Page 9 of Awakened Light

Mark puckered his face and shook his head, but his gaze drifted back to the green frozen drink. “No. Not at all. I’ll take the eternal beauty over a margarita, thank you very much.”

Aiden teased him by taking a long, slow swig from his drink, finishing with a long “ahh” sound. Mark stuck out his tongue.

“What does that taste like? Compare it to something I’d recognize,” I said. Since no humans currently knew what food tasted like six hundred years ago, I’d never been able to compare the flavors I knew to the flavors now. Since Aiden’s transition back to our original powers and ability to consume food and drink , he could help me understand more about these strange drinks and foods humans insisted on eating.

“There was nothing back then to compare this to. Nothing.” Aiden shook his head. “I’ll just say, when we were all human, food tasted like shit compared to everything I get to eat and drink now. It’s ridiculous what people have come up with.”

“Really?” I shook my head. “That different?”

“I can see why Emilia didn’t want to give it up. Food is incredible. And this margarita?” He lifted it in a cheers. “Worth giving up immortality for.”

“Damn.” I laughed. “Aren’t you lucky you get both... immortality and all the food. How is it going? You have your full powers back?”

“Almost,” Aiden answered. “It seems every day I get faster, stronger, and my senses pick up, but it’s been kind of a slow start.”

“Just like when we first turned, huh?”

I remembered the unfamiliar sensation of being immortal... the intensity of discovering our new powers and abilities. We’d raced each other across the countryside, then challenged each other to ax battles and wrestling matches... and even made a sport out of trying to shoot one another with a bow and arrow, only to be able to outrun the arrow and pluck it from the air and toss it back.

But as amazing as it felt when we first turned, it took a month before our abilities peaked. Every day we got faster... stronger... better.

“That’s what Aiden has been telling me,” Emilia answered. “He says it’s exactly like when you first turned. I thought I was fast a couple days ago. But today I can move at almost twice that speed. It’s incredible!”

“So, you like it?” I asked, curious about her transition.

“I love it.” She beamed. “I’ve never felt more alive.”

“And even at half-strength, I’ve never felt better,” Aiden chimed in. “I have everything I’ve ever wanted. Especially my girl.”

They leaned forward and kissed, and I tried to swallow my groan. Not that I wasn’t happy for them, it just made me remember the girl I wanted to be kissing and referring to as my girl.

The girl I’d never see again.

“Sounds pretty amazing. I’m really happy for you both,” I said. “Too bad the Picts aren’t handing out immortality without all the downsides to everyone.”

“Did you ask them?” Annella took a sip of her glass of blood then pushed it to me.

“I did.” I laughed at the memory of Catrain’s heated response. “She said something about me deserving the darkness I needed to live in.” I shook my head, hoping to shake her out of my mind, then took a sip of the blood.

“Damn. That girl hated you!” Mark laughed.

“She hates all of us. We kind of screwed over her people.”

“Well, they kind of killed a bunch of our clan,” Lothaire said, and I turned back to see him and his beautiful raven-haired wife, Grizella, approaching.

“Lothaire.” I smiled as I rose.

We shook hands, and he placed one of his huge mitts on my shoulder. His usually stern face softened slightly as he looked down past his beard at me. “Welcome back, Thorne.”

“Good to be back.”

A lie. I wanted nothing more than to be lying on a beach staring at the stars with Catrain.

Grizella kissed my cheek then slid into a chair beside Annella. Lothaire sat beside Aiden, and I sank back down.

“Look at this. All together again,” Annella said. “It’s been a long time.”

“It has. And we have two new family members.” Grizella gave a nod to Mark and Emilia.