by I. T. Lucas
In the clinic, Kian knocked on Bridget’s office door.
“Come in.”
“Good morning, Bridget. How are your patients doing?” He pulled out a chair for Syssi and sat on the other one.
“As expected, Ella is doing great, refusing to be attached to the monitoring equipment. She is in her mother’s room right now. Vivian is unconscious, but she wakes up from time to time, which is a very good sign. I’m not worried about her.”
“That is excellent news,” Syssi said. “We want to visit them, if that’s okay.”
“I’m sure it is, but I’ll have to ask.” Bridget started pushing to her feet.
Kian lifted a hand to stop her. “Before you do that, there is something else we need you to do.” He turned to Syssi. “Go ahead, tell her.”
Instead, Syssi pulled out her phone, scrolled to a close-up photo of the two positive tests, and showed it to the doctor. “I need you to confirm.”
For a long moment, Bridget just stared at the screen. “You’re pregnant.” A big smile spreading over her face, she rounded her desk, walked up to Syssi, and put her arms around her. “Congratulations.” She let go and hugged Kian. “I’m so happy for you two.”
“I still need you to run a proper test,” Syssi said. “In my heart I know that I’m carrying a child, but I want to remove this last shred of doubt.”
“Then come with me and let’s see how far along you are.”
Syssi looked at Kian. “Do you want to come?”
He seemed conflicted. “Only if you are comfortable with me being there.”
“Of course I am.” She smirked. “Think of it as prep for the actual birth.”
Her big guy paled.
Bridget patted his shoulder. “You can sit behind the exam table, and I’ll drape a sheet over Syssi’s lower half. That way you can participate without having to watch what I’m doing.”
“Don't worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
Syssi and Bridget exchanged knowing looks.
“Of course.” The doctor opened the door leading to the patients’ rooms, peeked her head out, and then motioned for them to follow. “The coast is clear.” She led them past three closed doors and opened the fourth.
Despite his verbal bravado, Kian sat on a chair next to Syssi’s head while Bridget performed her internal exam hidden behind a blue sheet.
“You’re about three weeks pregnant,” the doctor said as she pulled the gloves off and tossed them in the trash.
Unbelievable. They had started taking Merlin’s potion only about six weeks ago. Could it have worked that fast? Or was it a coincidence?
“Are you sure?” Kian asked.
Bridget nodded. “Give or take a couple of days. Do you want me to take a blood sample too?”
“Why, is there any doubt?” Syssi asked.
“No, no doubt. You are definitely pregnant.”
“Then I don’t see a need.”
“Again, congratulations, you two,” Bridget said. “Merlin is going to be ecstatic. Do you want to call him with the good news or should I?”
“I’ll call him,” Syssi said. “The least I can do is personally thank him for this most amazing gift.”
“Very well. I’ll go check with Ella and Magnus if they are okay to receive guests.”
After Bridget had left, Syssi put her pants back on and turned to her husband, who looked a little shell-shocked. “What’s the matter, Kian?”
“It’s official. We are having a baby.”
She sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Are you scared?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
“I had a daughter once. A long time ago. I watched her get old and die.”
Syssi had forgotten about that. Kian had been married before to a human girl, and they’d had a daughter, but he’d never gotten to even hold his baby in his arms. Because his human wife started suspecting him of witchcraft, Kian had been forced to fake his own death and then watch another man raise his child.
“I’m so sorry, my love. This must bring back painful memories.”
He shook his head. “I’m blessed beyond measure for having been granted another chance.” He put his hand on her belly. “I’m going to be the best father possible to this little one. I promise.”
“You’re going to spoil her rotten.” Syssi kissed his forehead. “Not that I have anything against it. I’m probably going to do the same. It’s just that I can imagine you with her, holding her and kissing her until she pushes you away and tells you that she wants to start dating boys already, but she can’t do it because you’re carrying her everywhere.”
He laughed. “She is not dating until she is thirty, so I have plenty of time to worry about that.”
49
Ella
“I brought you some treats.” Carol entered Ella’s room with a large box of chocolates and a carton of premium coffee-flavored ice cream.
“Yummy. I’m sick of the sandwiches from the café. Wonder offered to cook real food for us, but I didn’t want her to bother. The poor girl is overworked as it is.”
Carol put her loot on the side table and sat on Ella’s bed. “You should have told me. I’m going to bring you stuff from my frozen stash. Julian can take it home and heat it up for you. In fact, I’m going to give him most of it so he has something to eat too. By the way, where is he?”
“I sent him home to grab a shower and get some sleep. He wanted to roll a gurney in here, but I told him that it was a bad idea. The room is small as it is, and people keep popping in to ask how I’m doing.”
Carol smiled. “So, how are you doing? Any change from yesterday?”
“I wish. Bridget says there is no point in doing the test so soon because it seems like my body is not in any rush to transition. It’s so frustrating. My mother might be ready for the test before me.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because her body is working hard on it and mine is not. I was hoping to gain an inch or two, but Bridget measured me this morning and there wasn’t even a millimeter of growth. So, I guess I’m stuck with my five foot and four inches.”
Carol chuckled. “That’s two inches more than I have. Count yourself lucky.”
“I thought you were taller.”
Carol lifted her foot. “I always wear heeled shoes. Even my flip-flops have a two-inch platform.” She fluffed her hair. “And my curls add another inch.”
The woman was full of tricks.
“So yeah, no added height for me, but maybe my special talent will get a boost. I want to be able to communicate telepathically with other people and not just my mother.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. When I can.” Carol winked.
As Ella’s vivid imagination came up with several scenarios for the kind of things Carol’s fingers could be busy with, she felt herself blush.
Carol laughed. “I meant when I’m not cooking.”
“Right. By the way, did you hear the news about Syssi and Kian?”
“What news?”
“Syssi is pregnant.”
“Oh, wow, that’s big. When Merlin returns from the convention, he’s going to have a long line of ladies waiting for him.”
Ella nodded. “Magnus said that after my mom recuperates, they are going to join the program too.”
Carol tilted her head. “How do you feel about it?”
“Awesome. I love babies, but I don’t want to have one myself yet. Besides, I think a new baby will bring us all closer together as a family.”
“I wonder what talent he or she will have. You and your mom and Parker all have unique and strong abilities. And your father was a human. With Magnus as a father, that baby could be a powerhouse.”
Ella frowned as it occurred to her that given her mother’s limited ability it was indeed a bit strange that she and Parker had such strong talents. “What if my father was a Dormant? Maybe the talents came from him. My mom’s telepathy only started when she got pregnan
t with me.”
“Did your father have any siblings?”
“One sister. But we were never close. She is in pharmaceutical sales and travels extensively.”
“Did he mention anything peculiar about her?”
Ella tried to remember if he had, but nothing came up. “I need to ask my mom. Maybe he told her something. All I know is that his sister’s name is Eleanor and I have a vague memory of her being tall. It might be worth checking her out, except, she is even older than my mom. I think she is like thirty-nine.”
Carol shrugged. “Andrew was forty when he transitioned, and Turner even older than that. It may not be too late.”
“Yeah. Imagine if Eleanor can do what Parker does. That would make her a sales superstar. She could compel people to buy from her.”
“I heard that pharmaceutical reps make a lot of money. If she can compel, she should be a millionaire by now.”
“Now you’ve made me really curious. I can ask Roni to do some hacking and find out stuff about her. It’s a shame she thinks us dead, though. It’s not as if I can pick up the phone and call her.”
“If she is a Dormant, that might be possible. She might join the clan.”
Ella shook her head. “It’s all speculation. I loved my dad, but he was most likely just an ordinary human, and so is his sister.”
“He couldn’t have been ordinary to father two extraordinary kids like you and Parker.” Carol patted her arm. “How is your brother doing? Is he freaking out over you and his mom transitioning at the same time?”
“Not over me, he knows I’m fine, but he worries about our mom. The dude had to do so much growing up in a short time that I feel sorry for him. Imagine a twelve-year-old having to release his mother and sister from a powerful immortal’s compulsion. And he did it remotely using video chat.”
Carol arched a brow. “I thought Lokan removed the compulsion when you asked him to.”
“He removed the one concerning Julian. But when we got rescued, my mother and I were still compelled to sing his praises if asked. All that would come out of my mouth was that Logan was a wonderful fiancé and I was madly in love with him.”
“Why didn’t you ask him to remove that too?”
“Because by then he was pumped full of narcotics. He compelled us to say nice things about him in preparation for the airport security inspection, but then Turner showed up, and things moved very quickly. My mother and I were whisked away, and Lokan was shot in the leg and then put to sleep. If not for Parker, we would have been stuck parroting those stupid phrases until Kian was done interrogating Lokan days later and forced him to release us.”
“So Parker did it via video chat while you were still in Washington?”
“That’s right. First, he tried to do it over the phone, but it didn’t work. Then he or someone else came up with the idea of a video, and that worked.”
“How?”
“He just told us to say nasty things about Lokan. He didn’t actually remove Lokan’s compulsion, he overrode it with his own.”
Carol’s eyes widened. “Fascinating. I have to tell Lokan about it. Does he know about Parker?”
“Not that I know of. Maybe it’s better that he doesn’t?”
Carol waved a dismissive hand. “It’s not like he can do anything about it. Parker is safe.”
50
Carol
Carol left Ella’s room feeling much better about her planned mission than she had going in.
Parker’s ability to compel remotely opened up possibilities she and Lokan hadn’t been aware of. If Parker could do it, so could Lokan, which meant an additional measure of safety for her. He didn’t need to be on the island to compel the humans working there to help her. He could do that over the phone.
Carol couldn’t wait to tell him about it, but first she needed to check with Bridget whether faking her own death was at all possible. If not, the entire plan would go down the drain and the ability to compel over the phone wasn’t going to change that.
Knocking on Bridget’s office door, she waited for an invitation to come in, but it seemed like the doctor wasn’t there.
She might have gone to the bathroom.
Plopping down on a chair in the waiting room, Carol pulled out her phone and checked the clan’s virtual bulletin board. There were a couple of new jokes posted by Anandur, a new recipe from Callie, and several want ads, including the one Ella had posted a while ago searching for an illustrator.
The biggest surprise was Eva’s post of the first chapter of the book she’d written. As far as Carol knew, she hadn’t finished it yet. Was she going to post chapters as she went? That could be cool.
She started reading the story when Bridget walked in with a cup of coffee from the vending machine.
“Are you waiting for me, Carol?”
“Yes.” She pushed to her feet. “I need to discuss something with you. I hope you have a few minutes for me.”
Bridget nodded. “Come on in.” She opened the door to her office and waved Carol to a chair. “Take a seat.” She closed the door. “I know why you are here. Turner told me what you are planning to do.”
That was a relief. She wouldn’t have to explain everything again. “Is it doable?”
Bridget pulled out a chair and sat facing Carol. “It might be. I will need to test it first. But to be frank, I think this is an ill-conceived plan. At least as it stands now.”
“I think it will work.”
“To what end? Even if everything goes without a glitch, which it never does, and even if you find that Navuh is hiding Areana in his harem, how are you going to get her out of there?”
“First, we need to verify that she is indeed there.”
“That’s where you are wrong. Unless you have the means to extract her, all the effort you are putting into this is futile. You are endangering yourself for nothing more than your own vanity and a need to prove something.”
Ouch. Talk about being direct, and not entirely wrong.
“But what’s the point of planning an extraction if she is not there?”
The doctor lifted a brow. “By the same token, what’s the point of you going to the island if she’s not there?”
Damn. Bridget was right. “Then I guess we need to plan an extraction. I’m sure Turner can come up with something.”
“He might. But unless he does, you shouldn’t go. Turner shares my opinion.”
Naturally.
“Assuming Turner finds a way to get Areana off the island, do you know how I can fake my death?”
Bridget nodded. “An insulin pump. It’s a programmable device that diabetics can choose instead of injections. It releases insulin in a steady flow throughout the day and night and extra doses at mealtimes. No one is going to question your need for it, and it’s going to disqualify you from working in the brothel as well.”
“How big is it?”
“About the size of a cell phone. It has a thin plastic tube that is inserted under the skin.”
“What if the island doctors remove it and give me shots instead?
“It’s a risk, but I don’t think they are going to bother. Especially since you’ll arrive under very different circumstances than the other women.”
“Is it really going to deliver insulin?”
“You’ll have control over it. You can stop the supply, and if you can’t for whatever reason, your body is going to take care of the excess. That’s not something you need to worry about.”
“Okay, so that takes care of my supposed disability. How does it help me fake my death?”
“If you were a real human diabetic, a pump malfunction, where it stopped delivering insulin, could be potentially deadly. It’s called acute diabetic ketoacidosis. I’ll give you a link to an article that explains what it is. Anyway, my idea is to rig the pump with a dose of toxin that you’ll be able to release when you are ready. It will mimic the ketoacidosis, so when you supposedly die, this will be assumed to be the cause. A poisoning i
s not going to kill you, but you'll appear dead while your body fights the toxin.”
“What if they check me and find that I’m not really dead? The heartbeat slows down to almost nothing in stasis, but it doesn't stop completely.”
“True, and your brain will show some activity too. They might try to revive you, but it’s not going to work, and they will assume that you are in a coma. We need to ask Lokan for more details about their medical facilities and what kind of care they offer the humans on the island. I have a feeling it’s just the basics.”
“Probably.”
“When Gorchenco comes back and asks for you, they should have no qualms about handing you over to him whether you are dead or in a coma.”
“Am I going to come back on my own, or will I have to be revived?”
“That depends on the dosage and how long you are going to be in stasis. Depending on the injury, the body repairs the damage in a matter of minutes or hours, but if it fails to do so in two days, a revival is needed. It’s easy to do, though. Even Gorchenco can pour pure water over you.”
“That’s all that's needed?”
Bridget nodded. “Just don’t tell anyone. Someone might get a crazy idea and go to the catacombs to try to revive Doomers. Especially after the happy endings a couple of ladies have had with them.”
Carol chuckled. “I think they will change their minds once they see their wilted carcasses. It’s not a pretty sight.”
“You never know. Anyway, we will need to test the toxin on you in a controlled environment where I can resuscitate you if something goes wrong.”
“You mean that I’ll have to die twice?”
That was some scary shit, but it was better to test it than go in blind and die for real.
Bridget nodded. “It’s crucial.”
“Right. When do you want to do it?”
“Only after all the other pieces of the puzzle are in place.”
“Makes sense.”
“In the meantime, I’m going to buy several insulin pumps and bring them to William to fiddle with. We need to check if they can be rigged to secretly deliver a deadly dose of toxin on command.”
