Sirens - The Gripping Beast Part 19

"Looking at you. I may never tire of the view." He stroked her hair and smiled at her. Her beauty struck him anew and nearly stole his breath. She would only grow more beautiful when she was breeding. Perhaps she was even now. At the thought he s.h.i.+fted their positions so that he lay on the damp gra.s.s and she lay atop him. If so, he would guard with care the fragile new life. He would see to it that she took no risks, took no more wild dives into cold seas or pounding gallops over fields. Which made him realize that the breakneck pace he'd ridden at may have been a foolish risk.

"Erik, you're frowning."

"This ride may not have been wise."

"Why? Are you worried about bandits or whatever? I thought you had your sword with you."

"I always have my sword with me. And we are quite safe. The feast begins today to welcome us back, so every man in the settlement is nearby."

And every one of them l.u.s.ting and eager for a glimpse of his prize. Erik's scowl darkened at the thought.

"Stop that." Lorelei smoothed away his frown lines with her hands and dropped kisses all over his face. "We're supposed to be having fun, here. Bonding."

"Bonding?"

"Yeah." She snuggled closer to him and let her fingers drift down to the inviting expanse of tanned, muscled chest his leather vest exposed.

"You have not had enough of that?"

Catching his meaning along with the doubt in his voice, Lorelei laughed out loud. "That's not what I meant. I'm talking about bonding. Do you realize that outside of bed, we've hardly done anything but fight? We need some quality time. We need to do things together that we both enjoy. Companions.h.i.+p."

He grunted, a noncommittal sound.

"Come on. You enjoyed the ride, right?"

"I did until I thought of the consequences. I should have been more careful with you. You might have fallen."

She let out a long, dramatic groan. "There you go again. I bet you're lots of fun at parties. Erik, you were careful. You know your horse, the ground and your own strength. You wouldn't have let me fall."

"We will still ride back slowly."

She gave a despairing sigh and fell silent.

He supposed she would not be pleased to know that he meant to leave her safe at his home instead of allowing her to bond with him at his father's, either.

Chapter Fourteen.

She wasn't.

He broke the news to her after they returned from the ride, when they were in the inner chamber, where presumably the sound of her shouts would just be shrugged off as normal.

"You can't be serious," she protested. "I'm the entertainment, and you're not taking me to the big party?"

Erik frowned at her and it was easy to see where his mind was going. Lorelei sighed in exasperation. "Not that kind of entertainment. Singing."

He shook his head. "You have not sung for me, yet you sing for my brother and now you would sing for all the settlement."

Lorelei opened her mouth, then closed it again. Songs were important to these people, she'd picked up on that. And no wonder. Their history was in their oral tradition. To be remembered in song was to attain immortality. She was a singer, a skald in their words. She was Erik's slave by their laws, his woman by the law of her heart. And she had never sung for him. Not once had she given him the gift of her talent.

"I'm sorry. I should have sung for you."

He reached out to brush the long fall of her hair back over her shoulder. "You owe me no apologies. It is your gift to give as you choose."

"I should have thought of it." She leaned into him, simply for the joy of contact. "I just didn't. We were so busy fighting, and then, um, doing other things. I forgot."

Erik's hands twined lazily in her hair. It created a gentle tugging sensation along her scalp, almost like a ma.s.sage and it made her sigh in pleasure. The simplest touch between them felt so good. But not good enough to make her drop the argument. "You should take me with you."

"You should stay here where you are safe."

He might have a point, there. But then, how safe would she be if they were separated? Anything could happen. She didn't like that idea at all. But before she could come up with a persuasive point, he continued.

"There is a man who bears a grudge against my family. All know that you are mine, that I took you at sword point because for a moment I stepped outside the law. Did I do so once for you, I may do so again. He may use you to have me declared outlaw. He could touch you, knowing I do not permit it, to drive me to retaliate unlawfully. Until you are my wife, he may think to use you against me."

Wife. The word completely derailed Lorelei. "Wife? Excuse me?" She gripped Erik's vest in both hands and stared up at him. "Did you propose to me and I missed it?"

He frowned down at her. "What is this propose? I give you my armband, which should please you since you have been fixated upon it from the beginning. We drink from one cup. And then are you my wife."

"Like in the story." She said it without thinking. And then she remembered.

She had put the armband on in her time while she thought about the story Dane had told her. She'd thought about the two lovers who had each other while she had n.o.body. She'd wanted what they had. Really wanted it. And she had sort of boiled over inside, the way her emotions boiled over into singing, only she hadn't been performing. She'd done something else with that internal force. She'd made a wish.

Be careful what you wish for.

That wish had been the key, or rather, the mental force she exerted had been the key. Because she was psychic. Clairvoyant was the proper term. And there was probably a word for her ability to manipulate music to broadcast emotion, too.

It was a just part of her, something she didn't think about very much. Something she usually avoided thinking about, since it wasn't logical or predictable. It just was. Sometimes she knew things, felt things. And she'd learned early never to go against the things she knew, no matter how irrational they seemed, because they were always right. Not only had she come to depend on that part of herself, those around her had, too. The rest of the band looked to her to make decisions about tour dates and locations, timing of alb.u.m releases, and all sorts of business details.

The dream had said she was the key, and like a key turning in a lock, she understood. She had wished-willed-to find what the lovers in the story had, and the armbands, one in each time, had activated and brought her across the years in a heartbeat.

If she married Erik and put the armband on again, she could activate them. And he might not want to go home with her. Or, willing or not, he might not be free to go.

Lorelei thought about the number of people who worked on his farm. They were more than his employees. They depended on him in a more feudal sort of relations.h.i.+p. And presumably they in turn had families depending on them. She hadn't missed the importance of a successful trading voyage to this isolated community, or that he was a natural leader. If he left, it would leave a big gap.

Complication on complication. Now she knew how to get home. Erik was willing to give her the means to do it. And that meant either leaving him, which now seemed unthinkable, or asking him to abandon his responsibilities. A thing he could never do. She hadn't known him long, but she knew how deep his sense of honor and duty went.

"I tell you I plan to make you my wife. This should please you. But whenever do you behave as I expect?" Erik was frowning at her, but behind the expression on his face, behind the words, was hurt. She knew it. She felt it.

"Erik-"

"Ah. I looked to find the two of you ready for the celebration, and here you hide, fighting instead." Harold stood in the doorway to Erik's private room, smiling at them both in obvious good humor. "Or it may be that you have grown so heated from arguing that you must throw me out and close the door to cool down in that bed. The hour is likely to grow very late do you not come with me now instead. There will be no food or drink left by the time you two think to rise and join us. And I would miss my favorite skald singing to me while I grow drunk. It is your turn to sing while I drink," he pointed out to Lorelei.

Well. If she was going to tell a wild story, she might as well do it while she had both of them for an audience. "Harold. Glad to see you. Come in and shut the door."

That surprised both men. But Harold did come in and shut the door behind him. Undoubtedly because he knew his presence was irritating his big brother.

She let go of Erik and stepped back so she could look at both of them while she talked. "I need to tell you a story. And then, Erik, you have to decide if you really want to marry me. Because you might change your mind."

Harold shouted and clapped his brother on the back so hard she was surprised the blow didn't knock him over. "By Thor, you do have the wit to take this prize to wife! I nearly despaired of you."

"Um, not so fast on the congratulations," Lorelei sighed. "Here's the story. Once upon a time, a Viking and a Valkyrie fell in love. Only maybe she wasn't really a warrior, maybe she just had a little bit of a temper and was used to getting her way so they fought a lot. You know how these things get blown out of proportion. Anyway, they fell in love. They married. And when he gave her his armband and she put it on, they disappeared. She took him with her to Valhalla, the story goes. Or maybe she took him someplace else. Like into the future with her, where she came from."

She paused and took a breath, hoping it wasn't wasted. Hoping they believed her, or at least were willing to consider the possibility. "My friend Dane, who must be Harold's great-great-great-something grandson, had the armband because when they disappeared, hers fell off. He told me the story and gave it to me to wear. And when I put it on, I made a wish. I wished for love, like the people in the story. And I fell out of my time and landed in Heady-something, right in front of Erik. Who was wearing both of the armbands, only now they're new. The one in my time was old. And I put it on there, but I didn't have it when I got here. So it must still be there. In the future. Making a bridge. Because I don't belong here and I'm supposed to go back."

They were both staring at her now.

"I know. You don't have to tell me how ridiculous it sounds. I don't believe it either. Except I have to, because here I am, and here you are-" She waved at Erik, "And there are the armbands. And now you want to give me one and marry me. We're the people in the story. So you can't marry me, because you'd be abandoning all your responsibilities and you'd never forgive me for that," she finished miserably.

"Do you fail to take this woman as your wife, I will never forgive you," Harold said. All humor was gone from his face. "Never have I seen my dutiful older brother forget his responsibilities even for a moment. Until you set eyes on Lorelei, and drew your sword and for the first time in your life, took something you wanted for yourself."

He stood straighter and held Erik's gaze with piercing determination. "Are you not forever telling me I must learn my duty? That if I exerted myself to lead, I would do well? Well, then. Marry your woman and go with her. Travel upon the sea of time. Were I the one given the opportunity, I would take that voyage. And from childhood have you dreamed of great voyages even more than I."

He turned his head and smiled at Lorelei then. "But there is a price. If I am to be the dutiful son and marry Gudred and have these offspring to carry the armband down the years to you, you will make a song for me. The name of Harold Thorrolfson will live in memory. Is it a bargain?"

She grinned at him. "Yes."

They shook hands.

Erik shook his head at both of them. "My brother and my beloved have both lost their wits."

"Beloved?" Lorelei beamed at him. "You said it. I didn't think you'd ever say it. I thought we'd spend the next fifty years fighting and making up and you'd never actually say you loved me."

Erik reached out to take her by the shoulders and draw her against his hard chest. "Harold, you would do well to lead. All would follow you. But you think there is truth in this tale? Why?"

Great, she fumed. Ask the man. Not her, the woman who knew, because she'd been there and done that.

"Her clothing," Harold answered promptly. "Have you examined the garments she wore? Have you ever seen the like? For years you have traded with craftsmen and weavers throughout the world. You know well what fabrics are made and where. Look at them and tell me who has the skill to make such stockings as she wore?"

Her pantyhose? She wanted to groan in disbelief. She could tell them about world history, world events, technology, engineering. Okay, maybe engineering wasn't her strong point, but still, she would have thought those things would be of interest. And a pair of pantyhose was the thing that convinced them. Unbelievable.

Erik set her aside and the two men pulled out and examined her now-destroyed dress and her perfectly undamaged nylons like archeologists studying an ancient find.

"I have never seen the like," Erik said at last.

He was silent for a long moment. Then he asked Harold, "You will curb your wildness? You will abide by the law, uphold it, lead well?"

"I will. In truth, I missed Gudred this summer and she will not have me to husband do I not settle down." He looked crestfallen and Lorelei wanted to laugh, but managed not to. Big bad Viking, tamed by a woman.

"You said you believe you are meant to go back." Erik addressed her now. "You would leave me?"

"I don't want to," she answered quickly. And oh, G.o.d, she didn't. The thought of being without him again after knowing what it was like to have him...she would miss him for the rest of her life. "But Erik, I don't think I can stay here even if I wanted to. I think I did what I came here to do and I'm supposed to go back. If I don't, I don't think the story has a happy ending. I think I'd die here, in your time."

He looked fierce. "Die how? Have I not vowed to protect you?"

"You can't protect me from everything." She slid a sideways look at Harold, figured the entire settlement knew exactly what their relations.h.i.+p entailed anyway, and went on, "What if I'm pregnant already? There aren't any hospitals. Women die in childbirth here, or they get an infection and die after the birth. Most pregnancies don't have complications, but a pretty good percentage do. In the future, there are hospitals and surgeons and antibiotics and oxygen to save women and babies when things go wrong."

The possibility was something she hadn't exactly let herself dwell on. She'd never given up hope on finding a way back home. And if that meant she returned pregnant and ended up raising a child as a single mother, well, it wasn't her preference but she had the money to do it, even if she had to quit working for a while. Most women weren't in that position, but since she was, she'd made the inner choice to let the fates decide and not worry about the lack of birth control in the Viking age. If it happened, it happened. Although the more time she spent with Erik, the odds of it happening were going to keep increasing.

Erik gave her a long, considering look.

"You believe you will be returned to your time." He didn't wait for her to answer. He continued, "My child will not grow up fatherless. You will not live out your days without me at your side. We marry, and if the G.o.ds will it, you return to your home and I go with you."

Then he turned to Harold. "My brother, I will leave my property to you."

Harold nodded, accepting the responsibility. Lorelei thought he'd wear it well.

"Now, woman of the future. You came with what you were wearing. Therefore do we wear what we wish to take with us, it should travel as we do."

That made sense. The armband, Lorelei decided, was an anomaly all the way around. Everything else she'd been wearing had come along for the trip. "It should," she agreed.

While she watched, he gathered up a pack and filled it with everything he'd given her along with jewels, coins, the kind of things her practical Viking figured would translate easily into wealth in her time. That would matter to him, she realized. His pride would never allow him to live on her money. He would bring what he needed to provide for his family and begin a new life, and she didn't doubt for a minute that he'd be busy reinventing himself and building a new fortune as soon as they arrived. His ever-present sword in hand.

Lorelei fought a grin as she imagined Erik versus the modern day business world. No question, Erik would win. And it was going to be fun to watch.

Still, he was giving up a lot. His life. His family. Everything familiar.

"Erik, are you sure about this?" she asked. "You don't have to do this."

He smiled at her, and she saw it in his face. The spirit of adventure. The joy in his expression, as if a great weight had been lifted from him. "I had a dream. In it, I took you far from this place, far from the threat of punishment from breaking our laws. In this place, we could be free together and I could keep you safe. I dreamed of sailing away with you. Is this not like my dream?"

He came closer to her and touched her face. "Taking you for my wife is the only way to marry my duty and my heart. I cannot keep you a slave. I cannot leave you alone and unprotected to make your own way. You must be my wife, therefore. And if your tales are true, when I make you my wife we will journey away together as I wished to do. Although your winning personality will remain unchanged and doubtless we will fight as often in your time as we do now."

The prospect didn't seem to bother him. In fact, given the intensity of makeup s.e.x, she was pretty sure he was looking forward to it.

"Okay, then. How do we do this? Here? At the party?"

"At the celebration," Harold suggested. "I wish to hear you sing again before you go. Sing the ballad of the Celt Bobby McGee."

So she did. She sang for a crowd of Vikings while they ate and drank and laughed and clapped. And then Erik pulled her onto his lap and held her securely while he drank from his cup, then pa.s.sed it to her to drink from. She took a careful swallow, since she recognized it as the same stuff she'd been drinking with Harold. Some kind of moons.h.i.+ne, probably. Whatever it was, she had a healthy respect for its alcohol content.

He took one armband off and slid it up her arm.

Her husband. Her love. For all time.

Lorelei took a deep breath. And thought, there's no place like home.

They were back in the Emerald City, not Kansas. She could hear traffic and rain falling and she recognized the bedroom they were standing in. It was her room, in the house on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle that she shared with the band, and there was somebody sleeping in her bed. She felt mildly indignant about that, until he turned in his sleep and threw off the covers and she recognized him.

Beside her, Erik drew his sword.

"Friend," she told him quickly, trying not to laugh. "That's Dane. My friend. The one I confused with Harold. They could be twins, except for the beard."

Dane had probably panicked when she vanished and he found his armband laying there with no Lorelei in sight. But since he'd sent her time-traveling without any warning, she didn't feel too badly for him. And she wanted that bed. She hadn't forgotten about the sickening sensation that had made her pa.s.s out in Erik's arms after the first trip through time. She wanted to be laying on something nice and soft when it caught up with her.