The Catalyst
Chapter Four
I slowly pulled the threads stitched into an old white blanket spread over my grandmother’s bed. The nervous tears I made in the now slightly damaged bedding helped ease the anxious flutters from my last encounter with The Immortal. Even now, a good two hours later, I could still clearly see his hard black eyes glaring at me with anger and disgust.
“I don’t understand what I did wrong…”my sudden voice in the wide room sounded foreign and abrupt to my ears, especially with the long hours of relative silence. As I shifted position to better satisfy my comfort, clumped strands of my long black hair fell past my shoulder and pooled around my hands where I continuously fiddled with the loosened fibers. “I wonder why he got so upset.” I turned my head in thought while tumultuously picking at the cloth.
“Because he’s got a pole up his ass.” A sudden sarcastic male voice broke into my personal conversation with myself.
I looked up quickly with surprise, recoiling on the bed until I was sitting up straight, facing the intruder. He was leaning casually against the edge of the open balcony doors, a smirk gracing his features.
“Who the hell are you?” I furrowed my brow and watched him closely, in wait for his answer.
He shrugged slightly and pulled off the wall to head toward the bed with hands held up as he sighed. “Questions, questions. What’s wrong with being a mystery?” He peeked at me from beneath closed eyes and grinned while dropping his arms, crossing them against his chest.
“I suppose I prefer knowing who the perpetrator is beforehand.” I mirrored his movements, in some way demonstrating that I was playing along.
“Perpetrator? What makes you think I’ve come to do something that my incriminate me?”
“You snuck in, how would I know what you’re thinking?” I raised my brow with a mischievous smile tugging at my lips.
“Valid points.” He nodded to me, similar to a gesture of gentlemanly defeat.
I released my arms and, against my natural instincts, crawled toward the man, though I kept enough distance in order to move back if necessary. I looked up at his lowered face and noticed his still smirking lips below nearly closed eyes. “So, who are you then?” I cocked my head while still gradually edging closer to the man in anticipation.
Nothing happened for several minutes. I opened my mouth to speak again and in an abrupt flash the man grabbed my hand, pulled me off the bed and let me land directly on his lips. My eyes were open wide; his strong hold around my waist edged me closer, while his other hand cradled my face along the jawline. I must have been about a foot or so off the ground.
My brain was not really working correctly and so I felt my body take matters into its own…well, hands. His eyes opened and looked at mine, I couldn’t make out a single expression in those exquisitely bold violet colors. Suddenly I saw my fist come hurling towards the man’s cheek; when the skin, muscle, and bone collided with his face my lips and body were freed as the victim of my blow nearly lost balance from the surprise and dropped me to the floor.
“What in the hell do you think you were doing!?” I glared angrily at his hidden face.
However, instead of whatever it was I had been expecting him to do, I heard a quiet, clear laugh erupt from his slightly hunched posture. “You are fiery, aren’t you?” He turned up to face me, still smirking, without any mark or drop of blood on his face.
I grimaced in confusion, noticing a sharp, growing throb of pain in my knuckles. “I really should have kept on with those kickboxing classes.” I whispered to myself, while examining my quickly bruising hand for any breaks.
“Kick boxing?”
I looked up, quickly noticing the perverted stranger staring at me with puzzlement in his features. I realized I had yet again spoken my thoughts. “Oh, um, it’s a sport…a type of fighting practice, I guess.” I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could manage.
“Fighting? You?”
True, I wasn’t really much of an actual fighter. I had started many things, only to move on quickly afterward. Uncertain of where this situation was heading I opted to stretch the truth, just a bit. “Yes, actually. I enjoy many sports; kickboxing, rock climbing, horseback riding, swimming; lots of things.” My voice ticked off several of the activities I had participated in, although my thoughts were already beginning to wander a bit off track. Mumbling, “Grandmother took me everywhere with her, anything interesting and unique.” I smiled longingly at the thoughts.
“Ah yes. And how is dear Guinn?”
I focused my drifting attention back on the man, leading me to notice how close he was to me. I took a step back, hitting the bed with my leg before I stopped. “What makes you think Guinn is my grandmother?”
“I can see it in your face. You look similar and yet not at all…there is just something new and different about you, it’s there, in your eyes.” He reached his hand out to me but I pulled away, nearly falling backward onto the bed. “Hmm…regardless, I welcome you my flaming beauty, I am Caleb.” He moved back a step and bowed low before me.
“Uh…thanks, um, I’m Jade.”
“May I ask you something, Jade?”
I leaned back more with my balance being secured by my hold on the bedpost beside me. “Sure, what is it?”
I watched cautiously as Caleb’s hand slid along the wooden post, his eyes watching mine. He suddenly grasped my steadying hand tightly against the timber, “How much do you really know about this place?”
“Uh…o-only what my grandmother’s told me…what’re you doing?” I mumbled anxiously, finding it hard to predict Caleb’s movements.
I managed to release my hand, but was instantly shoved back and pinned down on the bed with Caleb securely holding my wrists. We looked at each other for a few seconds; he was very handsome, with soft masculine features and coiffed yet messy black hair framed his face. He moved closer to me and opened his mouth to speak.
“There were some things Guinn never knew…” he came even closer, his cheek down beside my own. I could feel his hot breath on my neck, and, despite the peculiarity of the situation, I found myself to be blushing fiercely. My quickening pulse I sensed in places I had never noticed before as his whisper continued “…there were secrets we Immortals never revealed.” The soft brush of his lips sent my body into hot shivers.
“Wait…” I exhaled quietly “…we? We Immortals? You’re Immortal?”
Caleb pulled away from my neck to look into my face. The exciting moments now left and part of me was excessively pissed at myself for halting its progress. I continued gazing into his seemingly endless violet eyes while I waited for his answer. Instead, he leaned down and lightly pressed his lips to mine, flaring my hormones again. As he slowly backed off the bed I found myself following, not wanting to break our gentle bond.
Caleb moved back from me and grinned “If you ever need me, call my name and I’ll come.” He bowed once more with a glint in his bright eyes.
“T-thank you…” I whispered, though I quickly regained my senses “…but you’re still a creepy pervert.”
He laughed and then stepped toward the open balcony doors.
“Wait!” I inadvertently spoke to him just as he was about to leap from the railing. “I uhh…can I, um, if I call for you…will you allow me to ask questions?”
“It all depends on the question.” He grinned a convoluted farewell and leapt from his perch.
I gasped quickly from his sudden departure and ran over to the rails to look for him. I thought I may have seen him slip beneath a tree but it was so dark I couldn’t really tell whether it was or wasn’t even anything at all.
“Caleb?” I heard the strange echo of my voice flow out over the trees.
“Yes.” He asked calmly from behind me.
“Oh my gosh,” I turned around to find him smirking as he did before with his hands on his hips.
“I’m gone for hardly ten seconds and already you miss me?”
“No,” I turned my head in denial, “I don’t even know you…” With the slightest bit of embarrassment in my tone, “I was just testing.”
“Didn’t think I meant what I said, huh?” He quirked his brow at me and crossed his arms.
“Listen, I’m sorry for being skeptical, but I’m just not used to you guys yet…this is all very weird for me.”
“You guys?” Caleb scoffed, “don’t compare me to that man.”
“The Immortal?” my brow furrowed. “Why not? He isn’t that bad really, a little mysterious perhaps, but not bad.”
“That all depends on one’s definition of bad. Even still, whether he be bad or not, he most certainly isn’t someone I would leave a young woman with.”
“Oh no … no, he’s not like that… I mean you are, but he isn’t. Definitely not. No.” I shook my head several times.
“No, he’ll bore you to death!” his hands gestured into the air. “He hasn’t been company to even the dust in this crappy tower for the last few centuries!” Caleb shouted with irritation, rolling his eyes and continuing to fling his hands about.
“He’s not that boring, I think he simply needs to work on not being…I don’t know..passively annoying.”
Caleb stopped his over the top antics, “Passively annoying?”
“Yes, he is always teasing me slyly, hiding behind his stoic face, like I don’t notice it when he does. And one time I swear he laughed at me.” I rolled my eyes.
Caleb didn’t respond, he looked as though he were staring into space.
“Caleb?” my hand reached out, but I stopped it quickly.
“That bastard!”
“What?!”
“That ass, how dare he! Not after everything, no way in hell!” Caleb ran past me and leapt off the balcony.
I spun around in confusion, trying to follow where exactly the conversation had gone and why Caleb was suddenly pissed at The Immortal. Or, well, more pissed. Leaning over the railing I was barely able to make out the figure of him protesting loudly and walking in a circle.
“CALEB?” I shouted out to him, but from the way the shape continued to pace I assumed he hadn’t heard my call. For a brief moment I saw the glow of his violet eyes before he ran into the darkness of the dense Talen forest.
I watched for a little while longer but I never saw anything more, so I went back into the room and closed the two doors behind me. Once I had both shut, I noticed for the first time that the wooden carvings sporadically placed on the glass didn’t match against each other’s opposite reflection. Instead they made some odd design….somewhat like the symbols in grandmother’s book. I walked over to the still opened text and started flipping through the pages in a quite possibly ill attempt at finding the meaning.
I leafed through every page and image, taking a cursory glance at each, but I couldn’t find anything that matched the sign formed by the double doors. With an almost unhappy realization, I knew that there was practically no way I would ever be able to figure out a single word in this book, at least not without the help of a certain person who seems to be invariably unpleased with the mere sight of the old grimoire. I dropped my head down onto the desk with a sigh; I had fallen faster than I realized and though I stayed down I could feel the bruise forming on my forehead.
“Ugh…I don’t want to ask him for help…I’m surprised he hasn’t already thrown me out!” I wrapped my arms around my head in irritation. “Damn it, damn it, damn it…there is no way I can learn any of this. I don’t know why grandmother ever thought I would be good at this. How can I hope to be a witch if I can’t even read the language! Plus even if I could read it, I wouldn’t be able to understand it.” I bit my lip harshly, but resigned myself to my fate.
With mental and physical exhaustion, I closed the book and went slowly over to the disheveled bed where I laid down with yet another weary sigh.
“Today has been the longest day of my entire life…I’m just so tired…” I rolled over onto my side, staring at the blank old wall ahead of me. I kept my eyes open for a long while, thinking over the bizarre bits of information I had gotten from Caleb. Everything about him and his words seemed to upset all grandmother had told me; I was more lost in this world than before.
I slid my eyelids shut and began drifting into the weightless feelings of sleep. Confused combinations of violet and black eyes swirled around in seas of silky onyx hair, drowning me with knotted lies. In my floating unconsciousness I pondered what to believe, my grandmother who raised me more than my own mother or a strange sensual pervert who suddenly appeared with strings of unanswered questions.
“…Caleb…”
