“I don’t understand why he’s taken what he has. I guess I can understand the graduation picture, but why the picture of my mother?”
“Could he have thought it was you?”
“Grandma said I look like her, but I think I look more like my grandmother than anyone else.” She shook her head. “The music box, no idea. The doll, I barely remember the man who gave it to me. He was a good friend of my grandfather’s, but after I turned seven or eight, I never saw him again.”
Keegan regarded the bed where the doll had sat for years against the pillow. She really didn’t know why she’d kept it. “Do you remember anything about the man? Did you see him often before he stopped visitin’?”
Cass shrugged. “I guess he came around a few times a year, usually for holidays and cookouts and such, but the doll was the only gift he ever gave me that I remember.”
“Do you remember what he looked like?” Keegan turned away from the bed and led her back to the front foyer. Her bedroom had been the last place they’d searched.
“No, not really. I have some vague impressions of him, but that’s all.” She pulled her hair up and away from her neck before dropping it. It was warm in the house even though the temperatures weren’t much above the forties, but it had been sunny during the day and the old house had trapped the heat. “I remember he was really tall, I thought he was a giant, and talked funny. But seriously, Keegan, what does that tell us? Even now everyone is tall, and I’m taller than I was at eight.”
“True, was he dark or fair?”
Cass scrunched up her nose and closed her eyes. She hadn’t thought of the guy in years. “He had light hair that I remember, I can’t tell you if it was blond or just light brown. I don’t remember his eyes. He tried to be kind, but I always got the feeling he was hiding something.” Again she shrugged.
“I didn’t like him much. He came on too strong, wanted me to like him. He scared me a little.” She picked up a candy dish that sat on a table near the door where she usually tossed her keys and mail. Turning it in her hands, feeling the cool, smooth porcelain, she tried to put in words what she hadn’t thought of in years. “Even as a kid, he just seemed too pushy.” She looked at Keegan as she put the dish down. “Do you know what I mean?”
He nodded and touched her hand where it rested on the dish before dropping it to his side. “Yes, although I haven’t been around mortal kids much, it’s been my experience that children have an uncanny ability to pick up on an adult’s sincerity. Do you think he was your father, then?”
Cass shook her head. “I don’t know why, but I don’t think so. I wish I knew if my grandfather’s friend is of any importance, because if he’s not, I still don’t get why the guy who kidnapped me has taken what he has.”
Leading the way out the door, making sure it was locked up tight and putting his hand on the small of her back as he led her back to the rental car Keegan said, “I’m afraid this is a mind you don’t want to understand, pet. I’m beginning to think there’s a very good possibility this Aeterni has been around too long.”
Settling into the car and pulling her seatbelt in place as Keegan started backing out of the driveway she asked, “What does that mean?”
Keegan glanced at her, his smile rueful in the light from the car’s dash. “Immortality can be difficult to handle. It doesn’t happen often, but through the centuries some Aeterni have become mentally unstable if they’ve lived too long. Just like mortals, Aeterni have human failings, and in some cases, human mental problems. Living forever and watching friends and family die, watching the world change around you and not bein’ able to do anything about it can take a toll on some Aeterni. We watch the world from a distance, and if we’re around long enough, we begin to see mortals making the same mistakes over and over. Nearly destroying the world through their own arrogance and their innate ability to turn a blind eye to the lessons of the past.”
Cass looked around her neighborhood as Keegan pulled out onto the street. The homes were older, but most of the homeowners were young working people who were in bed this time of night on a weekday. “Do these Aeterni go crazy?”
“Some do, yes. It’s not easy, Cassie, to sit back and watch the world change without mortals learning to make significant changes. And since no woman has ever been an Aeterni, it’s impossible to not watch loved ones die. Aeterni can love just as hard and just as thoroughly as mortals and losing loved ones is harder for us. Losin’ children even worse. On an extremely rare occasion a son is born Aeterni. That joy is a two edged sword, though. Many times, for whatever reason, the relationship between son and father deteriorates until they avoid each other. It’s rare that fathers and sons even remain friends let alone anything closer.”
“I never thought of that. That’s terrible. I can certainly understand how insanity can occur. Does it happen often?”
“No, fortunately, it’s very rare. Although rare, I’ll not rule it out in this case. In the meantime, I won’t be makin’ any firm assumptions until we have something more concrete to base our thoughts on. If this Aeterni is insane, he’ll be very dangerous. We must be on our guard.”
Cass nodded as they parked in the hotel’s parking lot. Oh great, now she had to worry about insanity as well as living forever. This whole immortal thing just kept getting better and better.
They made their way silently to the room after having stopped in the lobby to get the key card from the woman behind the desk. They hadn’t gotten to South Bend until ten-thirty and it was nearly two. The woman didn’t seem to be any more awake than Cass was. As the elevator slid open, she put her hand up to cover a yawn she hadn’t been able to suppress.
“Don’t worry, pet, it won’t be much longer before you can grab some shut eye. It’s been an extremely long day but we’ll be able to sleep in since we don’t have to be to Doc Bell’s before afternoon. It should give us a chance to catch up on some of our sleep, and we can always sleep on the plane.”
Cass looked at him. He was right, she was exhausted, but he had to be even more so. She hadn’t suffered burns and smoke inhalation, he had. “Why don’t you look tired? Your day’s been worse than mine.”
The doors opened and he put his hand on the small of her back and led her to a room just down the hall from the elevator. Smiling he said, “I learned a long time ago how to handle long nights. I’m tired, make no mistake, but I’ve found the better part of the day and night restful enough I can handle it.”
“Oh.” She entered a beautiful sitting room with four doors leading off of it. Two presumably to their bedrooms, one to the bathroom and one to the pilot’s room.
“You’ll get used to it, Cassie. It’s only been a little more than a day since you died.” He put a knuckle under her chin lifting her face so she could look him in his beautiful chocolate eyes. Without a word, he bent his head and his lips took hers in a luscious, enticing kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and standing on tiptoe wanted the kiss to go on and on.
Pulling back, he smiled a crooked smile that brought out one dimple. His eyes were almost black as he gave her one last quick kiss. “Goodnight, a stóirín.”
Stunned, Cass watched as he crossed to one of the bedrooms and softly, but firmly closed the door. Her body humming from his kiss, she realized she could very well be falling in love with the man. She dropped her head onto the palm of her hand. That was so bad, not to mention stupid.
Jesus-jenny, I’m in really, really big trouble.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dr. Bell had been gone for nearly an hour. Even though Keegan stood beside her, rubbing his hand gently across her back in an obvious effort to relax her, Cass just couldn’t come up with anything to say.
She hated examining tables with a passion. She always felt like a little girl sitting on them. At least this time she wasn’t freezing since she’d been allowed to keep her clothes on. Dr. Bell, or as Keegan kept calling him, Doc Blood, had done a cursory examination, which included taking a couple of syringes of bloo
d, and said she seemed healthy as a horse as far as he could tell. She wanted to laugh, she’d never been healthy as a horse her entire life. She’d always had allergies, or wintertime colds, and quite obviously, chickenpox.
He also made sure to repeat what Keegan had been saying ad nauseam, she was too skinny. Yeah, she got that. Five days without food had taken its toll. Dr. Bell told her to eat high calorie foods for a few weeks and she should be good as new in less than a month. Years of fighting to keep a healthy weight and not get fat didn’t mean she’d suddenly forget and start pigging out on chocolate. Although that did sound wonderfully appealing, especially if things continued at the present stress level.
The door opened and Dr. Bell returned. Cripes she was never going to get used to this new world. In her experience, learned, sage old doctors were supposed to be little gray-haired men with a road map of wrinkles. Not a striking man of thirty who stood six-two if he was an inch, with compassionate gray eyes. The man looked like he should be entertaining women dressed as a pirate and shaking his butt for a bachelorette party rather than sticking them with needles and taking their blood.
She so did not belong to the Aeterni race. These men were the most incredibly handsome men she’d ever seen. Not to mention that every one of them appeared to be steeped in wealth and culture.
“Good news, you’re immortal,” Dr. Bell said. Even his voice sounded like sultry nights.
“We knew that, Doc. Did you find out anything else, then, besides the obvious?” Keegan asked.
Cass wanted to smile. The doctor might’ve been a hunk and a half, his voice might have been bedroom sexy, but it was Keegan that made her melt.
Keegan slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close. Was he marking his territory or just trying to make her feel more relaxed? Either way, she appreciated it, and rested her head against his broad shoulder.
“I just thought you’d like to know this isn’t a temporary thing, Cassandra, you are indeed immortal. The first woman ever.”
Cass was gripped with disappointment. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized just how much she was hoping it was a temporary state. “Then there’s no way to reverse it?”
“Did you want to?” Dr. Bell sounded surprised at the very notion. Apparently he thought she should be looking forward to living forever.
“It seems, Doc, that Cassie’s probably the only female who wants to grow old.”
“Oh, then I’m sorry, Cassandra, I can’t see how that will be the case. I won’t rule out anything, however, so I’ll say there’s a very slight possibility your body could reject the change and you’d either revert to being a mortal Daughter, or it could fight what it perceives as a threat. I have no data to work with, this is unknown territory.”
Well, that could be good or bad news, but... “What do you mean my body could treat it like a threat? What would happen to me?”
“You could get anything from mild to advanced cold symptoms. There’s also a very slight possibility the change could create an unknown disease and your organs could begin to shut down one by one.”
Keegan hugged her tighter. “She could die?”
Dr. Bell rubbed his chin and directed his answer to Cass. “Maybe, but since you’ve been going through this transition for days now, I’d think if that were the case, your body would already be reacting to what it would see as an attack. Since you’re perfectly healthy and immortal, I’ll stand by my earlier pronouncement that you’re now fully of the Aeterni race.”
Before Cass could comment, he continued, “Making you immortal is relatively easy, really, since you already have everything you need as a Daughter, or perhaps now we should be calling you an Aeterni Daughter.” He smiled, amused by his description of her.
“Easy?” Keegan kept asking the questions, for some reason Cass seemed unable to get beyond the fact that she was truly, completely something she’d never thought existed, let alone would become.
“Yes. Aeterni came out of the genetic soup with two gene mutations that are passed on to all direct children. In females the active gene is paranormal, in males the active gene is immortality. The paranormal gene remains dormant in males and the immortality gene remains dormant in females.”
“So, that’s why everyone was so sure my father was an Aeterni, because of my telekinesis? Which I’ve lost, by the way.”
He looked at the file in front of him, and turned a page. “You’ve lost your telekinetic ability?”
“Yes, I haven’t been able to use it since the first injection.”
“Hmm.” Dr. Bell flipped through a couple of more pages. “I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to. The paranormal gene appears to still be activated. Perhaps it’s just a temporary condition based on your body getting used to its new state.”
He closed the file folder and propped his hip on the table next to him. “Anyway, you need an Aeterni for the mutations. They’re direct transfer only, which means no one but the Aeterni can pass them on, and historically, it’s passed to the first born, be it male or female. As a rule, no other children will do.”
Keegan rubbed his hand up and down her arm. “What about identical twins? I remember meetin’ a pair back around the eighteen hundreds.”
Dr. Bell nodded and ran his hand across the back of his neck. “Those identical twins are the only ones we know of. However, in Russia, Yuri Charkov has just had his eighth son by the same wife and he, like the first born, is Aeterni. This is the first time a non-first born has been Aeterni that we know of. It could easily have happened before recorded history or knowledge, before we kept track of who was where.”
“Why wasn’t I informed of this?” Keegan asked.
“Because it was only two days ago and I’ve been rather busy. I sent an email to Derian this morning. With new technology and the world getting smaller, there should be fewer mysteries in our world.”
Dr. Bell turned back to Cass, and smiled reassuringly. “In the meantime, you, my dear Cassandra, are a giant mystery I’m dying to solve. Just how did he do this?”
Cass looked at him. “Since he kept injecting me with something that looked like red liquid, I’d say he must have changed my DNA. Or at least, that’s what Keegan said.”
“As I said, he just made use of an already present gene mutation. To do that, I’m going to guess he used a retro virus to activate the dormant gene.” He waved his hand around. “But that’s the simple explanation, the actual procedure has to be much, much more complicated. The compounds he used, where did they come from and why did they activate one gene without shutting off the other one? Aeterni are not like mortals, nothing in our physiology suggests such a procedure is possible even with today’s medicine.”
Dr. Bell’s eyes lit with excitement. “You do realize, my dear, that with both your paranormal and Aeterni genes activated you are a creature we’ve never seen in our world. This makes you very special, indeed.”
He turned to Keegan. “I agree that the change had to have been made by an Aeterni. One who I’d hazard to guess has made a life’s work out of finding this ability.” He rubbed his chin “But to what purpose? Beyond the scientific value, that is.”
“Derian and I think it might be so he’s not alone, so his wife won’t die on him.”
“Yes, yes, but still, he’d have to have a Daughter to do that, and obviously Cassandra doesn’t know him, so why? Why her, why now, and most importantly how?”
“We believe he knows Cassie’s a Daughter even though she doesn’t believe she knows him. As for how, we want those answers as badly as you do.”
“When you get them, let me know. Now Cassandra, I need to run DNA tests just to have a complete workup. I’ll get the results back in a week, maybe we can figure out who your father is.”
Straightening, he smiled and gathered up the file folder from the table. “We’re done for now, I’ll call you when I know more.”
Keegan helped Cass off the table and followed as Dr. Bell led them back out to the reception
ist’s desk.
“Thanks, Doc, I’ll—” Keegan’s phone rang, sounding like an old fashioned telephone that used to have a bell in it. He moved away into the waiting room to answer it.
At the office door, Cass turned to Dr. Bell. “Thank you, doctor. I do have one more question.” She looked down, embarrassed. How was she supposed to ask this? Why would she have even wondered to ask it?
He put his hand on her arm, a comforting gesture telling her he knew she was nervous about asking her question. “What is it, Cassandra? I’ll do my best to answer, but at the moment my answers are very limited.”
“I understand. Since he changed my DNA, or activated a gene, or whatever he did to me, do you think I’ll still be able to have children?” Even immortal, she should be able to leave the bookstore to her children.
“I don’t know, Cassandra, I really don’t. According to Keegan you died completely, Aeterni never do that, no matter how much it might look like we do. I don’t know what that did to your organs.”
“But I came back from the dead. I healed, even my eyes healed. I don’t need glasses anymore.”
He held up her hand, showing her the scar she’d gotten as a kid when she’d scraped the back of it on a barbed wire fence. It’d healed jagged and left a long white indented scar.
“Not everything healed. On an Aeterni, there would be no scarring, ever. I’ll let you know what I find out. I took enough blood to do quite a work up on you. I’ll run a fertility test, but when you have more time, we’ll do a more thorough exam. One way or the other, I’ll get you your answer.”
“Thank you,” she said as Keegan came back over to her.
“That was Nilos. Derian’s convenin’ the Circle of Ghadan at Bastien’s home in Michigan, and our presence is required, Cassie. I’ll call the pilot on the way back to the airport so he can change our flight plan.”
Forever Love (Circle of Ghadan Book 1) Page 11