“No because we don’t serve people who dodge their best friend for a large amount of time.’ She said all while she was making the order without thought. ‘Here. It’s on the house.” She said, handing it to me.
“Can we talk?” I asked her hoping she would throw me and inch so I could take a mile like she normally did to me. She yelled to Charlie that she was taking a break then walked around the counter and outside to the side of the building. The empty alley hid us from the world so that we could talk in silence.
“So you sent Adam after me huh?” I asked, starting off the conversation knowing that it was my turn to start.
“Well you wouldn’t talk me, or Charlie? I mean I didn’t know who else to send in. Why have you been avoiding me?” She asked finally asking the only question she really wanted answered.
“After the last time we talked I found out something that I shouldn’t have, about me.” I confessed. She was waiting for me to say something more to my story when Charlie walked out to find her, interrupting me.
“Hey Trish we’ve custo…sorry, I didn’t know.” He said, apologizing as he started to walk back into the building.
“No wait, I brushed you off too and you should know. You’re the only other real friend I have so you should know too. The reason I haven’t talked to anyone was because I found out that I’m adopted.” I explained. Technically I wasn’t lying to them; I really was adopted only my family didn’t know that I knew. Trish suddenly rushed to my side, holding me and asking if I was okay and how I found out. “I found some paperwork in my dad’s office at home. They don’t know that I know so don’t tell them please but I just didn’t want to talk about it yet. I didn’t want to face it ya know?”
“We understand sweetie, oh I’m sorry that you have to go through with this but next time tell me. I’m your best friend.” Her words were killing me inside because I couldn’t tell her everything but I knew that I couldn’t. Even Charlie wanted a hug. He left us outside after a squeeze and that’s when I asked Trish if she had any news for me. She finally shot me a huge, cheesy grin. The same weekend that I had had my date with Reid, and all hell broke loose, she had finally agreed to a date with Charlie. He did what I said, took her out for Italian that wasn’t pizza and they had been seeing each other since. She was glowing like a silly school girl. She was happy and that made me happy.
The weeks slowly turned into months. More time had passed since I had had any contact with Reid, Blake or any of them other than Sebastian but our conversations were few and far apart these days. I was happy that I was attempting to move on even though I knew it wouldn’t last because of the fact that I had the katana still in the top of my closest collecting dust. Plus I couldn’t lie to myself, deep down inside I was still saddened by not having them in my life somehow. My heart was aching to be with them and honestly I wanted to know more about them, about me because in the end they were my real family. School finally ended, I graduated but after everything that I had gone through I suddenly wasn’t sure on what I wanted to do with my life. Going away to college was the first thing I had thought of because the idea of leaving the people who had raised me was an appealing thought but when I found out that Trish and Charlie were serious I knew she had also rethought her idea of going away to school. She chose to stay and go to the state college that was nearby and after much persuading I joined her in the fall. She knew that I was conflicted about something but she wasn’t sure what was troubling me nor did I tell her what was going through my head. Oddly enough she didn’t push me. Odd or not I was more than thankful that she didn’t.
Adam had also gone to school with us. He said that no matter what he knew who his true friends were, although through the years we all had our ups and downs with each other, and he wanted to stay close by. That alone warmed my heart but my heart could only be warmed so much because there was a hole that was only getting bigger with every passing day. While sitting in the park just off the campus with Trish and Adam I heard my phone ring but before I could pick it up Adam found it and questioned who was calling me with such an odd name; it was Sebastian. I suddenly felt that hole in my heart stop growing as I excused myself for a moment to take the call privately. “Hey.” I said cheerfully.
“Hello Nora, I’ve been worried about you. You haven’t called in some time.” Sebastian explained his concerns because of her lack of communication.
“Yeah I’m sorry, classes have been keeping me busy but I should always take time out to talk to you even If it’s for only a moment. Forgive me?” she asked in the same polite tone she always had with him.
“It would take something much worse to make me angry at you for too long my dear.” I didn’t say anything else for a moment and he knew why, I wanted to know how Reid was or that was what he thought I wanted. I mean I did want to know about Reid but through him I would find out about Blake as well and that was who I was true inquiring about.
“Reid is doing well. He and all of his siblings are doing much better than they were.” He explained.
“Even with Blake?” I asked. He explained that although their relationship still seemed strained at times for some reason, over all they were on better terms then they had been in years. That made me happy. The thought of brothers being together, like they should be rather than fighting, was something I found great pleasure in because nothing should come between family. We ended our conversation on a good note and I returned to my friends then joined by a few more that we had met from class, chatting it up like normal, like mortals.
While I was having, at the time, a normal life I was unaware of what was happening on the other side of the world. Someone I loved was in pain.
Blake and Reid were in the library, a large and grand room that was stuffed with more than enough books from over the centuries, talking and researching the katana for Sebastian. They only thought the reason behind all the research was to find out more about the katana and if it was real or not but they didn’t know why he expected them to find whether it was in their own collection or through another source because they never had found anything on it before so why was there some much interest in it now?
“I don’t think that he’s tellin’ us everything brother.” Blake said, expressing his concerns for his eldest brother.
“Why would Sebastian have any reason to lie to us?” Reid asked as he turned to sit at the computer. He pulled up a search engine and started typing. He was randomly looking for anything that had anything to do with the myth of the katana.
“I don’t know why but I still think that he’s hid…” Blake started to say but stopped when he dropped to the floor, his body shaking violently. Reid fell to the floor beside his brother then turned to yell for the others. Rather than coming out of coma like stage he remained that way for about an hour, when he woke up he was in his own bed. He jerked up from his slumber and looked straight at Sebastian. “What are you not tellin’ us?” The look on Sebastian’s told Reid that Blake was right.
“You were hiding something?” Reid asked.
Knowing that he couldn’t hide anything any longer from his family because apparently Blake had seen something Sebastian finally confessed to why he was having them do so much research on the katana for. “The night that we took Nora home she called me while we were on our way back to Ireland. Somehow…someone had left the katana in her room. We needed to find out who or what gave it to her.”
“The Keepers?” Jaryn suggested.
“I’ve asked but they haven’t told me anything, at least not yet but I’m not holding my breath for them too.” He explained.
“Why didn’t ya just tell us?” Ashwin barked.
“Because Nora needed time, she needed to get back to some kind of a normal life. She hadn’t just dealt with our secret but she had to find out about her own as well.” Sebastian stated. Everyone knew that he was right. He was the oldest and the wisest.
“So what did you see Blake?” Reid asked his younger brother, turning the attention away from
Sebastian. Blake’s head was still throbbing in the painful thoughts as they continued to race through his head. He remembered everything that he could as he told them what he saw. He saw Nora, sitting with people he didn’t know but suddenly darkness surrounded her; killing her because of what she had. They wanted what she had.
“What do they want?” Ashwin asked. The four boys looked at each other, knowing the answer without saying anything. Ashwin stood in the middle of them confused; she was just overwhelmed with the thought of someone who she cared about being killed.
“Whoever it is…they want to the katana.” Blake said. His words were tight, not wanting to say out loud that there was something out there that could and would hurt or even kill Nora. He couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to her because of them. If it wasn’t for their family drama then they wouldn’t even know her. “That’s not true.” He said under his breath.
“What isn’t true?” Reid asked. Blake looked up and finally made his own confession, something that he had never told anyone other than Nora herself.
“I saw Nora many years ago, before she was even born. There is an event in our lives and in hers that she plays a huge role in; she’s a key player if not the key player. Problem is I don’t know what the event it is but I do know that no matter what our paths would have crossed sooner or later.” He explained. The others were shocked in a way. They didn’t understand why he had kept something like this from them all these years but they also knew that there wasn’t time to worry about that. They had a much larger puzzle to solve.
Twelve
The five Hollings stood in Sebastian’s office wondering if and what they should do. If there was a even a slightest chance that Nora could be in trouble then they all knew that they had to do something but they also knew that she might not want to cooperate. She seemed to have had enough of the Hollings and theirs immortal lives.
“Well we don’t know that she’s in any immediate danger right?” Reid asked.
“Oh Reid stop thinkin’ of yourself. You just don’t want to go back because she broke your poor little heart.” Jaryn snapped. They all could hear the fear in his voice, fear that his friend’s life was in danger.
“That’s not it and I would might ya to keep your nose out of my business little brother.” Reid barked back.
“Both of you stop it. Reid you’re not going back, not yet at least but I do want two of you to go and watch over her while the rest of us stay here and try to find out what we can about this event that is supposed to happen.” Sebastian roared. He advised that Reid would stay in Ireland as well as Ashwin because of her ill feelings on seeing Nora after everything that had happened. She didn’t know how to face her after finding out that Ashwin was the one who helped give Nora life.
That left Jaryn and Blake to travel to America to watch over Nora whether she wanted them to or not. They both were sure that this wasn’t going to go over well with Nora but she wasn’t going to be given a choice. It wasn’t going to be easy for Blake either because he wasn’t sure on what Nora was thinking or feeling the last time they were together let alone after all of these weeks of being a part. He hadn’t talked to her since the night that they had left Spain and taken her home. He had countless drafts in his cell of text messages that he had written but hadn’t sent either because he didn’t want to interrupt her world or he was afraid of what she would say back to him. He couldn’t take being rejected by her.
Reid gave Blake the keys to the house he had bought some months before so that his brothers could stay there while looking over Nora. After that both brother’s boarded the plane. The next thing the remaining three knew the plane was out of sight. “Do you think that everything will be alright?” Ashwin asked. Sebastian told her that he didn’t know before he began walking back to the car. Ashwin soon following leaving Reid alone for a moment to wonder what was going to happen and what Nora was doing at that moment.
The flight was long but not long enough for Blake to think about how he was going to approach Nora once they had arrived. He looked at his younger brother who seemed calm even with the situation at hand. Jaryn had always been able to relax even in the most frustrating and sticky situations and they had gotten into messy ones over their lifetimes. It was hard not to when you couldn’t die.
Suddenly Jaryn popped up and looked out the window. “We’re here.’ He said cheerfully because he wanted to see Nora even if she might not want to see him. When Blake didn’t say anything back Jaryn turned to find his brother staring into space. “Hey Blake, are you alright?”
“Huh? What, oh yeah. Sorry.”
“What is it? You’ve been acting strange for days, months really.”
“I’m fine. I think the visions are taking their toll on me is all. I have a headache.” Blake said as he tried to make up more excuses.
“Sure ya do brother.” Jaryn stated before pushing his ear buds back in so that he could listen to something beside his brother. Once they had landed they were driven to the large house that was just outside of the town. With a slip of the key they entered the room where everything had begun, where they both had first met Nora. Nothing that changed since that night.
They each picked a room and settled in for the night knowing that they wouldn’t find Nora at that time. Once he was alone Blake pulled out his cell and called his sibling that had stayed in Ireland to let them know that they had arrived safely and would start to task in the morning. After he hung up the phone he fell onto the large, soft bed that reminded him much of the one back in his own room. Thinking back to the vision he had some someone being after Nora and the katana in hopes that he could see something that would give him any clue on who it was but he couldn’t remember anything nor could he tell where Nora was at the time. He ached to talk to her, to tell her that they were there but he didn’t want to spook her anymore than she probably would once she found out that her life was in danger.
Against his better judgment he quickly wrote her text message, something short. ‘Hey’
He waited for what seemed to be forever for a response. Finally his phone buzzed signally his had a new message.
‘Hi’ That was all that he got back from her. He didn’t know whether to take that as a good sign that she actually sent a message back or a bad sign, because she was also short.
‘I wanted to…’ Blake sent the message not knowing what to really say.
‘Say hey?’ She text back. There is was - her witty come backs that he missed, keeping him on his toes.
‘Yeah I guess. How are you?’
‘I’m okay, busy with school but I’m good. You?’ She replied.
‘I’ve been better.’ Blake sent back. The returned text massage showed her concern for Blake and his well being when she had asked what was wrong. He wanted to tell her that he missed her but he didn’t want to push her away with his words and emotions. He wasn’t used to be consumed with emotions other than anger, hatred and bitterness towards others that wasn’t a part of this family but then again Nora was family. She was the first mortal in a long time that he had allowed himself to get close to and it might end badly for everyone involved if they didn’t figure out what was going to happen before it was too late.
They continued to message each other back and forth she said that she had to sleep or she wouldn’t be able to make it to class the next day. He said that he needed to go as well. All he could do that night was toss and turn while trying to rest but his thoughts wouldn’t allow him to. All he could think about was Nora and what was happening or going to happen.
The next morning Blake and Jaryn were both up early, showered and ready to face their day head on. They walked out into the garage to find two sports cars, one black and the other yellow. Nothing they didn’t expect from Reid, he was always known for being the flashy one of them all, other than Ashwin. They would be driving around town in style.
“I call the yellow one!” Jaryn stated with a huge grin on his face. Blake slowly turned towards his y
ounger brother with a snide look.
“Don’t be a child Jaryn.” He said rudely but secretly knowing all along that he wanted and would end up with the black one. As they walked to their cars and discussed how they were going to start their day. First thing they did was drive into town to find a place to get breakfast to fill their stomach before they started their search for Nora since Reid had lacked food in his pantry not that anything would be good still after all this time of sitting. Sebastian had explained to them that she had started taking classes at the local college so once they paid the bill they asked where the campus was then headed north from the diner.
The college campus was beautiful. It was old, some buildings gothic looking even. The sky above was grey, low clouds causing the few people who were out to wrap their bodies in heavier clothing and spring open umbrella as they walked through the common ground between buildings in hopes they wouldn’t get wet from any rain that might fall from above. The early morning dew still covered the green grass in the early day. Golden leafs covered the ground, only moving when they were shifted by the feet of students hurrying to class. Many faces soon swarmed the grounds making it almost impossible find someone unless you knew their habits. Jaryn and Blake both got out of their cars, wrapped warming in knee length coat, Jaryn in tan and Blake in black; the colors matched their overall personality.
Immortalis - Book 1 (The Keeper's Immortals) Page 13