Immortal Brother Where Art Thou (The Immortality Curse Book 4)

by Peter Glenn

  How fitting that I shiver in cold and fear as I walk up to that portal. Was it a sign of things to come? I could only assume yes, and I couldn’t blame LaLuna in the slightest for it.

  I rubbed my arms a few times to ward off the chill air and stared at the door anew. It seemed even more imposing than it had just moments prior, now that I was right up against it. Like the steel door to a vault that contained the world’s greatest treasures that I couldn’t crack. Another fitting metaphor for how I felt in that moment.

  Raising my hand slowly, I rapped out a short knock on the door’s aging wood. Just three short knocks, followed by silence.

  With any luck, she wouldn’t hear, and I could turn and run away like the scared little child I was. But no, not even I am that lucky. Sure, my blind luck might save my hide in the heat of battle, but would it save me from an embarrassing conversation with my would-be girlfriend? Heck no. Just toss me to the coals for that one.

  Sure enough, I heard the latch come undone a moment later, and the door creaked slightly open.

  My heart was pounding so fast, I swore it was about to beat right out of my chest as a tinge of pain surged through the poor muscle at the slightest sight of the girl I adored, peering through the crack in the door.

  For a moment, I felt faint, like I was going to swoon the way they did in the movies. What a sight that would have been, huh? Fainting in front of my girl? Oh yeah, that’d get her to come back to you, Damian. With smooth moves like that, it’s no wonder she loves you.

  Or at least did. Who was to say if she still felt the same.

  The door creaked open a little more, and LaLuna’s face became fully visible. Her striking blue eyes shined in the low light from the room beyond, and her blue-tinged hair fell in short rivulets, framing her face in all its beauty.

  She had a bit of a frown on her lips, and the sight of it almost made me sick. To think that I’d caused her any great harm or distress just by being me. How could I have done such a thing?

  But the frown faded quickly as her eyes came up to meet mine, replaced with what I could only describe as a hesitant smile.

  “Damian?” she said in a lilting tone. I swore sometimes she sang more than spoke. It was a common trait among many of the fae I’d met, but I really liked it on her.

  “L-LaLuna?” I stammered.

  A surge of bile filled the back of my throat as my nerves reached a crescendo on her doorstep, waiting to hear the next words out of her mouth and hoping beyond hope that they’d be good.

  The door creaked open even wider, giving my poor, tortured soul hope. Was there a shot at redemption after all?

  “I didn’t expect you for another hour,” LaLuna said, staring partially at me and beyond me at the same time.

  Her words were like a punch to the gut. No “won’t you come in?” No “I’ve been worried about you,”? But I didn’t deserve such pleasantries anyway.

  “Y-yeah, well… traffic was light and I…” I let my voice trail off. I really didn’t want to talk about traffic of all things with her. This could be my last time seeing her. I wanted it to be special, just in case.

  LaLuna nodded. “Of course.” She gave me a light grin. “You never can tell with traffic, can you?”

  She opened the door the rest of the way and stood there in all her wondrous glory. She was wearing simple clothing—a light blue knit sweater and a pair of cream-colored jeans—but they looked positively radiant on her. She was still every bit as beautiful as the first time I’d seen her.

  More so, even, considering she wasn’t covered in scars this time.

  “No, never.” I flashed her a toothy grin, slightly biting my lip at the same time to quell my nerves. How was I going to broach the subject with her? I needed an opening.

  LaLuna crossed her arms in front of her chest. The move told me all I needed to know—there was indeed a wall there, now. Or at least a small barrier. She’d no doubt been hurt on Valentine’s when I hadn’t returned her profession of love. But it was only now that I was seeing it play out firsthand.

  It hit me like a ton of bricks. I wanted to run again. Run and hide. But I stayed put.

  “What was this about again?” LaLuna asked me. There was a hint of something in her eyes—annoyance, maybe? Not that I could blame her.

  My stomach lurched, and I felt even worse. For a half second, I swore lunch was going to leave me right then and there.

  “Uh…” I cleared my throat. “My brother’s son, Bao. He’s… he’s missing and we… umm, we…”

  “Oh,” LaLuna said. “Of course.” She dressed me down with her eyes and frowned, which made my heart almost stop.

  I was wrong. It hadn’t been annoyance in her eyes. It had been disappointment. And it was all the clearer now that I’d gone and said the wrong thing.

  “I want to make things right with you,” I said in my own head. I’d practiced the words at least a dozen times on the way down. It was to be my opening line, my way back into her heart. Even Mei had approved of it.

  Only now that I was here in front of her, my words had failed me.

  Damn, I’m an idiot.

  LaLuna rubbed her arms mindlessly for a moment. “Well, won’t you come in?” she said. “It’s darn near freezing out there.”

  She was right on that count. The weather forecast had said it was about twenty degrees. Way too cold for my liking. It didn’t get that cold too often up in the Seattle area, but it did on occasion.

  “Thank you,” I said with the warmest smile I could muster.

  You’re not supposed to thank a fae. They could take it as a contract and force you to do them a favor later. LaLuna had taught me that. But I used that here as an advantage. Maybe if she felt like I owed her, she’d be a little more likely to listen to me. It was a long shot, but I lived for the long shots.

  Sadly, it didn’t seem to faze her in the slightest.

  I took a step forward, and she moved out of the way so that I could enter. I squeezed past her without touching her even a little bit, and she shut the door behind us.

  “Won’t you sit down?” she added, motioning toward the beige couch against the far wall.

  At the sight of the old couch, a memory stirred in me of a makeout session we’d had on its plush, welcoming cushions. Now that was a memory. If only my visit here today were for that type of purpose… But one glance over my shoulder at LaLuna’s cold gaze told me that might never happen again.

  Serves me right.

  “Uh, sure.”

  I stepped over a small ring-stacking toy that was placed precariously in my path and made my way over to the couch. The toy no doubt belonged to baby Grace. Thinking of the small girl made things even worse. I’d gotten rather close to her over the past few months. She’d even fallen asleep snuggling on my arm a few times after I’d fed her a bottle. Was I never to see her again, either?

  That thought was too much for me to bear, and a small tear formed in my eye. I quickly rubbed it away before LaLuna could see. The last thing I needed to do was cry in front of her. She deserved better than that.

  “Is Grace here?” I asked, pointing at the toy on the ground.

  “She’s asleep,” LaLuna’s cold voice answered.

  “Oh,” I said, feeling deflated.

  “Do you… want to see her for a minute?”

  The question was like a lifeline being thrown out, allowing me a chance to get back into LaLuna’s good graces. “Do I?” I replied with a grin on my face. “Yes, please.”

  LaLuna shrugged. Unlike me, her overall countenance hadn’t really changed. “Come on, then. And be quiet.”

  It hurt me a little that she felt the need to remind me of that. I’d walked in on Grace sleeping a dozen times and always behaved. Another little sign that there was a barrier between the two of us, I supposed.

  I nodded anyway, and she led the way into Grace’s room. The door was slightly ajar, so it was easy enough to slide on in without making any noise.

  The nursery was
livelier than I remembered. There was a new portrait on the wall of baby Grace sitting up. It must have been taken in the past few days, as I’d only seen her perform that trick recently. The picture managed to capture the beauty of little Grace just perfectly, and it warmed my heart.

  I peeked over the side of the crib to see the tiny girl snoozing on top of her covers, like normal. I’d be more worried, but LaLuna generally kept the place pretty warm, so she wasn’t suffering.

  Grace was wearing pink fleece pajamas with little bunnies on the feet and a big, white bunny face right on the chest. There were white polka-dots all over the rest of the outfit as well. She was making little noises as her chest rhythmically rose and fell.

  My tortured heart soared at the sight of her asleep and peaceful like that. It was a welcome sight in an otherwise precarious situation.

  “She’s so beautiful when she sleeps,” I whispered to LaLuna.

  “Indeed she is.”

  I glanced over at her and there was a gleam in her eyes that warmed me even more. LaLuna made a really great mom. It was one of the many things that made me like her.

  “We should go,” she said a moment later.

  I nodded, and we left the room as quietly as we’d entered. LaLuna mostly shut the door behind us and ambled over toward the couch, only to take a seat in a nearby chair instead. I almost fell over from the slight but took my seat on the couch anyway. After seeing Grace, I was determined to find a way to repair this relationship if it was the last thing I did.

  “So, what’s this about your brother?” LaLuna asked me. She’d crossed her arms over her chest again and was sitting about as far back in her chair as was humanly possible.

  “Right,” I said. I’d almost forgotten why I’d come. “Let’s forget about that for a moment. How have you been since…”

  “Since you walked out on me right after our lovemaking?” she said with an icy glare.

  The words and the look tore at my heart like a dagger, leaving it in tatters.

  “Yeah,” I blurted out, sheepishly looking toward the ground. “That.”

  LaLuna let out a small sigh and shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I’ve been too focused on Grace to do much of anything, really.”

  I nodded. “That’s fair. Babies can be quite the handful.”

  “Indeed.”

  The room fell quiet for a moment as I struggled to find words to say. “I’m sorry” was an obvious choice, as was “How can I make it up to you,” but both of those felt way too basic. Much as I wanted to come off saying something amazing that would fix everything, I knew it wouldn’t be that simple. Not after the way I’d acted.

  I opened my mouth a few times but shut it just as quickly. There was nothing I could say that would cover the depths of what I wanted to express, so I just sat there watching LaLuna silently tap her heel on the ground as she sat across from me, and the seconds stretched on until they felt like hours.

  “Why are you here, exactly?” LaLuna blurted out at once, a hint of anger in her tone.

  “My brother’s kid, he… I mean I wanted to say I’m… I…”

  It was no use. The words wouldn’t come. Bile rose to the back of my throat again, and the knot in my stomach was so tight I felt like I was going to lose the meager contents of my lunch again.

  “I mean, if all you want me for is some favor, you could have relayed it through Mei.” LaLuna huffed and rocked forward in her chair. “You didn’t have to come to me personally.”

  “No! That’s not it!” I replied quickly. “I wanted to see you. Really, I did. I just… I…”

  “You what, Damian?”

  She was quickly losing her patience and I felt the moment slipping away. This was not going the way I wanted it to at all.

  “I’m… I’m sorry,” I said finally. The words still felt like they weren’t enough, but it was something. A start.

  “You’re sorry?” LaLuna’s hardened gaze softened just a little bit at the words, and I felt the slightest bit of hope return to me. “For what?”

  “For the way I acted,” I replied. I still couldn’t bring myself to look at her fully, so I could only hope that the words would do the trick. “I was a fool. I should have said something to you. Done something. You… you deserved better than what you got.”

  “Hah!” LaLuna leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ve got that right.”

  Still, her tone was softer that time. Not as angry. And nicer, too, in a way. My words were having some effect on her, even if it wasn’t quite enough yet. Would it ever really be enough?

  Why did I have to be such an idiot?

  I braved a glance up into her eyes and found a vague hint of acceptance waiting there. It still wasn’t the usual brightness she had for me, but it was a far cry from the icy glare. That little hint gave me the courage to keep going.

  “Look,” I told her, “I want to say that I love you. I do. If I could say that, it would solve all my troubles. You could hear the words you want to hear, and I could know they were true. But I want to be certain that’s the case, and not just say something that’ll please you now only to hurt you all the more down the road.” I looked her straight in the eyes. “Does that make sense?”

  LaLuna let out a long, slow breath and was silent for a moment. She shifted so she was leaning against one side of the chair, her arms still crossed. “I suppose it does,” she admitted. “It’s not what I want to hear from you, but I suppose I can respect how you feel about the matter.”

  The pit in my stomach started to ease. “Exactly. Above all else, I want to be honest with you, LaLuna. I want you to know that.”

  She bit her lip again. “Of course,” she said in a slightly wooden tone. “I would expect nothing less from my boyfriend.”

  Boyfriend? So she still thought of us as in a relationship. That was a heavy weight lifted off of me. It meant I still had a chance.

  “Of course,” I replied, grinning at her. “I really do like you, you know. You and Grace.”

  LaLuna nodded. “I know you do, Damian. Really I do.”

  “But?”

  She sighed again. “But I deserve more than that. I deserve someone who feels the same way about me that I feel about them. Don’t you think?”

  My eyes trailed down toward the floor again. “Yes,” I said in a voice barely over a whisper. “Yes, you do.”

  “So you’ll understand if your profession of undying ‘like’ doesn’t really do it for me.”

  I nodded as my heart sank down almost all the way to my feet. She was right, of course. Worse, there wasn’t anything I could say to counter that.

  “I… I understand,” I muttered.

  LaLuna leaned forward in her chair and let her hands drop so they were hanging in front of her lap. At least they weren’t crossed to fend me off anymore, so I took it as a win.

  “What am I going to do with you, Damian?” she asked a moment later, shaking her head.

  “Beg pardon?” I’d been expecting a lot, but that response wasn’t on the list.

  “I mean seriously, you’re over three hundred years old. Have you never been in an adult relationship?”

  A wry grin crossed my lips as I glanced up at her. “Do arranged marriages count?”

  LaLuna chuckled. “Not really, no.”

  “Then not really, I guess.”

  In fairness, I had really cared for the girls. Both of them, in fact. But my refusal to give either of them any children had really killed those deals, the second of them before it had even started. Heck, the second time it had almost killed the girl, though thankfully, my mom had intervened at the end and saved her. And my family’s honor, too.

  My lips spread into a sheepish grin. “I guess I’m a little newer to this whole thing than I thought.”

  “Heh. You can say that again.” LaLuna slumped back into her chair.

  “So do I get points for being a newbie?” I pushed, grinning slightly.

  LaLuna sighed again. “I suppo
se. But just a few. You’re still going to have to make up your mind fairly quickly. I’d rather not be strung along.”

  “Totally fair,” I replied.

  I sucked in a deep breath, and the tightness in my chest lightened considerably. I hadn’t repaired everything by any means, but at least LaLuna wasn’t mad at me anymore. That, I could handle. I could work with this. I could still repair things.

  Of course, I’d have to make up my mind about her one way or the other soon, but I could worry about that tomorrow. The initial pain had been taken care of.

  “So what’s this about your brother’s kid?” LaLuna asked me a moment later.

  “Oh, yeah,” I replied. The tension in the room was all but gone, and my memories of my other purpose came flooding back. “Bao Xiang. My brother Taio’s kid. He’s gone missing and we’re trying to track him down.”

  LaLuna raised one brow. “Don’t you hate Taio?”

  Heh. Had I told her that? I probably had. It came up more than it should.

  “Indeed I do. But he kinda swooped into town unannounced and won’t leave me alone.”

  “Ah. So that was the family trouble.”

  “Yep.” I nodded again. “One and the same.”

  “Okay, so your nephew is missing. What do you need me for?”

  “Right.” I sat up a little straighter. “We’ve tracked down his possible location, but it’s surrounded by fae territory. We need a fae to come with us so we can bypass the standard protocols and get in to see him faster.”

  “So naturally, you came to me.”

  “Naturally,” I agreed.

  The reality of what I was asking started to set in at that moment. LaLuna and my relationship was still on treacherous territory, and here I was asking her to go off on a jaunt with me and my brother of all people, whom I really did hate. Was I really sure I wanted to do this? Suddenly, I was none too sure.

  “But now that I think about it, it’s probably a stupid idea. I mean, you have Grace to look after, and you’re supposed to be remaining hidden, so…”

  “Where is it, exactly?” LaLuna interrupted.

  “Huh?” I gave her a confused look.