by I. T. Lucas
“I don’t want Shamash packing my stuff. And what about the computers and whatever else you need from your office?”
“I don’t need everything, and my men can load all the essentials on the plane as well. Once we land in Los Angeles, they will take what’s needed for work to our office building and set it up for me.”
“I see that you have everything planned already.”
“Of course. It’s only a one-hour flight between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Some of the men will come with us, and then the pilot will fly back to collect more. We can be done with the initial move in one day. Phinas will stay behind with several of the men and finish packing my artifacts and the rest of the stuff.”
“What are you going to do with the property?” Kian asked. “Are you going to sell it?”
“Not yet. Why?”
“It’s worth a lot of money. I just wonder who would be interested in a mansion with a huge underground bunker.”
“I think you should keep it,” Anandur said. “It would be a shame to give it up. I like that bunker of yours.”
Amanda cast Anandur a fond look. “You said the same thing about the penthouses in the keep, and we didn’t even sell them, only rented them out. You’re just a sentimental hoarder.”
“That’s an idea.” Kian turned to Kalugal. “You could rent the mansion instead of selling it.”
“The bunker offers interesting possibilities.” Callie cast Brundar a sidelong glance. “Together with the mansion, it could be set up as an upscale club.”
It was no longer a closely guarded secret that Brundar was the co-owner of a club with a selective and thriving BDSM community, but no one dared to mention it around him. The guy had kept his involvement with the club hidden from the clan, including his own brother, for years. He was obviously not comfortable talking about it.
Everyone stole nervous glances at the Guardian, except for Kalugal who had no clue. “The club idea won’t work. The neighborhood is governed by very strict association rules. No business can be conducted from the house.” He smiled. “I did that anyway, but my activities were not the kind that brought many visitors to my home or attracted the attention of my neighbors.”
“They don’t have to know.” Callie leaned back and folded her arms over her chest. “Naturally, the club would be members only. The guests can be chauffeured from a parking location outside of town directly into the bunker, and the neighbors would not be any the wiser. In a rich and snooty place like that, you could make a fortune. A nondisclosure clause in the membership agreement will ensure discretion, and no one would know what’s going on in there.”
Kian stifled a chuckle. It seemed like Callie had picked up some business acumen while helping Brundar in the club, or perhaps she’d always had it.
Kalugal frowned. “I seem to be missing something. What kind of a club are we talking about?”
Callie chuckled, Syssi blushed, and Annani lifted a brow. “Yes, I am interested in hearing the answer to that question as well.”
Annani was no prude by any standards, and she most likely knew precisely what Callie had been talking about, but Kian preferred not to discuss sex clubs with his mother.
He put a hand on Kalugal’s shoulder. “An upscale club for rich people who like to play decadent games.”
“Sounds like fun.” Annani smiled. “It could be a very profitable endeavor. You should give it some thought, Kalugal.”
It was time to change the subject.
Kian cleared his throat. “It seems that everyone wants to leave as soon as possible. I suggest that we go back to our rooms, pack, and then meet in the front courtyard in two hours. Any objections?”
When no one voiced any, he turned to Annani. “What about you and Alena? Do you want to come with us to the village or return to the sanctuary?”
“There is no reason for me to accompany you to the village.” Annani sighed. “I hope for David’s sake that his mother is found safe and sound, and that he and Sari can continue with their wedding plans. But if, Fates forbid, his mother is no longer alive, David will need time to grieve, and the wedding will be postponed indefinitely.”
3
Sari
When Sari felt her phone vibrate in her lap, she hoped it was Kian with better news than what he’d shared in his previous calls.
So far, a credit card charge from a gas station on the outskirts of Las Vegas was the only thing William and Roni had found. The purchase timing corresponded with the approximate time that the couple had left Frank's mother's house.
“Anything new?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“That’s disappointing.” Sari glanced at David and shifted the phone to her other ear.
He was sleeping peacefully, and she wanted to keep it that way. The longer he slept, the better he would be prepared for what awaited them upon landing.
They had been flying through the night and were about to arrive early in the morning, which meant that they had a full and intense day ahead of them.
“I wish I had better news for you,” Kian said. “I’m afraid that the only option left to us is to send out Guardians to search all the side roads off-shooting from the main highway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.”
“That’s a huge area.”
“It is, but it’s also sparsely populated, so there are not that many roads to check and even fewer that the navigation system could have suggested.”
“Provided that they used the GPS.” Sari shifted her gaze to David again, checking that he was still sleeping. “Fates only know what prompted them to leave the highway.”
Kian sighed. “Roni is not giving up, and he is still hacking into the surveillance camera feed of every diner, fast food joint, and coffee shop that has them between Las Vegas and Anaheim. If he finds anything, we will be able to narrow the search.”
“Perhaps they encountered car trouble and went searching for a mechanic. For all we know, the car is parked inside some shop.” It was highly unlikely, but Sari was grasping at straws.
“They would have called their daughter, and their phones wouldn’t have been dead.”
She closed her eyes. “I know. I’m just trying to stay positive.”
“To be frank, my first thought was that they had gotten in trouble gambling, maybe even did something illegal. But Onegus spoke with the grandmother, and she said that they had spent the entire time with her and hadn’t visited any of the casinos. There were no suspicious credit card charges or cash withdrawals from their bank accounts, either.”
The same had occurred to Sari, and she was glad that Onegus had investigated the possibility and dismissed it. “What else could have happened to them?”
“They might have turned off the highway to have a bite to eat and fallen victim to carjacking. Some thugs might have stopped them at gunpoint, robbed them, and left them in some remote area where no one would find them. Even if they didn’t kill them, the desert probably would, or already did.”
“It’s imperative that we start searching for them right away. Every hour that passes reduces the chances of us finding them alive.”
“My thoughts exactly. Onegus is going to send a group of Guardians on a commercial flight to Las Vegas. They will rent vehicles at the airport and start a search from that end. Another group will leave the village to start from ours.”
Sari let out a breath. “It’s a good strategy. Hopefully, Ronja and Frank will be found soon. I’m crossing my fingers.”
“Syssi sends her regards and says that she’s crossing her fingers as well.”
“Thank you. Tell her that I appreciate that. When are you scheduled to land?”
“We left about four hours after you did, so we will probably touch down at around ten. Then it’s another hour and a half to the village. Call me when you get to Ronja’s house.”
“I will.” Ending the call, Sari looked at Bridget.
The doctor’s privacy screen was up, which meant that she was either still sleeping o
r just wasn’t interested in talking.
Bridget’s ability to fall asleep whenever and wherever was admirable. Sari assumed that it was something all doctors and mothers were good at out of necessity. After all, they had to grab naps whenever their charges were asleep.
Too restless to drift off even for a few minutes, the best Sari had managed was to close her eyes for a couple of moments. Bridget had offered to knock her out, but the only sleeping aids capable of doing that would have made her groggy, so she’d declined the doctor’s offer to give her a shot.
“Prepare for landing,” Charlie announced from the cockpit.
Across from her, Bridget lowered the privacy screen. “Any news?” She activated the seat’s mechanism, returning it to the sitting position.
“I’m afraid not.”
Next to Sari, David stirred, but he didn’t wake up.
She was starting to worry about him.
Had he been so exhausted, or perhaps he was only pretending to sleep because he didn’t want to face reality?
The poor guy had been through enough already, and the possibility of losing his mother after he had already lost his brother and father must have devastated him.
His breaths were even, though, and his heartbeat steady, so unless he was an amazing actor he was really out.
Perhaps he was dream meeting with Jonah again? David’s brother might have been sent once more to help him out. If he was giving him clues as to what had happened to their mother, it would be a mistake to interrupt David by waking him up.
Maybe she could wait until they actually landed. It wasn’t safe, but as David had pointed out, the risk was minimal.
“He looks so peaceful,” Bridget said. “I wouldn’t wake him up either.”
Sari smiled. “Have you been reading my thoughts?”
“Great minds think alike.” The doctor fastened her seatbelt. “I just wish we had better news for him when he wakes up.”
“Maybe he knows that we don’t, and that’s why he’s choosing to keep sleeping. It’s a form of escape.”
“Have you gotten any sleep?”
Sari shook her head. “I think I’ve gotten used to doing without.”
“You are in fight or flight mode.” Bridget chuckled. “Although in your case, it’s only fight. I’ve never known you to flee from a challenge, which is admirable. Still, staying awake for days on end is not a good strategy. David needs you to be strong, and you can’t do that when you are operating on fumes.”
“I can’t sleep, and I refuse to use tranquilizers because the side effects are nasty. Do you have another solution for me?”
“Meditation.”
Sari laughed. “As if I could relax enough to reach a meditative state. I wish we had some of that tungboqe weed that my mother told me about.”
“What’s that? I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s similar to the weed humans use now. The ancient Nordic people chewed it to get in a good mood.”
“It could be the same plant, and they just had a different name for it back then. What did it do besides mood enhancement and relaxation?”
“If cooked with a bark of the willow tree, it produced mild hallucinations.”
“Interesting. I need to ask Annani about it.”
Bridget hadn’t heard the story about Gudbrand and Olek and their history with her mother. Would Annani mind if Sari shared it with the doctor, or anyone else outside of her close family?
Annani hadn’t said anything to that effect, but she would probably prefer for it not to turn into the latest gossip to circulate through the clan.
The guilt her mother had carried over the centuries had been misplaced. Gudbrand’s death hadn’t been her fault, but even though Gudbrand himself, or rather his eternal soul, did not blame her for what had happened, Annani still didn’t feel a hundred percent absolved of her guilt, and she probably never would.
4
David
As David pulled the rental car into the driveway, the door flew open, and his sister ran out.
“David!”
Lisa had grown at least a couple of inches since the last time he’d seen her, but she was still a gangly teenager who looked more like a child than a young woman.
Throwing the driver-side door open, he jumped out to intercept her. “You’ve gotten so tall.” He caught her in his arms. “Now, I can’t call you Minnie anymore.”
It was the nickname he and Jonah had given her.
As a little girl, Lisa had been obsessed with Minnie Mouse. Everything in her room, from the wallpaper to the bedspread, the pillows, and half of the clothes in her closet had the Minnie Mouse motif.
“As long as you are here, you can call me whatever you want.” She clutched him like a drowning person would a life raft and then sobbed on his shoulder.
Behind them, the passenger door opened and Sari stepped out, but she didn’t say anything, letting Lisa have her moment.
When the crying subsided, she introduced herself, “Hi, Lisa. I’m Sari.”
Sniffling, Lisa pushed out of his arms and wiped away the tears with her shirtsleeves. “Hi.” She offered Sari her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“I wish we’d met under different circumstances.” Sari tugged on her hand and pulled her into her arms. “David and I are here now. And we will find your mom and dad.”
Nodding, Lisa hugged Sari back, then pushed out of her arms and gave her a thorough once-over. “You are seriously gorgeous. Stacy can’t hold a candle to you, and I’ve never liked her.” She shifted her eyes to David. “You told Sari about her, right? I didn’t just mess things up for you?”
“I told Sari about Stacy, but what I didn’t tell her was that you hated my fiancée because you were jealous of her.” David put his arm around Lisa’s shoulders. “You wanted Jonah and me all to yourself, and you hated anyone we dated.”
“That’s not true.”
He arched a brow. “Name one you liked.” He popped the trunk.
“I liked Dianna.”
“She was Jonah’s girlfriend.” David pulled his and Sari’s suitcases out of the trunk.
Lisa reached for the carry-on. “You said that I didn’t like any of his or your dates. I just proved you wrong.”
“I’ll take that.” Sari extended the handle and rolled it behind her.
David knew that she could lift it easily, and he wondered whether it was part of her act of pretending to be human. Immortal females had a lot of experience hiding their superior strength, but he refused to think of the circumstances that necessitated the act.
“Let’s get inside.” He lifted the two suitcases, finding them surprisingly light.
It seemed that his transition into immortality was progressing quickly, and he credited the long, restful sleep he’d had on the plane with speeding things up.
That hadn’t been the reason David had slept for so long, though. He’d hoped to have Jonah meet him in dreamland, but his brother hadn’t shown up. In fact, David hadn’t dreamt at all, or perhaps he just didn’t remember his dreams.
His hearing had improved as well. What was interesting, though, was that he’d expected to be bothered by loud noises but wasn’t. He could hear clearly what was being said from the house next door, but the loud music blaring from a passing car didn’t hurt his ears.
“I don’t have anything decent to eat to offer you.” Lisa headed to the kitchen. “I have some leftover pizza I can throw in the microwave.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Sari followed her. “I will order takeout. What would you like?”
“I’m good.” Lisa pulled out a couple of coke cans from the fridge. “Mom left me a credit card for emergencies, but I’ve only used it to order pizza.” Her chin quivered. “What am I going to do if they don’t come back? Will I have to live with Grandma in Vegas in the old folks’ community? Will they even let me stay?”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Sari pulled her into her arms. “Your parents are coming back. And if Fates forbid the
y do not, you will come to live with David and me in Scotland.” She led her to the living room couch. “Do you know that we live in an old castle? And we have horses and a lake that no one other than my clan has access to. You are going to love it there.”
“It’s not a lake.” David grabbed the coke cans and brought them to the living room. “It’s more like a large pond. But it’s really beautiful out there.”
Lisa shook her head. “It sounds awesome, and I would like to visit your castle, but I don’t want to move to Scotland, and I don’t want to go live with Grandma either. I want Mom and Dad to come back and for everything to go back to normal.”
“I wish I could promise you that we will find them, but I can’t. All I can promise is that we will do everything we can. Sari’s brother is organizing a search. He’s sending Guardians to search all the side roads that branch out from the highway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Half of them will start from Vegas, and the other half will head out from here.”
“Who and what are Guardians?”
“They are the clan defenders,” Sari said. “They are highly skilled warriors.”
Lisa scrunched her nose. “That sounds like something from a medieval movie. Clan defenders? Skilled warriors?”
David was about to launch into an explanation when Sari’s phone rang.
Pulling it out of her purse, she accepted the call. “Hi, Kian.”
“Are you at Ronja’s house?”
David could hear Kian as if he were on speakerphone, but he wasn’t.
“We’ve just gotten here. What’s up?”
“You can tell David and his sister that the Guardians have started the search. Magnus is in charge of the operation, and he is coordinating the two groups. From now on, any questions you have should be addressed to him.”
“I will. Thank you.”
“I suggest that the three of you join Magnus in the command center so you can stay on top of things.”
Was Kian inviting them to the village with Lisa, who was still clueless about immortals? Or was he talking about some other location that was not a secret immortal hideout? In either case, David didn’t intend to sit on his butt in some room full of computer monitors while others looked for his mother.
