Paragon - Chapter 34: Chapter 34

The last voice I expected to hear again appeared down the line.
"William." I stated.
"Do not sound so disappointed, immortal." He drawled.
I paced near the exit hatch of the plane as we dropped in altitude. Quinn sat warily by the window pretending to be interested outside.
"What can I do for you."
"Friends do not request such things so impromptu. I wish to inform you of the happy coincidence."
My blood cooled.
"Which is?" I gritted out.
"I will be in Japan!" He sang happily. "Such a small world indeed–"
"Listen to me. Whatever game. Whatever entertainment you have planned simply to liven your day holds absolutely no interest to me. You will not follow me. You will be on the next flight out." I growled, gaining Quinn's gaze quickly before she averted it again.
"Come now. It has been so long since I have had the pleasure of another beautiful, unbreakable soul." He murmured with a darker tone. Darker intent. "–besides, it was the demeanour you held that sparked my interest so. No immortal is ever in a hurry. Yet you were. I may wish to observe what has you so... impatient. Call it professional curiosity."
A savage protective instinct stole my saner thoughts. It lengthened my teeth into razors without my permission and made me want to shatter the walls.
"I am going to say this once." I murmured in a low tone. "If you cross my path. If you cross me in this country I will snap your neck." I told him slowly. "I will sate your curiosity in the answer of death. Do we have an understanding, William." I finished in a lethally calm voice.
There was a pause on the line. I waited. Counting the seconds he considered my words. My ability. Then he decided.
"I cannot wait to see you again." He purred, terminating the call before I could snarl back.
The sat phone crumbled in my hand to pieces. Now Quinn stared openly in shock. Her bright green eyes filled with concern and curiosity. I let out a slow breath and moved near to her. I dropped to a knee by her side as the plane dropped more quickly from the sky to land.
She took my hand in some sort of instinctive urge. It coaxed a small and brief smile on my lips.
"You don't need to worry."
"Yet I do all the same." She retorted simply. "Tell me."
"There might be some trouble to deal with." I sighed. She twined her fingers between mine and relaxed her shoulders like this meant little.
"I wasn't expecting our trip to be boring." She muttered.
I snorted despite it and squeezed her fingers lightly.
"Once again, you have a disturbingly low regard for danger Miss Adams."
"You've noticed?" She smirked out the window.
"It's an immortal." I admitted, making her eyes quickly return to me. "He followed me from Mumbai. I don't know if its an obsessive curiosity or he truly is a lonely bastard." I finished in a slight growl.
"That's... almost sad." She said frowning.
"I don't care what he is. If he comes within ten miles of you I will end his curiosity permanently." I retorted darkly. Quinn's heart beat faster and she tightened her hold on me.
"It won't come to that. I assume you have plans about where we're staying he does not know about?" She asked easily.
"I've changed them yes. We will be outside Tokyo–more rural than I had originally intended but still able to get to the city fast enough–"
"Fletcher."
I paused and met her eyes again.
"It will be perfect wherever we go. It's not the country I'm interested in." She told me intently.
My blood flashed cooler and I had to remind myself of the boundaries that were crumbling. I tried to consider what the spacious house out in the quiet Japanese countryside meant with a stunning mortal that tested me at every moment. Focus. Control. Say something.
"I... yes."
Smooth.
She laughed and released my hand before pressing her palm against the side of my face. A smile slipped onto my face as it warmed under her touch.
"I'm looking forward to our next adventure. Stop worrying please."
The overhead Captain's voice interrupted our moment before I could form an intelligible sentence. We were landing in minutes. But I didn't break my gaze with the stunning mortal. I kept hold of her eyes as we descending lower into a new country. One I wished to spend longer in than the others.
One I wanted to explore with Quinn for as long as Paragon or immortals gave us.
* * * * *
Our car pulled up outside a large wooden gate. Private properties in the country did like to have their grounds well established...
Quinn tilted her head near the window and assessed the grounds with wide eyes. I couldn't resist the smirk that took hold. But she was not wrong to be shocked. The Japanese had perfected the art of minimalism and modernity. Natural attributes like wood and large glass windows to allow natural light in at all times. Endless amounts of trees and well groomed gardens...
"Fletcher this is–this is–what is this?" She murmured breathless.
"Some call it a home." I offered.
She poked me in the side and my smirk turned into a grin.
"Do not tell me this is yours. Please."
"This isn't mine." I answered her, glancing at the lights lining the driveway up to the large house. They had kept it flawlessly maintained. She relaxed into the seat before side eying me distrustfully.
"It is isn't it." She deadpanned.
"It is." I chuckled, pointing to a group of bare trees. "Those cherry blossoms become a wonder in spring. They will bloom in a month."
Quinn gawked, scanning the gardens as we ascended the drive to the main house. I had imported trees and plants methodically from all around the country. From the stark red maples to the soft, pink cherry blossoms that came to stunning life at the start of spring time in March. It took teams of mortals to maintain while I was away but it was one of my favourite spaces to be in the world.
One I would not give up. One I wanted to show Quinn. The natural environment married with modernity and architectural marvel. I hoped she saw as much.
"When did you create all of this? It's not just a project this is–how could you leave this behind?" She demanded, catching sight of the long glass and wood of the house now. The driver slowed as he pulled up outside the main doors.
"I never left it. I found time to come back whenever I could between work in London. I would always be here in the spring." I told her casually as I stepped out the door and went for her own. But she was already out of the door turning in place. I smiled again and moved towards the driver as he got out to retrieve the bags in the boot.
I spoke easily in Japanese and declined to let him try and cart all of Quinn's purchases inside. He  bowed neatly and I returned it before he returned to the driver side. I pulled the rest out and nodded to him before closing it.
"I think I'm going to be in a permanent state of surprise with you." Quinn muttered coming up beside me and grabbing a few bags. I kept my own duffle bag close.
"Careful, you've missed a few gym sessions lately. I wouldn't want you to pull something." I drawled, keeping the smile off my face as she hefted a longer bag over her shoulder. But she still had time to flick me the finger with a half hearted glare.
We strode up the few steps before the oak doors. Quinn paused, scanning the wood for a keyhole or handle.
"Don't you have a–"
I pressed the inside of a wooden panel and a key code appeared. I heard her intake of breath and resisted a chuckle. I typed in quickly and the doors slid apart almost silently. Quinn actually flinched back and almost went back down the steps. I caught her back with the bags and nudged her forward.
"Honestly, you're from a modern city." I muttered, shaking my head.
"Lead the way before those things close on me." She retorted, eying the heavy doors.
As I walked in the proximity lights activated in a warm, dim glow. Quinn groaned behind me.
"What next. Will dinner be rising from the ground?" She said exasperated.
"No. I'm looking at the only dinner here." I grinned over my shoulder.
"Likewise." She murmured at my back making me stumble on the floor that was dead level. Mortals. No this mortal. Was unbelievable. Almost uncomprehendingly so. Impossibly so. How could she knowingly say things like that?
"The kitchen is this way. I took the liberty of having it fully stocked." I said nonchalant, as we passed an inner garden behind a hallway of glass. The morning sunlight bounced off the wooden floors and gave everything a cleaner feel.
"Can you cook, Fletcher?" She asked suddenly.
I cut her a raised eyebrow over my shoulder.
"Are you hungry?"
"Are you avoiding the question?" She quipped.
I threw her a dark smile and dropped the bags onto a low square table. "I can cook for you, Miss Adams."
Quinn dropped the rest of the bags before eyeing my duffle bag briefly. She didn't comment on it but she knew its contents. She met my eyes.
"I'm good. Will you show me around?" She asked, switching subjects entirely.
My brows drew slightly but I raised my arm gesturing out the living space in the direction of the open plan kitchen. She led the way, eying every piece of furniture, every stone counter and shining appliance. But nothing was over the top. It was minimal, as if it could rise out of the ground in clean cut perfection. The wooden floors and classic paper shutters and walls gave everything a breathable feel.
She traced her fingers against the paper divider to the next room before sliding it open carefully. I followed behind her burning scent that touched everything she was near. Claiming it in her delicious aura. Quinn walked through a circular wooden doorframe to the interior garden. A square space with a single tall Japanese maple growing. It stood proudly surrounded by glass walls and wood. Bare of leaves for now but soon to be firecracker red.
"I can imagine you here." She murmured, tracing the branches of the maple with her eyes like she could see the red leaves drifting in the breeze.
I followed her on the stone path around it surrounded by finely trimmed grass.
"Is it a good sight?" I stated without humour.
She turned to me and I stopped on the path. I felt the cool air brush against us. Secluded in this small quiet square under the maple branches. There was an odd sense of heightened peace with her here–but also a chaos. A burning desire that forever lingered in her blood.
"I think so." She told me quietly. "When I first met you, you had a calm air about you. No matter the situation or the person–you always met it with a relaxed expression and a ready response."
I stilled and watched her eyes. Listened to the steady pulse under her skin.
"Not with you." I stated, without breaking her gaze.
She frowned, "When I see you with me I don't see anything but calm."
I took a step forward and carefully took her hand in mine. Then I raised it slowly to the pulse in my neck. The very slow and careful beat of dark blood. Immortal blood. Her own heart rate tripped slightly as she touched her fingers carefully to my skin. But then she focused intently. Her eyes widened when she felt the infrequent beat.
"I hope a doctor has never tried to take your pulse." She whispered.
"I can't find many reasons to go. It's not like they could break my skin anyway." I shrugged.
This caught her attention as she left her hand at my neck tracking my heart. The cool blood that moved so slowly around my body.
"How would I tell if you were... not calm?" She asked slowly, eyeing my neck.
I smiled slowly. "You wouldn't. We don't particularly have tells the same way you do. You sweat, your heart moves quickly, your breathing picks up... Whereas immortals–everything is much slower. Reptiles are the closest comparison I suppose."
She laughed, dropping her warm enticing fingers from me finally.
"Alright, lizard woman. Give me something here."
I feigned hurt before moving from the path before her and pacing slowly around the tree. I stepped off the stone thinking about it as I ran my hand slowly against the wood of the trunk.
"Does a tree let you know when it is in pain? When it is happy or anxious?" I asked instead.
Quinn stepped off the path on the other side with a patient but mocking expression. One that said, do not take me for a simpleton. Or perhaps one that said, I am close to violence with you... She paused on the other side of the trunk and tipped her head around to watch me.
"No Fletcher, a tree does not. I'm sure you're about to tell me what your point is." She drawled.
I grinned and rested my head against the side of it.
"Yet it lives for hundreds of years."
"So does a turtle." She added lamely.
"Yes but we're using a tree metaphor, Adams. Keep up."
She pressed her forehead to it on the other side and sighed with a smile.
"At this point I'm going to start favouring the tree for company." She murmured.
I ignored the quip and watched her seriously.
"A tree lives on light. On one sole source of energy. Much how an immortal lives off... Well you know." I ventured, trailing a finger against the vines of wood. Quinn watched me steadily despite my meaning. "It is solid on its surface despite the liquid sap within. Finally its appearance is much the same for hundreds of years. Despite the weather, the age, the experiences it has... It remains as it is until it dies. Everything is concealed on the surface."
"But a tree can be cut. A tree changes with the seasons. And a tree does not feel." Quinn told me crossing her arms against it with a searching look. "Unless you are about to tell me differently." She finished with a growing look of uncertainty.
It made me move from the tree then and step around it to face her fully.
"No, Quinn. I cannot tell you differently. It was those feelings that implored me to find you that night." I pressed myself inches from where she leant and felt her heat and aroma wrap itself around me. "I felt the fear you did, from further than I thought possible. The sheer panic rushing your body in the presence of that man." I murmured low. "Yet you would never know it on my surface. My mask is trained well but I promise it cracks near you, Quinn."
She released a small breath between us. I measured my own and tried to remember what it was not to get wrapped up in her proximity. In our own small world under the tree in the winter morning.
"I don't see that." She whispered, flickering between my blue eyes. "I see a woman that holds herself like she planned every moment. Like nothing can scare her."
"She can be scared." I promised, pressing my head back against the wood so I would not close the inches between us. But Quinn moved to brush her fingers against the edge of my jaw, drawing me back to face her. But then they dropped back to my neck. To my pulse. I shut my eyes as she felt its steady beat.
I smelt the faint rain in the air before the first drop hit my cheek. Yet my eyes remained closed. Completely absorbed by her touch and presence.
"Does the warm against your cold feel... good?" She asked faintly, as more rain fell lightly against us.
"If I am the tree, Quinn." I opened my eyes. "You are the sun."
Her hand froze. As did whatever words had been on her lips. It appeared for once, I could make Quinn Adams speechless. Her eyes couldn't seem to fully realise the moment. So she reacted in a way I hadn't expected and replaced her hand with her head as she pressed herself against me tightly. It took me a breath to react before I drew her close against me.
"You can't–say things like that." She muffled into my shirt and neck. A shivered passed through me.
"Why not?" I responded softly.
She took a deep breath against me that almost felt like a breath of my scent.
"Because it makes everything harder." She mumbled. "Those aren't petty words, Fletcher."
I chuckled against her.
"Quinn, I never deal in petty words. Otherwise I would remain silent."
She smiled against my neck shaking her head and finally drawing back to look at me. She still gripped my shirt tightly in her hands. It felt needful. It felt good.
"I suppose such things are never easy." She mused.
I brushed a few stray strands from her face before capturing it. "You have no obligation to me."
She smiled without humour. "Don't play the fool, Fletcher. You know I wouldn't be here if I didn't feel something already. Something that is enough to make me leave everything behind."
"I'm still trying to work out what that is." I whispered, scanning her face.
"Make me breakfast. Then you might find out." She answered with a grin that froze my heart all over again.
In that moment I decided I would find many ways to see her smile like that again. She really was a warmth that could rival the sun, I mused, as I followed her back out of the small garden and out of the rain.