The Binding

Chapter Two

"I need to rest for a second." I lowered my head onto the table and left it there. The smooth wood felt cool against my skin.

Leif sighed, "Drink some more beer."

"Would you lay off the beer! What are you, some kind of a pusher?" Blood was rushing to my head again, and I was reeling in agitation.

He stared back at me, unfazed. "Your adrenaline is pumping. It will help calm you."

"My adrenaline is pumping?" People in the bar glanced nervously at me. "No kidding. Any other wise observations you'd like to impart?" Ezra tapped his foot and raised his eyebrows. A smirk started to form; he was clearly enjoying himself.

"Oh, I'm full of wise observations I pass out only if you're very, very good." Then he reached across the table and clinked his bottle against mine. "Cheers."

I growled to myself and sank back in my chair. Who the hell are these men and, more importantly, why am I still sitting here?

Ezra chuckled as he settled back. I could feel his eyes drifting along my face. The erratic behavior of my pulse over the last hour was making it very difficult to focus. I took another drink as I collected my thoughts. "If immortal people, Avati, have been living on earth all this time, why doesn't anyone know about them? Someone at some point must have noticed."

Ezra nodded, "You have noticed. You've known about us all along. There are legends about us everywhere. We've had many names over the years. Each civilization, each millennium, has called us something new." He paused as he drank the last mouthful from his bottle. "Gods... Angels... Demons."

Slowly I turned. "I'm sorry, did you just call me a god?"

"Yes," Leif replied at the same time, Ezra answered, "No."

"In a manner of speaking," Leif continued.

"No," Ezra restated, rolling his eyes at Leif. "People just thought we were. We were powerful, immortal beings, stronger and faster than humans, we stayed young, and we never died. Gods and angels were everywhere, part of daily life. What else could we be?"

Leif nodded his head and rested his elbows on the table. "Civilizations die, and empires fall. With that, our names change. Today we are witches, vampires, and zombies."

"Zombies? Don't tell me I'm going to get a hankering for cranium soufflé." I shook my head. This was long past insane.

"No, that's just the most recent incarnation." Ezra smiled. He looked like he was really starting to enjoy himself. "Originally zombies were people who had risen from the grave, powerful and unable to die. Nzambi means 'god.' It's all the same thing. Us."

"I need a moment." I stood up from the table and made my way back to the bathroom.

Immortals. Gods and angels living as ordinary people. I couldn't keep my thoughts straight. I could still get sick or hurt but not die. The idea sounded good, but I didn't think I liked the reality of it. The truth of it? Nothing was resembling that in any of this.

I walked into a bathroom stall and sank to the floor, resting my head on my knees. Maybe they were crazy, and somehow someone had slipped me some weird hallucinogens. That was the only thing that made sense.

If someone had asked me if I would choose to be immortal, if I could, I honestly don't know how I would answer. Of course, the theory sounds appealing, but then it often does. The practicality of such a thing is too big to put into a simple yes or no answer. Both are too small for the enormity of it all. But immortality doesn't ask permission.