Immortalis - Book 1 (The Keeper's Immortals) (20 page)

“I forced to marry a woman I didn’t love, I never loved or cared for her but what hurts the most is that my younger brother betrayed me. Had an affair with her and above all else lied to me about it all these years.”

“But you never loved her.” I stated hoping to ease his pain even if it was slightly.

“Never.” He stated firmly as if he was trying to convince me thought I didn’t need convincing. I could see that he was telling the truth.

“And you slept with others too?” I brought up.

“Aye, I did and I’m sorry that you know that.”

“That you’re a man-whore.” I said with a smile. It was infectious to a point because he gave me a hint of a smile but it soon faded.

“I have the woman I loathed back in my life and the woman I’ve loved longer than she’s been alive wants out but is being forced to stay.” He said with sadness in his voice. I could literally feel my heart breaking, his words stinging my heart. I was trying to stay away from Blake not only for myself but for Reid as well but the closer I was to him the more I felt myself itching to be with him.

“Stop that!’ I barked. ‘Emmalee won’t be here forever and as for me…” My words trailed, knowing what I wanted to say but worried if I actually said the words out loud.

“As for you?” I looked into his dark blue eyes and suddenly I was overcome with emotion, every emotion that a person could feel for someone that they cared so much for. I suddenly jumped from him with rage in my eyes.

“Damn you Blake, you know what I want because it’s the same thing that you want but it can’t be. We both agreed on that because it was the best for all parties involved, mainly Reid.” As if my words didn’t affect him at all he stood from where he hunched over and looked square into my eyes. I felt them piercing my soul.

“To hell with Reid!” He roared. I told him that he didn’t mean those words. He and Reid had taken months to repair their relationship. It was far from perfect but loving me was a step backwards for him. He knew it he too, he just didn’t want to admit it to himself.

“Jaryn took Emmalee from me so why can’t I take you from Reid? I mean already have so why not make it known to the world…haven’t I?” He asked. I looked up at him, drowning in his eyes.

“You know you have but Reid didn’t do anything to you other than leave you all. That doesn’t justify this act.” I explained. I felt horrible about the whole situation, guilty.

“So what are you just gonna stay with him?”

“I’m not with him! When Reid and I parted ways last time I told him I needed space, for us to just be friends but this would still kill him if he knew.”

“But you’re also stringin’ him along, making him think that there might be chance. You know he still thinks of you as do I.’ He inched closer to me still, finally able to grab me by the shoulders; pulling me into him. He smiled bashfully. ‘But I won’t let him get a chance. I’ve loved you for a long time Nora and I’m not one to give up easily. You should know that.” He said with a wink. I did know. He was stubborn when it came to getting something that he wanted and apparently he wanted me.

“You’re in love with a girl who might not be such a big deal. I’m not a big deal, I’m just me.”

“Just you is all I’ll ever need. I’ve waited for you for so long…I’m not gonna just let you slip away. You’re a huge deal not just to me but to every immortal on this planet but to me you’re more important than being a part of some old story. I love you Nora Dawn.”

“Don’t use my middle name, I hate my mid…’ I stopped mid thought. I didn’t stop because he said that he loved me, he had said that before while in Spain. I was taken by what he had called me. I could feel my chest raising and falling with my heavy breath. My heart was beating a mile a minute, the closer I got to him the fast it pounded. I felt like my whole body was going to explode. ‘I’ve never told you my middle name?” I questioned him.

“Your mum named you after your aunt Dawn on your father’s side. He was very close to her when they were children but she was died after she was struck by a car when she was fourteen. Nora is a name your mother fell in love with after she had read a book with a character that had that name. After she had your brother she found out that she couldn’t have any more children, she almost died having him so she wanted to adopt one; a little girl. You and she named you Nora Dawn Langdon. You’re first day of school you wore a purple tee shirt that had a butterfly on it and a pair of jeans, you always were a bit of a tomboy. You met Trish that day and she wore a blue dress that she hated and complained about all day. Need I go on?” He asked as I felt tears roll down my face.

“How do you know all of that?” I asked a rather stupid question as I wiped my face clean.

“I’ve always seen you, always dreamt of you. I never had to be right next to you, although I always felt as if I were. You never knew it but you were always in my life. I was always looking at you, watching you grow and turn into the woman I first saw so long ago.”

“You knew that I was adopted all this time?” I asked.

“I did but I didn’t know you were from a womb that was connected to my sister. I never knew if you knew or not – about being adopted so I never brought it up.” I couldn’t help myself any longer. I practically dove towards him, flattening my lips against his. I felt his arms around my body, pulling into his. His kisses were passionate and warm. I felt like my whole body was going to suddenly burst into flame. I couldn’t get close enough to him then without warning he picked me up and placing me on the bed. Lying beside me he looked so innocent, so gentle and new. The atmosphere seemed to change in the room. The light grew soft making everything seem so delicate. His hand wrapped around the back of my neck then stopped at my cheek, forcing me to look at him not that I needed to be force. I was completely lost within him. He kissed me again this time with a gentle touch rather than being a bit forceful like he normally was.

Our lips parted and we stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. Just before he was going to kiss me again he stopped, grabbed his head and closed his eyes as if he were in a great deal of pain. He was having a vision. “What is it?” I asked him. Without opening his eyes he told me that Jaryn has just gotten off the phone with Sebastian and that he was headed upstairs to explain the situation to us. We threw ourselves up from the bed, patted down our hair and attempted not to look flushed. The next thing we knew there was a knock at the door. “Come in.” I said with a sullen tone to my voice.

“Hey I just got off the phone with Sebastian, I told them what happened with Emmalee and they’re gonna turn the plane around to head this way. We’ve got some time to kill before they get here but it seems as if you were killing it already.” He said with a smirk. Blake lent forward and slapped his youngest brother on the back of the head just hard enough to advise him to shut his mouth.

“We were just talking about everything that has happened.” I explained.

“Yeah sure, whatever.” Jaryn said as he rubbed the back of his head as he tried to comfort his hurt pride. I watched them and couldn’t help but to miss my own family, my own brother even though he and I would never share a relationship. Forcing my thoughts of my brother out of my head I turned my focus back on the situation at hand. I asked Jaryn when he thought they would be there. “They were about an hour or two out of Medina so they should be here in about twelve or thirteen hours.” He explained.

“What are we gonna do about the others; Trish, Charlie and Adam. I won’t leave them because who knows what Emmalee will do to get the katana.” I stated. Jaryn asked where I had hidden it. I advised that I would get it after the others there for I didn’t want it known to anyone other than myself. Understanding my reasoning’s I told them that I was going to head to the lower level of the house to explain things in a bit more detail to the others thus leaving them alone together in hopes they would work out some of the tension between them.

“So…” Jaryn started.

“So you were sleepin’ with Emmalee eh?” Blake said back in an attempt to jab Jaryn because he remembered that Jaryn had admitted that he had loved Emmalee at least at one point in time.

“Yeah I was but you should know that before I fell for her she came to me first. Did I look? Hell yes I did because she was beautiful but I would never touch out of respect that I have for you. You’re my brother.” He explained.

“They why did it happen?” Blake asked. Jaryn looked towards the ground as if he didn’t want to say what he had to. He didn’t want to hurt his brother more than he already had which without knowing made Blake think about his relationship with Reid and how much it would hurt if he found out about what was happening with Nora, if he hadn’t already.

“She came to me, tellin’ me that she was unhappy with you. I don’t know one thing just led to another and the next thing I knew we had done it, we were together. And it just kept happening.” He explained. They wondered though if she was happy being with Jaryn then why had she faked her own death? That was a question that neither of them could answer but hoped they would find out sooner than later. After an awkward moment of standing around without saying a word they managed a hug between them. Something that would make Nora happy.

Sixteen

I walked down the stairs, dragging my fingers along the clean, polish dark wood handrail. I stopped in the middle of the staircase so that I could look out the window, watching the beams of sunlight pour in. It was the only window in the house that was open only because it didn’t have curtains. We didn’t want to chance Emmalee or anyone else seeing us inside. Downstairs I heard my friends talking. I dreaded talking to them, explaining anything else that Blake and Jaryn hadn’t already. They spoke in brief words about the situation, leaving many questions unanswered. I hated that I was dreading talking to people that I had known for most of my life if not all of it. Slowly I forced myself down the stairs, stopping at the bottom as they all turned towards me. I could already tell they all had questions by the looks on their faces. I made my way to a large leather chair that sat across from them, quietly and waited because I knew none of them could keep quiet for long.

“So what’s up?” Trish said in a coy manner.

“Not much.” I said back knowing that wouldn’t be the end of it. I wished one of them would just start yelling, I could handle yelling but I could handle this meek small talk that was leaving us all in an awkward state.

“I should have just gone to work rather than meeting up with you guys. Next time remind me to do that.” Charlie finally announced. Trish slapped his leg although I didn’t know if she hit him for being rude to me - making me feel worse than I already was or because it hurt her feelings. They hadn’t been dating long but they already had a way about them, they seemed very at ease with each other. It made me happy for them but it was something I didn’t have in my life at the moment, making me slightly envious. I had once for a brief moment with Reid until the Hollings had kidnapped me out of the very room we were all sitting in.

“I’m sorry for getting you guys involved in this.” I finally forced myself to say. This was a true statement but it was nice having people around who were slightly more even tempered, unlike the almost always ill tempered Hollings.

“Nor, I know that those other guys explained a lot but there are still things that we don’t understand. I mean what happened back at school was like something straight out of a movie.” Trish said. Adam then asked if maybe I could fill in the blanks that Trish had mentioned. Knowing Ashwin, if not The Keepers themselves, could make them forget everything at a later date I told them everything that I could. How it all started, being in Ireland, then in Spain and finally when I got home finding the katana on my bed.

“If Emmalee was to get her hands on the katana she could kill The Keepers and with that would kill everyone who had ever been changed by them including the Hollings.”

“And you’re really related to them?” Charlie asked. He had remembered that I had told both he and Trish together that I had found out that I was adopted - I just didn’t tell them how I had found out at that time. Jaryn had explained that with small amounts of details earlier.

“I am, through their sister Ashwin.”

“So those two guys up there…” Trish said as she pointed to the upper level.

“They’re my family, my real family.” I hadn’t gone into the full details of my relationship with any of the Hollings, mainly Reid and Blake for obvious reasons.

“Gotta be honest, they don’t seem like they friendliest bunch.” Adam admitted. I smiled knowing that they weren’t friendly, at least not at first. I told them that it took time for me to get along with them.

“And as you can see we still don’t get along all the time.” I heard someone say from behind me. I turned to watch both Blake and Jaryn practically glide down the stairs. I couldn’t help but to smile. Jaryn stopped next to my chair while Blake strolled over to the bar - fixing himself his normal drink and asked if anyone else wanted one as well.

“But I couldn’t imagine life without her now.” Jaryn explained as he sat on the arm of my chair, pulling me closer in a side hug.

“I’ve told them everything. Things that you two had left out the first time.” I explained. Blake walked over to be with us with his drink in hand.

“Oh hell I saw that coming without having severe head trauma.” He said where in turn I gave him a smirk.