Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (12 page)

Eva
groaned and arched, her legs shifted and the soft musk of her arousal filled
the air of the car.
Don’t pull away this time
, she thought desperately.
Don’t
pretend you don’t scent my need.

Brand
snarled. Eva shivered. And then his shoulders tensed as he abruptly pulled from
her mouth, her lips, her arms.

Eva
cried out at the abandonment, at the loss of his heat, the weight of his chest.
But he kept his hand clenched in her hair, and when he finally caught her eyes,
she saw the gold streaked through the deep blue of his gaze, the faintest
beginning flecks of the darkest heart’s-blood red.
Kaspian
red. The
color for which blood tigers had named themselves.

Eva
wanted to reach forward, to touch those eyes, and wondered if her own looked
like his. She had never dared look directly at a man after she kissed him
– because all of them had been human. Brand released her hair, smoothing
the strands between his fingers.

“I’m
sorry Evita,” he said hoarsely, and she could see it in his eyes. “I did not
mean to go that far.”

Eva
touched his lips and Brand raised his palm, brushing it down her cheek to cup
her face…and the gesture was suddenly so reminiscent of Rohe, so reminiscent of
everything that had happened since Eva’s kidnapping, that abruptly everything,
everything
…her
arousal, her lust, her disappointment, her forgetfulness…broke.

Eva
flinched away.

And
watched Brand go still.

His
lips tensed, and Eva saw pain rise, then be buried deep. Those clear blue eyes
shuttered, and Eva realized: Brand thought she had flinched away from him.

“
Not
you
,” she whispered hurriedly. “Not you,” she repeated, and lowered her
fingers – the ones that had tangled in his silky hair – to lightly
touch the roughened center of his palm, which lingered…still so frozen, and so
close, to her face.

Brand’s
fingers snapped shut around her hand, faster than any trap. Eva’s heart leapt,
but his hold was so gentle, she didn’t mind.

“Who?”
he growled. It was a rough demand, then he shook his head, briefly closing his
eyes as he answered his own question. “Rohe.”

Eva wet
her lips, feeling too hot, too warm in the confined space of the car. But she
was cold. Her hands were cold, her body was cold. She gripped Brand’s palm,
slid her fingers between the juncture of his forefinger and thumb, and silently
counted out the solid beats of his heart before answering. She waited until she
knew her voice would stay steady. Brand needed to understand.

“Rohe
kept me in a cell,” she said very carefully. She focused on his hand, the
roughness of his thumb. “It was cement, and very cold. Most of the time it was
dark, but sometimes the light bulb would work. Every other day her guards would
take me out to…”

The
memory of the table flashed through her mind, of being naked, and of blood.

Brand’s
fingers became vicelike around hers, the pain drawing Eva back as she wondered
if he would break them. Eva cleared her throat and took a deep breath through
her nose.

And
smelled his rage, his protectiveness, his
concern
.

That
steadied her more than anything else.

So Eva
forced the rest out, because for some reason, she knew Brand needed to know.

And
because he is Kaspian
, Eva realized. Eva had escaped Rohe, she had
survived
Rohe. And, Eva knew – taking strength from this realization – she
would do anything to make sure Rohe never got a hold of another living being.

That Rohe
never hurt anyone ever again. She gripped Brand’s palm.

“
Eva
.”

“They
would take me to a metal room – it was full of metal – and they
would strap me to the table.” Eva said very quickly, and closed her eyes. “I
had to take my clothes off, because if I didn’t, the guards would do it for
me.” She blocked that memory out as Brand’s hand tightened painfully. “Rohe
said beasts didn’t have clothes. I don’t think I was supposed to have been
given clothes. But I think the sweats were cheaper than blankets. Also, we were
hers, and we weren’t allowed to die. Yet.”

Her
chest was tight. Everything was tight. And dark, and cold, like a fist closing
in on her, and she could smell other deaths in that room, old blood everywhere…

Something
shook her and Eva ripped her eyes open with a gasp, and found herself sitting
in the car, staring straight into Brand’s intense blue gaze, gold rippling in
the depths, his hand on her shoulder.

“You
don’t have to tell me this,” he said quietly. “I want you to tell me this, but
you don’t have to.”

“I have
to tell somebody,” Eva countered. “And you look – like a good guy –
to tell secrets to,” she said, trying to force humor. Rainey was good with
humor; she would have had Brand laughing by now and telling her his life story.
Eva could imagine the spark of amusement in his blue eyes, how they would glow
at her sister’s funny descriptions…

Instead,
Eva was telling Brand her story of abduction and imprisonment.

And
Brand’s blue eyes weren’t smiling. They were haunted.

Eva
swallowed and looked away. “The guards would strap me down – ”

“Eva,”
he said, iron in his voice.

“
– and then Rohe would be there,” Eva said quietly, knowing what he had
been afraid she would say. She glanced up, saw the tension in his jaw, his
eyes. “They never hurt me, Brand. Not like that.”

“You’re
sure?”

“Of
course
I’m sure,” Eva snapped.
That
she did know. Rape had been a close chance,
but it had never happened. “They said I was too much of a ‘beast.’”

Though,
Eva knew,
that
had only been a matter of time. There was no point in
telling Brand that.

He
relaxed imperceptibly.

“So I
would spend the next day with Rohe,” Eva said quickly. Rohe terrified her, yes,
but it was the confinement, the straps, that frightened her worse. Her
inability to defend herself or run. Her weakness had terrified her.

“She
liked to cut me. To see if she could make me Change by cutting me – or to
see if I was…different inside. And she would bleed me. She liked to take my
blood, used send it off for testing. Sometimes she drank it. Sometimes, she gave
it to her guards. They always hosed me off afterwards. The water was cold. And
she likes pain,” Eva said, staring fixedly at the seat between them. “And
knives. Rohe measures time by knives. A new knife each week. It was only three
weeks. I knew, if I didn’t find a way out, that one day she would use all of
those knives on me.” Eva shuddered, her mind trapped in the room with the steel
table and the vast array of gleaming knives. “Rohe has a lot of knives.”

The
sound of crushing plastic. Something broke, fractured. Eva jumped, ripped out
of her recollection to see the headrest behind the seat slowly crumpling into
Brand’s big fist. But he still held her fingers gently, carefully, with his
other hand.

It
was…frightening. And oddly reassuring. At least Brand
reacted
like that.
Rohe would have laughed; Rohe’s guards would have felt nothing.

Eva
forced a smile, met Brand’s dark gaze. “I didn’t mean to flinch when you
touched my face, Brand. But every time, after each session, Rohe would put her
hand on my face right there, just like you did. And she would ask me…as if we
were friends…to Change for her. She always asked that. She would stroke my face
and ask to see my…she called it my true form, my ‘beast.’ Brand, I didn’t mean
to hurt you, but – when you touched my face like that – I
remembered Rohe.”

Seth
called just after dawn with Joshua’s coordinates. Their conversation didn’t go
well.

“Is she
listening? I need to have a private conversation with you, Brand.”

His
brother was speaking ancient Greek.

Brand
grimaced, glanced to the back of the car where Eva was spread across the seats.
She slept a lot – but then, he supposed she was recovering from what Rohe
had done to her. She had curled up under his coat, using the bag of Walmart
clothes for a pillow. Her eyes were pinched tight and, despite being
unconscious, she was murmuring. Brand wished he could make out the words.

“She’s
asleep,” Brand told Seth, the Greek awkward on his tongue. “But not in
this
language.” His father had tried to teach it to him when he was younger, but no
matter how much Brand had loved his father, Brand never felt the same for
Nikandros’s native-born language.

“You’ll
have to learn sometime,” Seth said in exasperation, switching to Catalan.
“Little Catherine speaks better Greek than you, and she’s fourteen.”

“She’ll
come to her senses one of these days,” Brand told him dryly, switching as well.
“Give her time. What do you have for me?”

Seth
became serious. “This woman, Eva, told you she was from the Turner Gens?”

“Yes.”

“I have
even less on the Turner Gens than I do on Rohe. They are restrictive, insular.
Nonaffiliated. A young Gens with weak abilities. And,” Seth’s tone turned
disapproving, “they have resisted all efforts to establish a direct line of
contact. The last Kaspian I sent to the Turner Gens was Bryan. Their warriors
drove him off and threatened to kill him if he ever ‘intruded’ again. I haven’t
added anything to their file since. Frankly, I thought they were all dead.”

“I
doubt that. Eva has a sister. She also mentioned an uncle.”

Seth
sighed, and Brand heard the scratch of pen on paper. “Well, I’ll add them to my
database. Has she told you anything else? I relayed to Gaviros what you learned
last night. He told Khael. They both want more information.”

The
last was a near order. It would have been irritating, if Brand hadn’t
completely understood Seth’s need: his brother controlled threats to Stronghold
by dealing with information. Brand, on the other hand, controlled threats to
Stronghold by dealing with individuals. The more information Seth had, the
better Brand was able to do his job.

Brand
glanced at Eva again, scanned the area outside, then leaned into his seat. He
gave Seth the bare facts of what had happened the night before. There was a
long pause.

Then,
roughly, “I have watched for over two millennia. I have worked for centuries to
avoid exactly this. I have finally found my mate. I have children. A
granddaughter. And now this…again. It always begins like this. With something
small. With someone asking questions where they shouldn’t.” It wasn’t often
that Seth’s voice reflected his true age, but when it did, it was
frightening. 

Brand
pinched the bridge of his nose. “You don’t know that.”

“I do.
Xanthos. Damascus. Alexandria. Carthage. Dacia. In case you forgot, France. ” A
pause. “Orleans. Gaviros could list more. So could Khael. But it is different
this time around. Harder to stay ahead of the Sakai. Harder to stay forgotten
by the other races. I know the Kaspian call me obsessive, but that doesn’t
change the fact that constant vigilance is a necessity. Good information can be
worth far more than gold or lives, Brand.”

“What
do you want me to do?”

“Bring
her here. I want to go through her mind. To see what she saw. Don’t take her
memories until after I’ve had a chance to speak with her.”

Take
her memories?
His
amati’s
memories? Brand jerked upright.
“
No
.” A snarl.

Seth’s
voice, as ever, was eminently logical. “It won’t hurt her, and I need the
information. I don’t wish to lose more family, Brand, and I won’t risk
Stronghold. It is the first land in over three hundred years that I feel safe
standing upon. That I feel safe letting my
children
stand upon. We won’t
find another place like this so easily.”

“Eva’s
been through enough.” Brand gritted his teeth. He pushed Seth’s reference to
his ability away. Brand knew taking her memories was a possibility, but…

Fuck,
she was his amati. He wouldn’t do it. Eva didn’t pose a threat to his
family…yet.

“Joshua
said you were protective of her.” Seth was testing him.

“I am.”
Damn Joshua for talking.

“Brand…”
a careful pause, then Seth growled softly, and Brand could practically hear his
brother slip from work mode. “Brand, this is awkward. Joshua said she might be
your amati. As unlikely as that is…have you Marqued this woman?”

“No.”
Brand said irritably. “Eva has been kidnapped, imprisoned, starved, tortured,
bled, shot and hunted. Not to mention lied to. By
me
. She’s exhausted
and frightened, and wants to go home to her sister. Do you think that right now
– even if
that
were an issue – would be the appropriate time
for that?”

“But
you think she could be your amati.”

“An
amati,” Brand said harshly, “isn’t even a
concept
to the other Gens. You
remember what Margaret went through when you Marqued her. She was terrified. Do
you really think I would do that to Eva?
Now?
”