Kat passed me an envelope while doing a fair impression of Ms. Wilson. “I’m having my annual spring tea party, and I would mail this, but that Italian she’s living with probably wouldn’t give it to her. So, would you be so kind as to pass along this invitation? I know what that man thinks of me, but in the South, we do still have manners.”
I snickered at Kat’s impression as I read the invitation. There was a lovely watercolor picture on the front of the card of an antique looking teapot with cute little lumps of sugar in a dish beside it.
“You know, I have to agree with Ms. Wilson on this one, Alfred really wouldn’t give it to me. That’s the problem,” I said provocatively, “he never has a chance to give it to me.”
Kat laughed as she continued, “She said to be sure and invite a friend, and you’re my friend. So, will you come?”
I laid the card back on the table. “I never miss it, but Alfred would rather be shot.”
Kat laughed. “You’ll just have to bring someone else.”
“I know just the person.”
“Your buddy at the University?”
“Yep.”
Dr. Richard Stacey had been my friend longer than Kathryn. I’d stopped one of his colleagues from killing him when the other guy wolfed out at a club one night. I have a knack for meeting people that way. Dr. Stacey was about five-foot-nine with gentle blue gray eyes and prematurely gray hair. He was one of the most genuinely nice people I had ever known, and he was a sucker for stuff like this. If the poor guy couldn’t come up with an honest reason not to go, he wouldn’t try to lie. Oh yes, I knew the friend I would be bringing.
“What exactly does he do again?” Kat asked.
“He’s got a degree in chemistry, physics, and a number of other things that make my head hurt.”
She laughed at my response.
“But, he teaches science and geology,” I finished.
“Sounds fascinating.” Kat rolled her eyes. “Be sure to wear something nice, I’m going to take pictures.”
“Okay, but why?”
“Alfred thought it would add a bit of ‘southern charm’ to my shop if I had some nice big pictures of the tea party to display.”
“Alfred thought?” I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice.
“Yes, Alfred thought.”
I gave her a questioning look.
“I had to find a subject that didn’t piss him off.” She laughed. “You know, he’s actually got good taste for a straight guy.”
After Kat left, I decided to see what was taking Alfred so long with the report. As I walked into his room, he was just signing off on his communicator and I ducked quickly back out of the room.
“It’s all right,” he called. “Jacob had already logged off.”
I walked over to where Alfred sat at a larger version of my writing desk, flung the robe dramatically back from my thighs, and straddled his lap.
“It’s not that I’m ashamed of you honey,” I purred sweetly. “I just wouldn’t want to give my father the wrong impression.”
“Like us sleeping together?” He smiled. “Yeah, that would be totally misleading.”
“So, did Kathryn give you the invitation to the tea party?”
“Yes, she did.” I ran my fingers playfully through his already tousled hair.
“And who are you taking?” He asked, smiling. “You know I can’t stand that old woman.”
“Yeah, I know how you feel about Ms. Wilson. I was thinking of asking Richard Stacey.”
Alfred, for reasons beyond my comprehension, rarely missed an opportunity to either make fun of, or generally harass Richard Stacey. Needless to say, there was no love lost between these guys. They didn’t exactly hate each other, but they weren’t friends either.
“So, you’re taking Dick Stacey with you, eh?” he teased.
“Must you call him that?” I tried to pretend it wasn’t funny.
“Yeah.” Alfred’s voice took on a more wicked tone as he added, “He looks like a dick to me.”
I sighed as I leaned in to rub my cheek against his. “Yes, and Elijah’s a peckerwood.”
“Don’t make me sound so terrible.”
“Oh, you don’t need my help,” I said as I bit gently along his bottom lip. “Richard’s thought you were an asshole for years, and now poor Elijah thinks you’re a complete sociopath.”
He laughed, but the smile faded quickly from his face.
“What?”
“I’ve got something to tell you that ... well, you’re not going to want to hear.”
“You hate my guts and you’re leaving me for Marcy?”
Alfred laughed so hard he nearly dislodged me from my perch on his lap.
“God, no,” he gasped. “Please, get your mind on something else, this is serious.”
“Okay, fine. What has my father cooked up now?”
“How did you know?”
“You know better than to ask me that question. How many years have I known this man?”
I watched as the smile faded from Alfred’s eyes and knew it was something serious, even before he spoke. “The council has granted Marco Barak a hearing.”
“What?”
“That’s not all,” he cut in. “Jacob thinks we should stage a protest. Not that it will do any good, but he’s got about a hundred Hunters who are willing to show up outside the Council Tower.”
“I wondered how he was planning on getting close enough to get that damn bug of his in the building.”
“He told you about that, too, huh?”
“Of course, daddy’s little girl, don’t you know.”
Alfred smiled weakly. “And he wants me to be there,” he finished.
I felt my heart leap unpleasantly. “When’s the hearing?”
“In three months.”
“That’s not so bad.”
“He wants me to leave now,” Alfred interrupted. “Apparently, there’s a lot of planning to be done, and he wants me to be there.”
I sighed disappointedly as I rested my forehead against Alfred’s shoulder. There was no refusing my father once he had his mind made up. I also knew Alfred well enough to know he wouldn’t love me and leave me so quickly, so sex was out of the question. That didn’t make sense to me, but it’s the way things were. No use wasting the time we had together arguing over it.
“Does the transporter in the lab still work? It hasn’t been used in a while,” I said.
“Yeah, it works, unfortunately.”
“So, when will you leave?”
Alfred looked into my eyes as he answered quietly, “Tomorrow.”
I spent the night with Alfred again, but this time we moved to my room. I wanted his scent on my sheets. Perhaps the smell of his cologne on my pillow would help to ease the empty feeling I had at the thought of being without him. Neither of us spoke much that night. We seemed to share a mutual need to just be close. It wasn’t as if I was expecting to never see him again. I knew Alfred would come back. I just didn’t want him to leave. Not then, not when I’d begun to attach myself to him so completely.
I held him to me as if there would be no tomorrow. Part of me was angry with my father for asking him to go. But, I reasoned that since they used to be partners, he trusted Alfred. People in power don’t always have someone to trust. It was a compliment to be asked, really. As I lay there, pressed as tightly against Alfred’s side as I could get, I felt him brush the hair back from my forehead and place his lips against me so gently that I knew he thought I was asleep. It took everything I had not to cry.
*****
The morning came too soon. I followed Alfred quietly down the stairs to the lab. The transporter in the far corner looked like nothing more than a circle of white tiles set into the floor. However, each tile represented other transporters and their locations, both on Earth and Terra.
Alfred pressed the tile that would take him directly to my father’s office as I watched forlornly. He stepped forward, pulled me against him, and k
issed me softly. I closed my eyes and savored the way his lips felt against mine. There were many nights ahead when I would have only that memory to keep me warm.
“I’ll see you soon,” he whispered against my lips.
Alfred stepped back into the circle, and in an instant, he was gone.
By the time I got back upstairs, Kat was at the door. As I opened the door, I felt tears beginning to burn the backs of my eyes, but I fought it. The only problem was a real friend knows when something’s wrong, just by looking at you.
“What’s wrong?” Kat asked, stepping toward me.
The compassion on her face was too much. I tried unsuccessfully to cover up the trail of involuntary tears with the sleeve of my robe.
“Do you realize that I’ve cried more in the past five months than I have in the past five years?” I sniffed.
“Where’s Alfred?” she asked, looking around.
“Come in, I’ll explain,” I said, still attempting to dry my eyes.
Kat made coffee while I went over what had happened.
“I don’t understand something,” Kat began. “If there’s a president, then what purpose does the council serve?”
“The wizards on the council are advisors to the president. He’s voted on every twenty years, and represents the entire population. A being of any race can be elected president.”
“What about the wizards? How long do they stay on the council?”
“They serve on the council for life.”
“Wow. Ever have them fight over it?”
“The council seats?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking for some cream. “I mean, those guys live for forever, that’s got to be a big deal, right?”
“Oh yeah. That’s what the last wizard war was about.”
“But I thought you guys had only had one war,” Kat said, looking confused.
“No, one world war, there have been many wizard wars—”
“But only one war that managed to piss off everybody,” she finished for me.
“Pretty much.”
“So, what happened last time?”
I got up to look for some fruit. With my metabolism, if I didn’t eat soon, I’d get sick, even if I didn’t feel like eating at the moment. “You really want to hear all this crap?”
“Sure,” Kat said, looking genuinely interested. “It’s not every day you get to hear stuff like this. I mean, normally, you have to buy a good sci-fi or fantasy book to get this level of bullshit.”
I laughed. “It’s not bullshit.”
“So, what happened?” she prompted.
“Well, this dark wizard, Tavarius Maeryn, wanted the recently vacated seat on the council. He never really had a chance. I mean, everyone knew he was evil. They had someone else in mind to recommend for the position, but it was never said who.”
“If they decided on someone, do they just automatically get in?” Kat interrupted.
“No, it’s put to a vote. If the president or the people have an objection to the opinion of the council, then majority rules. At least two of the three have to agree. Like if the council wanted somebody that the president was against, the vote of the people would decide.”
“What happened then?”
“So, Maeryn goes out and conjures himself an army of goblins,” I said offhandedly while I looked for some cream to go with my strawberries.
“He conjured goblins?”
“Cursed a bunch of elves, actually. The point is, this entire army was defeated by a young wizard named Alek Ambrose. He was only twenty years old at the time. Everyone was really impressed.”
“They offered him the seat, right?”
“Oh sure, but he turned it down. Said he hadn’t fought Maeryn for the seat, that he’d simply done the right thing.”
“Sounds very noble and all, but is he for real?”
“I guess so. He sort of dropped out of sight after that. No one’s heard anything from him in the last forty years.”
Kat took a sip of coffee with trembling hands before asking, “So, you’ve got wizards, elves, and goblins running around and you never thought to mention it?”
I laughed a little as I answered, “Sorry, Kat. I just didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Besides, you knew about the wizards.”
She looked at me like that was the dumbest thing I’d ever said.
“Are these creatures on Earth?”
“Not anymore. There were some different races years ago that lived here, but most have died out long ago. Once in a while, you get the stray monster, sent out by some dark wizard, or two bit conjuror. But the last wizard war was forty years ago, and there hasn’t been a goblin seen since.”
“Well, that’s a comfort,” Kat said sarcastically. “You know, after seeing real live werewolves, I shouldn’t be surprised at anything.”
“After I was nearly eaten by one, neither was I,” I said darkly.
Chapter Nine
As I sat on the balcony that evening, I looked out across the woods toward the sunset, and found comfort in its beauty. Dusk had always been my favorite time of day. The stress of the day was behind, with the promise of a warm summer’s night ahead. The breeze flowed over my skin like a caress and I sighed, remembering the way Alfred’s fingers had brushed the hair back from my face just as gently.
I breathed deeply as I thought to myself there was poetry somewhere in that memory. I took out my pin and paper and wrote:
Fingers in My Hair
The wind brushes softly past my face and I am reminded of your touch.
The soft caress of gentle hands that I've come to love so much.
Your fingers run through my hair, chasing away my worries, brushing past my cares.
The wagging tongues of the world grow still when you touch me.
So, I stand here in the wind and let it blow the hair back from my face, quietly remembering a touch that my mind cannot erase.
I let it brush away my worries and blow away my cares, just as your fingers used to do, when you ran them through my hair.
Putting down my pin, I looked up at the moon. It was half full, peeking from the clouds like a large, silvery eye. I had always heard that “the crazies” come out on a full moon. The truth is, they are always out, some of them are just more dangerous on a full moon.
I walked to the edge of the balcony and nearly fell backward when I looked over the roses. Marco was standing under the balcony, looking up expectantly.
“Little pig, little pig,” he began.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “That won’t get you anywhere. Besides, I waxed my chin.”
He laughed then, too, and the sound sent shivers up my spine.
“What are you doing here, Marco?”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“Why?”
“Can’t I come in?” he asked. The deep and sexy rumble of his voice did things to me that I couldn’t describe.
“No, you can’t.”
“Don’t you trust me, Red?” he asked, pretending to be offended.
“No, I don’t,” I answered, but I couldn’t stop the smile.
“But you like me.” It wasn’t a question.
“I could have you killed for standing here.”
“But you won’t.”
Marco knew I wouldn’t kill him, not that night, not for just standing there. He stepped back slightly, and I got a better look at one of the sexiest men I’d ever seen. I’ve never seen anyone look so good in a pair of jeans. They weren’t tight, but they fit well enough that you knew what you were looking at, and I felt guilty for looking. Alfred hadn’t been gone a day, and there I was ogling Marco, again.
“No,” I said after a long pause. “I won’t have you killed, but I don’t feel like conversation tonight either.”
“Well, I didn’t feel like conversation when you cuffed me to the chair.”
A smile curved my lips as I purred silkily, “Well, I don’t feel like sex either.”
The smile he gave m
e was nothing short of charming, as he responded, “You know where to find me.”
“Yes.” Unfortunately, I did, which made it more tempting to seek him out, I thought with a smile as I watched Marco disappear into the woods.
After closing the balcony doors and pulling the sheer red curtains, I found my bed to look more inviting than it had earlier. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally spent. I let the robe that I’d worn all day, fall to the floor as I crawled between the sheets, still wearing my black lace bra and panties. Taking hold of the pillow Alfred had slept on the night before, I snuggled it against me, breathed deeply, and fell asleep.
*****
I awoke the next morning to a beautiful day and it pissed me off. Whatever happened to good old rainy days? I rolled over and noticed the blue light flashing on my communicator. Alfred had been gone one whole day and I had a message. This could be good, or this could be bad. I held my breath and pressed the button. The images of Alfred and my father appeared as they began to sing happy birthday to me. I had actually forgotten my own birthday. About the time that I was thinking how stupid I was, Alfred smiled and said, “We know you probably forgot it. Don’t feel bad, just do something fun.”
My dad waved at me and said, “Happy Birthday, baby.”
The message was over, the hologram faded, but I was left with a smile. I knew Kat would want to do something and I had a plan. But first, I needed to ask Richard about the tea party, it was only two days away.
I put on a pair of comfortable old jeans, tan flip flops, and a soft, brown t-shirt that complemented my hazel eyes. Taking my keys from the table, I opened the door to find a package waiting for me. It was a golden showers rose with a card from my mother. I sat it just inside the door with a smile. It would make a nice addition to my garden.
The University was about an hour away. When I arrived, I was halfway to Richard’s office before I realized I had no idea how to approach the topic. I didn’t want him to know he was being suckered. I knocked on the door and watched through the small window as Richard jumped, sending rock samples flying. He looked up and smiled. When Richard opened the door, I had no trouble returning the smile as I hugged him affectionately.
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