Chapter 27: Chapter 26

I watched from a distance as my body rode that water upwards. It surged, rolled, and seemed to thunder as gravity was flipped upside down. I couldn’t take my eyes off of myself. Something totally alien took over my body. My normally frizzy brown curls were sleek as they lay against my shoulders. The curls perfectly framed my face and my lips seemed to form a small heart.

As we—me and myself—neared the top, I watched my eyelids lift and I froze in shock.

I had brown eyes, but they were silver. They seemed to see everything at once. Then they turned towards me and seemed to zap me. “Get back. Now!”

I felt myself sucked through the air and crashed into my body. I gasped, choked, and struggled against what was happening.

“Accept me. Accept yourself,” The Immortal me told myself. This voice was me. I wondered, belatedly, if I could have three different personas inside of me and still be sane. Maybe. I doubted it, though.

“Accept—now!” With that last command, I threw back my head, my arms jerked upwards, and I gasped as something flowed down my throat. It molded to my body. Then the world rushed at me with breakneck speed. I lifted high and over. The water fell away and I looked around the room.

Kates was frozen beside Lucan. Her blue eyes were wide, terrified, but what drew my eye wasn’t how she looked at me. It was the knowledge that burned bright. She’d known, but seeing it was a different matter. Still… that wasn’t the knowledge that I saw. She knew something else was going to happen, something that she didn’t want to admit to herself. I saw it so bright. It was like a candle that flickered behind her.

“You!” Lucan growled. His hair was pushed back, carelessly, but it molded to the sides of his face. His eyes gleamed cruelly and he sneered as if knowing he’d won.

I felt Roane jerk forward. He stepped to move between myself and his brother, but I stopped him. When I lifted a hand, the room rattled. “No.”

“Wha—” Kates gasped and jerked her head around.

“Holy fu—.” Even Wren was amazed as she took in the scene.

“Davy, stop,” Roane said, but it was too late.

I moved around and stepped in front of Lucan. As I looked down at him, I realized that I was floating in the air. Something prickled the back of my wrist and I looked around.

Every glass, every champagne flute, every crystal dish floated in the air. All those diamonds sparkled furiously. They were blinding, but I saw them through my silver eyes. They looked like air particles to me.

“What—you’re the Immortal. You!” Lucan took a step forward.

“Lucan!” Roane shouted a warning.

I spoke above Roane. “Yes. I am she. I am the Immortal.”

My voice was different. It wasn’t just mine, but all the Immortals before me. Something ancient poured through me. It was frightening, but I felt the power. “I am not what you want, Lucan. That is my only warning.”

“Davy, don’t do this,” Kates whispered this time. “Please. Please don’t do this.”

I merely looked at her. The candle started to burn brighter.

Lucan growled ferociously this time. He reached for my wrist, but two things happened in the blink of my eye. Kates stepped in front of him, her back to me. And Roane flung himself forward.

I stopped everything.

Time stood still, but Roane jerked me behind him. As I fell to the floor, I raised my head. “That’s right. You’re connected to me.”

“My blood is in you.” Roane turned and glared at his brother.

“He’s frozen. I stopped time.”

“So I see,” Roane breathed harshly. He raked a chilling glare over his brother again before he turned and regarded me.

I stood to meet him and tilted my chin for respect. “You don’t approve of what I’ve done.”

“This isn’t you, Davy. This is the Immortal. You’re not…” He gestured to my body. “This isn’t you. I want you back.”

I could’ve told him that this was the new me, but instead I stepped around him. I stared at Kates and breathed out in awe, “Look at her.”

The candle now shone brightly behind her. The blinding yellow flame encompassed her body. She was a mere black shadow in front of it.

“Do you see it?” I wanted him to see it.

Roane frowned, but looked. “It’s the slayer. She’s trying to save Lucan.”

She wasn’t. She wasn’t doing that at all. My hand rose of its own volition, but it dropped now, saddened. “You don’t see it.”

“She doesn’t want me to hurt him. She’s in love with him, what do you expect?”

“She’s not saving him. She thinks she’s saving me. It’s so bright around her. It’s her hope.” The candle burned even brighter now. It looked like it was going to explode. “She’s saving herself.”

“She’s not, Davy.” Roane was firm. “Kates is smart. She knows that I wouldn’t let him touch you. She’s making her move against me, not for you.”

He was wrong. Roane didn’t realize what had happened. He didn’t really understand who I was anymore. Everything he knew was limited. All the vampires thought wrong.

It didn’t matter, not right then, but I turned and gazed at my lover. He looked fierce with murder in his eyes. Every part of him screamed that he was an animal, but I remembered what he’d said before.

“There’s a soul inside of you.”

Roane frowned, jerked off balance for a moment.

I moved forward and lifted a palm to his chest. His muscles jerked in response from my touch, but he held still.

I continued, “You told me before that you don’t have a soul, but your body remembers what it did with the soul. That’s why you breathe sometimes. The soul is imbedded in every part of a person. You’re still a person. You still have a soul. And you honor it, even now when you want to kill your brother.”

~‘He cannot divide them.’~

I understood them now. I glanced over my shoulder at Lucan. “He’s not put together right. I saw that before, but I didn’t understand it. I knew you’d win today. I felt your strength. What you said was right. You have the strength of all the Hunters inside of you. You’d overpower your brother too easily, but that’s where it’d rip away your humanity. You’d become the animal that you loathe inside of you.”

Roane stiffened at my words. He started to pull away, but I clasped the back of his arm. I wouldn’t let him move and his eyes widened at my strength. “If you had killed your brother today, that would’ve destroyed you. He’s still a part of you. You love him and you’d be the end of him. It would’ve been the end of you as well. I can’t have that. I need you.”

His eyes clung to mine.

I touched his lips. They were perfect, cool to the touch, and I leaned forward to nip at them.

Roane grasped the back of my head and deepened the kiss. I felt his love with that kiss, but I pulled away. Haunted. “Do you love me or do you love who is inside of me?”

His eyes shuddered closed and he withdrew. “I loved her, yes.”

“That’s why you’re drawn to me.”

“That’s why you’re drawn to me too!” Roane whipped back to me. I was taken aback by the loathing in his eyes. “You don’t think I’ve thought of this? Something takes control of you when you’re around me. It’s not you, either, Davy. You might think you feel something for me, but you don’t. A part of Talia is inside of you. It’s always her reaching out for me, taking control of you.”

Oh god. I didn’t… I couldn’t understand… I started to slip inside of him, but he shoved me out. “I don’t want you to know the mess inside of me.”

I respected his wish. I couldn’t solve the problem between us, but I knew a problem that I ~could~ resolve for him. So I looked back at Lucan. “You can’t help your brother, but I can.”

“Wha—”

I rushed forward and stepped in front of Kates. My back was to Lucan. And then I unlocked time.

“No!” Roane shouted, but I snapped my fingers. Every glass, every diamond, every champagne flute exploded in the air. They all ducked from the exploding shards of glass.

I whispered to Lucan, “I want to give you what you want.”

He licked his fangs and grasped my arm. That was all he needed and he jerked me forward to clamp onto my skin. I tensed as my skin broke underneath his fangs, but I grasped his head. I willed him to drink all he needed.

“No!” Roane leapt across the room and pulled his brother from me. Lucan fell against a wall, bewildered and triumphant. Then his back arched dramatically. Only his head and toes touched the floor. He sucked in a ragged breath and pounded at his chest frantically. Desperate.

Roane stopped in front of me. He held me back with an arm around my waist and watched in confusion. “What?”

I watched Roane as he watched his brother. “He can be right again. I saved your brother… for you.”

“What did you do, Davy?” The words were wrung out from him. Roane stared as Lucan howled in pain and rolled on the ground.

My words were for his ears only. “I gave him life again. He can be right.”

Lucan continued to writhe on the floor, but Roane suppressed a shudder and abruptly turned so he couldn’t watch anymore. He pulled me tight against his chest and wrapped both his arms around me. He buried his head in the crook of my shoulder and I watched for him. One of my hands lifted to cradle the back of his head.

Everyone watched in the room. No one dared to speak. Then Lucan’s body lifted off the floor, his back arched, and a dark light ripped out of his mouth. It slammed to the ceiling and settled there. Waiting. I’d kept the crystals floating in the air and now I turned my wrist. Each little shattered particle of crystal all moved as one.

“Be gone,” I whispered.

Immediately the crystals surrounded the black light and an explosion occurred.

Roane jerked. Everyone gasped. Kates fell to the floor with a wrangled moan. Wren cursed softly, but savagely. After another moment of holding me, Roane lifted his head to turn towards his brother. Lucan was unconscious.

“He’s sleeping.”

“Davy… what did you do?”

“His soul is intact.”

Roane looked anguished. “He’s human?”

I nodded.

“How?”

I couldn’t tell him, not really. So I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, I let Roane see my true self. He saw the silver eyes. “I’m the Immortal.”

~To continue…~

~DAVY HARWOOD STILL IN TRANSITION~