Fateful 2-Fractured (38 page)

A mass of vampires swept toward her group
like a solid mist of cursed muscle.

“We fight then,” Max said, dropping into the
guarding stance she’d taught him. It was a little unnerving how he
appeared pleased with the prospect of a fight. His full mouth
curved into a dangerous grin. It didn’t seem to matter that they
had more men fighting on their side than they’d had at the mall.
They’d been outnumbered then and it was a hundred times worse now.
So very outnumbered.... How could he relish this?

With that thought she looked to Prince
Richard. Muscles flexed along his whisker-shadowed jaw as he took
in the sight. Jerking his arms free of his jacket, he then tossed
the leather garment on the ground to give himself better mobility,
she guessed. His expression didn’t give her much hope. The Black
Prince, who’d seen his share of war, didn’t look anywhere near as
delighted as Max.

Moments later the conflict closed in on them
as the sounds of fists pounding against flesh filled the air. A man
grunted and flew backward as Cedric landed a brutal uppercut
against his jaw. Another man bared his teeth as he attacked Seth.
Male and female vampires actually went sailing over head as Max and
Richard used techniques for throwing a person.

It began to rain. Big droplets of water fell
through the canopy of trees above them.

Back to back with Ethan now, the fact that
she couldn’t bask in his comforting gaze made Danielle feel
hopeless somehow. “We’ll never defeat them all. Ethan—?”

“Just keep your back to mine and use all of
the skills I know you have.”

Because Ethan was still holding her hand,
she felt his fingers tighten on hers as he lifted their hands to
his lips to press a kiss to the back of hers. “I’m sorry, Danielle,
I never wanted it to come to this.”

“Why wouldn’t any of them help us?”

With his sigh, Danielle felt the shift of
his muscles. “I wish I knew.”

She leaned into him. There was something
soothing at least about just having him there even as violence
filled her view. Where had Cedric gone? Danielle couldn’t see him
any longer and the rain started to come down harder. Watching in
horror, she noticed as others were drawn into the fray, completely
overpowered by so many. The protective circle around them shrank
until a wide gap formed between Richard and Beon.

Vampires moved in, engaging Ethan and then
her. She could still feel him behind her as they fought off the
attack, his arms and body shifting, sometimes even bumping into her
with his efforts.

Punching one man in the chest, Danielle was
almost startled when he flew back with such force he plowed over a
few others in his wake. She caught another under the chin. His head
snapped back sending raindrops flying from his skin and then, even
more shocked, she watched as he flipped up and back almost like a
fish. Finally she was on even ground with her skills.

She marveled at that too long, however,
because someone managed to clip her in the cheek. Sharp pain
exploded in her face. Grunting in agony, Danielle’s head whipped to
the side, as her now wet hair swung around, slapping her skin. Her
shoulder smashed into Ethan’s.

“Are you all right?” she heard him ask
through the ringing in her ears. The entire right side of her face
was throbbing now.

Swinging out, she made sure she blocked the
next fist aimed at her head. Droplets of water splattered her face
with the impact. “I thought you said it doesn’t hurt being
immortal?”

“Ah, that...”

They turned as they battled with their backs
practically glued together. “What do you mean by ‘ah, that?’”

“I neglected to mention—”

His words were cut off as the crowd
attacking them intensified and came from what seemed like all
directions. She swung and kicked with everything she had until she
took another hit in the stomach. Air whooshed out of her lungs and
she doubled over. Forcing herself to shake it off, Danielle tossed
the saturated strands of hair out of her face, straightened and
kept fighting. Her now soaked leather jacket began resisting her
movement and she wished she’d removed it beforehand as Richard had
done. Along with taking inventory of her wet clothing, Danielle did
note the fact that she’d lost contact with Ethan.

Still fending off blows from opponents in
front of her and to either side, she tossed a quick look over her
shoulder. Unable to see him, Danielle whirled around to take on the
new onslaught coming from behind. Again she searched for Ethan’s
blue cap and blond hair. Where had he gone?

And they were everywhere! What seemed like
hundreds of vampires were all focused on her alone, all more than
twice her size in bulk. It wasn’t long before they crowded in
closer and closer. Just as soon as she hurled one overhead, his
body making a sick wet thud as he crashed against a tree, another
took his place. Danielle soon noticed not all of them were men....
Celeste was there. Registering a moment of shock, Danielle
collected her thoughts and punched Celeste in the face. Reacting to
what she suspected was the same sort of pain she’d experienced
earlier; Celeste held a hand to her nose and backed away.

While that had been rather liberating, she
knew she’d soon lose this fight. Scanning the heads further out,
Danielle looked for any sign of Ethan or the others. To her left,
but quite far away, she did notice a spot where bodies were tossed
in the air just before dropping back into the mass, each one
streaming with a trail of raindrops. But she had no way of knowing
who it was. “Ethan!” she called, jamming an elbow into someone who
attacked from behind.

Nothing.

Jab, hook, front kick. “Max! Richard!”

Again, no response.

Brutal hands grabbed at her clothes and hair
as her feet left the ground. She could only imagine this is what it
felt like to be strapped to some medieval rack with the way they
had her stretched out between them. Each vampire, no several
vampires at a time, took hold of her limbs, pulling. She strained
against them but she didn’t have the strength to fight off so
many.

Fingers dug into her wet throat, chin, and
jaw as their angry faces leered down at her. Blinking against the
rain now pelting her face, she recognized that Celeste was back,
her expression smug. And Lucas. A fiendish and fanged grin lifted
the corners of his mouth. His fringy black hair hung in dripping
strands over his forehead as his gaze traveled her. Making eye
contact, he said to the others, “Drain her.” With that he lifted
her arm to his lips, tore at the sleeve and sank his teeth into her
flesh. Besides when Ethan had turned her, which she didn’t fully
remember because of the potion-like breath he’d dosed her with,
she’d never been bitten. Crying out, Danielle wondered how Ethan
let her do this to him. Of course struggling didn’t matter as she
felt fangs cutting into her flesh on much of her exposed skin.

Just as energy flowed into her when she fed,
that energy left as the vampires fed on her. Growing weak, she
thought she might actually die from this, until Lucas said, “That’s
enough.”

Her boots came off and the socks went right
along with them. The sound of rending fabric reached her ears as
the pockets on her cargo pants ripped free, leaving a long gaping
slit in one pant leg and a big hole in the other. Rain and cool
forest air brushed her skin for a short moment before cruel hands
replaced it. She felt her shirt and coat ripping free. It seemed if
they couldn’t claw at her skin, they tugged at her clothes
instead.

The stress on her joints intensified as they
continued to pull, and the pain became unbearable. A scream ripped
from her throat. They were obviously trying to rip her limbs off,
and her head. Would that kill her? Perhaps that’s why they drained
her of blood first.

Just as the pressure increased and she
thought surely something was going to break loose a shout rang out.
The voice was followed by a shockwave seeming to have come from a
silent explosion. It hit the crowd, bowling them over in a domino
effect. The hands binding her fell away.

Surprised at being released so suddenly,
Danielle slowly realized she now lay upon a lumpy surface. Bodies.
Unconscious or perhaps dead vampires.

Lifting her head she touched her chin to her
chest to better see what was going on. About fifty feet away she
saw Ethan untangling himself from a pile of bodies as well. Further
away, Max, Richard and the others on her side did the same. What
the heck just happened?

She pushed up on her elbows and felt them
sink into ... she glanced down, ah, a man’s chest. She was lying on
top of a dark-haired man. His soaked hair clung to his forehead,
his face was dotted with droplets of rain. Although he was
completely out, she noted he wasn’t dead as his chest rose and fell
with breath. Still, this was a disturbing position to be in.

Wanting to get away from these vampires
before they regained consciousness, she rolled up, but dropped back
onto one elbow when a wave of dizziness washed over her. The world
rocked for a moment or two. Still half upright she pressed a hand
to her forehead. Wow, she had lost a lot of blood. Her gaze focused
on her wrist and then further up her arm as her hand moved away
from her face. She was dotted with slowly-healing puncture wounds.
Even knowing she needed to replenish what had been taken, she
loathed the thought of biting Ethan for it. He had to be lying when
he said he liked it.

“You’re welcome.” The feminine voice came
from her left, and it too dripped with a thick Romanian accent.

Danielle turned her face to the sound and
pushed up to one knee, feeling the joint dig into what was likely
the man’s thigh.

“The curse has been removed from them. I
figured that a better punishment than death,” the woman said.

It stopped raining.

Rising to her feet unsteadily, Danielle
studied the woman. How had she avoided getting wet? While brushing
long strands of flowing white hair from her face, the woman offered
a smirk. Yards of black fabric fluttered and billowed out behind
her from the gown and cloak she wore. The woman was dressed like a
medieval witch, Danielle thought. She had the leather corset and
everything.

The witch also wore a huge pendant that
looked like it sat heavily upon her chest. Set in the center of an
almost gothic, scrolling design was a large moonstone. It caught
the moonlight coming down through a gap in the trees and bounced
back metallic-looking flashes of green, white and blue. Somehow she
knew this witch or sorceress didn’t pose a threat to them and felt
the tension coiled inside her spine slip free. She couldn’t
possibly be Lilith, could she?

“Lilith?”

Danielle’s gaze shifted from Seth and
back to the woman who offered a regal nod of her head in response.
Her eyes rounded. Wow, this
was
Lilith? “Have we met?” said Lilith.

Shaking his head, Seth said, “No.”

Feeling like she might be able to walk
without collapsing, Danielle looked around, hoping to collect her
boots. Unable to see them anywhere, she gave up on the idea and
began stepping on and over bodies making her way toward Ethan. She
didn’t get far before Ethan was there, lifting her into his arms
and holding her against his chest.

“I can walk.” Sort of....

A narrowed gaze noted her wounds as he said,
“Little liar.” He stopped when he found a spot of bare earth and
lowered her feet to the cool, damp grass there. Shuddering with a
sudden chill, Danielle looked down and noticed that her jacket and
shirt were gone, leaving only the white tank top beneath. Ethan’s
wrist swung up under her nose. “Feed,” he commanded.

Shoving it away, she buried her face against
his neck, and shook her head. “No way! Who’s the liar now, Ethan?
That hurts!” As her arms curled around his waist, she realized his
clothes were ripped too as her fingers touched his rain-kissed
skin.

His hand came up behind her head and held
her gently there, even though she could feel the tension thrumming
through his body at her defiance. “It smarts in a good way because
it’s you.”

She didn’t buy that. “Why did it feel good
when you turned me but hurt so badly now?”

“If you recall, I’d dosed you with my
breath. Several times. It can’t be done that way if both parties
are vampires.”

“So then it does hurt you.” Her heart
frosted with regret.

“It’s pleasurable in a ... dark sort of way.
You needn’t worry about me.” Again when she refused, Ethan pulled
away just far enough to make eye contact. “They’ve weakened you,
Danielle. I insist—”

“She’ll be fine.”

Jumping at the sound of Lilith’s voice so
close, Danielle shot a surprised look past Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan
turned them both so they faced the sorceress who now stood inches
away from them.

His arm at her waist tightened slightly.
“She won’t heal—”

Interrupting him, Lilith raised a hand and
snapped with a sharp exhale of breath, “Prostii!” Then in English
she added, “I give you my word. She’ll be fine.”

With brows dropping in confusion, Ethan
opened his mouth to say something, but again Lilith held up her
hand and with that he closed it.

Muttering in what was likely Romanian,
Lilith paced a circle around them, inspecting them for what,
Danielle had no idea. Watching the gown trail behind the sorceress,
Danielle hoped she would say something soon. Gathering a fistful of
her cloak, Lilith tilted her head to the side and finally said,
“Corina told me about you and, I must say, I am rather impressed.”
Throwing her head back, she laughed. “It’s been centuries.
Centuries! And none have solved the riddle ... or even tried, for
they liked the
curse
so
much.” Seeming irritated with that, Lilith lifted her gaze to
Danielle’s again. “You’re the brave little thing who bit him?” Eyes
of golden brown shifted from Ethan and back to her.