by I. T. Lucas
“He wants me to find a place that can be turned into a halfway house for the rescued girls, and also to come up with the financing for it.”
Jackson cast him a sidelong glance. “So that’s what the fundraising is for?”
“Among other things. If it succeeds, we can have more than one halfway house and help many more girls get back on their feet.”
“I’ll talk with Tessa. If all she needs is a little nudge in the right direction, I’ll encourage her to do it. But if she’s really reluctant, you’ll need to find another assistant for Ella. Carol would’ve been fantastic, but she already has too much on her plate.”
Jackson thinking of Carol as a suitable replacement for Tessa made it clear to Julian that Tessa’s past involved something similar to what Carol and Ella had gone through.
Not that the experiences were comparable.
Carol had been abducted by Doomers and tortured by a sadist. In comparison, Ella’s ordeal had been much less traumatic. Except, Carol was a resilient immortal and as far from naïve as it got, while Ella was a very young human girl, who hadn’t been exposed to evil until that scumbag Romeo had trapped her, luring her away from home and delivering her into the clutches of a sex trafficker.
24
Ella
As Ella strolled along one of the many trails meandering through the sanctuary‘s grounds, she was surprised at how eerily quiet everything was. Usually, nature was full of sounds, leaves rustling in the wind, bugs buzzing, birds calling, crickets chirping, but the landscape around her was static and quiet as if it was a backdrop in an indoor filming studio.
“That’s because you’re dreaming.” Logan appeared at her side. “But I can fix that for you.” He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, they were surrounded by all the sounds that had been missing before.
“How did you do that?”
He tapped her temple with his finger. “I just activated your imagination. You weren’t working hard enough on your scenery.” He looked around. “Although I have to admit that it is pleasant enough, I would make it greener, and maybe add a brook. More trees would be nice too.”
As he was about to snap his fingers again, Ella lifted her hand to stop him. “You’ve got a hell of a lot of nerve to give me crap about my landscape after not showing up for nearly two weeks. Besides, this is as green as it gets here. This place is a memory, not something I created in my imagination.”
Logan took a quick look around before returning his eyes to her. “My apologies.” He bowed with exaggerated flair. “Did you miss me?”
Ella shrugged. “Not really. I’ve been busy.”
His dark eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “Doing what?”
“Oh, this and that. But I’m going to be very busy soon enough.”
He waved a hand. “Don’t keep me in suspense. Tell me what you’re planning. Perhaps I can be of help.”
“I doubt it. I’m organizing a fundraiser to help girls who were rescued from situations similar to mine.” She pinned the specter with a hard gaze. “Unless you want to make a donation, that is. I’m sure a rich mercenary warlord like you can afford to spare a few thousand for a good cause.”
It was silly to scold a specter, but on the other hand, it was fun to act as if she could be so brave and outspoken facing the real Logan, telling him what she thought of him straight to his face.
“As you can imagine, I’m not a philanthropist, but I would do it for you.” His eyes went to her mouth. “You could auction your lips, and I’d bid for a kiss from you.”
“Dream on, perv. I’m not kissing you, no matter how much money you pledge to the cause.”
He pouted, pretending offense. “Why not? I’m handsome, and I know for a fact that you’re attracted to me because I’m in your head.”
There was no point in lying to herself, which talking to Logan essentially was. Her subconscious probably needed to sort this out.
“I don’t know why I am. It must be some chemical reaction. Did you put on a pheromone imbued cologne the one time we met?”
“I did no such thing. It’s just my natural magnetism.” He waggled his brows.
“It’s not working on me, so you may as well stop it.”
He didn’t like her answer, and with his smile and fake charm momentarily gone, Logan looked just as scary as he had in her first and second dream encounter with him.
“You’re such a hypocrite, Ella. Are you telling me that you wouldn’t sacrifice one little kiss to get thousands for a cause that’s so dear to you?”
Well, when put like that, he had a point.
Except, giving even one kiss to Logan was dangerous. To raise money for the halfway house, Ella was willing to auction her kisses to complete strangers, but not to Logan.
“That’s because I don’t like you, and I don’t trust you. You’re really bad, and I doubt you’d be satisfied with one kiss.”
He laughed. “True on both counts, but oftentimes naughty girls like bad boys to take charge and steal more than one kiss.”
“I’m not naughty, and I’m too smart to fall for a bad boy again. I was stupid once, and I paid dearly for that. I’m not going to repeat that mistake with you.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “You had sex with Gorchenco, who loved you and cherished you, and you’re making a big deal out of it. Only a spoiled American girl would make such a huge fuss about such a trivial matter.”
Ella frowned. No way was this her own thought.
“Are you in my head, Logan? Because that wasn’t me talking.”
He smiled. “Are you sure?”
She was about to answer that yes, she was absolutely sure, when Logan started fading into mist, and then with a hand wave and a wink he disappeared.
Jerking awake in bed, Ella sucked in a breath. Had the actual Logan been invading her dreams?
She shivered at the thought.
It didn't make sense, though. Even if Logan was a telepath and could communicate with other telepaths from afar, Ella had put up extremely strong mental walls, and she knew they held up while she slept because her mother couldn’t penetrate them no matter how hard she tried.
The simpler explanation was that the words she’d put in dream Logan’s mouth were probably what she thought the real Logan would say, and not her own subconscious thoughts. That was why what he’d said had sounded so foreign and offensive to her.
Her mind had just reminded her why she’d found the real Logan so repulsive in the first place. This was precisely the kind of reasoning he would use.
Shaking the bad feeling away, she decided not to let the dream ruin what was going to be a great day.
Later this morning she was meeting with Brandon, the clan’s media specialist, and Tessa, Jackson's fiancée, for a crash course in operating professional recording equipment.
If Tessa was half as nice as Jackson, the two of them were going to get along great.
What a charmer that guy was. He’d won over everyone in the family, including her brother, her mother, and the dog. Ella was so glad he’d been chosen as Parker’s initiator. According to the clan’s tradition, that meant they were honorary brothers, which was so cool.
Not for the first time, Ella wondered how her mother was going to be initiated. It didn’t make sense for her to fight an immortal male, and as far as Ella knew, immortal females’ tiny fangs were only for show.
But every time she tried to steer the conversation in that direction, either Magnus or Vivian would change the topic.
It must be something really bad for them to act so evasively.
Which was another reason to finally start leaving the house and mingling with other immortals. Jackson had told her that Tessa used to be a human, so maybe she could ask the girl what was involved in a female Dormant’s activation.
25
Tessa
As Ella walked into Kian’s office, Tessa smiled and got up. “Hi, I’m Tessa.” She offered the girl her hand.
Ella was just as ethereally beautiful as Jackson had des
cribed her. Looking away from that angelic face was hard. No wonder Julian had fallen for a mere picture of her. She was short, but not as short as Tessa, and Ella was more full-figured—not fat, and not skinny, kind of average.
But then, with that face, Ella didn’t need anything else to call attention to herself.
That beautiful face, however, was probably what had gotten her in trouble in the first place. People didn’t realize that sometimes beauty could be more of a liability than an asset for a girl. Especially when it was as striking as Ella’s.
Shaking Tessa’s hand, Ella smiled. “It's nice to meet you and thank you for agreeing to do this.”
She seemed nice, friendly, but also reserved.
Sadly, Tessa was well familiar with that guarded look—the one worn by those who’d been hurt and had lost their naïveté and innocence. For many years, the same expression had been staring at her from the mirror. And if not for Jackson, it still would be.
She smiled back, trying to look as friendly and as welcoming as she could. “My pleasure. When Jackson came home last night, he was so excited about your idea that I had no choice but to get swept away by his enthusiasm. When my guy gets like that, he can convince Eskimos to buy ice from him.”
“I’ve noticed. Your Jackson is so charming and charismatic.”
Tessa was about to say something nice about Julian when the door banged open, and Brandon walked in with a stack of boxes tall enough to hide his face.
“Let me help you with that.” She took two from the top.
Ella took two more.
“Thank you.” He dropped the rest of them on the conference table and handed Kian an invoice. “That’s all the equipment Ella and Tessa are going to need, except for the background paper roll. I ordered it online, and it should be arriving tomorrow.”
Tessa cast Ella a puzzled glance, but apparently Ella didn’t know what he was talking about either.
“Hello, Ella.” He shook her hand. “Welcome to the clan. I’m glad your story had a happy ending.”
“Thank you.”
He shook Tessa’s hand next. “How are Eva and the baby doing? I haven’t seen them since little Ethan’s party.”
“They are both doing great. And Ethan is not so little anymore. He’s such a cute, chubby baby.”
“Give Eva my regards, would you?”
“I will.”
Brandon was one of a small group of immortals not residing in the village. He kept his penthouse in Hollywood and was apparently too busy to come and visit more than once in a blue moon. The only reason Tessa even knew him was that Eva had introduced them at Ethan’s party.
Kian looked at the invoice and shook his head. “Professional equipment used to be expensive. You’re telling me that you bought everything for under a thousand bucks?”
The media specialist chuckled. “When was the last time you purchased a camera, Kian? The eighties?”
“More or less. I didn’t have much use for one.”
“A lot has changed since then, and with the explosion of blogging, the market became much less niche. Mass production always lowers costs.”
“That’s good. So other than the paper roll you’ve mentioned, this is everything they will need?”
“Yes. The white background paper is for the silhouette shoots, but the girls can learn all they need to know about filming that from YouTube.”
He pulled out his phone and turned to them. “Give me your phone numbers, and I’ll text you a list of links I’ve prepared. Watch the videos, and if after that you still have questions, you can call me. But I doubt it will be necessary. All you need to know is on YouTube.”
With that done, Brandon put his phone back in his pocket and pushed to his feet. “It was a pleasure to see you, ladies, but now I have to run.”
And off he went.
Ella looked at the door closing on Brandon’s back and shook her head. “If he wasn’t going to show us anything, he could’ve just ordered the stuff online and sent it here.”
“YouTube,” Kian bit out. “He wants you to learn everything from YouTube? I don’t understand why he even bothered to come.”
Tessa had a feeling she knew the answer to that. Brandon had been curious about Ella and wanted to see her in person. Maybe he thought that he could steal her away from Julian?
The rumors claimed that Ella was not showing any romantic interest in the handsome doctor, which meant that pretty soon all the sharks would start circling around the unattached Dormant, and Brandon had probably decided to beat them to it.
Except, if that was his intention, teaching Ella in person would have better served his agenda.
Maybe he didn’t like what he saw?
But that didn’t make sense either, and not only because Ella was so beautiful. She was a Dormant. That was enough to make her a coveted prize.
“Brandon seems like a busy guy,” Ella said. “It would’ve been a waste of his time to show us something that we can learn from YouTube. And he was nice enough to compile a list of videos for us. We should be fine, right, Tessa?”
“I hope so. I don’t know anything about cameras. Do you?”
Ella shook her head. “I only ever used my phone. But I’ve learned to do many things from YouTube videos. I even fixed a problem with my computer after watching a guy explain what to do step by step. And trust me, other than turning it on and typing on the keyboard, I know nothing about it.” She eyed the pile of boxes. “Let’s each grab a few and take them to my house. We will have to come back for the rest.”
“You don’t need to carry anything,” Kian said. “I’ll have Okidu bring all the boxes to Ella’s house. You can go ahead and start on those videos.”
26
Ella
“Do you like it here?” Tessa asked as they left the office building.
Ella waved a hand at the greenery. “What’s not to like? It’s like a little piece of heaven here.”
In her previous life, she might have found the village boring, especially since it seemed like the only place to hang out was the café. But the new Ella appreciated the reclusiveness and serenity.
Tessa pushed a strand of her straight bleached-blond hair behind her ear. “It’s safe. I’ve never felt as safe as I feel here. If not for Jackson dragging me out of here from time to time, I would never leave. But he likes to go out to clubs, and bars, and movies, and I don’t want to be the drag that keeps him from having a life.”
It sounded like Tessa was a lot like Ella. The new one. Not the old one. The old Ella would have loved to hang out with Jackson at all the places Tessa had mentioned. Not as his girlfriend or anything, but perhaps with a larger group of friends. Even though the guy was gorgeous and charming, she wasn’t attracted to him.
Besides, Jackson and Tessa were practically married.
Except, Ella would not have been interested in him even if he were available. He was a pretty boy, but a boy nonetheless. And anyway, dating was the furthest thing from her mind. If she ever felt like going out with anyone again, it would be with Julian.
The question was whether she would ever be ready for that.
Maybe things would change after her transition, and the transformation would be more than physical. Perhaps a third version of Ella would emerge, one that was better and stronger than the first two.
“Can I ask you something?”
Tessa cast her an amused glance. “Depends on what it is.”
“It’s okay if you don’t want to answer, but I can’t get anyone to tell me how female Dormants transition. I know that Dormant guys have to fight an immortal male, but I can’t imagine a woman fighting one of them, and as far as I know, female immortals don’t have venom in their tiny fangs.”
Eyes widening in surprise, Tessa nearly stumbled over a crack in the paving stones. “You’ve been here for two whole weeks, and no one has told you what’s involved in transitioning yet?”
Ella shook her head. “Every time I bring the subject up, someone manages t
o steer the conversation to another topic. Is this a taboo subject?”
Hands on her hips, Tessa looked up and sighed. “No, it’s not. But I know why no one wants to tell you.”
“Does it have anything to do with what happened to me?” Ella asked in a hushed voice as they resumed walking.
“Yeah, it does. But they are making a mistake by hiding it from you. You may not like it, but you should know.” Tessa stopped again and faced Ella. “To produce venom, immortal males have to either get aggressive or aroused. They bite during fights with other males and during sex with females.”
Ella’s hand flew to her neck. “Ouch. That’s nasty.”
“Not really. The venom is a powerful euphoric and aphrodisiac. It hurts for about two seconds when the fangs break your skin, but after that, it’s unimaginable bliss and the best orgasms of your life. Not a bad trade-off.”
“Isn’t it dangerous, though? If it’s used for fighting, it must be potentially lethal.”
“It’s not. Because the venom production in each situation is triggered by different hormones, its composition is different.”
“Do they always bite, or only sometimes?”
“Biting is the same as ejaculating for immortal males. They can refrain if they must, but it’s difficult.”
Now it was Ella’s turn to stop in her tracks. “So, if Magnus is biting my mom, which I must assume that he does, how come she didn’t transition yet?”
“They must be using condoms. To induce transition, the venom bite must be combined with insemination.”
Great, so if she wanted to transition, Ella would have to have sex with an immortal male and also chance getting pregnant.
It seemed like she wasn’t transitioning anytime soon.
“I see. Thank you for telling it to me straight. I don’t know why my mom thought that I couldn’t handle it. It’s not like I’m a blushing virgin and can’t talk about sex.”
Come to think of it, when Julian had told her the truth about himself, the clan, and her being a Dormant, he’d evaded her questions on the subject too. But then he might have been embarrassed to talk about it with a girl he hardly knew.
