Immortality Stolen (The Mortal One Series Book 2)

by Shannon Bell

  “Yes,” I said.

  “You know that I can hear the two of you. I am right here,” Olivier commented.

  I laughed. “Yes, Olivier.”

  ***

  It was two in the morning before the bonfire was completed and Costin handed the reigns over to the team of vampires that were in charge of hunting the zombies. He provided instructions to keep him in the loop about everything that was to happen and everyone nodded. Olivier shook his hand and thanked him for his help.

  “You have her for two more days, and then you return her.” Costin said. It wasn’t a question.

  Olivier nodded. “You have my word.”

  Antonio gave me a hug. “I’m on chauffeur duty tonight,” he smiled. “By the time you come back, I’ll have some more wine for you.”

  “Good, I look forward to it.”

  I watched as the two of them got into the SUV and drove down the street. They would probably be able to get out of France before sunrise, which meant that Antonio would have some company to keep him awake. After that, Costin would get into the coffin in the backseat and Antonio would be on his own the rest of the way. I didn’t envy making that drive alone.

  “Let me walk you back to your hotel,” Olivier finally spoke, breaking the silence.

  Walking this late at night with Olivier terrified me in ways that I couldn’t explain. I wasn’t afraid of him any longer, but there was something unsettling about him. There were too many secrets that were still lingering over him.

  “That’s a long walk,” I commented.

  “We won’t be walking the whole way.”

  Before I could ask another question, he lifted me up and we went into the air.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked as Olivier set me down a block away from my hotel. His hands lingered on my waist a moment longer than they should have.

  He smiled. “I have so much that I want to tell you about me and my immortality. Tomorrow night, we will be able to talk about it all.”

  “But -,” I started to say.

  He pressed his finger to my lips. “Shhh. Tomorrow night. Now, you need to sleep and so do I.”

  I couldn’t argue. Even if I wanted to, the yawn that came betrayed me.

  Chapter 8

  IF I WAS going to be in Paris for two more days, I would be damned if I was going to sit inside my hotel and wait for all of the vampires in my life. The Avenue de Champs-Elysees was calling my name. It was time to do some high-end shopping. Being with Nico gave me a virtually unlimited line of money. While I had never actually used any of it, he kept telling me that it was mine as much as it was his and that I should feel free to buy what I wanted. Right now, that sounded like a great idea.

  I let the hotel bell hop call me a taxi and then told the driver to drop me in front of the Louis Vuitton boutique. That would be the first stop of many. I had only packed for two days, so staying two more days meant that I would need at least two more days’ worth of clothes. If I just happened to pick up a few clutches and a pair of boots at the same time, then it would be a good day.

  Using a Visa card has never been easier. The black card felt hot to the touch within a few hours and it was the shopping therapy that I needed.

  “Do you have these in black?” I asked, leaning back in a chair within one of the boutiques. I held a pair of strappy red heels on my index finger.

  A woman nodded and quickly went into the backroom. Once I had three shopping bags from the nearby designer stores, I found that it was easy to go into any store and have them drop everything to help me.

  After reaching my limit of what I could carry, I remember Olivier telling me that the hotel would be able to help me with anything that I needed. I picked up the phone and called the front desk. My good buddy Leuc answered the phone.

  “Leuc, this is Dylan Monahan.” I hated using my old last name, but Olivier had booked it under that name and it just made me realize that I don’t know if he knew that Nico and I had gotten married. I assumed he saw the diamond on my hand, but it was never verbalized.

  “How may I help you?”

  I explained that I had been shopping and had more bags than I could carry. Before I could even ask, he said that he would send someone over from the hotel to retrieve them for me. He told me about a café around the corner that he thought I might enjoy while I waited.

  “Thank you,” I hung up the phone and headed to the café.

  About halfway through my meal, a driver showed up as promised. I waved him over and he took the bags.

  He loaded them into the trunk and I gave him a few euros, thanked him profusely, and continued my lunch. It was nice to have that kind of treatment from time to time. I certainly wasn’t used to it, but it was something I could in time.

  After another round of shopping and some swanky new luggage, I was ready to head back to the hotel. As I passed through the lobby, Leuc caught up to me and informed me that all of my bags were waiting for me in the hotel room. He pointed to the other bags and asked if I would require further assistance. I told him I had it and walked into the elevator.

  By the time I got everything out of the bags and the tags snipped, I was exhausted. Last night, I didn’t get to bed until close to four and I was up by nine like clockwork. It was still early afternoon, so I swept everything off the bed and thought it would be a good idea to close my eyes for a little while.

  ***

  This seemed to be a trend. I keep getting woken up by an incessant banging on my hotel room door every time I try to take a nap. When I looked over at the clock on my nightstand, I already knew it was Olivier before I opened the door.

  “Hi,” I said, throwing the door open.

  He smiled. “You were sleeping?”

  I nodded and yawned. “Sorry, yeah.”

  “It’s okay. You’re the mortal one and we’re expecting you to keep up with us.”

  “Thanks. And I’m hungry, too, so if you don’t mind, can we hang out here to talk for a little while and I’ll order room service?”

  “That’s fine.”

  I made the call to room service for something to eat while he took a seat on the office chair. He thumbed through some of the stacks of clothes I had across the desk. Judging by the look on his face, he was impressed by my taste.

  “Do some shopping today?”

  I laughed. “Probably a little too much.”

  “Good for you. Before you get too comfortable, though, I want to tell you that we have a flight to Berlin in about two hours.”

  I stopped. He couldn’t have just said what I thought he said. “Excuse me?”

  “Berlin. We’re going to Berlin.”

  “No, we’re not. Costin didn’t authorize me to go anywhere besides Paris or Florence on this little trip.”

  He put his hands up to show he wasn’t looking for an argument. “You’re welcome to call him if you want, but there’s a lead. A friend of mine, Christoph, has a lead in Berlin for a powerful necromancer. If we can convince this guy to come to Paris to put the zombies down, the problem is solved.”

  “What’s wrong with using the method that Costin showed the team?”

  Olivier shook his head. “It’s not working. They were able to get the one last night but there are still eleven and they are beginning to gravitate towards the more populated areas. We don’t know if it’s because they are growing more aware or if they have simply covered all of the other parts of Paris.”

  I groaned in frustration. Damn it. If he had a lead, I knew we would have to go to Berlin. It only made sense. I would feel safer traveling with him to Germany than to stay in Paris alone with vampires that I didn’t know and zombies that I didn’t recognize.

  “When do we leave?” I asked.

  “We can leave in about an hour to head to the airport.”

  “Okay. So we’re not flying your way?” I made a gesture with my hands.

  He laughed. “No. It’s fine for short distances, but I’d prefer to take a plane. There’s a red eye that
will get us into Berlin by eleven.”

  “Why didn’t Costin fly here instead of driving? I just assumed that for some reason you couldn’t fly.”

  “The older vampires hate modern technology. If they don’t have to use it, they don’t. They make an exception for things like electricity and cell phones, but that’s about it.”

  “Oh.” Well that actually explained a lot about Nico and Costin.

  There was a knock on the door. Olivier opened it up and a man wheeled in the room service. He placed a few plates on the desk as Olivier cleared off a space. The man bowed and started to exit the room. Olivier reached into his pocket and handed the man a few bills and said a few quick things in French.

  “Thanks,” I said, taking a seat at the desk. “You’re okay if I eat in front of you?”

  “Of course. Though I want to start talking to you more about me and how I became a vampire.”

  I nodded as I started cutting up the chicken breast that was on my plate.

  “I did not become a vampire in a traditional way. I grew up as a truth seeker and when I found a vampire, he would not feed me his blood. He refused to make me into a vampire because he told me I was too arrogant.”

  “Perceptive,” I smiled.

  “Anyway,” he said, shooting me a look, “I stole it.”

  I set my fork down and looked at him. “Stole what?”

  “Immortality.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Olivier cleared his throat. “I stole immortality. Prior to becoming a vampire, I was a necromancer. I lost those powers when I became a vampire because the dead cannot control the dead. This wasn’t something I knew at the time, however. My necromancing powers allowed me to follow the vampire into his lair and I raised him during the day long enough to provide me with his blood.”

  Holy shit.

  “So you understand now a little bit more about me. He was of the same blood line that Nico and Costin are from. There are still four other blood lines, however.”

  “The Imperial Five.” I cut up some of the asparagus on my plate and took a sip of water. This was some heavy information that Olivier was dishing up.

  “Right. So I don’t need to tell you that it would be advantageous to have blood from many of those blood lines.”

  I took a deep breath. “But not all of them?”

  “Nico has told you about some of the blood lines, right?”

  “Sort of. He said I probably didn’t want to meet some of the vampires from the other blood lines.”

  He snorted. “Well, that’s a protective answer, but yes. You know the horror movies where vampires are more monster than human? That’s what you could expect from some of the blood lines. Those are not the ones that I am interested in.”

  “So which ones are you interested in?” The idea that he could obtain more power from having blood from these other lines was terrifying and amazing at the same time.

  “I have two coursing through my blood right now. The first was to turn me from human to vampire and the second was acquired a month or so ago – after we initially met. That is what I needed the necromancer’s help with. I could not do the work on my own.”

  “Aren’t you going to be in deep shit for playing with these things? There’s probably a reason why there aren’t other vampires doing the same thing that you’re trying to attempt.”

  He put his hands up in defense. “I’m not saying that I’m going to gobble up all of the power out there. But I’m curious as to what these other vampires can do. Each line has its own list of features. I’m not going near the Arctic line because, honestly, they scare the shit out of me. I don’t want to become a monster…more than I already am.”

  The honesty in his voice made me feel bad for him. It was the same tone of voice that I had heard in Nico’s voice when he talked about never being able to see a sunset again.

  Olivier continued. “There are three lines that I’m interested in. I have two in me now and would love to learn more about the third. Considering I won’t go through zombies to get what I want again, it would require me asking a vampire of that line to give me his blood. Since I’m already a vampire, it would raise questions as to why I would want it. Telling them that I am a truth seeker and curious is not likely to work.”

  “And that’s what you want me for?” I leaned back in the chair and let out a sigh.

  “You make it sound like I’m using you. It’s not like that. I want to include you in on this discovery. We could have something incredible here, don’t you see this?”

  Damn it. He knew how to reel me in. I was more curious about vampires and the Imperial Five than he could know. While I tried to get a lot of these answers from Nico, he was very reserved. I wondered how much he knew and how much he was sheltering me from the truth for my own good. The protection was appreciated, but it was frustrating as all hell.

  “The beard.” I said. “That’s what’s different about you today.” From the moment he walked in, it was bothering me that something changed about him.

  “Yeah,” he said, scratching it. “With the second blood line, I am able to grow hair again. Damn inconvenient.”

  “Weird,” I said. It was an interesting feature for that blood line, though. I remember talking to Nico and Costin about it when they mentioned grooming prior to the change. The idea of being able to continue growing my hair had perks.

  Olivier looked at his watch. “We have to get going if we want to make our plane to Berlin.”

  I let out a sigh and got off of the bed. I paused in front of the window, looking out at the Eifel Tower in the background. The goldish structure seemed to glow in the moonlight. Paris was a gorgeous city, but there was always so much going on to fully enjoy it.

  I grabbed one of the smaller pieces of luggage and threw it on the bed. I started placing lingerie inside and then moved onto outfits.

  “One night?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Promise me it’s only for one night. You asked Costin to have me here for two additional nights. This is one night.”

  “That means I have you tomorrow night as well. And then yes, you will be on a flight to Florence right after that.”

  Something about the way he said that he would “have me” tomorrow night made it sound dirty. It sped my heartbeat up a little and I silently prayed that he didn’t notice the change. If he did notice, he didn’t say anything.

  “I still have to call Nico about the change in my itinerary.”

  He nodded. “I’m surprised you didn’t do it when I first told you about the change.” There was a challenge in his voice. He was testing me. He wanted to see just how close Nico and I were. It wasn’t a direct challenge, but I took enough psychology in college to know what was going on.

  I reached for the phone on the desk and dialed. I glanced over at Olivier and before I could ask him to step out for some privacy, Nico answered.

  “Mia mortale,” he said, his Italian more heavily pronounced than normal.

  “Nico,” I said. The sound of his voice did strange things to my body, even over such a long distance. It was amazing that he had such an effect on me and he took advantage of it whenever he could.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Ummm, well,” I said. “I’m headed to Berlin with Olivier in about thirty minutes.”

  “The hell you are.”

  I sighed, knowing that this wasn’t going to be easy. “There’s a necromancer in Berlin and he may be able to come into Paris to lay the zombies to rest. The zombies aren’t easy to put down and the team that Costin assembled believe that the execution of the one made it harder because they are now staying within all of the public areas. You know that’s a problem.”

  “I understand why Olivier must go see the necromancer. I would like to have you come back to Florence. If there is more that Olivier would like to share with you about being a truth seeker, it can be done once there are no more zombies in the city. I would like to keep my wife safe and you
make this difficult to do.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to figure out how best to deal with this. “Nico, I will be home to you soon. Olivier has promised me it will only be one night in Berlin. I trust that he will keep me safe and I would rather be with him than in Paris with these damn zombies walking around. They freak me out and I don’t want to see them again.”

  Nico let out a grunt on the other end of the phone. “The positions you put me in, Dylan. Go to Berlin. Then come back to me in Florence, please. Phone me again when you are in Berlin?”

  “Of course.”

  “Ti amo.”

  “I love you, too,” I said, hanging up the phone. My daze was broken with Olivier clearing his throat. I had forgotten he was in the room.

  “We have about fifteen minutes.”

  I nodded and went into high gear tossing things into my suitcase. All of my toiletries in the bathroom went into one bag and then all of my new purchases went into the new suitcases. I checked around the room to make sure that everything was packed and accounted for.

  “Ready,” I said, as though I had just accomplished some great feat.

  Olivier helped me drag everything down to the front lobby. He asked me to hold onto the one bag I was taking to Berlin. He then waved down Leuc and asked for everything else to be shipped overnight to my apartment in Florence. He reached into his wallet to cover the shipping charges and Leuc nodded with enthusiasm. My guess was that there was quite a lot more than what was required to handle shipping.

  “Everything will be in Florence before you even make it there. I keep my promises.”

  I nodded and wheeled my bag behind him where he already had a taxi waiting for us. He took my bag for me, opened my door and escorted me into the backseat. He told the driver to take us to the airport and then got in next to me.

  “You didn’t tell me that you married him.”

  Oh. We are going to have this conversation?

  “Yes.”

  Fuck, I really hated the mind reading.

  “What do you want me to say?”