Love Immortal (26 page)

She hung up the phone. She walked quickly
back to the car, not wanting to leave Jewell alone for too long.
Jewell was standing in the same place she had left her, her tote on
the ground next to her feet. Ashley couldn’t tell if Jewell had set
it down, or it had simply slipped off her arm. She stood next to
her bag in front of the car staring at nothing.

“Not good, not good, not good.” Ashley
muttered to herself as she walked back to the car. “Okay, are you
ready?” Ashley asked in a cheerful voice. Jewell didn’t say
anything. Ashley walked over to the passenger side of the car and
opened the door for Jewell. She watched Jewell get in the car,
without retrieving her bag. Jewell sat in the car, staring forward.
Ashley bent down and picked up Jewell’s bag. She walked around to
the driver’s side of the car and got in, throwing both bags in the
back seat. When she looked at Jewell, she was sitting in the same
position staring out the window at emptiness. Jewell hadn’t
fastened her seatbelt so, sighing, Ashley reached over Jewell and
grabbed the seatbelt. Jewell didn’t move. Ashley started the car,
and they drove silently home. When Ashley pulled up to her
apartment, Jewell didn’t ask why Ashley didn’t take her home. She
just walked in, following Ashley into the living room.

Ashley went into the kitchen to grab two
Cokes from the fridge. She opened Jewell’s and set it down on the
table in front of her. “I’m sure he’ll be back. Something must have
happened; he probably had a flat tire or something.” Ashley tried
to sound cheerful.

“No, he won’t.” Suddenly Jewell sighed and
reached for the Coke that Ashley had brought her. Her stomach hurt,
but the Coke tasted good. “No, he won’t be back. “

“Why don’t you call him?” Ashley handed
Jewell her cell phone.

“Can’t.” The answer was short, pronounced as
a resolute fact.

“Why?”

“I don’t know his number. I don’t even know
where he lives. Well…lived. He’s not there anymore. He’s left.”

“You mean you dated this guy for like a month
and you don’t know his phone number or where he lives?” Ashley was
incredulous. Getting a guy’s phone number was always the first
thing she did when she was dating someone.

“Never needed it. He was always there when I
wanted him to be there. It’s like he always knew what I needed. I
thought…” Her voice trailed off.

“You thought what?”

“It’s stupid. You know how you always tell me
that you can’t change a guy, you need to accept him for who he is,
and if you can’t, then he’s not the right guy for you?” Jewell’s
voice was starting to show a little emotion.

“Yeah…” Ashley answered, unsure of where
Jewell was going with this. She couldn’t imagine what needed to be
changed about Collin. As far as she could tell, he was the perfect
guy.

“Well, I guess I never told you this, but he
never stays in one place. He lives someplace for a couple of years,
and then he moves on. He used to tell me that his uncle didn’t
approve of our relationship because he thought Collin was growing
too attached…I guess Collin finally agreed with him and decided it
was time to move on.”

“But without saying anything? Without at
least talking to you? Oh, that is so rude!” Ashley was starting to
see some faults with Collin.

When Tommy called, Ashley drove Jewell home.
Jewell sat quietly, looking out the window. She didn’t say anything
for the whole ten minutes they were in the car. When they arrived
at the house Tommy walked down the path towards the car. Ashley
rolled down the window as he approached.

“How is she?” he talked quietly so Jewell
wouldn’t overhear him.

“I don’t know. She’s hurt. She’s acting like
she accepts it, like she knew it was coming. She’s putting up a
good front, but I don’t buy it.” Ashley shrugged.

“Thanks.” Tommy stood up and tapped the top
of the car as he moved away so that Ashley could leave. He watched
Ashley pull out of the drive then turned to go into the house. By
the time he got inside, Jewell was already in her room, sitting on
her bed.

“Hey. Can I come in?” Jewell’s dad rapped
gently on the doorframe, looking in at her through the open
door.

“Sure dad.”

Tommy came in and sat on the bed next to his
daughter. “You okay?”

“Yeah dad, I’m fine. He told me in the
beginning that he didn’t like to get too close to people. I guess
it was too much, too fast. I mean, it really was crazy, wasn’t it?”
She forced out a laugh.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what? It’s no big deal, really.”
She could hear the tremor in her own voice; she couldn’t talk about
this now; maybe not ever. “I’m really tired dad. Can we save this
for tomorrow?”

Tommy stared at his daughter, trying to judge
Jewell’s true feelings. Finally, he leaned forward and gave her a
hug. I’ll see you later then.”

“Night dad.”

“Good night Jewell. I love you.” He shut the
door quietly behind him when he left.

That evening, Ashley came to pick Jewell up.
She arrived early so that Jewell wouldn’t leave on her own. Both
Tommy and Ashley were still apprehensive with Jewell’s apparent
acceptance of Collin’s disappearance. Jewell grabbed a package of
Pop Tarts out of the box in the cupboard. She kissed her father on
the head, as she left to meet Ashley.

Jewell sat down in the car and opened her
breakfast. She handed one to Ashley who set it on her leg until she
had pulled out of the driveway onto the main road.

“So, did you do anything after I dropped you
off?” Ashley was trying to keep the conversation going.

“I just went to bed.”

Ashley tried to think of something else to
say. “Do you want to do something tomorrow? Maybe go see a movie or
something?”

“I don’t know. I think I’m just going to hang
out at the house.”

“Cool, I’ll rent a movie and come over. What
do you want to see?”

“I don’t care. Whatever.”

“K. I’ll pick up a couple, that way we can
choose.” Jewell turned to look out the window at Lake Pontchartrain
as they drove across the Causeway.

Jewell threw herself into the cases that came
in, trying to stay busy. Everything was pretty normal; at least it
had been busy enough to keep her mind off of Collin.

“Jewell!” It was Collin. He sounded scared?
Startled? Worried? Jewell turned to look before she realized that
she hadn’t heard the sound coming from behind her, but from inside
her head. It was like she was hearing Collin calling her, but only
in her mind. She stood for a moment, surprised. The sound had been
so real, not like the voice she often imagined when she thought of
him. She could hear his muddled European accent that she thought
was sexy along with the emotions in his voice. She glanced at her
watch, four forty-five, still an hour and fifteen minutes of work.
She felt tears falling from the corners of her eyes. She wiped them
away with the back of her hand as she continued what she was
doing.

Chapter 32

As the sedative wore off, Collin started to
remember things. Sevoflurane was an anesthetic gas. No wonder he
felt so out of it. He looked around. He didn’t recognize the room;
he hadn’t been here before. He tried to sit up so that he could get
a better look at where he was, but when he sat up the room started
to spin. He glanced toward the windows. The curtains were closed.
It was dark outside; he wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway.
The last thing he remembered was Aunt Gladys’ spaghetti. That made
sense; the acid in the tomatoes and the garlic would cover the
taste of whatever Mickey Finn his uncle had slipped him. He
couldn’t believe it. His uncle had drugged him! No wonder Uncle
Percy had been so disposed to let him stay. Uncle Percy figured it
would be easier to drug him than to argue.

He closed his eyes. His head hurt and his
stomach was queasy. When he started to feel better, he opened his
eyes and looked around as much as he could without sitting up. The
room was large. There was a tall chest of drawers next to the bed
and a mahogany wardrobe opposite the bed. The walls were painted a
sage green, with a parchment colored carpet. He pushed the covers
down to see that he was still dressed in the same clothes as he had
been wearing the other evening. He pulled his wrist to his face to
see if he was still wearing his watch; he was. He stared, trying to
focus on the tiny numbers on the face. It was six o’clock. Based on
the faint glow starting to seep through the curtains, it was six
o’clock in the morning, but what day? He couldn’t read the tiny
numbers of the date at the three position on the watch. He tried
for several minutes until his head started to hurt, before giving
up. He picked up the glass of water on the nightstand and took a
long drink before realizing what he was doing. He set it down and
eyed it suspiciously. It seemed he couldn’t trust anyone anymore.
He tried again to sit up. The room tilted and swayed, but at least
it didn’t spin. He waited until the room stopped moving, and then
put his legs over the side of the bed.

“Oh good, you’re up.” Uncle Percy came
through the door, smiling.

Collin scowled at his uncle. “You drugged me,
and then you kidnapped me!”

“I did not drug you. I sedated you.” Percy
sat down on the bed next to Collin. Collin tried to stand up to
move away from his uncle, but immediately collapsed back onto the
bed.

“Still a little woozy? Well, that’s normal.”
He picked up Collin’s wrist between his thumb and first two fingers
to check Collin’s pulse. Collin jerked his hand away. The gesture
was weak, but he had made his point. “I’m sorry, but there just
wasn’t time to explain. We were in danger, all of us. I thought it
would be easier this way. I want you to understand, I couldn’t
leave you there alone.”

“I wasn’t alone. I had Jewell!” Collin said
through clenched teeth.

Percy sighed. “I know, and that was the
problem. Your relationship with Jewell was putting her in
danger.”

“What? How?”

“The man that was stalking Jewell was after
you, not her.”

“What are you talking about? Why?”

“Because of what you are.” Percy sighed as he
realized it was time to tell Collin the truth.

Collin stood up. This time he was able to
hold his feet, but needed to lean against the nightstand next to
the bed to maintain his balance. “And you left her there? She’s in
danger, and you left her? How could you?” Collin was incensed.

“Now that you’re gone, she’ll be safe.
Sheriff Payne and his faction will see to it.

“Sheriff Payne and his faction? What’s that
supposed to mean?” Collin was getting more agitated. He needed to
get back to Jewell and his uncle was talking in riddles.

“Sit down boy,” Percy said simply, patting
the bed next to him. “You are in no condition to leave right now. I
think that it’s time we had that talk you’ve wanted to have.”

Collin glared at his uncle suspiciously
before sitting back down on the bed. “Go on then. I’m
listening.”

“Because of what you are, of what I am, of
what your parents were; we are hunted.” Percy sighed.

“The longer we stay in one place, the greater
the risk of discovery. Because of your accident, we were
discovered. We had allies who tried to help us, but apparently
their attempts were unsuccessful. We should’ve left when we took
you from the hospital, but I got careless. I didn’t want to move
you when you were still injured. And then, there was Jewell. I
never wanted to deny you love, but I should’ve told you before you
became so…attached.” Percy hung his head. “It wasn’t fair to you,
and it wasn’t fair to Jewell. And for that, I’m sorry. You can’t
imagine how much this hurts me.”

Collin looked at his uncle. As usual, his
uncle was evading the subject. “So who’s hunting us?”

“Most governments, scientists, religious
groups…Anyone who finds out what we are.”

“And what exactly are we?”

Percy turned to his nephew. “Collin, I am
eight hundred and ninety four years old.”

“Excuse me?”

“Collin, we are immortal. Well, not exactly
immortal…”

Collin didn’t let his uncle finish his
thought. He jumped up from the bed and barely caught himself as a
wave of dizziness and nausea washed over him like a tidal wave; an
effect of both the medicine, and the insanity that his uncle was
telling him. “I always thought you were a little crazy, but I just
thought of it as eccentricity. I didn’t know you were
certifiable!”

“Collin, sit down before you pass out.”

Collin didn’t sit down. “So let’s pretend for
a moment that you are immortal. So what if they find us?”

“Collin, Area 51; that was because of us.
Vlad the Impaler, the original Count Dracula, the Salem Witch
trials, that was because of us too.”

“Oh my God! You’re telling me you’re a
vampire or something? You really are nuts.” Collin tried to stumble
to the door, but was short of reaching it as he fell hard to the
floor. “We’ve been running from myths and fairytales my whole
life!” He pushed himself up into a kneeling position.

Percy walked over to Collin and bent down,
gently trying to help his nephew off the floor and back to the bed.
Collin jerked away, crawling toward the door, trying to escape this
man that he now realized he didn’t really know. Just as he escaped
his uncle’s grasp, the door opened. Gladys came in followed by
Kendryck, Carl, Dot, Ann, and John. He shrunk away from them,
pushing himself protectively into a corner.

“Collin,” Gladys said gently.

“It’s okay Collin.” Kendryck added.

“So you’re all in on this? You all think
you’re some sort of immortal vampire freaks or something? What, do
you drink your blood in private? Do you shop at the local blood
bank?”

Percy held his hand up, signaling the others
to let him handle it. “Collin, you are one of us, as were your
parents.”