Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (25 page)

“Eva,”
Brand insisted, jaw setting, fingers running lower, behind her thigh.

Her
answer broke in a gasp, “
No
.”

“I will
make you purr, Evita,” he promised, and took her breast with his mouth again.
Then Eva forgot what she had been thinking, what she had been feeling, what she
had been so afraid of. She forgot everything except the feel of him on her. In
her.

“Brand…”

He made
her purr.

Brand
was gone the next morning when Eva groggily pulled herself up off the tangled
mattress and looked around for a clock. She had a vague memory of him kissing
her hair at some ungodly hour, saying something about “work” and “Seth” and
telling her to borrow anything she needed.

Eva had
no problem with that.

But
what she needed most was to call her sister. That, and complete the task she
had come here for – to give Stronghold information on Rohe. Then she
could go home before, well, before whatever it was she had shared with Brand
grew to be too much. Attachment was dangerous – attachment didn’t last.
And attachment to a
Kade?

He had
probably been with hundreds of women. Thousands.

She
hated them all.

Eva
found Brand’s luggage at the foot of the bed and dug through it to find her own
clothes; then she showered and changed before searching out Nikandria.

Brand’s
sister answered the door before Eva had a chance to knock. Her thick pale
blonde hair was messy, and she looked as if she had slept in her clothes…but
then she blinked and smiled and Eva felt dowdy by comparison. “Good, Seth’s
looking for you. Are you hungry?”

Seth?
Eva
winced. Remembering the half-conversations via phone she had witnessed, she
wasn’t sure she wanted to meet him. “Sure. Also, I need to call my sister.”

Nikandria
nodded and stepped back so Eva could come in. “I’ll find something. Brand had
errands this morning, otherwise he probably would have done it himself. I’ve
got to go change, but grab something from the kitchen. Can’t let
the
brothers
catch me looking like this – they’re completely irrational,”
Nikandria rolled her eyes before hurrying across the thick carpet to the
staircase on the far side. Sunlight poured through huge windows with thick
velvet drapes, glinting off rapiers crossed on the far wall, before coming to a
stop at the edge of the dull black dagger on the mantel. “It will only be a
moment,” Nikandria said, ducking away upstairs.

Eva
looked around and shivered.
It’s like Brand’s rooms
.

If
Brand lived in what Eva considered to be a large comfortable apartment, then
Nikandria lived in a set of suites made for a queen. It was loft-style like
Brand’s, and wonderfully open in a way that deeply relaxed Eva…even as the huge
oil paintings on the walls and expensive antique hardwood furniture set her on
edge. Nothing about Stronghold was anything like her home. Stronghold had
obviously been built for Kaspian tastes…
expensive
Kaspian tastes.

The
small house she shared with Rainey was a shack in comparison.

A warm
cozy
shack.

Eva
padded across the carpet to the mosaicked kitchen, and felt oddly homesick.

It made
no sense. She had spent her entire life trying to get away from the Turner Gens
but now, she missed it.

No,
it’s Rainey I miss
, Eva realized, as she opened Nikandria’s fridge to
find the interior empty except for a small stack of beef jerky and
single-serving bottles of orange juice. At the bottom, shoved to the far back,
was a half-eaten casserole that smelled…wrong.
Perhaps it was made that way?
Eva wrinkled her nose, then snagged out a stick of jerky. A door slammed on the
upper level, and there was the sound of light approaching footsteps.

“Here,
grab one for me?” Nikandria called, pulling a pale green sweater over her
shoulders, layering her shirts as she hurried down the staircase. “Seth wants
you over at the Infirmary office
‘Now’
.” Nikandria mimicked, making a
sour face. “He mentioned something about tranquilizers?”

The
beef jerky turned to mud in Eva’s throat. “Rohe guards shot me with something.
At the Asylum. It put me to sleep.”

“That’s
not good.” Nikandria grimaced – probably the only person who hadn’t
doubted Eva’s story – and shook her head. Then they went out the door,
Eva following across the vast expanse of Stronghold.

Everything
was huge, covered in snow and quiet, and yet Eva had a sense there were more
people around than she knew. Which was only corroborated when Nikandria nodded
to the right and said, “Most prefer the private quarters. They have their own
house there, especially if they have children or live-in families. But it works
better for the immediate family to live at the Operations Building.” Then,
cutting across another short snowy path and through another building, “Did
Brand show you the Supplies Building last night?”

Last night.
Last night Brand and I…
Eva flushed before her mind started
working again.

“We cut
through it on our way to the Infirmary,” she murmured, sneezing as her eyes
adjusted to the changing light. She cleared her throat. “The girl that you and
Brand were helping. Is she okay?”

Nikandria’s
face clouded as they took a turn down a hall. “Her name is Meghan. I don’t
know. She was damaged, and Samuel and I are doing our best. But her ability got
out of control, and I’m not sure any of us are qualified to teach her how to
regulate it.”

Eva
looked at Nikandria’s face, saw a shadow there. “Why not?”

“She
can call fire.”

Eva
shuddered. “No one in my Gens has that kind of ability. It sounds…terrifying.”
Horrifying
.

“She
was
terrified,” Nikandria said quietly, an odd note in her voice. She narrowed her
purple eyes on Eva. “Did you really offer to take Seth into your memories of
the Asylum?” 

A chill
tingled through Eva.
That
.

“It’s
the reason I came here,” Eva forced out. But the thought of someone inside her
mind, forcing Eva back to Rohe’s Asulym…was frightening. More frightening than
anything else.

Nikandria
touched her arm, a warm presence on the snow-packed path. “You can change your
mind, Eva. No one here would blame you. I certainly wouldn’t.”

I would
. She
was doing this to
help
. Not to be useless. Not to be weak. She hadn’t
fought before. She could fight
now.
“I think your brother might.”

“Brand
wouldn’t—”

“He
would, and I would too. And really, I
want
to do it,” Eva repeated
stubbornly, rubbing her arms.

There
was a pause. “Very well. Thank you,” Brand’s sister said finally, softly, then
turned to lead the rest of the way to a small office in the Infirmary. “Seth
might not tell you, so I will say it now – we appreciate this. We really
do.”

The
room was partially dark, with a huge oak desk, walls plastered with medical
charts, and office chairs lodged in the remaining space. A tall thin man with
liquid silver hair and unsettling gold eyes rose as they entered the room; she
recognized him from the Infirmary the night before. “Hi,” Eva began, wondering
if she had been mistaken and that this wasn’t Samuel, but
Seth
…but the
man’s gaze latched onto Nikandria and the two began to speak.

Eva’s
eyes fell to the base of his throat and – she
knew
it was rude
– but she stared: it was a mass of pale scars. She hadn’t noticed the
night before –
no, he was wearing a scarf
, Eva remembered. The
sight was almost as unsettling as Joshua’s scarred hand…Kaspian just didn’t
scar
.
Not scars that set, or turned white, like humans’ scars. Wounded flesh usually
stayed pink, then faded. Which probably explained the roughness of his voice.

 “If
you have finished staring, that is Stronghold’s healer, Samuel Gaviros,” said a
cool voice beside her. “And I am Seth. Brand might have mentioned me.”

Only
when cursing
, Eva thought, feeling herself flush bright red as
she turned. “He has.” Then she bit her tongue.

Oh god
.
I
am so out of my depth
.

Brand
was roughly gorgeous, Khael starkly menacing, and Nikandria stunningly
exotic…but
this
brother was pure, terrifying elegance. Seth’s thick
golden hair was several shades darker than Nikandria’s and fell in waves; even
with glasses, he was ridiculously handsome. Eva flushed. She wasn’t attracted
to Seth, but even
she
knew beauty when she saw it.

Seth
looked over his glasses, examining Eva like she was a bug. Her impression of
him curdled.

 “Good.
Then you know why I asked you here?”

Eva
tried to gather her train of thought and ran a hand over her jeans. “You want
to know about the tranquilizers. And Rohe. And you need to go inside my head
for that.”

“Precisely.”

Seth’s
cool distance didn’t last nearly as long as Eva expected.

Or
hoped.

“Stay
still
,”
Brand’s brother snapped half an hour later, gripping the arms of the office
chair he had placed across from Eva’s. “I cannot get anything if you won’t let
me catch you.”

“I’m
trying
,”
Eva snarled, rubbing her temples as she tried to hold her thoughts still. But
each time she felt the reaching tendrils of Seth’s mind, they slipped away. The
whole experience reminded her unpleasantly of Rohe. “I thought you were a mind
reader. Can’t you just
read
my mind?”

That
would be
so
much easier.

“Not
mind reader
.
Telepath,” Seth corrected with frigid dignity, “I cannot
“read” your mind if I cannot catch your thoughts. And when you
will not
hold them still, you waste time, Eva.”

He made
her feel like a dirty peasant child.
Old Europe definitely
, Eva thought,
remembering one of her Gens’ favorite curses about the Kade family.

“Then,”
Eva bit out, “you must not be a very
good
telepath, because I
am
holding my thoughts ‘still.’ Just because you can’t catch them isn’t
my
fault.”

Brand
was sexy, handsome and relatively sweet. Why couldn’t Seth be a little bit like
that, too?

Nikandria
choked back laughter when Seth’s gaze flickered gold as he looked at his
sister. Then he dropped his eyes again. His face settled into smooth
comprehension.

“What?”
Eva asked suspiciously. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be on the receiving end
of Seth’s curiosity.

“Rohe
never got into your mind?”

Eva
shrugged. She fidgeted with her sweater cuff. “What do you mean, ‘got into’?”
she finally asked. “Do I have…nightmares…about Rohe? All the time. But did she
do to me…what you’re trying to do? No.”

Eva
knew, without looking up, that they had glanced at each other.

“We
have reports that Rohe can compel humans. And less-powerful Sakai. Seth is
trying to ascertain whether that vulnerability extends to Kaspians too,”
Nikandria’s voice was soft; she touched Eva’s shoulder. “Seth wants to know if
she compelled you, Eva. Made you do – or feel – anything. Anything
that wasn’t
you
.”

Eva
twisted to meet Nikandria’s deep purple gaze. “That’s why the guards acted like
that? Why they always did what she said? Even when…” Eva swallowed, dug her
fingers into the chair back. “She had one – she had him cut off his own
– ” Eva shuddered. “He bled everywhere,” she whispered, caught in the
memory. Nikandria’s hands settled on her shoulders, giving a gentle outward
stroke that was suddenly so reminiscent of Rainey that Eva wanted to cry. But
the comfort that welled her from Nikandria was undeniable and strong, and Eva
looked at Seth as she answered the question.

“No.
Rohe never caught me with her eyes. She never…she never made me enjoy what she
was doing. Not like the guards did. She tried to make me Change. She always
asked, after…” Eva felt herself pressing into Nikandria’s touch, and forced
herself back, desperately wishing Brand wasn’t busy on errands, “afterwards,
she always wanted to see my beast,” Nikandria’s fingers turned to vices, then
loosened, “but I never let her.”

“Good
for you,” Nikandria said softly, as if Eva were a small child or a friend. Eva
closed her eyes and pretended those fingers were Brand’s.

“I was
an idiot to let her capture me,” she whispered. “Sometimes, I’m just…weak.”

There
was a pause, and she opened here eyes – embarrassed to have confessed as
much.

“You
can avoid my mind, Eva,” Seth said coolly, removing his glasses to peer at her
for a long moment. “Either by luck or nature you avoided Rohe’s ability. If you
had not evaded her, you would not be here. You would be back in whatever
miserable cage she kept you in, turning into a pet tiger on command. You are
not weak, so don’t empower your enemy by dismissing yourself.”