Chapter 16: Chapter 15

“What do you mean? You knew the other girl. You said she was a good person.”

“I did know her, but I was the only one, Davy. I knew Talia when she was little and I protected her. That was my job. I wasn’t always a Hunter. I became one because… certain Elders questioned me…”

I straightened. “You’re not telling me everything.”

“No, I’m not. That’s not important at this time. You need to know about the Immortal and you need to understand the situation. You’re the new Immortal. I suspected before, but I wasn’t sure.”

“Why do the other vampires think it’s someone else? I was on that roof with Talia. They saw me.”

“But they didn’t see her touch you. There was no contact between you two.”

‘~Yeah, but… I felt inside of her.’~

Roane read my thoughts. “The Immortal thread goes from one human to the next. She didn’t touch you. They don’t know about the psychic contact between you. No one else knew about that possibility. It’s always been documented in the Immortal lore that one Immortal needs to physically touch the next Immortal. ~I~ knew that it didn’t need to happen that way, but no one else knew.”

“She touched someone else?”

Roane nodded. “Another girl left the building when Talia went inside. Talia held the door open for her and their arms brushed against each other.”

“But…” Too many questions. Not enough answers. “What did you mean when you said that no Immortal has been known?”“You said before that the Immortal was a fairytale and you’re somewhat right. There’s always been the belief that an Immortal existed, but no one knew for certain. There were theories, but Talia was hidden by my family. I was entrusted to protect her, but I failed.”

I felt how his words hurt him. This was his duty. It’s what I felt inside of him the first time we spoke. “You were supposed to protect her and hide her?”

Roane nodded, his jaw tight.

“What happened? How’d the other vampires find out?”

Something told me that Roane wasn’t going to share the details unless he absolutely had to. “I’d been sent on a different mission for one of the Elders so I wasn’t even there. But there was an argument and the wrong person overheard. Talia made a choice—she ran that night. She knew she needed to find another Immortal and hoped the Immortal would remain hidden. She did what she needed to do.”

“She chose me?” He still wasn’t telling me everything.

“The Immortal thread chose you, not Talia. You were supposed to work late that night. She knew you’d come upstairs and she knew you were empathic. She needed to let go of the thread without them seeing it. When you went inside of her, the thread came back with you.”

“We aren’t supposed to touch too deep in a person.” I wet my dry lips. They felt like they were bleeding. “If something went wrong, a part of us could stay inside. I never thought that a part of them could come inside of me. That’s not how it’s supposed to happen. There are rules, universal laws of nature stuff and…”

“The Immortals can bend those rules.”

That meant… “I can bend those rules.”

“You can’t think that way, not yet. You don’t know all of your powers and we don’t have time for you to get acquainted with them.” Roane surged forward. “That’s why I’m giving you this crash course. Gregory’s right. I ~am~ bringing war to this household, but I have to keep you hidden. No vampire can drink from you. If they did, they would have your powers. Any vampire would be unstoppable. I can’t let that happen.”

I’m back to my dislike for vampires. Evil creatures, the lot of them… well… the possible exception might be in front of me. “Let me guess… when that happens then the world might end?”

“Hardly. It just means that vampire has too much power. No creature should have that power.”

“Except a human.”

“Except someone with a soul. Yes.”

We’re back to that conversation. Souls, humanity, forgetting or not forgetting what it’s like to be human. It was all connected. I jerked my head up and down and hoped it resembled a nod. I wasn’t holding my breath. “What now?”

Roane paused for a second. It was one of those seconds where you felt your heart was going to explode. “You have to walk away from me and be normal.”

“What did you say?” My heart skipped a beat.

Roane stepped towards me, but stopped abruptly. It was like he wanted to come closer, but didn’t dare. I completely understood and found myself swaying towards him, but I forced myself to stay on the bed….

“I’m the Hunter here. They know that they can’t drink from a human, even if they think she’s the Immortal. I have to stop them. They won’t think twice when they see the girl here, but they’ll start to wonder if you’re here too. I know some of these vampires. Each of us has a Family and some Families are more powerful than others. Some extremely powerful Families are coming here and all of them want the Immortal. I can’t worry that they’ll discover who you are if you’re here. You need to go. You need to hide and you can do that by being normal. Don’t use your powers. They can’t sense your power.”

“What about… where’s your Family?”

“They’re coming.”

He was being vague and I didn’t like that. My eyes sharpened. “Gregory said war. He wasn’t exaggerating.”

“He wasn’t.” Roane looked away and rubbed a tired hand over his jaw. My hand itched to cover his.

“I came here to be normal. I wanted to go to college because that’s the normal thing to do. Kates didn’t understand it, but she’s not like me. She likes being unique or abnormal. She doesn’t understand… I wish she did sometimes.” I looked up and held his gaze. It was alluring, seductive, but I saw the anger that was repressed. It simmered under the surface. “I have a date tonight. I should go on that date, huh?”

He clenched his jaw for the briefest of seconds. “It would be the ‘normal’ thing to do, yes.”

I wondered if it cost him to say that. It cost me to hear it. “Okay. I’ll… I’ll go on that date, then.”

Roane stayed where he was.

I couldn’t bring myself to walk out those doors. “I… I should go.”

He nodded again. “Gregory will be back with the girl shortly. Hopefully, after awhile, things will go back to normal. You should… stay away from Kates. Stay with your roommate, with that boy. Go to classes. Do your normal thing.”

I frowned as a thought came to me. “You said that you needed me to help Kates. Did you? Or was that whole thing just a lie because you thought I was the Immortal?”

~‘Did he use my roommate?’~

“I used them both, yes.” Roane read my mind again.

I thought my shields were up against him? “And my powers? What if…”

“Try not to get angry. Talia told me that she used to ‘pack it away’. She said some days she was human and the others, she was the Immortal. You could try that.”

“What about the other girl? What are you going to do with her?”

Roane answered swiftly and I caught a glimpse of the Hunter he was. I had felt how fierce he could be, how determined and devoted to his duty he was when I’d been inside of him. I had marveled at his motivation and I saw it again when he replied, “We’ll hide her. When they demand to know where she is, we’ll fight. We’ll win. And then she’ll be seen in another state, another city, and rumors will be told again. They’ll all go there.”

They’d leave Benshire and the real Immortal behind. It was brilliant, but something told me that was just Roane doing his job. It was another day in the office for him.

“This is what you do, isn’t it.” I glided across the room until I stood right before him, within touching distance.

Roane closed his eyes and struggled not to reach out. The same battle was within me… a part of me was starting not to care about the consequences. A part of me was starting to wonder what those consequences actually were. Were there consequences?

Roane caught my hand. I hadn’t been aware of lifting it, but he caught and held it immobile in the air. There it was—the connection between us, again. Both of us looked at our hands. His hand wrapped around my wrist. Slowly, hypnotically, I bent my fingers and caressed his finger, just slightly, but it was enough. Roane drew in a ragged breath. I held my own. Then he growled as he hauled me to his chest and lifted me in the air. I wrapped my legs around his waist and we fell on the bed. His weight pressed me down and I searched for his mouth, desperately.

He found it and claimed me.

Roane slid his hands down to my waist. I arched my back to press against him and wrapped my arms around his neck. It seemed like I couldn’t get any closer, but I needed to.

I couldn’t get enough of him.

And then a phone ring peeled through the air. I cursed under my breath as Roane ripped himself away from me. Instantly, I felt the cold blast against my body and I would’ve done anything to have him back. The phone rang again and Roane paused when he found it. A third time. “It’s… I can’t answer this.” Roane sounded like he had one last nerve of willpower and the phone was quickly eating it away.

I lifted my head and saw that he had my phone. I’d completely forgotten that I ~had~ a phone. It seemed like something from a different world, not a world where vampires and Immortals existed.

It rang a fourth time and I felt the impatience across the line. “It’s my roommate.” I held out a heavy hand and snapped it open. “What?”

“What? You just say it like that? What? Your boyfriend is here. He said something about a date. And you ditched out on the convention today. Thanks a lot. Mr. Moser trusted me and I was stupid enough to trust ~you~.”

“Emily…”

“Get back here from wherever you are and deal with Adam. I don’t want him here.”

I sighed in surrender. “I’ll be right there.”

“Thank you. I’m going to make Adam wait in the lobby for you.”

Before I could reply, she’d already hung up.

Roane peered out the window and then looked back. “Gregory’s back. I’ll have him take you to your dorm.”

I wondered if my exhaustion was from the Immortal’s change in my body or knowing my life wouldn’t be the same again. A third option was the desire that literally throbbed inside of me. My guess—the Immortal had nothing on Roane. When I started towards the door, he stopped me. “Stay away from Wren. Make sure you’re never alone with her.”

“Why?”

“There are some things that you don’t know about her and she knows about you. Avoid her if you see her.”

I nodded and left with a heavy heart.