Immortalis - Book 1 (The Keeper's Immortals) (24 page)

“I know you don’t understand why I wouldn’t want immortality but I just haven’t lived enough to die so young.” I explained. He licked his full, round lips and smiled.

“But when you’re like this, like me, then you won’t have a time limit on anything that you want to do. All you have is time and every day we…you can do whatever you heart desires.” I could see his point of view on the subject but there was also the fact of who would actually turn me. If I were to be turned by The Gods then it would be a different world from the immortals of The Keepers.

“There is one other thing. They didn’t know who would change me when it happened, whether it would be them or The Gods but they gave me their word that if it was with them and I could give an answer, they would give me final say on whether they changed me or not.” I told him. He didn’t say anything else, just held me in his arms. We fell asleep that way and although I knew my fate would be one way or the other, at that moment I was felt safe.

Back at the chambers Ozlem looked at his brothers who had the same thought that he did. Their fate was unknown at this point, the Twilight could go either way but they wouldn’t have a fighting chance if they stood alone. “We must do it if we want a chance of survival. The girl’s mind is not yet made up.” Lieka snapped. They all knew that it was true. Although Nora was with the Hollings that didn’t mean anything.

“She will have much more to endure before her decision is made brother.” Cade stated. 

“But you still can’t see what side she will be on?” Lieka asked rudely.

“I cannot. I cannot see anything to do with her after this visit other than she will be changed soon.” Cade informed. Ozlem stood from his chair and slinked away from the set of three chairs in thought on what would be best for them.

“Well then we shall do what we can to help her choose as well as help in the fight. We will call them.” Ozlem stated as he turned to face his brothers again. Lieka and Cade looked at each other with worried looks. They knew what calling the others would do.

Nineteen

Knock, knock, knock

“Nora are you awake?” Jaryn said as he slowly opened the door. When he did he found an empty bed, in Nora’s place was a note. He grabbed it and rushed back down the stairs and into the kitchen where everyone else was at already, eating.

“What is it?” Sebastian asked as he turned to face the plates with a skillet full of scrambled eggs. Jaryn held up the note with a questionable look on his face. He walked closer to the island and opened it up so that he could read it.

‘I have things to find out. Things that I need to know before anything else happens. – Nora’

“What does that mean?” Trish asked as she stood from her seat at the table.

“It means that she’s gone to Medina, to The Keepers.” Jaryn explained.

“Where is Blake?” Reid suddenly asked. He wasn’t in the room with them and no one had seen him since last night. Jaryn sped up stairs and back in a blink of an eye only to tell them that he wasn’t in his room. “Damn!” Reid roared knowing where he was.

“Breakfast is over kiddies, time to leave.” Sebastian said as he took off the apron he was wearing and threw it to the counter. Charlie looked up at asked where they were going. He didn’t want to go anywhere else but home at the moment. He was tried and missed his boring life.

“You’re not goin’ anywhere but the four of us are.” He explained.

“She’s my best friend, if there is a chance that she’s in trouble then I’m going and you can’t stop me!” Trish firmly stated. Even after they tried to talk her down of her rage and into staying Ireland they failed in the end and they boarded the plane with the three mortals in route to Spain. The four Hollings weren’t happy with them being there but they knew that even though they could have made them stay there it would have caused more problems in the end. Nora would always be worried and there still was the chance that Emmalee might take then in order to get Nora, the katana or both.

They hurried to leave the house and once they were on their way they stayed in their respectful groups, mortal and immortal during the trip. Reid snuck off by himself and tried to call Nora but didn’t get an answer since she had left her cell at the house (remembering to take only the katana with her). When he tried Blake he got his voicemail but rather than leaving a message he just hung up with a huff. He knew that they were together and that only added fuel to the fire. He was hurt, overwhelmed with feelings of betrayal by both his brother and Nora although he wasn’t blaming Nora as much, if at all, compared to Blake. He knew Blake better than anyone and he didn’t care about Nora or her feelings.

They arrived in Spain a little before lunch. They drove to Medina in the middle of the crowds flooding the streets for their mid-day meal, shopping and site seeing. Since neither Blake nor Nora was answering a phone they didn’t have a starting pointing other than The Keepers chambers. They had summoned a car to take them when Adam stopped then from entering the car by pointing out Blake who was walking out of a store with a bag of food and two paper cups of coffee. “Jaryn.” Sebastian said and without question Jaryn was off to follow his brother and within a few moments Sebastian got the call on where they were. They were at the La Panoramica (The Overlook) that wasn’t far from the where they were. Just at the edge of Medina, with the view of the ocean was the large and grand hotel where Blake had entered. They walked in and took the elevator to the seventh floor where Jaryn was waiting for them at. After they were all together again they walked to door 725 where Jaryn was advised he had seen Blake enter.  They knocked and waited.

“Who is that?” I asked just after I took a drink of a steaming hot mocha. Caffeine, I needed it more than I had thought I did. I was worried about what or who we would find on the other side of the door. After having a traumatic night I didn’t want to deal with anything else for the time being.
Even with all the sleep I had I was still drained feeling. Blake looked down at me and smiled as he stroked my cheek. He walked to the door but rather than opening it right away he asked who it was.

“It’s Sebastian, Blake open the door.” Knowing who it was he willingly opened it only to be overrun with people barking at the both of us, accusing us of things we haven’t done and giving us the dirtiest looks. The harsh words had already taken their toll on me and I was tired of all the fighting, yelling and accusations but before I had a chance to chime in myself, Blake did.

“Will you all just please stop. Nora doesn’t need to deal with this right now.” Blake stated, trying to explain the situation but was interrupted once again.  

“Why didn’t ask us to come to Medina, we would have come Nora?” Sebastian asked in a kind tone underlined with anger. I hadn’t ever seen him so angry before.

“I needed to talk to them alone, without anyone with me.” I explained.

“You let her face them alone?” Jaryn asked with disbelief in his voice.

“They wouldn’t have harmed her, besides I was right outside. I knew what I was doing despite what any of you think.” Blake said, defending himself. During the argument Trish, Adam and Charlie walked to me, asking me if I was alright. I said that I was fine until I heard Reid charge Blake.

“And why did you come brother?” Reid asked, close enough to Blake that they could feel each other’s breath.

“I came because I saw her comin’ and I knew that she wouldn’t want anyone to come but I with me, she didn’t have a choice. I don’t bow down with something that’s so important like some people.”

“That’s the problem you never back down when you should. What you should have done was inform the rest of us.” Reid snapped.

“That wouldn’t have helped the situation Reid. She needed to do this alone. One person who she knew would give her the space she needed is completely different than a whole heard of us going!” Blake roared back.

“Oh for Christ sake will you both stop it!’ Ashwin yelled at them both who stopped to look at her. She then walked towards me, stopped and placed her hands on her hips. ‘And you, can’t you see what you’re doing to them? Stop stringing along me brothers and just leave.” She looked almost sick when she was done almost as if she regretted telling me something.

“Ashwin!” Jaryn snapped, shocked by his only sisters words.

Her words hurt. I didn’t know if the pain was from her yelling at me, telling me to stop fooling around with her brother’s emotions or that she told me to leave.  Not knowing how to handle it I just blew up. “Do you think that I want to be here Ashwin? Do you think that I wanted any of this? Do you think that I asked for it?’ I let out a sarcastic chuckle. ‘I was normal, an everyday girl until I met Reid and then everything changed, but I guess that would have happened in the end since I’m the “Chosen One”! I’m the one who gets to determine the fate of countless immortals. Either they die or you do and right now my choice isn’t that hard because why would I want to be around people who are angry at me, won’t listen to me or blame me for things that I don’t see wrong.’ I made sure to look straight at Reid with that last one. ‘All I want to do is to go back when I had it easy, before everything got more complex than I already thought it was. So my heart was breaking, I would have gotten over it with time but now everything is messed up and I have more on my plate this time because I have not only your lives in my hands but I have my friends lives. Because of me their lives could be in danger.” I finished, breathing heavily. I suddenly felt Trish’s arms around me. She was in protective mode, all three of them were as Adam and Charlie stood beside me like guards.

“We’re going home and were taking Nora with us!” Trish firmly stated,

“You can’t do that Trish, she has to stay with us. It’s where she’s safest at.” Sebastian said in an attempt to reason with her.

“She’s safe with you? You’ve got to be kidding me right? There is some crazy lady after her because of you, she’s under a huge amount of pressure because of you and she needs rest. She looks like she hasn’t slept or eaten anything in days. We’re going to do what is best for Nora and that’s going home.’ Adam took me from Trish and we all started walking towards the door but Trish turned back to bravely face the Hollings one more time. ‘You all might be immortal but our friendship is timeless, we’ve gone through a lot together and this is just one more thing and even you won’t stop it.”

All five members of the Hollings clan looked shocked. They didn’t know how to take being talked to in such a way by a mortal that wasn’t related to. They still weren’t thrilled on being talked to by Nora with a harsh tone but at least she was blood. Trish was stronger than anyone thought, Nora knew though. Her strength peeked its head every once and a while but normally she didn’t want it to so she avoided situations where it might any controversy. Reid and Ashwin both were still furious, Blake was angry at Reid, Jaryn simply wanted to talk to Nora and Sebastian gave a hint of a smile. He knew Nora and he knew that no matter what she did would be the best thing in her eyes and that everything would work out.

We stopped in a small sitting room just off the lobby. There wasn’t anywhere we could go from there but they knew that I needed out of the room and for that I thanked them. We sat there without talking which was nice. While resting my head on Adam’s shoulder I dosed off until I heard a light knock at the door. Peeking in was Jaryn. “Hello, eh could I talk to ya?’ He asked me. I told him that he was welcomed even though he didn’t feel like it at the moment with the others giving him a go-to-hell look. From his back pocket he pulled out two room keys. ‘We got you all rooms for the night if you would like to stay, of course if you don’t then we’ll have the plane take you home at once.” He explained.

“Hell yes we want to go home!” Charlie voiced. I looked up at him then back at Jaryn and gave him a weak but honest smile. I didn’t want to have to burst their bubble but I couldn’t leave, not because I had something that I
had
to do.

“Thank you Jaryn and I’m not leaving guys.’ I said as I stood up from the chair. ‘I know that I can’t. No matter where I am in the world I would know that I have something that I have to do. My destiny has been set for me long ago, even before I was glimmer in my mother’s eye, who ever she was.” Jaryn smiled as he embraced me warmly. He then asked if he could talk to me alone for a moment. As the others cleared out of the small room and headed up the elevators with their room keys in hands that were graciously provided by Jaryn we both sat down on the uncomfortable sofa together.

“I’m sorry for bein’ angry with you before. I wasn’t mad at you for leaving without tellin’ us or because I think that you’re messing with me brothers.” He advised me. I gave him a questioning smile.

“Then why were you upset for?”

“Because you didn’t take me with you. I mean out of everyone, beside Blake, you know I would do anything for ya.” He explained and it was something that I did know. Jaryn was the first one other than Reid to be kind to me from the Hollings. He was like a brother, the kind of brother I had always wanted. I took a hold of his hand, giving it a squeeze. 

“I’m sorry, you’re right. Forgive me?” I asked.

“Of course…but only if you tell me the truth. Right here and now, what is really going on with you and Blake? I don’t care, I won’t tell you what to do or who to be with but I just don’t want any secrets between us anymore.” He advised me and I let out of a deep sigh knowing that I had to do it whether I wanted to or not. He wouldn’t let me leave without an answer. All the Hollings were stubborn, only some were more stubborn then others.