Fateful 2-Fractured by Cheri Schmidt Read Free Book Online Page A

sensed that
he was still angry. Probably with Alex. She realized that knights
held to very high moral standards, and Max had remained true to
that just as he held true to Beon’s Order. It was impossible to
miss the fact that it encompassed every aspect of his nature. Yet
Alex had betrayed it—had betrayed them.
    “What happened with Alex anyway?” Ethan
asked this time.
    It appeared Max wasn’t quite as patient with
Ethan as he’d been with Danielle. “I can’t do this if you’re going
to talk all night. Now be quiet, both of you. We can discuss all of
this later. Go to sleep, little mortals,” Max scolded, but then
softened his wrath with a smirk.
    Danielle’s attention shifted to Ethan, she
could feel his breath radiating into her hair as he pressed his
lips to it. Shuddering as his warmth tickled her skin, she closed
her eyes. This man, her man, was also a member of the Order, and he
displayed the same knightly loyalty as Max.
    Cedric’s complaints about Ethan’s faltering
propriety came to mind as he snuggled closer to her body, his bent
knees fitting into the bend of the back of hers. Danielle rolled to
face him. “How is this even remotely appropriate for a gentleman?”
she whispered, hoping Max wouldn’t yell at her for talking right
after he’d told them to be quiet.
    “It’s not, but I don’t bloody care right
now. I could have lost you tonight. The horrible thought continues
to disturb me. I need to be next to you.” His fingers slid along
her cheek as he spoke.
    “This stupid war,” she muttered against his
chest, knowing her lack of understanding in the matter was part of
why Max thought of her as a youth. War just wasn’t part of her
world, her peaceful, spoiled world.
    “You’re finally taking this seriously?”
Ethan asked.
    “I guess so.” She quietly searched for
Ethan’s lips with hers, hoping to distract herself from the truth.
And knew Ethan was all for it when he responded so readily.
    But it seemed Max had no patience for that
either, because he then revised his demands. “I’m not listening to
you two mess around all night. I said sleep…. If you can’t behave
I’ll just leave, and I will drag Ethan with me,” he warned curtly
but quietly.
    They settled for cuddling instead, and slept
the rest of the night like that.
     
    Max woke them just as the sun was
about to peek above the horizon. “Now it is time to go, Ethan. They can’t find you here.”
Forcefully, the knight lifted Ethan from the bed by the front of
his shirt. Ethan rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stumbled, as he
wasn’t steady on his feet yet. Danielle had never seen him groggy
like that before. There was a boyish innocence about him with his
hair a mess and his clothes rumpled.
    He smiled sleepily at her as Max instructed
him to hang onto his neck preparing to jump from the window.
    “I’ll come get you later,” Ethan said.
    Danielle nodded as she followed them to the
window.
    She watched as Max climbed over the
windowsill and dropped into the morning darkness with Ethan. She
then noticed Beon standing outside, ready to take the morning shift
of watching over her. He nodded at her while she slid the window
shut.
     
    “Beon wants to have another ... Order
council. He’s changing the security arrangements,” Ethan said as
she settled into his car later that day after her classes.
    “Those are kind of intense,” she
complained.
    “I know, but you just barely survived your
fourth vampire attack. It’s a miracle you’re still alive,
Danielle.”
    Four attacks? Could it really be that many?
She thought back: there was Celeste, no before that was Lucas,
then, oh, well she didn’t count Ethan, but she figured he would
count himself. She supposed adding Alex did make it four. Without
commenting on that, however, she said, “Sometimes I wish … oh,
never mind, it’s reckless.”
    “Tell me.”
    “I’ve never thought like this before, and I
never thought I would. But sometimes I think it