Called to Order (21 page)

The fact that she was crying now touched him but also distressed him. He held up his arm, the flesh already knitting itself together. The gash now appeared to be only a light scratch.

She dropped the sheet and whispered, “You tricked me. Why did you trick me?”

“I did not trick you,
ainsicht.
I cut myself. That was my blood. My body can heal from most injuries with little effort.”

Her vacant eyes stared back at his arm, her voice barely a whisper. “I don’t believe you.”

“Shall I demonstrate again?”

She looked at him. “I saw you cut yourself. I smelled the blood. I can still see it on your skin.”

“Anna, I am not much different than you. I simply can withstand more injuries.”

“Are the rest of them like that?”

“Yes, we all are.”

“Why?”

“I do not know. I am not old enough to remember, and most of our family’s history was documented and left in Europe. It was not a pleasant time back then. The elders hardly speak of it. There were no laws to protect our kind or the…the people like you.”

“How many are there?”

“On the farm? There are approximately two hundred of us spread across these eight hundred acres. In the world? I do not know. We do not want them to find us nor care to find them.”

“Why?”

“Because we are Christians and live as such. We live peacefully amongst our own and want things to remain that way.”

“But you came to find me.”

“That is different. You are my mate.”

“But I’m not like you. I fell out of a tree fort when I was six and broke my arm. I had chicken pox when I was seven and I get the flu every winter. Do you get sick?”

“No.”

“That’s crazy. Adam, your people never get cancer or have heart attacks?”

“Never.”

“How long do you live?”

“We live until we choose to die or until someone kills us.” She began rubbing her head. “Do you need to lie down?”

“I have a headache.” She then huffed. “Not that you know what that feels like.”

“I have had a headache. When I was a boy, a workhorse kicked me in the head. It hurt very badly.”

She looked at him as if he were crazy. “Well, my head does not hurt that bad.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Can I ask you something?” He nodded. “If you live so long, why do you want me as your mate? How many mates do you take in a lifetime? Because as much as I may be coming to terms with all of this, I gotta tell you, the idea of you replacing me for the next thousand years does not make me happy.”

He smiled. She was jealous of women who did not now, nor ever would exist. “Anna, if you became my mate, it would be for
eawichkeit,
eternity. I would give you immortality.”

“You can do that?”

“Yes. It is not something we take lightly, but it is done when one of us find a true mate.”

“How?”

Was she ready to hear more? He figured she would have to know eventually. “It takes place several hours after the bonding ceremony is complete.”

“And what exactly happens?”

He cleared his throat. “Well, we will make love, and there will be a blood exchange. My blood will mix with yours and yours will mix with mine. My blood is more potent and will override and change your cells. The process takes anywhere from two to four hours for the rebirth, and the transition can last up to three days.”

“Three days? Well what happens to the person changing in that time?”

“They…die.”

“
What
?”

“It is not as bad as it seems,” he quickly explained. “I could introduce you to people who have been through the transition. They have no memories of the death, only the feeling of rebirth, of vitality. It is only slightly painful—”

“Wait, you expect me to do this? Adam, are you nuts? What if I don’t wake up?”

“You would wake up.” He sensed her fear. The idea of him changing her made her feel endangered. “Anna, I would never, ever ask you to do something that would hurt you.”

“Just die!”

“Not die. Think of it as a resurrection, like Christ. The death is quick. Hours. The days after your rebirth you are awake, but still transitioning. Your body will not completely heal from the ordeal of the change for those three days, but I assure you, you will only miss a matter of a couple hours. I will be with you the entire time.”

She stood. Was she going to leave? “This is a dream. This is all a dream. I am home, in my bed, and am going to wake up any minute.”

He watched her pace across the wood floor, prepared to stop her if she moved too close to the door. “Anna, you are my called mate. That guarantees you will live through the change.” She continued to talk to herself and pace. Not wanting to put her in this position, he had no other choice but to tell her the truth. “Annalise, if you do not do this for me, I will die.”

Her steps slowed, and she faced him. “What?”

“I will die. We cannot live without our mates. If we do not complete the bond, I will go mad. My mind will slowly slip, and I will become a dangerous beast. We do not believe in hurting others. My people would destroy me if it came to that.”

“They would kill you?”

“Yes. I have already asked them to.”

“Why?”

“Because once it gets to that point, I would be beyond rational thought. I would act solely on instinct. My body recognizes you as my mate. I would take you without permission and overpower you. I would force you to bond. I cannot imagine taking your life from you in such a way if eternity was not what you wanted. I would rather die than sentence you to a life of regret and a mate you despised.”

“But you would die.”

“I am asking you to sacrifice your life as you know it. What kind of man would I be if I were not prepared to do the same for you? A sacrifice must be made, be it yours or mine. If a life apart is what you wanted, I would give that to you.”

She walked to the chair and sat down. He watched her, wishing he had his sister’s ability to read thoughts. He did the only thing he could and read her emotions.

“You are sad,
ainsicht.”

“Of course I’m sad. I don’t want you to die. I…like you.”

He smiled. “I like you, too. You do not have to decide tonight.”

“How long do we have?”

“Not long, but at least a week. There are ways to hold off the effects of not bonding with you.”

“How?”

He took a deep breath, attempted to explain, but only could say, “It’s complicated…”

“Like what you told me so far isn’t? Let’s not stop now, Adam.”

“It…it requires me to have transfusions of your blood.”

“That’s it? Well let’s do that. I can spare a few pints.”

“I have already taken some of your blood.”

She stilled. “Excuse me?”

“The night I brought you here and then a few days before that.”

“How?”

“You were asleep.”

“You stole my blood? Who does that? Adam, I am willing to help you out, but stealing my blood is not cool! How did you even manage to get a needle in my arm without me waking up?”

“I am able to push into your mind enough to make you sleep.”

“Push into my mind? I thought you did that by hitting a pressure point.”

She was beginning to sound hysterical. “I suppose I could do that as well, but the mental push is easier and wouldn’t leave a mark.”

“What else can you do?”

He frowned.

“Adam, if you want me to seriously consider dying for you I suggest you spit it out.”

“I can run very fast and jump very high. I can see as easily at night as you do during the day. I am for the most part immortal and can sometimes move things with my mind. I can also place other creatures in a dreamlike trance for as long as I need.”

“You can move things with your mind?”

“Only small things.”

“Oh, only small things. Well in that case…
Are you insane?
That is not normal!” She began to rub her head again. Then she looked up at him. “Move something now.”

* * * *

Anna watched as Adam looked around the room. Anna followed his gaze to where he focused on the small, whittled figurines on his dresser. He seemed to be concentrating on one. “Watch the fox,” he said, not taking his gaze off the small figurine.

When the small wooden piece began to slide across the dresser, Anna gasped. He focused on the trinket and held his breath as he pushed it with nothing more than his mind. It was magic. There were no strings, no magnets, or wind. The fox was moving simply because Adam willed it. The piece finally slid to the edge and fell to the floor. Anna stood and walked over to it. Speechless. She picked it up off the ground and frowned. “You broke it.”

“I can make another. I told you I could only move very small things.”

“That’s incredible, Adam,” she whispered in awe. She came and sat across from him again, still holding the tiny broken fox.

There was no way to reconcile what she already knew with what she had just witnessed. What if Adam was a saint of some godly creature meant to do great things in this life?
 
Annalise loosely believed in each person having some sort of destined purpose, but Adam clearly had been placed on this earth for a reason. Perhaps her purpose was to keep him here. Alive.

It was actually kind of spectacular, being on a farm with a bunch of supernatural beings. It was as if she was in on some big secret even the Area 52 people were clueless of. That had to be worth something. “Can others do what you just did?”

He hesitated a moment then said, “Yes and no. Older…immortals can do more. We each have different disciplines God reveals to us over time. If you were to become immortal you would most likely discover your own gifts through the years.”

She had gotten a higher education so she could help others. Sure, she didn’t make the cut into medical school, but that was more due to personal finances than anything else. Her intentions were just as honorable even if all she would ever be was a medical assistant. She was an organ donor. She donated blood several times a year. She even picked up a brochure at her recent gynecologist appointment that explained the process for donating some eggs. It seemed her entire adult life she had been quietly doing things to help save other people’s lives. Perhaps it had something to do with losing her mother so early in her life.

She was getting to know Adam and his family. They were good people even if they didn’t age. It was disarming, imagining his mother older than what she had first assumed, but Adam looked to be a young thirty-five. It wasn’t as if she could not believe he was past his twenties.

Her mind was splitting into a hundred different directions. She wasn’t sold on staying. Death was scary, no matter how many people promised it was only temporary. Annalise had studied science too long to simply forfeit what she had always believed was true. When you died you were dead. Kaput. Finito. Nothing but dust in the wind, as
Kansas
had sung. And being that that was what she knew to be true, she absolutely knew she did not want Adam to die.