The Story Of Sarelle: The Immortal Years »

Chapter 40

3rd July 2048

In the hours after I returned Edward and I to where we belonged, I could have been fooled into thinking it was just an ordinary day. We didn't speak of the fact the Cullens were flying to Volterra at that very moment, or what was to happen in the next 24 hours.

What's more, the Denalis allowed me the privacy of not asking me where I'd been when I walked through the door. If they knew something had changed, they didn't ask how. And if they smelt Edward's hands on my body, they didn't question why. Maybe they knew I didn't want to talk about it; or maybe they were allowing me this as a small consolation for the trials yet to come. I knew they would have their own opinions on what happened. We had never shied away from expressing them in the past. But this time they kept them to themselves.

To any outsider looking in it was just a day like any of the others we'd shared. We hunted and we absorbed ourselves in the hobbies we enjoyed. I played my piano while Carmen painted in her studio with Eleazar. Garett and Aslo debated the great battles of history while Kate and Tanya looked on with amusement. It was all so normal, like life had reset. Except for the moment the next morning, when our pretences had to drop, and we gathered in the sunlit living room.

Silence descended, and for a split second it seemed to stretch far beyond the room. Like for just a moment someone had turned the volume down on the world outside. No rushing traffic, no rustling from the forest stretching out around us. No wind whistling on the lake or hum of electricity. Just silence.

"You don't have to do this, you know that, don't you?" I said as I looked at the faces of my chosen coven. The Cullens were family and my bonds with them ran deep in a way only family could. But the Denalis were my coven. We had found each other and chosen to exist together despite our differences. I could have continued alone but I knew, for all our disagreements, that I was stronger with them than without.

"Oh, in that case I think I'll stay here and catch up on some paperwork," Kate quipped sarcastically, winking at me as she gripped Garett's hand in hers.

"I think the sooner we get this show on the road, the better, Kvetina," Aslo added as he took my hand in his, weaving his fingers with mine and drawing reassuring circles with his thumb.

"OK, then." I nodded as I let the tingle build. "Here goes nothing."

I let the tingle creep over my skin, reaching for each of them like a diverted river carving out its new path. With each contact I felt it build, connecting with whatever force existed within each of them.

I closed my eyes against the intensity.

Aslo tensed beside me, it was subtle, but I knew he hated the feeling that came with my jumps. His thirst always seemed at its worst following a jump.

I pictured our destination in Rome, and as soon as I had, it was like the pressure in the room dropped, sucking us through existence to where we needed to be.

A crack sounded as the darkened room appeared before us. I released them as I doubled over. The tingle snapping back to whence it came with a thud in the pit of my stomach.

I expected Aslo to drop my hand as always but instead he wrapped himself around me. He was rigid except for the deep breath he inhaled through my hair. I felt the way his lungs expanded to capacity, the rush of air filling my ears as I stood pressed against him.

"Is everyone OK?" I asked as Also slowly released his breath, unfolding himself to stand at my side.

"The jetlag is a bitch but it's better than flying." Garett mused, as he stroked Kate's satin blonde hair.

Eleazar righted himself as Carmen placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

"How long until we hear something?" Tanya asked, running her fingers through her hair. There was a faint crackled of static as she did so.