by Amy Sparling
We cross over the Texas border at two in the morning. My heart leaps at the Welcome to Texas sign, but then I see we’re still eight hours away from Austin. This state is freaking huge. We’ve been driving two days, but we’re taking our time, stopping at fun places and picking up more clothes along the way. On one hand, I’m tired of all the driving and want to be back home with Riley, but on the other hand, we have no idea what will happen when we get there. Lady Em could be waiting and all hell could break loose.
Theo suggests that we get a hotel for the night, and I’m happy to sleep in a real bed instead of dozing off and on in the rental car. The drive was exhausting, so we fall fast asleep and before I know it, the sun is peering in through the hotel’s windows, signaling the start of another day.
“Babe?” Theo calls out. He’s leaning over the bathroom sink brushing his teeth.
“What’s up?” I lean against the door frame. I brushed my teeth before him, and now I’m fully dressed while he’s still in his boxers. It’s a pretty nice view.
“I need to take a quick detour.” He rinses out his mouth and tosses the hotel’s free toothbrush into the trashcan. “Is that okay with you?”
I shrug. “I don’t mind.”
“You might,” he says, his face twisted in indecision. “I mean…” He exhales sharply. “It’s not fun, but I need to do it and I’d rather do it now, than later.”
“Does it have anything to do with me?” I ask.
His smile is a little sad. “No.”
“Then let’s go.”
Theo sets the GPS for some town I’ve never heard of. It routes us off the main interstate and toward the east, just past Waco. We drive in silence, and I can tell whatever this side trip is about is bothering him. I’m curious for details, but I also feel like I should just keep quiet and not force him about it. When Theo wants to talk, he’s good at talking. Right now he’s doing his silent contemplation thing.
I lean back in the car seat and reach for his hand. He squeezes it. Our hands stay like that, lightly holding onto each other for the next hour.
We drive into an older neighborhood, where the houses are small and run down. The driveways are only wide enough for one car. Theo parks on the side of the road. “Would you like to come with me?” he asks. His expression is blank…maybe a little sad. I can’t tell if he wants me to come or if he’s hoping I’ll say no.
“It’s up to you,” I say, offering him a small smile.
“Please come.”
We walk up to the front door. It used to be blue, but now it’s as faded as the white wooden siding on the house. Overgrown rose bushes line the porch, and the welcome mat has flowers printed on it. Theo knocks twice.
A little girl answers. She’s probably five or six years old, with long brown hair and big dark eyes. “Hello,” she says.
“Hi there. I’m a friend of your brother. Is he here?”
“He’s always here,” she says, stepping backward to let us in. “He’s in his room.”
“Thank you,” Theo says.
The home is older, but it looks well-loved. The decorations remind me of old people, and the small flat screen TV in the center of the living room looks a little out of place. The girl bounces over to it and plops onto the rug, her attention once again absorbed into her cartoon.
I follow Theo down a narrow hallway and to a bedroom on the left. He knocks on the door, which is halfway open. “Julian?”
“Theo,” a guy says in a Spanish accent. “Is anything wrong?”
“Nothing to worry about,” Theo says, walking into the room. He turns to look at me, but I wave him away.
I stand behind, not wanting to intrude into someone’s bedroom when they weren’t expecting company.
“Who’s with you?” the guy asks.
“My girlfriend.” Theo waves for me to join him. “She’s shy.”
“Come in!” the guy calls out. It sends him into a coughing fit. “I want to meet you!”
With shaky knees, I venture into the room, a polite smile on my face, even though I feel incredibly awkward. I have a pretty good feeling I know who this guy is just by looking at him.
He looks like a teenager, and his room is filled with basketball posters and sports trophies. He’s lying in his bed, looking pallid and, well, like he’s on the verge of death. There’s a dozen prescription bottles on his nightstand and an oxygen tank next to the bed.
“Hello,” I say.
“Julian, this is Cara,” Theo says, putting a hand on my back.
“Nice to meet you,” he says, waving at me. “You’re too pretty for a guy like Theo.”
I blush even though I feel incredibly awkward right now.
“Julian is my lifeblood,” Theo explains. “He has stage four lung cancer.”
“Good ol’ genetics,” Julian says, tapping his chest. “I had a scholarship to college and everything, but no. Fuck you, Julian. Fate stepped in and said I hate you.”
“I’m really sorry,” I say. Seeing someone so young on their deathbed really puts things into perspective. Like the clan and their fake job postings to get girls to be lifebloods without their knowing about it. These things need to be stopped. The world has enough pain and suffering as it is.
“It’s okay,” Julian says. “Well…it’s not, but it is. Your man here gave us a lot of money, a trust fund for my little sister and money for my grandma to keep paying the bills that aren’t covered by her social security check.”
His eyes are bloodshot but they sparkle when he looks at Theo. “Your man is my hero.”
“I’m not a hero,” Theo says as he sits at the foot of Julian’s bed. “But I’m glad I could help.”
“So what’s going on, man?” Julian asks.
Theo’s eyes darken. “I need the bracelet back.” Julian’s jaw drops in fear but Theo holds up his hands. “You’ll be fine. I’m not wearing the matching stone anymore. Someone stole mine, so your bracelet doesn’t work anymore. You can remove it safely now, and live out your remaining days a little longer than before.”
Julian’s brows pull together and he lifts his left hand out from under his blanket. He’s wearing the stone as a bracelet, only his band is leather instead of silver like mine. It’s the manlier version, I guess. He reaches over and unhooks the clasp, biting his lip while the bracelet slides right off, landing on his bed.
“Well, look at that.”
Theo smiles. “You’ll still get everything I’ve promised,” he says, putting his hand on top of Julian’s. “I will forever be grateful for the sacrifice you made for me. Thank you, Julian.”
“Thank you, man,” Julian says, his eyes filling with tears. “I was gonna die anyway, but now you’ve saved my sister’s future and made my grandma’s life less stressful. You’re an angel.”
“It’s a small price to pay for your help, Julian.” Theo takes a pen and pad of paper from the nightstand and writes down a number. I recognize it as the number to his new prepaid phone. “You call me if you need anything, okay? Pass it along to your sister as well. I know she’s just a kid now, but should she need anything when she’s older, she can always call me. I’m indebted to you for eternity.”
Julian’s eyes flood with tears and he nods quickly, wiping at his eyes with the edge of his blanket. “Thank you,” he says, his voice barely a whisper.
Theo bends down to hug him and say goodbye. I wave awkwardly from the doorway. I don’t even know the guy, but it’s taking everything I have not to cry.
Julian winks at me. “Take care of my boy,” he calls out to me.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “I will.”
There’s a lump in my throat as we walk back through the small house. Julian’s little sister waves at us as we leave, and Theo tells her to make sure she locks the front door behind us.
When we get to the car, Theo rests his hands on the hood of it, dropping his head on top of them. He lets out a sigh. I walk over to him and run my hand down his back.
“Are you o
kay?”
“Yeah,” he says with a slow nod. He draws in a deep breath. “It’s just hard. Every. Single. Time.”
He lifts his head and looks over at me, his eyes bloodshot. “Why do people like me get to live forever and kids like Julian die before they get into college?”
I look down at my feet. “Life can be shitty, Theo. But you’re not a bad person for living.”
He reaches into his pocket and lifts out the bracelet. The stone is dull now that it’s not in contact with skin. “I figured she’s not wearing mine,” he says. “Lady Em,” I mean. She didn’t know who my lifeblood was and wearing a stone without a lifeblood attached to the other end is very bad news for an immortal. Looks like I was right.”
“What if she was wearing it?” I ask.
Theo’s lips press into a thin line. “Julian would have been in pain when he tried to remove his stone.”
Seeing my startled expression, Theo smiles. “Don’t worry, I was watching, ready to put it back on him if necessary. But I was pretty sure she wouldn’t risk wearing my necklace. I was right.” He grips the bracelet in his hand. “Now it won’t work at all, so long as I keep this away from a living person.”
“I bet that’ll piss off that stone-hoarding bitch.”
Theo chuckles, and it’s the first time he’s looked even remotely happy since setting the GPS for this location hours ago. “I love your insults, especially the ones for Lady Em.”
I shrug. “I can get way more creative. I love picturing her walking around her stupid castle, pissed that we’re gone, and pissed that she can’t add another stone to that god-awful necklace of hers.” I crinkle up my nose. “How the hell did she get so many stones in the first place if she didn’t steal them from the Dover Clan’s secret hiding place?”
Theo lifts his shoulders. “I’ve been wondering that. Dover wouldn’t lie. They’ve been overly protective of that castle ever since—”
Theo freezes.
“Ever since…?” I poke him in the arm. “Hello? Did your motherboard malfunction?”
He doesn’t laugh at my robot joke. His eyes are wide and filled with something I can’t quite place.
“Oh shit,” he breaths, turning toward me. “I know where she got the stones. And I know exactly what she’s here for.”
Chapter 10
Theo doesn’t want to talk about it until we’re on the road. He says driving calms him and helps him think. So I buckle up and hang out while we weave back through the old neighborhood and cross through the town back to the interstate. This part of the state is hilly, and the roads scare me a little. Luckily, Theo is a great driver.
Half an hour passes and I’ve almost forgotten his revelation back at Julian’s house. “It was around eighty years ago,” he says, catching my attention immediately. I look over at him, studying the way his jaw tightens at the memory.
“I had only been immortal a couple of years, and one of the elders needed me to deliver some correspondence to an elder in the Dover Clan. Being in New England at the time, it took seventeen days to travel to Europe by ship.”
He turns to me. “There wasn’t internet back then, and no overnight postal service, either. I had to hand deliver the letter, which was written on thick parchment and sealed with the Embrook wax seal. I remember thinking it was pretty damn official looking.”
“Wow, you’re old,” I say with a smirk.
“It’s a shame they don’t give me the senior discount everywhere I go,” he says, his lips quirking up in the corner.
Some idiot in a red truck pulls out in front of us and Theo has to press hard on the brakes to avoid hitting him. Normally, he’d let out a curse at the inconvenience, but now he’s so deep in thought it doesn’t faze him.
“I still felt twenty one. I felt human. I wasn’t entirely used to the fact that I was immortal. Honestly, not until you hit your fiftieth birthday and realize you’re not getting any older, does it really sink in. Anyhow, I was terrified to visit the Dover clan. I’d only heard horrible stories about them and the idea of meeting an immortal that’s a millennia old is kind of terrifying.”
The GPS’s female computer voice interrupts us, telling us to get in the right lane for an upcoming exit. Theo glances behind us and then switches lanes. “It’s still a little terrifying meeting someone that old.”
“I can imagine,” I say. Theo was born in 1920, which makes him young by immortal standards, but it kind of freaks me out every time I think of it. When Theo was a kid, cell phones didn’t exist. Television wasn’t a thing, and cars were a luxury that couldn’t even go fast. Most homes didn’t have air conditioning. Women had only just been granted the right to vote.
I can’t even fathom how many changes the immortals from the Dover clan have witnessed in their long lives. Nations rising and falling. Technology swarming by faster than you can blink. I wonder if it seems to go by quickly for them, the way time flew from when I was a kid until now, or do the ancient immortals see things slower than we do?
“So what happened?” I ask as I try to picture Theo being a new immortal back in the Depression era.
“Well, the boat ride sucked like hell. The whole ship was filthy and reeked like death. You eat fish constantly. I thought I’d never get back on land, and once I did, I fell to the shore and puked. I must have looked awful, too, because the guards at the Dover castle didn’t want shit to do with me. They tried kicking me out until I fished out the letter from my bag and showed them the Embrook seal.”
As we drive, the streetlights start to click on, and I realize it’s already eight in the evening. Another whole day has gone by and we’re still free, without a single sighting of Lady Em. I’m still worried about it all, but the tightness in my shoulders has lessened with each day.
“What did the letter say?” I ask.
“I wasn’t important enough back then to know the contents and I’m probably still not,” he says with a chuckle. “All I did was deliver it, and then I had to wait there two days for a reply. They gave me a guest room in the castle. Back then, it was a real functioning castle, not just a tourist spot. It was a fortress, impenetrable by enemy forces. I was just a poor kid from the States, so this was all insanely awesome to me. They had servants and ladies in waiting.”
He snorts. “America has never been much like England. Anyway, they set me up in the guest chambers in the castle. I kept to myself that first day, but a servant was sent to invite me to dinner. They had me dress up all nice and stuff, and then we sat at this long wooden table that must have had a hundred people at it. It was a feast almost exactly like what you see in the movies.”
He gazes off as he drives, shaking his head slightly. “I was such an idiot back then. I probably had no manners at all. I was just blown away by how amazing and ornate the castle looked, how fancy all the people were. And part of me just wanted to get home to the shack I lived in on the back of Damien’s farm and get back to our milk delivery. That night, during dinner, there was a woman sitting a few places down from me. No one ever really said it, but she was clearly the mistress of Lord Timothy, one of the elders of Dover clan. I’m pretty sure he was the elder, now that I think about it. She was young and pale with long, dark hair. Like, down to her knees almost. She spent the entire dinner and then the party afterward fawning over Lord Timothy, even right in front of his wife, Lady Elizabeth.”
I open my mouth to say something, but Theo’s so lost in his story he doesn’t even notice it. His brows pull together.
“That night, she snuck into my chambers while I was almost asleep. She crawled into the bed with me and tried kissing me. I shot up fast and jumped out, totally freaked out. I mean, she was the Lord’s freaking mistress, and I was pretty sure they chopped off guy’s hands or dick or something when they slept with a Lord’s girl.”
I can’t hide my scowl. Theo grins. “No worries, love. I didn’t want anything to do with her, mistress or not. She seemed a little off her rocker at the party. But it became clear that she was
fascinated with my immortality. I remember her pouting that I wouldn’t kiss her and then she sat on my bed and crossed her arms and said, ‘You’re one of them, aren’t you?’ I tried playing dumb because although we were in the castle of an immortal, it was still a secret and we couldn’t go around talking about it to regular humans, which she was. But she wouldn’t let it go. She wanted to see my necklace. She wouldn’t stop talking about it. I walked her to my door and tried getting her to leave, but then she barricaded it and demanded that I make her immortal or she’d tell the Lord that I’d slept with her. That’s when I had to drop my innocent act and confess that I was in fact immortal, but that I couldn’t change her.”
He looks over at me. “I was scared out of my mind. I thought I’d be fucking hanged after only a few years of immortality. But she believed me, and she left, only to come back the next night asking me to help her. She wanted to steal an immortality stone for herself. Not from the vault but…”
He swallows. I realize I’m gripping the edge of my seat now, the dark road and the passing of cars beside us a blur. I can picture the scene Theo has laid out, see him as a more innocent version of himself, way back in the day.
Theo continues, “She wanted to kill Lord Timothy and steal his stone. She was pissed that he’d recently chosen to spend the nights with his wife instead of with her because they were trying to conceive a son.”
“What’d you do?” I ask.
“I left. Well, I told her the stone would do nothing without the lifeblood and then I left. As soon as the sun rose, I marched to the servant’s quarters and checked the letter pile, found the Lord’s reply and took it before breakfast. I hopped on the next ship and went straight home. I think that was a huge mistake now. If I’d known then…”
He shakes his head. “But I couldn’t have known. I was young. Stupid. I was saving myself first.”
“What should you have known?” I ask.
“The woman did take Lord Timothy’s stone,” he says, his voice somber. “She killed him with a poisoned drink while he played a game of poker with members of the clan.”