by Amy Sparling
“I’m scared,” I say, clutching my helmet in my hands.
“You’re not going to ride it now, I just want to show you the controls,” he says. He lifts the bike off the kickstand and holds it upright by the handlebar. “Climb on.”
I set my helmet on the concrete and walk over to the bike. “Don’t let it fall…” I say as I climb on.
“I won’t let you or the bike fall.” Theo grins. “You’re both too valuable. So, here’s the throttle,” he says, tapping my right hand that’s holding onto the grip.
“I knew that,” I say with a smile. “That’s about all I know, though.”
“Okay, this handlebar lever is the brake,” he says, tapping the shiny silver levers. “It’s the best one to use on the street.” He walks over to the left side, shifting his grip on the bike’s handlebars so I won’t fall over. My toes barely tap the ground when I sit on this thing, so I’m more than nervous about my ability to drive it.
“Over here is your shifter. You click it down once for first gear, and then up five times for the higher gears. It’s just like in a car…you start out in first or second, then go up a gear every ten miles an hour or so. You have to pull in the clutch when you do this or you’ll strip the gears.”
He taps the left handlebar lever. “That’s your clutch.”
“That’s a lot of information.” I shift forward on the bike, letting my feet rest on the pegs instead of the ground. Theo holds the bike upright and I grab the handlebars, which feels a little uncomfortable because it’s not like sitting on a bicycle. I have to lean forward to reach and my balance feels off.
“Your body steers the bike more than the handlebars do,” he explains as he moves to the front of the bike, putting his legs on either side of the front tire to hold it up. “You’ll lean left to turn left, right to turn right. It’s just like how we lean when I’m driving.”
I nod. “That’s scary.”
“It is at first, but you’ll get the hang of it.”
“Tell me about your trip,” I say, sitting up on the bike. I wanted to wait until after the motorcycle lesson to grill him on the trip that kept him away from me for a week, but I can’t help it. I’m dying to know, even if he’s already told me he didn’t learn anything.
Theo leans the bike back until it’s resting on the kickstand. “Well…what do you want to know?”
“What’d your friend say?” I ask. I get off the bike.
Theo runs a hand through his hair. He shaved recently, so his jaw is smooth, and I see the muscles flex as he swallows. “I met with Damien, and told him about my situation.”
“That’s your friend from the other clan?” I ask.
He nods. “We’ve been friends a long time. He shares the belief that we should only use dying humans as lifebloods, so we get along well.”
He seems sad, and I’m not sure why. I step closer and reach for his hand. “What did he say?”
Theo sighs. “He thinks I’m an idiot for getting involved with a human. Especially as a member of the Rosewater clan, he doesn’t think it’s very smart.”
“What does our clan have to do with it?” I ask.
He drops my hand casually and takes a few steps back, looking at the bike as if he suddenly needs to check the engine or something. “Immortals don’t fall for humans, Cara. We tend to use humans for our personal gain, not turn them into love interests.”
“But what does Rosewater have to do with it?”
“It’s complicated, Cara.” Theo adjusts something on the bike, a little black knob that twists ninety degrees. “Damien is just looking out for me, and I can’t say I blame him. Alexo chewed me out after I left you to shower.”
My blood turns cold. “What?”
Theo looks at me, his expression blank. “Yeah, after I grabbed a new shirt, Alexo pulled me into the study and told me I was being entirely too careless by making you like me as much as you do. That the…” He flashes me a grin, “charming display of affection you gave me at the pool—well, it made him nervous. I’m still new to the clan so I don’t think he trusts me fully. He warned me against falling too hard for a lifeblood because he’s afraid I’ll crack my composure and tell you about the stone.”
“Kind of like how you already have?” I say with a sardonic laugh.
He nods. “I told him you were just a fun girl but that my intentions were…carnal only. He believed it.”
I swallow.
Theo runs a finger down my arm. “Cara, my feelings for you are very real.”
“I know,” I say, nodding. “I understand. But I don’t care about Alexo. I care about you finding a freaking way to fix this.”
He smiles sadly, his lips turning down in the corners. His eyes are on me but he feels so far away.
“Why did you leave your old clan?” I ask.
“It’s complicated.” Some strands of my hair have escaped their ponytail and he brushes them behind my ear. “But that doesn’t matter right now, because all that matters is getting the bracelets off you and Riley.”
“It kind of does matter,” I say, frowning. “I still don’t understand how these clans work. It just sounds like a weird underground group of immortals who all hate each other.”
He chuckles. “That’s pretty accurate. The stones were invented ages ago and they were given to the elite of the time. Mostly men, mostly wealthy guys who all knew each other. Only, over time they disagreed on how immortality should be governed and they branched off into their own groups.”
I listen intently, hoping something in this story will hint at how we can break the stone’s power. Theo thinks for a moment, like it’s hard for him to say what he’s saying, or maybe—and it kills me to think this—maybe he’s hiding parts of the truth from me.
“I’m relatively young compared to other immortals. I’m like a child to some of them who are centuries old. I’m not privy to some information, like Damien is. Anyhow, over time, immortals were slain for their stones and the people who took them became immortal themselves. Most of the originals aren’t alive anymore, and like I said before, a lot of the knowledge has been lost over time. But there’s one thing every clan agrees on, and that’s that we must keep immortality a secret. Once someone knows about it, they’ll do whatever it takes to become immortal themselves. Since the stones are limited, that means they have to kill to get one.”
“How did you get one?” I ask.
“Damien was my boss,” Theo explains. His face softens from the nostalgia as he talks. “It was during the Great Depression. I worked as a delivery boy for his milk company. My parents kicked me out because they couldn’t afford me, so I was on my own. He took a liking to me, I guess. He became like a father to me. One day when I was twenty one and had started my own woodworking business, Damien approached me and gave me the stone. A member of his clan, the Embrook clan, had chosen to end his life, so Damien revealed his immortality and me to join the clan.”
He presses his lips together. “Honestly, I thought maybe he’d drank too much moonshine that night because he sounded full of shit, but I took the stone to be nice.” He taps the necklace beneath his chest. “The original stone’s owner still had a lifeblood in the city, so she became my lifeblood the moment I put the necklace on.”
He looks down at his chest. “I’ve never taken it off. Damien made me a murderer that day. He thought he was helping, but I’ve often felt like the burden of immortality makes life not worth living.” There’s regret in his eyes as he says, “Yet here I am, taking terminal life bloods and telling myself it’s ethical because I’m helping their families.” He chuckles sarcastically. “Really I’m just a coward who won’t admit that I should just die.”
“Theo.” I put my hand on his chest. “Don’t say that.”
“I’d had enough of this shit before I met you,” he says, his jaw tightening. “I needed to do something. So I joined the Rosewater clan. I needed a purpose if I was going to keep myself alive any longer.”
“What does that
mean?” I ask, and my voice seems to take him by surprise because he flinches, then his golden eyes fix on mine and he smiles.
“Nothing to worry about, love.” He leans forward and places his lips over mine in a soft, slow kiss. “Damien took Riley’s approach on this. He said there has to be a way to remove the immortality bracelet and spare your life. He’s going to help me find it.”
“Well…that’s good,” I say, staring at Theo’s shirt, knowing his necklace is underneath the fabric. “It’s not exactly what I wanted to come out of your trip, but it’s something.”
“It’s only been two months, love.” Theo grips my arms tightly and kisses the top of my head. “I’ll fix this.”
“What did you mean by finding a purpose?” I ask. I’ve never seen Theo look so resolute as he did a minute ago, and then he changed the subject like it was nothing.
“Eh, I was just talking. Immortality makes you very lonely, but then I met you and now my goals are different.”
I frown. “It seems like you’re hiding something from me.”
“You need not worry, Cara.”
He sounds so confident I want to believe him, so I nod and ignore my intuition that’s telling me he’s being weird about this.
I take a step back and look at him. “This last week…” I exhale and then take a deep breath. “This last week felt like my heart had been ripped out, Theo. I can’t keep sitting here suffering in that mansion without you while you jet off and do whatever you’re doing. I know you’re helping and all, but I just can’t stand it.”
“I feel the same way.” He bites on his bottom lip. “That’s why I’ll take you with me on the next trip. I can’t be away from you anymore.”
A fire lights up inside of me. When I made this confession, I thought he’d comfort me and tell me stupid things to make me feel better. But this is much better than what I’d imagined. “Good,” I say.
He grins. “You’re mine, Cara Blackwell. I’m sick of being away from you.”
I lean against his chest, wrapping my arms around him tightly. His chin settles on top of my head, the familiar gesture he always does when we embrace like this. I’m still curious about why he left his old clan, but I don’t want to kill the moment by bringing it up again.
I breathe in his cologne and think about asking if I can keep one of his shirts like the dork that I am. He’d probably let me. I look up at him and he smiles. Then his eyes glaze over and lose focus.
“Theo?” I say as his body seems to soften, all of his muscles going limp.
And then he crumples. His eyes close, his head falls back, and I’m not strong enough to hold him upright. We both crash to the hot asphalt. “Theo!” I press on his chest, squeeze his hand. He’s out. His skin pales, his lips turning blue. I pound on his chest and call his name, but he doesn’t react. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t seem alive at all.
Chapter 9
Theo winces. The tiny gesture sends hope soaring through me. “Theo?” I plead.
His eyes flutter a little and then go still. He’s on his back in the abandoned high school parking lot. I’m kneeling next to him, my hand pressed to his chest. I feel a heartbeat, but it’s slow, weak. I lean forward press my fingers to his lips. He releases a shaky breath. “Theo? Wake up!”
I’m not sure when I started crying, but tears splash onto his shirt. His eyes flutter open again, his face contorting in pain.
“Call Kyle,” he says, his eyes meeting mine before they close again.
I call Kyle as fast as my fingers can work the phone screen. He takes forever to answer, and when I finally hear his voice after four rings, I’m yelling. “Kyle! It’s Theo!”
“It sounds like Cara,” he says with a laugh. The freaking idiot, this is not a time for jokes. “Theo is—I don’t know,” I say as I keep my hand pressed to his chest, desperate to feel the beating of his heart. “He passed out. He said to call you. He looks…he looks like death.”
“Where are you?” All the lighthearted joking has left his voice.
“The high school parking lot.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” he says before hanging up.
I drop the phone and grab Theo’s clammy face in my hands. “Theo? Please wake up,” I say, tears falling down my face. He’d told me that immortality didn’t mean invincibility, but now I’m seeing firsthand what he meant. He’s not okay. Maybe he’s sick. Can immortals get sick?
Time seems to crawl on forever even though we’re only about ten minutes away from the mansion. I sit here, the hard parking lot digging into my bare knees as I lean over Theo, shading the sun from his face with my body. He’s still breathing and his eyes flutter every few seconds, but he’s not talking. When his eyes open, they’re unfocused, unaware.
I lean forward, resting my forehead on his. A blue glow emanates from underneath his shirt. I blink, thinking it’s just a trick of the sunlight, but it’s still there. I reach down and push the collar of Theo’s T-shirt down, revealing his necklace. The blue immortality stone is glowing, a bright blue like a flame is beneath the stone. The surface moves like a fuzzy television screen, and as I watch, the brightness slowly gets dimmer.
Kyle arrives in a Camaro, barely slamming to a stop before he flings open the door and rushes toward us. He yanks down Theo’s shirt just like I had done, but he doesn’t seem surprised when he sees the glowing stone.
“I have to take him to the, uh, hospital,” Kyle says. Normally he’s so tall and lanky and carefree that he seems like a dork. Now he’s dead serious. “Sorry Cara, but you can’t come with us. I have the driver coming to pick you up. He’ll be here any second,” he says as he scoops up Theo and carries him to the passenger side of the car. He slams the door closed and jogs back around to the driver’s side. All the while I’m still kneeling on the ground, tears streaking my face. Kyle offers me a small smile. “He’ll be okay. I promise.”
I nod and watch as he peels out of the parking lot and drives away, leaving me along with the motorcycle I still don’t know how to drive. What the hell just happened?
If Theo really will be okay, I’m not going to get answers until he’s back.
I grab my helmet and pull it over my head as I try to remember everything Theo told me about the bike. One down, five up. The clutch is on the left, brake on the right. We’re only a few miles away from the house. I slide onto my bike; its shiny pink paint the opposite of how I feel right now. The motor cranks to life as I turn the key, and when I pull back slightly on the throttle, it roars just like when Theo does it. My heart pounds and nerves mix with worry in my chest. Balancing the bike with my toes on the ground, I pull in the clutch and press down on the gear shifter, putting it into first gear. Slowly, I let off the clutch and give it some gas. The bike launches forward, shaky and unsteady, but I hold on. I switch to second gear and give it a little more gas. There aren’t any sharp turns on the way home. I have the gate code memorized now.
Theo thought I could handle driving this thing. I’m going to prove him right.
***
Riley sits next to me on the loveseat in Theo’s room. I’ve pulled it up close to the window so I can see the moment Kyle’s Camaro gets back home. From this side of the house, you can see the driveway and about half a mile of the road that leads to it. The cars are tiny, but I’d recognize the red Camaro anywhere.
“You sure you don’t want any water?” Riley asks. She’s been trying to give me that bottle of water for an hour and half now, but I shake my head just like I did every other time she asked. My stomach hurts from worry. I can’t eat or drink anything.
It’s been an hour and a half with no word. When I got home, I parked my bike and burst through the house, only to find that all the guys were gone. Alexo is on a business trip, according to Malina. There’s no one here to update me on Theo’s status, and even if the guys were here, they’d probably lie to me. This is clearly something happening with the immortality stone, a thing I’m not supposed to know about.
I
didn’t ask permission to go into Theo’s room, but I did it anyway. I grabbed Riley, the dry erase board, and my phone charger and then I marched us straight into this side of the mansion.
I explained the entire event to Riley on the dry erase board. We’ve barely talked out loud in this room since we got here but she’s been writing back to me, telling me it’ll be okay.
I was so close to getting answers, I write.
She furrows her brow. what do you mean?
I sigh. “He was telling me about some old friends,” I say aloud, figuring that’s not very incriminating to voice. “And then he just collapsed.”
Friends who know how to fix us? she writes
“Yes,” I say, turning my gaze back to the road outside. Still nothing. I pick up my phone and call Kyle again, but it goes straight to his voicemail.
I leave another text for Theo, wondering if he’ll ever see it.
I miss you. Please come back to me.
“This is bullshit,” Riley says, breaking the silence a few minutes later. “Why can’t Kyle update us on the freaking situation? Your loverboy passed out! What if he has a brain tumor or something?”
She’s talking so loud, I almost wonder if she’s doing it on purpose, just in case someone is listening to us. I don’t even care if I’m not being told the truth right now, I just want to know if he’s okay. And no one is here to tell us anything.
Theo’s wall screen starts ringing. Riley and I look at each other, and then I jump off the loveseat and rush over to his door, where the screen is mounted into the wall.
It’s a video call from Alexo. I hesitate to answer, but then Riley pushes the button for me, and Alexo’s face appears on the screen. He’s in a hospital, by the looks of it.
“Hi Cara,” Alexo says. “And Riley, I figured you’d be with your best friend.” Small smile.