Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (36 page)

She
found it. Eva pushed inside and slammed the door, setting the lock. Then she
collapsed against the smooth wooden panel and allowed herself to slide down the
surface to the soft, thickly carpeted floor. Dust tickled her nose. The room
was empty. So quiet.

Too
quiet.

Eva
stared at the far wall. Her anger faltered, crumbled away.

Then,
whether Eva wanted it or not, everything sank home.

Brand’s
mother is Sakai
.
Brand is half-Sakai. Brand steals memories
.

None of
these reminders helped. Because, at the end of it all, there was only one
singular truth:
We’re done.

We
never even truly started.

It’s my
fault.

She sniffed.

It was
going to happen anyway. Better now than later.

Eva
curled into a ball on the floor and cried.

Corin
King stepped across the barren crust of snow where the wind had swept the
ground almost clear. Before him stood a high barrier wall that called to mind,
vaguely, the ancient fortresses of Europe. He laid a gloved hand on the stone
and felt at the mortaring between the cracks.

The
barrier was solid, old. Well-built. It would not have fallen easily, neither
then nor now.

So this
is where Rohe’s pet has run.

King
had always wondered where Europe’s old Kaspian had fled. The Courts believed
the Kaspian died out on coming to the New World, or became lost in the jungles
of South America. But King had never been quite convinced.

Now he
knew.

This
was where they came. To a fortress in a valley in the wests of Canada. King
shook his head, thinking of how the Courts of Europe would have laughed.

King
smoothed his fingers down the dark stone, studying it. Then he removed his
glove and traced the mortar again. There seemed to be a – friction
– at the border. A
presence
. An awareness that began at the wall.
Most wouldn’t have noticed it, but he did.

King
frowned, dropped his hand to replace the glove.

Somehow,
the wall was guarded. By more than the cameras he had noted earlier.
Furthermore, there must be a large tract of wilderness across the barrier; the
Strategoi could hear no heartbeats beyond that of animals.

If he
wished, he could cross into the Kaspian’s territory, but the crossing would
betray his presence.

Finding
a way to slip past the mind that guarded the barrier would take careful
planning, and a great deal more thought.

It
would prove a challenge.

Corin
King almost smiled.

Eva
closed her eyes, pretended she was
anywhere
else, and tried not to take
too much comfort from Brand’s steady presence beside her on the plane as they
took off out of Calgary. She could feel him all along the right side of her
body, like an extension of awareness.

As the
plane launched into the air, she tried not to breathe his scent into her lungs,
tried not to feel the heat of his elbow beside her on the armrest. Tried not to
think
. Eva pulled the dark leather coat Nikandria had given her more
tightly around her shoulders and pushed back into the plush first-class seating
as the plane leveled out. The vented air smelled stale, over-used.
Claustrophobic. Eva had never flown before, and didn’t think she liked it.

Okay, I
don’t like it. But I’m better off than Joshua.
Joshua
was in the seat behind her, beside Kevin Ysperin, and had been steadily
drinking from the moment he’d sat down. “Drugs don’t work, and alcohol fucks me
up. But better to be fucked up than to realize I’m shooting through the air at
roughly 300 miles an hour while trapped inside a rattling death trap 30,000
feet above ground.
Merde
. You
owe
me, cousin,” Joshua had growled
at Brand. “You seriously owe me.”

Brand
had just grunted and made some sort of gesture to Kevin Ysperin, before turning
back around in the seat. Where he was studying her now.

Don’t
talk to him
, Eva told herself, making it into a recitation.
Don’t
talk to him
. If she spoke to Brand, she would do something stupid.

Like
apologize. Or ask to stay at Stronghold. Or tell him how much she regretted
fighting with him.

Or
admit how much this rattling death trap freaked her out.

Eva
gripped her fists on the armrests and steeled herself as the airplane went over
a rapid series of bumps.

“You
okay?” Brand asked politely. Much too politely. As if he were somehow
okay
with how they had ended.

“Fine,”
Eva muttered.

“Slight
turbulence,” the captain said over the intercom. “Nothing to worry about.”

Yeah,
turbulence
, Eva thought with pained irony. The air was full
of turbulence. Like her and Brand’s non-relationship had been full of
turbulence.

Eva
slowly exhaled into the stagnant plane air, and tried to ignore the dipping
sensation of the small metal cabin around her. No luck. Her stomach was twisted
into a queasy knot.

But at
least there were other people on the plane. At least she wasn’t alone. It made
the cramped space seem much less like a cell.

“Magazine?”
Brand offered. Eva shook her head, looking away.

“You
didn’t have to come,” she muttered.

“I
did,” he said calmly. “If you need to go back to North Carolina, then very
well. But I will be with you.”

“I can
see myself home,” she said stubbornly, trying
not
to notice the shifting
of the airplane around her. “I’m not a child.”

A
pause. “I never thought you were, Eva.”

Two
nights ago you as good as called me one
, she wanted to say, but held
her tongue.

She was
doing everything she could to keep it together. But it hadn’t helped yesterday
morning, when after Eva picked herself up off the floor and went to find the
shower, she discovered the faint bruised marks of Brand’s teeth on her left
breast. She had brushed her fingers over the pinpoint scabs; they had seemed
swollen, almost hot, with a dark red-black bruise spreading out from the
puncture marks. And when she had touched the bruise – it hadn’t felt
right
.
Bruises were supposed to hurt…not feel
good
.

Not
that good. Not like
that
.

Not as
if Brand had lowered his lips to her breast and given her a straight shot of
pleasure.

And
comfort. Comfort and pleasure.

Eva
shook her head at the stewardess as she pushed the cart past; she was too
nervous to drink anyway. Brand asked for coffee; behind them, Joshua growled a
request for “more whiskey.”

Eva
touched her breast. Over the bruise.

She
shivered.

Did I
bite you?
Brand had demanded. That last night. She
remembered his panic, how she had thought the scent of blood was from where she
had bitten her tongue.

Rohe
had never bitten her. Just the guards and they had been…Eva’s memory shuddered
away. She didn’t remember marks like this, bruising. But maybe that was what
happened when a half-Sakai bit you?

I’m
Kaspian
, Brand’s voice snarled in memory. Eva closed her eyes and remembered
him in Vermont. Remembered him in Chicago. Remembered him in blood tiger form:
massive, blue-black coat glossy, strokable, full of protectiveness and pure
primal strength. Was Brand Kaspian?

Yes.
Yes he was.

Eva
licked her lips and sucked in a breath as the plane dipped beneath them like an
unsteady bird. She glanced at Brand from the corner of her eye; he was reading
some sort of book. She squinted at the title.
Cien años de soledad
?
Spanish. It was something in Spanish.

Her
understanding of Spanish didn’t extend beyond insults and take-out menus.

Yet
another reason they never would have worked.

Eva
dropped her fingers from the bruise. The plane rattled over another washboard.
It felt like the cabin was shaking. Shivering. Like it was afraid. Eva was
Kaspian, immortal, but she knew that if the plane fell out of the sky, she
wouldn’t survive. She and Brand and everyone else would end up crushed, smashed
just like her uncle had been by that semi truck. There was nothing they could
do. Eva clenched her eyes shut.

The rustling
sound of pages, a book closing.

“Eva. I
know you aren’t okay.” Brand’s voice held a measured amount of concern. Concern
and restraint. He was hiding things from her again.

But
this time Eva
knew
what he was hiding.

Himself.

Stay
, he said
in memory.
Stay at Stronghold
.

“No.”
Eva shook her head. “I’m fine,” she muttered, and Brand growled. His hand
settled over hers, his strong fingers tightening. Despite herself, Eva relaxed.

“The
turbulence is normal, Eva. We’ll land soon enough.”

She
just nodded. She didn’t know what else to say.

Soon
enough, Brand, Joshua and Kevin would deposit her back at her Gens. Soon enough
they would leave, going back to their lives as if she had never been.

Soon
enough, Eva would go back to her own life. As if Brand had never been.

Eva bit
her lip and tried to swallow the sad, terrified feeling rising up in her.

Soon
enough.

Her
cousin Justin met them at the Ashville airport.

Eva had
just wheeled the small carry-on Nikandria had given her down the carpeted ramp
and out into the arrival area when she saw him. He was tall, slim and
dark-haired as her uncle had been, but his eyes were a pale shade of green. Her
cousin was leaning against the wall, but when Eva paused, he pushed away and
strode toward her, that old, familiar look of reprimand etched into his
features; Eva’s heart dropped.

Rainey
didn’t come
. She had thought, despite everything, that her
sister might come. But Rainey hadn’t.
She must be furious
.

“I can
take that,” Justin said shortly and reached to take her suitcase. But his eyes
had focused over Eva’s shoulder, to that warm space behind her were she could
feel Brand standing. Justin’s lips tightened when Eva shook her head and picked
up the carry-on herself. She wanted to
keep
the things she had from
Stronghold, not give Justin and the Resh an excuse to sort through them.

“Eva?”
Brand said quietly, his voice carrying a low hint of warning, and Eva forced
her expression to smooth before she stepped aside. Brand’s face was polite,
courteous, but somehow she
knew
he was less than happy with her cousin.
Behind them, Eva glanced to the ramp and saw Kevin half-supporting a weaving
Joshua as they approached. There was a wild grin on Joshua’s face that didn’t
go well with the hazy look in his gray eyes, but Eva shrugged and looked away,
turning back to Brand and her cousin. Joshua and Kevin could take care of
themselves.

“Brand,
this is my cousin Justin,” Eva said, gesturing. “Justin, this is Brand Kade.”

Justin’s
jaw tightened and his scowl deepened. He narrowed his eyes at Brand in a look
Eva had seen the Gens fighters give each other – right before a fight
broke out – and his lips compressed. His furious gaze found Eva. “You
smell of him.” It was an accusation.

Eva
went red.
God
. She hadn’t thought of that. She was so used to the scent
of Brand that she hadn’t thought of how her Gens would react. Or what they
would think.

“Not
your business.” Eva smoothed trembling fingers down her jeans.

“
Everything
is the Resh’s business.”

Brand
interrupted. “It is good to meet you.” His voice was just above a growl. The
book he had been reading on the plane was tucked beneath his arm, his carry-on
in his left fist. Aggression filled the air.

Eva
grimaced and began to walk toward the exit. “We can talk outside,” she said, a
reminder to the two of them that they were in a
human
airport surrounded
by
humans
. This wasn’t the place for this.

“I will
take her from here,” Justin said behind her, his voice fiercely angry, and Eva
froze, suddenly afraid that Brand would – right there – just
leave
.
Her heart clenched.
No.
But she had to say goodbye – he had
escorted her back… Then she heard Justin say, “The Turner Gens formally thanks
you for returning my cousin. It will not happen again.”

A
shuffle of something dropping, a soft snarl as danger filled the room. Eva
whipped around, then choked back a gasp. Justin and Brand stood face-to-face,
much too close, as if Justin had somehow mustered the idiocy to step in front
of Brand. But now her cousin’s face was white, as if in pain, and the deep blue
of Brand’s eyes had gone gold. His eyes rose, latched to hers for the briefest
of seconds, then dropped again to Justin.