Chapter 43

“You know this bitch Adam?” Amelia’s eyes were blazing green fire as she watched her teacher. “Why aren’t we following them? DOING SOMETHING?”

“Bloody hell Amelia, if we follow her she’ll bolt and she’ll take the
guys with her. We can’t just go after her that way. You don’t understand, you just don’t bloody understand.” Adam sighed. He knew the next few minutes were going to be hard, but the tormented look on his students face was even harder to bear.

“Perhaps you should explain it to me then Adam. Please explain to me why we just let an immortal with an obvious grudge walk out of this place with the most important man in my world AND his best friend.” Her eyes pleaded with him for understanding, and Adam for all his reticence at not telling much about his past, had to explain but first he had to take care of the more important business. Pulling his cell from his pocket he swiftly dialed an oversea’s number and muttered impatiently until the call was answered.

“Joe, Adam, we have a situation.” Adam grimaced at the snort on the other end of the phone. “I know I know you’re just a watcher, but this involves Amelia and Jon. Seems Cassandra, you remember her right, has reared her head. Matter of fact thanks to her grudge against me she’s taken Jon and his friend Richie more or less hostage.”

“I know Joe, you’re just supposed to watch, but hell, find her watcher, find out where she is, and for bloody hell’s sake get Duncan to fly here. I don’t know how much time we’ll have, but I want to stave off whatever damages I can.” Giving Joe the name of the hotel he softly said his goodbyes and flipped his phone closed.

“Come on Amelia, until he calls us back there’s not much we can do, so let’s go back to the hotel away from the other eyes and ears here and I’ll explain the best I can about Cassandra.”

She gave him a look that said clearly she didn’t believe he could give an explanation good enough to allow for all that had happened in the last half hour. Standing she began to move to the exit without a word spoken. He knew that telling her of his past risked losing him a student, but worse than that it risked losing him a friend like it had nearly done with MacLeod all those years ago. It was something that he couldn’t avoid now however as Cassandra had made herself a part of his life yet again. Walking silently behind Amelia he slides into the limo behind her his mind whirling with possible ways of explaining him, his life, and how he was over three thousand years before. Would she be accepting or would she react as Duncan had years ago. He had no regrets over his five thousand years on this earth, but if he did he was sure it would be Cassandra.

The ride to the hotel was long and filled with silence, Amelia refusing to speak and Adam unsure of what to say. As for her, she was choosing to reserve judgment and trust in the information Joe would soon give them. As for Adam he was sifting through his memories and preparing for the explanation he had to give. As the limo stopped in front of the hotel she slid from the car and walked into the building followed by Adam. As they walked into the hotel room Adam watched as she stopped and took a deep breath, her eyes tearing up as Jon’s absence there seemed to hit her harder. It almost broke his heart to see her as tormented as she was and know it was because of him, or at least because of something that he couldn’t change.

She walked quietly into the room the absence of Jon hitting her harder here than anywhere. His scent was in this room beckoning to her, calling to her and mocking her with the knowledge that the man that owned the scent was out of her reach now. Just the idea that they couldn’t safe him and Rich had her chilled to the bone, she just felt so cool inside and out. Moving over to his luggage she pulled one of his favorite, for the moment long sleeved t-shirts from the bag. Lifting it to her nose she couldn’t stop herself from inhaling deeply, pulling what little essence of Jon there was into her system. With a sigh she slid the shirt on over her chilled flesh and walked back into the living room. Settling herself onto the couch she raised her eyes to Adam and uttered one soft word. “Well?” Adam sighed and walked over to the window looking out over the countryside. He began talking, his voice soft with memory as he began to paint pictures within Amelia’s mind of his life nearly three thousand years old.

~~~


“We were brothers, brothers in blood and spirit; each and every one of us an immortal.” His voice almost quivered as he continued. “In those days it was kill or be killed, so we killed, not just one, not just ten, but thousands. Caspian, Silas and Kronos were their names, Kronos was the warrior. He lived for fighting and killing, and until the day he was beheaded by Duncan he continued in that vein. Caspian was insane and Silas well he was just a big kid really and loved his animals. As for me, I was Kronos’ right hand, I was Death and I liked it, loved planning the raids and strategies to make us richer in slaves and treasure. It’s not something I am proud of now, but the times were different then.

We rode out that day to pillage and kill and found a very small encampment that was led by some type of healer.


While we were killing I felt the smallest immortal signature. Curiously enough it was coming from the healer’s daughter. The thought occurred to me somehow that having an immortal slave that wouldn’t grow old or die form the diseases running rampant in those days would be a bonus, so I decided to capture her. I ran my blade straight through her and wrapped her in a rug to bring her back to our camp. I felt her begin to move as we reached our camp so I threw the rug from the horse and unwrapped her, telling her ‘surprise you’re not dead, that her kind was hard to kill.’ The wench tried to stab me. I had to grab her and tell her she had to try harder than that. When she asked me where here people were I explained we had killed them, but I did it in a very graphic way by pointing to all the skulls surrounding our camp.”

“She couldn’t believe we had killed them all, until I had pointed to the hole in her clothing. ‘Including you.’ I said. She looked at me with this look I’ll never forget and said that she should be dead. I let her know then and there that she lived because I wished it and that she would stay alive as long as she pleased me. After that she tried to run away a few times, each time I caught her and brought her back, each time I whipped her with no mercy knowing she would survive it, until I finally broke her of it.”



She became a good slave for me, maybe too good because I bloody well grew reliant on her even more so than my brothers. She grew to love me, I know that, but that didn’t stop me from the riding or pillaging, it didn’t stop me from being Death. We rode each day, killing men women children and it just didn’t matter. Then came the day when Kronos decided I was becoming too reliant upon my slave. He reminded me that as brothers we always shared everything. He wanted her and I couldn’t go against him, then or years later I couldn’t fight him. I let him take her, and to this day I will not forget her screams as she cried for me to save her. “

She killed him somehow that night and escaped, and this time I let her. Maybe it was a mistake, I don’t know to this day. Had I known that she would harbor such a hatred for me, for what happened I would have, I simply don’t know. Not long after her escape I grew tired of Kronos, my brothers and their never-ending need for blood and destruction and I left them. I wandered for thousands of years, never stopping in one place, never knowing the peace of having a home. I often wondered what happened to her and if she had survived.”

Adam sighed softly, his hazel gaze tormented as he glanced back at Amelia. “I can see it in your eyes, why didn’t I save her from Kronos, why didn’t I rescue her if she was important to me? My sense of self preservation was too strong and he was my BROTHER. We had ridden together for a thousand years. It was, at the time, all I knew or understood. “

I left them soon after she escaped; something inside of me wanted more of life. I simply mounted my horse and rode as far as I could from what I was. For a thousand years I roamed from place to place, gathering knowledge and education. I slowly learned something other than a life of death and swords. I changed, but what man won’t given the time and ability?”

I met Duncan MacLeod, that damned Boy Scout and he shook me to the core with his honor. I should have told him of my past, but you know he sees things in black and white so I never told him, until the day I happened into his dojo and Cassandra was there. Imagine how surprised I was that the woman had survived three thousand years and just happened to have known Duncan for hundreds of years. Stupidly I denied knowing her. She tried to go after me but Duncan stopped her. As I ran from her, my past decided it wasn’t finished rearing up to bite my ass and Kronos showed up. Imagine that, in the 1990’s he decided it was time to reform the horsemen and take over the world. “

To make a long story short, I allowed for it, I let Duncan believe I was back with them and that all the things Cassandra said were truth. They were as she knew it. But I did what I do best, I planned, I strategized and made it possible for Duncan to thwart Kronos’ plans. When it came down too it at the end, I couldn’t kill Kronos, but I knew Duncan could so I planned a way for that to happen. I ended up having to kill Silas though, I liked Silas, I loved his gentle nature, but I killed him all the same. Strangely enough Duncan was fighting Kronos at the same time and Kronos died at the same time as Silas. We shared a double quickening that night.”

As I was kneeling there on that wet cold concrete, too exhausted from the fight, sobbing at the loss of Silas, the loss of my friendship to Duncan, bloody hell just sobbing because I hurt, Cassandra had crept up behind me ready to behead me with Silas’ axe. I vaguely heard her ask if she was supposed to forgive me, but I couldn’t reply, I was just too out of it. I heard Duncan yell that he wanted me to live. I don’t know if it was seconds or minutes later but I heard her drop the axe and stomp off. That was the last time I saw her, but it’s obvious she still doesn’t believe I had changed.”
“Amelia, I couldn’t kill my brother because of who he was, and I can’t go after Cassandra for the same reason. Do you see that? It’s why I called Joe and why I asked him to get Duncan here. If anyone can handle her it’s Duncan. Call me weak if you will, but I gave up being Death and I can’t visit Death upon someone I wronged, even if the wrong is thousands of years old. Do you get that Amelia?”

Amelia looked up into Adam’s hazel eyes and sighed. “I don’t understand how Duncan didn’t see the difference Adam, but at least you two repaired your friendship. Do I understand all that you just explained, well not really, but I do get that all that happened a very long time ago and that you are a different man now. We both know however, that it was your past that is affecting me now so if we don’t save Jon, I charge you with beheading me, because I will not live without him. If we don’t save them from this woman then I want your promise that I won’t live an extra second longer. I demand you give me your word on this Adam.”

Adam’s eyes widened, “What makes you think I can kill you if I couldn’t kill her?”

“You’ll do it because I wish it, because if you don’t agree I’ll ask Duncan too.”

Adam’s eyes widened in shock at the words she uttered. He knew if she asked Duncan that Duncan would agree, and in that agreement he would lose the friendship he savored. “I’ll promise you that Amelia, but I also promise you it won’t come to that. We will get them back.”

“We better Adam.” Amelia looked up at him with eyes that held certain desperation. “We had better.”