Love Immortal (30 page)

Jewell leaned closer to Ashley “Someone’s
watching,” was all she said. She didn’t need to say any more.
Ashley understood exactly what Jewell was talking about. She stood
up and started to leave the table.

“Where are you going?” Ray, who had been
staring at Ashley ever since she arrived, asked curiously.

“I have to go powder my nose. It’s important
for a woman to keep herself beautiful.” She flashed her most
dazzling smile at him.

Although she knew exactly where the bathroom
was Ashley made a circuit of the restaurant so she could survey the
other people. She walked slowly to the hostess at the front of the
restaurant, casually surveying the other diners. “Excuse me,” she
asked the hostess, “can you tell me where the restroom is?” She
looked at the people waiting to be seated.

“It’s right over there, dear.” Ashley looked
to where the hostess was pointing.

“Thank you.” Ashley turned, again surveying
the people in the restaurant. She went to the restroom, and then
walked back to the table, passing the kitchen instead of walking
along the front of the restaurant. She tried to look, without
looking, at each diner as she walked past. As she approached the
kitchen, she had to turn to squeeze past a waitress who was placing
a plate of pancakes in front of a single diner. She tried to look
around the waitress, but saw only that it was a man; based on the
well-defined muscles on those very perfectly sculpted arms.

When she came back to the table, she flashed
Ray her smile as she slid into her seat next to Jewell. Ashley
leaned toward Jewell, placing her hand in front of their mouths to
keep her voice from carrying. “I didn’t see anyone that looked
familiar. Weirdo isn’t here, at least.”

“Thanks Ash. It’s probably just one of
Sheriff Payne’s deputies still following me around.”

“You sure you don’t want to leave?” It was
obvious that Ashley didn’t want to.

“No,” said Jewell, almost too quickly as she
glanced between Ashley and Ray. “I mean, it’s like I said. I can
feel it, but it’s not creepy or anything. I just wish I knew who it
was. I’ll call Sheriff Payne later and ask him about it.”

The group stayed for another thirty minutes
or so before they started to disperse. Everyone was tired from a
long night, and most of them had to be back at work later that day.
Ray and Doug lingered along with Ashley and Jewell. As they turned
toward the door, Jewell saw a man wearing a hoodie with the hood
pulled up hurrying out the door. Immediately, her heart beat
quickened and her skin tingled. She grabbed Ashley’s arm.

“What?” Ashley asked, looking at Jewell’s
face worriedly.

“He’s here, that was Collin. Come on.” She
started dragging Ashley toward the door.

“Jewell, not again. I don’t want to sound
negative, but it’s been a week. And besides, don’t you think that
if he wanted to see you he would just come up and talk to you? Why
would he be stalking around and hiding from you?” By the time she
finished, she was practically yelling at Jewell across the
restaurant as Jewell ran out the door after the stranger.

Ashley handed their receipt and her money to
Ray and ran after Jewell seeing her just as she disappeared around
the back of the building. “Jewell!” She shouted picking up her pace
to catch up.

When Ashley caught up to Jewell, she was
standing in the middle of the parking lot by the dumpster, looking
confused. Jewell turned as Ashley walked up behind her. “I saw him
Ashley, I really did.” Her voice sounded like she was on the verge
of tears. Ashley put her arm around Jewell and Jewell turned her
head into Ashley’s shoulder.

“It was just a guy that looked kind of like
him.”

“I don’t know Ashley. Maybe I am losing it. I
swear I saw him. I watched him come around this corner, but when I
got here, there was…nothing. Was there even anybody there? Am I
imagining things?”

“No sweetie. I saw him too.”

“You did? Really?”

“I can see how you could mistake him for
Collin. He had a similar height and build, but Jewell, it wasn’t
him.” Jewell nodded. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

Chapter 36

“Idiota!” Collin cursed as he pounded the
steering wheel with his fist, accenting each word. “Stupido!
Imbecile!” His slip today had almost revealed him to Jewell. It was
time to make a choice; he either had to leave her, allow her to
live her life, or he had to confront her with the truth and let her
make the choice.

He exited on the 310 South, heading towards
home. He had to think and he couldn’t do it while he was following
Jewell. Besides, she would be going home to sleep for her shift
tonight. As he drove down the long drive toward the house, he
started to feel uneasy. Something here was not right. As he
approached the house, he saw his uncle’s SUV sitting in the
driveway. “Great,” Collin said to himself. “Just what I need now;
an unbiased viewpoint.” He had wanted time alone to think, he
didn’t want to listen to his uncle yammering on about the choices
he had made.

He pulled into the drive and parked his
rented car next to his uncle’s. His uncle was sitting on the porch,
waiting for him to show up. “Fancy meeting you here,” his uncle
called from the porch sarcastically.

“I was wondering how long it would take you
to get here.” Collin walked up the porch steps and sat down next to
his uncle. “Did you come alone?”

“Of course not.” His uncle smiled brightly.
“I brought Gladys and Kendryck.”

“Kendryck? Why Kendryck?” Gladys had become a
given. Collin knew that wherever he was involved, she would be his
defender, which made him feel a little better, but what did
Kendryck have to do with all this?

“Well…I thought he might be able to help you
out with some things. You haven’t been back in touch with Jewell
yet, have you?”

“Not…not exactly.” Collin stood up and turned
towards the door to go inside.

“What do you mean ‘not exactly’,” his uncle
asked, grabbing his arm gently and pulling Collin to sit back down
next to him.

“I’ve sort of been following her. I think
maybe…well, I think maybe she saw me a couple of times, but I left
before she could find out that it actually was me.”

“Oh, now that’s nice. My nephew has turned
into a stalker.” His uncle got up and Collin followed him
inside.

“I am not a stalker,” Collin said irritably
to his uncle’s back. “Besides, you’re a kidnapper.”

“Let’s see…you follow her around without her
knowing, I’m willing to bet you’ve hung out outside her work,
waiting for her. Have you sat outside her house waiting to see what
she does and with whom?” His uncle turned around to see Collin’s
reaction. Collin nodded resentfully. “Sounds like you’re a stalker
boy. I think we need to get you some help.” But he winked at Collin
to let him know that he understood.

“We need to return that rental car as soon as
possible too,” Percy told Collin as they walked into the
parlor.

“Why? What am I going to drive?”

“Because, I am quite certain that that car
has a GPS locator in it which is something that could cause trouble
– especially if you rented the car in your own name.” He glanced at
Collin who hung his head indicating that he had. “As for what
you’re going to drive, you can drive my car…when I give you
permission. You need to leave Jewell alone.”

“Fine!” Collin was not happy, but wasn’t
going to argue with his uncle. Especially when he knew his uncle
was right.

Inside, Kendryck was sitting in the parlor.
He had set up two chairs facing each other about five feet apart.
He gestured to the other chair, inviting Collin to sit down. Collin
glanced at his uncle, who nodded, and sat in the proffered
seat.

“As your uncle may have told you,” Kendryck
began, “in addition to our pseudo-immortal state, we also possess
some additional abilities. Photographic memory is common to us all,
as is empathy. But some of us have talents unusual to the rest. The
most common is telepathy, although cases of telekinesis,
divination, precognition, astral projection, and clairvoyance have
also been documented.”

“What do you mean by ‘most common’?”

“Well, probably one in ten.” He glanced at
Percy for confirmation. Percy nodded.

“So, what does this have to do with me?”

“Well, because it’s more common than the
other talents I’d like to test you. I would have liked to test you
earlier, but your uncle is a bullheaded, stubborn, ass.” Percy
shrugged.

“So…what?” Collin looked between Percy and
Kendryck. “Are you saying I’m telepathic or something?”

“Well, I’m saying you need to be tested,”
Kendryck responded. “That’s why I’m here.”

“What do I need to do?”

“Just relax, don’t try to block me.”

“Block you?” Collin was confused.

“Just don’t, well you’ll probably understand
once I start.” Kendryck relaxed, looking intently at Collin.

Collin sat in his chair watching Kendryck,
waiting for something to happen. After what seemed to be several
minutes, he felt something touching his forehead. He moved his head
reflexively feeling for whatever was poking him. It was then that
he realized, something wasn’t poking at the outside of his head,
the probing was on the inside. The more he thought about it, the
more he thought it felt like someone was kneading his brain;
looking for a way in.

“You’re blocking,” he heard Kendryck say
quietly into the empty space between them. “You’re actually doing a
really good job. I may be able to teach you something yet. Right
now though, I need you to relax. Stop trying to keep me out.”

Collin hadn’t realized that he was doing
anything; he had just been concentrating on the strange feeling in
his head. He tried to relax as Kendryck instructed.

“I’ve never…” Kendryck just sat there shaking
his head. “Among our Family, I am one of the strongest. I’ve never
met anyone who could resist me so easily. You actually pushed me
out!” He sat there, shaking his head. He looked at Percy, his voice
cold. “I can train him, but you did Collin a great disservice
keeping him from his talents for so long.” Kendryck stood up and
left the room.

“You deserved better. I shouldn’t have been
so selfish. If I would’ve listened…”

“What are you talking about?” Collin looked
at his uncle.

“I’ve known almost since the day you were
first put into my care that you were one of us. I should’ve raised
you to understand what you are. I should’ve had you tested, had you
trained from the beginning.”

“You did what you thought was best,” Collin
said trying to comfort his uncle.

“No, I didn’t. I treated you like I wanted
you to be. I’ve failed you.” Percy moved to stand up, Collin held
him, forced him to stay seated on the couch.

“You treated me like a son. You loved me, you
cared for me, and you taught me right from wrong. I couldn’t have
asked for anyone better to have raised me.” Percy looked at Collin,
his face still masked in misery. Collin smiled, and gave his uncle
a hug. “So what if I’m never some great telepath? It hasn’t hurt me
so far. What would I do with it anyway? You can’t do it; you seem
to be just fine. It’s not the end of the world.”

“I guess you’re right. For a kid, you talk
like you’ve been alive for centuries. Now, what are we going to do
about Jewell?”

Chapter 37

Edgar sat in the musty, moldy office of the
warehouse, as he listened to the arguing around him. His nose
itched, and his eyes were watering. The room had some boxes pushed
in a corner, obviously soaked and then dried; grim reminders of the
hurricane that had swept through here and devastated most of the
Gulf Coast. He studied the mildew patterns on the bottom of the
box, wondering at what these meetings were doing to his lungs.

“I can’t believe you lost him!” Art was
pacing irritably back and forth across the room, stirring the dust
and mold that had settled into the stale 1970’s gold carpeting.
“After two weeks of watching the girl, we finally see him and you
let him get away?” Art stopped, pushing his hands through what was
left of the graying hair surrounding his balding pate. The long
strand that normally covered his shiny head, pushed out of place,
fell to the side, hanging almost to his shoulder; a stark contrast
to the short, well groomed cut of the rest of his hair.

“We couldn’t exactly run, what good would
that have done, leading the police back here? It’s bad enough that
the cop has our names and license plate; if we had run from him,
then what?” Angry at having his judgment questioned, Elliot pushed
himself up from his chair, bowing his body toward the older man who
had assumed the position of leader. Elliot was not a large man, but
when he wanted to, he had an imposing presence about him. It wasn’t
enough to defer Art’s frustration at the loss.

“If you had used better judgment, you might
have figured out who he was before you had to fly out of the
parking lot to follow him. Did you stop to consider that maybe she
was going the same place he was, maybe in a different car?”

Elliot didn’t like having his judgment
questioned. He was an influential person in the academic community
and most of his colleagues accepted his theories without question
or dispute. He had an Irish temper, as hot as his red hair,
inherited from his mother, and he was doing his best to control it
now. Taking a deep breath, he turned from his accuser. “I don’t
think so,” Alan chimed in. He was young, the youngest member ever
accepted into the Obsidian Knights, and a new recruit having very
little influence with the group. Art spun to look at him, angry at
being addressed by the young man. “He was hiding his face, running
from her. He left the restaurant ahead of her and ran to his car.
He left before she was able to get a good look at him. There’s
definitely a connection between them. He’s watching her, for
whatever reason. I think she suspects it, but doesn’t actually
know.”