by I. T. Lucas
It was pointless to argue with his mother. Once she made up her mind, it was better to just say ‘yes, ma'am’ and do what she wanted.
“I’ll call Andrew to meet us there.”
“Why do we need to bother him on his day off?” Annani asked.
“Lokan is an excellent liar. I don’t trust anything coming out of his mouth unless Andrew is there to verify its veracity.”
“Very well.” She waved magnanimously. “Call Andrew.”
He sent a message instead, apologizing for taking the guy away from his family on a Sunday, and then sent another message to Arwel, instructing him to prepare Lokan for the visit and read him the riot act.
Thankfully, Carol was in the village, helping with the wedding preparations. It was better if Annani didn’t know about the mating just yet. The longer he managed to keep it from her, the better.
Except, the Doomer was probably going to mention it right away to gain her sympathy.
Perhaps it would be better if he told her first.
“Before you meet Lokan, there are a few things you should know. He is very clever, charming, and manipulative. Don’t ever let your guard down.”
Annani nodded.
He took a deep breath. “The other thing you should be aware of is that he and Carol believe that they are each other's fated mates. Or at least Carol believes that. I think he is manipulating her, but Anandur disagrees, pointing out that Carol has plenty of experience, including with an immortal male, and it’s not likely that she could be fooled by Lokan pretending to be her mate.”
“Did you get Edna to probe him?” Annani asked.
“Not yet. I should, though. In the meantime, we can use Andrew’s lie-detecting skills.”
“I can probably enter Lokan’s head, but I would rather not do it without his permission.”
“I’m not sure of that. He has two uncommon talents. Compulsion and dream-sharing. He might have more that he hasn’t revealed yet. In any case, he is incredibly powerful, and you shouldn’t think of him as a regular Doomer.”
She waved a hand. “I am well aware of that. Lokan’s father is the most powerful immortal in existence. Navuh’s powers are as strong as a god’s.”
It rankled to hear his own mother admit that her arch-nemesis’s son was more powerful than her own, but it was the unfortunate truth. Especially if their suspicion about Navuh's incredible ability to compel his entire island’s population was true, and it seemed that it was.
Even Annani didn’t possess such an ability, and according to her, before the catastrophe had destroyed the other gods, she had been one of the most powerful.
“Carol says that Lokan’s curiosity about the harem is more personal in nature than what he admitted to me. She thinks he wants to find out who his mother is, or was. None of the sons knows whether his mother was a Dormant or an immortal, a wife, a concubine, or a servant.”
“They must all be immortal. I can’t see Navuh refraining from biting a Dormant just because he doesn’t want her to transition. And that’s also the reason why he keeps them locked up and under such heavy guard. He is the only one on the island who has access to immortal females.”
“What I don’t understand,” Syssi said, “is how come the immortal females don’t thrall their human servants to let them go, or at least to sneak messages out to their children.”
Kian took Syssi’s hand. “Compulsion is stronger than a thrall. Navuh has all the humans working in the harem under compulsion, so they can easily resist the immortal females. Besides, without proper training, the women wouldn’t know how to do it. You still can’t thrall, and I’ve been training you.”
Syssi shrugged. “Because I didn’t have any use for it, so I wasn’t motivated. Those women have all the motivation in the world. I can’t imagine not being able to communicate with a child of mine. That’s just awful.”
50
Lokan
The door mechanism engaging took Lokan by surprise. Carol wasn’t due back until late at night, and she’d left him with enough food to last the rest of the day, so there was no reason for Arwel or any of the other Guardians to come in.
Not that he was complaining about having an unexpected visitor. It was maddening to sit around and do nothing, being completely isolated and not knowing what was going on in the world.
He’d attempted to entertain himself by watching some movies, then he had given a shooting game a try, but those kinds of activities had never appealed to him. Lokan was a doer, not a spectator.
Perhaps he should start writing his memoirs. At least there was some creativity in it. If Dalhu could become a painter, then he could turn into a writer. What else was there to do in a prison cell?
When Arwel walked in though, Lokan didn’t have to be empathic to sense the Guardian’s nervous excitement.
“In about half an hour, you are getting a very important visitor. Annani is coming to see you.”
Lokan swallowed. He wasn’t the type who got intimidated easily, but facing a goddess must be ten times worse than facing his father, and Navuh was intimidating as hell.
“Should I put on a suit?”
Arwel shrugged. “I don’t think Annani cares one way or another. You’re fine the way you are.” The Guardian glanced around the room. “Just tidy up a little.”
The dishes from his late breakfast were still on the dining table. But since they were all disposable, all he needed to do was to put them in the trash and wipe the table’s surface clean. Even he could do that.
“When she comes, you are going to sit on the couch with your hands on your thighs, palms down, and not move. If she asks you to come closer, wait for my okay before responding. Any suspicious twitch, and I’m going to send poison into your veins. It’s not going to kill you, but I bet you don’t want to be spasming and foaming at the mouth in front of the goddess.”
“You have nothing to worry about. I’m not an idiot.”
Arwel nodded. “I’m counting on it. Other than that, be polite, don’t cuss, and address her as the Clan Mother.”
“No problem. I have a lot of experience dealing with my father. I know how to act in front of a ruler.”
Arwel seemed offended by the comparison. “Annani is nothing like Navuh. But you’ll discover it soon enough. Prepare to be awed.”
“Is she very beautiful?”
If she looked anything like the picture of her daughter that was hanging over the couch, then the answer was yes.
“Otherworldly so.” Arwel glanced at his watch. “Twenty-five minutes. You’d better get moving.”
Once the door closed behind the Guardian, Lokan took care of cleaning the table first, and then rushed into the bedroom.
A suit was in order. First of all, because he wanted to look dignified, but also out of respect for the goddess. She’d spared his men when she had no reason to do so, and for that, she deserved his gratitude and utmost respect. Even if she was a worse diva than his father, her compassion had earned her the best and most humble attitude he could muster.
Since he was not a humble male by nature, that wasn’t much, but he was going to make an effort.
After a quick shower, he put on a white dress shirt, a dark blue suit, a matching tie, and even polished his shoes with a towel.
He’d even gone as far as making the bed, a first for him since he’d always had someone else do it for him. Chances were that she would never go in there, but she might need to use the washroom, and to get there, she would have to go through the bedroom. Annani was a goddess, but she was still a female, and females appreciated tidiness.
He was a prisoner and the son of her sworn enemy. Anything he could do to improve her impression of him, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, was worth the effort.
51
Annani
Excitement churning in her stomach, Annani waited for Kian and the brothers to enter Lokan’s cell first and secure it for her.
It wasn’t necessary, she could handle any immort
al, except maybe for Navuh, but it eased Kian’s mind.
Next to her, Syssi shifted from foot to foot. “It’s my first time too. I can’t wait to meet Lokan, especially after hearing about him and Carol. Even Kian and I didn’t bond so fast.”
Annani lifted a brow. “Are you sure?”
Her daughter-in-law blushed. “I was attracted to him immediately. Heck, it was like getting struck by lightning. My legs turned into jelly.”
Smiling, Annani patted her arm. “If you were an experienced immortal like Carol, you might have realized right then and there that Kian was your fated mate. But since you were not familiar with the concept, you thought that it was only lust.”
Syssi blushed again, her eyes darting in the direction of the elevators. “I hope Andrew is not going to be too late. I wonder what’s keeping him. There shouldn't be much traffic on a Sunday.”
Annani had forgotten about Andrew coming to join them. Were there enough chairs for everyone to sit on? The brothers would volunteer to stand, but Annani did not like the tall men to hover above her and crowd her space. She preferred for everyone to be seated.
“It is going to be crowded in there,” she murmured.
Taking her words the wrong way, Syssi’s eyes darted toward the elevators again. “I don’t really need to be there. I can wait in the old café, or in Arwel’s room.”
“Nonsense.” Annani reached for Syssi’s hand. “I was just stating a fact, not suggesting that you should not come in.”
As Kian came out, he regarded them both with a stern expression. “Lokan has been instructed to sit on the couch with his hands on his thighs where the brothers and I can see them. I don’t want either of you to come closer or offer him your hand for a handshake.” He pinned Annani with a hard stare. “Please don’t disregard my instructions because they are crucial for your safety. I don’t want to explain why, but I assure you that I’m not being overly cautious.”
Poor Kian. Always afraid for her, or rather of what she might do.
“I will do as you ask, my son.” She smiled sweetly. “Not because I think these measures are necessary, but because I do not want you to be tense. Let us go in and have a pleasant talk with Lokan, shall we?”
With a slight dip of his head, Kian waved them ahead of him. “Ladies first.”
Assuming a reassuring expression, Annani glided into the small living room, her eyes immediately going to the male sitting on the couch in the pose he had been instructed to hold.
His dark eyes widening in awe, he dipped his head. “Greetings, Clan Mother. I apologize for not bowing properly to you, but I was instructed not to move.”
“No bowing required.” Annani glided to the armchair Kian was standing behind and sat down, arranging the skirt of her gown around her knees.
When she was seated, Kian motioned for Syssi to take the other one. “This is my wife, Syssi.”
“Nice to meet you.” She smiled at Lokan.
He dipped his head. “The pleasure is all mine.”
Grimacing, Kian sat on one of the dinette chairs the brothers had arranged to face the couch and the lone man sitting on it.
Annani had seen the portrait Dalhu had drawn of Lokan, but it had not done him justice because Dalhu had not known him well. The charcoal drawing did not showcase the powerful personality shining through his eyes, or the dangerous vibe that emanated from him like a force field.
There was something about Lokan that tugged at her heart. A feeling of familiarity. Was this the affinity Amanda was talking about?
Except, Annani had not felt this way with Dalhu or Robert. Still, they were both good males, and she was glad that they had joined her clan and proven to Kian that not all Doomers were evil, and that there was hope for them someday living peacefully alongside her clan.
Lokan was definitely his father’s son. She could see Navuh in his lean, tall build and in his gorgeous, dark features, but where Navuh’s were harsh and angular, Lokan’s were softened by what he must have gotten from his mother.
Who was she?
Navuh had inherited his father’s harem, which contained several immortal females, but Annani had not known them. Perhaps some of her people had survived the cataclysm and found dubious refuge in Navuh’s camp?
The door opened, and Andrew walked in together with Arwel. “My apologies for the late arrival, Clan Mother.” He bowed to her.
“No apologies needed, Andrew. It is I who feel bad about tearing you away from your lovely family on a Sunday. How is sweet little Phoenix doing?”
“Running around and causing havoc. She is a ball of energy.”
“I would like to see her. Talk with Nathalie and let me know when is a good time.”
He bowed again. “I will.”
From the corner of her eye, she caught Lokan observing the conversation with a frown and wondered what it was about. Did he disapprove of the familiarity between her and her people? Or was he impressed by it?
For some reason, his opinion mattered to her.
52
Lokan
Otherworldly.
Arwel had been spot on with that one word. Before his capture, Lokan hadn’t dedicated much thought to Annani and what she looked like or who she was as a person.
Unlike his father, Lokan had no interest in the clan. They were a small and insignificant group of immortals, and they posed no real threat to his people. He had no problem with their humanitarian efforts, and he didn’t mind the technological knowhow they were drip-feeding to humanity. On the contrary. The Brotherhood benefited from the innovations as much as the humans did.
But that was because he wasn’t interested in world domination or enslaving humanity, while his father was obsessed with it.
Lokan’s interest in the goddess had been sparked only after he’d discovered that she’d been sparing his men, but the image he’d conjured in his head had been all wrong. For some reason, he had imagined a tall female with blonde hair and fair, gentle features, wearing a compassionate expression that bordered on pained, as if the fate of the world was resting on her shoulders.
Where the hell had he come up with that?
Annani was pale-skinned, but that was the only resemblance to what his imagination had come up with.
For starters, Annani’s skin glowed, actually emitting light. He’d never known that the gods had been luminescent. Several human myths mentioned it, and there was even a reference in The Book of Enoch about Noah being born with luminous skin and his father accusing his mother of cheating on him with a god. But myths were not a reliable source of information.
In this case, however, they’d gotten it right. It made sense that if Annani’s skin emitted light, so had those of other gods.
Was it true of her size too? Had all the gods been so short? And so perfect?
Annani was tiny, even shorter than Carol, and so beautiful that it was hard to look at her.
What about the hair?
Annani’s was flaming red and so long that it reached past her thighs. Had the gods been red-haired?
But those were physical attributes.
The most significant difference between his imagination and reality was the expression. Hers wasn’t compassionate or pained, it was determined and commanding. Annani’s eyes shone with wisdom and curiosity. She looked regal, but not in the condescending way his father did. Annani just had that aura about her.
Was it also an attribute of the pure-blooded gods? Or was Annani special?
And that voice. If he’d heard it without seeing her, he would have described it as otherworldly as well. Melodious was a poor description, but it was the only one that had popped into his head.
Crossing her legs under her long silk gown, Annani put her hands on her knee. “I have heard that your father separates his children from their mothers at an early age and has them raised by Dormants.”
One tiny foot peeked from under the dress’s hem, catching his attention. The goddess was wearing flat-heeled soft shoes that matched th
e dark-green color of her dress. Apparently, Annani valued comfort and had the confidence to forgo high heels even though everyone in the room towered over her.
Well, the males did. Kian’s mate was an average-sized female, but even she looked tall in comparison.
He lifted his head to look at the goddess’s impossible eyes. “This is true.”
“Do you at least know your mother’s name?”
He shook his head. “I don’t.”
Compassion flitted through her wise eyes, and her voice softened, turning soothing. “Do you know how old you were when you were separated from her?”
“I was told that I was about eighteen months old when I was delivered to the Dormants’ enclosure.”
The goddess’s small foot started swinging back and forth under the long skirt of her dress. “That is young, but it is old enough to remember at least something of your mother.”
“Blue eyes. As a kid, I used to dream about blue eyes looking at me lovingly. Back then, before my father started importing women from other ethnicities, the color was uncommon in the Brotherhood. So naturally, I thought that they belonged to my mother. But it might have been just a dream.”
“What else do you remember about her?”
He shrugged. “As I said, it wasn’t a memory. But in the dreams, she had fair skin and rosy cheeks.”
“What about the color of her hair?” Annani sounded almost breathless.
“I don’t remember seeing her hair. She might have been wearing a scarf around her head like the Dormants in the enclosure. Or maybe I just gave her one in my dreams because that was what all the females were wearing back then.”
Annani put her hand over her chest as if the next question was going to pain her. “Does the name Areana ring a bell?”
“I’m sorry. It seems important to you, but it does not.”
She nodded. “You probably called her mother or mama. Little kids do not call their mothers by their given name.” Looking deflated, Annani slumped into the armchair.
