Chapter
32
The next day, Elena called the
furniture store and asked if it was possible to have their order
delivered that night. The salesman said he didn’t think so, but
after asking her name, he quickly changed his mind and assured her
that it would be there by nightfall. She was grinning when she hung
up the phone. Amazing, she thought, the miracles that could be
obtained just by mentioning the Sherrad name.
They were arranging the furniture in
the nursery later that night when the doorbell rang.
Elena looked at Drake. “Are you
expecting someone?”
He shook his head and turned away, but
not before she saw the worry in his eyes.
She followed him down the stairs,
hanging back a little when he opened the door.
It was Andrei.
“Is something wrong?” Drake asked after
inviting his brother inside.
“Liliana has returned to the Fortress,”
Andrei replied. “I thought you would want to know.”
Drake lifted one brow. “You came here
to tell me that?”
“No.” Andrei nodded at Elena before
returning his attention to his brother. “Stefan has left the
Coven.”
“Where has he gone?”
Andrei shook his head. “No one seems to
know.”
“When did this happen?”
“I am not sure. I have been busy
looking after Katiya and making sure your new rules are upheld.
Cullin has claimed Marta for his own. She is now living in his
apartment. I was not aware that Stefan was missing until Liam
informed me last night. The last time anyone remembers seeing
Stefan was four nights ago.”
“Perhaps he has gone hunting,” Drake
suggested.
Andrei sat on a corner of the coffee
table. “He would not leave the Fortress without telling someone. I
thought perhaps he had come here.”
“No. I have not seen him.”
“Katiya thinks . . .”
“Thinks what?” Drake
asked.
“That with you and me being happily
married, and our wives pregnant . . .”
“You told Katiya about Stefan?” Drake
asked sharply.
Andrei shrugged. “Not
intentionally.”
“What about Stefan?” Elena asked,
perching on the arm of the sofa. “Oh!”
Drake looked at her, his eyes narrowed.
“Oh, what?”
“He’s the son, isn’t he? The one who
got a girl pregnant and the girl and the baby died.”
“Katiya told you that?” Drake
asked.
“She didn’t mention his name when she
told me. She didn’t know which brother it was.”
“Well, she seems to know now,” Drake
muttered. “Dammit!” He paced the floor from one end to the
other.
“Do you have any idea where he might
go?” Andrei asked.
“He once talked about going to
America,” Drake replied.
“America!” Andrei exclaimed. “Do you
really think he would go that far?”
“Would that be so bad?” Elena asked,
glancing from Drake to Andrei and back again.
“He would have no one to protect him
there,” Drake said. “No place to go should he be injured or in need
of refuge.”
Elena was contemplating what Drake had
said when there was a ripple in the air, like lightning before a
storm, and Liliana appeared in front of the hearth. She looked like
an ice princess in a long white gown, her blond hair streaming down
her back, her pale face like something carved from
ivory.
She glared at Drake. “This is all your
fault!” she cried. “Had you accepted your responsibility to Katiya
and the Coven, Stefan would not have run away.”
“He ran away because he is still
grieving for a woman my father refused to allow him to wed,” Drake
retorted. “Had my father been less of a tyrant, Stefan would be
here now.” Even as he spoke the words, he wondered if Katiya had
the truth of it, and that Stefan had left the Fortress because he
couldn’t abide being around Katiya and Andrei because they were
constant reminders of what he had lost.
“Your father knew what was best for our
people, best for the Coven. You have changed our laws, laws that
made our people strong. You are nothing like your father,” Liliana
said, her voice dripping with malice.
“Well, thank goodness for that,” Elena
exclaimed, then clapped her hand over her mouth.
Andrei grinned, then quickly covered it
with a cough.
Drake laughed out loud.
Liliana glared at Drake. “If anything
happens to Stefan, it will be on your head.” Her voice was every
bit as cold and unforgiving as her expression.
“So be it,” Drake said, his voice
equally cool. “Go home.”
Tension flowed between Drake and his
mother, so strong that Elena was surprised the room didn’t burst
into flame.
Liliana scorched them all with a final
glance and then, with a wave of her hand, she was gone as if she
had never been there.
“Well, she is going to be loads of fun
to live with now,” Andrei muttered.
“If you hear anything of Stefan, you
will let me know immediately,” Drake said.
“Sure.” Andrei smiled at Elena. “Good
to see you again, sister. Married life seems to agree with
you.”
“It does indeed.” Rising, she slipped
her arm around Drake’s waist. “Tell Katiya hello for
me.”
“Will do,” Andrei said, and then he,
too, was gone.
“Must be fun, being able to zap
yourself wherever you want to go, just like that,” Elena said with
a snap of her fingers.
“It has its advantages.” Drake kissed
her cheek. “I hope Stefan will be all right.”
Elena nodded. “Are you really worried
about his safety?”
“I am confident he can take care of
himself.”
“But you’re still worried.” She sat on
the sofa, one leg curled beneath her.
“Yes.” He dragged his hand over his
jaw, his expression thoughtful. “Stefan has spent most of his life
at the Fortress. He has never had to defend himself, never had to
make any effort to hide what he is, with one
exception.”
“When he fell in love with a mortal
girl?”
“Yes.”
“Was she one of the
sheep?”
“No. He had gone to Bucharest with my
brother, Ciprian. Stefan met Cosmina in a nightclub. When Ciprian
returned to the Fortress, Stefan stayed behind. I do not know the
full story of all that happened, only that Cosmina became pregnant
and passed away. It never should have happened. Stefan was not old
enough to father a child.”
“Maybe he was just mature for his age,”
Elena mused.
“Perhaps. He has not been with a woman
since then.”
“Hmm.”
“What does that mean?” he asked, taking
a seat beside her.
“Have you been with a lot of
women?”
Drake stared at her, taken aback by the
question and wondering why she hadn’t asked it before. And how he
was going to answer it now.
“Well?” Elena asked.
“Define a lot.”
“More than . . . ?” She paused. He was
five hundred years old, handsome, virile, charming. A chick magnet.
If he’d been with just one woman a year . . . the number was
staggering.
He laughed softly as he drew her into
his arms. “I do not remember any of them.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Believe me,” he said, his finger
tracing the curve of her cheek. “I have not looked at any other
woman, or wanted any other woman, since you came into my
life.”
She gazed into his eyes, those deep,
dark, penetrating eyes, and knew he was telling her the
truth.
The next few weeks passed without
incident. With the nursery ready, Elena went shopping for baby
clothes. With Drake’s money behind her, nothing was out of reach.
She bought fluffy pink blankets, diapers, nightgowns in a variety
of colors, booties and socks, hooded towels and washcloths. Baby
shampoo and soap and powder. And dresses. Dozens of pink dresses in
varying sizes. And one delicate lace dress in white for the baby’s
blessing.
In addition to baby clothes, she bought
maternity clothes for herself. It seemed she grew hungrier and
heavier with every passing day, and even though she told herself
she was eating for two, she began to worry that she would outgrow
her smocks.
Drake had laughed when she’d told him
that.
“Well, it could happen,” she lamented.
“I’m as big as a horse.”
“Nonsense.”
“Well, I feel as big as a horse.”
“You are beautiful, more beautiful than
ever. And I shall love you whether you weigh a hundred pounds or a
thousand.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “I’ll
hold you to that.”
She was happy, happier than she had
ever been. She loved the castle, loved being pregnant, loved her
husband.
Life was perfect, she thought as she
drove into town to buy groceries. Better than perfect. It was
paradise.
She nodded at people she knew on the
street, took a few minutes to chat with the owner of the grocery
store.
She was walking back to her car when
she saw the headline in the local paper.
FORMER CHIEF OF POLICE ESCAPES BORSA CASTLE
Elena pressed her hands over her
swollen belly as she read the headline again. And then
again.
Paradise was gone, she thought
numbly.
The snake had returned.