Eternal Bloom - Book 5 (The Ruby Ring Saga) (7 page)

“You mean they would have treated me like a lab rat?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for saving my life. I knew you helped me, but I didn’t realize to what extent.” My arms wrapped around him, and he awkwardly hugged me back as blue sparks flew around us from my unstable energy. “If I would’ve known this information, I would never have been such a pain back in the store,” I said.

“It’s okay.”

I held him at arm’s length. “I’m so thankful to you, Jackson.”

“When our deal is sealed and I get what I want, I’ll be saying the same thing to you.” He glanced down at his watch. “Listen, I have to run, but I’ll be in touch soon.”

“What’s soon?”

“A few days.”

I nodded and, in a blur, he disappeared from my vision.

A
few days passed. Jackson came to our house early in the morning, and Victor left with him. I’d already given my blessing, but Victor needed more convincing. They were gone all day, for hours and hours, while I celebrated at my joyous baby shower thrown by Liz. Just as the last guest left, Jackson pulled in and dropped Victor off.

I smiled as he walked up the sidewalk. “No talk about Jackson or islands or eternal blooms, all right? At least not now.”

“Deal. Did you save me any cake?”

“You know it!”

He smiled. “Are your mom and Liz still here?”

“They just left.”

“You’re absolutely glowing, Sarah,” he said.

“Thanks. I’ve never been so happy. Come on in,” I said, pulling him inside. “Wait until you feast your eyes on all the fantastic gifts our son received.”

Presents in baby blue wrapping were stacked up all over the place. I showed him everything, and he was truly awed by the love and support shown by all of our friends and family.

“Standing here with all these baby things...it just...” My voice drifted off. “I feel like everything is just perfect. We celebrated, we played games, and we laughed, and as I cut the cake, I felt, just for a minute, like my life is normal. I felt like the luckiest woman in the world, but then I remembered that I’ll only get to spend five minutes with my baby. Do you know how hard it is to pretend everything is normal when your heart is aching?”

“We’re going to get past this, Sarah. I promise you that.”

I picked up an engraved “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament. “Do you think I’ll even be here to decorate the tree with you and Alexander?”

He embraced me tightly. “Yes.”

“But the end is near, and—”

“Don’t say that, Sarah. Don’t ever say that.”

“It was hard not tell everyone I might be dead soon. I stayed happy for Alexander’s sake. It’s what he would’ve wanted, so I decided to celebrate him and not dwell on my fate. But now that everyone’s gone, the thoughts are sneaking back up on me. I go from happy to sad in two and a half seconds. I hate raging hormones.”

He gazed down at me and touched my face. “We leave in three days.”

My jaw dropped. “But what about plane tickets and passports?”

“It’s all been taken care of. Jackson gave me instructions.”

* * *

T
he next day Jackson came to deliver a red folder full of info. I motioned Jackson to the dining room, and he laid out everything we’d need for the trip, from passports to pictures. “I obtained the book I showed Sarah in the park,” Jackson said to Victor.

Victor sat down and started gently leafing through the ancient pages. When I flipped to the right page and pointed to the hand-drawn picture of the eternal bloom, he looked carefully at the book. He arched his brows. “The sketch is so detailed, but what color is it?”

“You know as much as I do.”

I met Jackson’s blue gaze. “We need more details.”

He folded his hands across the table. “The island is a mystical one, mentioned in several myths.”

“Myths? Are you sure the island really exists at all, that it’s even real?” I asked.

“I assure you it is,” he said with absolute certainty.

“What’s it called?” I pressed.

“Purity Island.”

“But...I’m not pure.”

“You have a pure heart, Sarah. That is all that matters.”

“It can’t be that easy,” I said.

He looked at Victor, then at me. “Nothing is easy about it. First of all, according to the books, once you step on the island, you will lose
all
of your powers.” He glanced at me. “And Sarah, that means your visions too.”

I shrugged. “I can’t do much anyway. I’m broken.”

“Then we’ll take weapons,” Victor said. “We will be prepared for anything.”

Jackson’s face grew serious. “I’m afraid weapons are forbidden.”

Victor’s gaze narrowed. “No weapons and no powers? Then how will we defend ourselves?”

“Listen,” Jackson said. “If you don’t follow their rules, you won’t get your flower.”

I lifted my brow higher. “What does the flower do exactly?”

“It heals.”

“I have to eat it?”

Jackson chuckled.

“What’s so funny? How am I supposed to know what to do with it once I have it?”

“You must squeeze it in your hands, and the healing energy will seep through your body, healing whatever is wrong with you.”

I furrowed a brow. “And where is it located?”

“It grows inside a huge garden or meadow. We had a hard time translating some of the symbols and language, but that is the best we can determine. You will need a key to open the gates to the garden, and only the chief on the island has that key. You must state your case to him, and he will decide if you are worthy enough to pick one of his precious eternal blooms.”

“I think our case is very worthy,” I said.

“Purity Island is populated and run by a mystical race of beings called the Nimi, who believe strongly in honesty, character, morals, purity, family, and life. Because of your pure heart, Sarah, you have an excellent chance of being granted a key to the garden. I am sure the chief will be highly impressed with you if you just be yourself and let him see your emotions. Let him see that you are willing to do whatever it takes to be the mother your child deserves.”

“And where do I find this chief?” I asked.

“He doesn’t know,” Victor said, “but we can’t pick the bloom without his blessing or the key.”

“In that case, we’ll have to find him,” I said. “I’ll state my case, he’ll give us the key, we’ll snatch the bloom, and I’ll juice the heck out of it till I feel better. Simple.”

Jackson nodded. “With your determination, I believe you will.”

“Do you have any clue where we might find him?”

“You won’t. He will find you.”

“Even better. I’m so ready to do this.”

“Good.” Jackson closed his notebook. “But there is one more thing we discovered in the ancient scrolls.”

“What?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to hear the answer.

“You cannot kill any of their animals, for that would be a kiss of death for you, and you won’t be allowed near the eternal blooms.”

“I’m the biggest animal-lover there is, so the chief doesn’t have to worry about his livestock or his family pet. I promise I won’t even squash a bug.”

“Good. And don’t forget,
you
have to be the one to pick the eternal bloom,” he added.

“I know,” I said. “Otherwise, I’m sure Victor would leave me here and go fetch it himself.”

Jackson chuckled and glanced at Victor. “She knows you pretty well, my friend.”

“We appreciate this so much,” I said as he stood to his feet.

“Just don’t forget to follow what the scroll says. No weapons, don’t disturb their wildlife, and do not pick the flower without their blessing.”

“How would we even do that if we need a key to open the gate?” I asked.

“Victor could jump the fence.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Victor said. “Nothing to jeopardize my Sarah’s chances.”

“I’m just covering all of the bases. If you break even one of these rules, all of your dreams will be dashed, along with ours. I’m confident you’ll do well though. When you return and things are normal again, please don’t forget your promise to me. I trust you will keep it.”

“I always keep my word,” I said.

“Good. I’ll call you to confirm everything tomorrow.”

We walked him to the door and bid him goodnight.

I
t was seven a.m. and Victor and I snuggled in each other’s arms as we watched the morning news.

My cell rang and I answered. “Hi Beth.”

“Sarah. I’m in the neighborhood. Would you mind if I stopped by and picked you up? I have some important things I need to discuss with you.”

“One sec.” I glanced at Victor. “Beth needs to talk. Mind if I hang out with her for a little bit?”

“That’d work out great since I wanted to get in a long work out anyway.”

I smiled at him. “Try the treadmill.”

He kissed my cheek and headed out the back door. My guess was that he was heading off to run with a huge log over his head. Old habits die hard. I couldn’t break him out of that no matter what I tried. He did weights a little, but what he really enjoyed was lifting huge rocks for strength training. Victor was more into the natural thing rather than the bench press. I finally gave up trying to change him and just let him do whatever it was he enjoyed doing to stay fit. I wondered if Immortals even got flabby. I think he just enjoyed it because it was what he did his entire life. He probably enjoyed releasing all that pent up energy he had built up all the time.

I put the cell phone back up to my ear. “I’m back,” I said. “Victor doesn’t mind if I come out and play for a little while. So what’s up?”

“I’ll tell you everything when I get there.”

“See you soon. I’ll be waiting for you on the porch.” I said goodbye and hung up, then threw my sandals on. They matched perfectly with my turquoise sun dress. Cool morning air gushed in my face and felt wonderful. I waited on the porch for a minute before Beth honked her horn and waved me over.

“Love your oversized sunglasses,” I said.

“They’re all the rage right now. Hop in.”

When I glanced up, another horn beeped. “It’s Liz,” I said.

“Tell her to hop in,” Beth said. “The more the merrier.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “If you need to talk, we don’t need my obnoxious sister coming along.”

“It’s not personal,” Beth said. “Matter of fact, it concerns her too.”

Liz parked and I waved her over. She loved the idea of going on a mysterious adventure Beth hadn’t told us one thing about.

Liz grinned. “You’re wearing the maternity dress I bought you.”

“Yep.”

“You look radiant,” she told me.

“Thank you.” I put my seat belt on around my bulging belly.

“So what’s up?” Liz asked.

“I’ve been researching the Immortals for you guys,” Beth said. “I’ve even done a stake out here and there.”

“Beth, they’re dangerous,” I said. “Just please leave them alone.”

She turned the corner and shot me a sideways glance. “On the night you went to the emergency room, you said we should investigate them.”

“Yeah, because I didn’t know that much about them. But now I do. And they’re dangerous.”

“I’ve been doing lots of digging, and they’ve been wreaking havoc on the city,” Beth said. “Dr. Meyers was all concerned about you staying hidden and not exposing your Immortal powers, while they prance around showing off their fancy tricks to unsuspecting victims. She should be more worried about them than you.”

“What are they doing?” Liz asked.

“I’ve been talking to witnesses who say they throw their authority around quite a bit. And if you report them or mess with them in any way, you’ll end up dead as a door nail.”

I let out a long sigh. “And that’s exactly why you shouldn’t be investigating this.” I couldn’t bear to see anything happen to her. 

“And they’ve been here for quite a long time,” Beth said.

I cocked a brow. “How long?”

“Since ancient times. I found some books about a powerful race of beings who had strength and amazing powers. I think it’s our Immortals. Can you believe they’ve been blending in our world all this time?”

“In our line of research, is it really such a shock?” I retorted.

“My best friend and her sister are both Immortal so I guess it isn’t that much of a stretch.”

We all chuckled.

“I did some more digging and got a list of all the victims that were rescued from the mountain,” Beth said. “There were a few locals, but most of them are from across the globe.”

“So they snagged them from everywhere,” Liz said.

Beth placed a few strands of hair behind her ear. “If there running experiments on them, they couldn’t have all of those people disappearing from around here. It’d be too obvious.”

“They’re evil, sick people,” I said. “They could care less about killing my baby. The thought of them kidnapping more people to experiment on, well the thought torments me. If we’re messing with Immortals, we should go back and get Victor.” 

“He won’t let you go,” Liz said. “He’s even more protective of you now more than ever, especially since the kidnapping.”

I nodded, then glanced at Beth. “And you’re putting this witness in danger by even talking to her, not to mention you and your son’s life.”

She gripped the steering wheel. “This woman is going public with her story. She’s being interviewed by a major television station next week about the murder of her brother. And yes, I want to hear what she has to say firsthand, but I also want to talk her out of doing the interview.”

I clutched my heart. “She’ll be dead so fast.”

Beth shook her head. “Exactly. So we need to convince her to shut up and cancel the interview.”

We drove for a while more and then pulled into the driveway with a tan house. The three of us walked to the front porch and I rang the doorbell. A thin woman with short, red hair in her thirties came to the door and invited us in. I took a seat on the couch and glanced around at her country theme home decor. It felt warm and inviting.

“I’m Erica,” she said, politely introducing herself.

After a few pleasantries, Erica cut to the chase. “They killed my brother and I’m going to make them pay.”

Dark circles hung under her eyes and I knew she hadn’t been sleeping well. She looked just as sad and tormented as Della and I had on that mountain top. A tear slipped down her cheek. We all tried to give her comforting words but she was in no mood for it. I understood where she was coming from. If I had lost a loved one, I don’t think anybody could make me feel better. I wondered if we should even be interviewing her when she was so grief-stricken. I made my thoughts known and the woman told us not to leave and to please stay. She said her story needed to be told. So I sat back down and made myself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as a nine month pregnant woman could get.