Forever by Pati Nagle Read Free Book Online

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    He tore the bread in half and offered a piece to me, but I shook my head. He went back to feeding it to the ducks, bit by bit.
    I joined him on the bench. The ducks flinched away from me, but only for a second. The temptation of the bread overwhelmed their natural caution.
    I took deep breaths, trying to slow my racing pulse. Watched Lomen’s hands: long fingers, every movement graceful. Thought about those hands on my body, about my hands exploring his.
    When the last of the bread was gone, he laced his fingers and was still. Gradually the ducks gave up hoping for more and drifted away.
    I looked up to find him watching me. Clear, green eyes, steady and calm. My heart gave a hard thump.
    “So,” I said, then couldn’t find more words.
    “I apologize for seeming cold yesterday,” he said. “I wanted to give you the chance to walk away.”
    I gave a soft laugh. “Why would I want to do that?”
    He lifted one shoulder slightly. “Relationships between humans and ælven can be ... painful.”
    “Any relationship can be painful. That’s one of the risks in life.”
    He tilted his head and a tiny line of concern creased his brow. “There are added complications.”
    I stared back at him. Obviously, I had missed something.
    He turned to face me on the bench. “You understand that we are immortal?”
    Immortal. I gaped at him. Yeah, I’d missed that.
    “You’re never going to die?”
    He shifted and glanced toward the pond. “I could die. We’re not indestructible. Accident or illness, or attacks, can kill us. But we do not age.”
    I swallowed. “How old are you?”
    “Not quite two—”
    Holy crap.
    “—thousand years.”
    Holy crap!
    “I’m rather young, actually.”
    I had trouble taking a breath. My voice came out a hoarse whisper. “Why do you even bother with us?”
    “Usually we avoid you—not because we dislike you, but for our own safety.” He sighed. “But we are easily tempted. Look at Caeran, and Savhoran.”
    “I don’t understand why you’d be interested in us at all.”
    He looked at me and broke into a smile. “You fascinate us. You live with such urgency—such fire! And you are amazingly inventive.”
    These words almost turned off my brain. I took a deep breath, trying to stay on track. “Can I ask a question?”
    “Of course.”
    “If you’re immortal, how come you aren’t the dominant species on the planet?”
    His smile faded and his gaze dropped. A shadow of grief came into his face.
    “You breed far more easily than we. For us, conceiving a child is rare. Many ælven never achieve it.”
    I felt an odd sorrow, though I’d never been interested in kids myself. “Can you have kids with humans? Is that any easier?”
    “Yes, in some cases. But the offspring are mortal.”
    His voice was soft with sadness. I wondered if he had watched children of his own grow old and die.
    There was another way that aelven could die. Amanda had told me about it: suicide.
    “Yes,” he said. “Grief drives many of us to seek death. The memories of a long life can become too heavy to bear.” He leaned forward, staring at the water lapping the edge of the pond. “And there are so few of us now—eventually, we will pass from this world altogether.”
    My throat tightened and my eyes began to sting. It wasn’t fair! They were so amazing, and they might go extinct? No!
    “This is one of the reasons the Ebonwatch project is so important to us,” Lomen said. “If we can cure those of us who have been stricken...”
    “I’ll help however I can,” I said, meaning it. “Don’t know how much that will be. If a cure was possible, I’d have thought you’d have found it by now.”
    “We’ve only just started looking.”
    I blinked. “You’re not serious.”
    His mouth curved into a lopsided grin. “Most of us are not very scientifically inclined, I fear. We tend to leave the innovations to you.”
    “You mean Ebonwatch is the first attempt to cure this—this—jeez,