Immortal Transition

by K J Carr

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Reading Order

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Author's Notes

  Other Books

  Immortal

  Transition

  Immortal Transformation

  Book 2

  K J Carr

  Copyright © 2018 K J Carr

  All rights reserved.

  Thank you for purchasing and/or downloading this book. It is the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and/or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes without express written permission from the author.

  Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales, is purely coincidental. The characters are creations of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Cover design by Covers by Cherith - https://www.facebook.com/shreddedpotatoart

  Reading Order

  Immortal Decisions is the first book of this series. It tells of the circumstances around Nica’s Transition decision.

  This book, Immortal Transition, is the official second book of the series and follows on what happened in Immortal Decisions.

  There is a book that is sort of between the two, though. Achilah tells of what happened between Decisions and Transition. It also gives you some background into who Achilah is, and why he might be going after Nica.

  There are also other hints about Nica’s story.

  I suggest that if you haven’t read Achilah, you pick it up. It is a novella and a quick read. Achilah will also run in parallel with the events in this book, so you could also read it after this one, if you rather.

  Chapter 1

  A frown of concentration crossed the man’s face in front of me as he twirled the staff he held around swiftly to strike at me. I brought mine up to meet his.

  Twack!

  My shoulder ached. He was hitting hard, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could continue to hold him off.

  Click! Clack! Twack!

  His staff whirled, almost faster than I could track. Damn it! I lifted my hands, barely keeping up. The sweat trickled down my face, soaking my already wet T-shirt. The sun was hot, and I was moving slower after what seemed like days of fighting.

  The dark devil in front of me grinned and attacked again, pushing me back two steps, and then another. I raised my staff to counter his attacks, but I was at the end of my endurance.

  His staff struck, coming down swiftly towards my shoulder. I knew that if this didn’t break something, it would hurt like hell.

  “Hold.”

  The avenging staff stopped a mere inch above my skin. I instantly dropped to the grass as if he had hit me, rolling onto my back, my lungs struggling to keep up with my need for air.

  “I didn’t hit you.” The dark devil stood over me, his lips turned down into a frown.

  I looked up at him, shaking my head back and forth on the ground.

  My weapons instructor, Ridwan, pushed a few strands of black hair back from his rugged face. His stormy gray eyes twinkled down at me, the colors shifting from light to dark and back. He was about six feet tall, but from my prone position, he looked to be a giant. He flexed, causing muscles to pop out in places they really wouldn’t for a normal person.

  Ridwan was one of my Guidance — or Hyrs — Tennin. The other half of the bonded pair, Inias, was standing a few feet away under a tree, in the shade, so that the sun would not mar his extremely fair complexion. His white blond hair was perfectly styled; a drop of sweat wouldn’t dare drip down his chiseled face. He was as tall as Ridwan and he stood with his arms crossed over his lean but muscular chest.

  These two were training me during my Transition time. I had first met them, five years ago, when I had made my decision to transition to a Tennin and to embrace immortality and all that it meant. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it turned out, at least for me, there really wasn’t much of a decision at all. Daemons had targeted my family. This I couldn’t stand for. Add to it, I started to develop strange powers like telepathy and teleportation. Bingo – one Transitioner, ready-made.

  It didn’t take me long to discover that bonded for the Hyrs did not mean a sexual bond. Perhaps some of them were, but these two training me definitely were not attracted to each other. Ridwan was quite a bit of a flirt, not getting serious with any of the many women he was seeing. Inias was more reserved, but I had seen him with company of the female persuasion a time or ten.

  My thoughts drifted towards the other Tennin I knew, Malak, as my heart slowed, and I found breathing was a tad easier. Malak had been the Tennin to approach me, to ask me if I wanted to be immortal. Malak, a Kri-Tennin or Messenger, told me that Enoch, his Jyrd-Tennin General, was not happy that he still came around to talk with me. He was my friend in this weird new world I found myself in and I am glad he wasn’t content to just leave me to flounder like Enoch the Bastard wanted me to.

  I exhaled loudly, my eyes drifting closed. Okay, Enoch probably wasn’t a bastard, but he was a cold fish. He didn’t appear often, except to listen to one of the others, make a proclamation, and then leave. Malak told me he was very interested in me, but I really couldn’t tell otherwise. Personally? I thought he hated me, because I wasn’t following the standard transition template.

  “Don’t you have a party to get to?” Ridwan’s baritone was soft in my ear.

  Nope. He didn’t startle me this time. I had felt the air move gently against my arm just a moment before. Huh. Guess I was getting better at sensing things. Perhaps it was all of those exercises I was forced to perform while blindfolded.

  “Don’t remind me. I am now sixty-five. See how you treat sixty-five-year-old women?” I lifted my hand, holding the staff, my arm shaking with exhaustion.

  Ridwan laughed. “You are so much stronger, faster, and leaner now than when we started, Nica.” The warmth in his voice caused my heart to beat a little faster. “Besides, you have never looked anywhere near your age.”

  I opened one eye and glared at him. “Don’t you know? Black don’t…”

  “Crack.” He said with me sighing dramatically.

  “True.” I grumbled, opening my other eye and turning towards him, grinning. “As far as the other, it still takes me a long time for me to recover.”

  Over his shoulder, I watched Inias saunter over, his shadow passing over our faces.

  “It might at that, but you are better now than then. And you will be better still at seventy.”

  “About that…” I peered up at him, wondering if he would answer this question. Inias tended to just not answer things when I asked if he felt that I didn’t need to know the answers. “Why do most humans deteriorate at this age, but I am just getting…. better? Or is this something to do with the fact I am going to Transition?”

  Inias put out a hand towards me. I looked at it and then at Ridwan, who kept his face blank for some reason. I looked back at the hand and then sat up, taking it. Inias easily pulled me up, to stand before him. Ridwan remained lying on the ground, h
is body sprawled between us.

  “It is simple science, Jennica.” I just couldn’t get him to call me anything else. Dickhead. “When you use what you have, it gets stronger and better. Most humans believe that they cannot improve the older they get, so they can’t. They stop using their brains, so their minds go. They stop using their bodies, pushing themselves, so they deteriorate. You were starting to go that way. We have pushed your limits, and reset your biological clock, at least a little bit. You are now a better human for it, but seriously, any human can do this.”

  Ridwan rolled up from the ground gracefully, turning to put one arm around my shoulder. “We have made you a better person, Nica! You should give us both a kiss!”

  I stepped out from under that sweaty arm, grimacing, and shook my head. “Seriously, dude? Shouldn’t I get some of the credit here?”

  Inias frowned at me. “Would you have trained so hard if Malak hadn’t come to invite you to become Tennin?” Point to him, I guess.

  He continued. “Would you be able to run several miles, lift the weights you can, or work with a staff like you just did without us?” Damn it, second point to him. Ridwan lifted two fingers silently, wagging them at me, smirking.

  “Would your vertigo have lessened without me to help with your inner ear?” Inias concluded. I had to give it to him, he didn’t brag about it or sound all high-and-mighty, but it still made me cringe in embarrassment.

  Ridwan lifted the third finger, chuckled, and dropped his other arm around my shoulder, walking me towards my car. Inias fell into step with us. Guess I lost that round. Again. Damn it!

  “Okay, Inias. You are right. I probably would have done none of those things.” I conceded.

  Ridwan shook me slightly. “Stop rolling your eyes, Nica. I can hear them rattling around in their sockets from here.”

  Inias shook his head. “Even when you apologize, you are not contrite.” He eyed me from the corner of his eye, putting out his hand for my keys.

  “Nope, not today!” In a sing-song voice, I skipped around to the driver’s side door. “It’s my birthday and I’ll drive if I want to!” I sang, paraphrasing an old song.

  The men stopped and looked at each other, the looks long suffering. I am not sure if they are sorry they have me as their trainee, or happy because it is not the same as all the other times they had to train people. Personally, I didn’t care. At my age, there is no way I was going to be someone artificial. This was who I was, and they could take it or leave it.

  I started my fire engine red vintage Mustang and they quickly opened the doors, Ridwan diving into the back, while Inias efficiently folded his six-foot, two-inch body into the front. I didn’t even have to remind them that I would leave them here, given even the slightest chance. Since they were Tennins, though, it didn’t matter in the long run, since they could either teleport or fly to my house, but that wasn’t the issue. It was the fact that I even thought about leaving them here that burned them.

  “First stop is home. I have got to change into something a little less gross. Kaitie would kill me if I showed up looking and smelling like this.”

  “Word.” The sound floated over the seat from the back.

  I peeled out of the parking lot and then slammed on my brakes right before reaching the road. Both men were flung forward in the car.

  I grinned, looked both ways, and then sedately started driving down the road. “Seat belts!” I sung out.

  They quickly moved to belt themselves in.

  Chapter 2

  Entering my brother’s diner, Luther’s, I saw my best friend sitting at our booth near the back. Her new boy-toy…I mean, boyfriend… was sitting beside her. Torry was her Tennin guard. She rated one since the daemons had started targeting my friends and family once I had decided to transition. Well, even before then.

  It pissed me off that he was playing the boyfriend card and getting her emotionally involved with him. I didn’t think he felt the same way about her, which meant he would break her heart when he left her, but Malak had vouched for him. He had mentioned that Torry would let her down easy once it was time for him to leave. Still, Kaitie was so in lust with him, I couldn’t say anything. So, for now, he stayed.

  Torry looked like a six-foot, Scottish surfer dude. Yeah, he had a real-life Scottish burr.

  His blond hair was long enough to touch his shoulders and his green eyes sparkled. Like most Tennin, the boy was built – powerful chest, slim waist, long lean muscular legs. Enough to make any woman drool.

  Kaitie, on the other hand, was a quintessential sixties hippie girl. Long brown hair braided down her back with a bow at the end, long full skirts and sandals. Her one concession to that era were the cute fitted tops she liked to wear.

  She ran a new age shop downtown, both storefront and on-line, and specialized in tarot and astrology readings. While she had people come in to do most of those, she did have her own clientele for tarot readings. She made a very good living doing something I used to think of as fluff.

  Before I had made it to the booth, though, I was lifted and swung around in a tight hug. “Happy Birthday, Nica!”

  Malak kissed my cheek and slid me gently back to the floor, his mouth grinning wide. I grinned back.

  Malak was my Kri-Tennin. He had come to ask me if I wanted to transition and become Tennin, which basically meant I would become immortal.

  He had been with me when the daemon, Achilah, had possessed Marcus, my brother. Achilah, the evil asshole, had attacked Kaitie and me. I had exorcised the daemon somehow, saving both my friend and my brother.

  Malak had been searching for that damn daemon since. Enoch, his boss and General, didn’t tell him not to, but I don’t think he wanted Malak to spend a lot of time on the search. He also didn’t want to waste other resources looking for that creep.

  Achilah appeared to have gone into hiding, since I hadn’t been attacked much lately. He had mostly just sent a few weaker daemons after me – ones that were easily dispatched by the Tennins.

  I suspected he wouldn’t go away easily. The darn daemon was probably planning something big. I just was getting tired of waiting.

  “Malak.” Disapproval dripped in Inias’s voice. It was my opinion that he thought Malak was trying to undermine the Hyrs work. Kri’s generally didn’t stay around after they had a Yes answer to the immortality question, but I was personally glad mine had.

  Malak had become my best guy friend, which irked Inias for some reason.

  Ridwan, on the other hand, greeted Malak with one of those man-shakes. Those two were buddies and that made me happy. I just wished Inias would unbend a little so that we all could hang out together a time or two. That would be so cool.

  Then again, I think there is a story there between the three of them that had nothing to do with me. One day, I would make one of them tell me, but now was not the time.

  Malak held up a package. “I couldn’t let her sixty-fifth birthday pass without a gift, Inias.” He smirked, adding, “And, I am even carrying something from Enoch.”

  Say what? My head whipped around to stare at Inias, my eyes wide. He looked just as surprised. I checked Ridwan, but he didn’t seem to be disturbed.

  Ridwan lifted his hands and took out his hair tie, working to pull his hair back neatly. It snapped suddenly, and he flinched.

  Millie, our most experienced server, paused as she walked past him, pulling out two ties, and handing one to him and a second to me, since I had left my curls loose to dry.

  “Thanks, Millie.” He blew her a kiss. Millie just waved it off and continued to the counter.

  “Ha! Your flirting doesn’t work with her, Thing Two.” I chortled.

  Ridwan looked at Malak. “This is new. Thing Two?”

  “You rhymed! You’re a poet and didn’t even know it!” I giggled as I walked over to the booth.

  “What now, Nica?” Kaitie stood and gave me a hug.

  I pointed at Ridwan. “Thing Two.” I slid into the seat, moving all the way o
ver. “Hi, Torry.”

  Kaitie sat down and pointed at Inias. “Thing One?”

  Inias slid in beside me on the bench, with Ridwan taking the chair at the end of the table. Malak stood, studying the tight space, a frown on his face.

  “Yep.”

  Teresa pulled another chair over, kicked at Ridwan’s until he scooted closer to Inias, almost blocking him in, and then set it down near Torry. Malak grinned at her in thanks, sitting down. Teresa rolled her eyes, mouthed “Boys” towards me and turned away. I smirked at Malak.

  Kaitie studied Inias. “Does he roll his eyes ever?” She mocked whispered to me.

  “I swear he is doing it now. Us puny humans cannot see it but the magnificent and awesome Inias’s eyes are rolling around in his head this very moment.”

  And with that, we got an actual eye roll from the reserved Tennin.

  Kaitie and I died laughing. Poking Inias has become one of our favorite pastimes whenever we were all together. I swear he enjoyed it as much as we did, except he would hold out as long as he could.

  I could see a slight thawing in his attitude since he first started working with me. It was slow, but it was happening.

  Ridwan has thanked me several times for it – in private, of course. It meant he got to be more relaxed since Inias could be quite uptight. I personally took this as a challenge, because that is just who I am.

  I heard singing coming closer and I dropped my head to the table with a thunk.

  “Dessert before meal on birthdays!” Kaitie happily quipped before joining in singing with the others.

  I peeked up to see Millie, Teresa, Marcus and a few of the other servers join our table, singing loudly. I swear, every single one of them were trying to embarrass me!

  Not to say, most of those in the restaurant who thought themselves as regulars, were also singing along, albeit staying at their tables. I am pretty sure that many of those regulars made reservations months in advance so that they are here to sing to me.