Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (26 page)

Eva
closed her mouth, surprised.

Then
they tried again.

After
taking a short break, Eva sat nervously tapping her foot against the infirmary
chair and waited for Seth and Nikandria to return. Only Samuel was in the
office with her, sorting through a stack of medical journals and papers. He
didn’t seem to have any more of an idea what to say to her than she did to him,
so they both sat in silence. Eva didn’t mind; she rather liked Samuel. He was
nice, polite. At first she had thought he was cold, then realized that he was
just incredibly distant.

She
eyed the scars on his throat and felt a question push at her. Seth walked in
the door.

–
Has no one ever taught you it is impolite to stare? –

Seth
dropped the words into Eva’s mind so that her thoughts were forced to rearrange
around them. It was incredibly annoying, and Eva frowned at Seth as he settled
into a second office chair.

“Surely
your brothers don’t put up with that,” she said.

“They
don’t.” Samuel didn’t look up from the journal he was studying, somehow knowing
what she was referring to. “Very few people do. Seth, has Leon mentioned I need
a new lab unit? If I’m to even try analyzing those tranquilizer samples, we
need to upgrade.”

“Those
samples are top priority.” Seth polished his glasses on his green sweater. “Do
you know what you need?”

“I’ll
have the paperwork on your desk tomorrow morning.”

“Good.”

Nikandria
came through the door and they looked up. “Time to work then,” Seth muttered,
putting his glasses back on.

Eva
internally cringed, and gripped the armrests. She had shown Seth two memories
that morning, and they were both useless. The first had been of the inside
corridor of the hall leading up to the room Rohe worked in. Eva had shown Seth
the doors, the halls, the carpet, the harsh string of lights above her head;
the guard’s distant faces…the table…the straps.

She had
meant to take Seth further, to show him Rohe’s face, but she hadn’t. Eva’s
memories had fallen apart at the knives, her thoughts shattering around a core
of stark terror. When she next focused, Nikandria was holding out hot chocolate
to her. Seth was taking tiny notes in some foreign language – it looked
like strange symbols. Eva stared at the pad of paper, not understanding a thing
about it.

“What
is that? What kind of writing, I mean. It looks like hieroglyphics,” she joked
weakly.

Seth
spoke some foreign unpronounceable word, then looked up. “And you would be
correct,” he said, almost kindly, and Eva choked on her hot chocolate.
“Although it is a modified version. My own, actually.”

“You…studied
Egyptology?” she said faintly, almost hopefully. “In school?”

Seth’s
eyes flickered with rare humor as he turned back to the page. “So to speak.”

God
he’s old
, Eva thought in horror, and then prayed he wasn’t
reading her mind.

Their
second session was terrifying. It was too close to the first session and so her
mind had gone back to the cell. Eva remembered her escape. She remembered the
run through the forest and how the Sakai from 113 had killed the guards, then
stood over her on the frozen gravel road, blood on his fangs. Terror filled her
that he, too, was a monster.

Nikandria
shook Eva out of that memory. Brand’s sister’s face had been ashy, sweaty, and
Eva found herself trying to comfort her. “You can see my memories too?” Eva
flicked a glance at Seth as he settled back in his chair and began making
notes. “I thought you were just my handler. Or maybe the greeting committee.”

Nikandria
gave a weak smile.

“I
am
the greeting committee. But I’m not your jail keeper, Eva. You can go wherever
you want, go whenever you want. That is one thing Brand
should
tell
you.”

No, Eva
hadn’t meant
that
. She winced, and touched Nikandria’s hand. It was
cold. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, thank you. I guess…I just didn’t know
you were telepathic. Too.” It was a question; since last night, Eva had been
trying to figure out what exactly Nikandria’s ability was, and she had no idea.
Brand could heal, Seth was telepathic.

And
Seth was watching them, pen poised.

Nikandria
studied Eva. Then nodded, as if she had come to a decision, but there was an
odd wariness in her eyes. “I’m not telepathic,” Nikandria said. Seth leaned
forward in his seat, saying “
Ria
” sharply, but she ignored him. “I’m empathic.”

Eva
froze. “Empathic. Like
emotions
.” A sense of violation rose in her.
Violation worse than anything else.

Seth
– Seth only got
thoughts
. But they were cold and distant and he
had to
work hard
to get them. And working with Seth was a bit like, well,
working with a
non-
person or a machine or some incredibly hot android
from a late night sci-fi TV show, he was so cold. And oddly enough,
that
fact was comforting. But Nikandria on the other hand…there was nothing about
Nikandria that was removed.

“Yes.”
Nikandria winced and extracted her hand, breaking contact, and Eva felt
suddenly, intensely guilty that Nikandria had flinched away. And then she felt
even more guilty, because…

“You
mean,” Eva said slowly, “you know what I’m feeling.
How
I’m feeling.
All
the time
.” Her stomach turned over in horror.
How many times have I
thought about Brand? How many times have I lusted after him? And how many times
have I been irritated with Nikandria, or jealous, or did I…

“What
you feel, I feel,” Nikandria said quietly, and over rising horror Eva had the
sudden unsettling sensation of being fixed in Seth’s laser-point glare.
Nikandria turned to him with a frown. “Seth, stop it. You’re making her
uncomfortable.”

“I’m
making
her
uncomfortable? Really. I hadn’t noticed.”

“No one
can control their emotions,” Nikandria snapped. “Not even you.”

Even as
Eva snidely thought
He doesn’t have emotions
, Seth snarled softly,
tapping his glasses against the paper. “Difference being, I don’t care. I wish
you would stop telling people your ability. The fewer who know, the better. The
knowledge should stay within the family.”

“Eva
is
family,” Nikandria set her jaw, and Eva felt a strange grateful warmth rise up
in her. Nikandria flashed a faint grin. “Besides, Eva
asked
. There’s no
reason to let someone believe a lie when I can tell the truth. It makes for
fewer problems later. Less anger. Less pain.”

Seth’s
glasses stopped. He looked at Nikandria and grimaced. “I agree. But I’ve
already told him that.”

Eva
blinked.
Him? What?
She had missed something.

Nikandria
scowled. “He can’t sidestep this. This isn’t something that can be avoided.”

“You
talk to him,” Seth leaned back. “The two of you are closer.”

“He’s
avoiding me,” Nikandria traced the seam in her armrest with a fingernail.

“Then
Brand is an idiot. You would think he, of all people, would learn from others’
mistakes.” Seth spoke with disgust.

Eva
–latching onto something that she
could
understand –
frowned.

“Brand’s
not an idiot.” Then she felt incredibly awkward, and incredibly young, sitting
between a woman who could read emotions like an open book and a man who wrote
in hieroglyphics.

“You
just wait,” Seth said dryly, settling the thin glasses back across his nose.
“Brand is probably the most secretive person I know. Blame it on his ability,
his past, I don’t care. What matters is that it is true. And he has the world’s
most misguided martyr complex. It is nearly as irritating as Khael’s. Except
Brand isn’t as suicidal. Or as homicidal.”

“
Yet
.
Give him a few days, Seth. Give him a few days.” Nikandria smiled wryly and Eva
watched, amazed as Seth’s face relaxed in amusement. Nikandria turned back to
her. “Don’t take offense, Eva. Seth is talking about himself as well. That
complex? It runs in the family. We
all
have our fair share of it.”

Then
there was a long silence in the room in which Seth went back to his notes and
Nikandria slowly began to frown down at her palms. After a while, Eva found
herself clearing her throat to ask, “The ma…the
Sakai
from room 113. The
one from my memory. Do you think…” Eva hesitated, not even sure
what
she
was asking for.

“You
want me to locate a Sakai for you? A Sakai whose name I don’t even know?”
Seth’s eyebrows arched as he looked up. “I wouldn’t tell Brand. He’s unlikely
to take it well, given his current state. And I believe that you told me the
Sakai were all monsters.”

“I owe
him,” Eva replied. Then shook her head, confused by herself. “And I
have
thought about it. About how he left me beside the road. I think he was trying
to help me. I just don’t know why. But I want to make sure he got away, too.
It’s only fair. I kind of…owe him,” she repeated.
For saving me from Rohe
.
For leaving me with that message in the snow for Brand. For not killing me,
like he did the guards.

“I’ll
run a search on his image, but I doubt I’ll find anything.” Seth glanced at
Nikandria as he rose to leave. “I think you both need to rest.”

Which
was when Eva realized that Nikandria – again – looked as shaky as
she felt. Eva narrowed her eyes, amazed, and weirdly guilty. “You really
can
read my emotions.”

Nikandria
stood and started to shuffle some of Seth’s odd scribbles off the desk. She
almost looked uncomfortable. “There’s no ‘off-button’ for my ability, Eva. Just
shades and levels. A thousand-thousand gradations.”

But it
didn’t bother Eva so much, now. Because Nikandria obviously cared. She wasn’t
going to tell Eva’s secrets to others, or try to use them against her. And she
hadn’t lied about what she could do. Plus…Nikandria reminded Eva of Rainey.

So
maybe she could
trust
Brand’s sister. A little bit. That didn’t mean she
understood
her, though.

“Why do
you hang out here?” Eva asked, perplexed, gesturing to the small infirmary. Eva
couldn’t think of a more painful place for someone like Nikandria to be. “This
can’t be easy for you.”

Nikandria
had looked up from the papers and flashed that faint wry smile that was so like
Brand’s, it shocked her. “I don’t mind, Eva. Really. Just think of it as
my
part of the family martyr complex.”

“Rohe
never got into her mind,” Seth closed the door to Brand’s office at the top of
the Operations Building and took one of the side chairs. “Eva is lucky, given
the situation.”

“Lucky?”
Brand growled, scowling at Seth across his desk. “Rohe kidnapped Eva, locked
her in a cell, tortured her then drank from her. That is not
lucky
.” He
put down the pen before he broke it. He had thought Eva would sleep in that
morning – he hadn’t realized she would be with Seth. So quickly.

Damn
it, he would need to convince Seth to stretch out the sessions.

After
last night…he should have Marqued Eva last night. Whether she knew or not.

Whether
she was ready or not.

“You
are both correct,” Gaviros glanced up from the newspaper he was reading,
squinted, then readjusted the patch over his right eye. “The child is lucky
– and singularly unlucky. Likely that is the reason behind the torture:
Rohe was interested in her for her very ability
to
resist her
compulsion. What do you believe, Seth?”

Seth
shook his head. “From what little Eva was able to show me, it seems likely.
While Rohe possesses a true interest in the blood, the purpose behind the pain
was to both weaken Eva – and because Rohe genuinely enjoyed it. Though I
wish I had more resources.” He glanced at Brand’s face, then winced. “I want to
know if this ability to resist Rohe is unique to your amati, Brand, or if all
Kaspian share the immunity to a degree. But short of sending one of our own
against Rohe, I can’t think of any safe way to test the premise…”

“So
Rohe is power-hungry,” Brand growled, interrupting. He didn’t want to think
about Eva being tortured. He was already walking a raw edge. “Typical. But what
of the Strategoi? He doesn’t fit.”

Joshua
slipped through the door to drop into the chair beside it. His face took on a
look of resignation as he saw those gathered there. “Don’t tell me. You’re
talking about Eva. I thought this meeting was about Boston, not a
heart-to-heart over Brand’s fucked up love life. Though,” he sniffed the air
and eyed Brand discerningly, “on that front, I’d say you – ”

“Stop,
Joshua. I’d rather Brand didn’t eviscerate you until
after
the meeting.
We will discuss Boston,” Seth turned coolly back to Gaviros. “But first
we
need to discuss Rohe Nightchild.”

“Of
course Rohe is power-hungry. A Sakai, leaving Europe?” Gaviros lowered the
newspaper. “There are only two reasons for that to happen: Rohe is either
seeking refuge from the Courts, or she is attempting to attain some form power
here
before returning. Given what little your file says on her, Seti, I would
estimate the latter.” Then Gaviros calmly added, not so much as breaking the
conversation, “Khael is here.” His gold eye settled on the door an instant
before Khael stepped through it. Khael raked them with his wild gaze before
moving to lean against the far wall that overlooked Brand’s office. Brand
flashed his teeth at Khael on principle:
My office, not yours
; Khael
returned the gesture:
My Gens
.