Free Ageless by Cege Smith Page A

coming, and enjoy the party.”
    Violet was relieved that the
interview was over, but Jeremiah surprised her when instead of
leading her back to the bar, he pulled her to a door at the back of
the room. Moments later, she found herself standing on a wide
veranda under a steamy summer moon. Although a few people strolled
about, the area was mostly empty. She couldn’t see anything out in
the darkness but the shadows of trees. It felt isolated but the
fresh air was intoxicating.
    “Where are we?” she
asked.
    “My estate in North Carolina at the
foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains,” Jeremiah replied as he guided
her to the stone railing. “I don’t know about you, but it was
feeling a bit stuffy in there. I thought you might appreciate some
air.”
    “North Carolina?” Violet said with
a start. Bayersfield was in Pennsylvania.
    “If you help me, Violet, I will
ensure that you are safe and sound back in your old life in no
time,” Jeremiah said quietly.
    His voice was sincere, but Violet was still trying
to process the fact that she was hundreds of miles from home. That
made the idea of escaping that much more difficult. But strangely
she felt in tune with the quiet solitude and the man who was
studying her reaction. He kept behaving differently than she would
have expected.
    “I don’t know what you need me to
do, but as long as you promise that you aren’t going to hurt me,
I’ll try to help you,” she said finally. As much as she didn’t want
to admit it, she was intrigued by the idea that she might actually
see the Fountain of Youth. To be able to know that her obsession
was actually real was something that she wouldn’t turn down in a
million years.
    “I couldn’t harm you, Violet,” he
said. He reached out and softly touched her arm.
    She felt her heart skip a beat. He
was making her head spin, and she needed to keep her thoughts
clear. “Why did Jonah introduce me saying that my last name is
Ward?” There were still too many things she didn’t know, and
although pieces were starting to fall into place, she still
couldn’t see the bigger picture.
    “Margo told you the story of my
family and the battle with the warlock?” Jeremiah asked. He
continued when he saw Violet nod. “The warlock’s name was Bruckhart
Ward.”
    Violet stiffened. “You think that
he was one of my ancestors?”
    “I know he was one of your
ancestors,” Jeremiah said.
    “How?”
    “You heard me remind Pamela and
Gregory that the Ward and Montrose families lived peaceably side by
side for hundreds of years. Well, that all ended when I did
something that Bruckhart Ward could never forgive.”
    Violet trembled. “Which
was?”
    Jeremiah stepped closer to her.
“Are you cold?”
    It wasn’t a chill in the air that
was making her skin tingle. She shook her head. Then he seemed to
understand and he smiled down at her. It was a dazzling smile and
it warmed her even more.
    “I fell in love with Bruckhart’s
daughter.”
    The idea that Jeremiah had loved
anyone else felt like a blow, even if it was a thousand years ago.
“Well, if everyone was so buddy buddy, I don’t understand why that
would be a big deal,” Violet said. She gulped as it seemed like
Jeremiah was inching closer.
    He chuckled but then his face
turned solemn. “Bruckhart did not wish for his daughter to be
condemned to live a life like mine. So when we tried to run away so
that I could take her to another witch who was going to make her
immortal, Bruckhart was so angry that he cursed all of my kind. He
swore that he would hunt all of us down and kill us.”
    “Harsh,” Violet said. She blinked.
“So what happened to her?”
    “She died,” Jeremiah said quickly.
“Not long after Bruckhart’s curse took full effect on me. Don’t
forget, she was mortal.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry,” Violet
said.
    Jeremiah caught a wisp of her hair
that had gotten free and tucked it back behind her ear. “It was a
long time ago and I’ve moved on. I loved Rose deeply