Seth Withali had also waited to see if
Astrid, an asanni, would transform into a bleithast. Proof that she
was a powerful, rare, precious Ellida, a female offspring of a
wizard and a werewolf, a kind that combined the best attributes of
both of her bloods. And when he was sure she was, he struck.
“You say I’m Ellida? How do you know? You
might be wrong, totally wrong.”
“No, we’re not. Let me tell you more about
it. Every clan wants an Ellida—a token of our ancient alliance with
wizard kind—more than anything else,” I explained. “This is the
greatest honor granted to a clan. Ellidas are above the pack
hierarchy, they are the highest authority of a clan, with the power
to overrule any Alpha’s decisions. The Ellida is the most treasured
member of the clan because she brings prosperity, happiness and
peace, and never abuses the power given to her.”
Astrid closed her eyes, shaking her head.
“Why does Seth want me? I don’t belong to his clan.”
“In his madness, Seth had been obsessed with
the idea of bringing an Ellida to his clan by any means. He wants
to use you for his own goals: to get power to rule others, to
conquer, to destroy. He believes Copper Ridge can claim you because
you’re Rowena’s daughter. He doesn’t understand that an Ellida
would never be a part of that insanity, simply because she couldn’t
be. It would be an absolute contradiction to her nature.”
“But Red Cliffs is sure I’m their
Ellida?”
“Our clan had two branches, one in Wales, in
a place called Gelltydd Coch, which means red cliffs, and one here.
Our first Ellida chose to stay in Wales with the original clan when
several kinsmen decided to come to America, in 1708. They founded
Red Cliffs, and they were soon joined by werewolves from other
parts of Europe—”
“But that means that you technically have an
Ellida,” she interrupted. “You don’t need me.”
“We are—how to say—an independent clan now.
And you are the proof. After three hundred years, we’ve got our
Ellida.”
“What does Seth want to do with me? Keep me
behind bars? He must know I would never comply. If he gets me—”
“He will not get you, Astrid,” I said
firmly.
“He’ll try to blackmail me somehow into
staying, right? Probably using my mother?”
“Seth has a son, Darius, from his previous
marriage. He wants you for his son, to bear him a sort of super
child, who would combine his or her parents’ strength and power. We
know almost nothing about Darius, except that he seems a decent
fellow. I don’t think he has any role in his father’s insane
scheming.”
Astrid groaned and buried her head in her
hands. “This is a nightmare... It’s the reason why I’ve had to
avoid attention all my life. It’s why I can’t be a singer,” she
said tiredly.
She was right. Astrid’s grandparents had
never told her exactly why she couldn’t be a singer. For a reason I
couldn’t articulate, it seemed more unfair than any of all those
half-truths she’d been told. Probably because of her beautiful
dream to be the Queen of the Night. Or because of her question,
spoken so softly: ‘Are you going to stick around long enough to
hear me?’
Well, I’d like to see somebody try to stop
me.
God, we had waited too long, we had left too
much to pure luck: Arnaldur, Ella, her wizard kin, James, her
werewolf family, I. Among all of us, Tristan and Livia had been her
best bet. Her two vampire friends did their job better than any of
us.
“I am so sorry, Astrid. I hate that I had to
tell you all this, but you have the right to know.”
She sat with knees up and arms wrapped around
her chest, as if she tried to protect herself from blow after blow
that was coming from my side of the sofa. From time to time, she
would shake her head. Her mind was looking for a grain of sanity in
this madness.
“I’d rather hear it from you than somebody
else,” she said quietly. “That doesn’t mean that I’m not mad as
hell at Ella and Arnaldur for keeping it from me. They’ve treated
me like an incompetent child.”
I wanted to reach for her, to take her in my
arms and rock her gently, like a small child. I wanted to hold her
hand and let her know I was there for her, but I kept myself on my
side of the sofa, afraid that a single touch would shatter her.
“Jack, please hold me.” Her voice was low,
and she sounded so tired and sad that I thought my heart would
break.
I moved in a blink and wrapped myself around
her. Her whole body trembled, she was pale and breathed in shallow,
fast gasps. She leaned her head against my chest. “I can hear your
heart,” she whispered. “Nice, strong and a bit too fast.”
“Maybe you should have a look at it one of
these days. You are a doctor. Although, I think we know the
reason.”
“I want to sleep. Hold me, Jack. Don’t go,”
she said in a thick voice. She lifted her head with a notable
effort. In the soft light of the floor lamp her eyes looked
strangely dark.
“Sleep, Astrid. I won’t go anywhere.”
“Jack, will James be angry with you for
telling me this?”
“Don’t worry, my love. Technically, I outrank
him.”
“Oh, I’m glad to hear that,” she said and
closed her eyes.
When her breathing became deep and regular, I
pressed my back against her pink pillow on the sofa arm. Astrid
stretched over me. She was warm and smelled good. I buried my head
in her long, thick hair, that magnificent cascade of every possible
shade from golden blond to rich, warm brown, lightened here and
there with brilliant copper strings. “You’re the most beautiful
asanni I’ve ever seen,” I whispered into that hair that smelled of
strawberries and rain. “And you’ll be my queen.”
I kissed her and held her tight, hoping my
love would be strong enough to keep away the demons lurking in her
dreams.
A QUOTE she’d read somewhere long ago popped
up in Astrid’s mind, waking her up.
“
What does your sorrow do while you are
sleeping?”
“
It’s awake and waiting. And when it loses
patience, it wakes me up
.”
It was that pitch-dark, long hour before dawn
when she opened her eyes, stiff and sore, yet warm and safe in
Jack’s arms, her head buried in the hollow at the base of his
neck.
Jack was awake as soon as she moved.
Her first impulse was to pull away, but
Jack’s body pinned under hers felt like home. How they’d ended up
in that position was beyond her. What was the last thing she
remembered? Feeling horrified, angry and sad. Desperately wanting
Jack to come closer and hold her, to keep her whole.
“Are you all right?” She heard his voice,
thick with sleep, yet worried and alert.
Heaviness had settled in her chest and she
felt a painful knot in her belly, but the warm, solid body beneath
her held her together.
Jack’s arms tightened around her back in a
strong, protective grip. “It will be all right, everything will be
fine. I’m here and I won’t let anybody hurt you,” he whispered into
her hair. “I’ll keep you safe.”
He lay still, as if the slightest movement
would disturb the fragile equilibrium they had established. She
could feel his hard ridge through their clothes, the masculine
scent of his arousal and her own sexual excitement.
That’s what I need, a voice whispered in her
head. I want him now, here. I need his light, his flesh. I need him
to give me his strength to stop the darkness that threatens to
swallow me.
“I feel safe with you. I trust you,” she said
in a throaty voice. Her hips moved, almost in invitation.
“Jack?”
A soft growl escaped from deep inside his
chest. “Astrid...”
“Jack, can I stay here? I need you.”
“As long as you want.”
“Just a bit longer. Until dawn. Darkness
scares me sometimes,” she murmured. A few minutes later, her body
relaxed and he could hear her deep breathing.
BRACED ON her palms, Astrid lifted her torso.
The pleasure of her middle part against Jack’s groin felt
wonderful.
Jack opened his eyes. The two blue slits
glared at him from five inches above. His hand reached for a long
gold-reddish lock and tucked it behind her ear.
“How did we end up here?” she said.
There was a bit of tension in her voice, but
the expression on her face didn’t match it. She looked rather
amused with arched eyebrows and a smile that curved her lips. The
horror Jack had thrown at her last night was under control.
Somehow, he sensed, she had conquered it.
As if she could read his mind, Astrid said,
“Jack, don’t feel terrible because you told me things that I needed
to know long ago. I prefer to know. And if Seth is going to strike
again, I better get ready for the battle, so to speak.”
She reluctantly pulled herself away from him
and moved to the opposite corner. “I’ll take a shower and you can
make coffee.”
“I see you don’t have a problem with giving
orders. I’ll go the extra mile and make us breakfast, too.
Omelette?”
“Perfect. Please, no—”
“Chives, I know.”
“YOU ALL right?” Jack asked her again as they
ate.
“Uh-huh.” She jabbed a piece of bread in his
general direction. “One of the advantages of having a logical and
analytical mind is that when you are threatened for any reason, you
immediately start looking for a solution. The first step is to
conquer fear,” she said. “Fear, terror—they come from opposite
sides of the emotional spectrum, they are probably there to keep
the balance with the positive emotions. Conquer your fear and
you’ll conquer your enemy... I’m talking nonsense, pay no
attention.”
“You’re doing great, given the
circumstances.”
As if she had an alternative, she thought. If
she couldn’t change the fact that she was a werewolf, and that
Ellida, whatever that was, then she would try to be the best
werewolf and best Ellida. As she was the best doctor, and the best
wizard with the skills she was given.
And I’ll be damned if I’m going to be
someone else’s mate and be forced to carry someone else’s child
except Jack’s
.
The last thought came out of nowhere, as if
somebody else had put it in her mind. Uncertain, she glanced in
Jack’s direction and blushed. Her heart skipped a beat, but if Jack
heard it, and she knew he could, he decided not to show it.
“Jack, can your kind manipulate somebody
else’s thoughts? Humans’, for example?”
Jack smiled. “Well, we can often guess them,
but normally we don’t mess with humans’ heads, except out of
necessity. I’m not talking here about
our
humans that live
among us. That’s different. If those outside our society become
aware of what we are, or accidentally see us changing forms, we can
modify their thoughts and alter or erase their memory. Unless
they’re vardangaer. You’ve heard of them?”
I nodded. “It means guardians. They’re said
to be immune to our powers and magic, so we can’t hide from them.
So they really exist? They always seemed to me more like a romantic
myth.”
“They do exist. They see things other humans
can’t, but they are usually people of the highest moral standards
and our secrets are safe with them. That’s why we call them
guardians. I see them as the link between our kind and theirs. As a
token of gratitude, vardangaer are offered the choice to become one
of our kind. A werewolf or a vampire, that is. Since wizardry can
be acquired only by birth, your kind grants them the access to your
doctrine and secret knowledge, and those skills humans are capable
of mastering.”
“Have you even known a vardanni or a vardan?
Those are the words for female and male guardians, right?”
“Correct... No, I haven’t. They are very
rare, or maybe they just rarely come in contact with us, so we
think they are fewer than they in fact are.”
“Okay, but what about the regular
non-werewolves of Red Cliffs? They’re not vardangaer, but our
secrets are safe with them nonetheless.”
“The humans among us, of course know about
us. We’re part of each other’s existence. Most marriages are mixed.
Our humans are a bit different: they’re healthier and live far
longer than average.”
“But you have outside visitors, don’t you?
You’re not a closed community.”
“Not at all. We have lots of tourists and
business partners. They don’t notice anything unusual. This is how
it works. Even if someone is extra-perceptive, they can’t do us
harm on our territory and they don’t remember a thing as soon as
they leave our boundaries.”
That was good to know, Astrid thought. That
explained a great deal about why werewolves so easily cohabited
with humans, but it didn’t answer her question. Why did she think
Jack was the father of her child?
“And we have a few other tricks at our
disposal,” Jack carried on, “like changing our appearance, to look
older, or younger, or entirely different.”
“Can any werewolf do that?”
“Some of us can do it, some can’t. I
can’t.”
“So you cannot read or sense other peoples’
thoughts?” she probed again.
“I can’t read them. I can sense a great deal,
but it happens more through my nose than through my mind. And I’m
talking about werewolves in general. Our skills vary from
individual to individual, though. Why are you asking?”
“I want to know more about you.”
“
Me
, Jack, or
us
, werewolves?”
he asked.
She smiled. “Can’t you guess?”
“Okay, then. What do you want to know about
me?”
“What is your position in Red Cliffs?”
It was about him. Good. “I’m a crown prince.”
He laughed. “The next Einhamir, I guess,” he added in a somber
tone.
“Einhamir is one of those archaic words that
are still in use, isn’t it?”