Drip Drop Teardrop, a Novella (6 page)

What made someone like
Brennus become an Ankou? Was it the power, the immortality he
craved? And if it was, how could he possibly think he was the kind
of man she’d want? A man who would choose a morbid existence to
live forever? There was just something so empty in that. “Why?” she
whispered. “Why did you choose to be an Ankou?”

“
Ah.” He
nodded, his face tightening, the scar seeming to pulse angrily, the
masculine sharp lines of his jaw clenching. He shifted, his arm
lengthening along the back of the sofa, his legs crossing over. He
stared into the fire, offering her his profile, the cheek without
the scar. God, he was beautiful. That wasn’t true. But it was. Her
breath hitched and she looked away, even more terrified of how
attracted she was to him than the answer to his question. He didn’t
seem to notice her inner turmoil. “I thought you might ask that,”
he continued. “I will tell you.” He turned back to her, the
contrast between his nearly unblemished profile and ravaged front
transfixing her. “I don’t like telling this story but I promised we
would be honest with one another and so for you I’ll… I’ll
explain.”

Avery thought her heart
might explode in her chest. Somehow it was only now beginning to
dawn on her that this being, this immortal, powerful being had
chosen her, had latched onto her. Little ol’ her. It was utterly
terrifying.

“
I was a
mortal man during the 2
^nd
Century A.D. I came from a
long line of strong, capable Celts. Britons. By the time of my
birth my family were Romano-Britons, and by the age of fifteen I
was a wealthy, arrogant tradesman in Londinium. At the time
Londinium was considered a large city even then, an important
centre of commercialism and trading. Coupled with my father’s
wealth… we were very successful and important. We dined each month
at the governor’s palace, rubbed elbows with the elite. In fact I
married a Roman girl. My father liked her father’s status and her
father liked my money.”

Avery kept very still;
afraid she would break the mesmerising spell he seemed to be
under.

“
Her name was
Anonna. She was beautiful and I was captivated by her. I thought I
loved her,” he grunted. Avery felt the bitterness swell out of him.
“Not long after we wed, a great plague hit Londinium as well as the
rest of Western Europe. It took hold of Anonna. When the Ankou came
for her I could see him, I could see him in my utter desperation to
stay with her. So he offered me a choice.”

Without having to be
told, Avery knew what that choice had been. In a way he was
offering her the same thing. Brennus caught her own bitter smile
and he nodded gravely. “Yes, he offered me the choice to save her.
In return I would become one of the Ankou.”

At that moment Avery
hated him. She hated him for having sacrificed himself for someone
he loved, because it drew them deeper into this strange connection.
She hated him for his honourable reason for becoming an Ankou. Why
couldn’t he have just been a soulless demon who craved immortality
and power? Instead he was a man capable of such immense love he had
literally sold his soul for Anonna.

Deep down, she hated him
for that too.

“
You must
love her very much,” Avery whispered, disgusted by the prickles of
jealously crawling across her chest.

Brennus snorted. “It
wasn’t love. It was infatuation. I didn’t even know her that
well.”

Avery frowned. “But you
were married.”

He shrugged. “Times were
different then. A wife was property. I thought because we were kind
and considerate of one another, enjoyed one another inside and out
of the bedroom, that it meant something. But I didn’t really take
the time to get to know my wife. If I had looked closely enough I
would have seen the spoilt brat that she was and her poisonous,
never-ending need for attention.”

“
Wait, I’m
confused. If you have such contempt for this woman, why on earth
did you give up your mortality for her?”

She could tell he was
growing agitated by the subject but Avery had to know, she needed
to know if he still loved this woman. She wasn’t even going to
question why.

“
When I
became Ankou I was given Londinium as my province. I kept watch
over my wife. I discovered she had been having an affair with my
father behind my back.”

His father! Ugh! Avery
grimaced. “Your father?!”

He caught her look and
smirked. "My father was only fifteen years older than me and I was
only nineteen when I married Anonna-”

“
You were
nineteen when you died?” she gasped, disbelieving. Nineteen year
old guys tended to have that cute in-between boyhood and manhood
thing going on. Brennus was just all raw masculinity… no boyishness
anywhere in sight.

He laughed lightly.
“Twenty. We looked older back then. Life was harder.”

She nodded, still
unbelieving. “OK. Sorry… you were saying…”

“
Well my
father was still in his prime and was considered very handsome. So
was I before I was scarred.”

“
I’ll bet,”
she murmured, her eyes washing over Brennus, thinking what his
wicked smile did to her insides. It made her forget the
unforgettable mar.

His dark eyes caught her
and they glistened in the light. A soft sensual smile played on his
lips. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

She blushed but rolled
her eyes, waving him off. “OK, so your father was only thirty four
and a hottie… it’s still gross.”

“
I agree,” he
growled. “But my father and I were competitive and he decided to
take it to a new level with Anonna. He wanted to prove he could
have and do anything I could have and do. Anonna didn’t care if she
was betraying me. When we married my face was unscarred. But, as I
said, I was arrogant and selfish back then. One day I was out at
market discussing transport of stone from a nearby quarry with a
client when a man I had ceased doing business with approached me.
He had been a wool merchant and we had done fine deals with one
another for years. I had turned my back on our business
relationship six months before when told his wife and child had
died from an illness that sounded suspiciously like plague; my
disinterest made others follow suit, and callously I did nothing to
stop it. I even laughed at the poor man’s misfortune. So he
attacked me, slashing me deep across the face, screaming that now I
would know what it felt like to be abhorred. And he was right.
Anonna flinched from me. Foolishly I convinced myself I understood,
having worshipped beauty all my life I realised how difficult it
must be for her to be faced with my disfigurement. But I thought
that underneath she still loved me. I realise now that instead she
had turned to my father.”

“
So you kind
of made a big mistake giving up your life for hers huh,” she stated
sadly, actually feeling bad for him. At least she knew if she made
the decision to save her Aunt Caroline that she was doing it for
the most decent person she had ever had the privilege of
knowing.

“
Yes,” his
voice was low again, hoarse with the old pain. “But Anonna got her
comeuppance.”

“
What
happened?”

“
The plague
ravaged Londinium and although the city remained important during
Roman reign it never really recovered economically. My mother died
in childbirth, my father was wifeless. A year after my death he
offered marriage to Anonna. She was sleeping with him as well as
the governor. When the governor heard of my father’s proposal he
told Anonna that he would make her his mistress, a wealthy
mistress, if she refused my father. My father was struggling
financially at the time, he still had his wealth but he wasn’t
adding to it, so Anonna snubbed my father and became a kept woman.
Her own father had died in the plague so she didn’t have anyone she
was disappointing.”

“
Except your
father.”

Brennus nodded at her,
his eyes soft on her. “Yes. Except father. Who foolishly, like me,
loved her.”

“
What
happened to her?” She almost dreaded knowing.

“
The governor
was cruel. As soon as she agreed to the contract of being his
mistress his attitude changed.” Brennus’ eyes darkened. “She was
subjected to vile things. Things even she didn’t
deserve.”

“
Oh my
God.”

“
Yes. If I
were a harder man I would say it was justice for what she had done
to me, but, in the end, it had been my choice to sacrifice myself
for her. One night the governor beat Anonna so badly she begged for
death. So I came.”

A well of
deep sadness opened up inside Avery and she felt her eyes prick
with tears. Unbelievably, she felt for him. For
him
. “You granted her mercy even
after what she did to you?”

“
Yes,”
Brennus replied softly. “I gave her the choice.”

Avery gasped. “Anonna is
Ankou?”

At his slight nod, at the
clenching of his jaw, her heart began to race a little. She felt a
little sick. “Anonna is Ankou.”

So… his ex was immortal.
Did they still…? “Do you still see her?”

Brennus raised an
eyebrow. “You think the Ankou have time for social
events?”

“
Yeah. You
have spirit dudes to help you out remember.”

He chuckled. “OK, so
sometimes we bump into one another. We aren’t supposed to
though.”

“
Do you bump
into Anonna?”

“
She bumps
into me.” He frowned and looked away. “Like me, death has changed
her.”

Great. His ex was still
hanging around. “Where’s her area?”

He shifted uncomfortably.
“Texas.”

Avery felt even sicker.
“Has it always been Texas?”

Brennus threw her a look.
“You know it can’t possibly have been.”

“
How long has
it been Texas?”

He inspected a piece of
lint on his trousers. “Nine years.”

For some inexplicable
reason Avery felt more than a little annoyed. “She followed
you?”

He shrugged.

“
Your ex
isn’t quite over you, huh?”

Again with the
shrugging!

An awful thought
occurred. “I don’t look like her, do I?”

At his deep chuckle Avery
narrowed her eyes on him. This sooo wasn’t funny. “Avery.” He shook
his head. “You are nothing like Anonna. You don’t look like her,
you don’t act like her and you feel nothing like her. She has
nothing to do with what’s between us.”

She sniffed, crossing her
arms over her chest defensively. “There isn’t anything between
us.”

At the sound of material
whispering against material, Avery looked up as Brennus stood
slowly and crossed over to her, as lithe as a big cat. He sank down
beside her on the sofa, so close she could feel that delicious
warmth radiating from him. She gulped, trying to shift away from
him but she was already at the very edge of the sofa. He leaned
back, his arm drifting across the back of the sofa, his fingers
flicking her ponytail. “If there was nothing between us, Avery,” he
whispered and edged a little closer, his dark eyes fixated on her
mouth, “You wouldn’t be jealous of Anonna.”

Her mouth fell open at
his arrogance. “Jealous!” She spluttered. “I am not jealous! I
don’t even know you to be jealous!”

“
You keep
saying that but you know it isn’t true.”

God, the man was
insufferable. He may quite possibly be even more annoying than
Josh. She threw him a dirty sideways glance and turned away from
him to stare into the fire. She felt the heat of his finger on her
skin as he trailed it down her arm, goosebumps following in its
wake. She shivered and told herself she hated him for
it.

“
Stop
it.”

“
I like
touching you.”

“
You’re a
creep.”

“
Avery,” he
warned.

She shrugged, still
refusing to look at him.

“
It’s my turn
you know.”

Despite herself, Avery
whipped her head around to glare at him. “Your turn to
what?”

“
To ask the
questions.”

She shrugged. “Fair is
fair. Go ahead.”

His smile slipped and he
was glaring at her again.

“
What?!”

“
Why on earth
did you date Josh for three years?”

Avery groaned and flopped
back on the sofa, not caring if her head was cushioned against his
arm. She should have known his question would be related to sex and
relationships somehow.

My Name is
Yours…

Can I Sleep on
your Floor?

He interrogated her for
what seemed hours. Avery was surprised by the things he knew about
her life. After she stumbled through a clumsy explanation of why
Josh had been perfect for her in high school, Brennus nodded,
telling her he knew about her fear over being centre of attention.
He said he still remembered her freak out at her junior prom when
the prom committee told her she had been nominated for prom court.
She had urged Josh to leave, practically prostituting her way out
of the situation by promising him a chance to go to third base with
her if he did. Brennus glared and she glared back, demanding to
know if he had stuck around for the rest of the show that night.
His face mottled red with seething anger but he shook his head. “I
for one am a gentleman,” he said, reminding her that Josh had
humiliated her anyway by telling all his friends the next day that
he’d gone down on her the night before. Come to think of it, she
couldn’t believe she’d stayed with him as long as she
had.