Page 147 of Prodigal Son

He looked up from a ledger and eyed Cain with a suspicious gaze. “What now?”

He got right to it. “I love her.”

Eleazar sat back and folded his arms at his chest. “Which one, Cain?”

His head jerked back. “What do you mean, which one?”

Quietly, without facetiousness, Eleazar asked, “Destiny or Cybil?”

Cain gawked at him. “Cybil is a child.”

“I am aware, but she will not always be so. The two of you share a unique bond. Even now, with her mind unwell, she calms in your presence. Was it not the sight of you with another female that sent her off in a fright? If we are to speak with veracity, let us at least recognize the complete predicament with all the impediments on the table.”

Cain’s jaw tightened. “I do not feel that way about Cybil. I love her like a little sister. That is all.”

“I’ve offended you. I forget how young you are. You see, Cain, at almost six centuries old, I’ve seen a lot. Immortals live a very long time, sometimes we have several lifetimes in one existence and other times, like in my case, we must wait half a millennia for the right female to come along. I watched your grandfather wait for your grandmother to come of age, just as your father awaited your mother. I was there the day your sister, my wife, was born. Immortality makes us timeless. As such, age only matters for a very short time. In six years, that child will be an adult. Unwell or not, she has a very long life ahead of her.”

“If Cybil was my mate, her body would have accepted my blood without it affecting her mind. I don’t expect to find another mate. Annalise was it. But that doesn’t mean I can’t love again.”

“So it’s to be the mortal gossip then?”

“She’s a reporter, not a gossip.”

“Is there really a difference? You understand I cannot permit her to live here. If you choose to be with her, you’re choosing a life outside of The Order.”

“What if she had immortal bloodlines?” When the bishop looked at him in confusion, he explained Gracie’s theory. “If she’s right, that changes everything.”

“If she’s right, Cain. A marking is not a scientific surety.”

“But a blood test is. There has to be a unique quality that identifies immortal bloodlines even when the biological parent is unknown.”

“We would have to run tests between Magdalene and Dane’s blood to find similarities.”

He suddenly realized what must have upset Gracie and had a disturbing thought. “ Is there any way Magdalene could be related to Dane?”

“She is not. Her bloodline is Esch and mortal. Dane’s immortal strain comes from a paternal gene, identical to Christian but not of the Schrock line.”

Technically, the bastard Schrock should have gone by a different name, but Adriel refused to link her son’s identity with Christian’s father, so she raised him under her name alone. Bloodlines were a complicated business the Amish observed carefully. This was the first time his people have ever tried to understand something as complicated as DNA, but technology proved much faster than sifting through pages and pages of birth charts and genealogical records.

Happy for Dane, but more excited for his own possible good fortune, he met the bishop’s stare. “I’m going to need that test.”

They could test Destiny’s blood, but without a sample from another, they would not have the means to link her paternity. While their order contained only immortals, there were many other immortals living lawlessly in the modern world among the English.

“How long do half-breeds live?” he asked, afraid to hope of inevitably feeling the effects of blind optimism returning to his heart.

“We’re unsure. Without older representation, we can only approximate. We know they heal faster than full blooded mortals, more so once they reach adulthood and start consuming blood, but we’re reluctant to test how much injury they can truly withstand. The Council will be investigating more cases in the future. I’m proposing that we search the globe for elder half-breeds so we can set a precedent.”

In that moment he realized it didn’t matter. He wanted to be with Destiny regardless of how much time she had left. One day or five hundred years, every moment was worth it.

“I want permission to go to her. If her bloodlines show any similarity to ours, I want to ask her to come back with me. Either way, if her DNA contains any strain of immortality, she should know what that means.”

“And what if you’re wrong? Will you stay with her, living out her mortal life?”

Now that his heart was open to the possibility and he believed he wouldn’t be disrupting better opportunities for her, he could see no other option. “I will. If she’ll have me.” Convincing her to give him another chance might take some time.

The bishop glanced at the door. “Your sister will miss you.”

“And I will miss her. I will miss all of them, but my time here has taught me that living without the female I love is not living at all. She consumes my waking thoughts, and I’m filled with a gaping void that pains me daily. My longing won’t relent.”

---