Free The Everlasting by Tim Lebbon Page A

but—”
    â€œThat’s not just a
thing
!”
    â€œWhatever.” Nina waved her hand as if shooing a fly. “I mean all this. Lewis, the Wide, me.”
    â€œI have an open mind.”
    â€œReally?” She paused, and Scott had to look across at her. He felt something heavy hanging between them that needed breaking. “How open?” she asked. And that scared him more than anything.
    Dawn arrived and the roads came alive with traffic: people driving to or from work, their expressions the same whichever way they were going. Scott drove on, awaiting directions. The woman in the seat beside him seemed unconcerned as to which way they were going. She didn’t even seem to notice.
    â€œCardiff,” Scott said. “Do I get on the motorway for Cardiff?”
    â€œCould,” she said.
    â€œDo I or don’t I?”
    â€œDo.”
    â€œI could drive to the nearest police station. I don’t know who the fuck you are, and I could drive there and tell them I found you breaking and entering.”
    â€œIf it’ll make you feel better.”
    â€œDo you have a record?”
    â€œI don’t exist. Not officially. And I’d just walk right out the door.” She glanced at Scott and smiled, thatdisarmingly subtle twitch of her lip that had such great effect. “I’ve learned a lot over the years.”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œStuff from the Wide.”
    â€œWhat is that?”
    â€œThe truth, of course.”
    Scott eased the car into the flow of traffic on the motorway and kept to a steady sixty. Was he doing the right thing? The thought of going to the police and trying to explain just how Helen had gone missing was ridiculous, but wasn’t there something else he should be doing?
    Looking for the book, perhaps.
    â€œWhy are you helping me?”
    â€œI’m not yet. We’re just driving.”
    â€œSo fill the time for me. Tell me who you really are.”
    Nina laughed, a real laugh for the first time. It made Scott realize just how grim she had been. She sounded like another woman, and he could not help glancing across to see how the laugh changed her face. He was shocked. It made her look like a much older woman.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?”
    Her laughter quickly ceased. “I told you I was immortal, and now you want to know about the real me. It’s like a date. Is this a date?”
    â€œNo. We’re going to get my wife back.”
    â€œRight, right.” She sniggered, but all the humor seemed to have gone. “Right.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œThere are lots of Ninas I could tell you about. They weren’t all called Nina, of course. They lived all over the world. They saw lots of things. They saw wars and revolutions, witnessed discoveries and things made secret forever. Fell in love. Fell out of love. Saw love die in the rot of flesh. Sometimes—most of the time, lately—all they want to do now is rest.”
    â€œYou have all the time in the world. Take a decade on a beach somewhere.”
    â€œI mean
rest
,” she said.
    â€œYou want to die.”
    â€œOf course. That’s only natural.”
    â€œAnd you’re supernatural.”
    â€œIf you say so.”
    Doubts flurried around Scott’s mind; fear played in his tense joints. A truck cut him off and he eased back on the gas, drifting into the inside lane, slowing some more so that he could concentrate. Wrapping the car around a bridge would not help at all.
    â€œWhere has he taken Helen?”
    â€œInto the Wide. That’s far enough. None of you can get through to there—very few, anyway—and there’s no way she will get back.”
    â€œNone of who?”
    â€œYou people.”
    â€œYou mean normal people?”
    â€œYes, normal.”
    â€œI got through.”
    â€œYou
saw
through. It’s different.”
    â€œWhere are you from?”
    She stared at him, but Scott looked ahead at