Ellida Page 7

“Why did you choose to study oil engineering?” Astrid asked her once.

  “The oil industry’s one of the biggest environmental polluters, but people won’t stop with hydrocarbon exploration until they pump up the very last drop of oil. Look what’s going on now: the less oil there is, the dirtier the production is. And that’s the reason why I chose it—I’ll try to make a difference. There is a whole new generation of oil engineers who do care about the environment and the impact of the industry on it. Why did you choose to be a trauma surgeon instead of fixing noses and boobs?”

  Astrid smiled and nodded.

  “I don’t want to stay here,” Maggie continued. “This little town suffocates me. I want to go wherever my job takes me, a year here, a year there. I want to see the world. One day I might decide to settle down, get married and have children, but not now. I’m too young for that.” She paused, fixing her eyes on Astrid. “Jack understands that better than anyone else. He used to be like that.”

  Before he met you, were Maggie’s unspoken words.

  “I know, being bond-mates changes everything,” Maggie said quietly. “Moreover, you are our Ellida and Jack’s the Einhamir. Your options are somewhat limited.”

  “I’ve chosen to come here. Nobody forced me.”

  “I know. And Jack was probably thinking about returning even before he met you. Still…”

  Astrid sighed. She still had her doubts—about this place, her role, her future life, everything but Jack. She knew she would have loved him no matter what. “My friend Tristan likes to say bonding can be both a blessing and a curse,” she said. “It’s up to us what it’s going to be.”

  “Yeah, and if it works, you just have to organize your life around it,” Maggie said with a snort. “Like leaving everything behind and coming to Red Cliffs. If that’s a blessing, then I don’t want to know what happens when it doesn’t work.”

  Astrid smiled and shrugged. “I don’t know either. I’m bonded but I’m not any the wiser. In my case, it’s working just fine, that’s all I know. If you ever get bonded, do your best to make it work.”

  “Thank you very much, but I’d rather pass. Bonding isn’t on my wish list.”

  Astrid laughed. “As if your wishes will be taken into consideration.”

  THAT AFTERNOON the ice had been broken. Astrid had learned to value Maggie’s opinion and trust her judgment. She was unbiased, with strong beliefs and touching idealism. Beneath her capable mind that needed constant stimulation, Astrid discovered plenty of sensitive emotions, too. For such a young person, she had formidable self-discipline and a determination to make her desires a reality.

  ASTRID ASKED Maggie about the time when she’d sung with the band.

  “Pop, light rock, jazz, blues. Some country, later on Saturday nights. People usually show you what they want to listen to on a particular evening. You scan the audience before you start. If you see lots of girls, sing love songs. Girls and couples usually come on Saturday. Fridays can be pretty raw. The boys can play anything, but they tend to avoid some songs. What do you like to sing?”

  “Pop, jazz, blues, ’80s music…”

  “Boy, they’re going to love you! Do you have a strong voice?”

  “You bet. I can sing for hours before my throat gets tired. But, I haven’t made up my mind about this yet. It seems a bit too radical. I mean, I just came here. I can’t just walk into the first bar I see and grab a mike. Doesn’t seem proper, being an Ellida and all.”

  Now Maggie laughed. “Ah, nobody here would hold that against you, don’t worry. On the contrary. You’d show them you’re a part of their life and allow them be a part of your life. That’d be a good way to become closer to them. You’d learn more about them singing on weekend nights at Goblin’s Hollow than sitting in their living rooms. Did you know that Jack used to play bass guitar with the guys?”

  “He told me that.”

  “He still does it from time to time. Don’t be surprised if he just shows up on stage one evening. He’s good, and the crowd’s always been crazy about him. Can you imagine it?”

  Astrid smiled. Yes, she could easily imagine that. Especially on Saturday nights.

  Ten

  RED CLIFFS, as Astrid soon learned, was in a fact a big, colorful, slightly dysfunctional family. Everybody knew everybody else. There were no family secrets, and privacy certainly had a different meaning here. But the family ties were firm and friendship was highly valued. Red Cliffers shared a strong sense of community and belonging, and they were proud of their town and its history.

  Red Cliffs was a town of educated people. Their degrees often didn’t match the jobs they currently did, but they seemed fine with that. Athena Vangelis, for example, had a degree in classical languages and European medieval literature, yet happily ran a bakery. Marion Gillespie was an anthropologist by vocation, but now she owned a bookstore and worked as a part-time librarian. Neil Ramsey, a former soccer player, had opened Café Insomnia, and then realized he preferred teaching Red Cliffs kids soccer. His wife Valerie, a former teacher, had taken over the café.

  Nobody seemed concerned about the mismatched qualifications and careers. Red Cliffers had a different perception of time and the luxury to live their lives without that defeating notion that if you didn’t do something now, you wouldn’t have time to do it at all.

  Lots of the town people worked in tourism, which was the town’s major industry, or in local businesses. During the winter season—from Halloween until the end of April—the population doubled, and the town pulsated with life. Once the tourists were gone, life in Red Cliffs happily shifted back into its slow mode.

  Meat production was another major industry. Numerous cattle farms and ranches surrounded the town. Thanks to the specific microclimate characterized by milder temperatures, lots of humidity, plenty of sunshine and a shorter winter, Red Cliffs’ ranchers raised beef stock distinctive for its superior meat quality.

  Two big farms on the very border of the Red Cliffs territory belonged to Charles Langdon and his wife Lucy, and that was where Astrid and Jack were heading one morning.

  Astrid was in the driver’s seat of Jack’s heavy-duty truck. It was a crystal-clear, sunny morning. The air blowing in through the open driver’s window was fresh and crisp, saturated with the scent of pine and resin.

  “Remember when I told you about the journalist who was kidnapped in South America?” Jack asked as the powerful truck easily mastered the less than perfect conditions of the back road that lead to Silver Horn, one of the Langdons’ farms.

  “Harold Bertram? You went there to bring him home. Lucy is his daughter, right?”

  “She and Charlie got married a few months ago. Before Harold was kidnapped, there were some concerns about Lucy’s safety, so her family contacted James. James said, ‘Send her here to Red Cliffs, she’ll be safe’. So she came but as Charlie’s wife. I wasn’t aware they were dating or anything like that, although their families are close to one another and Charlie and Lucy have known each other for ages.”

  “So Charlie’s from here?”

  “He moved to Red Cliffs after his first wife died, a few years ago, in Italy. That was a terrible marriage. I hope Charlie’s finally happy. He’s a good man. He used to be a successful lawyer, but he gave up the city life and his career and came here.”

  “You said they were humans. Do they know about us?” Astrid asked.

  Jack gently stroked the nape of Astrid’s neck. “No. They’re different from our humans since they don’t know about us. However, they live on our sacred territory, so they’re still a part of our community. If Lucy and Charlie decide to stay here, they’ll learn eventually. When they’re ready, that’s all. Hugh Langdon, Charlie’s grandfather, may already know. The rest of the household—the farm hands, workers, domestic help, we made sure they don’t know.”

  Keeping her eyes on the road, Astrid tilted her head brushing her cheek against Jack’s arm. “How did they end up here in the first place?”

 
; “My father gave this piece of land to Charles’ great-great grandfather in gratitude for saving James’s life.”

  “Oh! What happened?”

  “It was shortly before I was born. James went to Europe after a rogue wolf, who was hiding somewhere in the Balkan Mountains. He got badly wounded fighting with a whole pack of local werewolves and left to die. William Langdon, a British intelligence officer on assignment there, found him and saved him. They returned to England together and became close friends. Brian gave the Englishman a piece of land here, as a token of his gratitude for saving James. Langdon stayed in Britain, but he and his family came here every few years for a couple of months. Eventually, two of his sons settled here. One of them was Hugh’s grandfather.”

  “But there’re two farms that belong to the Langdons.”

  Jack nodded. “Aspen Grove is the wedding present to Lucy from her grandmother, who is, by the way, a great-great-granddaughter of William Langdons’s wife Alice.”

  “But that means Charles and Lucy are cousins?”

  “Not through blood. Hugh’s grandfather was adopted, I think. Initially, Aspen Grove was outside our territory, but because the two families are close and share many connections, my father extended Red Cliffs’ spiritual borders to include Aspen Grove, as well as Charles’ sister’s and brother-in-law’s farm further south.”

  Soon Astrid pulled the truck in front of a big, bright-yellow farmhouse with a white wraparound porch. Charles and Lucy came out to greet their visitors.

  If Charles, by all standards, was a handsome man—tall, muscular, with soft grey eyes, dark hair and a pleasant, open face with a wide smile—his wife was stunning: gracious, with long, dark hair, creamy-white skin, beautiful emerald-green eyes, high cheekbones and lush, full lips. It had to be something to do with the sanctity of this place to make the people of Red Cliffs so good looking, regardless of their heritage, Astrid contemplated, glancing at the Langdons. Hugh Langdon looked exceptionally well for his age, tall and straight, with broad shoulders and still powerful muscles. It was hard to imagine he was Charlie’s grandfather and not father.

  They were soon joined by sisters Kay and Rory, aged eight and five, who were staying with their Uncle, Aunt and Grandpa while their parents, Charles’ sister and brother-in-law, were away. The girls proudly showed Astrid their ponies, birthday presents from their adored Aunt Lucy and introduced her to Crusoe, a year old crossbreed.

  “His father’s a wolf, you know,” Kay explained. “His mother was a German Shepard.”

  “She died last year,” her sister chimed in. “She was very old, older than Grandpa Hugh.”

  “Oh? I’m sorry to hear that,” Astrid said.

  “That’s okay. She had a good life, so Lucy says we must not be sad,” Kay explained.

  “Crusoe likes Aunty very much but he doesn’t like Harper. He always growls when he sees her,” Rory said.

  “He can’t like her because she doesn’t like dogs and Crusoe feels that,” Kay said. “Aunty says some people are like that, and that’s okay. I don’t like spiders so they probably don’t like me either.”

  “THOSE TWO girls made my day,” Astrid said, smiling, as she glanced into the side mirror of the truck at Rory and Kay, surrounded by their aunt, uncle and great-grandfather, waving to them enthusiastically. She waved back and honked one more time as she pulled the truck onto the road. “Jack, did you notice some tension between Charlie and Lucy?” she asked as they drove back to town.

  “You’re right. They both seem on some kind of… I don’t know… emotionally alert. Maybe they argued or something. I have a feeling they’re crazy about each other. There seems to be a lot of suppressed attraction between them. Maybe they have a hard time admitting it.”

  Astrid glanced at Jack with admiration. “Hmm, emotionally alert, you say? Nice way to describe it, Jack.”

  Jack leaned forward and kissed her before he continued with his mini-assessment. “First of all, Lucy’s twelve or thirteen years younger than Charlie. Second, his previous marriage was quite traumatic. Third, they married after a very short courtship. As I said, their families are close. Hugh Langdon is an old friend of Lucy’s grandmother, so I’m wondering if the two of them conspired somehow to get Charlie and Lucy together. I should remember to ask James if he knows more about that.”

  “You said before that you know her grandmother. She’d hired you to rescue her son-in-law, right?”

  Jack nodded. “She’s a hell of a woman. She’s the owner of Quantum Industries, probably one of the biggest mining machinery manufacturers in North America. Richer than Croesus.” Jack laughed. “Knowing her, I can easily imagine her taking her granddaughter’s love life into her own hands.”

  “I hope she didn’t do more harm than good,” Astrid said, more sharply than she intended. Any kind of meddling in somebody’s love life, divine or mundane, was an unfailing temper trigger for Astrid. “What about Lucy’s mother?”

  “She’s a zoologist, an expert on tigers, who spends most of her time far away from home. Her father, a journalist, traveled a lot, too. That’s the nature of his job. They separated when Lucy was a child, but they never divorced. Lucy’s grandmother raised her.”

  “Oh, I see,” Astrid said and changed the subject. “I can’t pinpoint it, but there’s something that bothers me in that house. I’m not sure if it’s that old housekeeper or that young farm manager, Harper Letterman. One was too polite, the other one almost rude. What do you know about Harper?

  “You felt it, too, huh? Harper has been running the farm for years. I think she was in love with Charlie even before his first marriage.”

  “She might still have feelings for him. Strange she wanted to stay here after he got married again. She’s young and good looking.”

  “It must not be an easy situation for her. The girls told me Crusoe doesn’t like her.”

  “It goes both ways. Besides, the dog chose Lucy as his master. He’s naturally gentle with Kay and Rory because they are children. He ranked everybody in the house else according to his own criteria. Charlie’s close to the top, Harper’s at the bottom of his list. Dogs are like that.”

  Astrid laughed. “Lucy might be leading the list, but Crusoe came to you as soon as we stepped in.”

  “Well, we are sort of distant cousins, aren’t we? His father’s a wolf, just like mine.”

  “So what did you tell your cousin?”

  “To watch over Lucy,” Jack said in a somber voice.

  Less than two months ago, it would have sounded totally crazy, but now Astrid just nodded.

  “Good idea,” she said.

  Eleven

  Astrid

  JACK WAS about to leave again, and he was tense.

  “I’ll do my best to be back by next Sunday,” Jack said quietly, tracing my arm with his fingers. I felt loved and cherished.

  We were in my room. Lying on my side facing Jack, I caressed his face with the back of my hand, trying to soothe his anxiety. I knew everything inside him was screaming against leaving me when he thought I was the most vulnerable.

  “Don’t worry about me, Jack,” I said. “You go and do what you have to do. I’ll be fine.”

  “If I’m delayed, Mom and James will stay with you during the transformation.”

  “They will not!” I snapped, jerking upright. “Why are you making such a big deal out of it? I’ll go to my house and just do it. I did it before.”

  “You never lived among werewolves before,” Jack said sternly.

  “Meaning?”

  “Before the change, your body sends signs and signals you’re ready to mate. Humans and wizards don’t react to them, but here…”

  “Translated to lupus lingua, I’m in heat, and every available man will try to have a roll in the hay with me. Is that what you’re telling me? Okay, Jack Canagan, what if I got sex-crazy and did it with someone else? What would you do then?”

  He rubbed his chin. “I’d kill the sonofabitch, of course. I’d be miser
able for a while, but that wouldn’t change what I feel for you. I’d still love you and I’d still want you. Although, Miss Spock, I’d prefer if it didn’t happen.”

  “I’m also a wizard, Jack Canagan. Cool and rational, remember? I can control my wild side.”

  “But can she? Your wolf, I mean. She’s damn hot and not shy to show it.”

  “And I’m not?”

  He let out a frustrated sigh. “Come on, Astrid, you know what I meant. Of course you are, but you have control over your instincts.”

  “And she doesn’t?”

  “Why do I have the feeling that whatever I say will be used against me?”

  “Give her some credit, Jack. She loves you as much as I do. Despite the ‘in heat’ thing, do you really think she’d let anybody else touch her?”

  “It’s not incomprehensible, Astrid. Don’t underestimate your carnal instincts,” he said miserably.

  Okay, he needed some serious reassurance; otherwise he wouldn’t be able to function normally. And I believed I knew the right person for the job.

  I stood up, pulled on my underwear and my shirt, and walked to the window, staring for a moment into my reflection. I’d never summoned my wolf before. She’d always shown up of her own accord.

  I closed my eyes and asked her to come. She was there in the blink of an eye. Jack needs his peace of mind, I told her silently. Tell him there’s nothing to worry about. He doesn’t trust me as your representative.

  When I opened my eyelids again, an amber set of smiling eyes looked back at me from the windowpane.

  Unaware of her presence—he could only see my back, as I was staring through the window into the night outside—Jack walked to me and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. He lowered his head and rested his chin on my shoulder.

  “You didn’t get permission to get dressed,” he whispered. “Take your clothes off, I haven’t finished with you.”