"So you did kind of promise to tell us your story once Jorge Mason was dealt with," Anastasia mentioned to Dave.
"So I did," Dave agreed. Dave looked around at the whole family gathered around the dinner table. There was Brian, Jazz's oldest brother, then there was Chrystalla, Jazz's older sister. Next was Jazz of course and finally the youngest Keith.
"You must agree to keep what I tell you to yourselves. Not telling anyone ever, or at least not without my permission," Dave told them and Jazz reinforced Dave's request with a glare at her siblings.
"If what Dave tells you got out it could cause very big trouble. You'll understand once he tells you his story," Jazz told her family.
"We always protect our family Dave," said Sinclair Jazz father. "You'll be part of the family soon enough, so course we'll keep your secret."
Sinclair glared around at his children to make sure they understood that what Dave told them was not to be repeated to anyone.
Jazz's three siblings promised not to say anything including Keith who did tend to be a little irresponsible occasionally, though he had improved in the last couple of years.
Dave nodded and begin tell his mate's family all about how he was immortal. Everybody look disbelieving at first, but Jazz was calm and they knew she wouldn't be if Dave hadn't proved it to her.
"Well, I suppose that if witches can exist immortals can too," Sinclair said.
"I'll prove it to you if you like," Dave offered, "as I know how fantastical such a story is. Some things shouldn't be possible even with magic."
Jazz handed Dave her steak knife and he cut his palm swiftly without a word. The cut healed instantly and he took his own handkerchief and cleaned his hand calmly.
"Wow! That was pretty amazing," Keith said finally being the first to speak.
"I can understand why you wouldn't want most people to know," Anastasia observed more calmly than she actually felt. On the inside she was in total disbelief at what she had seen, but knew she was in shock. She was sure her husband was his well and probably everyone at the table except Jazz. "A lot of people would want to be immortal as well and for the all the wrong reasons."
"See that's the thing," Dave said. "I can turn Jazz immortal, because she's my mate but no one else. I personally think that Godfrey Ambrosius arranged it that way on purpose possibly to limit the number of immortals in the world. Or possibly because he thought that somebody would find out what I was try to force me to turn them. There are people out there that would want immortality for all the wrong reasons."
"So you can't even be killed," Sinclair asked quietly.
"See that's the thing, I can be," Dave told everyone. "It's more of a limited immortality. I'm just very hard to kill and I've never aged from the second the spell was cast or I'd be long dead."
Sinclair was nodding at this as that made more sense to him than what he had originally assumed. Dave wasn't a god, as he could still die if the right set of circumstances were met. Probably something like losing his head. That his daughter would live a long time after he was gone, perhaps forever suddenly brought him great comfort. Sinclair could see Jazz and Dave traveling the world, having numerous children along the way. They couldn't live in Moonlight Gorge forever, as not only was most of the town human, as far as he knew no one knew that immortals existed. Very few people were likely to ever know and then Sinclair figured and those that found out had to prove themselves utterly trustworthy like his daughter. They'd likely move from place to place every few years, but so long as his daughter was happy then he was satisfied. He looked over at Dave and Jazz and I saw them look at each other with such love in their expressions it choked him up. He recognized that expression as it had often been on his own face as well as his wife when they had first met. He knew with utter certainty that his daughter and Dave would have a very long and happy marriage, much longer than was the norm, but that was okay if a little unusual.
"I never even knew such a spell existed," Brian said studying his sister's fiancé.
"As far as I know, it doesn't son," Sinclair said coming out of his thoughts.
"It's probably been lost over time," Anastasia added. "A lot of spells disappear once they fall out of favor and if Godfrey Ambrosius had any sense he wouldn't have given that spell out to anyone, as a lot of witches would have used it wrongly."
"So this descendent of Merlin did this as a favor for rescuing his family from certain death?" Brian asked and Dave nodded.
"More or less. He might have had other reasons, but if he did I don't know them," Dave shrugged. "It's a question I struggled with for decades, but I finally gave up on figuring out his motives. I didn't know the family well enough to know what Godfrey's could possibly be."
"I always believed that the family had died out," Keith said.
"They might have by now for all we know son," Sinclair said going back to his dinner.
"I did try to keep track of the family but lost track of them at least a couple hundred years ago. There could be multiple reasons for this. They might truly have died out for instance though I don't think so. They could've changed their surname to be more inconspicuous. There are plenty of surnames in the world that're quite common and not the least unusual," Dave said. "It wouldn't have been hard to move someplace new and give a different surname to your real one as nobody would've known it. You must remember there were no easy way to communicate back so long ago, no telephones, no CB radios, no radios of any kind at all, no fast way to communicate, even telegraphs hadn't been invented yet. You could tell someone you came from some faraway place and there would be no reason to disbelieve you."
"That's a very good point," Brian said. "Things were a lot simpler back then. There were none of the modern conveniences that we have now. There wasn't even any electricity, much less anything else more sophisticated."
"As for common names there is a lot of them, Jones, Smith, Baker, Adams for example," Anastasia started listing some of the most common surnames just from the area.
"Walters, Wilson, Lincoln," Sinclair added.
"Mason," Jazz said quietly, clearly thinking about Jorge.
"See there're plenty of perfectly common surname's that the family could be hiding under," Dave said changing the subject immediately. "They might not even be aware of their heritage anymore if that's the case. It's easy to lose track of your lineage as people are born into a family and then die. The family might even have considered it a kind of safety net to not teach their descendants all about their common ancestor. The time in which the family was born was in a time when magic was considered evil, no matter if it was used for good or not. A lot of the people of the time wouldn't have cared that the Ambrosius family only used their magic to help others, even if that was subtly."
"From what I know about history that's very true," Brian said. "There was a lot of fear back then about magic and those that possessed it."
"It's one of the reasons that most people have no idea we exist," Chrystalla, Jazz's older sister said. "We are very careful about using our magic in front of those without any. Who knows what a non-magical person would do if they happen to see a witch perform magic. They might do nothing, not believing what they saw at all but one shouldn't count on that."
She had been relatively quiet as Dave told his tale and all through the conversation afterwards.
"A good point sweetie," Sinclair told his oldest daughter proudly causing her to blush at her father's praise. Chrystalla tended to be the quiet one of his children. That she was speaking out now when she was so shy said a lot, especially in front of a virtual stranger, even if he was going to be family.
"So how are you feeling about Jorge's fate sweetie?" Anastasia asked her youngest daughter. "You after all did try to be a friend to him. That he took that as a sign you were supposed to marry him is not your fault as you didn't encourage him in any way."
"No, he was perfectly capable of creating his own fantasy about them being married," Brian snorted. "I always thought he was a little odd, but I did try to be nice to him at first for Jazz's sake."
"While I'm a little sad, Dave helped me realize that Jorge had options up until he attacked us, which sealed his fate. There was no way I could forgive him for what he did and not see him punished to the full extent of the law. I can understand Dave's point of view about how what Jorge did was unforgivable. Threatening to harm him not to mention the puppies just to get me to cooperate, was the worst thing he could've done and deep down he had to know that.
"There was so many things that Jorge could've done for himself. He could've gone to see a psychologist for example, try to get over his obsession with me, like his captain suggested. He could also have avoided me as much as possible. He could have left town and got a job elsewhere. The second that he held me prisoner though, pointed a gun at Dave and threatened to kill him if I didn't follow along like a good, little lapdog those options disappeared.
"Yes, I still feel a little sorry for him, because Dave thinks he never really mentally and emotionally matured, that maybe he had been abused to the point that he just was like he was. I was the only one, as far as I know, that was ever nice to him, tried to be his friend and he took that as a vow of everlasting love. While I don't regret my actions, stopping those bullies from beating him to a pulp, just because he was different, I could have done without his constant vows of love when we were teenagers and his harassment once I returned four years ago."
"Harassment that got worse once you met Dave," Anastasia said in understanding.
"Exactly. I wasn't willing to cooperate with dating him and yet, I have the atrocity to fall in love with someone else? Now that I've had time to think, I believe that he considered that a betrayal, even though there were no feelings on my end. Well, other than anger and annoyance at his constant sniping. I never cared for him the way he wanted me too."
"That you held your temper so well says a lot," Sinclair told his daughter smiling. "You after all, got your temper from your mother."
"I nearly lost it more times than I care to admit," Jazz said. "Especially in the last few months."
"I don't think any of us can blame you for that sis," Keith told her. "If it had been me, I'm sure, I would've lost my temper a very long time ago."
"Well, you've never had a girl become obsessed with you, be glad. My one act of kindness came back to bite me in the butt for years to come."
"You know what they say, that no good deed goes unpunished," Dave who had been silent said.
"I think I've been punished more than enough," Jazz said only partly in jest. "I've had to deal with Jorge's crap for far too long. As sorry as I feel for the way things turned out, I'm just glad it's over and I can relax, run my bakery, marry Dave, have a family."
"These feelings are normal," Sinclair told his daughter smiling proudly. "You have every right to feel relief that Jorge has been dealt with. You're right, he had every chance to change his path and he passed up every single opportunity. That's not on you or any of us Jazzlyn. It's not on us to correct his behavior, we wouldn't have succeeded anyway, as some people just don't want to change and Jorge Mason just happens to be one of them."
"You're right," Jazz agreed with her father.
"Also, in order for someone to change they must want to," Dave said. "From what I have observed of Jorge Mason he's not the type to ever change, to do introspection and realize that he's being an annoying gnat and that nearly everyone at least heartily dislikes him and many likely outright hate him."
"That's one way to put it," Keith laughed at Dave's description of Jorge's attitude.
"Well, I could've used to curse word but I figured gnat was more polite," Dave shrugged. "I'm trying to start practicing for when Jazz and I have children. I wouldn't want them to pick up my bad language."
"While that's a good habit to fall into, though they'll just pick it up from elsewhere," Chrystalla observed.
"Probably," Jazz said. "In high school for example, even junior high. Most children pick up their bad language from other children."
"Or because the parents don't watch their language around their kids," Anastasia said. "Particularly the men."
"That seems very biased," Sinclair told his wife with a half smile.
"Doesn't mean it's not true dad," Chrystalla said.
"I never said it wasn't true just that your mother's opinion was biased. She acts like women never use bad language, which is not true," Sinclair said.
"At least this means I won't have to leave Moonlight Gorge," Jazz said with profound relief in her voice.
"Why would you leave Moonlight Gorge?" Chrystalla said confused.
"I thought it might be better if we left temporarily," Dave explained what he had been thinking. "I was just thinking that maybe Jorge would wake up if the target of his obsession left, even if it wasn't a permanent move. Well, either that or do something that got him arrested, once he realized that his obsession had left town along with the man I'm sure he considered competition for her affections. I also didn't know how dangerous Jorge Mason was going to be, physically I mean.
"I've seen people do things before out of anger or because they're obsessed with another that often ends in murder or something like a double homicide. It was just an idea that we never had a chance to implement. I thought maybe Jorge would shoot her with his service weapon or attack her with a knife before possibly trying to kill himself. You never know how someone who is obsessed will react when that obsession defies them. A person who is obsessed is not reasonable or rational.
"Also, I believe Jorge's mind snapped the minute he heard Jazz and I had gotten engaged. That kind of thing happening is called a psychotic break and it happens in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of reasons. It's where the brain snaps. Anyway, somebody can become very dangerous to the population in general or just to certain people. Like say a redhead rudely rejected a man and that person who was rejected so nastily mind snaps. It's likely that that person would start going after redheads with similar features. Same color hair, same color eyes, same body shape, maybe even basically the same height. That's just one example of probably thousands."
"While I've heard of this type of thing, I don't know that much about it," Sinclair said impressed with Dave's knowledge of the human mind.
"I've seen a lot over the centuries," Dave said shrugging modestly.
"And now that Dave and I don't have to leave town and I'm perfectly happy about that," Jazz said.
"I think I understand," Chrystalla said thoughtfully. "You just wanted to protect my sister from Jorge and thought maybe her leaving town for a few months might help him get over his obsession."
"I doubt it would've worked as he started right back up as soon as I returned from traveling," Jazz said.
"But he did not harass you before you left did he?" Sinclair asked his daughter.
"Not in the way he's been doing lately," Jazz admitted. "Sure, he asked me out multiple times before I went, every few months actually, but thinking back, I could just see him building up to it."
"Which took place as soon as you returned after being away for a long time," Dave said.
"Yeah, I'd only been back in town a little while when he asked me out again. When I turned him down that's when the harassment started," Jazz remembered. "I'm just glad that my troubles with him are over."
"Definitely," everyone of the table agreed before changing the subject.
~~~Dave and Jazzlyn~~~
