Call of the Raven (37 page)

“Children, you have—”

“No, not me personally,” Asher cut her off,
“but I am their legal guardian as Keeper. It’s my duty to adopt
them. I’ve never looked at them as being my children though. I’ve
been a bit of a reluctant leader.”

“What was this about Asher, the Blackbirds
and those men? What did they want with Mary and you?”

Asher shook his head, “I don’t know about
Steve and the Blackbirds part yet in the scheme of things, but
those two men in the building are members of a group that opposes
me, known as the Gothi. But then again, the fact that they came
after me today is a mystery in itself. They had the chance to harm
me if they wanted to the night we went after Ari. I apologize,
after everything we put you through I wish I could give you more
details, but I have to learn them first.”

“Then is your life always this crazy?”

“No,” Asher laughed over the top of his mug.
“Hardly, up until Ari was taken it was rather redundant.”

Elle felt the need to keep him talking. He
had heard what Nixon said about the drawing and since his hands
still looked a little shaky, she felt he was struggling with the
proper words to explain himself. “How did you get the name
Asher?”

“When we are adopted into the Lake family,
our past and who we are prior to in life, is erased. Grant was my
mentor and predecessor and he gave me the name Asher. I guess in
the bible it means blessing. I can’t say that I was all that much
of a blessing to him though.”

He put cream in his coffee and took a sip
before he went on. “Anyway, I was eight when Grant found me and
brought me here. Ari followed a few years later. We were actually
living in Okinawa before that. Ari doesn’t remember it since he’s
two years younger than I, but that was where I developed an
interest in drawing, and since my school master loved manga, I fell
into that too. I’ve taken a lot of flak on the account of it over
the years. I’m not sure why, but I guess it’s not the sort of hobby
a man like me is supposed to have.”

“But the first book of the
Tale of Two
Brothers
series came out ten years ago,” Elle thought back. “I
was twelve. The first book,
The Call
was the last gift my
grandmother gave me before she died.”

“I find that ironic.” Asher twisted around so
that he was facing her. “I was just seventeen. Writing
The
Call
was how I coped with Grant’s death. I never meant for it
to be published. Ari did that. He sent it in.” With his brothers
coming, Asher resumed eating.

He took a couple of bites of steamed
vegetables before he swallowed and said, “I’ve never cared about
the money or fame. The bio is fictional. I just wrote them because
I didn’t know what else to do. It passed time.” He turned his eyes
on her, and considered her expression. “Somehow I don’t think the
last book was all that great of a hit.”

“I didn’t exactly have a chance to finish it.
The flow and theme was different. Pain’s character was definitely
less likable, but I was just ten chapters in when…” Elle allowed
her words to trail off as a new string of thoughts flashed into her
mind—Julio throwing the book at her and Asher’s intense look on the
rooftop when he asked her about the book. “Wait, you do feel
obligated to me. Asher this offer you plan to make—”

“Has nothing to do with that,” Ari said.
Again, timing wasn’t a friend. “Nixon may have jumped in too soon
but truth is, the fools been drawing your face for over a year, and
when I say fool, I mean in this case Asher. Oh, and let’s not
forget the dreams where he sees you standing before his grave.
Asher’s prone to strange dreams, but then again most Keepers are. I
think it has something to do with the fact they live under a
curse.”

Ari sat two full plates of food down in front
of her as he talked. He removed a napkin from the table and placed
it on her lap, and with a friendly pat on the shoulder, he left to
go get his own food. The whole time Ari talked Asher did nothing
but cut his chicken into small pieces. There was no red glow or
show of outward agitation in his gaze.

If anything, under her surveillance, Asher
appeared awkwardly embarrassed. Elle had noted Ari’s dry somewhat
monotone delivery. Except for calling Asher a fool, which seemed a
favorite name they both used for each other, he wasn’t speaking
angrily as he had before. This was all the assumption she needed
that Ari was speaking the truth.

“
You drew my face
?” she stressed each
word. Asher cleared his throat after a bite went down bad and took
a drink of water.

“It’s real good, not like the Japanese
cartoons he usually draws,” Nixon told her. “He drew your face
exactly as it is now. That’s how we all knew it was you and that
you’re supposed to be with us. The reason I knew your eyes were
blue though was on the account that’s the only thing he colors in.
He has a certain blue pastel he uses. The colors exactly—”

“What I told you,” Asher cut Nixon off
midsentence. This time he chose to stop eating long enough to
explain and kept the water glass in hand, “about the vow is
true.”

“In other words no freaky-dink,” Nixon
interrupted.

“I can do this without you present.” Asher
sent a glare his way. Nixon went back to tearing into his steak
with relish. He shook his head smartly a few times but kept silent.
“Anyhow,” Asher said, “yes the face was yours, and yes it was very
accurate, but matters have changed and that is what we were arguing
about upstairs and why Ari is angry. He doesn’t agree with what
I’ve come up with.”

Elle saw the falter of his eyes as he scanned
over her person, and she carefully sat her mug down. Coffee sloshed
over onto her fingers. She drew them back and wiped them on the
napkin Ari had placed on her lap. Ari returned and sat quietly
eating as Asher continued talking.

“As Keeper I’m held to certain standards, and
I can only assume that purity wasn’t a factor with Mea since she
was able to produce Grant’s child. That child Elle is a rarity.
Female wolves are only born in the essence that there has not been
an heir provided to the Keeper. ”

Elle thought of Mea with her bloodshot eyes,
skinny body and fat Harley boyfriend. Possibly she didn’t know her
like Grant had, but she didn’t exactly strum up visions of
wholesomeness when she was throwing up her Jim Beam.

“So you see, the dilemma,” Ari, talked with
his mouth full. He had drank several more glasses of the brown
liquid after asking for the empty decanter to be refilled, and she
wasn’t even sure he knew just how drunk he really was. “Usually an
heir is provided when the Keepers young, so the purity vow doesn’t
have to become an issue, but none has been provided to Asher. That
alone has the fool believing that because of the whole female wolf
thing, Mary was meant to be his future mate.”

Ari stuck a chunk of pinkish meat in his
mouth and pointed his fork directly at Elle as he chewed. “Then to
further complicate matters, he thought the face he was drawing with
the eyes of an angel
was
Mary. He thought she was gonna grow
up and jump at the idea of producing his pup, but now there’s the
matter of you and you’re not exactly being—” Ari didn’t finish. He
suddenly sat up straight and focused his eyes on her. Up until that
time he had been talking indirectly.

“Pure?” Elle finished for him. She pushed her
seat back and stood up. The napkin dropped to the ground. “If you
don’t mind I think I’ll turn in.”

When Elle turned to leave, Asher stood in
front of her. She hadn’t even noticed him get up, and yet he was
there all the same. Not only was he blocking her, he was doing it
in a way that let her know he had no plans to let her go.

“Sit, I’m not finished. There still is a
matter I wish to discuss with you,” he insisted.

Without thinking Elle dropped onto her seat.
She pushed her hardly touched plate of food back, and avoided
looking at any of them, even Asher when he position his chair so
that he was looking directly into her profile.

Instead, she sat head down, wishing she could
drift away into a deep sleep for all eternity. No matter what Asher
had thought that image of his drawing meant to him, he couldn’t
have her because of her tainted past.

She had never felt so tarnished before.

“The comment you said in regard to your
boyfriend—”

“Ex-boyfriend,” Nixon interrupted once more
and Asher sent a red glare his way.

When he turned back the rings faded. He
quietly watched her before continuing. “Elle, this was a difficult
decision in more ways than one. You told me what your
ex
-boyfriend called himself but I can’t be anything but
that. In my world there is a thing called a common law contract
between a man and a woman. I will care for you and provide for you,
but I will not fall in love with you. If you sign the contract, you
need to take that into careful consideration.”

“That contract will also bind you
only
to him,” Ari added. “In other words, he wishes you to be Rapunzel
locked away in his tower, a slave to taking care of him and the
children without the possibility of ever knowing love. You will not
be allowed to fall in love with him
or
anyone. He can still
take a wife to produce his heir, but you will be bound to him for
as long as you live.”

“Then if you just want a nanny why can’t you
just offer me a job, without the contract?” she argued.

Asher shook his head as he spoke, “That is
not a possibility and is adjacent to those laws I have to uphold.
You’re an outsider, and you’re not a Lake, and only Lakes can live
in the manor.”

“This contract sounds to me like a marriage,”
she said.

“Our laws are different,” Ari said. “In our
world bigamy is common practice. A man can take as many contracts
with women as he wants, and still have but one true wife.”

“Yes, but a Keeper is different, I’m
different,” Asher said. “The contract with me will be in name only
but I will expect things from you—not,” he emphasized when she
fixed a questioning gaze upon him, “that, because I won’t be free
of my vow of chastity until I fulfill my obligation as Keeper. In
the meantime I will
not
be another Julio
.
”

“And what about my baby?”

“Your baby will be one of us, another Lake
and he or she will be well cared for. I will see to that
personally. No child should ever come into this world
unwanted.”

“Asher, I appreciate the offer but there are
nanny services, and—”

“
I
wish to protect you,” Asher
interrupted, “and after what I’ve seen and learned I can’t just let
you leave. I told you the decision is yours to make but the only
choice I’m willing to
let
you make, is whether you wish to
stay here at the Plaza alone or move in with us at Lake Manor.”

“Asher, that’s a little unlike you.” Nixon
uttered under his breath.

This time when Elle pushed back her chair
Asher didn’t stop her, nor did he look up. She took a step back to
test his complacency to let her go. “I appreciate everything you’ve
done, Asher, but I’m leaving. Regardless of what you drew, I’m
obviously
not
the person you pictured.”

“You don’t have any shoes, Elle. I saw to
that so you couldn’t go anywhere.” Asher stood and started walking
in her direction, and she continued to back away.

“So much for allowing her to make her own
choice,” Ari loudly called from the table.

“I think you need to sleep on the matter
Elle,” Asher nodded. “That will help to clear your mind. Maybe when
you wake up, you’ll see things
my
way.”

Elle saw his hand move swiftly to her
shoulder but by the time she realized he was using some sort of
magic on her it was too late. She fell forward, and by the time she
reached his arms, sleep won over.

Chapter
Twenty-One

The Lily

The clock read
two a.m. when Elle
finally opened her eyes. She had been placed on Ari’s bed and the
very second she sat up and the covers fell away, she realized she
had been taken advantage of. She was no longer dressed in Kennedy’s
clothes, and instead was wearing a man’s white dress shirt in place
of a nightgown. She felt hot and angry. She needed fresh air and
she needed it fast. Pulling on the white robe lying at the foot of
the bed, she crossed the carpeted floor in her bare feet.

Asher had taken her shoes so she couldn’t
run.

Asher had now taken her clothes.

Elle suddenly felt the urge to kill Asher
Lake.

After figuring out the lock on the sliding
glass door, she slid it aside and stepped out onto the balcony. The
floor was cold underfoot and a strong wind swept her hair back over
her shoulders as she gripped the railing. The street below was lit
with street lamps but only a few people could be seen milling about
at such an early hour, and those people were further down the
street where the popular hangouts were.

She looked to the building across the street
and up at the yellow sign, wondering of the ironies of life. She
had dreamed of a man like Grant and now she had his family, but
Elle wasn’t so sure she liked the arrangement.

“Not a bad legacy to leave behind, is
it?”

Jerking her head toward the sound of the
voice, she narrowed her eyes in the dark, forcing them to adjust.
She found him, a darkened form lying in a chase lounge a few feet
away. Behind him, the sliding door to his room was left open, and
the curtain blown back by the wind, revealed a lit room with an
unmade bed.

Dropping his legs over the side of the chair,
Asher stood up, and swayed forward. Her first thought was that she
had mistaken him for his brother since the last time she had seen
Ari, he was very drunk but there was no mistaking Asher. He walked
to where she stood and faced the railing. His hair whipped about
his face as he looked down at the street.