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and Livia have been with her during her recent
changes. Tell me about it.”
    “It’s painful.”
    “Painful? It shouldn’t be painful at all,” I
said. I wanted to find her right now, keep her close to me and
protect her somehow from that pain. Where was she now, I wondered,
trying to pick up her scent. The bond seemed to be interfering with
my common sense. I made an effort to refocus on our
conversation.
    “It’s always been painful for her, and it’s
becoming worse. She does it quickly, faster than you. Maybe that’s
the reason. She’s an enormous wolf, way bigger than her human size
would suggest. But then, when she turns, she’s nothing like you
guys. There isn’t that burst of energy and life that always
impresses me when I see you changing. She’s as sick as a dog—no pun
intended.”
    “Oh, God! She didn’t say anything about that.
Why’s that? Do you have any explanation?”
    “No, except that it could be because she is a
different sub-species. Offspring from interbreeding between wizards
and werewolves are extremely rare. We know almost nothing about
them.”
    “She changed for the first time when she was
twenty-three. That’s quite late for us.”
    “But not for them. Sometimes those children,
especially females, don’t transform at all. They’re
half-werewolves, of course, but their shape-shifting gene is
recessive.”
    “Well, Astrid’s gene apparently isn’t. With
each subsequent transformation the process should be easier, not
more difficult, as we learn how to control it. And not painful, for
heaven’s sake!”
    “She can’t control it, that’s the problem. I
don’t know, Jack. I always check her after the transformation. Once
she recovers, she’s fine. There is no damage, nothing unusual. She
needs a day or two to become herself again.”
    No wonder she hated it, I thought, trying
hard not to imagine her curled up in pain, exhausted, lying on the
ground, unable to move. It hurt like hell. “We’ll find out why she
suffers through the change. What can you tell about her genetic
make-up, besides shape-shifting? That’s your field.”
    “She combines the best of both kinds.”
    “Psychologically, emotionally,
intellectually, socially...?”
    “Astrid’s much more emotional than wizards in
general. You know them; they’re like a crossover between Tolkien’s
Elves and Mr. Spock from Star Trek . Their rational side is
far more prominent. Not that they do not feel, they do, as
intensely as we do, they just don’t show it. She does. You
should’ve seen her when she was about fifteen, she was a
handful!”
    Tristan smiled and then continued, “She’s
fiercely independent. Don’t expect her to be submissive to you or
anybody else. Or dominant, for that matter, at least not in her
human form. Those concepts are still alien to her. As a werewolf, I
can’t say for sure, but the wolf should reflect the human side, and
vice versa, right? She’s a private person, though, she’s happiest
in her own company, but she’s loyal once she chooses you as a
friend. She’s smart, well-educated and sophisticated. Nice sense of
humor, the kind that’s never meant to hurt somebody else.”
    “As a doctor?”
    “Born to be one. She is both an orthopedic
and trauma surgeon, and brilliant in both fields. Wizards are
doctors par excellence, but she’s exceptional even by their
standards. I’ve haven’t seen anything like that in a long
time.”
    “Physically, she resembles more her
father—same eyes, same hair—than her mother.”
    “Rowena and Astrid, they’re different, and
not only physically. Rowena is—or rather was; we don’t know a lot
about her now—impatient and passionate and, don’t forget, young.
She wanted everything and she wanted it now. She was too young to
be married, too young to have a child, and too young to be turned
into a werewolf. Had she had several more years, she could’ve
turned out quite differently. She was a self-centered,
irresponsible, spoiled