Asanni Page 11

  “That was freakish. I was watching you sitting there, and the next moment your fingers were around my throat… Does it take a lot of energy? Does it make you tired?”

  “No. Translocation probably takes the greatest amount of energy. Morphing and creating an illusion is easy. See, when I change into a wolf, I become a wolf. I am a wolf. With this... Let me show you. What is your favorite animal? Besides wolves?”

  “Tigers.”

  “Okay, watch now.”

  It looked like a dream. Jack barely blinked and the next moment a huge tiger sat beside him, brushing her long side against his leg. Only Astrid’s persistent scent kept him from jumping off the sofa.

  “If you hold my front paw, you’ll feel the fur.”

  Astrid’s voice came from somewhere close, although Jack didn’t notice the tiger opening its muzzle. “But if you focus on me, you’ll feel my hand, my fingers, my skin, and then you’ll see me again.”

  Indeed, as soon as his fingers sought Astrid’s hand and not a tiger’s paw, his mind breached the illusion, and Astrid magically reappeared.

  “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like that! Impressive!”

  “And quite handy sometimes. Want to see more?” Astrid smiled and clasped her hands, happy as a kid in a candy store.

  She focused her gaze on the fireplace, and the next moment cheerful orange-red flames licked the logs piled up in the pit. “It’s a bit chilly anyway. And the flowers need fresh water.”

  The vase with pink roses that sat on the small side table started sailing through the air toward the kitchen. Through the open door Jack could see how it first stopped and then landed with a soft thud on the counter near the sink. The roses came out, neatly arranging themselves on the side. The vase rose up, hovered above the sink, tilted, and the water came out. The tap turned on and fresh water filled the vase. One by one, the rose stems rose into the air and, and after several pirouettes above the vase, placed themselves back into the vase. Following the same path, the vase floated back to its place on the table under the window.

  “It takes some time, though,” Astrid explained. “It’s much easier to do it the human way: grab the vase and change the water.”

  Jacked cupped her face and kissed the tip of her nose. “That’s magical!”

  Astrid laughed. “Only humans call it magic, but it is just a result of the proper use of energy.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “Well, thank you,” Astrid said, pleased with Jack’s praise.

  “What is your element?” he said, eager to learn more about her skills.

  “Elements,” she corrected him. “I’m best with fire. I have also some skill with water and air. Metal, well, there’s room for improvement there.”

  Jack looked at her with astonishment. “Didn’t you say your skills were rather average?”

  “It’s possible that I have more potential than I show. I’ve never practiced a lot. As I say, I don’t have many opportunities to test them.”

  “I still think you are a powerful little witch, Miss Spock.”

  She gave him one of those side looks that instantly made his heart jump. “In everyday life, I don’t need it. I can play in my house to impress my accidental guests, but it doesn’t require much energy. Take that fire, for example. It’s real fire; it’s red and orange and nicely warmed up the room. I can also create an illusion, to scare someone, to buy some time to escape. But I can produce quite a dangerous fire, too. That stuff is not red-orange, it’s blue, and it’s not actually fire. I’ll show you one day. We have to be outside, far away from anybody I could harm. If I did any real ‘magic’ here, from the outside my house would look like an x-ray.”

  “WHAT DO you want to do tomorrow?” Jack asked later, before they parted to go to their rooms.

  They stood in the narrow hallway, a fingertip from each other.

  “You’ll tell me more about yourself and your family. We can go hiking. You can tell me what I need to do to link my two sides. You can also tell me why you so abruptly stopped trying to show me your room,” Astrid whispered. “It must be something that James told you.”

  Jack placed his arms on Astrid’s shoulders and rested his forehead against hers. “It is, Astrid.” He exhaled deeply. “You are mine. I want you more than I ever wanted any other woman, but I can’t make love to you.”

  Astrid looked up sharply at him. “What? Why?”

  Jack chuckled softly, and then hurried to reassure her. “Don’t worry, everything is fine in that department. A bit tense recently, but fine. Astrid, darling, we can’t make love before you decide to take me officially as your mate.”

  “But I’ve decided, Jack.”

  “I’ve promised James to bring home our Ellida, not my mate. We have to wait.”

  “What else is new?” Astrid said miserably. “Just when I thought I finally grasped some of those crazy werewolf concepts... I thought we should wait only until you take me to Red Cliffs. If I’m your bond mate, why does it matter? I’m yours and you are mine, Jack Canagan. Nothing can change that.”

  “And nothing will, but James is concerned that some will see you as—”

  “Rowena’s daughter. Oh, I see. They need to accept me before you present me as your... whatever. But Jack, how would they know?”

  “We would mark each other with our scent.”

  “And don’t tell me everybody could smell that. Aw! That’s awful! Jack Canagan, I’m done for tonight. I don’t think I can handle a single explanation before tomorrow morning. I still have your jacket. It’s not much, but it will do. I’m going to sleep.”

  One hand on the door knob, she raised her other hand and parted her fingers in the famous Vulcan salute from Star Trek.

  “See you in the morning,” she said, stepped into her room and closed the door behind.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Astrid

  I LAY in the darkness of my room thinking how I’d never shared my luxury, spacious queen-sized bed with anyone. It had been my choice, until Jack came.

  Now when I wanted to share it with the man two doors down the hallway, I couldn’t. Rotten luck!

  I could picture him stretched out on his own bed, his arms under his head and long legs crossed at the ankles. And I also thought about how absurd our situation was. Regardless of how we had got there, we were in love with each other, yet we slept in two different rooms, avoided physical contact, controlled our feelings and overall acted crazy. And all that because Jack had promised my uncle he wouldn’t touch me before the rest of Red Cliffs got a chance to see if I was my mother’s daughter.

  Well, I was Rowena’s daughter, for better or worse, I thought, frustrated, and punched the pillow in a futile effort to find a more comfortable position for my head. I wasn’t about to change for anybody’s sake! If I was ready to go to Red Cliffs and become their Ellida, then they should give me some credit. Uncle James included.

  FOR THE first time since my transformations had started, I was looking forward to my next change. I knew there was no way back and I was anxious to do whatever I was expected to do. Waiting would only make everything more difficult.

  I felt overwhelmed by my new role that hadn’t even started yet. A part of me was scared, another part confused.

  There was also a part of me that was insanely happy: in spite of the challenges that lay ahead, going to Red Cliffs meant being with Jack.

  I closed my eyes and tried to relax, hoping for sleep to come and rescue me from my worried thoughts. It didn’t work this time. I could smell Jack, and not only on his jacket that I was covered with. His familiar mossy and spicy scent, with its musky component stronger than usual, tickled my nostrils. I breathed it in thirstily, longing for his physical presence, for his arms around me. I felt a sudden rush of warmth followed by almost painful excitement in my abdomen and between my thighs. If Jack was awake, he could, no doubt, sense it, too.

  I lay still, listening to the loud echo of my heart drumming hard somewhere in my throa
t instead of my rib cage. And then, under my own fast rhythm, I heard a different set of beats: for the first time I could hear Jack’s heart and its faint but distinctive thump-thump, thump-thump. It was a completely new sensation and took my breath away. I listened to it, mesmerized and motionless, as if the slightest movement would make it disappear.

  I cleared my mind of everything except the rhythm that was reaching me from Jack’s room.

  The most beautiful sound I’d ever heard lulled me into sleep.

  THE NEXT morning I waited for Jack to continue last night’s conversation. I wasn’t in a particular hurry to hear yet another story from the fairy-tale realm, and his brief, incomplete explanation last night had promised nothing less.

  “Astrid, it might sound personal, but I need to ask you something,” Jack said hesitantly, as we drove east, in another attempt to reach the Cricket Falls Trail.

  Once again we’d rented a truck. The weather was much nicer this time—a sunny and warm day—and I thought how this time we could make it if we didn’t fight again. His first question, however, didn’t sound promising. I didn’t like personal questions.

  I kept my voice neutral. “If I find it too personal, you won’t get an answer.”

  “James actually mentioned it. When I came, you weren’t in a relationship, were you?”

  I looked at him trying to read the expression on his face to decide if he asked it for a private or ‘business’ purpose.

  “Astrid?”

  “With questions like that we won’t make it past that restaurant where we had an argument last time.”

  “Then answer me. Come on, it’s not that personal.”

  I wasn’t, but that morning I just wanted to be a little bit difficult.

  “No, I wasn’t. Why would that be James’ or anybody else’s concern?”

  “In case somebody started asking questions. How would you, for example, explain your sudden decision to go with me to Red Cliffs to your boyfriend?”

  “It’s possible that my decision would be totally different if I had someone.”

  “But you don’t.”

  We zoomed by the parking lot where we’d stopped last time. Good. We might make it this time.

  There was a bit of tension between Jack and me. He kept his eyes on the road. His hand would occasionally reach for mine, and then retreat back to the steering wheel. But rather than distant, he seemed controlled and cautious.

  A ridiculous thought crossed my mind. I would’ve let it stay there if I hadn’t been exposed to plenty of other strange things recently. “Please do not tell me that I have to be a virgin in order to be your Ellida,” I said with a nervous laugh. “In that case, we can simply forget about the whole plan and you can go back without me.”

  Silly as my concern was, I held my breath until I heard Jack’s soft laugh. “No, Astrid, that’s not necessary.”

  “I don’t know if I should be happy or disappointed.”

  “Astrid, I couldn’t care less.” Jack turned to me and rested his warm, amber eyes on my face. “My goal is to be the last man in your life. James had wanted to know because it could be a potential problem.”

  I smiled. “I like your goal fine, but this isn’t about you, Jack. And let’s leave my sex life alone. Are you going to tell me about how to deal with my roaming wolf? That would be more useful.”

  “Wait now, Miss Spock. We’re almost there.” Jack brushed his fingers against my cheek and, just like that, all the tension disappeared.

  We soon turned right at a “Y” junction and took a forest road to the bottom of a hill. After a quarter-mile, there was a pullout with the trailhead marker.

  Jack helped me out of the truck, double-checked if my shoes were properly tied, zipped up my jacket and adjusted the straps of my backpack. Under normal circumstances, I’d be annoyed with that excessive attention, but instead I enjoyed his hands on my arms, shoulders and back. “Where have you been all my life?” I said.

  “I’ve been looking for you, that’s where.” Jack lifted my chin and locked his eyes with mine, sending shivers down my spine. “Ready?”

  “For hiking or for talking?”

  He smiled and took my hand in his. “For me.”

  “I am ready.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Jack

  LET ME check the guide,” Astrid said, pulling her hand reluctantly from mine, as we entered the permanent twilight of the ancient forest along the riverbank.

  “Under a deep-green canvas of trees, the trail climbs gradually along the river before a sharp turn near the halfway mark and continues over the river, across a wooden bridge. The same route takes you back, or you can continue to hike on the opposite side of the riverbank, which is slightly shorter and steeper, with the 98-foot Cricket Falls at its summit,” she read aloud from the booklet before she passed it to me and turned around so that I could tuck it back into her knapsack.

  She turned back to me. “You don’t need a guide, do you? You could go right into the woods and feel at home.”

  “You’ll soon feel the same, Astrid.”

  Her blue eyes rested on mine. She tilted her head and smiled. “We’ll see. Jack, why do I have the feeling that you’re avoiding a certain topic?”

  I sighed. “You’ll rant again that you’re being left without a choice.”

  “But I need to know, nonetheless. So tell me.”

  I sighed, “All right, then. Little is known about the offspring of werewolves and wizards. Your kind is so rare, Astrid. Most of us are born with our wolf and human spirits already linked, or if not, it happens later, naturally and easily as we reach maturity.” I paused, not sure how to continue. “Now comes the tricky part. You might not like it,” I warned her, feeling uneasy, as if I was personally responsible for her unconnected parts. I inhaled and fired it out in a single breath, “In short, you have to have sexual intercourse with a werewolf. You need another wolf spirit to communicate with your own wolf during the process and help you to connect your human and wolf parts. Humans can’t do that, neither can wizards... Make any sense?”

  Phew! I did it, I thought, relieved. The next moment I glanced anxiously toward Astrid. I expected to see her hurt and angry. To see her turn on her heel and run away, to yell at me and shout that she would never, ever...

  Without stopping, without changing pace, Astrid just continued walking. “That’s not the craziest thing I’ve heard recently. It’s logical,” she said in a light voice. “Of course, who else can do that except another werewolf, right?”

  I looked at her in awe. If I hadn’t already been crazy about her, I would have fallen in love that very moment. I exhaled aloud, only to see Astrid abruptly stopping and turning to me, eyes wide and alarmed. “You qualify, don’t you? Don’t tell me I have to do that with somebody else?”

  “No, no, no.” I hurried to reassure her.

  “No what?”

  “Yes, I do qualify. No, you won’t do that with anybody else. I wouldn’t let anybody else touch you.”

  I pulled her against me and held her tight. I could hear her heart, fast and strong. I felt the rush of her blood under that delicate, ivory skin, the rise of her body temperature, her breathing. I wrapped my arms even more tightly around her, as if restraining her. She’d been brave this time, but I was afraid that something else, sooner or later, would finally push her over the edge. Since I’d arrived, I hadn’t stopped piling it up on her, and that was only the beginning.

  “I’m okay, Jack,” she whispered into my neck, sending shivers down my spine and into every fiber of my body. “I really am. Just stay with me.”

  I lifted her chin and did what I’d wanted to do since the moment her cold fingers touched my skin the first time. Unaware of any other sensation except her scent and her firm, slender body pressed against mine, I no longer thought she was too skinny. Blind to anything save for her perfect face in front of mine, I pressed my lips over Astrid’s, first breaching gently inside her mouth, then gradually deepening the kiss
.

  Fiercely and breathtakingly, she kissed me back. We stood in the middle of the narrow path, and in my peripheral vision I saw a couple pass by and turn back to look at us. I almost barked at them, fighting an urge to scoop Astrid up and take her into the forest and lower her down on the soft moss and…

  I came back to my senses when I heard a low growl that escaped from my chest. My own wolf was trying to come out.

  “Astrid, my love,” I whispered, my mouth still over hers. I gently grabbed her wrists and unlocked her arms from around my neck. I heard another growl, deep and soft.

  This time it hadn’t come from my throat.

  Our lips finally parted. I cupped her face and I looked at her eyes, yellow-gold, like honey.

  “Honey,” I uttered a nervous chuckle, “if we continue, your wolf will come out.” I wasn’t even sure to whom I was speaking, but I hoped that at least one of them—either Astrid the Wolf or Astrid the Wizard—could hear me. “And mine was about to come out. I’d know how to control mine, but I’m not sure if I can tame yours.”

  I saw her blinking several times, like waking up from a trance. Astrid’s eyes had started changing color in front of my eyes, first to dark amber, then back to their deep-blue shade.

  I still held her close, unable to part with the feeling of her body pressed against mine, incomparable to anything I’d experienced before.

  “Do you remember what we were talking about?” I said cautiously.

  She laughed. “Did I miss a part again? You said I have to have sex with you if I want to stay sane. And then we kissed.”

  “How was the kiss?”

  “Gentle and sweet. I liked it.”