by I. T. Lucas
What reason could she have for not wanting Turner to be tested? Could it be jealousy?
Kian chuckled. “Are you worried Amanda will dazzle your man?”
She waved a hand. “Please, don’t be ridiculous.”
Her high-pitched tone suggested that she wasn’t being completely truthful. The thought of her man admiring Amanda’s beauty must’ve irked Bridget, despite the fact that Amanda was taken and that Turner wasn’t the type to flirt with anyone, especially not with a married woman, which in immortal terms Amanda was.
But whatever Bridget’s objections were, Kian didn’t care. “I want you to coordinate it as soon as possible.”
“Why?”
“Humor me on this, and I will induce Turner’s transition myself.”
Bridget put a hand on her chest. “Wow, Kian, I’m touched. I’m sure Victor is going to appreciate your generous offer. It’s a great honor.”
“I’m not doing it for him. I’m doing it for you.”
Reaching over the desk, she took his hand and gave it a light squeeze. “You have my eternal gratitude.”
Or her eternal scorn if Turner didn’t make it.
“Don’t thank me yet. Thank me after he transitions.”
“You’ve just given me a little bit of hope, which is more than I had a few moments ago.”
“I wish I could give you more than just a little.”
“I know.” She squeezed his hand again. “I’ll leave you to your work and call Amanda and Victor to see when is a good time for them both.”
“Let me know when. I’m of a mind to tag along. I’m curious about these tests.”
Bridget rolled her eyes. “As if that is ever going to happen. You don’t have time to breathe, let alone spend half a day in Amanda’s lab.”
“Amanda and Syssi’s lab,” he corrected with a wink.
“Aha, now I get it.”
Kian hadn’t visited the lab since that first time he’d seen Syssi hiding behind a huge computer screen. He wasn’t a sentimental guy, but still, it had been a life-altering experience for him.
So much had happened since.
For a guy with limited empathetic ability, he had no problem sympathizing with Bridget because he’d been through the same grinder before and during Syssi’s transition. The paralyzing fear, the despondent helplessness—it had been one of the worst experiences of his life. If not for his mother showing up to save the day, Syssi might have not made it.
Annani had saved both of their lives that night because if Syssi had died, he would have found a way to end his life as well just to escape the pain of losing her.
Bridget’s suffering had brought back all of those better-forgotten feelings. The thing was, not even the doctor knew what, or rather who, had saved Syssi and later Andrew.
It hadn’t been the goddess’s blessings, or her prayers, or whatever other nonsense they had told everyone. It had been her blood.
Only Kian and Alena knew the truth, and they guarded it with their lives. If word got out that the goddess’s blood could miraculously heal humans, her life would be in even greater danger than it was now.
She could save Turner as well, but should he ask his mother to donate her blood for Turner?
Not for Turner. For Bridget.
As much as he appreciated the guy and thought of him as a powerful ally, asking Annani to do that for him was highly inappropriate.
She’d been using her blood for centuries to turn the clan’s girls, no one else. The only exceptions were Syssi, because she was his truelove mate, and Andrew, because he was Syssi’s brother.
Bridget was a distant granddaughter, not a direct child of Annani.
Except, the goddess had a soft heart and she might agree to do it for love.
The question was whether Turner was indeed the real deal—a Dormant and a truelove mate. Both conditions had to be met before Kian could approach Annani about it. Except, ascertaining both was impossible. The best he could do was run Turner through every conceivable test.
In the final analysis, though, Kian knew it would come down to him trusting his gut.
2
Sharon
“Finally, I feel like an adult,” Sharon said as she opened the door to Robert’s apartment. He and Julian were at work, but she had her own key now and could come and go as she pleased.
As Bhathian muscled her four suitcases through the door, his perpetual scowl deepened. “I still think you are jumping in too soon. What’s the haste? Two weeks out of transition and you’re rushing to move in with your boyfriend?”
Sharon stretched on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I’m a big girl, Daddy.” She made a mock sad face. “You have to let go.” Thinking of another way to needle him, she smirked. “Don’t think of it as losing a daughter, think of it as gaining a son.”
That had gotten rid of his scowl fast. Bhathian laughed. “I’m so glad you’re not my daughter. I don’t think I could’ve survived it if Nathalie fell for an ex-Doomer.”
Ouch. That hurt. Apparently, Robert was okay for Sharon but not for Bhathian’s precious Nathalie.
All joking aside, Sharon often thought of Bhathian as a father figure, which was strange given that he looked so young and that she hadn’t known that he was much older. It was even weirder to think that Nathalie was his and Eva’s child. The daughter looked older than her parents.
Heck, Sharon looked the same age as the man she often thought of as a stand-in father.
It must’ve been because of Eva, who was like a mother to her and her coworkers. As Eva’s partner, Bhathian became the daddy.
Except, there was more to it.
Bhathian was protective of the three of them, treating them as if they were Eva’s real children. Not that it was a bad thing. The two immortals had done a better job than Sharon’s own parents had, whom she’d never felt at home with. Eva and she, however, had clicked from day one.
Maybe that was the reason it proved harder wrapping her head around the fact that Eva was Nathalie’s birth mother than all the other immortal business put together.
Eva belonged to her, Nick, and Tessa. Not Nathalie.
“Where do you want me to put the suitcases?” Bhathian asked.
“The walk-in closet. Follow me.” She led him down the hallway.
“You should have waited until it was time to move to the village. Now you’ll have to schlep your things twice.”
Sharon opened the closet door and motioned for Bhathian to go ahead. “Robert is not moving until Kian does, you know that. And Kian is not going to move until everyone else other than those working directly under him move. It will take weeks. Maybe even months.”
Bhathian lined the suitcases up against the wall. “Eva and I are waiting for Nick to transition before we move. If not for that boy, we would’ve been one of the first families to settle in the village.”
“Yeah, about that. What if it never happens for him?”
Sharon turned off the lights as they left the closet.
“I have faith in Eva.” Bhathian wrapped his arm around her as they exited the room. “She insisted from the start that the three of you were Dormants. She was right about Tessa and you. She is probably right about Nick too.”
Maybe. But he was such a dork. Eva would have her baby before Nick made a move on Ruth, who Sharon now knew was another immortal.
“Would you like a beer? Julian stocks that Snake Venom all of you guys love.”
Bhathian’s perpetual scowl was replaced by a face-splitting grin. “I knew there was a reason I always liked that boy.”
“As if that’s the only reason to like Julian.” Sharon pulled a bottle out from the fridge and handed it to Bhathian.
He popped the cap and took a swig. “He is a fine lad. His mother should be proud.”
“Oh, she is. Bridget adores him.”
Bhathian cast her a questioning glance. “What about you, Sharon, do you fancy the young doctor?”
Men were all idiots. A girl
couldn’t say a nice thing about a guy without them thinking she wanted to jump his bones.
“He is Robert’s roommate, and I like him. But Robert is the one for me.”
Bhathian lifted the beer bottle to his mouth. “A pity. Julian is a better catch.”
The punch she delivered to his bicep hurt her more than it hurt him. “You’re like an old yenta. The doctor title makes you swoon.”
Bhathian sat on a barstool, his back to the kitchen counter, his long legs sprawled before him. “It’s not only that. The lad is good-looking and good-natured. If I were a female, I would’ve fancied him.”
“He is too shiny for me.”
“Shiny? What does that mean?”
“I don’t want to walk into a restaurant with a guy who is better looking than me, or watch other women undress him with their eyes. Robert is handsome too, but not in a flashy way like Julian. He might get a few second looks, but no open-mouthed salivating. Do you get the difference?”
Bhathian nodded, though he didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, maybe it’s a female thing. I like seeing men sneak glances at Eva and look at me with envy in their eyes because I walk in with a beauty like her.”
“Does it not make you jealous?”
“Nah.” He flexed one of his bulging biceps. “With me around, no one would dare anything.”
Sharon rolled her eyes. “Your impressive muscles notwithstanding, one withering look from Eva is more effective as a deterrent. Men don’t mess with her.”
“The smart ones don’t.” He flexed again. “But these babies are backup in case some moron with no survival instincts decides to bother her.”
3
Turner
“Are Kian and his bodyguards going to be there?” Turner adjusted the headrest of the passenger seat in Bridget’s new car. It was one of the specially outfitted ones Kian had ordered for the village residents, equipped with autonomous driving and windows that turned opaque at a certain distance from home base.
Overkill, and that was saying something coming from the king of paranoia himself. Turner’s safety measures were a necessity, but they didn’t rely on technology, which could always be hacked.
A different solution was needed, but at the moment Turner was drawing a blank, probably because he was not looking forward to the testing.
His paranormal abilities were nonexistent, and he was going to do poorly, which he hated, especially in front of witnesses. Hopefully, Kian had changed his mind about attending. It would be bad enough to fail in front of Bridget and Kian’s sister. Turner didn’t want to do so in front of the big man himself.
“They are going to meet us at the lab.” Bridget eased out of her new parking spot at his building.
Acclimatizing to the new place had taken a few days. Even though he’d lived in the apartment for years, it looked and felt totally different. Everything was as new to him as it was to Bridget.
Not that the place had ever felt like home to him before.
Walls and windows and furniture created a dwelling, people created a home. Without Bridget, the most luxurious villa would have been just a house, while with her a cave would’ve felt like home.
After a lifetime of living alone, he couldn’t conceive of returning to it.
Hell, he was even going to miss the bunch of busybodies hanging out in the keep’s café.
At the end of a long day, he’d come to enjoy sitting and listening to their prattle and their gossip, laughing at a few jokes.
It had been easier to be around them than he’d expected.
Most of the immortals he’d met were upbeat people, which had surprised him at first. Living for as long as they did and watching history unfold, they should have been disillusioned, jaded, and bitter. In his mind, he’d equated them to old warriors who’d taken part in endless battles, witnessing the senseless loss of life and the futility of it all.
Perhaps the difference was that immortals weren’t weighed down by disease. They didn’t suffer from various aches and pains either, except for those caused by fatigue or exertion.
More importantly, most of them hadn’t experienced the loss of a loved one.
The only source of pain in their lives was fear of their enemies, but those had been quiet lately.
Turner wondered what they were up to. With no spies at the Doomers’ base, the clan was flying blind. Something needed to be done about it. He would have to talk to Kian.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” Bridget asked.
“This and that. I let my mind roam aimlessly.”
“Aimlessly? I doubt it.”
Sharing his thoughts with Bridget was another thing Turner was struggling to get used to. He liked talking to her, but not everything that popped into his mind was worth mentioning. He didn’t like voicing thoughts and ideas he hadn’t fully formulated yet.
The thing was, Bridget would keep pushing until he opened his mouth and spat out his random stream of consciousness. She loved hearing him talk while he thought things through, saying that she found the process fascinating.
“I was thinking about the immortals I’ve met at the café, and that I was surprised most of them were so normal and positive. I’d expected jaded attitudes and superiority complexes.”
Bridget laughed. “Both are true. Immortals are superior to humans, it’s an indisputable fact. They are stronger, have better senses, and can manipulate human minds. But on average, they are not smarter, or more moral, or any of the things that make a real difference. This is pounded into our heads since we are old enough to understand, but I can’t say everyone accepts and internalizes the lessons. Many clan members feel entitled, and some feel jaded. Each person is a unique individual.”
“Still, for really old people they are very young at heart. Sometimes they act almost juvenile, like Anandur and his jokes and his banter. I would’ve never believed the guy’s been around for a thousand years. Not that I have a problem with that. I’d rather spend time with Anandur than his dead serious brother. But I can’t help thinking that the positive attitude is the result of good health and no worries of it ever deteriorating.”
Bridget cast him a sad look. “Everyone sees the world through the lenses of their own experience. To you, the guarantee of health seems like a tremendous boon, but immortals take it for granted. I guess people don’t appreciate what they have until they experience its loss.”
There was truth to that, no doubt about it, but he still needed an explanation for the puzzle. If the immortals took their health and longevity for granted, then something else must’ve been responsible for their upbeat outlook on life.
Unless it was all an act.
“Do you think immortals pretend playfulness to counteract the tedium of their long existence? Could it be an act?”
Bridget shook her head. “You and your mysteries. Can’t you let it go as that’s just the way it is?”
“No. I have to understand.”
“Maybe it has to do with a sense of purpose. I’ve been thinking a lot about it since my speech. I think it is an essential component of a meaningful life. The purpose doesn't have to be grandiose, for most humans feeding their families and raising their children is purpose enough. For us, though, there has to be more. Most clan members don’t have children, and basic things like food, shelter, and safety are not a concern.”
As Bridget helped Turner figure out the last missing piece of the puzzle, he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “The founder of your clan is brilliant.”
“I know. But what prompted you to say that in this context?”
“As you’ve wisely said, your people need more than survival to motivate them and give them a sense of purpose. The goddess has been providing it since the very beginning. I wonder if that was her intention from the start, to give her people a goal to strive for, or was she really concerned about the future of humanity and wanted to provide it with a roadmap to achieving it.”
“It’s absolutely about humanity,” Br
idget said. “As the last survivor of her people, Annani feels she is the custodian of their knowledge, and that it is her duty to continue their work. She’d decided on this course of action long before she had children, so filling their lives with purpose was not a concern. I think she had children because she knew she couldn’t do it alone. Not the other way around.”
“Perhaps she needed a sense of purpose for herself? Something to keep her going even though everyone she loved and cared about was gone?”
4
Bridget
As Bridget walked into Amanda’s lab, the first thing she noticed was that there was no one at the stations where postdocs and other lab assistants should have been busy at work.
She smiled at Syssi. “Did you guys get rid of everyone for us?”
“Not because of you, darlings.” Amanda walked out from her small office at the back of the lab. “My hulking brother and his matching pair of number one and number two would have caused quite a stir among my mostly female workforce.”
She pulled Bridget into a quick hug then offered her hand to Turner. “I’m so excited that you agreed to get tested. I can’t wait to see what you can do.”
With a tiny grimace that only Bridget noticed, Turner shook Amanda’s hand. “I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. My talents are of the normal variety, not the paranormal.”
“We’ll see about that.” She waved a hand. “Come on, let’s start with the random images.” She showed him to a chair facing a computer screen.”
Syssi threaded her arm through Bridget’s. “Would you like me to run a few tests on you?”
“Out of solidarity with Victor?”
“That too. But also for yourself. Don’t you want to know if you have any special talents?”
“I can make a killer kale salad.”
Syssi made a pouty face. “And you didn’t invite me to try it? Not nice.”
Even though it was meant as a joke, Bridget winced. Syssi had invited her on more than one occasion and treated her to cappuccinos and cocktails. She should reciprocate. “You’re right. I’ll check with Victor when is a good day for him and invite you guys to dinner. It's long overdue.”
