Page 43 of Anatomy of the Immortal Species
“Easy, little beast.” Mikhail’s hand landed protectively on Amelia’s shoulder.
She flinched away as if burned. Constantine watched the interaction with curiosity.
“All right,” he said. “I’m not sure if it’ll be of any help, but I’ll tell you what I know. The Oracle is essentially a powerful clairvoyant, which literally means she sees clearly… more clearly than others, at least. She doesn’t see the past or the future, as most people think, but the present.”
“The present?” Amelia and Mikhail asked in unison.
“Time, as a concept, only exists in our world. There’s no past, present, or future. Everything has already happened, or ishappening… I’m not sure how to describe it. Imagine a film. It’s already recorded, and you can fast forward or rewind, but it all exists simultaneously. The Oracle can view this film and navigate through it as she pleases. She’s not the only one, of course. Many witches can perform clairvoyance spells, some humans are quite skilled at it, and there are even spirits in the Beyond who do the same. Clairvoyance isn’t that big of a deal, really.”
“Not that big of a deal?” Mikhail repeated in surprise. “Are you saying all the hype around the Oracle is exaggerated?”
Constantine thought the manticore was hoping for a positive answer. “Not at all. The Oracle is significant, not because she can see clearly, but because she’s a channel. A conduit for the Creator. She receives her information directly from him, in addition to seeing the future, the past, and all her other abilities. Sorry to disappoint you, but there’s not much I know about the Oracle, except that she was the one who helped me in Hell.”
Amelia straightened up, readjusting her chair. “Do you meanHellHell?”
Constantine nodded slowly, even as he was trying to dig up a very old memory. “The one and only. I was eleven when I wandered into Hell, although my mother had warned me to stay away. Then the Magician kidnapped me and imprisoned me. He’s a being who resides in Hell and collects souls that materialise in the World of the Damned as children.” Amelia flinched, so he added, “Oh, don’t mourn over them! They’re all sinners who had abused children in their past lives and across other worlds. The Magician tortures their bodies and minds, and forces them to relive everything they had inflicted upon their victims, until they shivered with pain and terror. From the time spent with the Magician, I learnt physical pain is nowhere as terrifying as the nightmares of the mind.”
Mikhail crinkled his nose at the story.
Amelia leaned forward, elbows resting on her thighs. “Was the Oracle in Hell?”
“No. Gretchen was. One of the Magician’s prisoners.” Constantine still remembered the blonde doll-like curls and beautiful, innocent blue eyes of the seven-year-old who stood in the corner and refused to shed a single tear, regardless of the Magician’s efforts. Her outer appearance was that of a girl, but on the inside, she was a fiend. She’d been locked up in Hell for a thousand and five hundred years at the time and was meant to be reborn in another thousand and five hundred. Her dark soul had been the first love of his life.
“We didn’t interact much, as I had been mistaken for one of those fiends and kept in captivity as well. But once, when the Magician had left us alone, she walked up to me and said, ‘So innocent! She said you’d be like that.’ ‘Who?’I asked. ‘The Oracle,’Gretchen said.‘She foretold my death on Earth right before she warned me about you. Said I must help you escape, else I’ll be damned in Hell forever.’”
Mikhail furrowed his brow. “You never told me the previous Oracle saved you from Hell.”
“It was hundreds of years ago and it hadn’t crossed my mind until recently. I don’t know why I thought it was worth mentioning now.” Constantine waved his hand. “Anyway, I wish I could be more help, but my advice for Amelia boils down to one thing: practice every day. Take tiny steps and make sure you don’t push yourself too much. Emotional garbage is worse than physical tiredness. You wouldn’t want to burn out before you’ve even started.”
Amelia nodded. “Thanks for the advice. What happened to Gretchen after she helped you? Did she leave Hell?”
Constantine grinned. “For the sake of all living beings on Earth, let’s hope not.”
***
Constantine’s inability to provide any decent advice for Amelia only fuelled his restlessness. If he still had spiritual powers, he would have travelled to the Beyond and grasped some information from older souls. Perhaps Mikhail had expected as much when he’d brought the Oracle to him for guidance.
Well, another could, would, should situation…
In an attempt to sway his thoughts away from his current uselessness, that evening, he went out and found a consenting, alluring female to lose himself in. His companion wasn’t the most experienced, but she was a quick learner and didn’t shy away from trying out new positions.
While she was riding him in reverse cowgirl style, Constantine closed his eyes and sank into the sinful paradise she offered. It felt good – too good. Especially when he imagined that the blissful tightness around him belonged to Diana. The orgasm hit him harder than the previous one.
The woman’s moans signalled her peak. And reminded him that she wasn’t Diana.
He eased the stranger off him and began the tedious routine of withdrawing, determined not to let his recent imaginings spiral into unnecessary thoughts.
He had been thinking about Diana while screwing someone else. So what?
So what, indeed. Except that for him, sex was always just sex. A sensation. A means to an orgasm. He never associated his arousal with any one woman. His lovers had no faces, just bodies.
He grabbed his stuff, eager to leave, and held the stranger’s gaze. “As soon as I leave this room, you’ll forget me completely.”
16
Mikhail held the antique gold ring, a gift from his father to commemorate his attainment of immortality. The trinket was a family heirloom, passed down through generations. His father could have given it to either of Mikhail’s two brothers, but for some reason, he’d chosen to bequeath it to him.
He hadn’t touched the relic since establishing the Hospital. The guilt he carried over his family’s death wouldn’t let him. But tonight, for the first time in over two hundred years, the urge to grasp it in his hand overwhelmed him. It was the single tangible memory of his past before the Hospital.
