was able to bring on fake tears.

  Jumping at a sudden sound coming from the door, she clung to him.

  “Go limp. Now!” he ordered.

  Making her fingers release his shirt, she next focused in on every other muscle she possessed and hung from his arms, her head lulling back, her eyes sliding shut.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  She didn’t have a chance to respond to that, as she heard the door to the dungeon slide open.

  By then Ethan had begun sobbing. “No … no … I’m so sorry, Danielle.” Without showing it, Danielle marveled at how well he could act.

  Like a masterful illusionist, Ethan used tricks of distraction as he rocked her back and forth, while he wept and wailed over her “dead” body. She realized the movement made it impossible to see her breathing, and the noise he was making made it equally impossible to hear it. Ethan never stopped rocking while he embraced her and stroked her hair.

  Danielle focused on being as completely motionless as she could, even paying close attention to her fingers she didn’t allow a single twitch. It was difficult not reacting to his emotional display, though. Ethan was so convincing she was nearly persuaded to mourn her own death as she listened to him weep and murmur about his intense loss.

  When she heard Celeste’s smug, velvet voice, she fought the reflex to flinch. “Ahhh, poor Ethan killed his precious little pet.”

  She heard the sound of Celeste’s heels clicking against the floor as she walked further into the room, and then the noise stopped before she spoke again, “Tsk tsk. Luke, did you see this? He even ripped her clothes off. That’s brutal, Ethan, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  Wanting to tense in response to Celeste’s unkind words, Danielle forced her mind to focus…. Limp, Danielle, remain limp! she reminded herself.

  “I hope you and the rest of the fools like you will stop interfering with my hunting from now on. So, Ethan?” The sound of Lucas’ voice was closer and Danielle nearly panicked inside, fearing he would notice a flaw in their act. “How did she taste? Your first mortal blood, was it worth the wait?”

  Ethan didn’t answer. He just maintained his award-winning act as before, actually sounding broken emotionally, like someone having a nervous breakdown, and someone who needed to be hospitalized for it.

  “We may have pushed him completely off the deep end with this one. I’m beginning to wonder if he’ll ever recover.” There was no regret in Celeste’s mocking voice and it seemed like she’d bought the ruse.

  Danielle realized Ethan took this as his chance to escape when he spoke. “May I leave to bury her … please?” he requested with a trembling voice.

  “What do you think? Should we let him bury his dead girlfriend?” asked Celeste.

  “I don’t care—I don’t want to deal with the corpse,” was Lucas’ cold response.

  “All right, Ethan, you may bury your dearest love in the forest. Just do it far enough away from the house so we don’t have to smell her rotting flesh,” was Celeste’s heartless answer.

  Not wasting a second, she felt Ethan stand, shifting her limp body closer to his torso as he headed for the door.

  And they let him! Danielle couldn’t believe it. They actually got away with it!

  He scaled the stairs and exited the building, keeping an incredible pace that would have made any mortal man winded by now. But he is mortal now.... Despite her confusion, Danielle remained lifeless, even knowing it was much harder for him to carry her deadweight than if she’d clung to him, but by some means he did it.

  Listening as his shoes continued to pound the earth she suspected they’d entered the forest when a breeze kissed her face, when she heard the leaves rustling in the trees and crunching under his feet, when she heard the birds chirping out their cheerful song and when she smelled the plant life that added a fresh tang to the crisp air.

  “Stay limp,” he muttered in barely a whisper.

  Could they be watching? Of course they could.

  He strode through the woods for what felt like two miles to her before he began to slow down. “Keep playing dead, we’re almost there,” Ethan whispered.

  How was he doing this without his vampire strength? She was certain she had to weigh more to him now, but he didn’t even sound out of breath when he certainly should have been.

  Finally Ethan stopped and twisted toward the house probably trying to listen and check to make certain they really were alone. Apparently he’d decided they were when he suddenly dropped her feet to the ground and smashed her to his chest in a relieved embrace. “I think we’re safe now.”

  Danielle opened her eyes and hugged him back. But he swiftly pulled away, grasped his cuff to pull his shirt tight and began wiping the cement dust off her face with his sleeve. “We need to get this washed off. I doubt it’s very good for your skin or your health, for that matter.”

  But she couldn’t stop thinking about his extraordinary physical feat. “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Ethan, you just carried my deadweight through the forest at such a … such a … such an immortal pace. Are you mortal or not?”

  “I don’t know, Danielle, maybe the magic wears off gradually.” He’d pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number. “Maybe it’s just adrenaline.”

  “Or maybe you keep some of your vampire traits in the same way you kept some of your mortal traits,” she mused aloud.

  But Ethan was clearly uninterested in this at the moment, and his priorities appeared to be more focused on getting them to safety. “Maybe,” he said, sounding distant and more intent on the call he’d made. “Hello, Beon, this is Ethan. I have an emergency.”

  A pause.

  “No, I never made it to Moldova.” Danielle listened as Ethan explained what had happened before finishing with, “We need to be picked up as quickly as possible, and have Sophia draw a bath for Danielle.”

  Keeping the phone to his ear obviously listening to whatever Beon’s response was, he collected her hand and began pulling her further into the woods surrounding them. “I think we’re in Epping Forest … yes…” He paused and changed directions slightly, but it wasn’t long before they came out onto a two-lane road. After making his way to a road marker, Ethan recited numbers on it to Beon. “Please hurry … okay … ’bye.” He then hung up and tugged Danielle back into the trees.

  “We need to wait here for them.” He sat down on a rock and pulled her onto his lap, but kept checking their surroundings carefully.

  “Why did they let you keep that?” she asked, referring to his cell phone.

  “They didn’t care because there’s no service in that basement.”

  “They took my phone away,” she complained. “And my purse. I’ll need to cancel my credit cards.”

  “Would you like me to get it back for you?” he asked with mischief twinkling in his blue eyes.

  “Did you lose a few brain cells while you were held captive? I wouldn’t want you to risk that. You’re mortal now, remember?”

  His brows drew together. “Actually it is hard to remember that. I don’t feel any different.”

  “Well, hopefully you will feel different at night.”

  “Yes, I hope so.” He brushed her hair out of her face, and tucked it behind her ear.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “For what?”

  “For getting us out of there alive. That was quite an act.”

  “Did you think I needed to be committed?” A wicked smile came to his lips.

  She laughed. “Yeah.”

&n
bsp; “Good, I was aiming for unhinged.” Falling silent, his gazed shifted toward the road at the sound of a vehicle.

  “Is that them?” she asked.

  “No, Beon drives an Aston Martin DB9 Coupe. I’ll know it when I hear it.”

  Maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised by that because wouldn’t most guys know the sound of different makes of cars? Probably. “Will we fit? I thought those only sat two.”

  “That’s the Vanquish, the Coupe seats four.”

  “Oh.”

  “Speak of the devil,” he said. “Let’s go.” Lifting her from his lap, he set her feet on the ground, gathered her hand into his again and took off toward the road. Because his stride was longer than hers she had trouble keeping up. Ethan stepped into the street, and she stumbled along behind him as a black car sped toward them, slowed and then stopped.

  “Whoa! What’s wrong with her?” Max exclaimed when he jumped out of the passenger side to help her into the backseat with Ethan.

  After they pulled on seatbelts, Ethan attempted to wipe the stuff off her again while he answered, “We smeared her with cement dust to fool Celeste and Lucas into thinking she’s dead.”

  “Brilliant!” Max chuckled. “Good one, Ethan.”

  As Danielle settled into the seat cushion, Ethan continued scrubbing at her skin and she feared she’d wind up with a friction rash.

  “So what happened?” Max asked. “We’ve all been wracked with worry when we realized Danielle was missing.”

  “They tricked us both,” Ethan said. Finally he then gave up on trying to get the dust off and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Sighing with relief, Danielle snuggled closer.