by I. T. Lucas
It had taken a little longer than that for Rufsur.
Greggory was probably feeling guilty for getting her into the mansion and then inducing her transition, and since he was a good man, he felt responsible for her.
Yeah, that was it.
Once everything was packed, Rufsur made one more sweep through the room and the bathroom to make sure that he’d collected everything. Eleanor’s purse and the things from the safe deposit box that held no interest for Kalugal went into the suitcase as well, and after closing it, he followed Julian and Greggory into the garage.
“Are you joining us for the ride?” Julian asked.
Rufsur glanced at the back seat where Greggory was cradling Eleanor in his arms.
“I don’t think I have a choice.” He got behind the wheel.
Julian got in the passenger seat. “I could have driven the car to the airport, and Greggory could have taken it back.”
“That’s okay. I want to make sure that he doesn’t stow away on your jet.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Greggory murmured from the back seat. “Eleanor is unconscious, and if something happens, the seatbelt is not going to restrain her. I need to hold her to keep her safe.”
“Of course you do.” Rufsur winked at Julian.
The doctor pulled out his phone. “Do you mind if I call Ella?”
“Not at all.”
In fact, Rufsur was curious to hear the girl’s response and what she thought of her aunt.
Eleanor was complicated, and he found it hard to believe that she was all bad. Except, she’d planned to sell a bunch of people who’d never done her harm to the Chinese, and that was pretty bad.
Still, people had the capacity to change, and hopefully the kernel of good he’d glimpsed in Eleanor could be coaxed to grow and flourish. Could Greggory help with that?
If she was at all redeemable, the love of a good man could do wonders for her, as would her love for him, provided that she was capable of it.
“We are bringing her to the keep,” Julian said. “My mother will meet us there.”
“Can I come with her?” Rufsur heard Ella ask.
“Eleanor thinks that you are dead. If she wakes up and sees you, in the state she’s in, she’ll think that she died as well.”
Ella snorted. “And where would she think she’s meeting me? In heaven? She must know that she doesn’t belong there.”
“I’ve never met an evildoer who thought that he was all bad,” Julian said.
“Yeah, that’s true. Even freaking Gorchenco wasn’t completely evil.”
“I’m in the car with two of Kalugal’s men, Ella.”
Evidently, there was a story attached to the Russian oligarch that involved Ella, but Carol and Lokan hadn’t mentioned it.
“Anyone I know?” Ella asked.
“Rufsur, whom you’ve met, and Greggory, whom you didn’t. He’s the guy who befriended Eleanor.”
“Oh, I see. Say hi to them for me.”
“Hi, Ella,” Rufsur said loudly.
“Hold on.” Julian lowered the phone. “I’ll put you on speaker.”
“Are either of you coming with Eleanor?” Ella asked.
“We are just helping Julian load her into the jet. From there on, she’s Kian’s problem.”
There was a long moment of silence. “What about Greggory? Is he okay with that?”
Did the girl’s telepathic powers extend so far?
“I would have loved to accompany Eleanor and see her transitioning,” Greggory said. “But my boss is not okay with that.”
“Kian wouldn’t have agreed to that either,” Julian said.
“Why not? Kian is probably sending Okidu with the limo to pick you up, and you could have told him to turn the windows opaque on the way to the keep.”
Julian sighed. “It’s better this way, Ella. We are talking about Eleanor, not some innocent damsel in distress.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Greggory shouldn’t bond with her. Eleanor is bad news. The question is, what are we going to do with her?”
36
Kian
“Come in.” Kian opened the door for Vivian and her family. “You decided not to bring Parker?”
“I wasn’t sure how this would go.” Vivian smiled apologetically. “We don’t mention Aunt Eleanor around him.”
Magnus shook his head. “Parker is a smart boy, and at thirteen, he doesn’t need to be sheltered from life’s realities. When I was his age…”
“I know, dear.” Vivian patted his arm. “You hunted and fished and provided food for your mother. But we live in a different time, and Parker has already been exposed to enough nastiness to last him a lifetime. I’d rather shield him for as long as I can.”
As Kian listened to the exchange, he wondered whether he and Syssi would disagree on how to raise their daughter. In their case, though, he was the one who would rather shield Allegra from life’s hardships for as long as possible, while Syssi was the one who didn’t believe in coddling and wanted to raise their daughter to be the future leader of the clan.
Magnus pulled out a chair for Vivian and then another one for Ella. “So, what’s the status with Eleanor?”
Kian took his seat at the head of the conference table. “Last I talked with Julian, she was still unconscious and they were loading her on the plane. It’s a short flight, and provided that traffic is not too bad, she should arrive at the keep in about two hours.”
“Is she transitioning for sure?” Vivian asked.
“Julian believes so.”
Ella crossed her arms over her chest. “If I may ask, what are your plans for her?”
“If she transitions successfully, I will have no choice but to allow her into the village. Regardless of her history and what we know about her, I just can’t let a new immortal roam the world unsupervised. Naturally, Eleanor will have to wear a cuff, and her movements will be tightly monitored. It’s a new situation, and I don’t have a protocol in place. I still need to discuss it with Turner, but I believe that will be more or less how we keep an eye on her.”
“For how long?” Ella asked.
“Until she bonds with an immortal male.”
“Then you should ask Kalugal to let Greggory move into the village. From the little I gathered, he seemed taken with Eleanor. When I talked with Julian, Greggory was sitting in the back with her in his arms.” Ella turned to Magnus. “He’s the guy who induced her transition.”
He rolled his eyes. “I might be old, but I’m not dense. I don’t need things like that spelled out for me.”
Vivian ignored her husband and daughter’s good-natured banter. “So if she is allowed into the village for sure, then Ella and I can go to the keep to visit her. She will be much less frightened when she sees us.”
Ella chuckled. “We need to wait with that until after she transitions, or she’ll think she’s either hallucinating or seeing ghosts.”
Vivian didn’t smile. “We can certainly wait with the reintroductions until Bridget or Julian tell us that it’s okay, but I would like to be there by her side while she’s fighting for her life. I can wear a surgical mask, so even if Eleanor happens to wake up for a few moments, she won’t recognize me. I still remember my transition and how important it was for me to have people around who cared about me. Eleanor is all alone.”
“I’m okay with that.” Kian leaned back in his chair. “If the transition takes a long time, you can use the keep’s apartments, either the ones underground or those above ground.”
“Thank you.” Vivian nodded. “Once Eleanor transitions, what are we allowed to tell her?”
Kian took a moment to think it over. “Since she is not going anywhere other than here, and she will be closely guarded the entire time, you can tell her everything. But my typical paranoia insists that you shouldn’t tell her exactly where she is. You can talk in general terms about the location, but until she is safely here with the cuff attached to her wrist, I don’t want her to know.”
“Are y
ou afraid that she will escape?” Magnus asked. “I could assign two Guardians to keep an eye on her while she’s in the keep.”
Kian waved a hand in dismissal. “One Guardian should suffice to guard a woman recovering from transition. Would you like to join Ella and Vivian in the keep?”
“Someone needs to stay with Parker,” Ella said.
Magnus chuckled. “He’s going to be very happy about us leaving so he can stay with Merlin. At his age…” he winked at Vivian. “I went camping in the woods for days with only my bow and my hunting knife.”
This time she smiled. “I’m okay with Merlin watching Parker. Those two are thick as thieves.”
37
Eleanor
The first thing Eleanor became aware of was someone’s hand holding hers. She had a vague memory of a handsome guy, but the hand was too small and delicate to belong to a man.
The second thing was the rhythmic beeping of equipment, and the third was that there were sticky pads attached to her body.
Was she in a hospital?
And who was holding her hand? A nurse?
With tremendous effort, she opened her eyes just a crack and looked at the petite woman sitting on a chair next to her bed and holding her hand.
She had a surgical mask on, but she wasn’t wearing a nurse’s outfit.
“Who are you?” she mumbled through cracked lips. “Where am I?”
“Hold on. I’ll get you some water to drink.”
Eleanor didn’t want to let go of the woman’s hand, but she had no strength to hold on to it. She also couldn’t keep her eyes open, or stay awake. Letting herself slip back into the comfort of the dream world, she was startled when a straw touched her lips.
“Sip slowly,” the woman said.
At first, Eleanor followed the advice, but as the cool water slid down her throat and she realized how thirsty she was, she sucked on the straw greedily until there was nothing left.
“Can I have more?” she said with a little more strength in her voice.
“Let me ask the doctor.”
There was something familiar about the voice, and as the woman walked out of the room, Eleanor noticed the lush mane of long blond hair falling down her back.
Vivian had had hair like that, it had been her best feature, but her sister-in-law was dead, and given how achy Eleanor was all over, she wasn’t in heaven.
It wasn’t hell either. Otherwise, the nice woman wouldn’t have been holding her hand.
“The doctor said that you can have more.” The blonde woman returned with another paper cup and a new straw. “Here you go.” She held it up to Eleanor’s lips.
After she finished the second cup, Eleanor let out a sigh. “Are you a nurse?”
“I’m here for you.”
“What does it mean?”
“Whatever you need, I will do my best to provide it.”
“What I need is information. Where am I? What happened to me?”
“You are in a clinic, and you are going through a transformation.”
“What kind of transformation? Did I have plastic surgery and can’t remember it?” Eleanor tried to lift a hand to her face, but her hands were too weak to obey.
If she had something done, it wouldn’t have been on her body, only her face.
“You didn’t have surgery.”
A vague memory tried to flap its wings in Eleanor’s cotton-stuffed brain. Something about being bitten by a werewolf and getting infected by his venom.
That was an absurd thought. She must have seen a movie or a television show about werewolves and then dreamt about it.
“Can you give it to me straight? I’m too woozy and tired to jump through hoops. Whatever it is, I’d rather be told than play Twenty Questions with you.”
The woman sighed. “I don’t want to add to your confusion, but there is no avoiding it.” She reached for her surgical mask. “Before I remove this, I just want to reassure you that you are not dead. You are alive and you are going to get much better soon.”
That was a strange preamble. “Do I know you?”
“Yes, you do.” The woman removed the mask.
Eleanor gasped. “Vivian? I thought that it was you. But you are supposed to be dead.”
“My death was faked, and so was Ella’s and Parker’s.”
“Why?”
Vivian waved a dismissive hand. “It’s a long story for another time, but the gist of it is that a Russian oligarch was after Ella, and the only way to get her free of him was to fake her death and ours.”
A tear slid down Eleanor’s cheek, then another, and another, and soon she was sobbing uncontrollably.
“What’s wrong?” Vivian sat on the bed and put her arms around her. “I know that you never liked me. But I didn’t expect you to get so upset upon discovering that I was still alive.”
Eleanor tried to lift her arms and return her sister-in-law’s embrace, but they still refused to obey. “I’m so relieved. I thought that I’d missed my chance to get to know Josh’s kids. This is a miracle.”
Vivian chuckled. “So you still hate me?”
“I don’t hate you.” Eleanor leaned her head on Vivian’s narrow shoulder. “I was angry at you because I needed to blame someone for the pain I was feeling, and I couldn’t be angry at Josh.”
Vivian patted her back. “Would you like to see Ella? She is out in the waiting room.”
With a nod, Eleanor plopped back against the pillows. “Does she hate me for not being there for her?”
“Ella has other reasons to be mad at you, but right now she’s here to support you.”
“Like what?” Eleanor frowned. “I wasn’t around to do good or harm, which was the main reason I stayed away. I didn’t want Josh’s kids to meet the crazy aunt who was so full of hate and resentment that she was poisonous.”
Vivian tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You are talking as if that was in the past. Are you better now?”
“I don’t know. You still didn’t tell me what happened to me, but whatever it was must have been traumatic. I feel like I’ve been reborn.”
“You have.”
“So I’m dead after all?”
“You are not dead. Perhaps I should let the doctor explain.”
38
Edna
Edna sat on her couch with a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates, hoping the combination would bring the inspiration she needed.
Why was it so hard for her to concentrate lately?
She used to be able to power through the most complicated and boring contracts, without ever losing track and without taking frequent mental breaks.
Now, it seemed like she was taking more breaks than doing actual work, and she was scatterbrained like a teenage girl with her first crush.
Could she be pregnant?
Syssi had complained about feeling absentminded and confused, and Amanda admitted to being more tired than usual and losing focus. Nathalie had said that she’d experienced brain fog during her pregnancy as well.
That would be an interesting development, and it would make convincing Kalugal and Kian that coexistence was possible all the more urgent.
Except, instead of being done with the pledge phrasing days ago, Edna still found herself staring at an empty page. Perhaps she should just leave it to Turner. He was smart, eloquent, and she had no doubt that he would make the vows airtight. But she should be able to do that too.
Rubbing her chest, Edna thought about calling Rufsur.
The heavy feeling she carried around since he’d left always lifted when she talked with him. And that heaviness was part of what was creating the mental fog.
He was supposed to call her when he was back in his room, but she couldn’t wait. Pulling out her phone, she texted him. Can you talk?
A moment later he called. “How is my favorite girl?”
“I miss you, and my brain feels like it’s stuffed with cotton. I want to work on the damn wording for the pledges, but everything I
put down reads like something a high schooler wrote.”
“You are probably overthinking it. Do you want us to work on it together?”
“Are you free now?”
“Unfortunately, not yet. We are going over Simmons’s files, and there is a lot to read through. I’m starting to think that your Fates sent Eleanor to snoop around so we can get our hands on that information.”
Edna chuckled. “Are you saying that her showing up was a good thing after all?”
“It would seem so. She didn’t cause any harm, and she brought us a lot of potentially useful information on where to find new Dormants. So far, we have confirmation that the Chinese and the Russians are running similar programs.”
“It would be difficult to extract the people from there.”
“We need to get Turner’s opinion on that. He’s the expert on international rescues.”
“He rescues hostages, not foreign governments’ employees, which is what these people are. Unless what you see in Simmons’s file indicates otherwise.”
“China and Russia are not democracies. So even if these people are classified as government employees, that doesn’t mean that they are doing it voluntarily.”
“True, but the same could be said about their military and any other service people are conscripted into. We are not going to liberate everyone who is oppressed.”
For a long moment, Rufsur remained quiet, which wasn’t like him. Eventually, he sighed. “We can’t even liberate our own from Navuh’s rule. It gets complicated when people are brainwashed into believing that their leaders are doing everything in their power to provide them with a good life, and that everyone who claims otherwise is spreading malicious propaganda. They don’t want to be saved, and maybe they don’t need to be. They might be happy doing what they are doing.”
Leaning back, Edna pulled her legs up and propped the phone on her knees. “You lived that life, and before Kalugal, you probably believed in Navuh’s message as well. And yet, you consider Kalugal your savior.”
“I was never happy in the Brotherhood. I endured. When Kalugal recruited me and later told me his plans, I was ready to receive his message. Some of the others that he recruited were ready as well, but outside his circle, most of the men weren’t. The Brotherhood was all they knew, and free information was available only to a select few in the upper echelon, or those going out on secret missions abroad. Very few people can conceive of a better way of life without being exposed to it, and sometimes not even then. They are so fully indoctrinated that nothing can penetrate that.”