Fateful

by Cheri Schmidt

  So instead she turned on some music, kicked off her shoes and stretched out on his bed. Her eyes moved to the clock as she settled against the pillows. She only had to wait about seven more minutes before Ethan would return. Comfortable, she closed her eyes and waited. Only a moment passed before she got the unnerving feeling that someone was watching her, and that someone was growing too close as they moved into her space. Her eyes snapped open, she gasped, and her muscles tensed instinctively. It was Celeste, leaning over her.

  Danielle jerked upright. “Can I help you?”

  Celeste’s baby blue eyes darkened with the fury and menace that lurked within the shallow pools. She said nothing when she suddenly reached forward and grabbed Danielle by the shirt, lifting her from the bed easily leaving her feet dangling. Danielle knew her top was on the verge of ripping when she heard threads popping.

  Instinctively, she kicked at Celeste’s kidneys while punching at pressure points on her hands and wrists trying to loosen her grip. The efforts were useless.

  Celeste’s wicked grimace widened as she threw her across the room. The right side of her head and body slammed into the solid armoire across from Ethan’s bed. The sturdy, elegant handles protruding from the doors caught her directly on the hip, and she grunted in pain. She slid down and crumpled on the floor. Stunned as she was, Danielle made an effort to gather herself, knowing she needed to flee before this vampire managed to kill her.

  She struggled to sit upright, but Celeste pounced on top of her before she could. The immortal grasped her shirt again, lifted only her torso off the floor and snapped the back of her hand across her face. Danielle could taste the blood from the inside of her cheek.

  Then suddenly Celeste released her and her head thumped painfully against the hardwood floor.

  “No!”

  Ethan was back.

  Lifting one hand to the side of her head, which was now throbbing in time with her heartbeat, she checked for blood, but it was dry. Relieved, she closed her eyes knowing she’d be okay with Ethan now here.

  “Je n’y crois pas! Celeste! What have you done? Pack your things and get the hell out!” he bellowed. “Enfer! As-tu perdu l’esprit?”

  Danielle had never heard Ethan so furious. He continued cursing under his breath in more than one language. German and French, she thought.

  Celeste spat something unintelligible and then left.

  Less than a second later she felt Ethan leaning over her. His touch was gentle like he was afraid he might break her further. “Danielle, are you all right? Danielle darling, can you hear me?” he cooed in a sensitive voice.

  She opened her eyes and tried to push upright. Ethan set a hand firmly on her upper chest. “No you don’t! Do not move, Danielle! I need to check for broken bones first.”

  She relaxed and closed her eyes again because the throbbing in her head was making her eyes ache.

  It wasn’t long before she could hear others running into the room.

  “Ethan, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left her alone,” Nadia said. “I’d locked the door and thought...”

  “Is she okay? Can I get you anything?” Sophia asked, her voice ringing with deep worry.

  “Some ice packs and some pain reliever would be great for now. And please make sure she is gone,” he said in a low angry voice.

  “Don’t worry, Ethan, Beon is already making certain of that.”

  “Good,” he said harshly.

  “I’ll get the other things and hurry back,” and with that Danielle heard Sophia leave.

  “Danielle, I need to know where you could be injured. How did you hit the armoire?” he asked gently.

  “Here.” She motioned with her left hand to her right side.

  “All over?”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” she replied weakly.

  Ethan ran his fingers gently over the right side of her skull. He pressed on a lump he discovered.

  “Ow!”

  “Sorry, no fracture though, just a nasty goose egg. But I’m not ruling out a concussion.”

  He slipped his hand gently over her shoulder and along her arm. “Good,” he said, “now your ribs.”

  Embarrassment washed over her as he gently began pushing up her shirt to expose her ribs. Danielle attempted to stop him by grabbing the hem.

  “Danielle,” he scolded softly, “trust me.”

  She reluctantly let go and he proceeded to push the fabric out of his way, but stopped before her bra was exposed. Danielle relaxed a little.

  Ethan continued with his exam, gliding his fingers along her ribs, pressing in. “Ah!” she cried out when he found a particularly sensitive one.

  His frown deepened. “Breathe in deep,” he instructed, keeping his hands on her ribs. She did but it only ached a little.

  “Any sharp pain when you do that?” Ethan asked.

  She shook her head.

  “No fractured ribs then. Good,” he said as he returned her shirt to its proper position.

  “Now the most serious, Danielle, if she broke your hip, it’s a severe injury.”

  Danielle tensed reflexively, she didn’t know what he was going to do next and she didn’t understand how he could know so much.... “Ethan?”

  “Hm?”

  “Did you go to medical school?”

  “Yes. I worked as a doctor for a few years as well,” he replied, seeming a little surprised by the question.

  “Oh. I was beginning to think you had some twisted fantasy about playing doctor.”

  Ethan exploded into laughter.

  Sophia returned with pain medication, a goblet of water and four ice packs but eyed Ethan with a look of, What could be so funny at a time like this?

  He swallowed his laughter, and said, “Thanks.” He then motioned for Sophia to put everything on his nightstand.

  Ethan became sober again, but she could see the smile tugging at his lips. “Danielle, I can’t move you unless I check your hip. Are you going to allow that?” he asked.

  In truth, Danielle wanted to get away from him at the moment because he was acting like a doctor, and she really didn’t like doctors. “What exactly does that entail?”

  “I just need to look at your hip and then press on it. It will hurt if you’re as bruised there as everywhere else,” he warned apologetically. “And it will hurt like hell if it’s broken,” he added.

  The pain of the door handle smashing into her hip came to mind. Could it have broken? What did they do with broken hips? A cast? What? Deciding she didn’t want to know, Danielle shook her head. “This isn’t necessary because I’m fine,” she said and tried to get up.

  Again he stopped her, forcing her to remain flat on her back. His lips thinned and a flicker of anger rose within his eyes. When she still didn’t give permission he went on, “Danielle, this is important. You were just attacked by a sadistic, jealous vampire. I must make certain you’re all right.”

  “It doesn’t hurt that bad.” Trying another time to get up she ground out, “If you’d just let me up, you’d see—”

  The hands on her shoulders tightened and she grimaced in pain when his fingers bit into the bruising on her right. Apparently realizing what he’d done, he removed that hand but left the other. “Maybe you didn’t hear what I said earlier. I cannot let you move until I know nothing is broken.”

  “Fine then, fine!” she said, not even trying to hide the anger in her voice.

  As if Ethan thought she might soon change her mind, he didn’t hesitate as he slid her skirt off just enough to expose her right hip and nothing more. He cringed at what he saw there. “Bloody hell! That’s the worst bruise yet!” he exclaimed. “What did you hit?”

  Her gaze lifted to the pretty and innocent-looking door handle of the armoire.

  Following her gaze, he winced when his eyes landed on the handle. “Yeah, that had to hurt.”

  “It did, but I don’t think—”

  Ethan ignored her words and applied gentle pressure on her hips. “Ow!” sh
e wailed.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered releasing her. “But, it’s not broken either, it’s just the bruises that hurt,” he declared with a sigh of relief.

  With more of those precise movements of his, he fixed her skirt, scooped her up from the floor and carried her to his bed.

  Danielle couldn’t seem to stop the moan of pain that she didn’t want him to hear.

  Acting as though he hadn’t heard it, Ethan helped her sit up enough to take the pain medication and water.

  She swallowed the pills, then asked, “Why do you have pain meds here?”

  “We may not need them, but one of our mortal friends might.” Ethan picked up the ice packs, pushed her back into the pillows and placed one at each bruised location. “Wouldn’t it look strange if we didn’t have something like that in the cupboard?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Lying down on the bed next to her, he lifted her wrist to check her pulse. She scowled at him for that doctor-like action but was then startled when she noticed that Nadia and Sophia were still in the room. She’d forgotten about them. Sophia wore a worried look on her beautiful face, and Nadia looked practically devastated. It was clear she felt like this was her fault. Was that because Celeste had been her friend?

  They both moved to the side of the bed. Nadia bent down and kissed her on the forehead as she slid her deceptively delicate fingers along her jaw. “Danielle, I’m so sorry I left you. It was foolish of me...”

  “No. I don’t blame you.”

  “She’s right to not blame you, Nadia,” Max said now entering the room.

  A man behind him said, “Celeste had stolen the master keys.”

  Nadia hung her head at his words but said nothing more.

  “Is she all right?” asked the other man, with a note of worry in his voice.

  The nod of Ethan’s head said yes, but the look in his eyes said he wasn’t sure yet.

  Accepting the answer anyway, both men left.

  “Danielle dear, I have more treats for you, would you like me to bring them up?” Danielle realized from Sophia’s tone that she feared she may no longer be in the mood to eat.

  Not wanting her to feel bad, she said, “Please do, Sophia. It was all so wonderful last time.”

  A sad smile lifted her cheeks at Danielle’s words. “Lovely, I shall return shortly then.” Sophia moved from the room to retrieve whatever delectable things she’d destroyed the kitchen to make, and Nadia followed.

  Danielle sighed and turned to Ethan. “They seem really nice.”

  Ethan reached over and brushed some hair from her forehead. Now that wasn’t doctor-like behavior—she liked that. He bowed his head and stared down at the comforter a moment. When his brow crinkled and as his eyes became brooding, she wondered what he was thinking about. Watching as he laced his fingers with hers, he said, “I should have considered this situation beforehand. Clearly I underestimated the level of her jealousy, and truly, Danielle, I never thought she would try anything with so many Order members around. If she had found you alone somewhere else, certainly … but this…. Je n’y crois pas.” Ethan shook his head in disbelief.

  “What does that mean? That and the other things you said?”

  “It means ‘I don’t believe this’ and to Celeste I said, ‘Have you lost your mind?’ I may have tossed in a few other words, but you don’t need to know what those mean,” he said with a guilty smirk.

  Suspecting they were likely crude curses, she let it slide.

  “It seems you have two vampires after you now.”

  “Great, just what I need,” she grumbled.

  “And I hope we don’t have to take you in for an MRI.”

  Her eyes doubled in size. “No! No hospitals!” A sudden sickness filled her stomach.

  After a quick study of her eyes, he said, “You don’t care for doctors much, do you?”

  “No, and I hate hospitals.”

  “What horrible thing happened to you to make you this traumatized?”

  She didn’t answer that, and a long pause ensued.

  “All right, no hospital.” She felt relieved until he added, “Unless I start seeing concussion symptoms. Then I’m taking you whether you like it or not.”

  She groaned as he began the head-injury questioning. “How many fingers am I holding up?” Ethan asked while he held up two fingers.

  After sighing, she answered, “Two.” Thickheaded vampire thinks he’s a doctor and right after she just told him she hated doctors.

  “Good. Feeling weak?”

  “Not really.”

  “Do you know where you are right now?” he asked, his tone held an annoying note of professionalism in it.

  “Ethan! Stop playing doctor! It’s a major turn off!”

  “Well, you have your choice then, me or a doctor in the ER.” Perfect manipulation, and the jerk hadn’t even used his magic to do it this time.

  “You then,” she said, choosing the lesser evil.

  “Good, now answer the question.”

  “Do you honestly think I could argue with you right now if I didn’t know where I was?” She really hoped he noticed how afflicted her tone sounded.

  “Danielle, answer the question,” he persisted.

  “Fine! I’m in your room, at your place, in London, in England, on the planet Earth! Are you happy now?” she answered hotly.

  “What galaxy?” he queried, now provoking her.

  Danielle glared at him and folded her arms. “Ow,” she mumbled under her breath, it hurt to do that. Ethan took hold of her chin to stare into her eyes. “What? Are you checking my pupil dilation now?” she asked, growing more and more frustrated with his coddling.

  A cunning smile lifted the corners of his mouth and he turned the daytime force of his gaze on her. When the action quickly muddled her brain, he leaned in fanning his magical vampire breath into her face. Ethan followed that up with a press of his mouth against hers. Relaxation saturated every cell of her body, and she decided even though this wasn’t a conventional medical treatment, she felt better healed by it.

  When Ethan pulled away, she could feel the loopy smile of pleasure on her face. “Thanks.”

  Keeping his face close to hers, he offered, “Need another?”

  “Please,” she breathed, staring at his delectable lips.

  But Sophia returned before he reached her. Ethan withdrew, teasing her by holding back. She knew he didn’t have a problem with kissing in front of Sophia. Danielle reluctantly shifted her attention to Sophia accompanied by Nadia who carried tea.

  “I hope you like these. I made more biscuits this time—or cookies as you call them in the U.S.” Sophia presented a china platter filled with little sandwiches of all shapes, and cookies in even more varieties. It seemed she had a fetish for finger foods. Danielle knew this had to take her longer than before to create and secretly wanted to see how the kitchen survived it.

  “And of course, I have your favorite tea.” She turned to Nadia, took the teacup and handed it to Ethan.

  They both stood anxiously waiting for her to dig in. Danielle realized she couldn’t make Sophia wait long for her review, so she took a fancy little cookie with chocolate marbled through it and bit into it. “Mmm! Wonderful, as expected. Thank you, Sophia.”

  They all stared at her as she took something else from the tray. “Mmm, that’s really good too,” she said after swallowing the small bite she’d taken.

  Nadia had her head tilted to the side as she watched her eat. Her lips had fallen open, but only slightly. Sophia stood watching with a huge grin on her full lips, and she held her hands clasped in front of her, like she was praying. Ethan was watching more slyly than the others. Danielle began to feel weird about eating alone as three vampires watched with interest. “Uh, I don’t mean to be rude, but why is my eating so fascinating to watch?”

  Sophia answered, “I’m sorry, Danielle, it’s just that we had such a fondness for food, but it doesn’t taste the same as it did anymo
re. It looks like it should taste so delicious, because it is just so … wonderfully colorful.” Her brows pressed together as if she thought “colorful” may not be the best word to describe food, but it seemed it was all she could come up with. “The truth is ... an all blood diet gets horribly tiresome. I guess we are a bit envious you get to enjoy so much variety.”

  “I see.” She wasn’t sure what made her do what she did next, but she felt they wanted her to explain what flavors she experienced. Danielle lifted another item off the tray and bit into it. “Mmm, this one is sweet and tart at the same time because of the lemon. That’s always a nice combination.”

  She swallowed and put another cookie into her mouth, chewed for a moment, then said, “This one is buttery and sweet, I like that too.”

  She picked up a sandwich next. “I like the cucumber in this one, and the dill, it’s very cool and crispy, but not sweet.”

  Danielle reached for another sandwich. “Um, I actually don’t like that one,” she said honestly, checking Sophia’s face to see if her feelings were hurt.

  She looked even more intrigued. “Really, what do you not like about it?”

  “I just don’t like that kind of meat, I prefer turkey.”

  “Oh, I will make a note of that,” Sophia said happily.

  Danielle continued in this matter—eating and explaining what she tasted—until she was getting too full to keep going. She finished off the tea, and pushed back into the pillows. “I’m sorry. Nothing more will fit. But really, Sophia, you are a very talented cook. You have my deepest gratitude.”

  Sophia’s face glowed with joy, to Danielle’s relief. “Let me take that for you, dear.” She lifted the tray and turned to leave, but paused to say, “Thank you, Danielle, for doing what you did. I will save the rest of this for later…. Ethan, let me know if she needs more pain medication.”

  He nodded and then she left. Also smiling, Nadia followed.