Men of the Cave (Symbol of Hope Series)

by Burgess, Marisette

  The man looked me up and down.

  “Is she immortal?” he asked with a British accent.

  “No,” Max answered.

  “Well, I have never… what is her lineage?” The man kept prying.

  “I don’t think I understand. I don’t know my lineage,” I said. “Why do you want to know?”

  “My dear…the similarity between you and Pandora is astounding.” He wiped his forehead.

  I looked at the man, then to Dion, and back at the strange man. That’s the second person that’s mentioned I look like Pandora. What was going on here?

  “Kasey, this is Professor Darius Mubarak, an Egyptologist from Cairo. You know, Professor, you are not the first person to mention her likeness to Pandora. Helen did when she first met her.”

  Whoa, are they actually saying that I’m related to one of their kind? This can’t be happening!

  “How? Immortals are incapable of breeding.” The Professor shook his head, wiped his forehead, then sat. “I would like to take a blood sample from her and compare it to Pandora’s DNA back at my lab.”

  What does he want?

  “You have Pandora’s DNA?” Max asked suspiciously.

  “I have a lot of immortal’s DNA. You are a fascinating breed. For years, I have been trying to figure out how you heal. I would like to take Ms. Reese’s blood and cross-reference it to Pandora. If Pandora is breeding, then I think we ought to look into it.”

  “Fine, I shall get it for you before you leave,” Max huffed.

  My eyes grew wide. I turned to Dion.

  He whispered, “Is that all right?”

  “No!” I whispered back. “They can’t just have my blood.”

  “All they are going to do is check to see if you are related to Pandora. It will be fine, trust me.”

  I nodded, but remained unsure. Suddenly, I wished I’d never gone on this date.

  “Professor this is not why you came to Deia at two in the morning, is it?” Dion changed the tone of the conversation.

  “Professor, please inform Dion of our earlier conversation. I shall be right back,” Max headed upstairs.

  “It is about Sam and James, Dion. I think they are on their way here to kill you.” The Professor wiped his brow.

  “What? That is impossible…”

  “No, it might not be. They came to me two days ago for a translation. They uncovered a tablet created by Zeus before he banished. On that tablet there is a curse. And it says if you recite the curse before slaying an immortal with a steel blade through the heart, they will die. The slayer inherits the dead man’s special ability.” The Professor said anxious.

  “Do you think this tablet is genuine, or is it a fraud?” Antony asked sitting relaxed on the couch.

  “There is no way to know unless one tries it. I am not about to kill an immortal and find out.” The Professor responded.

  Max returned with a syringe in his hand. He walked straight towards me. I got woozy. Was he going to take my blood right here? Right now!

  “Come and sit,” he instructed me in a low voice.

  I did not move.

  “You will not feel a thing,” Max said in an attempt to calm me.

  My eyes glistened. “Please don’t make me do this,” I whispered to Dion.

  He looked at me with sympathy, and then glanced at his brother. Dion placed his hand on my lower back and tried to lead me to the chair.

  “When he is finished it will be like nothing ever happened,” Dion said gently.

  “Kasey, are you not curious to know if you are related to Pandora?” Max asked.

  “I don’t know. This is all so weird.” Could it be possible? Am I linked to the Ancient Greeks?

  My heart raced, but I sat. Max knelt on one knee beside me, grabbed my arm, and turned it outward. He pulled my sleeve up. I let out a slow breath in an attempt to calm myself. Max placed his thumb over the bend of the elbow. I trembled. His thumb began to illuminate with bright yellow rays of light. Startled, I peered at Dion. Max placed the syringe into my skin under his thumb. I felt nothing. The tube filled up with my blood. When it was half-full he removed the syringe from my skin. He placed his thumb over the tiny hole left.

  He let go of my arm stood and said, “Thank you.”

  With my opposite hand, I ran it down my arm where the syringe had been. No trace or mark could be seen or felt. It was amazing.

  Max gave the Professor a labeled vial of my blood. I proceeded to put my boots on. “Professor, do you have a copy of the curse?” Antony asked.

  “Yes, here.” He handed a folded paper to Antony.

  “I must get back. I kept my taxi waiting. I do not want to run into your brothers,” the Professor said, heading for the door.

  “We knew our brothers were coming to see us. We received a vision.” Martin spoke up.

  “Martin saw Kasey looking at them in the club, and then I saw them headed for Deia,” John said.

  I remembered the two men from the club. They must have been the brothers. Dion eyed me confused.

  “Why was this not told to me?” he asked aggravated.

  “We did not want to ruin your evening. Had you known, would you have taken her out?” Martin asked.

  Dion huffed.

  “We have plenty of room here, you are welcomed to stay, old friend.” Max got to the door before the Professor.

  “No, no, I must go. Thank you.”

  “Very well then, thank you for your visit Professor. Take care, my friend,” Max and the Professor shook hands.

  “Give me a couple of days on the lab work,” the Professor yelled on his way out.

  Max closed the door. “Quite an evening we all have had,” he looked at Dion.

  Dion raised one eyebrow. “What does the tablet say?” he asked.

  Everyone turned to Antony. He opened up the folded paper and read the curse. It was written in Greek.

  “What does it say?” I whispered to Dion.

  He leaned his head into me,

  “And let it be upon this immortal,

  That was sentence by mighty wraths,

  To lay eternally in the heavens,

  By the steel of his kindred’s blade,

  And to thy blade’s holder,

  May the Grace’s gifts be now bestowed.”

  “Do you think the curse is true?” Martin asked.

  “I do not know. It offers intriguing possibilities. We have a lot to think about.” Max said somberly.

  “You can’t be thinking the curse is a good thing!” I blurted without thought.

  “Kasey, you do not understand what our life is like. Immortality is no different from a tortured eternity. To finally be able to rest, forever, I cannot even imagine.” Max snapped at me.

  “I’m sorry, you’re right. I don’t know…But how could you allow this to happen to humanity?” I snapped right back at him.

  “What does this have to do with humanity?” John asked.

  “Could you imagine your brother in the mortal world with all that power? What if he’s already gained some extra gifts.” By the silence in the room, I could tell this was something none of them had considered.

  “She is right on both counts.” Dion came to my defense, thank goodness.

  “She is right, Max. Even though some of us would love to end our immortality, the repercussions would come at what great cost to mortals.” Martin, spoke wisely, well beyond his age of fifteen.

  Max shook his head. “You all are right. We could never allow Sam to gather that much power. I pray that he has not used it yet.”

  “John, Martin, when should we be expecting them?” Max asked.

  “We are not sure. All we got was the vision of them at the club, and then heading for Deia.” John answered.

  “It will be approaching dawn soon,” Max said. “I believe Kasey needs to get home. We should get our rest as well.” It was clear he dominated the household.

  I headed for the door, and Dion followed. The others headed upstairs.
When I opened the door the two men from the club stood about to knock on the door.

  Dion gasped, “Sam! James!”

  “Hello my good brother,” Sam the older looking man said.

  I could see now the similarities between the brothers. Sam had the same dark hair but slicked back with lots of gel. He wore a black suit with a black shirt. A slight goatee grew on his chin.

  James appeared shaggy and casual. His hair highlighted as Dion’s, except his were white tipped. He wore a black Super Mario Brothers tee shirt and had a crucifix tattooed to his arm. James followed Sam in. I heard the patter of feet coming back down the stairs. As Sam passed Dion, he gave him a judgmental nod.

  “Truly disappointed,” he said to Dion then looked at me. “I thought you had better sense than to get involved with a human.”

  “What are you doing here?” Max ordered.

  “Such a harsh welcome, brother. We have not seen each other in more than a century. Where is your hospitality?”

  Sam continued in, sitting himself down on the loveseat. James entered and stood next to him. The atmosphere suddenly became unnerving. The Kleon’s body language and facial expressions were tight with apprehension.

  “What do you want, Sam?” Dion asked.

  “We happened to run into the Professor down the road. It is reasonable to assume that we do not have to explain anything. I suppose you already know.”

  “Did you do anything to the Professor?” Antony finally showed emotion.

  “We let him be.” James raised his hand in a calming way.

  “Have you used the tablet’s curse?” Max asked.

  “No, I came to you first. What do you say brothers? Are you ready to rest in peace?” Sam asked in a condescending tone.

  Max looked around the room making eye contact with his brothers. A few of them nodded.

  “We appreciate the offer, but no thank you,” Max said.

  Sam shot up from his chair, “What! You of all people! I would have thought to have taken this offer,” he raged.

  “Clearly Sam, you have lost touch with who your brothers are,” Max said calmly.

  “Clearly,” Sam looked around the room at all of them suspiciously, “Something has changed.” He peered at me. “Something has interfered.”

  “You keep her out of this. This is between you and us.” Dion stiffened his body forward and clenched his fist.

  Sam walked up to Dion inches from his face. “Careful brother, remember the last time this,” he glared at me, “happened to the family. Remember what it did to us. I will be back the day of the winter solstice. I hope this gives you enough time to properly think about your decision.” With that, he walked out the door, James followed.

  “Or what?” Dion retorted.

  “We will deal with that when we must,” Sam called back without turning around.

  Dion slid me from out of the doorway and closed the door.

  “He assumed we would let him spear us through the heart; as if it were some type of ritual,” Martin said in disbelief.

  “Why, though? Why does this mean so much to him? What is he after?” Antony walked back up the stairs.

  “When it comes to Sam, I have stopped asking why a long time ago,” John said sour.

  “We will need a plan of action for when he returns. I wish to reconvene this in the morning around nine.” Max said.

  “I will see you at ten, Max. He is not coming for us tomorrow.” Antony yawned.

  Max followed his brothers upstairs

  Dion opened the front door a crack and looked out. He placed his hand on my lower back and led me through the doorway. Once in his car, he sat stiff, clenching and relaxing his fingers around the steering wheel. Staring straight, he was furious. He gunned the gas of the Mini Cooper. As we reached the road from his driveway, I had to do something even though my nerves were on high alert as well.

  “Yup, typical first date. Minus the Egyptologist, blood getting drawn, and slaying of immortals you are just an average Joe.” I said sarcastically. That broke his intense trance and he loosened up.

  “I cannot apologize to you enough. I wish I never brought you to the house tonight.”

  “I thought the future was inevitable. This would have happened regardless. Plus it wasn’t too bad-- minus the whole blood thing. That’s tripped me out.” I rubbed the spot.

  His expression changed to worried, “It does not hurt, does it?”

  “No…no that’s the trippy part. Your brother took my blood in the middle of your living room and there’s no trace that it ever happened. That’s freaky.”

  “Max has a great gift. I have watched him heal so many. I am sorry for his behavior. He can be domineering.”

  “What do you think about the whole Pandora thing? Can it be possible?”

  “I do not know, maybe your likeness to her is simply a coincidence. We will have to wait and see what the Professor finds.”

  “She’s an immortal, right?”

  “Yes, we have never met her.”

  “Why can’t immortals have children?” I asked.

  “I do not have the answer to that technically. My theory is that God did not want the immortal gene pool to mix with humans. Can you imagine if Earth was filled with humans born to immortals and their special powers were inherited?”

  “Then you wouldn’t have to hide, and everyone would be like you.” I crossed my arms.

  He sighed, “But immortals are sterile and therefore anomalies among humans.”

  “Are you worried Sam might do something horrible?”

  “Before we went into the cave, Sam and I were close. He was a great man. Who, like us, has paid a great price with no answers. I believe he is bitter, and it pains me to watch him lead such an unhappy eternity. If I know my brother well, if deep down somewhere he still holds true to the man I once knew, then I cannot believe he would ever kill his brothers.”

  “What about James?”

  “James’ issue is with Max. He is seventeen and does not understand what happened to him. He wants to have fun. At first, Max was terribly restricting. He demanded discipline, order, and propriety. A few centuries ago he lightened up…”

  “You consider the way he behaved tonight lightened up? Whew…” I shook my head.

  Dion smirked, “James is a harmless, good hearted, rebellious teenager who got in with the wrong brother.”

  We pulled up to the Castillo’s restaurant. Dion put the car in park and turned to me. I was fascinated by our conversations on his magical world and didn’t want it to end.

  “It’s funny I’m no longer sleepy,” I said.

  “Me neither. I can stay for while if you wish to converse.” He leaned his head back on his headrest.

  I did the same. “So tell me, Dion what kind of things do you guys do when you live forever?”

  “As you can see we own some nice materialistic things. Which we feel guilty about, so to keep a balanced life we help humanity out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We like to think we were given these abilities to do good in the world. So we helped out during the black plague. We go to poverty-stricken or diseased remote places around the world and assist with what we can. The longest we have ever stayed at one place was at a Franciscan Monastery during the dark ages. Other than that sometimes ten years in a region, usually it’s five. We should be leaving Deia, in a year or so.”

  “That’s amazing.” I grinned.

  “No…it is really not. Kasey, it does not matter how long you have lived. What you have done, or what you have seen, the world still has no rhyme or reason to it. Time and people now are as lost and muddled as they were a thousand years ago.”

  Dion rambled, reaching deep within his thoughts and pulling his feelings out. I relished hearing his thoughts. He seemed wise, had done so much, and gained so many experiences.

  “Agh…please enough about me tonight. Let us talk about you.” He turned his eyes toward me and beamed.

  “Okay, fa
ir enough. What would you like to know?” I smiled back trying to lighten up the somber mood.

  “Hmmm…have you ever been to church other than here in Deia?”

  I made a face at him. So much for trying to lighten up the mood.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Really!” He was suprised.

  “As a matter of fact, I’m baptized Catholic.” I gave him an, ah-ha look.

  Shocked he said, “No! Please do explain.”

  “Well, the last time I set foot in a church was the day I was baptized. Apparently, my grandfather was persistent that I get baptized. According to my father, my grandfather took me down one day and did it. They say he was a fanatic about angels and saints.” I gave him an impish look. “I bet he’d be thrilled if he knew I was dating one now.”

  “Interesting,” he caressed my cheek with his knuckles. With soft eyes, he looked at me lovingly.

  “Which part?” I asked.

  “The fact that you were baptized, of course.”

  “Oh.”

  He smirked, “After all, with John around, I already knew we would be dating.”

  I scoffed. He was so cocky at times. I removed his hand from my cheek and tossed it in his lap. He laughed. I yawned unwillingly.

  “I think you are getting sleepy, Kasey.”

  “I think I am too.”

  He opened his car door and then opened mine. Madhu’s words repeated in my head: “You will know by the kiss.”

  I didn’t allow him to kiss me earlier. Would he try again? Feeling sick with the unknown, I wasn’t sure I was ready to feel another man’s lips on mine. We walked hand in hand up to the restaurant door. The rosy pink hue of the day’s light skimmed the horizon. The key hole was hard to see. As I fumbled with the keys, there was a click from the lock inside, and the door opened. On the other side, Beatriz stood in her robe.

  Startled, I squeaked, “Morning Sra. Beatriz.”

  “Buenos Dias, Kasey…Dion.” She turned and walked back into the restaurant.

  I hoped he didn’t notice my embarrassed red my cheeks. Dion chuckled, leaned over, and kissed my forehead.

  “Sleep well Kasey, sweet dreams.”

  “Thanks, you as well.” Relieved he hadn’t tried a real kiss, I turned and entered the restaurant.