Chapter 19

She walked in and over to the fireplace, and stood there staring into the flames. It had been twenty years, yet his kiss still ignited fire in her soul. Within moments two decidedly semi frozen men joined her, crowding the fireplace to absorb its heavenly warmth. They stood in silence for many long moments allowing the heat to do its work, long minutes of her feeling Jon pressed close to her, moments of smelling that unique scent that was his and his alone. Twenty years immortal, her fair share of fights behind her and one mans scent was going to be her undoing. To salvage what little control she had, she risked a slight smile at the two men and casually turned towards the kitchen. Distance was the right idea. She would serve up the soup and put distance between them, maybe then she could think.

Jon turned to watch her walking away his blue gaze thoughtful. Why did that one thing seem to strike at his heart? What had she been to him in his past? He had so many questions, and none of them seemed to have answers. Turning back to the fire he lost himself in the dance of the flames trying to make sense of the few pieces of the puzzle he had within his grasp. It was now or never he decided, to make sense of the things they were telling him and he had the feeling talking to Adam would be more profitable than talking to Amelia. He didn’t doubt she’d be honest with him, he doubted his ability to concentrate when she did as every time she came near because with her near he damn near couldn’t concentrate at all.

Taking a deep breath he started. “Adam, you both keep referring to me being immortal, some weird game, and keeping my head. Whether I’m ready or not, whether I like it or not, I think I need a bit more information on this. It’s hard as hell to comprehend and even harder to believe, but I don’t think I have the luxury of not believing do I?”




Adam studied the man intently for a few moments. “The Game, well no one knows exactly when and where it started, or even when the first immortal came on the scene. We just know that its there and we have to participate. For the most part we try to live normal lives, just like you. Before today you would have never known we existed,” he laughed slightly, “We look human, we ARE human, just seem to have a bonus to our DNA that allows us extremely long lives. Our souls, our knowledge or our spirit contains what is called a quickening which retains all our memories and knowledge. It is that quickening that many immortals want, it is why so many fight for the prize as with each quickening you only get stronger. The only way to take an immortals quickening is to fight to the death, the victor removing his opponent’s head.

“How long can you live? Do you age? I mean, what all can immortals do?”

“You age until you die Rock Star, then you stop aging upon become immortal.” He paused a moment seeing an incredulous look on Jon’s face. “Oh don’t give me that look, we aren’t vampires, we eat regular food. We just don’t age. Minor wounds heal. As to how long we can live, well, the oldest of us, an immortal only known as Methos is reported to be over five thousand years old.”

Jon arched his golden brow at the seemingly younger man as Adam looked to be only 32 years of age. “How old are you Adam because you look really young you know?”

Adam tilted his head, his hazel gaze boring deep into the singer’s crystalline blue gaze. He trusted very few people with his true identity, Duncan, Joe and Amelia being the only ones alive at this point. He saw deep within those blue eyes the ability to be trusted, a man of honor that would probably rival Duncan MacLeod’s. He knew that if his student loved this man, had loved and continued to love in twenty years of separation, that he could trust him as well. He didn’t often act on pure instinct, but this time he chose too. “Truth be told Rock Star, I am Methos, eldest of all immortals. Whether you want to believe me or not, I hope you’ll understand the need to keep that to yourself however.”

Jon soaked in every word the man beside him said. “I could imagine if this quickie thing is power, and you were the oldest, yours would be pretty damned strong right?” Adam nodded silently. “So knowing that, they would hound you to take your head, you would probably never have any peace. I’ll take the info to my grave if need be,” Jon paused, “or well take it to my death so to speak.”

“Glad that’s settled Rock Star,” Adam smirked his way, “Instead of all this talk let’s turn on the old telly and see what’s happening in the world. It won’t hurt for us to take our minds off the current situation. Adam went over to the couch and slowly sprawled out, his hand reaching for the remote. He flipped the T.V. and swiftly changed the channel to CNN. It wouldn’t hurt to catch up on the news of the day. Jon walked over to a chair and sat, his eyes turning to the television. Maybe getting his mind OFF his problems would help.

Amelia placed each bowl of soup, a plate of bread and cheeses and the cups of coffee on a tray. Lifting it she started into the living room where she heard the T.V. droning on. As she entered the room she nearly dropped the tray as she saw what had both men glued to the screen before them.

“Hello, I’m Betty Nguyen, and I’m here outside the New York apartment of world renown rocker Jon Bon Jovi. It’s been reported as of last night that the famous rock star/ humanitarian has vanished mysteriously. All that is known right now is that he was on a small single engine Cessna on his way to a business meeting in Vancouver. The weather there experienced a late season snow that could have been involved in his disappearance. The Vancouver air traffic controllers lost communications with Mr. Bon Jovi’s plane late yesterday afternoon. The plane has not been found, nor have any bodies been found.”

The reporter paused for a moment as her eyes caught a dark haired man making his way into the apartment building. As the camera rolled she raced up to the man and started talking. “Mr. Sambora, might I have a moment of your time? Is there any new information about Mr. Bon Jovi?”

You could almost see the physical sigh as a very haggard looking Richie Sambora turned to face the reporter and the camera. “There’s been no information as yet. His family and friends are praying that Jon is found alive and well. I’m sure you have the emergency numbers our people put out, so if anyone out there has any information on my friend, please call, any information no matter how small, would be appreciated.”

“Thank you Mr. Sambora, for taking time to speak with us during this most harrowing moment,” as she continued talking the reporter turned back to the camera, “That’s all we know world. If you have any information at all please call the numbers scrolling across the bottom of your T.V. screen. Thank you.”

As the report ended Amelia handed each man his soup and coffee. Sitting the tray on the table in front of them she seated herself and began to eat. All too soon all three had finished and were sipping their coffees. “Well,” she began, “we can’t just hide him forever; his face is too damned well known. There won’t be any just changing his name and moving to a new place to train him, someone would recognize him. What the hell are we going to do?”

Jon grinned, the solution was obvious to him if not to them. “Why don’t you both just ‘turn me in’ so to speak? You can both just come with me. If I’m as famous as you say I could probably get by with any damn thing, so what if I hire you both to be my ‘trainers’? Yeah, you’re both just going to have to come with me, to the home you say I have and keep me in line. As we work on me getting to know the people I knew, you both can help me prepare for the rest of my life. Way I see it, there’s not much else we can do right?” Leaning back he smiled to himself, the idea had just occurred to him, but God love help him it would keep the woman close, and it would give him the chance to learn from the one man he knew could survive anything and had done so for thousands of years.

A pair of gold flecked green and a set of hazel eyes turned to Jon Bon Jovi looking at him as if he had just grown a second set of eyes. “Your daft man,” Adam spluttered out, “you want us to drop everything and just go and be your personal body guards?”

Jon nodded; a mysterious light to his eyes. “I may be daft, no doubt about it but can you think of a better idea Adam? I’m all for it if you can.”

Neither could come up with anything and Amelia tried her best. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what lingering exposure to Jon would do with her. She knew though; that she couldn’t abandon him, not newly immortal as he was and she knew Adam wouldn’t either, for all his spluttering and posturing about the idea. With a soft voice and a bemused look at Adam she nodded. ‘Seems like your about to play roadie again Adam, and I get to go along for the ride. I guess we pack up and get ready to play in Jovi Land.”

With a shake of his head Adam agreed. “We stop off in Seattle first, I’ll have to bloody well let MacLeod and Joe know what is going on. Then we’ll head to your blasted Jovi Land after that.” Jovi land, home of rock stars, unknown family and unseen danger, his life was going to get interesting, he just prayed he lived through it.