Chapter 22: Chapter 22

The snooty butler tipped his head to the man at the door. “Mr. Haldir, so nice to see you again.”

The handsome blonde stranger with a fresh scar over his eye and a raspy Norwegian accent slipped through the doorway and slapped his hand on Aster’s back. “How the hell are you, Aster?”

“Excellent, sir.” His fingers bent as he crossed the foyer. “Please follow me. Mr. Parker and Miss Imara are in the back garden.”

While Aster led him through the kitchen hall on his way to the home’s courtyard, the Immortal picked up an apple from a bowl at the counter and wiped it off on his striped shirt.

Aster left him at the door, and he waved his hand at the group waiting by the pool.

Haldir wrapped his arm around Imara and kissed her temple. “Hey, kiddo. How are you getting along?”

“Just fine.” Her hand patted his rather large chest, and Ben had to look away when the heat of his jealousy brought tiny beads of sweat to his neck. “Will you be in Savannah long?”

“Mmm-hmm.” After taking a bite of his apple, he made a circle with his finger in front of his face. “I got some business here to take care of, so you’ll get to see this handsome mug of mine for a while.”

His tongue moved across his teeth before he held out his hand to Ben. “You must be Ben if I recall correctly.”

“That’s right.” Dark eyes assessed the old man from head to toe and back again as he shook his hand. “I don’t seem to remember ever meeting you, though.”

With a swing of his arm across his chest, Haldir tossed the apple core across the yard. “No, I don’t suppose you would.”

Thorin reached for Imara’s fingers and tugged at them as he nodded to the door. “Sweet Girl, could you excuse us? We have some urgent business to attend to.”

She peeked up at him, and her hand cupped over her eyes. “Of course.” Her finger poked into Ben’s belly before she reached up to him on her tip-toes and pecked his lips. “I’ll be upstairs.”

His eyes stayed fixed on her until she disappeared on the staircase, and Thorin pulled on his sleeve. “Ben, could you come with us, please?”

The tiny hairs on his arms snapped to attention as Ben stepped through the parlor door. Jasper pressed his back into a soft leather chair and held out his hand to the one next to him. “Please have a seat.”

His nostrils flared when he caught the whiff of the adrenaline seeping from the three men in front of him. “What’s happening?”

Thorin rubbed the stubble on his face as he glanced to Haldir and Jasper, then he leaned into Ben as he sank in the chair across from him. “I thought if I let you have a little more time alone with Imara, maybe it might bring back something. Did it? Do you remember anything?”

“I’m not sure. I feel like-” Ben peered out the window to the street and shook his head at the car passing by- “I know her. I told you about my dreams, but it’s like I know her so well.”

Haldir came between them to hand Thorin a drink, then leaned against the wall behind him. His brother nodded as he peeked down into his cup. “Have you shifted since you woke up in Savannah?”

“No, it, it doesn’t talk to me anymore.” Thorin’s eyes rose to meet his, and Ben narrowed his eyes. “You know me, don’t you? You have to. I didn’t tell anybody here that I was a Lycan.”

After sucking back his drink, Thorin nodded and set his cup on the side table. “I know you very well.”

Little foreign whispers that he couldn’t quite recognize tickled Ben’s ears, and his heart raced under the fingers he rubbed on his chest. “This, this isn’t right.” He nodded to the cars passing on the street outside. “Why the hell is everything so different here?”

Thorin’s eyes moved to Jasper, and he motioned to come closer before he moved to the edge of his seat. “When you woke up in this house, you weren’t dying, Ben; you were coming back.” His finger pointed at Ben’s chest before he poked it in his knee. “That scar on your chest killed you over fifty years ago. I know because Haldir and I found your bodies.”

Like everything he heard didn’t surprise him at all, Ben wiped his hand across his mouth and nodded. “Yeah. That makes sense. The last thing I remember was pulling the wagon into your driveway and seeing you and Imara standing outside.” A long, soft gasp of air pulled into Ben’s mouth as he realized what he said.

With his hands clasped between his knees, Thorin looked down at his feet tapping against the floor. “I’m afraid time isn’t on our side, Ben. We need you to remember everything now.”

Whimpers and scratches came from the little door in Ben’s mind where he locked up his wolf long ago. “Remember what exactly?”

Jasper’s hands appeared on the back of Ben’s chair as he hovered over him, and Thorin glanced up to him quickly and nodded. “I know you don’t want to face it, Ben, but we need to know everything you two went through.”

As he fought his wolf’s urge to comply with Thorin, Ben gritted his teeth and shook his head from side to side as tears poured from his eyes. “No! I can’t. Don’t!”

A burst of electricity surged from Jasper’s hand when he slapped them to Ben’s shoulders, and a stabbing pain ripped through the scar on Ben’s chest. Every memory of Imara came flooding back into his mind as Jasper’s spell pulled the veil of denial away. The first time he saw Imara standing in the yard. Imara petting him on the porch. Their wedding night. Holding Eliza in his arms. Selvin.

“Selvin! His name was Selvin!” Sharp nails dug into the arms of the soft leather chair as Ben’s whole body shook and Thorin kneeled before him. Nothing but clicks and chokes escaped his mouth as he struggled to breathe until Thorin wrapped his hands around Ben’s head. His fingers balled up Thorin’s shirt inside them as he buried his face into his chest. “He killed my baby.”

Thorin pinched his eyes shut to every ugly memory, then pushed Ben back to face him. “We’re going to get him. We’re going to find him, and he’s going to pay for everything he stole from you. I swear.”

The teary pools of his eyes blinked away to the door. “Imara.” He tried to push his way out of the chair just to have Thorin shove him back. “Let me go! Thorin, let me go!”

With his forehead pressed to Ben’s, Thorin shook his head. “Ben, you need to listen to me. She doesn’t remember anything. She doesn’t want to.”

Ben’s shoulders pulsed up and down as his silent, breathless cries consumed him, and Thorin pulled him onto his shoulder. “She won’t let herself feel the pain. She has blocked out every single memory of you, Eliza, Shaw, living in Louisiana, everything. She showed up on my doorstep fifty years to the date she died like nothing even happened. She didn’t care that we had electricity in the house or cars on the streets and a telephone in the kitchen. She can’t see the mark on her neck or the brand on her finger. But you know what she can’t deny?”

He pushed him away, then pressed his finger to his chest. “She can’t deny you. The minute she saw you, that spark reignited.”

Fingertips wiped across Ben’s face as he sniffed back his tears and caught his breath. “You warned me that she was cursed. I’m the curse; they died because of me.”

Thorin’s hand gripped the back of Ben’s head. “The circumstances don’t matter now, goddammit. You and Imara are drawn to each other like a moth to a flame. The Fates have made it so, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop that. We got to find this warlock. Ben, this curse is a mighty terrible one. It will keep happening to you both for all eternity if we don’t stop it.”

Ben nodded and turned to Haldir. “Take her away, please. Take her to the Realm.”

Haldir glanced at Thorin before he set his glass on the server. “I tried to, but you’re bound to each other and bound to this planet. There is no escaping this curse, Ben.”

There was nothing but silence and the whispers in his head that begged him to listen. With a wrench of his neck, he shut them all away again, then pushed himself out of his chair. “I won’t be with her. Fate can bind us together, but it can’t force me to relive the same mistakes. She died because she loved me. Eliza died because I was her father. I won’t do it.”

After he slapped his pack of Marlboro’s against his hand, Jasper placed a cigarette in his mouth, and his eyes rose to Ben as he patted his chest for a lighter. “It won’t matter, Ben. This is a Deja Vu curse.” He puffed until the stick lit, then pointed his finger at Ben. “Every event in your life will play out over and over again whether you want it or not, whether you cooperate or not. The wheels are already in motion. No one can stop it.”

With his forehead pressed against the glass of the window that overlooked the street, Ben saw his reflection, and he made it a promise. “Yes, I can. I won’t let her love me anymore.”