Arielle: Immortal Awakening

by Lilian Roberts

  “Is there something wrong?” both of her parents asked at once.

  “I’m not sure what is going on,” she said. “He’s on his way here.”

  A few minutes later she heard the front door bell ring. He was standing in the doorway, his face as beautiful as ever, but his eyes troubled and dark.

  “What is it?” she asked, worried. She took his hand and they walked into the living room. Then he put his arms around her and pulled her close.

  “Arielle, I need to leave tonight for Australia and from there to New Zealand,” he said.

  “Australia? New Zealand? What happened? How long will you be gone?”

  “I have a long trip ahead of me. I have to fly from Paris through Singapore for refueling, and from there to Sydney. It’s about twenty-three hours altogether. It’ll be exhausting, but I have to do it. I can’t say much more about it right now, but we have a very serious situation at our headquarters here in London. I met with some of the board members as well as a couple of Interpol agents, and we tried to work out a plan of action during the night,” he sighed and shook his head.

  “Why is Interpol involved? What happened? Please tell me, Sebastian. I’m going out of my mind.” He pulled her to the sofa and asked her to sit down.

  “I can’t discuss the details, but we have had a major break-in in the London office. Very valuable secret documents and product designs that we are developing in Australia and New Zealand were stolen. But the designs can also be used to create weapons of a catastrophic magnitude.”

  “Why do you have to go there?” she asked. “Can’t you have the authorities work on it?”

  “Arielle, Nathan and I are the perfect people to handle this. Remember, you are the only one who knows about our immortality. We’re stronger and faster than humans. I can read people’s minds, and Nathan can see ahead into the future. We have powers that no one in our business world is aware of.”

  “Is Nathan going too?”

  “Yes, he’s going too. We have been working together for centuries. He’s one of my closest business associates.”

  “Why don’t you ever talk about him?”

  “Well, his personal interests are different than mine, but when it comes to business we are perfect for each other. Our gifts as immortals are a little bit different, and they complement each other, making us a great team. We have some information from people who were on duty when this happened, and that is where we will start the hunt.” Seeing that she was still worried he added, “You don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be perfectly fine. We have to get those documents back, and we’ll be able to get them back faster than Interpol or any other agency out there. These documents are very important to the success of all the companies we hold and the people who work for us.”

  “Oh, it’s dreadful!” she said. “Sebastian, I’ll be worried about you no matter what you say.” She took his face in her hands and tenderly gazed into his beautiful eyes. “I can understand that your special gifts will be a great advantage for you, but I still don’t like it. How long are you going to be gone?” Her face fell into a frown.

  He laced his fingers through hers and said softly, “Right now I’m not sure about anything. I’ll keep you informed as well as I can. I love you, and I’ll have the details of your beautiful face imprinted in my mind. You’ll be with me for as long as we are apart.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that either,” she said.

  He pressed his lips on hers with a strange hunger and held her tight.

  “Don’t take that necklace off as long as I am gone,” he said, his voice suddenly stern. “I’ve already talked to Troy; he’ll be watching out for you. He has my mobile number, and I’ll be in contact with him.”

  Her frown had deepened, and Sebastian looked at her with great concern. He put his finger under her chin and lifted her face to him, so he could look into her eyes.

  “What is it, baby?” he asked, and her gaze became more intent. “Well?” he persisted, inquisitively. She searched his eyes and, leaning closer she locked her lips with his in a hot kiss. He moaned and held her tighter.

  When she finally pulled away she said, “Why don’t you and Nathan use your immortal speed and get there tonight, instead of enduring such a long flight? The sooner you get there the sooner you’ll come back to me.”

  Sebastian blinked, a bit shocked for a moment by the question, and then he chuckled softly, shaking his head. His lips found hers again and the kiss sent a heat wave across her body.

  Then he broke away, and explained. “Baby, there are other people— humans— involved with this issue, and they are flying with us to Melbourne. Nathan and I also just finished talking with our contacts in Melbourne, and they will be picking us up at the airport. Do you understand now, why I need to do things the human way?” He chuckled again and gathered her in his arms one more time.

  “I have to go, Arielle. Let’s go say a word to your parents.” He walked into the kitchen and told them that he had to leave, due to an urgent business matter, and thanked them for their hospitality. “Have a safe trip,” Arielle’s father said, and her mother added, “Arielle will miss you, but don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.”

  Then, taking his hand Arielle walked Sebastian to the door. His strong arms wrapped around her waist and suddenly his eyes met hers. Her heart skipped a beat and she thought she was going to lose consciousness. Her breath halted in her throat and her knees buckled. His lips trailed from her ear down to her mouth and he kissed her softly. His mouth was hot and inviting and his warm breath and wonderful scent made her body quiver with desire. He held her tight until the dazzling sensation wore off as he held a smile of complete satisfaction on his face.

  “I’m not sure I’ll make it without you. Please come home soon,” she whispered, her eyes full of tears as they kissed goodbye.

  “Miss me!!!!!!” He whispered, and his lips curved up into her favorite smile as he walked out the door. She stood there, watching him walk to his car, and before long he was gone. As she walked back to the kitchen her heart felt empty and sad.

  “Is he gone?” her father asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, honey, that’s normal. I’ve left your mother many times, and have had to be gone for a week or more as business required.”

  “That doesn’t mean I liked it,” her Mum said, with an understanding smile. She came over and gave Arielle a big hug.

  “You really like this guy don’t you?” she said.

  “I love him, Mum. He is the man I want to be with for the rest of my life.”

  Her Dad looked at her, and with a smile on his face he said. “Well, that’s a good thing, because he’s clearly in love with you too. I’m sure he’ll be back as soon as he can be.”

  “He told you that he loves me?” she asked.

  “He did indeed,” he said.

  “What else did he tell you?”

  “Nothing more,” he said. He laughed and got up from the table to walk out to the garden.

  And Arielle headed upstairs, her heart full and empty at the same time.

  Chapter 22

  As soon as Sebastian had seen Nathan’s name on the screen of his mobile phone, he knew it had to be urgent, since he had specifically asked not to be disturbed. “What’s up?” he said, feigning a casual attitude, not wanting to alarm Arielle.

  “Sebastian, we have a very serious situation on our hands,” Nathan said. “You need to come down here as soon as possible.”

  “What’s the problem?” he asked, walking away from Arielle.

  “We’ve had a break-in the main vault here in London, and all the product designs are missing. The certificates are still here and so is the money. I have a terrible feeling that this was not just a simple robbery.” Nathan paused for just a moment, to let the news sink in, then added, “I’ve also received calls from the North Island, and Auckland, that groups of men simultaneously attacked both of our laboratories, and abducted Dr. Swanson and Dr. Walker
. We don’t know if they are being held for ransom, or if they’ve been killed. Some of our best security officers were taken by surprise and were either hurt or killed trying to stop them.” He paused again. “These attacks were extremely well organized. There must be moles in our buildings. I don’t have any more details as of yet, but you need to come down straightaway. I called Interpol and I spoke with Dylan Jamison the head of British intelligence. He is sending two of his agents to meet with us here at headquarters. I’ve been trying to call you, but your phone was shut off.”

  “Yes, I’m sorry, Nathan. Remember, I told you I was going to be with Arielle. She was very sick and I didn’t want to disturb her, but she’s doing better now. I’ll be there shortly. As a matter of fact, I’ll leave right now.”

  He had tried to cover up his level of concern as he had said his goodbyes and “,” but once he had left Arielle he was filled with a feeling of profound wretchedness. The situation sounded pretty bad. Sebastian had said that the design documents that were missing would generate a disaster for companies around the world, and that millions of dollars would be lost if they fell into the wrong hands. Worse yet, they could even be used to create weapons with disastrous destructive powers. Obviously he couldn’t permit this to occur.

  As he jumped into his car and drove off, he took a last fond look at Arielle, who was standing at the door with tears in her eyes. He had thought his heart would break. But how could that be possible when his heart had been dead for centuries now? It was as if his love for her was literally bringing him back into a fuller state of existence.

  An hour later, Sebastian arrived at headquarters in downtown London. Everyone was there, including the two Interpol agents, Mark Salvador and Tony Westbrook, who would be taking charge of the operation. The agents started to ask questions, but there were very few details to be provided. There were no fingerprints found at the London office, and there were no witnesses who could provide any useful information.

  Sebastian and Nathan’s special intuitive gifts were telling them that they were dealing with a very dangerous group of spies, who must have somehow infiltrated various company locations. They were both aware of just how deadly the results of such espionage could be. After all, in the past this type of espionage had shaped governments, even changed the course of wars.

  This operation had been perfectly organized to hit all the company locations at the same time, and creating mass confusion. It was unsettling to say the least. Following a detailed briefing of what Nathan already knew, Sebastian, Nathan and the two Interpol agents agreed to be on an 8:00 flight to Australia that night.

  It was a long flight, approximately 21 hours, and it felt even longer to Sebastian, worried about the situation in New Zealand on one hand, and the necessity of leaving Arielle behind on the other. He slept only fitfully, and in between bits of sleep he was tormented by violent visions. When they landed at Sydney airport, the head of operations at North Island headquarters met them, and took them immediately to the lab. There they were informed of the bloody details. Two of the three guards at the gate had been shot dead. So had a young engineer in his early twenties, Theodore Samson, whose body had been found next to the main laboratory. The third guard was in the hospital, in critical condition.

  This too was a clean job; there were no fingerprints anywhere near the bodies. It seemed as if Dr. Swanson had vanished into thin air. The only witness was Michael Swanson, Dr. Swanson’s son, also an engineer at the lab. He told them he had left the laboratory for a short time to get dinner for his father, and when he returned his father was gone.

  “Did you see anyone on your way out of the building?” Officer Salvador asked. “Did you see any cars driving towards the building?” Michael thought for a while and then he said, he did remember seeing a dark van with a white stripe along the side but he wasn’t sure if the van was blue or black. It was too dark, and he hadn’t seen the color very well. He had seen two men in the front of the van when his headlights momentarily illuminated their car. “The driver wore glasses,” he said. “That’s all I remember,” he added, apologetically.

  As Michael spoke, Sebastian was able to conjure up the faces of the two men whose memory was in Michael’s mind. He looked at Nathan and his lips moved, but no human ear could hear and no human eye could perceive the immortal ability he was making use of in that moment. He would discuss the details of those two men with Nathan when they were alone.

  Sebastian could see that Michael didn’t have any more information, and he smiled at him, gently assuring him that he would do his best to find his father and bring him back safe. The officers asked Michael a few more questions, writing down every little detail in his answers. Unfortunately, there was very little to aid them in their investigation.

  The next morning Sebastian and Nathan flew to Auckland, where they heard a very similar story. Dr. Walker had vanished from the Auckland lab in much the same way Dr. Swanson had disappeared in Sydney, with not a trace left behind. As in Sydney, both guards at the gate had been killed. However, in Auckland, the four engineers who were present at the lab were bound with duct tape around their mouths, ankles, and wrists, and left alive, locked in a closet.

  “Why would they have left witnesses alive in this location?” Officer Salvador wondered. He proceeded to question each of the victims individually about what they had witnessed. They all stated that they had heard shots, and then three men had burst into the lab and made them lie on the floor facedown as they bound them and locked them in the closet. Unfortunately the men had worn masks and heavy gear, so their faces were concealed; however, the victims remembered that they had spoken with Russian accents.

  One of the four engineers, Khalhemah, was very quiet and Sebastian could clearly read his thoughts. And because he could read his thoughts, he knew that this man was a conspirator who had helped the assassins succeed in the abduction. “So that’s why they were spared…” he realized.

  The other three men were completely truthful in everything they said, and had had absolutely no part in the assault. When Officer Salvador had gathered all the information he could, they went back to the hotel. “I don’t know what to think,” he said, shaking his head. “Let’s try to put it all together and start fresh in the morning.”

  After the officers had retired for the evening, Sebastian and Nathan met in Sebastian’s room, and discussed what Sebastian had seen in Khalhemah’s head, and what Nathan had been able to foresee, using his special powers. Then they left the hotel and went out.

  Another immortal gift they possessed was an exceptional ability to trace people by their scents, and they wanted to see if they would discover anything by just wandering around. Following their scents, they ended up in a small residential neighborhood, in front of an old, beat-up apartment building. They stopped in front of a door and tapped softly. Khalheman opened the door without taking the chain off the lock, and saw Sebastian and Nathan glaring at him.

  Later he could only remember trying to close the door, but he couldn’t for the life of him comprehend how Sebastian and Nathan had come to be standing in the middle of his room. He tried to reach for his gun and was amazed to find that suddenly Sebastian had him in a headlock, and his gun was in Nathan’s hands. He watched in complete dismay as Nathan squeezed the gun between his fingers, turning it into pure dust before his astonished eyes. He was petrified with fear as he realized that he was dealing with something beyond his ability to understand.

  “Don’t make me hurt you,” Sebastian growled, and the anger in his voice stunned Khalhemah.

  “What do you want from me?” he asked, his voice shaking with fear.

  “We know you are a liar, and that you are party to extortion and theft. Don’t try to tell us any more lies because we can see into your mind. You have no idea what we can do.” Khalhemah looked at them warily, as if wondering whether to believe what he was hearing, but he didn’t move.

  “We want to know who broke into the London office and where we can find the
m,” Sebastian continued. “You are also going to provide us with the names of the people who abducted our scientists.” Sebastian could clearly read his mind but he wanted to make sure that nothing was hidden in one of the murky corners of his head.

  “I can’t tell you anything, they’ll kill me!” he said.

  “I’m going to kill you if you don’t start talking right now,” Nathan said. His voice froze the blood in Khalhemah’s veins, and he felt Sebastian’s hands tighten around his neck. He started to lose consciousness, and he could hardly breathe.

  “We will shatter each one of your bones slowly and then we will bury you alive. Start talking now!!” Sebastian hissed. His voice struck terror through Khalhemah’s bones, and Nathan’s eyes pierced through his soul, making him shiver with fear. Khalhemah knew that these two men were not joking. He could feel the strength of Sebastian’s arms and remembered watching what had once been his gun turning to dust between Nathan’s fingers. He looked at each of them and when their eyes met he felt the cold chill of death run through his spine.

  “All right…. All right…” he said. “But I only know the name of the guy who broke into the London office. His name is Alexie Miroslav, and he has the documents. He is the person in charge of all the groups in every country outside Russia. We don’t know each other’s names, or who is the head of the organization. I know there will be two meetings in Nigeria. The first meeting will take place at the Ald Gausha restaurant in Abuja Sunday night, at 10:00.” He paused as if considering whether to say more, but one glance at the two men continuing to glare at him convinced him to tell everything he knew. “All the people involved will gather their documentation and hand it over to Alexie at that time,” he said. “The second meeting will take place at the African Institute of Science in Abuja on Monday at 2:00 in the afternoon. That is where Alexie will hand over the documents to the higher-ups from Russia.”