Ellida

by J. F. Kaufmann

  “I didn’t tell him Seth wasn’t his father, damn it! I told him he is not mad like Seth!” Now Astrid was yelling, too.

  “After I clearly warned you not to tell him. That’s another problem, Astrid. You ignored my direct order.”

  Werewolf hierarchy had never been Astrid’s favorite topic. She frowned, eyebrows almost touching in the middle, her green eyes darkened and her lips pursed into a sneer.

  “I’m not trying to manhandle you, Astrid,” I said. “But I’m the Einhamir of the Red Cliffs clan, and this includes you, too. You can tell me your opinion in private, and I promise I’ll always consider it, but you must not disobey me publicly. That can set a bad precedent. Do you understand?”

  She let out a sigh and ran her hand through her hair. “Then we have a problem, you see. I am the Ellida of the same clan, and therefore, I outrank you. Today I superseded your decision because I thought mine was better. I still do. So what will we do now?”

  “Okay, let’s forget for a moment you ignored my orders. I’m not happy keeping Darius in the dark, either. I might even agree with you. It’s Morgaine’s decision—”

  “The last time I checked, I was Red Cliffs’ Ellida, not Morgaine!”

  This was an Astrid I hadn’t seen before.

  “Besides,” she continued, “I repeat, I didn’t tell him Seth wasn’t his father, only that he was not going to go mad!”

  “Darius is an intelligent man, he may connect the dots.”

  Her open hand slammed down on the table with great force. “Damn it, Jack, I didn’t ask for this power! I didn’t want this authority! But I’ve got it, and God help me, I’m going to exercise it when I decide it’s necessary! Do I need to remind you that I am your military leader?! Don’t you think I should, maybe, take a more active role in your little war games against Seth?”

  This definitely wasn’t an Astrid I had seen before. And she was clearly showing me she knew how to fight her own battles. I liked her new confidence and self-awareness and the way she stood up for herself and defended her decision. I even liked her anger, but she needed a reality check before she went overboard.

  “Your military title is a formality, baby. Like me being a sheriff here. I have an office and the uniform.” I paused, hoping for a tiny smile or a spark in her eyes, but she didn’t bite so I continued, “I’m the sheriff only on paper, right? In reality, Mike Kowalski is sheriff. Astrid, your role as Ellida is not a formal one. It’s enormous, but if you’re imagining leading the troops to Copper Ridge riding on a white horse, well, it’s not going to happen. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be a sight, though.”

  She smirked, not amused at all.

  Of course she was capable of doing it, but the idea of Astrid storming Copper Ridge with us scared the living daylights out of me.

  I tried a different approach. “Oh boy, how do I explain this? As an Ellida, yes, you are above the pack hierarchy. As an Alpha female, you’re not. We both rule, and our responsibilities definitely do overlap sometimes, but that’s very rare. And today, it was my call, not yours.”

  “I remember what you said once: ‘If you are ready to give orders, you need to learn how to take them.’ I understand that, Jack, believe me.”

  “Astrid, I’m not sure you did Darius a favor. He might try to kill Seth before we are ready, and before he’s ready. That’s the problem.”

  “You are using Darius for your own purposes!”

  “Our goals are similar. Plus we have you to protect. We need him and he needs us.”

  “I gave him hope, and now he’ll have more reason to live. He won’t be reckless with his life. Have Morgaine, or you, for that matter, thought about that? Have you considered that he might, perhaps, prefer to die fighting against Seth than to live, because he thought there was nothing worth living for? For Crissake, Jack, the man made you promise to take his life before… before…”

  Her voice broke off, and she suddenly looked tired and sad.

  I sighed. What right did I have to be mad at her? She felt Darius’s unhappiness and despair and responded to it in her own way, the only way she knew—by healing his wounds.

  I wanted to take her in my arms and hold her tight.

  When she looked at me, her eyes were shiny with tears. “I love you, Jack, and I couldn’t imagine my life without you, but sometimes I feel this is too much for me. I wish I could go back to Rosenthal and to my house, and keep pretending my life is normal.”

  Her words slammed into me like a freight train.

  “I have to go now,” she announced after a long, stony silence.

  “Where?!” I yelled, as if she’d indeed decided to go back to Rosenthal right this moment.

  “I’m working tonight, did you forget?”

  “Can’t you ask someone to cover your shift? Let’s stay here tonight.”

  She shook her head and tried to pass by me. I caught her hand and pulled her against me. She was warm, soft, and she smelled good. “Don’t go, baby. I need you.”

  She kissed me softly and freed herself from my grip. “Will you give me a ride? I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”

  WHEN I picked her up from the Clinic the next morning, she was still distant, lost in her own thoughts. I liked it much better when she was angry. I decided to distract her blue mood with exactly the same weapon she’d attempted to use on me the previous day—a faked jealousy fit.

  We finished breakfast and stood in the kitchen, looking at each other warily.

  “I hate to bring it up, baby, I know you had enough yesterday, but, you see, I think you were a little bit too cozy with Darius. If you know what I mean. You’re my wife now—not formally, of course, but that’s a separate issue now. I know how you feel about him, but you really can’t behave like that, being Alpha female and all.”

  Astrid’s usual self would’ve immediately seen through my charade, but she wasn’t her usual self. The good news was that her face instantly reddened and arrows shot from her eyes.

  “And what exactly do you mean!?” she said.

  I carried on with my diversion. “You hugged him,” I started counting on my fingers. “You let him kiss you—”

  “On. My. Hair.”

  “It was still kissing. When I came back to the room after he asked me to leave you two alone there, what did I see? You two cuddling on the sofa, and then you frenched him in front of everybody. How do you think I felt?”

  She tilted her head and zeroed in her green eyes on me. “And don’t forget I told him I wanted to know him better.” She threw her head back and laughed wholeheartedly. It sounded like the most beautiful music.

  I pulled her into my arms. “Welcome home, baby.”

  Thirty-Six

  JACK, JAMES and Ahmed continued to publicly train Jack’s ‘elite unit’ during that spring and early summer. A retired SEAL, Adam Mackenzie, Jack’s childhood friend and his partner from their special mission days, had come to help train Jack’s little army.

  This was what Jack wanted Seth Withali to know.

  Behind the curtains, Livia and Tristan were on alert, as well as Ingmar, Dinah and Gerald. The Winston warriors and a dozen of Livia’s Tel-Urugh friends were ready to show up in Red Cliffs on short notice.

  PETROLEUM-ENGINEERING diploma in her hands, Maggie came home in mid-June, after two weeks in Europe, courtesy of her oldest brother. Eamon had graduated from high school and decided to take a year off before going to Italy to study ethnomusicology. In the last couple of months, he’d grown noticeably taller and his face had lost the last traces of teenage awkwardness, becoming angular and masculine. His shoulders had broadened, hips narrowed, and he looked strong and confident.

  Peyton and Ingmar had continued their incognito dating.

  Arnaldur and Ella remained in Red Cliffs. Astrid’s grandparents enjoyed the extended hospitality of the entire town. Arnaldur was a sort of living legend here. His role during the war with Warren’s outcast vampires was a part of Red Cliffs’ collective memory. He was deeply
respected for his tireless work in the legal protection of the rights and freedoms of all humanoid races.

  HAYATO NAKAMURA had also arrived in Red Cliffs. The physical likeness between him and Takeshi was as striking as the differences in their personalities. Hayato was a man who talked aloud, laughed a lot, and hummed the rest of the time. Only when he was training Astrid would he resemble his somber son.

  And then, literally overnight, Takeshi changed. The unsmiling, quiet young man had seemed to give way to an energetic, vibrant creature with a throaty laugh and quirky sense of humor. He was still religiously devoted to his martial arts, but that didn’t stop him from embracing the pleasures of life sunny-side up, with a radiant smile and lively sparks in his dark eyes. Everybody knew that Athena Vangelis, a girl with a degree in classical linguistics and medieval literature, and the owner of the town’s best bakery, was responsible for this 180 degree turn. Takeshi didn’t even try to deny it.

  Astrid sometimes even missed her grouchy master and his endless complaints, but the new Takeshi was so funny and charming that he was hard to resist.

  HAYATO WAS the last in the long line of Astrid’s mentors, teachers and trainers, although his job was only to test her newly-acquired skills. To Astrid’s surprise, he approved of Takeshi’s strange mixture of fighting techniques under the common name of ‘dirty fighting’. He was genuinely pleased with Astrid’s sword and bow skills.

  On the last day of her official training with Takeshi, Hayato presented Astrid with a special gift—her very own katana, forged by the Master Hayato himself.

  The secret forging of a katana typically took many days or weeks and was considered a sacred art that required complex knowledge and skills. It was believed that only those with the purest of hearts and the highest of moral standards could become master swordsmiths.

  “It’s made to accommodate your height, weight, the strength of your arms, and your speed. May it serve you well, my lady.” Master Nakamura bowed and held out the sword that lay across his palms.

  A FEW weeks after Hayato’s arrival, Red Cliffs welcomed two visitors from Gelltydd Coch: Jack’s grandparents Robert and Anwen Canagan.

  It had been an emotional reconciliation between James and Betty on one side, and Robert and Anwen on the other. Robert and Anwen had accepted James and Betty’s offer to stay at their home. Once close friends, they had grown apart after Brian’s death and Jack’s refusal to become the Einhamir two and a half decades ago. Now it was time, they all knew, to heal the old wounds.

  “I’m grateful you and Grandmother came,” Jack had said to his grandfather as they sat in the Mohegans’ living room after dinner.

  “For a long time I thought you should have taken your father’s position,” Robert said. “Now I realize you and James made a wise decision. I owe an apology to both of you. We should have set aside all our differences long ago, and it was my fault that we didn’t. I’m thankful, Jack, that you’ve never given up on us, no matter my stubbornness. You kept coming and listening to an old man’s selfish ranting.”

  Jack smiled. “You should thank James and Betty. They insisted I should visit you whenever I could. Besides, I love that old man.”

  Astrid instantly liked Jack’s grandparents. They were warm and caring people. Watching them, she briefly had wondered how old in fact they were, but then mentally corrected herself. When it came to age, she sometimes still thought in human or wizard timelines. A werewolf’s life span was simply divided into childhood, youth and prime age. Therefore, Anwen and Robert were both in their mid-thirties. Robert was a good-looking, tall man with a powerful frame, dark hair and light green eyes. His wife was also tall, but slender and fair, with a beautiful oval face and long, golden-blond hair. She had exquisite blue-green eyes with dark rims around the irises.

  Jack had told her once they seemed like people from a different time, and he was right, Astrid thought. In spite of their modern look, there was an aura of an olden-day glory that surrounded them. Even their old-fashioned titles that nobody used anymore –Robert, the Lord Einhamir of the Northern Lands, and Lady Anwen—fit them perfectly.

  THE MEN were so absorbed in military preparations that nobody noticed that Betty and Maggie had organized their own training schedule, disappearing into the woods every afternoon for several hours. Soon Peyton joined them, but Astrid was asked to stay away.

  “The whole purpose of taking Seth down is to protect you,” Betty explained. “You stay out of it!”

  “So all of you are going to war, and I’m supposed to stay here and make sure dinner’s ready when you come back? I don’t think so. Why don’t you stay here with me?”

  Betty squeezed her eyes shook her head. “Brian… he kissed me one morning and never came back. I can’t sit here and wait. If James goes, so do I.”

  “But I’ll be sitting here and waiting,” Astrid reminded her.

  “That’s different.”

  Astrid didn’t understand why it was different, but she realized it would be pointless to argue with Betty at the moment.

  “What about you two?” she turned to Maggie and Peyton. “What are your reasons?”

  Maggie laughed. “I’ve never been in Copper Ridge. Maybe my true love is there.”

  “Shouldn’t you be looking for a job? I thought you didn’t want to hang out here longer than necessary.”

  “That’s right, I won’t stay longer than necessary. Besides, I completed my four-year degree in three years, with summa cum laude. I deserve a break.”

  “And I’m sort of an ace up our sleeve,” Peyton said. “Nobody knows about my wizard skills. That could be a nasty surprise. Ingmar’s going to be there. What could happen?”

  “Anything could happen,” Astrid said quietly. “You have nice energy, I know because I’ve been training you, but no offense, Peyton, I’m way more capable of fighting than any of you, and I have to stay here. Why do you think Jack would let you go? He doesn’t know about this, does he?”

  “Of course not!

  Oh, but he will. “How did you plan to do that, Betty? You know Jack won’t allow it.”

  “Don’t patronize me, Astrid! This isn’t my first war,” Betty snapped. “And I repeat, I will not sit here and wait to see if my husband will return or not. Do you understand? Never again!” She exhaled deeply and added in a raspy voice. “I’ve survived once the loss of a man I loved. I don’t think I would be able to pull through it one more time.”

  Astrid wrapped her arms around Betty’s shoulders. “I’m sorry for doing that to all of you. I really am.”

  Betty smirked. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not your doing. It started long ago, and now it’s time to end it.”

  It was pointless to argue with any of them at that moment, so Astrid decided to leave it to Jack to deal with the three crazy women later.

  JACK WENT berserk when he heard about his mother, sister and friend’s plans. He simply ordered them, when the time came, to stay with Astrid.

  “Traitor!” Maggie hissed at Astrid over the phone. “I thought we were still the Fellowship of the Full Moon, but apparently it means nothing to you. Why did you tell him, for Crissake?”

  Astrid laughed. “Nice way to talk to the clan’s Ellida. You really thought you’d be able to sneak out without Jack’s or James’ knowledge?”

  “Probably. We have our own methods. What about Eamon? Is he going?”

  “Nobody under the age of twenty-one will go. No women other than the three Captains, Morgaine, Liv, Ella, and Jack’s grandmother. I’m sorry.”

  “So Jack can order his mother to stay, but not his grandmother?”

  “That’s why she came here, to fight. Seth killed her son.”

  Astrid’s explanations didn’t smooth Maggie’s ruffled feathers.

  “He was mom’s husband at that time,” she said. “And you know what? You pissed off your future mother-in-law big time, and that’s never a good idea.”

  “I’m sorry. She’ll forgive me, eventually. Do you really
think she was serious about letting you and Peyton go with her? It was a smoke screen, Maggie.”

  For a long moment there was silence, and then Maggie said with a smirk. “So she was bluffing, you say?”

  “Of course she was. Listen, want to come for lunch? I’m making perch fillets.”

  “You really think I can forgive your betrayal because you’re going to make me my favorite fish?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “How about German potato salad with it? Oh, I hate myself for being so easily bribed! Mom and Peyton are going to strangle me, whoever finds me first.”

  “And Napoleon slices.”

  “I’m surprised my brother finds the time to give you cooking lessons, being so busy bullying three women.”

  “The cake is courtesy of Chef Herzog”.

  “Is Jack there, by the way? I’m not sure I want to see him now.”

  Astrid laughed. “He’s coming later. Come, I’ll make us a pot of black tea first. That always helps me to relax.”

  ON THE surface, life in Red Cliffs seemed ordinary, but the atmosphere was tense, and the signs of serious war preparations were practically everywhere. Astrid tried to be her usual self, but nothing could put her mind at complete rest.

  Jack had stopped going out of town, except to meet with Darius or his messenger at Silverbell Ranch, or to talk to the Blakes at their hiding place. Astrid knew Jack planned to strike at the beginning of December, but he still hadn’t decided the exact date. She was sure he wouldn’t tell her even if he knew. One morning he would kiss her and be gone. And she would be left here in the empty house, waiting for him to return… or…or…

  Astrid’s mind would stop there, numbed with fear, and her blood would turn to ice.