Fateful 2-Fractured (2 page)

“By the way, you look absolutely lovely
tonight,” he said as she dragged him along by his shirt.

“You too ... I mean you look very handsome,
but I always think you do,” she replied, noticing his outfit now.
He wore jeans, topped with an un-tucked white shirt and a brown
sport jacket over that.

Ethan chuckled when they got to the car and
she started smoothing out the wrinkles she’d created in the fabric
of his button-down.

He held the door of his freshly washed and
polished Jaguar open for her. England had been experiencing a lot
of rain lately, which was actually normal. And because of that, it
had been difficult for Ethan to keep his car so reflective. “When
did you wash this?”

“Today.”

“But it rained for most of the day.”

“And now it’s clear.”

“For what, like two hours?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

Danielle couldn’t help but appreciate the
fact that it was so shiny it looked as though it might actually
start dripping black paint at any moment. “Well, I hope it doesn’t
chuck it down again soon.”

Ethan laughed. “Where did you learn ‘chuck
it down’?”

“Bri. Who else?”

“Of course.”

Settling into the leather seat, Danielle
watched Ethan as he shut her door, still grinning and shaking his
head as he then moved around to the driver’s side.

As soon as he was seated, he leaned
toward her, took her chin into his fingers and fanned his breath
across her face. Danielle closed her eyes and drew it gratefully
into her lungs, thinking,
okay, maybe I am
a tad obsessed
.

“That’s for being late. It will never happen
again, my lady,” he said softly.

She opened her eyes. “Mmmm ... still yummy.
It’s been a while since your transformation. I can’t believe you
haven’t lost that amazing vampire breath yet.”

“Beon and I have a theory about that,” Ethan
said while he shifted gears and directed his Jag down the
street.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Well, vampire venom changes the physiology
much more drastically, making the transformation a longer,
more—uncomfortable process,” he began.

“Okay. So….”

“So basically, when I told you to bite
me—that sacrifice is what satisfied the demands of the prophecy,
and getting your mortal saliva into my bloodstream is what reversed
the curse, but not much else. It doesn’t change the physiology as
much, so it’s a shorter and a less complicated change.”

Apparently Ethan could tell by the blank
look on her face that she hadn’t grasped his meaning, so he took a
breath and explained further. “The things that a vampire needs to
hunt their prey are removed: the hypnotic eyes, the heightened
hearing, eyesight and sense of smell, the craving for blood, the
superhuman powers, and the magic in the breath.” He frowned. “You
know you’d be a puddle in my lap right now if I’d done what I just
did before.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, remembering her shock
the first time she’d smelled him, how even that had snatched away
her ability to walk in a straight line.

“I miss that,” he said solemnly.

“What?” Watching his expression more closely
now, Danielle wondered how much of being a vampire he missed.

“Watching you be so mesmerized, so
enchanted. By me.”

Drawing a deep breath to take in his scent
which still permeated everything around him, Danielle smirked back
at him. “I’m still entranced. The smell of you gets me even now,
even after your change. Why is that still the same?”

“The magic of it is gone.”

“There’s still magic for me.”

“Only because you’re in love with me.”
When that earned him a surprised scowl for making it sound so
one-sided, he added, “
We’re
in love silly. We knew each other before. It’s so much deeper
than cursed magic now.”

Soul deep. “Nice save.”

A smile of victory dimpled his cheeks as he
went on, “As I was saying, I still smell the same because it would
be too much of a change for the saliva to fix. It doesn’t work as
aggressively as the venom and it doesn’t need to to reverse the
spell. It only reverses the things necessary to remove the curse
and nothing more.”

“But you’re still really strong.” She
remembered how far he’d carried her dead weight without showing any
signs of weakening.

“But I can’t jump three stories in a single
bound, and I can’t smack away a flying lamppost as if it were
nothing more than a small branch. I can bleed now. I could
die.”

She wondered if that was something he
worried about now, his death, but asked, “So since it wasn’t such
an extreme transformation, many things remain the same?”

“That’s right.”

“Interesting,” she said, but thought
that it was kind of gross to think about saliva in his bloodstream
...
her
saliva. Oh well, she
supposed they swapped
that
every time they kissed anyway.

Danielle leaned closer to Ethan, slid her
fingers into his hair and then nuzzled against his shoulder,
inhaling. “So, you get to stay this way? Hmm. That’s nice.” But
several questions whirled through her head. Would he still live
longer than her? Could he regret letting her bite him taking away
all of the physical benefits he had before? How did he know he
could bleed? Has he cut himself? All questions she didn’t dare ask
right now, fearing the answers. Danielle remained silent and
watched the city lights streak past the windows of the car.

He kissed her on the top of the head and
reached to turn on the sound system, which filled the inside of the
Jag with the complex rise and fall of an instrumental melody. Ethan
liked the rock music Danielle normally listened to as well, but he
truly loved the classics. She enjoyed anything he played as he
broadened her taste in music with his hundred and
seventy-three-year-old experience.

“How does sushi sound?” Ethan asked, now
parking in front of a building. The neon sign glowed red with the
words Hakuba, sushi and sashimi bar

“Raw fish? Are you sure about that?”

“Certainly. Why not?”

“Do you really think that’ll sit well in
your newly mortal system?” She gave his flat belly a gentle
pat.

“Most likely not, but I want to try it
anyway,” he replied.

And because his tone was so thick with
enthusiasm, she said, “All right then, sushi it is.”

Ethan had remained very excited to explore
the foods he’d never bothered to try while being a vampire, and he
really seemed to be enjoying it. Even when he chose things that
didn’t cooperate with his digestive system. He seemed to think the
flavors were worth the price in indigestion. But as Danielle
thought about it, she kind of figured most men were like that when
it came to food.

As they walked toward the front door, she
noticed their bodyguards for the evening following. She’d actually
forgotten about them during the car ride. Danielle guessed that
Cedric had taken her “bring a date” suggestion to heart when she
saw four couples approaching instead of four men.

Most of them she recognized right away. She
knew the husky and knightly Max, and his new bride Nadia. She knew
Beon and his wife Sophia. And she knew Cedric and Seth, but she
didn’t recall seeing their significant others. Of course she could
have seen them briefly at Beon’s ball, but she certainly hadn’t
been directly introduced to either of them. Wanting an official
introduction, she paused.

Ethan eyed her curiously when she tugged on
his hand.

“I want to meet Anna and Seth’s wife.”

“Ah.” He turned to wait with her.

The immortals walked up to them without
meeting their gazes since the sun had set and their vampire powers
were now full force. It would only take one direct look from any of
them to render both she and Ethan helpless and dazed, though it was
sort of strange conversing with them with their eyes downcast.

“I see you took my advice,” Danielle said to
Cedric who was looking at his hand intertwined with his date’s.

“Yes, we brought dates. I hope you’re
pleased.”

“I am.”

“Danielle, this is Anna. Anna, Danielle
Darcey,” Cedric said.

Anna smiled. Her gaze was also focused on
hers and Cedric’s hands.

“Hello, nice to meet you,” she said to
Anna’s forehead.

“It’s my pleasure, really,” Anna replied
sweetly. Her soprano British voice was lovely, and her features
were pretty with her heart-shaped face and full lips. The petite
vampire smoothed a lock of her medium-length blond hair through her
fingers as she now studied the pointed toes of her black stilettos.
She reminded Danielle of the fairies she’d met with Ethan, and
could picture her glowing pink with sparkly translucent wings.

“And this is Eva, Seth’s wife,” Cedric
said.

Of course, she never looked at Danielle
either. Eva had smooth black hair styled gracefully on top of her
head, an exotic olive complexion and a thick fringe of lashes. Her
gaze was fixed on Danielle’s boots, so Danielle was uncertain of
her eye color. For anyone who didn’t know better, they would think
Eva was behaving rather snobbishly.

Eva reached a hand out. “Hello, Danielle
darling. It is an honor to meet the one who discovered the cure. I
may need to take you up on it someday.” She sounded French to
Danielle.

“Oh, thanks. Uh, just let me know if or when
you’re ready.”

“Thank you, dear.”

“You’re welcome.” Danielle restrained a
shiver. The discussion of biting Eva right before she went to eat
sushi made her feel a tad queasy.

Ethan gathered her fingers and settled her
hand in the crook of his elbow as he looped his other arm around
her waist. She was forced to take a step backward as he said, “Come
on, Danielle, we need to get started or we’ll be late for the
picture.”

As she and Ethan were seated, she noticed
that the others split up, rather than request a table for eight.
Four of them remained outside, while the other four got tables.

Nadia, Max, Beon and Sophia had come inside
and were being seated at separate tables on either side of the
dining room. Probably so that she and Ethan were in the center.

Her gaze met with Max’s as she watched them,
and he winked at her, probably trying to get a rise out of Ethan,
but he got slapped playfully in the arm by Nadia instead. The
black-haired beauty likely knew what he was doing. Because of the
brotherly type of relationship Ethan and Max had, they were always
roughhousing and trying to annoy each other. Plus, Ethan had been
jealous of the knight in the past.

“Danielle, how many times have I asked you
to not flirt with him?” And apparently he might still be
jealous.

“I’m not.” She giggled. “Nadia just smacked
him for winking at me. It’s funny.”

“It’s not funny. She should punch him. The
cad knows he has the good looks of a knight and how that affects
the girls.”

“He’s just trying to rub you the wrong way,
and you let it work. He might still look like a knight,” and he
certainly did, if she was honest, “but you have that British hottie
thing going for you.”

“So does that mean that rogue over there has
a British knight hottie thing going for him?” Ethan growled, though
she could hear the teasing in his tone, and was relieved.

“Oh, stop being jealous, it’s completely
unfounded and you know it.”

Ethan rolled his eyes at that, but
smirked.

“Just order sushi, Ethan, and during the
movie I’ll remind you why you shouldn’t be so jealous.”

He tried to stop the foolish grin that
overtook his mouth, but failed as the smile reached his eyes.

Danielle laughed again.

“So what would you like?” Ethan asked, his
gaze traveling over the open menu he held.

She scanned the dishes, looking for things
she used to choose in Colorado. Sushi was something she liked, a
little, but she was picky about it. In truth, she probably
preferred Chinese and noticed that this restaurant served a mix of
both. “I want the egg-flower soup and a Vegas roll.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s more than enough.”

“All right.” Ethan’s words were tainted with
a ring of disappointment. Apparently he still thought she needed
large portions to survive. Danielle rolled her eyes this time.

When the waiter arrived, Ethan ordered
for both of them, ordering way too much for himself, however. After
the waiter left, she said, “You’ll never be able to eat all of
that, and if you do, you’ll be
so
sick. You’d be smart to save room for popcorn.”

Ethan’s mouth tightened, like he planned to
say something but changed his mind for some reason. Danielle
suspected he knew his eyes were bigger than his stomach, but she
also knew he wouldn’t ever admit it.

When the sushi arrived it took up more than
half the table. Danielle sipped quietly at her soup while she
watched Ethan experience raw fish rolled into rice and seaweed for
the first time ever. And somehow he already knew how to use the
chopsticks.

Annoying. Danielle was never able to figure
out those dumb wooden sticks, so instead she reached for a slice of
Vegas roll with her fingers. But Ethan set his hand on hers,
stopping her. “Use the chopsticks, Danielle.”

“I’d rather not,” she muttered.

“You don’t know how to use them, do
you?”

“I’ve never been able to get them to work
for me. Sorry.”

“Well now, we can’t have that….” He slid her
chopsticks from the paper wrapper and snapped them apart. “Here,
let me teach you. Hold your hand like this.”

She did as he instructed—reluctantly. He
placed the sticks on her hand in, what he said were the proper
locations.

“Good, now do this.” He lifted a piece of
sushi and plopped it into his mouth. After swallowing, he said,
“Mmmm, I rather think I like that one.”