by I. T. Lucas
Kalugal dipped his head. “Glad I could help. But I think that my venom will suffice to induce David. Eva and I didn’t have a bond when she transitioned.” He lifted his teacup and took a small sip. “After all, I’m a three-quarter god, and my venom is the most potent.”
“It’s getting stuffy in here.” Anandur got up and opened the balcony doors.
Kian stifled a smile.
As the evening breeze blew in, billowing the curtains, Syssi breathed in. “I love the smells up here. The air is so crisp.”
“I say, why take chances?” Amanda put her hand on Sari’s back. “It’s not like having sex with the hunky professor is such a hardship. Besides, that’s what he is here for. Kalugal believes that he’s your fated mate.”
Sari looked conflicted. “He might be, which is why I don’t want to treat him like a casual hookup. I would like to take my time with David, get to know him. If he’s my mate, I want romance and courtship, not a hasty romp in the sack.”
Callie leaned forward. “These are different times, Sari. Many relationships start with sex and later develop into something more. No one waits anymore.”
Sari shook her head. “I’m not a product of this generation. My idea of romance is different.”
“I was like you,” Syssi said. “I didn’t do hookups and couldn’t understand how people who barely knew each other could get so intimate.” Blushing crimson, she looked at Kian. “And yet, I let Kian seduce me right away, and I never looked back.”
“Did you know that he was the one for you?” Sari asked.
Syssi’s blush got even deeper. “I didn’t. In fact, I thought that he was so out of my league that nothing would ever come out of it. But I thought that if I didn’t have sex with him, I would regret it for the rest of my life. I had to have him any way I could.”
Sari sighed. “I’m too old to fall head over heels for someone. I like David a lot, but I’m not sure that he’s the one.”
“Let me put it in a way that will clear things up for you.” Amanda got up and sat next to Sari. “Would you let Miranda try? Or any other female?”
Sari’s eyes blazed daggers. “No.”
“There you go. That’s your answer.” Amanda put her hand on Sari’s shoulder. “You need to compromise on your girlish dreams and go for it.”
Sari nodded. “You are right. But first, I need to tell David what’s going on and get his consent.”
27
David
The strangeness of the castle and the people inhabiting it had provided enough material for David’s creative juices to produce two full chapters in less than two hours. He’d never written so fast or so effortlessly, and reading over it, he was happy with what he’d produced.
It seemed that Kalugal, aka Kajeck, had been right about the change of environment being good for his imagination.
David had replaced the leader of his fictional higher caste with a gorgeous, auburn-haired woman, and the leader of the lower caste with a brooding blond, modeling him after Kian’s bodyguard.
Other characters had borrowed characteristics from his new acquaintances as well. He added a tall, beautiful brunette as the lower caste leader’s love interest, a pompous Kalugal-like advisor to the higher caste ruler who was also her secret lover, and Miranda had inspired the secretary who was a spy for the resistance.
When a knock on the door startled him, he closed his laptop and got up.
Opening the door, he expected it to be Sari, but he also expected her to be winded after the climb and ready to collapse in one of the armchairs. But she showed no signs of exertion.
“You are a sight for sore eyes.”
“Why are they sore?”
“It’s just an expression.” He motioned toward an armchair, but she remained standing. “You could have called me, and I would have come down.”
“I don’t have your number.” Sari pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Besides, your phone is no good here. If you tried to call someone or use the internet, you would have noticed that there is no connection.”
David frowned. Cellular reception in the remote location might have been a problem, but what about a landline?
Looking around the room, he searched for a phone, but there wasn’t one. Had it been removed to keep him isolated from the world? Or had the tower room been neglected when the castle got upgraded with phone lines?
Maybe there were no landlines at all.
But then, how did they order stuff?
Perhaps it was all part of the alternate reality game, and if Sari wanted to play, he didn’t mind playing along a little longer.
“I haven’t tried to use my phone yet,” he admitted. “Before dinner, I used the time to shower and get ready, and after dinner, I used every spare moment to write. You and your castle inspired me.” He motioned to the armchair again. “You must be tired after the climb.”
“A little.” She sat down. “I’m glad that the muse visited you in my absence.”
“You are my muse, Sari. I replaced the previous leader of the higher caste with a gorgeous auburn-haired lady, whose blue-green eyes seem to glow from the inside. In my story, the glow indicated that a person remembered his or her previous incarnations.” He sat on the other armchair. “My lady is also in incredible shape. She’s a mountain climber in her spare time.”
Sari laughed. “What spare time? The only vacation I took in recent years was a few days off to attend Kalugal’s wedding. My only exercise is walking the castle’s corridors and horseback riding, which I do to tour the grounds, which is also part of my job.”
“You’re a very busy lady.”
“I’m sure your life is busy as well. I mean when you are not on a sabbatical.”
He shrugged. “Not really. Unless I’m rushing a paper because there is a deadline for submission, I have plenty of time to go rowing on the river, visit the gym, and hang out with friends.” He leaned forward. “That’s probably the reason that professors’ lifespans are among the longest. Once we get tenure, we basically have no worries. It’s a good life.”
Sari seemed doubtful. “A secure source of income is important to peace of mind, and less stress means better health, but that can’t be all. Maybe the level of education has something to do with that?”
“It does. Reading is also known to contribute to longevity. Our minds need a reprieve from the bombardment of visual stimuli. Also, when reading, we activate our imaginations. Viewing does that to a much lesser degree.”
“Interesting. I read because I enjoy it more than watching movies or television.”
“What do you like to read?”
Sari smiled. “Everything that’s good. I read fiction and nonfiction, but if it’s badly written, I lose patience. Regrettably, most non-fiction books are not well written because the authors are scientists, not writers. When the subject is important to me, I look for a summary, and if I can’t find it, I have an assistant who summarizes it for me.”
“Miranda?”
“Miranda has enough on her plate just dealing with my schedule and my correspondence. I have several assistants who deal with other things.”
“Miranda told me that you have many artists in your community.”
“We do. We have painters, tapestry makers, computer programmers, illustrators, translators, and even a couple of authors. I’ll introduce you to them if you wish.”
“Are they good?”
“One is a children’s author, and she’s successful, and the other one writes historical novels, which I’m not a great fan of. I’m more interested in the future than in the past.” She pushed to her feet. “Are you ready for your tour?”
David glanced out the window. “It’s dark outside.”
“So?”
“I’m not qualified to ride a horse at night,” he admitted.
“I’m an expert rider, and I have excellent night vision. I’ll choose a gentle one for you, and we will go slow. Besides, it’s a clear night, and the moon provides plenty of li
ght.”
David shook his head. “You are good at so many things. You make me feel inadequate.”
Her face fell. “I didn’t mean to.”
Laughing, he put a hand on her shoulder. “I was just joking. I have a big ego, and it’s not easy to make me feel insecure.” The only one who’d managed to do that with ease had been his father, but that was a different story. “I happen to love accomplished, strong women.”
She let out a breath. “You are in the minority. Most men find me intimidating.”
Turning to face her, he looked into Sari’s gorgeous blue-green eyes. “That’s because you are so beautiful. Men think that you are out of their league.” David grinned. “That’s a good thing, though. Their loss is my gain.”
28
Sari
“Is it?” Sari opened the door and stepped out onto the landing.
Taken aback, David lifted his hands in the air. “Only if you’ll let me. I’m not assuming anything.”
He’d misunderstood. The question wasn’t whether she was his gain because she wasn’t his yet. What she’d meant was that she wasn’t as wonderful as he seemed to think she was.
David’s opinion of her was flattering, but Sari didn’t think of herself as strong. Accomplished, yes, but at her age and with her experience, it wasn’t difficult to accumulate achievements.
“What I meant was that I’m not such a great find.”
When she’d first assumed leadership of the Scottish arm of the clan, it had been super stressful even though she’d been Kian’s assistant for many years and had plenty of experience.
The problem was that Kian had never been good at delegating responsibilities, and she’d learned to rely on him to make all the decisions. When he’d left for America, taking with him a large portion of the clan, she’d felt like a fish out of water.
But she’d persevered, mostly because she’d had no choice. Her mother relied on her, her brother trusted her to fill his large shoes, and her people had needed her to step up to the plate.
David smiled indulgently, probably thinking that she was overly modest.
She was, but it was better than boasting. In the beginning, Sari had made many mistakes, but she’d learned from them. She might not be smarter than most, but she was pragmatic and methodical.
A complicated task became less complicated when broken into several smaller ones, and methodical organization was the key. Once she had the procedure in place, it was easy to repeat the process, and with each repetition, it was done faster and better.
Rinse and repeat.
He followed her down the stairs. “You are the most impressive woman I’ve ever met, and that’s saying a lot since I’m surrounded by professors who are all very accomplished. You are also the most beautiful.”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but flattery makes me a tad uncomfortable.” Sari also didn’t like talking about herself. “Let’s talk about you instead. Tell me why you chose psychology as your field of study.”
“In my opinion, the human brain, or rather mind, is the most fascinating subject there is. I’m more interested in the thought process and what makes people tick than the biological and chemical processes. The two are connected and influence each other, but I’m happy to leave research on that subject to others.”
“You also studied psychiatry, which is a medical degree. That’s all about biology and chemistry.”
“I did that to appease my father. He was very disappointed that I didn’t want to be a cardiologist like him, so I figured that obtaining a medical degree and specializing in another field would make him happy.”
Sari paused her descent and looked at him over her shoulder. “Did it?”
“To some degree. He still thought of me as a failure. Only the best students get accepted to cardiothoracic residency, and I qualified. He couldn’t understand why I didn’t apply and thought that my choice was a cop-out.”
And Sari thought that her mother was demanding.
“That’s unfortunate.” She continued down the stairs. “Do you have siblings? Maybe one of them could have taken it up and made your father happy?”
“I have a young half-sister. My parents divorced when my brother and I were sixteen. My mother was still a young woman and she remarried, but my father didn’t.”
“What about your twin? Is he a doctor?”
“He wasn’t. Jonah was a gifted programmer. He died five years ago.”
The pain in his voice slew her.
“I’m so sorry for your loss. How did it happen?”
“Heart failure. My father blamed himself for not noticing the signs, but no one thinks of a thirty-three-year-old who seems in perfect health as a potential victim of that.”
“What were the signs?” She looked over her shoulder at him again. “If that’s an uncomfortable subject for you, tell me. I don’t want to add to your pain.”
“No, it’s okay. Usually, I don’t like talking about it, but for some reason, talking to you feels therapeutic. The signs were very subtle and easily explained away. Jonah was complaining about feeling tired, but he worked insane hours so that was natural. He looked a little bloated, but he ate lots of junk food, subsisting on hamburgers and fries, so bloating looked like a regular weight gain. I thought nothing of it either, and I’m a medical doctor as well. But you know how it is. The guilt is there, and the what-ifs keep eating us alive.”
Sari hadn’t suffered a loss like that herself, but Amanda had. It had been an unfortunate accident that she couldn’t have foreseen or prevented, and yet her sister had blamed herself for her son’s death for many years. She’d vowed to never have children again, but the Fates had different plans.
Thankfully, Amanda wasn’t freaking out too badly about her pregnancy. Well, not anymore. When she’d first learned about it, the echoes of her freak-out had reverberated for a long time.
“You must have been devastated.”
“I was.”
They reached the bottom of the stairs and headed toward the back exit.
“My sister Amanda lost a child, and it nearly destroyed her.” She looked at him. “I shouldn’t have told you that, so please don’t mention it. Amanda still can’t talk about it more than two hundred years later.”
He looked at her quizzically. “You mean that figuratively, right?”
She nodded and kept going. “We lost a brother as well, but it was before I was born. My mother told me that she’d been inconsolable, and she claims that my arrival was the lifeline that helped her climb back from the dark abyss that she’d sunk into.”
29
David
As they walked out of the building, the visibility was perfect despite the late hour. Sari had been right about the clear sky and the moon being bright enough to illuminate the night. The gardens were beautiful, serene, and they were the only ones strolling down the meandering path.
David took in a deep breath.
Normally, he hated sharing his less-than-perfect life story with others, and especially women who he wanted to seduce. Showing vulnerability was unmanly. He had to appear strong and in control.
His fiancée leaving him after Jonah’s death had taught David an important lesson. Unlike him, most people didn’t want to hear about pain and suffering or try to alleviate it to the best of their ability. They had enough troubles of their own and wanted others to make them happier, not sadder.
But Sari was so easy to talk to, so understanding, and she was also strong. She wasn’t the type of woman who would bolt at the first sign of trouble.
After what he’d experienced with Stacy, David thought that he would never find a woman who he could trust with his feelings, but Sari was the exact opposite of his ex-fiancée.
She was a rock, and she was a keeper, or at least that was his initial impression of her. He hoped that she wouldn’t disappoint when he got to know her better.
There was also the question of how she felt about him.
On the one hand, Sari
was giving him a lot of personal attention, so that was a good sign. But she was also more reserved in her responses than any woman he’d dated lately.
Maybe it was a cultural difference, and Europeans were not as open as Americans? Or maybe it was because Sari was the leader of her community and couldn’t afford to be frivolous with her affections.
“How did your parents cope with the loss?” she asked.
The best way to find out whether his impression of Sari was correct was to let her in and show her his vulnerable side. If she still wanted him after that, it would confirm his high opinion of her.
“My father wasn’t an emotional man, which was one of the reasons he thought that psychology was nonsense. He coped with the loss the way he had always done, by immersing himself in his work.”
“What about your mother?”
“She had a young daughter at home, so letting herself grieve was difficult. She repressed her feelings for my sister’s sake. I suggested psychological help for both my parents and my sister, but even though they were divorced, my mother held a similar position to my father. She didn’t think that psychology was total nonsense, but she thought that strong people didn’t need it.”
“It must have been difficult for you. Even as adults, we seek our parents’ approval.” Sari chuckled. “My mother is arriving tomorrow together with my older sister, and I’m already stressing about it.”
“Is she difficult to deal with?”
“Not in the way you might think. She gives Kian and me complete autonomy and rarely intervenes in the day-to-day running of the clan. She still decides on the big things, though, and sometimes Kian and I don’t see eye to eye with her.”
