The Immortal Truth (The Immortal Mark Book 2)

by Amy Sparling

  I would know it from anywhere, because I see one just like it every single day.

  It’s an immortality stone.

  Chapter 6

  I run my fingers across the stone. It could be my imagination but the way the lights roll over the surface of the beautiful blue makes it look like the thing glows, if only for a second. Like it’s got power inside of it that’s dying to get out.

  “Whatcha doing?” Riley calls out, making me jump. I clutch the book to my chest as I descend the ladder.

  “I found something.”

  “Is it sexy?” she coos, making flirty eyes at me.

  “This isn’t a joke, Riley.” I look toward the door, making sure it’s closed. I’m pretty sure everyone is out at the pool right now, but it doesn’t make me feel better about the idea of being caught. I lower my voice. “The library isn’t off limits, right?” I ask. I can’t remember what Bethany told us on the first day except that the guy’s quarters are a huge no-no.

  “No…” Riley’s eyes widen. She folds down the corner of the page in her vampire book and sets it on a nearby end table. “What do you have?”

  I turn the book over and show her the front cover. Curious, she holds her wrist up to the book, matching her bracelet to the stone on the cover. They look identical. The only thing the book is missing is the intricate silver bracelet wrapping around the stone’s edges.

  “Well open it up!” she whisper-yells.

  I kneel to the floor and put the book on the rug in front of me, keeping my back to the door behind us. Riley sits next to me too, and the air between us fills with anticipation. Could this be the answer we need?

  Slowly, I lift the front cover. It’s much heavier than a normal hardback book. The inside pages are thick and smell musty like the old books at Sterling’s antique book shop. I flip the blank first page. The next page is some kind of title, printed in dark black ink in a language I don’t know. I turn a few more pages and my excitement wanes. They’re all useless to us because none of it is written in English.

  “What language is this?” I whisper.

  Riley frowns as she watches the pages. It appears to be like an encyclopedia, the pages lined with two columns of writing and occasionally there’s a diagram or a drawing. They’re simple drawings, like pie charts and sketches, but it’s nothing we can understand without reading the subtitles.

  “You know what this looks like?” she says, pointing to the heading at the top of a page.

  “Those sorority house letters,” I say. There were quite a few of them near Sterling College.

  “Yep,” Riley says, running her fingers over the print. “Alpha, Beta, Kappa. Stuff like that.”

  Chills run down my spine. “It’s Greek.”

  “Isn’t that where loverboy went?”

  I shoot her a look because I hate how she won’t call him his real name. “Yes.”

  “Is that where…” she stops, trying to work out how to talk about the subject without talking about it.

  I shrug. Theo said ancient alchemists created the immortality stone. I wasn’t exactly an A-student in school, so I have no idea if Greece was considered a home of alchemy back in the middle ages. I sigh, my shoulders falling. I am just a stupid teenager. I don’t know anything about life or history or science. How the hell can I even hope to solve this problem? A few weeks ago I didn’t even know immortality exists. I am stupid. I am worthless.

  And I definitely don’t know Greek.

  “We’re so screwed,” I whisper.

  “We are not,” Riley says, grabbing my arm. “Theo will help us.” Her voice is the faintest whisper, but it fills be with a new hope.

  I nod slightly and turn the page on the book.

  A full page drawing fills the left side. It’s an outline of two human bodies standing side by side. One has a circle drawn on the chest, the other has the same circle on the chest, but little jagged lines are drawn around it. Greek writing explains what’s going on, but I don’t need to read it to understand. These are the immortality stones. This is the information we need.

  “Do you see this?” I whisper.

  Riley’s phone beeps and she leans over to check it. “Shit,” she says, scrambling to her feet. “Put that back.”

  I lean over and look at her phone, seeing a text from Kyle.

  The boss is looking for you two. Be warned, he’ll probably want you to come swimming. ;-)

  “Shit!” I jump up and close the book. The library might not be off limits, but this book would raise some questions, especially if Alexo saw us attempting to read it.

  I rush over to the ladder and scale it quickly, my former fear of heights diminishing in place of the real fear of Alexo. The book slides back into its place easily. I push myself several feet away and let the ladder roll to a section of cookbooks and encyclopedias. Two seconds later, the tall library door opens.

  “There they are,” says Alexo. He sounds pleased, not angry so I hope he doesn’t know what we were up to.

  “You have such a great selection of teen books,” Riley says. I climb down the ladder and walk over to join her, trying really hard to make it seem like I’m not hiding anything. You’d think I’d be good at it by now, but I’m still scared shitless anytime I’m around another immortal guy in this house.

  “She’s really into vampires,” I say over the lump in my throat.

  Alexo is impeccably dressed, as usual. Today he’s in a charcoal gray suit with a deep blue tie. “Vampires,” he says, lifting an eyebrow. “Good luck finding one of those in real life.”

  Riley chuckles. “Yeah…too bad that magic stuff isn’t real. Of course, I’d be all over Harry Potter if he was real. He’s better than a vampire, I think.”

  She does it so effortlessly, all of this shallow small talk that makes us seem innocent and in the dark about reality. All I can do is stand there next to her, my heart pounding like crazy, while she covers for both of us.

  Alexo’s thin lips twist into a smile. “There’s a pool party outside. The music is a little…loud for my taste, but the whole gang is there. I wanted to extend an invitation to the both of you.”

  “Oh…that sounds fun,” Riley says. “We actually planned on going down there soon.”

  “Excellent,” Alexo says. He turns his gaze to me. “I spoke with Theo this morning. He’s doing well.”

  “That’s good,” I say, exhaling slowly.

  Alexo’s knowing grin softens. “He’s very fond of you.”

  “Oh?” I say. I mean, I know he is, but it’s kind of cool to hear Alexo say it, although I do worry that he has some kind of ulterior motive.

  He nods once. “I’ll see you outside. Feel free to bring some better music. Something without so much screaming and techno garbage added in. I miss the days of real music played on real instruments.”

  Riley fakes a charming laugh. “I can do that. Jayla’s music is usually of the trashy night club variety. I don’t like it at all.”

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Alexo says, his smile as charming as his voice. “See you soon.”

  Chapter 7

  It’s Sunday and all the guys are home. All of them except the one I care about, who is still traveling and attempting to find a way to save us. It’s been another week, another seven days of loafing around this mansion and missing Theo like crazy. I simply can’t take it anymore. Every morning I wake up and check my phone and every morning he’s texted me something vague and sweet, but it never says he’s on his way home. My life has somehow become more boring since finding out I’m about to die.

  A relationship through text messages and long distance trips might work out for some couples. It’d even work out for me if the guy I was dating was just some normal loser from Sterling. If I didn’t really care about him, this would be fine. But I care about Theo more than I’ve ever even dreamed of caring about another guy. It’s never been like this before. I’ve never had crush this strong. I’ve never felt so completely empty when I was separ
ated from someone. It’s like I’ve been turned into some lovesick idiot straight out of a romantic comedy. Like I’m Rapunzel locked in a tower and desperately going crazy waiting for my prince to come save me, but all he ever does is send me text messages saying he’ll save me one day. Ugh.

  Normally I get by fine each day. I hang out with Riley and we do stuff to take the boredom away. It always seems like we’re the only ones here since the guys are usually gone and the other girls keep to themselves. But today, the guys are actually home and, they’re all hanging out outside on the massive covered stone patio that overlooks the infinity pool.

  When we woke up this morning and Jayla and the other girls weren’t already out here, Rile and I decided to claim the pool as our own and have a pool day. Then Kyle and Russell appeared with beers and meat for the grill. Now Henry and Alexo are here too, all sitting under the patio while we swim in the pool. It would have been rude to get up and leave when they arrived, so we stayed. Now I’m thinking it’s even weirder that we’re here, living this lie of being perfectly happy.

  It’s like we’re one big happy family, except we’re not. Riley and I can’t exactly get up and leave without a good explanation, plus it’s scorching hot today and the pool is beautiful and refreshing so I like being out here. The guys are all very nice, and I used to like and respect them. You know, until I realized they were immortals, and now it’s hard to look at them the same way. Even Kyle, sweet and innocent Kyle who is the youngest immortal of the group, he’s still aware of what’s going on here and that makes him an enemy as well.

  The other bad thing about being around the guys is that Riley and I have to be actresses the whole time. We keep our conversations light and stupid, chatting about what we imagine teenage girls would talk about if they weren’t aware of their own impending death. Riley even goes off talking about how Ryan Reynolds is the hottest actor ever, and I can’t even contribute to the conversation because I’m too busy thinking that Theo is the hottest guy ever, hands down, of all time forever and ever. Of course, thinking about him only makes me sad, so I end up sitting in the shallow end of the pool, my arms resting on the stairs while I gaze out at the landscape below us.

  “Cara,” Alexo calls out in his honeyed voice. I realize now that I recognize what his voice reminds me of. Those old black and white movies where the men were always in suits and the women were always in housewife dresses with perfectly curled hair. He sounds like one of those guys.

  I turn around, fake smile plastered on my face. “Yes?”

  Even outside in the middle of the summer, Alexo wears a black fitted suit, his shoulder length black hair slicked back like he’s the villain in an action movie.

  He nods toward the house. “I think I just heard the car drop someone off.”

  He gives me a playful wink and it feels like all the happiness that left with Theo is suddenly back again.

  “I’ll be back,” I tell Riley as I launch myself out of the pool. She rolls her eyes and waves me away. One of the servers leans down and hands her a fruity frozen drink with an umbrella in it.

  “Would you like one too, miss?” the woman asks me.

  “No thanks,” I say, as I look around for my towel. Where the hell is it? Then I remember I never even grabbed one when I came down here. I was too distracted thinking about Theo to remember a towel. Stupid, stupid.

  In the distance, I see Theo step out onto the patio. He’s wearing jeans and his signature black shirt, with dark sunglasses.

  “Theo!” I call out, unable to hide my excitement. I run along the side of the pool, up the three stairs to the patio, and then I run straight into his arms.

  “Whoa,” Theo says as I leap up, wrapping my arms around his neck, my legs around his torso. “Hey there,” he says, holding on to me. Water drips down to the stone pavers beneath our feet, and it occurs to me a second too late that I am sopping wet in a hot pink bikini and Theo is fully dressed. At least my hair is pulled up in a messy bun, so it’s dry.

  I lean back and kiss him, still latched on him like a spider monkey. “Sorry I’m wet,” I say.

  He grins and glances behind me. “Maybe you should get down,” he whispers.

  “Why?” I say, but I climb off of him and land on my feet. Then I see what he was looking at. Everyone is watching us. Even Kyle, who’s manning the grill is turned toward us, spatula in hand, jaw open.

  Oh my God, I’m so embarrassed.

  I clear my throat and run my hands down Theo’s mussed up shirt. “Sorry about that,” I say.

  I’ve got him all wet, but the wettest part is right on his chest where the padding in my bikini top pressed against him and squished out water. “I’m…really really sorry,” I say. “I was just excited to see you.”

  His head dips toward mine, that sly smirk on his face. “It’s not a problem, love.”

  “Burgers are almost ready,” Kyle calls out. “You want one?”

  Theo looks at me, lifting a brow. “You want to eat here?”

  “Not if we can eat somewhere alone,” I whisper, giving him a look that means I want to talk about his trip, not exactly run off to make out, but that we should pretend that’s what we’re doing. It’s a lot of emotions to convey in one look, so he probably doesn’t get it.

  Theo winks at me, then looks up to Kyle. “No thanks. I think we’ll hit up Cara’s favorite diner in town.”

  “Cool beans, man,” Kyle says, going back to the grill.

  I turn to Riley, who waves me away without a second thought. Normally I’d feel bad ditching her to hang out with my boyfriend, but she knows as well as I do that Theo has information for us. We can’t both leave to talk to him because that would be suspicious.

  “Where’s your towel?” Theo asks.

  “I forgot it,” I say with a shrug.

  “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” he says as he opens the door to the house and steps back for me to go first.

  “Shut up.”

  In my room, I close the door and then grab the small dry erase board Riley got for us the other day. We use it to write messages to each other that we can’t say aloud. Theo eyes me curiously as I quickly write out: I wish we could talk right now, dammit!

  His smile softens and he takes the board and marker from me.

  “We should get dressed,” he says while he writes. “You look hot as hell in that bikini, but if we’re going to lunch you should probably put on normal clothes.”

  He turns the board to me, where he’s written: No way to fix you yet. I did learn some interesting stuff though.

  Right after I read it, he wipes it clean with his hand. My heart sinks. No fix yet.

  “We should definitely go to lunch,” I say, hating how weak my voice sounds. “I feel like I could eat my feelings right about now.”

  Theo’s fingers slide down my cheek as he gazes at me. “Don’t stress.”

  My eyes drop to the floor. “Easier said than done.”

  The air conditioner kicks on and blasts me with cold air, sending chills all over my body. I shiver and Theo takes off his shirt, then uses it to wipe the water off my face and arms. I watch his chest flex and move, the immortality necklace staying perfectly in place over his sternum. “A towel would probably do a better job of this,” he says, frowning.

  I laugh. “Yeah, but I like seeing you take care of me.”

  “Oh, I’ll take care of you,” he says, his voice deeper than usual. He gives me a sexy look and my insides melt. My face must be red by now, too.

  “Shut up,” I say, rolling my eyes to lighten the mood. I head into my closet and quickly find some shorts, a new pair of panties, a bra, and a shirt. I bundle them all up into a ball and then step back into my room. “You should go get a new shirt so I can get ready,” I tell him as I walk toward my bathroom.

  “How long is that going to take?” He tosses his wet shirt over his shoulder and I focus on the immortality necklace around his neck so that his muscular chest doesn’t derail my thoughts.

&nbs
p; “Just a few minutes. I need to get makeup and stuff.”

  He frowns. “That’s going to take forever. Just throw on some clothes and let’s go.”

  I shake my head. “I look like shit and I still smell like sunscreen.”

  “You look fucking amazing Cara, and sunscreen is good for you because we’ll be out in the sun. Especially if we take your new bike, which I figured we would so I can give you lessons.”

  I get excited at the idea of riding my bike again, but still, I feel all gross and ugly right now. I heave a sigh. “Ten minutes.”

  Something dark falls from the clothing in my arms. Theo grabs it, lifting the pair of my black lacy panties in the air. “You dropped this,” he says with a smirk.

  Okay, I am definitely red now. I snatch it from his hands and ball them in my fist. “Thank you,” I say sarcastically as I turn toward my bathroom. “I’ll be out in ten minutes.”

  “Make it fifteen and I can join you,” he says. I’m not sure if he’s playing or not, but suddenly I am too nervous to function properly. The idea of showering with Theo is…well…awesome. But I’m not sure I’m up to that right now.

  Theo puts his hands on either side of the bathroom door and drops his head down to mine. His eyes shine with mischief as he kisses me. “It is so easy to get you flustered,” he whispers, then kisses me again.

  “I hate you,” I whisper playfully.

  “You love me,” he says just before he plans a kiss on my lips. “I’ll be back in ten.”

  I nod slightly and watch him leave. Every fiber of my body is alight with desire. If it weren’t for the immortally bracelet beating him to it, this boy would be the death of me.

  Chapter 8

  Theo and I take the new motorcycle out to a high school parking lot. Since it’s summer and school is out, there’s no one here and the vast open space will be good to learn how to ride this thing. This time Theo insisted that I wear a helmet since I’d be driving by myself. I tell myself I’m excited to learn how to ride this thing all the way up until Theo and I climb off the bike and he motions for me to get on it.