My Immortal (5 page)

A group of men appeared at the river’s edge. They ran into the water until waist deep then tossed ropes out. At least seven lassos landed around him. He grabbed one and managed to get it around his chest. He took hold of the rope with all his might and held on. The men formed a chain and began pulling him ashore.

“Kohl! Is that you?” Alaric’s voice rose above the sound of rushing water. They dragged his body onto dry land.

Kohl collapsed on the ground, breathing hard. “Thanks, guys…seriously, thank you.”

“Just what the fuck are you doing skinny dipping in the Rio Grande after dark?” Alaric scolded. “How many times have I told you no skinny dipping without me?”

Kohl let out an airy laugh and smiled up at his friend. “Sorry, man, just couldn’t help myself.”

Alaric and his crew helped Kohl to his feet and up the cliff to solid ground. One of the guys handed him a jacket. “Nice body, Kohl, but you don’t wanna get arrested for indecent exposure.”

Kohl laughed again, knowing that the man was also gay. “Indecent, huh?”

“Well…” The man wiggled his brows. “I won’t complain if you hold it against me.”

“All right, boys, give my boy a little room to breathe.” Alaric waved them off then turned scrutinizing eyes on Kohl. “You are damn lucky that we got called up to the site tonight. What the hell’s going on with you lately?”

“Dreams,” Kohl muttered. “The damn dreams.”

“About Talon again?”

“Yeah. The dreams get more intense each time and I wake up in dangerous places. I don’t understand. The man wants me to help him, yet it seems as if he’s trying to kill me.”

“He’s torn between worlds. The darkness in his soul wants to torture you, but the good in him loves you, wants to worship you.”

Kohl shot him a pointed look. “You know more than you let on. Are you going to fill me in this time?”

“Yeah, let me finish up with the crew. We’ve got the leak capped off. I just need to secure the site. Why don’t you wait in my truck?”

“Okay, thanks,” Kohl said, laying a grateful hand on Alaric’s shoulder.

Alaric gave his hand an affectionate squeeze. “No problem. I won’t be long.”

Kohl sat on the couch, dressed in a t-shirt and comfort pants, sipping the hot soup his friend had made for him. Even in July, the river water had carried an icy chill.

“This will put some hair on your ass,” Alaric teased, handing him a tumbler filled with whiskey.

“You gave me the good stuff, right? Not that cheap shit from last year’s summer cookout.”

“I think you’re gonna need the good stuff for what I have to tell you.”

Kohl settled down into the cushions with his whiskey. “I’m all ears.”

Alaric let out a hearty laugh. “I doubt the guys were gawking at your ears up on the bluff.” He winked. “Especially Rico, he couldn’t take his eyes off your dick.”

“Oh fuck, you better tell him that I’m taken.”

“You are?”

“Well…sort of…I think. Maybe I’ll know for sure after you tell me about your family.”

“How do you want it? Straight up or sugar coated?”

Kohl laughed. “Just spill it, man. After the past few days, there’s not much you can say to rattle me. I almost fell off the roof, almost tumbled over a cliff, and just about drowned tonight.”

“Okaaay,” Alaric said with a deep breath. He sat down on the opposite end of the sofa. “I’m the one who buried the amulet.
I
am the
Shasta
Eagle
.”

“What?” Kohl’s eyes flew open wide beneath raised brows. “You don’t look a day over thirty…actually…you haven’t looked a day over thirty since we met. I figured it was just good genes.”

“When you came looking for work after you lost your parents, you were about eighteen and getting ready to enter college. I was twenty-nine when the vampires took my folks from me. I felt an instant connection with you. I had a daughter and a wife back then, when I almost died trying to kill the bloody beasts. But you probably read all about that.”

Kohl sat up and nodded, captivated by his friend’s revelation. “What happened to your wife and child?”

“They passed away of old age. My daughter never married or had children. I was chosen to protect the amulet, and proudly so. I didn’t want those evil bloodsuckers to make a comeback, not in this country anyway.” Alaric paused reflectively then added, “I moved back here, to Eagle Pass, once my family had gone on to the spirit world.”

“Are you stuck in this world forever?” Kohl couldn’t imagine such a fate.

“No, I can go home when I am ready. But when you came along, I knew that my purpose was not yet fulfilled. Your passion for archaeology intrigued me more than I let on. I watched you closely over the years. Then we grew close. I really felt that one day you might be the one to take over guarding the amulet.”

“If you’ve been the guardian, why is Talon chasing me?”

“Have you seen me touch the relic?”

“No…you were scared…ohhhh…I get it.” Kohl rolled his eyes in embarrassment. “That’s why you were afraid of the pendant. You didn’t want to be attached to Talon. Why? He’s gorgeous and you’re gay.”

“Not afraid, just maintaining the balance of nature. I cannot mate with another Shasta Shifter. We can only mate with humans. Our biological transformation rejects itself, like the magnetic poll…opposites attract.”

“So even if you’re attracted to another shifter, you can’t mate with him?”

“Nope. It would be a forced union and destroy our DNA.”

Kohl shook his head in awe. “I am blown away. I can’t believe you’re an immortal shifter. Why didn’t you tell me when I found the pendant?”

“It’s not my place to interfere with destiny. If you and Talon are meant to be, then it must happen naturally.”

“I think I need another drink.” He held out his glass for a refill. “This is unreal.”

Alaric grabbed the bottle and poured more amber heat into their glasses. “Talon is not out of trouble yet. He must defeat the vampire side in his soul to redeem his shifter. When I found out that you were having erotic dreams about him, I knew you were his chosen mate.”

“That’s what Talon said, but he was concerned about love verses lust. I guess because I’ve never been in love with a man until…” His voice trailed off. He gulped more whiskey.

“Until Talon?”

Their eyes met and Kohl felt Alaric strip his defenses with alarming ease.

“I’m crazy about him,” Kohl confessed. “He is all I can think about.”

Alaric leaned back with a knowing smile. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s don’t fight nature, buddy, you’ll only end up on the losing end. Guess that’s another reason I’ve been hanging out in this mortal world—I want a true soul mate.” He paused to refill his glass. “Back in the early nineteen hundreds, men did not acknowledge their attraction to each other. That’s probably why I had only one child. I loved my wife, but I was not physically attracted to her. I did right by them, moved them away from the horrific memories so they could live the rest of their lives in peace. But once I was on my own, I wanted a man.”

“I see. Your decision to stay went beyond the need to protect the Bloodstone. You’re holding out for Mister Right.”

Alaric rolled his shoulders and sighed. “I guess so. I thought it was gonna be you, but Talon is your destiny. I’ll find my man yet, don’t worry.”

“How do I go about finding Talon now?” Kohl felt the pangs of desire again.

“He will find you and keep finding you until he’s convinced that you love him or that you don’t. The strength that Talon needs to purge vampirism from his soul can only be found in genuine love. You will need to look into your heart and sort your feelings regarding him.”

“
Love
…” Kohl muttered, feeling groggy from the liquor. “I never put much stock in it.”

“You might want to give it a try. There’s never been a better time. Your life with a Shasta Shifter will be pure paradise. We are capable of pleasuring our mates in supernatural ways.”

Kohl felt his dick harden. “Yeah…I think I got a sample of that.”

“Do some soul searching, buddy. I’d hate for you to miss a once in a lifetime opportunity and I can’t think of a better man to take over the amulet.”

“Guess I won’t be getting rich yet, huh?” Kohl let out a dry laugh.

Alaric gave him a wink. “There are more ways to get rich than by money, my friend.”

Kohl lay in his bed staring up at the ceiling, pondering his heavy conversation with Alaric. The temptation to ask his friend to shift and prove his story had nagged at him, but Kohl couldn’t bring himself to insult his buddy that way. Alaric had no reason to lie and all the family documents lined up with every word Alaric said. Additionally, his friend knew too much about Talon for Kohl to doubt him. His mind still reeled over the new dawning of information. His best friend, his unofficially adopted brother, was the Shasta Eagle—an authentic shifter who’d destroyed a clan of vampires.

Incredible. So much for my theory of myths and legends. Vampires and other paranormal elements really do exist. My buddy just dispelled all doubt. And now he’s
searching for his soul mate. I hope he finds a great one.
Thoughts and recollections of Talon filtered into his exhausted mind. He got a hard-on just thinking about the gorgeous man. He stretched his arms over head, inhaling slow and deep to relax. Gradually, his eyes surrendered to the call for slumber.

Kohl wrestled against the chains at his wrists and ankles. His body had been secured to a stone table of some sort and angled over a fiery lake of what looked like scorching hot blood. Red-orange smoke billowed upward, stinging his nose. Standing on a rocky ledge beside the burning lake, his muscular arms crossed overhead, and his fists clenched, was Talon, with eagle’s wings protruding from his back. The man’s muscled chest appeared bronzed from the engulfing heat. Talon stared up with pleading breathtaking eyes, intense desperation painted on his perfect face.

“Kohl, help me, please,” Talon said in a strained voice. “Take me out of this hell.”

Kohl went to reach for him but could not move his bound hands. “Talon, don’t give up. I’m trying.”

“The hunger is clawing at my soul. I can’t hold back much longer. I need you, my mate.” Talon bowed his head and lowered his wings, folding the black feathers around his magnificent body. “I’m weakening. Please, help me.”

“Talon! No! Don’t leave me!” Kohl jerked against the chains to no avail as the man began to sink into the fiery abyss. “Talon! Come to me again! I love you!”

Kohl bolted upright in bed, drenched in a cold sweat, heart racing. Tears misted his eyes.
Was it real? What’s going on?
Self-doubt washed over him. He’d shouted it out loud in the nightmare, expressed his feelings without holding back. Kohl knew that what he’d said in the night terror was exactly how he felt. He’d fallen madly in love with the gorgeous shifter and didn’t want to live without him.

He wondered if he would see his chosen mate again or if his profession of love had come too late. He prayed that Talon had heard him before giving up. Emptiness flooded his heart. Already he missed the erotic encounters with his paranormal lover. He sighed, despondent over this dilemma and reached deep into his brain for a way to make contact again. Talon needed to know that he loved him. Kohl couldn’t lose him now—not when he just realized that he’d found his soul mate.

* * * *

Talon wandered the back roads that led from the vacant lot down to the highway. His stomach growled with hunger and his throat felt parched. Kohl’s passionately spoken words echoed through his mind like sweet music.

Talon! Come to me again! I love you!

A smile tugged at his lips. He’d found his soul mate at last—well almost. There was still the matter of actually finding Kohl in this mortal world. The surroundings looked very different from the last time he’d walked this area. Where the grand castle had once stood was now just a vacant lot overgrown with grass and thicket. Strange machinery had been erected at the site where he’d been buried for a hundred years.

But he was free now, ready to explore this new world, and most importantly, to find the strikingly handsome man he’d made love to in the immortal realm. Visions of Kohl’s collar-length dark hair and those shimmering aqua-blue eyes filled Talon’s mind, sexual arousal helping to squelch the pangs of hunger and thirst. His craving for blood still lurked inside, like a demon ready to pounce without warning.

Talon had to find Kohl before the urge to drain a human of its blood sealed his fate. He cursed the vampires that had attacked, yet felt grateful to the two men who’d protected the Bloodstone—his only hope. If Kohl’s love was genuine, then this tormenting affliction would soon end and Talon would once again enjoy living as the glorious eagle shifter he’d been before this hell began.

Having no idea of where his mortal lover lived, Talon set out walking north upon reaching the highway. If only he could get close enough to pick up the man’s scent, his mission would be much easier. He’d never forget Kohl’s tantalizing scent, sensual aura, or the man’s strapping build. The memory of Kohl’s huge cock filling him sent pleasing tingles through his body, making his own dick swell with need. Kohl was all male, ruggedly handsome and strong-minded, everything Talon dreamed of in a mate.

He yearned to gaze into those mesmerizing eyes in the mortal realm and feel Kohl’s full lips claim his mouth again. The desire to pleasure him in every conceivable manner drove Talon on into the night. Forbidden by the Shasta Realm to shift into his eagle form because of the stain of darkness in his soul, he would have to hunt and find his mate the human way—walking.

Many hours later a stunning sunrise greeted him, dispelling the darkness but not the hunger.

A huge vehicle growled past him on the road, moving at a high rate of speed. The gust of wind knocked Talon back a few steps. He stared in amazement as what looked like an updated model of a locomotive zoomed into the distance. Had they found a way to put trains on the roads now? He realized that he needed to find a library to bring himself up to date on the changes, but first he needed suitable clothes. Without money, he wondered how to acquire proper attire.