King's Crusade (Seventeen) (40 page)

Reznak saw Victor shift in his chair and glanced at his friend’s sorrowful expression. He stared down at his own hands. ‘I had sixty wonderful years with Eva. The day she died, I took my own life.’ A humorless chuckle escaped his lips. ‘Victor stopped me from doing it again. It was the only time he ever knocked me senseless.’

A hush descended on the room.

Reznak finally looked up into his goddaughter’s tortured features. ‘I could not bear to see you go through what I experienced,’ he said hoarsely. He reached out and gripped her hand.

Alexa sat frozen for a moment before turning her palm over and clasping his fingers tightly. Her beautiful gray eyes glimmered.

‘That’s why I called Victor and Lucas,’ said Reznak.

Confusion dawned on his goddaughter’s face. She glanced at the two men.

‘During the aborted immortal war that took place six weeks ago, Lucas suffered his seventeenth death,’ Reznak continued. ‘He survived it.’

Shock flared in Alexa’s eyes. She turned to look at Soul. The immortal nodded at her briefly to confirm this fact.

‘The reason why Lucas will continue surviving every death from now on, and the explanation for his other ability, lies in his bloodline,’ said Reznak. ‘Though he is a half-breed, his parents were pureblood descendants of the first immortals. In essence, Lucas carries the combined genes of Crovir and Bastian.’ He hesitated. ‘As does Anna.’

Alexa looked into Anna Soul’s unwavering green eyes. Her gaze shifted briefly to the telltale bump under the immortal’s dress.

‘Reid was also badly injured in the course of that battle. In her attempt to save his life, Anna gave him her blood,’ said Reznak. ‘Reid survived. In fact, he did more than survive.’ He glanced at Hasley’s neutral expression. ‘Since he received Anna’s blood, his healing abilities have increased ten fold. They are now nearly as good as an immortal’s regenerative powers. And not only are his new injuries recovering faster, his old ones are also disappearing with the passage of time.’

Alexa’s breathing froze. Her pulse jumped where his fingers clasped her wrist.

‘Twenty-four hours ago, I asked Lucas and Anna whether they could help Jackson. When I told them about the events that had taken place in the Urals, they came straight away,’ continued Reznak quietly. ‘Since you are aware of their origins, it was only fair of me to tell them about yours. They know of the reason behind Guru Rinpoche’s sect, and about Mila, Crovir’s daughter.’ He looked between the silent immortals. ‘For all intents and purposes, the three of you are cousins.’

Anna Soul spoke for the first time in the frozen silence that ensued. ‘I cannot promise you that this will work,’ she told Alexa softly. ‘But Lucas and I decided it was worth a shot.’ She looked at her husband and took his hand in her own. ‘For us to find someone else to call family is something we never thought would happen again.’ Her voice shook slightly.

‘The decision is yours to make,’ said Reznak.

His goddaughter was motionless for timeless seconds. Finally, she closed her eyes and nodded tremulously.

Epilogue

A
lexa opened the door of
Jackson’s apartment and paused on the threshold of the narrow, familiar vestibule. She lifted the pile of unopened mail from the doormat and tossed it on the hallway table. She stood still and listened.

The place was as silent as a tomb.

She turned the central heating on full blast before walking slowly through the deserted rooms. Marie had been in the previous week and given them a thorough cleaning. Even the study looked pristine.

She headed past the bedroom and strolled into the sitting room, her boots squeaking slightly on the hardwood floor. She looked at the pictures and boxing trophies on the walls before turning to the bay windows.

The frozen waters of the Charles River Basin glimmered brightly at the end of the road. Down on the streets below, the Christmas lights were being taken down.

It was the tenth day of the new year.

A lot had happened since that afternoon when she met her immortal cousins several weeks ago. Shortly after Alexa had agreed to Reznak’s desperate plan, Anna Soul had taken over Jackson’s care. Although the hospital initially protested, Anna’s first-rate qualifications as a physician and surgeon quickly quieted their objections. The combined persuasive powers of her godfather and Victor Dvorsky—and a hefty private donation to the hospital—also helped.

It was Lucas who gave his blood to Jackson in the end. Anna supervised the entire process and stayed by the Harvard professor’s side in the days that followed.

Twenty-four hours after the transfusion, Jackson’s multi organ failure started to rescind. A day later, the electrical activity of his brain was back to normal. Several hours after Alexa left for New York, he finally opened his eyes.

Although her decision to leave initially shocked everyone, Reznak and Anna were the first ones who grasped the reason for her sudden departure. Anna kept her updated with Jackson’s progress over the phone.

Alexa’s days in New York passed swiftly enough. She spent most of them at her penthouse in Manhattan. One morning, she woke to find a saffron-robed figure on the terrace outside the apartment. Her heart lurched in her chest for a breathless moment before she recognized the monk who had been at Yonten’s side when he died.

‘My brother would have wanted you to have this,’ he said when she walked out to meet him. He placed the bō staff in her hands. For the first time, Alexa detected nuances of Yonten’s features in the younger man’s face and eyes. She looked down at the staff weapon in her fingers. When she looked up, the monk had disappeared.

Reznak and Marie came to stay for a while. Though she was not used to having people in her personal space, Alexa was glad for their presence. They kept her from falling apart completely.

The truth of the matter was that she was scared. Alexa King, perfect immortal warrior, was utterly and completely terrified of her feelings for the man she had left in that hospital bed in Boston. The irony of the situation did not escape her. Physically, she was quite likely as invincible as Lucas Soul. Emotionally, she was about as strong as the stem of a crystal vase.

She understood why Reznak had taken his own life after losing his human soulmate. In the days that she had sat at Jackson’s bedside and watched him slowly die before her eyes, she had resolved to do the same, and had thought of at least a dozen ways to accomplish her goal.

Now that Jackson was alive, she did not think she could survive the process of losing him all over again.

A key turned in the front door of the apartment. Alexa froze.

The door opened, then closed quietly.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway. They halted briefly before growing closer. Someone entered the sitting room and came to a standstill.

‘Hi,’ said Jackson behind her.

Alexa stared rigidly at the dim figure reflected in the glare of the windows. She saw him drop the unopened mail on the coffee table and shrug out of a winter coat. Still, she did not turn around. He stopped several steps behind her.

‘This is all still quite strange,’ he said finally. A rueful sigh left his lips. ‘I remember what happened in the cave with Cavaleti. After that, everything went blank for a while. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in Boston, a medical miracle in the making.’ His tone turned dry with his last words.

Despite the whirlwind of emotions threatening to engulf her, Alexa’s lips twitched slightly.

‘I had a very long and interesting talk with a guy called Reid Hasley, as well as the two immortals we met in Paris,’ said Jackson thoughtfully. ‘I believe they are related to you in a...strange and distant fashion.’

Alexa remained mute.

‘After I listened to what they said, I told them to pull the other one,’ Jackson continued with a chuckle, ignoring her silence. ‘When I realized they weren’t kidding, I was dumbfounded to say the least. Then, Reznak visited and imparted some more…how shall I say…critical knowledge about what he had found in the caves in the Urals.’

Alexa saw him rub his chin in a pensive gesture.

‘The way I understand it, Hasley told me I’m now officially a superhuman,’ Jackson mused. ‘I asked him whether this included the ability to jump off tall buildings. He told me to stop being an ass. He also said that if I ever decided to try it, to save him and Lucas front row seats.’

Alexa bit her lip to stop from smiling. She had gotten to know Reid Hasley a little in the few days before she left Boston. The former US Marine and Boston PD detective was not a man in the habit of mincing his words. She could see why Lucas had chosen him as his best friend and business partner.

‘I don’t know whether you’ve spoken to Reznak recently, but I also had some crucial information to convey when we were in that cave in Russia. Unfortunately, Cavaleti kinda ruined my plans,’ said Jackson. He took a step toward her. ‘After I was captured by Kronos, they forced me to translate the artifacts they had in their possessions—at gunpoint I might add.’ He paused and she glimpsed the dry grin that flashed across his lips. ‘It was at that time that I experienced what can only be described as an epiphany. Call it that moment of clarity that comes when some bastard is threatening to shoot you in the kneecap. Anyway, I finally grasped the message behind the Emerald Tablet and the
Mutus Liber
. Of course, I spouted a lot of nonsense to Cavaleti. Not long before you barged into that room where he had me shackled to the wall, I finally told him the truth.’

Jackson took another step. Alexa felt the warmth of his body inches behind hers.

‘The key ingredient to making the Elixir of Life was not the shells of the original immortals.’ His breath stirred her hair as he spoke. ‘It was their hearts. That was the secret to making the Philosopher’s Stone. Despite the fact that the vault where they were stored was not damaged during the attack on Reznak’s lab, Kronos completely overlooked them. The sect never knew of their existence. Needless to say, Cavaleti was pissed.’

Alexa did not dare to breathe.

‘The tablet and the Wordless Book divulged another secret,’ said Jackson, his tone sobering. ‘You see, the power of the immortal races is this. The seventeen pieces of an immortal’s soul physically reside inside their heart. I believe this in turn explains Lucas’s ability to be able to shatter them in a single strike.’

Air left her lips in a soundless rush.

‘Oh, by the way, Anna wanted me to tell you—she’s expecting twins.’

This time, Alexa did not suppress the smile that came to her lips. Her vision blurred.

‘So, is this gonna be the kind of relationship where I do most of the talking?’ said Jackson after a while. ‘Not that I mind or anything, but you might soon get—’ He stopped abruptly.

She had turned to face him.

As she stared at him through a glimmering haze, Alexa realized something momentous.

He was here. He was whole. And he was hers for however many decades they would have together.

His ice-blue eyes once again turned to cobalt. Jackson took her in his arms.

‘Don’t cry,’ he whispered softly in her hair.

THE END

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Author’s Note

Once again, writing this book was a complete thrill-ride of an experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the research aspect of
King’s Crusade
(a bit too much, actually) and thought I’d share some of its interesting “facts and fictions” with you.

There have been several Battles of Narva. The one featured in the prologue of King’s Crusade is the November 1700 skirmish, which saw Charles XII, the young Swedish King, defend his lands against the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great. The city was eventually captured by the Russians during the second siege in 1704.

The tombs that Dimitri Reznak uncovered in the Eastern Desert mountains in Egypt were said to be the precursors upon which subsequent Egyptian dynasties would base the sarcophagus. This is obviously fictional. In 2002, archaeologists discovered the world’s oldest sarcophagus on the Giza plateau in Egypt. It is thought to be 4,500 years old. The final resting places of Crovir and Bastian and the wall of scrolls in the second cave were inspired by the burial chamber of Tuthmosis III, an Egyptian king of the 18th dynasty, whose tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, opposite Thebes (modern Luxor), in 1898.

Alexa King’s trishula birthmark and sai daggers were inspired by the three-pronged spear used by the Hindu deities Shiva and Durga, as well as two gods of Greco-Roman mythology, Poseidon and Neptune.

The
Mutus Liber
, or Wordless Book, and the Emerald Tablet are two of several alchemical texts claiming to outline the process of making the fabled Philosopher’s Stone. The latter is thought to be either a substance that could turn base metals into gold or a potion that could grant immortality; hence, it is also known as the Elixir of Life. A copy of the fifteen color illustrations of the
Mutus Liber
can be found in the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Alchemy and Rosicrucianism both exemplify the concept and principles of Esotericism. Notable historical figures thought to have been Rosicrucians include Leonardo Da Vinci, Napoleon Bonaparte, Rene Descartes, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. The Rosy Cross or Rose Croix symbol of Rosicrucianism can also be found in Freemasonry, for example in the Knight of the Rose Croix, the 18th degree of the Scottish Masonic rite.

According to ancient scriptures discovered in the 14th century, Guru Rinpoche, the lotus-born Second Buddha, was invited to Tibet by King Trisong Detsen during the 8th century AD and was thought to have been responsible for introducing the doctrines of esoteric Buddhism to what was then the Tibetan empire.

The underground cities of Kronos in the Ural Mountains were inspired by Derinyuku, a vast underground city in Cappadocia, a historical region in ancient Central Anatolia, Turkey. Derinyuku is thought to have been built between the 5th and 10th century BC and is one of several large underground cities that has been discovered in Turkey.