by C. J. Pinard
Jonathan thought back to all the times he had been chopping wood and had nicked himself, or been at work and accidentally cut himself. One time he had hammered a nail almost all the way through his finger. It hurt like hell, but by the time he got home from work that night, he took the bandage off and the injury was completely gone. He thought maybe he had perhaps exaggerated the extent of the injury.
“Face it, my love, you are going to have a very long and happy life with me!” she kissed him on his stubbly cheek. “Now take the rest of those clothes off and come to bed and keep me warm.” She winked one of her big blue eyes at him.
Jonathan shook his head and followed her to the bed, smiling.
CHAPTER 11
∞∞∞
Portland, Oregon – Present Day
As they reached the Murphy Architecture building, Thomas breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled into the underground parking structure. He made a mental note to secure new license plates for the van and have it painted a different color. He wanted no connection to a headless corpse found in a burned-down trailer.
When Thomas opened the back door of the van, Jonathan was still lying in the same prone position, still looking dead, or at least very much asleep. He and Kathryn both helped carry him to the elevators and up to the top floor apartment. They stripped his clothes off and laid him on his bed, wearing only his boxer shorts. As Kathryn removed his shoes, she carefully peeled off his sock and inspected his left foot.
Pointing to it, she said, “This is the foot that was on fire. It appears the skin is healing, but after that three-hour car ride, it should be a lot more healed than this.”
Thomas looked the charred skin and made a face. “Yuck. And you’re right.”
Just then, his cell phone rang. He looked at the screen: Malina. He hesitated answering it, as he dreaded having to lie to her, but he and Kathryn had spoken at length on the way home, devising a story to protect Jonathan. They knew the Zie wouldn’t be so lenient with him this time. They also agreed that if Jonathan lived through this, he would owe them. Big time.
He took a big breath. “Hello, sweetie.”
“Tom! Tell me, how is Jonathan? I’ve been sick with worry!” Malina said, excited.
“I’m sorry. We’ve been dealing with all of this. As of now, we believe he is alive, but barely. I can hear a very faint heartbeat, but it’s hard to feel one through the skin. It’s been about four hours and he’s still warm, so we are hopeful.”
Malina sighed. “Oh, thank the heavens. I have to give a report to the council; they’ve been waiting for news with baited breath! They are very, very concerned about their very first Immortal. They are sending up prayers for him as we speak.”
Thomas said, “Thank you, Malina. Tell them we appreciate it.”
“So tell me, Tom, what happened? Leave nothing out!”
He took a deep breath, preparing to deliver his lie. “Basically, we located where Kathryn was being held by Sheena. It was a small mobile home park on Winchester Bay about three hours from here.
“When we arrived, we saw Sheena standing outside a small, old-looking travel trailer. She informed us she wasn’t giving Kathryn up until we had freed Seth and Malachi. Well, we obviously did not have them with us, and she became angry, immediately shifting into the panther. While Jonathan fought with her, I went into the trailer to look for Kathryn.
“I found her inside, wearing some sort of dog shock collar. I escorted her out quietly, hoping Sheena would be too busy with Jonathan to notice, but I was wrong. She lunged at us both but we got out of the way in time. As soon as she was inside her trailer, we closed the door and locked her inside. As we stood outside, contemplating how we were going to get an angry, two-hundred pound cat out of a trailer, the thing burst into flames. We all ran toward our van as the trailer suddenly exploded. I drove while Jonathan and Kathryn jumped in the back. We surmised that Jonathan hit his head so hard on the leg of the van’s bench seat, that it broke his neck.”
Malina said, “Wow, incredible you and Kathryn are okay. I assume Sheena is dead?”
“Very,” Thomas replied.
“Do you need me there?” Malina asked.
Thomas grinned. “No, sweetie. Kathryn and I are going to care for Jonathan the best we know how, and the minute something changes, I will call you immediately.”
“Okay then. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Thomas replied, hanging up.
He walked back in the room. Kathryn was sitting at Jonathan’s bedside, holding his hand.
“Don’t bother, I heard the whole thing. You did the right thing, Tom,” she said, looking up at him.
He just nodded.
“Now, let’s get this damned collar off,” she said, pointing to it.
“But it’s going to shock me if I try again,” Thomas said, sighing. “Oh well, here goes nothing.”
He reached over, and to his surprise, it did not shock him when he grabbed it. He was able to easily unfasten it at its clasp. He tossed it in a nearby trash can.
Kathryn grinned. “I had a feeling it wouldn’t shock you.”
“What? How?”
“When I saw Sheena outside smoking a cigarette, I saw my phone and Taser on her camping chair. I also saw a small remote control next to them. I figured it controlled the collar, and being as it was blown up with the trailer…”
“You knew the collar was useless now,” he finished for her.
“But you’re a sweetheart for risking it again,” she said, winking at him.
∞∞∞
Pascal and Mike returned from the blood bank just before dawn. The house was quiet and all seemed to be as it should. They could see their two new recruits sleeping it off on the front room sofas.
Mike went upstairs to retire in his bedroom, as the threatening dawn was starting to tug at his resolve. Pascal went into the bedroom he shared with Angel and found her sleeping soundly. He sniffed the air and could smell that something wasn’t quite right.
He stripped off his clothes and slipped into bed next to Angel. She smelled of some sort of feminine cleansing product and her hair was wet. He decided he was tired and was imagining the stranger’s smell in his room and fell off into a dreamless sleep. His last thoughts before drifting off to sleep was how excited he was to see if Bryan could resist the sun in three days’ time.
∞∞∞
Newcastle, England – 1814
Five years had passed since the day Jonathan had married Emma, and they were still as much in love as two newlyweds. Marie had married two years ago to a local farmer and was looking forward to a life on the farm with lots of children. Jonathan’s two younger children were in their early teens and were a great help around the house. His youngest son, Ben, was learning his father’s carpenter trade.
Jonathan had had dozens of encounters with vampyres and shapeshifters in the past five years. His first encounter with the shifter that night outside the pub had taught him two things: One, never, ever assume anyone is human, and two, learn the weakness of your opponent. He became very skilled in killing most Fae he ran into. And to his surprise, he found he actually loved his new job, almost as much as his ‘day job.’
As Jonathan was lost in his thoughts about the Fae, Emma walked into the room.
“Hi, what are you doing?” she asked.
He smiled at her. “Working, of course.”
He had a large shaft of paper spread out over the table, as usual, and was drawing elaborate sketches of the guts of a building.
“What are those things?” Emma asked, pointing to lines that seemed to disappear beneath the surface of the building.
“Pipes to pump water into the building, so we don’t have to use outdoor wells and pumps,” he replied.
Emma grinned. “Wow, can we get that here?”
“We’ll see,” he laughed.
Emma paused for a minute, not saying much. Jonathan looked at her to see her smile had been replaced with a pained expression.
He stood up and grabbed her hand. “What’s the matter?”
Her face reddened and she looked away.
“Come on, tell me! You are scaring me.”
She turned and looked at him. “I’ve just returned from seeing Dr. Porter. It turns out I’m… I’m… I’m pregnant, Jonathan.”
He immediately smiled, picked her up, and kissed her.
She breathed a sigh of a relief.
“Why were you so worried to tell me, my love?” he asked.
“Because! This changes everything, Jonathan. I did not want children. Now I will be mortal. You are going to have to stop taking the elixir the council made for you.”
Jonathan frowned and looked down, but said nothing. He had been told by Grace, the head sylph, that he would have to take another dose of the Enchantment soon. Now he was in quite a quandary.
Truth was, he was quite happy with both of his jobs. He found he was good at what he did, both with a hammer and a knife, or bow and arrow, or whatever else he had on hand to use. He had once used his large, flat putty knife to take the head off of a vampire who attacked him on his way home from work when it had gotten dark early. He laughed at the memory. He did, however, still consider the tree branch his best improvised weapon, even though he had no idea what secrets he was unlocking that fateful night in the forest, or how his life would change forever.
A week later, Jonathan and Emma found themselves in the council’s presence once again. Jonathan was giving his yearly account of what had transpired in his small area of the globe over the past year.
Grace was clad in a long, straight-cut green dress and was barefoot. She was chairing today’s meeting.
“Two shapshifters, wolves, tried to attack a woman and her baby as she walked home from the market on a Friday afternoon,” he started. When nobody said anything, he looked around the room and continued. “I shot my arrow through one shifter, killing her instantly. The second wasn’t so easy. He ran at me when he saw what I did to his mate so I had to fight him off by hand. I eventually broke his neck and buried him with his partner out in a field.”
Grace raised her eyebrows at him then nodded, indicating for him to continue.
“About six months ago, I was at the pub in town and as I was checking the outside, I saw a couple around the back engaged in… activities. It seems to be a popular spot for that… anyway,” he cleared his throat nervously, “I was going to leave but I saw someone slowly creeping up behind them. The vampyre bared his fangs a little too quickly and I was able to run up behind him and snatch him by the hair and wrestle him to the ground. A stake through the heart took care of that one,” he laughed.
Jonathan continued with more stories of killing Fae, thirty more to be exact. When he was done, all the sylphs in the room, Emma included, applauded. Jonathan turned red and smiled.
“Well done, well done indeed!” Grace said.
Jonathan lowered his gaze, then said, “May I ask a question?”
“Of course.”
“You once said that I was going to get some assistance. I don’t mind this job, but aren’t there supposed to be… others like me? You said we’d be working as a team, but I’ve yet to meet any.”
Grace smiled. “Yes, well, we have created other Immortals but I’m afraid their talents are needed in the regions in which they live. If you, however, bring us a suitable human, we will consider enchanting him, too.”
“Thank you, queen,” he said, bowing slightly.
“No, thank you, Sir Jonathan. You are an invaluable asset to the sylphs, humans, and the Fae in general. However, we need to inform you of a new set of rules that we have drafted. It’s basically a treaty between us and the shapeshifters and vampyres. As of today, you will no longer be killing these Fae, but instead, bringing them to us for punishment.”
Jonathan’s mouth dropped open. “What? Surely you jest. What am I to do with them? How shall I contain them? How shall you?”
“We are in the process of building containment facilities here on the island that are equipped to handle their… needs,” Grace replied.
Jonathan shook his head. “But what am I to do with them in England? I have no jail cells, and Emma isn’t always available to create a portal for me. Shall I ask the local jailer to contain them for me, and risk the policemen’s lives?”
“You are a carpenter, are you not? I’m quite confident you can work out how to build cells. But know this – the vampires are very strong – not as strong as you – but strong enough to break through most restraints. We’ve discovered through other Immortals that iron seems to be impenetrable to them.”
“And are you to fund this jail cell? I do not have money for the materials. I am still earning my humble wage as a carpenter, but I’ve begun to make a little extra by designing buildings through drawings and selling them to other builders. Still, it is barely enough to pay for my family and myself.” A slight panic began to rise in his voice.
“Of course. We will give you whatever funds you may need for materials. You needn’t worry, Jonathan. We would never allow you to be in financial distress. You are a great asset to us, invaluable in fact,” Grace finished.
Jonathan smiled.
“Now, next order of business.” Grace looked behind her to the refreshments table, then to the front row of the meeting. “Esther, would you please?”
Esther – Elizabeth’s younger sister and replacement since she left five years before to become a mother – rose from her spot, her beautiful purple dress flowing behind her got up to the table. She performed the Enchantment ritual, the vial of vampyre blood, three drops of her own, and the incantation over the liquid. She dumped the small cup of the elixir into a steaming mug of hot tea and walked it ceremoniously over to Jonathan.
Bowing slightly, she handed him the teacup with both hands and smiled. “Drink, keep your Immortality and your service to us.”
He glanced nervously at Emma. She looked upset.
“Perhaps I should have mentioned that my sweet wife, Emma, is now with child. We have not yet discussed whether or not I will continue taking this. I do not wish to stay young while she grows old.”
Grace walked over and hugged Emma. “Congratulations, honey. I’m so happy for you.”
Emma smiled weakly at her and nodded.
Grace turned her attention back to Jonathan. “It does not appear my sister is very far along. Perhaps you should wait until the baby is actually born before you make such a life-altering decision? I assume this baby was not a planned event, and should something happen to her pregnancy, you will not be planning another? She will not lose her immortality if she does not give birth to a live baby.”
Jonathan wasn’t sure where she was going with the conversation, but he didn’t like it. “Are you suggesting…?”
Grace looked appalled. “What? Absolutely not. I’m merely saying that you should not make such a rash decision right now. Extending your life another five years is not going to make a big difference in the long run, especially since you are already seven human years older than her, isn’t that correct?”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” he answered.
“Wonderful,” she smiled. “Drink up!”
He looked down at the tea and remembered what happened last time he drank it. He could only hope the heat or the tea had weakened the taste and the painful effects, but he wouldn’t know until he drank it.
Every sylph in the room held her breath until he put the cup to his lips. Once he did, they all shouted, “Ad vitam longan!”
He pushed the liquid down his throat in one fell swoop. He quickly handed the teacup to Emma, remembering the dangerous mess he had made the last time. He felt the liquid race through his veins like fire, and perhaps because he expected it, or perhaps the tea and heat did help tone down the pain, it wasn’t as bad this time. His large hands gripped the edge of the chair and he dipped his head down, his blonde waves falling over his handsome face, squeezing his eyes shut. He breathed deeply several
times, trying not to cry out. No way was he going to wimp out in a room full of women.
Once the burning stopped, a huge shudder rocked his body and then he felt calm.
“All is well?” Grace asked hesitantly.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Wonderful. We will see you in a couple of months for a report on the holding cell you’re building. Meeting adjourned!”
Jonathan put his hand out to Emma. “Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER 12
∞∞∞
Portland, Oregon – Present Day
Three days had passed since they brought Jonathan home. Neither Thomas nor Kathryn had left the apartment. Jonathan was still unconscious.
Thomas was in the kitchen cooking spaghetti. He was intermittently watching the 49ers game on the flat screen mounted to the wall. The Niners were beating the Saints twenty to three and it wasn’t even halftime yet.
“Tom!” Kathryn screamed from the back bedroom.
Thomas jumped and dropped his stirring spoon onto the white floor, causing the spaghetti sauce to spatter, mimicking a crime scene.
He picked up the spoon with a curse and set it in the sink. “Coming!”
He walked into the room to find Jonathan stirring, trying to sit.
Thomas hurried over to him. “Oh, thank God, we’ve been worried sick. You died, man!”
Jonathan blinked a few times, a groan floating from his mouth. He reached up and grabbed the back of his neck. “Ow!” he said, pulling his hand away.
Kathryn grinned a little, even though she knew she shouldn’t. “Yeah, you uh, kinda broke your neck in the van.”
He looked at her and his eyes got big. “How in the hell did I do that?” he croaked out.
“We don’t know. After we torched the trailer, you flew so fast into the van, we think you hit your head on the bench leg as you dove in. Sometimes you really don’t know your own strength!” Thomas said, his eyes alight.