Immortal

by V. K. Forrest

“An hour, is all. Sweer by our Mahter’s grave.”

  Fin frowned. “Your mother’s not dead. I’ve met her. She’s as charming as you two. So you’ve only been here an hour?” He glanced at Regan. “How about before that? Say two weeks ago?”

  “No.”

  Fin stepped back. “Two weeks before that?”

  Asher sat up. “I tell you, we’re jus’ passin’ t’rough. Haven’t been here b’fore.”

  “Where you headed?”

  Asher hesitated. Arlan growled and took a step closer.

  Asher’s eyes widened. “Goin’ to New York. Do a li’l business for our daddy.”

  Fin hesitated for a moment. “Okay. So get the hell out of Clare Point and don’t let me catch you here again.”

  Gad got to his feet and offered his hand to his brother. Regan stepped out of his way to let the men pass. They walked out of the arcade and down the hall. Regan waited to hear the heavy back door close before he looked at Fin.

  “Thanks, bro.” He wiped his bloody mouth with the back of his hand and glanced at the dog. “You, too, Arlan.”

  The dog sat back on his haunches.

  Regan glanced back at his brother. “You don’t think they could have had anything to do with the murders, do you?”

  “Nah, they were telling the truth.” Fin gingerly touched the cut over his eyebrow. The bleeding had almost stopped.

  Regan grimaced and took a step toward Fin. “Looks like you could use a stitch or two there.”

  “I’ll be all right.”

  Regan looked over the rest of his brother’s face. His gaze caught on two puncture wounds on his neck. “Oh, damn. Did he get you?” He touched Fin’s chin, turning his head so he could get a better look.

  “What?” Fin brushed his neck with his fingertips.

  “Right here.” Regan touched the two puncture wounds. “Eww. Gad spit?”

  Fin pushed Regan’s hands away. He looked startled. “Get your hands off me. I don’t know. I’m telling you, he didn’t bite me.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Regan saw Arlan morph back into a man. One second he was a dog, the next second he was standing there in shorts and T-shirt. The only sign that he’d been in a fight was his messy hair. “Look like a bite to you?” He pointed at Fin’s neck.

  “I gotta go. You going to be okay here?” Fin backed away, his hand on his neck, covering the marks.

  “I’ll stay, help him lock up,” Arlan offered.

  Fin took another step back, turned, and hurried down the back hall in the dark. His mouth was dry, his palms damp. What Regan was saying didn’t make sense. Gad hadn’t bitten him; he was positive.

  Which left only one even less believable possibility.

  Chapter 19

  Initially, the teens seemed content to pop a beer and mill around, chatting with each other, but they all knew something was up and slowly each one took a seat on one of the log benches around the fire. One by one, they looked to Kaleigh. Conversations tapered off. Laughter died down.

  “Okay, Kaleigh, out with it.” Joe propped one foot up on the log he was sitting on and opened his third beer.

  “Yeah, come on,” Mary Hill, who they called Minnie, said, tossing her empty beer can in the fire.

  In a way, Kaleigh was relieved they were forcing her into speaking up; otherwise, she would have chickened out.

  “What do you want?” Joe asked. “Because obviously you wanted to talk to us, otherwise you wouldn’t have called us all here.”

  “In the middle of the night, after curfew,” Liz added.

  Kaleigh poked at the fire with a stick. “You knew that’s why I asked you to come?”

  Billy laughed. “Do you mean did we think you were really having a party? Do we look stupid?”

  Kaleigh exhaled, putting down the stick. “I don’t think you’re stupid,” she said. Her voice grew stronger. “But it’s come to my attention that some of you are doing something pretty stupid.” Her gaze moved from one teen to the next, lingering on certain ones.

  Joe groaned and crushed an empty against his forehead. Two more guys followed suit. Kaleigh ignored their juvenile behavior. “It has to stop.”

  “What has to stop?” Joe asked, feigning innocence.

  A couple of the guys snickered. The same ones with beer can dents on their foreheads. Idiots.

  Mary whispered to Liz, just loud enough for Kaleigh to hear. “She’s just pissed because she’s not getting any.”

  “You have to stop going to the parties at Tomboy’s,” Kaleigh said loudly. “At least you have to stop going downstairs into his basement.”

  “So we’re not allowed in basements anymore?”

  Kaleigh eyed Billy. “Not if you’re going to take human blood.”

  There was more whispering. Kaleigh shut out what they were thinking; she could only deal with them on one level at a time. “It’s forbidden and it’s dangerous and you all know it.”

  “If they’re stupid enough to offer their blood, why shouldn’t we be stupid enough to take it?” Billy challenged.

  “Because it’s not good for us.” She met his gaze. “Because it’s not good for the sept’s objectives. And they don’t know what they’re agreeing to. They’re drunk. They’re high. They’re confused teenage humans.”

  “Christ’s bones,” Joe groaned. “You sound like one of the old-timers.”

  “Because I am one of the old-timers.” She looked around at the young, attractive faces she knew so intimately. “And so are each of you. You just don’t entirely remember yet.”

  Everyone was quiet for a minute.

  “Look,” Kaleigh went on. “I know the urges are hard to resist, especially right now when we’re vulnerable because we’ve just been reborn, but you have to fight those urges. You have to try to be the best person you can be.”

  “You mean the best vampire,” Minnie said tartly.

  Kaleigh turned to her. “Absolutely. When we crossed that ocean, when we shipwrecked and dragged ourselves to shore here, we all agreed God had given us a second chance by allowing us to escape the slayers. We agreed to protect His human race, and protecting them does not involve drinking their blood.”

  “Even if they give it freely?”

  “Even if they give it freely.” Kaleigh sighed. “Because we know better, even if they don’t.”

  “So, what? You just want us to give up partying for the summer? Become a goody two-shoes like you?” Joe finished off his beer.

  “I’m asking you to draw a line. You know where the line is.” She met and held Joe’s gaze.

  He looked away first and Kaleigh heaved a sigh of relief. She let a moment pass. The fire snapped and crackled. Thoughts flew back and forth between the teens.

  I don’t know why she always thinks she’s in charge.

  She’s right, you know. You just don’t want to admit it.

  We were just having a little fun.

  Fun, yeah, right, at some human’s expense.

  “This is serious business, these tourists being murdered,” Kaleigh went on, blocking out everyone’s thoughts again. “I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “You don’t seriously think it’s one of us, do you?” Liz pushed heavy fringed bangs out of her eyes. “I mean, just because we’re stealing a little human blood from some drunk guy doesn’t mean we would murder him.”

  “No, I don’t think it’s one of us.” And Kaleigh truly didn’t. She knew these people too well. She knew none of them had it in them to murder senselessly that way. “But you know how the elders can be.”

  “Judgmental,” someone offered.

  “Exactly. And this is not the time to separate us from them.” Kaleigh propped her foot on the cooler. “Don’t forget, we’ll be one of them in a few short years.”

  “Sweet Mary and Joseph, I hope not,” Katy swore.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Fine,” Joe said when the laughter died down. “So we’ll lay off the blood. It wasn’t all that good anyway. Chicks
who are that drunk, their blood tastes nasty.” He looked at Kaleigh. “So can we at least finish off the beer?”

  She stepped back and opened the lid. “Drink up, and don’t you dare tell your parents where you got it.”

  Victor lay on his back in bed, in the dark, staring at the ceiling.

  Mary rolled over and put her arm around him, snuggling up against him, her naked body pressed to his. He’d been so lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t realized she was awake, too. They lay in silence.

  “You going to tell me, or you going to just keep stewing?” she asked after a few minutes.

  He slipped his arm under her, pulling her close. He liked her soft body pressed against his. He didn’t mind her saggy skin or her wrinkles one bit. Heck, she wasn’t half as wrinkly as he was.

  He remained silent.

  “Victor, I don’t know if you’re the most stubborn man I’ve ever known, but you come close.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” he grumbled.

  “Of course you don’t. You’d rather drag around the house even more contrary than usual and not talk about it because God forbid we should talk about a problem. What if we solved the problem, then what would we have to be contrary about?”

  “Can’t be fixed.”

  She pushed up on the bed, looking down over him. The sheet slipped down, baring her breasts, and the pale light from the backyard security lamp fell over her. To Victor, she was beautiful. Maybe more beautiful than the young wife he had left behind all those years ago. The words soul mate came to mind, but that was crazy. Vampires didn’t have soul mates, did they?

  “You either tell me what’s got you in a stew or you can just get up, put on your droopy drawers, and take yourself home and stay there until you can act like a man.”

  He looked up at her. “You’d kick me out?”

  “Damn right. I’m too old to put up with your nonsense, Victor. Remember, I’ve got twelve hundred years on you, give or take.”

  He didn’t want to smile, but he couldn’t help himself.

  “It’s the Council. They made a decision on our request, didn’t they?”

  He turned his head, not because he couldn’t look at her, but because he didn’t want her to see the moisture that had suddenly gathered in the corners of his eyes. It was embarrassing. “I got the letter in the mail today. All official,” he said sarcastically. “Peigi didn’t even have the decency to call me and tell me.”

  “I thought you said you disconnected your phone again.”

  “Damned telemarketers.”

  “If you disconnected your phone and you avoided Peigi and every other member of—”

  “I didn’t avoid them.”

  “If you avoided every member of the Council for the last week,” Mary finished forcefully for an old, naked broad, “then you can’t expect to have gotten the news any other way. Besides, you told me Peigi told you you’d get a letter stating the Council’s decision.”

  He frowned, still avoiding eye contact with her. “It’s not right. A man ought to be able to marry the woman he, you know…loves.” The word stuck in his throat. It was hard for him to say, but he knew he loved her and he knew if he was going to keep her, he was going to have to be willing to say it sometimes.

  “A lot of things in this world aren’t right,” Mary said softly. She laid her hand on his cheek and turned his head until he was looking up at her. “But who cares about getting married? They can’t stop us from loving each other, can they?”

  “I wanted to marry you,” he said quietly.

  “And I wanted to marry you.” She kissed him. “But some things aren’t possible.”

  He wrapped both arms around her and pulled her down, tight against him. He kissed her temple, thinking, you’d be surprised what’s possible if a stubborn old goat puts his mind to it.

  With some concentration, Fin was able to transport himself through the locked back door of the Rose Cottage. Noiselessly, he moved through the dark house and into Elena’s bedroom. Lying on her side, on top of the sheets, in a silky white nightgown, she cradled her head with her hands as she slept. With her inky hair spilling over the pillow, she looked like an angel, but an angel, he suspected, she was not.

  Fin just stood there for a moment, looking down on her. How did a person start this conversation? Excuse me, ma’am, but are you a vampire? Unless she was, that was going to be a pretty awkward conversation. But there was no other explanation; he had convinced himself of that on the walk over. Gad had not bitten Fin and he had not been with another woman except for Elena in months. He didn’t know how he’d missed the mark on his neck shaving; too busy thinking about what a mess his life was, he supposed. At any rate, impossible as it seemed, Elena was a vampire and Fin hadn’t known it.

  She seemed to sense Fin’s presence and slowly woke, stretching her long arms and legs as she rolled onto her back. Her eyelids fluttered and she lifted her lashes, her dark eyes illuminated by the moonlight pouring through her window.

  “Fin?” she whispered. She sat up suddenly. “Are you all right?”

  It wasn’t until then that he realized he had to be a sight. His clothes were torn and bloodstained and his nose had to be swollen, the way it was throbbing. The cut over his eye had stopped bleeding, but it was crusty and he could smell dog on his clothes.

  “Who are you, Elena? More importantly, what are you?” he asked.

  “How did you get inside? I locked the doors before going to bed.”

  He loomed over her bed, angry, though not sure why. Because she should have told him. But maybe she didn’t know he was a vampire. Some were easy to spot, but others, not so easy. Elena had done a good job blending in with humans, he would give her that. So good that he had not seen through her ruse.

  “Answer my question.”

  “You’re upset with me.” She patted the bed beside her. “Sit down. Let me see that cut. Have you been fighting bad guys again?”

  “What are you, Elena?”

  She looked up at him with those big dark eyes of hers. Looked at him so innocently that he considered taking it all back. Maybe the mark on his neck wasn’t a bite. Maybe…

  He turned on the light beside her bed and then leaned over, baring his neck to show her the punctures. Still, she was silent. She was going to make him say it.

  “You’re a vampire, aren’t you?”

  She was quiet for another second, then met his gaze again. “Yes.”

  He shrank back. She had taken him completely by surprise. Again. He had expected her to laugh, or maybe feign horror at such a suggestion. Perhaps even say he was crazy. But a simple confession? It was the last thing on earth he had anticipated.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” He loomed over her.

  She leaned back on her pillow. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Relief began to flood him. Then almost happiness. For once, he had fallen for a woman who was not off-limits. Elena was like him. Probably different in many ways; vampires around the world were different. But they were alike, too. More alike than different.

  “How could I tell you? You had me completely fooled. I thought you were human.” Fin sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “Fair enough.” She sat up taller, tucking her feet under her. She pushed the hair off his forehead so she could get a better look at the cut above his eye. “Tell me what happened. Who did this to you?”

  “Oh, no. You’re not changing the subject that fast.” He grabbed her hand and held it. “Elena, you have to answer me. How did you know?”

  She exhaled as if it was a silly question. “The Kahills are known all over the world, of course. Avengers of God.” A half-smile. “The only vampires I know with hope,” she whispered.

  He didn’t know what to say. Suddenly, she looked so sad. So vulnerable. “I do know you, then, don’t I?” he said. “I’ve had this feeling since that first night we met on the boardwalk.”

  “Lie with me,” she whispered, pulling him down.

  A
ll at once, Fin was tired. Not just from the day or the fight, but from so much pretending. He kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed beside her.

  Elena turned out the light.

  “How? Where?” he asked, lying back on the pillow and drawing her into his arms. “I can’t believe I would forget your face.”

  “We didn’t exactly meet.” Her voice was so soft that he had to pay close attention to hear her.

  “Tell me.”

  She was quiet for so long that he thought she would not tell him, but then she began to speak. “It was in a little palazzo in Florence.” Her voice trembled. “The year of our Lord, 1421.”

  She didn’t have to say another word. In an instant, he was transported back to Italy, back to one of the most horrendous days of his life. He heard the screams, smelled the blood, felt it slick under his boots. “The massacre.”

  She clutched his hand in hers. “My father was an evil man. He not only did what the Franceschi family accused him of, but he committed far greater crimes against man and God,” she told him, her breath warm in his ear. “We were there with our families that day. My brothers and sisters, their spouses and children. We were going to Mass, so most of the men were unarmed. My father was feeling rather good about himself; he had an appointment that evening with a member of the Medici family.”

  “I remember the palazzo,” Fin said, trying to remember the details of the day, of the place while blocking out the carnage that still haunted him after all these years. He hadn’t intended to get into the middle of a family feud, he’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. “The church is still there. La Cruz.”

  “They came out of nowhere, the men on horseback. We were attacked from all sides. My father’s men were slain within moments and then my family began to fall, one by one. My husband and two children did not survive. I lived only because my husband’s fallen body protected mine.”

  “I’m so sorry, Elena.” He kissed the top of her head. “I was unarmed, traveling as a young student. It all happened so fast.” He closed his eyes, a lump rising in his throat. “I always felt guilty that I had done nothing.”

  “There was nothing you could have done. There were too many of them; it was over too fast.” Her voice trembled. “It was better for my family this way, anyway. The quick death.” She took a breath. “We fled, those of us who still lived; my father, two brothers, and one of their wives. Only Celeste and her husband and her children were unharmed because she had remained at home in confinement after a stillbirth.”