Chapter 28

Southern England

Derrick stopped for petrol at a small roadside station and convenience store.

"You pump… I'll pay," Ellie murmured as she headed inside, her dark hair covered by a baseball cap, her green eyes by dark sunglasses. Beneath her oversized jacket, the boy knew she wore her knives. Derrick nodded and filled the tank. He, too, wore a hat and sunglasses, purchased at their last stop for fuel. When finished… he checked the oil, the tires, and cleaned the windshield… all things Methos had taught him about. He missed his friend… but he had a feeling Methos would not be pleased with Ellie's course of action. He'd expected Derrick to keep her safely on the farm… but here they were… heading back to France. Ellie and Methos had been tutoring him in French… but somehow… he thought he wouldn't have any trouble with the language. Darius had lived in Paris for centuries… Derrick felt those memories of the language would likely come to play once he was exposed to the language again… really exposed to it. They'd likely be there late tonight or early tomorrow.

Ellie wasn't advocating any stops or layovers. Her eyes remained focused on the road ahead… and on finding Methos. Derrick did not doubt that something unforeseen had happened… that much had been clear in Ellie's actions of that last night on the farm. Something had happened that Methos had not expected… and he might truly need Ellie's help… except… was this what they should be doing? She had not had any additional episodes of not knowing where she was… but Derrick didn't know if that was good or bad. He glanced up as Ellie exited the store… a bag of food and drinks in hand. They'd eat on the road… she didn't want to waste any time in getting to the continent.

Derrick was just pulling out when Ellie tensed and looked around… her eyes finally alighting on an Aston-Martin just pulling into the lot… evidently for gas. "Drive Derrick… drive now."

Derrick hit the accelerator as he pulled out once more onto the highway. "Immortal?" he asked and watched Ellie nod.

"It's likely nothing… but I don't want to be delayed." They continued to head south.

-----

Several miles behind them… the Aston-Martin followed, it's driver intrigued by what he'd momentarily felt as the Land Rover had pulled out. A presence, stronger than normal… bewitching in its feel, mesmerizing, intoxicating… it had called to him on a very basic level that he did not fully understand. He'd gassed up in a hurry… anxious to follow… eager to find the immortal he'd sensed.

-----

Paris, the following day

The journey through the chunnel had been remarkably uneventful. Derrick had thought they would take the ferry as they had done on the journey north eight years ago… but Eleanor had decided this was faster.

"It's night… you wouldn't see anything by ferry ride anyway." She sat quietly beside Derrick… her eyes closed… as if she were still focusing on something. Occasionally she looked behind them… as if sensing another immortal… but when she did so… she simply encouraged him to speed up a bit. "Not so it's dangerous… or enough to get us noticed… but a little."

Derrick simply did what she requested. He felt that to argue with her… to insist they stop somewhere… would get him no where. But he was tired, he was hungry… and he really needed to stop for a while.

"We need to stop, Ellie, I'm really done in," he finally said about an hour after they'd passed into France.

Ellie looked behind them and pursed her brows thoughtfully. "Soon Derrick… but not yet. Keep moving unless we need fuel."

"You think that immortal is still on our trail?"

She looked at him. "I don't know if it's the same one… but I want to get to Paris. I know the city well… we can lose him there. Out here… on the road… it's not safe."

Derrick nodded and kept driving. It was the middle of the night… he was nearly asleep at the wheel when he began to notice that they had passed into the suburbs of a major metropolitan area. "Paris?" he asked.

"Paris…" she smiled.

Sometime later she had him park on a side street in the old part of the city.

"Don't leave anything behind that can identify us," Eleanor said as she got out… grabbing their meagre belongings. She leaned in and removed the paperwork from the glovebox. "Lock the door."

"What if it gets towed?" Derrick asked, worried about what Methos would think about losing the Rover.

"It's not important. It ought to be safe on this spot for a few days. We can move it if we need to." She shouldered the backpack she carried and tossed him the duffel that he knew contained his sword. "I have a place near here. We can sleep there."

She walked quickly away. Derrick followed stumbling slightly in his exhaustion. His head ached, his eyes were burning, his hands shivered slightly from having gripped the steering wheel for so long. And… he was hungry. He hoped she remembered he was hungry.

Several blocks later she paused in the shadow of an old stone building and stood staring at what appeared to Derrick to be an old church.

"Is that where we are headed?"

Eleanor laughed. "No… but I do need to get my key. Stay close and stay quiet… I don't want to alert anyone of our presence in the church. Ready?" She crossed the street… Derrick closely behind her, walked up to the church doors, and entered the dim building. A few candles were lit in one area… but the church was deserted and dark. Eleanor headed immediately for a nearby apse.

Derrick stared about him… both knowing and not knowing this church. Had he been here before? He had a memory of Phillip bringing him here… but there was something else… something in the way the church looked at night… something familiar. He dropped the duffel and slowly walked to a side chapel where he stared at the floor… broken flagstones… worn… one area scorched as if there had been a fire here at one time. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest… Something had happened here… something long ago.

Softly he felt Eleanor's hand on his arm. He stared at her. "Are you all right, baby? Is anything wrong?"

Derrick smiled sadly. "I'm fine. This is where Darius died… isn't it?"

Eleanor looked about the church. Derrick could see tears sparkle in her eyes in the faint candlelight. "This is where he lived." she finally said. "Let's go… there's nothing here for either of us… not any more." Pulling at his arm… she headed for the door. Derrick picked up the duffel and with only one short glance over his shoulder… left the church. She was right… there was nothing here for him.

Once across the street, Ellie headed into a covered archway between two buildings. At the end of it was an iron gate. She used the key and swung the gate open. Standing back, she motioned him in. As Derrick walked slowly into a wooded grove… a small natural garden in the midst of downtown Paris, he could hear water running and saw a bubbling spring amongst some rocks. Behind him Ellie closed and locked the gate.

"We have to be quiet so the tenants don't hear us… but…" she spread her arms. "What do you think?"

Derrick looked about at the stunted trees, the leaf-strewn clearing, and the high walls and shrugged. "You live under the trees?"

Ellie laughed. "No silly… upstairs… but this is my garden. Not even Methos has ever been here. This was my place for almost eight hundred years. A sanctuary from the horror of the world outside."

"You always lived here?"

"Well," she chuckled, "not always. But when I was in Paris… I could always come here… I always had a home… except for a time about a hundred years ago." She touched his arm. "Come on… I'll take you upstairs."

She led the way up narrow stone stairs to a second story and opened a door. She flipped a light switch and smiled when the one small bulb hanging from the center of the room came on. "When the apartment downstairs… the one that faces the street… was wired… we ran a line up here."

"Who lives downstairs?"

"A caretaker and his family… At least that was who was here eight years ago. They get free rent for keeping an eye on the building and upkeep. Taxes are paid through a holding company. Darius set it all up centuries ago."

"He visited you here?"

Eleanor turned to face him and smiled. "Yes… he used to work on that computer game of yours here… before there were ever computers. It was a puzzle he never solved." She reached over behind a small refrigerator and plugged it in. "We might need this… though it's been eighteen years since it last held any food. Ahh… it still works." She laughed and ran her hands over a dusty counter. "I may have to do some cleaning."

"Where do I sleep?"

Eleanor looked at him solemnly. "I forgot about that. I have a bed in the other room… why don't you take it tonight. I'm not tired… and I need to focus so I can try to locate Methos from here." She gestured toward a door.

"And food? Ellie… I am really hungry." Derrick rubbed one hand over his growling stomach.

"I'll get you something… Go… lie down… Get some sleep."

Derrick didn't argue. He was as tired as he was hungry. In the other room… there was no electricity. But it didn't matter… all he needed was the bed. He flung himself on it… noting its narrowness and small overall size. His feet hung off the end. When he landed… he almost sneezed from the dust in the bed linens. He was too tired to care… and let sleep take him.

But in dreams… he still seemed to be driving… ever driving… and the lines on the road flashed by as he drove.