Immaculate Spirit c1-242

by Newbiel

  "I didn't look into you Duchess." Nathaniel answers truthfully.

  Looking at his face, Brunhilde couldn't find any sign that he was lying.

  "Why? It's not like I didn't give you enough reason to do so."

  "A friend asked me to not do so and I made a decision to respect her demand."

  "Lucie?" Brunhilde asked, connecting the dot.

  "Lucie." He nodded.

  "She mentioned that you were working together but was not really forward with what that work is exactly." She said.

  "I'm afraid that I can't give you more clarity for obvious reasons but let's just say that we help people that nobody else can or want to help."

  "I see." She mused out loud. "It sounds like dangerous work."

  "Everything can be dangerous, even walking side by side together can be considered dangerous." Nathaniel remarked.

  "Dangerous for me or for you?" She added, lifting an eyebrow.

  "That's the whole question isn't it?" Nathaniel said, giving her a wolfish smile that she returned with a twinkle in her eyes.

  Chapter 228: :

  "So she just asked you to not look into me and you just, obey? You don't strike me as the type to accept orders." Brunhilde remark.

  "When you say it like that, it does seem to be an order but it wasn't. She asked me to do something, I trusted and respected her enough to accept." He answers.

  "You trust her despite knowing that she's hiding things from you?"

  "Of course. I'm not insecure enough to demand to know every part of someone's life before working with them. Everyone is entitled to their own secret. Her, you, me, it's all the same. If one day she trusts me enough, maybe she will tell me about some of them and maybe I will too but in the meantime I have no right whatsoever to ask about them." Nathaniel explained.

  "I see." She mused out loud. "You really sound and think nothing like a seventeen years old teenager should."

  "Maybe because my life has been nothing like any seventeen years old should be. I went from trial to trial and now I'm here, somehow the world is not tired yet because they kept testing me. You are one of those trials, Duchess."

  "You seriously expect me to believe this is it? I can't recognize a half truth when I see one." She said with a huff.

  "Of course it is, I did tell you that there will be things I will not say and honestly, you really believe you deserve to know?" Nathaniel said, turning his head to the side and looking at her in the eyes.

  Coming to a sudden halt, they both faced each other in the middle of the street. Andy, not knowing what was happening, just took a sitting position between them and looked at the passerby around them in an alert state. Nathaniel on his side did not cower and just face her impassively, waiting for her to speak.

  "That is fair and way more honest than what I'm used to." She finally answered. "You said, you believe I'm a trial. What do you mean by that?"

  "Oh, that's easy." Nathaniel began, patting Andy's head before starting to walk again. "You could very well may be the most dangerous person I have ever met. Considering the people I already know, this is saying something. The trial lies in what's going to happen next, are we going to become friends or bitter enemies?"

  "Between those two, I would like better to become friends if it was my choice to make." Brunhilde affirmed.

  "That's exactly my point, I don't think I want to be friends with you." He said frankly.

  "Why?" She asked with a bit of anger creeping in her voice.

  "You are a devious, manipulative, conceited and pretentious woman. Like you can guess, those are not the qualities I want in a friend."

  "Do you want to anger me, Nathaniel?" She asked in a dangerous tone.

  "No but I'm just being honest here."

  "Honest doesn't mean right." She pointed out.

  "Of course but for my defense, I'm not the one who hired a private investigator in three different American cities to look into you, the whole thing four thousand miles away from my hometown." Nathaniel commented.

  "Touché." She acknowledged with the ghost of a smile on her face.

  "To be fair since I know next to nothing about you, I based my opinions on how you behave. Maybe this cold and uncaring exterior is only a facade to push people away or maybe it's not. Either way, it's not my place to unearth the real you, I'm just here to satisfy your curiosity so I can go back to my important work."

  "Well, I can say you know how to make a girl feel special." She sighed.

  "You are right, I'm being rude here and I'm sorry Duchess but I just want to be clear." Nathaniel said.

  Walking ahead, Nathaniel saw a little away to his right a young man bumping on an old lady before moving quickly without even apologizing. Sighing to himself, Nathaniel angled his body and bumped on the same young man who swore at him to be careful. Surprised by the scene, Brunhilde just looked at him with an eyebrow raised which Nathaniel just shook his head in response, signaling it was no big deal. With two quick strides, Nathaniel catches up to the old lady.

  "Excuse me, ma'am." He called. "Your wallet just fell off of your purse."

  Seeing her purse in Nathaniel's hand, the lady was shell shocked for a moment before taking it from Nathaniel's hand.

  "Oh! Thank you, young man. Thank you! I don't know what I would have done if I would have lost it."

  "Don't worry about it, just stay safe alright?" He said, smiling brightly at her before continuing walking.

  Feeling the stare of Brunhilde on him, Nathaniel chose to ask a question to change the subject but was unfortunately too slow.

  "Well, well. Look at you, a millionaire teenager with experience in grifting." She said in a judgmental tone of voice.

  "I just have nimble fingers and this old lady didn't deserve to have her wallet stolen like that. Duchess, how old are you supposed to be by the way?"

  "A true gentleman would know that this is not a proper question to ask a lady." She commented before she realized Nathaniel's choice of words. "Wait, what do you mean by 'supposed'?"

  "I mean if I were to see your birth certificate, what would be written on it?"

  "I was born on February the thirteen, 1990. Now, I want to know where you are going with this."

  "It means you are twenty three years old."

  "You are good at math but I still don't see the point." She remarked.

  "I still remember the first time we met and the first time you said something to me, it wasn't that long ago to be honest so no surprise there. But I'm studying to become a lawyer and I was always taught to take note of people's use of words. They are giving away a lot of the person's upbringing and education." Nathaniel explained.

  "I see. What did my choice of words that night give away about myself?"

  "The same that you gave off for the most part, that you are a very well educated and sophisticated woman but there was one thing. It was the way you pronounce the word 'here', at first it sounded almost foreign to me so I got curious and met with a linguistic expert. He told me that it sounds weird not because it was foreign but because it was like this the word was spoken, almost two hundred years ago." Nathaniel explained casually.

  He did not have to wait for his last word to leave his mouth that he suddenly felt a huge sense of danger coming to his left. More than that, Andy who was between them started growling and was looking at Brunhilde with hostility. Turning his head to the side, Nathaniel could see that she was watching him but her face was carefully neutral, letting nothing out about her feelings. Looking down, Brunhilde watches Andy's behavior before watching Nathaniel again.

  "What's going on with your dog?"

  "Andy is a crossbreed by the way, in fact genetically, he's more of a wolf than a dog. Do you know that their sense of smell is so developed that they can smell feelings? They are especially good with strong feelings like fear, anger or the premise of violence. Andy reacted like that because he smelled that you were going to attack." Nathaniel answers, patting Andy's head to make him calm down.
r />   "Luckily for me, we are in a public setting or you might have even if I doubt it. It would have been tentamous with agreeing to what I just said and you are too smart for that."

  "You use your crossbreed to trap me." She affirms in a neutral tone of voice.

  "Trap is such an ugly word but can you really blame me? I just wanted some truth coming from you, something you've never done before." Nathaniel shrugged.

  "We are done here." She said, turning around and walking away, not giving him time to say anything else.

  Watching her leave, Nathaniel shook his head. Judging by the way she reacted, he knew he had stumbled upon their secret closer than he thought he would be and that was dangerous. He didn't know how to factor that in what he knew or guess about her yet and was not in a hurry to find out. He had the feeling that going further into that line of thought would be too dangerous and honestly he had better to do at the moment. He just wanted to be left alone and doing his work. Sighing, he pet Andy some more.

  "The mean woman left now, let's go home and play with Jaydon."

  Andy seemed to have understood him because he made an excited bark, making him laugh.

  Chapter 229: :

  Los Angeles, 17/04/2013.

  Diane Lyndon was sitting on a rocking chair in the garden of their new home in Santa Monica, looking at her grandson's antics with a little smile. To be honest she had mixed feelings about the west coast and she found it was way too hot but there was one thing that motivate to stay here and it was her grandson. It wasn't even the fact that he was smart and talking with him was always a good experience even if they had different views on many subjects. No, it was his ability to always come up with ridiculous projects that had no way to ever work but that he always seemed to achieve.

  He's newest project was trying to train Andy to make him combat ready and based on what she could see, it seems to be a lost cause. It was looking like Nathaniel had started to train Andy in sniffing explosives and how to handle some of them. The moment that almost had her doubled over in laughter was when Nathaniel threw a fake hand grenade and Andy took it in his mouth and ran over with it, not wanting to give it back.

  Seeing him walk in her direction with his clothes dirty and a crossbreed with his tongue dangling to his side, Diane strengthened in her chair.

  "Had fun grandma?" Nathaniel asked with a smile.

  "Yes, it was very funny indeed." She laughed, not surprised that he saw her. It seemed there was not much who could go past his attention.

  "At least it was fun for two out of the three of us." Nathaniel laughed, looking at Andy who was lipping water out of his bowl.

  Darting his eyes to the side, Nathaniel easily spotted Jaydon who was asleep in her cat tree. At first, she had come with Andy and got bored with it quickly and just took a nap, opening her eyes from time to time when they were shouting or to make sure everything was okay.

  "There is one thing I don't understand though." Diane mused.

  "Oh? Ask away grandma." Nathaniel answered, lifting an eyebrow in the air.

  "You were trying to make Andy recognize the smell of explosives and how to handle them, right?"

  "Indeed." Nathaniel nodded.

  "Then why are you using props?"

  "Props? No, they are real explosives." Nathaniel said.

  Opening her mouth in a silent 'o', Diane started looking in alarm in the direction of her garden where there were still a lot of different types of mine, grenade, C4 on the ground. Thinking back to the moment Andy took the hand grenade in his mouth, the blood left her face and she blanched abruptly.

  "What the hell were you thinking bringing explosives here!? We talked about weapons already! I don't want them in my house Nathaniel!'" She shouted.

  "Calm down grandma." He said, lifting his hands in surrender. "Camilla made sure to disable everything here and reduce their explosive countenance. Nothing can explode here unless modified by an explosive expert. Andy could have kept chewing this hand grenade for a week and it would never have blown up. I'm going to train Andy with detonating devices later but it will not be in our backyard. I'm not crazy."

  Relieved, she still chose to angrily shoot at him.

  "Why didn't you say anything before!?"

  "I thought it was obvious, I'm sorry grandma."

  Hearing his phone ring, Nathaniel excused himself by raising his hand and answered.

  "Hey Lina." Nathaniel called.

  "Hi Nathaniel." She said in a little voice.

  "What? No title today? What's going on?"

  "No not today, I have information but I'm not sure if I should have it and how you are going to react to it." She added in an uncertain voice.

  "Alright, tell me what's going on Lina." Nathaniel demanded.

  "It was from the time we were leading the hostages with the boat. I stumbled on a conversation between the two daughters of the senator and I recorded it. I know it was wrong but I heard your name being mentioned and I thought it was important."

  "And why are you telling me this now more than a week after recording it?" Nathaniel asked.

  "The quality was horrible because of the other people talking nearby, the engine of the boat and wave crashing. I had to use a number of software to make it better, it took me some time as it's not really my specialty."

  "Alright, you can play it Lina." Nathaniel sighed.

  "Coming right up." She called.

  There was a silence for a few moments on the line before he heard some static and then he was dropped in the middle of a conversation.

  "... going to get back with James. He always did right with me and he deserved better from me than to be ditch before going on spring break." Nathaniel recognized Elisabeth's voice.

  "I believe you are right." Nathaniel hears Madison's voice respond.

  "What about you?"

  "Me? What are you talking about, I'm single."

  "I'm talking about Nathaniel and you know it sis!"

  "We were not serious and he was boring so I hooked up with someone when he wasn't here, no big deal. He took it badly and blocked me everywhere, there is nothing much to it."

  "Don't you dare try that shit with me sis! I'm not your instagram friends or sorority girls, I'm you elder sister! I know you better than anyone and I was also with you when you were crying your heart out."

  "What do you want from me!?"

  "After everything that we went through? I want the truth! That boy respected you and you cheated on him with some random hunk, I want to know why." Elisabeth shouts with authority.

  There was another silence there that lasted a few seconds before he heard Madison speak again.

  "You know I just wanted to have fun in my college and spare me the drama of having a boyfriend and then I met him. We got together on the pretext of having fun and the weeks started passing and I was becoming more and more attached to him. It's only after he accompanied me for our brother's birthday party that I realized I was falling in love with him."

  "Yeah I know that, you wouldn't have cried your eyes out for weeks if you hadn't. I want to know why."

  "I tried to end it but I just couldn't do it, it was just too hard. You must understand sis, he was really good with me. He wasn't after my body or how I looked, he liked me for me, the real me. I was trapped between two parts of me, one wanted to end things and the other couldn't get enough of him. It was driving me crazy."

  There was another silence there with the sound of her sniffing.

  "But I knew that he wasn't in love with me like I was. As time passed, I was wondering why he should be in love with me? After all, he was far smarter, far more talented and generally better than me in almost every way. It was when he left for Washington that I lost it, I drank myself to oblivion and I ended up in a random dude bed. I wasn't thinking straight at that point and I almost feel relieved after that. This was why I hooked up with the guy at that party again because I knew that he will be here and saw us."

  "My god. You cheat on him because yo
u didn't have the strength to be apart from him."

  "Yes, that was my reasoning at that moment but you should have been there when he looked at me that night. I could see that I had hurt him badly but it was his eyes that broke me. He looked at me like I was dead to him and he didn't even talk to me. He spoke near me like he was musing out loud and then he left. I cried and begged for him to let me explain but it was as if he wasn't hearing me anymore. I had ceased to exist in his world."

  It was the last thing he heard as the recording ended and he got back to Lina that he was hearing, breathing on the other side, not knowing what to say. On his side, Nathaniel did not know how to feel. He had no idea that things were that hard for her. This wasn't excusing anything about what she did but at least now, he knew why she did it.

  "Was she telling the truth?" Lina asked.

  "About her not being good enough to be with me? No, it was coming from her own insecurities. I never cared about that at all to be honest." Nathaniel answered.

  "No, I mean about not being in love with her." She added.

  "Oh. At that time, I wasn't. Could I have fallen in love with her? Maybe, but it's in the past now and it's a future that will never happen. What she said about her not existing in my life was right, she chose her path and I chose mine."

  "So, you are not mad at me, right?" She asked anxiously, making him laugh.

  "No, I should thank you in fact, it explains something I couldn't explain before today. I'm coming back to New York in a few days. Don't tell the others about this but you are my favorite girl Lina." He adds with humor before hanging up.

  Chapter 230: :

  New York. 20/04/2013. 16h55.

  Walking inside the classroom, Nathaniel sighed contently. He likes Columbia and he misses it while he is busy in Hollywood and doing some other activities. Getting back to this place was almost soothing in a sense, surrounded by people who had the same will to learn as he had all of his life. Not learn anything either but learning about the law, a subject that has driven him since he was little.

  Taking place at their usual seats, Nathaniel and Na-Yung look at the other students entering inside the huge room and taking place like they were, talking enthusiastically between them. Looking at each other, they took a folder from their bag and put it on their desk, smiling at each other challengingly.