“No, each immortal—that is destined to be—has a different gift. There are some few that carry the same but most are unique to their personality.” I started to feel that dizziness again from all the information. I sighed with a small shake before continuing on. “You never need sleep but can eat human food for sustenance. You are nearly indestructible except for the weakness of your heart.” I paused as I tilted my head to see his face, if only just another glance. Though the angle was comfortable, I found I had missed seeing him. “However, with this new power came immortals who chose the seduction of these very abilities. Those who become a part of their own kind of lifestyle, one that indulges an acquired taste for blood over human food. But immortals like you were created to battle this evil in order to protect humanity.”
I exhaled. “Did I get it all right?”
“Perfectly.”
I knew to sum it up with simplicity I could say that Liam was a unique being who kept humans safe.
“You know, these other immortals sound a lot like vampires. Acquiring blood and living forever.”
“Where do you think the legend of vampires came from?” he said with his head tilted and eyebrows raised.
“You invented the vampire?” I said. Really?
Liam grinned with amusement.
“We created the fantasy for humans so that they might still be aware of the danger from our kind while still being unknowingly ignorant of it all.”
“Why would you risk telling humans some of your own abilities?”
“At that moment in history, it was perceived that it would benefit them.”
“Did it?” I asked. I turned my neck back to let myself gaze on the water. My eyes had adjusted enough to the dark to help me enjoy the sight.
“Over time we found it was just in the humans’ best interest to keep them unaware. But we noticed the legend of vampires had started to become of more interest, so we decided to expand our own myth.”
“Yeah, I think even babies in the womb have heard about vampires now,” I said.
Liam chuckled. “Yes.” He said this as if that was good, needed even.
“But why, once you wanted to keep your entire existence a secret, did you encourage it?”
“For that very reason.” Liam chuckled. “We discovered we could use our own growing myth to our advantage by helping to steer the course of vampires throughout literature, letting the human imagination catch on.” Liam began to trace the veins on my right hand with his finger. “Did you know that most early poems and novels about vampires were written by an immortal? Even Bram Stoker wrote Dracula with the help of an immortal muse.”
It seemed the growing the popularity of vampires wasn’t by mistake. It was on purpose.
“So why did you make up that vampires can be staked through the heart?” I felt a nauseous worry. “The very same place your own weakness is.”
I felt his forehead lean into the back of my head, taking in the scent of my hair. “Emma, you needn’t worry about any human. Not one has the strength to even penetrate an immortal’s skin. Our only threat is that of our own kind.”
“Oh,” I said. I’m not sure why I even worried so much about it but I did know I was relieved to hear of one less threat. Maybe it was too many of the movies and TV shows that proved anyone had the ability to kill a vampire—including humans. Now I had to start to register that most of the myths I—and the entire world—had learned about vampires were by the design of the real beings out there.
“So did you help create other things like werewolves and ghosts, too?”
“Yes,” Liam said. I had been grinning until the words made me shake my head. Jeez. “We left the creatures to be named by humans, but kept inspiring their imagination with new abilities of our own and that of pure fantasy.”
“So you were making it harder for humans to even put the clues together.”
“Over time our buildup of the supernatural in human society has given us anonymity,” Liam said.
I found myself amused by that. “It’s almost like hiding in plain sight then.”
“Almost.”
I was looking down at my hands awkwardly. Over the years immortals had influenced humans away from their existence. To keep humans in the dark of what really roamed their towns. “There’s so much thought that goes into exposure for your kind.”
“Yes,” Liam said. “If humans knew of our existence and the true danger that looms over them, they would only be paranoid. And that kind of fear would only bring out the worst character in your kind.”
“Then why did you let me discover you at all? It doesn’t make sense.”
I began to think of how many things he could have done to simply cut off the search. To keep me from ever discovering what he was. To keep me ignorant. But he only made the path easier. Why? The silence caused my stomach to feel uneasy.
“I should be able to like any other. But I can’t. As much as I know what I must do, I can’t break away from this bond I hold to you. Something I have never understood myself even with my years of existence.”
My eyes shifted forward onto the river with a squint
“What bond?”
“Love,” he said.
Every muscle except for my eyes froze on command.
“What?” I said.
“I have never known it myself and I was defenseless because of it.”
He talked as if it was an illness and he had no immunity to protect himself against it. I was still trying to get past the word. Surely it wasn’t what I had heard.
Finally I moved out of his arms in order to face him as I sat back on my knees. “Wait, you’re saying that you couldn’t keep this secret from me anymore because—”I couldn’t finish.
“Because I love you, Emma.”
I didn’t feel my legs move, but I knew I was now standing by how I looked down at Liam.
“No, you don’t.” I shifted my gaze to the right and back. “I mean, how could you? I’m just a plain girl, nothing special. My brother is the one who is worth the charm in my family. How can you love me when there must be plenty of others like you? Are you even allowed to love a mortal?”
So much that came from my mouth felt wrong, and yet I didn’t know how else to process without just talking.
“You’re quite wrong. Your soul is so unique that even you don’t see it. A beautiful flaw.”
“Great,” I said.
My head lowered, only for my chin to be met with the warmth of his fingers lifting it back up to his gaze, as he stood.
“We all carry flaws, even immortals. It’s those that make us who we are. I would not love you any other way.”
What had I done? How did I find myself here? Love wasn’t real. Watching my parents settle with the convenience of commitment was what was real, not finding the other half, not finding someone you could bare your soul to with acceptance. No, I didn’t believe in that. It was crazy to believe someone could fall in love so fast. That was only in the movies.
But then why did I stand here feeling so open and free? Why did I feel the rush of adrenaline course through my blood with ecstasy as I stood next to him? Why did I feel a prick of excitement in my stomach at the sound of his voice? Why did I stand here looking not into an immortal but a piece of my soul, the piece that had been floating around from the moment I was born, in search of its counterpart? Why did chills run through me at the sight of his face and disappointment at his absence?
I felt nearly breathless as my eyes bounced off Liam and toward the grass beneath him. I had been mentally lifted into the air and the only thing that was pulling me to the earth was him. I looked to his unrelenting gaze. His eyes beamed light with vulnerability that I knew carried into my own. I moved forward with him, only to soon find mere inches of a gap between us, before his right hand swiftly moved to rest upon my cheek. I closed my eyes, turning the left side of my face into the warmth.
A dizzy spin in my stomach was the display of my fear as I opened my eyes to see his gaze
a finger’s length away from mine. I gulped as my mouth opened and my lips quivered. Why did I fight it? I didn’t know, but I knew I was losing the longer I looked into his emerald glow. All my doubt had begun to fade with the morning darkness. I raised my hand to place on his right cheek as my eyes bounced with his, letting my soul in deeper. The words bubbled up my throat with resistance until finally they could hold no more inside.
“I love you,” I said frightened of the meaning. “I don’t know how that is possible. But I love you too. I do.”
I felt almost breathless after the words left my mouth. A numbness swarmed me as I watched Liam. There was his warming smile and lifted cheekbones that invoked my own.
With his lean but a second ahead, I followed along with unplanned choreography until our lips met. A sudden prick of electricity ran through my body just as my lips parted with a growing warmth that had begun spreading outward. I wrapped my arms around his neck, letting my body gravitate into his hold on my face.
As his lips pulled away, his eyes still hovered in sight of mine. The pricking of my skin began to travel up until I thought my feet would physically lift off the ground.
I loved Liam Alexander, something I had slowly begun to discover back on my first day. I had just fought the pull of it, the pull of what I couldn’t possibly think ever existed. But now that it was finally an escaped emotion I was happy to admit it. I was happy to let it fill me up. It was irrevocable and I was exposed to the core with its unconditional truth. Yes, I was in love. I was in love for the first time. I was in love with an immortal.
Boy, was I in trouble.
12. Lack of Control
I watched the new pink and orange colors of the sky begin to reflect off the river. Liam’s arms were wrapped around my torso as my head lay back onto the comfort of his shoulder blade. We sat together in a blanket of warmth as the morning sun continued to creep upward into the sky. I wasn’t thinking about anything besides just simply being with Liam—regardless of what he was. In this moment he was someone who loved me and I was someone who loved him back.
“I need to take you back,” he said.
I knew he was right but I didn’t want to leave. “I can stay. I’ll call and come up with a reason for leaving, say my brother came for me.”
I tilted my head up to see Liam smile as if he knew the last suggestion would fail me.
“I think it’s best we avoid taking advantage of your brother. It’s already enough to win his favor.” He moved a strand of hair out of my face. “Besides, I have some business I need to take care of while you sleep perhaps.”
My neck turn as my chin raised to see his eyebrows lifted with the suggestion. I could feel the lingering exhaustion of my eyes as if he had been holding it off.
“Immortal business?”
“More or less. But it is almost time for my watch aswell.”
He looked to the sun as if it was the clock he needed, a clock he could always rely on. “Watch?” I asked.
He grinned as I turned my whole body to stand with support from his arms. “I’ll explain more later,” he said. I pursed my lips as he stood in a swift motion I almost missed with my blink.
He stepped back with his hand out, ready for the same exchange that had taken me here. How funny my mindset was this time around.
I sighed a little begrudgingly but ultimately willing. It’s not like this was all I was going to get, like I couldn’t have another moment like this tomorrow. Well, maybe, I pessimistically thought. It seemed there was just something in the air that made me question if I would get another moment. The old saying, too good to be true, rang through my mind, at least until the moment he swooped me into his chest. From there I was only taken in by the thrill of his run.
Liam was right, perhaps I would sleep, something that felt evident once my feet touched the ground. My eyes had begun to resist the opening I was now forcing upon them. I was close to sleep, and the warm cushion of his body didn’t help. He must have known because not but a few seconds later did my feet lift back from the solid ground. My body was pushed forward through my open window without any help from my own muscles.
Once inside my room, with the balance of my own weight, I turned to see his gaze on me. He reached his hand forward to swipe my cheek, down to my chin.
“Sleep well, Emma.”
I couldn’t help the bright glow from inside me that lit my face with a smile. I heard the amused laugh in my mind that finally understood the term positively beaming. I silently exhaled at the sight of Liam’s beautiful face in the morning light. Even the strains of his blonde hair seemed to shine with the sunbeams. I followed his eye’s shift to see the screen I had previously knocked out, lifting from the ground and reattaching itself, without the use of Liam’s hands, before the glass window then began to slowly seal itself shut. One last swift motion from his index finger had the two locks closing on his will. I looked back to the see the glow of emerald that simply beckoned me, a glow that had been there and was now gone just as quickly as the speed of light.
I continued to stare at the empty space he once filled before I turned away and walked toward my bed. My heavy lids had made me grateful for the holiday. God only knew how long I would have made it through a school day before falling asleep in class.
I pulled my sweater over my head and threw it onto my desk chair, at least I attempted to before it slumped onto the carpet. I rolled myself inside of my comforter, forming a cocoon of warmth. As my head rested on the softness of my pillow, I moved my left hand to feel the new curve of my lips.
Yes, the more I learned about Liam the more comfortable I felt, but that didn’t hide the same fear that came with the realization of Liam’s existence. It was like discovering the shadows in the dark you had always feared were real, discovering there really were things that went bump in the night. And now I found myself right in the middle of that. All because I loved him.
The very word echoed in my mind as the center of my chest radiated a false heat. It was as if I had already loved him a thousand lifetimes before, as if I had already known he was my other half and that I was his.
Whether or not he was eternally obligated to fight his own kind didn’t matter. Whether or not he moved the things he saw with his mind didn’t matter. Whether or not it was fair to either one of us didn’t matter. Why? Because it was out of my control just as much as it was out of his. I only had one thought that lingered with my ability to hold control over my eyelids.
Why does fate have to be such a bitch sometimes?
13. Torn
I woke feeling quite refreshed. My brow rose in surprise when I looked for the light through my window only to find a darkened sky. In fact, my room was plagued with shadows, only letting in the small light that came from the half moon. I turned to the blue digital numbers on my clock to notice I had slept through the day. I was like some mortal vampire. I laughed in my mind at the thought, at least until I thought of where the term had come from, immortals. I could never look at a vampire film or book the same. It would be like a historian not being able to ever enjoy any inaccurate artwork of their studied subject, always hearing the inner critiques that reminded them it was false.
Just the mere awareness of immortals made me shiver slightly. How many where out there? Hundreds? Thousands? Suddenly I jumped at the sound of a knock on my door.
Once my sigh had helped calm the jumpy nerves, I said, “Come in.”
The door creaked open cautiously before my mom poked her head through the door and the frame. She was grinning with happy surprise to see me awake.
“You slept all day, Em. Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t fall asleep until really late.”
She nodded with understanding. Her eyes had widened with her smile. It seemed she was glad to see me for the first time today.
“Did you get your project finished?”
I was resisting my own grin. “Yeah, I finally did.”
“Good.” She wa
s satisfied for me. “Well, your dad and I are going out for dinner.”
I shifted my eyes with surprise. “Really?”
She shrugged with her eyebrows twitching.
“Well, it is our anniversary.”
“Oh, I completely forgot that was today.”
Remembering my parents’ anniversary was like remembering Valentine’s Day. It had become just any other day to me. Why when I didn’t have a significant other would I notice a day about love? But then again maybe it was more because the celebration felt pretentious for my parents. Not about real love, just doing what they were expected as two people married, in love.
“Well, have fun. I’ll just find something in the fridge.”
“There are some leftovers from Saturday in there if you’re interested.”
“Thanks,” I said.
Her cheeks rose as her hazel eyes focused on me. There it was clear that any enthusiasm for the night ahead had been lost years ago. I dropped my eyes to stare at my bed to avoid her seeing my pity as she shut the door.
As I watched the headlights back out of the drive, the growl of my stomach caught my attention. It was enough motivation to bounce my body with a momentum off the bed. I found the leftovers easy enough in the fridge with much delight before microwaving them. I nearly burned the roof of my mouth with my stomach’s impatience, but the slight discomfort was overpowered by my filled stomach.
On my way down the hall I stopped in the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. Looking up into the mirror, I caught the swarm of color that was planted on my cheeks. I couldn’t resist a gentle touch as if I would feel the rush of blood under my fingers.
Walking into my room, my eyes were led straight to my bed. The red stood out on the white down comforter. When I was close enough, I could see that it was a single long-stemmed budded red rose lying delicately over a white piece of paper.
I reached cautiously, for roses were known for their thorns, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had been removed. I lifted the flower to my nose to inhale the pedal scent before my free hand swooped the small note up to read.
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