I’d personally handpicked a group of about sixty people, the strongest and fastest, to be trained by James, Ahmed and me in different types of combat, several hours every day, seven days a week. All the Captains of the Red Cliffs Houses were among them.
A soldier from a different time, Ahmed was skilled in human combat. Although I didn’t expect to find many humans among Seth’s army, I wanted us to be prepared, just in case, and nobody could help us with that better than Ahmed.
The full moon was a week and a half ahead, and I was, like Astrid, a little bit nervous. Although for different reasons. Morgaine had warned me that the whole business of connecting Astrid’s loose spirits wouldn’t happen instantly. It was a day-long process, she said, during which Astrid would shift between sexual tension and its release.
Astrid didn’t know that, and it was left to me to break the news. I could imagine she wouldn’t be happy being trapped in yet another uncontrollable process, no matter how appealing the prospect of dealing with it looked. At least to me.
And then, there was the matter of that additional physiological component on a werewolf sexual organ, commonly known as the knot, an extra gland that runs from the base of the penis to the top. It made the head of the penis swell and lock inside a female, preventing us parting until after ejaculation. It was invisible to the naked eye. It activated during intercourse with a partner from our own kind, whose anatomy was naturally adjusted to accept the extra swelling and locking. The swelling could happen with non-werewolf lovers, but locking was rare. To them, we usually look and feel thicker and wider.
In any case, Astrid was apparently oblivious of the knot and her subtle anatomical response to it, and it was left to me to explain when the opportunity presented itself.
With the full moon approaching, Astrid was more and more tense. I cut all unnecessary travel. My presence relieved her anxiety so she was able to concentrate on her training with her various teachers.
I’D NEED to make one quick trip, though. Astrid was planning to go skiing with Peyton one of these days and that’d give me a chance to go to Seattle without her to pick up the engagement ring from the Offenbachs’ jewelry store. A month ago I’d asked Magda to design a ring for Astrid, explaining what I wanted. Yesterday she’d phoned that the ring was ready.
If it had been up to me, we would’ve already been married, but Astrid, incredibly open to all the changes that she had to go through, refused to even talk about it before we dealt with Seth once and for all.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t propose, and this coming Friday seemed like the perfect day.
Twenty-Three
Astrid
THE FORECASTED snowstorm had missed Red Cliffs completely and on Sunday morning Peyton and I went skiing. To warm up we did several intermediate runs first, before we hit some of the most challenging ones.
After several hours we went to a cozy crapery. Lucy and Charles Langdon, who’d come to the mountains here over the long weekend, invited us to their table. When Lucy told me she used to sing back in Montreal, where she’d studied, I invited her and Charles to Goblin’s Hollow the next weekend.
“Where did you sing?” Peyton asked, explaining that her job took her often to Montreal where Millennium Property had its office.
“At Ganymede,” Lucy said. “It’s a popular gay bar. The parents of my good friend from University own the place.” She laughed. “I was probably the first and last straight singer that ever sang there. Oh, God, I miss that crazy bunch so much.”
An idea crossed my mind. “Lucy, would you like to sing with me one evening at Goblin’s Hollow?”
Lucy’s shiny, emerald-green eyes turned to me. “Oh, I would love to!”
“That’s going to be awesome!” Peyton clasped her hands in excitement. “Every single girl will come! You should see, Lucy, what Astrid turned Goblin’s into in just two nights! No more of that terrible Rawhide noise.”
“Rawhide is Jack’s brother’s band,” Charlie explained to Lucy.
I laughed. “Don’t let the guys hear you, Peyton.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I prefer songs I can sing along to.”
“So how about this Friday?” I said.
Lucy agreed and we briefly talked about the songs we’d sing.
Half an hour later Peyton and I said goodbye to the Langdons. We decided to take several more runs before we went home.
BACK IN town later that afternoon, we stopped at the supermarket to buy the ingredients for the dinner that I had promised to cook.
“When will Jack be back?” Peyton said.
This morning Jack had gone to Seattle. Urgent business, he said with a tiny smile in the corner of his mouth. I suspected it was a sort of surprise so I hadn’t asked for the details. “He’s catching the first flight tomorrow. He should arrive around noon. Why?”
“Would you like to stay for a sleepover at your best friend’s place?” she said.
I grabbed a toothbrush from the dental aisle we were passing by and put it in the shopping basket.
“I’d love to,” I said happily.
WE WERE on our second glass of a fruity Chardonnay when Peyton said, “Before I ask you about Ingmar, I want to talk to you about something else.”
The tone of her voice suggested a serious topic.
“About Heather,” she said.
“Your mother?”
She nodded. “Maybe I’m not the right person to tell you this, but I’m going to tell you anyway. Maybe then you’ll understand better why the Mohegans are so important for me, why my mother showed such animosity toward you when she saw you, and why you should be aware of her.”
Peyton inhaled deeply and continued, “I’m not sure if you know, but my mother is the daughter of wizard-werewolf parents, who hoped she’d become an Ellida. But, save for the right parentage, she didn’t have anything else that makes an Ellida. She lost most of her wizard powers when she turned the first time. That was a great disappointment for her. She slowly started turning into a bitter woman, unable to love, always chasing impossible dreams, always wanting what belonged to others.
“She married my father on an impulse. He was a human, from Copper Ridge, but came to live here with her. After less than two years they divorced and he left. He never returned to Copper Ridge.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared. Maybe he changed his name, maybe he died. Nobody knows. By the time my father left, my mother was a pretty, young divorcee with a small daughter. She knew how to conceal her true nature when she wanted to. Before your father met your mother, he and Heather became involved.”
A few weeks ago Betty had told me a part of this story. I nodded, but didn’t interrupt her.
“It didn’t last long,” Peyton continued. “Your father broke up with her and moved on, and got married after a while. Well, Heather didn’t take that part lightly. She became obsessed with Hal and your mother: spreading lies about them, chasing Hal, insulting your mother. She accused Rowena of causing her break-up, which was nonsense because it’d happened before your father met your mother. Anyway, without anybody else around, I became a target of my mother’s misery and unhappiness. There were times when I was sure she hated me from the bottom of her heart. She’d tell me that Hal didn’t want her because of me. She said nobody wanted a woman with baggage. I believed her, of course, until I was old enough to realize that your father was a decent man who’d never leave a woman because she had a child.
“She used to tell me how she hated my father, that pitiful human, as she called him, and that I was the biggest mistake of her life. She neglected me emotionally and mentally. She was absent a lot, sometimes for weeks or months. It was a blessing, because when she was here, she was angry all the time. I was a sad, lonely and unloved child, and grew up believing it was indeed my fault that my mother was so unhappy. Luckily, it didn’t last long. Betty figured out what was going on, and James took me away from my mother. I stayed with him and Betty until I moved into my
own place. My mother didn’t object.”
I listened silently to the story of Peyton’s terrible first years. Her voice was steady, flat, almost emotionless. Only from time to time I could notice a slight tremor in it. Her wounds might have healed, but the scars were still bright red.
“My mother kept a low profile,” she continued. “She traveled a lot, trying to stay here as little as possible. You know, I’ve always wondered if she had any part in Hal’s and Brian’s deaths. I can imagine her plotting to get even with whoever she blamed for her misery.”
“Did James know about it? He must have, right?”
Peyton confirmed. “He always suspected Heather wasn’t completely innocent, but there was no proof of her involvement. She wasn’t even here when your father died… More wine? You look like you need some.”
She refilled my glass and I took a big swig. The wine seemed to go directly to my blood, turning my legs and arms into jelly.
“I’m so sorry, Peyton,” I whispered.
Peyton smiled weakly. “It was long ago, Astrid. I’ve had a loving home since then, many happy years, lots of friends, a job that I love. Jack and I…” She stopped looking straight into my eyes, and then continued, “Do you mind if I talk about it now?”
“Not at all… And I… truly admire you for that,” I stuttered, deeply moved by her bravery and honesty.
“It was impossible not to fall in love with him. You of all people should understand that. I didn’t want to admit he’d never loved me the way I loved him. No matter what he’d say back then about bonding, he was waiting for his true mate, I know that.”
“Bonding is rare,” I said. “You can’t know if it’s going to happen to you or not. It would be a colossal waste of time to sit and wait for a bond to happen. People can be happy without bonding. Jack didn’t sit twiddling his thumbs and waiting for me to show up in his life.”
Peyton’s lips curved upright. “Oh, of course he had a decent number of relationships for a man of his age.” She continued in a quiet, serious voice, “I loved Jack with all my heart. But to him I was a friend, a confidant, somebody who was always there when he needed me: when he was alone, when nobody else caught his interest, to comfort him after his messy breakups. I hoped he’d change one day.
“And then, I got tired of it. Even before you came here. I didn’t want to become like my mother, obsessed with a man who didn’t want me. I wanted somebody to love me back so I decided—enough was enough. I had to forget about Jack. It took me a while, and I had a couple of relapses, the last one the very day I met you. I still believe Jack loves me as a friend, or like a part of his family.”
“Oh, he does, Peyton,” I said eagerly. “You are his family, and you’re my family now.”
“And that’s how it has to be. You two are bond-mates, and there is no one who could come between you. In a way it was a relief. I feel I can breathe again, and maybe, maybe…”
I opened another bottle and filled our empty glasses. “So what’s going on between you and my ex-boyfriend?”
She blushed. “In a minute, Astrid. Before that, just let me wrap up the story about Heather. I’m sorry if I disturbed you. Sooner or later, we’ll know the truth about her part in those events twenty-five years ago. As you probably realized, time flows differently here. If she’s somehow responsible, she’ll suffer the consequences. If it’s going to happen tomorrow, in a month or after fifty years, doesn’t matter. James and Jack keep an eye on her. She has friends in Copper Ridge and she goes there relatively often. I suppose she’s there even now. God knows what she’s been doing there. She can be mean and she’s selfish. Be careful. Okay?”
I gently patted Peyton’s hand. “No worries. And thank you for telling me that. And now, I’m all ears.”
Taking a deep breath, Peyton asked me about Ingmar: how long I’d known him, about his family, his job and his personality. I answered as openly as I could: that he’d been my best friend since we were kids, that we almost screwed up our friendship with a fling, but that we actually had never been in love with each other. “Ingmar’s quite an unusual wizard,” I said. “He’s much more relaxed and easygoing than most of us. And very sociable. He doesn’t like being alone. He’s fascinated with humans, and recently with Tel-Urughs and werewolves. He possesses inexhaustible energy, it’s really hard to keep up with him. He’s a brilliant doctor and very compassionate.”
Feeling already pleasantly drunk, I took another sip of wine. It loosened up my tongue, but my head was still clear.
Well, almost. A hiccup escaped from my throat. “And passionate. If you know what I mean.”
“Oh. Really?” Peyton smirked, merry yet completely sober.
“Yep. Be ready for the most exciting journey of your life.” Another hiccup. “Ingmar’s an exquisite lover, unselfish, generous, passionate and inexhaustible. He loves sex. Oh, every woman should sleep with Ingmar… Oops, sorry. I meant every woman should have an Ingmar-like experience.”
The last glass of wine finally got me. I felt light, giddy and blissful sitting at the table in Peyton’s kitchen.
She giggled back. “And you should be ready for the most intense experience of your life, with wonderful and unpredictable twists and turns, and a signature Canagan firework at the end of it. Astrid, was Ingmar the last man you had sex with?”
“Uh-huh,” I said slowly. “Why?”
Peyton covered her mouth with her hand to suppress a chuckle. “Because Jack was the last one that I slept with.”
“Which means we’re about to swap partners! We should compare notes later,” I finished before we both exploded with laughter.
A FEW hours later, while I sipped my third cup of coffee, Peyton told me about her plans to go to Seattle to spend a few days with Ingmar.
“It’s been forever since I felt anything like that,” she said. “I feel like a schoolgirl getting ready for her first date. We talk a lot, every night, sometimes even several times every day, just about everything. He makes me laugh. When I hear his voice, it’s like I feel something warm and gentle touches me from inside… Like when you close your eyes and let the sun touch your closed eyelids. I probably should feel scared of the intensity of my feelings. It’s too early, it came so suddenly, and when I least expected it. Yet everything that comes from Ingmar is so gentle, fulfilling. And so intense, at the same time, breathtakingly intense. It feels so right.”
It sounded like bonding. I didn’t say it, though, leaving it to Ingmar and Peyton to discover the wonder of their eternal connection.
I silently let out a deep breath and quickly thanked God for this miracle.
Twenty-Four
Astrid
I SUSPECTED the reason for Jack’s sudden trip to Seattle was the engagement ring. He knew I didn’t want to get married right away, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t propose. He also knew the reasons for my hesitancy. The inevitable battle with Seth Withali was a Democlean sword hanging over our heads. When I got married, I’d decided, I wanted to be free of fear and completely happy.
And I wanted my mother to be there with me.
OUR HOUSE was almost done. Busy with my training, I couldn’t spend a lot of time overseeing the renovations. I’d left it to Jack to deal with, including the interior design and I knew we would have a nice, warm and cozy home.
Within a week, Ahmed had moved into his own place, a small house down the street with a big bay window overlooking the garden. Ahmed said that the window reminded him of his old house in Konya. Peyton helped him to choose the furniture—chests of different sizes, shelves, divans that he placed under the windows, and rich Persian carpets.
Out of place in the décor of his bright, cheery and airy sitting room were two huge armchairs placed around a round, carved coffee table. “Armchairs are for those who are, unlike you and me, not comfortable sitting on their bums on the cushions on the floor,” he’d explained with a smile when I asked him about it.
Ahmed and I quickly established a firm bond that wen
t beyond our professional relationship. None of us could explain that instant closeness and a feeling that we had a very firm place in each other’s life. Jack, who always had to fight hard to keep his possessiveness and jealousy under control, didn’t consider Ahmed a threat, not even subconsciously.
A good-looking single man with a certain aura of mystery would draw a lot of attention even in a bigger place than Red Cliffs, so naturally Ahmed’s name was on everybody’s lips. He was charming in his quiet way, but kept pretty much to himself. When I teased him gently about his social life, he would just laugh. Then, one day he told me, “It might sound silly, but I’m gonna wait for my bond-mate. Jack did, didn’t he?”
“I’m not sure that I was his real intention. I don’t think he just waited for me to show up in his life. He’d lived almost a century before I was born.”
“My bond-mate, my future wife, well, she has been born. That much I can say. And she’s around.”
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow hoping he’d say more, but his eyes had gotten a faraway look. A gentle smile lingered on his lips.
I couldn’t read his expression, but one thing I was sure about: wherever his mind wandered, it was not in Anatolia four hundred years ago.
I PHONED Lucy Langdon to confirm her arrival on Friday. She was excited. She and Charlie would come in the morning, so that the two of us would have time to practice a bit with the band.
Thanks to Peyton, Betty, Drew, Lily and the other girls of the powerful Red Cliffs female network, the news about the Friday Special was spreading like wildfire.
Everybody was excited except Jack.
“Why this Friday?” he said grumpily. “Why can’t you wait until next weekend?”
Ellida Page 17