Runestone (9 page)

Colors and textures bounced through Evangeline’s mind as she dozed in and out of sleep. She lay with her head in Sean’s lap, and listened to him and the immortals discuss their travel plans. Dante said they were all going south to find Will, but the flights into Argentina were stalled, and the young immortal Gracie didn’t have a passport.

Dante sat at a massive mahogany desk, forging this now, his olive skin aglow from the small lamp he worked by. Behind him, the fire roared in the library hearth, but the chill that pervaded Evangeline’s limbs would not disperse.

Sean’s warm fingers scraped through her hair deliciously, sending waves of pleasure through her. And when the shaking would overtake her again, one of the immortals would get up to sit with her and stroke her tattoo.

She could almost taste Will, though. For hours, his flavor was in her mouth—musk and smoke and beer again. She swished her tongue against the roof of her mouth, trying to pinpoint the new taste, but she couldn’t figure it out.

A scratchy record played low on an ancient turntable, and the woman’s lilting tones made Evangeline feel as if she was in a French salon in the 1930s. Despite her terror and madness, new music lifted inside her. Notes arranged themselves in her mind, and lyrics funneled into the well of her soul.

Will.

She Called to him now without thought, unsurprised when he didn’t respond and the passage between them remained sealed. She mentally beat at the door. Shivers spread through her body, and Sean stopped caressing her hair.

Nathan gathered himself from the leather sofa where he and Lillian were curled together. His long legs loomed into Evangeline’s view, and then he sank to the ottoman that was pushed near expressly for this purpose. His pale eyebrows drew together over his bright green eyes as he shocked her by fingering her tattoo.

“You okay, Evangeline?” His deep voice was pitched low. At her feet, Maria stirred from her quiet slumber. Dante glanced up, a tender expression on his handsome face.

Evangeline wondered at the dynamics between this particular group. Were all immortals like this? They fed off one another’s energies and were amazingly protective of one another—especially Lillian.

“Yes,” she whispered so as not to wake Maria fully, or the beautiful Gracie, who was slumped in an oversized chair across from them, the long sheet of her blonde hair lying against one pink cheek. Under a year ago, she’d been a teenager. When she sustained a mortal blow to the head, Lillian, who happened to be on the scene, Made her immortal. Rapidly, she’d shot up to her adult height and her body had morphed into the body of a supermodel. Her short skirt hitched up her golden thighs, but her legs were modestly tucked at the knee even in sleep. She wore knee socks like a naughty school girl, and layers of T-shirts in colors that set off her complexion.

Lillian’s gray-eyed gaze was locked to Nathan’s back as he pressed Evangeline’s tattoo. As his immortal mate, she would feel the shock he delivered to Evangeline. In fact, her eyelids fluttered briefly, and she issued a soft sigh. At this, a small bracket outlined Nathan’s crooked smile.

Evangeline looked past him and met Lillian’s eyes. One long mahogany wave fell across her forehead, and she pushed it away with a slender white hand. She was petite like Evangeline, but while Evangeline was punk, Lillian was all pin-up girl. Made in the World War II era, she retained all the glam of that decade in her dress and conduct. And she offset Nathan’s rugged beauty perfectly.

Being around other bonded immortals was a torment to Evangeline, though. She caught every passing look and fingertip at their temples, which meant they were telepathically communicating. More than anything, she wanted to feel Will’s voice flood her mind again. Her craving was worse than for any drug.

She was shaking again, even with Nathan’s fingers prodding the stars on her throat. Stars that would guide them to Will. “But who could guide by the stars?” she had asked after this revelation.

They’d all looked to Dante. “My dear, I navigated the seas with nothing more than the twinkling jewels in a velvet sky for a century. I can get you to Will.”

“You’re in good hands,” Nathan said now as if he read her thoughts. “Be calm.” His fingers worked over the length of her tattoo, and beneath her head, she felt Sean’s thigh muscles stiffen. He didn’t like the males touching her.

“Almost finished with the passport,” Dante said from across the room. “It’s one of my best forgeries, yet.” His proud tone roused a quiet laugh from Nathan.

“Tomorrow we’re off, Evangeline.” Nathan’s smile was tight. He didn’t need to say he was worried, too. They were heading into unknown territory against 'destructive forces,' and their immortal mates would be in danger. Earlier that day, the men had raised the topic of leaving the women behind with one male, at which point Maria broke into a stream of violent and strangely accented Spanish, and Lillian burst into tears.

It was bad enough Evangeline was mad with separation from her mate. The other women didn’t need to experience it too.

“The travel plans are all in order?” Sean asked.

Nathan nodded. “We’ll head out to the airport in a few hours. Our flight into Mexico City is early. From there, we’ll find other means of transport. According to Maria. . . . ” He glanced at her sleeping form. “We must navigate by the stars, and perhaps by runestones.”

They’d been over this before, but Evangeline leaned up on her elbows with interest. The notion that her immortal tattoo was a map leading to her mate was mind-boggling. But Maria believed that each rune was a piece of a puzzle—she couldn’t read it as a whole—and the stars would possibly guide them to what were known as runestones. When Evangeline asked what they were, Maria explained they were stone tablets set up in ancient times with runic markings. Most of the runestones known by modern man were in Scandinavia, but in her time as a Mayan princess, she remembered them dotting the wilds of South America. She’d seen them as a young girl.

“You two should try to get some sleep,” Nathan said, nodding at Sean. “Why don’t you take her to bed?”

His words sent a spike of heat straight to her pussy. The idea of tumbling with Sean into the thick mattress and losing herself in loving him was very welcome. But she really wished for Will between them, to suck and kiss and lick every portion of his glorious body.

Nathan stood up and returned to Lillian’s side. Evangeline swung her feet to the floor and allowed Sean to pull her into a standing position.

Earlier, Lillian had shown them to Will’s old room. Everything was exactly as he’d left it when he walked away nine months before, and though it hurt Evangeline to see a closet full of his clothes, and his collection of The Doors CD’s on his shelf, it comforted her too.

She and Sean mounted the curving mahogany staircase to the second floor, and with her hand firmly clasped in Sean’s, they counted doors until they reached Will’s room.

In the bedroom, she kicked off her motorcycle boots. The thick shag carpeting felt good under her feet, and she curled her toes.

Sean turned to her with a worried expression. “You must be exhausted from the shaking.”

“I’m okay. Wired, actually.”

His dark eyes melted like pools of chocolate in the sun. He grasped her elbows. “Poor baby. Come here.”

He led her through the suite to the main bedroom. Evangeline drew a deep breath, hoping to gather the musky scent of Will into herself. But the room had been freshly cleaned, and she could only smell furniture polish.

Feelings of desire that had nothing to do with her current state of mind or activities intruded upon her. In the library, she’d listened to the men make plans for their journey, heard them discuss the 'destructive forces,' and a hard knot of wanting had grown in her belly. Confused by this, she could only chalk it up to something Will was experiencing.

He would never dream of taking another female lover, but if he came across a man he wanted? She wasn’t so sure.

The thought didn’t bother her as it might other women. She’d watched Will enjoy physical passions with Sean, and loved sharing him. She just wished she could get into Will’s head and see for herself what was going on.

“Do you miss touching Will?” she asked Sean.

He sank to the side of the bed with a sigh, and drew her between his legs. His dark hair swung forward to touch her cheek, and she threaded her hands into the shoulder-length mass and twisted.

“Of course I miss touching Will. I miss everything about him, just as you do.” He dropped his gaze, and his throat worked for a moment. “I wish I’d spoken my feelings before we left him.”

She studied his dark, knitted brows and the flickering of the muscle in his jaw. “What do you mean, Sean?”

His thumbs probed the hollows of her hipbones, making her rock a little on her heels. His voice was gritty and low. “I should have confessed my love to him.”

Her heart overflowed with emotion. Tears filled her eyes, the salt threatening to spill over. She made a noise in her chest, and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight against her. “Oh, baby, I think he knows.”

“But what kills me is I made the same mistake twice. When you were living with me in Chicago, I knew for weeks that I was in love with you, but I never told you. If I had told you—”

“Sean, you know things would have been the same, no matter when you revealed your love for me. And though you finally told me as I was about to tear myself from your life, I knew long before that moment. Will knows it too.”

His tormented gaze met hers. “You think?”

Her tears erupted from the confines of her lower lids. She nodded. “I do think. I’m in his head, remember?”

“I know,” he said miserably, looking away again. “Being around all these bonded couples makes me feel like an oddity.”

“Gracie isn’t bonded.”

“Yes, but she’s immortal. I’m the guppy amongst blue whales.”

She gave a tearful laugh. “You’re my soul mate—the mate of my heart. Of my choosing. Do you forget this?” She tugged the neck of her top down to reveal the small brand bearing his initials on the swell of her right breast. “Or this?” Holding her palm up, she flashed her engagement ring and wedding band before his eyes.

With a growl, he caught her fingers, squeezing them tightly. And then with a suddenness that stole her breath, he gripped her waist and thigh, and tossed her beneath him.

She’d seen that possessiveness curling his lip before. Seen that dangerous glint in his eyes. “I don’t like those immortal men touching you.” The sentence grinding through his teeth was like steel being pulled from a scabbard.

“They were helping me.”

His mouth hovered a breath from hers. “I can help you more. If you’ll Make me immortal.”

Her insides turned to water, flowing in a cool path to her fingertips. She swallowed hard. “Not possible.”

“It’s possible. You cut me. Cut yourself. Easy as that.”

She folded her lips into a tight seam, and shook her head. “Sean, I know you think being immortal is the best path for you, but it’s not. Please don’t ask me again.”

His gaze throbbed into hers for an eternal heartbeat, and then he rolled off. He sprawled across the big bed—the same bed where Will had used his blood to claim Evangeline as his immortal mate.

For a long minute, she stared at the ceiling, her eyes unfocused. She hated that she couldn’t give him something he wanted so desperately. Maybe if she told him the whole truth, that she couldn’t Make him unless he was on the verge of death, or else he would have tainted blood. And yet, would knowing this bring acceptance? She feared that instead he might try to force their hands. He might try to end his own mortal life.  She knew in her heart that she and Will were making the right decision.

Another disconnected sliver of desire worked its way through her lower belly, and she forced her mind away from her problems with Sean and concentrated hard on her link to Will.

A strange new flavor was on her tongue. Her head swirled with something like photographs that hadn’t yet been developed. She could see the outer edges, but nothing in between.

Will.

A snap of electricity caught her unaware, and she gasped. Instantly, Sean was sitting up, gripping her with concern.

“Is it Will?”

“I. . . I don’t know,” she cried.

“Did you Call to him? Try again.”

She jackknifed into a sitting position and Called again. But this time, nothing happened. Not a glimmer of light, a wisp of cigarette smoke, or an electric shock.

She broke into sobs.

“Oh, baby.” Sean gathered her up, half-pulling her onto his lap and rocking her gently. His warm mouth worked over her cheeks, and then found the spattering of stars at the corner of her eye.

A thin ribbon of ease threaded through her. It was nothing compared to the touch of an immortal, but at that moment, she needed Sean more than relief from the shakes.

He pressed kisses to each rune and star of her tattoo. “Evangeline, I’m sorry I brought up the question of immortality again. I don’t need to be immortal to love you, or to make you feel good.” When he lifted his head, his eyes burned into hers. “Let me make love to you.”

Before she could answer, he was hooking his fingers under her hem and drawing her top over her head. His mouth was sweet torture against her straining breasts. His silky hair teasing her flesh into peaks.