I continued, “You told me before that you don’t have a soul, but your body remembers what it did with the soul. That’s why you breathe sometimes. The soul is imbedded in every part of a person. You’re still a person. You still have a soul. And you honor it, even now when you want to kill your brother.”
‘He cannot divide them.’
I understood them now. I glanced over my shoulder at Lucan. “He’s not put together right. I saw that before, but I didn’t understand it. I knew you’d win today. I felt your strength. What you said was right. You have the strength of all the Hunters inside of you. You’d overpower your brother too easily, but that’s where it’d rip away your humanity. You’d become the animal that you loathe inside of you.”
Roane stiffened at my words. He started to pull away, but I clasped the back of his arm. I wouldn’t let him move and his eyes widened at my strength. “If you had killed your brother today, that would’ve destroyed you. He’s still a part of you. You love him and you’d be the end of him. It would’ve been the end of you as well. I can’t have that. I need you.”
His eyes clung to mine.
I touched his lips. They were perfect, cool to the touch, and I leaned forward to nip at them.
Roane grasped the back of my head and deepened the kiss. I felt his love with that kiss, but I pulled away. Haunted. “Do you love me or do you love who is inside of me?”
His eyes shuddered closed and he withdrew. “I loved her, yes.”
“That’s why you’re drawn to me.”
“That’s why you’re drawn to me too!” Roane whipped back to me. I was taken aback by the loathing in his eyes. “You don’t think I’ve thought of this? Something takes control of you when you’re around me. It’s not you, either, Davy. You might think you feel something for me, but you don’t. A part of Talia is inside of you. It’s always her reaching out for me, taking control of you.”
Oh god. I didn’t… I couldn’t understand… I started to slip inside of him, but he shoved me out. “I don’t want you to know the mess inside of me.”
I respected his wish. I couldn’t solve the problem between us, but I knew a problem that I could resolve for him. So I looked back at Lucan. “You can’t help your brother, but I can.”
“Wha—”
I rushed forward and stepped in front of Kates. My back was to Lucan. And then I unlocked time.
“No!” Roane shouted, but I snapped my fingers. Every glass, every diamond, every champagne flute exploded in the air. They all ducked from the exploding shards of glass.
I whispered to Lucan, “I want to give you what you want.”
He licked his fangs and grasped my arm. That was all he needed and he jerked me forward to clamp onto my skin. I tensed as my skin broke underneath his fangs, but I grasped his head. I willed him to drink all he needed.
“No!” Roane leapt across the room and pulled his brother from me. Lucan fell against a wall, bewildered and triumphant. Then his back arched dramatically. Only his head and toes touched the floor. He sucked in a ragged breath and pounded at his chest frantically. Desperate.
Roane stopped in front of me. He held me back with an arm around my waist and watched in confusion. “What?”
I watched Roane as he watched his brother. “He can be right again. I saved your brother… for you.”
“What did you do, Davy?” The words were wrung out from him. Roane stared as Lucan howled in pain and rolled on the ground.
My words were for his ears only. “I gave him life again. He can be right.”
Lucan continued to writhe on the floor, but Roane suppressed a shudder and abruptly turned so he couldn’t watch anymore. He pulled me tight against his chest and wrapped both his arms around me. He buried his head in the crook of my shoulder and I watched for him. One of my hands lifted to cradle the back of his head.
Everyone watched in the room. No one dared to speak. Then Lucan’s body lifted off the floor, his back arched, and a dark light ripped out of his mouth. It slammed to the ceiling and settled there. Waiting. I’d kept the crystals floating in the air and now I turned my wrist. Each little shattered particle of crystal all moved as one.
“Be gone,” I whispered.
Immediately the crystals surrounded the black light and an explosion occurred.
Roane jerked. Everyone gasped. Kates fell to the floor with a wrangled moan. Wren cursed softly, but savagely. After another moment of holding me, Roane lifted his head to turn towards his brother. Lucan was unconscious.
“He’s sleeping.”
“Davy… what did you do?”
“His soul is intact.”
Roane looked anguished. “He’s human?”
I nodded.
“How?”
I couldn’t tell him, not really. So I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, I let Roane see my true self. He saw the silver eyes. “I’m the Immortal.”
THE END
EPILOGUE
“Welcome to our last conversation.”
I sighed in irritation and turned, but stopped in surprise. I looked around. “We’re not in the dark anymore. And… I think I’m sleeping again.”
The Immortal me stood before me. “No, we’re not because this is the end.”
I tilted my head questionably. “What are you talking about? I thought we were immortal, together for eternity?”
Silver eyes flashed back at me. “Stop thinking about trivial things. You don’t need to distract yourself anymore.”
“It’s what I do.” I shrugged it off, but something prickled at me. It was in the Immortal’s voice—my voice. Then my eyes widened. It was my voice talking back to me. It wasn’t the annoying Immortal or the lecturing Immortal. It was me.
Finally.
“What… what have I done again?”
The Immortal me smiled, assured and strong. “I did choose you, Davy, but I didn’t go to you. When you reached inside of Talia, you pulled me out and inside of you. There’s a part of you, a part that is noble. Your strength is more than I’ve ever encountered in a being before. You pulled me into you.”
“That’d been my plan the whole time.” My attempt at self-sarcasm was pathetic.
The other me continued, “There’s a lot about being the Immortal that you don’t understand. It’s too much for you to know everything now, but things will be revealed as you go. You have a destiny and others will help you as you go. My part is done.”
“What part was that?”
“My job was to help you accept who you are, who we are together. You accepted the Immortal, but you don’t know the consequences. You will learn them as you go. I won’t be the voice for those lessons.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. What would I get instead?
“You’ve changed, Davy. You’ve become something new. This world is yours for the taking and you can make it better. There is a reason why the Immortal was created. You’re not a fairytale. You’re real and you are a force to be reckoned with. Do not let anyone take that from you. Do not!” She gutted out the last words, forcibly and urgent.
I had so many questions… so many new revelations… so many… so many of everything. I wanted to know it all, but then she said, “Welcome to your destiny. It is the beginning.”
‘Welcome to our last conversation.’
Then I woke up with a gasp. I was disoriented at first, feeling something warm around me. Then I heard cars honking in the distance. Slowly, I sat up and looked around. I was on the roof