Forever (20 page)

Of course Jackson knew nothing of this. He didn’t understand at present the powerful depth of finding and craving a soul mate. But Menes believed he was beginning to. Jackson was far more attached to this pretty redhead than he realized … or was willing to admit to in any event. That was good. Important even. And he couldn’t have chosen much better himself.

Menes reached out, unable to help himself as he envisioned Hatshepsut’s soul within this beauty, and brushed back her hair from the side of her face. She startled, her skin flushing as she ducked to avoid the caress.

“Please don’t do that.”

“Why not?” he asked, genuinely curious. “Don’t you like to be touched?”

“Of course I do, but … we’re not … it’s just not …”

“Not what? Ethical? I’m not your patient any longer, Marissa. Nor do I work with you anymore.”

“The situation of the present doesn’t erase what was. I am bound by ethics to not—”

“Not enjoy yourself? Not live? Just because we had the misfortune of crossing paths in an official capacity we should deny what I feel is a most incredible attraction? I see no logic in that. I see no logic to a lot of the laws and boundaries that are now in my mind because of Jackson.”

“God, it’s weird hearing you refer to yourself like that. And just because you don’t like the rules doesn’t mean we can break them.”

“I disagree with you wholeheartedly, Marissa. Rules are a guide to seeing things done rightly. If I see that they interfere with what is right, then I change the rules.”

“You can’t just do that,” she scoffed at him. “Jackson, being the boy scout he is … you are … I mean … well, he doesn’t work that way.”

“But he is not just the sum of himself anymore. And he is more inclined to the way I think than you realize. So,” he reached to brush back her ha moral compass. iir once more, taking no small pleasure in the fact that she didn’t move away this time, “this idea that we must deny the attraction we feel is simply not an acceptable rule. I will summarily discard it and I will do everything in my power to see that you do as well.”

She swallowed visibly and he saw the ghost of the fear she was feeling and trying so hard to hide behind a mask of coolness and control.
Oh Marissa
, he thought,
what has happened to you to make you thus?

“It was you, wasn’t it? You were the impetus behind what he said to me three weeks ago.”

“I don’t know what you—”

“Oh don’t pretend like you don’t know,” she bit off. “I hate games. If you think I’m going to play you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Marissa, I am not playing a game. I honestly do not know what you are referring to. Three weeks ago I was extremely weak, having been harshly pulled from the Ether and expending energy I ought not to have done so immediately afterward. It numbed and paralyzed me from my connection with Jackson. It was part of the reason why this Blending has taken such a long time. If Jackson said something to you, I assure you it was not of my doing.” Menes was genuinely curious now, especially since Jackson’s memory conveniently shut down on the topic. More of the infamous Waverly recalcitrance. Honestly, if Menes didn’t respect his strength of will so much it would be extremely irritating. “Tell me what he said to you.”

“That doesn’t matter,” she said, beating a hasty retreat, sliding back off the barstool in such a way as to take herself out of his reach, rather than move forward and risk brushing up against him.

“But I think it does,” he said, standing up and reaching for her wrist, preventing her from turning her back on him and their conversation. “Tell me what he said to you.”

She was flushing that pretty fuchsia pink again. It was charming on her in spite of the fact that she was stubbornly shaking her head.

“Did he proposition you, Marissa?” he asked, taking a stab at it and watching it hit her like a ton of bricks, the entirety of her neck and shoulders blushing into that glorious color. “Ah, I see he did.”

“Not … not a proposition as much as … a-an announcement of intentions.”

Well, well. So Jackson had made bold with her all on his own. Menes wondered how Jackson had managed
to keep that secret from him. Menes was supposed to be the stronger soul, considering the amount of time he had spent on this earth alone, never mind in the Ether. It took great strength of will to remain lucid while in the disembodied state of the Ether. It was so easy to get lost in the mists of forgetting, or rather the mists of
wanting
to forget. Wanting to forget the violence of emotion attached to their last death, and all the ones before it. Wanting to forget the loss of all those mortals left behind who would not be there when they returned once more.

Just the thought alone had the power to bring him to his knees.
So many. So many I have loved and lost over the centuries
.

“Are you all right?” she asked, reaching to wrap her hand over the rise of his shoulder, the strength of her touch anchoring him and telling him just how visibly he’d been reacting to his to make me feel …s danger thoughts.

“I …” His professions of being just fine seemed to stick in his craw, held there tightly by the things left unfinished and unlamented. His comfort, his only comfort in all this turbulence of life and death, was his beloved queen. The longer she stayed trapped away from him in the Ether, the harder it became for him to push aside the darkness of his thoughts and centuries worth of memories. Of children lost, of friends gone to dust. “There is so much loss, when you live lifetimes the way we do,” he said, surprising himself with his honesty. “Some moments leave their mark on my thoughts and heart more than others. In my previous lifetime humans were at war just as the Templars and the Politic were. I was in the new world … America … and a great many young people were going off to die or find glory in battle. I have long since evolved past the foolish idea that with war comes glory. With war comes death and nothing more. No matter who is in the wrong, no matter
whose cause is more just, to war means to reap death.” He felt the weight of his words like an oppression, as though an elephant had taken up residence upon his heart. “It is bad enough that as Bodywalkers we triple, sometime quadruple, the life span of the host that carries us, cultivating the opportunity for those we grow fond of to turn to dust and leave us longing for them, trying to fill the hole their passing has left inside of us. Not just some … 
all
.” He looked into the concerned warmth of her eyes. “All whom we touch in our new lives will leave us. It is not unheard of for a Bodywalker to take his own life when the grief of living without his most beloved friends and family becomes far too difficult to manage.”

She was listening to him very intently, as if what he was saying was very important to her. He supposed that was because it was her job to make others feel that way. But the embittered thought didn’t stand. He had come to see the tenderness in her heart. She was genuinely focused on him, and empathizing as best she could with her limited mortal experiences. It was making his feelings all that much harder to keep control of. He wanted to fully disclose everything to her, but he did not want to have her thinking that being a Bodywalker was a hateful experience.

“Grief. So much of it,” she said softly. “You actually have to watch those you love age and pass on, knowing you will be left behind … forever. You can’t even tell yourself what so many human beings do—that you will meet all your loved ones again someday in the afterlife. You are denied that comfort because of the nature of who and what you are. I can’t even imagine how much pain that causes you.”

“It is … it is not an easy choice to come back from the Ether. It takes great fortitude of spirit to encourage ourselves to leave the relative safety of it. But that would
be like shutting yourself off from the beauty of loving relationships because there is the painful possibility it will fall apart. Right now my queen is struggling with this very problem. In spite of her devotion to our people, her commitment to seeing an end to this infinite war, she did not want us to be reborn because it would mean one of us would eventually have to watch the other die. When you love as deeply as we do, with every corner of the soul … the loss is incomprehensible. And even a hundred years in the Ether is not able to erase the agony of it.”

“Y-your … queen?”

Menes looked at her in surprise, suddenly realizing how much he had c to make me feel …s dangeronfided in her. He had not wanted to mention Hatshepsut to her just yet, to lead her to believe that Jackson was unattainable because he was destined for another. It was bad enough that Jackson was struggling with his conscience on that one.

But perhaps it would be for the better, he mused thoughtfully.

“Yes. My queen. She is in the Ether, awaiting rebirth. She and I … there is nothing to compa26; and

, wouldn’t you say?m“If you

She was pissed. Really, really pissed. Probably because her whole body was burning with the embarrassment of having been made a fool of. It was bad enough that Jackson had been yanking her out of her comfort zone and rubbing her raw against her grating ethics, but to know that he knew there was no future between them and had manhandled her anyway?

Oh yes. She was furious. Her whole face and body burned with it, her heart sinking with shame for being so foolish even as her back rose into defensive hackles. Her fingers curled, as if they wanted to grab him around the neck and choke the life out of him. It was no wonder, because the impulse was not all that far off in that moment. And he was smiling at her still! That cocky, smug little smile that felt to her like he was thinking dirty, dirty thoughts about her.

The pig.

“It figures you would be proud of yourself for that! Quite the accomplishment, getting your hands on my ass. Wow. I see why you’re the ruler of your people,” she said, venom in every single word she spat at him. “With deception skills like that you are perfect for politics!”

“If you equate me with the politicians of your society you are mistaken,” he said with serious intellectual contemplation
in his tone. “They are renowned for their treachery and deceit. I, however, have never lied to you.”

“Oh sure, you just decided to omit a few key details,” she said bitterly.

He stepped closer to her then, invading her personal space and forcing her to look up. She tried to yank her wrist free of him and backpedal, but to her dismay the wall was at her back and his grip was not easy to break. After all, he was a titan. What chance did she have against such a powerful being?

Well, she might be outmatched physically, but in the matter of wits and, apparently, ethics, she had him in her dust.

“That’s just as bad as lying,” she railed at him, but awkwardly realizing it was very uncomfortable to argue and make a stand when being bathed by the overwhelming heat of a powerfully potent male. “It makes you even more of a pig because you can justify yourself in such a self-serving way. No wonder your people have been at war for eons!”

“I’m so surprised,” he said in a soft, matter-of-fact manner, “to find you so harshly judgmental without even giving opportunity for explanations.”

“I think the topic at hand is pretty self-evident!”

“How strange,” he said with a soft, honest sense of musing as he reached out and caressed her temple lightly before running two fingers along the length of her hair, “that you profess such unequivocal knowledge about a person belonging to a species that, for you, had not existed before today. I had thought you much more thoughtful than that.”

“Do not turn this around on me,” she bit out, floored by his audacity.

“But it is about you. All of this is about you. You who are so fair-minded and so tolerant of so many people
caught in so many difficult circumstances, and yet when you feel that a man might have potentially betrayed you, you do not even wish to slow down and think you might be misinterpreting. Tell me, hummingbird, why do you fly so swiftly? What makes you think you can’t sit still for a moment lest a predator snatches you up and hurts you?”

“Stop touching me, Jackson!” She reach to make me feel …inihIed to shove him off of her but the moment she did so she felt the overwhelming strength of him through her palm and fingers. He would not move, she realized, until he wanted to be moved. She was weak and insignificant to him. Not just woman to man, but immortal to mortal.

“But I like to touch you. I like to look at you. And I very much like the way you smell, Marissa.” The timbre of his voice dropped even lower on that last statement, making her breath catch as her lower legs went traitorously weak under her.

“Get off of me,” she demanded through her clenched teeth.

“Ask me what my motives are, Marissa.”

“Intimidation? Bullying? Selfishness? Why ask? I already know.”

“Ask me,” he said, his head lowering so he was breathing the request across her lips. Her entire body clenched, going weak as if she were a hormonal teenager about to be kissed for the first time. Damn him! Damn her. God, all she wanted to do was go back home, go to bed, and wake up knowing all of this had just been a ridiculous nightmare.