The Seventh Immortal (Hearts of Amaranth #1) (2 page)

Just as his hand was about to touch her
cheek, a loud banging sound filled the air. The door to the
hospital room shook violently as someone pounded their fist against
it.

“
Who is in there?” a voice
shouted. “Open up!”

Paul had wisely locked the door to Kait's
room before waking her from her sleep, but that wouldn't buy them
much time. The doors were thin, and undoubtedly plenty of people
within the hospital had the key.

Reluctantly, Kait pulled away from Paul.
“They found us!” she exclaimed.

Panic lit up Paul's face. He was
contemplating the end of his career and, perhaps, his life.
Quickly, he came up with a solution. He grabbed Kait's wrist and
held up her hand. Her skin tingled at his touch and she wished for
better circumstances. Once she escaped...

“
Hit me,” Paul
whispered.

“
What?”

“
Hit me. I'll tell them that
you woke up and knocked me out. They—they can't possibly know
anything about what you are. They'll have to believe
it.”

Kait looked around the hospital room. There
wasn't another way out. “How do I get out?”

Paul pointed at the window. “It's only the
second story,” he said. “You survived a much worse fall
already.”

“
You... What do you think I
am?”

“
By the time you got here,
all your bones were healed. You weren't even bruised. The only
thing left was for you to regain consciousness. If you landed on
your feet, you probably could have walked away from it.” Paul
looked her in the eye again. “It's better than what they probably
want to do to you.”

Paul was right. She couldn't let them capture
her and put her under again. Who knows what the government planned
on doing with her? “Okay. I'll hit you.”

Kait reared back and put all of her strength
into a single punch. Paul rolled with it well enough, throwing
himself across the room in a dramatic showing that should have made
Kait laugh. She didn't feel like laughing. This wasn't the way she
wanted to first touch Paul. Even worse, the door was about to come
down.

Her heart pounding in her chest, Kait
approached the window. She grabbed the edge of the glass and
wrenched it open. With a stiff elbow, she punched a hole through
the screen and pulled it out. It was barely big enough for her to
fit through, but it would have to do.

Kait took a deep breath and pulled herself
through the window. Her legs dangled over the edge of the wall. It
wasn't too far to the ground, but she was pretty sure she could
break a leg if she wasn't careful...

But what did that even mean for her? If what
Paul told her was right, she'd managed to survive a head-first swan
dive off the thirteenth floor of the courthouse. Was she
indestructible? Or something else? If she jumped, would she just
cripple herself and let the mayor capture her again?

There wasn't time to think much about it.
There was only time to find out. Kait took a deep breath and pushed
herself off of the windowsill. Her stomach lurched up into her
chest as she fell. The air flew past her and the ground flew
towards her. She felt her legs hit the ground. The shock nearly
knocked her from her feet, but it didn't hurt.

Kait stared at her legs.
They were fine. They didn't shatter from the impact. There was no
sickening
snap
as she planted her
feet into the pavement outside the hospital.

She didn't know much, but she knew this
wasn't normal. Even two stories should have been enough to injure
her, but she barely felt a thing.

Before she could think too much about it,
Kait heard a loud siren split the air. It was coming from inside
the hospital. They knew she'd gone missing and they were sounding
the alarm. It was time to go.

Chapter Two

As soon as Kait was off hospital property,
she began to doubt her cunning escape plan. She was in a strange
city without anywhere to go. She had no money, and only the clothes
on her back to her name. If she had to eat—and she'd yet to
determine if her strange condition required her to eat or drink—she
had no way of obtaining food.

She didn't know where to go. She didn't know
where she'd come from. When she looked at the skyline of downtown,
there was only one building that she recognized—the courthouse.
Earlier that morning, she'd leapt from the very top, presumably to
her death. But she wasn't dead, and the building called to her. It
was the only connection she had to her past, and she was drawn to
it.

Without money, the only thing Kait could do
was walk. It was a long way from the hospital to downtown, but Kait
had all the time in the world.

As she traversed the city of St. Louis, Kait
began to familiarize herself with the city. The streets were dirty,
but they seemed to be constantly under repair. New construction
projects were everywhere, and renovations were even more
common.

The crumbling walls were plastered with
posters showing a familiar face—Mayor Levin invited the city's
inhabitants to join him with artfully crafted propaganda: “The City
Government works for YOU. Will you work for them? Employment
opportunities for citizens of every class, inquire within or at
www.TheCityGovernment.com.”

Kait didn't know what to think. Even though
he seemed to be behind these ambitious projects, Mayor Levin's
visage terrified her. It reminded her of the awful moment in the
hospital, when she realized that she didn't have any control over
her own fate.

Cop cars sat on nearly every corner,
watching over the streets. Kait hid her face as she passed them,
afraid that her description might be on the radio by now. No one
stopped her. There were plenty of police, but none of them seemed
to be paying attention.

It took Kait almost an hour to walk from St.
Louis University Hospital to the courthouse. She spent the time
thinking about her strange condition, and what the mayor wanted
with her. It didn't make sense that a city executive would be the
most interested in the sudden appearance of an immortal woman, even
if it happened in her city. Where was the Federal government? Where
were the scientists and the doctors? Maybe, despite everything, she
was lucky that the the mayor was such a control freak. He'd kept
Kait a secret for his own purposes. But what were his purposes?

Approaching the courthouse, Kait saw a crowd
gathered around the plaza in front of the building. A small section
of the pavement was cordoned off with police tape. Kait felt a sick
sensation brew in her stomach as she approached the spot. Even
through the crowd, she could see that the concrete was stained with
blood. Her blood.

Why did she come here? What did she expect
to find, other than this gruesome scene? And why hadn't anyone
cleaned it up yet?

Kait could hear the crowd murmuring. They
were still talking about her. It had happened hours ago, and yet
people were still coming by to gossip about her apparent suicide.
She overheard someone mention that the woman who fell from the
courthouse roof was still moving when she was taken away.

Her story was starting to get around, though
fortunately no one would be able to tell it was her. From what Paul
said, it sounded like her face was so badly damaged in the fall
that she would have been unrecognizable to anyone who saw her hit
the ground.

After pushing her way through the crowd,
Kait stood at the edge of the police tape. Two uniformed officers
were on the scene. One appeared to be collecting evidence—scraping
up a torn piece of fabric from the ground—and the other monitored
the onlookers. Kait didn't want them to see her, but as soon as she
had a full view of the crimson-stained pavement, she was
paralyzed.

Even now, she didn't remember any of this.
She couldn't recall hurtling towards the ground. She especially
couldn't recall why she tried to end her life.

The police officer collecting evidence
placed the scrap of fabric in a sealed plastic bag and ducked
underneath the tape holding back the crowd. As he passed Kait, he
turned to look at her. Their eyes met and he seemed transfixed.
Even as he was walking away, he continued to glance back at
her.

Kait felt her heart jump. Did he recognize
her? Undoubtedly, some people had seen her before she jumped. She
was putting herself at risk coming back here... But maybe she
wanted someone to recognize her. If anyone knew her face, they
might be able to provide some answers about her life before the
fall.

Despite her worries, the police officer
never came back to talk to her. He didn't grab her or pull her away
from the crowd. Once he'd returned to his car to store the evidence
he collected, he never even seemed to pay her any mind.

Finally, Kait was able to pull herself away
from the scene of her failed suicide attempt. She could feel her
whole body shaking as she walked away, as if she had just picked
herself up off the pavement a moment ago.

“
Hey!” a voice whispered.
“It's... It's you!”

Kait stopped in her tracks. She glanced over
to her side to see a young man in a smart blue suit. He had black
hair, nearly styled and graying early at the temples. There were
dark circles under his brown eyes, and despite his neat dress, he
looked more than a bit disheveled.

“
You know me?” Kait asked.
She tried to keep her expectations low.

The man shook his head. “No, but I saw you,”
he replied. “I saw you in the courthouse. You... You got in the
service elevator, and I got in there with you. You were going to
the top floor.” He took a deep breath before asking what he really
wanted to ask. “It was you, wasn't it? You were the jumper.”

Kait hesitated. What was she supposed to
say? She didn't want to have to explain how she was still alive—she
still didn't know the answer to that question—but this man was the
closest connection she had with her prior life. If he knew anything
about her, she needed that information.

“
Yes, but we can't talk
about it here,” Kait finally replied. She motioned around her, to
the crowd milling around the courthouse. “And I don't know who you
are. I don't know if I can trust you.”

The man stuck out his hand. “My name is
Spencer Smith, and I'm an attorney,” he said. “As for whether you
can trust me... You already have.”

“
What?”

“
You gave me
something.”

Kait's heart pounded in her chest. This was
it. This was the lead she needed. “Let's go somewhere safe.”

Spencer nodded. He took the lead, pulling
them away from the crowd and turning a corner, heading towards the
riverfront.

They walked a few blocks deeper into the
city. Kait peered down every street they passed, afraid that
Spencer might be leading her into a trap. No matter what he said,
she couldn't fully trust that he had her best interest in mind.

He led her to a cafe that was nearly empty.
It was a small—barely more than a hole in the wall under a towering
office building—with just a few tables far from the counter. This
was the ideal place for a clandestine meeting, and Kait wondered if
Spencer often used it to confer with his clients.

Spencer picked out a booth near the window,
ordered a latte, and placed his briefcase on the table. “When you
jumped, I didn't think I would see you again,” Spencer said. “I
almost hoped that I wouldn't.”

Unlocking the briefcase, he turned it to
face Kait. Then he opened it. Her eyes went wide when she saw what
was inside. There was a bank card, passport, and several thousand
dollars in cash. She reached inside and picked up the passport.
Glancing inside, she saw her own picture and name. Katrina Anne
Selias. Born September 2, 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Kait flicked through the other pages of the
passport, hoping they might give her some clue as to where she'd
been before. There were no stamps...but there was something written
on one of the pages. It was scrawled in handwriting that felt
almost familiar. Two sentences, but they barely meant anything to
Kait:

Find the Gospels. Then you will
understand.

Flipping the passport around, Kait showed
the writing to Spencer. “What do you think this means?”

Spencer shrugged. “You're supposed to read
the Bible?” he asked.

Kait considered this. She didn't think that
was the answer, and even brought more questions to mind about her
condition. Not all of her memories were gone. She knew what the
Bible was. More than that, she could speak and read, and probably
even write without complications. Her amnesia was entirely
specific, and barely seemed to affect her general knowledge of the
world.

It was almost like she'd chosen what to
forget.

Placing the passport back into the
briefcase, Kait shut it tight. “I gave all of this to you?”

“
You said you might need it
later. When I found out that you jumped, I figured...”

Kait looked up at him. “You thought the cash
was yours.”

“
Hey!” Spencer said,
raising his hands. “I'm here with you now, aren't I? I didn't run
off. I brought it back. Which means you owe me some
answers.”

“
I don't have any answers,”
Kait said. “I only have questions.”

Spencer sighed. His disappointment seemed
rather familiar at this point. She remembered it from Paul's face
when she revealed her amnesia. Her condition was fascinating to
everyone around her. It compelled them to help her, even against
their own interests. And yet she could not satisfy their
curiosity.

“
My memory is gone,” Kait
continued. “I don't even remember meeting you, though it's obvious
it happened. I'm sorry, Spencer, but even I don't know what I
am.”