Asanni (17 page)

I told Ingmar a short summary of my last
year, with enough relevant details about my mother, her clan and
their plans, my werewolf family, Jack… a brief account that covered
almost everything. He listened to me without interrupting, his eyes
filled with concern.

My story finally reached the present time and
I smiled. “God, it’s good to see you, Ingmar. I’ve missed you so
much.”

“Not as a boyfriend, apparently.” He sighed.
“I missed you, too.”

“We messed up our perfectly happy friendship
for no reason.”

Ingmar rolled his eyes. “Come on, it wasn’t
that bad. We just added a little bit of spice to the mix. And that
spicy part was great, admit it. But we are better as friends, I
agree.” He stopped abruptly. “Hey, your boyfriend can hear us,
can’t he?”

“Possibly. But I don’t think he’s
listening.”

“Well, that’s chivalrous. You sure he’s not a
wizard?” Ingmar laughed, and for the first time that night he
looked completely like his old, dear self I’d known almost all my
life.

“Your hair grew. I like it,” I said, tilting
my head to get a better view.

Ingmar’s gorgeous blond hair was
shoulder-length and pulled back in a thick ponytail. Like most of
our kind, he looked elf-like: tall, slender and elegant, yet
unmistakably strong. His facial features were clear and
proportional and his eyes brilliant blue. Ingmar was a powerful
wizard. But as with most of us, he rarely used his incredible
energy and skills, except for his job. My grandparents knew him
well and liked him a lot. No wonder he was so uneasy when they
refused to tell him anything about me except that I was okay.

“Astrid, I’m going back to Seattle tonight,
not totally relieved, but enough to leave you here with your
boyfriend and your vampire Praetorians.” He stood up and came close
to me. He took my hands between his and crouched beside the sofa.
“Those people will probably try to harm you again. I know that your
family and friends will do everything they can to protect you, but
please count on me. I’ll come. I’ll help.”

I opened my mouth, but before I was able to
say anything, Ingmar interrupted me. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Because
we are different species, we are not supposed to interfere with
each other’s affairs. Bah! To hell with those rules! You are both a
wizard and a werewolf so you are our concern, as well as
werewolves’. And I can’t imagine your vampire friends standing
aside while somebody’s trying to harm you. Astrid, when the time
comes, when you need me, I’ll come and I won’t be alone. I have a
friend or two who think the same way.”

“Oh Ingmar, I know,” I said, and deeply
moved, hugged him tightly.

“Tell that to Jack, in case he is indeed not
listening to our conversation,” Ingmar said wryly and patted my
shoulder. “I think I should go now.”

“Do you need to go back tonight? Look
outside, it’s horrible.”

It was raining heavily, it was foggy, and I
didn’t want Ingmar to spend several hours on the road.

“I don’t think Jack would be happy to have me
for a sleepover.”

“But we will be.” I heard Liv’s voice from
the hallway. She had a creepy ability to enter any space without a
sound. Jack might not have been listening, but Liv apparently had.
Behind her I saw Jack, and my heart bounced. Oh, how I’d missed
him!

“My husband would like to meet you,” Liv
continued. “We seem to have an interesting topic to discuss. You’re
welcome to stay with us tonight.”

“As a guest or as dessert?” Ingmar said.

“Ah, another wizard with a sense of humor,”
Liv said with a chuckle. “And here I’d always thought you have
electronic chips in your heads instead of a brain.”

And there we were again, the four of us
together in the tiny space. Most of the tension had disappeared,
however. I peeked at Jack, who moved to my side and snuggled me. I
squeezed his hand.

Left arm snug around my waist, Jack offered
his right hand to Ingmar, who accepted it. I silently let out a
deep breath.

I hugged my friend and he kissed my cheek.
“Take care, Astrid. I’ll be there for you when you need me.”

INGMAR’S DEPARTURE was far easier than his
arrival. As the door closed behind him and Liv, Jack turned to
me.

“I’ve been awesome, haven’t I?” he said with
a wide smile and pulled me against him.

I looked up at him and met his soft amber
gaze.

“An epitome of tolerance. I’m impressed,” I
said and locked my arms around his neck. “Just a tiny kiss, may I?”
I asked moving my lips toward Jack’s.

“A tiny one,” he warned me, and met me
halfway.

“You know what?” I asked a bit later, dizzy
and breathless, but in total control over my wild side. “I’ll cook
tonight.”

“What are we going to eat?”

“Do we have anchovies and capers and black
olives?”

“Ah, Pasta alla Puttanesca. You usually don’t
cook, but when you do, you cook sexy food. Why I am not surprised?
Good, then. What should I do?” he asked as we moved to the
kitchen.

“Mince the garlic.”

“Garlic? I thought you don’t eat garlic and
onion.”

“I eat it once it’s been sautéed or
cooked.”

“But not fresh? When we were at Palatine
Hill—”

“I thought... ahem... we might end up
kissing, so I didn’t want to risk it.”

Jack shook his head, laughing. His finger
tilted my chin as his mouth came closer to mine. “You know what,
Miss Spock, let me kiss you now, just in case we don’t sauté the
garlic properly. Not that I would mind, but you might have some
concerns,” he said and kissed me tenderly, cautious not to wake up
my wolf. “Now that I have you, I believe that love at first sight
is actually a process that lasts a whole eternity.”

“You are turning into a poet.”

“That’s because you are my muse.” He turned
me around and, planting a gentle kiss on my neck, grabbed the
kitchen towel from the hook and tucked it into my jeans. “The
kitchen’s all yours, love.”

DID YOU two live together?” Jack said. “I
know it’s not my business, but if you don’t mind telling me...”

They had finished with the Penne Puttanesca
and a salad of mixed greens. Jack had praised her cooking, making
her feel proud.

Astrid smiled. Given who he was—who was he,
indeed? she wondered—and, even more, knowing how important she was
to him, Astrid couldn’t help but admire Jack’s efforts to keep his
possessiveness under control. Nonetheless, a part of her wanted to
tell him exactly that: none of your business. A small part.

“I’d never lived with a man until you moved
into my spare room,” she said instead.

“Did you love him? You don’t need to
answer.”

“I’ve already told you: if I don’t like the
question, you won’t get an answer. We dated for about a year. It
wasn’t exactly a
When-Harry-Met-Sally
relationship, but it
was nice and carefree. See, Ingmar and I’ve been friends since we
were kids. And that’s exactly how I love him—as a friend. We are
close, as you could see.” Astrid sighed. “I’ve missed him. I’m glad
he found me. And I know I can count on him. Are you okay with all
that?”

“Do I have a choice?” Jack uttered a short
laugh and ran his hand through his hair. “We are possessive,
territorial and prone to jealousy. These are primitive instincts, I
know, and I try to keep a lid on them.”

“But?”

“There is no but. I’m also a civilized
person. I’m okay, of course. Nothing matters but you. As long as
you are mine.”

“I am, Jack. And I bet my
alternate
self
doesn’t like sharing either.”

Astrid moved closer and tucked herself beside
Jack. She rested her head against his chest, breathing him in.
Enough about personal issues and ex-boyfriends for tonight, she
decided.

“Do I smell as nice to you as you do to me?”
she whispered into his shoulder.

Jack kissed her hair. “You smell wonderful.
Better than anyone else.” He lifted her chin with his finger,
studying her eyes. “Astrid, love, try to keep her under control. I
know it’s not easy, but just try. Okay?”

“Okay, okay. Let’s talk. Tell me about your
family, your father. His name was Brian, right? He died fighting
alongside my father.”

“That’s probably one of the best ways to go,
or at least I believe he’d think so. Yes, they died together,
fighting Seth’s men. We found their bodies after two weeks and
brought them home for the funeral.”

“You cremated them?”

“That’s what we do.”

“And Seth? You let him get away with double
murder?”

“We couldn’t prove he ordered it. He said he
agreed to meet Hal and Brian, but the meeting never happened
because ten of Seth’s mercenaries ambushed them and killed them,
but not before Hal and Brian killed four of them. Four survived.
They said it was self-defense.”

“Self-defense? Ten against two?”

“Well, under normal circumstances, Brian and
Hal could’ve taken down all of them.”

“You said there were ten of them. What
happened to two?”

“Ran away. Nobody saw them ever again. I was
looking for them for years. I had their names, everything, but they
vanished off the face of the earth.”

Jack didn’t tell Astrid that their fathers’
bodies had been so mutilated they could identify them only by their
birthmarks: Hal’s pearl-size mole on his left shoulder blade, and a
crescent-shaped birthmark on Brian’s upper back.

“Anyway, Seth washed his hands of the murder.
He had those four arrested and soon executed, but of course nobody
in Red Cliffs believed in his innocence.”

“And my mother was the cause of all that
tragedy,” Astrid said quietly.

Jack stroked her cheek. “I’m sure she never
wanted that. Nobody knows exactly what happened. Rowena was
eighteen then, she wanted to become one of us. Your father had
refused to turn her, she was too young, impatient, and her reasons
were wrong. Seth promised her what Hal had refused to give her... A
perfect set up for a tragedy. She was our Helen of Troy, in a
way.”

“Had Seth hoped she’d bear him a child?”

“The fool had hoped for no less than an
Ellida. But he turned Rowena too early and made her barren. Or he
couldn’t sire another child. For one reason or another, they
couldn’t have children together. That was a big blow for Seth and
his grand plan.”

“Grand plan? Then there’s more than just
marrying me to his son?”

Jack nodded. “Let me tell you first a bit
about Seth’s father, Leidolf. He was a great leader. He founded
Copper Ridge and under his rule, in a span of several decades, a
small village became a well-off and prosperous town. Unfortunately,
after a while, Leidolf crossed over to the dark side.”

“And Seth killed him, I guess.”

“Seth had to kill him. Sometimes this is the
only way, Astrid… At the beginning, Seth seemed competent, tolerant
and wise, but then gradually started losing his mind.”

“Does anyone know why?”

“Maybe he ended up with more power than he
could handle, maybe it was the result of interbreeding, who knows?
For many generations Withali men had been marrying their close
blood relatives, seemingly without consequences, until Leidolf lost
his sanity. Seth broke with the tradition, but unfortunately, it
was too late.”

“Among humans, inbreeding results in
increased possibilities of genetic defects,” Astrid said. “Take
European royals, for example, among whom interbreeding was common.
Queen Victoria was the original carrier of a recessive X-linked
hemophilia gene, and in the next one hundred years, more than
twenty members inherited the disease... Or the Hapsburgs. They were
particularly infamous for it.”

“
Hapsburger Unter Lippe
... Some of
them, luckily, escaped the curse,” Jack murmured, more to himself
than to Astrid.

“Yes, the Habsburg jaw,” she carried on,
“which, among those less lucky, progressed through generations so
that the last Habsburgs couldn’t chew properly. But that was just
the tip of the iceberg. They suffered mental disabilities, severe
physical deformations, epilepsy, infertility, impotency,
stillbirths... the list is long. Interbreeding must affect all
humanoid races in a similar way.”

“It might not be Seth’s case, but messing
with genes is very dangerous for us, Astrid. The Beast of Gévaudan,
Fenrir, Hatti, Sköl... they weren’t mythical creatures. I mean,
they are now, because they’re not alive anymore.”

Astrid gasped and covered her mouth with her
hand. “Real monsters.”

“It happens. We’re small in number, which
means a small genetic pool. That’s the reason why we so often mate
with humans. We depend on their blood to keep us healthy.”

“And they get longevity and vitality in
return.”

“Or they can choose to become one of us. They
have to decide before they are one hundred years old because the
aging process can’t be averted after that, but that’s enough time
even for such a big decision, I believe.”

“Do they ever refuse?”

“Approximately half decide to stay
human.”

“Well, I guess immortality has its
downsides... Jack, I sidetracked you, I’m sorry. What exactly is
Seth’s plan?”

“He’s been obsessed with the idea of
infiltrating his people into human institutions and taking over
them: governments, big corporations, wherever money and power are.
Total insanity. He hoped for an Ellida with your mother to start
the whole process. Now he wants you.”

Astrid swallowed hard. “He must be stopped,
not only because of me. His own people must be suffering
terribly.”

And her mother as well, she thought panicky.
She had been living with a lunatic!

“I won’t let him or anybody else hurt you,
Astrid,” Jack said firmly. “We’ll keep you safe.”