by Tara Brown
He lifted me up into his arms wrapping my legs around him with ease, his strength seemed unrealistic. I felt like my sister out on the beach making out under the moon light with a guy people suspected of a terrible crime. I pushed myself away needing breath and separation, “I want to go home.”
He smiled breathlessly at me, “I need a minute before I can get back.” He too must have been feeling the chemical reactions our bodies were submitting to.
I put my foot down on the sand and stood on shaky legs. My headache seemed to be coming back. I couldn’t believe how long it was taking me to bounce back. He watched me like a predator watches a fawn, his eyes moving up and down my bare legs. I felt so safe with him against everything except myself. Out here I wasn’t afraid of the date rapist, I wasn’t afraid of bears or wolves or cougars but I was afraid of me losing control of myself and doing something based entirely on my emotional bodies choices and none on common sense or rational thought. This was not a comfortable thing for me.
He stood up after a minute and held his arms out, “Okay I’m ready.”
I frowned, “Can we walk?”
He stepped forward picking me up before I had a chance to argue my opinion on the matter and were gone.
He looked hurt as he pulled us through the air and everything sped past me in a sickening blur, “What’s the matter you don’t trust me?”
I shook my head, “its not that, I just don’t like not being in control.”
He laughed not watching where he was going making me nervous, “I think the only thing saving both of us from making a huge mistake tonight is your control because I’ve lost all of mine.” His eyes glistened dangerously as he bent down and kissed me.
I panicked, “Watch where you’re going.” He also found this amusing but I was scared beyond belief so I closed my eyes uncertain how we would get back into my house. The next thing I felt was the softness of my sheets. Wide eyed I frowned at him, “I have sand on my butt, I don’t want it in my sheets.”
He shook his head and sat on the chair across the room watching me. I was embarrassed to be seen changing by him even though I knew he had already seen me showering, which disturbed me still. I gave him a look as I walked to the bathroom with new pajamas, “Be right back.”
I wasn’t right back, I stayed in the shower trying to translate all of the details he told me into layman’s terms as if I were telling my sister.
“He is an immortal who was trying to help us cope with moms accident and he was trying to make sure a negative outcome didn’t happen as a result of moms death which was not meant to be. A supernatural force or being killed mom, as a result everything in our lives is upside down. I accidentally died on his watch and he managed to save me but now as a result I can see him and dead people even though that is unfounded at this point, he is attracted to me and I him even though he isn’t a human being.” I nodded as I summed it out loud to get a good grasp on how things were. I turned off the shower and knew what I had to do.
I dressed quickly and went down stairs ignoring the pain in my head to see my dad so he wouldn’t worry, “Hey dad I’m going back to bed. I just showered.”
He was reading a text of some sort and looked up with his glasses on smiling, “Feeling better?”
I nodded lying, “Yeah I think I just needed some sleep. I should be better by tomorrow I think.”
He smiled, “Okay kiddo. Night.”
My sister wasn’t home, big shocker I imagined her at Blake’s house stopping him from doing homework and other productive things while she convinced him to try whatever drugs she thought were cool at the moment. I decided I could be mad later about that, for now I needed to follow my plan. Besides who was I judging her while I was secretly dating two boys, or at least kissing them.
I climbed the stairs trying to make it all the way to the top so my dad wouldn’t doubt my miraculous recovery but in truth the stairs were death. My poor legs shook as I made it up all the way. Being around Aleks seemed to be the only thing that made me feel good. That worried me.
I opened my bedroom door smiling at him lying on my bed reading a book on how to decipher Arabic.
He was in his jeans still half naked on my bed. I frowned at his jeans imagining all kinds of salt and sand now on my sheets adding to what I had already left there.
He smiled as I closed my door and locked it, “I took the sheets and my pants outside and shook them, there isn’t any sand.”
His crooked smile seemed to be stuck on his face. His piercing blue eyes were driving me crazy.
I walked to him and put my hand out for him to take but he took it and pulled me on top of him instead of standing. He rubbed my back, “I haven’t seen these kind of pajamas on a girl your age in a long time.”
I frowned raising one eyebrow, “Fleece?”
He laughed, “Yeah girls your age wear sexy things.”
I couldn’t help but laugh back, “Well I had panties and a tank top on but you wrecked them and honestly I just can’t seem to shake feeling cold and itchy. These make me feel nice.”
He agreed, “I love fleece, it makes me want to rub you.” His strong hands rubbing up and down my spine did feel very nice and I could have fallen asleep like this, my head didn’t hurt while he was touching me and I felt so peaceful. I knew I had to follow the plan though if I was ever going to get beyond the immortal part. I rolled off of him to the side of my bed. This didn’t seem to deter him from kissing my neck and rubbing the outer thigh of my pj's. I pushed him away, “Go to the chair, we need to talk.” He groaned, “We can talk here. I’ll behave.” He kissed my cheek once, pausing, as he inhaled the fresh scent of my soap no doubt. I turned my face and felt his lips brush mine softly and sensually again like the first kiss. I fell into the kiss again finding myself chasing him, trying to get him to pull into me and smother me with his affections. I inhaled his scent feeling my skin tingle and eyes roll back into my head.
Somehow and I’m honestly not sure how I managed to pull myself away, “Okay go to the chair. You’re not behaving and I know I cant.”
He looked at me through his crazy long dark lashes and smiled his most innocent schoolboy look he could. I nearly died and pushed him off the bed with all the effort I had.
He landed on his feet with amazing reflexes and chuckled softly as he grabbed the chair and pulled it over to beside my bed. He sat on it backwards waiting.
“Okay I’m ready brainiac fire away.” He kept a smirk on his face probably already knowing the questions I had to ask.
I lay on my bed on my back, “Okay, so we are going to do the Q&A portion of this evening quickly. I have about ten minutes of effort left in me and need some sleep. Ready?”
He nodded, “Do your worst.”
Without waiting for my brain to even start working I began firing away, “How old are you?”
“Six hundred and forty three.” He responded quickly and efficiently, I liked that.
“How many families like mine have you worked through accidental deaths that weren’t planned?”
“Not many it doesn’t happened often, I’ve never kept track but I would say a few hundred at the most?”
“Where do you live in your off time?”
“I don’t have off time. I just roam until I’m called.” He looked perplexed by this question.
“Is there a heaven where you go when you’re not looking after a family?”
He shook his head, “I don’t know anything about heaven I’ve been cursed to be what I am since my death.”
"Were you ever a human?”
His eyes flinched ever so slightly at this question, “Yes.” He didn’t go into any other detail.
“When?”
His face told me to drop it, “Six hundred and twenty years ago.”
“You’re twenty three?”
He nodded.
I felt my eyes get heavy as my head started to hurt again, “Did you see my mom die?”
“No I came after wards.”
“A shape shifter.” His voice never cracked or wavered as he said it.
My head instantly translated as I felt myself drift off into a painful sleep, a werewolf or something like that.
Chapter Nine - IS THERE PHILLY CREAM CHEESE IN HEAVEN
I dreamt things that made no sense to me and I felt lost and confused, my mom was falling and she turned into an angel and flew up into the sky. She never came back down from the sky and she didn’t seem too concerned that I was standing on the road watching her fly away. She didn’t wave to me.
I woke to find Aleks sleeping beside me on my bed, his warm body nearly burning me as I touched him, I still felt frozen but touching him seemed to take it away.
A million questions were to be stuck in my mind they had nowhere to go and my head was to be swelling with them.
Aleks stirred turning on his side and wrapping his leg around me. He pulled me into him; I let his lips drag up my throat. I giggled until he whispered a word, “Nora.” I froze not sure what to say. I stayed very still until he started to wake up and opened his eyes to me. I assumed this must have been a woman he loved before he met me. The immature side of me seeped out into my mind and started making a mountain out of the molehill where he said another woman’s name. I tried to fight against it but it made sense to me, okay I was still only eighteen. A little immaturity was to be expected. Then I remembered Shane and decided not to judge him to harshly.
He looked at me confused watching the wheels turning. He smiled, “You have more questions now?”
“Whose Nora?” I blurted out.
He winced in pain at the sound of the name.
He pulled away from me slightly not sure what to do with the question. Finally after a moments thought he whispered, “My wife.”
My heart stopped and I felt a shiver tremble through my whole body, “Wife.” I stated it matter of fact.
He nodded, “Yes. We were married when I was eighteen. She was the only woman I ever loved in my whole life until now.” His eyes screamed a pain where his lips tried to calm with a soothing smile.
I felt sadness even though the greatest moment of my life had just happened, he told me he loved me, “What happened to her?”
He looked down at the sheets breaking the eye contact as if ashamed, “She remarried and moved on after I died.”
“Did you watch her?” I asked softly.
He nodded, “Everyday I could. I watched her fall out of love with me and in love with him but the sweet soft girl I had married became a hardened woman. It was a tough time and she had a hard go.”
I blinked away a tear, as his voice remained so soft, “You still love her.” It was statement not a question.
Aleks got down on his knees in front of my bed where I lay and stroked my arm softly as he spoke getting lost in the story as his eyes began to look peaceful, “Yes of course. She was my first true love and I truly never got closure.”
“Where were you from?” I asked kissing the tip of his nose back. I could see him putting up a wall like I did so I backed off a little.
He smiled brightly, “I’m from Norway. Aurland, its on the Nærøyfjord. My family was farmers. My surname was Jonson because my dads name was Jon, that’s how it was done. So my sisters were Jonsdoter. Our mom was actually captured from somewhere near the Greek islands in a raid. So she named me Aleksander, it was a Greek name but it sounded Norwegian. Well it did to her, I was made fun of a lot for my name. Everyone thought it was a girls name but education wasn’t as important back then as it is now where everyone knows about Aleksander the great.” He beamed at me. I rolled my eyes.
“So can you speak Norwegian still?” I asked not thinking about it
“Ja Jeg Kan.” He smiled laughing, “So shall we get to the rest of your questions. I know you have million.”
I nodded, “I’m sorry about your wife, that’s really sad. What did she look like?”
His eyes turned annoyed, “Not letting this one go huh, fine. She was tall, very tall. Almost as tall as I am. She had long blond hair to her waist, it was thick and white almost. Her skin tanned even though she was fair. Her eyes were blue like mine, very intensely blue. She had a pretty face with beautiful features. She was thick, not fat but strong. She could pull a cart and carry kids around all day. She was an amazing woman. Are you happy you know that now? Shall we talk about you past boyfriends?”
I bit my lip, “I don’t have any past anyone’s. I have never been kissed in my life before this last few weeks.”
His face grew reddened and angry looking, “Shane?”
I nodded frowning at him, “Yeah but you were a criminal and always vanishing on me. I thought you were a ghost for a while. Kissing Shane still seems like a better idea than kissing you.”
He growled, “I’m not going to comment.”
I blushed sensing his annoyance on the subject, “I know I have to end things with Shane, this is what I want.” I smirked at him.
He rolled his eyes at me, “You know I haven’t felt this protective and possessive in a long time. It’s going to take me a while to learn to control my emotions.”
I looked up at the ceiling watching him as I thought for minute and then decided to ask the question I had been wondering from the moment he started this conversation, “How did you die and become an immortal?”
He nodded, “There it is, the right question.” He ran his right hand through his short hair and looked down at the bed. His eyelids lifted without moving his head and he watched me through his lashes again, “Same as your mom. A shape shifter killed me. I was attacked and left in the woods to die. Next question.” He shut it down before it could start.
I interrupted, “But you didn’t turn into a werewolf from the bite?”
He laughed, “Hollywood made that up in the thirties with The Wolfman. No a man must be cursed by a special and rare person to become a lycanthrope. The bite does nothing but infect the person if the wound is not taken care of. Rarely is a person bitten though. Most of them hunt animals in the forests not people. We don’t taste very good.” His smile was haunted.
I felt my brow squeeze together with concern.
“But how did you become a this? How did you learn all your magical powers?” I could see him backing away emotionally from this conversation.
He shook his head Aimee, “Lets focus on right now. We have enough problems. I don’t know how to stop my curse from pulling me to the next place. I want to stay with you but you have to ask less questions, seriously.”
I nodded and got the message loud and clear. I tried to think about questions I had that weren’t part of the things he wouldn’t want to talk about, his wife, his family, his home land, his turning into whatever he was, and definitely no discussing his death. That left me with very little.
“How did you know to come here when my mom died? How do you know where to go next?” I hoped he would at least answer this and I could possibly hypothesize on my on from the breadcrumbs he left me.
“I just know, I get a feeling. Like when you have a dream, I see what happens in flashes or pieces I guess. I just know I need to go right or left.”
I felt disappointment in waves, asking him questions was making my head want to explode.
“I kinda saw it more as you fly up to the pearly gates and someone gives you a clip board with a name on it and you ask questions around the Philly cream cheese snack bar and figure out how you’re going to crack this tough case.”
He burst into laughter, “Oh god I wish it was that easy. I’m not a real angel, I’m cursed.” He moved a strand of hair from my face and smiled, “I think you should go and eat Aimee.”
I nodded feeling frustration filling me as I sat up. I felt a little dizzy again but I knew now to wait it out. The stars always cleared after a moment or so. Aleks stood holding a hand out for me to take.
I reached for it letting him pull me off the bed. My legs wanted to buckle but I could tell from his worri
ed expression if I did that he would be taking me back to the hospital. I knew all I needed was more sleep so I stood my ground and walked out of my room. My dad wasn’t downstairs, I called out, “Dad. Alise?”
No one answered and I motioned behind me for him to come out.
“Do you get hungry?” I asked as I walked slowly down the stairs.
“Yes and no, I am an immortal now. I’m not like an angel in that I can make myself vanish and become air. I have a sort of magic now. I can cloak myself around people who haven’t been to the in between obviously. Even cloaked you’ve seen me so you’re not a normal person anymore. I need food and drink to live but I won’t die without it. I will get tired and weak after a long time.”