Surviving Prophesy: The Immortals

by Frances Howitt

  ‘So, what’s the verdict so far?’ Julius sat beside his friend and noticed the way Schubert stared at Megan, especially when she sat cross-legged with the tray of food in her lap. He had no doubt the examination had heated Schubert’s blood.

  ‘It’s a parasite again. I know exactly where it is but not what it’s been affecting. I mean, it’s obviously not stopped any of you having or wanting sex. That would have been a far harsher problem to live with. As it is, you all now know you can go off and have sex where you wish without fear of complications later. That must have some merit with those of you without partners.’

  ‘I know what you’re suggesting, Megan,’ Schubert said. ‘But knowing this makes me feel less of a man somehow. I want to see a woman’s body grow fat with the child I put there.’

  Megan noticed Julius’s solemn nod; did they yearn for a family of their own then? Each of them would make a wonderful father. She only hoped they chose a wife because they liked her companionship rather than settling on the first female to fall pregnant. Whilst she had the impression they weren’t terribly promiscuous, she wondered if that would change once their bodies knew they were fertile.

  ‘Ok, let’s get this done,’ she said putting the tray down. She didn’t remember eating, but it was all gone, her body taking on sustenance automatically it would appear. ‘No, you can stay wrapped up this time.’

  Julius sat still. Neither asked him to leave so he didn’t remind them of his presence. He watched Megan slide a hand beneath the blanket and Schubert sucked in a breath as she touched him. Megan stared with unblinking concentration through the blanket to where her hand cupped Schubert. Some minutes passed and her frown deepened. Then suddenly her expression cleared and her hand jerked out of the covers and seemed to throw something. She jumped up and went over to a glass beaker sitting on the side. A black seed was now inside the cup floating in a suspicious liquid.

  ‘There Schubert; I got it out of you!’

  ‘Did it just move?’ Schubert asked nervously and staring at the thing that had been living inside him. She grabbed the smaller of the plates and put it over the top of the beaker to seal it. He stepped back to the bed, suddenly feeling weak and off balance. ‘Megan, I feel really strange.’

  ‘Lie back. Give your body a chance to adjust.’ She noticed his heart-rate had just gone up, whilst the erection he hadn’t been able to control had just softened. She didn’t touch him this time but examined his balls again. Unless she was mistaken, heat was tingeing the edges, indicating something were happening. She twitched the blanket over him properly and bade him sleep if he could. He curled in a ball, closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles. He remained still; hopefully it meant he slept.

  ‘Do you want me to have a look at you now?’ Megan asked Julius quietly after they’d been sitting for long enough that she felt a little rested and thus more able.

  ‘I think I’d rather wait to be sure Schubert is ok. You could get rid of that thing though,’ he added gesturing at the parasite floating in liquid. ‘Is it my imagination or has it changed?’

  ‘I think it’s dying. Perhaps it has to feed off a person’s magic to survive.’

  ‘Or maybe it was feeding off our sperm,’ Julius suggested in revulsion. ‘Are you sure it hasn’t been breeding in there, that there aren’t a whole colony of these things infesting us?’

  ‘I’ll check him again once he wakes to be sure he’s clear but I’m fairly confident.’ She moved over to the bed and scanned Schubert visually. It had been nearly an hour since he’d first lain down and he hadn’t moved. A hand suddenly shot out and latched around her wrist, startling her.

  ‘You may check me now,’ Schubert announced. He released her and sat up in bed. He frowned at the rumpled shirt and blanket he wore and lifted his shirt off over his head and stood, the blanket falling away.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ Megan asked striving to keep her eyes on his face. Why did he have to strip off entirely? And why did he have to stand there proudly flaunting an erection? The man should be worried and uncertain, especially when faced with a problem of so personal a nature. He ought therefore to be flaccid and hesitant; that would be far easier to deal with.

  ‘I feel good. Really good,’ he responded and closed the gap between them. He leaned closer and breathed in her scent. ‘Damn, you smell good; all woman. Why won’t you look at me?’

  ‘Schubert, she’s not yours remember,’ Julius spoke up. ‘You’re making her uncomfortable.’ He noticed Megan seemed to be frozen in place. What was going on? ‘Megan, you need to check he’s in the clear and then step away.’

  ‘Yes, check I am free from anything else,’ Schubert said. ‘Start here,’ he added, pointing to his neck where Yolanda had been infected.

  ‘I already checked Zach all over. We know where the problem was,’ Megan said.

  ‘I want to be certain there is nothing else lurking inside me I don’t know about,’ Schubert said. ‘Hey, what the hell is that I’m seeing?’

  ‘You wanted to know. Well, that is what I’m seeing when I look at you,’ she told him and continued to transmit the images of his blood and flesh beneath the skin. Maybe that would cool his ardour. Schubert had flirted before, but this was not his usual light-hearted style; he seemed worryingly serious. He was forcing her to abandon her healer patient distance and acknowledge him as a sexually charged man. She worked down from his neck, to each arm and finger before checking his torso organs, then down further. She knelt and visually examined his reproductive organs thoroughly. She didn’t touch his skin now. Still he showed no signs of embarrassment at his nudity. ‘You were dark and dead inside; now see the contrast,’ she told him letting him see the glowing mass of pulsing life his balls now contained.

  He turned slightly and the view shifted; all very strange.

  ‘I’m cured?’

  Megan let her gaze linger on the head of his penis; a glistening drop rested there. She collected the drop on the tip of her finger and let him see her vision of the life pulsing within even this drop.

  Schubert whooped, grabbed her up and swung her around in delight but then stopped with his face buried against her neck. Unexpectedly he began kissing her, deeply and passionately. His hands clasped her bottom, lifted her legs around his waist to press her tightly against his body. Her trousers barred him from connecting but he wasn’t in a rush, he could rid her of them easily enough. ‘You need a strong man, don’t you little one?’ he said, caressing the slender feminine figure he’d admired from afar for too long.

  ‘Schubert, she’s not yours. What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Julius called wide-eyed.

  ‘I could beat Zacharias with my eyes closed. She isn’t married and I want her. She should be mine,’ Schubert growled.

  ‘Schubert, have you ever gone into heat?’ Julius asked now noticing the glazed look to Megan’s eyes and that she was limp rather than actively responding.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Think back. Did you go into heat when you first became of age?’

  ‘Yes. What’s that got to do with anything?’

  ‘I think you’re in heat now. Look at her. Think about how you’re feeling,’ Julius urged anxiously. It had never happened to him, but many Immortals did and the pheromones they gave off for that brief time were said to be potent.

  ‘How? I’m not an adolescent.’

  ‘No, you’re not but you’ve suddenly become fertile again. It might have triggered this in you.’

  Schubert abruptly put Megan down on the bed away from temptation. She was limp and soft and unresisting and smelt so damn good. He gritted his teeth and hastily put his clothes back on trying to tame his raging body. The urge for sex was very powerful indeed. He almost ran to the door and went downstairs.

  Julius glanced at Megan; she’d recover fine alone, but Schubert was another matter entirely. Julius followed him quickly into the bar.

  ‘How’d it go?’ Zacharias immediately asked.

  ‘I’m cured,’ S
chubert told him happily.

  ‘But?’

  ‘There’s been a bit of an unforeseen side-effect,’ Schubert said uneasily, his gaze straying to the closest group of women who’d begun ogling him.

  ‘Side-effect?’

  ‘He’s just gone into heat,’ Julius told them in a low tone. He assessed the various women in the room; yes, many had already noticed. He hastily tossed the room key to Schubert and watched him immediately leave the room. The side door exit led to the sleeping quarters, but where else could he shut himself? ‘Lucky bastard,’ Julius remarked as four women followed. ‘Well Brendon, looks like we’ll need somewhere else to sleep tonight.’

  ‘What happened with Megan?’ Zacharias asked quickly having also noticed the company Schubert had already attracted. Megan was more attractive by far than any of them.

  ‘She was affected before we knew what was happening,’ Julius admitted.

  ‘Affected? What signalled he was in heat?’ Zacharias asked sharply well aware of how quickly lines could be crossed.

  ‘I was there the whole time. He suddenly kissed her and she kind of went glassy eyed. He took that as proof and ran out down here.’

  ‘I’m going up,’ Zacharias told him and picked up his walking stick. But Julius took one arm and Brendon the other and helped him out of the room and up the stairs with more ease and speed than he could have managed alone.

  ‘It happened to you, didn’t it?’ Julius asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Heat.’ Zacharias merely nodded. ‘Ah, so once she cures you it’ll happen again.’

  ‘You’ve never had it?’ Zacharias asked his friend in surprise. ‘I thought everyone did.’

  ‘No. I don’t know why some do and some don’t, but there it is.’

  ‘Be glad you skipped it. It isn’t much fun,’ Zacharias told him.

  ‘What do you mean? I thought you attracted women like bees to nectar?’

  ‘Have you ever had a hard-on for three days and nights so bad you could barely walk? Have you ever had grannies chase after you pinching your backside and flashing? Have you any idea what it’s like to have no control over your body at all?’

  ‘So it’s not having your pick of nubile beauties?’ Brendon asked.

  ‘Our scent can only attract the females around us. Honestly, how common are nubile beauties as opposed to gnarled farmwives or stout matrons? The other point of course, is that we are attracting them because we are particularly fertile. We have to bear in mind these women are likely to become pregnant and most have husbands, fathers or brothers that will come after us with knives or worse.’

  ‘Oh well, you haven’t any of that to worry about now you’ve got Megan,’ Brendon reassured him. ‘She’ll look after you,’ he added and noticed the glum expression lift. Hell, there was no question a willing partner would make all the difference in the world.

  Megan slept on when they came into the room. Brendon noticed the scent of female arousal but decided against mentioning it. He watched Zacharias gather her close and pause with his nose in her hair then gently place her under the covers. Brendon decided Zach knew.

  ‘You two may as well sleep here,’ Zacharias suggested and noted their relief. No-one fancied venturing anywhere near Schubert’s room before morning. This smaller room, lacking the extra beds, would just have to do. At least they had somewhere safe, warm and dry to sleep.

  ***

  Megan woke with a start. Someone was pressed closely against her back and was breathing in her ear. Two other presences registered close-by in the room but it was too dark to see. The curtains were drawn shut but the cold grey light of dawn edged them. She nervously turned and recognised Zacharias beside her. She exhaled the breath she’d unconsciously been holding and relaxed. The other two presences she identified as Julius and Brendon. No Schubert then? She remembered, as if in a haze, Schubert holding her and kissing her as passionately and intimately as a lover. She had a small recollection that Julius had been talking to him, telling him to stop. Had he? At what point? Why had she been so compliant? Why hadn’t she stopped him? She rolled carefully away from Zacharias trying not to disturb him. She found her shoes at the edge of the bed and carried them, tiptoeing out the bedroom door. When she returned from the bathroom it was to find the curtains had been opened and all three men were awake and dressing.

  ‘I’m sorry, did I wake you all?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s sensible to leave early today,’ Zacharias said with a shrug. ‘Julius, you’d best go roust Schubert. We’ll order you some breakfast.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Megan had a look at the parasite still in the glass on the side and was very relieved to find it had died overnight. She could then discreetly dispose of it without fear it would infect someone else. Then she quickly packed up the few belongings she had pulled out and helped carry their bags downstairs while Brendon assisted Zacharias.

  Zacharias took charge, ordering a hearty cooked breakfast for five and also sandwiches for a lunchtime snack.

  ‘I’ll take our stuff out to the wagon and ask for the horses to be fed shall I?’ Brendon volunteered.

  ‘That would be most helpful,’ Zacharias acknowledged. He noticed the glance Brendon cast Megan’s way and knew he’d deliberately given them privacy to talk.

  ‘Thank you for curing Schubert,’ Zacharias said. ‘He’s over the moon. Or rather he will be when the side-effects wear off.’

  ‘Side-effects?’ she queried.

  ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, but many Immortals go through a physical rite of passage when they become a mature man.’

  ‘You mean puberty?’

  ‘No. This happens several years after that, when we mature. It only seems to be the men affected, but essentially we go into heat, like a cat or dog. Suddenly becoming fertile, after so many years, appears to have triggered this response in Schubert. He had no clue it would happen of course, since it usually only occurs once in a lifetime and for him that was many hundreds of years ago.’

  ‘Schubert is in heat?’ she repeated in astonishment and Zacharias nodded.

  ‘When it happens we give off a scent. Women suddenly find us very sexually attractive and we in turn feel an overpowering need to procreate.’

  ‘What happened last night?’ she asked in a small voice. What he said was astonishing, but made sense and relieved her mind. ‘He wanted me, I remember that and Julius was trying to talk him out of it.’

  ‘Julius tells me he saw him kiss you. Then Schubert realised what was going on and left.’ Zacharias ground his teeth; he had no doubt that if Julius hadn’t been there Schubert would have taken her. And with a woman like Megan in his bed, he would not have stirred to look for an alternate partner until his heat ended. Megan was highly likely to have fallen pregnant and Schubert was not the kind of man to back out of a responsibility like that. Zach could so easily have lost the woman he loved.

  ‘He put me down, but I don’t remember anything after that until I woke this morning beside you.’

  ‘I checked on you directly after Schubert came down. You were asleep then. Our pheromones can be overpowering. I hope Schubert is going to be ok to travel today.’

  ‘Why wouldn’t he? What happened after he left me?’

  ‘He told us the news that he’d been cured. But the women in the bar began to stare so he hurried out to shut himself in his room. I suspect he was followed. I hope for his sake it wears off quickly.’

  ‘How long does it usually last?’ she asked, surprised again, but at that moment their food arrived and so did Brendon, so Zach shrugged by way of answer. Oh well, now they all knew, they could help Schubert deal with it however long it lasted. Meantime she focussed on her breakfast. Working Schubert’s cure had taken a surprising amount of effort she supposed, weighing how hungry she was, or maybe it was something to do with Schubert’s pheromones. Talking of which, she glanced up aware of a strange compulsion. Julius appeared in the doorway a little hesitantly, with Sc
hubert directly behind him. They waited until the serving woman left the room before coming in properly.

  Megan watched Schubert approach; he was staring at her with something akin to hunger. But he sat at the end of the table as far from her as possible. Had he slept at all? He didn’t look like he had. He slowly ate the meal before him, but his burning eyes kept returning to her as though he couldn’t stop them straying. She finished her meal quickly, silently rose from the table and ignored the four pairs of eyes that watched her as she left the room. Her small medical pack was inside her saddle bag already out in the stables. Breathing in the familiar scent of horse, she pulled out a small selection of herbs. Taking a pinch of this and that she created a dry mix of herbs. She went directly through the side door into the kitchen. Asking for a mug of near boiling water she dropped the herbs in and stirred to let them infuse.

  Schubert swivelled in his chair the moment she came back into the breakfast room and watched her approach him. She had the impression he was hyper-aware of her.

  ‘Schubert, after you’ve eaten, drink this, it’ll help. It should have brewed and cooled enough by then. You don’t need to eat the herbs, just spit them out.’ She set the mug before him on the table and forced her legs to carry her out of the room again. Even knowing the attraction she felt for him was imposed, didn’t in any way stop a sudden almost overpowering desire from washing over her. The urge to drape herself over Schubert, to kiss him all over and offer him her body was powerful and exceedingly disconcerting. She’d heard Zach’s fear that she would fall under Schubert’s spell and now realised his scent’s effect seemed to be amplified the longer she was in close proximity. If she lost her will and became pregnant to Schubert then that would alter everything for all of them. She went out into the fresh air of the yard and breathed deeply, letting the fogginess of desire clear. She then turned her attention to organising the stable lad in saddling and hitching up their horses to the little wagon. Today, she decided Schubert was in no state to be astride a horse, so she laid out his sleeping bag and some blankets in the back of the wagon so he would be able to lie down and perhaps sleep. Zacharias had been doing exactly that for the last few days, but he was quite a lot better and he would be fine sitting and driving the wagon instead. Perhaps if they thought he was tiring either Julius or Brendon could take over. With that in mind she directed the lad to hitch up Schubert’s horse alongside Zacharias’s mare in the traces. She’d far rather ride her own trusty horse than Schubert’s excitable warhorse.