Avery the Immortal: Part Seven (special preview)

They say it’s supposed to be fall and that the weather is cooling off, I’m not sure about it. As long as I have been in New Orleans, I have known nothing but heat and the occasional relief of air conditioning when Mama allows it. I had only come to this town because of some deluded notion that Bill might be here. His hometown was nowhere anyone would choose to live, so I searched the adjoining towns, thinking perhaps he had gone there in order to find peace.

I don’t know what happened to him during the war. I don’t know where he went. After I freed myself from Hans and the Technocracy, everything was gone, ash and smoke. I know there is a more than likely chance that Bill is dead, but if the picture with the protection runes still remains, then I’m going to believe that he is out there safe, somehow. 

I’ve been staying with Mama, or more accurately, Mama has been raising me. I am older than memory allows, perhaps before, maybe before space, but this woman has been raising me like I’m some child, or stray cat as she says. She’s helped me in more ways than I can understand. She’s helped me grow, and in this time with her I have never felt more human in my life. It was something Clef tried to teach me, something Bill was trying to find in me. Both of them were right, I was capable, and I had it, but Mama showed me a way to find it and use it. I am still learning, still growing.

Avery was not who I was, although it is who I am now. Before, Avery was a scared young man dying in the middle of a war he didn’t deserve to be a part of. I was drawn to his magic, as he had a raw and powerful skill in it. He was choking on the ground from a bullet wound to his throat. I thought I could save him, and although I tried I was distraught to find my powers were not what they once were.

Avery pleaded to me, begging me to save Bill. His wishes were wholly unselfish, never once worrying that he was dying so young. His magic was so strong it overpowered me, it kept me from moving, it grabbed hold of me and held me in place. I became trapped and merged with Avery as he lay dying. 

Even in his final moments, his only desire was that I protect Bill. No matter what decision I made, it had to be with him. I did not want to linger in war, so I made Bill run with me. New to Avery and new to this life, looking at Bill I saw everything that Clef was. In my eyes, Bill was Clef, just new, reborn. In war there was so much suffering and the temptation to cause it was great. All I wanted to do was hide from it. I thought that hiding in the city, somewhere I was hiding in plain sight, would keep me safe from it. Unfortunately, it still found me.

I was separated from Bill and I understood a suffering I had never experienced before. It hurt me so badly that I feel I did not open my eyes and look around me until many years later. I had traveled the earth, running from my own fears and searching for Bill. Now, I was here in New Orleans, working for Mama in her fortune telling business.

Iggy was here now too, a poor soul who had been bitten by a rougarou. I had tried to save him, and while I kept the curse at bay, his body was forever altered to the form of a rougarou, but his humanity remained in tact. I had meant to save him completely, but I was too late. Despite this, Iggy seems upbeat about his situation, almost ambivalent to what’s to come.

“Oh there you are,” Iggy finds me on the porch where I am eating ice cream from the tub. “I was looking for Mama, any idea where she went?”

I wipe the ice cream from my mouth and try to hide my shame. “Someone called her into town,” I reply quickly. “Some sort of emergency that needed her help.”

“Oh.” Iggy looks me over. “So you’re the one who keeps eating all the sweets in house.” He points to the ice cream tub I’m trying to hide. “I went to go get a cookie last night and found every damn one eaten.”

“Free country,” I grumble.

“How do you not get sick? When we eat dinner you barely touch anything, but you’ll gorge on sweets?” Iggy tilts his head to the side. His hair has grown out and hangs in auburn streaks around his head.

“I’m a grown up, I can handle myself.” I realize my argument is weak, and quite possibly stuipid.

Iggy slowly nods his head. “Uh-huh.” He sits down with my on the porch, taking up one of the old wicker chairs. “You’ve been playing that record a lot that mama got you.” He stretches his long legs out, placing them on the railing. “Doesn’t seem like your type of music.”

I close up the ice cream and pull myself into a ball. “It helps me remember,” I mutter. “It’s kind of important.”

“Kind of,” Iggy chuckles. “It either is or isn’t, thats what seperates important from unimportant.”

I glance at him, seeing his strange features pulled into a smile. “Well then,” I grumble with a shrug. “Important.”

“Something that old,” he murmurs. “What is it? Your grandmother? Old aunt?”

“No, not family in that sense.” I tug the hoodie down over my feet. “It’s a long story, I don’t think you’d care to hear it.”

Iggy chuckles. “One half of my family is Native, the other half is Romani, all I know are long stories.” He tilts his head and smirks at me. “For the most part, long stories are important, so I’ve found, even if they’re boring, it’s important to listen to them.”

“Is that why you’re a rougarou?” I ask. It was a low blow, but a distracting one. I’m not sure I could talk about Bill right now. I didn’t want to cry, let alone bust my guts in front of Iggy. He may act as if things are ok, but it’s because of me he’s trapped here.

Iggy hisses, sucking in a breath through his sharp teeth. “Hurtful,” he glances towards me. “What makes you think that was ok?”

I shrug. “Not getting bitten my a rougarou seems like an important story you would have listened to, that’s all I’m saying.”

Scoffing, Iggy glances away from me and stares off towards the dock where Mama’s boat is swaying in the water. “It wasn’t that I didn’t listen to a story,” he snarls under his breath. “It is that I let my emotions get the best of me. My mom was killed by a rougarou we were hunting, and my dad died later of a broken heart.” He cuts his eyes at me. “And before you say shit, that is a real thing. People die from broken hearts all the time!”

“I wasn’t,” my voice catches in my throat. “I know that.”

Iggy settles down and sighs, taking in a deep breath. “I was angry and have been for a long time. I let it control me and fester inside me. The rougarou knew this and it was all of that bile I had built up inside me that made the curse work so fast. Had I completely turned I would have been the monster to end all monsters. I would have been created my hate, forged in anger, and I would have killed anything and everything in my wake. That’s the story I didn’t listen to,” he huffs.

“Huh?” I turn my attention back to him rather than chipping the polish off my toes nails. 

“My dad told me all the time to not let my hatred and anger lead me. There are things drawn to it that want to use it. Had I actually taken that in, I would never be here.” His green eyes soften for a moment. “What you did allowed me to learn the lesson, and you saved much more than me.”

I furrow my brow.

“Avery, you do know what you did right?” he waves his arms out. “Mama, this whole town, I would have killed every single soul in it that night.” he snaps his fingers. “Quick as that. That’s how dangerous I would have been. And instead of killing me like any normal person would, you stopped it.”

I chew on my bottom lip as I avert my eyes.

“If I have to look like this,” he says and places his palms on his chest. “I am fine with it. Sure dating will be a lot harder,” he chuckles. “But there are men and women into shit like this.”

A small smile spreads on my lips. “Stop trying to make me feel good.”

“Nah, I would never.” Iggy takes the ice cream and my spoon. He eats a few mouthfuls before waving the spoon at me. “Now, what’s your long story?” He asks. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t destroy ever apple tree in a one hundred mile radius should I hear that song again.”

I chuckle and shake my head. “It’s a guy.”

“Oh shit,” Iggy laughs as stuffs another mouthful of ice cream in.

I take a very deep breath and let it out slowly. I stretch my legs from inside the hoodie and I lift up my chin. “He was important, precious, I just couldn’t see it at the time. But he did everything for me, he loved me, and I didn’t do what was right by him.”

“So you’re the ass?” Iggy points the spoon at me again. 

I smile. “Yeah. I was that almost certainly.” I turn to Iggy as he eats. “I don’t know where he is, I don’t even know if he’s safe. But hearing that song reminds me of him. How he’d sing it in the shower or while cooking dinner.” I sniffle and tuck my head down in preparation.

“How long have you been looking?” Iggy asks.

“When did the war end?” I mutter under my breath. “Before then but-” I stall for a second as I do the math up in my head. “Well over fifty years.”

Iggy chokes and drops both the spoon and the ice cream. “What?” He hacks and beats on his chest. “Fifty years? Are you fucking pulling my leg?”

I shake my head. “Why would I joke about that?”

“Because you looking fucking twelve!” He wheezes, clutching his hand over his chest. “You tell me you’ve been looking for someone from world war two?”

“We were both soldiers,” I say absentmindedly. 

“He’s gotta be in his seventies by now,” Iggy snaps at me. “Have you just been looking for the same young soldier or have you tried the nursing homes?”

It suddenly hits me, all this time I had been looking for Bill as he was, not what he would be. “Oh,” I gasp softly. “Oh no.”

Iggy grimaces but his gaze is gentle. “You really didn’t think of that?” He squints his eyes. “I know you still look like some fresh peach, whatever the hell you are, but if your Bill is human then he’s probably seventy or older.”

“Oh uhm-” my mouth and throat were going very dry. What if I had already found him and just ignored him? All this time, I was so blindly stupid I had been looking for Bill in all the wrong places.

“I hate to even say this to you now, but he could already be gone, Avery.” Iggy reaches out and touches my hand.”

“No,” I whisper, hanging my head down. “I can’t accept that. Not until-” I cover my head with my arm as the tears start to fall.

Iggy sighs trading seats and sitting right beside me. “I’m not as good as Mama with this comforting thing but.” He pats the top of my head. “There, there.”

I suddenly let out a laugh and look up at him. “There, there? Are you serious?”

Iggy throws up his hands. “What else can I do? I doubt they make a card that says anything on this subject.”

“There, there?” The laugh continues to grow until it’s rolling from my gut.

Iggy joins in with me laughing. We’re both shuddering and guffawing and tears are streaming down my cheeks. After a while we both calm down and lean back in the chair. I take a deep breath and shake my head.

“I always knew there was a very high chance he was gone,” I confess. “I just wasn’t strong enough to admit it at all. You know?”

“I know,” Iggy nods. “I was the same way.”

Inside the phone rings and Iggy stands up. “I’ll go get it. Must be Mama.”

“Tell her to bring home food if she’s heading back!” I shout after him. I nestle back into my hoodie, bringing my knees to my chest as the evening grows cooler. 

Iggy steps back out a moment later. “Mama says she’s going to be gone for the night, so we’re going to have to fend for ourselves.”

“Dammit, I was really hoping she’d bring back some fast food and I could’ve had her soda,” I grumble.

“You know, you can always go out?” Iggy offers. “I’d love to, personally, but I don’t think my makeup skills are strong enough to hide all this.” He swings his hands around his everything. 

I frown and slouch my shoulders. “Do you know how to cook?”

“Burnt things,” Iggy says with a shrug.

I scoff and grumble under my breath. “Fine. I’ll go in. What do you want?”

Mama took the good truck, leaving the old car behind in case of an emergency. It was hard to crank, and if you wanted it to stay running you couldn’t turn off the engine, you had to leave it running. So when Iggy and I finally got it going, I drove into town to get food at the diner.

I leave the car running outside while I rush in and order. As I’m waiting for my food someone taps my shoulder from behind by Old Allen.

“That your car, Avery?” He points out the window where the car is smoking like an addict.

“Oh no!” I wail and dart outside. I turn the car off immediately, coughing and gagging the entire time. As I get out of the car seat and I can hear a bunch of people around me, but the black smoke is so thick I can’t see anybody through it.

“Get back, get back!” Someone grabs me, pulling me away and towards the diner when under the hood something explodes and fire shoots out. There is screaming and panic for a moment while the car screams it’s very last scream.

Whoever pulled me away still has their hands on me. “Shit, you ok?” He coughs. 

“Yeah,” I whisper breathlessly. “Oh god-” I shake my head. “Mama is going to kill me!” I cup my hands over my face and bend over in half. 

“Hey, hey, at least you’re ok! Your mom will probably understand why it uhm...blew up. You didn’t put like...pop rocks or a cherry bomb in the car right?” He asks cautiously.

“I’m stupid but not that stupid!” I snap. I start to raise up. “That thing is older than hell. It was surely on its way out the-” I stop...everything. I forget to breathe, I can’t even blink. Time has gone into a stand still as I look up at the man standing before me.

He’s wearing a bomber jacket, dark jeans, and a black shirt. His hair is full of dark curls peppered with rich gray. He’s got unshaven stubble on his jaw and there is a scar running down his forehead to his right eye, which his eyes are deep brown. He has crows feet, but aside from that, he looks just like the picture.

His mouth hangs open and his eyes dart all over me. Before I even breathe again, I rush up to him, wrap my arms around him, and kiss him then and there. His strong hands wrap around my waist just like he used to do. His tongue grazes the roof of my mouth before he gently bites my bottom lip. I taste salt from both of us as tears run down our face.

As we pull apart we laugh then kiss again.

“How is this possible?” I cup his face between my hands. “You’ve not changed at all!”

“Look at you,” Bill runs his fingers through my hair and pushes it away from my face. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

We nearly topple over as he picks me up, so while the fire department deals with Mama’s car, we go into the light of the diner. Bill looks unchanged, remarkably so. Iggy had said he would be an old man, yet he still looked as handsome as he did when we were last together.

“I’m not sure what happened,” Bill tells me. “I was held as a prisoner of war, but no matter what they did to me, nothing ever happened.” He lifts up his sleeve to show me countless scars. His skin was like the night sky and the scars were like stars.

“Oh Bill,” I whisper as I place my hands on his arm. “I’m so sorry.”

Bill smiles. “You’re not calling me Clef.”

I look into his eyes and pull him down for another kiss. “I’m just glad to have you back at all.”

Bill cups my cheek. “The Technocracy held me captive for a long time, but eventually, they started growing old and before I knew it, they just let me go.” He smiles at me. 

“But you’re not,” I murmur. “How are you not?”

“It’s like reverse dog years,” he replies.” I figured it had something to do with you, something to do with the runes on that picture Avery had.” Bill brushes his thumb under my eye to catch a tear. “In any case,” he whispers. “I finally found you. I know you’re ok.” His smile is soft and sad. “All these years, I thought Hans still had you.”

I shook my head. “I got away from him,” my voice cracks. “I killed him, Bill,” I whimper.

“It’s ok,” Bill puts his arms around me. “It’s ok.”

We go to Bill’s hotel room at the edge of town. Not much is said as we make our way inside. Bill pours us a couple of drinks, but not much than a sip is taken from them. The air is hot and thick as we cling to one another. Our bodies are pulled so fiercely to one another. I don’t remember his body being so hairy, but it feels good pressed against my skin. My fingers work down his scars, studying each one until he fills my vision.

We fall onto the bed where we tangle together, lost in a heat and passion that we had both thought was long gone. Bill’s fingers move inside me, preparing me and opening me up. The slick lube drips between my thighs and makes them glisten.

Bill’s moans and sighs in my ear elicit a long dead feeling in my stomach that flutters and moves throughout my body. I kiss him, pulling him close until he’s on top of me. His belly  rubs against my cock as he buries himself inside me. The urgency between us is the same as that night in alleyway behind the bar Bill and Avery once shared.

I cry out as he thrusts deep inside me, his hard cock reaching places long forgotten. He grabs hold of my cock, stroking it as he watches my melting expression. He grunts and snarls, sounding like a desperate animal in heat. All too soon, his heat floods me, but he doesn’t stop. He leans down, sucking me and moaning against me. His fingers stroke down my chest as his tongue presses against my shaft.

I release on his tongue, my cum slips down his throat as his cum starts to seep from within me. Bill raises up, breathing heavy, he takes his drink and downs it in one gulp. I lay useless on the bed, panting and crying as everything washes over me.

When Bill kisses me his tongue tastes sweet. He kisses the tears from my face and lays down beside me.

“You ok?” He whispers.

I nod. “It’s been so long,” I shudder. “I’m afraid I’ll be sore come morning.”

“There hasn’t been anyone else?” Bill asks.

I sit up and look down at him. “There’s never been an apple tree.”

Bill chuckles and arches his brow. “What?”

I shake my head. “Doesn’t matter anymore.” I kiss him, placing my body on top of his. “You’re here now.”