by I. T. Lucas
Sari smiled. “I am. I love having a big family.”
“How about your own? Do you want to have children?”
“Of course.” Sari cast a sidelong glance at David. “As soon as possible.”
“You are my kind of girl.” Ronja clapped her hands. “Now I know why you want to get married so fast. You want children, and I’m all for it.”
Lisa snorted. “I need to send stupid Stacy a thank you card for dumping you. Imagine what would have happened if she had stayed with you. You would have married her and never met Sari.”
“It took me a while to realize that, but it wasn’t Stacy’s fault. My depression was not the reason she left me, it was just the last straw. I never really opened my heart to her because I was afraid to love.”
Ronja frowned. “Why? Is it because your father and I got divorced?”
“No. I was afraid of losing the people I love, and since I couldn’t control fate, I controlled the only thing I could, which was to close off my heart.”
“I don’t understand.” His mother gazed at him with sad blue eyes. “I know that losing Jonah devastated you. But why were you afraid to let yourself fall in love before that?”
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but Jonah wasn’t the first loved one I lost.”
“You are confusing me. Who else did you lose?”
David closed his eyes. “To answer that, I need to tell you a story that you will find difficult to believe.”
“Is it a sad story? Because I’m not sure I can handle any more despair right now. I need a good story.”
“It’s a fantastic tale, and it’s full of hope. But I need you to be patient and suspend disbelief.”
“Pfft.” Ronja waved a dismissive hand. “You know that I have no problem with that. I watched all fifteen seasons of Ancient Aliens.”
Lisa lifted her hand. “I can attest to that. She even made me watch the first two with her.”
“I didn’t make you do anything. You loved crawling in bed with me and watching the crazy hair dude.”
“He was so funny.”
“What’s Ancient Aliens about?” Sari asked.
“It’s a show about your origins.” Lisa smirked. “I think that my mom will have a much easier time believing your story than I did.”
Ronja regarded Lisa with a frown. “What does Sari have to do with Ancient Aliens?”
Lisa snorted. “She is one of them.”
David shook his head. “I didn’t watch the show, so I don’t know what Lisa is talking about, but she is right about Sari being ancient, and she might be right about her alien origins as well.”
32
Sari
Ronja laughed. “Is that an insider joke between the three of you?”
“It’s not a joke.” Sari put her tea mug on the coffee table. “But before I explain, I need to ask you something.” She reached into Ronja’s mind and erased the memory of Bowen’s name. “What are the names of the two Guardians staying with us in the house.?”
Ronja frowned. “One is called Magnus, but I can’t recall the other one’s, which is strange since I even remember that the pilot’s name is Charlie. Why is it important?”
“It’s not. It was a little test I had to conduct before explaining Lisa’s comment, and the Guardian’s name is Bowen.” Deciding to rip off the proverbial Band-Aid, Sari leveled her gaze at Ronja. “I’m nearly a thousand years old, and my mother is a goddess, one of a nearly extinct race of people who might have arrived from another place in the universe.”
Ronja frowned. “You are serious, aren’t you?”
“I am. If you want, I can show you proof.”
“What kind of proof?’
“I can manipulate your mind to see things that aren’t there but would feel real to you. Who’s your favorite movie star?”
Ronja smiled. “That’s easy. Chris Hemsworth.”
“Good choice. I know what he looks like.” Sari waved a hand, so Ronja would know she was doing something, and shrouded herself to look like the actor.
“Oh, dear.” Ronja reached with her hand. “Can I touch you?”
“Go ahead. You will feel the real me underneath the shroud, but if you wish, I can manipulate that as well and make it feel as if you are touching bulging muscles.”
“You sound like him, but your Australian accent is off.” Ronja touched Sari’s sleeve. “I can feel the silk of your blouse.” She smoothed her hand up. “And it’s definitely a woman’s arm. Can you change it so it would feel like I’m touching Chris?”
Smiling, Sari waved a hand again. “Try it now.”
Ronja patted the apparition’s bicep. “Wow, that’s unbelievable, but I have to believe what I see and feel. Can a talented human hypnotist do that?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” Sari dropped the shroud. “You were much easier to convince than your children. I had to cut myself to prove my rapid healing ability to David.”
Ronja’s eyes widened. “Can you give Frank a blood transfusion?”
Damn. How was she going to answer that and ruin the look of hope in Ronja’s eyes?
“It wouldn’t help him. The healing properties are genetic. They don’t transfer through blood. I’m sorry.”
“I understand.” Ronja wiped away the tears that had pooled in the corners of her eyes and turned to David. “Can you tell me your story now? I need cheering up.”
Leaning, David kissed his mother’s cheek. “I promise that you will feel better after you hear it.” He looked at Sari. “Perhaps you want to prepare the background? I’m still not clear on all the details, and I don’t want to mess it up.”
Sari nodded. “I’ll tell you the short version, and after David is done with his part of the story, we can go back to mine, and you can ask me questions.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Needing a moment to collect her thoughts, Sari lifted her mug, took a couple of sips, and put it back down. “The mythological gods were real, and just as it’s described in the Bible, they took human partners. The children born from those unions were immortal, and they possessed some of the powers of their godly parents. But when these immortals took human partners, their children were born human, or so it seemed. The gods discovered that the children of female immortals carried the godly genes, but those genes remained dormant until activated. The children of male immortals did not inherit the genes at all. Are you following so far?”
Ronja nodded.
Sari took another sip from her tea and continued. “An inner conflict between the gods resulted in the annihilation of them all save for two. My mother and her sister. I don’t want to bog down the story with the how and the why, but the gist of it is that my mother set out on a mission to help humanity evolve into the advanced society the gods wanted them to become, while the immortal son of the antagonist god set out to do the opposite.”
“What about your mother’s sister?”
“It’s a long story, but she ended up married to my mother’s archenemy.”
“Oh, dear.” Ronja put a hand over her heart. “The plot thickens.”
“It does, but not in the way you think. My aunt’s story is an inconsequential thread in the tapestry of the large picture. Most of the immortals perished in the attack that ended the gods’ era, but some must have survived, and the descendants of the females carried on the godly genes in a dormant form. You and your children are carriers. David’s genes were activated, and he is immortal now. Lisa will also undergo induction as soon as it is possible.”
“What about me?”
Sari sighed. This was the difficult part. “I’m afraid that you are too old to be induced. The transition process is very taxing on the body, and you wouldn’t make it. David almost died, and he’s twenty years younger than you.”
For a moment, Ronja just gaped at Sari, and then she whipped around to level a hard look at David. “You almost died? When did that happen? And why wasn’t I told?”
“I didn’t want you to worr
y.”
“You didn’t want me to worry?” She shook her head. “Did you know that you might not make it and you did it anyway?”
33
David
David winced. “I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to. The clan’s survival depends on maintaining strict secrecy, and humans are not allowed to know about them. Just think about your first response to Sari’s comment about her fast healing. You asked if she could donate blood to Frank. What do you think would happen if humans became aware of immortals? They would be hunted by everyone for their blood and for their genes.”
His mother deflated. “You could have made up a story about going into surgery for something.”
“To what end? So you would have a reason to worry?”
Brows furrowing, Ronja cast him a stern stare. “I’m your mother, and I need to know what’s going on with you, so I won’t worry imagining all the things that you are not telling me. And how come it’s okay to reveal the big secret now and it wasn’t before?”
David sighed. “Because I might be taking you with me to Scotland, and if you are going to live in Sari’s community, you need to know who and what you are dealing with. It’s too early to be making long-term plans, but I would have to tell you eventually, and I chose to do it sooner rather than later to boost your morale.”
“Why would I come to live with you in Scotland?”
“Several reasons. Even if Frank makes it, he will most likely be mentally impaired and need extensive rehabilitation. You can’t do it alone, and Lisa is too young to shoulder such an undertaking. The other reason is that when Lisa transitions, she will join the clan, and she’s young and still needs you.”
“Yeah, about that.” Lisa scrunched her nose. “If my only option is a thirteen-year-old boy, I’ll pass and wait until I’m an adult.”
“What are you talking about?”
Leaning back, Lisa folded her arms over her chest. “I’ll let Sari explain. You kind of interrupted her story, and now everything is out of order.”
“I’m sorry about that.” Ronja looked at Sari with remorse in her eyes that David was sure she didn’t feel. “Please continue your story, and I promise to keep my mouth closed until you are done.”
He doubted that his mother was capable of that.
“I think that David can take it from here.” Sari picked up her mug and leaned back in the armchair. “I’ll add explanations as needed.”
Ronja lifted her hand. “One more question, and then I promise to keep quiet until the end. If humans are not allowed to learn about immortals, which is understandable, how come your cousin invited David to your castle?” She turned to David. “Or was that not how you met and just a story you told me?”
“Everything I told you was true. I just didn’t tell you all of it. Sari’s cousin and I met a couple of times to discuss my research. He felt an affinity toward me, which is a sense of familiarity that immortals and Dormants feel toward each other. He suspected that I was a dormant carrier of godly genes and decided to play matchmaker. Sari didn’t know that he was bringing a human along, and I had no idea that she and her cousin and everyone else there was immortal. Kalugal’s hunch was right, and we clicked right away. Sari told me the truth and explained the dangers of transition. I decided that spending eternity with her was worth the risk, and I agreed to be induced by her cousin.”
“How is it done?” Ronja asked.
“You’re gonna love it, Mom.” Lisa leaned forward. “Male immortals have fangs and venom like vampires, but they don’t use them to drink blood. They use them as weapons in fights. The side effect of their venom bite is an activation of the dormant genes in a male that has them.”
His mother whipped her head around. “Do you have fangs?”
“Not yet. They will take time to grow.”
“How come I didn’t notice anything different about Magnus and his friend? They are immortals, right?”
“Most of the time, the fangs are retracted, and they look like average canines, only pointier,” Sari explained. “They only elongate in response to two triggers. One is aggression, and the other is arousal. David had to wrestle Kalugal to trigger his aggression, and after Kalugal bit him, he entered transition.”
Ronja shook her head. “And nearly died. I still can’t get over that.”
Somehow she’d missed the bit about arousal being one of the triggers, and David was glad he wouldn’t have to dive into that explanation just yet. Instead, he would tell her about Jonah. “That’s where the story gets really interesting.”
Ronja arched a brow. “As if it was boring up until now.”
“Up until now, it was all academic. Now it gets personal. A day after my induction, I slipped into a coma, and Jonah came to visit me.”
His mother gasped. “You dreamt about him?”
“It wasn’t a dream. Jonah was really there. Well, he was as real as a spirit can be. He told me things about our previous incarnations, and Sari’s mother verified that what he’d told me was true. She knew us as Gudbrand and Olek, Nordic tribesmen who were brothers. Apparently, Jonah and I have reincarnated together many times, either as brothers, or best friends, or father and son.”
Tears sliding down her cheeks, Ronja clasped his hand. “Are you sure he was really there? A hundred percent sure?”
“Yes. He helped me survive the transition. I was ready to give up and float toward the light, but he forced me to get back into my body and fight.”
“That’s Jonah.” His mother wiped her wet cheeks with her hands. “He was always a fighter.” Her eyes were full of hope when she looked up at him. “Did he tell you anything about your father? Did he meet him in heaven?”
Jonah hadn’t mentioned heaven, but if there was such a place, neither Jonah nor their father belonged there. Perhaps that was the ultimate goal of the many cycles a soul had to live through—to gain access to heaven.
“Jonah said that our father had already reincarnated, and that was why he couldn’t visit me.”
It was possible that his brother had made an excuse for their father. Being a spirit didn’t mean that he couldn’t lie.
“What about Jonah? Why didn’t he reincarnate yet?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps he had to stay in the in-between to help me? When I wasn’t ready to let go of him, he told me not to worry because he was most likely going to reincarnate as someone I know.” David patted her hand. “Kalugal and his wife are expecting, and for some reason, I have a feeling that their child might host Jonah’s spirit.”
34
Sari
Ronja crossed her arms over her chest. “If that baby is Jonah, I will be able to tell.”
Not surprisingly, David’s mother sounded awfully confident about that. Sari didn’t want to burst her bubble by pointing out that she would probably see what she wanted to see in the child. She would believe it was Jonah, no matter what.
That was one good reason why it was in everyone’s best interest for Ronja to live in Scotland, so she wouldn’t be able to influence the kid’s self-perception.
Lisa pushed to her feet and picked up Ronja’s empty mug. “I wonder if Jonah and David’s dad is going to reincarnate in the clan.” She shifted her gaze to David. “How does it work? What are the rules?”
“Jonah said that people who have unresolved issues get to reincarnate together over and over again until they solve them. I certainly had those with my father, so the chances for that are good.” He glanced at Ronja. “Isn’t it ironic? Our reward for getting along great is not reincarnating together. Can you tell me how that’s fair?”
Ronja sighed. “Life is unfair, David. Based on what you’ve told me, Jonah and I both could have been turned immortal, but Jonah died prematurely, and I’m too old to transition. It is what it is.”
David wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Your soul is immortal, Mother. The only difference between you and me is that my life cycles will be much longer, while you’ll get a fresh start many more times.
I don’t know which option is better.”
“You are such a smart man, David.” Turning toward him, Ronja kissed his cheek. “And you are absolutely right about that. I’d rather have many more fresh starts than stick to one version of myself indefinitely. In my next life, I will become a nurse like I’ve always wanted, and I might even meet your father again. God knows we have unresolved issues between us.”
Sari had a strong feeling that Ronja had never stopped loving David’s father. She seemed to care deeply for Frank, but clearly, he wasn’t the love of her life.
Lisa returned from the kitchen with a fresh cup of tea and handed it to her mother. “Perhaps I should stay human as well. Living forever as one person is boring.”
David frowned. “Ultimately, it’s your decision, but I want you to transition so I’ll know that nothing is going to happen to you. I can’t bear losing any more people I love. Besides, if you are coming to live with Sari and me in Scotland, staying human is not an option. Not in the long term, anyway.”
Chewing on her lower lip, Lisa stole a glance at Sari. “What about the boy you talked about? He lives in your brother’s community. If I decide that I want to try it, are you going to fly him to Scotland?”
“That’s one option. We could also stop at Kian’s village before going home.”
“I can’t do that in a rush while passing through. I need to get to know the guy a little before we do that thing. It’s not sex, but it’s pretty damn close. I can’t kiss a stranger, let alone let him bite me.”
Sari guessed the girl had probably never been kissed, and the same was most likely true for Parker. It wouldn’t be fair to rush them and ruin their first times.
“We could stay a little longer, or I could invite Parker and his parents for a Scottish vacation.”
“Who is Parker?” Ronja asked. “And where is he supposed to bite Lisa? Can it be on her wrist?”