Chapter 24

Adam walked silently beside his student. In the twenty years he had known her and taught her she had never acted on impulse. He had drilled that into her from day one. She was acting like a bloody starry eyed teenager for sure, all hot and bothered over the town pretty boy. You didn’t just up and go someplace with a new immortal or tell someone about immortals and she had done both in the same hour. His righteous indignation was shining brightly in his hazel eyes as he grabbed her arm to stop her. “Ammie, we have to talk.”

Amelia whirled on Adam, stopping him in his tracks. “Listen to me Adam, and listen well. You might be the worlds oldest immortal, but you’re a solitary man for all intents and purposes. YOU don’t understand how these guys work. You think; I KNOW you think, that I’ve put us in danger by telling Rich about immortals they are tight, tighter than blood brothers. If one goes through something they all went through it. I made the right call in getting Rich here. Jon’s going to need him more than ever, especially when he starts to remember.” She sighed softly, the unspoken when he remember what I did hanging between them. “I know you want to do things your way, but if you go in there all superior, they’ll shut you out, close ranks against you and then what happens eh? He’ll be at the mercy of whichever immortal happens by. IF that happens Adam, I’ll find a way to behead you, God’s promise I will.”

Adam looked at her amazement in his eyes. She was tougher than he thought more protective than a mother bear. His voice suddenly soft, he reached out and with one hand tilted her head up, his eyes boring into hers. “You love him.”

Tears begin to well up in her expressive gaze. “Dammit Adam I never stopped. I regretted every single day letting you talk me into leaving. The more I think about it, the more I think we could have handled it differently, but we can’t undo the past and I’m just going to have to deal what we have now. His wife is in the picture, his kids, hell his entire world is in the picture. All I care about is keeping him safe; you’re going to help me and YOU old man are going to listen to me when it comes to them.” With the slightest of nods Adam acknowledged that the woman before him, in this one instance just might be right. Giving him a smile she turned and walked into the restaurant and placed an order to be delivered to their room, paid the tab and walked out.
As they reached the room Amelia took a deep breath and twisted the door knob. Upon entering she found a pair of brown and blue eyes watching her and Adam intently. Taking a breath she focused on Richie and began to talk. “Sambo, this is Adam Pierson. He’s been my teacher for a long time, hell ever since I became immortal, and he’s agreed to teach Jon all he needs to know. I trust no one else to keep Jon alive. So you treat him with respect. Besides, you and he might just have a lot in common. He traveled with the Stones once upon a time.”

Richie’s gaze turned to Adam, “That so? You look just barely old enough to have been in diapers when the Stones were big.”

Adam’s lip quirked upwards in a slightly wicked smirk, “After seeing Amelia after twenty years you haven’t figured out that appearance can be deceiving?”

“Ahhh gotcha man, you’re older than I thought then,” he grinned as he stood and held out his hand to shake. The friendly statement and gesture never quite reached his eyes however, and Adam knew that this man wasn’t going to be easy to win over, at least not yet.

It wasn’t long before room service arrived with plates of steaming food. Richie’s gaze would move from Jon, who seemed to have eyes only for Amelia, to her, who seemed more interested in picking at her food than anything else. As the meal wound down, Adam stretched. “I hate to eat and run, well no I don’t actually, but I’m going to head to my place. Tomorrow I’ll pick you all up at the crack of noon and we’ll go by MacLeod’s dojo for Jon’s next lesson. You need to go over the rules with him tonight though Amelia. He needs to know those first and I think you can handle that.”

Amelia nodded, “sure Adam. I can do that.”

Richie burst out, “god Red, you call it a game and it has rules, what’s next Barney the purple dinosaur is the referee?”

Adam’s brow quirked upwards as Amelia bust out laughing, something she hadn’t done since Jon had her in the snow. “Oh Sambo, only you could come up with that.”

With a swift nod, Adam departed and Amelia settled herself into a comfy chair. “Ok guys, the lessons we live by are easy and simple. Heck Sambo even you can remember these. One, a challenge is always one on one. When an immortal challenges you, another can’t interfere. Two, it’s always a fight to the death. Someone will lose their head, someone else gain a quickening. It has been that way for thousands of years. Three, we fight where no one can see us, never in a public place. Most mortals do not know about us and we want to keep it that way. Four, we never fight on holy ground, so if you are unprepared Jon, and you feel a mortal near bye, get to holy ground, ANY holy ground. Churches, graveyards, Indian burial mounds, anything holy from any religion will work ok? “

Richie interrupted her before she spoke again. “What you do mean if he ‘feels’ another immortal near by?”

Amelia thought for a few moments, trying to come up with a way to describe what the immortal radar that they all called the buzz felt like. Before she could answer Jon piped into the conversation. “Bro, remember that time the cord shorted out on your Fender? You said you felt a jolt all the way from Ass to neck bone. That’s what I felt the first time someone other than Amelia or Adam walked in.”

“Man that hurt like a mother fucker when it happened!” Richie’s eyes took on an amused look. I danced for 30 minutes until my ass quit tingling.”

“It gets better Jon, as you get use to handling it. Trust me. It won’t be as bad the next time.”

Jon grinned, “Well I’m glad about that, damn I didn’t want to be doing the funky chicken every time an immortal was near, I’d look like an idiot.”

Richie chuckled, “bro, every time you try to dance you look like one.”

“Fuck you asshole,” Jon quipped as he tossed a piece of bread Richie’s way.

Standing, Amelia pushed the tray to the hallway and went back into the room. Before she could get seated Richie was jitterbugging over towards here. “So Red, where’s a good spot to party in this town. Sambo’s tired of sitting still.”

She shook her head, exasperation highlighting her features. “Rich, it just wouldn’t be a good idea to go out.”

“Oh good lord Red, live a little. We won’t go far ok? Just a little walk, and maybe a drink or two.” Richie’s chocolate gaze took on that little puppy dog look that always worked on all the ladies.

It took Richie thirty minutes to talk Amelia into a walk, but once Jon entered the fray proclaiming he had to get out she caved. She remembered well how being closed in could work on him. Even when young elevators and closed spaces could make him antsier than anything else she knew of.

Walking into her bedroom she grabbed the long black leather trench she had purchased for Jon earlier in the day, as well as her own long silk trench and walked into the living room. She handed Jon the coat and showed him how to get his sword sheathed in the special sheath sewn into the back of the coat. “You never EVER leave without it Jon, you hear me?”

“Gotcha Babe, Never leave home without it, better than American Express and a damn sight cheaper.” Jon winked as she groaned at his humor.

Linking arms the threesome walked out of the hotel room and made their way downstairs and out the front door. They walked for a while in companionable silence. At this point words just simply weren’t needed. Every so often Richie would glance at Amelia wondering what had went on with her so long ago, but for the most part he simply enjoyed the night air. Amelia kept pace, trying to keep Jon from wrapping his arms around her, which was becoming near to impossible as he was not only intent on his objective, but strong enough to pull it off.

They had barely made it 10 blocks when Jon began to grimace and golden green eyes began to frantically search the area around them, before settling on a rather large looking man stalking towards them. “Richie, get him back to the hotel, and get him back NOW you hear me?”

She ran forward to meet the man as Richie and a pained Jon watched what seemed to be an animated discussion. “Dude you don’t think,” questioned Richie as his eyes glanced at his friend.

“Yeah I do think, Bro,” Jon spoke quietly, unreasonable fear and worry lighting his blue eyes.

“Bro that man is twice her size! We can’t just let her go off and fight him alone. What are we mice?”

They watched as Amelia made her way back to them, her hand lifting in a halting motion to the bigger man ahead of them. “Richie take him back to the hotel Dammit, before he gets closer! I’ll be back soon,” her gaze turned to Jon, “and if I don’t come back, Jon you tell Adam, tell him it was George McKinney,” her breath caught in a slight gasp, her green eyes gentle. “I’d say more, but I don’t have the time now, but I didn’t want to vanish without a good-bye, not again.”

Turning she rushed off, leaving the two musicians to stare at her. “Bro, we can’t just leave her,”

Jon didn’t know what to do, she had told him the rules, he had to follow them, but he didn’t want to lose her not again. “I can’t interfere Rich, Dammit; I can’t just let her die either.”

Richie grinned, his lethal wit blazed in his brown gaze. “She never said I couldn’t interfere Bro. Me? I’m not one of you, I can do what I damn well please.”

Jon looked up at his friend, gratitude shining in his eyes. “We’ll follow, far enough back so he can’t sense me I guess, and we’ll watch, if she gets into trouble, well then we’ll figure out what to do.”

The two men grinned as they set off. The Dynamic Duo was at it again. There was a fair maiden to save; a sonnet to be penned accordingly later and fun to be had. As they followed, Richie kept his eyes peeled for something he could use as a weapon; he wasn’t choosy at this point as long as it was long and heavy. It was then he saw a pile of pipe pushed up against a wall. As they walked by he dipped low and picked up one piece, hefting it in his hand like a bat. That would do nicely yes it would, was his only thought.

As they entered the empty area behind a couple of buildings they heard the meshing of sword upon sword. Stopping they watched as their petite red-head tried to hold her own against a much bigger foe. He was getting the best of her though. Sheer size gave him the advantage as he pressed her closer and closer to a wall. It was then that she stumbled, and went to one knee. Jon nearly died there and then, his blue eyes glued to what was going on.

Richie thought fast, he had to do something, anything to keep Jon from going through the agony of twenty years ago, an agony that would be permanent this time. He watched stunned as the bigger man pulled a second blade and ran it through Amelia stomach, disabling her. He quietly began to pick his way towards them as the man lifted his sword to come in for the killing blow, but before his sword could fall Riche reared back and with every bit of strength he had he blasted the man with the sword against the head, knocking him down and out with one good blow.

Jon ran forward to pick up Amelia and get her the hell out of dodge, until her voice, weak with blood loss stopped him. “No Jon, You can’t interfere Dammit!”

Richie leaned forward a shit eating grin on his face. “He didn’t Red, he was a good boy. You never said I couldn’t though, so I did. Now let’s get the hell outta here!”

Amelia shook her head. “Can’t leave him, he’ll come too and he’ll come after us all.”

The two men looked at each other knowing she was unable at this point to so much as hold a sword let alone do what she needed to do with it. Without a sound Jon handed her to Richie and motioned for him to get back. With a deep breath he pulled the sword at his back, wondering what he had done to deserve the life he now had to adjust too. The last thought he had was if this life meant Amelia being back then he would embrace it. With a final deep breath he lifted the sword and swung downwards, severing the immortal's head in one single blow.

As Richie heard the sound he turned, just in time to see the electricity begin to dance and lift from the dead mans body. He watched amazed as it flickered and sparked around Jon. “Holy shit,” was the only thought he could muster.

Jon couldn’t muster even that thought, flinging his arms wide he felt current after current of pure energy flow over and through him. It hurt like hell yet felt like the best sex he’d ever had. His body began to shake as bolt after bolt shot through him, rattling his bones and shaking lose everything inside of him including time and memory. With arms lifted high he rode the lightning, knowing it would not be the last time.