11 comments/ 39032 views/ 46 favorites Immortal Love Ch. 01 By: literature_writer New series! All individuals within the story are above or equal to the age of consent -- US law. (18) All individuals within the story are fictional; any similarities between person(s) are purely coincidental Feel free to post and comment -- I appreciate feedback and critiquing my work so I can get better, but there is a difference between critiquing and being rude. I may not be the best writer but I love it, if you want some story that is perfect stop searching for literature on the internet and go to a library. Thank you for reading. This story will be quite long so I suggest bookmarking or another way to store the page that you are on. I encourage my readers to critique my work but please do not slag off what I write Remember: not everyone has two sugars in their tea (hint: what you don't like someone else may) Acknowledgements I would like to thank Chelsea Fine for the AoA series (Google) showing me about immortalities and curses I would like to thank Charlotte Abel for the Channie series (Google) showing me about magic and love I would like to thank Shiggymoto and his literotica Ashley series (check it out), for showing me true love is not always easy... it can be a battle but worth it if you fight hard. But I would love to thank my sister -- the reason I live each day. Blurb David has searched for almost a thousand years for his one true love -- his sister -- Ashleigh. With unlimited powers they search the earth to be together, but a centuries old curse placed by their mother, to stop their incestuous relationship, means that whenever they are intimate Ashleigh will die; but with immortal blood she will be reborn again. Trouble is they must be intimate within the first year of her rebirth or else they both suffer immense pain until they do so. Can they break the curse? Will true love prevail? Now Ashleigh is back again, but with no memories of her old life or her brother she soon must learn to remember: about herself, her powers, and her love. She has one year. Chapter 1: Spell book. England "David what are you doing? You know that's mother's spell book." Ashleigh whispered behind her brother, creeping up the wooden stairs trying not to make any more excess noise. "Don't worry sis, I'm not going to steal it; I just want to have a look." He replied, avoiding the last step known to creak. The two siblings shared a house with their mother, a known witch; it was not a fancy castle like the earl had but it was home. Their father had long since run away leaving their mother to raise the children by herself. Sure most of the town were scared of their mother believing wild superstition about witches and curses but too scared to directly approach her they, instead, ignored the children and kept their own kids away. Ashleigh and David had no one but each other. Still home was peaceful and quiet and with a witch for a mother their lives were never dull.... Interesting to say the least but never dull. It was night now and without the discovery of electricity the house was shrouded in darkness, the full moon outside bathed the landing with a soft light; enough to see with but not enough to make the sneaking any easier. Their mother had long ago placed a 'be-light' spell around the house, a weak spell that casts an eerie light down in the main living space. Ashleigh had always hated the dark sometimes bad enough that she crept into David's bed just for comfort, many a night she crawled under the covers alongside her brother, sleeping much easier with his arm wrapped around her nimble frame. Luckily there wasn't a storm said night, the power of a witch can increase almost tenfold when nature becomes upset and if that were the case getting even close to the book would mean failure and probably a 'no-leave' curse as a grounding punishment. The soft orange glow radiating from behind the wooden door gave them a target -- the book. Whenever magically active the book would glow an incandescent orange while a soft humming noise hung in the air. "You know mom has probably cursed her room." Ashleigh whispered as they approached the door. The door looked like any other millions of wooden doors in the world. No special markings, no objects hanging off. It almost looked as if it had been varnished, the wood, even in the soft white glow of the moon, was shaded a slight tinge of an orange/ red. Blood. More specifically their mothers blood; linking her and the door as one she would always know when the door was entered or even touched by another not her. David ran his palm inches away over the door, scanning it for any energy signature. "Cursed." He muttered. "Well we tried." Ashleigh theatrically sighed, spinning on the balls of her feet to turn away. "Ba, ba, ba..." He whispered catching her hand as she span away; he brought her back to the door. He placed both his hands inches from the door and in an inaudible voice muttered a counter curse. "Are you crazy!?" Ashley shouted in a half-whisper "You're trying to counter mom's curse! If she ever finds out you're even trying countering her curses she slap you with a 'pain' curse. You won't have to worry about being grounded you butt is going to be redder than... well something really red." David smirked at his sisters' quick witty comments. 'Redder than... something really red?' But joking aside, it was true, going against a curse was forbidden in the house -- *...They're in place for a reason.* Their mother always scolded before a punishment. Going against a protection curse would definitely mean a 'pain' curse, maybe even an actual beating. But David was determined to see the book. There was no way he could tell his sister for the past fortnight he had dreamt about it; it was calling to him. He continued his muttering. Finally David felt the wild buzzing of energy on the door subside to a quieter, soothing energy of the doors natural energy. Easy.... too easy... every curse is dependent on the witch who cast it; the more powerful the witch the harder the curse is to counter, and at David's almost no existent power level even calming the energy would be tricky, so how could he have banished it from the door... The door creaked open, each creak sounding like a bomb going off, too loud; this was a stealth mission. In the corner behind the door shone a soft baby blue light. "Whoa, what's that?" Ashleigh whispered looking directly at the blue ball floating mid-air. Unable to see what she was referring to David turned around and saw his sister, bathed in the bright baby blue light. She was dead pretty; her golden hair was now more of a straw colour in the new light while her hazel eyes stared dead ahead. She didn't have the greatest figure in the world but was moderate with enough to please a man's eyes. She was wearing what she called 'comfy clothes', to everyone else they were 'servant hinds'. She wore one of David's white tops with cross stitching around the neck down to the top of her cleavage, un-tucked, of course. And never one for wearing a dress or skirts she wore black trousers that were loose around her legs, her feet were bare and slightly dirty from walking around the house with nothing on. David sighed, soon gone were the days that he and his sister would be together. She may not know like David did but the whole reason their mother had left for the night was to try and court the girl. Find her someone of rank or nobility and unite the houses through marriage. Soon his sweet, kind and sometimes annoying sister would be marched down the aisle to a man of respect. If she was lucky he would be a kind man who would treat her as the earl and his wife: buy her the most expensive of clothes and jewellery, make love to her not just sex, and take her places that are new and exciting letting each day for her become an adventure. But if she was unlucky and he was not a kind man David could not fathom the pain he would bring to the man for treating his sister wrong. He followed her gaze at the floating ball of pent up energy. "It's mom's curse stone." He explained. Every curse needs an object, something to bind the energy to so that it doesn't float away. As long as the object survives the curse energy will never leave -- the curse will never be broken, unless of course if there is a counter. Because the door to the room was on the left hand side of the room and was now open, it blocked most of the right side of the room, but even so the deep orange glow bathed the walls and ceiling, competing with the blue for colour dominance. Within the top right hand corner of the room stood a majestic and almost regal treasure chest. The source of the glowing orange -- the book must be inside. With legs of concrete David shuffled to the chest with his sister trailing behind his back. He ran his hands over the chest the way he had the door, inches away not to touch the curse but close enough to feel the energy buzz. The energy had the buzz of a thousand hornets, each buzz stinging his hands -- the chest -- the nest -- the book. This was no ordinary curse; it was a sacrifice curse. A curse given the life of one creature to feed from would be the strongest of all curses, the more powerful the life, the better the curse. Back in the times the best of curses would be made by the life of a new born baby -- 100 years of curse energy, never ending, never dying, and never stopping. That was a banned practise now, only studied by the darkest of witches and magicians. Ashleigh leaned over her brothers kneeling body and unconsciously brought her hand closer to the chest. She was just about to touch the chest with her hand centimetres away when David held her wrist firmly stopping her. He looked into her hazel eyes and muttered three words: 'Acendum, neatho, minut'. She blinked twice, looking at her hand and her brothers holding her wrist, "Oh, my god, I don't even remember touching the chest." She gasped. "You didn't." David replied. Thank god. He didn't blame her. The energy of any curse would be hard to ignore, even more so of a sacrifice, if one did not know how to handle curses, and by the look on his sisters' face she didn't. The energy of a curse typically draws a person in almost daring them to touch the curse, only when they did... BLAM! The curse would strike. Thank god he stopped his sister -- he may not know what the curse to the chest was but if it hit it could have been a death curse. Thank god she didn't touch it. She smiled and said thanks before pulling her hand back. "Ow. That really hurts holding your hand there, how do you keep doing it?" She shook her hands for several seconds trying to shake away the tingling in her fingers. He shrugged but kept his hand in place. Slowly he recanted the best counter curse he knew -- it would never be enough to override a sacrifice curse, not even close to tame the energy. He felt the slow trickle of the counter curse leaving his fingers; it was like water pouring out of his tips -- pouring water onto a petrol fire -- if petrol had been found yet. It was a slow release; he had neither power nor skill to make the counter more efficient, if it ever could be against a sacrifice curse. He was about to stop the counter when he felt the odd feeling of foreign energy. His head snapped back to the door so fast Ashleigh thought he would have broken his neck but she followed his gaze -- empty. So where was the foreign energy from? Ashleigh could never have made it; it was warm, strong and powerful beyond measure. His mother could have made it but why would she want to help him break in to the chest? She wouldn't, it didn't make sense. The new energy merged with his, warming his blood and bathing his body in a sense of calmness and at the same time complete state of excited-ness. Whatever the energy it was wild, untamed and completely dangerous and had not hurt him so far -- so hey why not go for it? David continued his counter with the new energy turning his slow trickle of energy to a fire hose. The angry buzz of the curse settled, calm and soothed it no longer pained him to keep his hands in place, slowly the foreign energy settled until he found no more trace in his system. "Wow, you're glowing." Ashleigh shouted surprised. She was right. Not his whole body as he thought she meant but the tips of his hands were bathed in a glowing red light, a new light on each finger. Red... but his power colour was green, the colour chosen because it was his sisters' favourite. The power colour is basically someone's aura, it's not so much chosen as it is given, but a person can with some limit change their colour. Green aura was the colour of well-being. The colour of help, good health, luck, and so on. So why were his colour Red now, power and danger? Popping the lock off the chest the book lay inside. The skin of the book was a deep blood red; made of cracked parched leather it more resembled human skin than leather. It emanated a soft orange glow. Without touching the book it rose out of the chest and suspended itself at a height equal to his eye-line. It opened and tilted to a reading position hovering on the spot. He heard the gasp of his sister behind him but he was too captivated to turn around and look. He reached his hands out as he had so many times before and felt the energy of the book. It was familiar but like nothing he had ever felt before. The energy wrapped itself around him; he saw the books orange energy. And it didn't just wrap around himself it did too his sister. It was like they were both entwined together by long vines of orange. One particular energy vine circled around his body once before entering his chest, exactly where his heart was. He looked behind him and saw his sister with the same vine in her; it had come out of his back, wrapped around her body once and entered her heart. "What?" She asked. He shook his head not wanting to concern her. Nothing you and I just have the books energy linking our hearts. Nope, best not worry her. The energy colour deepened until it was a more deep red than it was orange, but then it became completely red and moved around the air in the room still linking them by a twisting snake of red energy. At his back the energy broke to a single line joining his heart and his sisters before the mass behind her and in front of him became a ball of red energy light receding into each other's heart, the line between their bodies never moved. Soon the line linking hearts became a ball, leaving her chest and his back before returning to the book in front of their eyes, bathing the empty pages in a red glow. "Did you see that?" David asked Ashleigh turning to look into her hazel eyes, lit up by the glowing all around the room. She shook her head. No. "Can you see any of this around us?" He asked. She shook her head. No. Damn. But what does it all mean? Heart bonding? The glow of the book intensified, and intensified, and intensified. Soon all that was left was a burning sun of red light, so bright David shielded his eyes and looked into his sisters. The smell around him changed... strawberries. Their air smelled of his sister, her sweet aroma... beautiful... but he couldn't, even though he wanted to, stay there and smell forever. To Ashleigh she smelled the familiar fragrance of her brother; she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before her train of thoughts were interrupted by her brothers voice. "Can you see that?" He asked. She nodded her head. Yes. "You mean that writing?" She asked. David peered through his fingers at the book. What writing? All that was there was a ball of bright light. Even the book was obscured by it. Was this a curse? A trick to stop people looking at the book? He looked back at his sister. She stared at the book ahead. "There's no bright light?" He asked. She shook her head. No. "What colour is the writing?" He asked. "Red." "Red?" He questioned. "Red." She confirmed. Red. Red writing... he looked at his fingers... red fingers, red energy... weird. "Ashleigh, can you read what it says?" He asked She nodded her head. Yes "It says..." She read the book. "That's exactly what is says? You're not missing anything?" She shook her head. No. The page read: Pure and pure both hearts will be joined... through the ages, both dark and light, for love is pure for one who seeks, if both are willing pure love will stand; It should be banned, it should be wrong, yet love this pure for one another, cannot be bad, if it be true. Stay together, let no man or woman come; for if they do pure become taint and pure love last no more. Go, heed warning, and let friendship blossom, soon true and pure love shall be for each, For one month time, the test shall begin. "Are you absolutely sure, word for word you read it exactly?" David asked. "For god sakes yes!" Ashleigh said, she recanted the passage once more word for word. "What does it mean?" She asked. David shook his head. "I don't know." He mused. "It's no magic I've encountered." He said the passage out loud as he heard his sister. "Sounds like love magic, but between who? And at the end 'heed warning' and 'for one month time, the test shall begin'?" David looked down at his heart, the soft ball of light had returned, so had Ashleigh's light, and so had the thin string joining their hearts. "Weird." He felt for the energy connecting them, there were two energies. One he came to realise was his own: soft, valiant, slightly sloppy and wild, but the other... it was foreign: completely wild, new, and unused. The book light died down so much it actually faded to nothing. His vision was blurry, the way one might get if they were to just emerge from a tunnel on a sunny day. But when he checked the book it was still floating; the pages: empty. "Are the words still there?" David asked. Ashleigh shook her head. No. Damn... He tried scanning the book but there was no energy, no wild energy he felt before, no natural energy of all things in the universe, nothing. He became vaguely aware of another new energy coming close to the house, happy and cheery... Their mom! Oh god, Oh god... A brilliant light shone from the book -- neither orange nor red but yellow. Soon the entire room was painted in brilliantly bright yellow as if the sun itself had come for a visit. Crap. He was sure she would see the bright yellow energy coming out of the room; if not out the windows she would at the least be able to sense it. David averted his eyes, and looked at his sister, who had done the same. They stared at each other. The sound of a thousand bees swarmed inside their brains, a thousand tiny buzzing noises. Surely their mother would hear this amount of energy. He shouted, "Can you still see the book." "No!" Ashleigh shouted back. "There's a bright light and I can't see anything!" So she did have magic. Wait a second.... He tried to feel for the energy linking their hearts but it was lost in a storm of wild energy surrounding them all. By god how long was this light going to last? As if an answer to his question, as if someone had flicked a light switch, the brilliant light vanished. Stunned and blinded David looked for the book, the chest was closed. The room was okay... more importantly so was his sister. He scanned the chest with his hands and found the energy of the original curse. "Leave, go to your room and stay there. Mom's coming back and I have to restore the curse on the door." He ordered. She tried to speak but she saw the panic and determination in his eyes, she obeyed. Quickly she turned away and walked out the door. He followed close behind. Immortal Love Ch. 01 Just as he left the room the door slammed shut behind him causing him to jump. He scanned the house... his sister... nothing. Time to restore the curse... if he could. He started chanting holding his hands out. At least restoring a curse was easy... requiring no object to bond to. It sure would be hard to explain how his energy had become joined with hers in the curse stone. That and the fact she could never use that stone to curse him again... or anything else without his permission. "Delectoi, Nevato..." "Ow! Fuck!" He winced. He scanned the door with his hands... the curse was back. And that meant... shit! His mom must have felt him. He spun around to run to his room when his body was consumed in an immense pain. If someone had poured boiling water all over his body and then stabbed each burn it would have hurt less. His mother stood on the bottom of the stairs, her face calm as if she was just looking, but her fingers glowing turquoise. David collapsed to the floor writhing in agony. He let out a blood curling scream but nothing and nobody would help. "Why were you countering my door?" His mother asked. If she was upset her voice betrayed no emotions. "I wasn't." He groaned lying and crying because of the pain. The pain increased a thousand fold. God kill me. "So what were you doing?" His mother asked. "I felt... I f-felt..." "Yes?" She said dragging out the word. "I felt the energy. I was just checking." The pain cut off. No knives, no boiling water, no thousand pins digging into every fibre of his being. "It's a powerful curse mom." He complimented eager to regain her favours and not be the victim of another pain curse. If she would have found him with the book she would have left it on him all day. "Thank you. But from now on, never and I mean never, go near that door again. Do you understand." "Perfectly." Ashleigh cried herself into bed. Her brother was being tortured. It was all her fault... a couple of days back she wondered where mom kept her spell book and kept asking David, if she hadn't maybe he wouldn't have bothered looking for it. Why did that stupid book keep calling me in my sleep? She heard David's scream and squeezed her eyes shut. She hoped he would never tell on her even though she knew he never would even if his own life were in danger. She sobbed unable to stop the pain he was in, he had helped her and now he was being punished. "I'm so sorry." She sobbed into her pillow. "So sorry." Chapter 2: Spell lessons. Ashleigh sat on one of the most uncomfortable chairs in the world. Ok... maybe not but it sure felt like it. It was a wooden chair made from one of the trees from the earl's woods. Their father had logged it, been caught and whipped for punishment. Luckily the earl was a nice bloke and set the lashing for only ten and then let their father keep the tree, he made the chairs for the table before running away. She was sitting at table in the kitchen space, piece of paper on the top, trying to learn how to read and write. One of the many problems of being a witch's daughter was the schools banned you from attending. She always dreamed of becoming a powerful witch like her mother so that she could live a normal life without being punished for her parents' sins'. She glared down at the foreign symbols on the paper -- what the hell does that mean? Just scribbles and nothing-ness, she thought. Her mood cheered and at the same time saddened when she saw David come down the stairs. He looked cheery as if he was never personally tortured to crying last night, unable to look at him for guilt she smiled shyly and returned to the mess on the paper. He skipped past her, leaned over her shoulder, looked at the paper and kissed her cheek. "Morning." He sang. "What's got you so cheery?" Ashleigh asked still unable to look at his face and not just due to the increasing blushing from her cheek. "Last night could have gone a lot worse." This time she spun around and looked at her older brother, her eyes as wide as saucers. "Gone worse!? You were pained." "True, but at least we weren't caught with the book. And best of all, you weren't pained." He smiled as she turned away quickly blushing causing his smile to deepen. What the hell was going on? For a man who was crying on the floor for death he liked to look on the bright side of life. She sighed shaking her head and continued with her work. "Speaking of which, where is the wicked witch of the west?" He asked looking around the house. "She popped out hunting. After all who is going to tell her 'you can't hunt earl's deer' when everyone is afraid of her turning them into a toad." Ashleigh replied. David chuckled at her joke before joining her at the table and looking at the paper. "Still learning to write?" "And read." She replied. She pouted sad about the fact she was still eighteen and unable to read or write when many of the girls her age were already on mathematics... don't even get started on that. "Need any help?" David asked. Please say yes. She stared into his eyes. How were they even related, she had hazel eyes yet he had deep brown, she had blonde hair yet he had brown. Still in the morning light he looked devilishly handsome. He flashed a grin and her heart fluttered... what the fuck was that? "You know how to write?" She asked sarcastically raising her brow; "Yep, even know how to read, I'm learning maths at the moment but can't get past division." She had no idea what 'division' even meant but was surprised he knew as much. He never went to school like her. "What!? How?" She asked, embarrassed her brother knew more than she does. "I like to spy on the school." He winked, again, her heart fluttered -- again -- as she blushed. "Again... what!? The school is like four towns over and even then I never see you leave the house." She replied. David shrugged his shoulders and leaned over her work to get the apple sitting on the table besides her. He bit the apple and gave her another smile. "No need. All you got to do is cast a 'hear more, see more' spell. You can look wherever you want and hear what you want. It's like I'm sitting in those classes anyway." Ashleigh was shocked. He was studying magic too? Mortal stuff like this she could understand but magic, even magic involving improvement to a person -- that's hard stuff. "Where did you learn magic?" She asked tilting her head to the side...adorable, he thought. Again, he shrugged his shoulders, took another bite of his apple and chewed slowly before speaking. "I don't really know. I mean no one taught me I sort of just learned by playing with energy." Okay, now she was seriously impressed. No one had taught him how to control energy he learned by playing? Yet last night he checked the curse and stopped her like he knew all about it. Was he lying? Trying to stop her from learning magic too? "Can you teach me sometime?" she asked, pouting her lips so she looked adorable. And she did. He flashed another grin, he had to stop doing that or her heart was going to stop completely. "Sure, I'd love to help you." She flashed him a grin. Yay. "But first you got to learn this." He said sternly tapping the paper with his finger. She blew out an exaggerated sigh. "But I'm never going to understand it. Please can't we just go learn magic?" "Nope, you're going to sit you butt down and learn all this mortal rubbish before all the good stuff." He gave her a wink and finished his apple. 5 min later He was in the kitchen boiling water when he heard his sister shouting from the other side of the joined rooms. "Can you help me please?" She shouted. He sighed, good luck to any man who tries to court her. But nether less he went to help her sitting by her side. "What do you need, sis?" He asked. "I don't get this reading, there's a sentence here, I think, but I can't understand it. I tried matching the symbols to the sentence but I don't get it." He smiled at her. "Ok here is what you do. Like you said you match the symbols so you got that part right, here..." He leaned over and grabbed her 'cheat sheet' -- the alphabet on a piece of paper. "Each of these symbols has a sound, like how we speak. Got it so far." She nodded. "Good, you have to remember the sounds to each one and then match them. Creating a sentence." He took the blank paper off her and the pencil before scribbling something down. "Ok try this." He handed her the new sentence. She gave a frustrated sigh before slapping her hands to the side of her head. He chuckled and kissed her cheek -- her heart literally did a backflip in her chest. "Calm down, here" he pointed to each of the symbols in the sentence and then to the 'cheat sheet'. "M-y: my, n-a-m-e: name, I-s: is, A-s-h-l-e-i-g-h: Ashleigh. My name is Ashleigh." "So... that's my name?" He looked into her hazel eyes and got lost, but only for a second. He flashed another grin. Please stop doing that, she thought but hoped he would never. "Yes, Ashleigh." He wrote another sentence and gave her the paper. "Try this." As he did she tried methodically working through the sentence. "My name is David." "Congrat's you can now read and write." He said kissing her cheek causing it to burn in a nice way where his lips touched her. "Good, can we practise magic now?" She asked. "Nope, not yet, we still have to learn you symbols." "I thought we just learned that?" "Nope, you learned the alphabet; symbols are used for creating sentences." She sighed. But as much as she hated learning all this she was glad it was with her brother and he was the one teaching her. Their mom came home roughly half an hour later kicking open the door as if she were SWAT and carrying a hefty antelope over her shoulders. Magically enhanced it weighed next to nothing. David got up and helped her carry it through to the back yard where they would cut it later and cook it. As their mother looked at him a tidal wave of fear stuck his being, ever since last night he had become increasingly aware of the red line of energy linking a ball from his heart to that of his sisters. Could their mother see it? Even lying in bed he could see the line in the near pitch blackness; it emanated a soft glow that illuminated everything. And trouble was it was always there, even then it joined their hearts. But their mother said nothing. Maybe she couldn't see it? Maybe she thought not to say anything? Maybe it was natural magic and would fade? With the dead animal out back he settled back to his sister, the red line of energy shortening when he got closer and longer the further he was from her, would it snap if they went too far? He pushed the thought out of his head. Just before their mother had returned he had told her all the symbols he knew and what they were for; from: exclamation marks, question marks, speech marks, apostrophes, brackets, everything. He wrote a new grammatically correct sentence on the paper and handed it to his sister aware of their fingers touching as she took the paper. She tried to read the paper and the new 'cheat sheet' her brother made for her. "My brother's name is David." She read. He kissed her cheek, "See you're getting better." "Few more and we'll head off." And so it was like that; while their mother skinned the antelope -- much to David's persistence that he should do it -- he wrote various sentences on paper and gave them to his sister who tried to decode them. And then he taught her to write her own sentences. She was a quick learner and she handed him good enough pieces of paper with near correct sentences. She handed him a new sentence. Do yu forgiv me? He looked into her eyes. "Okay here is what's wrong..." He gave her the paper back and the new mistakes she had made: no o, no e, space before the question. "Try again." He said. She frowned. Maybe he didn't forgive her. Maybe he doesn't know what he was supposed to forgive about. She tried the new sentence again. Do you forgive me? "Perfect." He said. "Well?" She asked looking into his brown eyes. "There is nothing to forgive." He flashed her another smile and she clung to his chest in a loving embrace. He rested his head on her shoulder and smelled her hair -- strawberries. She closed her eyes and smelled him: kind of like a forest natural smell. They both could stay like that forever but remembering that they shouldn't they both pulled away quickly in an awkward fashion, she brushed her hair over her ear and smiled meekly. They ate dinner later in the day when the meat had been stripped of skin and cooked in boiling water. It was a nice meal consisting only of meat; they couldn't get any green vegetables. Later at night their mother settled down at the table and read a spell book to herself. David took his sister's hand and rushed upstairs. It was like she was the damsel in distress and he was her knight in shining armour. He took her to his own room, said an incantation against the door and sat on the edge of his bed. She stood near the door. "You can come in, vampire." He said grinning. "I cast a 'no-spy' spell. No one can hear or see us." She came in fully and sat on the edge of his bed besides him. She was immensely aware of their arms brushing against each other's. It was a wondrous feeling, his touch became hot against her skin and she loved every minute. "So you want to learn magic; what do you know so far?" He asked. Ashleigh shrugged her shoulders and stared at the floor. For one living in a house full of magic and being part witch herself she knew actually very little about magic. She understood the universe and energy, spirits and nature but knew nothing about how to use them all. David stood up and looked down at her, she was timid. Almost as if she didn't actually want to learn. "If you're uncomfortable with this, we can stop." He said sympathetically. She shook her head. "No, it's just I don't know what to say or do." Especially around you. "Okay, come here; sit on the floor and cross your legs." He instructed as he did the same. She followed his instructions, he held out his hands and she held them. The cold wooden floor sent shivers down her spine, or was that the reaction she was having for holding her brothers hand? Either way the cold did not stop the pleasant heat she felt radiating from her hands and his, and nor did it stop the weird feelings her whole body was going through. She stared mesmerised into his dark brown eyes. "Okay I'm going to start with something pretty basic. Calling energy to use." He said. She closed her eyes trying to feel the energy in the room. "No, no, open your eyes. You need to see." She opened her eyes and resumed looking into his. "Energy is all around us, everything has it, living or dead. Try to look at it. Don't just look at the material world but look beyond at the energy of the material. Let it seep into your vision." He instructed looking at her eyes. She tried his instructions. Nothing. Everything still looked the same. "Try again." He said. "Feel it, believe It; don't just try to do it, you have to want it." She tried again. Nothing. She sighed. She was a witch and not even one that can use energy. She frowned and felt tears brimming beneath her eyes, she had failed. He won't want to teach me again. Her brother broke their connection with his hand and wiped her cheek, the cold tears stopped. He smiled sympathetically and from behind her head brought out a leaf as if he was a magician at the circus and that was his trick. She giggled. Placing the leaf in the middle of them both he stared down at it. "Focus only on the leaf, nothing else matters; there is only you and the leaf. Try to see the energy of the leaf, not do anything with it, just look." She tried. She really tried. A faint glimmer of hope filled her eyes when she spotted a flicker of blue light circling the leaf, but it vanished as soon as she saw it. "Is it blue?" She asked. He grinned. "You're doing it." She tried again. It took time but slowly the circle of blue returned. It was a light blue colour -- Cyan. Never touching the actual leaf it was like an invisible force field surrounding. She looked at the field closely. It was like millions of tiny lights constantly moving around always following the same path around the shape of the leaf. "I can see it." She said more confidently. "Good now try to look at something different." She looked around the room, something different.... She stared at the floorboards surrounding the entire room. Like she did before she tried finding the energy. Again, it took time but eventually she saw what she wanted. This energy was dark, muddy and looked rather sick. David saw her look and realized what she was thinking. "It's because it's dead. Material energy darkens with death, the more dead the material the worse the colour. Just don't ever look at a corpse, completely black with brown...Urgh." He explained with a shudder at the end. She looked around the room more; the energy colours came more quickly each time she stared at something. She looked at her brother, trying to see his energy. Red. "You're energy is red." She stated. David frowned. Red... shouldn't his be green, it always was. He focused on the field around his body trying to change the colour back. But with each attempt he got stopped. Like hitting a brick wall something wouldn't allow his colour to change... weird. Ashleigh gasped. David quickly snapped out of his spell and looked at his sister alarmed. "What is it?" He asked. "There was a line between me and you. It was pink and came from me to you; or you to me. There was a ball in your chest and it came from that." She said, quizzically as if she must have been mistaken. "Can you still see it?" He asked. She shook her head. No. But he looked down and as clear as day there was the glowing red line and ball linking their hearts, but it was no longer red as it had been but was a more light pink now. Two energies, two colours... he looked at his sister -- surrounding her now was an almost clear field of energy, weak and not been used much but it was growing. She finally could use magic, he smiled. "Ignore it for now, I'll explain another time." He said. "Keep trying." And so for the rest of the night she looked around the room, all the bright and wonderful colours surrounding even the most basic of objects, a feather for writing in ink was yellow, a pencil besides it was maroon. Even his brown leather shoes were a muddy red, but he himself: a brilliant red. She tried reading herself -- nothing, no colour, no lights, nothing. Maybe you can't read yourself, she thought. "Want to try something cool?" David asked. "But you got to swear never to tell mom I taught you." "Is it dangerous?" She asked. "Sis, I would never teach you something if I thought you were going to be hurt." And she believed him. "So what are you going to teach me?" She asked cocking her head to the side in an adorable manor. David held out his hand palm facing the ceiling. Never closing his eyes and never looking anywhere else but into her eyes she gasped when a bright, brilliant and colourful red flame ignited in his palm, centimetres away from his skin, hovering in the air. "How to create nature from nothing, well not something more like energy all around us -- but only use a little." He said with a grin and a wink. She melted into his eyes, his looks... She snapped out of her hypnotic state, "So why can't I tell mom?" "Because... you can never upset nature or it can have disastrous consequences. Maybe not here but somewhere else." He saw her confused look; she was really, really pretty. He smiled. Immortal Love Ch. 01 "Say you create a lightning strike here right outside this room." "Okay." She replied, voice low. "Well, that lightning strike wasn't meant to happen. It changes something else, meaning the weather will change elsewhere -- you might get a tornado four miles away. You could get snow in the middle of the summer. You can get: floods, drought, and terrible things." Ashleigh looked worried. Such terrible things could happen and yet here she was in her brother's bedroom watching him create nature out of nothing and he was going to show her. "I don't know about this." She said nervously. He took the hint; maybe he shouldn't have pressed on. Given she had learned today it might be enough for her. "Okay, show me." She said more intrigued than nervous. Anything to stay here with you. He smiled. Her heart turned to butter and the link from their hearts deepened in pink colour. "Here is what you do..." And so he took her through the stages of creating fire from nothing. He was calm and patient and never got angry or annoyed when she couldn't do it. He calmly spoke to her and reassured her she could. It took her twenty more failed attempts before she even had a spark in her hands. She furrowed her brow and concentrated on the energy in the air and using that to create fire. Concentration lines etched into her forehead and small but pretty wrinkles lined her eyes. Finally with an almighty boom a fireball sprang from the air. Like a bomb had been ignited a rush of tremendous heat swamped both their bodies and Ashleigh let out a high pitch wail of a banshee. Quick as he could David spotted some residue energy far off in the corner of the room. It seemed Ashleigh had used most of the energy in the air to create the fire and not just that in front of her. He desperately attempted to gather the energy remaining and use it to extinguish the fire. Using his magic he moved the energy to water and doused the fire before it could burn any hotter. The ceiling where the fire had been in contact with had burned and the wooden beams were cracked and charred. The smell of burned wood hung in the air and David used the last of his own energy to cast a 'clean me' spell around his room, getting rid of the smell and the burn marks. His sister held her right arm in her left grimacing at the pain. She rocked back and forth sitting on the floor repeating the words "I'm sorry." "Shhh, it's okay." David mused whispering and sitting beside her and wrapping his arms around her body as she lay and cried into his shoulder. "It's okay." He repeated over again trying to calm her down. "Let me look at that arm." He said holding his hand out so she could present her wound. Her entire forearm was completely red, burned but not damaged. "Go rinse it under cold water. It'll be fine, I promise." She left the room. Thank god I placed the 'no-spy' spell mom would have come in here and beaten me raw, But at least Ashleigh is ok. After checking the room for any more damage he found Ashleigh inside the john. Her whole arm and hand was submerged in cold water in the bath. He walked beside her and knelt down as she was. "Thank god I never taught you how to cause lightning." He joked. But the look on her face was one of sadness. "Hey it's going to be okay now; you're going to be fine." "I'm sorry" Ashleigh sobbed, he didn't know if she was crying because of the burn or because she was upset about what happened. Please don't be upset with me, she thought. He held her head against his shoulder and rubbed up and down her arm. Repeatedly he whispered calmingly the words: "It is okay." as she repeatedly sobbed: "I'm sorry." "You did well today. Even I'm impressed by the fireball you created." He said, her head still resting on his shoulder -- her choice. He lifted her head to meet her eyes and kissed her forehead. Even with the searing pain of being burned she still felt and lingered on the kiss he gave her, if only it was her lips. Unable to bear her crying sobs or stop and take away her pain David decided to bite the proverbial bullet and asked his mother for help healing his sister. He didn't care when his mother slapped him across the face with enough force to give him whiplash, he didn't care when she called him all manner of vulgarity and slapped him again, but he thanked her when she healed the burn with magic. He retreated to his room while his sister was in hers, lying on his bed a single tear streaked down his face. He had hurt his sister; he would never forget the pain he saw on her face. He cried himself to a fitful sleep. Chapter 3: Hunting and surprises. David woke from the most disturbing nights' sleep in record; images of his sister's face masked in pain and horror haunted his every dream. Sweat beaded to his forehead and dampened his clothes causing them to stick to his skin. His muscles ached from the constant tossing and turning during his restless night and his eyes were bloodshot from crying. He cast a quick 'clean me' spell to look presentable and headed downstairs. He came down stairs and found his sister sitting at the table chewing on some thick slurry he presumed to be oatmeal. Even given the crying from last night she looked pretty and her arm was completely healed thanks to their mother. Again she avoided his gaze -- he deserved it though, almost burning your sister. She did have enough manors to say good morning and he replied back. Other than that they were totally silent. "David, I'm so sorry about last night, I didn't mean for anything to happen." His sister said turning to face him and looking into his brown eyes. "No I should apologize; it's because of me that you got hurt. And I would gladly accept a thousand pain curses before I want anything bad to happen to you." "Friends?" Ashleigh asked smiling. "Friends." David confirmed returning that smile. "So got any plans for today?" His sister asked, almost for any excuse just to look at his handsome face. "Mom wants me to go hunting, you know, she did yesterday so I should today." He replied. "Can I come?" Ashleigh asked perking up at the prospect of spending more time with her brother. "Hunting?" "Yeah" "Umm... I don't know, moms pretty mad at me and I promised myself I would never see you hurt again." "Come on please..." She pulled her best pouting face and repeated. "Please, I'll behave, do whatever you tell me." She could see the resolve in his eyes, still unsure but warming to the idea. "Please, no magic. It will be just you me and that poor deer." David sighed. "Fine you can come." "Do you even know how to hunt for animals?" "I've seen it done." She replied. "But have you ever done it yourself?" "No." She looked down at the slurry in the bowl. Living in more primitive times meant that the women and ladies of the house would stay inside and the men would hunt and brave dangers. "Please, you can teach me." "I think we all know by now I'm not the best teacher." "No, but you are the best brother." He smiled at the compliment making her blush; she quickly turned her head and began eating her oatmeal. "You're going to have to get changed." "What? What's wrong with the way I dress?" "Nothing's wrong but you can't hunt like that." He said gesturing to her typical 'comfy clothes'. "What's wrong with this?" She asked holding the hem of the shirt. He sighed -- and I'm teaching her to hunt. "You need something skin tight, loose clothing rustles and animals will hear you a mile away." He explained more than eager to see his sister in skin tight clothing... what the hell? She was up and down the stairs in a jiffy, she had replaced her old trousers with now cotton trousers that were dyed a very dark blue, and she wore the same shirt as last time but tied it around her waist with a belt of rope. Good enough. "Where's mom?" He asked looking around realising he hadn't been hit because of last night yet. "She's out." His sister replied. Probably trying to find a man lucky enough to marry you, he thought, sad. Together they walked through the forest hunting any animals they could find, which so far consisted of three birds, two fish and a potential deer -- who at the pleading of his sister allowed it to live because it was nurturing a baby. With the stealth of a ninja he stalked through the trees looking out for any tracks on the ground. He spotted several tracks already but they lead of to the more densely populated area and without his sister he may have tracked them but he did not want to lose her. He stopped and knelt down examining the mud beneath. He was aware of his sister leaning over his shoulder, her hot breath tickling his neck, her strawberry scent filling his nostrils. "What we looking at?" She whispered. "Tracks." He replied pointing at the floor. He motioned with his hand several footprints amongst the fallen leaves, Ashleigh never even saw them before. He pointed to a clearing in the brush ahead. "They head that way, probably a deer by the looks." He followed the tracks through the brush and deeper into the forest. Trying his best to be stealthy he was acutely aware of his sister trying to sneak and failing miserably. He smiled to himself. The tracks veered to the right and he followed them, checking his sister was still behind him he pressed on. The sound of running water became more louder, a stream. It was possibly a watering spot for the animal. With the grace of a cat he lifted the light bow of his back, tensed the string in his fingers and fetched an arrow out his quiver lining it up to be fired. Dead ahead, with its neck craned downwards there stood a male deer lapping at the cool water running downstream. Oblivious to the two strangers the deer remained motionless. "Aww." He heard his sister moan. He put his finger to his lip and crouched, then pulled his sister to crouch by his side. "Want the shot?" He asked. "Really?" His sister asked looking at the bow and arrow he was holding out for her. She took it shakily in her hands. "What if I miss?" He shrugged his shoulders, "I'll go without dinner tonight." She knew what he meant; they were to go hunting because there was only enough meat from the antelope for two people. Her heart warmed that he would do this for her, he would not only miss his kill but go hungry so she wouldn't. "So... how do I do this?" She asked determined not to miss. He stepped behind her and she stood up along with him. She drew the bow as she thought she should. His hand slid over her shoulder applying just enough pressure for her to relax and lower the bow slightly. She felt the warmness of his hands touching her. His hand then slid down her arm and over her hand holding her hand that held the bow. His right hand snaked around her waist and came to rest on her stomach; again, he applied just enough pressure so she breathed in. His chest nestled against her back. She sighed wanting to stay in the embrace forever. His head on her shoulders he whispered, "Now draw back." And she did, but he never let her go. She melted into his embrace. Oh, how she wanted to forget that they were in the forest, even forget that they were brother and sister. She wanted to leap into his arms and never move. She steadied her breathing and then held her breath as she pulled back a little more. She didn't know how hard she could pull back before the string would snap but it seemed pretty close, anymore tighter and she wouldn't be able to hold onto the arrow never mind fire it accurately. "Now just let go." He whispered into her ear, his hot breath tickling her neck sending shivers down her spine. She released the arrow. It sailed through the air heading for its target. And in a split second... it missed. The deer now realised it was in danger quickly galloped off into the forest and away from danger. The arrow lay buried into the grass on the other side of the stream. She sighed, she had missed. She really hoped she had hit the animal, although she didn't hope it dead, she didn't want to miss it. Because of her now her brother was going to go hungry, there would be no chance of him letting her go hungry. That realisation hurt her more than knowing she didn't know how to hunt. How many times more must her brother suffer for her actions? "It's okay." He whispered letting go of her body as she lowered the empty bow. "No, it's not. Because of me you didn't get the kill." She said turning around and looking into his eyes, how she wanted to get lost in those marbles of brown and never escape. They were virtually face to face and if she leaned in just a little... she opened her eyes, unaware she was even closing them. Her brother smiled at her, his devilish handsome smile, but he was further away than he had been. "Come on." He said waving his hand. "We still got time to hunt." She smiled at that prospect; she could redeem herself, win some food for her brother and learn to hunt. They came out the clearing and circled the forest for anther fifteen minutes. She felt as if they were walking aimlessly around and soon the sense of being lost overwhelmed her, she would be lost in the woods with her brother... maybe not too bad after all. She smiled at the thought. She tried looking at the floor the way she had seen her brother so many times but saw nothing but dirt, fallen leaves and broken twigs. She looked up at her brother ahead of her. He had stopped and was kneeling down looking at the ground once again. "Found anything?" She called out. "More tracks, deer." Did he just call her dear? No, no he said deer, but she hoped he might call her dear one day. She followed him as he walked through the trees like a man on a mission. David knew where the deer were heading; only trouble was a couple more yards ahead and it was no longer the earl's forest who typically allowed people to hunt if they only took the minimum. Up ahead was the Schott land. And in their land anyone who was not family caught stealing were thieves and caught. Usual punishment for stealing involved: whipping, scaring, branding. Ultimately it was up to the owner of the land to judge the severity of the offence and could carry out the punishment however they saw fit. Any other time and David would have carried on. Families often employed patrol men in the forests and woods to make sure no one was hunting if they weren't allowed, often these patrol men were the most vile of men only employed for money, who knows what they might do if they saw Ashleigh. If a couple were to face him when he was by himself he would gladly put up a fight, and in the best scenario would win, but if Ashleigh was in the fight he couldn't fight. He would be too concerned about her he wouldn't risk taking her out of eyesight for even a second. He stopped dead ahead, as if some great barrier stood between him and meat. Ashley bumped into his back. "What we stopping for?" She asked peering over his shoulder. "That's Schott land." He replied. "And?" She drew out the word. "Well, if you go in there and get caught... well let's just say you won't get a slap like the nice earl might punish you." "But the deer..." "If you want meat that bad let's just go back to the stream and catch some fish." He replied. It made sense, why bother to put yourself in harms' way when back a few paces in relatively safe lands were fish. But still the idea of watching her brother eat a small fish to while she got to enjoy fresh cooked and hot meat made her sad. She would do this... for him. "Don't be such a girl." She mocked marching ahead and taking the lead. David was impressed and shocked for a moment before realising her stupidity and ran after her. Finally he caught up behind her. "Hey brains, learned how to track suddenly?" He said in a calm voice. She stopped, turned around and pouted, she was more sad than anything. He regretted his taunt. "Come on I'll teach you." He said walking ahead. "Yay." She squealed jumping on his back before hoping back down. As they walked through the dangerous land he showed her how to look for animal signs: a misplaced branch that may have been stepped on, tracks, defecation. He might have talked to her about how the sky was blue and she would have listened, no matter what he talked about she listened and tried to learn all she could from her handsome big brother. Finally they came to where he thought the deer had resided to. It was a place of safety for many animals. Overhanging rocks shaded the ground beneath and provided shelter, wild plants with nutritious berries bloomed all around. Sure enough there was the deer, munching down on some berries hanging off a shrub the animal was completely still aside from the head moving about to reach more berries. "Got it?" David asked. She drew back the bow the way she was shown before. But was saddened by the fact he remained behind her never touching her delicate body. SWISH... the arrow flew through the air as if it had wings, getting higher and higher before dropping towards the animal. It hit home. Not a fatal shot the arrow stuck out from the animal's side as if it was a leech sticking on to its prey. The deer gave off a chilling shriek before attempting to flee. Ashleigh thought that it was going to get away again, she had failed... again. The animal dropped dead, no less than ten feet from where it was hit. Protruding from its neck was a huge hunting knife. Mouth agape and eyes wide Ashleigh looked over at her brother who was slowly regaining his composure and walking towards the fallen animal. Blood seeped from the knife painting its gleaming silver in a deep red. From where it had been hit by the arrow a small river of blood washed down its carcass to the floor painting the leaves. Her brother, calm as ever, retrieved the knife, wiped it on the animal's body and then slit its throat as a torrent of blood gushed from the hole. Too gross. "Thank you for this bounty." He prayed eyes closed. "Good job sis, you hit it." He said patting her on the shoulder. Sure it wasn't the kind of ending she hoped for, but she had hit it. May not have killed the animal in a ninja reflex like her brother but seeing as how it was her first hunt she felt pride swell in her breast. "Umm... how are we going to carry this?" She asked, noticing finally that the animal was taller than both of them and probably weighed more. "Might as well show you now." Her brother said kneeling down in front of the carcass. She saw her brother's lips move in a chant but didn't hear a sound. "We're going to curse it?" She asked confused. He stopped his chanting and looked at her, her hazel eyes shining beautifully. He snapped out of his stare. "We create a spell, to make it lighter. That way it weighs nothing and we can carry it over our shoulder, and by 'we' I mean me." "Oh." She sang stretching out the single word. "Here you try." He said, standing up. "Oh no, we know what happened last time I tried spells. Remember... fireball.... Boom?" David remembered all too well... the look on his sister's face, the pain she was in. "I remember." He said, looking into her eyes. "I showed you, you did, but if you have to go extreme again try not to let it float away." He smiled looking into her hazel eyes, she smiled back. He showed her what to do and to her surprise it wasn't as difficult as she first thought. David heaved the animal onto his back, it didn't weigh almost anything like he was going to make it, there was still a good amount of weight left, but not wanting to down-put his sister he carried the weight. "So we head home?" Ashleigh asked. "Unless you want to stay here forever?"