Imminence (27 page)

Marie wore a bright red a-lined number with the hem high over her knees and only a few crossed straps crossing her slender shoulders to keep the dress up. Tiamhaidh had donned a tight black shirt which drew attention to his trained muscles, and beside him Marie looked like a delicate little gypsy girl; yet she also looked like a hot mix of seductive Lolita and forest fairy. Tiam’s jeans emphasized his long trim legs and Marie’s hands kept straying to his buttocks. Mathanan and Ciall were also dressed in jeans and tight shirts and I hoped they’d draw at least some of the school girls away from Clarissa, encouraging the strange males to approach her in spite of all the randy high-school girls and their roving hands.

Apart from myself, Daniel and Gavin had agreed to supervise the disco and I was more than worried about whether I could keep them relaxed and content throughout the night. Two dangerous-looking men with shoulders the size of barn doors guarding the disco might frighten the normal students and spoil the ambiance. I tried to assure my brothers that the youngsters would know to behave and that their task would consist mostly of observing the events impartially; and if – I stressed the word ‘if’ – anything untoward happened; they should only interfere with my permission.

The night seemed to begin well. The men danced with other girls even though I felt their murderous glares towards whoever Clarissa was currently with. However, one of the youngsters had brought three bottles of wine to the girls’ toilet and a few girls kept popping in to covertly slurp it down. After ten o’clock, some of the girls were getting to such a state of drunkenness that the game turned very dirty. The girls made unabashed attempts to pick up the strangers and the men sent panicked glances in my direction. They were mortally afraid that I’d disqualify them even if they merely stood while the girls clung to them wantonly. I sent them an encouraging thought and they shook the girls off themselves.

Two girls still clung to Marc and Adrian, though, and when I went to draw them away, two things happened. From the corner of my eye I saw Clarissa engaged in a passionate kiss with Joshua, and through my mind flashed an image of the girls making love to the Frenchmen. The picture vanished quickly but my thoughts were soon confirmed when the girls began shouting at the men. Quick as lightning, Marc and Adrian drew the girls aside and managed to make them lower their voices. I gave them an inquisitive look and when I tried to enter their minds, I was surprised to encounter a wall. But they didn’t know that no wall could keep me out if I wanted in. Painstakingly, as if unraveling tangled yarn, I explored their secrets. Layer by layer I went deeper and what I found shocked me. The men were so engrossed in the girls that they didn’t know to be wary of me, and I made a quick decision to investigate all their memories and thoughts. I was horrified and unwittingly took a few backward steps. I shrieked when I bumped into something hard.

“Sofia, calm down, it’s only me,” Tiamhaidh whispered.

“Mother, what happened?” Marie asked in an anxious voice from beside Tiam.

“I can’t believe this! I should’ve explored their minds more thoroughly. How stupid I’ve been,” I choked. “Luckily Clarissa hasn’t so far attached herself to either of them.”

“Dé thánn?”

“Amhairc,” I said and opened my mind to Tiam.

Tiam entered my mind with caution, but as he saw what I had seen he began to explore with less scruples. I knew exactly how he felt and didn’t try to stop him; rather, I did my best to lighten his burden and ease his journey within my mind. I saw his hands curl into fists and Marie touching his arm soothingly. Through Tiam’s mind she, too, saw what I’d seen and I was surprised by her lack of shock. She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders slightly.

“You don’t really think they stood any chance with Clarissa, do you?” she asked with a smile.

Marie was right and a broad smile brightened my face. Marc and Adrian’s game was irrevocably over and only ten males remained. Clarissa would be glad, though she wouldn’t like the way the men had been disqualified.

I sent Marc and Adrian a mental call to join me and lightly touched Tiam. He nodded and I knew I could trust him to support me in case any trouble cropped up. The girls who had made the scene fortunately had the sense to stay back and I could present my case to the men without unnecessary spectators.

I was appalled that neither of them tried to defend themselves in any way. They only grinned boyishly. I felt rage beginning to overpower my mind, but Marie's gentle touch on my back reminded me of how futile it would be to waste even a small bout of rage on these men. I pushed my anger aside and waited for the men to give me at least some kind of an answer.

“No! Will you really challenge my decision?” I stared at the men with a dangerous glint in my eyes and they quickly took a few steps backwards.

The men stayed silent and glared at each other. Luckily they had enough sense to look embarrassed, even though I knew they were only embarrassed about getting caught and not for any other reason.

“We will not,” they finally said quietly. “We will be gone by sunrise,” Adrian added with a slight bow to me.

“Good. Marie, please fetch Clarissa.”

If you can, I added to myself, for this time Clarissa was glued to Darel in a slow dance and if my eyes didn’t fail me, she was allowing his calloused hands to caress her bare back while her hands roamed his neck. But Clarissa opened her eyes the moment Marie came to her side. She glanced at me and at once started towards me. Marie smiled mischievously at Tiam and continued where Clarissa had left off. Darel, though, was wise enough to not let his hands move an inch on Marie’s back and I saw how uncomfortable he felt under Tiam’s murderous scrutiny.

I slowly opened her mind, guiding her so she would be able to do it herself the next time. Then I opened my mind, but only partially, as Clarissa had no need to see everything that had occurred. I watched her expressions closely and as it slowly dawned on her what this was all about, I saw disgust on her face. Tiamhaidh took her hand and I noticed the other members of our pack as well as the strange males who had gathered around us. I allowed them into my mind and saw disbelief on some faces, but not all. Some of them had evidently known. Interesting. I would have to investigate this later.

Marc and Adrian had been living all this time with some of Clarissa’s classmates, keeping them as sex toys. More than that, the men had several human girls living with them in France, ready to please them whenever the men felt like it, which was often. Clarissa was meant to be shown only the country houses and both men had intended to use her as a birthing machine should one of them win her. Continuing the family lineage was important to them, yes, but they were by now so hooked on humans that they’d have been happy enough with offspring sired upon human girls. Immortality appeared not to pose a problem for them. Whenever one of the girls aged she was replaced with a new, younger and often more beautiful one. I had certainly known of Frenchmen's tendency to keep mistresses, but I would never have believed this. I fully intended to take this matter to the elders as soon as this courtship debacle was over and done with.

Fortunately the night was beginning to draw to a close. Eventually we got the signal we’d longed for and went home in subdued spirits. I noticed the strangers were also unusually taciturn and I wondered what secrets they were concealing. I decided to investigate that at the earliest opportunity. Now, though, I found myself too exhausted to do anything besides burrow into David’s arms to sleep.

In the morning we noticed that Marc and Adrian had indeed gone off during the night. I explored the vicinity with Daniel and Gavin and we found not the slightest trace of them. Instead, I found large wolf tracks on the frosted ground, and that infuriated me. Our guests had promised not to change into wolves without my leave. I marched inside in a fury and banged the door shut behind me.

“This is enough!” I yelled at the empty living room. “If they want Clarissa they’d better obey our rules or hit the road!”

“What on earth are you roaring about?” a sleepy David muttered, yawning as he opened the fridge to take out some cold orange juice.

“Wolves! Wolves have been around the house at night,” I managed to explain.

“Wolves?” David asked, more alert. “What do you mean? Didn’t we make a pact about this?”

“That’s what I thought, too. Go wake the others. I want the forest searched thoroughly. I want to know which one of the visitors has been so stupid as to flout my command. Especially after last night. I should think Clarissa will be happy to see her crowd of suitors diminish again,” I muttered.

We divided the forest and the area immediately surrounding our house into sections and took one section each to explore. David stayed indoors with the girls, for even if he found wolf tracks he wouldn’t have been able in any way to recognize who had left them. Marie, for her part, stayed to keep Clarissa company as we all agreed it wasn’t a good idea for Clarissa to wander around the icy forest in this situation, especially considering that we didn’t yet know how good a tracker she was. I followed the tracks to the Seita stone, but there they ended as if cut off by a wall. Mathanan informed me that he’d found more tracks deeper in the forest, but other than that we found no more of them in spite of diligently curry-combing the area. We returned home, frustrated, and gathered to share our information.

The wolf appeared to be a very large male, which meant it could have been any of our visitors. The scent was unfamiliar, though, and none of us could quite grasp this new smell. That was the extent of our knowledge regarding the strange wolf. We all threw restless glances out, waiting for a large he-wolf to leap out of the woods any moment. But nothing happened and that night we had no choice but to go to bed, plagued by uncertainty.

The following morning there were more tracks and this time the wolf had clearly marked our house as part of its territory. We were even more baffled. What did this mean? Did the he-wolf want to join our pack or challenge us? Why had it chosen our home as a part of its territory? Was this an ordinary wolf, or a shape shifter like us? A normal wolf would hardly be that large and if it was a shape shifter, why had it chosen to remain in lupine form? Questions abounded in our minds and none of us had any answers to them. For over a week the wolf continued marking our house and even though we guarded the house in shifts, none of us so much as glimpsed the wolf. We were very tired and I could no longer think of any solution except asking the strangers for help. The others accepted my plan and in a few hours our house was once again packed with shape shifters.

“Someone has shifted into wolf without my knowledge,” I got straight to the point.

The men looked astonished and a doubt began growing in my mind.

“A male shape shifter wolf has been circling our house and the woods for over a week and become bold enough to mark our house as part of his territory,” I went on.