Apotheosis of the Immortal (36 page)

Chapter 73

Emira walked briskly
along the catwalk outside of the motel room. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. Why had she come? Why did she think a man like Elijah would be interested in her? What was wrong with him? He made her feel elated, warm and safe one minute, and the next he seemed explicably cold.

Walking down the steps on the outside of the motel, she noticed two dark figures standing at the bottom, on the opposite side of the handrail to her right. It seemed strange, but she was too frazzled to be cautious and decided to walk past. Unfortunately, the hairs on her neck were tingling by the time she reached the last step.

The men who had been standing to the side of the rail suddenly spun round and blocked her passage. The man on her left was tall and thin. The other one was thicker, more muscular-looking. Both men smelled like garlic and stale cigarette smoke, and they were standing entirely too close. Emira’s pulse raced; these men meant her harm!

“I’m sorry, me dear, but we didn’t catch yer name.” The thin man spoke with a thick accent. Both were cloaked in the shadow of the overhanging catwalk, but she could see the curves of the thin man’s face as the shadows danced around it.

The flickering light of a hanging lamppost lit the ridge of his long, thin nose as it came to a sharp point. His cheekbones were high and obtrusive, but gave way to large sinkholes just beneath them on both sides. He looked almost malnourished, but his manner showed he wasn’t.

The man to his left said nothing. Next to his shoe, a dull red ember took its last breath, turning bright red before vanishing into the darkness like a collapsing star. She took a step backwards, up the bottom step. She considered running back to Elijah’s room, but another man was at her back before she had the chance.

“Don’t worry, we just want to talk.” The voice coming over her shoulder from the next step up wasn’t a bit convincing. All of her frustration turned to terror as it became clear she was trapped. She wanted nothing more than to see Elijah’s face appear at the balcony. She tried to scream for him, but her throat was frozen with fear. Realizing she had stopped breathing, she forced her lungs to expand and a sharp sting pinged in her chest.

“My name is Emira. I just want to go to my car.” She was barely able to force the words out. Her voice was vibrating with fear, and the trio started to close in like a pack of dogs.

Relief rushed over her when a figure appeared behind the two men in front of her. His demeanor was menacing. The hunters had become the hunted. As the two men in front of Emira turned to meet Elijah’s exacting gaze, Emira darted between them. She squeezed Elijah’s left bicep hard and tucked herself safely behind him—this stranger who was once again coming to her rescue. Satisfaction filled her. These assholes were about to get what they deserved.

Elijah glared balefully at the three men. Men who would dare attempt to extinguish a light they couldn’t even see. They meant nothing; he would be doing the world a favor to rid it of these vermin. He stepped forward with malicious purpose. The three men recoiled, as if they could sense the death awaiting them at Elijah’s hands, their own dire fates reflecting back at them in his eyes.

Emira watched the veins pulsing in Elijah’s neck; she could feel his muscles tighten as his body moved with deadly purpose. Unexpectedly, her tender nature burst through her heightened emotions. She tugged at his arm with all her might, but it was like holding onto a huge stone hurled across the expanse of space.

She could see terror and bewilderment in the men’s faces as he lunged forward. Her feet skidded across the concrete and then came off the ground. The three men turned to run, but didn’t have a chance. Their deaths approached with blinding speed.

“Nooo!” Elijah heard a loud scream. It was close. It was impossibly close! The sound startled him from his lethal focus. He suddenly noticed a pressure release from around his arm. It was Emira’s hands, slipping away as he jerked forward. She was falling hard toward the concrete steps.

Elijah’s focus shifted immediately. The three men disappeared from his mind along with everything else. All the hate that burned inside him evaporated as compassion and deep concern took its place. In this moment, Emira was all that mattered.

Mustering enough composure to find a solution, he relaxed and turned his rigid, lunging body to dead weight. Hurtling through the air, he rotated and pulled her towards him, holding her close. His left hand cupped the back of her head, pushing her forehead firmly to his chest. His right arm, wrapped tightly around her waist, held her tiny frame steadily in place and out of harm’s way.

A deep sense of relief overtook him as his back and head smashed against the edges of the concrete steps; he couldn’t help but think of holding Sara in that same position when he fell from the overturned tree long ago. The pain of the impact was searing. A large chunk of the step fell behind him as he lifted his head to check on Emira. She looked shocked and frightened, but she was fine. A sense of composure slowly crept into her face.

“Oh, my God, are you all right?” Tears welled and soon came rolling down her pale cheeks. Her aura of light had all but disappeared.

“I’m fine; everything is fine.” He wiped the tears from her face. “I promise,” he said. The tears stopped and color flooded back into her face; her light slowly began to expand once again. Bringing her to her feet, Elijah knew he had a lot to explain. He expected a barrage of questions, but got only one.

“Are they gone?”

Elijah was silent for a moment, unsure of what she meant.

“I think so,” he said after a moment of consideration, only then recalling the men whose lives Emira had just saved. “I’m sorry,” he said, wandering aimlessly.

“Why? You just saved my life.” She meant it, too. Elijah could see it in her face.

“I also almost killed you; I should have better control of my emotions.” He spoke quietly as he raised his eyes and met her gaze. “I have spent hundreds of years living in the void, the space between caring and conviction. Your coins and light have shaken me to my core. I’m sorry. I was so angry. If I hadn’t heard you, you might have died.” The hate, which had so quickly evaporated, was finding its way back into Elijah’s soul as he thought of how easily he had just lost control.

Ayda would be disappointed,
he thought. His body hardened noticeably as frustration flooded him.

“But you did, and you saved me.” Unbelievably, considering what he’d almost done, she was actually trying to comfort him… even though she was still afraid. Elijah could feel it. She seemed to fear losing him, as he feared losing himself, to the sea of grief and hate that seemed to overtake him so easily.

Emira pressed the side of her face against his chest and grabbed him hard around the waist. His body warmed with emotion; she somehow melted away the ice that grew so quickly around his heart.

“Will you tell me about her, the coins, the girl who obviously meant so much to you?” she asked in a whisper.

“AHHHHH!”

“What was that?” Emira was startled by a loud scream, but what came next was even more alarming. The sound was horribly biblical. They heard the crushing of bones, the ripping of flesh and the gnashing of teeth. The wet noises of raw flesh being gobbled. Elijah grabbed Emira by the arm and yanked her behind him.

“The noise came from the other side of the motel.” Elijah’s voice was steady; his composure seemed to comfort the girl, but she maintained her tenacious grip on his arm. He could feel every tiny fingernail nearly piercing his skin. He didn’t mind it. Elijah liked having her close. If she couldn’t be a million miles away from whatever caused that bloodcurdling sound—then she needed to be as close to him as possible.

“I’ll tell you about her, but we need to get back to the room first.” He hurried her up the stairs and was on her heels all the way to the room, then closed the door behind him as they entered the room and latched the security chain.

“Now, what would you like to know?” Elijah sat down on one of the beds and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.

“Well, how did you meet her?” Emira asked brightly, like a child awaiting a bedtime story. Elijah thought about it for a while, about how much bullshit he should mix in with the truth. He wondered how much she knew about all this, about the man she called her uncle. She obviously knew about vampires, and he was certain she couldn’t have missed the display put on by him and Khalid at the
masjid
.

“How long have you known Khalid?” Elijah finally asked, after a long silence.

“If you’re asking me if I know he is special, that he has been around for a very, very long time, then the answer is yes. He took me in when I was young; he has kind of been like a father to me since I lost mine.”

Elijah watched the vibrant eagerness drain from her face as she plopped down on the bed across from him and crossed her legs.

Elijah found himself speechless yet again. Humans’ awareness of immortals had dropped dramatically since the Middle Ages, so he wasn’t used to speaking openly with them. Still, this girl clearly wasn’t a mere human.

“He told me about you as well. He wants me to stay away from you, obviously.” She propped her hands on the bed behind her and leaned back.

“I’m not a vampire,” Elijah repeated.

“I didn’t say you were, but you’re not like Kal either, are you?”

The girl looked up at him; her dark eyes were once again filled with excitement. She was taken with him, even fascinated. He could see it all over her face and, despite any meaning that might be in those coins, he had to snuff it out. He couldn’t deny she intrigued him; she plagued his mind with a desire he hadn’t known since lifetimes past, but he knew he could only bring her pain.

“So, your true curiosities surface once again?” Elijah rose from the bed. This time there was no distraction, no way to change the subject. “I may not have sharp claws or fangs, but I am far worse than you could imagine, far more dangerous than any vampire.” He walked to the table and poured another bourbon. “I have slain vampires by the thousands. I have slaughtered entire towns, towns filled with innocents, filled with humans. I have peered into the eyes of a prophet, a child, and snapped her neck without flinching.” Elijah drank the bourbon and took a step towards his tormentor.

“You want to know how I met Sara? First let me tell you how I met the only other woman who ever cared for me.” He didn’t give the girl in front of him time to respond. “I bought her from the Mongolian Empire. I traded my best friend and my people.” Elijah took another step forward.

“You traded all that just for a girl?” Emira asked. Her eyes were wide with awe, as if he had made some sweeping romantic gesture with his bartering.

“No, she was just something the Khan threw in for good measure,” he answered. He took another step forward and was now standing directly in front of her. The sweet fragrances of her skin lotion and shampooed hair washed over him as he leaned over her and placed his hand on the bed behind her. “I am the worst kind of devil you could imagine, worse than you can possibly imagine, in fact, and Khalid is right. You need to stay away from me.”

Emira’s eyes were like two black holes compelling him forward; his face was just inches from hers now. He hated what he was doing, but he had to. No matter how much he wanted her, no matter how she possessed his mind, and no matter why she had those coins, he couldn’t allow her into his life, not if he cared even a little. His life was too dangerous. He was too dangerous; he chased after death, and the passenger seat on that ride was no place for a young, vulnerable woman. He would tuck her away as another fantasy, another notion of what might have been.

She slid backwards on the bed, allowing herself room to breathe, but Elijah crawled forward until he was once again uncomfortably close. She tried to move further back, but her back hit the wall. Elijah heard her swallow hard as he moved closer.

“What did you see when you peered into the little girl’s eyes?” she asked. She was trying to hide her fear, but her voice was shaky and her lip was trembling.

“I saw the devil… my own reflection,” he said. His mind went back to that moment as it had so many times before. In that child’s eyes, he had seen his future; he had seen who he would become. He had seen his father. Hassan had been right; he had lost his soul that night.

“What do you see when you look into mine?” Emira’s voice brought him back. He stared into her eyes for another few moments.

“I see nothing.” He lied; her eyes betrayed her secret. They were enamored with him; he hadn’t yet filled them with disappointment as he had Ayda’s. This girl saw goodness in him. But then she hadn’t known him long enough to know better, and although it scared him, it also moved him in other ways. It pushed him out of his comfort zone. Her youth and innocence gave her the eyes to see what others could not, or perhaps what wasn’t even there.

Either way, she was somehow hard-wired to Elijah’s emotions. They surged like rolling hills every time she was near. She forced him to feel. She broke through the guise of apathy, which was the only dam holding back an ocean of feelings he couldn’t handle. Elijah climbed off the bed and walked to the table where he threw back another shot of bourbon.