Free Escaped the Night by Jennifer Blyth Page A

needed him to . I knew this helped him figure out whom, or what killed my family, if he hadn’t already known.
     
    Well , at least now I had a real idea of how my family died. I never had received a straight an swer from the police on what really happened. I ’d only ever heard it wasn’t like anyth ing they’ d seen before. Now , I understood what they meant . It was because v ampires, werewolves and doomahorns killed them. They wer e supposed to be make-believe… t hey weren’t supposed to be real.
     
    This was so much to absorb. It was hard to find out about the significance of my n ew boyfriend who was also immortal , a nd that a war was going on in the immortal world and somehow I was involved , but t he hardest part was realizing that vampires and werewolves had killed my family. It felt as though the air had been kicked right out of my chest. I needed a moment to catch my breath.
     
    Once I pulled myself back together, I started asking Jay ce questions . “What do the bad nightwalkers eat besides humans? How do immortals die or get destroyed? H ow do I defend myself should one attack? Is there any way for me to protect myself? Most importantly, w hat does any of this have to do with me?”
     
    Jayce b egan answering my questions as honestly as he could. “It’ s very difficult to destroy an immortal, you basically need to be one to do it. Don’t get me wro ng, humans have done it , but it’s much more difficult . Th ey simply don’t have the same strength.”
     
    I s hot him a helpless look. I was human after all.
     
    He ignored my discouragemen t and continued answering my questions for the most part . There were a few he ignored, but h e did give me tons of other i nformation about t he immortal world.
     
    “Some i mmortals are born while others are made. The ones born begin as babies and grow until they hit their destined maturity . Then they stay that age fo rever. The ones that are made come from the bites of vampires and werewolves . They’ll remain the age they were when they were bitten . Vampires and werewolves are the only immortals capable of changing a person’s mortality. ”
     
    I shivered before asking, “Why di dn’t my family change into nightwalkers? Why did they just die? ”
     
    “I’m not sure,” Jayce said.
     
    “Oh,” I replied solemnly.
     
    Jayce looked at me and I saw sympathy in his eyes. He continued. “ The greatest honor for any immortal is to go up to the heavens. It doesn’t mean we die : instead, we shoot up into the stars to be joi ned together with our true love or soul mate for all time . ”
     
    “That’s beautiful,” I said.
     
    “You know when you see a shootin g star ? Pay special attention next time to see if it’s rising or falling. If it’s falling, it means an immortal has just been born or created . As you can tell by the night skies, this happens all the time.” Jayce looked up towards the sky. “If it’s rising, well, you’ll see… it’s quite the spectacular sight.”
     
    I followed his gaze , wondering what he was looking for . The sky looked the same to me. I saw it beginning to change the same as it did every night when the sun went down.
     
    “B orn immortals have a life cycle so mewhat similar to a human. They age in the beginning the same, the difference is t hey can only mature as old as they’ re destined to be . Some stop aging when they are sixteen , while others don’t stop until they are in their forties. It’s all kinda pre-pl anned; I guess you could say it ’ s part of the deal they make for this creation. They wo n’t ge t sick or deal with any other negative aspects of human life. As I mentioned before, once they find their true soul mate and the timing i s right , they get sent up to the heavens together . They become one entity for all time. ”
     
    He sounded excited, sharing secrets of the immortal world with me , and I couldn’t help but change my mood . I was co mpletely intrigued by Jayce