by I. T. Lucas
“Not necessarily.” Wonder turned to stand next to Carol and glanced around, making sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop. “With the self-driving cars and the hidden tunnels, the village’s residents don’t know where it is. So even if there is a spy amongst us, he or she can’t disclose our location.”
“That’s true. But what are the chances of a clan member spying for the Brotherhood? Unless you suspect the ex-Doomers.” Carol huffed. “I can assure you that Robert is not a spy, and neither is Dalhu. Both are happily mated and would never betray their mates.”
“I don’t suspect them or anyone else. I’m just saying that it’s possible.”
“Perhaps, but it’s highly unlikely.” Carol pushed away from the counter. “I’m going to call Anandur about the hunting lesson he’s supposed to give me.”
“Didn’t you say that you were not going to do it?”
“I changed my mind. No guts, no glory, eh?”
“I guess.” Wonder grimaced. “But it’s gross.”
“Can’t argue with that. It’s just that I’ve realized that eating meat but not being willing to hunt for it is hypocritical. It’s time for me to woman up.” She could have lived with the hypocrisy, but she had to do it if she wanted Anandur to approve her for the mission.
“Good luck.”
“I’ll call Anandur from the playground so I can have some privacy while I grovel. Are you going to be okay here by yourself for a little bit?”
Wonder waved a hand at the tables. “All the customers have been served, and there are no new ones in line.”
“It won’t take long.”
The playground was about a minute’s walk from the café, and as usual, there was no one there. Kian had built the place with hope for the future, but in the meantime, there were only two kids in the entire village. Phoenix was a toddler and Nathalie brought her to the playground from time to time, but Ethan was still too small to play.
Hopefully, Merlin’s fertility treatments were going to work, and the clan would be blessed with many more babies.
Not that Carol was interested in having kids herself, but there was nothing like the happy squeals of playing children to boost morale and hope for the future.
Sitting on one of the swings, she placed the call.
“What’s up?” Anandur answered on the second ring.
“Are you stopping by the café anytime today?”
“Maybe later. Why?”
“I want you to take me hunting. I’m ready.”
“Oh, really. What made you change your mind?”
“I decided that I have no problem killing freaking coyotes. When I hear their howling at night, I’m ready to get my shotgun.”
Anandur laughed. “They howl to mark their territory and to court mates. They are not as bad as people think they are.”
“Oof. Don’t tell me that. You wanted me to hunt to prove that I’m capable of killing. And now that I’m finally ready, you make even coyotes sound innocent?”
“Of course, they are innocent. They are animals fighting for survival. They don't harbor sinister plans to conquer the world or kill for the fun of it.”
“Like the Doomers.”
“Precisely.”
“Can I practice on them?” She waved a hand even though he couldn’t see her. “I’m just joking. Can we skip the hunting thing, though? I’m sure that I can kill in self-defense or to protect others.”
A long moment passed before he answered. “What prompted your reawakened interest? Does it have anything to do with Lokan’s capture?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course, it does. When we extract the island’s location from Lokan, Kian might finally approve my mission. I’m ready to go and start planting the seeds of revolt in the hearts of Doomers.”
“I bet you are. But we don’t have the location yet, and it might be a while until we get it out of him. Then we need to figure out how to get you there, how to communicate with you, and how to extract you if needed.”
“You are not telling me anything new. Knowing where the freaking island is will make all of this doable, while before it wasn’t. So, I figured that the only thing still preventing me from going is your stupid condition that I kill an animal and take out its heart.”
“How about we cross that bridge when we get to it?”
“We are practically there, Anandur.”
3
Kian
“You shouldn’t hold the phone while driving,” Kian said as Anandur ended the call with Carol. “Why didn’t you link it with the car’s system?”
“Carol called me. Not you, Andrew, or Brundar.”
In the back seat, Andrew chuckled. “We all heard her anyway.”
Anandur shrugged. “I know, but it’s a matter of decorum.”
Kian cast him a sidelong glance. “If you were concerned with propriety, you should’ve told her that you were in the car with us before letting her talk.”
“Maybe, but then all of you would’ve thought that Carol and I were keeping secrets. Besides, it saves me the trouble of repeating what she said.” He glanced at Kian. “Are we still considering that crazy plan?”
“That depends on what we learn from Lokan.”
“Is he even awake yet?” Andrew asked.
“Arwel said that he woke up and then dozed off again.” Kian removed his sunglasses and put them in his pocket. “Probably because of all the sedatives we’ve pumped into him.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t demand that Lokan be awakened last night when they brought him.”
“I wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. I wanted to talk with Turner first and get his opinion. I also wanted to hear Ella and Vivian’s versions about what went on while Lokan had them. Their insight into his personality was very helpful. According to them, he seems smart, educated, well-mannered, and full of himself.”
“Wasn’t pumping him with shitloads of sedatives dangerous to his brain?” Anandur asked.
“It’s not. Bridget approved it. She said that keeping him asleep will allow his body to repair the damage he sustained.”
“I thought that Turner shot him in the legs.” Anandur frowned. “Did he shatter his kneecaps?”
“No, but after getting shot, Lokan fell back down the jet’s stairs and hit his head on the last rung.”
“That’s not a big deal either.”
“We needed to keep him sedated until he was locked down in the keep’s dungeon. A few more shots to keep him asleep throughout the night weren’t going to make a difference.”
“Do you think he realizes who has him?” Andrew asked.
“Unless he figured it out when Turner shot him, I don’t see how he could. It was lights out for him seconds later.”
Andrew chuckled. “I wish I could peek into his head and see what he imagines happened to him. That should be interesting.”
“He’s a Doomer,” Brundar said. “He probably thinks one of his brothers set him up. Dalhu says they are constantly competing for positions and for their father’s approval.”
Kian didn’t want to speculate. What he’d been itching to do since Lokan’s capture was to start the interrogation.
Last night, it had been too late to question Ella and Vivian about their interactions with Lokan and what they had learned from him. Ella had gone home with Julian straight from the plane, and Kian had no doubt the two had been busy celebrating her safe return.
The same was true of Vivian and Magnus.
This morning, Kian had waited for as long as he possibly could before calling them up to ask a few questions. The rest would have to wait for Monday after all the celebrating was done.
The main thing Ella had warned him against was how good of a liar Lokan was. That was why Kian had called Andrew and asked him to come along. His brother-in-law’s lie-detecting services were needed.
The second thing Ella had warned him about was Lokan’s chameleonic adaptation ability. Apparently, the guy knew how to make himself likable when he wanted.
Not that it was going to work on Kian.
As someone who’d witnessed the atrocities committed by Doomers, Kian’s hatred for them ran deep. The only reason he’d accepted Dalhu and Robert into the clan was the sacrifice each of them had made to prove themselves worthy.
But it hadn’t been easy to do. It had taken him a long time to accept that not all Doomers were evil, and that some managed to escape their leader’s relentless brainwashing and maintain some basic decency.
That, however, could not be true of Navuh’s sons. They were privy to the backstage of their father’s propaganda, and they were the ones in charge of executing his evil plans.
No one would ever convince him that they had any decency left in them at all. Except perhaps for the one who had gotten away.
Kalugal.
What Kian had managed to piece together was that Kalugal had faked his own death during the Second World War and escaped to the States. Sometime later, he’d had a chance encounter with Eva, activating her dormant genes and turning her immortal without either of them realizing it.
Even a skeptic like Kian had to concede that the Fates had something to do with that. The chain of events was just too fantastic for it all to have happened by chance.
As Kian’s phone rang, he accepted the call, and Arwel’s voice came through the car’s speakers. “He is getting out of bed. Any instructions?”
“Get him breakfast,” Anandur said.
“I’m not his servant.”
“The dude needs to eat.”
“So, you get it,” Arwel said.
Anandur huffed. “Fine, I will. I’ll get him stuff from the vending machines.”
“Bring some for me too.”
“I’m not your servant, buddy.”
As humorous as the exchange was, the truth was that Kian would have to make arrangements for the Doomer and his keepers to have their meals delivered.
Last night, Arwel had volunteered to stay down in the dungeon in the cell adjacent to Lokan’s and head the team of Guardians assigned to him. Evidently, deep underground or high in the sky were the only places Arwel could escape the bombardment of emotions normally assailing him. This assignment was perfect for him, and he’d jumped at the opportunity.
The problem was that they hadn’t figured out the logistics yet. Until they did, the Guardians on rotation in the keep would have to take turns bringing in meals for Lokan and those in charge of keeping an eye on him
Kian’s other option was to bring Okidu to prepare meals for them, but then he would be giving up his butler for the fucking Doomer.
Wasn’t going to happen.
Whatever the solution, he was going to address it later when he got back to the office. Right now, he was too jazzed up about interrogating his prisoner and getting game-changing intel out of him.
Was Lokan going to be a hard nut to crack?
The Doomer was old and experienced, a seasoned soldier, but the question was how loyal was he to his father? If they were lucky, Lokan hated Navuh and would cooperate freely, but Kian didn’t like to indulge in wishful thinking.
“I’m curious to see how different Lokan is from the other Doomers,” Andrew said. “Even Dalhu, who was a unit commander, and Robert, who was Sharim’s right-hand man, knew very little of use to us. I think Navuh keeps information highly compartmentalized. Lokan might know more than Dalhu and Robert, but not much.”
Anandur shrugged. “We will soon find out. I bet it’s going to be interesting, though. From what Ella and Vivian said about him, Lokan is charming and smart. His plan to kidnap them was brilliant. If not for Turner’s connections and quick thinking, the Doomer would have succeeded in snatching them from under our noses despite all the men we had in place. Not only that, he would have done it with significantly fewer resources at his disposal. I can despise what he attempted to do, but I have to respect his smarts.”
4
Lokan
Lokan opened his eyes and groaned. He hadn’t found Ella in dream world, and his head was still throbbing.
She was either awake, or he was somehow being blocked from entering her dream.
How long had he been asleep?
As before, the room was still completely dark, and he had no sense of time or space for that matter. To familiarize himself with his surroundings, he had to get out of bed and search for the light switch.
No pain in his legs meant that his wounds were all healed by now. Which implied that the human hadn’t hit any bones and had caused only flesh wounds.
Still, the guy had caused him injury, so summoning aggression and imagining sinking his fangs into that human’s throat was easy.
As Lokan had expected, his eyes started emitting a subtle glow by which he could see enough to orient himself. He made sure it was dim, nothing that would show up on the surveillance cameras that he was sure were there, but for an immortal it sufficed.
He was in what looked like a nicely appointed hotel room, and a glance at the ceiling confirmed the camera he’d expected.
Peeling the duvet off, Lokan swung his legs over the side of the bed. His pants were in tatters, but that had been done to treat his wounds. His thighs were bandaged, which was good because he needed to hide the fact that they were already healed.
But that wasn’t the only thing he noticed. He had cuffs on both his wrists and ankles. Whatever purpose they served, he could probably break out of them, but that would give away his immortal strength, which at the moment was the only advantage he could surprise his jailers with.
Shuffling as if he were in pain, he pretended to pat the walls until he found the switch and turned the lights on.
The first door he opened led to a small walk-in closet where he found his two suitcases lying on the floor. They were both closed, but he had no doubt they had been searched. The second door led to a small living room and the third to a very nice, spacious bathroom.
Not bad. It seemed that the American government wasn’t stingy when it came to hosting its paranormal talents.
After using the facilities, he went back to the closet and opened one of his suitcases. Whoever had gone through the contents had folded everything nicely but without bothering to put things back in the same order.
The message was clear. They wanted him to know that his stuff had been searched, but also that it had been treated with respect.
This indicated that they wanted his cooperation, which was a good sign.
Lokan was a master manipulator. If given half a chance, he would find a way out of this mess.
A change of clothes and his toiletries in hand, he headed back to the bathroom and turned the water on in the shower.
Those watching him on the surveillance cameras would tell whoever was coming to talk to him to wait until he was done showering and got dressed, which meant that as long as he was standing under the spray, no one was going to come in, and he would have time to think.
Thankfully, there was no camera in the bathroom. Not because he minded his jailers seeing him nude, but because he wanted to take the bandages off and examine his wounds.
As he had suspected, no trace remained, and his thighs looked perfectly healed. Lokan left the bandages on the vanity’s counter and stepped into the shower. Normally, he would have burned them so no trace of his blood remained for anyone to examine, but he was sure that his jailers had taken blood samples from him when he’d been out.
Besides, unless there was a fireplace in the living room, which he didn’t remember seeing, he didn’t have the means to do that.
It was a minor concern, though. His biggest one was his father, but Lokan had almost an entire month until his presence was required at the island. He worked independently and reported only to Navuh, so no one was going to look for him until he failed to show up for their next meeting.
That was good. A month was plenty of time to get himself out of this situation. A powerful immortal with nearly a thousand years of experience in manipulating humans should have no prob
lem outsmarting a bunch of bureaucrats.
This wasn’t the movies, and this place wasn’t run by X-Men mutants possessing extraordinary abilities.
In fact, this could be an opportunity to find more humans with paranormal talents. He could walk out of here with a bunch of them in tow.
Perhaps the best strategy was to at first play along and learn as much as he could about where he was and who he was up against. If he could stall until nightfall, he could attempt to dream-share with Ella again and find out more.
When he was done with his shower, Lokan got dressed, sprayed some cologne on, and walked into the living room area of his apartment. There were no windows, so he assumed it was underground, and when he checked the front door, it didn’t even have a handle.
A quick search of the walls revealed no buttons to press and no intercom. Unless someone opened the door from the outside, there was no way out, and judging by the sound it made when he knocked on it, the thing was at least a foot thick.
Maybe it was a mutant base after all, and this was a holding cell for intelligent gorillas. Humans used doors like that for their bank safes, not inside their jails.
Despite how desperate his situation seemed, Lokan chuckled. They either thought of him as a priceless jewel or a dangerous gorilla.
Glancing up, he checked the air-conditioning vents, but they were the new kind, which was a long slit instead of the square grate of years past. Knocking on the walls, he wasn’t surprised to find them made from concrete.
As he headed to the bar area, the phone rang. He picked up the receiver. “Yes?”
“Please take a seat on the couch and don’t move. You are about to receive visitors.”
“Thank you for the heads up, but I can see that there is a refrigerator in the bar, and I was wondering if I could get something to drink.”
The guy on the other side of the line chuckled. “Sure, there are bottles of water and beer in there. Get yourself a drink and then sit on the couch. Don’t make any sudden moves if you don’t want to get shot again.”
