Immortal Cascade 01 Immortal Companion

by Carol Roi

  Title: Immortal Companion

  Author: Carol ROI

  Category: Crossover Highlander/The Sentinel/X-files

  Rating: R

  Immortal Companion

  Part 1

  Jim Ellison pulled his truck into a parking space in back of the loft. An expression of mild irritation crossed his face as he glared at the dark green Jeep Cherokee parked in the space clearly marked "Tenants Only". In his head, he clearly heard his partner's voice chastising him for his uncharitable thoughts. "But Jim, we are getting a new neighbor…" About time too. The noise from the renovation of the living space across the hall from the loft he shared with Blair Sandburg had been driving his heightened senses batty for weeks. First it had been the noise and the dust from the contractors, then the harsh odors of paint and varnish. All the activity had ended a week ago, but there had been no sign of the new occupant. Perhaps they were finally moving in, he decided, giving the owner of the Jeep the benefit of the doubt.

  Cocking his head to one side, he made a quick check of the building, and heard no sound from either the loft or the apartment across the hall. Well, maybe the Jeep was parked illegally. He did find it a little strange that Sandburg wasn't home yet, as it was going on 7pm, but Jim supposed he could have been held up at the university, getting ready for the start of the summer semester.

  He was reaching for the key to switch off the ignition when the police radio crackled to life. "All units…robbery in progress at the corner of Prospect and 53rd. Suspect is armed, possible hostage situation." Jim picked up the microphone to respond to the call as he backed the truck out and sped toward the location three blocks away.

  Extending his hearing, he clearly heard a single shot, and his gut clenched in terror. He knew, he just knew his guide was in trouble.

  ****

  Blair Sandburg hitched his backpack higher on his shoulder and turned the corner toward the loft. Pushing a strand of sweat dampened hair off his forehead, he scanned the street for his partner's blue and white pickup. Good, Jim wasn't home yet. That gave him plenty of time to head to the grocery for the items he needed for dinner tonight. Heading around the side of the building toward the entrance, he literally ran into a tall woman carrying an armload of boxes.

  Both of them grabbed for the tumbling cartons, only succeeding in dumping their contents to the ground. "Ow!" Blair exclaimed, as one particularly large tome landed on his foot.

  "I'm so sorry!" the woman apologized as she knelt to pick up the scattered books. "I didn't see you! Are you all right?"

  She glanced up at him then, and Blair found himself looking into the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. Jim's eyes were blue, and so were his own, but her eyes were…electric, that was it, electric blue. As he stared, her lips curved and parted in a million-watt smile. "Um yeah, I'm okay," he managed to mumble. Remembering his manners, he bent down to help her. "I'm Blair Sandburg, and if you're moving in, you must be our new neighbor."

  The dark haired woman extended her hand across the box she was rapidly filling. "I'm Diandra Pallas. I'm moving into 308."

  "Which is right across the hall from Jim and me." He grabbed a couple books and shoved them in a carton. "Do you need any help getting the rest of your stuff upstairs?"

  "Thanks for the offer, but I only have a few more boxes in my Cherokee. The movers took care of most of it this morning."

  "I'll help you with whatever you have left," Blair volunteered, gathering up his now full box and getting to his feet. He followed Diandra into the building, his eyes taking in the long chocolate hair swept up in a French braid, the white tank top clinging damply to her well muscled back and shoulders, and the trim hips and legs filling out a pair of cutoffs like she had been poured into them. She appeared to be about his age or a few years older. He wondered if she was single.

  On the ride up in the elevator, Blair racked his brain for a topic of conversation more intelligent than asking if this was her first time in Cascade. Glancing down at the top book in the box he was carrying, he grinned. "Hey, I read this book, Daughters of Artemis, a couple of years ago for an undergrad class. I thought it was fascinating."

  Diandra raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh really? What class would require you to read a fictionalized account of life among the Greek Amazons?"

  Blair felt his cheeks grow hot. This was so not where he'd wanted this conversation to head. "I…um, took a Women's Studies class…and it was one of the required books…."

  She was grinning at him now, enjoying watching him squirm. "And you took the class because you thought it would be an easy 'A' and you could meet women?"

  Man, she had him pegged. His blush deepened. "Yeah, but it didn't quite work out that way. I had to write more papers for that class than any other that semester, and I found out that a lot of the women in the class were…um,…let's just say they embraced the values that Daughters of Artemis espoused."

  She was laughing, a deep, throaty chuckle that made Blair's predicament worse. Now he was embarrassed and turned on. "Is that a polite way of saying they were lesbians?" she asked.

  "Uh, well, not exactly." He was saved from further humiliation by the elevator doors opening. As they walked down the hall to her apartment, he tried changing the subject. "So, is this your first time in Cascade?"

  She opened the door and gestured with her head for him to go inside. "Yes, actually it is. I've lived quite a number of different places, but I've found myself spending the majority of it in the Pacific Northwest the last couple of years."

  Following her lead, Blair set his box down on a dining room table already covered with cartons and took a look around her apartment. It was twice the size of the loft, having been converted from two apartments into one. The entrance opened into a combination living room/dining area and the kitchen was to the right of the front door, separated from the dining area by a tall counter. A large bookshelf and entertainment center separated the living area from an airy open space in the middle of the loft. It reminded Blair of a dance studio, with a wood floor, and mirrors along one wall, while the opposite wall was lined with French doors leading to a balcony similar to the one in the loft. Large boxes and sheet-covered furniture were jumbled across the open area, but Blair doubted that was their permanent location. A spiral staircase at the opposite end of the studio led to the upper level of the apartment, and he figured the bedroom must be up there. The wall under the upper level had a door at either end, and the expanse of blank wall in between the doors was covered with racks or brackets of different sizes. Idly he wondered what would eventually hang from them.

  "Wow, this is so cool. Way bigger than Jim's place," Blair said.

  Diandra shrugged. "I still have a lot of work to do, but I should get settled before school starts."

  "School?"

  She smiled at him and headed back out into the hallway, waiting while he unlocked the door to the loft and dropped his backpack inside. "I'm teaching at Rainier University."

  "Talk about coincidence! I teach there too! Well, actually I'm a teaching fellow. I'm working on my doctorate in anthropology," he said in explanation.

  "Guess that explains the interest in Amazons then," she said.

  "Oh, I was interested in Amazons long before I decided to study anthropology. My favorite book as a child was Bullfinch's Mythology."

  They exited the building and headed toward Diandra's jeep. She shot him a grin over her shoulder as she opened the back of the truck. "He got most of the myths wrong, you know, especially the ones about the Amazons. All that stuff about a magic girdle was made up." She handed him a case from the stack in the jeep.

  Blair grabbed the handle, wondering what it held. It was long and n
arrow, and reminded him of a music instrument case. "So the Amazons' power didn't come from magic. Then how did Hercules defeat them? For that matter, what was with all the Greek heroes taking Amazon queens for their wives?"

  "Boy, you ask a lot of questions!" She handed him another case, took two for herself, and headed back toward the apartment. "But I will be happy to answer them. It'll get me back in practice for lecturing. First of all, who says Hercules defeated them?"

  Blair stared at her, suddenly tongue-tied. "Uh, everyone…?"

  Diandra shook her head, a strand of hair escaping from her braid and flying into her eyes with the motion. She blew it out of the way, and stabbed at the elevator button with her elbow. "Think about it, Blair. What was the position of women in Greek society 2500 years ago?"

  He pondered the question for a moment. "Barely more than slaves."

  "And what would a society that treated its women as chattel think of a society of entirely self sufficient women warriors? Don't you think that would have rankled quite a bit, especially with the male heads of state? It rankled so much so that their society and exploits were downplayed and down right lied about by the writers of the time. The writers were in the employ of said royalty, royalty who didn't want it wrote down for posterity that their great army was defeated by a bunch of mere women. Same thing goes for the marrying the queen thing. What better way to advertise your machismo and virility than to claim to bed an Amazon?"

  "And people say I can lecture at the drop of a hat!" Blair laughed as they exited the elevator.

  "Sorry, it's just that the Amazon society is near and dear to my heart. I wrote Daughters of Artemis under a pen name, but it was based on my doctoral thesis, which exploded most if not all of the false myths about their society. Unfortunately, most universities have looked upon my work the way the Greek patriarchal society looked at the Amazons. Rainier is actually one of the first that wants me to teach my 'revisionist' Greek history."

  Inside the apartment, Blair followed her across the open floor and stacked his cases on top of hers in front of the wall with the brackets. "You wrote Daughters of Artemis? I read that book at least ten years ago…you were a child prodigy?"

  Laughing, she gave him that smile again, the one that made him feel like she was full of secrets she would willingly share if only he could figure out the right questions to ask. "I wear my years well," was her cryptic reply. "Besides, didn't your mother ever tell you it was impolite to ask a woman her age?"

  They finished moving the rest of her boxes upstairs, bantering good naturedly about a variety of subjects. When they were through, Diandra dug a couple of tumblers out of a box and offered him a drink of water. Blair accepted, and she poured them both a glass from a bottle she took from the fridge. He couldn't help but notice that the bottled water was the only item in there.

  "I guess you haven't had time to get to the grocery yet. There's a little market a couple blocks from here. I have to pick up some stuff myself, and I'd be happy to go with you and show you where it is."

  "Great! Let me just grab my wallet and freshen up a little and I'll be right with you," she replied.

  "How about I meet you in the hall? I need to grab my list and money too." Seeing her nod in response, Blair bounced across to the loft, unable to contain his delight. What a beautiful, wonderful, fascinating, intelligent woman! And with any luck, Jim would be tied up at work, and he could invite Diandra to dinner. Oh, man, Jim! What if once she met Jim she lost all interest in him? If what she had said about her age was true, she was probably closer to Jim's age than his. "Stop it, Blair, just stop it!" he told himself fiercely. "Jeez, you've just met the woman and already you're planning her role in this soap opera you call your life. It's only a trip to the grocery store for god's sake. Everything has gone perfect up 'til now. Nothing is going to go wrong." Still, he couldn't seem to entirely get rid of the feeling that something momentous, and bad, was about to happen.

  ****

  Racing toward the crime scene, Jim focused his hearing outward, straining to hear if his guide was all right, or, please god, not involved at all. What he heard made him press the accelerator closer to the floor.

  A woman was speaking, her voice filled with concern. "You're going to be fine, Blair." The sentinel recognized the strangled moan that followed as his guide's. The woman spoke again, strain evident in her voice, "Sorry, Lobo, I know this hurts worse than getting shot…"

  A weak "Jim…" followed another groan from Sandburg

  "Shhh….It's going to be okay, mi corazon." The woman's voice was a soft whisper, barely audible above Blair's fading heartbeat.

  Ellison brought the pickup to a sliding stop in front of the market. A black and white was already parked in front, and he could hear sirens in the distance. Leaping out of the vehicle, he sprinted towards the store acknowledging the uniformed officer's shout of "All clear, ambulance on the way!" with a nod.

  The sight just inside the door was a scene from Jim's worst nightmare. His guide was sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood, his eyes wide and staring, an expression of fear and pain etched on his features. A dark-haired woman knelt next to him, her hands over his heart. As she turned her face toward him, Jim had a brief glimpse of her eyes, two brilliant, blue flames, before they rolled back in her head and she pitched forward over Blair in a dead faint. Jim felt himself falling into the long spaces between his guide's heartbeats, helpless to stop the zone out. If Blair died, he didn't want to come back.

  ****

  Dee headed up the spiral staircase to change her clothes. Sighing as she reached the top, she surveyed the bedroom's jumbled contents. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep up here tonight, not with the bed frame in pieces and the mattresses leaning against one wall, effectively blocking the entrance to the bathroom.

  Digging through some boxes, she found a pair of jeans and proceeded to change, thinking back over her meeting with Blair Sandburg. What a shock that had been! She should have known, though, that nothing about her life would ever be normal again, after the events of the past two years. But Blair had been a huge surprise in spite of her knowledge that the fates had cursed her to live in "interesting times." When she had looked up at him after he had run into her, Dee had automatically opened up her "other" sight, a habit drilled into her from her youth, and had almost been knocked on her butt. It had been like walking from a pitch-black room out into the desert sun. His soul shone like a beacon, its siren call beckoning her. She had closed her "other" sight then, but she had seen enough to know he was a companion, bound to a champion, though the bond was new, only a couple of years old at most, and nowhere near its potential power. Nor did Dee think he fully understood his own potential. She had picked up on the feeling he thought of himself as a sidekick, an appendage, almost a hindrance, to his champion, rather than an equal.

  She tried to remember the last time she had run into a champion/companion pair. It had been in the South Pacific, she knew, but what year? Dee shrugged. It would come to her, it always did. Startled, she sucked in a lungful of air. Her thoughts had sounded just like Lydia then, and despite her best efforts to push the vision away, the image of the tiny, red-haired warrior danced in her mind. She shook her head. She had gone years without thinking about her, and now it seemed like everywhere she turned she was reminded of her. It didn't help matters any that her last student had been the spitting image of the Amazon Queen, and if Diandra hadn't known better she'd have sworn Dana had her soul too. Too bad Lydia's soul was no longer joined to her own; it certainly would have saved her a good deal of heartache if it had been. "Guess it really is until death do us part," she murmured.

  Diandra came back to the present with a start. "Blair must think I fell in a black hole," she said aloud. Tucking a few loose tendrils of hair back in her braid, she was turning to head downstairs when her raincoat lying over the top of a box caught her eye. She debated putting it on for the short trip to the store. Goddess, Blair and the memories he was stirring up re
ally had her rattled; she was forgetting the most important lesson she taught her students, always be prepared.

  Shrugging on the long, lightweight duster, she descended the stairs. Pausing in front of the stack of cases Blair had helped her carry up from her car, she selected the top case and opened it. Dee ran her fingers over the smooth, ancient wood of the scabbard, then lifted it out of its velvet resting-place. Drawing the katana from its sheath, she moved through a few passes, before tucking it away in the custom holder inside her trench coat.

  She glanced around the apartment again. It would be a long night, trying to get things organized. As she walked out into the hallway, she decided to clean up the studio first, that way, she could work out in the morning, something she hadn't had time for while preparing for the move.

  Blair was waiting for her just outside the door marked 307. He gave her attire a curious look.

  "It's supposed to rain tonight," Dee said with a shrug.

  "And you believe in being prepared?" Blair responded as they entered the elevator.

  "Always," she said with a smile.

  Reaching the street, they walked at an easy pace down the sidewalk, Diandra noting that he quickly matched his strides to hers, despite their difference in height. "So, you're a grad student. You must be pretty close to getting your doctorate if they're already turning you loose in the classroom."