Immortal Love Read Online Free PDF

love.”
    “Is that what you wanted to warn me about?”
    Federico stared ahead, crossing and uncrossing his fingers as if trying to clarify his thoughts.
    “Bécquer has a new love interest,” he said at last. “I thought she might be you.”
    “Me? That’s absurd. I only met him twice.”
    “But he has read your books, liked them enough to sign you as a client. And Bécquer is quite impulsive when falling in love. Childish you may say. He falls not so much for the person but for his own idealized image of her. Seeing you twice would be more than enough for him to think himself fully in love, especially when he has glimpsed your soul in your stories. Yes, you could have been his new beloved. I’m glad to see that you’re not.”
    “And you know that by reading my mind?”
    “In a way. For if Bécquer were in love with you, he’d have charmed you already and you’d be blindly in love with him.”
    “But I wouldn’t be really in love with him. My feelings would be an illusion.”
    “Exactly my point. You wouldn’t be yourself anymore, just a puppet to his will. Yet Bécquer doesn’t seem to realize that distinction. He insists he does not change the feelings for a first attraction must be there. He just pushes the victim slightly in that direction.
    “Victim being my chosen word, of course. The so-called victims would call themselves fortunate, because to be chosen, to be loved by Bécquer, is an exhilarating experience. Nobody, not a single one of them has complained yet and, trust me, he has had many.”
    “What happens when he tires of them?”
    “They still love him for a while, I guess. But when he stops charming them, their love eventually wanes and they forget him, and thus forgive him for leaving them.
    “In fact, most of them remain friends with him until he moves on. For, of course, like all immortals, he can’t stay more than twenty years in a place before his not aging becomes obvious. Then he has to go somewhere else and reinvent himself.”
    Twenty years he had told me. He had lived in the States for twenty years. Did that mean he was ready to move? Now that I’d just found an agent, was he about to disappear and leave me agentless once more? He wouldn’t, now, would he? That would just be rude.
    Federico laughed.
    “Are you reading my mind again?”
    “I wouldn’t if you were not shouting.”
    “I wasn’t.”
    “Anger sounds that way to me, to us immortals. Don’t worry. He’s not planning to leave. Not yet. He’s been an agent for ten years only.”
    I sighed in relief. I guess an immortal, manipulative agent was, in my book, better than no agent at all. Which didn’t say much about my ethics. Maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh on Federico for reading my mind. It was not as if he could help it.
    “Friends?” Federico asked.
    “Friends.”
    As I spoke, the car came to a stop. Through the window, I saw the facade of an imposing stone house covered in ghoulish spider webs glistening in the glow of blinking orange lights. Several jack-o’-lanterns flickered on the stairs that led to the porch.
    “Oh well, here we are,” Federico said. “Let’s hope I’m wrong because if Bécquer is in love, Beatriz is going to cause him trouble.”
    “Beatriz?”
    “Forget what I just said, and let’s go inside and enjoy ourselves. Bécquer’s parties are always interesting. I have the impression this one will not disappoint.”

Chapter Five: The Portrait
    Matt opened the limousine door for me. Although I didn’t delay, by the time I got out, Federico was already coming around the front of the car, the gravel crackling under his light steps.
    “Thank you,” he said to the young man. “Please don’t forget to call the garage and ask them to tow the Mercedes.”
    “I have already.”
    Federico smiled. “Great. Now you better park this one in the back before your mother sees you.”
    Matt glanced toward the house. “I better,” he agreed and, with a nod in my direction and a last