Immortal Destiny (The Immortal Prophecy Saga) (11 page)

“She could have told someone, Ally.”

Ally shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t think so. I think it’s her and she’s trying to tell me something.”

“Ally,” James warned.

“You don’t agree with me, that’s fine. But I’m entitled to my own opinions.”

“Here we go,” he muttered to himself.

Ally glared at him as the doors opened.

“There they are,” James said and pointed to the sofas in the reception area. Caleb had his suitcase ready to go and Chase was there as promised. The two walked over to meet them.

“Ready Caleb?” James asked the new elder.

“Sure am,” he replied. “Morning, Ally.”

Ally smiled. She discovered that she liked Caleb already. “Morning.”

“We don’t have time to waste.” He looked at Chase. “We found another flower this morning.”

“You were right,” Chase said with a deep frown. “They did find you.”

“So it would seem.”

“I’ve got a car waiting for us. I’ll come along to the airport with you.”

The group went outside, got into the waiting black cab and drove to the airport.

The private jet was waiting for them when they arrived. Everyone said their goodbyes to Chase and boarded the plane.

Ally took her seat next to James, with Caleb opposite them.

She thought it would be a good time to get to know the new immortal, so she spent the next few hours finding out about him. Even James seemed in a good natured mood and joined in the conversation. She knew he was happy to be going home. He was never truly at peace unless he was in Scotland.

Three hours later, they set down in Glencoe. Ally stepped off the plane and ran to Adele, who was waiting with Damian for the party to arrive.

Adele threw her arms around Ally and held her tight. “I missed you so much, sweetie!”

“I missed you too, Gran!”

“Welcome home, Ally,” Damian said, with a pat on her shoulder.

“Thanks, Grandpa.”

He wandered over to James and to meet the new immortal so the girls could have a moment.

“So was I right?” Adele said with a wicked twinkle in her eye.

“About what?”

“Running away from danger being awfully romantic.”

Ally turned bright red, and Adele knew straight away that it had indeed been very romantic. But before she could say anything else, the men came over. After a short introduction, they all climbed into the Mercedes and drove back to the manor.

“It’s nice to be home,” Ally commented as they pulled into the driveway and the manor came into view.

James squeezed her hand and spoke to her in his mind.
“I’m glad you think of this as home.”

“I do think of this as home, but really my home will always be wherever you are.”

He kissed her forehead and put his arm around her shoulder.

“The Muir’s are very happy that you are returning. I think they missed you almost as much as we did,” Adele said.

James told Caleb about his staff as the car stopped and they got out. Sophie and Henry came out to greet them. “Speak of the devil. Here they are.”

More introductions were made, then Sophie herded everyone inside for tea.

Gathered in the lounge, Mackenzie and Logan came in and they all had tea and coffee with Sophie’s biscuits.

“So you’re one of the elders?” Sophie asked Caleb.

“Yes, ma’am,” the intimidating immortal replied.

Sophie was about to ask him more questions, when the doorbell rang. Henry excused himself to go answer it. A moment later he returned with a peculiar look on his face.

“James,” he started. “There is a Miss Isabella here to see you and Ally. She believes we are expecting her.”

James furrowed his eyebrows together and looked at Ally. She shook her head and said she wasn’t expecting anyone either.

“Show her in and I’ll see what she wants.”

Henry went and got their mystery guest and brought her into the lounge room.

Ally laid eyes on the woman and gasped. “You!”

The woman nodded serenely. “Yes, me. I see you found James after all.”

Everyone in the room was looking between Ally and the newcomer with bemused expressions.

“Ally?” James inquired.

She dragged her stunned eyes away from the woman and looked at James. She cleared her throat and got control of herself. “James, meet Madame Isabella. The fortune teller from the fair five years ago.” It seemed like it had been a decade since that fateful night five years ago when Madame Isabella had told Ally of her future and the prophecy. A twinge of sadness overcame her as she remembered that Kat had been by her side that night too. She had predicted the death of her parents, James and the prophecy. At time she didn’t believe it, but it wasn’t long before she realised everything the fortune teller had told her, was the absolute truth.

She looked at James, and saw his expression reflected her own feelings. “What are you doing here?” Ally demanded.

“Please just call me Isabella. Is there somewhere I can talk to you and James in private?” she asked trying to be discreet.

“My study,” James said and stood up, dragging Ally and her coffee with him towards Isabella. “This way Isabella.”

James closed the door when they had entered the study. “Take a seat,” he instructed to both of them.

Isabella sat on the couch and Ally hesitantly walked over to sit next to her. James stood beside the fireplace. “You can understand why we’re a bit confused as to why you’re here.”

“Of course,” Isabella replied. “But as I said, you’ve been looking for me. I’m the seer from your prophecy.”

Ally gasped. “The hell you are!”

“I didn’t expect you to be happy to see me, Alessandra, but I wasn’t expecting rudeness.”

Ally gave her a hard glare. “I don’t really care what you were expecting. You’re in my house and you came here of your own free will, so deal with it.”

“Ally,” James warned.

She ignored him and carried on. “Do you have any idea what your little prediction did to my life? Because of you my life was turned inside out!”

Isabella looked a little guilty. “I understand why you feel that way, but to be fair I was only the messenger. I didn’t write the damn prophecy. And I’m involved too, if that makes you feel any better. I don’t get out of this easily, either.”

“It actually makes me feel worse because I’m stuck with you now!”

James watched the two and could feel the simmering rage bubbling at the surface in Ally. He looked torn, not sure whether he should intervene or not.

“I haven’t come here to cause you any further trouble, but there is something of great importance that I need to tell you both.” Isabella looked nervously between James and Ally.

“You just told us,” Ally said. “You’re the seer.”

Isabella shook her head. “No, there’s more to it than that. This is an entirely different matter and it involves you James.”

James and Ally looked at each other with curiosity and suspicion, then both turned back to where Isabella sat on the couch. “Oh god,” Ally said, and rolled her eyes. “Not another prediction, please.”

Isabella shot Ally a small glare. “It’s not a prediction.”

“Go on then,” James said. “What’s the big mystery?”

Isabella paused and gave them both a secret smile before finally answering. “I know who your mother is, James.”

James and Ally gaped at her.

“How could you possibly know that?” James sputtered.

Isabella took a deep breath and revealed the truth. “Because I’m your half-sister.”

Chapter Fourteen

“What?” James and Ally cried in unison.

Isabella nodded.

James stood perfectly still staring at the woman who claimed to be his half-sister. He’d wondered for three hundred years who his family were, if they even cared, and now this woman contained the answers he’d sought.

Ally stood up and went to stand beside James. She put her hand on his arm and glared at Isabella. “I don’t know what you’re problem is, but you seem to enjoy inflicting pain on other people. And I for one don’t believe a word of this! How could you possibly be his half-sister and involved with the prophecy? You had no idea who he was when you spoke about him all those years ago.”

“You have a perfect right to feel the way you do, Alessandra. I would react exactly the same way in your position. You love him and want to protect him.” She gestured to James. “But let me explain what I know and you might feel differently about me afterwards.”

James turned his face to Ally and nodded.

“Are you kidding me James? The woman is a charlatan!”

“Ally, please. Just hear her out. Maybe she really is who she says she is.”

“Doubtful.”

“Little one, I’ve spent three hundred years wondering who my parents were. I wondered if they loved me, why they left me and who I really am. You know what it’s like to have lost your parents, so you can understand my feelings on this…but at least you knew that they loved you, that they cared for you…I don’t even have that.”

Ally looked at him sheepishly.
“I’m sorry, James. You’re right, and yes I can understand that. I’m just a bit over-protective of you I guess.”

“And that makes me love you even more.”

Ally’s face lit up and he kissed her forehead.

“Alright,” she said to Isabella. “We’ll listen to what you have to say. Starting with why you had no idea who he was when you predicted that he was involved in my future.”

Isabella stood up and motioned for James and Ally to sit down on the couch. She began to pace the room, pulling all the information together so it would make sense to them.

Ally put her hand on James’ knee and gave it a squeeze.

“I only recently discovered that you were my brother, James. If I’d known earlier who you were, I would’ve come a long time ago.”

James nodded. His body tensed as she started to talk again.

“The day I gave Alessandra her reading, I had no idea who you were. At that point I didn’t even know that I had a brother. I’d heard of the prophecy from my parents, they were almost obsessed with the damn thing, so you can imagine my surprise when out of the blue, the prophecy girl wanders into my tent.

“I wasn’t trying to scare you or ruin your life when I told you those things, Alessandra. I could’ve said nothing. Told you that you’d meet someone wonderful and live a long and happy life, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to you. I knew that you would need the truth to see you through this. Maybe I was wrong, but I would do that same thing all over again if I could…You see, James had found you. I could see that, but I could also see how damn close Vincent was to you as well. You needed help and fast.”

“My parents died that night…”

“I know, and I’m so sorry that happened to you, my dear girl, but whether I told you that or not, it was still going to happen. I will admit that I didn’t know when it was going to happen, just that it would.”

“So you knew it was my parents that would die and mark the beginning?”

Isabella nodded and her eyes began to fill with tears. “I saw the whole scene as clear as day the moment I laid eyes on you.”

Ally looked away from the woman standing in front of the fireplace.

Isabella stared into the fire and started telling her story again. “I did keep something from you that night though. I knew that I was one of the one of the elders you would need. The birthmark and my gifts as a seer made it pretty clear who and what I was, but you weren’t ready to hear it then. I knew that you had so much to get through before you would have a need for me that I decided to let you go and keep an eye on you, so that when the time came I could go to you.

“I went to your house the morning after, and I knew that it had come to pass…I was about to leave when I saw a man leaving the house. Something about him struck a chord with me and I didn’t know what, but I was mesmerised. And then he looked at me.” She turned to James. “I saw my mother’s eyes staring back at me… The colour of your eyes is not a common one, and the only other person I’ve seen with them is her. I ran home and tried to dismiss the insane idea that was slowly starting to form in my mind, but I couldn’t let it go no matter what I did,” Isabella said shakily.

“I called her and asked her if I had a brother. She laughed and said that I didn’t, but something about her reply didn’t sound right. I let it go for a while and continued in my travels, keeping an eye on Ally whenever I could.”

Isabella’s face began to crumple and Ally started to get up and comfort her, but thought better of it and sat back down. “A few years later I received a phone call that our parents had been killed by vampires. I packed everything up and went back home.”

“They’re dead?” James asked, devastated.

She nodded.

James let his head fall. “Where was home?”

“They lived all over the world, but home was in Sterling.”

“My parents were in Scotland this whole time?”

“Yes.”

James shook his head. “What happened then?”

“Like I said, I went home to organise things and I’d made up my mind to stay in Scotland. I’d been on the run my whole life and I was tired of it.”

“On the run?” Ally inquired.

“I didn’t know we were on the run at the time, but that’s how it always felt. Our mother was never happy staying in one place for long and she was always looking over her shoulder. She said that she was a gypsy at heart and never happy in one place, but as I got older I never quite believed it. But I found myself doing the same thing, travelling from place to place, never settling anywhere. Old habits die hard I suppose.

“But when I came back and began to go through her things, I found a diary that had been hidden in a drawer compartment. It was just luck that I found it. I’d pulled the drawer out and in a moment of grief I threw it against the wall. It splintered and cracked, and the diary fell onto the floor in front of me. I picked it up and read the first page, realising it was her private diary so I put it away. It just didn’t feel right reading another loved one’s personal thoughts so I left it there for a year or so and forgot about it.”