Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (7 page)

What I
said. Gods, what I said to her. I should have listened…

Choking,
smothering, guilt.

Pain.
Loss – despair.

 …and
Brand ripped away, forcing everything back. His heart pounded, his hand still
rested on the warm skin of Eva’s back, but now it shook slightly. He breathed
in her scent, centering himself.
Six centuries
.
The first goddamned
time the memories overwhelmed me in six centuries
.

He felt
sick.

This
woman, this beautiful silver-eyed tigress lying beneath his palm was his amati.
Eva
.
Eva is mine
. Not Khael’s Lis from the memories – but
Eva. Beautiful, stubborn, lovely Eva.

My
Evita,
Brand thought, even as his mind and memories warned,
Do not make the
mistakes Khael made
.
Listen to her. Be with her. Know her
.
Love
her. Take her. Marque her. Keep her…

Brand’s
hand tensed. “Evita…” He hesitated. She probably didn’t even know that the
amati bond was a possibility. Most Kaspian didn’t – because it was a bond
that only happened for his own family.

Eva
wriggled beneath his palm. “I thought you were going to heal me, Brand. But I
should have guessed: it was a ploy to stare at my body. But I thought you would
had seen it all by now – since you pulled me from a snowbank and all.”
The hint of a smile in her voice almost undid him.

Brand
opened his mouth to tell Eva, in all blunt honesty, what she was to him –
and self-preservation hit hard.

Hell,
he wanted her – he wanted her
badly
. But would she stay? Would she
try to complete the bond with him? Or would she disbelieve him and fight to
leave…

Brand
didn’t know anything about her. Not really.

Eva was
brave and she was beautiful. But she didn’t know enough to care about him
– she didn’t know enough to believe in him. She didn’t know enough to
stay with him and let him protect her.

Even if
they were meant to spend a lifetime together, they were strangers.

And did
he trust her? With the truth of his ability, his secrets?

No.
He
didn’t trust anyone but his family.

He
wished he could, but…no.

Yet, as
Brand stared at Eva, everything inside him screamed, “
Mine!
”

It was
too much to hold.

Eva was
watching over her shoulder, a puzzled, sleepy expression in her eyes. “Are you
okay?”

“Fine,”
Brand rasped, and met her quicksilver gaze. Golden sparks flashed in their
depths, prisming outward like a promise, and he wondered what his own gaze
looked like. Brand swallowed. “Thinking. Give me a minute.”

Eva
slowly nodded before laying her cheek back against her arms. Brand stared down
at her – felt the soft abraded skin beneath his palm – and grit his
teeth in a silent snarl. The Sakai – Rohe – who had done this to
Eva would
pay. That
needed to be investigated too.
But all Brand
could do for Eva right now was to make sure her wounds were closed; she would
have to heal the rest.

She was
injured, she needed food, but despite that, her body was beautiful. Brand
wanted to lean down and taste it, to
caress
it. He was tempted and yet…
tomorrow,
when she learns that you won’t take her home, she will hate you
.

He
would have to delay that knowledge for as long as possible. Because something
told him, when Eva found out – she would run.

*Brand
settled for healing Eva instead. When he was done, she murmured, half-asleep,
“I have an ability too. But it’s mostly useless.”

“No
ability is useless. What is yours?”

“I said
mostly
useless.” She shifted, a flicker of tension in her spine and
Brand smoothed it out before she continued, “I know when people are going to
die. My chest cramps up, and suddenly I can’t breath, and I just
know
.”
She shifted again. “Sometimes I see flashes of them, sometimes…not.”

A chill
coursed down Brand’s spine. “Always? Any person?”

“No.
Just family. People I care about. Sometimes…sometimes I can change it. If I get
there fast enough. If I can
find
them before it happens.”

“I know
many tigers who would love to have that ability,” he said quietly. If he had
known what would happen to Lis…to his father…to the Elisaie – so many
lives could have been saved. So much would be different today. Perhaps the
members of Brand’s family were known for their abilities – but Brand also
knew that not everyone from the other Gens possessed such talents. It was a matter
of bloodlines and power, and age. “Abilities are to be treasured, Eva. I can
think of a handful of occasions in my past when your ability would have come in
useful.”

“It’s
only useful if you can get to them in time. And if it works. It doesn’t always
work. It didn’t warn me about…” a pause, a shake of her head as her scent
turned sad. “Brand, what I meant to say was, if I had a real ability,” she
yawned, nestling further into the sheets, “I would want it…to be like yours.
Exactly…like yours.”

Minutes
later, she was asleep. Brand touched her hair, letting the soft warmth of it
drift through his fingers as the familiar darkness rose inside him.

“Any
ability but mine, Eva.
Any
ability but mine.”

Eva
spent most of the next day sleeping in the motel room, only to wake in a brief
panic as she felt Brand lift and carry her to his car. Satisfied that Rohe was
nowhere near, it was a little while before she could fall asleep again, but
when she finally did wake the second time around, it was dark outside and she
was cheek-down against the vehicle’s luxurious leather seating; Brand was
riding beside her and an expensive wool coat that carried his scent had been
draped across her body.

“Where
are we?” she asked groggily, pulling up onto one elbow, and he looked over from
the book he was reading to give a faint smile. He was close enough she could
feel his warmth.

“On the
road.”

She
snorted in amusement.
Of course
they were on the road. “
That
is
obvious,” she said dryly, straightening in the seat then flushing as she
realized that she was still wearing that same old blue sweater. It was long
enough to be a dress on her, but…she was still sitting in an enclosed vehicle
with two incredibly sexy males, and not a pair of underwear in sight. And her
hormones seemed to have gone into overdrive. “How far until we reach North
Carolina?”

Brand
shrugged, trading a glance with Joshua in the rearview mirror. “It’s a long
drive. You can’t travel the entire way like this, Eva. We need to get you some
real clothes.”

She
flushed, pulling the coat over herself and prayed that he couldn’t smell her
arousal.

If only
he wasn’t so…well,
handsome
.

The
three of them drove for several more hours before Joshua pulled over at a
twenty-four hour Walmart. Eva had moved to get from the car, but then Brand had
picked her up and, to her shock, carried her across the snow-packed parking
lot.

“I can
walk,” she said, embarrassed and trying to keep the sweater from riding up. She
wasn’t used to being treated like this. She wasn’t sure how to react.

Brand
shrugged, then carefully set her on her feet after they cleared the
entranceway. “No point. The skin on your soles is still tender – and I
can carry you easily enough.”

As Eva
stepped into the store, the harsh fluorescent lighting reminded her of the
halls in Rohe’s Asylum, and she shivered – and then wanted to shiver
again, but for an entirely different reason, as Brand’s hand slid to rest on
the small of her back.

Damn
hormones
, she thought, and tried to get herself in hand.
“How far are we from…from Rohe?” she could barely bring herself to utter that
name. But she needed to know.

Also,
it effectively doused her desire.

“It’s a
quick stop, Eva,” Brand said, his deep voice slightly rough. “I won’t let
anything happen to you.” Eva just nodded, a knot of foreboding lodged in her
throat. But foreboding over
what
, she had no idea. All she knew was that
she felt jumpy…unsettled.

“Make
it quick,” Joshua said, glancing at his phone, dialing. “I’ll touch base with
Seth, see if he’s pulled up any info on Rohe or the tranquilizers she used. The
two of you do what you need to do, and hurry.” He glanced at Brand, a frown in
his steely eyes. “I’ll get the food, meet you at the car. Something…” he shook
his head. “My gut tells me that something’s going down in Vermont. We should
have called a tracker in to investigate that goddamned place,” he muttered.
“Sakai aren’t supposed to be in this area of the country. They aren’t supposed
to be in this country at
all
. We aren’t in bloody Europe.”

“We
know. Seth likes the fact even less than you,” Brand said, his palm pressing
into Eva’s back, steering her to the left. “He’ll get answers. But the Asylum’s
off-limits until we have more information. So remember
that
before you
call in any friends to do you favors.”

Joshua
grimaced, half-waving his hand in acknowledgement as he split toward the right
side of the store, raising his phone to speak into it in some foreign language.
Eva and Brand moved toward the clothing section.

She
felt nervous, awkward. After last night, Brand had barely spoken two words to
her. Yet, each time she looked at him, he was watching her. Studying her
– listening to her. As if he were assessing her for something.

It was
disconcerting.

Eva
swallowed, slanting a glance at him from the corner of her eyes as she padded
down the cold off-white tile of the aisle. “What language was Joshua speaking?
On the phone, I mean.”

“Greek.
Old Greek. Seth prefers it,” Brand said matter-of-factly, as if people spoke
Ancient Greek every day. He pointed toward the benches near the waiting room.
“I’ll be over there. Find whatever you need, I’ll pay for it.” Then he glanced
down at Eva’s bare feet. “We’ll stop at the shoe department next.”

An odd
shiver coursed down Eva’s spine as she looked at the clothing. She wasn’t rich.
Her
Gens
wasn’t rich. And Walmart wasn’t exactly expensive…but… “I’ll
pay you back.” She’d keep her expenses to a minimum. As soon as Eva was back at
the Gens, she’d have her old clothes again.

“No
need,” Brand shrugged, as if money meant nothing to him, and Eva was reminded
– again – that he was from Kade Gens. An unsettling sensation
lodged in the pit of her stomach.
No. There’s no reason he’d look at me
twice. He’s rich, he’s hot, and apparently, he speaks Ancient Greek
.
Fluently
.

Last
night must have been her imagination. The feel of his hands on her body –
the slightly rough sound of his voice, as if he
needed
something, and
more, needed it from
her
– those were probably delusions of her sleep-fogged
recently-traumatized mind.
Wishful thinking
, Eva thought dismally, as
she scooped up a pair of jeans from the racks and chose a dark blue sweater.
It
wouldn’t be the first time
.

They
found a bra and underwear in the next department – Eva didn’t bother with
anything expensive, since she
was
going to pay Brand back, rich or not
– and moved on to the shoes. Where Brand remained just as silent and
withdrawn.

“You’re
brooding,” Eva realized finally, almost irritably, as she slipped on a pair of
size eights and glanced up to realize that – yes, no imagination about it
– this time he was
definitely
staring at her ass. Gold flecked his
sapphire gaze when he raised it to hers.

“Am I?”

Eva
ground her teeth in irritation. “And now you’re evading the question.”

“I
don’t think,” Brand said quietly, as he crouched before her to examine the fit
of her shoe as if she were still ten years old, “that you actually
asked
me a question, Eva. Keep these on. I’ll pay for them at the checkout.”

This
time, Eva
did
hiss at him. “I’ll pay for them. When we reach North
Carolina.”

“No you
won’t,” Brand said, still in that unconcerned tone, and scooped up the empty
shoebox along with her new clothes. They started for the front of the store.
“I’d make you pick out more clothes, except something tells me you’d fight me
on them.” Brand nodded as they passed the outerwear. “So in light of my
restraint, choose a coat.”

“Maybe
I don’t need a coat.” Eva glared at him, irritated by his attitude. Besides,
she couldn’t
afford
a coat.

Brand
arched an infuriating eyebrow. “It’s
winter
outside, Eva. Maybe you
haven’t noticed, or maybe you actually like to lie in snowbanks, but most
Kaspian would be cold.”

She
flashed her teeth at him. “God, you’re bossy.”