KNIGHT
Chapter 10
“Well, this is it, ladies,” Jake said, parking his car by the residential street curb. “Casa de Leonid.”
When Rob Bryant referred to Erik’s house as being “quite large”, Alexia should have guessed how impressive it actually was. As she stared out the passenger’s window at the white plantation styled manor complete with black shutters and white columns supporting the wraparound porch, she almost backed out of the dinner invitation altogether.
She pulled her stare away and frowned at Jake. “I don’t know. This seems pretty swanky. You wouldn’t have made a mistake, by any chance?”
Jake chuckled. “If this is the kind of reaction you have with his place, I have got to invite you over to my folks’ suite. It’s the fifth floor of the Great Lodge.”
“The entire floor?”
“Plus a couple of adjacent wings. If you take into consideration that the entire Lodge itself is really my father’s house with a lot of guest and conference rooms, it makes this place look like a dusty motel room on a deserted highway.”
Alexia turned back to the house. “Well, I guess I can handle an hour or two here then. Tell your dad that I get full credit for this. He’ll know what I mean.”
“I’ll pick you up in a couple of hours,” Jake said, then cracked a wicked grin. “Think I’m going to tell Neil that I took you out to dinner tonight. Technically I won’t be lying.”
She arched a brow at him. “If you want a very uncomfortable nose job.”
“I heal fast. It’ll be worth it to see the look on his face.” Jake belly-laughed.
Alexia sighed. “Yeah, for some reason he’s appointed himself as my surrogate big brother. Ever since the lockdown a few days ago, he hasn’t let me out of his sight.”
Jake snorted, turning the ignition. “Right, that’s what he thinks. See you both later.”
After she and Deena stepped out the car and Jake drove away, Alexia had the strongest urge to forget the whole thing. It was now Wednesday night, and this was the first opportunity for Erik and her to finally have that rescheduled dinner together. Even though she knew academically the man was her birthfather, she didn’t feel any connection with him. He was just some stranger with whom she happened to share DNA.
It was the awed expression on Deena’s face that kept Alexia from backtracking to the Lodge, however. The girl was so excited about actually being a guest at the elegant manor that Alexia couldn’t deny her this rare opportunity.
“You know, I’ve seen your dad’s house from the outside lots of times,” she said breathlessly, “but I’ve never actually been inside it.”
Alexia was going to hotly correct the familiar term of Erik, then ignored it. “You’ve never cleaned his place then?”
“No. I just do the main lodge and some of the office buildings. Although there are other housekeepers who clean some of the nicer residences like this one. Catie Hickson, a higher zeta, takes care of most of the houses on this street.”
Alexia looked up and down the quiet avenue, counting a total of ten houses with expansive landscaping, four on each side. Each house was a work of art in its own right, very different from the rest of its neighbors.
“Looks like Rob Bryant takes good care of his gifted members,” she said, reluctant to approach the red brick steps leading up to the double doors.
“Yeah, he does,” Deena confirmed. “All of them live on this street. I hear he likes to keep them together to make sure they all stay safe.”
“Or because he’s a control freak.” Alexia shivered involuntarily at the thought of being under such constant scrutiny. She now felt a little sorry for Erik in this gilded cage. “Well, I guess we’d better get this over with.”
They headed up to the house, and Alexia used the lion’s head door knocker. It was answered by Erik’s burly bodyguard who eyed her with deep suspicion and what she swore was slight revulsion.
“Good afternoon, Jeeves. Is Lord Leonid to home this eve-a-ning?” she mocked with a haughty accent.
Deena snickered behind her hand, then straightened her expression. Enforcer Tagley wasn’t amused, however, and looked ready to slam the door in her face. Alexia half-hoped he would, giving her a great excuse to head back to her own room.
“Alexia, please come in!” Erik called from the entryway behind him.
She winced a quick apology to Tagley as he stepped aside to let them pass. The foyer and the rest of the house inside were even more impressive with its marble floors, sconces, crown molding, antique furnishings. It looked like she stepped straight onto the pages of Gone With the Wind and pre-Civil War Georgia.
“Wow, this is not what I expected your place to look like,” Alexia said, awestruck as he led them through the rooms towards the formal dining room.
“I did mention my extensive age,” Erik said, guiding through the house. “My tastes probably range more towards the era of my youth.”
Alexia blinked at him. “Are you saying that you grew up during the Civil War?”
“Alive then, yes,” he said. “However, I was living in St. Petersburg during that time. I had heard of your American war, of course, but it was your mother with her books and movies on the styles and customs who made me grow fond of the southern states. We always talked of touring the region someday. Not that I actually could have left this territory without repercussions, of course. Rob created this house to my specifications about fifteen years ago in an effort to make me more comfortable. I was feeling a bit restless then.”
Alexia arched a brow at the place. “Yeah, you’re really suffering here, Leonid.”
“Alexia, that’s rude,” Deena whispered, elbowing her.
She grunted, then shrugged her apology to Erik. Guess he’d better learn to tolerate her smart aleck tongue, since she had difficulty reining it in most of the time. Another bad trait of hers.
Erik led them into a formal dining room and seated them together before sitting at the head of the table. He then rang a dinner bell, and a uniformed maid pushed out of the kitchen door with a rolling service cart. She gaped at Deena, then straightened her expression as she ladled creamy onion soup into their bowls. It smelled heavenly, and Alexia immediately dug in with gusto.
At a poke in the side from Deena, she stopped eating. “What?”
“It’s customary to wait until everyone is served before wolfing your food down like a starving bloodhound,” Deena whispered.
Alexia laid her spoon back down and sat back. “Right. Sorry.”
Oh well, Scarlett O’Hara, she was not.
To be safe, she waited until Erik and Deena both began to eat before dipping her spoon again. She imagined how her proper, elegant mother would dine and prayed she wasn’t looking down with shaking head at her barbaric manners right now.
At the thought, Alexia gazed around the room with a new eye. Her mom would have fitted nicely into this place, having high tea in the afternoon on the veranda, arranging garden parties in the parlor, discussing the menu selections with the cooking staff.
Salad and warm rolls were served next, and Alexia did her best to remember her P’s & Q’s, even delicately dabbing her mouth with the cloth napkin from her lap, elbows off the table, no belching. Out loud. With her fist.
The main course was finally served. When the maid slid a covered domed dish in front of her and lifted the lid, Alexia’s appetite fell like a lead weight in her gut.
“I hope you like your lamb with mint sauce,” he said, smiling wide. “That’s how your mother always preferred it.”
The gold fork in her hand dropped with a loud clang. “My mother? My mother was a vegetarian like me.”
The smile slid from his face. “Oh, I greatly apologize. Her tastes must have changed over the years.”
“No, she was always a vegetarian. We’ve always eaten that way.”
“She was not when we were together,” Erik said. “In fact, our favorite place for lunch was a bistro near the university called Reuben’s. She always ordered their prime rib dip. She told me once ‘it was to die for.’”
Alexia looked down at the offending meat dish, then shot a wide stare back up at him. “The letter. She told you to meet her at Rueben’s. But it wasn’t a friend’s house. It was a restaurant.”
Erik nodded. “We met there originally. We spoke of our future life together there often. I believe that is why she picked that specific place to meet that last time. To remind me. As if I have ever needed reminding of what I have lost every day since then.”
Alexia shot to her feet, almost knocking the place setting off the table. “I’m sorry, I-I have to go.”
“No, please!” he said, standing fast and racing around the table. “Please sit! I will have Marta prepare something else very quickly.”
“It’s not that,” she said, waving dismissively. “It’s…well, every time I talk with you, something else changes. You tell me things about my mom that are so different from what I knew of her. I don’t think I can handle one more thing that turns everything I’ve always known on its head.”
Erik rubbed a hand roughly across the back of his neck, then nodded. “I do understand, Alexia. This has not been easy for you in any way. I wish there was something…” He looked up, a smile surfacing. “I believe I do have something that you would appreciate. Deena, if you would please excuse us a moment?”
“Of course,” she said.
Erik guided Alexia out of the dining room and down the hallway past the staircase, then opened a door to the left. As they walked inside, she saw the shelves from floor to ceiling filled with books of every size and color. In the corner by large paned windows was a couch, two sitting chairs, a credenza, desk and an antique bookcase.
Erik walked over and opened one of the glass doors of the bookcase and pulled out an old book bound in aged green leather with faded gold lettering. He brushed a gentle hand over the top with a smile, then handed it to her.
“Your mother found this in the used book store she worked at during that time,” he said. “It was right after the attack and she saw what I was. After confessing my lycanthrope heritage, I prepared to lose her forever, of course. How could any sane woman love such a monster as I, after all?
“We did separate for a time, and no one was more surprised or grateful than I when Rebecca later returned. She gifted this to me then with her assurance that she loved me in spite of what I was, along with her vow never to leave me again.”
The chipped, gilded letters read La Belle et la Bete. The original French version of the classic children’s story Beauty and the Beast written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.
“It is not a first edition, of course, but it is still very old and quite valuable,” he said, watching her reaction closely. “At least to me.”
Alexia didn’t have to open it to know her mother had bought this.
When she opened the cover, she saw the note Rebecca Hartford wrote on the same aged pink stationery as her last note to Erik. She loved rare books and would never deface such a prize with her own inscription.
My dearest Erik,
You will always be my most handsome, beloved prince, never an ugly beast. Nothing is more miraculous than the love we will always share together. I finally understand that now. Nothing from this day forward will ever keep us apart.
—Forever yours, Rebecca
“She read me this story over and over again,” Alexia said. “This classic version, not the Disney. It was destined to become my favorite fairytale. We watched every movie of it ever made, and we even went to see the stage musical.”
“I believe she related very much to Beauty in the story,” Erik said. “Needing to decide if she could truly love someone so monstrous.”
“You’re no monster, Erik.” Tears welled in Alexia’s eyes, remembering her mother and the many time they spent reading this story. “She must have really loved you to give you this, to write those things. And I’m sure she really meant it when she didn’t plan to leave you, but you loved her more and sent her away to protect her. And me.”
Erik exhaled a long breath. “We sacrifice our own desires to meet the needs of those whom we love. Sometimes that is all we can do. I do hope it was enough.”
New understanding washed over Alexia as she looked all around the elegant library. “This house. You built this for her. You were still hoping…”
Erik shrugged, smiled sadly. “We have nothing, if not hope. I only learned of her death last week.”
She swallowed the painful rock now lodged in her throat as she tucked her mother’s note inside the old book and handed it back to him.
“Thank you. This was the connection to her and all of this that I really needed.” Alexia gazed around again, sniffing back the tears that threatened to fall. “You know, I really miss her.”
Moisture welled in Erik’s eyes as well. “As do I. With all my heart, which breaks a little more each day without her. Thank you for bringing a bit of her back to me, Alexia. Your being here is truly a miracle and a blessing. Any father would be very proud of the gracious, intelligent young woman you have become, and the very stunning image of the woman I loved.”
Then Alexia did something that shocked even herself. She reached over and hugged her birthfather tightly.
The hard knock on the door that next morning startled both her and Deena awake. Groaning, Alexia rolled over and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand reading a fuzzy red five-twenty.
“Who could that be this early?” Deena rasped with scratchy voice.
Another harder knock.
“A very dead person in about five seconds,” Alexia grumbled, scrambling to her feet and stumbling across the room.
She yanked the door open to see Neil standing there dressed in black neoprene workout clothes. He looked delicious enough for a very randy morning romp. If she didn’t want at that moment to kill him very slowly with her bare hands.
“Go away,” she growled every syllable.
She started to close the door, but Neil held it open with his strong vice grip and walked inside, handing her a folded bundle that was in his other hand.
“What’s this?”
Alexia didn’t wait for him to answer her before unfolding and holding up the blue and white workout top and pants. Suspiciously about her size.
“Meet me downstairs in ten minutes,” he instructed. “Don’t forget to stretch.”
“Are you out of your ever-loving mind?” she shot back. “It’s five-frigging-thirty in the godawful morning, Duran! I’m not going anywhere but back to bed for another several hours.”
“Ten minutes, or I’m coming back up here and dressing you myself,” he said, stalking away.
She dashed out into the hallway.
“Forget it!” she yelled after him. “I have a lock on my door this time, wolf jerk!”
“And I have a master passkey,” he called back.
“Yeah? Well, I have a friend..!”
Who would be much too intimidated by him to help her in any way. Which meant she was forced once again into following his aggravating and obnoxious orders.
“Five minutes now,” he called, disappearing around the corner.
Alexia sneered at the workout clothes in her hands, then growled and stomped back into the room, slamming the door.
“Are you going to do what he says then?” Deena asked, cringing slightly as she pulled her blanket up to her chin.
Alexia grunted, not wanting to answer that as she stormed into the bathroom.
Neil leaned against the wall near the lobby entrance with his arms crossed when Alexia met him downstairs dressed in the workout clothes. She kept her locket off though, not wanting to damage it. No telling what he had planned at this ungodly hour.
He held one of the double doors open and handed her a granola bar, and she was tempted to kick his shin as she passed. Alexia settled for one of her hardest death glares instead, ripping the granola bar from his hand.
“You’re not a morning person, are you?” he remarked, quirking his slight grin as he followed.
Another bad trait of hers—well, he just said it.
Alexia sneered at him. “You have no idea. But you’re going to find out the hard way.”
“Looking forward to it.”
“So where to?” she asked testily, munching on the power bar while scanning the quiet, deserted streets. “A nice, long jog around this Nazi compound?”
“For starters,” he said. “Let’s go. Don’t forget to breathe correctly.”
“Hey, I was only—!”
She painfully swallowed down her grainy bite as Neil jogged to the left, and Alexia ran fast to catch up with him. Fortunately, jogging had been her morning ritual throughout college, so she was in better condition to keep his insane stride and pace than he probably expected. That at least gave her some satisfaction.
After about three miles, Neil stopped at a large square building a few blocks away from the Great Lodge. Alexia walked inside, scanning the well-equipped athletic gym. Another very muscular man in similar workout clothes with a hand towel draped around his neck exited as they entered. He nodded to Neil who returned the silent greeting.
“So Bryant doesn’t think I’m getting enough daily exercise?” she posed caustically.
“This place is strictly for use and training by our Enforcers,” Neil said, guiding her towards the floor mats in the left corner.
“Then why am I here?”
He positioned her in the center of the large mat, took three long steps back facing her, then pulled off his shoes and socks and tossed them aside. That wasn’t a good sign. “You said you were an expert in self-defense. Let’s find out if you’re right.”
Whoops. Her and her big, fat running mouth again.
“I said I passed a course,” she corrected.
“With flying colors,” he reminded. “Let’s see.”
“Or we could—”
Before she could finish, he charged and had her down on her back with each of her arms above her head, her wrists braced against the mat with each of his hands. His large body pinned her as he smiled down with dark satisfaction.
“I’m waiting,” he said. “What do you do in this instance?”
His large, hard body pressing against hers intimately shot a volcanic hot wave of lust straight through her. For a long few seconds all she could concentrate on was his powerful, well-sculpted frame on top of her, his warm, minty breath warming her face, the widening black pupils of his eyes fixed with hers.
Her hot, traitorous reaction to him infuriated her more than ever.
And she needed to get him the hell off her, right now!
Alexia tried to knee him in the groin, but his powerful thighs easily kept hers pinned against the mat so that she couldn’t move an inch. She tried to squirm away, even tried a head-butt, a painful move where no one really wins. Yet Neil pulled his head back faster, chuckling, ticking her off even more.
With gritted teeth, Alexia tried to viciously fight him off, tried several other different moves that should have worked. He continued to lay on top of her unfazed and unmoved, even looking a little bored.
And holy cripes, he weighed a ton, all of it pure muscle!
The too intimate position they were in was now shooting fireworks up and down her personal electrical circuits. If he and his strong, luscious body didn’t get off her in another five seconds, it was going to get very awkward and embarrassing.
“Okay, you win,” she said, relaxing back in defeat.
“You’re dead then.”
“Fine, you’ve made your point. Now get off me.”
His grip on her wrists seemed to tighten as Neil continued to stare down at her with half-lidded eyes. His breathing increased, and Alexia felt his thundering heart in the rapid beat that matched her own.
His stare shifted to her mouth as she nervously licked her bottom lip, and for a moment Alexia could’ve sworn he was going to lean down…
Instantly Neil released his grip and rolled off, jumping to his feet.
Alexia squeezed her eyes shut for several seconds. Flushed, her own body now humming like a purring cat, she stayed down several more in an attempt to collect herself before she thoroughly humiliated herself further.
Neil finally held his hand out to her, and Alexia gripped it and let him pull her up.
“Now, would you like to learn how to really defend yourself in a situation like this?” he asked.
“Teach me, oh wise sensei.”
He covered another smile. “The first lesson is forget everything you’ve learned before. Even if the self-defense moves you were taught might in some instances work on a human, none of them will help you against a lycanthrope attack.
“Were-kind have extra strength, muscles, abilities, and even special skills that are meant to overpower their prey. You can’t possibly win with your slight size and human abilities. So you need to stop reacting like a weak, powerless victim and learn to think like an intelligent, thinking hunter. Knowledge is your power.”
Okay, he had her attention now. Alexia always knew her mind was her best weapon. In most instances.
Neil talked her through and demonstrated some basic moves that would bring down a were-being, always using their respective weaknesses that Alexia never imagined each possessed, depending upon species.
Were-cougars’ throats were its most vulnerable spots, the reason why the male even pins its vicious mate in that area while coupling to avoid being mauled by her. Bruins, or were-grizzlies, could be taken out with a simple sharp cedar stick into the brain inserted through the eyeball, while trying to take him down with an iron crossbar to the head or body wouldn’t even faze him.
“What about wolves?” Alexia asked, after he had run through several demonstrations and explanations of several other species. “A silver bullet, right?”
“Since all lycanthrope are basically natural beings, most can be defeated by various elemental properties. Silver poisoning for wolves is well known, but all were-species have their respective poisons against different natural elements. Northern California cougars can be killed by gold. Southwestern coyotes by turquoise. North African lions can be taken down with even raw diamonds. South American leopards by the coca plant.”
“Chocolate? I can take down a deadly were-leopard by throwing a Hersey bar at it?”
Neil smothered a grin. “It’s more entailed than that, but basically yes. Usually it’s an element from their own indigenous land.”
“So silver with wolves then. Right, there are a several silver mines in the northwest.”
“And other places wolves originate from, yes,” he said, “but you can’t count on having a gun with a silver bullet at your disposal. That’s assuming you can even shoot accurately and move faster than the wolf, which is unlikely. Again where Hollywood gets it wrong. So if you think over everything you learned about were-beings so far, what do you think would work best in a wolf attack?”
Alexia bit her bottom lip, considering the possibilities. “It seems that were-beings have similar instincts and weaknesses to their natural animal counterparts. So the vulnerable areas of a normal timber wolf are probably the same ones on a werewolf.”
She remembered Neil fighting the Talanov scary wolves in human form, trying to picture every move where he was successful.
“You pulled one down by his hind legs. You tripped him, then began to pound his nose. Right, a wolf’s nose is very sensitive, which is why it’s such a great tracker.”
Alexia gasped, remembering that’s exactly where she hit Neil that first night, although it was purely by dumb beginner’s luck.
Probably why he was so furious about it then, too.
Neil nodded. “And do you know the area on its prey where a normal wolf attacks first?”
“The neck, I think. At least that’s what I saw one time on Nat Geo.”
Again, he nodded. “You can’t let the wolf get his teeth clamped down anywhere around the neck or throat. He’ll lock down and never let go, then rip and shred you apart. Not to mention that one taste of blood would ignite his reflexive bloodlust, turning him into scary wolf automatically, if he has the ability to do so. So you have to learn ways to twist away from him before he latches onto your trachea or an artery. Like this.”
Neil continued to demonstrate differing moves, having Alexia mimic them again and again until she was utterly exhausted, but certainly a lot more competent than she was at the beginning of their session.
Several hours later when Neil finally charged Alexia again, she was able to successfully dodge him. It even took him a couple of more tries before he actually caught and pinned her, his mouth in mock bite on her neck. A little too long. And gentle.
His soft lips brushing against her sensitive skin before he removed them shot yet another hot wave through her. This time Neil’s expression when he fixed eyes with her held something intense, possessive.
Clearing his throat, he stood and helped her up. “Better. We’ll pick this up again after lunch. Hit the showers, then meet me in the cafeteria. You need to power up.”
Alexia was drenched in sweat, and a shower sounded absolutely delicious. “Again? Haven’t I learned enough yet?”
“Not even the basics. We’ve just started.” Neil sauntered over to the far end of the gym to a set of lockers, one which he opened, then returned holding a small box out to her. “I’ll need you to wear this for a while.”
She opened it to see a thin, black wristwatch. It had a flat square face that illuminated nothing. “Looks like it needs a battery.”
“It’s a tracking device, and it works fine,” he said.
She pushed it back to him. “Forget it. I don’t need Big Brother watching every move I make. It’s bad enough that you do.”
“Wear it, Alexia. Please.”
Then all of this—the tracker, the were-attack lessons.
“What’s going on, Neil? Something’s up that you’re not telling me.”
His eyes darkened as he stared long and hard into hers, until he finally heaved a long, heavy breath. “Rob decided last night to cancel the lockdown after too many complaints from our business partners. We’re standing down at three o’clock this afternoon. The gates are going to be open again.”