Arielle Immortal Awakening (18 page)

“It’s all right, dear. I understand.”

“Thanks, Mum.”

She chose a simple blue silk blouse that was a little darker than the color of her eyes to go with the new pair of jeans she had just purchased. She took a look in the mirror, smiled a quick, fake smile at herself. She thought of how much she would have liked to have a nice tan but that was just not meant to be. Then she went downstairs.

She could see her father sitting in the kitchen reading the paper while her mother was preparing dinner. It was a little early so she walked into the sitting room and sat down at the piano. She would be able to see him arrive from the huge picture window.

For Arielle, playing the piano was like a remedy that warmed her heart and always gave her pleasure. Soon lovely music filled the room, and she was completely lost in the melody when the doorbell startled her. There was Sebastian, leaning on the doorframe, his beautiful lips curved up into an amazing smile. His eyes moved from her to the piano, and back to her again.

“I didn’t know you could play,” he said, the smile never leaving his beautiful lips.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” she said.

She invited him in to meet her parents and after a few short words, they were ready to leave.

“Have fun,” both her parents said simultaneously.

“I’ll be back to pick up my car,” Arielle told them.

“I’ll take good care of her,” Sebastian assured them. To Arielle’s amazement they both nodded with great approval. It was as if he had taken supreme control over their emotions already.

He smiled softly as they left the house. When they got to his car, he held the door open for her. She watched him walk around to the driver’s side, and she couldn’t help thinking of how seamlessly he moved and how beautiful he was.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“I thought we might go back to my hotel, where we can talk with no interruptions,” he said. “We can order dinner in if you like. Would you like to do that?”

Being anywhere with him was fine with her. Tonight she just needed to have the answers to her questions. She needed to know the truth because she was desperately and hopelessly in love with him.

“Yes, that’ll be fine,” she said. She felt a bit nervous without knowing exactly why.

He drove quickly through the streets, making her wonder how he was so familiar with this area.

“Have you been here before?” she asked.

“Do you mean Brighton?” he asked and looked at her with a soft smile. She nodded.

“Yes, many times,” he said.

“Oh. Was that on business?”

“Yes.”

She stayed quiet the rest of the way. She knew he was glancing at her frequently but she didn’t look back at him. She wanted so much to believe him; she wanted so much to fall into his arms and tell him how much she loved him.

When they arrived at the hotel, he let the valet take the car as he took her hand and they walked through the lobby towards the elevator. When he hit the button to the penthouse, she looked at him in wonder.

“The penthouse?”

“Why not?” he smiled.

“It must be pretty pricey!”

“Not really,” he said with a soft smile.

The room was incredibly huge and gorgeous. He took her coat and as she looked around, he came and stood in front of her.

He put his finger under her chin and lifted her face until their eyes met and she stopped breathing. She lost her balance and his right arm wrapped around her waist, holding her steady. She saw a faint smile of satisfaction on his face.

She stared into his gorgeous green eyes and his perfect face, trying to take in every inch of him. She focused on fighting to keep her breath slow and steady even though her heart was hammering wildly in her chest and her hands were sweating from anxiety.

Sebastian made sure she was steady on her feet before he let her go as he pulled her toward the sofa.

“Alright,” he said with a smile when they sat down. “This is the moment of truth. Go ahead and ask away.”

“Who… is… Annabel?” Her question came out in a shaky voice as Annabel’s face filled her mind and she felt the same sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach as she had standing in the foyer of his house back in St. Jean de Luz. She took a couple of deep breaths.

“Who is she?” she pressed on. “And why did she tell me that you are her husband?”

Sebastian took her hands, gazed deep into her eyes, and said regretfully. “Annabel is my horrible nightmare, the most evil existence on this planet.” He paused and stroked her hand. “We used to be married, a very long time ago. It was an arranged marriage that was annulled two years later. And she doesn’t want to let go.”

The word “annulled” seemed to reach such a sensitive part in her thoughts that it gave her body a strange jolt.

“It’s pretty complicated,” he continued. “I have no control over when she leaves and when she shows up. I don’t care about her, I don’t love her, and I have never loved her. The two years that we spent together I was mostly away, and there was no interaction or relationship as man and wife. In fact we never actually consummated our marriage.”

“When were you married?” she asked.

“Arielle, there is something you need to know before I can answer this specific question. It’s going to be hard to accept, but it’s the truth, and you must know that truth if you are going to be with me. Do you want to be with me?”

What a strange thing to say
, she thought to herself.
There is nothing he could say that would keep me away from him.
She couldn’t imagine a future without him.

“Yes, I want to be with you,” she said. “I love you.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “Because what I have to say will be extremely difficult for you to hear.”

What was he talking about?
She looked at him, and he was looking very distressed.

“What is it?” she asked.

Stress had spread across his beautiful face and his eyes were full of shadows.

He shook his head in despair and squeezed her hands in his. She could hear him sucking in a deep breath before he continued.

“I’m not who you think I am,” he said.

“Sebastian, what are you trying to say?”

He took a minute before answering, trying to find the right words. When he spoke, his words came out slowly, deliberately.

“I have been on this earth…for a very long time.”

“What do you mean by a very long time?”

“I mean centuries…I mean long, excruciating centuries. I’ve remained twenty-seven years old for as long as I can remember. I never get any older.”

It took a second to register the meaning of what he was saying. Suddenly she went still. She was completely horrified. Her mind moved back to the bookstore, back to the pages of the family book, back to the Sebastian born in the 16th century.

No! Could it be?

But that was utterly insane. Nothing was making any sense at all. She closed her eyes and she felt a cold chill run down her spine. Terror filled her whole body as if the book was coming to life. Now she was shaking and sweat was dripping down her back. She had lost all capability of movement and she felt faint.

“Arielle! Arielle!” she could hear his voice faintly, as if it were coming from a great distance.

When she opened her eyes she was lying in bed, feeling disoriented. She couldn’t remember how she had gotten there. Her eyes rested on his amazing face, his expression apprehensive.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“You fainted, sweetheart,” he said. He was sitting next to her, his eyes searching her face as if he were trying to read her soul.

She squeezed her eyes closed and bit her lower lip, trying to shake away the last words she had heard. She didn’t want to look at him, she didn’t want to accept any of this. She lay there for a long time in complete silence.

When she finally opened her eyes, he hadn’t moved an inch. He was still sitting next to her, his eyes fixed on her face, and she could see despair written all over him.

As she stared at him, she felt total panic taking over her. He reached out to touch her and she jerked away, vaulting out of the bed. He didn’t try to follow her or to say a word. She walked over to the window. Her legs were shaking as she stared outside without seeing anything at all. A million questions were swirling in her head, but she was too terrified to utter a single word, frightened of what she might hear next.

This couldn’t be happening to her!

It was exactly what she had feared. Sebastian was just a dream, a figment of her imagination. She must have wanted someone like him for so long that she had created him in her mind, and now the dream was ready to end. She had fallen in love with the most beautiful man in the world, who was turning out to be anything but a normal human being. She felt herself drowning in sadness.

“Arielle, please!” she heard his soft, velvety voice begging her. But begging her to do what? She gathered every piece of strength her body possessed and turned slowly to face him.

“I need to know the truth, Sebastian. Are you the same Sebastian I read about in your family book?”

“What book is that?” he asked, puzzled.

“The Gaulle estate 16
th century book?”

She was afraid to hear the answer. She held her eyes closed tight, and pressed her lips together, waiting for his reply. What if he said yes? Would that change the way she felt about him? Would she love him any less? Would she want to just run away?

Her mind was full of questions, questions with no reasonable answers.

His reply was firm, but his voice was weak and worried. “Yes, I am,” he said.

Her eyes snapped open and she stared straight ahead, pretending that she hadn’t heard what he just said. She closed them again and stared now into the darkness, knowing that this was a very important moment in her life. It was a very dark and scary moment of enormous significance.

“Arielle, do you hear me? I am the same person you read about in my family book.”

Her mind was completely frantic and her body was cold. She didn’t want to accept what he was saying. She was thinking of the things she had read in the book; the parts about immortality kept flashing before her like a movie being run over and over again in her mind.

I have to find out who he really is, and what he really wants with me,
she thought. She opened her eyes, a cold expression painted on her pale face.

“So…you never get old?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“No, not at all,” he said, a smile brightening his beautiful face. “We stop aging after we become immortal,” he added.

She wasn’t sure she could process this type of information right away. She was pretty frightened.

“Arielle, I would never hurt you,” he added gently.

“So, what are you then? Are you a vampire?” She looked at him fearfully.

He looked back at her trying to hold back laughter.

“No, my love, I’m not a vampire, I’m an immortal,” he said.

“Well, what’s an immortal? And how can I believe you?”

“Vampires are made up,” Sebastian explained slowly, carefully. “They are scary characters in stories used to entertain mortals. Immortals are real. We have lived on this earth always, even before the beginning of civilization. We are immune to sickness and we can live forever. We have lived among people for centuries, and we don’t need to hurt mortals in order to survive.”

She listened to him, trying to breathe normally, but she was still very scared. Was this real? Was it a dream or a nightmare? Could this possibly be happening?

Now Sebastian stood up, crossed the room, and tried to put his arms around her. But she pulled away, not sure if she wanted to be there or if she needed to run for her life. Seeing her hesitation, he stood an arm’s length away, letting her absorb all he was telling her.

“Okay, you are not a vampire,” she said. “But what is so special about being an immortal? How are you different from humans?”

“Well, I have a heart if you can call it that, but it doesn’t beat anymore,” he said. “It stopped beating when I became immortal.” His voice was heartrending as he continued. “I’m extremely strong, beyond any human comprehension. I can move faster than the human eye can follow. I can sense people’s presence from quite a distance. And if I get hurt I have the ability to heal very quickly. I can’t cry and I can’t dream,” he added, pain in his voice.

“Unbelievable,” she whispered. “Is there anything else I need to know about you?”

His eyes fixed helplessly on her face, worried about the next statement, and his voice dropped to a barely audible tone.

“I can read everyone’s mind, with no exceptions,” he said. He was now looking right at her, waiting for her reaction.

“You know everything I’m thinking?” she exclaimed. Her head started spinning out of control and she felt the floor giving way under her feet. She grabbed a chair to stop her from falling and closed her eyes to get control of herself. Oh my God, all this time he knew how she felt. Embarrassment consumed her as she welled up with anger. She didn’t dare to breathe, afraid she might say something she would regret.