Infinite Spring

by J. A. Armitage

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Eternal Summer

  Chapter One

  Other books by this author

  Note from the author

  Chapter One

  She should not have been in the circumstances, but Anais could not remember a time that she had been happier. Standing next to her was the love of her life, and the man who had killed her parents was now safely chained up in her cellar, some three miles away. He had also murdered Mike in cold blood, which is why Anais was here, standing at the back of the little church, along with Aethelu and her family. To pay respects to a man whom she had met only once, but who had been the best friend of her girlfriend Aethelu.

  As the Priest eulogised Mike, Anais sneaked a sideways look at her. Even with tears in her eyes, Aethelu was still the most stunning woman Anais had ever met, and the only person on the planet who had the capability to make her heart skip by a mere glance. Aethelu’s usual white blonde pixie hair was currently hidden under a black hat, which also veiled her jet black eyes. Anais could just about make out the usual sparkle in them through the hat’s veil. Her lips were the only part of her face that were totally visible, and they were the only part of Aethelu that was wearing her customary shade of red. Aethelu was usually dressed head to toe in scarlets and crimsons, but apart from the lipstick covering her beautiful lips, the only red she had on today was a small red heart broach that was pinned to the top of the plain black fitted dress. Anais herself had chosen a black suit for Mike’s funeral. As she looked, a tear escaped and made its journey down Aethelu’s cheek leaving a slight trail over the perfect pale skin. Aethelu dabbed it with a handkerchief.

  Aethelu had been friends with Mike for over 60 years, although if you looked at her, you’d never guess. She, like all the Custor Lux, never aged. Aethelu had been stuck at a perpetual twenty-years-old for over six hundred years. The Custor Lux, or Guardians of The Light, as they called themselves, had all stopped aging the night they took an Elixir made by Aethelu’s father, Aldrich. Thirteen of the twenty that took the Elixir still lived, still retained their youth six centuries later.

  Anais tore her eyes away from Aethelu and turned her attention back to the priest, squeezing Aethelu’s hand as she did so. This elicited a small smile from Aethelu, but she kept her eyes to the front of the church. Anais had hardly known Mike, but she did know his killer.

  Jago Cutter had killed her parents a year previously, and only three weeks ago, had attempted to murder both Anais and Aethelu. Mike had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and unlike the two girls, he did not have eternal blood, otherwise known as The Light, running through his veins. Jago had broken his neck in an instant. Mike didn’t stand a chance against the power of Jago. The Light not only kept a person young but infused them with strength and speed that no normal human could hope to possess.

  The Light was the only thing that had saved the girls that night. Aethelu had suffered multiple crossbow wounds including a severed artery and a punctured lung. Anais’ leg had been broken in multiple places, and she was now wearing a removable leg brace.

  Aethelu had already completely healed from the ordeal, despite being the more gravely injured of the two. Anais was still on crutches. Unlike Aethelu and the other Guardians, Anais was the offspring of a Guardian, her father, and an ordinary human, her mother. Although she had inherited The Light from her father, she did not look like the rest of the Guardians, nor did she share their unusual strength and speed. The Elixir had made all of the Guardians’ hair silver-white and their eyes blacker than the night. Anais had taken after her mother, with dark wavy hair and green eyes, although she shared her father’s tall stature.

  The priest said a final prayer, and the coffin containing Mike’s body slowly disappeared behind a curtain to be cremated.

  Anais just made out a small, almost inaudible, sob escaping Aethelu’s lips, followed by a slightly noisier one from Winnie, Aethelu’s mother. That was the cue for them to leave before anyone took time away from their grief to notice them.

  As Aethelu and Anais had taken the back pew, along with Winnie, Alex and August, it was easy to slip out quickly and make their way back to August’s Range Rover parked by the entrance to the church. They were not attending the wake, and had not been invited. Mike had been the only non-guardian to know their secret of everlasting youth, and they liked to keep it that way.

  The brightness of the sky belied the darkness of the group’s emotions at the passing of their friend, but underneath the sorrow, there was hopefulness for the future. No longer were they subject to Jago and his plan to kill most of the human population. He was safely chained up, no longer able to hurt them.

  August put the Range Rover into gear and drove them through the village back to The Manor where they all lived. Anais looked out of the window at the blue sky and marvelled at her surroundings. Baildon was not the quaint, picturesque English village she had imagined it would be, but was lovely all the same. As she had grown up in Los Angeles, she had entertained the funny notion that all British villages would be full of either thatched cottages or castles. Spending a year in York, before moving to Baildon, had done nothing to dispel her of this notion, with its castle walls surrounding it and Clifford’s Tower, the castle keep in the centre of town. Baildon had been her home for nearly four months now, and this was the first time she was really getting the chance to see it.

  Pretty stone cottages intermingled with more modern housing in pockets of civilisation. They passed a patch of overgrown moorland on which a couple of goats and a horse were doing a good job of eating the excess grass. On the other side of the road, the moorland stretched upwards into a rocky bank, where she could just make out a couple of climbers attempting an ascent up one of the cliff faces. The moorside quickly passed and she found herself back on the road, which she recognised as the one leading to The Manor.

  Apart from a Christmas shopping trip and a drive to York to fetch some of her belongings, she had not been outside of The Manor’s grounds in all the time she had been living there. The reason she had been almost housebound was the same reason that Mike was now dead, and she was on crutches-Jago Cutter.

  His story had started at the same time as The Custor Lux, although he had never been one of The Guardians. Over six hundred years ago, Jago, a co-creator of the Elixir had taken some of it just before the Custor Lux themselves took it. Indeed, he had not even known of the existence of the group until fairly recently, believing he was the only one to take the potion. At which point, for reasons of revenge or whatever, he demanded more of the Elixir. Elixir they didn’t have. Aldrich had forgotten how to brew it, but he did know that one of each of the ingredients was hidden inside a necklace owned by each of the Guardians. Fourteen Guardians, Fourteen necklaces in all. Anais, not one of the original Guardians, had inherited hers from her father when he had been killed.

  F
or three months, they had locked themselves away at The Manor; whilst Jago did everything he could to get more of the Elixir from them, even threatening to unleash a deadly disease upon the whole world. Thankfully, not long after he tried murdering Anais and Aethelu, he was captured in Florence, Italy, where they had located him through an art gallery he ran. He’d spent the last weeks chained up in the cellar of The Manor, the family not knowing what to do with him, now that they had him. He was a murderer and had caused much suffering to them over the last few months, not least, Anais, who had suffered the most at his hands. Her parents had been killed, she had nearly died, and she had been forced to undergo gruelling fertility treatment to conceive a child to give Aldrich the DNA he needed to eradicate the virus Jago was set to unleash upon the world. Tragically, she’d had an early miscarriage and lost the three embryos with which she had been implanted.

  Anais was not a killer, and neither were Aethelu and her family, whom she lived with at The Manor. Unfortunately, letting Jago go was not an option as he was so dangerous, but they could hardly hand him over to the police with near immortal blood running through his veins. This left them in a quandary, a quandary that was still not solved all these weeks later. Anais had not seen him since the night he had tried to kill her, and even then, he had been wearing a mask and a voice changer, disguising his features completely. The thought of meeting her parent’s killer made her feel sick, so she avoided the cellar, as did most of the rest of the household. Aethelu’s other brother (and Alex’s twin), Rafe, had volunteered for the job of looking after Jago until the household could come up with a solution as to what to do with him. ‘Looking after him’ basically meant keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn’t escape. That was the reason that Rafe had missed Mike’s funeral. Other noticeable family members missing from the funeral were Aethelu’s older sister, Arcadia, who had moved back to her villa on the French Riviera the day after Jago was caught and Aldrich, Aethelu’s father, who proclaimed he had never met Mike and hated funerals, and so had chosen to stay at home. Andrew, who apart from Anais, was the only non-family member to live at The Manor had locked himself away in his room ever since the love of his life, Judith, had been sent home to Kenya, weeks before.

  The houses were now beginning to thin out, and large expanses of greenery told Anais that they were nearly home. Sure enough, very soon, The Manor’s gates came into view, opening as if by magic at a touch of a button, pressed remotely from the Range Rover. The driveway was impressive, flanked by huge oak trees on either side. For the first three months of Anais’ living here, they had been bare, stripped of their foliage by the harsh winter and covered in the relentless snow that had turned The Manor’s grounds into a winter wonderland. Now, though, small green buds were appearing on the trees, a promise of greenery and leaves to come. Further up the driveway, the oak trees gave way to cherry trees lining the driveway at the front of the house. The Manor itself was as impressive as ever. A huge stone façade, turned almost black with years of pollution, complete with huge oak doors, was the view that greeted Anais as the Range Rover pulled to a stop in front of the house.

  August jumped out of the driver’s seat and ran around to open the passenger door for Anais. She would have preferred Winnie to sit in the front so she could sit next to Aethelu and comfort her in the back, but the thigh length leg brace and the crutches made it impossible for her to fit anywhere but the front passenger seat. August practically picked her up out of the car and set her down gently on the gravel, unnerving her slightly, but saving her the awkward manoeuvring to get her leg and crutches out without bumping anything.

  Aethelu came running around to be by her side as they made their way up the stone steps to the main entrance. The crutches made it impossible for the pair to hold hands, but Aethelu gently laid her hand on Anais’ back to guide her up the stone stairs.

  Once inside, Anais had another two flights to go to reach her bedroom. Three weeks ago, Aethelu and Anais had been living in Aethelu’s art studio, a little self-contained building complete with a small kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. However, it was so cold in there, that they had to run a heater all the time, and it was becoming apparent that the heat was damaging the hundreds of pieces of artwork adorning the walls. That, coupled with Anais’ badly broken leg, had led her to the decision to move back into her room on the third floor of the huge manor. It was the same room she had spent her first few weeks in at The Manor, and although she didn’t particularly like the windowless austerity of it, she had to concede it was a damn sight warmer and more comfortable than the studio.

  She was offered the room adjoining Aethelu’s but, at the time, Arcadia was still using it and Anais didn’t have it in her to move all her things for a third time in as many weeks.

  Aethelu had argued until she was blue in the face for Anais to move into Arcadia’s room. Her reasoning was logical. It was only one flight up from the ground floor, had an en suite bathroom enabling Anais to use the bathroom without having to walk down a corridor (which she currently did), and most importantly, was nearer to Aethelu who had the adjoining bedroom. Anais told Aethelu that it was because she didn’t want to put the family out by moving her stuff, but the truth was she felt bad for Andrew. She’d not seen him since Jago had been caught, but at night, she could hear crying coming from his room next to hers on the third floor. Every night before bed, she had knocked on his door and told him that she was there if he needed a shoulder to cry on. He never answered, but she didn’t want to break her promise on the off chance he changed his mind.

  Aethelu spent so much time keeping Anais company, that it didn’t really matter that they slept a floor apart.

  Tonight, though, Andrew was far from her thoughts. Her beautiful Aethelu was upset and it broke Anais’ heart to see her in such pain. When they finally got to Anais’ bedroom, she sat herself down on the four poster bed, her leg awkwardly stuck out in front of her. Aethelu sat on the edge of the bed and buried her face in her hands, sobbing loudly. Anais moved over, with some difficulty to Aethelu’s side and put her arm around her. With her other arm, she gently removed Aethelu’s hat and placed it on the bed next to her. Aethelu turned and hugged Anais, burying her whole body into Anais’ open arms and her face, wet with tears into Anais' neck. There, she shook gently with each sob, until she could cry no more. Anais pulled herself back a little and placed her hand under Aethelu’s chin to raise her face so they were eye to eye.

  Aethelu’s face, dripping with tears was still the most beautiful face Anais had ever seen. Despite the black mascara running streaks down porcelain cheeks and creating black smudges around almond shaped eyes, she still looked other-worldly, almost too beautiful to exist in real life. Her black eyes usually flecked with diamonds, now sparkled only with tears, and her lips were now colourless, the lipstick having been smeared all over Anais’ jacket.

  Anais pulled a tissue from her pocket and did her best to wipe away the tears and remnants of makeup from Aethelu’s face. Aethelu smiled a small smile and leaned forward to kiss her lightly on the lips.

  They had not kissed since the night of Mike’s murder.

  It was the softest of touches, Aethelu’s lips brushed hers for a mere second, just the whisper of a touch, but Anais was surprised to feel the familiar tingle. There was a time that just the slightest touch from Aethelu would send lightning bolts through her. Not the electric impulses of passion, but much more, thanks to the power of The Light. Time and control from Aethelu made these shocks lighter and lighter, but grief could also lessen The Light’s power. However, the feelings running through Anais now were more to do with her own feelings rather than any Elixir. She could feel her heart rate rising, just that small kiss had sent shudders through her and for the first time in weeks she felt completely awake. She desperately wanted to kiss Aethelu again but held back waiting for Aethelu to make a move, content with looking into her endless diamond flecked eyes. Aethelu didn’t move, and Anais could wait no more; she moved forward to kiss her ag
ain, this time with the passion she was feeling. Aethelu moved as if to embrace her but then moved back.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t,” she said and moved away from the bed. “I’ll go and get your dinner.”

  With that, she left the room, without a backwards glance.

  Anais was confused. Had she done something wrong? She had felt the electricity in Aethelu’s lips, so despite the grief she was feeling, she had wanted the kiss. Maybe Aethelu just needed more time to get over everything that had happened over the last few months.

  She waited patiently on the bed for Aethelu to bring up her dinner, which would have been cooked by Winnie. It was bound to be delicious; it always was. She would then sit and have a heart to heart with Aethelu, talk to her, let her cry.

  A few minutes later she heard footsteps and the bedroom door opened slowly. She was surprised to find, not Aethelu with her dinner, but Rafe, holding what looked like a plate of coq au vin on a silver tray.

  “Aethelu asked me to bring this up for you,” he said, laying it on her bed in front of her. The tray also held a cut crystal glass filled with wine and a small pink iced cupcake for dessert. She had been right. It did smell delicious and looked perfect. Winnie could win awards for her cooking, should she ever have the notion to enter a competition.

  Crushing disappointment and a little fear spread through Anais, not because of the food but because Aethelu hadn’t brought her dinner. Aethelu always brought her dinner. She would always go straight back down and bring a second tray for herself, and they would eat together and then just chat for hours until either of them was too sleepy. Then Aethelu would take both trays back down to the kitchen and head to bed herself.

  “Where is she?” Anais asked.

  “She said she was not hungry and decided to go to bed.”

  “But it’s only five o’clock!”

  “I assume the sadness of the day has been a bit too much for her. She had known Mike for sixty years. In some ways, before you came along, Mike was her best friend, her only friend, really.”