Immortal Soulmates 2 – Mates

Part 1

New Orleans

"Congratulations, on your 30th birthday, sweeties," Dave told his two youngest daughters, who were twins.

A child turning 30 was an important event for their family. It meant that for an immortal you were fully grown and would stop aging completely. Of course, that didn't mean that an immortal's emotions and mental processes wouldn't mature over the next few decades, a process that never stopped really, not so long as you were alive to learn and grow.

"Thank you daddy," Harper and Brooke said together, grinning at him.

"In honor of the occasion, just like we did with all your siblings, we're going to take you out for a nice dinner," Penelope told her two youngest.

"Also since you have now officially come of age among the immortals, the accounts I set up for you both are officially yours completely, instead of only partially. I know you will be responsible and won't drain the accounts for no reason," Dave said, even as he smiled proudly at them for they had become two mature young women in the last 30 years and both had several college degrees that they could use if they so desired. In fact, they had just graduated with their fourth degrees and that was really good as most people only got one, sometimes two. They had gotten 4 degrees in about 12 years which was really good and none of their parents would be surprised if they turned out to have genius level intellects. But then again both Dave and Penelope were very intelligent people themselves and also might have a genius level intellect, particularly Penelope who was the goddess of computers. Of course, neither had ever had an IQ test done, but that didn't really matter to them, as most people never did unless they were rather unusual and showed their intelligence at an early age. Well, either that or somebody noticed that their child never had any trouble with the schoolwork, a teacher for example. Such people that showed genius at an early age did exist but then there were also plenty of really smart people in the world that were probably geniuses, just not so blatant that it was noticed.

"All of you taught us well," Harper said.

"We know how to look for investments constantly and we can always come to you for advice," Brooke added.

"You taught us how to be responsible," Harper said, smiling.

"So we did," JJ said speaking for the first time smiling as Penelope's two youngest had now reached that critical age. Of course, to her they would always be her little babies, even though she hadn't given birth to them in this case. Still, no matter whose DNA they had they would always be the whole family's children.

"Well then, I'll make reservations somewhere really nice so be prepared to dress up," Dave said smiling.

"What about Bernard's?" Brooke asked with the pleading expression.

Bernard's was a five star restaurant that was extremely exclusive and hard to get into, but the food was also excellent. Much better than a lot of other places. Luckily, Dave happened to have connections at that particular restaurant, so the girls would likely get their wish.

"We'll see," Dave said, but the twins exchanged excited expressions, because that usually meant that they would get their wish.

My children sure do know me well, Dave thought ruefully before he grinned in his mind.

"Come on, let's go choose what outfits we want to wear for tonight," Brooke urged her sister who nodded also smiling. Both girls were a lot like their mother Penelope who loved to dress up, while JJ was more of a casual clothing person, though she dressed up when necessary without complaint. Penelope liked to dress up no matter where she went and she never wore jeans or T-shirts, though the other two did, even in public. There was nothing wrong with jeans as he sometimes wore them himself depending on what he was doing of course, but mostly he wore them around the home. Just because most of the family wore jeans didn't mean they wore anything but the most expensive brand names, like Viva.

Still, they meshed surprisingly well as a family unit and Dave couldn't've been happier with his life.

Dave considered how all of them had been raised or when they had been born he could understand why they had different taste in clothing. Emily for instance never wore a dress or skirt unless she absolutely had to, considering that was all that was appropriate for woman when she was born Dave could hardly blame her. He knew that Emily had been glad to burn every single dress or skirt she owned once it was appropriate for women to wear pants or shorts. There were plenty of dressy outfits that contained pants and a blouse or even suits for woman that could be bought, that made them look even more gorgeous then they already were. If they were going somewhere fancy Emily looked spectacular when she put something like that on, though mostly, she preferred expensive, but casual clothes.

JJ on the other hand, was a very casual clothes type person, but she certainly cleaned up well when she wore a dress or skirt. JJ still didn't believe that she was as beautiful as Emily or Penny no matter how many times Dave told her so, but so long as she knew that she was loved that was all that mattered.

She had accepted that Dave thought she was beautiful and really that was all she needed to be happy. It wasn't even that JJ believed she was plain just that she was more of the girl next-door sort of person. She didn't realize that she had an inner beauty that shined through, as she liked to believe the best in everyone, even though she knew that was evil in the world, had even confronted it a few times. She wasn't naïve or innocent by any stretch of the imagination, but still, she liked to believe the best of humanity until proven otherwise. Still, she had sharp defensive skills, so it wasn't like she was totally naïve and believed that nothing bad whatsoever could happen to her. After all, she had been attacked twice by men centuries ago.

One had hurt her so badly that the doctors of the time had said that she might never be able to have children or at least not carry them to full term. The other had been in the process of at least beating her up for the money in her wallet when she was walking to her car from her place of employment, shortly after she had met Dave and Emily. The fact that he had been drugged up to his eyeballs hadn't made JJ feel any better at the time, nor should it have.

That particular mugger had ended up dead thanks to Dave, although he and Emily were the only ones that knew it. JJ might suspect that it had been Dave that had broken the mugger's neck, but if she did she had never said anything about it.

JJ had surprisingly accepted the situation unsure if she would be jealous of Emily since women in general tended to be very territorial of their man, but she hadn't been, even before the bond was complete. Once the bond was finalized it prevented jealousy between the different mates of an immortal when they had more than one, which didn't happen often. She had had to ease into it, but surprisingly, she and Emily had gotten along from the first time they had met and the jealousy that JJ had expected to develop considering that they were sharing the same guy had never come to pass.

It didn't mean that everything had been easy, as JJ had had to work up to sleeping with two people instead of one, one of whom was another woman, even if the relationship between them was entirely platonic. She had been raised in a traditional household one mother, one father. It didn't help that threesomes or foursomes weren't exactly very normal either, though some people played at it, but it never lasted, at least usually.

Still, even though it had taken time, JJ had been surprisingly accepting and that was all that mattered.

Now Penelope his last mate was very extravagant in the way she dressed. She was cheerful and upbeat and dressed more boldly, in bright colors. She wore her individuality like a cloak. It didn't matter really because Dave loved all three of them deeply and completely and they knew it. Despite the fact that they were different in many ways they were also surprisingly similar in many others, like their ethics and morals for example. Still, all three were great friends and considered each other sisters and that was more than fine with him, because it certainly lessened the arguments since they got along so well. They been very close from the beginning but then Emily had been prepared to accept JJ and Penny, simply because she had known since she was a child that he had more than one mate, so there hadn't been any jealousy, even before the bond between him and Jennifer was complete at least not from her end.

Penny was also a genius on any type of electronics, but especially computers and she redid their history every few decades, which helped them move more easily in society, so that the four of them didn't have to be so careful.

Dave had always been grateful for her skill, as it made things much easier for the four of them.

"I had better go make those reservations," Dave said finally.

"And we had better go get dressed up some, as Bernard's is very exclusive," Emily said smiling.

"You go ahead, I'll join you in a few minutes," Dave said smiling at them. "It doesn't take me as long to get ready as it does you three."

"I know, men have it so easy," JJ said sounding a little aggrieved. "I mean all they have to do is get dressed, slap on aftershave and brush their hair and teeth. It takes them 20 minutes, maybe half an hour if they have to take a shower and shave to."

"I know it doesn't really seem fair does it?" Penelope asked rhetorically.

"That's just the breaks," Emily shrugged. "Life isn't fair anyway."

The three ladies disappeared upstairs into the master bedroom, which had been enlarged.

~~~Immortal Soulmates~~~

"Well, don't you look beautiful," Dave complimented his two daughters sincerely. The twins were different from each other as night and day. Harper was almost as tall as he was given a half inch. She also had his black hair, except she kept it long, way past her shoulders and it was also naturally curly like Penelope's. Brooklynn on the other hand, had brown straight hair, that was also a dominant color and was the most common after black and it ran in almost anybody's family, no matter their ethnicity. She was also short more Penelope's height which was 5'7', but a couple of inches taller at 5'9'. Both had brown eyes, but since he and Penelope had that color that was to be expected really, since it was dominate over all the others. Harper was tall and statuesque, while her sister took after her mother in the shape of her body being bigger boned, though not as much. It was fairly obvious they were sisters but not that they were twins and nobody would ever know it unless they knew both personally, because they were just too different looking.

Still, they were close, as most twins were, despite the fact that they looked different and also had vastly different personalities. They had both done well in school and didn't seem to struggle with this schoolwork and in fact, seemed to find it incredibly easy and neither ever needed any help, particularly when he came to computer science. Both girls were just as good on computer as their mother and they might decide to take it up in some form as a career. They might even decide to follow their mother in doing new backgrounds for other immortals for a very nice fee each time, but if that was the case they hadn't informed the rest of the family yet.

"Thank you, daddy," Brooke told her father giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, which he accepted with pleasure, as he could never get too many hugs and kisses from his children. Really, Immortals were affectionate, especially with those they were close to and the Rossis were a very close family, even if most of their children were out there somewhere in the world doing whatever they wanted with their lives. That wasn't to say that they didn't hear from their children on a fairly regular basis or see them at least every few years, but that didn't mean he didn't miss them.

"You're quite welcome, sweetie," Dave said smiling. "I know you've been considered adults for quite some time, but among immortals turning 30 is a rite of passage. You're now considered fully grown adults among our kind as you stopped aging the moment you turned 30 at midnight. You'll no longer grow any older, though your mental processes and emotions will mature the more experience you gain."

"We know, daddy," Harper said trying not to roll her eyes.

"You certainly told us often enough over the last couple years," Brook added.

"You've taught us well, now you need to trust that we learned the lessons that you've taught us," Harper said.

"Yeah I know, forgive an old man for not wanting to let his last two children grow up completely," Dave apologized, looking rather sad.

"I'm sure you'll have some more in a few decades, daddy," Brooke suggested.

"No, we won't, sweetie," Dave explained gently. "Your mothers and I decided that it was time and that I was going to get myself permanently fixed. You're the last children we're ever going to have unless we adopt at some point, which we might decide to do eventually."

Harper and Brooke gasped at this information for they had not known that this decision was even brewing since they had been away at college for a large portion of the last dozen years.

"You actually went ahead and did that?" Brook asked with a rather shocked expression.

"We did, because we've had well over 200 children, sweetie," Dave explained. "We decided together that the two of you were going to be the last. Thanks to our ability to have children every five years, well, we've done our share of procreating for the Immortal race. All four of us decided together that it was simply time. Since I'm not about to have any children unless it's with my mates it was me that decided to go through an operation, so that it would only have to be done once instead of three different times."

"So they'll be no more brothers or sisters for us," Harper said still in shock.

"I'm afraid not, sweetie," Dave said.

"It wasn't a last-minute decision," Penelope said coming out of the master bedroom, dressed and ready to go. "It was a decision that had been brewing for at least a decade and then I got pregnant with you and that was when we decided that you two were going to be it."

"Once Penny was pregnant the decision was made by all of us and Dave went through an operation shortly afterwards," Emily added coming into the living area.

"You were a rather unexpected surprise, because Penny forgot to have her IUD replaced, which needs to be done once a year. It was just a happy accident," Dave said.

"Now that you've reached thirty though, you're considered adults not just in the human world, but in the immortal one as well," JJ said finally emerging from the master bedroom.

"Of course, 18 is considered an adult in our society to, but you're now considered fully mature once to reach the age you are now. Even at 18 you're not necessarily considered responsible for your own actions depending on what kind of action it is at least among our kind, although humans think differently of course."

"We understand it was a mutual decision, but you sure did shock us, since we had no idea that you had even been discussing it," Harper commented, seeming to finally have recovered from the surprising news.

"We know how shocking it is," Dave said.

"And if we could only have children every 70 or 75 years like most immortals we likely wouldn't have gone ahead and done it," Emily added.

"But between us we've had well over 200 children, so as Dave said I think we did our part to increase the immortal race," JJ added.

"I think so and I'm definitely grateful that I'll never have backaches, weird food cravings or swollen ankles ever again," Penelope added. "Dave was really good about getting up in the middle of the night to prepare me whatever I wanted, but still, I won't miss being pregnant."

"I definitely won't," Emily said. "I might've only had one at a time instead of twins, but that doesn't mean I'll miss everything that goes along with pregnancy."

"I would love to have a few children," Brooke said looking wistful.

"Your day will come, sweetie," Dave promised his daughter. "You'll meet your mate someday and have beautiful children together."

"But only every 70 or 75 years," Harper sighed, also looking a little wistful.

"That's the way that Ilithyia had to fix it, darlings," JJ told her daughters.

"We know," Brooke agreed.

"You made sure we knew how our race began," Harper added.

"And about the history and laws that we must abide by, so that we don't lose our immortality," Brooke added.

"It doesn't mean that I don't wish we could have children more than every hundred years," Harper said.

"Harper's right you know, we really have been incredibly blessed," Emily said. "Mostly immortals can only have one child every hundred years, though of course, if you have more than one mate then you can have more than one child at a time."

"But many immortals don't have but a single mate, so that means they can only have a single child at a time," Penelope said.

"Yeah, I know and I also know that I've been incredibly lucky, that I've always known I had three mates, even if I had trouble finding two of them," Dave agreed.

"Well, hopefully, we'll find our mates to, even if that's not for a couple hundred years," said Brooke.

"I hope you do because you'll never be fulfilled completely without them," Dave told his daughters. "You'll always have a whirling blankness in your souls, just like all immortals do until they find their mates. You ought to be feeling them right now, since you are now fully mature."

"Yeah, we do," Harper said looking at her sister who nodded.

"Luckily, you don't feel that blankness until you hit 30, because it would be hard for kids to deal with or a teenager," JJ said. "They wouldn't understand why they felt as if something was missing from their lives, but by the time an immortal stops aging they have the experience to understand what that feeling means."

"How did you and Emily know that you two were mates if you didn't feel this blankness until you reach 30?" Brooke asked.

"A seer that is famous among our kind told us," Dave said simply. "Sometimes our kind produces seers, which is why Immortals believe in them. It is quite common to have a child's future read when they are quite young. Of course, the future isn't always clear at such a young age and Ilithyia only shows us what we need to see right then."

"But in this case, it showed a clear picture of the two of us getting married when we were older and that was how all the adults knew that we were mates," Emily added.

"We knew from the time we were young children that we were meant to be together and were married at 16," Dave added smiling, as he remembered.

"We never felt that blankness for the two of us, but we certainly did when it came to JJ and Penny," Emily added.

"But Emily only felt that blankness of my missing mates, because I felt it and we share a bond," Dave said.

"16 is awfully young to get married," Harper commented.

"It's not even legal without parental consent," Brooke added.

"There weren't such laws in place back when Emily and I were originally born and a lot of teenagers got married at 14 or 15," Dave told his offspring who gasped in shock.

"Mortals only had so many childbearing years and even if that wasn't true for our kind that doesn't mean that Dave and I didn't know we were meant to be," Emily said.

"We fell in love at an early age, because we already knew we would get married someday, even if we didn't have to get married at 16," Dave said.

"Our parents certainly approved, even if we didn't leave the village where we had grown up for a number of years," Emily said smiling, as she remembered.

"At least we got our own little cottage to ourselves," Dave said.

"Things sure were different back then," Brooke said.

"Yeah, they were," Emily said. "There weren't as many laws for one thing, especially those having to deal with protecting children."

"As we've already said a lot of times children married young, because they needed to produce as many offspring as possible, since so many infants died either at birth or at a young age," Dave said.

"Of course, immortal infants didn't die nearly as often, but since we didn't really gain our immortality until we were at least 5 it could still happen," Emily said.

"That's not true anymore though, because technology has advanced to the point that unless there's a serious problem infants just don't die by the hundreds anymore like was true in the past, at least in most countries," Dave added

"So we don't really develop our immortality until we're five or so?" Harper asked.

"Let's just say by that time an immortal child is not going to be carried off by one of the various diseases that were prevalent at the time Emily and I were born," Dave offered. "You really start to develop your immortality by the time you're two or so, but you're not fully and immortal until you're five."

"Still, a simple flu or cold isn't going to develop in an immortal child," JJ said. "We also didn't have to worry about any baby we had developing something like colic and the same will be true for you and whoever your mates are."

"So we tend to be really healthy even as infants?" Brooke asked.

"Yes, you do," Penelope said. "I have to admit I certainly didn't miss the part of parenting, where you got sick, because if one of you got sick then all the children we had at the time also likely would've caught it."

"And then, it likely would've been picked up by us adults so all of us are certainly grateful that's one thing about being immortals that's a godsend," Emily said. "I certainly didn't miss never catching a cold or the flu or something more serious."

"Especially in Emily's and my case considering when we were born. Getting sick back then often led to your death as medical technology was very primitive. Hell! There was really no technology or at least very little of it. People died back then at a young age much more frequently than they do today at least from some disease. We can cure so many things now in this time that we couldn't back when Emily and I were born," Dave said.

"You can see why Dave and I are glad we never got sick, because who knows if we would catch something that eventually killed us or one of the doctors killed us, because doctoring was very primitive back then," Emily said with a reminiscent look in her eyes.

"However, this doesn't mean that you don't need to be careful whenever you do have children, because children tend to get into trouble and just because they are fully Immortal by five doesn't mean they can't die due to an accident. It takes time to gain wisdom and at five or even ten a child doesn't think about consequences," JJ said.

"A child can run out into the street for example and be run over by a car and I doubt very much that we would be able to save the child in question unless of course, it was only a minor accident and the car had stopped or at least slowed down, so the child wasn't to badly hurt," Emily said.

"Most of them don't have any sense, any idea of the danger they are placing themselves in," Penelope agreed, "with some exceptions."

"Yes, some children can be sensible and don't get into as much trouble as possible," Dave agreed. "A lot of them though, don't believe in their own mortality."

"So our immortality saves us from most things, but not from sheer stupidity," Harper suggested.

"I wouldn't call it that," Penelope shrugged, "Most children just aren't known for thinking before they act as that takes time and maturity."

"Still, immortal children survive many things that would kill a mortal child," JJ said.

"But you know Dave was able to anticipate a lot of things, because he does have brothers and sisters that he and I helped watch over sometimes," Emily said.

"In any case, now that everybody's ready we really need to go we'll be late for our reservation," Dave said. "We can talk more about this later if you like and you can always come to any of us for advice just like always."

"We will, if we need to," Brooke said.

"Yeah, we will," Harper agreed. "I'm sure we will still need your advice from time to time."

"Well, you know how to contact us if you need to," Emily said smiling.

"Well, right now, we're staying in the area, but that probably won't be a permanent thing," said Brooke.

"Not now that we're done with our college education," Harper said smiling.

"Well, at least we got to see you fairly frequently, since you decided to go to the university here in New Orleans," JJ smiled.

"Like that matters," Harper snorted. "I'm sure you would've still visited at least every few months, even if we had gone to college somewhere far away."

"You're probably right about that," Dave grinned. "You were the last children that we were going to have after all and since you are I'm afraid I'm going to have an even harder time than normal letting you go."

"So do you think we'll find our mates, soon?" Brooke asked.

"I don't know, sweetie, it's certainly possible," Emily answered before the others could. "Dave and I were mates from the moment of our births, but I am afraid that doesn't happen too often."

"Of course, it's very possible you'll find your mates in a decade or two instead of having to wait centuries, but I wouldn't count on it," Dave warned them not unsympathetically. "Realistically, Ilithyia never wants to make anything to easy, because then you don't appreciate it like you should. I remember how much trouble it was to locate JJ, even when we finally found what city she was in."

"Penny was a little easier, although we had a hard time finding out that she was located in New York. Once we got there she showed up within a week already knowing where her destiny lay."

"Yeah, we know all about that already," Brooke agreed smiling.

"Yeah, we told it to you often enough as a bedtime story," Penelope smiled.

"You know we both got a full talent to see the future," Harper mentioned.

"So maybe we'll see when our mates are going to be born," Brooke said.

"I wouldn't count on it, sweetie," Penelope gently chided her two youngest. "The gods only show you what they think you need to see and from what I've learned from other seers who are immortal they don't really like showing you your own future unless it's a rather unusual situation."

"The gift is meant to be used to help others," Dave added. "Though sometimes it does warn you if there is a dangerous situation developing around you that you're unaware of."

"That's too bad, but I guess I can understand," Brooke said.

"We still have a lot to learn," Harper added.

"And that is the beginning of wisdom," JJ said smiling, as they pulled up at the restaurant.

"We can discuss this later, as this is a happy occasion," Dave said, as he parked the car.

Both twins nodded solemnly and got out of the car taking their father's arms so that they could all walk into the restaurant together.

~~~Immortal Soulmates~~~