by I. T. Lucas
She fired back. That’s a good idea. I’ll wait to eat dinner with you.
It sounded so domestic. He loved it. Having a mate to come home to was not something he’d ever hoped to experience.
It might take a while, and I don’t want you to wait. Eat with your guests.
I’ll save you a plate.
Okay.
Pocketing his phone, Yamanu smiled and closed his eyes.
“The mated bliss. I’m so envious.” Onegus sighed.
“Don’t jinx it. First, we need to make sure that Mey transitions.”
“My bad. When are you going to start on that?”
Yamanu tensed. Had Kian talked? Because Onegus shouldn’t be asking that. He should have assumed that they’d been working on it at least from yesterday.
“Who says that we haven’t started yet?”
The chief shrugged. “She only got here yesterday, and the party ended late. Mey is still a human, she must have been exhausted.” He glanced at Yamanu. “The Fates were generous with you. Mey is much more than a gorgeous woman. She has a strong personality. You fit well together.”
“Thank you.”
When they got to the village Yamanu pretended to go home, but as soon as he ditched Onegus, he changed directions and headed to the new phase of the village where Merlin’s house was.
“Come in,” the doctor yelled as he knocked.
Yamanu had an excuse ready in case Merlin was not alone, but thankfully, he didn’t sense anyone else in the house.
“Do you have a moment?”
“I have all evening.” Merlin pointed to the couch. “Take a seat.”
Yamanu eyed the thing, debating whether he should remain standing. The sofa was covered in books and magazines, empty candy wrappers, and crumbs that looked moldy.
Merlin was a major slob.
“Excuse the mess.” The doctor lifted a pile of books, swiped the crumbs away with his hand, and pointed at the spot he'd cleared. “Better?”
“Thank you.”
Merlin sat on the chair across from the couch. “What can I help you with, Yamanu? Are you ready to start a family?”
Yamanu swallowed. Was it written on his forehead? Because he doubted Kian had betrayed his confidence.
“Why would you think that's what I want to talk to you about?”
The doctor shrugged. “The fertility potion is what everyone wants from me lately, and I heard that you’ve snagged yourself a Dormant. Congratulations.”
Damn, he was getting paranoid. Besides, he came here to confess.
“Thank you, but perhaps the congratulations are premature.”
Merlin’s smile slid off his face. “What’s the problem?”
“Before I start, I need your word that this will stay confidential.”
Merlin puffed out his scrawny chest. “I’m a doctor. I don’t reveal my patients’ confidential information.”
“Then consider me your patient.”
“Done.”
Merlin listened intently to Yamanu’s story, not interrupting even once, just frowning and uttering an occasional 'aha'.
“So, what do you think, can Mey’s idea work?”
The doctor spread his arms. “It has never been done. I don’t know if we can even extract venom from an immortal. And for the composition to be right, it needs to be produced by arousal. When an immortal male is in that state, he has only one thing on his mind, and it’s not getting his fangs milked for venom.”
Yamanu slumped back. “Can we at least try? Perhaps one of my Guardian buddies who are mated would be willing to do that for me?”
Merlin’s smart eyes filled with compassion. “You will be forced to tell him what it's all about, and then he would need to tell his mate because he would need her to produce the venom. And then it might not work. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s not going to. You have only three options. Take a break from your vow, forget about it entirely, or let Mey choose another male to induce her.”
“Number three is not an option, and number two will leave the clan without protection. That leaves the first one, but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to go back to celibacy.”
Merlin nodded. “Can you give me a sample of that potion you’ve been dosing yourself with? I want to check it out.”
Yamanu rubbed his hand over his jaw. “That’s another problem. Since I met Mey, I’ve been increasing the dosage, but despite that, the potion seems to be getting less effective by the day, and I’m experiencing side effects I didn’t before. I started feeling lethargic and foggy.”
“That might be a side effect of the potion, but it could also be that you are depressed. The choices you are faced with are extremely difficult.”
Could that be true?
There were moments in which Yamanu felt elated for having been gifted with a treasure like Mey, and others when he felt that the burden on his shoulders was so heavy that he was sinking under its weight.
“What do you think I should do?”
Merlin smiled sadly. “I can’t tell you that. As much as I would have loved to ease your burden, you have to make this decision yourself. No one can make it for you. But if I may, I would like to make a small suggestion.”
“By all means.”
“Since it looks like you are going to choose option number one, you should consider freezing up semen for the future. If one day you decide that you want to have babies with your lady, and you are still keeping your vow, that might make it possible without going through the torment of stopping and resuming your celibacy again.”
24
Kian
Kian surveyed the war room, the real one, not his office in the underground that had been given the same name by the men. Fifty-four Guardians had gathered for the pre-mission briefing, their male voices filling the room with an atmosphere of positive camaraderie he wished he could bottle and carry around with him for when he was feeling down.
Some of the rescue missions couldn’t be postponed, which meant that they were going to face the Doomers with even fewer men than he had hoped for.
On the podium, Onegus counted heads to make sure everyone was present. When he was done, he clapped his hands to get their attention. At the foot of the podium, Shai started the recording.
“By the latest count, we will be facing sixty-two Doomers,” Onegus started. “But that number might still change. As we’ve seen, they did not all arrive at the same time, and more might be coming tonight and tomorrow. What it means is that we can’t have one Guardian per Doomer like we did last time. We won’t be able to immobilize them before they know what hit them. We are going to encounter resistance, and there will be fighting.”
Several of the guys high-fived each other. No one seemed overly concerned.
“The good news is that there are no humans in the building itself, which means that we don’t have to worry about witnesses during the fight, but the area is densely populated, and the surrounding buildings are all clustered close together. That being said, we are lucky to have Yamanu, who is going to shroud the entire block. That alone will ensure minimal human casualties, if at all.”
All eyes turned to Yamanu.
“A big round of applause for our secret weapon,” Anandur called out.
The guys all started clapping and demanding that Yamanu take a bow.
Smiling, he flipped them off.
Appropriate, Kian thought. They had no idea what Yamanu was sacrificing for their safety. They wouldn’t have been teasing him like that if they did.
Onegus raised his hand and waited for the men to quiet down.
“Unlike on most other missions, we expect injuries. Regrettably, we can’t bomb the place as we did the monastery, and since we are in the middle of an urban area, speed is crucial, and the full-body suits would slow us down. We are going in with only the vests that are part of our disguises.”
There were a few murmurs, but not of concern, but rather relief. The suits were cumbersome, and it got hot as hell inside th
em.
“What disguises?” Anandur asked.
Onegus lifted a bulletproof vest with the acronym SWAT printed on it. “There is a chance some of the Doomers might manage to escape outside the shrouded area. The uniforms will come in handy for the chase. People will see them and trust that things are under control. But that’s just a nice side effect of the real reason for these. Since we don’t want the Brotherhood to find out who took out their men, and we’ve already staged a defection and an accident, we had to come up with a new and creative scenario. This time the police get them.”
“How’s that going to work?” Anandur asked.
After Onegus explained, he put the vest down. “Bridget and Julian retrofitted one of the buses to be our field hospital, so they’ll be able to mend most things on the spot, including broken bones.”
“What about Merlin?” someone asked.
“He is going to stay in the village in case one of our rescue teams needs medical help.”
“What are we going to do with the downed Doomers?” Brundar asked.
“We have four SWAT trucks in addition to the ones we will be using to get in and out of there.”
“Do we have space left in the catacombs?” Rupert asked.
Onegus nodded. “We are going to double up and store two Doomers in one spot.”
It was a temporary solution, but the truth was that Kian hadn’t come up with a long-term one yet. The old keep was maxed out, and he didn’t want to bring the Doomers into the village even though they posed no threat while in stasis.
It was about keeping the place clean. Now that he and Syssi were about to welcome a child into the world, he didn’t want any darkness to contaminate the sanctuary that he had built for his people. If he told his mother that, she would have been tickled. Her son, the staunch skeptic, was suddenly entertaining superstitious beliefs.
Except, there was a practical side to it as well. Even though the chances of someone spontaneously waking up from stasis were slim, they weren’t impossible, as evidenced by Wonder.
A new location would have to be found to store the Doomers, and that was a problem. Guardians would have to be assigned to the new location, and Kian hated further splitting the force.
When all the questions were answered, Onegus dismissed the Guardians. They had the next day off until ten o’clock at night, when the last pre-mission meeting was going to take place.
The raid was scheduled for one in the morning the next day.
As usual, Onegus had vetoed Kian’s participation in the raid, but this time Kian hadn’t even argued the point.
With his mother in the village, it was out of the question. Leaving only a minimal force in place to guard her and the rest of the village’s civilians made him uneasy. The least he could do was be there in case emergency measures had to be deployed.
Even though they had procedures in place to block access to the village in case of an attack, something always went wrong, and improvisations had to be made on the spot.
Besides, if he joined the raid, Syssi would have been worried, and he didn’t want her to get stressed. He was still troubled by the fainting spell and strange vision she’d had while preparing Yamanu and Mey’s welcome party.
Something about the pregnancy was making her more susceptible to visions, and what was worse, they were starting to get mixed up with her regular dreams and even her imagination.
Could it be the baby’s doing?
Vivian hadn’t had a telepathic ability until she’d gotten pregnant with Ella. It had grown in strength along with her unborn child.
Kian had a feeling that their little Allegra might turn out to be a powerful seer, and that filled him with dread. He had seen what premonitions had been doing to Syssi. He did not want his daughter to carry an even heavier burden.
25
Mey
Mey leaned back and groaned. “I’m going to get fat, and it’s all because of you. I can say goodbye to my modeling career.”
Carol eyed her with an amused expression on her face. “I think you can forget about modeling anyway. Immortals can’t be in the limelight. If they could, Amanda would have been a movie star.”
Callie and Wonder laughed, but Mey didn’t know Kian’s sister well enough to get what was funny about that. Amanda was not only a striking beauty, but she also had charisma and a strong personality. Mey could definitely see her starring in movies.
“Amanda is very dramatic,” Callie said. “I think she secretly yearns to be an actress.”
“I don’t see why not.” Mey shrugged. “She could have fun for a few years and then retire. If anyone spotted her, she could claim to be a doppelgänger.”
“Too risky,” Carol said.
Mey looked at the two stuffed grape leaves left on the platter. “Oh, well.” She scooped them onto her plate. “I’m glad that I saved a plate for Yamanu. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been any left for him.”
She cut a piece off one and stuffed it in her mouth. “These are so good. I've had plenty of those before, but not homemade and not as good as yours, Callie. You have a gift.”
“Thanks.”
“Amanda is exactly like her mother,” Wonder said.
“Do you know the goddess well?” Mey asked.
Again, the three laughed, and once more Mey felt out of the loop.
“Wonder is Annani’s best friend,” Carol explained. “They’ve known each other since childhood.”
Mey's eyes widened. “How is that possible? Yamanu told me that there were no survivors except for Annani and her sister and that no one knew that the sister survived until recently.”
Wonder’s eyes misted with tears. “I was buried underground and in stasis for thousands of years. When I woke up, I didn’t remember who I was. And when my memory returned, I thought that everyone I loved was gone except for Annani. Then Carol found Areana for us, and it turned out that my sister accompanied her out of the area before the disaster. I still can’t believe that my sister's alive.” She lifted a napkin and wiped her eyes. “I want to see her so much.”
“So why don’t you?”
The three exchanged glances, and then Carol patted Mey’s arm. “There is so much we still have to tell you, but that will take the rest of tonight and the next day, and I need to get going.”
“Yeah, me too,” Callie said. “The guys are back already, and Brundar is waiting for me at home.”
“Same here.” Wonder pushed away from the table. “Come by the café tomorrow. After the morning rush is over, I might have a few minutes to breathe, and I’ll tell you more about our history.”
Mey got up as well. “Thank you for coming and keeping me company. I really appreciate it.”
Carol smiled. “It was our pleasure. Welcome to the clan.” She pulled Mey into her arms.
For a small woman, she was very strong, and her embrace was a bit too tight.
“Thank you.” Mey pulled away. “I really hope that I get to stay. I like it here.”
The door opened, and everyone’s eyes turned to Yamanu, who walked in with a big friendly smile on his perfect face.
Mey’s breath caught in her throat. He was so strikingly handsome that every time she saw him enter a room, it was like getting zapped with an electric current. Especially with that broad, charming grin that made everyone love him.
What a man.
“Hello, ladies.” He walked over and shook each one’s hand. “Thank you for keeping Mey company. I felt so bad for leaving her alone in the house on her second day in the village.”
“It was our pleasure.” Carol stretched on the tips of her toes and pulled him down to kiss his cheek. “You’ve got yourself an awesome lady. I wish you both the best of luck.”
The fond way Yamanu was looking at Carol would have made Mey nervous if he were a regular guy. But even without any empathic ability, she could sense that Carol and Yamanu had a history, just not the romantic kind.
Besides, they were distant cousins, and according to
Yamanu, relationships between the descendants of Annani were forbidden. Something about their peculiar genetics made it so that they were as closely related to each other as human first cousins.
That was another advantage of living in the village, and not one to sneer at. Except for the few women who were already mated to other clan members, all the others were Yamanu’s relatives and posed no temptation.
She was being absurd.
The man had withstood temptation for centuries, and the first woman to break his resolve was her. Loyalty was not an issue with Yamanu. If anything, he had it in excess.
Once all the goodbyes and hugs and kisses were done, and they were finally alone, Yamanu let out a breath and pulled her into his arms.
“I missed you.” He kissed her lips.
It was a light kiss, not a passionate one, but it ignited a fire within her as if it was the most erotic thing ever.
Evidently, there was something to be said for abstinence. Lack of stimulation heightened the senses, and even the smallest of touches triggered powerful yearnings.
Yamanu let go of her and sighed. “I’ve talked to the doctor.”
26
Yamanu
As Mey’s scent of arousal hit Yamanu’s nostrils, his body responded, but he forced himself to put some distance between them and turned his face toward the kitchen, hoping the smells of food would drown it out.
Who was he kidding?
It was like expecting a tiger who’d smelled prey to stop and admire the lovely scent of roses.
Even though he was hungry, the food held no interest for him. As much as he hated to do that, another dose of the potion was in order. His willpower could only stretch so far.
“I’ll be back in a moment.” He rushed toward the refrigerator for a vial.
“I’ll heat up your plate,” Mey offered, mistaking his urgency for hunger.
“Thanks.” He didn’t correct her.
After last night, he had done his best to hide while taking a dose, feeling like a junkie who had to get his fix in secret. Except in his case, it was the opposite of that. He was taking the antidote.
