by Lisa Oliver
“That was Gofan,” Marius explained. “He used to be an Elder, and he wanted to be High Elder, the position held by Cathair’s father. He’s a nasty piece of work who always had ideas above his station. He won’t bother you anymore.”
Orin shivered as though someone walked over his grave and snuggled into Thor’s side. There was something about Marius’s tone that had a definite finality about it. “It’s not as though I’m welcome in the elven realm anyway.”
“Actually, Orin, that’s not true,” Cathair said gently. “The only reason I dissuaded you from going before was because we still didn’t know who was after you, and what the ramifications were with your uncle’s book. Your family name is Orinthian isn’t it?”
Orin nodded. It’d been a long time since he’d heard that name. He’d only found out about it when he’d gone through his mom’s papers after her death. “That’s why my mom named me Orin.”
Cathair’s lips tightened. “Your father, Orinthian, was a true hero among our kind. Back in the time around World War II, when you were born, our seers informed us dark elves were behind the atrocities going on with the war. They had infiltrated Hitler’s inner circle, fueled his desire to know more about the occult and basically fed his fantasies for world domination. Millions of people died and millions more would have died if we hadn’t stopped the dark elves.”
“Why would the dark elves do that?” Orin had read very little about the dark side of the elven community. They were barely mentioned in any elven writings he’d found.
“Who can say what they ultimately wanted,” Nereus said quietly. “Dark elves are born when an elven woman is raped by a demon. They are always triplets and they are always evil. We faced the last three not so long ago. It took a huge toll on the whole pack, although, thank the Fates, no one was badly hurt except Ivan and he recovered.”
“Elves like you and me struggle in the face of true evil,” Cathair went on. “We can fight against hate and anger, but there are a few beings who are born with black souls and they are evil from birth. Just being in their presence can drain us to the point of stasis.”
“How is that different from fading?” Orin remembered how close he’d come to that when he was fighting Foggerty’s magic.
Cathair’s beautifully smooth features were marred with a frown. “I’ve never heard of an elf fading before. That’s typically something the djinn do, or occasionally a Fae.”
“Orin was fading the night we met,” Thor said roughly. The hand on Orin’s shoulder tightened and he patted Thor’s thigh. “It was like a physical thing – I could see his life force flickering in and out.”
“With what you said about evil, I suppose it’s possible the man attacking me was using dark magic. I assumed I’d just over done with my own magic and hadn’t given myself a chance to re-energize. Until Thor arrived and saved me, I truly believed I was dying.”
“You were,” Thor said darkly. Orin tightened his grip on Thor’s thigh and when Thor’s hand covered his, he knew his comfort message had been received.
“See, this is why you elves need to stay in touch with half-elves born on earth,” Marius said to Cathair. “Not only would it help stop demons kidnapping your women, or at least give us a better chance of saving them if they were taken, but the children of these unions could be taught to manage their magic more effectively.”
“I am sorry, and you are right, babe. Remind me to speak to the seers about it next time we go back.” Cathair sighed. “Elves have the ability to pull energies from all living things, from the earth itself if necessary. You are still very young in elven terms, Orin, and should never have been left to fend for yourself. For that, I do apologize.”
“My mom did the best she could but it’s not as though she knew anything about magic users.” Orin wasn’t going to have his mom maligned, no matter how obliquely. “Maybe if one of those elven visitors we had offered practical advice instead of making her cry, things might have been different. Or, I don’t know. Maybe if my father had an ounce of morality and actually stuck around after I was born.”
“He couldn’t.” Cathair’s face was white and he clutched Marius’s hand tight enough to whiten the knuckles. “That confrontation I told you about. Orinthian was one of the warriors who faced the dark elves that day. He, along with twenty others, are being cared for in our sanitorium. He’s been in stasis pretty much since the day you were born.”
Orin felt a chill run right through him. My father didn’t run away? “How do elves get out of this stasis you keep talking about?”
“It’s simple and yet it’s not, if that makes sense.” Cathair glanced at his mate who was watching him closely. “Love and positive vibes can pull an elf from a weak stasis state. The Cloverleah pack was able to pull me out of mine when I first met Marius. For the ones who have gone too deep, like the men who faced the dark elves that day, only the love from a true mate can bring them back.”
“But my mom loved him with everything she was. She could have saved him.” Orin couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Your mother refused to go to the elven realm because it would have meant leaving you behind, even for a short while. At the time, half-breed children weren’t allowed on the elven realm.”
“You bastards!” Shoving Killer aside, Orin leaped to his feet. “You’re telling me, that even for a so-called hero, you wouldn’t allow a mother to take her new born child with her while she saved her mate, who is only in stasis because he was fighting alongside you guys? What kind of assholes are you?”
“It was a long time ago. The leaders at the time….”
“I don’t give a shit about your leaders, your laws or anything else. I lived my entire life without my father. My mom went to her death pining for that man. She spent decades alone, decades, raising me, on her own and your kind could have fixed that. That’s how you honor your fighters? That’s sick.”
“Orin, sweetness, come here.” Orin found himself bundled onto Thor’s lap along with a disgruntled Killer who circled around and curled up on his lap again. “I know you’re angry, and you have every right to be. But with the elves weakness being true evil, they shut their realm off from everyone.”
“Oh yeah, because I was born with a black soul. My mother probably had one too.” Orin was being sarcastic, but he didn’t care. He’d heard and read some crap in his life, but this took the cake.
“The elders of our kind were unnecessarily cautious. Those laws were one of the first things I changed when I took over.” Cathair looked physically shaken by Orin’s anger. “Anyone now, with elven family can visit the realm if they’re invited. Yours wasn’t the only family torn apart by those senseless rules.”
“It’s too late for my family now, though isn’t it?” Orin snapped. “My father’s mate is dead. Died of a broken heart, I shouldn’t wonder. She only kept herself going because of me. Now my father is stuck in permanent stasis for eternity all because of your stupid laws.”
Cathair and Marius shared a long look. “That’s why we wanted to talk to you,” Marius said at last. “After speaking with the seers, they believe, well, they think because of the love you had for your mother, you might be able to bring your father out of stasis if you could extend some of that love to him.”
Orin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He looked at Thor, his brain a complete blank. Help me. Cupping his head, Thor brought it to his shoulder and Orin realized what he was doing. Inhaling deeply, he let Thor’s scent calm him.
“Wouldn’t it be cruel, bringing Orin’s father out of stasis now his mate is dead?” Raff asked quietly.
“The seers mentioned that,” Cathair replied. “With the circle of life as we know it, and the Fates blessing of course, it is possible Orin’s mother will or has reincarnated in a different form. If that’s the case, then freed from stasis, Orinthian could be guided to meet her again.”
My mom reincarnated? Orin’s head was about to explode. “She won’t be my mom, though, will she? She won
’t know who I am.”
“She might not even be female,” Thor said quietly. “It is souls that form the bond, not the physical form. Your father will know, if and when he meets the reincarnated soul no matter what your mother might look like in her new form, but no, my sweetness, chances are you and her would have to get to know each other all over again.”
Fucking great. Orin had a mental picture of his mom reincarnated as some burly bear who was twice the size he was. But even as his mind tried to buffer him from the pain and anger raging through his body, he knew he had to do what he could for his father. His parents were needlessly torn apart and kept apart by archaic laws that didn’t care about individual lives and families. His mom spent her whole life alone since his birth, waiting for a man who was physically incapable of coming home. If there was the slightest chance they could find happiness together in a later life, and Orin could help with that, then he had to try.
“I’ll do it,” he said slowly. “I’ll go to the elven realm and try and bring my father out of stasis. I’d ask you take him to my mom’s house, but shit, there were squatters in there the last time I blinked in. Thor, can we….?”
“We’ll go and clear them out when we’ve finished here,” Thor promised, smacking a fist into his palm.
“I knew you were useful for something.” Orin snuggled into his mate. Looking across at Cathair, he managed a tight smile. “Thank you for telling me about my father. I’m not making any promises. Dad might not even like me when he wakes up, but if there’s the slightest chance he and my mom can find happiness together again, then I have to try. But I’m not staying up there longer than absolutely necessary.”
“That’s understandable.” Cathair managed a grin of his own. “With Thor as your mate, and therefore traveling with you, my guards would probably appreciate you making the visit as short as possible, although he could probably teach them a thing or two.”
“More people for you to thump, babe.” Orin kissed Thor on his chin, and then ruffled the hair between Killer’s ears. “I know how you hate being bored.”
“You two are perfect for each other,” Lasse laughed. “I told you having a mate wasn’t a curse, Thor.”
Thor didn’t have a chance to reply. Orin took care of that. He was busy kissing his mate senseless, much to Killer’s disgust. That little dog was so cute when he growled.
Chapter Twenty Two
Thor looked around the Elven realm, not bothering to hide his disdain. The place was nice. Very nice. Clean and totally uninspiring. Cream and white walls made up the buildings, even the concrete making up the paths were white and everywhere Thor looked there were flowers. Lots and lots of flowers. Made him want to sneeze. I’m here to support my sweetness, Thor reminded himself, slipping an arm around Orin’s shoulders. The poor man was trembling although he was trying hard to hide it.
He could afford to feel relaxed after spending an invigorating morning cleaning the scum from Orin’s mother’s house. Just as his sweetness suspected, the house had been taken over by squatters. Unclean, drug infested vermin. Thor wrinkled his nose as he remembered the stench. But the vermin could run when they caught a load of him, especially when he levitated them all off the floor and straight out the door. The cop cars waiting two houses down was a nice Orin touch.
A few blasts of Thor’s powers and the house was back the way Orin remembered it. The photo album Orin tried to hide was filled with baby pictures. Orin’s mother was a beautiful woman, but clearly his mate took after his father. And now he was about to find out if that was true. Tucking the book snugly under his arm, Thor guided his mate over to where Cathair and Marius were waiting with someone dressed in a uniform.
“This is one of my closest friends, Valouf,” Cathair said by way of introduction. “He keeps the place running when we’re in Cloverleah. Valouf, this is Thor, Norse God of Storms, and his mate Orin, son of Orinthian.”
“You look just like your father,” Valouf shook Orin’s hand and nodded at Thor. “He’s a good man. It would be really something if we could have him back.”
“All of the people currently in stasis have their own private rooms,” Cathair explained as he led the way inside a building marked discretely with a sign simply saying ‘Sanitorium’. “Elves in stasis have no recollection of time passing, or of anything that goes on in the outside world, but we like to keep them comfortable. We have staff here, who routinely change the beddings and come in and talk to the patients even if they can’t hear. It’s just something we feel compelled to do, so that hopefully in some small way the patients don’t feel as though they’ve been forgotten.”
“How can any of the stasis elves find their mates if they never leave their room?” Orin asked. Thor was glad of the distraction. The quietness of the place was getting on his last nerve.
“All elves visit the seers when they reach a hundred and fifty years old,” Cathair said, turning down a long corridor. “The seers let the applicant know what species their mate will be. If the applicant is told their mate will be another elf, they come to the sanitorium on their five hundredth birthday and visit all of the people here.”
“That’s a long time for someone to be worrying their mate might be in stasis,” Thor observed, trying to peek into some of the doors they passed. More boring white walls and not much else.
“Elves typically don’t meet their mate until they are over fifteen hundred years old,” Marius laughed. “Isn’t it a hoot? They even have laws here that allow true elves to marry other true elves just for the purposes of creating true elven children and then they all get divorced once the children are grown and run off to find their mate.”
“Looks like I’m lucky my mate’s only half-elf then,” Thor scrunched his face at Orin who grinned. “We don’t want children.”
“Here we are.” Cathair stopped outside a door that looked exactly the same as the other dozen of them lining the hallway. “Remember what I said. Touch his hand, if you feel you can. Talk about your mom and your new mate. Try and keep things as positive and as loving as you can. Marius and I will be right outside the door if you need us.”
Thor wanted to say Orin wouldn’t need them because he’d be there, but Orin had already opened the door. Please let this go well, he thought as he followed his mate into the room.
/~/~/~/~/
So tall. So pale. Orin wasn’t sure what he expected when he saw his dad for the first time, but the slender warrior, laid out like a male sleeping beauty wasn’t it. Comforted by Thor’s bulk behind him, he made his way slowly towards the bed and gasped when he looked at his dad’s face for the first time. It was like looking into a mirror. Orin purposefully kept his hair short because it helped him blend in with the human population but Orinthian’s hair was well past his shoulders, the same shiny blond color as his. The cheekbones, the nose, even the fullness of his lips was the same. The only difference Orin could see was Orinthian had a dimple on his chin and he was slightly older, and thicker than Orin was.
“Hello, Dad,” Orin said shakily. He’d rehearsed what he was going to say a dozen times. Reaching out, he grazed his fingers over Orinthian’s pale hand – it was typical his father’s hands would be so much bigger than his. His magic jolted, coming alive at the connection and for the first time since he’d heard what Cathair had to say, Orin felt a spark of hope.
“It’s been a long time.” His words came out more strongly this time and Orin allowed some of his magic to flow through his fingers, strengthening the connection he could feel beginning to form. “You could say, it’s been a lifetime, only it’s been my life not yours. We haven’t had a chance to meet yet, but I’ve thought about you every day. My mom,” Orin swallowed hard, and tried again. “My mom never stopped loving you. She showered me with that love all the time, wanting to make up for your absence I suppose. That’s what she taught me. To see the love in everyone. To find that spark of joy that lives inside our hearts.”
“I found that joy when I met my mate.” Orin held out
his free hand to Thor who came and stood by his side. “I didn’t have to wait as long as you did to find love in my life. Thor is a good, good man, although he does have a tendency to thump people, but I think you and him would have a lot in common. You both know what it’s like to be a warrior and fight for causes you believe in. I love Thor, dad, and it would mean everything to me if you could wake up, come back so I could love you too.”
Orinthian stirred and moaned. “It’s working sweetness, keep going.”
“Things have changed so much since you’ve been gone.” Orin watched his dad’s face, looking for signs of life. “There’s so much for you to learn and explore. But we’d be with you dad, me and Thor. You might be able to help me keep him out of trouble. But oh, dad, if you feel for mom, just a quarter of the love I feel for my mate, then you have to wake up, you have to find her again.” Reaching inside, Orin infused his magic with the love he could feel coming from his mate. “Can you feel that, dad? All my life I wanted to feel loved and accepted just as I am, and Thor does that for me, dad. He loves me just the way I am, the same way I love him. Dad, please, it’s time for you to come back. I really want to love you, dad, but I have to get to know you first.”
“Dad?” Orinthian’s eyes flew open. They were bright emerald green. “You’re my son? You’re Elspeth’s child?”
“Hi Dad.” Orin waved his hand. “I don’t think anyone would doubt the family resemblance.”
“My gods.” Orinthian struggled to sit up, looking around. “Where, how long, oh fuck, how long was I out? The last thing I remember was the dark elves.”
