by Joshua Laack
Chapter 32
Andrew wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but what was knocking was not even close. It was late one evening, about four and a half weeks after he had become an immortal. He and Johari were standing in the living room, talking about whether Andrew was ready to drive his car or not. He was the one who didn't think he was. He didn't want to wreck it, or hurt someone else on the road. Johari insisted that he was in control. They both stopped and looked at the door.
There was a pause and then a second knock. Both knocks were quite soft, as if the person on the other side of the door knew that they could hear it, soft as it was. Johari looked at Andrew.
“It is time. They are here for us.” They turned together and went to the front door. Andrew remained just a little bit behind her as she moved. He was able to see her as she moved, even at great speed, something else that had surprised Johari. She said that it had taken her almost a hundred years to be able to see other Blood when they moved, and even then, only when they weren't moving all that fast. She had been pleased, and told him that if he continued to work at it, he would make a powerful immortal.
Andrew smiled as he remembered her smile when she added that he should not forget that she would always be more powerful than he was. It was a joke, but of the truth behind it, Andrew had no doubt at all.
Johari pulled open the door. Two olive skinned males stood on the front step. They were both about Andrew's height, just over six feet, and both were heavily muscled, though he doubted that for Blood, that the size of their muscles made much difference. They would be strong no matter how big they were. Their eyes were both green and they looked similar, as if they were related somehow. Their faces looked somewhat indifferent as though they were just doing a job, but did not care all that much about why they had been commanded to fulfill it. For some reason, they looked familiar, but despite Andrew's ability to recall almost anything, he couldn't seem to place them. He set the thought aside to consider later.
“Johari, and companion, Andrew Marks, you have been called to present yourselves before the council.” The words, except for the names, were in Aramaic and were formal and polite. They were spoken as a request, rather than a direct order, but somehow, Andrew got the impression that this was one request it would not be a good idea to refuse.
“As always, we hear and come willingly to stand before the council when called.” Johari's reply was also polite and formal, as well as voiced in Aramaic. The words of the man at the door had been directed at Johari, and she made no indication that Andrew should reply or say anything at all, so until she said otherwise, he decided that his knowledge of the language would go unvoiced.
Both men stepped back to allow Johari and Andrew to come out of the house. The one who had spoken turned and walked toward a waiting black Denali SUV, parked in front of the house, and the other waited until they passed him and then he turned and followed.
Andrew took a breath out of a human habit he had not yet overcome as he passed out of the door. The scent of the one holding the door filled his nostrils. In that breath, Andrew could smell that the man was Blood. He had not noticed before with Johari because he was used to her smell, but the immortal blood had a different scent to it than the odor of the human blood of his mother that was forever imprinted in his mind.
It was strange, but for being in a body that died, their blood smelled more alive than human blood did. Andrew couldn't think of any other way to describe it than that. He cataloged the information in his mind. As they walked, he focused on Johari's scent again, and now that he had noticed it with the male Blood, he could detect a slight trace of the same within Johari.
Her overriding scent was the flower and exotic fruit mix that he had first noticed smelling her all that time ago in the classroom when his heart stopped. He mentioned it to her once, but she was unaware of any perfume or any other reason why he would smell such a thing. In his now perfect memory recall, he watched her face as he smiled and told her that it must be the scent of love. Despite the thoughts that had been in his mind and his final call in the car accident, it had been the first reference to his true feelings for her. She liked that idea. He smiled again as they climbed into the backseat of the Denali. The smell seemed to fill his mind as he focused on it, and as everything associated with Johari did, it brought him a great deal of joy.
They drove for about twenty minutes in the Denali before reaching the local airport. Since becoming an immortal and staying with Johari, Andrew spent no time near humans. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he knew that it was vital that he not do anything to attract attention here. If the law of the Blood was not to attract human attention, he needed to follow that law. He put his entire mind onto emulating the speed and motions of the humans around him. He was blinking, breathing, walking and moving as cautiously as he could.
The two with them watched him like hawks and even Johari kept peeking at him to see how he was doing. They seemed more and more confused by the minute and the smile on Johari's face widened with each glance. Andrew wondered what the two male Bloods expected him to do.
They boarded the plane within forty five minutes and were headed to another airport in Georgia to change planes before heading to the Middle East. It was during that first plane ride that Andrew recalled where he recognized the two from. The dream where he had seen his mother bleeding, the one that had come true, had gone on to another dream. One in which Andrew had known that they were being condemned to die. The two faces with them now had been standing nearby in his dream.
They were not going to be excused by this council. He and Johari were going to be sentenced to death. It didn't matter what they told the council or what she thought. That thought was all that filled his mind as they landed in Georgia and from there boarded the much longer flight to their final destination, where death waited for them.