by M. J. O'Shea
“Those are my men, and they’re not full lycan. They are half-breeds like me, part lycan, part werewolf. I made them myself. I don’t know what you’ve heard of me, but I assure you, all of the stories are horseshit.”
Xan sputtered and gestured at my backpack. Right. Do what I came here to do. “Um, well, the council has sent me with a peace treaty. There has been an unfortunate incident, involving your name, and they would like you to know that they take full responsibility and bear you no ill will.” I unzipped my backpack and pulled out the plastic-covered treaty, then took a deep breath to read.
“Hand it here, boy. I can read. I’m not a peasant. You two may sit.” He gestured again with his long aristocratic hand. “Over there by the fire is pleasant. I hear my men had you in the basement last night. Very uncivilized of them.”
Xan and I shuffled nervously off toward the huge fireplace and two plush ottomans that were nestled in front of it. I sat gratefully and held my hands out to warm. I tried not to watch Silivasi read. He had me so on edge with his cool aristocratic bearing that I didn’t know what to do with myself. After a few minutes of his reading, in which we used the heat of the fire to warm our fingers and toes, he stood up.
“Komarov! That bastard.”
“You know him?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” he hissed. “He was one of the courtiers back when my family was going to the Winter Palace for parties. Komarov has had it in for me for years.”
“What’d you do?” Xan asked. It made me smile that he was interested. More of the old Xan coming through the protector shell.
“It was about a woman.” Silivasi raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “Is it not always, in some manner? She wanted me, not that sneaky little ass Komarov. I’ll never be able to prove it, but I think he was somehow behind the werewolf attack. He was most assuredly behind the rumors that I’d been completely turned. Can you see me as a rabid dog?”
I shook my head, finding it best to agree with him. “So you’re not a werewolf?”
“I ended up becoming something in between. The werewolf bite brought out my lycan genes somehow—they’d been dormant until then. So I am a lycan. Mostly. But I’m a werewolf as well. I’m volatile on the full moon, unpredictable. I just turn into a full wolf, not a were. The rest of the month, I am lycan only and can shift as I please.”
“Why have you never gone to the council and told them the truth?”
Silivasi made a rude noise in his throat. “I made my own council. By the time I’d realized what my true nature was, Komarov had managed to turn the lycans against me. None of what I’d said would be believed, and no matter how much lycan blood I had, I was still part werewolf and therefore to be disdained.”
“You made your own council? Do you mean your men?”
Silivasi nodded. “Yes. Some of those men have been with me since the very beginning.”
A council full of powerful were-lycan warrior hybrids. I could see why the lycans wouldn’t want to go to war with him—they’d probably be even more eager for peace if they knew the truth. I had a disturbing thought. “If all your men are the same mix as you, what do you do on the full moon?”
Silivasi smiled. “We aren’t in the habit of keeping prisoners.”
Oh. The basement….
I didn’t say anything else. Silivasi went back to reading. Finally he stood. “I want to go see the council. I’m not going to sign this until I talk to them and make sure we’re all in accord.”
“You want to go all the way to New York?”
Silivasi snorted lightly. “Bucharest. It’s where the high council meets. New York is simply a district. Once, I had a hereditary seat on that council. Perhaps that name still means something.”
“You want to go now?” I asked. If it got his signature on the document, I was ready to go anywhere. I stood eagerly.
“I need to gather my thoughts. We shall leave in the morning.”
Damn. I wasn’t looking forward to another night in the dungeons. Silivasi must have read my mind. “I’ll have my sister show you to your rooms. You are guests now.”
“Your sister?”
“Of course. Lilya is full lycan, but when our parents died, she came to live with me.”
Xan choked. “But I’d always heard you killed your parents. Your sister was okay with that?”
“I didn’t kill my parents and Lilya knows it. I don’t think you have to spend too much time pondering who did.”
“Komarov?”
Silivasi nodded. “I’m almost certain. It seems he went to a great deal of trouble to make sure I’d never be welcomed in lycan society again. I suppose it’s time I made a rebuttal.” He turned his head toward a stairwell in the corner with a sly smile. “You can come out now, sister. I know you’ve been listening the whole time.”
A girl, who looked no older than fifteen or sixteen, peeked her head into the room. She was tall and thin, her hair as black as her brother’s but her face was made more welcoming by a sweet smile. She also was dressed in the most expensive of modern clothing, well-cut jeans and a dark-purple sweater that was beautiful with her pale skin. Her boots made little noise as she glided across the room. She looked at me and her cheeks flushed.
“Hello,” she said in lightly accented English. “I’m Lilya.”
I smiled, made more at ease by her welcome. “I’m Charlie and this is Xan.”
“Will you take them to their rooms, Lilya? I need to talk to Petr. We are going to have to make a trip into Bucharest tomorrow, love.”
“Okay. I will have Rosa pack me a bag.” She gestured at us. “Follow me. This is exciting. We don’t get many visitors here. My brother has a bit of a reputation.” That announcement was paired with an eye roll in Silivasi’s direction.
I smiled at her. She was pretty in an innocent kept kind of way. “Yes, he does. I think a lot of that reputation will be repaired in Bucharest.”
“We can hope,” she answered, smiling again.
Lilya led us to a sumptuous hallway on the second floor. “My brother and I are on this floor, but in the other wing. If you need anything, you can ring for Rosa or Arturo. We don’t have very many servants. I’m sure you can guess why.”
She opened a door on her left. The room inside was larger than my family’s living room, kitchen, and dining room put together—and our house wasn’t what you’d call small. “Charlie, this room will be yours. And, Xan, yes?” He nodded. “Yours is here, across the hall.”
“We can—” I was about to offer to share with Xan, but then I realized how odd that might seem to a girl who’d been living isolated for so long. I didn’t want to be on my own, though.
Xan saved the day. “Lilya, I am his guard. I realize your manor is safe, but I’ve sworn to my elders that I will protect him. If it is acceptable to you, I will stay in his room so I can fulfill my purpose.” He muttered something in another language then, one that sounded old and unlike any I recognized. His behavior was strange and formal, but it was clear he knew exactly what to do. Xan was evolving into himself right before my eyes, and I couldn’t wait to find out more.
Lilya curtsied and replied to him in whatever language he’d spoken. Then she shut the door across the hallway and gestured for us to go in.
“Please feel at home. We will dine at dusk in the main dining hall. I will have Arturo come and show you the way. I imagine you are tired. Rest.”
With that, she shut the door behind us with a small click. I opened it, just to make sure I could, and then shut it again before I looked at the huge four-poster bed with relief.
“Can we sleep for a while?” I asked. “Will you sleep too?”
Xan nodded and pulled his sweater off. “I don’t think we’re in any danger. We should both sleep for a few hours.”
I stripped until I was down to a T-shirt and my boxer briefs. I needed a shower and I was still hungry, but I was so happy to be in a bed. I sighed gratefully and let myself drift. Xan crawled in the bed next to me, and inst
ead of just lying parallel to me like he always had, he moved closer until he had me in his arms. Rather than think it was odd, I sighed contentedly again and covered one of his hands with my own. It felt warm and protective. I was too tired to examine our changing relationship. All I had the energy to do was fall asleep.
Chapter 10: Bucharest
IT WAS snowing the next morning. Xan and I bundled up in every warm piece of clothing we had and gathered our things to meet Silivasi and Lilya in the main hallway. Silivasi had been the perfect host the night before, entertaining us with local legends and delicious food. I almost didn’t want to leave the manor, but of course that wasn’t an option as I needed to get his signature for the lycans in New York before someone else ended up pissed at me.
We rode from his house to the small mountain town in a horse-drawn sleigh. I supposed it would’ve been impossible to get a Hummer over all those thin trails. It was a cold but gorgeous ride through the snowy woods, with thick warm blankets on our laps protecting us from the lightly falling snow.
When we pulled up in the village, the same one I’d been in less than three days before, I barely recognized it. The whole place was covered in white. It looked idyllic and perfect, like something from another time. Only the few trucks parked along the street ruined the illusion. I wanted to take my phone out and snap a picture, but somehow I knew a simple picture would never do it justice.
I was out seeing parts of the world I never thought I’d see, and I was with Xan—and luckily neither of us were going to die in a dungeon any longer. We might end up in the crossfire of the potential battle between Silivasi and the lycans, but that was in the future. At the moment, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
It was early evening when our train got to the city. The last time I’d been through Bucharest, I was swept from the hangar to the train with little opportunity for any sightseeing. This time I got to see everything. Bucharest was nothing like New York. The city was old in a way that nowhere in the US could ever hope to replicate. Ornate details, grand avenues, and the weathering of time had produced an effect that was completely foreign, but so oddly beautiful that even in the dark, I couldn’t stop staring.
Our hotel was as old and beautiful and grand as the city itself. The name was long, and I didn’t have a chance of saying it right so I didn’t even try. I started to panic when we walked in the door and were immediately surrounded by crystal chandeliers and rich burgundy and gold fabrics. It was far too much. There was no way whatever cash the lycans had given me would spring for even a linen closet in a place like that. I was going to ask Silivasi if there were any youth hostels or moderately priced hotels nearby when he handed me a key.
“Your suite is right next to ours. We will be meeting the council tomorrow, but I will order dinner in our suite in an hour or so. You two are welcome to join us. If I remember correctly, there are also some decent cafés on this street as well.”
Clearly, he hadn’t been hiding in his forest all the time. I looked at Xan. “Do you want to wander around a little?”
“Sure,” Xan answered. I could tell he needed to get outside. The long train ride hadn’t been good for him. Even at school, he used to ask for the bathroom pass and go stand outside from time to time.
“Be careful,” Silivasi said. “This city is not safe at night—especially if you do not look local.”
“We’ll be careful, Andrian.” Xan gave his most trustworthy look.
XAN AND I found a café that served hot coffee and different varieties of danish. We got a plate of them, hoping, at least on my part, for a somewhat familiar flavor. Xan and I shoved them in our mouths enthusiastically, grinning at each other over the table. Now that the danger was perceivably over, the adventure had grown fun. Xan and I were in a new place, seeing the world, trying different things. It was exactly what I’d pictured hunting to be like… Xan included.
“Here, try this one, it’s awesome. I think it’s plum,” he said and held the pastry across the table to me. I held his hand for a moment and took a bite.
“Mmm, that is good.” Xan had a bit of cream cheese on his bottom lip. I chuckled and reached across to wipe it off. Then I noticed a table of girls in the other corner of the small room giggling behind their hands.
“What are they staring at?” I asked him. I’d figured out by then that Xan could understand other languages.
He listened, then smiled. “They’re waiting for us to kiss. They think we’re boyfriends.”
“O-oh.” I didn’t want to admit that the thought of how nice it would be to kiss him had just crossed my mind as well. Xan did have awfully soft-looking lips. But a few comfort cuddles aside, Xan wasn’t into guys. Was he?
“Don’t look so freaked out,” he muttered, smile fading as he looked back down to his pastry. “I’m not going to molest you.”
I reached over and covered his hand with mine. “Xan, that’s not what I was thinking. C’mon, let’s take these last two pastries and go walk around, okay? You can be outside for a while before we head up to the hotel room.”
Xan nodded and stood but still looked downcast. I stood as well and rounded the table until I was standing right next to him. “Xan.”
“Yeah?” He looked at my face.
“That’s really not what I was thinking, okay? At all.” Then I ran my hand down his arm until I found his hand and twined our fingers together. I didn’t know if I was making the hugest mistake of my life, but in that moment it felt exactly right. He smiled then, and my stomach fluttered like it never had before.
“Let’s go,” he said quietly. He squeezed my hand and tugged me out of the café.
BY THE time we returned to our hotel room, I was cold and tired after a day of mainly sitting. We took turns in the shower and collapsed gratefully on yet another luxurious bed. My eyes started to close almost right away on impact with the gorgeous down pillow. Xan rolled over, and without even thinking I cuddled into his arms. I knew we needed to talk about what had been happening with us the past couple of days. But after all those weeks of not really having him in my life, I just didn’t want to ruin what felt so perfect. It might not even be possible, with our different species, and his duties to the dryads. It might be the worst thing for our friendship. Or having each other might have ended up being the one thing in the world that made both of us happy.
I thought I felt a small kiss on the back of my neck, but then again Xan could’ve been asleep and I was just indulging in some very active wishful thinking. So I didn’t say anything. I simply cuddled farther into his arms and fell asleep.
The morning dawned crisp and predictably snowy. There was a message on our room phone from Silivasi saying we would go to meet the council in the late afternoon. I flopped back onto the plush bed and turned over to look at the still-sleeping Xan. I wondered what he’d do if I simply leaned over and kissed him. The thought made my pulse race, but it made me giggly too. It was Xan, for Christ’s sake, and I was getting all giddy over him like I did with Orlando Bloom in the sixth grade. I reached out and ran a fingertip down the bridge of his nose. He smiled in his sleep and shifted, burying his face in the pillow. It must have tickled. I burrowed back under the covers and lay my head down on the pillow facing his.
Xan’s eyes fluttered open when the pillow moved under his head. “Hey,” he muttered. “What time is it?”
“Early,” I answered. “But you can go back to sleep. We’re not going to see the lycans until later today.”
“You talked to Andrian?” Xan’s face was so close I felt the warmth coming from it. I wanted to kiss him. God, I wanted to kiss him. He reached under the covers and cupped his hand around my hip. Silivasi and his message were forgotten.
“Xan. What’s happening to us?” My whisper was so quiet, I wasn’t sure if he could even hear it.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “You were just Charlie, my friend, almost my brother. And then….” He shrugged. “And then I noticed how gorgeous you are, noticed that I loved
the way you smell, that I wanted to touch you, like, all the time. It wasn’t sudden, it just snuck up on me slowly.”
“But I thought you were straight.”
“Dryads don’t really see it that way. Males and females mate for children, and don’t get me wrong, they like it.” He chuckled. “They’re very attracted to each other. But when the men go and live in their own camps, they have lovers there too—and the women form romantic relationships with each other in their villages. It’s always been that way. There really is no concept of separate sexualities.”
“So you like men and women?”
He squeezed my hip and smiled. “Not lately. All I’ve been able to notice is you. It’s why I got so mad when you disappeared. The idea of something hurting you scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m so sorry I scared you. I wasn’t thinking about that when I took off. I just wanted to prove to my family that I could be what they are.” I sighed. “All I’ve managed to do is put everyone in danger and make myself look like an impulsive child.”
“Hey, for what it’s worth, I don’t think that.”
I smiled sadly. “Yeah, but you did. I wish you could’ve seen your face that first night in the woods. It was kinda scary, actually.” Not anymore. Fear was the last thing I felt. I brought my hand up to cup his face, so familiar and somehow new at the same time.
“Charlie?”
“Yeah?” I knew what he wanted. I wanted it too. I nodded, a tiny movement—barely perceptible.
Xan’s hand slid up my back until he was cupping my head and threading his long gentle fingers through my hair. His nose brushed against mine and he trembled. It was scary, that place where I found myself, on the cusp of becoming someone’s lover. I hadn’t been there very many times—never, really, not in the real sense of the word. And certainly not with someone like Xan, the person I was closest to in the world.
“I’m scared,” he admitted in a near-silent whisper. “It’s you.”
