by I. T. Lucas
Apparently, his boss was playing it cool all the way through. Or maybe he had no problem with Rufsur mating Edna?
That wasn’t likely.
By now, Kalugal was well aware of how powerful the mated bond was, and he knew that it would overpower Rufsur’s other loyalties. Kalugal probably believed that Rufsur was wasting his time with Edna, and that nothing would come of it.
If Rufsur had any brains, he would have arrived at the same conclusion. But the problem was that his gut refused to accept defeat.
He sighed. “Atzil comes to mind. But if you leave the others without a cook, it might cause a revolt.”
“We can order meals in,” Phinas suggested. “If anyone deserves a break, it’s Atzil. I don’t think he’s taken a day off in years, and he’s kept up his training, so his fighting skills are as good as those of the others.”
Kalugal rubbed his chin. “You are right. I don’t remember him ever taking an entire day off, and since I don’t expect to encounter trouble in the village other than maybe a few nasty looks, I don’t really need to take top fighters with us. Who else?”
“Ruvon,” Phinas said.
Kalugal arched a brow. “Why him?”
Rufsur wondered about the choice as well. Ruvon wasn’t a ladies’ man. He wasn’t particularly good-looking, and he was more interested in technology than in females.
“Perhaps he could pick the clan’s tech guy’s brains.” Phinas shrugged. “But it was just a thought. You can choose whoever you want.”
9
Edna
As Edna parked her car in the underground garage, a large truck full of building materials drove by, heading into the cargo area of the structure.
Curious, she got out of the car and walked over to see what was going on.
The piles upon piles of materials couldn’t all be for the double fence that Kian was putting back up between phase one and phase two of the village.
Was he planning to build more houses?
What for?
Most of those in phase two stood empty, and as far as she knew, Sari and her portion of the clan had no intention of leaving Scotland and moving into the village. Perhaps she’d changed her mind?
“Hi, Edna.” Syssi waved at her. “Checking out the delivery?” She and Amanda walked over. “Robert must have found building materials at a bargain price to fill up the space like that.”
It took Edna a moment to recall that Kian had put Robert in charge of the procurement of building materials for the village. But that wasn’t what bothered her.
“What is Kian planning to build? I thought that we were putting the fence back up, not adding more buildings.”
Smiling, Syssi threaded her arm through Edna’s. “I’ll tell you all about it over coffee. Amanda and I finished earlier than usual at the lab, so I figure we have time to chill in the café.”
Amanda shook her head. “Not today, darling. I need to rush home.”
Syssi frowned. “Since when are you in a hurry to get back to the house when Dalhu isn’t there? As long as there is light out, he’ll be painting outdoors. He won’t be back until it gets dark.”
“I want to prepare a surprise for him.” Amanda winked and sauntered away.
Syssi frowned. “I wonder what she has in mind. Amanda doesn’t cook, so it can't be that she wants to prepare a romantic dinner for the two of them. If she wanted that, she would have called Onidu and told him to prepare it for them.” Syssi shrugged. “Maybe she did call him and didn’t tell me about it.”
Edna had a feeling that Amanda’s rush had nothing to do with surprising her mate, and that was even without sending out her ghostly feelers. Something was troubling Amanda, and as was her habit, she didn’t share her troubles with anyone. Annani’s youngest daughter liked to show the world only what she believed was her best side. She hid her pain and her disappointments and put a brave face on it.
But if Amanda wished to hide whatever was troubling her from Syssi, she could count on Edna to keep her observations to herself. “Perhaps she has something more carnal in mind.”
“I guess.” Syssi smiled. “That’s usually what’s on her mind.”
The worst time in Amanda’s life had been when she’d lost her son, and Edna still remembered it vividly. Amanda had been a different person back then, and the tragedy had changed her forever. The diva that everyone saw now had been born from the ashes of the old Amanda.
The truth was that Edna admired her. It might have started as an act, but over time it had become a part of Amanda, and instead of endlessly wallowing in her grief like Edna was doing, she had rebuilt her life.
“Are you still going to join me in the café?” Syssi started toward the elevators.
“Of course. I want to hear what Kian plans to build without informing the council or asking our opinions.”
Syssi cast her an apologetic glance. “He can’t summon the council for every little decision. As it is, he’s severely overworked and barely has any downtime. Imagine how much worse it would be if he needed to convene the council on a daily basis.” She smiled. “I doubt you or the other council members would appreciate it either. You are all busy with your own work and responsibilities.”
“That’s true. But he could at least email us a memo. I don’t appreciate finding out about a new building project by following the delivery truck.”
“You’ve got a point.” Syssi found a table in the shade and waved hello at Wendy and Wonder. “Look at that girl. She’s like a different person.”
Edna was ashamed to admit that she hadn’t noticed because she hadn’t been paying attention, but Syssi was right. The girl didn’t stop smiling, and she was chattering happily with her customers as if serving them was her favorite thing to do.
“I didn’t expect Wendy to be so social.”
“That’s the power of love.” Syssi sighed. “It seems to be even more transformative than the activation of immortal genes.”
The subject of love was the last thing Edna wanted to talk or even think about. “So what is Kian building?”
“He is not building yet. The Chinese crew wouldn’t come just to put up the fence, and he didn’t want to hire locals to do that. So, he decided to prepare fifty more plots for future homes. More bang for the buck. They are only charging us for the grading and prep work and are putting the fence up for free.”
“Unless you know something that I don’t, we don’t need fifty additional plots. Most of the houses in the new phase are unoccupied.”
“That’s about to change. Kian hopes that the majority of the new couples will choose to live in the village, and with Merlin’s help, we can expect many new babies. They will need larger homes. We don’t have enough three-bedroom houses. I suggested that we add a third bedroom to several of the existing ones, but Kian doesn’t want the crews to work on phase one. He wants the main portion of the village isolated from outsiders.”
“Oh, yeah?” Edna crossed her arms over her chest. “And what are Kalugal’s men? Insiders?”
Syssi grimaced. “They are something in between. At least they are immortals like us. But that’s another reason for the building project. The new couples will live in phase two and in phase three when it’s ready. I expect that the fence will stay on, and we will have two separate communities. Perhaps we should put up something nicer than a chain link, though. The double fence system with barbwire on top makes phase two look like a prison.”
“Forgive me for saying it, but that’s a ridiculous idea. Are we going to have border patrol and require a visa for visits between the sections?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Yes. Not to intermingle with them at all.”
Syssi arched a brow. “Do you want to run that by the single ladies?” She leaned forward. “And what about you? Don’t you want to be with Rufsur?”
“What I want is irrelevant. The clan’s future is more important than anyone’s individual happiness, and I’m not going to jeopardize my peopl
e’s safety for selfish reasons.”
Shaking her head, Syssi leaned back. “You are thinking in black and white, Edna, while life is a million shades of gray. Things never fit neatly into the little boxes we would love to stuff them in. Life is chaotic, and unless we can be flexible and willing to compromise, our boxes will remain vacant. I, for one, prefer a messy box to an empty one.”
10
Amanda
The clicking noise her own heels made on the pavement annoyed Amanda. Hell, everything had been annoying her lately, and keeping her agitation hidden from her loved ones, as well as everyone else, was becoming more and more difficult.
She hadn’t been feeling well for days, and since immortals didn’t get sick, the logical explanation was the one she dreaded most.
Unlike the rest of the clan females, she didn’t want to be pregnant. If she could help it, she would never become a mother again.
Once had been enough for her, and she’d barely survived it.
There was no way Amanda was willing to go through even a fraction of that grief again. Even a scraped knee or a loose tooth would be too much for her to deal with, and children were way messier than that. They liked to run around, get into all kinds of mischief, and get themselves killed.
Most people lived in denial, thinking that it would never happen to them, that it couldn’t, but it had happened to her, and she wouldn’t wish that pain on her worst enemy.
Well, maybe she would wish it on Navuh.
Nah, not even on him. But then he had suffered worse. Carol had learned from Areana that a child he’d adopted and loved as his own had been murdered by a jealous concubine.
No wonder that the guy had gone crazy.
Not that it excused his many terrible sins, but she understood his pain. When her sweet boy had died, if she could have, Amanda would have destroyed the entire world. Fortunately for everyone else on the planet, she wasn’t that powerful.
In time, she’d somehow managed to cope with the grief, but she’d never gotten over it. Except, unlike Navuh, Amanda had come back from the brink of insanity and had dedicated her life to doing good, not evil like her clan’s arch enemy.
“Damn!” Amanda cursed as her heel got caught in a groove between paving stones, and she pitched forward, regaining balance by sheer force of determination.
She had no time for messy falls. She had to get home and pee on the damn stick before Dalhu got back.
What was she going to do if she was pregnant?
Freak out, that’s what.
As much as she was terrified of having another child, she would never resort to abortion. That was anathema. Not only because the clan needed her to procreate but because she would never destroy a life that she had created together with Dalhu, even if it was still just the size of a grain of sand.
It wasn’t that she was fundamentally against abortions. In some cases, it was justifiable, and she would never want women to be denied that choice when pregnancy was the result of nonconsensual sex, like in cases of rape or incest. Others had severe health problems that pregnancy could worsen, and then there were the cases of unviable fetuses that wouldn’t survive after birth. But none of that applied to her, and fear, or even the risk to her sanity couldn’t justify that. If she didn’t want the baby, there were plenty of immortal females who would gladly raise it. Heck, her mother would take the child in a heartbeat.
Amanda stopped dead in her tracks.
That was the solution. If she was pregnant, when her time came, she would move to Alaska and stay with her mother until her child transitioned. If it was a girl, it would happen in no time. But even if it was a boy, she would stay at her mother’s until he reached puberty.
The sanctuary was the safest place on earth, and she would have her child watched every minute of the day and night. Heck, he or she would sleep with her and Dalhu in their bed until he or she transitioned, even if it was a boy, for whom it wouldn’t happen until his teens.
Amanda didn’t care if people thought that was weird.
Screw everyone and their opinions. This child was not going to die.
Feeling a little lighter, she made the rest of her way home at an easier pace. It was still damn fast compared to her usual stroll, but she had an appointment with a plastic stick that she wanted to get over with.
In the house, Amanda forced a quick smile for Onidu and ducked into the bathroom.
Once the deed was done, she stayed seated on the toilet and held the wand in front of her. Staring at it, she willed it to do absolutely nothing.
Well, except for the line in the control window that showed that the test was valid. She didn’t want to have to repeat the process because the stick wasn’t working right. It said on the box that the result would show up after one minute, but to give it up to five minutes just in case.
She didn’t have to wait that long.
Less than a minute later, the big red plus sign appeared.
She was pregnant.
With shaky hands, Amanda put the test back into the box it came in, dropped it in the wastebasket and pulled out her phone from her purse, all without bothering to get off the toilet or pull her pants back up.
“Amanda? What a nice surprise.”
The moment her mother answered, the waterworks started.
“What happened, Mindy? Why are you crying?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“Congratulations! I am overjoyed.”
“I’m not. I’m terrified.”
“Oh, sweetheart. Do not torment yourself so, my daughter. The Fates would not be that cruel to you again.”
A wretched sob erupted from her chest. “They had no reason to be cruel to me before, Mother, but they were. Who is to say that they wouldn’t do it again?”
“I do. You will come to stay with me. Dalhu will, of course, accompany you, and we will keep your child safe. The entire sanctuary will watch his or her every move.”
Amanda wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “You’ve read my mind. That’s exactly what I’m planning to do. I’m going to quit my job at the university and come live with you. Hopefully, I’m having a girl, so I’ll be able to get back to work in a year or two. But if it’s a boy, I’m staying until he is thirteen.” She chuckled through her tears. “You’ll have to tolerate my annoying presence.”
“There is nothing annoying about you, my sweet Mindy, and I would love to have you here with me. Your brother won’t be happy to lose you, though.”
“Are you kidding me? Kian would love to get rid of me.”
“Not true, and you know that.”
“Yeah, I do. It was true a few years ago, though. Especially when I hooked up with Dalhu.”
“That is all in the past, Amanda. Leave it where it belongs and look forward to your bright new future.”
Amanda snorted. “Full-time motherhood is not what I would call a bright future.”
“What do you imagine is brighter?”
“A breakthrough in my research. A way to identify Dormants.”
“You are an immortal, Mindy. You can take a few years off to be a full-time mother and enjoy every second of it. There is no reason for you to juggle motherhood and a demanding job at the same time.”
“You did it.”
“I had no choice, especially with your older siblings. But when you were born, Kian and Sari already ran most things, and I was free to be a mother, at least most of the time. Those were some of the happiest years of my life. You have given me so much joy.”
“Really?” Amanda sniffled. Her mother had never told her that.
“I never say it because your brother and sisters might interpret it as favoritism, but it is not. You all share my heart equally. I just enjoyed being a hands-on mother with you.” She chuckled. “You were a particularly rambunctious child, joyful, mischievous, and so full of love for everyone. You were, and still are my sunshine.”
11
Dalhu
As soon as Dalhu entered the house, he felt the cha
rge in the air. It seemed like it was vibrating with energy, and the only source of that could be Amanda. Except, she wasn’t in the living room, waiting for him on the couch with a fashion magazine in hand or surfing the net like she usually did before dinner.
The only sounds in the house were coming from the kitchen, where Onidu was working on their evening meal.
The guy always knew where his mistress was.
“Good evening, Onidu. Do you know where Amanda is?”
“The mistress is in the bathroom, master.” He bowed. “I believe that she is taking a bath.”
“Thank you.” He hated it when the butler bowed to him and called him master.
Dalhu didn’t want to be anyone’s superior, and he also didn’t want to answer to anyone. He’d had enough of it in the Brotherhood, and he didn’t want anything to remind him of those days.
He was happy now, creating instead of destroying, feeding his soul instead of killing it, and the only one he had to answer to was Amanda.
Technically, he also had to answer to Kian, but the guy never demanded anything from him. If Dalhu came along on a mission, it was because he’d volunteered to help, and not because he’d been ordered to do so.
Dalhu sighed. He needed to remember that Onidu wasn’t a person, and the only reason he called him master was because he’d been programmed to do that.
He shouldn’t get triggered by that damn word, but the response wasn’t voluntary. Each time it happened, Dalhu had to remind himself that the butler wasn’t a human servant, but a cyborg, and that he didn’t really consider Dalhu his boss.
Onidu only answered to Amanda, but originally he’d belonged to the goddess, who’d programmed him to call those he served masters and mistresses.
Dalhu had no intention of bothering the Clan Mother with updating the butler’s vocabulary to better suit him. The best thing would be to add that damn trigger word to the many changes still needed in his own programming.
