Forever Young (15 page)

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course he had no choice but to cut off Jimmy's hand. I remembered what Huron told me about melee battles. You needed to be ready to see it all the way through because they usually ended with the demise of one of the participants. The battle between Caiden and Jimmy, two Annihilators, would have been for nothing less than to the death.

I got up from my chair and headed out to the beach. I came up softly and stood beside Caiden. He didn't acknowledge my presence, so I tugged on his arm until his hand came out of his pocket. I slipped my hand in his and squeezed.

"You're right. You had no choice and I'm sorry I even doubted you for a second."

Caiden's eyebrows shot up but he looked at me with suspicion. I felt terrible that he didn't trust the truth of my words to him. So I continued with my theory. "You had no choice but to cut his hand off. Because that ended the fight, right? If you had not done that, it would have ended in Jimmy's death. And you refused to kill your best friend, even though he betrayed you?"

I watched in fascination as Caiden literally deflated in front of me. His shoulders hunched forward and he scrubbed his other hand through his hair. He looked at me with misery, and oddly, relief in his eyes.

"Jimmy was losing the fight but he would not quit. I even tried to talk him down. He was going to die and the only way to stop it was to put him out of commission without killing. So I took his hand."

Oh, poor Caiden! He had faced the ultimate betrayal. His best friend and lover had an affair. His anger led to a fight...one he was destined to win. And despite his fury over being wronged, he still couldn't kill his best friend. Standing beside me, I had to be looking at the most amazing man ever. His eyes still had a haunted look to them that tore at my heart.

I stepped in front of Caiden and placed my hands on his cheeks so he would look at me. As he gazed down into my eyes, I felt his arms wrap around my waist. As he held me close, I whispered, "You are incredible. And I'm lucky just to know you."

The sadness melted from his eyes and they grew in wonder. A smile turned the corners of his mouth up and he leaned down to kiss me. I watched him come closer, as if in slow motion. This was it. My first kiss and I thought the anticipation might cause me to pass out. He did nothing more than graze his lips lightly across mine but it caused my entire body to shudder from that slight touch. His arms tightened around me and he deepened the kiss. The world around me disappeared and I didn't care that we were standing on the beach, in full view of the patrons dining on Café Syreni's porch.

After only moments into my first true kiss, Caiden pulled back. After staring into my eyes briefly, he leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. In other circumstances, that might have been a brotherly type of kiss, but there was a wealth of meaning and care behind it. It moved me just as much as the kiss he had placed on my lips.

"Come on. Let's get you home so you can dream sweet dreams about me."

I chuckled. "What makes you think they will be about you?"

"After that kiss, Charlie—trust me—we'll both be dreaming about the other person tonight." I smiled to myself because I knew he was right.

PART THREE

"All you need is faith and trust, and a little bit of pixie dust." Tinkerbell

I simply couldn't help it. I was losing my heart to Caiden. It didn't matter that I had known him barely a month. He was the most perfectly, amazing man I would ever know. I suppose some would call me young and naïve to fall for someone so quickly. And I admit, maybe this was happening a bit too fast. But the connection I had with Caiden was otherworldly in my opinion. Which was appropriate, seeing as how we did live in another world. And even though my feelings were traveling at Mach Three, I decided I needed to live in the moment.

The weeks of training at the Academy seemed to fly by. I knew I would have decades, maybe centuries, to be with Caiden. But every day that passed, I felt I could never have enough of him. We spent much of our free time together—when Caiden was not off battling daimons in the First Dimension—and I had never been happier in my life.

For the most part, our relationship was easy going but in no way casual. I knew our feelings for each other were deepening as every day passed and I could talk to Caiden about anything. I opened up to him about all of my guilt and pain over my parents' murders. I told him things I had not even told my therapists. He also opened up to me about his life, and of course, he had a lot more to share seeing as how he had a few hundred years of age on me.

I had asked Caiden one day about the comment Sarah had made to him in the gym. We were at his cottage eating dinner he had cooked for me. It was basically hot dogs and potato chips, but it was delicious because it was made by Caiden for me. At first he didn't remember the comment so I reminded him.

"You know...she said something like she had already lived her Second Life so now she could be happy here again in Semper Terra."

Understanding dawned on his face. "Oh, yeah. I remember now." He paused to stuff a few chips in his mouth and I waited patiently for him to continue. He just smiled at me and continued eating. I threw a potato chip at him and he laughed.

"Okay, okay. Chill out, my impatient princess."

I flushed with secure warmth. The word princess from his mouth now was said with reverence and care. "When Sarah and I were together, she wanted to move our relationship to a more committed stage. To her, that meant giving up our lives as Annihilators and moving to the First Dimension to start a Second Life."

"And it's not something you wanted?"

Caiden shook his head. "Nope. I just can't see myself doing it. I don't think I'm cut out for a normal life. Marriage, kids, a boring job."

"But you don't have to have a boring job in the First Dimension. You could still fight evil. Or you could join the military. Or become a CIA operative. See...lots of exciting stuff you could do."

Caiden swallowed the food he had been chewing and looked at me with dead seriousness. "It wouldn't be enough for me, Charlie. I don't think anything can fulfill me the way being an Annihilator does."

For the first time since we kissed, I felt a distance between Caiden and me. I won't lie that it hurt a little when he said that nothing could fulfill him like being an Annihilator. I wanted him to scream to the world, "Nothing can fulfill me like Charlie Wright!" But that was naivety on my part for sure.

Prior to this discussion, I had not thought much about a Second Life. I was far too young to even think that far in advance. But now that I knew Caiden didn't want that, it made me a little sad. Because, what if one day down the road, I did want a family and a life in the First Dimension? I supposed when you are destined to live forever, I was foolish to let myself think that Caiden and I would always be on the same path. There was a definite probability down the road we would diverge in our wants and desires. I mentally shook these feelings off. Our relationship was too young and too fresh to even mar it with thoughts of how we may break up one day. I would be content with what I had in the here and now.

And in the here and now, it became harder and harder at the end of our evenings together to stop our kisses and say goodbye. I was on the verge of becoming an adult woman and I would be lying if I didn't say I wanted more in our relationship than just kissing. I know Caiden wanted more too, but he always gave me a soft kiss on the forehead to indicate it was time to pull back and slow down. He reasoned to me, that in a world where time stood still, there was no rush for us to go further in our physical relationship. I tried to reason to him that I was almost eighteen and if I was old enough to die for the Alliance, I was certainly old enough to do something more with him other than kiss. He just chuckled at me, admiring my logic but in no way buying it.

Luckily, my friends were amazingly supportive of my relationship with Caiden. No one made me feel self-conscious of our 380 plus year age difference and part of that was Caiden's knack to relate to all people. He was adaptable and easy going and that had to have come from the experience he gained over his four hundred years of existence. You would think someone that old would be "old" in his ways, but sometimes Caiden could have the personality of a teenager, particularly when he, Justas and Ben got to kidding around.

About halfway through my Academy training, I had decided to host a pizza party. Caiden was off in the First Dimension battling daimons and I missed him like crazy. Ben was taking a rare Saturday night off trusting the running of Café Syreni to his staff so he could join us. Sadly, there were no pizza delivery services so I thought it would be fun if we made the pizzas ourselves.

We were all stuffed in my little kitchen, tossing pizza dough—sometimes at each other—and layering goodies on top. Ben and Justas were working toward becoming drunk on their favorite beer. As a joke, I guess, Justas brought me a six pack of wine coolers—tropical peach—to tempt me. I had one and I had to admit, it tasted pretty darn good.

Once our pizza was ready, we sat around eating its gooey splendidness and talking about our classes. Ben was fairly quiet, which was not normal, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was because we were talking about the Academy. Because Ben had not made it through as an Annihilator, I was afraid that perhaps it could be painful hanging around with us. Normally, he always joined in our conversations about daimons, and weapons, and what not. But tonight, he was a little distant.

"...and then, Charlie used a battle axe during target practice and she nailed the bull's eye five times in a row. You could tell Huron was impressed." I heard Emerson bragging about me.

I smiled at Emerson. Gone was the frightened girl I first saw in the cafeteria when Payton was spewing her hate. Ever since Emerson let Huron stab her, she had become relentless in trying to be the best in our class. She was more confident and her easy charm was always hovering at the surface. I still worried about her, being fifteen and all. She was smaller than the rest of our class, but what she didn't have in brawn, she certainly made up for it in smarts.

"I may have nailed the target but our dear Emerson here has more brains than all of us combined. She's aced every single test we've taken. I think Bashir wants to make her an Elder by the time she's sixteen."

Justas ruffled Emerson's hair. "If your parents could see you now, Emerson, they would be so proud."

Emerson swatted Justas' hand away but giggled as she did it. "Yeah, I'm sure they would."

I turned to Ben as I took another slice of pizza. "What about you Ben? Do you fall in with the orphans like me and Emerson, or do you come from an insanely wealthy family of Annihilators like our resident stud, Justas, here?"

Ben gave a snort. "I guess you could say I'm a little of both. My parents are indeed retired Annihilators living on their Second Life. However, the disappointment I handed them by failing to become one was apparently too much for them to bear. They haven't spoken to me in close to ten years."

My pizza stuck in my throat which was a good thing because I didn't know what to say. That was horrible. It was one thing to have your parents taken away from you by circumstances beyond your control, but to have your parents ignore you because you didn't become what they wanted. He was indeed an orphan of the saddest variety.

I looked at Justas for a quick second and I could see the compassion on his face. Justas was so blessed to have such an accepting family. In a twist of fate, he could have easily been as outcast from his family as Ben was, just for being gay.

"Do you have any siblings?" I asked.

Ben's face lit up. "Yeah. My sister, Emmaline. She lives in the First Dimension. She's an accountant."

"Is she on her Second Life?"

"Nope. She never wanted to join the Alliance. She wanted college and eventually a family. She lives on Long Island. My parents are terribly disappointed in her too but at least they still talk to her."

"Your parents sound like gems," Justas said dryly.

"I know, right? I guess they had us only for the sake of the Alliance. Breeding to produce more warriors."

I flinched at the bitterness in Ben's voice. Trying to bring him back around to a subject he clearly enjoyed, I asked, "So, do you see Emmaline a lot?"

Ben's expression softened. "I do. Usually every week. We're pretty tight."

"That's awesome," Justas said. "I'm tight with my brothers, too."

I wouldn't know about siblings since I was an only child. I thought about what it would have been like to grow up with someone that I could have played with, and shared secrets with. Then a small voice interrupted my thoughts. It was Emerson.

"I had a sister, too."

All of us looked at Emerson, deathly still as she continued to talk. "She died...along with my parents." Emerson's eyes were round and slightly vacant. She was staring at the floor and her words were emotionless. I felt bile rise in my throat over the pain Emerson's memories must cause her.

"What happened?" I whispered.

With her eyes still trained on the floor, Emerson inhaled a shaky breath and let it out slowly.

"I was a baby when they died. I really don't remember my parents or my sister. They got caught in the crossfire of a gang turf war in our neighborhood. I was the only one that escaped the bullets that cut through our house."

Justas got up from his seat and went to sit beside Emerson. He put his arm around her and pulled her in close. "That is really tough, kiddo. I'm sorry."

She looked up from the floor to Justas and nodded at him. "Thanks. Like I said, I don't remember them or the night they died. I went to live with my grandmother after that. I have vague memories of her. She was really nice."

Emerson was opening up to us and I knew there was more to her story. I prompted her. "How did you end up on the streets then?"

"You know the system, Charlie. My grandmother died when I was four years old and I got shuffled from foster home to foster home. When I was fifteen, one of my foster brothers thought he could..." She trailed off, not sure of the right words to say. But I knew what happened.

"It's okay. You don't have to say it. What did you do after that?"

"I ran away and never looked back. I couldn't go to a shelter, because they would put me back into the system. So I slept in bus stations, stole food from garbage cans and basically kept running. Until Sebastian found me and offered me a life here in Semper Terra."

I noted there was no sadness or self-pity in her voice. Emerson had proved herself time and time again to the other recruits that she was a force to be reckoned with. She saw her past as exactly what it was...just a past. It helped to define who she was but she wasn't going to let it rule her now.

"You know," Justas piped in. "I think we need to officially replace Charlie as the numero uno bad-ass in our class. Sorry, Charlie...Emerson has you beat hands down."

Everyone laughed, including me. "You know, I think you may be right!"

A knock at the door put our little party on hold. I went to answer it and was surprised to find Dane standing there. He was holding up a six pack of beer and a sheepish expression on his face.

"’Sup," he said.

"Hey. Come on in."

I stood back and let him enter. I had not talked to Dane much since his field trials. It was difficult seeing as how he hung with Payton and her crew.

Dane was a mystery to me. He clearly was a good guy. You could tell Payton's bitchiness and spite did not set well with him. I mean, he was completely antithetical to her. Dane was open and friendly with everyone. Payton was haughty and mean. Again, I didn't understand why he was with her but who knew what made men tick.

Everyone welcomed Dane in, except for Emerson. She had a wary expression on her face and I'm sure it had to do with the fact that Dane was dating Payton. He was apparently guilty by association.

"I hope you don't mind me crashing. Justas told me you all were hanging together tonight. I brought more beer." He held up the six pack.

"Sure, the more the merrier." I took the six pack from him, after he pulled a bottle out for himself, and put it in my fridge. "Pizza's on the counter. Help yourself."

Dane grabbed a slice of pizza and leaned up against the kitchen counter. I had to admire again how handsome he was. His blue eyes popped against his tan skin and his hair was all mussy, in almost a perfect sort of way.

"So why aren't you out tonight partying with Payton and her crew," Justas asked.

Dane got an exasperated look on his face. "Sometimes it's like having your fingernails pulled out hanging with those people. I just...I'm just getting tired of their crap."

I nodded my head in sage agreement then took another sip of my second wine cooler. "I don't get it Dane. Why do you hang with them?"

Dane shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his beer. "I don't know. I guess I've just always been friends with them. And Payton hasn't always been this way."

"You mean a snobby bitch?" Emerson asked.

I choked on my wine cooler when she said that.
Little girl had teeth.
She was looking at Dane as if daring him to deny it. And he didn't but he was defensive.

"I'm telling you, she hasn't always been this way. But, she and I have been together a long time. It's sometimes hard to break away, you know?"