Born Immortal

Born Immortal Chapter 5

Astyr Tyr stepped down from the school bus and made her way to the courtyard in the middle of the school campus. She was still feeling dazed and shocked from the events of the previous day and she was in no hurry to run into anyone.

She had sat in the passenger seat of Hakon's black Camaro as he drove her to Grima's house yesterday afternoon in complete silence. She was shaking from the attack by Dean in the parking lot and her mind was reeling from Hakon's silent revelation afterward.

When they arrived at her new home, she quickly said thanks and took her bag straight up to her room, closing the door so she could be alone with her thoughts.

Grima went out to speak to the boys and they told her about the incident with the other members of the football team. "It didn't really look like she needed any help," Hakon told her with a laugh, "but I didn't think it would be chivalrous to leave her to deal with five teenage boys by herself."

"Thank you for being there for her, both of you." Grima gave them both a smile of gratitude. "You know how hard it's going to be for her to trust us when she finds out the truth. It will help if she can see that you've always tried helping her. I'm trying to break things to her slowly but it took me too long to find her, we're running out of time."

"My father was wondering when her birthday is." Gunnar said. "Mine is coming up soon. Maybe she'll be able to come to my ceremony."

Gunnar had a hopeful expression on his face but Grima was doubtful that Astyr would be able to handle such an intense event like a coming-of-age ceremony in less than a month. "Her birthday is the first of May and I'm not even sure she'll be ready by then."

"She won't have much of a choice." Hakon said softly.

"I know." Grima said. "The best we can do right now is to try to protect her and make sure she makes it to her birthday."

"Well, she'll be coming home with us every afternoon." Hakon informed her. "I don't know why that girl left her, but I won't give her a chance to do it again."

"Just make sure that I don't end up needing to protect her from you, from either of you." She added to Gunnar.

"I can't make any promises about that." Gunnar replied with a grin.

"You will when you remember who her father is." Grima's dour pronouncement sobered them both up and they took their leave and drove off to leave Grima to take care of Astyr for the night.

Grima dragged Astyr out of her room to help with dinner but Astyr was too bothered to make any decent conversation. They worked together in companionable silence to clean up the kitchen and then Astyr went back to her room to do her homework. Her only assignment was to make a diagram for Biology of the Class Mammalia, Subclass Theriformes. It didn't take her long so she settled into her small sofa with the anthropological history of Europe that Grima had loaned her. It was a lot more interesting than she had expected but it was still a history book, so she put it away at a decent hour and went to bed.

She woke in the morning still feeling subdued and slightly confused. She couldn't make any sense of her new situation. She was now living with a woman who not only had the same ability as Astyr, but was also teaching her to control it. Did Grima know that Astyr had this talent before she brought her here? And then there was Gunnar and Hakon. Why did Hakon have a bracelet like hers and what could it mean? It must have some significance to them because they broke a two-year self-imposed commitment to anti-social behavior after they saw that she had one. And there was no denying that they had taken a keen interest in her bracelet when they saw it on her first day of school.

Remembering her first day of school, she suddenly recalled her first meeting with Gunnar. She had looked right into his eyes and seen... nothing. Well, not nothing, certainly. His eyes were a deep sapphire blue framed by thick dark lashes. But her gaze had stopped at his eyes. Did he have the ability to block his mind as well? If so, who did he learn it from? Was Hakon the same, too? Due to her lifelong habit of avoiding people's eyes, she hadn't yet looked into Hakon's eyes. She didn't even know what color they were.