Dark Overlord’s Wife (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Series Book 39)

by I. T. Lucas

  “Jacki.” Wonder smiled happily and rushed to give her a hug. “You look amazing.”

  Kalugal pushed to his feet and walked over to them.

  “Thank you,” Jacki said. ”Let me introduce you to my fiancé.”

  Wonder turned around and smiled. “The famous Kalugal. Kian told me that you have an interesting story for me.”

  He offered her his hand. “Famous or infamous?”

  “Both.” Her handshake was firm, and her smile was bright.

  “I hope nothing too bad.” Kalugal liked her, and he also liked her man.

  With his light-hearted, almost irreverent attitude and smiling eyes, Anandur reminded him of Rufsur.

  Wonder glanced at Carol, who shrugged. “I said nothing bad.”

  “Let’s sit around the table.” Kian put a load of beer bottles down.

  Behind him, Callie walked in with a bowl of pretzels, and Brundar with another bowl of potato chips.

  “The hotel store didn’t have much of a selection.” She smiled apologetically. “This is all we found.”

  “It will do until dinner.” Kian motioned for her to take a seat and then lifted his beer bottle. “I propose a toast to many more family gatherings like this.”

  Kalugal purposefully used his left hand to lift his bottle, so everyone would see the cuff on his wrist. “I’ll drink to that, but I hope next time will be without unnecessary safety measures.”

  “To trust.” Syssi lifted her Perrier bottle.

  “But not blind trust.” Kian clinked his beer with his wife’s water bottle.

  Kalugal did the same, clinking bottles with Jacki to his right and Lokan to his left. He then took his first sip of the beer Carol had described as gross.

  The taste was pretty bad, but it was potent.

  “How do you like it?” Kian asked.

  “I’m not a fan. But it will do.” He looked at Wonder, who was sitting across the table from him. “How much did Kian tell you already?”

  “Nothing. He only said that you have a story for me.”

  Kian shrugged. “I didn’t want to deliver a second-hand account. I figured that it would be better if Wonder heard it from you and Jacki directly.”

  44

  Jacki

  Jacki looked at Kalugal. “Would you like to start?”

  He nodded. “Since my story is chronologically older, it makes sense for me to go first.”

  Putting his bottle down, Kalugal crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know how many of you are aware of my hobby, which is archeology.” He chuckled. “Rufsur calls it an obsession, and he might be right.”

  He smiled at Wonder. “In one of those digs, I found a figurine of a beautiful woman. Since those kinds of small statuettes were quite popular, it wasn’t a rare find, but the workmanship was remarkable, and there was something about the woman that seemed familiar.”

  He cast Jacki an apologetic glance. “Since I’ve known many women throughout my life, I dismissed it. I assumed that the figurine bore a resemblance to one of them.”

  Reaching for the beer, he took a sip, grimaced, and put the bottle back down. “Then a few years later, I stopped by a famous tourist attraction in Egypt and saw a woman who might as well have been the model for the figurine. Since I’ve visited the Colossi of Memnon many times before, I don’t know what prompted me to visit it again.” He looked at Kian and smiled. “Maybe it was fated, eh?”

  Jacki saw the moment Wonder connected the dots. Her jade eyes glowing, she pointed at Kalugal. “It was you! You were shrouding yourself. I knew that I sensed an immortal.” She turned to Anandur. “You sensed him too.”

  “I did.” The Guardian pinned Kalugal with a hard stare. “Why didn’t you show yourself? With your power, you had nothing to fear from us.”

  Kalugal smiled indulgently and reached for the bottle again. “I’m a very careful man. I was traveling alone, and as you are well aware, some immortals and humans are immune to my compulsion ability. Besides, I assumed that you two were Annani’s people, and as I said before, I had no wish to engage with the clan. As long as you didn’t bother me, I had no reason to bother you.”

  Wonder crossed her arms over her chest. “You were also the old man at the airport.”

  He nodded. “Correct.”

  “How come Anandur didn’t get the normal warning sign that immortal males get when they meet an unfamiliar male of their kind? I sensed you, and my alarm mechanism is not as strong as Anandur’s.” She blushed. “I’m not supposed to have it at all, but then I’m not supposed to be stronger than most immortal males either.”

  Kian frowned. “Come to think of it, when you entered the conference room yesterday, I didn’t feel anything either.” He looked at the blond. “How about you, Brundar?”

  The Guardian shook his head. “Kalugal must be like Turner, but only in that regard. I can sense his emotions.”

  Kalugal shrugged. “Maybe it’s my non-aggressive nature. I’m competitive, and I enjoy winning in business, but I’m not a fighter.”

  Kian regarded him coolly. “That’s because you’ve never had anything worth fighting for. Without the compulsive component, your father’s propaganda had no effect on you, and since no one has ever threatened the Brotherhood directly, you didn’t fear for the safety of the people you cared about. I’m sure your aggression would come out roaring if anyone threatened your mate.”

  “You might be right.” Kalugal clasped Jacki’s hand under the table.

  “Immortals are born aggressive,” Anandur said. “Even the females. We are predators by nature. There must be something wrong with you.”

  Kalugal smiled. “Perhaps I’m more evolved than other immortals.”

  Kian snorted. “You are certainly full of yourself. “

  “Guilty as charged. I don’t believe in false modesty.”

  “Maybe the reason you don’t trigger my alarm or that of my men is that you are my cousin.”

  “Lokan triggered my alarm,” Anandur said. “And he is also your cousin.”

  Kalugal shrugged. “It’s not important.” He turned to Jacki. “Would you like to continue the story from here?”

  She nodded. “When Kalugal showed me his artifact collection, and I saw the figurine, I noticed the resemblance to Wonder and asked if I could hold it.”

  “Wait a minute.” Wonder lifted her hand and looked at Kalugal. “You said that the figurine seemed familiar to you even before you met Anandur and me in Egypt. Did you figure out why?”

  “Yes, but I only connected the puzzle pieces much later.” Kalugal looked at Kian. “After Kian heard my and Jacki’s stories, he told me about your ancient origins and that Tula is your sister. I’ve met Tula, and she looks a lot like you.”

  Wonder’s chin started to quiver, and her eyes misted with tears. “She does? She was such a tiny thing. I was sure she would grow up to be petite.”

  “Oh, she is not nearly as tall as you are, and since I was five years old when I last saw her, I don’t remember her clearly, but she has the same high cheekbones as you, the same long, thick hair, and the same smile. She even tilts her head to the left the same way you do when you don’t understand something or need clarification.”

  Wonder swiped a hand over her teary eyes. “I miss her so much. I talk to her once a week for a couple of minutes, but that’s not enough. Now that you are talking with your mother as well, my allotted time with Tula has shrunk.”

  “I apologize for that.”

  “No, that’s okay. Talking to you means the world to Areana.”

  Jacki shifted in her chair. “You need to get them both out of there, and if Areana refuses, take her by force and then get her a good therapist. The woman is obviously brainwashed.”

  “She is not,” Carol said. “Areana really loves Navuh, and she believes that she has a calming influence on him.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Carol straightened her back and pushed her chin out. “I was the one who
infiltrated the harem and actually got to talk to her in person. Areana loves her mate.”

  45

  Kalugal

  Kalugal gaped at Carol in shock. “You infiltrated the harem? How?”

  “Magic.” She snapped her fingers. “I’ll tell you all about it when you invite Lokan and me to dinner at your house. Jacki was just getting to the interesting part of her story, and it’s not fair to Wonder to keep her hanging.” Carol pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Besides, my story is so awesome that it deserves its own evening.”

  Next to her, Lokan shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sure Kalugal has better things to do than entertain us. He has a summit to attend and a wedding to plan.”

  “I would love for you two to come over. In fact, Jacki suggested the same thing earlier.”

  “I did,” Jacki said. “We are family, well, almost, and I want us to get to know each other better.”

  Cornered, Lokan had no choice but to nod in agreement.

  If they had not been in the company of Kian and his group, Kalugal would have reassured his brother that he had nothing to fear from him, but to do so in front of the others would mean loss of face for Lokan.

  Wonder released an impatient breath. “So, you asked to hold the figurine, and then what happened?”

  “A vision,” Jacki said. “My immunity is not my only talent. I also get visions sometimes. They are never about big things, like the damn virus, and they are never about me. I get visions about people I know, and mostly they are about future events. Like someone falling in love, or wrecking their car, or getting a new job, things like that. But this vision was unlike any of the others I'd had. It was about a past event.”

  Jacki shivered and reached for her nearly empty bottle of Perrier. “It was horrible.” She twisted the cap off and took a sip. “I saw a caravan, and a guy who looked like your twin brother riding in one of the wagons with an older guy sitting next to him.”

  “It was me,” Wonder whispered. “I was pretending to be a man.”

  “I know. When I told Kian what I saw, he figured it out. Anyway, there was a massive earthquake and the earth split open. It happened so fast. The crack just kept growing, and the wagons kept tumbling into it. You were so brave and strong, trying to save people and pull them to safety, but then another wagon tumbled down and took you with it. In moments, there was no one left. Everyone in that caravan was dead. Or maybe in stasis, like you were.”

  Wonder shook her head. “I was the only immortal in that caravan. The others were all human. None of them could have survived that.”

  For a long moment, everyone remained quiet, paying respect to the dead with their silence.

  Jacki’s shuddering breath was the first sound. “You must have had a secret admirer, Wonder. Someone who knew you and cared about you carved that figurine of you.”

  “There was no one.” She lowered her eyes.

  Kalugal arched a brow. “Are you sure? I had it dated and it’s only about two and a half thousand years old. Whoever carved it must be an immortal.”

  When she lifted her eyes, they were blazing green light. “I had no secret admirers. I was a big girl at a time when everyone else was tiny. Men didn’t find me attractive.”

  “Esag did.” Anandur wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Maybe he was the one who carved it.” He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. “Wouldn’t it make you happy to discover that he was still alive?”

  Wonder nodded. “I hope he is. And maybe the two warriors who Annani’s mate sent with him are alive as well.” She looked at Kalugal. “Where did you find the little statuette?”

  “In Egypt.”

  “That makes sense. Esag was sent to find me, so if he was out in the desert but not in the area of the chasm, he could have survived the earthquake.”

  Kian drummed his fingers on the table. “If Esag and his companions survived, then other immortals might have survived as well. We’ve been searching for unaffiliated immortals for centuries and have found none. But with the new technology available to us now, perhaps we can resume the search.”

  46

  Lokan

  “How?” Lokan asked. “I don’t see how technology can help us. If there are other immortals scattered around the globe, there aren’t many of them, and they are very adept at hiding.”

  “We are not there yet,” Kian said. “But we might be in a few years. As Kalugal pointed out, surveillance equipment will become more and more prevalent all over the globe. With the help of facial recognition software and artificial intelligence to sort it out, it will become nearly impossible to hide.”

  Lokan shook his head. “That creates a problem, not an opportunity.”

  Jacki lifted her hand. “What about this?” She pointed at her wrist. “Maybe William can create cuffs that interfere with facial recognition. And even if he can’t, what about these?” She pulled a pair of glasses out of her purse. “Supposedly, they can fool the software.”

  “That’s true.” Kalugal leaned back. “The thing is, everyone who needs to hide can buy a pair on the internet, and those unaffiliated immortals must be aware of that. Finding them now will not be any easier than it was in the past. Frankly, I don’t think locating a few individuals is worth the tremendous effort it would take. It’s not like we expect to find entire communities of them.”

  “We need to grow our numbers.” Kian pushed the bowl of pretzels away. “And the only way to do that is to find more immortals.”

  “There are plenty of immortals on the island.” Lokan glanced at Kalugal. “I’m not a geneticist, but I’m sure that we have enough genetic variety. If we can effect change and allow the Dormant females to transition, and the warriors to take them as mates, our problem is solved.”

  “Not really,” Bridget said. “Females hold the genetic key for immortality, and because of your father’s breeding program, you don’t have enough female Dormants. Even if all of them transitioned tomorrow and immediately found mates, it still might not be enough.”

  “What if there was peace between the clan and the Brotherhood?” Lokan asked. “Would that provide enough genetic variety?”

  Bridget shook her head. “I’m not sure. In human models, a population of ten to forty thousand was estimated as safe to preserve genetic variation. We don’t have that even if we were to combine all immortals living today. Then again, the infusion of human genes over the generations was actually a good thing. It saved us and the Brotherhood from extinction.” She smiled apologetically at Kian. “Even though Navuh’s breeding program is abhorrent, in a way it has benefited all of us. Without it, immortals would have eventually gone the way of the dinosaurs. Our clan’s growth is painfully slow in comparison.”

  The disgusted expression on Kian’s face showed his opinion of Bridget’s statement. “I’d rather we end as a species than propagate Navuh’s way.”

  Bridget lifted her hands. “I just explained the science. I didn’t claim that it was morally right. We’ve fought long and hard to change humanity’s attitudes toward women, and we are still far from achieving our goals. Women are still regarded primarily as breeders and possessions in many parts of the world.”

  “Yeah, the parts under Navuh’s influence,” Kian spat.

  Bridget smiled a sad smile. “Really, Kian? We fight traffickers in our own back yard. You can’t blame Navuh for that.”

  “Let’s change the subject,” Kalugal offered. “Despite Kian’s valiant efforts, we can’t solve all of humanity’s ailments. We can’t solve the problem of preserving immortals as a species by finding a few additional individuals either. But we can start introducing my men to your clanswomen. You have a group of immortal males right under your nose, Kian.”

  Kian didn’t look too enthusiastic about that proposal, but he nodded. “We will need to figure something out. After all, that’s one of the reasons we are holding this summit.”

  “What about the Brotherhood?” Lokan asked. “Aren’t we going to do anything
about that?”

  So far, Kalugal had shown no indication that he was interested in the island, which was good news as well as bad. Lokan didn’t want his brother to take the future seat of power from him, but he needed Kalugal’s help.

  “Not in the near future,” Kalugal said. “If at all. I’d rather not poke the hornets’ nest.” He turned to Lokan. “Even if Kian and I combine forces, our numbers are negligible compared to the Brotherhood. Just as we don’t want to attract Uncle Sam’s attention, we don’t want Navuh to zero in on us either.”

  “I wasn’t talking about attacking the island. With your ability, you could take over peacefully. Just compel everyone to stop following Navuh.”

  Kalugal sighed. “I’m not that powerful yet. Give me a thousand years, and I might be able to do that.”

  “What about our mother?”

  Kalugal looked at Carol and then turned to Lokan. “Your mate said that Areana is happy where she is. If we force her to leave, we would be no better than our father. It should be her decision.”

  47

  Kian

  When dinner was delivered and left by the door per Syssi’s instructions, Anandur and Brundar, together with their mates, brought it in.

  Kian pulled several more bottles of whiskey from the crate he’d ordered and brought them to the table.

  At the rate they were going, he would have to order another one.

  Mentally patting himself on the back for thinking to bring quality booze to the summit, he opened a bottle and started pouring it into the glasses of those sitting on his side of the table. Small things like that mattered. The whiskey contributed to the feeling of camaraderie between him and Kalugal, as well as their people.

  So far, the summit was going well, and even though they hadn’t discussed their future cooperation yet, they were already doing that by planning to take down Director Simmons and release the trainees.