“How did you get away?” Beon asked, steering the vehicle around a tight bend.
Ethan then explained everything. Beon peered at Ethan through the rearview mirror and Max swung around as both men studied Ethan more closely when he brought out the fact that he was now mortal.
“How could the transformation take place so quickly?” Beon asked. Danielle watched his dark eyebrows draw together in the small reflection of the mirror.
“It took less time, and it was less painful than becoming a vampire. I can only guess that getting mortal saliva into the bloodstream is what reverses the curse, which seems to work faster than venom does in a mortal—maybe because the venom changes more of the physiology,” Ethan replied.
“Hold on! She bit you?” Beon shouted, aghast.
“I asked her to, and that’s what broke the curse.”
Beon fell silent then, probably trying to sort this new information out in his head, and started mumbling to himself on the way to their mansion. She couldn’t understand any of what he was muttering, but she gathered that he wasn’t used to feeling so baffled by anything, and this baffled him.
As soon as they got there Ethan towed Danielle inside and shouted for Sophia as he ran up the stairs. “Sophia! Do you have that bath ready?”
Emerging from her bedroom as they approached, Sophia took in her appearance and screamed, her hands flying to her mouth.
“Sophia, it’s okay, she’s okay, but we need to get this off her. I fear it may be toxic. Is the bath ready?” Ethan asked.
“Yes, of course.” Sophia grabbed her by the arm.
“Ow,” she groaned. That’s where the bruising was. It really didn’t hurt that bad until someone actually grabbed onto it.
Sophia let go as panic filled her expression. “Ethan, you said she wasn’t hurt!”
“I’m all right. I’m just bruised up a bit on my arms,” Danielle replied.
Sophia was afraid to touch her then, and led her, at a distance, to the tub which was filled with hot water and bubbles.
The bathroom smelled wonderful to Danielle, and the bath was a welcome sight. She removed her jacket and sweater, but Sophia screamed again when she saw the ripped blouse.
“It’s okay, really,” Danielle repeated.
But when Sophia saw the spots of blood on her neck her blue eyes rounded in horror as she shrieked, “You’re bleeding! Who bit you?”
“No one...”
“You’re not turning?”
“No.”
Apparently Ethan decided it was time to rescue her when he entered from the bedroom. “Sophia, let Danielle take a bath and come talk to me. I’ll explain everything.”
As soon as they were gone, Danielle sighed and slipped all of her clothes off. It felt wonderful to sink into the hot water, but a frown creased her brow when her thoughts wandered to her relatives. Of course they’d probably been just as frantic, if not more so, with the news of her disappearance. Had they found out the same time as the Order had? Not ready to deal with that at the moment, she sank deeper until the nicely fragranced water lapped at her chin. She was alive and Ethan was mortal, and by some miracle they’d escaped.
Chapter 25
Mortality
Danielle dipped beneath the surface of the water to wash her hair and face, but not long after that she heard voices muffled through the water and emerged to find Ethan trying to enter the bathroom, but he was blocked by Sophia.
“Sophia, please let me through. I need to talk to Danielle. She’s mortal. She’ll understand. I promise I won’t look,” Ethan pleaded. With the tone of his strained voice and the lines of stress on his face, she realized he was in pain.
“No, Ethan! Let her have her solitude, she hasn’t a stitch of clothing on,” Sophia argued sternly.
“Um … what’s going on?” Danielle asked, bewildered.
At her query his gaze shot her way. “Danielle!” An arm clenched around his middle. “What’s wrong with me? I felt fine before.”
“Sophia, let him in. There are lots of bubbles, see? It’s okay.” She looked down to make certain they really did cover her completely, but it wasn’t necessary. Sophia had put so much bubble bath into the tub there was a thick, four to six inch layer of foam covering the entire surface of the water.
“Are you certain, Danielle?” Sophia asked.
“Yes, it’s fine. Thank you.” Danielle appreciated her old-fashioned concern, but knew she could trust Ethan.
Sophia hesitated, then stepped aside. Ethan sprang toward the tub and dropped to his knees. Like a gentleman, he kept his eyes to the floor.
“My stomach is twisted into tight, painful knots, my head hurts, and I feel off balance when I stand up.” His nostrils flared on what looked like a deep pain-filled breath. “I don’t remember feeling like this. What is it? What’s wrong with me?”
Danielle recognized his symptoms right away and couldn’t help but start laughing.
A look of hurt confusion twisted his expression as he lifted his eyes cautiously to hers. “What’s so funny?”
“Well, Ethan, you’re just hungry,” she said between more giggles. “Remember you haven’t had anything to eat for two and a half weeks. If you’re mortal, you need food.” She looked past Ethan. “Sophia, would you please feed him?”
“Yes, of course.” Sophia promptly gathered Ethan by the arm and led him out.
“Have some chocolate, babe, that’ll help you feel much better,” she called out as they left.
She recalled Ethan telling her that vampires only felt thirst, and never hunger, so he hadn’t felt hunger pangs for several decades. It’s no wonder he didn’t recognize it. She giggled to herself again, and realized she would need to teach him more about being mortal.
Danielle didn’t really want to get out of the luxurious tub, but she wanted to check on Ethan. She finished cleaning the cement off, stepped out and rubbed with the towel, trying to get all of the bubbles off. She’d come out of the tub still covered in thick mountains of suds. Clearly Sophia had put way too much product in water. Danielle would guess about half the bottle.
Wrapping the thick bathrobe around her, she towel dried her hair, and then glanced at her clothes. Realizing she couldn’t put that dirty and ripped outfit back on, she tightened the sash on the robe and left the bathroom.
Barefoot, she made her way to the dining room looking for Ethan, and found him seated at the long table, stuffing food into his mouth like a famished person might, but as soon as he saw her, he corrected his table manners.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes, Sophia took care of me.”
Danielle took in the wide variety of dishes littering the wooden surface. Only one thing concerned her, the slice of chocolate cake which looked just like the one Ethan had made for her, more than two weeks ago.
Sophia walked in from the kitchen, wearing her infamous filthy apron. “Are you hungry too, love? I’d be happy to get something for you.”
“Yes, please. I’m famished” Her eyes again landed on the cake. “Uh, Sophia? Did you make the chocolate cake?”
“No, that’s the one Ethan made for you,” Sophia replied sweetly, apparently ignorant to the fact that baked goods shouldn’t be kept for that long.
“Um, you can’t have that, Ethan.” Danielle removed the cake from the table.
“Is that the cake I made the day of the ball?” Obviously, by his tone, he knew from culinary school that he couldn’t eat something that old.
“Yes.”
He turned to Sophia. “We’ll be sick. Most things can’t be kept for that long. The general rule is two or three days.”
“Well … in that case…” Sophia quickly removed two more plates from the table, taking them to the kitchen. Danielle followed with the cake, and every expired food item was scraped into the garbage.
“I’m sorry, dear,” she whispered, shamefully hanging her head, causing her auburn curls to sway with the movement.
“Don’t worry about
it. It’s an easy mistake to make.”
“It is strange seeing Ethan as a mortal, he looks the same, but things like this are different.” Sophia paused, her brows reflecting worry. “I’m so glad you made it back alive. We were very worried about you.”
Danielle hugged her. “Thank you for everything.” After she felt like she’d sufficiently comforted Sophia, her thoughts returned to Ethan. “I’d better go make sure he doesn’t eat too much. That could make him sick too.”
Returning, Danielle sat next to him and could see that these rich flavors and textures were a whole new experience for him.
“I’d forgotten how good food is. This is so much better than blood.” He bit into a little cookie, and then smiled and hummed happily while he chewed.
“Now just remember, you won’t feel good if you eat too much either. You need to learn what it feels like when you’re full, so you’ll stop,” she advised, then took a cookie just like the one he’d eaten.
“Yes, ma’am … um … would you please describe that feeling to me?”
“Hmm, it’s kind of hard to explain.” She thought about how she felt after eating Thanksgiving dinner and said, “I guess you just feel full, like not much more will fit, but if you go too far you could get nauseated. And you don’t want your pants to feel tight because that would also be too full, but may not make you sick. And you usually won’t want to eat any more, but not always.” She wondered if that made any sense at all.
“I think maybe I’m full now then.” He leaned back into his chair to look at her.
“So, do you like being mortal so far?” Secretly she wondered if he regretted it. Did he miss the advantages of being immortal? The decision had been rather last minute....
“I love this.” He waved a hand over the feast on the table. “But I didn’t realize it would be so agonizing to feel something as simple as hunger. I knew injuries were painful, like your bruises, but I’d forgotten about hunger and little things like that.”
“It hurts to be mortal,” she said, wondering if she should really be so honest with him. “But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. You get to the point where you can just ignore most of the little discomforts of life.”
“That’s encouraging,” he said, but there was a cynical tone to his words.
“Would you rather go back? I’m sure you could get someone to bite you,” she offered sadly.
“No. I wanted this. I want to be with you. I knew the consequences before I told you to bite me, but I also knew if I didn’t have you do it, I’d have killed you.”
“You could have turned me instead of killing me.”
“No! I remember the curse! You shouldn’t have to live like that! I’ll suck it up!” he said using her phrase for fighting through the pain.
“Are you sure? You really want to do this for me?”
“No, Danielle, for us. I did this for us.”
Ethan slid his chair back from the table and said, “Come hither.” He patted his lap with one hand as blue eyes smoldered her way. Studying his expression, she realized he really meant what he said, and rose from her seat to accept the invitation.
“Does this mortal still enchant you?” Ethan asked as his warm arm moved around her hips to keep her in place.
“Uh-huh,” she breathed.
“Just not dizzy anymore?”
“That’s right,” she confirmed, then drew breath from his deliciously scented neck.
“Do I still smell good to you, or has that worn off?”
“Still yummy … let me see if it’s still as potent,” she requested with a longing gaze set on his kissable mouth.
An amused sparkle flashed in his eyes and he tipped forward, pressing his parted lips to hers, letting his breath escape into her. She drew his essence into her lungs and held it there.
“Well?” he asked, leaning back to look at her.
“It’s still the same luscious flavor, except without the potion-like influence.”
“Yes!” he exclaimed, triumphant, as if he’d just scored the winning point in basketball. He then closed his eyes and rubbed his nose against hers, while he tugged her into a firm bear hug.
“To tell you the truth, I was a little worried you might change into a smelly, belching, gassy boyfriend like every other male on the planet.”
“That could still happen now that I’m on solid food. Will you still take me if I do?”
“Of course,” she said, figuring he was too handsome to not overlook something like occasional odor issues.
“Still hungry?” He loosened his embrace.
“Yes.”
“What would you like, my lady?”
“You know what I like.” Showing him how much she trusted him, Danielle closed her eyes and opened her mouth.
Ethan chuckled, and she felt him lean forward as he made a selection for her. Feeling something touch against her tongue, she closed her lips around his fingers, and then he slid them out. “Mmm, good choice,” she said around a bite of creamy chocolate with a smooth mint filling.
Sophia bustled out carrying tea service for two, but paused abruptly and frowned. “Ethan, put her down! She doesn’t have any clothes on.”
“I’m not naked,” Danielle protested.
“Darling, you’re only wearing a bathrobe. Why didn’t you put your clothes back on?”
“My blouse was ripped,” she explained.
“Oh, right. Well then, we’ll get you something to borrow.”
Sophia set the tea on the table and instructed Danielle to sit in her own chair. She obeyed, thinking it wouldn’t be a good idea to get a grandmotherly vampire angry with her.
Just as they’d finished their tea, Nadia came bursting in, and shouted, “You really are okay!” She dropped the grocery bags she was carrying and wrapped her arms around Danielle, nearly knocking her from the chair.
“Thanks, Nadia, it’s nice to see you too,” she said, but it came out muffled since Nadia had buried Danielle’s face into her shoulder.
“Hold on, I need to take these bags to Sophia.” She released her and took the bags into the kitchen, but returned promptly and sat down next to her. “Sophia sent me shopping for food when we knew we were going to have two mortals in the house.” Her bright green gaze shifted to him. “Ethan, how? How did you figure out the cure?”
“Danielle helped me figure it out … just as I was about to sink my fangs into her neck. It was a close call,” he admitted apparently still feeling guilty about it.
Nadia’s eyes rounded at that.
“But you didn’t,” Danielle said supportively.
Ethan continued, “She said ‘humanity,’ and she said, ‘I love you,’ when she could feel my fangs against her skin. Her words triggered something in my head. It was a wild guess, but I told her to bite me instead, and that’s what worked.”
“Can you bite me and make me mortal too?” Nadia asked with hope shining in her eyes.
“I guess either one of us could, but do you really want that, Nadia? You chose this life,” Ethan said.
“I really think I do,” she replied, thoughtfully studying the now mortal Ethan, but then she changed the subject, as she turned her gaze to Danielle. “Sophia said you need to borrow some clothes. Shall we go do that now?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll be in the drawing room, Danielle,” Ethan said.
“All right.”
Unable to picture Nadia as a mortal, she followed the Middle-Earth creature to her bedroom. They found another outfit for her and then went to the drawing room, once she was dressed.
Many of the Order members were there and she felt a little uncomfortable entering the crowded room dressed in Nadia’s clothes. Nadia really was built like a forest-elf—tall, thin, and sleekly beautiful with subtle curves. But Danielle’s figure was more like an hourglass, so on her, Nadia’s clothes tugged and pulled in all the inappropriate places.
She knew exactly what Ethan was thinking when she walked in and that roguish, yet
noble, smile pulled at his lips. “Sorry, I know her clothes don’t fit me properly,” she whispered sitting down next to him, while tugging at the skirt that was much too tight around her hips.
“You do look indecent, but I’m not complaining,” he replied with an impish tone.
Beon cleared his throat. “We have some urgent matters to discuss.”
All eyes turned to Beon. Worry crept forward from the back of her thoughts, because he appeared to be consumed with distressing thoughts.
“We still need to keep close watch over you two when it comes to Celeste and Lucas. They will find out Danielle is still alive. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when. They will then start plotting again, and they may actually recruit other vampires to help them.
“Danielle, I need you to understand that your life remains in great danger, and I don’t think it would matter if you moved back to the States, they’d just follow you. We can protect you better here. I’ll be giving you a new cell phone to replace the one taken from you, so that you may call me if ever you need help.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, wondering what he meant by here. Was he talking about here as in England, or here as in at Order headquarters? She was thinking maybe she didn’t like the second option so much but said nothing until she’d learned more.
“And, Ethan, you were safe before you became mortal, but now you’re also in danger.”
“I am aware of that. What would you like us to do?” Ethan asked, displaying his willingness to cooperate. And Danielle realized that while she was so proud of their amazing escape, she had foolishly forgotten that their situation had become even more precarious. With a glance at Ethan’s face, she knew that he hadn’t forgotten.
“Ethan—”
He cut her off gently with a shake of his head, and she decided to drop it for now.
Beon continued, his expression grim, “We need you to keep similar curfews, and we need to know where you are at all times. I will post bodyguards for both of you.”
“Bodyguards?” she repeated as her eyes enlarged.
“Yes, vampire bodyguards,” Beon said.
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