Immortal Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

worry. He’ll be here soon. I feel his mind.”
    “You feel his mind? So Matt is an immortal too?”
    “Not at all. Matt is quite human.”
    “But … then. Are you saying you can read minds? Human minds?”
    “No. I don’t read minds. I sense them when they are close enough.”
    He said it casually as if unaware of the magnitude of what he had just revealed to me.
    “You tricked me, didn’t you? Right now. When you asked me about Bécquer, you forced me to think of him so you could read my feelings for him.”
    “Yes.”
    “How dare you?”
    “I needed to know to warn you that Bécquer … ” He stopped and with a sudden movement of his hand flashed the headlights. As if conjured by his signal, a beam of light glowed in the distance. “Matt is almost here. I’ll explain later, I promise, after we change cars.”
    He was still speaking when a car drew near and, leaving the road, came to a stop facing us. It was not the blue convertible Bécquer had driven in the morning, but a white limousine. Somehow, the idea that Bécquer owned still another car — Federico had told me the silver Mercedes was Bécquer’s also — irked me in an irrational way I found most disturbing.
    “Carla?”
    I turned toward Federico’s voice and found him standing outside the car, holding the door open.
    Too startled to speak, as I had no recollection of him leaving my side, I took his hand and stepped outside. Beyond the halo of the limousine, I saw a man emerge from the driver’s seat.
    With easy strides, Federico walked toward him. “Hi, Matt,” he greeted him, as he got closer. “So nice of you to come.”
    “My pleasure, as always,” the man said, in a formal way that belied his age. For he was young, I realized once I moved into the beam’s halo and the light stopped blinding me. His youth made even more evident because, instead of the standard suit I had expected, he was wearing a leather jacket and tight black jeans with metal chains hanging from his belt.
    “Nice costume.”
    Matt sulked. “I thought all the guests had arrived so I had already changed when Mr. Bécquer asked me to come at once. Please, Don Federico, don’t tell my mother I came like this.”
    “Don’t worry, I won’t mention your costume to her, you have my word.”
    Matt smiled a crooked smile that lit his face with pride. “It’s not a costume. I’m playing later.”
    Federico raised an eyebrow in mock admiration. “A paying gig?”
    Matt nodded.
    “My congratulations,” Federico said, taking the boy’s hand in both of his and shaking it firmly.
    Matt shivered at the contact, and when Federico moved toward the car, Matt’s eyes followed him. If Federico noticed the boy’s reaction — how could he not when he could sense feelings? — he said nothing.
    I didn’t mention it either when we were sitting side by side in the back of the car, although the window to the front seat was closed and Matt could not hear us. The boy’s feelings for Federico were none of my business, and I was still upset at Federico for intruding on the privacy of my mind.
    “How many cars does Bécquer have?” I asked him instead.
    Federico frowned. “Two that I know of. This limo is not his. He rented it for the party. But why do you care?”
    “I don’t.”
    “Yes. Bécquer is quite wealthy.” Federico answered the question I had not asked. “When you can manipulate minds to do your bidding, it is not surprising the books you represent end up on the bestseller list. Money follows.”
    “Manipulate minds? Is that what you are doing with me?”
    “No. I have never manipulated anybody’s mind.” I glowered at him. “I’m afraid you’d have to take my word for it,” he insisted. “I cannot prove it to you.”
    “But Bécquer does — manipulate minds, I mean?”
    Federico shrugged. “I don’t think he does it on purpose. Every time I have confronted him about it, he has denied it. Yet things seem always to go his way. In business and in