by I. T. Lucas
With a hand on Jin’s shoulder, Jacki pushed her feet into the flip-flops and took a look around. “Nice room. Where is everybody?”
“Outside in the corridor, waiting for us.”
“Were you and the others drugged as well?”
“I fell asleep on my own, and Yamanu hypnotized Richard and Wendy to sleep and then to wake up on his command.”
“That guy is handy.”
“And he is also very nice. My sister is lucky to have found such a wonderful man.”
Naturally, he’d heard her, and as she and Jacki walked out of the room, he was grinning from ear to ear.
“We are the last ones,” Mey said. “Everyone else is already there.”
Jin quickened her steps. “Then let’s hurry before there is nothing left for us.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. Knowing Okidu, he cooked enough for an army.”
Jin frowned. “Wasn’t that the name of the bus driver?”
“Same guy. He is Kian’s butler,” Mey said.
The kitchen was on a different level of the underground, and they had to take the elevator to get there. Jin hadn’t noticed before, but to activate it, Yamanu had pressed his thumb to the scanner.
“Are there stairs that we can use to get around?”
“There are, but you don’t have to use them unless you want the exercise.” Yamanu held the door open for them. “William is going to program your thumbprints into the system, and you’ll be able to use the elevators to get to the floors approved for your use.”
“So, we are prisoners here,” Jacki said.
“You are guests,” Yamanu corrected. “But we have to be cautious.”
“Yeah, I get it. But we are still prisoners, just with benefits.”
As they walked along, the voices got louder, and when they entered the large commercial kitchen, Arwel waved them over. “I saved seats for you.”
Everyone was seated on swivel barstools around the super long center counter, while the butler was rushing around and loading people’s plates.
“Energetic fellow,” Jin said.
Mey pulled out a stool. “Okidu is a rare find.”
“I bet.” Jin sat next to Arwel. “Thank you for saving seats for us.”
“I was afraid that all the good appetizers would be gone by the time you got here, so I put some on your plate.”
“You are awesome.” She leaned and kissed his cheek, causing him to gape. “Thank you.”
For an immortal who was possibly ancient, Arwel seemed awfully inexperienced, but that only made him sweeter to her. He was genuine, and his care for her was real, not something he was doing to ensure a later hookup. She was so sick of guys putting on an act only to get what they wanted.
Sometimes she wondered whether they even liked her, or women in general. It seemed as if they were only after the sex and had no interest in learning anything about her.
The dearth of basic communication skills was the plague of her generation, followed closely by selfishness and lack of common courtesy.
It would be nice to be with someone who had grown up in a different era. Then again, he might be a chauvinist, which was an affliction the older generations of men suffered from.
If she was lucky, though, Arwel was the rare lover of women who appreciated everything a woman could offer, emotionally and intellectually, and not just sexually.
Those were few and far between.
48
Arwel
“Hello, everyone.” William walked into the kitchen as everyone was ready to fall off their stools, sated and tired and ready to sleep.
But there were still a few things that needed to be done before those staying in the keep could retire for the night. The others could have left, but since they were all going back to the village on the same bus they had arrived on, they had to wait for Kian, and he wasn’t going to leave until everything was taken care of.
William wasn’t carrying anything, but given that all the pockets of his cargo pants were bulging, he hadn’t come empty-handed.
“That’s our tech guy,” Arwel whispered to Jin.
She chuckled. “He looks it. He also looks like he hasn’t slept in days.”
Kian pushed away from the table and walked up to William. “Let me introduce you to our guests.”
“I’m sorry for coming so late. My thumbprint reader malfunctioned, and since I didn’t have the right replacement parts, it took me hours to fix it.”
Kian lifted a brow. “Couldn’t you have used an old-fashioned stamp pad?”
“I didn’t think of that.” William chuckled. “It would have saved me a lot of grief.”
Kian clapped him on the back. “That’s the problem with being so smart. You overcomplicate things.” He led him to Jin. “This is Mey’s sister, Jin.”
William shook her offered hand and then reached into one of his many pockets. “I have a present for you.”
When he pulled the phone out and handed it to her, Arwel saw that there was a label attached to it with her name on it. Apparently, each of the newcomers was getting a different phone.
Reaching into another pocket, William pulled his scanner out and turned it on. “Would you mind putting your thumb on the screen? You can put both or just one, it’s up to you. Just remember which one you gave me when you want to activate the elevator.”
“This one.” She lifted her right one. “I’m right-handed, so if I’m holding my phone with my left hand, my right will be free to press the button.”
Arwel loved how open she was and unapologetic. Jin seemed to be very comfortable in her own skin, which was rare for a young woman her age. She was plagued by none of the insecurities that seemed to bother her sister, like the fact that she was a six-foot-tall Asian girl with an unusual paranormal talent.
Then again, maybe she was a bit of a show-off and was good at hiding the things she wasn’t confident about.
Not being able to get a clear reading on her emotions bugged him and intrigued him at the same time. On the one hand, he wondered why she was hard to read, and on the other hand, he was glad of it. This gave him a chance to explore the mystery of her, which was curiously exhilarating.
Jin pressed her thumb to the screen, and a moment later, it beeped.
“It’s the same technology as the phones have. Keep pressing your thumb until all the lines are filled.”
She looked at him and smiled. “You should get with the times, William, and switch your elevators to facial recognition. This is old technology.”
For a long moment, William just stared at her, and then he laughed. “You are absolutely right. Why didn’t I think of that? Facial recognition is what I do all day long.”
“Because you were busy,” Kian said, his gruff tone reminding William that he couldn’t talk freely in front of the new guests.
“Yeah, I was very busy.” He lifted the scanner and typed Jin’s name under the thumbprint. “Who’s next?”
Jacki lifted her hand and waved. “I am.”
The gulping sound William made as he looked in her direction was so audible that Arwel was sure the humans had heard it as clearly as he had.
“That’s Jacklin, Jin’s friend. She is an immune,” Kian said.
“Yeah, I know.” William was still gaping.
Jacki was a knockout, so the guy’s reaction was understandable. Except, William wasn’t the easily excitable sort. Then again, she was a possible Dormant, and that made her even more attractive.
Arwel had no doubt that once the news of possible Dormants spread throughout the village, Guardians, as well as civilians, would come storming the place, hoping to snatch one for themselves. Which meant that he had to stake his claim on Jin before any of the men got ideas about her.
The problem was that he had no chance of accomplishing that in time.
If no one stopped them, they would start arriving tomorrow, and some other male might catch Jin’s eye.
He couldn’t prevent her from checking out
other males, but he could convince Kian to wait for a couple of days before he allowed anyone in. The new arrivals needed to rest, further tests had to be conducted, and so on.
Once William was done with Jacki, he walked over to Richard.
“I don’t want to give you my thumbprint.” The guy crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Program the elevators to recognize it and allow you access to several of the underground’s levels.”
“What else?”
William shrugged. “Nothing. You heard the lady. This is an obsolete technology. It’s all about facial recognition now.” He pushed his glasses back on his nose. “Unfortunately, it’s very easy to obtain a good photograph of you and program it into the system. Even a driver’s license mugshot would do. So, the only reason to worry about giving your thumbprint is if you plan on perpetrating a crime and are afraid of leaving incriminating evidence. But if you do, just wear gloves, and you’ll be fine.”
Rolling his eyes, Richard pressed his thumb to the screen.
Once William was done distributing the phones, Bridget got up and waved her hand.
“I’m Doctor Bridget, and I will be checking you for implanted trackers. Please follow me to the clinic.”
“Can’t it wait for tomorrow?” Wendy asked. “I’m tired.”
“I’m afraid not.”
49
Jin
“Let me show you how to work the app to open your door,” William offered. “I want to make sure that all of the newcomers know how to operate it before I leave.”
Was it a hint that Jin should leave Mey’s apartment and call it a night?
If it had come from anyone other than William, it would have been likely. But he didn’t seem like the type to throw hints around.
Jin pushed to her feet. “Yes, please. I don’t want to be stuck in the room without being able to get out or call someone. These doors are so thick.” She leaned and kissed Mey’s cheek. “Good night. We’ll talk more tomorrow, and tell Yamanu good night from me.”
He’d gone to take a shower and was either taking a very long one or had fallen asleep.
“You betcha.”
After the doctor had tested all four of them, thankfully finding no implanted trackers, everyone who wasn’t staying the night had left.
Except for William and Ingrid.
William’s pretext was that he wanted to make sure that everyone knew how to operate everything, and Ingrid’s excuse was that she wanted to double-check that everyone had what they needed, and nothing was missing.
Jin suspected that the two had more selfish motives. William was lusting after Jacki, who surprisingly hadn’t rebuffed him yet like she had every guy who’d tried to flirt with her in the program. And Ingrid was after Richard who, naturally, loved the attention.
It made Jin happy that he had moved on so quickly and freed her from any lingering feelings of guilt.
William walked into her room and picked up the receiver of the landline phone. “You are not going to get stuck even if you forget your code or how to use the app. Dial zero and someone in security will answer you. They can open the door remotely.”
“That’s good to know.” And a little disconcerting.
It meant that her door could be opened by someone other than her. Not that it was a big concern in the clan’s highly secure hideout, but what if someone working in the security office was a pervert?
It could happen. Every community had them, no matter how highly moral the majority of its members were. Immortals could be perverts too.
“I did a lot of prep work before your arrival to make this level of the underground function more like guests’ quarters than a dungeon.”
“Much appreciated. But nothing can mask the function of this place with those thick doors and the small delivery windows at their bottom.” She looked at the door to her room. “Mine doesn’t have one, though.”
“This is one of the real guest rooms. The others were designed as cells, but we haven’t had much use for them. If you hand me your new phone, I’ll show you how the app works.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s really simple. If you want to close the door, press on the button that says close and enter your code when the app asks for it. Like so.”
William must have memorized all the codes because he hadn’t asked for hers, and she knew that each code was different.
“To open, you press the button that says open and put in the code. Easy, right?”
“Very. Thank you.” She took the phone from him. “Can I make calls on it?”
He smiled apologetically. “You can’t call anyone who isn’t programmed into your phone. I put in the numbers for everyone staying here with you, my number, Bridget’s, and the security office’s. I also programmed Kian’s number, but don’t call him unless the place is on fire, and no one else answers.”
“Trust me, I won’t.” She leaned closer and whispered in his ear. “You should add Ingrid’s number to Richard’s phone and give her his.”
He leaned away and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Do you think that something is going on between them? I usually don’t notice things like that.”
Jin shrugged. “I might be wrong, but she seemed very interested, and Richard seemed to eat up the attention.”
William nodded. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll ask her.”
As he lingered a moment longer, Jin wondered if he wanted to ask her about Jacki and was either too embarrassed to do so or maybe searching for the right words. For her part, Jin wasn’t going to say anything until she talked with Jacki and checked whether her friend was interested in the tech guy. He seemed like a very nice man, or rather immortal, and he was obviously very smart, but that didn’t mean that Jacki was necessarily attracted to him.
In fact, Jin wasn’t sure Jacki was interested in men at all.
After William had left, Jin checked out the contents of the closet. Everything was brand new and still in its original packaging. She pulled out a pink pajama set, a pair of undies, and walked into the bathroom.
Several jars of facial creams and lotions were lined up on one side of the sink, two hairbrushes in different sizes, and a hairdryer on the other, and there was even a pouch with makeup essentials.
Curious, Jin unzipped it and checked the contents. Two eyeliner pencils, one black, and the other blue, mascara, and two lipsticks. Ingrid had even thought about including nail clippers, a nail file, and tweezers.
Jin was going to thank Ingrid again tomorrow. Even though she must have been under a lot of pressure to achieve all that in one day, she had still put a lot of thought into making them comfortable in the dungeon and providing all the necessities.
As she took her borrowed clothes off and stepped into the shower, Jin felt her stress melt away under the hot spray. It had been a long and exciting day, and Jin couldn’t wait to get into bed.
Except, once she was actually under the covers, she couldn’t sleep. Staring at the ceiling, she kept thinking about what would have happened once their absence had been discovered.
Were people searching for them? Putting out wanted posters?
In her imagination, she saw their mug shots on a bulletin post, claiming that they were bank robbers, armed and dangerous.
Jin chuckled. If they had robbed a bank, they would at least have some cash. It didn’t feel good to have nothing and to depend on the charity of others for everything, starting with underwear. In her case, it wasn’t as bad as it must be for her friends. Depending on family for help was not as bad as depending on strangers. But still, it was an uncomfortable feeling, especially since Jin had no idea how long she would have to live in this limbo.
Almost an hour later, Jin was still awake despite being exhausted.
Perhaps she couldn’t sleep because there were no freaking windows, and she felt claustrophobic in the room. Were the others experiencing the same thing? Maybe she could go to Jacki’s room and climb in bed with h
er. It wouldn’t feel as bad if she wasn’t alone.
Throwing the comforter off, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, put her flip-flops on, and pulled out a hoodie from the closet.
It wasn’t until she went to the door and remembered that she needed to use the app to open it that it dawned on her that Jacki’s door would probably be closed.
Still, on the remote chance that it wasn’t, Jin stepped out of her room and headed in the direction of Jacki’s.
Except, all of her friends’ doors were closed, and so was Mey’s. Heading back, Jin didn’t stop at her room and continued to Arwel’s.
His door was open.
Knocking lightly on the metal, Jin peeked inside, but seeing that it was pitch black in there, she retreated.
“Come in,” Arwel said. “I’m not sleeping.” He turned on the bedside lamp.
She took a step in and then stopped. He was still in bed, and she wasn’t sure what to do. They weren’t close enough for her to go over and sit beside him, and sitting on the couch while he was in bed would be weird.
Standing in the doorway, she whispered, “I couldn’t fall asleep, and yours was the only door that was open.”
“Forgive me for not getting up, but I’m naked under here. Can you toss me those pants?” He pointed at a pair of sweatpants that were draped over the back of the only chair.
It was good the room was dark because imagining Arwel in the nude had her cheeks flame hot.
“I should go.”
“Don’t, please.” He waved his hand in the direction of the pants again.
Reluctantly, she walked all the way in and did as he asked.
Pulling the sweatpants under the blanket, he shimmied into them and then tossed the comforter aside and got up.
Holy guacamole, talk about abs.
And not only abs. Shoulders, pecs, biceps, the guy was built to perfection. Athletic, but not overly buff. Why the hell was he hiding all that under baggy, unflattering clothes?
Actually, she was glad of it, and also for the shaggy hair. If not for that, Arwel would have been either snagged a long time ago or developed an ego the size of Jupiter with all the attention he would have been getting.
