Dark Queen’s Quest

by I. T. Lucas

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “How about you share a secret of your own with me and tell me what is a damn Dormant, and am I one?”

  Looking into her smart eyes, it suddenly occurred to him that Mey might have made her talent up just to get him to talk. She could have eavesdropped on his conversation with Kian the conventional way and come up with a scheme.

  After all, Mey was so much more than a beautiful woman. She’d been trained by one of the best military intelligence agencies in the world.

  She’d said that she’d learned Alena’s name by meditating in the suite’s living room, but she could have learned that from his conversation with Kian as well.

  So that wasn’t a proof of her so-called talent. Unless she could come up with something that she couldn’t have overheard by normal means, he couldn’t trust her admission.

  Especially since he wanted it to be true more than anything. He was vulnerable and susceptible, which meant that he had to be doubly diligent in checking the facts.

  “What did you hear Alena talk about with Arwel?”

  The hurt look in her eyes cut through his heart. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

  “I have to be sure before I let you in on my secret. I’m in charge of Alena’s security, and I don’t take my duties lightly. You’ve been trained to collect information by Israeli intelligence. I have to be careful.”

  She nodded. “Fine. But just so you know, my feelings are hurt. I feel the connection too, and your doubt cuts deep. It wasn’t easy for me to tell you about my ability. Other than Jin, no one knows about it. Not even our parents, and certainly not anyone in the intelligence community. Do you know what they would have done with me if they had known? I would have been forced to work for them whether I wanted to or not. My life would not have been my own anymore.”

  As Yamanu took Mey’s hand and was about to apologize, something occurred to him. “Is Jin your biological sister?”

  Mey shook her head. “I’m not going to answer that before you tell me what a Dormant is. But I can tell you what I heard Alena and Arwel talk about.”

  “I understand, and I’m sorry for hurting your feelings. But I have to be sure. When did that conversation between Arwel and Alena happen?”

  “It was the day we joined them for a walk down Wall Street. Alena didn’t want to go with all her bodyguards in tow. She wanted to go just with Eva. Arwel pretended that he was offended by her not wanting him around, so she agreed for him to come. Then he said that Bhathian would feel bad about being left behind with the baby. So, she said that he could come as well, but not Ewan and Uisdean because they would rather stay in the hotel and do their own thing. But Arwel said that they’d never been to Wall Street and that they were looking forward to it. Alena gave up and said that everyone could come.”

  That sounded real enough, and he knew that Mey couldn’t have overheard it because she’d been with him while that was happening. Unless Alena told her the story at some point, but then he would have heard her telling it and he hadn’t.

  Except, he still wasn’t convinced.

  “You said that something about their conversation had sounded odd, and that it prompted you to investigate further. What was it?”

  “The butler. Alena said that she and her mother go out alone all the time, and that they can take care of themselves. Arwel pointed out that they take the Odus with them, and that the Odus protect them because they were designed with fighting capabilities. I didn’t know who the Odus were, but then Alena said something about Ovidu, and I figured out that Odus might be the word used for butlers in her country. Then she said that their fighting capabilities were most likely erased together with the rest of their memories. What I found strange about that was her choice of words. Designed instead of trained and erased instead of lost. She might have confused the terms if English was really a second language to her, but I know it isn’t.”

  He could no longer doubt that she’d heard that conversation. Could it be that she’d planted a bug in the living room?

  He hadn’t checked her bags. She could have brought one with her.

  Mey cast him a glance from under her lowered lashes. “When I’m not around, she speaks perfect English with just a hint of Scottish accent.”

  “What else? Until now everything could be explained away.”

  “Right. But then Arwel said that even if the Odus forgot how to fight, they could shield Alena and Annani with their indestructible bodies. Can you explain that away?”

  “Kevlar vests.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Try again. What are they? Robots? Cyborgs? Are you guys aliens from another planet?”

  He chuckled, but she wasn’t that far off.

  “Can you do me a favor?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Can you wait here while I call my boss? I can’t tell you anything without his approval.”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she jutted her chin out. “Do you believe me now? Or do you need more proof?”

  Before he answered that, Yamanu was going to do one more thing.

  The device he’d asked William to order for him had arrived the day before. He’d intended to use it in Mey’s apartment, but after catching the detective, he had decided against that, wanting the people following her to think she wasn’t aware of the surveillance.

  It wasn’t going to waste, though, because he was going to check the suite for transmissions. And then he was going to check the executive lounge as well.

  “Give me twenty minutes. Can you do that?”

  Grabbing the remote from the nightstand, she flicked the television on. “Go.”

  As he opened the door, the scent of tears hit his nose and he looked over his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  She waved with the remote. “Just go.”

  56

  Kian

  “I’m sorry to bother you so early on a Sunday, but I need to talk to you.” Yamanu didn’t sound like himself.

  Usually he was laidback, his tone smooth and relaxing, but now there was an edge to it that raised Kian’s hackles.

  “Give me a moment.” Kian took the phone and stepped out into the backyard.

  It was seven in the morning, and he’d been awake for a while, but he’d been taking it easy, browsing on his phone while sipping coffee in bed. Hopefully, Yamanu wasn’t about to deliver news that would ruin his weekend. It had been relatively peaceful lately, and he hadn’t expected any trouble from New York, but there was always something.

  Sitting on his favorite lounger, he pulled out a cigarillo from the pack he’d left there last night and lit it. “Okay, talk to me. What’s going on?”

  “Alena is fine and so is everyone else on the team. It’s about Mey. She’s been hiding a paranormal talent all along.”

  Kian smiled. Now, that was news he was willing to hear any day and twice on Sunday, as the saying went. “Congratulations. I told you the Fates would find a solution. How did you get her to admit it?”

  “I’m afraid that there is a long backstory I need to fill you in on first.”

  Lying down, Kian took another puff from his ‘stinky stick’ as Amanda called his cigarillos. “I’m not in a hurry. Go ahead.”

  “Mey has a younger sister who’s recently graduated from NYU and was immediately offered a very well-paying job. The thing is, that job sounds fishy.”

  By the time Yamanu was done, Kian had finished his cigarillo and lit another one. “I see where you’re going with this. If Jin is Mey’s biological sister, she might possess a similar paranormal talent, which would make her incredibly valuable to any spy organization.”

  “Precisely. I think that Jin wasn’t as secretive about it as Mey, and somehow someone learned about her ability. The job offer might have been a way to lure her in, or she might have been told the truth and tempted by the large bonus she was promised at the end of the five-year contract with her new employer. Naturally, whoever hired her suspected her sister might be
a valuable asset as well and sent people to find out.”

  The gears in Kian’s head were spinning. “It makes me think of what Lokan told us. He believes that the government is collecting paranormal talents. They might be behind it.”

  “My thoughts exactly. It reminds me of the unit Mark worked for. Not all the brains they recruited had come voluntarily. Bribes and extortion were used in equal measure. Playing on people’s patriotic feelings and sense of importance was the cherry on top. The bottom line is that if the government wants someone, they get him or her one way or another. And I think they got Jin.”

  “Maybe. The one thing that doesn’t add up is the private detective. That’s not how the government operates. They send their own people.”

  “Budget cuts?” Yamanu suggested.

  “I’ll have to talk with Turner and get his thoughts on this. He knows much more than we do about how the government operates.”

  “What do I do in the meantime? Mey is waiting for me to explain about Dormants, and I’m not sure what I can tell her while I don’t have her in a contained environment. Not only that, she’s being followed, and she’s stayed with us for the last couple of days. If the government is behind it, I think that our team risks exposure if we stay. We should fold and come home.”

  “What about Mey?”

  “We bring her home with us.”

  Kian took another drag from his cigarillo. “You said that you checked the suite for bugs and it was clean.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Can the device detect surveillance from outside?”

  “We are on the top floor, and the hotel is the tallest building on the block. I haven’t seen any drones flying around either. So, no visual surveillance. And the device would have picked up any transmissions from the inside. They could be watching the entrance, though, or have people inside the lobby or posing as guests of the hotel.”

  “And what could they learn from that? Not much. I say we continue our mission as planned. As far as they are concerned, Mey befriended another model and hooked up with her business manager. But you probably should get Mey out before they decide to snatch her without proof of her paranormal abilities. They might get impatient.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Besides, she already knows too much about us, and if anyone snatches her, that’s dangerous to us as well.”

  “You should wipe her memories.”

  “Before I tell her about Dormants or after?”

  “Is she your one?”

  “I believe so.”

  Kian was glad that Yamanu hadn’t had to ponder long before giving his answer. “Then tell her. But before you do that, check whether she’s immune. If she is, you should get her out of there as soon as possible and bring her here. We can have her contained in the keep’s underground until she transitions. We can’t have her falling into the government’s hands.”

  There was a long moment of silence. “Are we going to keep her locked up?”

  Kian chuckled. “Not for long. Only until she transitions.”

  “What if she’s not a Dormant? Not all humans with paranormal abilities are.”

  “The Fates have not messed up yet. When they pair people, they don’t do it unless it can work out.”

  “Since when are you a believer?”

  “Since I’ve seen enough proof to convince me that there is something to this mystical mumbo jumbo.”

  There was another long moment of silence. “Can I bring Mey to the village? There is no safer place for her.”

  “I’d rather not risk it. But let me think about it, and I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, don’t let Mey out of your sight even for a moment. Kri and Michael are arriving tomorrow, so you’ll have reinforcements to keep Alena safe. From now on, Mey is your top priority.”

  Yamanu let out a relieved breath. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. You don’t know how she’ll react to what you are about to tell her. In any case, good luck.”

  57

  Mey

  After Yamanu had left, Mey spent long moments crying her eyes out.

  He didn’t believe her, and he didn’t trust her.

  All those tender moments and loving looks had been a lie. Love couldn’t exist in the absence of trust. It was possessiveness cloaking itself in the illusion of love.

  Then again, hadn’t she been guilty of the same?

  If she had trusted Yamanu implicitly, she wouldn’t have gone snooping around to find out more about him.

  Wiping her tears with a corner of the duvet, Mey took in a shuddering breath and tried to get her head working on what really mattered right at the moment.

  Yamanu had gone to talk to his boss, and he was going to tell him that Mey had uncovered some truths about them. The question was how important the things she’d overheard were. If Dormants having paranormal abilities was a huge secret, the boss might consider Mey a threat and tell Yamanu to eliminate her.

  As kind and as considerate as Yamanu appeared, he was a soldier at heart and his loyalty to his people was absolute. If he had to choose between her and them, Mey had no doubt that he would choose them.

  His vow of celibacy was proof of that.

  He still hadn’t told her how his abstinence helped protect his people, but he obviously wasn’t willing to break his vow for her, which proved where his priorities lay.

  Not that she could fault him for that.

  He’d only known her for a few days.

  As strong as the attraction between them was, and as powerful as the connection felt, it would have been selfish and irresponsible for him to abandon a lifelong commitment to his people for her.

  The bottom line was that she could be in danger and should probably run.

  Except, Alena and Arwel were in the living room, and Yamanu knew where she lived. She could probably overpower Alena but getting past Arwel was doubtful. Mey’s training was old, while Arwel was an active bodyguard and seemed in top shape.

  He would swat her like a fly.

  She chuckled. A big-ass fly, but still, she had no doubt he could overpower her with ease.

  Maybe she could make a rope out of the bed sheets and rappel down the side of the building?

  That was an even sillier idea. They were on the twentieth floor and she didn’t have enough sheets.

  What about calling the police? Or the fire department?

  She could fake an emergency, and when they got there, she could say that Yamanu and Arwel were about to rape her and that’s why she called with the fake fire or whatever else she came up with.

  Yeah, that could work.

  She had to act fast, though. Yamanu had been gone for more than ten minutes, and he was going to be back any moment now.

  Jumping out of bed, she lifted her satchel and rummaged for her phone, forgetting that it was in the safe in the living room.

  Damn.

  Perhaps she could use the hotel’s landline to make the call?

  She paused with her hand on the receiver.

  What was she doing?

  If she pulled a stunt like that, she could kiss goodbye any chance she had with Yamanu. He would never forgive her. And for what?

  A surge of panic over something that might not happen?

  There was a chance that it would, though, and the question was whether she was willing to risk her life because she didn’t want to lose a guy.

  The logical thing to do was to err on the side of caution and call the police. But everything inside her was rebelling against it. In her gut, she knew Yamanu would not harm her or let anyone else do that no matter what.

  He wouldn’t betray his people for her, but he wouldn’t obey a command to eliminate her either.

  58

  Yamanu

  “What’s going on?” Arwel asked as Yamanu returned to the suite.

  He’d run out without giving an explanation, but then he’d assumed Arwel and Alena had overheard his conversation with Mey.

  “Didn’t you
hear what Mey told me?”

  “I had my earphones on, and Alena is in her room on the phone with her mother. They’ve been talking for the past hour.”

  Evidently, he’d been too distraught to notice. “Long story short, Mey has a very interesting paranormal ability.”

  Arwel grinned. “Congratulations, my friend. The Fates have smiled upon you.”

  It was the same response he’d gotten from Kian, and as before, he thought that the congratulations were premature. There were more variables that needed to fall into place.

  “I didn’t tell her anything yet. First, I wanted to get Kian’s approval.”

  “Good call. He always gives it, but with conditions.”

  “Everything he said made sense.” Yamanu rubbed his hand over his jaw. “I would appreciate some privacy for this. Is there any chance that you and Alena could go down to the hotel’s restaurant or to Eva’s suite? I’m not suggesting the guys’ place. It’s probably a disaster area.”

  Arwel pushed to his feet, walked over to Yamanu, and pulled him into a bro hug. “I got you covered.”

  “What’s going on?” Alena walked out of her bedroom.

  Arwel let go of Yamanu and took her elbow. “I’ll tell you on the way.”

  “Where are we going?” She cast a perplexed glance at Yamanu over her shoulder.

  “Down to the hotel’s restaurant.” Arwel opened the door.

  “We just had breakfast,” Alena still protested, standing at the door and refusing to budge.

  “Yamanu and Mey need some privacy. If you can contain your curiosity for one more minute, I’ll fill you in on the way down.”

  “Just tell me if it’s good or bad.”

  “It’s good.”

  “Then let’s go.” She turned, winked at Yamanu, and then let Arwel lead her out.

  Taking a fortifying breath, Yamanu pulled two bottles of water out of the fridge and headed to his bedroom.