by I. T. Lucas
Henry might have been brainwashed like the other cult members, but he was a genuinely nice guy.
“Thanks, buddy. I really appreciate that, but I’ve already canceled the surgery. I’ll schedule another one as soon as I get home.”
“You do that.”
Heading down the corridor to the laundry, Peter decided not to waste time with the guy and just thrall him right from the get-go. Gustav was very susceptible, and it would take no time at all to get him to follow Peter’s instructions while believing that they’d come from Emmett.
Except, the guy was not alone in the laundry. Two staff members were there loading their housekeeping carts, and all three looked at him quizzically.
“Can I help you?” Gustav asked.
The last time they’d met, Peter had thralled him to forget him and Eleanor, so the guy had no idea who he was.
“Yes. I have a message for you.” He motioned with his head to the corridor outside. “A private message.”
Curiosity getting the better of him, Gustav followed him out of the laundry. “What is it?”
Peter looked into his eyes and took hold of his mind not too gently. “Emmett wants you to escort me to his place. He wants to see me.”
“Follow me.” Gustav started walking toward the offices.
Passing through there would be a problem. “Is there any way you can get me there without going through his office? He wants to keep our meeting private.”
“Yes. Through the garage.” Gustav changed directions.
Apparently, Peter had missed the opening during his scoping of the enclosure the night before last. Either that or the passage was underground.
There were only three vehicles in the garage. The bus he and the others had arrived in, a full-sized van, and a blue Corvette, which he was sure belonged to the cult leader.
“Nice car.”
“She’s Emmett’s baby.” Gustav opened a door with his key card and motioned for Peter to go in front of him.
It didn’t lead to an elevator or a flight of stairs as Peter had expected, but to Emmett’s private yard.
When Gustav closed it behind them, Peter realized why he hadn’t seen it when he’d scoped the place. It was covered with vines, and when closed, it blended seamlessly into the wall of greenery.
Gustav knocked on the cottage’s door, and when there was no answer, he opened it and walked inside. “Emmett must be downstairs.”
“He’s expecting me,” Peter said while looking into the guy’s eyes and forcing the conviction into his mind. “You can escort me right in.”
“Yes.” Gustav walked into the bedroom and opened another door.
There was a steel one behind it, but instead of entering the code on the keypad, Gustav reached for the intercom button.
“Stop!” Peter commanded.
The guy turned around. “I have to call Emmett to have him open the door.”
Damn. He should have checked that the guy really didn’t know the combination.
He reached into Gustav’s mind. “There is no need to disturb him. He will come up and get me. I’ll wait here, while you can go and sit on the couch in the living room and take a nap.”
“Okay.”
When Gustav left the room, Peter backed away from the door and kicked it. The damn hinges didn’t even groan in protest. The basement was locked up like a safe.
But it wasn’t. The place needed to get air and water from the outside. There had to be a water pump, a sewer connection, some way to get in that didn’t involve the steel door.
Would Gustav know?
Just as he’d been instructed, the guy was napping on the living room couch.
Leaving him there, Peter walked out and started a thorough search of the cottage’s perimeter. There had to be an access door somewhere.
This time around, he didn’t just look but moved branches away and patted the walls, but there was nothing. Perhaps the access was hidden in the main lodge, or the garage.
“Devlin!” Gustav called him as he rounded the corner. “What are you doing out there?”
Damn. How the hell had the guy woken up?
A twig snapping behind him had Peter turn around, but he wasn’t fast enough. A sharp pain registered as something smashed into his head, and then it was lights out.
38
Eleanor
After Emmett had left the room, regrettably locking her in, Eleanor searched the place methodically for anything she could use as a weapon.
He was too strong for her to overpower, but if she managed to clobber him over the head, he would go down for at least a few seconds, giving her a head start.
The only thing she’d come up with so far was a drawer she’d pulled out from the nightstand, and the thing would probably break into pieces over Emmett’s thick skull without causing him any real damage.
Perhaps she could take apart the plumbing under the bathroom sink and use the pipe? Except, as she knocked on the thing, she was disappointed to discover that the pipe was made from plastic and not some heavy metal as she’d hoped.
Maybe she could use the toilet? That was heavy for sure, but she didn’t have the proper tools, and opening the bolts with her fingers proved impossible.
It was a shame that her training hadn’t included any assassin moves like strangulation using one of those damn black bed sheets, or even better, a thin wire she could have hidden in her boot and used to cut a major artery. Kri’s class had been all about self-defense, and Eleanor’s after-class private lessons with her had been straightforward hand-to-hand combat that would get her nowhere with Emmett.
He was just too strong.
She couldn’t use a surprise attack either because he could hear her heartbeat and her breathing and would know that she was lying in wait for him.
Damn. For the first time since she’d discovered her compulsion ability, Eleanor felt truly helpless.
Thankfully, it was a temporary situation. Peter had probably called for backup already, and the cavalry was on its way. She only hoped that the guy wouldn’t be stupid enough to try anything on his own.
Peter had accused her of being impatient, so hopefully he was the opposite of that.
When the other Guardians arrived, they were going to capture Emmett, but what were they going to do with him? After they found out everything about him and where he had come from, were they going to put him in stasis?
What he was doing to the women bordered on rape. They might have come expecting sex, but they didn’t expect to be snacked on. Then again, the clan’s males were biting women without their permission either, and that was deemed as necessary to keep immortals a secret. Emmett used drugs because he didn’t know how to thrall, but he did that for the same reason.
Bottom line, his crimes did not deserve stasis and entombment, but he couldn’t become a member of the clan either. He was a compeller, and unlike her, he might be able to compel other immortals. Not only that, he was unhinged and had a blood-sucking fetish. She doubted any of the clan females would be up for that.
In any case, she shouldn’t take risks and should just play it safe until her rescue arrived.
Would it, though?
They didn’t know about Emmett, and she wasn’t a full-fledged clan member yet. On top of that, Kian didn’t like her and didn’t trust her. He might even think that she’d made a run for it.
Hopefully, Peter would convince him that it wasn’t the case.
She wished there was a way to let them know that Emmett was an immortal. If they knew, they would be storming the place whether they wanted to rescue her or not.
The key turned in the lock, and a moment later the door opened, and Emmett walked in, wearing a normal person’s clothes for a change and holding two mugs of coffee.
It was clear to her now why he wore robes around his people. He had the body of a young man, and even with all the facial hair that was masking his lack of wrinkles, he wouldn’t have been able to appear older.
Eleanor pushe
d to her feet and took the mug he handed her. “I appreciate the hospitality, but how long do you intend to keep me locked up in this room?”
He sat on the bed and crossed his legs. “You know what I am, and I can’t compel your silence. How can I let you go?”
Damn. Was he planning to kill her?
Was the coffee her last meal?
“Your secret is safe with me.”
He chuckled. “You must realize that I can’t trust that.”
“How about we trade secrets? If you know mine, I won’t risk divulging yours.”
“What is your secret?
“I’m like you. I am an immortal.”
His eyes widened. “Who are you descended from?”
“The gods.”
Looking disappointed, he shook his head. “That’s a human myth.”
What had he expected her to say? “That’s what I’ve been told.”
“Do those gods have names?”
Eleanor only knew the Clan Mother’s, and if Emmett was an ex-Doomer who had lost his marbles, it was better that she didn’t mention his arch enemy.
That was unlikely, though. The guy sounded like he hadn’t known that there were other immortals on the planet aside from him. Perhaps he had lost his memory?
As far as she knew, Navuh didn’t use stasis and entombment as punishment, which could have resulted in memory loss. If one of his disciples made a move against him, it was final death for the poor sucker, not stasis and future resurrection.
Going along with his misconception, she shrugged. “You know their names. They are Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Aphrodite, etc.”
“As I said, they are not real. They are a myth.”
“That’s all I know.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. Since there was no written history of the clan’s origins, Eleanor had no idea what the original gods' names had been.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why are you here?”
She shrugged. “Immortals have life crises like anyone else. My partner and I were having relationship troubles, and we hoped to rekindle our love in your retreat. Except, you don’t allow couples to attend together, and she’s coming for the next one.”
“Is she an immortal too?”
Eleanor nodded. “It’s impossible for us to have relationships with humans without getting discovered, and as you know, keeping what we are a secret is an existential necessity.”
“How many immortals are out there?”
“Tens of thousands.”
They were mostly Doomers, but if he wasn’t one of them, he didn’t need to know that they were not her people.
“Impossible. I’ve never encountered any immortals before.”
“So how do you think you came to be?”
“I’m not immortal.”
The guy really didn’t know who and what he was.
“You are freakishly strong, and you have fangs and venom. You probably also heal very quickly, and you don’t get sick.”
“Everything you said is true, but that still doesn’t make me an immortal. Maybe compared to the lifespans of humans, mine could be considered that, but I’m not going to live forever.”
“Semantics. It’s true that we can be killed, but if we are careful, we can live for a very long time.”
His eyes blazing with an inner reddish glow, he licked his lips. “Maybe if I keep snacking on your exceptionally potent blood, I will live just as long as you do.”
The guy was a few cards short of a full deck, and he thought of her as an energy drink.
“You know that no other immortals suck blood, right?”
His smile was predatory. “Then they don’t know what they are missing.”
He looked like he was about to bite her again, and she was so not on board for that.
Shaking her head, she lifted her hand. Not that it would stop him if he was adamant about biting her, but if he had any decency at all, it might. “One of the major tenets of our community is consent. If a male takes what is not offered freely by means of force or thralling, the punishment is severe.”
“Of course. I would never force sex on you. But eventually, you are going to beg me for it. They all do.” He smiled. “The bite makes females horny.”
As if she didn’t know that. “You need my consent for biting as well.”
“I’ll get that too.”
“How? I’m not going to give it to you freely.”
He shrugged. “Simple. If I don’t eat, you don’t either.”
The guy was truly insane.
“Sucking blood is a fetish, not a necessity. You might believe that you are a vampire, but I’ve seen you eat real food.”
As he cocked a brow, his phone buzzed in his pocket. “Excuse me for a moment.”
Apparently, the no-phone rule didn’t apply to him.
How convenient.
Reading what she assumed was a text message, he pushed to his feet. “We will have to continue this fascinating chat later. Something came up.”
39
Peter
Peter woke up tied to a chair, which was a joke. He could tear the ropes with ease or smash the wooden chair. Either one would work.
But he wasn’t alone.
Dressed in jeans and a white button-down shirt, the cult’s leader was sitting on a bed, legs crossed, his face expressing curiosity but not fear.
“What were you doing snooping around my home?”
Peter focused on the guy’s eyes, trying to reach into his mind, but as he’d suspected, Emmett’s compulsion ability meant that he was immune to thralling as well as to compulsion by others.
“You have my friend,” Peter blurted out, his eyes widening with the realization of what he had done.
Fuck. The guy’s compulsion worked on immortals.
Straining, he tried to break the ropes.
“Don’t move,” Emmett commanded.
Peter’s body responded by ceasing all movement.
He couldn’t disobey a direct command, but there were ways to work around compulsion. He remembered that Eleanor had had to be very precise in her instructions to get the results she’d needed. As long as Emmett didn’t command him to answer truthfully, and the questions weren’t phrased in a way that required a yes or no answer, he could wriggle out from revealing things he shouldn’t.
Emmett tilted his head. “Interesting. Your friend is immune to my compulsion, but you are not. How come?”
That was an odd question. He should be aware of how rare immunes were. “I don’t know. What have you done with her?”
“Nothing nefarious, I assure you. Marisol is in the next bedroom.”
A growl started deep in Peter’s throat. “Did you force her to have sex with you?”
The guy smiled. “I don’t need to force women to share my bed.”
“She has a mate. She wouldn’t have done it voluntarily, and you can’t compel her. Not that compelling a reluctant female is any different from forcing her physically.”
And that raised another question. How had he overpowered Eleanor? The woman was strong and well trained. He must have drugged her.
“I don’t do either.” Emmett crossed his arms over his chest. “I was raised to respect females.”
“Drugging them is not respectful.”
The guy shrugged. “I have to do that so they won’t remember things about me that need to remain a secret. I don’t need to drug them to have sex with me. They are fighting over the privilege of sharing my bed.” He shook his head. “Why am I defending myself and answering your questions? You came snooping around my home, not the other way around.”
“I came because you took my friend. Why are you keeping her?”
“Because she knows things about me now, and I can’t compel her silence.”
“What things? That you are a compeller?”
“That and other things.”
Was Emmett an immortal? He was only a few feet away from Peter, and yet his alarm hadn’t gone off. Or maybe he was
like Turner, a borderline sociopath with no emotions?
“What are you?”
“I’m the one asking the questions, Devlin. Not you.”
It had been worth a shot. Peter had hoped that the guy liked to brag, and he did, but only about his sexual prowess.
“You can’t keep her. She has a mate.”
Emmett snorted. “You mean her partner, who is coming for the next retreat?”
Peter nodded.
Since Emmett hadn’t commanded him to answer truthfully, he could manipulate his answers.
Uncrossing his arms, Emmett waved a dismissive hand. “Marisol said that she and her partner were having relationship problems, and that they hoped to rekindle their love in the retreat. That means that they are not really committed to each other. Besides, I got reports about her enjoying herself with more than one male.” He smirked. “You included. The question is, what are two immortals doing in my retreat? Or is it three? Was Sam part of your little group?”
Peter swallowed.
Either Eleanor had spilled the beans, or Emmett had figured it out on his own. That explained his comment about Eleanor being an immune while Peter was not.
Emmett leveled his dark eyes at him. “Answer my question.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“He was part of our group.”
“Any others?”
“No.”
“Why did you come here? Who sent you?”
Fuck. There was no way to answer that without closing the door back for Anastasia. Then again, after his friends stormed the place, there was no way she was coming back anyway.
“Anastasia’s father hired us to get her out. That’s why we came.”
Emmett’s eyes widened in surprise. “Let me guess. Her father isn’t really in a hospital.”
At this point, there was no harm in telling him the truth about Anastasia, and it was better to talk about her than to answer Emmett’s questions about immortals and the clan.
“He’s not. Anastasia agreed to give us a week away from Safe Haven to convince her that life is better on the outside, but she wanted to be able to come back if she decided she liked it better here.”
