Immortal Fire - Book One

The trip went faster than I thought it would. We only had an hour left to go and Cassie was sound asleep in the backseat. Now was my chance to try and fix things. Damien and I had spoken casually when we had to, but it was forced on his part, and I wanted to sort things out right now.

“I’m sorry,” I said, breaking the silence with a hushed voice as if not to wake Cassie.

“Excuse me?” Damien looked at me briefly then back at the road. Taking a deep breath, I decided that it was now or never.

“I said that I’m sorry…” I repeated nervously.

“For what?” he asked; muscles tensing as he gripped the steering wheel and peered at me.

“For the other night; I am sorry that I hurt you, that I stopped it, that I have feelings for both you and Hayden; sorry that I do not know what to do… Damien, I do care about you, a lot more than just a friend, and I’m sorry for everything. I just really wish that you didn’t hate me…”

After a few seconds, I thought he was not going to say anything, but then he surprised me.

“I don’t hate you; that’s why I’m distancing myself as much as I can” He never took his eyes from the road.

“I don’t want you to distance yourself, besides everything else; you are one of my best friends Damien. I don’t want to lose that.” I whispered, a tear escaping me and running down my cheek.

He did not say anything else, but after a few minutes, he reached over and gripped my hand. I gripped him tightly back. I was so happy that we had gotten past this in a way. We drove in silence, just content to be holding each other’s hand. Cassie woke up about ten minutes from the park and passed us each a soda.

“Cassie, isn’t there an iced tea or water?” I asked. I could not drink soda unless I wanted to get sick. After digging around she produced bottled water for me.

“Thanks,” I said and took a huge gulp.

“What’s the game plan for when we arrive? I know we have to find the gate, but I think we should have a more detailed plan than that.” Cassie asked from the back.

“Well besides you, we haven’t slept, so I guess rent a room and rest. Tomorrow we can try to find the gate without getting anyone’s attention. Then tomorrow night when everyone is sleeping, use it. That way there is less chance of something going wrong.” Damien replied.

“That’s cool with me. I need a shower and some serious sleep.” I said, not realizing that Cassie was watching Damien and I’s hands that still gripped each other. We arrived at the park offices at midnight and a lonely, sleepy young guy sat behind a desk as we entered.

“Welcome to Devil’s Lake State Park. How may I help you?” he said yawning and rubbing his eyes. Poor guy…

“We need a room for three people please; as close to the lake as possible,” Damien answered. The guy behind the desk finally seemed to wake up and got nervous at the sight of Damien looming over his desk. I almost laughed out loud at the sight of him scrabbling to grab things and muttering ‘yes sir’. Damien grinned at me, and I know that he was finding it funny too.

“Here you go, sir.” The guy handed Damien a key with the park’s logo as a key chain attached to it with the number twenty-two.

“Thank you,” I said and smiled at him.

“How do we get to the room,” Cassie asked. The guy looked at her and smiled. Well, someone had an admirer by the looks of things…

“You just follow the road and eventually you will get to a sign that says, ‘devil’s lake’; take a right, go past the trees and you will see the room on your left.” The poor guy was still smiling at Cassie, which she seemed to be oblivious to when Damien handed me the keys and said that we should wait in the car while he sorted out the payment.

Cassie and I left, and I couldn’t help but see what she thought of the guy inside.

“So?” I asked mischievously.

“So what?” she asked stunned.

“Aw c’mon; don’t tell me you didn’t notice that guy in there was crushing on you!” I exclaimed, nudging her playfully. Smiling she opened the car door and sat on the seat with her legs dangling out.

“He was alright…” she said sheepishly.

“So why don’t you go get his number?” I asked beaming.

“I can’t have a boyfriend now; not with everything that is going on.” She had a point, and it made me stop and think about my current romance problem. She must have noticed my face change as she studied me carefully.

“I saw you guys holding hands…” she said. I started blushing and thanked the gods that it was dark outside. The sound of crickets filled the air along with the smell of wet soil.

“Yeah; we sort of fixed things. He doesn’t hate me, and we are still friends.” I said clutching my jacket close. It was freezing here. Just like in my soul walk. That is what Damien was calling it.

“That’s good. I am happy for you… but Aria, what are you going to tell Hayden. He deserves to know what has happened between you guys.” She had yet another point and I hated it.

“I don’t want him to find out until I know how I feel exactly… Please do not say anything. I just want to figure things out.” She nodded and I felt sick to my stomach. Hayden did deserve to know and here I was, trying to keep the way I felt a secret.

Damien returned then and we all got into the car and drove to the room. The chalet had two single beds and a sleeper couch. The room was decorated with Native Indian décor and quite simple. Damien said that he would take the sleeper couch and bring our bags in. Both Damien and Cassie said that I should shower first as they were not as tired as I looked, and I did not argue.

A shower was exactly what I needed, and I just wanted to sleep. Slipping into the bathroom, I locked the door and got undressed. Reaching into the shower, I put the water on and looked at myself in the small mirror. I had lost weight since being on the run and I was losing some of my curves. I hated that. I had always loved my curves and I knew Hayden loved them.

Hayden… I missed him so much. Maybe if he were with me, I would know exactly how I felt. Turning so that I was looking at my back in the mirror, I saw the infinity mark that was on my shoulder. It seemed to glow blue slightly and I could not stop myself from touching it. It was warmer than the rest of my skin which was unusual.

The bathroom was filled with steam by the time I got into the shower. The water ran over my body and relaxed all my muscles. A familiar pain started in my head, and I started to panic.

“Focus, breathe,” I said to myself as I breathed deeply. My hand reached out to the shower wall to steady myself. I could feel the tugging in my head and chest to drag me away, but I resisted it. The pounding in my head subsided but my mark burned on my back. Biting down on my hand to not scream out aloud, I climbed out of the shower and left the water running.

Frantically I wiped the condensation from the mirror and looked at my mark. There was a second infinity mark crossing over the original now and vine, lace-like patterns that swirled around it. These were black though and that made me panic more. I could not take my eyes from it. A knock at the door made me jump.

“Aria? Are you okay?” Cassie asked from the other side.

“Uh, yeah, um, I’m okay. I’ll be out now…” I stammered and shut off the water.

Not bothering to dry, I shoved on my pajamas so that the new mark was covered. Stepping out of the bathroom, I saw Cassie standing with her clothes in hand and Damien laying, sprawled out on the sleeper couch.

“I’ll be quick,” Cassie called out to Damien before entering the bathroom.

Trying to act as casual as possible, I walked past Damien and climbed onto my allocated bed. Grabbing Cassie’s cell, as I forgot mine at the warehouse, I quickly looked up Angelis Mortis marks on Google. Yeah, I know, really no chance in hell I would find anything, but it was worth a try…

Giving up, I put Cassie’s phone back on the nightstand and caught Damien watching me from the sleeper couch. Shit. Busted...

“What are you doing?” he asked. Fidgeting more than usual and giggling nervously, I brushed off his speculative stare.

“Nothing; just checking the time…” I said feeling his scrutinizing gaze.

It was so obvious that I was lying that I barely had time to react when he was suddenly next to the bed and had Cassie’s phone in his hands. I tried to grab it from him, but my arms could not reach the damn thing because he was so much taller than me.

“Damien, give me the damn phone!” I shouted at him, smacking ineffectively at his arm. Hopefully, Cassie would not hear us while she was showering. Damien’s face changed and I immediately knew that he had seen what I had looked up in the search history. Giving up, I dropped to the bed and placed my face in my hands.

“Aria, why are you looking this up?” His voice was concerned yet still stern. When I did not answer him, he peeled my hands away from my lowered head.

“Aria…” Looking away, I still did not answer.

He came and sat down on the bed beside me then and put his arm around me as if to comfort me, but when he did, I could not help but scream out and pull away. His arm had pressed down on my mark, and it felt like a thousand knives had cut into me. Noticing, he immediately grabbed my shirt.

“Stop!” I said and pulled away.

I did not want him to see what was sprawled across my back like branding. Placing his hands in the air as if to calm me down like you would a wild animal, he shuffled closer to me again on the bed.

“Aria, please, let me help you…” he said softly.

The shower was still going which I was thankful for because it meant that Cassie was still in there. Sighing I turned and raised my shirt, exposing my new mark. A gasp escaped him before he could stop himself, forcing me to start dropping my shirt.

“Wait!” he exclaimed, reaching to hold the shirt up. The coolness of his fingers made me shiver.

“Aria…” he said softly.

“What does it mean?” I shouted at him wanting to find out the answers.

“I have never seen this… as far as I know you aren’t meant to be getting other marks, especially ones that are black,” he said, still touching my bare back. Just then I noticed that the shower was shut off and that Cassie was opening the door. Both of us turned to find her standing there open-mouthed. Damien dropped his hands, and I shoved my shirt down. But it was too late. Cassie had seen everything.

“Oh, holy fuck...” she said, going paler by the second. I had never heard her cuss like that, when I thought about it, I had never heard her cuss at all, and it was then that my fears were realized. “I’m fucked, aren’t I?” I asked, hearing the blood pounding in my ears.

“Yes…” Cassie replied stiffly, dropping her bundle of clothes.