Chapter 26

She awoke feeling much stronger, refreshed and thirsty. Sliding from the bed she padded softly to the living room, her goal the tiny bar in the corner. She didn’t bother turning on the light as she entered the room, she didn’t want to risk waking the two men sharing the area. Reaching for a bottle of lemon flavored water she walked over to the terrace doors to go outside. “Couldn’t sleep Red?” The husky voice startled her so badly she nearly dropped the bottle in her hand.

“I just came to get something to drink. I’m sorry if I woke you.”

“Naah Red, you didn’t wake me. Lotta things to process tonight, I couldn’t sleep. Kidd though, he’s out like a light.” Richie watched as she walked onto the terrace, a faraway look in her gaze. Standing he made his way to the terrace and leaning against the railing began to talk. “Listen, All this stuff is sort of rattling in my mind, but I keep coming back to the same questions. You know me Red; I don’t keep quiet if I have a question or something to say.” She nodded her eyes sad as she listened to him. “I wanna know Red, why you left my bro. I know you tried to hide, but I saw you go, saw who you were with. What’s that guy got that my bro don’t have?”

Amelia turned quickly, amazement in her green gaze. “You think I left him for Adam? You think I fell in love with another man and left him?”

Richie shrugged, “well didn’t ya Red?”

Tears began to ghost down her cheeks as her lips trembled with emotion. “I didn’t leave him for another man Richie. I wouldn’t have done that to Jon.” Her voice grew softer as she started talking, almost as if she were distancing herself from the past and its pain.

“We went to Joe’s that night and I was so happy. You guys had put on a stellar show and I could tell that Jon was just buzzing with energy. You know usually a show just wipes you out but this night was different. You both wanted to party and where ever he went I was gonna go. When we got to Joe’s he was so happy to just lean back and be one of the people in the crowd. You went up on stage and you were just in a zone, jamming with Joe and the band. It tickled me to no end because up until then I had never heard you do anything jazz like. You know all this though, and you know what happened after that so I won’t go into all of it. What you don’t know though is what happened behind that office door.”

She sighed softly then continued, “I didn’t believe it at first when I came to, that guy in the room with me told me I had died. Ran some spiel about me being immortal and never aging again. Hell he probably told me pretty much all the same things we told Jon the day after I found him in the snow. He explained why the blood on my clothes was mine and all that. I didn’t believe him at all, thing is I thought he was a cuckoo. I was so glad you and Jon burst through the door. We left the bar after that and I was so glad to just be back in the hotel with you both.”

We left Seattle that next day, but before we did I caught a glimpse of the nut at the hotel, and he made my head hurt so much. It took so much out of me that I nearly fainted from it. I put it down to stress though.” She paused a moment sensing Richie had something to say.

“So that’s why you were acting so odd huh? You had that buzz thing that day?”

“Yeah Rich, only I didn’t know that. Jon tried so hard to bring me out of my blue funk and nothing he did seemed to help. I kept hearing that guys voice telling me I had died. I mean hell Richie I was all of 24 years old and that guy told me I had died and come back. What was I to think?” Amelia began to cry in earnest as she continued to talk. “We got through the next concerts, and Jon began to hold on to me tighter and tighter. I guess he thought he could hug me through it. You gotta love him for that kind of thinking ya know? But nothing worked. Everywhere we went I kept feeling that damned head pain, kept seeing that guy from the bar.”

Richie reached over and pulled her into a hug, he could tell she had held this all in for a long time. “It seems Adam had followed us to each and every concert on the tour, no idea why because best I understand it he just doesn’t get involved all that often. But I kept seeing him and every time I did my head hurt so bad I couldn’t see straight. It went on for a couple of weeks and I was at my breaking point, ready to literally scream and pull my hair out.”

Richie murmured softly, “I can imagine Red.”

Amelia tried to smile, but failed miserably as she came to the hardest part of the story. “That night, the last in the tour, Jon was getting dressed and everyone was banging on the door for us to hurry. I got clumsy and dropped a glass in the bathroom. Well I was rushing to clean it up and I cut myself, pretty deeply too. To my utter amazement it healed leaving no scar. Seeing that for the first time with no warning can scare the living shit out of you let me tell you. During the concert that night I felt that headache again and when I turned Adam was standing there with this patient look on his face, as if he knew I had finally figured it all out.”

Richie nodded, taking in her entire story. “And then? It still doesn’t explain why you left Jon.”

“I’m getting there Sambo, really I am. Adam talked to me during the lulls in the concert, telling me I had to leave and train and prepare for being immortal and I kept telling him no. I wasn’t going to leave Jon, hell I loved him too much for that. But Adam, he told me that being with Jon was going to put him in danger. See, Adam is, well he’s a LOT older than he looks, and some older immortals they can sense when a person is pre-immortal.”

Richie queried, “Pre-immortal?”

“Yeah Rich, that’s when a regular person has the possibility to become immortal. If you die a violent death you wake up immortal. Adam told me how against the odds it was that two pre-immortals had found each other, but that would have been fine had I not died. But with me having changed, well that put Jon as risk. Immortals might come after him to get to me. If he lived safe, he could live a long normal life and maybe die in his sleep. I didn’t’ want to take him away from his music or his friends Rich and I didn’t want to risk him dying. My only choice was to vanish do you get that? I had to give him his life, no matter how it hurt to do it.”

Richie’s soft voice filled the air between them. “So you left to save him, not because of another man.”

“I wanted him to have all he deserved Richie. A long life with friends he loved never looking over his back for a challenge. I wanted him to have his music. He wouldn’t have been Jon without it and you know it. I even prayed that he would live to old age and just die an old man. It can happen you know, he wouldn’t’ have been immortal then.”

“I watched you through the years and I was glad I had done that for him, even though it hurt to watch. When I read he got married,” her voice trailed off as another soft sob over took her, “It nearly killed me. But Adam pushed me into training harder and in time I was able to be at least able to deal with it. I kept up with you guys, it was a joke at times among the few friends I had that I wasn’t to be messed with if Bon Jovi was on.” Amelia attempted to smile again and it came out as a forlorn grin, “but the worst of it was reading when he had kids. He took to being a family man like a duck to water and I prayed even harder that he’d stay safe so he’d never learn what his wife had done. And now here we are and the fates dumped him into my life again. It’s a mess Richie, but to think I left him for another man? Nothing could ever be so wrong as to think that.”

Richie pulled back and gave Amelia an intense stare. “You still love Kidd don’t you?”

She looked up at him the truth shining in her eyes. “Every day for the last 20 years, I’ve loved him and none other. I would have walked the centuries never wanting anyone else Rich.”

Richie smiled. “You aren’t telling me you’ve never been with anyone else in twenty years Red.”

Amelia turned to look at the Seattle skyline. “That’s exactly what I’m telling ya Rich.”

Richie just shook his head, a thoughtful look on his face. “I’m sorry I thought wrong about ya Red. Thanks for telling me everything.”

Standing just on the inside of the terrace obscured by a curtain a man with startling blue eyes smiled.