by I. T. Lucas
As the movie started playing, Professor Perry rolled his chair sideways and out of the way, taking the notepad and pen with him.
Now the movie made sense. Instead of summarizing the interview after the student was gone, he was doing it while the movie was playing and saving himself working after hours.
What else seemed clear was that Logan hadn’t planned a trap and everything he’d told her was aboveboard.
She owed him a big apology. Except, she could never tell him what she’d suspected and why.
About ten minutes into the movie, the professor got up, walked over to one of the bookcases, and pulled out a book.
Evidently, he was done summarizing the interview and was going to spend the rest of the time reading.
43
Magnus
Arwel clapped Magnus’s back. “Relax. It’s only harmless flirting.”
Sitting on a bench in front of the admissions office, they were supposed to be watching the entry, with Arwel monitoring moods and intentions for any disturbances.
But since nothing was happening, Magnus busied himself with watching the feed from the waiting room.
“The asshole is drooling all over Vivian. He’s been slowly inching closer to her, and now he’s practically sitting in her lap. I want to get in there and teach him some manners.”
“Patience, my friend. His son is going to come out soon, and they are going to leave. The worst that could happen is Vivian having to stop by the ladies room to clean his drool off her shoes.”
As worst case scenarios went, that was, of course, a joke. Magnus had bigger worries on his mind. But it seemed that this operation was a bust, and that the Doomer really wasn’t going to show up.
Not today anyway.
The question was whether he’d told Ella the truth and would arrive on Saturday.
Magnus wasn’t sure which outcome he was hoping for. On the one hand, catching Lokan was important to the clan, but on the other hand, he would have preferred to keep Vivian and Ella as far away from danger as possible.
Next to him, Arwel was doing his thing, with his eyes closed and his head tilted back, tuning into the vibes coursing through the campus.
“Are you getting anything?”
Arwel shook his head. “I’m getting plenty, just not anything that is interesting to us.”
“Let me guess. The asshole in the waiting room is thinking dirty thoughts about my mate, and his kid is anxious.”
“The kid was anxious, and now he is bored, and you’re right about the horny bastard.” Arwel scratched his head. “There is something else too, but it’s faint and it’s subtle. Like a low-level excitement.” He waved a dismissive hand. “It’s probably nothing. Someone looking forward to a hookup.”
Magnus snorted. “This place is packed with young humans. All of them are thinking about hookups twenty-four seven.”
Turning back to his phone screen, he focused on the door to the interviewer’s room. Instead of looking at the human male making advances toward his mate, he should be watching that door, which was the only way into the inner office. They had checked the room the night before last, verifying that there was no back exit.
About ten minutes later, it opened and the young human stepped out, smiled at Ella and said something to her.
“Hallelujah, the kid is out, and he’s taking his father with him.”
Arwel nodded. “I can feel his relief, and also the older man’s disappointment.”
“Ella and Vivian are going in. Do you feel them?”
“I can feel Vivian, and she is excited, but Ella’s shields are up, and she emits next to nothing. I can’t get a reading on her emotions.”
“That’s good, isn’t it? She is less vulnerable.”
“It’s very good, and I need to ask her how she does it. Maybe she can teach me how to protect my mind. I would love some peace and quiet in there.”
Magnus felt an unreasonable wave of pride wash over him. Even though she wasn’t his flesh and blood, he couldn’t help thinking of Ella as his daughter. When an old and experienced Guardian like Arwel believed he could learn something from such a young girl, Magnus couldn’t help but feel pride in her achievements.
“I doubt she can help me, though,” Arwel added. “Ella learned how to block her mother when she was very young, and she probably does it without thinking. Besides, she needs to block only one person. I’m not that lucky.”
“There shouldn’t be a difference between blocking one and many. You should talk to her. If she can help you, great, and if she can’t, at least you tried, right?”
Arwel nodded. “When we get back, I’ll stop by your place.”
“I’m not sure you’ll find her there. Once this is over, I have a feeling she’s going to move in with Julian.”
Arwel arched a brow. “It’s getting serious between them, eh?”
“Very. They are obviously destined for one another.”
44
Ella
Ella watched the professor from the corner of her eye, expecting him to take the book and go back to his chair. Instead, he put it on another shelf and remained standing with his hands clasped behind his back and his face turned toward the movie.
Maybe he got tired of sitting?
But then she heard a noise that didn’t come from the loudspeakers playing the movie’s soundtrack. Something creaked, then whined, like a very old door being pushed on squeaky hinges.
Did you hear that? Ella sent to her mother.
What are you talking about?
Never mind.
The small hairs on the back of her neck prickling, she turned her head in the direction of the noise and saw the professor just standing there. He either hadn’t heard it or was ignoring it.
It was probably nothing. The admissions office was located in an old building, and it made all kinds of weird noises, which everyone who worked there was most likely used to.
She was just jumpy, that’s all.
Turning back to the movie, Ella tried to ignore the creaking, but then Vivian’s back stiffened, indicating that she was probably hearing the weird noises too.
They both turned their heads at the same time.
“Not a sound, ladies.” Logan stepped out from behind the bookcase that had been somehow pushed forward. “And don’t move a muscle either,” he said as calmly as if he was saying hello.
The professor dipped his head in greeting and said nothing.
The power behind Logan’s compulsion made Parker’s seem like child’s play. What Logan had done in her dream hadn’t been even a minuscule fraction of what he was doing now.
Ella was paralyzed, stuck in the same pose and mute. She couldn’t even look at her mother because her head had been turned toward the noise when Logan issued the command. Hell, she couldn’t even move her eyes.
The one thing he couldn’t control, though, was her mind.
As Logan instructed the professor to go through the opening, Ella sent to her mother, Shields up, Mom. And don’t worry. The Guardians are going to be here any second. She then slammed her own shields into place.
When the professor had gone through the secret opening, Logan walked over to them, leaned, and kissed Ella’s forehead. “I’m sorry about this, Ella, but I need you and your mother for a special mission. Once that is done, I will let you both go. I promise.”
Where were the freaking Guardians?
“Please get up, ladies, and follow the professor. Take your purses with you.”
Ella fought the compulsion with all she had. If she could only stall for a couple of minutes, the Guardians would burst through the door and end this.
She was too damn weak, and the only thing that seemed to be working was her tear ducts that started leaking. She couldn’t even raise her hand to wipe them away.
Like a couple of zombies, she and her mother did as they were told, got up and headed toward the protruding bookcase.
Walking through the opening, they entered a tunnel that
would’ve been completely dark if not for the professor holding up his phone with the flashlight activated. Logan entered behind them and closed the way.
“Keep walking,” he told the three of them.
Was the professor under Logan’s control too?
Had Logan somehow tampered with the camera inside the room? But how?
And what was that mission he’d talked about?
Damn, she couldn’t open her mouth to ask, and she could barely see because the tears were blurring her eyesight and she couldn’t wipe them off.
They must’ve walked about a third of a mile when they met up with one of Logan’s men.
“Stop,” he issued the command from behind them.
As the man, or rather immortal, handed Logan a duffle bag, Ella’s panic intensified. What was in there? Gags? Blindfolds? Handcuffs?
Turning toward the professor, who was standing just as motionless as Ella and Vivian, Logan pointed at another tunnel forking away from the one they were walking in. “You are free to leave, Perry. Once you get out, you will remember nothing of what happened from the moment you saw me earlier today. Am I clear?”
The professor nodded.
“You can start walking, Perry. Ladies, you stay right where you are.”
As the professor walked away, Logan turned to them, his forehead creasing as he took in Ella’s tear-stricken face.
“There is no reason to cry, Ella.” He wiped her tears with his thumbs. “No one is going to touch you or your mother without your permission, and that includes me. This is not about sex, like it was with Gorchenco. I need your minds, not your bodies.”
As if she was going to believe the liar. But that was neither here nor there. Soon, the Guardians would come and rescue them.
Why hadn’t they already?
As Logan unzipped the bag, the last thing she’d expected him to pull out were two string bikinis.
“Please hand me your purses.” He took them and gave them to his guy. “When I say now, I want you to take off all of your clothes, toss them in front of you, and put these on.” He looked at his man. “Turn your back to the ladies.”
When the guy did as he was told, Logan pulled two sets of exercise clothes and two pairs of flip-flops out of the bag and put them on the floor at Ella and Vivian’s feet.
“I’m going to turn around. When you have the bikinis on, stop, and wait for further instructions.” He turned his back to them. “Now, strip. You have thirty seconds before I turn around.”
Obviously, he was concerned about trackers. But how had he known to suspect them?
As Ella stripped and tossed her clothes on the floor, she was thankful for the jewelry and the pins in her hair. Next to her, Vivian did the same. Then they both put the bikinis on.
Turning back, Logan nodded his approval, and then walked in a circle around them.
The freaking bikini was nothing more than three tiny triangles held together with a bunch of strings. All it covered were her nipples and her mons. Everything else was on full display.
If he wanted to ensure that they had no trackers on their bodies, he had achieved his goal. Even the one she’d attached to her panties was gone, and she’d thought it would be the hardest to discover.
Except, he didn’t know about the miniature ones in their jewelry and hairpins.
“Toss your shoes on top of the pile, and after that take off your earrings and your necklaces and toss them too.” He glanced at Vivian’s hair and smirked. “The wig has to go too. And these funky glasses you are both wearing. Now.”
Crap, Ella hoped he wouldn’t notice the pins in her hair. She also hoped that no camera was going to pick them up on the way. Logan wasn’t the only one she had to worry about. There was more than one wolf after her.
When that was done, he pointed at the folded exercise clothes and the flip-flops. “Put these on.”
To his man he said, “Collect all their belongings, put them in the duffel bag, and go. You know what to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
45
Vivian
The Doomer was acting like the classic evil mastermind, polite and gentlemanly to a fault, and yet scary as hell.
Vivian had always found the intelligent, soft-spoken villains more frightening than the bully types, and Lokan was the scariest of them all.
The fact that Ella had thought to take someone like him on proved how naive she still was. Her daughter was no match for that devil, and a devil he was, despite his false reassurances and his concern for their dignity.
Frankly, Viv hadn’t expected him to turn around and let them keep their modesty. It gave some credence to his claim that he needed them for a mission and not as sex slaves for the Doomer’s island, or for his own perverted needs.
She could imagine that there were some psychos out there who entertained fantasies about having sex with both mother and daughter. Hopefully, Lokan wasn’t one of those.
“Follow me,” he said after they were dressed.
Lokan’s man had gone in the same direction as the professor, and he was probably going to lead the Guardians on a wild goose chase around town. She wouldn’t be surprised if the plan was to distribute the trackers between several Doomers and have them drive in different directions.
What she couldn’t understand was how come the Guardians weren’t already there. The feed from the camera inside the interview office should have alerted them to what was going on, and if the thing had malfunctioned, someone would have come in to investigate.
As they walked down the tunnel, she listened for hurried footsteps coming from behind, but the only sound echoing from the walls was the flapping of her and Ella’s flip-flops.
The tunnel looked ancient, like something that had been built together with the university in the 1700s. Someone must have thought that escape tunnels were needed in case of an emergency or an invasion.
How come Turner hadn’t thought to check for that?
She’d been reassured that the interview room had been thoroughly searched and that the only way in and out of it was the door to the waiting room. Had no one bothered to take a look at the building’s blueprints?
Then again, the originals might have been lost, and no one knew the tunnels existed. Lokan, on the other hand, was old enough to have seen the original structure built.
Vivian wished she could share her thoughts with Ella, but her daughter was keeping the channel closed. Which was smart of her. She needed to keep her shields up against the Doomer.
Hopefully, the fear and hatred Vivian felt for Lokan was enough to block him from entering her mind as well. If the Doomer got even a glimpse, he could compel them to tell him whatever he wanted.
“You are probably wondering how I knew to avoid the trap you were setting for me,” he said out of the blue, sending panic surging into Vivian’s throat.
“Don’t worry, I don’t blame you for that. I know you had no choice but to do as you were told. I figured that you’ve been aided by your government in exchange for letting them use your special talents.”
What the hell was he talking about?
As he glanced back at them to gauge their responses, Vivian hoped her wide peeled eyes were conveying her fear and surprise, and that he would assume they were the result of his brilliant, yet erroneous, deduction.
Satisfied with her and Ella’s appropriately shocked expressions, he smirked. “I’m well aware of their secret program to collect people with paranormal abilities and use their talents in warfare. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get close to anyone on the inside, or I would have raided their facilities a long time ago. I’m very curious about what else is out there, and if they found another dream walker. As far as I know, I’m the only one.”
So, Josh had been right about the government snatching people with special abilities and keeping them locked up somewhere. God only knew what was being done to them.
Lokan cast a glance at Ella over his shoulder. “I must conclude that my compulsion doesn’t w
ork as well in dream world. Either that, or they have people who can break through it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to tell them about my dream-walking ability. You were pretty convincing, but I knew that you were trying to play me when you started acting all nice and flirty. I figured out that the people holding you wanted to put their hands on me too.”
As Turner and Julian had warned, Lokan had suspected Ella all along, but he had reached the wrong conclusion. The results were still the same, though. He’d managed to avoid capture and abscond with them.
At least he didn’t know who was after him, which gave the Guardians an advantage. Lokan was confident in his ability to compel humans to do his bidding, but his reliance on it was his Achilles heel.
He was in for a big surprise.
“Three things confirmed my suspicions,” he kept on bragging. “The first was the excellent fake identity you were supplied with. Only the government has access to such resources. The second was the hotel that you were staying at, which is a government-owned facility. And the third was the camera your people installed in the interview office. I sent my men through the tunnels to check out the room last night, and when they found it, I had the final proof that what I suspected was right.” He chuckled. “Your people are probably still watching the loop my guy is feeding them. I just wonder when they are going to notice your slight body movements are repeating. By the time they figure it out, we will be up in the air and out of their reach. My idea to put on the movie was brilliant, if I say so myself.”
Quite full of himself, isn’t he? Ella sent.
Vivian shook her head, signaling Ella that she shouldn’t talk.
Her daughter was strong enough to send thoughts directly into Vivian’s head, but Vivian’s ability was much more limited, and she was afraid that her response could be picked up by the Doomer.
He looked at them over his shoulder. “I apologize for keeping you silent and conducting a one-sided conversation. As soon as we are safely away, I’m going to remove the silencing compulsion and you’ll be able to ask me questions.”
