***
Once the plane was airborne, they moved from the white leather chairs that were more comfortable than the furniture in Cass’ living room, to the white and black couch that would seat six comfortably. Keegan had explained on their way to South Bend the night before that the jet belonged to MacKenna Brewery. Since he’d just returned from Ireland the night he hit her, it was still available for their use, which was good, since they’d had so much sudden traveling to do.
Cass hadn’t been on a plane this much in her entire life. “You know, I thought I’d be more comfortable this time, since I’ve already been on this plane twice before, but this is so much different than anything I’ve ever done.” Cass carefully took the glass of MacKenna Dark Keegan handed her, scared she was going to spill it.
Keegan smiled, his dimples making an appearance. Although he seemed to smile when he was around her, it was rare the smile was deep enough to bring out the dimples. When he did, it was sexy as all get out. “You’ll get used to it, luv. In a century or two very little will take you by surprise.”
Chuckling, she couldn’t resist saying, “Oh, yeah, and my coming back to life didn’t take you at all by surprise?” She took a sip of her beer, and looked over the rim of her glass as he sat beside her with his own glass of beer. As a rule she disliked beer, but this was actually pretty good.
He looked startled at first, before he laughed, the dimples sinking deep this time, his dark eyes sparkling. “Indeed Cassie luv you’re a most amazin’, and challenging surprise.”
“Good, then we’re even.”
His eyes shone with mischief. “How so?”
“I shouldn’t be the only one crazy surprised that I died and came back from the dead. When did you die the first time?”
Keegan’s smile faded and he looked confused. “Cassie, Aeterni don’t die, not really. Or at least none have before you.”
“That’s what Dr. Bell said, I just thought I misunderstood him. Then why did I die and why did it look like Derian died?”
“Only because your brain would have processed what you saw that way. He didn’t die, not ever. His body continued to function and would have pushed the foreign object out if I hadn’t pulled it out first. His heart would have begun to heal and then beat again in a normal rhythm. At no time did any organ or his brain actually die.”
“Oh.” She looked down at the glass she was gripping in both hands. “Then I didn’t really die, either, right?”
“Yes, Cassie, you did. Your body functions had completely failed. You died, luv, your heart stopped beating completely for longer than a moment. You released your body fluids when you died.”
Cass felt her checks grow red with embarrassment. “Ew, Jesus-jenny, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Yes, luv, but there seemed to be nothing but fluids and not much of that. You were starved and dehydrated.”
“I threw up so much at first and then I just wasn’t hungry, and really there was nowhere to get water from unless I cupped my hands under the faucet in the bathroom.”
Keegan growled low in his throat and the hand gripping the glass tightened until his knuckles turned white and Cass was afraid he was going to shatter the glass. She needed to defuse his anger before he did just that. “Why did I die, then?”
He took a deep breath and loosened his hold on his glass. “I can only surmise that you died because your body wasn’t supposed to be Aeterni, and your death jump-started your immortality. We, on the other hand, can’t die, we’re born immortal. If an Aeterni’s heart is never momentarily stopped before he reaches the age of thirty, the final stage, then the natural process of immortality begins. That being we stop aging and recovery from minor injuries is almost instantaneous. Prior to thirty we still can’t die, but we do age naturally and healing can take days if not weeks depending on the injury. If, for some reason our heart is stopped prior to thirty, we become a premature Aeterni. The full benefits of immortality kick in then, but fortunately we do get to continue aging until thirty.”
“Derian said you died young? How?”
“You’re going to continue calling it dyin’, then, are you?”
“I can’t help it. It’s what it looked like to me. Stopping the heart, even momentarily, generally means dying.”
His eyes flared with anger and betrayal and Cass wasn’t sure whether it was directed at her or something else until he spoke. “My can of piss brother stabbed me when I was but fifteen and he thirteen.”
Cass could feel her eyes grow wide as she gasped out, “Why?”
“Because he hated me and thought he would get rid of me. His first attempt at stabbing me hit me in the heart. If he’d left the dagger there, he might’ve had a chance to run, but the little shite decided one stab wasn’t enough and pulled it out and began stabbing again. I was weak from having been beaten that day, I never got enough food to stave off the hunger, so he managed to stab me three times before I got the dagger from him and returned the favor.”
Cass couldn’t begin to process that much hatred for a sibling. She would have loved to have had a brother or a sister. “Why did he hate you?”
“I was the heir, but because of my mother I’d never inherit. Caedomon wanted me gone regardless. He was afraid I’d eventually take our father’s title from him.”
“Oh, that’s horrid. Who beat you?”
“Anyone who wanted to. It was a form of entertainment to watch me heal.”
Horrified, she stared at Keegan. How could anyone have treated a child that way? And it was clear he was just a child since he said he was fifteen.
He nodded at her glass. “Do you want that, pet?”
She looked at his empty glass and her full one. She’d been so busy talking to him, she’d forgotten to drink. “Ah, sorry, it’s gotten warm, but I did like it.”
He took the glass from her and walked to the sink to pour it out. “You barely took a sip, darlin’, I know when someone’s not a beer drinker. You should’ve told me.”
Cass felt guilty. No she really wasn’t much of a beer drinker, but she had liked the taste she’d taken, it was smoother, less bitter than most beer she’d tasted in her life. “I’m sorry, I got distracted by our conversation. I forgot I had it. But I did like the taste, honest.”
He sat back down and smiled. Taking her hand, he rubbed his thumb across the back, causing sparks of awareness to shoot up her arm. “I believe you darlin’ you’ve had a rough couple of days. Are you hungry, or do you want to wait until we land?”
“I can wait. Maybe we can find a nice restaurant. Do they have pubs or Irish places in Michigan?”
Keegan gave a bark of laughter. “So you want to be tryin’ more good Irish beer, do you? I can assure you, MacKenna’s the best beer in all Ireland.”
Cass smiled shyly, and then realized he’d managed to move the conversation away from him. Oh, tricky, apparently he’d learned the art of directing conversations in his two thousand years. Well, she wasn’t going to be sidetracked any longer. “So, was your brother Aeterni, too?”
Keegan looked momentarily haunted, and Cass was sorry she’d taken his smile away.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Keegan’s eyes darkened with the memory. “As Doc Bell told you, normally there’s only one Aeterni per family. I was the eldest. No, the bloody bastard didn’t get back up. I didn’t know what I was or why I couldn’t die and healed well, but I wasn’t going to stick around for answers. My life had been a living hell because of my healing abilities and I was leaving before things could get worse because of Caedomon’s death. I sneaked back into the house, stole all I could. Includin’ clothes from my uncle since I was as tall as him at fifteen. Once I’d taken everything I could carry, I got as far away from the village as I could.”
“When did you learn you were immortal?”
His eyes sparkled with humor. “When I didn’t age, at about fifty I knew something was very strange with me. I worked hard to continue the education I had as a you
ng boy. I’d no desire to be ignorant. By the time Derian found me, I’d already lived more than fifteen hundred years—”
“Fifteen hundred years? How could you have possibly lived that long without knowing what you were?”
Keegan shrugged and lifted one corner of his mouth in a wry smile. “Who was I to ask, then? Everyone else I’d ever known grew old and died. I didn’t. I accepted that I was different. I always knew that anyway, and I continued on.”
“Oh, well, that makes sense.” She waved her hand, encouraging him to continue his story.
He smiled and shook his head. “Right, then. I was in a tavern waiting to meet up with a man who wanted to talk to me about mercenary work. Before he arrived, this overdressed, especially for this tavern, pompous git with a very strange accent approached my table and pulled my tunic down exposin’ the strange symbol I’d been marked with since birth.”
“Your tattoo?”
He nodded. “My tattoo.” Continuing in his best Derian voice, he said, “‘Keegan, son of Jodec?’”
Cass giggled, watching as Keegan crossed to the small fridge. She could almost hear Derian.
He poured himself another beer before returning to the couch. “I looked at him, surprised. No one knew who I was, but I’d learned long before to hide emotions so I didn’t let on how I felt. ‘I’m son of no man.’ I told him. That was possible, actually. If my mother was right.”
“How could you have no father?”
“My mother was a very superstitious woman. When I was too tall for my age and healed too quickly, she got it into her head a Sidhe had exchanged babes. My da was beheaded in battle a year after Caedomon was born. He didn’t tell her or anyone he was Aeterni.”
Cass nodded. She got her answer, time to change the subject. She could see talking about his childhood was painful, and she understood enough, her curiosity was sated. “I guess that would make sense for the time. So what else happened with Derian?”
She was glad she’d gone back to the topic of Derian when he relaxed. “Derian smiled and laughed, ‘Yes, I was told you’d be a pain in the ass.’ I just stared at him and told him he was interrupting my business. His response was that he could tell me what I was and I’d no longer need to be a mercenary. I thought the man was bloody daft but then he spent the next few hours explaining who and what I was.”
He took a drink of beer and recaptured her hand with his free one, absently stroking his thumb across her palm. The motion both aroused and relaxed her.
“Derian’s daughter, Theiona, an Oracle, had a vision I’d eventually usher in a new era for Aeterni. Visions are nothing if not vague, and no one knew when this great new era would come, but apparently, I was one of the most important players to bring it about. So, of course, Derian thought he needed to get his arse out there and search for me in the Celtic wilds of the north. He was lucky she waited until 1124 to come after me because by that time I’d pretty much decided I wasn’t going to die or age, despite more than one person tryin’ their damnedest to see me dead.”
Pain flitted across his face. “There was always one thing I wanted, but for one reason or another hadn’t managed to achieve, at least not to my satisfaction. It was to regain the position and comfort I’d had the first seven years of my life before I fell out of a tree and broke my arm and leg. Both of which completely healed in less than a fortnight. That’s when my mother disowned me and threw me into the stables.”
He shook his head and took a long drink of his beer. “By the time Derian found me, I’d traveled through the Scottish Highlands, most of Ireland and had moved on into Britain. After scoping out the world to the north, I was slowly moving southward. I’d live places for a few decades, keep buildin’ that fortune even though I never seemed to have enough and then become restless and move on.”
There was so much to take in, so much she wanted to learn more about. So many questions she wanted to ask. She wanted to know more about the boy in the stables, the man who’d lived fifteen hundred years without knowing why everyone died and he didn’t. But the pain that had crossed his face when he spoke of those things warned her not to dwell on them. So instead, she picked another question. “What’s an Oracle?”
He smiled and lifted her hand to softly kiss the palm he’d been stroking. Had he known she’d wanted to ask about his childhood and early years and was silently thanking her for not doing so? Sometimes his understanding was just plain uncanny.
“An Oracle is the Daughter of an ancient Aeterni. Only Gaderian and Andreas can father them. Even with that restriction, there’s always an Oracle in our world. When one grows old, another is born. Both men are the oldest Aeterni known, and they’ll both agree Derian is older, but they won’t say by how much or how old.”
He shook his head. “Before you ask, luv, no one knows how old that is, but it’s very, very old. An Oracle’s a very special Daughter and essential to the well bein’ and future of our race. They have abilities far beyond any one Daughter and live longer than most. The visions that pertain to the future of our race are their most important ability.”
Cass blinked. “Derian’s the oldest immortal alive? Wow, and no one even knows how old that is?”
“Yes, Cassie luv, I can see your clever brain trying to figure that out. All I can say is don’t try, just accept it like you’ve accepted everything else. It’s easier that way, I promise.”
Okay, she could do that. For now. “So only Derian and this other guy can father an Oracle?”
“Yes, no one knows why. I’m not even sure Derian knows why, but I suspect he has much more knowledge into what makes us immortal than he’s willing to explain.”
Her pulse sped up from the gentle caress of his thumb. He was causing the most ridiculous sensations in her. Calming her at the same time he was exciting her. He released her and leaned forward to set his empty glass on the table before settling back and pulling her against his side. Sliding one arm along the back of the couch, he took her hand with the other. The arm he’d draped behind her slid down and his fingers started the same absent minded rhythm on her shoulder as his thumb on her hand.
Lulled by his caresses, she relaxed against his arm looking up at him. “Because he’s the oldest?”
“No, because he was there, or knew the father of us all.” He frowned and looked out the cabin window at the blue, cloudless sky. “I can’t exactly say how I know this, I just do. Derian knows much more than he’s ever told anyone, except perhaps Bastien.”
Cass wanted to ask who Bastien was, but didn’t have the energy. She took a deep breath and felt her body slowly relax. For the first time since she’d woken up in his cabin she was at ease. The fear and worry she’d been carrying around for days on end were subsiding. Knowing she was out of reach of the man who’d kidnapped her was a great relief, even if it was only temporary. She trusted Keegan to keep her safe, but even he couldn’t watch over her every minute of the day.
A little devil climbed on her shoulder and whispered in her ear that having him beside her every minute twenty-four/seven would be just what the doctor ordered. She knew better. They’d come close to having sex exactly twice and she had no idea what’d come over her. But regardless of further sparks and desires, she’d continue to resist the temptation of a repeat performance. Yes, it’d been wonderful beyond reason, but Keegan was still very much a stranger. She’d only known him three days. Although, since the almost-sex was so darn good, what would complete-sex be like?
No, no, no do not take your thoughts there, not if you plan to stay sane.
Cass sighed looking out the cabin window. If she were honest with herself, she knew that even under the best of circumstances (which these were not) she had no interest in being with a man who’d live forever because he’d never want to stay with her.
Keegan Fitzgerald was so not the man for her. He was slowly sharing some of his past, but she had a feeling he’d never, ever share everything. A man who couldn’t share his life with her had never been the man of her
dreams. She hated secrets having been the result of one of the biggest secrets on the planet. Why her mother couldn’t have just said her father’s name once. Or described him, or picked a man she loved and wanted to stay with rather than a freaking one-night-stand.
“Cassie, have I lost you, luv?” Keegan’s sex-on-a-stick voice drew her out the thoughts that always made her burn with anger. At her mother, at the mystery man whose genes she had. Who apparently had been more than just a man, who’d been an Aeterni.
She did have to admit now that she’d met a few Aeterni, she understood what her mother had seen in one. They were a gorgeous group of men, without a doubt. What kind of woman had her mother been to have just fallen into bed with one without ever...?
As she came to the unsettling realization, Cass tried to sit up, but Keegan’s arm kept her in place. She might have skirted the thoughts earlier, but now she had to see herself as she was. “I’m no better than the mother I’ve always hated.”
Keegan’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”
“The woman had a one-night-stand. Apparently with an Aeterni, most likely an extremely gorgeous Aeterni since I’ve yet to see a butt-ugly one. I’ve never been able to understand why she jumped into bed with a stranger. My grandparents weren’t even sure she knew his name.”
“But now you understand her?” He sounded even more puzzled.
“I did the same thing. Almost. And it wouldn’t have been an ‘almost’ if Derian hadn’t called and stopped us.” She was appalled. She never wanted to be anything like her mother.
Keegan’s hand released hers and, placing a gentle finger under her chin, he tipped her head toward him. “Cassie you’re nothin’ like your mother.”
“How do you know?” A thought suddenly occurred to her. Maybe her mother had known many Aeterni. “Did you know her?”
His mouth lifted in a small, humorless smile. “No, Cassie, I didn’t know her. I’ve never taken advantage of any woman. I’ll admit I used to prefer one-night-stands, or uncomplicated sexual partners. However, all my partners knew my rules and understood them. I’ve always been too careful to get a woman pregnant.”
Forever Love (Circle of Ghadan Book 1) Page 12