Last year when I began writing my Immortal Series with Red Sage, I set out to create a different breed of immortals. I’d read vampires, shifters, fairies, and demons. I wanted something a little more human, with human traits and normal lives, but with the added complication that these characters didn’t die. I get a lot of questions about my immortals. So today, I’d like to introduce them to you.
Making: An immortal shares his/her blood with the dying. Not through fangs, but by conventional means of cutting. My immortals have been known to run onto crash scenes armed with pocket knives to rescue victims. They’ve also used shards of glass to slice the flesh of themselves and a mortal, pouring their blood into their veins.
Immortals can die at the hands of other immortals. If they lost their footing and fell off a cliff, they wouldn’t die, but if another immortal pushed them—delivering the death blow, so to speak—they would perish. Only with other immortals are their lives challenged, which sometimes makes for a volatile situation if a new immortal comes into their midst.
In my latest release, TREFOIL, the heroine Lillian has mortal frailties, which can happen if something is done incorrectly during Making. But that’s all I’m going to tell you. No spoilers!
Immortal Tattoos: At the moment the immortal blood is shared, a tattoo blossoms on the new immortal. These tattoos are inky blue and vary in location. The art is individual to the person, and often reflects their gifts or personality traits. For instance, in RUNES, the hero Will is a mathematical genius. He sports a tattoo of small, cramped numbers on his lower abdomen that almost appear to be a graphic art piece. His heroine has runes and tiny stars curling from her shoulder, up her throat, and ending in a spattering of stars at the corner of her eye. One of the minor characters (who will get his own book, I assure you!) is the dashing Spaniard Dante. He’s an ancient immortal who was part of Columbus’s crew bringing men to a new world. As ship captain, his tattoo is a wave pattern.
For the heroine of TREFOIL, her tattoo appeared before she discovered her talent. The inky lines of vines and flowers climbing her spine were a mystery to her, until one day, she found a piece of property that inspired her to garden.
The Calling: My immortals are also subject to a phenomenon which links them to their mates known as the Calling. An immortal doesn’t choose who their mate is. Fate links them. The female Calls to the male through a telepathic link, opened by a gasp. They experience Visions of lovemaking that drive them insane with want. When the man receives the Call, he begins his search immediately. Once the link is opened, the couple must complete their bond as soon as possible or risk madness. They’ll experience debilitating tremors and insatiable need for their mate until their blood is shared in the bonding, which I’ll discuss in a minute.
From the time they are Called, they can speak into one another’s minds, opening the mind link by using their mate’s name. At times the Calling presents major issues. The immortal might have another lover, for instance. No matter who that person loves, the Calling cannot be ignored.
Sometimes immortals who have Called to one another aren’t compatible. When they attempt to bond, their blood doesn’t mesh and the female dies. If this happens, the male is relegated to a life of madness and often begs for death. In my first book RUNES, this happened to the villain.
Bonding: To complete the bond, the couple must share their blood and bodies simultaneously—a very erotic moment. Once they are linked as immortal mates, their telepathic connection strengthens until they can even view their mate’s sleeping dreams.
Once the bonding is finished, a blood red medallion appears on the woman’s left breast, over her heart. This is a tattoo of their mate’s blood, which runs in her veins. Usually the tattoo is a combination of their immortal tattoos. In RUNES, the heroine’s blood medallion is a circle of stars and miniature numbers (her tattoo is runes and stars, and hero’s are numbers).
In this world, immortals Walk amongst mortals without detection. Only another immortal can see the “glow.” Not sparkles like vampires, people! Just an inner beauty, although sometimes mortals notice a difference if they are smitten. In RUNES, the other hero Sean is in love with the heroine Evangeline. He sees something different about her, and is drawn to her immortal tattoo with a fierce passion. He can’t keep his hands—or mouth—off it.
Along with a glow which reveals them as immortals, they can “see” into each other’s souls. Looking deeply into one another’s eyes, they can see who Made the immortal, although that person never knows his Maker until they meet face to face. They can also see the person they’ve been Called to. Both instances occur in TREFOIL.
I’ve loved creating this new world. The clashes that occur between immortals and mortals are endless. Every time I write another book for this series, a new plot bobs into my mind. At this point, two are published, and a third will be released in September with Red Sage. The stories stand alone, although some of the same characters appear in all three. I’m about to launch into Book Four with a new set of characters, and the ghosts of many more linger in the recesses of my brain, waiting to be brought forward. I hope you’ve enjoyed exploring this realm with me. I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and be entered to win a copy of my latest release TREFOIL.
Em Petrova
~where words mean so much more~
The Immortals
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