Chapter 25

Jon dropped to his knees, panting like he’d run a one hundred mile race. His body was still quaking from the power that had coursed through each inch of him. With a deep breath he braced himself on his sword and pushed himself upright. He staggered slowly forward, as he searched for Richie and Amelia. Richie, seeing that the worst of the storm was over moved out of the shadows, worry shadowing his eyes as he checked his friend over. “Bro, you ok, or is that a dumb-ass question?” A slight smile fleetingly crossed Jon’s lips, “Man, I played lightning rod; yes it’s a dumb ass question, but a valid one. I’m ok I think. How’s she?”

Richie looked down to the woman he still held in his arms. “Well she either died or passed out. Man, I’m too afraid to check to see which it is.”

Jon grimaced slightly. “Either or she’ll wake up, her heads still on those pretty shoulders of hers. Let’s get back to the hotel Rich, I think I lost the taste for anything but a bed to lie down on.” He slowly sheathed his sword and began to slowly make his way back to the hotel. He didn’t have to tell Richie twice. Carefully balancing Amelia in his arms he began to follow his friend. As they drew closer to the hotel Richie came to the conclusion that carrying a bloody woman through the classy lobby just might cause a raised eyebrow or two so he carefully pulled her coat around her and situated her so that she looked like she had passed out.

Without a sound the men entered the Monaco and made their way to the elevator then on into their room. Richie went and carefully laid the unconscious Amelia on the couch while Jon let his coat drop and went into the bathroom. He wasn’t sure if the residual effects of a quickening would have him frying in the shower, but he was going to risk it. He wanted to feel clean and he wanted to think, and the shower was the perfect place for both. He did some of his best thinking with scalding water rushing over him, and with the vicious return of all his memories he had a lot to let go down that ever swirling vortex.

Richie sat down in the chair beside the couch watching Amelia. For the briefest moment he felt like this was going to be too much to handle. He hoped that those fights were rare; he didn’t know if he could handle worrying about his friend never returning. A slight movement called his attention back to Amelia as her eyes fluttered open. “Errrg what truck hit me,” she muttered as she struggled to sit up. “Whoa, Red, you just stay put honey, wasn’t a truck that hit ya, you need to stay still.” Awareness flooded her eyes as the last hour flooded back into her memory. Her head twisted searching the room frantically. “Where is he Rich? Oh God he interfered and he’s dead. Where IS he Rich?”

“Red honey, He didn’t interfere, really, I did though; damned if I’d let a gorilla of a man, immortal or not take advantage of a pretty lady. I beaned him right and proper with a lead pipe right after we saw him take you down. It was only after he was down and you were out that we took care of the jackass.”

She searched Richie’s eyes, hoping for the best yet still fearing the worst. “Took care of the gorilla? You mean he, Jon, he took a,” she braced herself and finished, “a head and you saw? He took a quickening? IF he did then WHERE is he Rich?”

At that moment Jon stepped from the bedroom leaned against the doorframe, a tired smile on his face. “I’m right here babe. You ok?”

She struggled to sit then looked up into the gaze of the man she had loved for twenty years. The man that stared back at her wasn’t twenty-five, nor did he have that vague sense of confusion lingering in his eyes. This man knew who he was, and the power he wielded over millions of people. With a soft gasp she whispered, “You remember.”

He spoke but one word, and that one word spoke volumes. “Yes.”

~~~

She pushed herself to her feet, her gaze locked on his as she stood up. She slowly made her way to him, her ire growing with each step, no easy feat as she was still healing. “The next time I tell you to run, you run. You don’t play Sir Galahad.”

His brow lifted as his blue eyes silvered to icy chards. “Ahhuh and let someone cheat and kill you in the meanwhile. Not gonna happen Babe. The way I see it, all’s fair in love and war. That jackass wasn’t playing fair so we didn’t play fair. You want me to embrace this life, I’m gonna do it my way.” He reached out as he spoke and easily scooped her up in his arms and began moving to her room. “We have a lot to discuss, and more plans to make, but for right now you need to rest. I don’t know how long it takes you to just heal if you aren’t dead, but either way you are gonna listen to Jonny.”

Within moments Richie heard the shower going and a very feminine yelp as one stubborn red-head got dumped into the shower. He began to laugh in earnest as words he never thought the little lady would know came pouring from her mouth loud enough for him to hear all the way in the living room. It was obvious Kidd was in control and she was having a few issues with it. Life was going to be interesting for sure. Twenty minutes later a rather drenched looking rock star stomped from the bedroom. “Gave you another bath Kidd?” Richie started laughing at the look in his friends eyes. “She didn’t want me cleaning the blood from her body and her so fucking weak she couldn’t hold a wash cloth. God if it wasn’t her I would probably beheaded her.” Richie nearly fell off the couch laughing. Jon was back with a vengeance, and this time he had a lady around who didn’t hang back in the background. Life was gonna be fun. He continued to laugh as his bro walked into the bathroom for yet another change of clothing, he was damn glad he’d brought more than one bag, at this rate Jon would still need new clothes in a day or so.
He stood and walked into his room and uncased the two guitars he had brought along. He had a feeling some music would be in order pretty swiftly, because Jon had always worked through his emotions with music.

Amelia shivered beneath her covers as she heard the two men talking quietly in the next room. Adam was going to just love hearing about all this, but for some reason his anger didn’t worry her. What had her mind spinning were the obvious questions burning in Jon’s gaze. He remembered, remembered it all, and that meant he was going to start asking questions very soon. With a soft sigh she pushed those thoughts from her, best to only worry over that when it came up. With a shaky hand she reached for the phone and put through a call to Joe. With as few words as possible she explained what had happened. She also asked him to make sure McKinney’s watcher’s report didn’t show Jon as the immortal. Joe reassured her that he would take care of it and hung up the phone. She barely got the phone back to its hanger before letting it drop. Sighing softly, she listened to the soft music coming from the living room and let it lull her to sleep.