Unbound, page 21
“No, you won’t.”
He shifted slightly from the window, hesitant. Maybe even confused. Most likely, he had expected to soothe me, reassure me, keep me calm. It was unlikely he’d anticipated this sort of demand. Luck was on my side. Surprise the best ally I had.
My eyes adjusting to the darkened room, I saw that his jaw was clenched tight, his arms stiff by his sides.
I took a step towards him.
He held himself completely still.
Undaunted, I took another step, and then another. Close now, I could hear his breathing, rough in his throat. Closer still, his eyes locked on mine. Heedless of the pleading look he gave me, I reached down and tugged at the belt that held my robe closed – some distant part of me both impressed and aghast at my uncharacteristic behaviour. I saw need flash in his eyes before he could mask it, his desire barely contained under the surface, propriety held in place by only the thinnest of threads.
His hand clamped down on my wrist to stop me. Looking down, I noted with great satisfaction that he was trembling. Unperturbed, I moved my other hand down with the same purpose.
The thread broke.
My head snapped back as he crushed his lips against mine, both arms pinned to my sides. His mouth never leaving mine, Eaden turned me so that my back pressed up against the wall, and then raising my hands over my head, ran his mouth down my neck, one free hand now twined in my hair.
My breathing ragged, my head swimming, I felt my legs tremble and knew that if he weren’t supporting my weight entirely, I’d be unable to stand. Having received exactly the reaction I had been hoping for, I let go of my expectations, let go of sense and reason. For the first time in my life, I was so fully present in the moment that both my past and my future disappeared entirely. Responding with the same kind of hunger I’d seen in his eyes, I was instantly off my feet, the bed now beneath me as his lips continued to explore my throat and my collarbone, my hands still held securely above my head. Nerve endings tingling beyond my wildest imagination, I became aware that Eaden was wearing entirely too many pieces of clothing for my liking and that my own robe was still tied snugly about my waist.
“Eaden,” I whispered.
“Mmhmmm?” his reply was muffled; his mouth buried in my neck.
“Help me take your sweater off.” My voice was incredibly unsteady.
“Why would I want to do that?” he asked, punctuating each word with a kiss on a different part of my skin.
“Ummm...” It was hard to concentrate, particularly when his teeth found my earlobe and he began to nibble. “Because we can’t have sex if you keep all of your clothes on.” The rational part of me knew this wasn’t technically true, we could, I supposed. But I wanted to feel his skin against mine. Needed to, in fact.
“We’re not going to have sex.” His lips were pressed into the hollow of my throat and I was beginning to feel like I was on fire. The words took a few seconds to penetrate my lust-addled brain.
“What are you doing then?” I struggled to connect the delicious sensations that were being generated by his mouth with his last sentence.
He pulled back to look at me, his face hovering close to mine; his smile heartbreaking in the dusky light.
“I’m teaching you a lesson,” he said and proceeded to kiss me in a way that made my whole body tremble.
Still not clueing in, still delirious with desire, I gasped when his mouth left mine and went in search of my other ear.
“What kind of lesson?” I breathed.
His lips were was soft as they tickled the other side my neck. “When I give my word to someone, it’s theirs forever. I’ve promised to keep you safe, Rachel, and I will.” He stopped kissing me and gazed intently into my eyes.
“I know,” I said, eager to get back to the kissing.
“And I promised you we would do this right,” he said. “I don’t break my promises.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re doing it right,” I said.
He laughed quietly and then with an audible groan, flipped over onto his back to lie beside me on the bed, his hands behind his head, his eyes on the ceiling.
With a sinking heart, I realized he meant it. My heart still pounding frantically in my chest, I brought my hands down to cover it, willing it to slow down a little.
“Not here, not now, mo cridhe.” He rolled onto his side to face me, propping his head up on one elbow. “I will not make love to you with the hounds of hell nipping at our heels.” His smile was ridiculously alluring. “When this is over, when you are safe, we’ll finish what we started here tonight.”
“I’m really not sure I can wait that long.” I said. Although my heartbeat had slowed somewhat and my breathing was easier, my whole body still felt electrified.
His voice held only a hint of regret. “I’ve waited a very, very long time for you, Rachel. Trust me when I say that anticipation will only sweeten the reward.”
“Okay,” I said, doubtful. “But I really don’t think it can get much better than this.”
His smile was nostalgic. “It doesn’t,” he kissed me softly. “And it does.”
Returning his kiss, my nervous system jumped back into action, my body evidently in deep denial that his refusal was genuine.
But he would not be caught off guard again tonight. Grinning, he rolled away and gracefully somersaulted backwards to his feet.
“Prude,” I said, feeling disgruntled and more than a little unsatisfied.
“Temptress.”
Struggling to sit up, I stared at him woefully. “You’re not really going to make me sleep alone, are you?”
His expression softened. “You won’t be alone, Rachel, I’m right here.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He shook his head. “This isn’t easy for me, either. Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to say no to you? Any idea how much I want you?” He frowned. “Your eagerness only makes you more irresistible.” He sounded like this was a bad thing.
“What if I promise to be good?” I said, eyes as wide and innocent as I could make them.
He squinted suspiciously. “You would give me your word?”
Thinking quickly, I tried to decide what would be reasonable to promise. There was no way I was ready to relinquish the physical part of our relationship entirely. Not when I had just begun to understand how good that part could be.
“I promise to keep my hands to myself,” I said, not meeting his eyes. After all, I hadn’t needed to touch him at all tonight, had I?
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll need more than that.”
“Fine,” I said, exasperated. “I promise not to start anything that you have no intentions of finishing.”
“Better.” Pulling his sweater over his head, he tossed it on the chair beside the bed and kicked his brown leather boots off.
“Move over.” Stretching out beside me, he curled his arm so that I was able to snuggle up against his chest. The smell of him was both comforting and arousing. A combination I had never even considered compatible before this. Then again, I had never been in bed with a man before, either.
Breathing deeply, I let myself relax into him, my limbs heavy with the toll of the day.
“How long will we stay here?” Our dire circumstances seemed very remote in this comfortable space, but I knew we had come to Tír na nÓg for a purpose.
“Tomorrow we’ll meet formally with Sannah to ask for the assistance of the Sisters. We’ll know more then.”
“Can Amun track us? Can he tell that I’m here?” I was still trying to understand that I was like some sort of magnet, pulling absolute strangers across great distances towards me. But it would be nice to stay here for a day or two. To feel safe with Eaden for more than a moment.
“Perhaps, but not easily. He will be able to tell you are in the highlands, but not where, exactly. The Sisters have a lot of practice at hiding from prying eyes and Tír na nÓg is not without defences. It has existed for a very long time, due in part to the fact that it is not easy to expose.” He ran a hand over my slightly damp hair. “Are you frightened, mo cridhe?”
“Yes.” I admitted truthfully. “But not in the same way I usually am.”
“How so?” His tone was light, but I knew that he was invested in my answer, that he would blame himself for my fear.
“When I was scared before, everything felt so out of control, I was terrified that if something bad were to happen again, I’d fall apart.” I considered what had changed. “Now, well...bad things have happened and I’m scared, of course, but I’m also still here and still ready to face whatever is coming next.” I sighed. “Does that make even make sense?”
His arm tightened around me reassuringly. “Perfect sense. You’re stronger than you thought you were.” His voice dropped lower. “You may have realized it sooner if I hadn’t always been rushing in to protect you. “ He sounded reproachful. “Amerlyn was right, as he usually is.”
Of all the people that I had seen Eaden interact with, he seemed to reserve the greatest respect for the old man. Their relationship seemed deep-rooted, based on something long-standing.
“How did you meet Amerlyn?”
There was a pause. “He was my tutor.” I could hear fondness in his voice. “I was sent to study with him when I was 16.”
“Before you knew you were immortal?”
Eaden chuckled. “Before I knew, yes. But Amerlyn knew from the start. He is a member of the Council.” He turned his head towards me in the dim light. “It wasn’t just luck that he had room to take on another student, the opportunity was engineered for me. I was tutored by one of the most famous philosophers in history.” He sounded almost as if he were that wistful young boy he must have been, so very long ago. “Amerlyn was the one who arranged my service with Artuir. I will be grateful to him for that most, amongst all the other things for which I owe him thanks.”
As tired as I was, I suddenly understood what Eaden hadn’t yet said. I couldn’t help the wonder that crept into my own voice. “Amerlyn…is Merlin, isn’t he?”
“None other.”
My smile was one of wonder as I struggled to connect the pieces in my head. “So, Amerlyn is a magician?”
“He prefers philosopher, or even alchemist – not quite so pompous.”
My own love of Arthurian legends conjured a tall, stooped man in a pointy hat, who made birds appear from his cloak and turned ill-mannered children into stoats. Not at all like the wizened, amiable gentle man I’d met this afternoon. I tried to remember as much as I could about Merlin from a childhood spent immersed in books.
“Why does he look so much older than you?” Amerlyn looked nothing like the immortals I had met thus far. Sabas was older than Eaden and yet looked just as young.
“Amerlyn didn’t achieve immortality until he was in his sixties – which, for the era he was born, was very old indeed.” He paused. “You’ve heard of the Holy Grail?”
I nodded and tried not roll my eyes. Eaden would have little knowledge of my devotion to specific books, watching me as he did from outside of the walls where I’d lived.
“The Grail is far more ancient than Arthurian legends would indicate. It precedes Christianity and all of the symbols that it came to stand for with the birth of Christ. Amerlyn devoted his life to finding it and eventually he succeeded. Unfortunately, by the time he found his long sought-after fountain of youth, his own youth had passed him by.”
I felt confused again. “Isn’t your immortality genetic?”
“It is for me, as it is for others like me, but the original source of our immortality, far back in time, came from what is now called the Holy Grail. Immortals are the ancestors of the first humans who found the source – the origin of eternal life – and then hid the truth. There have been very few who have discovered its existence since that time. Amerlyn was one of them. He was able to use the knowledge he’d accumulated in his lifetime to grant himself immortality and then later to create the solution to our existence.”
I knew what sort of solution he meant. “The Mafte’ach.”
He stroked my hand softly with his thumb. “You’ve descended from the Grail, in a very real way.”
“But what is it?” I knew the Cup of Christ was considered only a symbolic representation of the Grail, but could not understand what it was that had given Amerlyn access to his own immortality and had enabled him to engineer a race of mortals who opened death’s door.
Eaden shrugged; looked apologetic. “I truly don’t know.” His mouth twisted slightly. “You must remember, Rachel, that in the end, I’m little more than a Bellator, a foot soldier. I was never meant to understand the complexity of my own condition.”
We were quiet for a time. Although I tried to think of words to reassure Eaden that he was much more than what he had just described, I failed miserably and so, stayed silent. In no way had my years on earth prepared me to challenge the ideas of a man who had lived long enough to witness the shift of the continents. The thought itself threatened to shatter my tenuous hold on reality, so I quickly moved to more solid, albeit just as disconcerting, ground.
“Why did Sannah call Amerlyn grandfather?”
I could tell he was instantly more guarded. “A bit of a nickname, really. Sannah is the descendant of the children of Amerlyn and Vivian, one of the first to be called the Lady of the Lake. She is the many-times great-granddaughter of their union.”
I bit my lip. “Does that mean that Sannah is the current Lady of the Lake?”
Silence and then quietly, “Yes.”
My ex-boyfriend was a skinny college kid majoring in economics. Eaden’s ex-girlfriend was a powerful sorceress. Perfect.
“Rachel?” His hand rubbed my shoulder after a few moments.
“Mmmm?” I didn’t want him to hear the jealousy I knew would color my voice.
“I’m sorry you had to find out about her that way tonight. Sannah can be difficult at times.”
“I noticed.”
He sighed. “We were together for a short time, before you were born,” he hastened to add. “It was convenient for both of us. The restrictions placed upon her because of her position are not entirely unlike my own.”
“You don’t have to explain.” In fact, I really wished he wouldn’t. I didn’t need to know anything more than it was over. More information just made the terrible pictures in my head all the more vivid.
His voice was gentle. “I’d like you to understand that it was very different from what you and I share. Sannah and I were little more than temporary companions.”
I could tell he was trying to make this as easy on me as possible.
Suck it up, Rachel.
His hand brushed my cheek. “I have great respect for her, but we weren’t in love.”
I remembered the loss I had read in Sannah’s eyes. I wasn’t sure she would be able to say the same thing. Feeling slightly ashamed, I realized it was terribly unfair to be hurt by Eaden’s relationship with her. The man was 1,500 years old. Did I expect him to have no past?
Wiggling out from under his arm I rolled onto my stomach to face him.
The look of concern he gave me was heartfelt.
“It’s okay that I’m jealous,” I reassured him. “It’ll keep me on my toes.”
I pushed myself up to kiss him, and still mindful of my promise, did not move past the sweet kiss to light the fire I know was smouldering beneath the surface.
With a contented sigh, I snuggled back up beside him.
“Just so long as you understand, mo cridhe,” I heard him say as sleep crept over me. “There will never be another after you.”
Some part of me was bothered by this statement, made uneasy by what it meant, but I was so tired. I let my disquiet fade from my awareness. And then I slept.
Chapter Seventeen: Weapon
The room was dark when I awoke. Groaning, I peered at the place my alarm clock should have been to see if I’d overslept. Vertigo slammed into me as my spatial universe flipped upside down and backwards.
I was not in my bedroom.
Within a few panicked heartbeats, my brain caught up to my senses and I recognized the dim outline of the small guest room I had fallen asleep in last night. Eaden was gone and had left no sign of himself behind.
With shock, I noted the small suitcase Sarah had given me on the plane was now sitting beside the bed. How on earth…? No point, Rachel, I thought, brushing the question from my mind. If I tried to puzzle out half of what had happened in the last few days, I might give myself an aneurism.
Yet Eaden truly forgot nothing. Apparently I’d already grown so accustomed to such pampering that I hadn’t even questioned where my clothes were. I laughed out loud as I realized that a short time ago I had argued with Eaden about my dry-cleaning bill.
Of course, that was before I knew that a shadowy group of immortals hoped to use my stem cells to create a race of mortal puppets. Whether or not I felt beholden to Eaden for a few dollars paled in comparison to the degree to which I was relying on him now to keep me safe. To keep me alive. There was no use pretending I could manage by myself in these strange circumstances. I hadn’t a clue.
Throwing back the covers, I padded over to the heavy curtains and pulled them apart, squinting as the daylight assaulted my eyes. The darkness had been so complete during our arrival last night that I had no clear sense of the landscape surrounding the old castle. I was shocked by how green everything was here. Not just one shade, but hundreds of shades of emerald, jade, olive, and lime. Moss carpeted the trunks of the trees outside my window so completely that they seemed to be dressed in verdant cloaks to match the leaves that adorned them. Staring out at the lush woodland that bordered the property, I wondered just how far we had travelled yesterday, through the highland fog. The landscape in front of me looked so different from the rocky brown hills we had left behind.
Easily seen from my second-floor window, a narrow lake spread out and away, nestling between two coarse hills. Loch, I corrected myself, not lake. Its murky depths were concealed by the light that danced and sparkled on the choppy surface. I spotted a few young women moving about the grounds singly and in pairs, looking more like friends out for a stroll then wiccan priestesses.
