Immortal Becoming (17 page)

Did the mother-child bond remain as sensitive throughout a child’s entire life? Nathan, being only a year older than Jorie, had the same bond with Sara, but Sara was able to shield her less desirable emotions from Nathan, being a normal Hulven—the advantage of having psychic abilities. She envied Sara. She would love to be psychically tuned to Jorie’s emotions, to know when she was afraid. To know without a doubt that she was happy with her life. Moira could qualify as a zen master from all the time she spent meditating to keep her emotions on an even keel for Jorie’s sake. “Tell me this hydroponics genius idea,” she prompted.

With the quick return of her earlier enthusiasm, Jorie trotted over to the white board on the wall and drew a series of boxes and rectangles. “If we use twenty-four-inch-deep water reserves at the floor level, with double the cubic feet of water required for one built over the planter box, then we could build planter boxes at twelve inch increments above the first and then the second. The three levels would only require the same amount of water as two if you pump to the top and second levels and let the bottom be watered only by the runoff of the first two.” She was drawing pumps, lines, and sprayers at a rate so fast human eyes wouldn’t have been able to follow.

The detail was amazing, better than professional engineer plans. Moira smiled as she watched Jorie draw from only her imagination the beginning of a plan for the future of their farm. She opened her mouth to voice a question, but Jorie cut her off.

“OH WAIT! What about lighting? You were about to ask. Admit it.” Jorie pointed at her.

Moira bowed her head slightly, acknowledging that was her question. “Well, I think mirrors to reflect into the lower levels, placing them here, here, here, and here. Maybe even create a solar-powered light rotation device so they get light longer. You could come up with that easy, Mom.” Winding down, she flopped into the chair, feigning exhaustion. “What do you think?”

Biting her thumbnail, Moira studied the drawing, feeling proud and excited of what Jorie had come up with, aware Jorie could feel it. “I think it is brilliant, Jorjor. Absolutely brilliant.” She meant it in every way. “How long have you been working on this?”

“For a while. I couldn’t figure out the lighting thing. The mirrors were Nathan’s idea. The solar-powered motors to extend the light direction just popped into my head while I was showing you the rest. Maybe it was the motion sensors moving on the screen behind you.” She pointed the marker she still held.

Jorie began tapping the marker to end of her chin, not realizing it didn’t have a cap on it and was leaving little black marks. “Do you think it could create a cross-pollination problem?”

Moira tried to hold back from laughing at the marker beard Jorie had drawn on her face. “What?” Jorie demanded, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.

Moira busted out laughing, pointing at the open-ended marker in Jorie’s hand. “Mother!” Jorie rubbed her chin against her palm. “Did I get it off?” Moira shook her head, still laughing. “Damn it.” Jorie stomped out of the room.

Still chuckling, Moira looked again at Jorie’s drawing. Marja had been an amazing artist too, but she had lacked the speed Jorie demonstrated. That was Moira’s gift. The speed in no way negated Marja’s artistic eye, recall, and skill. Moira glanced up at the painting Marja had made of the two of them with their mother when they were fifteen. Marja had painted it one hundred and fifty years after their mother had died, using her memory of how Moira had looked at fifteen to depict both of their features. The image of them and Marjorie was perfect.

Turning back to the screens, she watched Eric walk backward into the Ryu at 5:45 p.m. along with ten or so young kids, who all jumped out of cars that had reversed into the lot. That would be the last class of the day for Jess.

When the time came for the interview, Moira felt tempted to reschedule. With a sigh she logged on to her monitoring program, sending out the key for the first IP aligning to the candidate with one simple question: “What’s your name?” The web cam came up, showing Moira a young woman. Brown hair was loosely pulled back from brown eyes. Simple features, very forgettable by all accounts … until she took a look into her eyes. This woman was savvy, far more intelligent than the person who had written the first inquiry. Moira was about to terminate the connection when the lot camera from the Ryu caught her attention.

For one brief moment her entire focus was directed at the sight of her niece appearing out of thin air behind the Ryu with the most beautiful male Moira had ever seen withdrawing his fangs from her throat. He looked both ways and stepping backward into the door of the Ryu. Oh fates, the Elven had found Jess.

“Sofia.” Came the soft voice of the candidate imposter on the next screen. “Why can’t I see you too?”

“Someone’s coming … a lot of someones,” Jorie exclaimed, porting into her mother’s office from out in the farm.

Regaining her composure, Moira took control, pounding commands into her computer. “Hide baby. Don’t come out no matter what. If anything happens to me, call to Jess.” Sending another quick command into her computer, she said, “I’ve just made Sara and Napoleon aware there is a problem.”

“I’m afraid.” The tremble in Jorie’s voice reminded her to stay calm.

“I know, so am I. I’m sure I’m making your fear worse.” Reaching over, she pulled Jorie into a quick hug, kissing her cheek and looking her in the eyes. “I love you, Jorjor. GO. NOW.”

****

Jess was surprised to find Shane taking her into the same room she had ported from, the term they used. She stilled like “poofed.”

“Shut the door behind us, Beauty.” Shane whispered against her hair, sending shivers down her spine. She looked over his shoulder at the open door behind him. “You know how to do it.” She envisioned an arm of kinetic energy from herself to the door, and it slammed, loudly. Shane chuckled.

“Don’t know my own strength.” She giggled. Shane set her down on the bed, blanket and all, leaning her against headboard. She quickly scooted farther to the middle to give him room to join her.

He smiled, with a haunted, longing look at the space she had just vacated for him next to her. Why? Sighing, he pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers linked together. It was a pose she was becoming familiar with. It preceded every difficult conversation they’d had thus far.

She scooted herself back to the edge near him. “Is this going to be a bad conversation?” Jess’s mind raced through worst-case scenarios. The ones that scared her involved not being with Shane. What if he just didn’t really want to deal with her or all the stuff she would have to learn? Enlil had mentioned Becoming. She didn’t know what that meant exactly. What if it kept her and Shane from being together?

With her imagination running amok with worse-case scenarios befitting his expression, it was everything she could do to keep her tears at bay.

“What is the last thing you remember before you woke up?” Shane asked, watching her intently.

“I ate chicken, which I shouldn’t have done. I must have already had high iron before I ate. I haven’t had that bad of an iron reaction since I was a kid. Before Moira started giving me that drink.” She thought a moment before continuing. “I guess the last thing I remember was you mentally telling me my iron was rising. That was when I realized what was happening.” She cocked her head. “How did you know before I did?”

“The richness of human and iron-rich Hulven blood calls to the iron deficiencies in Elven. It has the same effect on the few anemic Hulven, too. Chemically that is how I knew your iron levels were climbing. I could smell it.” His eyes were willing her to understand what he was saying. “It’s even more than that with you and I,” he added softly, looking down at his hands. Was that shame she saw on his expression?

“So I smelled different?” She was trying to understand not just what he was saying, but why he was reacting this way.

He nodded. “Yeah, it’s instinct, similar to the way a camel will find water in a desert.” He sat silently, staring at his linked fingers and refusing to meet her gaze while the last bit sunk in. Some sort of internal struggle was being waged in him; that was obvious.

“How is it more than that with you and I?” He finally raised his eyes to meet hers. His gaze was full of tortured, sorrowful apology. She was filled with dread and reached down to grasp his linked hands in hers. “Did I do something wrong while I was out of it? What happened? Whatever it is, tell me.” His obvious torment was breaking her heart.

His voice was low and even huskier then usual, almost a whisper. “I drank from you.” Reaching up, he cradled her face between his hands. His tone pleaded for her to understand. “Your iron levels were becoming toxic to you so fast. You started bleeding from your nose, your mouth.” She nodded. She’d had these symptoms before. She had seized from psychic overload, never high iron. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t have hurt him convulsing.

“You helped me, right? Drinking from me lowered my iron, correct? So what you did, it was a good thing, wasn’t it? Why are you so … remorseful?” Jumping from the chair, pulling his hands from hers, he began to pace, rubbing his hands over his face and head.

“Just tell me, Shane,” she pleaded.

Shane snapped, “Bloodmates are rare.” He’d stopped pacing and was now staring out the window with his back to her, his arms crossed. “They used to not be, long ago. In fact it was believed that everyone had a bloodmate and that they would find them in the right space and time. Now days, if there weren’t still those few truly bloodmated couples, like Ninlil and Sargon, I doubt anyone would believe in it anymore.”

Taking a deep breath, he continued. “There are many kinds of bonds that can be made through blood. To give you an idea of how powerful they are, I was able to locate you at the Ryu this morning from that single drop shared in the kiss last night, though it wasn’t enough to make a permanent bond. Those require at least an ounce drawn from the vein. Once blood leaves the body, it loses the ability to connect the donor to the recipient. The bond is formed by the conductivity of the blood flowing through the two bodies at the same time.” He sighed, stonewalling for time. Okay. At least he was talking to her.

“What are these bonds used for, besides finding someone?” Jess asked.

Keeping his back to her, he continued. “Different things. Jerika and I have a mentoring bond; so do Gilgamesh and I. It enables me to speak to Gil telepathically, privately, in confidence. I can send him memories or let him see through my eyes, letting him help me should I have need. It all depends on how far I lower my shields to him once contact is made between the two of us. Jerika can do the same with me. Mentoring is a life-long commitment because of the blood-bond, though protégés move on and rarely use the bond once they have reached a certain point. Before this I had actually never had cause to use my bond to Gilgamesh.

“Others come at birth, like the one you felt with your mother. It was that bond she used to port you to Moira that first time. Siblings born of the same mother usually have a direct bond at birth. Voluntary blood bonds are by mutual agreement.” Everything he was telling her was good information, but it wasn’t answering her immediate question.

Glancing over his shoulder at her, he added, “The bonding of bloodmates is sacred. It is the most powerful bond in the universe. Unbreakable. Once created, it is nearly impossible to shield even the most private things from one another.” Dropping his arms to hook his thumbs in his pockets, he turned to face her, leaning against the frame of the window. “You are my bloodmate, Beauty. I knew it, even though I was trying to deny it to myself because you are Hulven. Inside I knew. Yet I drank from you without your consent. In our world, taking that bond from you the way I did is abhorrent.” Walking over and kneeling in front of her, he dropped his head in shame. “I am so sorry.”

Jess looked down at the top of Shane’s bowed head. “You did it to save me. You didn’t have a choice. Isn’t that what you said?”

Keeping his head bowed, he shook it slightly. “I could have blood-let you using a donation bag, which is the proper way. Hell, in an emergency I could have just opened your vein with a pocketknife and let it run down a drain, instead of biting. Truth is I violated you. There is no justification for that.”

“I still don’t understand what a bloodmate is. Is it like a soul-mate? How do you know I’m yours?”

Shane’s sigh was long and relieved. “Your mind works in an amazing way, you know that?” He had still not raised his bowed head, but she could hear a little bit of a smile in his voice.

“Bloodmates’ body chemistries call to one another in a unique way. Once found, they mate for life. Usually when one dies, the other does as well, though Enlil has lived without Etana for centuries. He keeps himself in a dormant state most of the time to keep from feeling the pain of her loss. In my lifetime there hasn’t been a single bloodmating. No one has ever heard of a bloodmating between Hulven and Elven, until us. I know you are mine because I drank from you. I am bonded to you, forever. Whether or not you choose to return the bond doesn’t change the fact that I am bonded to you.” What little relief she’d seen in his face moments ago was once again buried behind remorse and shame.

Her breath lodged in her throat. Was he telling her he
married
her without her consent? Was that why he was so freaked out? Maybe he didn’t want to be bonded to her?