Dark Survivor Echoes of Love

by I. T. Lucas

Kian inclined his head. “Point taken. But what I was trying to say is that you should spend a few days with her as her boyfriend and not just a friend. She needs to internalize that you guys are a couple before you can suggest a trip abroad alone with her.”

  Anandur emptied his glass and put it down. “I’ll play it by ear. I plan on taking her out to the city tomorrow and spending the entire day with her. If I feel she’s ready, I’ll ask. If not, I’ll wait a day or two.”

  53

  Losham

  Losham took another walkabout through the warehouse, searching for any clues he might’ve missed. Other than the safe, which had been blown open with explosives, there were no signs of struggle.

  Which led to only one very unsettling conclusion.

  The entire cell had defected, absconding with the drugs and the proceeds from selling them. Gommed, the only one who knew the combination to the safe, had probably resisted, which was why they had blown it open.

  The question was whether the men had killed their commander or had taken him prisoner. Not that it really mattered.

  What mattered was how Losham was going to hide what had happened from his father. A failure of this magnitude would not go unpunished.

  Except, what Navuh didn’t know wouldn’t hurt Losham.

  “I checked the apartment building,” Rami said. “It’s the same over there as it is here. It looks like everyone just got up and walked away. Our men and the humans. They packed up their things and even emptied the refrigerators and the cupboards. There is nothing left in those apartments.”

  Losham nodded. “They must’ve decided they wanted to keep all the profits to themselves.”

  “Should we summon a hunting team to find them?”

  “No, Rami. We need to find a way to keep this from ever getting back to Lord Navuh.”

  Rami rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “How are we going to do it?”

  “The way I set it up was to make each cell completely independent from the next and operating in a distinct and separate territory. Originally, I did it so they wouldn't find a way to cooperate with each other behind my back, but apparently it was a smart decision all around. There is no contact between the units, so no one other than the two of us knows about this one defecting.”

  “What about the lost money and drugs?”

  “We can hide that as well. If we distribute the losses between all the other cells, they will be hardly noticeable. Especially if I pressure the other cells to increase production and sales. I’ll delay reporting until we can cover up what’s missing.”

  Rami still looked unconvinced. “You’re right about hiding the losses, but what about the men? We can’t hide that forever.”

  “You’re right, we can’t. But we can delay it until I find a way to arrange an accident that supposedly killed all of them.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like an airliner exploding with all of them seemingly on board.”

  Rami smiled for the first time since they’d discovered the defection. “That’s brilliant. You’re going to charter a private plane and have it blow up?”

  Losham shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just buy tickets on a commercial flight and have a bunch of patsies take the men’s place. All it would take is producing fake IDs for the patsies, or for us to thrall the security people at the different checkpoints.”

  54

  Anandur

  As Anandur walked out of the war room, he thought about ways to speed up the process of Wonder getting used to the idea of him as her boyfriend.

  Funny how one little moan had turned the tables on him.

  Two days ago, he’d been concerned about doing as little as possible to encourage Wonder’s interest in him, while at the same time still being her friend. Now, when suddenly she might have become unavailable to him, he was concerned with doing as much as possible to make her his.

  Served him right.

  Taking stock of his arsenal of wooing weapons, Anandur considered his charm and his humor as his best. Other than that he had his rugged good looks, as Wonder had called them, and his position on the Guardian force, particularly as Kian’s personal bodyguard.

  He also had a substantial amount in his bank account, and his stock portfolio was quite impressive thanks to Kian’s advice, but Anandur didn’t consider his wealth as a wooing tool.

  Then there were Brundar and Callie. As someone who was all alone in the world, Wonder appreciated family. She might view him more favorably if he made an even greater effort to share his with her.

  It was time for another dinner at Callie and Brundar’s, and he had no qualms about inviting himself and Wonder over.

  Callie wouldn’t mind. In fact, he was sure she would be overjoyed.

  Pulling out his phone he shot her a quick text. Are you up to having Wonder and me for dinner tonight?

  Her reply was almost instantaneous. Yay!!! Be here at eight.

  Smiling, he sent her his thanks and then shot another text to Wonder. We are invited to Brundar and Callie’s for dinner at eight. I’ll pick you up ten minutes earlier.

  So what if he was being presumptuous. Phrased like that, it would be hard for Wonder to say no.

  He waited for what seemed like a long time before her return message came in.

  Okay, was her short answer.

  Wonder wasn’t one for talking. She preferred listening to his stories.

  Damn, he really loved the girl. Not only was she a beauty and a sweetheart, but she laughed at his jokes even when they fell flat.

  In short, she was perfect.

  It only took him getting hit over the head with the emotional equivalent of a sledgehammer to realize that.

  As he got to the house, he was greeted by Magnus’s loud snoring. No great surprise since they hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. Interestingly enough, Anandur didn’t feel tired at all, even though he’d had even less sleep in the last forty-eight hours than Magnus.

  Apparently, the sense of purpose and urgency hiked up his adrenaline production more than last night’s mission.

  The purpose part was understandable, but why the urgency?

  Wonder wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he. And yet, he felt as if at any moment he could lose his window of opportunity with her. He felt a compulsive need to make up for lost time and rush his wooing agenda.

  Maybe it had something to do with his voluntary abstinence.

  Anandur hadn’t gone so many days without sex since he’d hit puberty. That in itself should have been a city-block-sized red flag that Wonder was the one for him. He hadn’t wanted anyone else since he’d met her.

  Stepping into the shower, Anandur shook his head. He was such a thickheaded idiot.

  When he was done scrubbing and shampooing and conditioning, he toweled himself dry and then used the towel to wipe the condensation off the mirror. He could’ve used a trim, but regrettably there was no time for that. Instead, he splashed himself with his best cologne and went looking for something nice to wear.

  His closet didn’t have much to offer. Other than stacks of folded jeans and T-shirts, the one garment hanging in his closet was the tuxedo he’d worn to all the recent weddings.

  Damn. He had nothing nice to wear.

  Magnus, the clothes whore, should have plenty of fancy stuff, except the guy was shorter and slimmer than Anandur. Besides, he was sleeping, and Anandur wasn’t going to rummage through the guy’s closet without asking permission first.

  There were two other guys his size in the village, Yamanu and Dalhu. Yamanu was a closer friend, but his taste in clothes wasn’t much better than Anandur’s. Neither was Dalhu’s, but the dude had Amanda, the queen of fashion, to do the shopping for him.

  Amanda owed Anandur more than one favor.

  He considered just walking over to their place, but then discarded the idea. What if they had guests? What if they were busy doing other things?

  Instead, he chose the least intrusive approach and texted Amand
a. I need a nice shirt. Can I borrow one of Dalhu’s?

  Are you going on a date?

  Sort of.

  With Wonder?

  Yes.

  I’ll be right over.

  Hopefully, she wasn’t going to take too long. He only had an hour until it was time to pick up Wonder.

  He should've known better. The knock on the door came five minutes later.

  Holding a travel bag almost as big as herself, Amanda sauntered inside. “Where can I work?”

  Work? What is she planning to do?

  “Thanks for coming over so quickly.” He closed the door behind her. “But what the hell did you bring, and what do you mean by work?”

  Striking a pose with one leg forward and a hand on her hip, she pursed her lips and gave him a thorough once-over. “I’ve been waiting to do this for ages.”

  “What?”

  “Give you a makeover.” She waved a hand at his head. “You need to trim that messy bush you call a beard, and your hair needs some styling too. I brought my shears.” She mimicked cutting with her fingers.

  He glanced at the bag. “What else do you have in there?”

  “Catch.” She threw the bag at him.

  It was heavier than he’d expected, but it seemed to be filled mostly with clothes.

  “It’s filled with brand new stuff that Dalhu never wears. I keep buying him nice things, but since he spends most of his time painting, he never gets to wear them. I think he still uses the hand-me downs you gave him when he first got here.”

  “Really? I’d forgotten about it.”

  Amanda walked up to him and kissed his cheek. “But Dalhu never forgot your kindness. You were the only one who treated him like a person and not like a despised enemy.”

  It hadn’t been a big deal. Amanda was making it out to be more than it was. “He’s a clean dude. It was one of the first things I noticed about him. That’s why I treated him as well as the circumstances allowed. After all, he was a prisoner.”

  She kissed his cheek again. “Just take the compliment and shut up. Now, where can I get to work on your beard and that thing you call a mustache?”

  55

  Wonder

  Wonder watched one Guardian after another come out of the pavilion. Some stopped for a bite to eat, and some just waved hello and continued home. She listened to their boisterous voices as they recounted anecdotes from the raid, but she wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying.

  With a lump of anxiety stuck in her throat, she was waiting for Anandur to emerge from the pavilion.

  Would he stop by the café, smile at her, and ask her to take a walk with him later on?

  Or would he circle around it to avoid her and continue home?

  She should have never pestered him for that stupid kiss. Why did she have to want more than he was willing to offer?

  Had she lost not only the opportunity to explore her romantic feelings for him but also his friendship?

  Soon it would be closing time, and she would have no excuse to hang around and wait for him to show up. Could it be that he wasn’t coming out because he was waiting for her to go home?

  Except, Anandur wasn’t a coward. If he didn’t want to see her anymore, he would tell her that to her face instead of playing evasive games.

  She wished he would just come out and tell her already what was on his mind. The anxiety of not knowing was the worst.

  Carol nudged her. “Call him or text him. I can’t stand seeing you like this.”

  “What do you mean? Like what?”

  “Like you’re on the verge of crying.”

  Shit on a stick. Wonder thought that she had been doing a better job of hiding the emotional storm raging inside her. “I can’t. What if he’s in a meeting?”

  “That’s what texting is for. If he’s busy, he won’t answer, and if he isn’t, he will.”

  Pulling the phone out from her pocket, she stared at it for a moment and then tucked it back in. “I’ll wait for him to come out.”

  Carol shook her head. “As you wish.”

  If she called or texted, Anandur would feel obliged to respond, but Wonder wanted him to make the first move this time. She was done with pressuring him.

  Besides, what could she say to him?

  Ask him if he was still willing to be with her despite what had happened? Follow Amanda’s advice and try to convince him that it had been nothing worth getting upset about?

  When closing time came and went, and Anandur was still a no-show, Wonder hung around for a little longer, wiping the tables until they shone and sweeping the floor once again.

  Eventually, though, there was nothing more to do, and she had no choice but to go home.

  Struggling to keep her head up and not shuffle her feet like an overtired human, Wonder felt like the walk to her house was much longer than the ten minutes it usually took.

  Unlike the anonymity a city like San Francisco provided, there was practically no privacy in a tightly knit community like the village. If she allowed herself to look distressed, someone was bound to stop her and ask what was wrong.

  She didn’t want to talk to anyone. Especially since immortals wouldn't buy an excuse about a headache or an upset stomach.

  As Wonder’s phone buzzed in her back pocket, it startled her so that her shoe caught on an uneven paving stone and she stumbled. Somehow managing to regain her balance, she pulled the phone out.

  It was a message from Anandur, but the sense of relief that swept over her made her dizzy, blurring the words on the screen.

  Feeling faint, Wonder barely made it to the nearest bench. It took a moment for the blur to coalesce into legible words.

  The message said, We are invited to Brundar and Callie’s for dinner at eight. I’ll pick you up ten minutes earlier.

  The breath she took was the first to fully fill her lungs since she’d woken up that morning.

  Okay. Typing with numb fingers, it was the best she could do.

  Anandur couldn’t be too mad if he was taking her to Callie and Brundar’s for dinner, right?

  It was going to be okay. He still wanted to see her. After the day she had, Wonder was willing to settle on having Anandur only as a friend. The idea of losing him altogether had felt like a death sentence.

  It seemed she’d been pardoned and given a second chance, and this time Wonder wasn’t going to blow it over stupid kisses. Having Anandur in her life was more important than her girly desires.

  Several calming breaths later, she pushed to her feet and marched home to get ready.

  “You look happy,” Gertrude said as Wonder got in.

  “I’m invited together with Anandur to his brother’s for dinner.”

  “I’m glad. Did you guys have a talk and straighten things out?”

  Wonder shook her head. “No, I just got this one text from him inviting me to dinner.”

  “Well, good luck. You still have to have the talk. This is not something you can sweep under the rug.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Even someone like her, who had no relationship experience, was instinctively aware that if ignored, a thing like that would grow and grow until it blew up in both of their faces. But it didn’t have to happen right away. She would take her cues from Anandur and proceed from there.

  Caution was the name of the game, and Wonder knew how to play it well. She should’ve never thrown it to the wind in the first place.

  Gertrude smiled. “When is dinner, do you have time for me to do your hair?”

  “I’ll make time. Thank you.”

  “No problem. I’m happy to help any way I can.”

  Her hair had been strangled in a tight braid all day, which meant that it wouldn’t look good loose unless she washed it and styled it. But since Wonder didn’t know how to go about it and she didn’t want to bother Carol, Trudy’s offer was much appreciated.

  Rushing, she dropped her work clothes on the floor and stepped into the shower. The cleanup part went fast; the choosing of
an outfit part, not so much.

  Maybe she should wear a dress?

  Amanda had given her several, but they were too elegant for Wonder’s simple tastes. Besides, as someone who’d never worn a dress or a skirt before, she would feel weird in one.

  Wonder remembered longing for a reason to wear a nice dress, but now that she had it, as well as several nice dresses hanging in her closet, she felt awkward about putting one on.

  This dinner was too important for experimental dress-up. She needed to wear something that would make her feel comfortable and confident.

  After ten minutes of frantic dressing and undressing, Wonder went back to the first outfit she’d chosen: a pair of stretchy pull-on black pants paired with a long button-down grey silk blouse. It came with a matching camisole that she was going to wear in lieu of a bra. Regrettably, the sports bras she’d bought were too bulky to wear under the blouse’s delicate fabric.

  She really needed to go shopping, and not on the internet.

  After applying a thin line of the black eyeliner Amanda had left for her, she was ready for Gertrude’s hairdryer and curling brush.

  Perhaps she could ask Trudy for some perfume? That was another item on her growing shopping list.

  Apparently, being a woman required a lot of grooming and pampering that Wonder had been aware of but thought she could do without. Like having nice bras and panties, a cosmetics bag that included more than one black eyeliner, and several perfumes because according to Amanda different occasions called for different scents.

  She should've taken notes because most of what Amanda had filled her head with had already been forgotten.

  “Very nice.” Gertrude approved of Wonder’s outfit. “Now let’s style that gorgeous hair of yours.”

  56

  Anandur

  Two whole days had passed since Anandur had last seen Wonder, and he couldn’t wait to see her again.

  Knocking on the door, he was aware of holding his breath like a kid picking up a girl from her parents’ home for the first time. Not that he’d ever done it, but that’s how it looked in the movies.