“Hi.” Gwen smiled but Marek could see the gazillion questions burning in her eyes.
“Human, firebinder, or immortal?” Lia asked.
Gwen’s brows rose. “Excuse me?” She looked around.
“Shit.” Lia covered her face with her hand in embarrassment. “Sorry…I mean…I thought.”
“I’m not quite sure what’s happening.” Gwen’s gentle laughter rippled through the air and caught Marek at the pit of his stomach. “Can someone tell me what’s going on?”
“The gentle version or the in-your-face one?” Hank piped in after swallowing what was inside his mouth.
“I don’t understand?” Gwen looked at him in bewilderment.
Marek expelled the breath he held. “Gwen.” He stopped when her eyes snapped to his. “You wanted to get a sample of my blood to test.”
She nodded slowly.
“Well now you can get more blood to test not just from me but from Rogue, Lia, and maybe even Faith?” He turned to Faith.
“Absolutely.” Faith turned to Gwen. “I’d like to know more about what I have. I’ve been in the dark for so long and I need to know why.”
“You too?” Gwen looked at Rogue in dismay. Marek couldn’t stop the satisfaction that settled in the centre of his chest at Gwen’s disappointment.
Rogue looked at her in regret. “It wasn’t my place to say.”
“Why does Gwen need to test our blood?” Lia queried looking at Gwen apologetically before returning her attention to her brother. “You didn’t finish telling me about what Gwen was into.”
“Gwen worked on a project for Sebastian Pharma determining the properties of a firebinder’s blood.”
“Firebinder,” Faith exclaimed darting a glance at her mate then at everyone. “You mean there are more? Where?” Her voice softened in puzzlement. “Why did my grandmother hide it from me?”
“We don’t know if there are others, or even if they are still alive.” Marek admitted. “But I may know why she kept it from you.”
For the next hour, Marek told them how Gwen came across a firebinder’s blood and of her escape to New Orleans.
“My team…former team was given four vials of blood and study its properties,” Gwen supplied the missing pieces of Marek’s story. “Pretty straightforward until we were stumped unable to pigeon-hole this particular blood to any of the know blood types. Whether they belonged to what you keep saying…firebinder, I wouldn’t know.”
“Oh they’re real.” Hank ambled to the sideboard putting bread, cold cuts, and cheese into one of the plates provided.
“Don’t tell me you’re one.” Gwen’s voice revealed both disbelief and trepidation.
“Hundred percent human.” Hank turned to face her then pointed his bread at the rest. “They’re not.”
A headache was starting from the back of Gwen’s skull. Human, firebinder, or immortal? What world had she stumbled into? How could people who lived in the realm of imagination be here in front of her? She must have jumped into the rabbit hole, but Marek was real. She could vouch for that because no amount of wild imaginings could have conjured the kind of passion he had coaxed out of her. Everybody else was real, flesh and blood she didn’t need to pinch them to see if they disappeared. And Cynn Cruors? What was a Cynn Cruor?
“Please someone, tell me what’s going on,” she said closing her eyes as she pinched the bridge of her nose. The pounding in her head was moving to her temples. “Don’t keep me in the dark.”
“You’re not the only one in the dark, Gwen,” Faith said extending her arm across the table to squeeze Gwen’s hand. “I am too. Partially.” She turned to Marek. “I don’t know how I came to have fire in my blood. I always believed it to be a curse even when I healed people.”
“You’re not cursed.” Marek bit out.
“Tread carefully towards my mate, firebinder.” Zac’s eyes glittered and Gwen gasped when it changed to the colour of a fiery setting sun. “I may be pleased that Faith has found her kind, but we can easily leave and you’ll never see us again.”
Gwen’s eyes widened when Marek’s own eyes glittered with its own form of flame. It was the same colour she saw during the altercation in the hotel.
“You are not cursed, Faith,” he said, the tension in his voice easing and reasoning. “How can a gift from Hephaestus be a curse?”
“Who Vulcan?” Air whooshed out of Gwen in disbelief. “That’s Greek mythology!”
“Roman,” Zac corrected his glare still on Marek. “Hephaestus was the name given by the Greeks.”
Gwen pushed her brow up giving in to Zac’s superior knowledge.
“I’m sorry, Gwen.” Suddenly Zac’s shoulders relaxed as he exhaled. “Look, we are all tense and I can understand that. We need to clear up a lot of things for you. I know this is all too much and I can understand your skepticism.” He paused. “Clouding facts in myth had its purpose then as it does now. It keeps things…truths, if you will, that should not be discovered by man. If it did, it would bring about destruction. Something like Pandora’s Box.
“I’m a scientist and just like you, trained as a doctor. I had the luxury of time to accept who I was, something you, unfortunately, don’t have. In time, I hope that you will accept that the truths that you see here were some of what myths protected. You were allowed to witness this for a reason.”
Gwen looked at all of them. Except for Hank who kept eating without a care, all of them were serious. She glanced at Marek and caught a glimpse of loneliness in his eyes before it disappeared. She didn’t know what it was but suddenly she had an overwhelming desire to ease his burden.
A whole new world was opening up for her and those who inhabited that world were willing to take her in. To allow her to see who they were. Yet in a few days, she’d be flying home to England then to Scotland, and this would all be a dream. Perhaps she should take Zac’s advice. It was time to set her skepticism aside and embrace what she was being allowed to see.
“Tell me who you are,” she requested softly. A lightness settled in her chest when she saw relief in Marek’s eyes.
Zac and Rogue remained standing. Gwen saw the look pass between Marek and Lia. Lia’s mouth curved softly before she eventually nodded and looked at Rogue.
“Thousands of years ago, the gods intermingled with mortals.” Marek stared at his hands in front of him on the table. “One of those gods was Girru whom the Greeks called Hephaestus. Son of Zeus and Hera, he was cast off from Olympus because of his deformity.”
“Not exactly tolerant were they,” Hank said after gulping his ice tea. He shrugged at everyone’s pointed looks. “Just saying.”
“Go on, Marek.” Zac inclined his head.
“Hephaestus made his home in a subterranean forge. He was peace loving. Kind. He left his forge to see what mortals had done to the world. The tribes then had spread all over the earth - nomads who would eventually find their place in what was then Pangea. Girru or Hephaestus gave man the gift of fire. As he was teaching mortals, his gaze fell upon a girl from an unknown tribe. Hephaestus named her Immaru. Sumerian for ‘light’ because she was the first light he saw that didn’t come from the fire he made. The first light of his life when he fell in love with her. But he refused to show himself.”
“Because of his disfigurement.” Gwen stated at once sympathizing with a mythical god.
Marek nodded. “Girru showered Immaru’s tribe with good things. Delicious food roasted with spices only the gods had, warmth in the coldest winters. The tribe gave thanks to the gods but Immaru was clever enough to know that it wasn’t the gods but just one god. So after one such celebration, she decided to keep watch, hiding herself in a crevice by the mountainside. When Girru came, Immaru showed herself. He ran away.”
Hank opened his mouth.
“Just try it,” Zac, Rogue, and Lia said at the same time, a steely edge in all of their tones.
Hank slouched back on his seat, chuckling. “You and all your mind reading. Okay, I’ll shu
t up. Don’t want my sorry ass booted out before the story’s done.”
Marek only shook his head as though resigned that Hank wasn’t going to take things seriously.
“Immaru chased after him. His deformity made him slower and she caught up with him. She begged him to stay and talk with her.” He paused for effect. “How could Hephaestus refuse the woman he loved?”
Gwen’s heart tripped when Marek darted a glance at her, a blush blooming on her cheeks and warmth spreading throughout her body.
“Immaru and Hephaestus became inseparable afterwards. She refused to see his deformity and neither did her tribe. Perhaps they had never been touched by the ravages of war or the evil residing in men’s hearts, but those were halcyon days for the god of fire. It made him even happier to know that Immaru was also in love with him. For the longest time, the god of fire lived among men and became one. And the entire time he was with them, the people never aged. Never died.
“But civilization was fast encroaching and Girru was being called back by the gods. It broke his heart to leave Immaru. Immaru became inconsolable. But he had no choice, Girru became Hephaestus once more and had to follow Olympus’ bidding. He was leaving his children with Immaru and the tribe who had treated him with nothing but love and kindness. He therefore named this nameless tribe Girru Igisum—the Fire Gift. In keeping with the tribe’s name, he also infused everyone with his blood. Fireblood. As long as anyone was a descendant of the first people of that tribe, they’d have fire in their blood. The god taught them how to use it to heal but also gave them a warning. Because of his gift’s high temperature, it could also kill. The only way they could heal someone without killing at the same time was to be near soil because the earth’s crust had the power to regenerate after absorbing the disease.”
“And if there wasn’t any soil nearby?” Gwen asked.
“Then the person being healed dies.” Faith’s voice took on a tone as though she had lost someone.
Gwen felt Marek’s eyes on her. He was talking to everyone but regarding her with a tenderness that reached into her very soul. The sensation caused her to inhale deeply. Marek was making her feel as though she belonged to him. If looks could touch, that was exactly what she felt Marek was doing. The rare emotion soon cleared. He was the storyteller once more.
“Rogue, Lia, and I are descended from the Girru Igisum.” He turned to Faith. “As do you.”
Gwen had so many questions running through her mind. Were they also be immortal?
“No we’re not,” Marek spoke no longer surprising her. “But we live very long lives.”
“How long?” Gwen asked. Heaven forbid he also read her thoughts when it came to him and nearly groaned aloud when his mouth twitched to stop his sexy grin. She felt her lady bits respond and her pulse tap dancing in the centre of her chest. Did he have to do that while he was relating their ancestry? Sensual looks and historical discussions was such an unusual combination.
“Dad and Mom were in the two hundred year old mark when they died,” Lia informed her while she shifted in her seat to get more comfortable. “They hardly looked a day over forty.”
“Then that means…” Faith had an incredulous look before she gasped at Zac.
“You’re semi-immortal, if there was such a word.” Zac’s eyes crinkled in laughter before he bent down to kiss her.
Air whooshed out of Gwen’s lungs. She was at a loss for words. Not a day over forty? It was like finding the Fountain of Youth that so many coveted. She slumped back in her chair.
Wow!
Marek continued telling the Firebinders’ story. Soon Gwen’s apprehension dissipated. She drank in his every move, the deep cadence of his voice, those firm soft lips that had kissed her from where heartfelt words now came out, and the emotions that flickered across his face. It was then Gwen knew the depth of Marek’s commitment to finding those who were like him. Her initial annoyance for being left on her own for three days gave way to understanding. She was beginning to see Marek in a whole new light, not just as the successful playboy whom she had given herself to with abandon within twenty-four hours of knowing him. Marek was passion and dedication personified, a man who took his duties and responsibilities to heart.
He glanced at her as though she was the only person in the room. Everything paled in comparison save for Marek talking. She watched the way he stressed a point with his hands, watched him bow his head while he spoke or when his brow furrowed in concentration. She watched his face fill with the sorrow he hid underneath the surface when he retold the story of how his parents had died en route to handing over the Firebinders Chronicles to the next Chronicler. His anguish opened the gates of her own sadness at the memory of when she lost her mother. And his obedience to duty at the expense of his own happiness pierced her heart.
“I told Griffiths about the firebinders being killed by what we collectively call the Shadow.” Marek ran his fingers through his hair before he turned to Faith, smiling grimly. “I asked him to warn you but since I only met him in an altered state.” His soft laugh came out in a huff. “I always thought the state Janka put us in was more symbolic than real. Then you arrive here…to New Orleans.”
“It’s also too much of a coincidence that Gwen is studying our blood and being hunted for her research,” Rogue spoke up from his place by the patio doors.
“Don’t remind me,” she groaned.
Faith sat back on her chair, a laugh whooshing out of her. “I always thought what I had was some genetic fluke not a gift from a god.”
“I always believed you guys didn’t exist,” Gwen quipped. Soft laughter scattered across the room.
“We better call it a night,” Zac said, putting down his glass after having four glasses of iced tea. “You’re right, Gwen. I’m getting to like this cold brew.”
That broke the serious mien in the room.
“I’d like to help you with your research. You will lead, of course.” Zac eased Faith’s chair back so she could stand without any hindrance.
“Partners, Zac. I’d prefer we treated each other on equal footing,” Gwen replied. “Then you can tell me more about the Cynn Cruors.”
Zac grinned as he nodded. “One day at a time, Dr. Fraser. One day at a time.”
Gwen stood also excusing herself to go to the vestibule when Faith surprised Lia and Marek with a grateful embrace. Her lips curved to an unconscious smile when she saw Luke draw out a resigned breath at seeing his mate embrace another man.
She turned away from their cozy group feeling that her presence was an intrusion. She went out the door standing on the porch and stared at the dark street shivering as the cold licked her skin. She eyed the houses ablaze with oversized Christmas decorations interspersed with tiny jewelled hued lights of purples, blues, and greens.
“It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?”
She half twisted to see Faith join her. She inclined her head.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever believe it,” Gwen admitted. “I might just wake up later to realize that it I’m still in Austin and it was all an unusual dream. That you’re all human, not people with real fire in the blood.”
“The first time I used my…gift, I didn’t believe it myself,” Faith spoke while she exhaled. “I was scared, afraid of what had happened to me. I was fortunate that my grandmother was with me when it happened. She guided me and taught me how to harness what I had for good. But she also told me not to let people know. But damn…I didn’t know we could live that long! Now I don’t know whether Grandma Alice was really ninety when she died or whether her age was more than that.”
They both laughed softly, silence reigning between them.
“Then why call it a curse?” Gwen asked after a while.
“Because I killed a child.” Faith met her gaze. “I didn’t know that I had to have soil near me to transfer the disease into. Gran and I hadn’t gone that far yet. The siphoning process backfired. The disease re-entered the child bringing my fireblood with it.”
“Oh, Faith…”
Faith smiled sadly. “Indeed.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”
Faith squeezed her hand. “I know you didn’t.” She paused. “I know it’s hard for you to understand and believe what Marek has told us, but give him the benefit of the doubt. Give all of us the benefit of the doubt.”
Gwen squeezed back, inclining her head. “It’s the least I can do. Besides, if I have to know more about you, I’ll need to learn to accept who you are.”
Faith smiled her thanks. “So…you and Marek…”
“There’s nothing between us.” Gwen’s words came out as fast as warmth crept up to her face.
“But?”
“But what? It’s nothing really.” She hugged herself, rubbing her upper arms against the cold night air.
“If you say so.”
“Faith, in a few days, I’ll be gone, back to the UK where I can hide and lie low for a while. Marek and I will go our separate ways so it will be difficult for anything to happen between us.”
“Is that what you want?” Faith’s warm eyes enquired gently.
“What I want is not important,” she said, heaving a huge sigh. “What’s important is to determine how your blood can heal.”
The sound of approaching footsteps caused them to turn around, and Gwen’s gaze immediately sought Marek’s. He gave her an assessing look that caused her to turn away if she wanted her pulse to continue beating normally.
“Let’s go, Gwen.”
Her heart took a nose dive at the sound of his voice. It was muted and unemotional but that was not what affected her. It was the loss that skimmed the surface. It must have been hard to retell the story of how his parents died and yet he did so in order for them to understand what they were all up against. That selfless act tugged at her heartstrings. He could be an arrogant ass, but she also saw that he was a man fighting the demons of guilt who had the unenviable task of making sure that his own kind remained safe.
The bike ride to the house was uneventful. Even though their bodies touched, Marek kept himself aloof from her, his body tense beneath the arms she wrapped around his waist. At that moment, Gwen felt that she had lost him. She wanted to rest her cheek on his back but she didn’t think he’d welcome the intrusion. She wanted to try to ease his hurt, surprised at the urge to help carry a part of his burden. But the distance between them, even as their bodies touched was, an invisible chasm Gwen had no hope of bridging.
Firebinders: Marek (The Firebinders Book 1) Page 14