A Destined Death (36 page)

Draven abruptly pulled me to face him. “Is she the one who’s been trying to kill you?”

I nodded. “Alicia, Krista, and Lissa. She admitted it, Draven. She still loves you.”

He shook his head slowly and then hugged me until the air left my lungs. “Thank God you’re all right!”

“For the moment,” I scoffed, pushing out of his tight embrace so I could breathe. “What are we going to do? I’ve got two hours to get you two away from Damion before Anna kills me, and then you two have to go find Candy and Charles.”

Draven and Armando gave each other a meaningful glance that I didn’t comprehend.

“About Damion––” Draven started.

That instant, the cell door flew open so fast and so hard that the impact made the whole room shake. The large figure that appeared in the doorway was hideous.

My frustration dissolved into pure terror. Red dots formed around my vision, and I nearly fell, backpedaling toward the far wall. I could feel the demon’s lust so strong that it overpowered me. My cell phone vibrated in my pocket, but I ignored it, immobilized by fear. I only remained standing because Armando put his arm around me for support.

“Good! She is here,” the creature said in a demonic voice that spiked every nerve in my body. His glowing eyes and robe were blood red, and his pasty white skin looked almost translucent. His fangs were protruding and pointing at me.

Draven took a protective stance in front of me. “That’s right. She is here and alive. We will be married in the morning so you can release us now, old friend.”

“No!” Damion demanded, stepping closer to Draven. “I was promised a good feeding for this. She is mine now.”

“That was never part of the deal,” Draven said sternly.

“I make the deals now,” Damion roared. He raised his right hand and lunged for Draven.

Screaming at the top of my lungs, I covered my eyes, my world shattering. I hoped and prayed Draven would live, and it took several seconds for the unnatural silence around me to register in my brain. Cautiously, I opened my eyes finding Damion suspended in mid-lunge. Draven and Armando seemed frozen in the positions I’d last seen them in.

“So it’s true,” Anna hissed from the doorway. She walked into the cell and threw me a disgusted look as her face contorted into a mask of hatred.

With a swipe of her hand to the left, Damion’s body pounded the far wall where he once again became animated and appeared confused by his circumstance. Anna pulled an arrow from her dress and slowly pierced it through his heart as he screamed in agony, unable to move. After it impaled him, he burst into ashes which fell at her feet along with the arrow.

After dusting off her hands, she returned her attention to me and drew the dagger. “Your turn,” she said excitedly.

With Draven and Armando still motionless, I ran to the far corner, scanning the room for a weapon. No wood, no metal, only the single arrow that remained on the other side of the room. In a desperate attempt, I decided to use the only thing I had––my words. “He won’t love you, you know. He already knows about you. He knows what you’ve done.”

“He’ll learn to love me.”

I shook my head confidently. “He’ll never forgive you.”

She stared at me with wide, shocked eyes for minutes before her face turned icy. Raising the dagger above her head, she snarled, “Then I’ll kill him too!”

I braced myself for the impact but it never came. Instead, her expression turned to one of horror as the arrow peeked through her chest. A second later, she exploded into ashes.

Charles still held the arrow when the dagger fell at our feet. “The hell you will!”

Shock, relief, happiness, and gratitude overwhelmed me for a moment, and I wrapped my arms around him, forgetting that he didn’t like to be touched. Though he slunk away from me, I thanked him repeatedly until he finally nodded.

Draven and Armando shook themselves out of their trance. “What happened?” they asked at the same time.

After explaining how Charles had saved me, they patted him on the back and eagerly accepted my emotional output in the form of hugs. I had to let go when my cell phone vibrated again. The text messages were from Candy. The first was a frantic message asking if I was all right. The second read:
Don’t worry about me. Johnny got me out of the moat.

I quickly sent a text to tell her we were all safe, and then I wrapped myself in Draven’s arms. “I think it’s really over. Are you ready to marry me?”

When he sighed and shook his head seriously, I nearly fainted.

“You have to finish your novel,” he reminded me before he placed a tender kiss on my cheek.

“Oh,” I breathed as I thanked my lucky stars that he still wanted to marry me. “Does that mean you forgive her…me?”

His chocolaty eyes sparkled. “
She was right about us,”
he said into my head.

I melted into his arms and a moment later, I felt a fresh South Dakota breeze welcoming me home.

One week later…

The day before the wedding brought my yard to life. Wave after wave of vans arrived, and people unloaded tables and chairs to set up for the double wedding which was scheduled to take place at sunset the following night. From the porch swing, I watched Tina flutter around, making sure every detail was perfect. By the time she finished, the entire yard had become one big well put together reception tent.

Everyone had something to do. I wrote. Armando and Draven spent the day in Seattle, catching up on old times. Tina and Candy finalized all of the wedding plans and spent the rest of the afternoon making sure any relative who could attend was flown in on the jet and put up in a nice motel in Watertown. Ben stayed in Watertown too, and Charles taught Coty how to play chess.

Half way through the last chapter, I set my laptop down. Through the trees in the yard, I watched the sun start to fall. When I realized it might be my last sunset, I tried to hang onto it in my mind. I’d never appreciated it quite as much as did now. The image seemed like a painting as vivid pinks and blues swirled across the beautiful canvas sky.

“What’s wrong?”
Draven asked into my head.

Cold feet.

When the last speck of the sunset sunk under the earth, Draven appeared beside me, smiling. “
You
are not allowed cold feet.”

I rolled my eyes. “And why not?”

“Well, now Anna is dead,” he teased. “I have no backup plan.”

Narrowing my eyes playfully, I stared back at him. “Ha ha. Why didn’t you tell me she was so in love with you?”

He shook his head and put an arm around me. “When she befriended you…Alicia, I thought she was over it.”

“Apparently not.”

“Apparently not,” he agreed with a shrug. “What’s this about cold feet?”

I hummed the words nervously, “Oh, I was just thinking about… dying… really…and the sun thing.

“Well, I’m sorry,” he said, kissing me on the forehead, “but I love you too much to let you live.”

Giggling, I leaned into his arms. “When I’m dead you better learn some better ways to sweet talk me.”

“I vow to you now that I shall spend the rest of eternity laboring at the task.”

Contented and happy in his arms, I thought about how wonderfully everything had turned out. Draven and Armando were united again as brothers. Coty and Armando were back together, and they had found a happy family with Tina. Tina, herself was now a decent person that I had actually started to like, and Coty had acquired a mother who loved him dearly.

Ben had some vampire friends now and vowed to only kill the evil ones. He even considered staying in Watertown on an extended vacation because he said it was peaceful, and he could sleep at night.

Candy and Johnny had made up too. He admitted to following her to Paris because he feared for her life, and he felt responsible since he’d been the one to make her a mark. After saving her twice, he finally considered them completely square.

Charles was glad Draven was back, and he and Candy were both as anxious for the wedding night as Draven and I were. Weird, but if it meant being with Draven for eternity, I was willing to make sacrifices.

“Something’s wrong,” Draven said seriously, pulling me out of my happy place in his arms.

“No!” I said, snapping upright to stare into his eyes. “It’s over. Everything’s perfect now!” I insisted, willing it to be true.

He shook his head gravely and turned toward the black limousine pulling into the yard.

“No!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet. “No! No! No!”

An ominous silence followed my tantrum but the outburst had already alarmed everyone in the house. Soon they all appeared on the front porch, each staring cautiously at the approaching vehicle.

I looked around for the nearest object to use as a stake but paused when the back door of the limousine closed. There stood a gorgeous white-haired vampire with turquoise eyes. His short hair spiked upward, and he wore a tuxedo.

“I’m not too late, am I?” he asked.

Draven stared at the man like he was seeing a ghost. Minutes ticked by before he finally moved to greet the visitor. “Damion, old friend. You look different…again.”

After a sudden movement behind me, I heard the screen door open and close, but I didn’t turn to see who’d just went inside. I felt too confused and interested by what was taking place in the yard.

“Yes,” the man continued. “I heard all about what happened, well, parts of it, at any rate. Unfortunately, I was driven underground for a stay. Apparently, someone had put a hit on my head, and I spent that time trying to figure out why. That led me to you.”

“I don’t understand,” Draven said.

Damion shook his head slowly. “You always were too trusting, Draven. That’s what I like about you. Boys!” he called, turning toward the car.

When the three bounty hunters stepped out, I kicked a spindle off the porch railing and ran to Draven. I stood in front of him, furiously waving the stick at the men. “Touch him and die!”

All three muffled a nervous laugh before Josh, the head man, finally cleared his throat and spoke. “We are not here for Draven, ma’am, and we apologize for the…mistake that occurred the last time you saw us. That is why we are here now.”

“That was truly impressive, my love,” Draven whispered into my ear as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek from behind, “but please, put it down.”

My heart raced. I had a death grip on the stake, but I let him slowly pry the stick out of my rigid fingers and he tossed it aside. With the stake out of sight, all the vampires in the perimeter seemed to relax a little. 

“Now,” Damion said with a kind smile directed at me. “As for what happened, it’s the most curious thing. Someone put out a hit on me, as I said, but then someone took over my castle to impersonate me, if you will. That’s when I ran into these boys. They told me a wild story that I’d had you brought in. Crazy, isn’t it?”

Draven looked at me curiously.

I shook my head. “It wasn’t Anna. She freaked when I told her someone was going to kill you.”

“My suspicion is that the imposter had never planned on killing Draven at all. He just wanted to get to you, Elizabeth.”

“No,” I insisted. “She really didn’t know Draven was being held by anyone.”

“That may be true,” Damion said, “but someone else wanted you and I both dead.”

I sucked in my breath and held it, trying to block off the blood flow to my brain so I wouldn’t have to hear anymore. I felt like a fragile doll that might break into pieces if I heard another word. Knowing that another person wanted me dead was more than I could handle. I wasn’t a bad person! I didn’t deserve this!

“I had a visitor the other night,” Damion continued. “Alexander, one of the Elders, found me, and he told me that he knew who was really responsible.”

I exhaled and listened more carefully at the mention of Alexander. He’d said he admired Draven, and I had sensed even in that dark castle that he truly did want to help.

“Excuse me.” The head bounty hunter brushed past me and walked into the house. He returned carrying Charles over his shoulder and then set him on his feet in front of us. “Do you have something to say?” he asked angrily.