Fires Of Solstice Part 30

She gulped it down in one swallow. It burned all the way down then knocked the breath out of her.

"What-what was that?" she gasped as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Four-hundred-year-old Scotch," Rhys answered. "Do you want some more?"

She dropped the gla.s.s to the floor. "No! That was enough."

"Good, now tell me why you are here instead of with Bleddyn." His tone was imperious.

She gritted her teeth. Arrogant, insufferable man. "Not that it's any of your business, but Bleddyn left."

A stunned expression appeared on Rhys' face. "Not here? But the full moon, the ceremony. He's been waiting centuries."

When her fists. .h.i.t the arms of the chair, dust billowed. "What ceremony? Would someone please tell what the h.e.l.l is going on!"

"Didn't Bleddyn explain-" began Rhys.

"d.a.m.n it! After mind-blowing s.e.x, all Bleddyn did was b.i.t.c.h because I wasn't a virgin then turn into a wolf and run away."

Man, wolf and cat stared at her.

Meredythe snapped her mouth shut. That might have been more information than she wanted to share with a total stranger. There she went, letting her temper run away with her again.

Rhys sank onto a wooden stool. "You weren't a virgin? But that means the entire ceremony was useless."

Meredythe leaped to her feet, ignoring Methuselah's indignant yowl as he tumbled to the floor. In a few steps, she was standing in front of Rhys, trembling with anger. Jabbing her finger into his chest, she snarled, "Today I have been drugged, tied up, threatened by a nut with a knife, been caught in a fire, almost raped, accused of infidelity and then dragged up here by two animals who can talk in my head. If you don 't tell me what is going on, I'll bite you too."

Keri's head snapped up.

She bit him. That explains that then.

Rhys had been shrinking away from her finger but he jerked upright at her threat.

"Bite me too? Did you bite Bleddyn?"

She paused in her tirade. "He was trying to rape me. What was I supposed to do?"

"Did you swallow any of his blood?"

Meredythe's stomach dropped. "Yes, a little, I think."

Rhys stared at her.

She swallowed. "What does that mean? Will I... am I going to turn into a werewolf too?"

Rhys indicated the chair she had vacated. "Sit down, Meredythe, and let me explain. First, you will not become a werewolf. But swallowing Bleddyn's blood has obviously brought some small changes to your physiology."

She stared at him. "Bleddyn's blood. That's why I can understand Keri and Methuselah, isn't it?"

"Undoubtedly."

"And I won't become a werewolf?"

"No."

"How can you be sure?"

"Swallowing a werewolf's blood will not transform a person into a werewolf."

Not bothering to hide her relief, Meredythe leaned back and closed her eyes. She opened them almost immediately. "But according to everything I've read, that's how werewolves are created."

Rhys rose and poured himself a drink. "Everything you've read is wrong."

She opened her mouth, but Rhys held up his hand. "Let me explain."

Meredythe sniffed. "It's about time somebody did."

"Approximately fourteen hundred years ago-"

"Fourteen hundred years!"

He sipped some Scotch. "Please, Meredythe, don't interrupt."

Methuselah jumped back into her lap.

Sighing, she stroked him. "Okay, start talking."

She continued to stroke the cat as Rhys explained how Bleddyn had waited almost fourteen hundred years for her, how Rhys had tried to bring them together four different times over the centuries only to be stymied time and time again. She shook her head as Rhys explained how he'd taken her dying body into fire to save her life so that she could be reborn sometime in the future.

When he finally finished, she shook her head in disbelief.

Easing Methuselah from her lap, she stood and began to pace, pondering everything Rhys had told her.

"No way," she finally said. "No way is this possible. Okay, Bleddyn is a werewolf. I saw him change with my own eyes, so I believe you. But having s.e.x with a virgin-me- will stop him from being evil. Come on. And me, living in fire. No way. That's just not possible."

She paced to the fireplace and turned, sidestepping a bit so as not to step on Keri. Her foot came down on a stack of Rhys' books, which immediately toppled to the floor. One large tome landed on Keri's tail. With a howl, she leaped up, her shoulder catching Meredythe's hip which caused her to lose her balance. Throwing her hands out to brace her fall, Meredythe tumbled into the fireplace. The flames roared and rose to meet her.

A small corner of Meredythe's brain registered everything that was happening. As she fell forward, it seemed as if time slowed and she was standing outside her body, watching. She was going to be burned-badly.

As she watched, flames leaped toward her hands and arms. She managed to keep her legs out of the flames, landing on her knees on the lip of the fireplace. Her hands, however, landed among the burning logs.

"Tanau!" she cried.

The flames roared higher and embraced her upper body.

Jerking herself out of the fireplace, she knelt and stared at her hands. Flames danced along her arms and leaped from one hand to the other without burning her skin. She didn't even feel any heat.

"How... " She swallowed. "How do I make it stop?"

Rhys' voice was gentle. "Say peidio."

Meredythe swallowed then whispered, "Peidio."

The fire flashed then winked out. Still staring at her hands, Meredythe collapsed onto the floor.

"Here," Rhys said as he handed her another gla.s.s of Scotch.

She gulped then gulped again. Holding the now-empty gla.s.s up, she said, "More."

Instead Rhys grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "I think you've had enough Scotch for now."

Meredythe shuddered, crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her upper arms. She began to pace again, making sure she stayed well away from the fireplace. "Enough? I don't think so. I think I need to drink myself into a stupor."

She shook again, trying to come to grips with the fact she could juggle fire in her hands. She stopped in front of Rhys. "What was that I said when I fell into the fire?"

"Tanau. It's Welsh for fire. You must have stored the command in your subconscious one of times I saved your life. You were still conscious when those villagers tried to burn you as a witch."

Meredythe shuddered again. Burned as a witch! Raking her hands through her hair, she grimaced as her fingers tangled in a snarl. She needed a brush and a bath. Still another s.h.i.+ver ran down her spine. A bath! Closing her eyes, she shook her head. What she needed was to wake up from this nightmare.

Spinning away from Rhys, she started to pace again. She needed to get a hold of herself. Okay, she could juggle fire. Lots of people, people like circus performers and...well, circus performers, could juggle fire. She wasn't so different from anybody else. She was still human, more human than Bleddyn. Wasn't she?

She stopped in front of Rhys again. "How did Bleddyn become a werewolf? How is it possible for you to be the father of a wolf and grandfather of a human-well, sort of human? Are you a werewolf too?"

"No, I'm a druid."

She stared at Rhys. A druid? She shook her head and tried to talk herself out of the hysteria growing in her mind. Come on, Meredythe, get a hold of yourself. You can handle this.

Think. Ask questions. Find out all the pertinent information.

"What about Keri?"

I'm a wolf now dear, but once I was a woman.

Sinking into the leather chair, Meredythe glared from one to the other. "I think you better explain everything to me. Now."

"Let's see. Where to begin?"

Keri sighed. Don't bother with the all the minute biological and physiological details, Father.

Just explain what happened.

Rhys frowned at the wolf, but settled himself on the stool. "Very well. Keri, my daughter, was once just as human as you and I. Right before she gave birth to Bleddyn, she was bitten by a wolf."

Meredythe frowned. "So, if a pregnant woman is bitten by a wolf, her child becomes a werewolf."

Rhys shook his head. "Please don't interrupt. Being bitten by a wolf doesn't turn anyone into a werewolf." He held up his hand when Meredythe would have interrupted again. "Just listen. After I finish, you may ask questions."

After Meredythe's nod, Rhys continued, "The wolf that bit Keri had been bitten by a vampire."

"Vampire," Meredythe squeaked.

Rhys ignored her. "As I'm sure you know, vampires need blood to survive." He waited for Meredythe's nod. "However, it doesn't have to be human blood. A vampire can survive quite nicely on the blood of any warm-blooded animal, which doesn't present any problems with herbivores. Carnivores, however...well, that's a different story."

Rhys paused and sipped his Scotch.

"Something in the physiology of carnivores reacts violently with a vampire's saliva. If the animal is able to escape the vampire before it drains too much blood and finds refuge from the sun, it changes subtly. Over a very short amount of time it becomes so sensitive to sunlight that it eventually dies. Few have the intelligence to hide away in a dark cave during the day."

Again Rhys sipped his Scotch.

"However, if one of these animals bites a human before it dies, that human becomes a werebeast."

"You mean there are more than werewolves?"

"Yes, though most carnivores still don't seem to have the intelligence to survive very long. Wolves, bears and cats do, and there was a wereboar once. Nasty beast until someone finally killed it."

"But why is Keri a wolf?"

An expression of deep sadness appeared on Rhys' face. "When the vamwolf bit her, Keri immediately went into labor. What with the trauma of birth and the effect of the vamwolf's bite... She was dying. The only way I could save her was to draw upon the wolf essence streaming through her blood and s.h.i.+ft her shape permanently."

Meredythe turned her attention to Keri. "Did you know what he was doing?"Of course, dear. I told him to do it. Becoming a wolf was the only way I was able to stay with my child. A child, I might add, who would, in all probability, be a werewolf. As a wolf myself, I'd be able to help him when the bloodl.u.s.t finally rose.

"This..." Meredythe swallowed once. "This is all hard to believe. Why don't more people know about you?"

The wolf snorted before Rhys could answer. And become laboratory experiments? No thank you.

Leaning back, Meredythe tried to absorb everything she'd just learned. It was amazing. No one would believe it. She almost didn't believe it-almost. If she hadn't seen Bleddyn turn into a werewolf...

"Bleddyn said he was able to control himself most of the time, but he has problems when there is a full moon. What about all those myths about werewolves and the full moon?"

Rhys shook his head. "It's not the moon. As a matter of fact, the full moon gives him control over himself. The bloodl.u.s.t, as he calls it, is what pushes him toward violence. It builds in him until it becomes unbearable. If he can stand under the light of a full moon, however, he can conquer the urge to kill."

"So the full moon doesn't turn him into a werewolf."

"No, he and any other werebeast can turn into a werewolf whether there's a full moon or a new moon. The bloodl.u.s.t is what makes them dangerous. Those who choose not to control it don't survive very long. Those who do seek the full moon for her aid."

"Oh."

Methuselah purred in her lap. She stiffened.

"Is...is Methuselah a were...cat?"

Rhys shook his head. "No, he's a Familiar."

"Familiar?"

Rhys smiled. "Of course. Evelyn is a druidess-a very powerful witch, you know."

"Aunt Evie's really a witch?"