by I. T. Lucas
Maybe because she didn’t believe it had been her mother either.
It didn’t make any sense for Eva to suddenly show up one day after so many years. The woman was so paranoid her picture should’ve been next to the dictionary definition of the word.
Bhathian watched an old woman slowly cross the street. Cars coming from both directions stopped, waiting patiently for her to pass at the snail pace she was progressing. The poor woman was carrying a large canvas handbag, and her feet were so swollen that they were overflowing her worn-out shoes. Her uneven gait implied achy joints.
Humans had it so rough. Even if they managed to live to an old age, they weren’t enjoying it.
Finally, after long minutes had passed, the woman made it to the other side. Taking a breather as if she’d just finished a long journey, she glanced at the coffee shop with a pair of sharp eyes.
For some reason, Bhathian’s heart sped up as he watched that focused gaze scan the faces of those sitting in the booths next to the window.
When she reached him, her hand flew to her chest, and he knew it was her.
This was his Patricia, his Eva.
He prayed that was indeed an elaborate costume and not the actual state she was in. Because if what he was seeing were real, she only had a few years left in her.
He saw hesitation in her eyes and was about to get up and give chase in case she decided to bolt, but then she nodded as if reaching a decision and approached the front door.
“She is here.” He slid over on the bench and got up.
Nathalie bent sideways and turned to look behind her. “The old lady?”
“It’s her.” He didn’t wait to explain and strode toward the front, reaching the door in time to open it for Eva.
She gasped and staggered back. “You look just like him.” Horror filled her eyes, and she braced against the doorframe. “Oh my God! Tell me you’re not Nathalie’s husband.”
“Of course not. You know who I am.” He’d wanted to say that he was Nathalie’s father, but given that he looked younger than his daughter, the humans in the café who knew Nathalie would’ve thought he was nuts.
Eva closed her eyes and breathed out. “Thank God.”
Bhathian reached for her hand. “Let me help you to our table. Nathalie is waiting.”
She nodded and let him lead her, keeping up the pretense of an old woman needing assistance.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “You can stop pretending.”
She lifted a pair of shocked eyes at him. “How do you know that? And how did you know who I was?”
“I’ll explain everything later.”
Nathalie was probably going crazy waiting. He was surprised she hadn’t run up to them already. Maybe she was stuck in the booth, her belly trapping her in place.
He tugged on Eva’s hand, forcing her to walk faster. When they reached the booth, Nathalie was still facing the back wall. She didn’t turn to look at them.
He touched her shoulder. “Nathalie?”
She lifted a tear-stained face to look at him. “Is it her?”
Confused, he glanced at Eva, finding her huddling behind him. He tugged on her hand again, almost toppling her as he pushed her in front of him.
“It’s me,” Eva whispered and then broke into heart-wrenching sobs.
Damn, everyone was looking, and it was up to him to save the situation. Mother and daughter had just fallen apart.
Bhathian glanced back. “Jackson, I need you here.”
The boy rushed over, immediately taking in the situation. “Come on, ladies. Let’s continue the happy reunion upstairs.”
He offered his hand to Nathalie and helped her up. “I know you haven’t seen Aunt Hilda in ages, but that’s no reason to cry, Nathalie.” He led her along the center aisle, smiling at the gawking customers. “Women. They cry when happy, they cry when sad. I don’t get it.” He shook his head, getting a few understanding nods from his audience.
Bhathian followed behind with Eva, admiring the ease with which Jackson was manipulating the onlookers. The best Bhathian could’ve accomplished would’ve been to scare them off with a growl and tell them to mind their own business.
On the stairs, Eva dropped her act and climbed with ease, while poor Nathalie was huffing and puffing by the time she reached the landing.
“Here we go.” Jackson helped her to the couch. “Sorry about the mess, ladies. I wasn’t expecting guests.” He grabbed a couple of pillows and a blanket, tossing them aside to the floor.
Eva sat beside Nathalie and took her hand in both of hers, then dropped it. “I’m wearing latex gloves. Are you allowed to touch latex when pregnant? I don’t know. Some people are allergic. It wasn’t an issue when I was pregnant with you.” She was blabbering, but at least she’d stopped crying.
Nathalie grabbed her hand back. “It’s fine. I’m not allergic.” She chuckled. “If not for Bhathian, I wouldn’t have recognized you. That’s one hell of a disguise. You actually look like Hilda.”
“How did you know it was a costume?” Eva’s eyes shot to Bhathian. “How did you recognize me?”
“Because you almost fainted when you saw me in the window.”
She nodded. “You look so much like your father, it’s startling. You’re even named after him. Right?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I never asked.”
Eva tilted her head and regarded him with a puzzled look. “Your father’s name is Bhathian. Isn’t it?” She shook her head as if to clear it. “You brought me a letter from him. You left it at the orphanage in Rio. And you look exactly like he did thirty-one years ago.”
It dawned on him then. Eva thought he was his son. Of course she would think that. She had no clue about what was going on.
“No, Eva. I’m Bhathian, the one and only original Bhathian you met thirty-one years ago, the one who fathered Nathalie. Just like you, I’m an immortal.”
Eva opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and shook her head.
“I think some strong liquor is in order,” said Jackson, who everyone had forgotten about.
“Yes, definitely, please,” Eva said.
Chapter 13: Eva
Was it a trap?
Eva took a sip from the drink Jackson had handed her, some fruity liqueur she didn’t care for, and looked at the two guys sitting across from her on what looked like folding tray tables.
She searched their faces for signs of deception.
In her profession, she’d learned the telltale signs of lies and nefarious intentions, but these two were good. Their sincere, slightly concerned expressions looked genuine.
Were they expecting her to admit what she was so easily?
Would her own daughter participate in the attempt to deceive her?
Maybe they were threatening her with something and she had no choice?
That would explain her tears. But then Eva had cried too. How could she not? She hadn’t expected to see her daughter ever again. Not face to face, anyway. She’d fantasized about watching Nathalie from afar often enough; at least once a day and sometimes more. But she’d kept reminding herself that the sacrifice was necessary to keep her child safe.
Had she ruined everything by coming here?
Eva narrowed her eyes at the man who called himself Bhathian. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He chuckled. “I understand your caution. You have no idea what’s going on. But you’re safe and you’re not the only immortal out there. Jackson here is one too.” He pointed at the young man who smiled and bowed his head. “Nathalie’s husband was turned immortal a few months ago, and as soon as Nathalie delivers our grandchild, she will go through the transition herself.”
Right. Next he would tell her that they were all aliens, and that she’d been kidnapped and infected with their alien germs. But she could humor his nonsense for a few more moments. “So what are you trying to tell me, that it’s contagious and that I caught it from you when we… made Nathal
ie?” They were all adults here, and they had bigger issues than her hookup with Bhathian all those years ago. She wasn’t sure about Jackson being an adult, but she had no doubt that he was old enough to know all there was to know about sex.
Bhathian shook his head. “No, it’s not contagious, and you were already an immortal when we met. I didn’t know you were, and apparently neither did you. Our lives would’ve been very different if we did.” He sighed.
“How so?”
“When you told me you were pregnant, I couldn’t do anything about it. We keep our existence secret and our relationships with humans down to brief encounters. I’m sure you can understand that. You have been running and hiding for so long for the same reason.”
He looked at her, probably waiting for her to agree with his assessment, but Eva kept her expression neutral. Not that it was all that difficult with the mask she was wearing. The range of emotion she could express was limited by the latex.
Bhathian continued in a soft, wistful tone. “If I’ve known you were one of us, I would have never let you go. We could’ve been a family.”
He was good, playing on her emotions like that.
“I’m still not sure what you’re talking about.”
She felt Nathalie’s hand on her knee. “He is telling the truth, Mom.” She looked at Bhathian. “You need to prove it to her.”
“Yes, you’re right. Why haven’t I thought of it?” He smiled. “Fortunately, our daughter inherited your smarts.”
Nice try.
Flattery wasn’t going to work.
Bhathian bent down and pulled out a wicked-looking knife from an ankle holster.
Eva spread her arms, shielding Nathalie behind her. “I’m not as helpless as I look,” she gritted.
He grinned. “I know you’re not. Don’t worry. I’m just going to make a little cut in the palm of my hand to show you how quickly I heal. This should convince you that I’m telling the truth because you’ve probably experienced the same rapid healing yourself.”
Yes, she had.
“Okay. But no sudden movements, or I’m going to take you down.”
His grin got even wider, and the gleam in his eyes looked suspiciously like arousal.
Bhathian moved in exaggerated slow motion. Extending his palm so she could see it, he brought the tip of the knife to rest against his skin and pressed down until blood welled. He didn’t even twitch. The cut wasn’t deep, but it must’ve hurt. Still going in slow motion, he lowered the knife and put it back in the holster while keeping his palm up for her inspection.
Now that the weapon was tucked away, she allowed herself a good look at the small wound. Just as he’d said it would, the cut was already closing. She pulled a tissue out of her satchel and handed it to him. If he healed as fast as she did, by the time he wiped off the blood there would be nothing left of the wound.
“Good as new.” He presented his healed palm.
Eva sagged, letting the couch cushions absorb her weight, and covered her face with her hands. Now that she’d determined Bhathian had been telling the truth, she let herself power down, and the tears came back full force.
Nathalie patted her latex-covered hand. “Don’t cry, Mom. Because if you start again, so will I.” She sniffled.
Eva opened her arms. “I need a hug. I’ve been dreaming about one since the moment I left.”
They embraced, not an easy feat given Nathalie’s pregnant belly and Eva’s padded body suit, and the tears flowed despite their best efforts.
After what seemed like a long time, Eva pulled back and wiped her latex-covered face with her sleeve.
“Ugh, gross.” Nathalie recoiled. “Now that the makeup’s rubbed off, I can see the mask.”
“Sorry about that. I would’ve taken it off, but I still need to make an exit and get back to my hotel looking the same way I left. I’ll fix it later.”
“You’re really good with that. It looked so real before you ruined it with the tears.”
Eva chuckled. “Years of experience.”
“Is that why you left? Because you weren’t aging and didn’t understand why?”
She nodded. “I thought I’d been part of some secret experiment without my knowledge. It started with the enhanced senses. My hearing and vision became so acute I was getting headaches. And the smells—I’m sure I can smell better than a dog. It was strange, but could still be explained away. For a while, I was afraid that a brain tumor was causing it, but I was too scared to have it checked because if that wasn’t the case, the doctors might’ve thought I was crazy and locked me up. The aging thing didn’t start bothering me until my mid-fifties. I thought I was just lucky. But I never got sick either. I don’t know how I managed to go so many years without even a scratch, but when I finally accidentally cut my finger and put it in my mouth to dull the pain, when I pulled it out the finger was as good as new.”
“You must’ve freaked out,” Nathalie said.
“I did. I was convinced that I’d been experimented on and that my immortality was an unexpected side effect. Otherwise they, whoever they were, would not have let me get away. A mutation like that would’ve been researched, experimented on. I lived in constant fear of discovery.”
“That’s why you ran?”
“I had to. I hid it as long as I could, but eventually people were bound to find out. And once they got me, I knew that they would come after my child.” She looked at Nathalie. “I did what I thought was the best thing for you. As long as I was gone, you were safe.”
“No one is after you, Eva,” Bhathian said.
“But what if someone discovers I’m immortal?”
“I didn’t say you don’t need to hide who you are. Just that right now no one knows about you and no one is after you. It wasn’t some weird government experiment that turned you. It had been done by an immortal male you must’ve met in your youth.”
“What?” That made even less sense than her experiment scenario.
Bhathian smoothed his hand over his cropped hair and sighed. “I’ll try to explain as best I can, but I’m not the right guy for that.”
“Just tell me in your own words.”
“You’d better start at the beginning,” Nathalie said. “It’s so damn confusing when you guys tell it one a piece at a time.”
“Okay. So you know about the gods from mythology?”
Eva nodded.
“They were real. And just as it says in your Bible, they had to mate with humans because there weren’t enough of them. The gene pool was too limited. The children that were born were not as powerful as the gods but they were still near-immortal.”
“Wait, so we are not immortal? We can still die?”
“We can be killed. It’s just harder to do than with humans. The second generation after that, the product of near-immortals and humans, were born with no powers at all. But the females carried the genetic code and could transfer it to future generations of females.”
“What about the males?”
“A male born to a Dormant female, that’s what we call those who carry the dormant genes, is a carrier and can be turned. But he can’t transfer it to his children. So any child I would’ve conceived with a human woman would not have been a Dormant and couldn’t have been turned into an immortal.”
This was so over her head, it wasn’t even funny. She would need days to process it. Some basic information was still missing from Bhathian’s story.
“How is a Dormant turned? If I understand what you’re trying to explain, I was a Dormant who somehow got activated by another immortal.”
“Exactly. The males of our species have venom glands and fangs. The venom facilitates the transition.”
“Fangs?”
Bhathian opened his mouth and pointed at his canines. They looked longer and sharper than normal but they weren’t fangs.
She chuckled. “You’re not a very convincing vampire.”
He looked offended. “They elongate during fights and during sex.�
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He was really asking for it. “What about sex after a fight?”
“What about it?”
She couldn’t help herself and snorted. “Do they get even longer?”
His smile turned predatory. “I don’t know. But I’m willing to give it a try.”
Damn it, the man was too sexy for his own good and was making her tingle in all kinds of places.
Jackson cleared his throat. “People, please, get a room.”
Nathalie giggled, and Bhathian’s smile got broader. This time the fangs were unmistakable. They must’ve elongated in response to their little sexual banter.
Hot. The tingling had gotten way worse.
Jackson pushed up to his feet and walked over to Nathalie. “How about we give your parents a little privacy? Let me get you a cup of coffee.” He offered her a hand up.
“Stay,” Eva commanded. No way were they leaving her alone with Bhathian. “I need to hear the rest of the story.”
Jackson looked at Nathalie and she shrugged. “They will have plenty of time to catch up later.”
“As you wish. But I’m out of here.”
Eva frowned. “What’s his problem?”
Bhathian’s fangs seemed to have grown even longer. “You’re an immortal female, Eva, and he is a young immortal male. I’m sure you get the picture.”
“He’s a baby! And I didn’t even look at him! And look at me! Do I look like someone a boy his age would fancy?” She looked like Jackson’s great-grandmother.
Bhathian looked uncomfortable. “Nathalie, would you give us five minutes? I feel really awkward talking about things like that in front of you.”
“I’m a grown woman, and I will not freak out because my parents are talking about sex. But whatever. I’ll give you a few minutes. Help me up?”
He did. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” She left the room, her heavy footsteps rattling the wooden staircase.
“I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of our daughter. But you need to know a few things about us. About yourself.”
“I’m listening.”
“We all have an exceptional sense of smell. You’ve gotten a little aroused when I showed you my fangs.”