Read Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) for Free Online Page B

this?!”  She quickly hopped back out of the tub. 
    Alex was confused too.  He knew as well as she did that, as
a Vampire, the temperature of the water should not have been too much for her. 
She loved her baths to be steaming hot. It should not have hurt her.
    “What is happening to me?” she sobbed.
    He pulled her into his arms. “I’m sure it’s nothing. 
You’re just tired, that’s all.”  But Alex knew that wasn’t it. 
    He was holding her tightly to his chest, and she couldn’t
see the worried look on his face.
    ∞∞∞
    Alex put a robe on and wrapped his wife in the fluffy terry
robe she usually only wore after a bath.  He guided her into the bedroom with
his hands reassuringly on her shoulders.  They both stopped in their tracks
when they saw Sara standing at the French doors with Aurora’s shoes still
hanging at her side.
    “Sara?” Alex said.
    The young woman didn’t respond or appear to hear him at
all.
    “Sara!” He called sharply. 
    She startled and turned her wide eyes to him. “Sir?” Her
voice was shaking.
    Just then a brilliant flash of light backlit her from
outside the window.
    “What?” Alex and Aurora both walked to the glass. 
    Sara turned back as well, and they all stared in wonder and
a little fear, mostly on Sara’s part, at the spectacle taking place in the
sky.  White flashes of light were everywhere they looked.  It was like
lightning flashing behind the clouds except there were no clouds or lightning
and no thunder broke the quiet.  There was only sky and light.
    Sara forgot herself and grasped Alex’s arm.  “What is it?”
She sounded on the verge of crying.
    Alex barely noticed that she was touching him.  His mouth
was open, and he didn’t even try to answer her.  Aurora was holding his other
arm lightly.  She too could only stare. 
    Alex tried to think of something soothing to say.  He
wanted to be strong for the woman, but like Aurora, he had begun to feel a
little weak.  He was already getting a little dizzy, when the ground shook.  The
floor shifted under his feet, and he stumbled, both women stumbling with him. 
    They caught themselves before falling, and Alex just had
time to think that they were nowhere near an area prone to earthquakes, when
another trembler hit them.  He could hear glass shattering all over the house,
and the door in front of them burst from its warping frame, shattering the
panes and showering them with slivers of glass.
    An ear-splitting cracking sound boomed in the bedroom, and
the floor tilted beneath their feet.  They fell flat on their asses and started
sliding on the sloping floor toward the interior wall.  Alex grabbed Sara and
Aurora and started back-pedaling, getting a little traction on the hardwoods
with his bare feet.  But as he scooted closer to the opening where the balcony
door had been, his feet started sliding on the bits of broken glass that acted
like razor sharp gravel causing him to lose traction and worse yet, making his
feet bleed so that the floor was now slick with his blood, as well. 
    They all instinctively looked toward the opening to the
outside as if it was their only escape.  Just then the entire sky filled with a
brilliant light, not just a flash, but a light that illuminated the world as
far as they could see.  It surrounded them until they could not see anything
else.  They were blinded in pure light and then they lost consciousness. They
slid down the broken floor into the collapsing house. 

 
    seven
    Destiny woke to the pain of her injuries.  It was daylight
at the mouth of the cave.  She gingerly probed her ribs and found that although
they were obviously healing they still hurt like hell.  Her wrist felt a little
better though and she flexed it just enough to check the range of motion. 
    She shifted a little on the rock to try and relieve some of
the stiffness that had settled on her as she slept. 
    She’d been dreaming of her parents, of the night the entire
world