The Sacrificial Love of an Immortal

by Kurtis Eckstein

  The Sacrificial Love

  of an Immortal

  Immortal Supers Book 3

  Kurtis Eckstein

  COPYRIGHT © 2019 – KURTIS M. ECKSTEIN

  In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the copying, scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the author is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. Thank you for your support.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead, or undead, business establishments, events, institutions, or locales is entirely coincidental. All characters depicted in sexual situations are 18 years or older.

  Cover Art Copyright © 2019 Kurtis Eckstein

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  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Disclaimer

  1. Stressful Secrets

  2. Dangerous Accidents

  3. Threatening Blackmail

  4. Forced Meetings

  5. New Introductions

  6. Unexpected Enemies

  7. Frightful Discoveries

  8. Saving Loved Ones

  9. Thankful Victims

  10. Arousing Dreams

  11. Confirming Premonitions

  12. Powerful Climaxes

  13. Unexpected Realizations

  14. Stalling Bereavement

  15. Suspicious Cravings

  16. Decisive Ultimatums

  17. Consequential Decisions

  18. Horrifying Curses

  19. Eerie Revelations

  20. Unique Blessings

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Prologue

  I had lived the last century of my life being reminded of the fact that I was unkillable, not even by my own hand. But what if I could die for someone I loved? Would I throw it all away to save them? Would I make the ultimate sacrifice to defend them to the death?

  Pointless questions for someone who isn’t capable of death.

  But what if I could die? Would I do it?

  If I was again faced with the horror of holding someone I loved in my arms while their life faded away forever, what would I sacrifice to end that nightmare? What would I give to save my love?

  Anything.

  My immortality.

  My life.

  Everything.

  Disclaimer

  Warning: This book contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences, including adult scenes and slight harem elements.

  1: Stressful Secrets

  Heidi Stockton

  January 14, 2735 – Current Day – Late Morning

  Heidi combed through Rose’s black hair in the guest bathroom at Sam’s house, before beginning to braid it, with the little girl’s hair being so thick that her tan scalp was barely visible even when it was parted. After completing two braids, both of which ran along the sides of her head before they tapered off in the back, Heidi looked up to meet Rose’s vibrant red eyes watching her work in the mirror.

  “Do you like it, sunshine?” she wondered, using her special term of endearment for the little girl. Some might not consider it to be appropriate for a super with vampiric abilities, but it fit Rose’s personality perfectly. She was truly a ray of sunshine for everyone.

  Rose nodded, her expression slightly reserved. “It’s pretty.”

  “Yep,” Heidi agreed. “You look adorable.”

  Her expression brightened a little, but she didn’t respond. Heidi knew why Rose wasn’t in her usual cheerful mood, but she was doing her best to keep her young friend’s mind off it – not by avoiding the subject, but by instead maintaining a happy composure despite Rose’s uncertainty.

  “Are you ready to eat?” Heidi asked with more enthusiasm, sincerely looking forward to the job she had been given for the next week. She reached out her right arm automatically as she made the offer, with Heidi’s appreciation towards her little hero leaving her feeling like she was never doing enough to express her gratitude.

  After all, how could she possibly repay Rose and her parents for saving both her and Lexi from their endless torment?

  As far as Heidi was concerned, she would never be able to do enough. Because until they had intervened, her and her sister’s lives had pretty much been over, with no hope of escaping a true hell so long as their captor lived.

  Being freed from their makeshift prison was like being brought back to life, though not without some deep scars that might never fully heal, even if both of their physical bodies were in good shape thanks to Heidi’s unique regeneration bestowal ability.

  But at the very least, even if it would never be enough, Heidi could do this for Rose. And she would do this for her. Forever.

  Rose turned her head slightly to look up at Heidi, her crimson eyes hesitant, though not for fear of hurting her older friend at this point, knowing she would be okay. The source of concern came from something else entirely.

  “Do you think daddy is mad at me?” she asked quietly.

  Heidi immediately shook her head, going with the same story she had originally told her. “No, not at all. I wanted to do this.”

  Rose’s eyes tightened. “I know that’s not true,” she whispered.

  “But it is true,” Heidi pressed, being aware now that Rose could read her most recent thoughts when feeding. She had been shocked to discover that fact only a few days ago, having never considered she should be careful about what she was thinking while Rose was eating. Among other things, Heidi had made a sincere effort to not curse in front of Rose, but she hadn’t applied that same filter to her unspoken words.

  Rose made a face in response to Heidi’s comment, prompting the older girl to continue. “Okay, look. Yes, your mommy and daddy obviously asked me to do it, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to do it. And no, I don’t think your dad is mad at you. Why would he be?”

  Rose’s shoulders dropped slightly. “I don’t know,” she admitted in a whisper.

  Heidi sighed. “I mean, you can’t control it when you’re reading people’s thoughts while you eat, right?”

  Rose nodded. “It just happens,” she agreed.

  “So then, that’s probably why,” Heidi replied. “Your dad probably just wants to protect you from his sad thoughts. I mean, he has seemed a little bummed recently.”

  Rose sighed. “Yeah, but I already know about Eden.”

  “Eden?” Heidi repeated in confusion. “Who’s that?”

  “Oh. She is daddy’s other daughter…” Her voice lowered as her expression dropped. “The one who died.”

  Heidi grimaced. She had only learned about Sam’s previous family a few days ago too, when he and Freya decided to disclose about the mysterious people who have been tormenting him. Heidi was a little worried about it now as well, but not enough to make her or her sister stop hanging out with them. She took a deep breath as she tried to recover, her heart aching for Sam, wishing she could be someone who could comfort him. Wishing she could be someone to help him through his pain, much like he had done for her.

  “Well, even if you know about her,” Heidi continued, “that doesn’t mean your dad doesn’t want to protect you if he’s having sad thoughts. Maybe the anniversary of when they passed away is coming up or something. I mean, I’m not sure how long it’s been since it happened, but even if it’s been ten years, it isn’t easy to get over that kind of thing.”

  Ro
se’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh. No, it happened a really long time ago.” Her expression dropped again. “It still hurts daddy like it happened recently though.”

  “A long time ago?” Heidi repeated in confusion. As far as she was aware, Sam was still in his twenties, so she couldn’t imagine how it could have happened longer than ten years ago. Did Rose just misunderstand her?

  Rose nodded in response to Heidi’s spoken words. “Yeah. And he was alone for a long time afterwards.”

  “How long?” Heidi asked carefully, wondering if there was something wrong with Rose’s understanding of time.

  The little girl shook her head, reaching over her shoulder to grab one of her braids, examining it for a moment before responding. “I’m not sure. Daddy has never thought of the exact amount of time while I was eating, but the picture he has in his mind – the one that represents time – makes me think it’s been about a hundred years.”

  Heidi’s eyes widened in shock. “A hundred years?” she repeated in disbelief, lowering the arm she had offered to Rose. She knew that couldn’t be right, which meant either the little girl just misunderstood how Sam was viewing time, or else she meant something like a hundred weeks, which would be about two years. And yet, she knew Rose was intelligent for her age, since Heidi helped tutor her, so then the misunderstanding must reside with Sam and how she was perceiving his thoughts.

  After a moment, Heidi began considering the idea of asking him about it directly, though she wasn’t sure how to bring up such a sensitive and painful subject. As she began contemplating how she might phrase the question, her thoughts were interrupted by Rose’s angelic voice – the little girl’s crimson gaze looking up at her innocently.

  “Is it okay if I eat?” Rose wondered, her jaw popping as the skin around her eyes began to gray. “I’m really hungry today. More than most days.”

  Heidi nodded somewhat absentmindedly, holding her arm up again, only wincing slightly when Rose sank her sharp teeth into the crook of her elbow.

  ❖ ❖ ❖

  Sam Archer

  January 14, 2735 – Current Day – Late Morning

  I stood in the breakroom, leaning my palms against the counter as I impatiently waited for a fresh pot of coffee to brew. Honestly, I wasn’t sure why we still had this old piece of junk when we had an automated deli not even ten feet away. If our office could afford the deli, then why not a vending machine for hot drinks too? There were plenty of affordable dispensers on the market that could practically make any drink desired in a matter of seconds, yet we still had to wait several minutes like we were from the dark ages!

  Why was I so pissed about it?

  As if a couple of minutes was too long…

  I knew why I was irritable though. I couldn’t keep my thoughts off the reason why for barely a few seconds at a time. It was so bad that I had hardly gotten anything done today so far, and yet I knew this was where I needed to be right now. At the office…

  Away from Rose…

  But not because I didn’t love her.

  Quite the opposite. It was because I wanted to protect her from my emotions right now, knowing she might not fully understand how I felt. She didn’t seem capable of controlling her mind-reading ability yet, which meant she’d see my most recent thoughts if she was feeding from me, or even around me while eating.

  Which was why I had asked Heidi to take over that part for a few days, since she was willing anyway. Freya was completely onboard with my decision too, with all of us having conflicting emotions about the revelation that the DNA used to help create Rose – that small fourteen percent of her DNA – came from the man who was probably responsible for my mother’s death, along with all the other abhorrent events in my life.

  Although, I knew the blame could only go so far, considering how much time had passed, and yet even from his grave it seemed like he was still indirectly making me miserable. At this point, we didn’t technically have hard evidence that the shadow organization was also involved in this illegal cloning, but that single link was enough to assume as much. Really, we could be completely wrong, but it just seemed too coincidental.

  But that wasn’t exactly why I was angry.

  I was pissed because, despite all the horrible things they had done – despite the fact that I hated them with every fiber of my being – I also had a reason to be thankful.

  Because we had Rose in our lives thanks to their evil, selfish, dastardly activities.

  Granted, it wasn’t like they created Rose and handed her over willingly. She came to us only by a series of selfish acts by evil men, thankfully managing to find her way to us without her spirit being broken from what she had to endure along the way. If anything, she was far from being emotionally damaged.

  Quite the opposite in fact.

  Her endlessly cheerful and excited attitude, coupled with her willingness to listen to the adults in her life without complaint, made for a perfect child that no one would ever think had a dark past.

  But now I didn’t know what to do.

  The entire reason Freya and I decided not to track down the cloning facility, and destroy it, was because we didn’t want to put Rose in danger by revealing she was still alive. Yet, if that facility was actually connected to the organization who had been stalking me all my life anyway, then they might already know about Rose.

  And that pissed me off too…

  It also terrified me.

  I couldn’t lose another daughter. If it wasn’t for my immortality, I wouldn’t have survived the first time – I would have taken my own life in my grief from losing both her and my wife, and I had remained in that state for a little over a century. Supposedly, people could move on after a few years, though of course they never really got over it entirely.

  But with my memory?

  Even now, despite all the wonderful experiences I’d had in the last year and a half with my new family, my daughter’s death was still my strongest memory, eternally seared into my mind as if it was a physical presence haunting me.

  I hated it. I hated that I could still see her so clearly. Maybe I could move on if I could forget her tormented face – if I could remember all the good times instead.

  But I couldn’t. All I could ever see were the last moments of her life.

  My nine-year-old daughter’s appearance had been fairly normal, except for a tiny heart-shaped birthmark below her right eye, as well as one physical characteristic that was almost as unique as Lily’s pyrogenesis – her teal eyes. Truly a vibrant teal, being neither green nor blue, or any shade in between that I’d ever seen on another person. My daughter had been born with beautiful teal eyes, and it used to be my favorite color…

  Now I couldn’t even stand to look at anything with a similar shade.

  Aquamarine, keppel, seafoam green, turquoise – if it was close enough to teal, it was painful to see, because I saw my daughter’s eyes instead…

  So I was pissed, because this connection between the two operations meant that Rose might be in danger, not to mention the implications it had for Freya – that she was on their radar too and probably had been for some time.

  At this point, we only had a few conclusions to draw upon. The fact that they wanted to clone Freya’s superpower indicated they must be after either recreating her immortality, or at least her regeneration ability.

  But for what reason?

  It wasn’t like creating immortal clones would benefit their creators directly – they would still die themselves no matter how many clones they made. So then, did that mean they were trying to create an army? Was it as simple as them attempting to create immortal warriors who would help them conquer the world? And how would they get their warriors to completely obey?

  Or were their goals something else entirely?

  We honestly didn’t know.

  But what we did know was that we needed to figure out a way to end this, and soon.

  We also knew that this new information indicated it might not be as easy a
s killing a few people. At this point, it was safe to assume the shadow organization was much larger than we initially anticipated, and it had its abhorrent fingers in many more criminal activities than the mercenary business we originally theorized.

  So I was pissed.

  Pissed that I had a reason to be thankful for them, while simultaneously pissed that defeating them would be more difficult than we ever imagined, not to mention being furious that they posed a threat to my family – a threat to Rose.

  I stared at the pot of hot black coffee that was now full to the brim.

  So much for having to wait a couple of minutes for it to brew. It had already long since finished, and yet I hadn’t moved a muscle from my spot, having no one around to pull me out of my thoughts. I knew I would be interrupted soon though, since surely someone would be taking their lunch anytime now.

  And the interruptions were also partially why I came to work in the first place. I had hoped to distract myself from my swirling hurricane of emotions, but I knew deep down why I was really so angry.

  It originated from another sensation.

  One of hopelessness.

  How could I keep my family safe against this threat? How could we eliminate them from our lives forever?

  The creature we were after didn’t just have a single head we could cut off and kill. Instead it was like an ant hive, or some other organism that could survive even after losing most of its members. And yes, while an ant hive might be destroyed after losing its queen, I wasn’t sure that was the case for this organization.

  After all, many companies could lose everyone at the top and yet the machine they had created might still function, with all the lower peons already knowing what small part they needed to play. In fact, many companies worked with a more decentralized structure.

  So was there any hope to destroy them? Or any hope to escape their sights? Would disappearing off the map even be enough to keep my family safe, or would they still find us?