Of the Blood

by Joshua Laack

Chapter 33

  One of the flight attendants came over and leaned in past Johari, to speak to Andrew.

  “Sir, you seem a little tense. Is there anything I can get for you? Something to drink perhaps? Or a snack of some kind?” The thought of food made Andrew feel ill. Somehow, he managed to shake his head and the feeling passed.

  “Thanks, but I'm alright.” As the flight went on, the two companions in the row behind them kept watching every time someone passed by or a flight attendant stopped to talk them. Andrew noticed them doing it out of the corner of his eye several times. It seemed that they thought he should not be able to control himself as well as he was. Maybe it took other Blood much longer than this to be able to interact with humans without giving away that they were something more.

  Despite being able to control himself, it was the first time he had felt any tiredness. It wasn't physical, just mental exhaustion from trying to maintain a facade of humanity that no longer fit him. It was a long flight and Andrew sat there holding Johari's hand trying to ignore everything else but being careful to do act as human as he could. The intercom crackled and then a voice came on.

  “This is the captain speaking. We will be landing shortly. Please return your seats to the upright position and buckle your seat belts. Please remain buckled until we have come to a complete stop at the gate and you see the seat belt light above you turn off.” The captains voice echoed through the plane as it blared through the loudspeaker.

  In a short amount of time, the plane taxied in and landed at a small airport somewhere just north of Jerusalem. Andrew knew that because Johari mentioned it as they were pulling up to the gate. One of our guards gave her a sharp look as she whispered in his ear, but the other one tapped him on the arm and muttered something in his ear so softly that Andrew couldn't tell what he said.

  Andrew realized it was possible that the one Blood didn't speak English and didn't know what Johari was saying. The other one was just repeating what she said. The main flight attendant stood at the front of the plane and announced that the time here was just before nine in the morning. The flight had been scheduled to arrive at eight thirty, but some amount of delay was to be expected on a flight this long.

  If he had still been human, Andrew would have been exhausted after a seventeen hour flight that arrived in the morning with a whole day still ahead of him. As an immortal, he felt just as awake now as he had when the flight began. Once out of the crowded plane, he found it easier to focus on his movements as well, so even his mental fatigue faded.

  As they walked through the gate and into the terminal, Andrew noticed the scent of more Blood. Sure enough, two more were waiting just beyond the gate. Andrew wondered as they approached them, if all immortals could smell the others. He was sure that was the case as he had noticed it right away and he was so new to all this. He would have to ask Johari when he had a chance.

  The new immortals and the ones who had escorted them thus far, greeted each other with silent nods and then all four escorted Johari and Andrew through the airport terminal. The new ones took the lead, while their previous companions followed.

  Every muscle in his body tensed as a young woman jumped at Andrew, a knife in her hand. It wasn't a large knife, but that little knife bombarded Andrew's brain with the image of his mother coming at him. It hit him like a hammer in the face. Andrew just about lost it right then and there. His mind lost all focus and he wanted to just run as fast as he could. All of this went through his mind in the instant after seeing the knife.

  His mind was thinking so much faster than he was used to that it felt like everything around him came to a stop. The slowdown gave Andrew the moment he needed to collect himself. He moved faster than anyone could see and took the knife. Then he repositioned himself so that he could catch her arms as if she had just fallen into him.

  It played out as he imagined as he caught the girl, smiled at her and set her back just as he would have done were he still human. Then he just kept walking. Johari gave him a quick smile while the Blood ahead of them glanced at each other in shock. The one on the left glanced back at Johari.

  “How on this earth is that possible for a blood who is a month old,” he asked? He spoke in Aramaic, but his voice was so quiet, his lips moved so little and he spoke so fast that Andrew know that no one else could have heard or understood what was said. He wouldn't have even believed that the man had spoken except for the fact that Andrew heard the words and heard where the sound was coming from.

  “I don't know actually. He has learned the focus all on his own.” Johari replied, speaking the same way. The eyes of all four of the blood with them widened and the one who had spoken turned his face to the front again. Andrew wondered what it was that he was missing here. All four of these immortals had been acting suspicious, and now they seemed shocked, surprised and maybe a little disappointed as though things had not happened quite as they expected.

  The next stop for the group was at a passport check gate where they were asked to provide papers and give a reason for the trip to Tel Aviv, the location of the airport that they had flown into. The overweight man behind the counter spoke English haltingly as one of their companions removed six passports from the inside of a small bag that he carried. He announced that they were all traveling together on a religious sightseeing trip to Jerusalem. The passports were checked, stamped and handed back to the one who had provided them. The man behind the counter didn't look all that close to make sure that the pictures matched the faces. If Andrew had to guess, he would say that the man had been payed off or even convinced to let them through without checking.

  Outside of the terminal, all four companions ushered Johari and Andrew toward two identical, dark green jeeps that were parked in the airport's temporary lot. They rode in the back of one of the jeeps with the two newer companions while the original two followed in the other jeep.

  Andrew didn't pay a lot of attention at first as they were driving east out of Tel Aviv. The bland valleys and endless rolling hills in the forty mile trip to the edge of Jerusalem didn't provide anything to interest him. At least not enough to take his mind off of it's consideration of the present situation. Once they got into the city though, he glanced out the window and found himself fascinated by the strange and almost random arrangement of the buildings within Jerusalem.

  They were in a newer section of town, in which the buildings weren't arranged as close together as the older section toward the center of the great city. The whitish stone buildings were still closer together than Andrew was accustomed to back in the States.

  There wasn't a ton of green mixed in, but the green that was there, mostly from the trees, stood out in stark contrast to the stone of the buildings. A lot of the trees were tall palm trees, leaves drooping in the heat. There were also a few olive trees, though there didn't seem to be any ripe fruits on them at the moment.

  It felt as though the ride was taking forever, but Andrew was sure that it just seemed longer than it was. This ride toward an unknown destination that he wasn't sure he wanted to reach had a lot to do with the trip feeling so long. It just wasn't possible to look forward to death now that life was so amazing.