Harland had tossed the new wood onto the fire too quickly. One of the already burning logs had rolled out onto the floor, and started a small fire on the rug. In one swift motion, Harland grabbed the burning wood with his bare hands, and tossed it back into the fireplace, while he stomped out the burning embers on the carpet.
Bram was staring at him, wide-eyed. He grabbed Harland’s hands, and pulled him down the hall to the washroom sink. Bram turned the water on, full-blast, and plunged Harland’s coal-blackened hands into the cold water.
“If you didn’t need a doctor before, you bloody well do now, you damn fool,” Bram said, as he held Harland’s hands under the tap.
“It doesn’t hurt, Bram,” Harland said.
“It will soon, trust me,” Bram said. He took a towel from the linen cabinet and, gently, began to blot Harland’s hands dry. The white towel was swiftly covered in soot, and Harland’s hands were covered in blisters.
Bram jerked his head back in shock; almost as soon as his eyes fell on a blister, it disappeared.
“What in heavens? Harland, have a look at this,” Bram said, but almost before his words were out, Harland’s skin had healed itself, each blister retreating back under the skin, leaving his hands the color and texture of a newborn baby’s.
EIGHT
One block south of King’s Road, Isi and the Immortals had taken up temporary residence in a furnished three bedroom flat. After they had left Harland Fergusson outside of the Rose Tavern, they had walked down every side street, and stopped at the first building that advertised rooms for rent. Exhausted from their journey, all of them had fallen asleep quickly, almost as soon as they’d walked in the door.
The next day, the morning sunlight was streaming into the parlor, and Isi came into the room carrying a tray with a pot of tea, and four mugs.
“Now that we’ve had some rest,” Isi said, “I suggest that we get ourselves as caffeinated as possible. We’ve got a long day ahead of us, gentlemen. First, we’ve got to stop down at the docks, and see if we can find passage to America. Then, depending on how long we have to stay here before we can leave, I think at least one of you should try to get a job. I brought some antique money with me, so that we could purchase the appropriate clothing, and have enough left over to book our fare to America, but that money will go quickly, so, if we have to wait, we work.”
Afon nodded in agreement, but Nanook and Jian looked confused.
“Excuse me, Dr. Nizienko, but President Mortterra is my main concern,” Jian said. “The man could be coming after us, at any moment, as soon as he figures out that we switched the machines.”
“That’s precisely why we must keep moving, Jian. But we didn’t use the Infinmachine just to save ourselves, that’s Mortterra’s gig, we came back here with a mission, and we can only start our work in America,” Isi said. “Henry Ford is about to invent the combustible engine that powers the automobile. We need to find him, and stop him. The global warming that destroyed most of the world in our time, can be traced all the way back to this man’s invention. Fossil fuels from cars have almost killed the planet, so why don’t we stop the car from being invented?”
Nanook and Jian shared a look, and Nanook burst out laughing.
“Isi, Jian is too polite to say so, but have you lost your mind?” Nanook said. “Even if we can stop Henry Ford from inventing the car, someone else will just come along and take his place.”
“That’s true, Nanook, but stopping Ford is only one part of our plan. By the time someone else invents the automobile, we will have removed the source of gas for that invention,” Isi said. “Look, I don’t think we should discuss all of this now. You men trusted me with your lives once, and I did not fail you, but part of the reason that plan was successful was its secrecy. None of you knew all of what would happen the night that you were supposed to be executed, but all of you knew enough to trust me. I am asking for your trust again. This needs to be done one careful step at a time, okay?”
Afon was sitting next to Isi, and took her hand in his. “Trust her guys, just as you trust me. Jian is right to worry about Ignis Mortterra, and his goons, chasing us, but if one of us is taken prisoner by the AmEur Alliance, it is better that we know as little as possible, so the rest of us are not endangered,” Afon said. “But we can’t spend our time here running from ghosts … we haven’t seen Mortterra, or any of his soldiers, yet, so let’s focus on our mission.”
“Afon is right,” Jian said, “we didn’t travel through time just to stop our own executions, we came back here to stop global warming from destroying the world. If we spend all of our time worrying about ourselves, we’re no better than Mortterra. He wanted to go back in time to become a millionaire by selling the nanobot technology, while letting his own citizens die. I think that we are no better, if we focus on our own safety, instead of focusing on the safety of the world.”
“All right, you can count me in,” Nanook chuckled. “Isi, it occurs to me though, can Mortterra even get back here to chase us, if he wants to? Are we sure that he didn’t step into the Recycler and die, without realizing that we’d switched the machines on him?”
“That is a very good question, Nanook,” Isi said. “Unfortunately, no, there is no way for us to know anything going on in 2112. President Mortterra may have taken the bait, stepped into the Recycler, and died … or he might be alive and well, and coming after us; there is no way for us to know for certain.”
Isi sighed, “My assistant, George Murphy, was working with me on a communication device that would have allowed us to talk to him, no matter what time period we landed in. But we weren’t able to finish the design before Mortterra set your execution date, which pushed everything forward, and put some constraints on our work here that we should discuss …”
Isi’s voice trailed off, and she looked around the room. Afon was next to her, loyal as always, but Nanook and Jian were perched on the edge of the sofa in the parlor, eager for her next words. Nanook spoke for both of them, “What constraints are you talking about Isi?”
“Well, for one, it is entirely possible that we may not be able to return to 2112,” Isi said. “The Infinmachine that helped us to travel to 1888 may no longer exist, and if we lose her signal, if Mortterra realizes what we’ve done and destroys the machine, we’d not only be unable to get back home, we couldn’t travel any where … we’d be stuck. I think this is quite unlikely though, since Mortterra would be unable to escape himself, if he destroyed the Infinmachine. The global food supply in 2112 is on the brink of exhaustion, and President Mortterra knows this; he didn’t just want to travel a hundred years back in time, so that he could be rich, he wants a chance to live, just like the rest of us. While revenge is a powerful motivator, survival is even more powerful, and Mortterra will not destroy the Infinmachine … I think.”
Nanook leaned forward and said, “Go on, Isi, there’s more, isn’t there?”
Isi nodded, and reached into the small velvet drawstring bag that she’d secreted in one of the pockets of her lab coat on the day they’d left 2112. She pulled out four stainless steel objects, each the size and thickness of a playing card.
“These are your transponders, gentlemen,” Isi said. “Each one, when activated, will send a signal to the Infinmachine that will cause everything within a five-foot radius to transport to the time and place that you enter. We could all use these separately, and travel separately, but I think that we can do more good if we stick together, and work as a team.”
Isi handed a transponder to each of the three Immortals, and kept one for her.
“Now, if Ignis Mortterra does send any soldiers after us,” Isi said, “we are prepared to split up. Four tracks through time are much harder to trace than one.”
Afon shook his head, and handed his transponder back to Isi.
“If we are under attack, there is no way on Earth that I would leave you,” Afon said. “You should keep this Isi and if I have a need to travel, I will travel with you.”
“No, Afon, you need to keep that. All four of us will stick together for as long as possible,” Isi said, “but we’ve got to have the ability to run, if we need to. As long as one of you three Immortal men are still alive, there’s still a chance for the world to be saved. We stick together and do our work, but if Mortterra comes after us, we need to be able to split up, and fend for ourselves.”
Afon stared at Isi, trying to silently tell her that his only purpose in this world was to be with her, to protect her. This Earth can go to hell, as long as you are safe, my love, Afon thought. He did not speak, he wouldn’t challenge her in front of the others, but if the time ever came when he had to choose between Isi and the world, he had already made his choice.
Nanook broke the tension and said, “By the way, about last night … are you sure that Harland will be okay? All three of us took a lot of blood out of him, Isi. Are you sure that we didn’t kill the guy? He was painfully naïve, and little too verbose, but I still liked the man.”
“He will probably be a little weak for a few days,” Isi said, “but yes, I’m sure he will make a full recovery. The only thing that concerns me is his memory. Hopefully, the sudden blood loss will be enough of a trauma to make him forget what happened, if not … well, that’s one more reason for us to get to America, as quickly as possible. We still need to travel by boat though, I’d rather not make it too obvious that we’re on our way to Detroit.”
“If I may speak frankly,” Jian said, “I would rather not do what we did to Harland, to anyone. Is there not a hospital where we could procure our blood, Dr. Nizienko?”
Isi shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jian. There really is no way around it. I’m afraid that, in this time and place, you men must get your food the old fashioned way. And, in the future, you also have to fully drain your prey, to use an indelicate term. We can’t afford to have any more people running around with the kind of memory that we may have left Harland with, last night. If the AmEur Alliance does come after us, we can’t leave such an easy to follow trail. I know that it will be difficult, but you all have to start understanding just how valuable you are. If we fail on this mission, the human race will go extinct, no second chances once the planet dies. The few humans that will have to sacrifice their lives, so that you can live, will be part of saving billions upon billions of lives in the future.”
“But they won’t know that, Isi,” Jian said. “Any soldier would gladly make the kind of sacrifice that you’re proposing, but the people we’ll be draining aren’t soldiers. They won’t even have the chance to know that they’re heroes.”
“Jian, actually, all of you, listen to me,” Isi said. “The choice that you’ll be making when you drain someone, is going to be the least complicated moral quandary that you will find yourself in, on our journey. We have to keep the greater good in mind, because, believe me, there will be many more times when you will be tempted to view the fate of one man, as more important than the fate of all men, and none of us can afford to do that. We have to do whatever is necessary to stop the development of the car, and prevent the pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Ignis Mortterra wanted the Infinmachine so that he could get rich by selling our technology, but he also wanted to go back in time just so he could live. He is not a stupid man, he’s focused on his own survival, and if we want to defeat him, we must be just as focused on protecting our own lives. If any of you don’t agree, say so now, and we will have a friendly parting of the ways.”
Isi looked each of the Immortals in the eye, gauging their level of commitment. No one spoke, no one looked away.
“Okay then,” Isi said, “let’s get a move on. We’ll go to the docks and book our fares. Hopefully, there is a ship leaving soon. We don’t know if Harland Fergusson has reported us to the police, or if he’s trying to find us, so the more quickly we book passage to America, the better.”
NINE
July 1888
Detroit, Michigan
Isi stared out the window, focusing on the rain. The trees were bending, branches pulled down to graze the ground, briefly, before bouncing back up to the sky. The wind here was like nothing she had ever seen; unimpeded by mountains, the gusts of air in the Midwestern United States had their way with the landscape.
The sudden clattering of hail against the roof brought Afon to the window.
“I’m not so sure that we should risk the carriage in this weather,” Afon said. “Don’t you think you can arrange to have your accidental, on-purpose, run in with Henry Ford on some other evening?”
“Absolutely, just tell me when the next Edison Illumination Ball is happening; you know, the next scheduled time for Detroit to celebrate the light bulb, and I’ll get right on that,” Isi said.
A brief moment of contact – the bare skin between her glove and the sleeve of her dress, gently met the silk of his housecoat – and the underlying tenderness of their conversation came to the fore. Afon was a man in a position that no man should ever be in: he was sending the woman he loved off into the night, and hoping that she successfully seduced another man. Even though he agreed with her plan, in principle, it was taking every ounce of willpower that he possessed to stop himself from stopping her.
Afon could so easily imagine turning to face Isi, who was standing next to him at the window, looking out at the rain. He could let his eyes linger on the small scar above her upper lip, the sweet salty softness of her sweat when it clings there, encasing imperfection with radiance. He could call her to him, take every fantasy and force it through the air to her until she could see, and sometimes even feel, what he was thinking.
Most unimproved humans have had some minor version of this experience. Standing next to the person that they desire, energy is exchanged, and the people are drawn closer together, like two complementary magnets. Sometimes, once in a great while, once when there is a great love, one person can hear a whisper of the thoughts of their beloved. Meeting in a dream, their spirits freed to do that which their minds prevent when conscious, two can become one, and explore together in a dimension where the unwritten notes of music sing.
Even if I were normal, we’d still be able to do this, she and I, Afon thought. She is my one, my other half, a deep enough connection to travel through the white noise surrounding most ordinary humans. But it’s so much more fun like this, Afon smiled, so much more fun being powerfully abnormal.
Isi gasped as a wisp of air deftly moved across her lips, and continued down onto her neck, then lower, tracing the rim of her dress above her cleavage, exerting enough pressure to let her know that this was no unconscious wind.
Isi continued to stare out the window, not displaying any sign that she had been affected by Afon’s mental caresses. Not moving, not even blinking, she said, “Stop it.”
Afon hesitated for a moment, then saw the slight upturn at the corners of Isi’s lips, and moved his eyes down so sharply that the shoulders of Isi’s dress slid down her arms and exposed the top of her breasts.
Isi gasped again, and fixed Afon with a fiercely withering glare, but made no move to pull her dress back into place.
“You’re going to make me late, you know,” Isi sighed.
Afon stepped behind her and, finally, touched her with his corporeal hands. He bent down to her, his lips grazed the top of the fine hairs that ran along the back of her neck. His fingertips ran down the side of her hips, and carried the rest of her dress to the floor.
“Just say the word and I’ll stop Isi,” Afon murmured, the warm air of his breathing tickling her neck.
Isi pulled her bottom lip under her teeth, and put one hand up against the glass. Closing her eyes, she whispered, “I’m sure the carriage might be a bit delayed by the storm …”
She shuddered then, like a bolt of electricity had gone through her, setting every nerve on fire.
Two miles away, a thick branch be
nt backward with the green suppleness of youth, and stretched itself until it delicately brushed the side of the tree where it had been attached all of its life … a gentle kiss goodbye.
A great cracking sound echoed down to the driver of an empty carriage on the road below. He mistook the sound for lightning, and urged his frightened horses forward, intent on picking up his passenger on time. No need to be delayed by electricity on the way to a ball celebrating the darn thing, the driver thought, and whipped the horses forward, just as a huge branch detached itself from a tree above and landed directly in the carriages path.
The driver muttered a string of curses regarding the incomparable idiocy of horses, rats with hooves, while he struggled to turn the carriage around, and find a new way to his waiting passenger’s house.
The horses expected no thanks for saving the driver’s life, and never even thought of insulting the continuous idiocy of humans; they were too busy staring at the empty space in the stormy sky where the branch had once been, and where they had seen a bolt of lightning, in the shape of a human hand, rip the branch from the tree.
TEN
I stand, always, with my children that stand with me.
Look to my daughters, their hands caressing the dirt and bringing forth life. My wisdom flows through them.
Look for my blood, my descendents. They walk the Earth in quiet ways, a moss buried deep in the forest, but when riled to act, they can summon all of the energy in the universe and direct it at their command. They are the last of my special legion of soldiers, the most powerful defenders of nature, my own Secret Service and private army rolled into one.
You call them witches. They are tapping into the source of all life and that scares you humans; life, itself, scares you now.
Immortal Earth (Vampires For Earth Book 1) Page 5
