The Amulet (29 page)

"I understand, and thank you, Xander. I know this is difficult for you." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his soft, velvet lips.

Your touch soothes the savage beast.
He whispered the words into her mind to keep from breaking their kiss. She could feel the wolf in him curled peacefully in the shadows of his subconscious. The blue flames were starting to appear in his mind as their kiss deepened when they heard the door open behind them, breaking the moment. They turned around to see Jessie stepping out of the bathroom.

"Wow," Xander said.

"Jessie! You look amazing!" Alyssa echoed. Even though her hair was still damp, she looked better than Alyssa had ever seen her. The copper top enhanced her hazel eyes and her legs looked a mile long. She didn't look like a porcelain doll now, she was a knockout.

Jessie was blushing and she looked self-conscious, not that she needed to be. "Do you really mean it?"

"Take it from me, Jess," Xander interjected. "Even immortal men would fall all over themselves to be in your company."

Alyssa glanced at him briefly, but he was telling her what she needed to hear: the truth. After hearing his opinion, Jessie stood a little straighter and put a hand to her hip. "Let's do this, then. If Matthias is my father, as you say, he's got a lot to own up to for leaving us the way he did."

"This way, ladies," Xander bowed them down the hall like a perfect gentleman. How long would his good humor last, she wondered. She hid the thought from him under the smallest of shields she could manage. Most of her was an open book, but today, there would be things she wanted to keep to herself.

As they entered the library, Nevar was busy pouring glasses of wine. It was hinted with spice notes that filled her nose with tantalizing aromas. She detected a woody overlay and decided it was probably aged in an oak barrel. "Cabernet?" she asked him.

"Yes, one of my finest," he added. "You have a discerning nose for wine, Alyssa."

"I love Cabernet," she answered simply. It was the same kind of wine she had been drinking the night he bit her. The thought sent a chill down her spine. It seemed so long ago. She could see that Nevar heard her thoughts by the regret that showed in his eyes.

"Please, let me pour you a glass," he said. Before she had a chance to answer, he was handing her a chalice of red wine. "Let me know if it suits your tastes."

She held the glass for a moment, staring into the dark red liquid as if some answer were hidden there. When she raised the wine to her lips, Matthias stopped her before it reached her tongue.

"A toast," he announced. "To the gathering of all of us here, may it not be the last."

Alyssa could see Jessie and Xander both clench at his words. She raised her glass and added to her father's words, "To new beginnings, to Matthias, who gave me life, to Nevar, who gave me a new life, and Jessie and Xander, without whom my life would not be complete."

Nevar was the first to join her in acknowledging Matthias' toast. At her prompting, Xander and Jessie followed suit. The tension in the air was so thick, you could almost see it. A little wine might loosen the nerves, she thought. She finally took a sip of Nevar's wine and it tasted just the way it smelled. It was sweet and tart at the same time and the spice notes danced over her tongue like a parade.

"Well said, Alyssa," Matthias complimented her.

"Enough," Jessie interrupted. "You've got some explaining to do. Who are you?"

"Forgive me, child. I have not been formally introduced. I am Matthias Verelius, and you must be Jessie. My, how you've grown! I believe your mother would be so proud to see you now."

"My mother died in a fire and I am not a child! What business do you have with me now?"

"You wanted answers, did you not? I am here to bring them to you. I will start with your mother by saying that she is not dead. She has had to fake her own death a few times over the years, but she is very much alive."

"She's dead to me! First, you leave me like some piece of garbage you don't need anymore then, she comes up here and bites me and destroys any chance I had at a normal life! I have never known a mother's love and what vague memory I had of one died many years ago!"

The wolf inside Jessie was raging and her eyes had gone from hazel green to ice blue. "Jessie, you need to calm down or the wolf will take over," she warned her softly.

"And that's another thing," she continued, "this balancing act between the wolf and me, controlling my emotions. She brought this on me! I didn't ask for this and I want somebody to stand accountable!"

"I'm afraid I cannot claim responsibility for that one, but I understand your distress," he said calmly.

"You don't know the first damn thing about distress," Xander countered.

"Cobalt, it has been centuries since I have seen you. Forgive me, I have done you wrong, I know that now, but I did not then. It wasn't until Nevar freed you and the rest of your kind that I understood. Because of that day, I found a new perspective through Katarina. Love can change a man, myself included."

"My name is Xander, but you never bothered to know me as a man. Your only interest was in the wolf, Cobalt, but he is but a fraction of who I am. Though, it doesn't appear that love has changed Katarina at all. She is still luring men under her spell and recruiting new werewolves," he added, pointing to Jessie.

"She is not here to defend herself," Alyssa pointed out. "There are questions that we need answers to and we won't get them if we stand around throwing stones."

"Thank you, Alyssa. Now, Jessie, I'm sure you are wondering why we left you. As with Alyssa, we wanted to give you a chance at a normal life growing up. Our life is difficult for a child to comprehend and there would be too many complications. Your mother found a nice young man with good morals and an affinity for children to raise you.

"She has always had a way with men, it's true. Katarina is like a siren, and we believe that she is a descendant of one. She courted him and made him believe the child she bore was his own, so that he would raise you and love you unconditionally as his own flesh and blood. He was a good man and did well by you. Our intentions were purely for your benefit."

"Bull," Jessie said. "That's just an excuse. I was an inconvenience. I feel like a cuckoo, planted in someone else's nest. Is there any shred of decency in you?"

He took a long sip of wine and sighed as if exasperated. "You are as fiery as your mother. There is much of the wolf in you. I suppose there is little I can say that will appease you. I never claimed I would be able to make it up to you, but what I say is the truth."

"I want to know why she bit me?"

"More importantly, what was she doing here in the first place? It may answer both questions," Alyssa asked.

"We came together that night," Matthias started. "We had just learned that our daughter had fallen into our world. I traced you here, and I admit, the irony came as a bit of a shock when we learned that the worthy Nevar had changed you. I knew you were in good hands with him. I taught him well. We were caught off-guard by Jessie. Katarina reacted out of instinct by shifting and then, she was cornered.

"When Jessie screamed, it triggered a reaction in Katarina. 'Bite first, ask questions later' type thing. She regretted it afterward, but by then, the damage had been done. I do admit I was intrigued by the prospect of comparing the two of you side by side. Since you come from the same bloodlines and you are both vampire-were crosses, yet one bitten by wolf and one by vampire, it holds great potential for study, but no matter, really."

"Don't tell me that you came up here to see which of us is stronger?" Alyssa was outraged.

"I would be a liar to say the thought had not crossed my mind, but that is not why I came. Do you have more questions to ask?"

Alyssa sat down on a chaise lounge and hoped Jessie and Xander would take the hint and do the same. They didn't. "What about my grandmother? She was convinced that you were her son."

"Charlotte was a dear soul, but she was unable to bear children. When I found her, she was alone in life and very depressed. I changed her memories. I gave her a son and gave her happy memories of raising him, and a few of scolding him. Imagine how much happier she was, and welcomed me with open arms. The love was her own, I did not alter that for her. I let her get to know Katarina as a love interest, then a wife and mother-to-be. She loved you immediately. I have never seen a human with more heart than Charlotte had."

Alyssa had tears in her eyes. She had loved her grandmother dearly. She had taught her to reach for the stars at any cost and never give up on her dreams, but Charlotte's life had been a lie. Alyssa found some solace in the fact that, at least, she had raised one child, and she had been blissfully unaware of the truth when she died.

Sorrow turned to anger in her. The wolf stirred. She pushed it back down. This was not the time. "You did not deserve her love, Matthias! She was too good for you, and so am I." She stood up and turned her back on him to leave the room. Xander started to follow her.

"Co- forgive me, Xander, wait! I have something that belongs to you."

Alyssa stopped in the doorway to look at Xander. He met her eyes as if waiting for something. He was asking permission. Her heart ached at the depth of his loyalty. She gave him a small nod and he turned around towards Matthias. Matthias reached into his pocket. He pulled something out and tossed it to Xander. It was a large gold ring. Xander caught it in his right hand and stared down at his palm.

It was a signet ring bearing a coat of arms, two wolves fighting over a shield, and the writing around the border was backwards. When pressed in wax, it would read:
Honora potissimum.
It was Latin, but she was not familiar with the language enough to translate.

"This was my father's ring," he said, barely above a whisper.

"Yours now," Matthias returned.

"Why do you have my father's ring?" Alyssa could feel the anger building in him despite his level voice.

"He gave it to me and made me swear I would see it on your hand."

"He would never hand over his ring to the likes of you!"

She reached for him too late. The anger exploded in him and he burst from his skin into fur faster than she'd ever seen him transform. The ring fell from his hand (or was it his paw?) to the floor. He lunged for Matthias, catching him off-guard. His teeth sank deep into the flesh, just missing the vampire's neck. Xander kept him pinned for a moment, but Matthias recovered himself and transformed into mist.

Xander snarled after him, his face dripping with the crimson of her father's blood. He licked his chops to clear the blood away, wincing at the taste. It was not the same as the blood of prey, it tasted dead to him and lacked the fire that she associated with blood.

"Xander, if you are quite finished?" Nevar asked, staring at the enormous wolf in his library.

Alyssa retrieved the signet ring from the floor. It was heavy and gave the impression of power attached to it. She walked to his side and held it out for him. He looked abashed. The fight had been stolen right out of him and, slowly, he shifted back to his normal size.

Jessie inhaled sharply and turned around to face the wall of books behind her. Alyssa moved to Xander's side, using her body as a curtain. He reached for the ring in her palm and when his skin made contact with hers, she realized he was ice cold. His mind, for once, was blank. There were no colors or images for her to interpret either. Even the wolf was keeping his silence.

She was tempted to reach out to him, but the wolf told her to wait. He needed this moment to gather himself, but she didn't understand why. As hard as it was for her, she waited for him. The silence filled the room for several minutes that felt like years. The only movement in the room was the shivering muscles in Xander's body and the muscle flexing in his jaw.

Finally, he blinked. It was as if the dam had burst and finally, the water flowed like a crashing wave down the once quiet stream. A single tear fell from his eye and the sight ripped Alyssa's heart to pieces. The wolf lifted her head and howled to a moonless sky where even the stars were hiding. Her song was low and melancholy and made the clouds cry.

Alyssa could wait no longer. She reached out to touch him and offer him comfort and warmth. He surprised her by pulling her into his arms. She could tell he was holding something back, but the shivers in his body began to ease as he held her. She wanted to ask him what had upset him so severely, but she didn't dare speak.

A memory flashed in her mind, very similar to this moment, when Jessie's adoptive father had passed away. Jessie had been devastated, and had come to Alyssa for support. Alyssa had been equally distressed when Charlotte had passed, but Xander's father would have to be a vampire or a werewolf to have lived so long. It was the only explanation for why Xander would be grieving now.

"Xander, now that you've tasted my flesh, perhaps you will allow me to continue?" The voice of Matthias reverberated through the room, though she could see no source. "Your father gave his ring to me in his final moments. I do not know who killed him, but I can tell you that it was the work of a vampire. He was drained of blood when I found him and his body could not heal fast enough."