by I. T. Lucas
Rufsur lifted the coffee carafe and poured the cold brew into a cup. “There was a female there as well.”
“A female warrior?” Kalugal asked.
“I don’t think so. Vivian is the commander’s wife, and she's a very pleasant woman. She made sure that the warriors treated me well and that I was made as comfortable as possible given the circumstances. They had me chained to a chair.”
Kalugal looked at Jacki. “Do you know her?”
“Vivian is Magnus’s wife, and she is not a soldier.”
“Is she an immortal?”
Jacki shrugged. “Did you forget that I didn’t know anything about immortals until you captured Arwel and me and informed me about Arwel being one? They told me that they were a group of paranormally talented people.”
“Point taken.” Kalugal turned to Rufsur. “Is Vivian an immortal?”
“I didn’t think it was polite to ask, but I assume that she is. Otherwise, what’s the point of marrying her? It’s just asking for heartache when she gets old and dies.”
Kalugal turned back to Jacki. “Does the clan have female warriors?”
She shrugged again. “How the hell would I know? They didn’t tell me anything.”
Rufsur loaded his plate with eggs. “Before taking me to where I met Vivian, they took me someplace else to search me thoroughly. There was a female there, who I’m sure was a warrior.” He lifted his hands and spread them wide. “She had shoulders nearly as broad as mine, but she was still fine to look at, and so was Vivian. If all the clan females are that pretty, then we should start negotiating with your cousin for visitation rights.” He glanced at Jacki. “Not for me, but for the others.” He winked at her.
She shook her head. “The reasons why I can’t date you haven’t changed since yesterday. And as you have mentioned earlier, getting involved with a human is asking for heartache.” She leaned toward him. “After all, I’m going to get old and die.”
Rufsur reached for her hand, but she snatched it away. Undeterred, he smiled suggestively. “I’ll take whatever time you’re willing to give me.”
She let out a breath. “When you stop goofing around and give it some serious thought, I’m sure you’ll arrive at the same conclusion I did.”
Kalugal really needed to have a talk with the guy and make it clear that Jacki was his. Otherwise, the moment Rufsur discovered that Jacki was a possible Dormant, he would redouble his crude flirting efforts and get twice as bold.
The thing was, Jacki seemed to respond to his lieutenant’s unsophisticated approach.
Kalugal had a feeling that Jacki simply didn’t know any better because she hadn’t met any high-caliber men like him before. All she was familiar with were the clumsy flirtation attempts of uneducated young men, who shared her lowly socioeconomic background.
He hadn’t missed her comment about growing up in foster homes. She was a poor girl, with no family and no higher education, and the only things she had going for her were her beauty and her immunity to mind manipulation.
Except, that same ability was an indicator of a strong mind. Perhaps Jacki’s lack of education was the result of lack of opportunity, and not the lack of intelligence or the drive to acquire knowledge. If that was the case, he could teach her all she needed to know.
It reminded Kalugal of an old musical he had once seen. My Fair lady was a story about a stuck-up professor trying to teach a poor girl to talk and act like a lady.
Had the musical prompted Rufsur to address Jacki as Miss Jacqueline the Fair?
Or was it the other way around, and Rufsur’s remark had planted the idea in Kalugal’s mind?
Since his lieutenant had probably never watched a musical in his entire immortal life, the second assumption was more likely.
Rufsur had just wanted to impress Jacki with his good manners and fancy talk.
Nevertheless, the idea was sound. Jacki wasn’t the perfect companion Kalugal would have wished for, but he might turn her into one yet.
The question was whether she would let him.
Once he executed his plan to verify that the tether was gone, Jacki might never forgive him or allow him anywhere near her, and regrettably, he would not be able to erase the nasty memory from her head either.
3
Director Simmons
Director Simmons opened the door to his office and motioned for his top recruiter to come in. “Good morning, Marisol.”
“Good morning, sir.” She walked over to his desk, took a seat in one of the leather chairs facing it, and put her hands on her knees.
“You look lovely.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Please call me Edgar. You make me feel like an old man when you address me as sir.”
“How about Doctor Simmons? Or Director Simmons?”
“We are friends, Marisol, and we are alone here. Save the titles for when we are in front of the recruits.”
“Yes, sir. I mean, Edgar.”
“That’s better.” He smiled and patted her bony back.
He wasn’t flirting with the woman, but one of the things he had learned early on in his career was that personal touch always made his subordinates work harder for him.
Maybe if she were better looking and was a little more charming, he would have considered it, but Marisol had the sex appeal of a dull knife, and her personality bordered on sociopathic. Still, the new blonde hair softened her harsh features and made her look a little more feminine, which might help her with luring male talents into joining the program.
Sitting on the chair across from his recruiter, Edgar leaned toward her and steepled his fingers. “Wendy left a very interesting message on my voicemail.”
Marisol’s eyes widened. “She contacted you? Where is she? Are the others with her?”
He lifted a hand. “Slow down. When she left the message, they were in Big Bear, California, but Wendy must have gotten caught making the call because less than an hour later, there was no one at the address she provided. There was a for rent sign outside the cabin, and the guy that I'd sent to investigate found a cleaning crew preparing it for the next renters. They didn’t know who stayed in it before.”
“That should be easy to find out.”
“Not really. Someone infected the rental records with a computer bug and turned everything into a jumbled mess. Not only that, the recording that Wendy left on my voice mail got erased. I tried to listen to it again, but it was no longer there. We are dealing with professionals, Eleanor.”
He rarely called the recruiter by her real name, using it only when they were conspiring to do things that were not approved by the higher-ups.
“Did Wendy say anything else?”
“Yes, and it’s more important than the location she provided. Apparently, an organization of paranormally talented people is collecting new members. Somehow, they knew about Jin and came for her. Jacki and Richard jumped on the opportunity to escape, and Wendy joined them so she could report to me and tell me where they were taken. She had to steal someone’s phone to do so. Evidently, the organization that took them is not allowing them any more freedoms than we had.”
Marisol snorted. “Fools. What did they expect? Some shady paranormal organization that is competing with us is not going to give them better terms or treat them better than we do. We need to stop the weekly leave until we figure out who we are dealing with, or at least beef up security.”
Despite her abrasive and mistrustful nature, Eleanor was naive. But she wasn’t entirely wrong.
Even though not everything was aboveboard, and not everything that the recruits had been told or promised was the truth, no one could compete with the US government’s resources. He had no doubt that the program was leagues better than anything they could expect on the outside.
“We can’t stop the outings. Not only are they good for morale, but they are also important for keeping up appearances. Trainees in other programs using this facility get to have days off. We can’t treat ours differe
ntly. I can, however, increase security. We are already driving them to a different town every week, so the outings are not as predictable as they used to be before the escape.”
Marisol’s fingers drummed a nervous beat on her knees. “I don’t remember much of what happened to me during the time I was gone, but I know that they got the information from me. That whole hotel room with drug paraphernalia was a setup. I’ve never used drugs, and I would have never gone to a hotel room with some guy I’d just met.”
“I know, Marisol. We’ve been over that, and I don’t blame you. It could have happened to anyone.”
She looked down at her hands. “I don’t know how they found out about me.”
“You must have said something to Jin, and she told it to someone. She must have been resistant to compulsion.”
Marisol shook her head. “She was so convincing. I can’t believe that the girl managed to fool me.”
Getting played bugged the hell out of Marisol, but what bugged her even more was that she'd had to change her name and her appearance once again. Her new name was Gina Voldachevsky, and she wasn’t happy with it.
“I should start calling you Gina.”
“It’s confusing to the recruits who know me as Marisol.” She touched her blonde curls. “This hair was adjustment enough.”
“It looks good on you.”
She smiled. “You are a bad liar, Edgar.”
He laughed.
She couldn’t have been more wrong. There were so many things he was keeping from her while pretending that she was his friend and confidant.
Eleanor, aka Marisol, aka Gina, had no idea that Wendy was his niece.
In fact, Wendy was his grandniece, but the distinction was not important. His sister’s daughter was gone, most likely dead from a drug overdose, and his sister had passed away decades ago. He and Wendy were the only family members left.
The other thing Eleanor, aka Marisol, didn’t know was that no matter where the missing trainees were hiding, he could find them quite easily. The only reason he hadn’t done so already was that finding out who had taken them was more important than finding the trainees themselves.
Unlike Marisol, he was a patient man, and he was waiting for the dust to settle and for everyone to get comfortable and complacent. Not having a large force at his disposal, Edgar needed the recruits as well as those helping them to stop looking over their shoulders before he made his move.
4
Kian
Eleven in the morning was too early for a drink, but Kian felt like celebrating.
The crisis was over.
Jin and Arwel were on their way to the clan’s jet, and they were due to arrive back in Los Angeles in a couple of hours. The village and the keep were no longer in danger, and Turner could go back to the rescue missions that he’d had to postpone while helping Kian manage the near catastrophe.
Kalugal was still a danger to the clan, and he still had Jacki, but by tomorrow morning, that would get resolved as well. Kian was going to put his cousin on the line with his mother, and in return, Kalugal would release Jacki.
The question was how to proceed from there.
The best thing would be to meet face to face and start negotiating a long-term coexistence agreement, but first, he needed to figure a way to protect himself from Kalugal’s compulsion.
Dragging Turner with him to every meeting was a possibility, but it was unfair to the guy. Turner was a busy man, with his own hostage rescue operation to run. He helped the clan whenever he could, but there was a limit to how much Kian could ask of him.
“Who wants to join me in a toast?” Kian lifted a bottle of a twenty-one-year-old Suntory Hibiki.
Syssi grimaced. “Shouldn’t we do it with champagne? I can have a tiny sip of that.”
“You are right.” Kian put the bottle down. “I’ll have Okidu bring it.”
Turner got up and walked over to the cart. “It’s too early to celebrate, but I’ll have some while we wait for your butler to get the champagne.” He took the bottle and examined the label. “I've heard it’s excellent.”
Kian cast Syssi a sidelong glance. “Do you mind if I have some too?”
“Not at all. Perhaps we should save the champagne for later. Isn’t it time we got out of the war room? We can go home and celebrate there.”
“I’m expecting a phone call from Kalugal. We can leave after that.” Kian turned to Onegus. “How about you? Too early for a drink?”
Leaning back in his chair, the chief had his arms crossed over his chest and a frown furrowing his forehead. He didn’t look ready to celebrate just yet. “I’m always game for good whiskey.”
“You look worried.”
Onegus shrugged. “We are not home free yet. Kalugal is a sneaky bastard, and I wonder what his next move will be. This is not over by a long shot.”
“What are you going to do about the Guardians posted around his mansion?” Syssi asked. “He will probably demand that you lift the blockade.”
“Not until he releases Jacki. After that, I will no longer have an excuse for it. I will, however, keep tabs on him, just more covertly.”
When his phone rang, Kian expected to see Kalugal’s contact on the screen, but it was Julian’s.
After spending part of the night at Kalugal’s home, the doctor had probably picked up a few tidbits of information that he wished to share.
“Hello, Julian. How was your stay at Kalugal’s?”
Kian put the phone on the conference table and switched the speaker on.
“Interesting, troubling, disconcerting. He compelled me to tell him about immortal females and how similar or different they are from immortal males. He also got me to reveal that Jacki was a possible Dormant.”
“Fuck!” Kian emptied the shot down his throat. “I didn’t expect him to do that, but I should have. The bastard took advantage of the situation.”
“I didn’t tell him anything he could use against the clan.”
“I know that. You and Jin couldn’t reveal things you didn’t know, which was why I didn’t stipulate what he was allowed or not allowed to compel you to answer.”
Kalugal had told him that he was going to compel Jin because he needed to verify that she hadn’t been lying about the tether’s removal. He’d also said that he was going to compel Julian to verify that the doctor hadn’t been sent to do him and his men harm.
It had occurred to Kian that Kalugal might use the loophole to ask things that were unrelated to those two conditions, but it would have been difficult to start making lists of questions he was allowed to ask and those he wasn’t. Given that Jin and Julian couldn’t reveal any strategic secrets, Kian had figured there was no need for that.
The one thing he hadn’t wanted Kalugal to find out was that Jacki was a possible Dormant, but then he couldn’t have stipulated that without giving it away.
“He also compelled Jin to answer his questions,” Julian said. “They were mostly about how you found her and how many other Dormants the clan has discovered so far. Jin told him that you found her sister by chance, and that was how you got to her. Luckily, she didn’t know the answer to his other questions. She did, however, tell him about the government program we freed her from.”
Damn. It wasn’t a big deal unless Kalugal figured out the connection between paranormal talents and Dormants. If he did, he might go after the remaining females in the program. Maybe the males as well.
“I need to talk to her and find out exactly what she told him about that. What else did he ask you?”
“How to find Dormants, and how I knew that Ella was my fated mate.” Julian let out a breath. “You can’t blame him for asking that. Every immortal wants answers to those questions.”
“That’s true. But now that Kalugal knows Jacki is a possible Dormant, he is not likely to trade her for communication privileges with his mother.”
“He might,” Syssi said. “Isn’t that what we were banking on when Alena posed as Areana for those
cosmetics ads? You believed that he would get sentimental and look for her.”
Kian shook his head. “My mother believed that, and I humored her. Annani is a romantic and thinks that everyone is motivated by the same things that motivate her. I’m more pragmatic than that. Given a choice, most adult males would choose a chance of having an immortal mate over contact with their mothers.”
She arched a brow. “Would you?”
“I would have done anything for you. Even that.”
“Kalugal is not in love with Jacki,” Turner said. “He might choose Areana.”
“Or not,” Julian said. “When Jacki hugged me, Kalugal got upset, practically growling at me, but he tried to hide it.”
“Maybe he’s just easily irritated” Syssi smiled at Kian. “Like someone else I know. After all, you are cousins, and you might share similar traits.”
“I don’t think so,” Julian said. “Kalugal seems much mellower than Kian, and he has better control over his emotions.”
The unfavorable comparison grated on Kian’s nerves. “He is also more devious, and his morals are questionable. Kalugal might try to come up with a way to have both.” He poured himself another shot of whiskey. “I need to find something to hold over him in perpetuity.”
“You already have that.” Turner handed him his empty glass. “He might give up contact with his mother to keep Jacki, but he wouldn’t want anything to happen to her. As far as he knows, you still hold her life in your hands.”
5
Kalugal
“Let me show you to a guest room.” Kalugal offered Jacki a hand up.
“I can do that.” Rufsur jumped up from his seat.
Kalugal cast him a chilling glance. “I’m going to escort Jacki to her room and continue from there to my office.”
Rufsur looked unhappy, but he knew better than to argue when Kalugal used his commander tone. “Yes, sir.”