by I. T. Lucas
“How can you promise that?”
“Easy.” He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “We are going to swathe that child in bubble wrap and have Onidu and Okidu guarding it twenty-four-seven. And if that’s not enough to assuage your fears, we will borrow one of mother’s Odus to help out as well.”
Amanda wiped her tears. “I was thinking of moving into the sanctuary. But what you suggest is also an option. Except, who will clean our houses if the Odus will be busy babysitting?”
He chuckled. “Did you forget that they need only minutes to recharge? They’ll do it at night when the child is asleep. But one will always stay to watch him or her, of course.”
Amanda waved a dismissive hand. “There will be no need for that. Our daughter or son will sleep with Dalhu and me in bed until she or he transitions.”
Syssi glanced at Dalhu, who so far hadn’t said a word. He looked worried and excited at the same time. “Are you doing okay?” she asked.
He nodded. “I just want Amanda to be happy.”
“What about you?” Kian asked his brother-in-law.
“Becoming a father was something that I used to dream about when I was still a Doomer. But after Amanda entered my life, I figured that I’d already won the lottery, and to ask for anything more would be greedy of me.”
“Oh, darling.” Amanda walked over to her mate and put her hands on his massive shoulders. “That was such a sweet thing to say. You are going to be an amazing father, and the best protector this child could have.” She let out a shuddering breath. “I should have realized that having you by my side, and us raising our child together, is a game-changer. You won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Or him.”
Amanda smiled. “I hope you don’t mind, but ever since I found out, I’ve been beseeching the Fates to give us a girl so she could transition early. I hope they’ll take pity on me and grant my wish.”
“I want a little girl too, but I’ll love a boy no less.”
Syssi snorted. “What if you’re having twins? One of each?”
Amanda groaned. “Then I’ll have to beg my mother to give up two of her Odus and Alena and Sari to give up theirs. I’ll need an Odu army to watch over my children.”
14
Rufsur
“I will take this, master.” Kian’s butler tried to wrestle the shopping bags out of Atzil’s hands.
Atzil pulled them back. “I don’t need help carrying groceries.”
Rufsur put a hand on his shoulder. “Stop fighting him or the bags will tear. And then what will you do?”
The cook glared at the butler. “Why do you insist? Do I look like the kind of guy who needs help?”
Okidu bowed. “Of course not, master. But it is my duty and my pleasure to serve.”
Atzil glanced at their boss. “Is he for real?”
“I’m afraid so.” Kalugal passed them by. “Just let it go.”
Rufsur was starting to doubt the merit of bringing Atzil along. After hearing that there was no grocery store in the village, the guy had insisted on bringing supplies with him so he could cook for them during the visit. And just in case Kalugal and Jacki wished to entertain guests, he’d brought enough food to host a party.
Ruvon was okay, except for the gaping and the gasping. The guy was behaving like the country mouse visiting his rich cousin, and that was embarrassing.
Kalugal’s mansion was much fancier than any building in the village, and its zip code was one of the most affluent in the country. The guy shouldn’t act so impressed, especially since they were only in the parking garage.
The place was massive, and the entire sci-fi entry through a tunnel was impressive, but the cars parked in it were mostly modest vehicles. Rufsur had spotted one Porsche, and that was it as far as luxury. Nothing here could compare to what Kalugal had in his garage.
Except, Ruvon’s gaping and Atzil’s groceries weren’t the real cause for his aggravation.
He’d hoped that Edna would come to greet him. Heck, he’d had a stupid fantasy of her accompanying the butler to the clan’s airstrip, and like in some stupid romantic movie, running into his arms the moment he stepped off the plane.
Instead, the butler had shown up with Jay and Theo, who’d slapped cuffs on Atzil and Ruvon’s wrists.
So much for romantic fantasies.
“It’s so pretty,” Atzil said as they walked out of the elevator. “A glass pavilion steeped in greenery. It looks like a fairytale.” He chuckled. “Where is the sleeping beauty for me to kiss?”
“There are plenty of them in the village,” Jacki said. “Not sleeping, but eagerly awaiting a prince to give them a kiss. You are going to be a hit.”
“What about me?” Ruvon asked.
“You too. Both of you should thank Rufsur for choosing you. This visit gives you an opportunity to meet clan ladies outside of the auction system.”
Both had signed up for it, so that wasn’t a problem, but losing a cook might be. If Atzil hooked up with a clan lady who wanted to stay in the village, they were going to lose the second most important member of their community, which was another reason to debate the wisdom of taking him along.
Who was going to replace him in the kitchen? Shamash?
Damn.
He was starting to think like Edna, focusing on the obstacles instead of on the big picture. Losing their cook would be unfortunate, but it was a minor inconvenience compared to what Atzil could gain.
Having an immortal mate who could bear him immortal children was the real fairytale happy ending that each of them hoped for.
While Atzil and Ruvon kept waxing poetic about the beauty of the village, Kian’s butler, who could be barely seen under the load of luggage and shopping bags he was carrying, headed outside and started loading the golf cart.
“Are we going to the house first?” Jacki asked.
Kalugal glanced at his watch. “Kian wanted to see me as soon as we arrived. I’ll take Rufsur with me to the meeting, and you can take Atzil and Ruvon to the house and get settled.” He turned to the two Guardians accompanying him. “What’s the procedure this time? Can we split up, and who will you go with?”
“I’ll accompany you to Kian’s office,” Jay said. “Theo will escort the rest of your party to the house.”
“Very well.”
Once the butler finished tying the cargo to the roof of the golf cart, he bowed to Jacki. “Madam, would you like to sit up front or in the back?”
As Jacki was about to hop onto the front seat, another cart stopped in front of the pavilion’s door, and Jin jumped down. “I figured that there wouldn’t be enough space in one golf cart for you and for the cargo.” She pulled Jacki into her arms. “The girls are waiting for you at the café.” She glanced at Atzil and Ruvon. “You are welcome to join.”
Kalugal offered her his hand. “How have you been, Jin?”
Rufsur tensed. Had his boss forgotten what the girl could do with one touch?
Shaking his head, he tried to signal to Kalugal that it was a bad idea, but his boss ignored him.
“Excellent.” Holding on to Kalugal’s hand, Jin smiled, revealing a pair of small, pointy fangs. “They don’t hurt as badly anymore.”
“So who is going to the house?” Theo asked.
Rufsur looked at the butler. “Can you take our stuff and unload it in the house?”
Okidu bowed. “Of course, master.”
“Then I guess no one. Kalugal and I can walk.”
The moment the two golf carts drove off, Rufsur leaned to whisper in Kalugal’s ear, “Are you out of your fucking mind? Why did you let her touch you?”
Kalugal shrugged. “I forgot. But I’m not afraid of her tethering me again,” he said out loud even though Jay was trailing only a couple of feet behind them.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because now I know how it feels. Tethering me again would have amounted to an act of war, and I don’t think that is what my cousin has in mind.”
15
Kalugal
Kalugal pulled out the list of potential talents he’d gotten from Roberts and put it on the conference table. “How do you want to handle this?”
Kian reached for the list and scanned it. “Twelve names. Not bad for one week’s worth of collection.”
“Most, if not all, are probably worthless, but we won’t know until we check them out.” Kalugal pulled the list back. “The question is, who do we send to do that, my men or yours?”
“Before we do that, what about the program’s recruiters? They will also investigate these people. Do we wait for them to do that first and move in after them, or do we try to beat them to it?”
Kalugal had given it some thought. “Since this is all new, and we are still testing the waters, I suggest that we observe how they work and gather information. First order of business, your hackers should monitor the potential new recruits’ cellular and email communications. I can send men to plant listening devices in their homes as well. Based on the information we collect, we will decide on how to proceed.”
Kian nodded. “I like your cautious approach. By the way, is Eleanor, aka Marisol, still in the picture?”
Kalugal shook his head. “My men didn’t see her entering the facility since she left for the weekend last Friday, and I confirmed with Roberts that he’d fired her.” He chuckled. “He’s afraid of her.”
“The woman is a piece of work. Do we know what she’s up to?”
Kalugal frowned. “I thought that you were tracking her.”
“If she uses any major airport in the country, our facial recognition software will flag her, and we might assign her a tail if we think it’s worth our trouble. But we couldn’t put anything on her. It would have been detected by the sensors in the facility. Except, she probably doesn’t want Roberts to know what she is doing, and she might take precautions, like wearing specialized eyewear. There are new clear models available that look like prescription glasses.”
Kalugal crossed his arms over his chest. “I wonder what she will do next.”
Kian chuckled. “She might give you some competition. That’s the most profitable way to use her compulsion talent.”
The comment was a little insulting, especially since he was no longer doing that, but Kalugal let it go. “I hope that’s all she will do. Immunes make me uncomfortable.” He smiled. “Except for my wife, of course. Her immunity is actually beneficial to our marriage. I would have hated it if I unintentionally compelled her to do things that she didn’t wish to do.”
Kian arched a brow. “Does that happen to you? I thought that you were in complete control of your talent.”
“I have good control, but not complete. If I get angry or frustrated, my tone occasionally slips into the compulsory range.” He rubbed his chin. “I would love to find out how it works. It must have something to do with sound waves, but I tested mine, and there was nothing special about them.”
“It’s more than that,” Turner said. “Bridget has a theory that compellers are projecting another sort of force field or wave that we can’t detect, and it only hitches a ride on sound waves.”
“Fascinating hypothesis.” Kalugal leaned back, the gears in his head spinning fast in response to Bridget’s idea. “I should have realized that my ability stems from the same place as thralling and shrouding does. It’s just another facet of the same thing, some mysterious brain waves or energy field. Perhaps hitching a ride on sound waves amplifies it, making it more powerful than pure telepathy.”
Turner nodded. “Maybe one day we will discover a method to detect it, and then the paranormal will turn normal. The same way it happened with other inexplicable phenomena when science deciphered them.”
“Speaking of science and sound waves. Lokan came to me with an idea. Personally, I don’t want to get involved, and I don’t think it’s doable, but you might have a different opinion. He thinks that the sound technology that was used against us by the director could be utilized to conquer the island without too many casualties.”
Kian tilted his head. “It’s interesting how the same ideas inspire different responses. I was worried about Navuh discovering the technology and using it against us.”
It hadn’t crossed Kalugal’s mind, but Kian was right. Not only that, given the much smaller size of the village’s population, and that they all lived above ground, it might work better for Navuh than what Lokan had in mind for the island.
“You are right to worry. The island is too big for that sort of an attack, and most of the warriors live underground. But your village is much more vulnerable. I hope that you are working on a defense system.”
“William is on it.”
Kalugal glanced out the window at the treetops swaying gently in the wind. “You have a beautiful place here, but I wonder whether a more secluded location wouldn’t have been better. Perhaps an underground facility.”
“Seclusion has its own challenges. Many of my people work in the city, and the commute is already difficult as it is. Besides, no place on earth is completely safe. Your father’s island is as secluded as it gets, and even though it has taken us a long time, we eventually discovered its location.”
“Because you caught Lokan.”
“In time, we would have figured it out even without Lokan’s help. Technology is progressing rapidly, and Navuh is not keeping up.”
“True. So, what are your thoughts about Lokan’s idea?”
Kian leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “My agenda is different from Lokan’s. He wants to take control of the island, which I don’t think is possible. My agenda is to free the females, human and Dormant, who are trapped there. The noise technology might be enough for what I want to achieve, but not for Lokan’s ambitious goals.”
16
Kian
Not for the first time, Kian was surprised by how freely Kalugal was sharing information with him.
That didn’t mean that the guy had no secrets, though. His cousin only revealed things that he felt it was safe to reveal, which meant that he really had no interest in the island.
The other possibility was that he wanted to check whether Kian would be willing to help Lokan and him take over the place. Even if the brothers managed to disable every warrior on the island with the noise machine, they didn’t have enough men for a mission like that.
Thousands of people lived there, and Kalugal wasn’t a strong enough compeller to take control over everyone at once.
Could Annani do that?
The test she’d successfully conducted included only a couple of hundred immortals, but she’d been able to compel even Kalugal, who was immune to Navuh’s compulsion. It seemed that she was a stronger compeller than Navuh, but the question was whether she could spread her influence over thousands of people, and also how long her compulsion would last.
The other problem with her test was that no one had any reason to resist it. All she’d asked of them was to look for her earring, and everyone was happy to comply. Could she overpower resistant immortals?
They needed to test it, but knowing Annani, she would refuse to do that unless the motive behind it was purely altruistic.
And in any case, Kian would never risk her life on a mission that held questionable value. It would be nice to get rid of Navuh’s threat once and for all, but he doubted Lokan and Kalugal’s ability to keep the Doomers under control.
Besides, since Kalugal’s disinterest in the island seemed genuine, it was a futile mental exercise. Kian had to grudgingly concede that leaving Navuh in place was the lesser evil compared to the alternatives.
Kalugal sighed. “I told Lokan that my answer would most likely be a no. He’ll be disappointed, but the truth is that his utopian image of the island’s future is unrealistic. The change has to start from the inside, but with Navuh controlling everyone’s minds, it’s not going to happen.”
“Unless we can figure out a way to resist compulsion,” Turner said. “I think it’s a sk
ill that can be learned. If it’s possible even to a small extent, we might be able to trickle the knowledge along with outside influence into the island. It might take hundreds of years, but eventually the weeds we seed will destroy the foundation upon which his empire is built.”
It was an idea that Kian had toyed with before, and now that he had two strong compellers, he could run tests to figure out what worked and what didn’t.
Kalugal nodded. “I can have my men give it a try and see if they can learn to resist my compulsion. I just wish I could point them in the right direction.” He glanced at Rufsur. “From my experience, unless the immortal in question is immune naturally, he can’t resist even when he struggles mightily against it.”
Kian stifled a chuckle. After experiencing Annani’s compulsion, Kalugal was no doubt desperate to learn the skill himself. “By all means. Let me know how it goes. And as we are already on the subject of your men, how did they react to the auction idea?”
“Surprisingly, most are willing to give it a try, and only a few are not.” Kalugal smiled at Rufsur. “Some are waiting to hear from their friends about how it went before deciding.”
“Don’t look at me.” Rufsur crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going on the auction block.”
“If they see you go for it, they might be more inclined to participate.”
“Phinas will have to do. If he enjoys the experience, the others will be encouraged to try it.”
“I hope so.” Kalugal smiled at Kian. “Speed dating immortal style.”
Kian nodded.
He was glad to hear that the auction idea had been well received. It meant that he’d been right about many of Kalugal’s men being willing to cross over to the clan. But he was still conflicted about that. On the one hand, it was good that fewer clan females would leave, but on the other hand, Kian was worried about incorporating a bunch of ex-Doomers into the clan.
