Immortalis - Book 1 (The Keeper's Immortals) (2 page)

“Well I’m sure I’m as red as an apple. Ah sorry, God can I say anything that won’t embarrass me more?” I laughed hoping I wasn’t making to much of a fool of myself. I could feel my face, the heat that poured across it as I told myself to shut my mouth.

“I hope that helped.’ Reid said. I didn’t want to admit to him that it did but I had a feeling my rosy cheeks and stupid grin on my face told him the truth. ‘I’ve gotta go. It was really nice meeting you.”

“It was really nice meeting you too. Will I ever see you again?” I asked. It sounded like a line out of a movie, once of the cheesy after-school-specials. That needed to stop for sure.

“You never know, maybe?” Reid said as he started to walk backwards from where I was at. I turned to unlock the door but when I turned back around to see him off he was gone, leaving me with an empty feeling in my heart. In the sky above thunder began to roll through the clouds, a light rain started to fall from the black sky; black like the hole that had formed in my heart only to be eased by the words of a stranger who I had to find again.

Two

I woke up, thinking that everything that had happened the night before was a dream. The tingling on my lips was still present when I sat up from my slumber, like I had been zapped with a dose of electricity so if it was a dream it was an amazing one. Wanting to know if it really did happen I called the one person who would remember; Trish. I picked up my cell, dialed her number and waited.

“Morning loser.” Trish said as soon as she picked up. Oh the joys of caller ID, making answering the phone fun for the person answering.

“Hey last night was I talking to a guy?” I asked, brushing past her attempt to annoy me which frustrated her.

“Eh yeah, a hot one too. Why?” Trish asked through a yawn.

“I’m coming over, I’ll explain in person because honestly I’m kinda spooked.”

“Sure, I’ll through a couple of waffles in the toaster.” She said before hanging up. I threw on a pair of jeans, a band tee and my favorite pair of sneakers before hurrying out of the house as I pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail. Rather than walking I decided to borrow my brother’s car, sending him a text massage as I pulled out of the driveway just so he wouldn’t call the cops on me. I told him that it was an emergency, not that he would care just as long as I wasn’t gone to long and didn’t put a dent anywhere.

I was at Trish’s in ten’s minutes, running around to the backdoor where I opened the door and took a seat at the bar only to have Trish sit a waffle covered in maple syrup in front of me. It smelt amazing but I just couldn’t force myself to eat anything at the moment. As soon as Trish was done with hers she stabbed her fork into mine and moved it to her own plate. I rolled my eyes at her actions.

“What? I’m hungry and you’re not gonna eat it obviously.’ Trish said as she cut a piece off and shoved it into her mouth. ‘So what did you wanna talk about?”

“The guy I was with last night, after we left the coffee shop he walked me home and we talked about the whole break up. He was telling me that I needed to force myself past it and move on, but that I didn’t know how and then…”

“And then what?” Trish said, sounding more than lack luster, as she chewed on a rather large bite of her breakfast. Best friend or not Trish had grown tired of the Adam problems, talking about them and having me fully focused on them. It was all I thought about – until now.

 “He kissed me.” I blurted out before becoming extremely silent awaiting her friend’s reaction. Trish through the fork down, creating a large sound that filled the room, and even before she swallowed her food she let out a chuckle of jealously.

“Shut up! Well, how was it?”  

“It was…nice.” I said.

“Just nice? That’s it?” Trish asked me, her tone making me think that she thought I was completely crazy. The first guy to show interest in me since Adam and I just said the kiss was ‘Nice’.

“Yeah, nice. Made me forget about you know who which is what Reid’s goal was.” I explained.

“Reid huh? Sexy.” She stated as she licked a drop of syrup from her thumb.

“But the thing is when we were saying our good-byes I turned after unlocking the door and um…well, he was gone.”

“Gone? Just like that?’ she said with a snap of her fingers. ‘What is he a vampire?” Trish said in a joking tone. I was so over the vampire fade but she wasn’t. I should have advised Charlie to dress up like Dracula and I bet she would have been on him like white on rice – but Italian food would surely do the trick as well.

“Oh be quiet.’ I said in a huff. ‘This isn’t a movie. I really want…need to find him. Even if there isn’t anything romantic wise, I need to thank him. I haven’t thought about Adam since then. I just don’t know anything about him other than his name.” I explained. I really didn’t know if there were any feelings between myself and Reid other than the fact he was good looking but there were more to relationships then looks. Adam taught me that for sure.

“So even if you just want to find this mystery guy to “thank him” how are you gonna do it, if you don’t know anything about him other than his name?” I couldn’t help but to look at Trish with a thanks-for-stating-the-obvious stare.

“I don’t know but I was wondering if my bestie would like to assist me?” I asked with a sweet grin on my face. Trish’s smile faded at the thought of helping me with such a daunting task. “It won’t be anything, please. I need to find him Trish, please.” After a few more moments of begging Trish finally caved, saying that she would help. I smiled and hugged her up tightly as I could, hard enough to take the air out of her lungs. We figured the best thing to do was to start a search for Reid Hollingsworth on every social network that we could think of – Facebook, Twitter – even checked the long dead Myspace - and although we came up with guys of the same name, none of them were the right guy. Trish thought about just doing a general search on the internet for him but when she did, she pulled of a site for European mysteries. The mystery was pertaining to an Irish family, with a son named Reid Hollings, who suddenly disappeared during the Dark Ages. The tale was old and highly interesting, but nothing to do with the person I was searching for. I clicked off the page, getting frustrated only to have Trish pop up with frustration.

“Hey I wanted to see the picture! Who knows maybe it was your lover boy.” She laughed, but her humor was stalled by go-to-hell look I was giving her.

“You know that wasn’t him.” I demanded and after a couple hours of searching I was getting more frustrated than before, closing the laptop while letting out a sigh. Knowing I was upset Trish strolled over to me, plopped herself on my lap and gave me a squeeze.

“You’re really gonna give up already?” Trish asked.

“No, I’m just getting irritated so I’m gonna take a break and go see Charlie.” My words must have struck a chord because suddenly she was up, looking like a cat that had just been dunked in ice cold water.

“Charlie?”

“Yeah’ I said as I stood from the chair, pushing myself up with help from the kitchen table. ‘I want coffee and he kinda owes me one.” I told Trish with a wink. Trish didn’t understand what I was talking about, but advised that she wasn’t going anywhere near the coffee shop because she didn’t have to be in until four so she didn’t want to see it or Charlie.

“Oh what the hell does that man owe you for?”

“You’ll find out sooner or later I’m sure.” I explained as I grabbed my phone and the keys from the kitchen table, smiling as I walked out the door and leaving Trish with an unanswered question, which I knew would drive her crazy. I enjoyed torturing my best friend because she always did the same thing to me, only I was better at it.

When I reached the coffee shop I walked straight to the counter and ordered my usual, large and hot mocha, then looked around for Charlie, but not seeing him. Once I was given my cup I asked if Charlie was there, but the young lad behind the counter informed me that he wasn’t at the moment, but should be in shortly. Pushing the potential romance of my friend out of my head I ventured over to my favorite table and took a seat, feeling the warm sun hitting my back through the window put a temporary smile on my face. For the first time since I had woken up I had a moment to rest my mind and clean the sleep out of my eyes. I must have looked dreadful but I didn’t care. I was tired and my mood was starting to turn foul. Trying not to let it affect me like it was, I took a deep breath – relaxing myself.

When I finally opened my eyes again I watched the front door open and Reid walk through while chatting with Charlie. I was stunned that the person I had searched for all morning had just walked in.
‘Damn´
I thought to myself.  I felt my face light up, feeling my cheeks blush as I saw Reid turn from the register to look over the place and I noticed he couldn’t help but to smile to himself when he spotted me. The girl behind the counter handed Reid his coffee then he slyly walked over to the table and asked if he could join me. I said that I didn’t mind and cleared the table of my keys and cell phone to allow him to set his coffee on the small table.

“So where did you run off to last night? You help a girl out then you just leave?” I finally said, breaking the tension that was between us. Reid couldn’t help but to laugh. I didn’t know why he was laugh but he did and that made a surge of awkwardness rush through my body.

“Yeah sorry, I shouldn’t have left so quickly last night.” Reid stated but I couldn’t help, but to think of something bad right off the bat.

“So who are you, some murderer who has escaped from prison?” I laughed with a laugh yet a serious undertone that Reid could sense. I played with the plastic coffee cup while I waited for his answer.

“No, I didn’t escape.” He said trying to make light of the situation. I knew he was joking but there was something that led me to wonder, to believe, that he was serious. We sat in silence for a moment, awkwardly until he stood up and held out his hand. “Do you wanna take a walk?” He asked me with a smile.

Not knowing this person for more than a day and someone who seemed to have a twisted sense of humor should have been a red flag to me but it wasn’t and I took his hand so that he could help me down from the stool and we started walking down Sumner Street together. The trees were full, the flowers were in bloom and the sun wasn’t beating down as hard as it could; it was a gorgeous day for a walk. Nothing was said until we had reached the duck pond where we stop, setting on the grassy knoll. I looked out over the water and took in the sights that were before me, I could sit in that spot for hours even without a handsome guy sitting next to me.

“I’m glad you showed your face again. I wanted to say thank you.’ I said breaking the silence. Reid got a puzzled look on his face for a moment. ‘When you told me that I needed to get over Adam, that innocent kiss helped me a lot. I haven’t dwelled on it all since then. For the first time I’ve thought I could actually move and be happy with someone else.”

“You’re welcome. I didn’t know if I had stepped over the line or not…” He said only to be interrupted by me blurting out words like I always do.

“No you didn’t, I mean eh, sorry I…I just really wanted to say thank you.” I said, blushing at my words. I wasn’t acting foolishly because I liked him, don’t get me wrong he was a great looking guy but I was just extremely thankful for his doings in
‘curing my illness’
so to speak. Reid only smiled then slowly moved into my body, kissing me again. I wouldn’t say it out loud but I had wanted to kiss him again since the night before. I didn’t know how I felt about him but when I saw him, I knew, I wanted him to kiss me. Perhaps it was just my desire to move on finally and Reid was the first guy who had show interest in me, but no matter what I was diving in head first. I could feel my whole body become warm and the smile on Reid’s face confirmed that I was glowing like I thought I was.

“You’re cute when you blush.’ He told me, surely making my face brighter than it already was. ‘I’m really sorry I took off last night. I must have let my bashful side get the better of me. I’ve never met anyone like you before. There is something different about you.”

“I don’t know what that would be but thank you. I’m pretty damn average - boring even. Yeah you could go as far as boring if you wanted.” I laughed. He his laughed as well, looking down and then back up, sucking on his bottom lip then smiled.

“I seriously doubt that. You’re not like all the other swallow girls I’ve met and I’ve met them, trust me.” He smiled, looking to the grass below them. I laughed at myself telling him that I wasn’t sure if I ever see him again so I went as far as searching for him on the internet.

“Really? Did you find anything interesting there?” he asked me.

“I didn’t find you at all! You don’t have an account anywhere. The only thing that got pulled up was about this family in Dark Age Ireland with a son named Reid, but it was about a family named Hollings not Hollingsworth.” I laughed at myself and my silly attempts to find this man when all I had to do was get a cup of mocha.

“Yeah I’m not that old.’ He said with smile. That smile really was killer, stopping my thoughts completely. ‘So would you like to go to a movie and get a bite to eat tonight?” he finally asked. I had to regain the ability to speak just to answer him.

“Yeah, yes. I would love to. Sorry, you can’t smile anymore because I lose my train of thought.” I explained only to make myself sound stupid. Reid only laughed which made me feel a bit more at ease. I hadn’t ever been so stupidly silly about a guy before, not even Adam who was considered one of the top notch guys at our school. I agreed to a date that night, since staying in on a Saturday night seemed to be almost illegal in our town. After the agreement and an exchanging of phone numbers I explained that I should probably get my brother’s car back to him before he had a heart attack so we stood up and together we walked back to the cafe. Once at the car Reid opened by door for me and closed it, telling me that he would pick me up at my house that night at seven. Normally I wasn’t the kind of girl who liked to be doted on but something about Reid made me want to allow him to do anything for me. He was a true gentleman and that was something new for me. Most guys that I knew, the idea of being a gentleman was allowing their date to pay for half the dinner, which normally I didn’t mind because I had always been an independent person but I have to admit that being swept off my feet was an amazing feeling. I drove home with a huge grin on my face and once I had killed the engine I pulled out my cell and sent Trish a text message.