by I. T. Lucas
“Does she know who you are?”
“No.”
“Interesting. Why would immortals bother with a human girl? What’s so important about her?”
“Her father is paying us. It’s a job.” It wasn’t a lie.
“Anastasia is also an immune like your friend. Does that have anything to do with it?”
“No. We didn’t know that when we came here to get her.”
Bracing an elbow on his knee, Emmett smoothed his hand over his long beard. “If your job was to get Anastasia out, why did you and Marisol stay after she left?”
“To get our money’s worth. You charge a bundle for the New Age crap you are selling.”
Emmett laughed. “I’m a businessman, and I sell dreams of a better future. The price of admission is dictated by the demand. If people weren’t willing to pay it, I would have lowered the cost. But that’s not why you stayed. Answer me truthfully, Devlin. Did you suspect that I was like you?”
“You are not like us.”
Hey, he was getting better at avoiding direct answers. Maybe he could keep his and the clan secrets after all. At least until his friends arrived.
Not that it really mattered. They would have to take the guy in, interrogate the hell out of him, and keep him locked up forever. But until the rescue team arrived, Emmett could still tell someone about the immortals he’d encountered, contact his people, whoever they were, or tell some of his inner circle sycophants.
“I agree,” Emmett said. “I’m not like you, but Marisol thinks that I am. Why is that?”
“I can’t speak for her, and I don’t know anything about you other than you being a compeller.”
“How would you know if I was like you?”
“You would have triggered my built-in alarm.”
Emmett frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Peter smiled. “If you were like me, you would have known. Immortal males can sense each other. We get a prickling sensation when we encounter another male of our kind who we are unfamiliar with.”
“Fascinating. Who are your ancestors, Devlin?”
Devlin was an invented person, and he had no ancestors.
“I don’t know.”
“Really?” Emmett cocked a brow. “Marisol seems to think that she is a descendant of the mythical gods.”
“Sure. Why not?”
Eventually, the guy was going to get all the information he wanted out of him, but the longer Peter dragged it out, the better.
The question was whether he’d be able to keep Emmett busy for the next four hours until the rescue team arrived.
Probably not.
“Is it rare for immortals to be immune to compulsion?” Emmett asked.
“Depends by whom.”
“By me.”
“I guess so.”
He crossed his legs again. “Very few humans are immune. Although some ethnicities have more than others. Russians, Chinese, you need to be careful with those.”
“Good to know.”
“Can you compel humans?”
“No. Compulsion is a very rare ability.”
“So how do you hide what you are?”
“By thralling.”
Emmett tilted his head. “Isn’t that just a different term for compulsion?”
“It’s not. When you use compulsion, the person is aware of being forced to obey you, and you can’t compel them to forget what you did. When I thrall a human, he or she thinks what I want them to think and remembers what I want them to remember. I can enter a human’s mind and suppress recent memories. I can also plant new memories, make them believe that they see and hear what’s not there. What about you? Can you do any of those things?”
The guy grimaced. “I’m not good with mind manipulation. Commanding compliance serves me better. By the way, did you try to thrall me?”
“Yes.”
“I assume that you were unsuccessful.”
“That’s correct.”
“Interesting. Why is that?”
“I can only thrall humans. I can’t thrall other immortals. Can others in your community compel immortals? Or are you uniquely gifted?”
“I’m special.” Emmett smiled. “That’s why I was able to leave.”
That was a big slip on Emmett’s part. It meant that he wasn’t an unaffiliated immortal.
“Were you a member of the Brotherhood?”
“Who are they?”
“The followers of Mortdh.”
“I don’t know anything about them.” Emmett pushed to his feet. “But you are going to tell me everything I want to know, aren’t you, Devlin?”
“I doubt it.”
Walking up to him, Emmett leaned closer, and if Peter wasn’t under compulsion not to move, he would have head-butted him.
“I can make you.” The guy’s breath smelled of coffee.
“I have no doubt of that. It’s just that I can’t possibly have all the information you wish to know.”
“How many immortals are out there?”
“A lot. Tens of thousands.”
“That’s what Marisol said. How do they stay hidden from humans?”
“Being careful and thralling.”
“Where are they located?”
“Many places.”
Straightening, Emmett shook his head. “I see that you figured out a way to work around the compulsion. That’s clever, but it’s not going to help you. I will just have to be more precise with my phrasing.”
He smoothed a hand over his beard. “That will take time, though. Maybe even days, but that’s okay. No one is going to come looking for you until the retreat ends, which is in another week. That’s long enough to get everything I need out of you. The question is what am I going to do then. I need to think.” He turned around and headed for the door.
That was good. Emmett thought he had plenty of time.
“Don’t leave me like this. I need to use the bathroom, and my arms are going numb.”
“Oh, yes. I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable. You can move around the room, but you can’t come within three feet of this door.” Emmett drew an invisible line with his hand, and then opened the door.
“Aren’t you going to untie me?”
“I’m sure that you can break out of those bonds with ease.”
40
Eleanor
Emmett’s sudden departure had been a relief, but it was also worrisome. What had been so urgent that he had stopped in the middle of a discussion about her letting him suck her blood?
Her rescuers couldn’t have arrived so quickly, and Eleanor hoped that Peter hadn’t done anything stupid.
No more than five minutes passed since she’d heard Emmett walk away, when she heard footsteps again.
Was it him?
They sounded heavier than before, so maybe it was someone else. Then a door opened and closed with a bang as if it had been kicked shut.
Someone was using one of the other bedrooms, but she wasn’t sure whether it was the one adjacent to hers or one of the two across the hallway. The soundproofing in Emmett’s basement was not as good as that used in the village, but it was better than standard, allowing her to hear some of what was going on outside but not enough.
A few minutes later, she heard muffled voices and put her ear to the door, but still couldn’t make out what was being said. She tried the wall next, and still couldn’t hear anything above murmurs. The only thing she could tell was that both voices were male.
Except, she’d heard only one set of footsteps coming back. Had the other one been just stealthier, or had he been in that room the entire time?
Hopefully, it had nothing to do with Peter doing something stupid and attracting attention to himself. If he was smart, he’d called for reinforcements and was waiting patiently for them to arrive.
After what seemed like forever a door opened, but once again she heard only one set of footsteps walk away.
“Marisol! Are you there? Can you hear me
?”
Fucking hell. It was Peter. The idiot had gotten caught. But if he was using her fake name, he probably suspected that Emmett could hear them.
She rushed to the door and yelled back. “Devlin? What are you doing here?”
“I came looking for you. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. You?”
“Emmett can compel me. I would’ve broken down the door, but he made me stay three feet away from it. And it’s like a fucking wall that I can’t cross. Can you override his compulsion?”
“I can try.” She closed her eyes and summoned every ounce of power she possessed. “There is no barrier. Go to the door and open it.” She sent a prayer to the Fates, begging them to make it work.
“It’s no use. I can’t cross the line.”
“Fuck!” She banged her head against the door. Compulsion was a dangerous tool in the wrong hands. “Which room are you in? On the left side of the corridor, or on the right?”
“I don’t know. He knocked me out before bringing me down here.”
“Try talking next to the east wall and then the west.”
A moment passed. “Can you hear me better now?”
“No. Try the other one.”
“How about now?” Peter asked a moment later.
He sounded a little closer. Turning to look at the door to the bathroom, Eleanor realized it must be located between her room and the one adjacent to it. In fact, the other room’s bathroom probably shared a wall with hers.
“Go to the bathroom. I think it shares a wall with mine.”
Squeezing between the toilet and the shower enclosure, Eleanor put her hand on the wall. "Can you hear me?" she said without raising her voice.
"Loud and clear."
Letting out a breath, she leaned her forehead against the cool tiles. "What were you thinking? Who is going to get us out?"
"I’m not a complete moron. I called for help before coming to snoop around Emmett’s place."
"Did you shroud yourself?"
"I thralled Gustav to get me in. But he didn’t know the code to open the door to the basement. I tried to find another way in, but the bastard must have somehow overthrown my thrall and called Emmett, who came up behind me and smashed a boulder on my head. Luckily, I have a thick skull."
"He is freakishly strong, and he has fangs, but he doesn’t know about immortals. He’s either completely crazy, suffers from amnesia, or he’s some new subspecies of immortal that uses fangs to suck blood."
"What the hell?" Peter raised his voice. “Did he suck yours?”
"It’s probably a fetish because I saw him eat normal food, so it’s not like he needs it for sustenance."
"Did he bite you?"
Eleanor rolled her eyes. "How else would he suck my blood, with a straw?"
As a long moment of silence followed, Eleanor decided to be nice and save Peter from having to ask. “He didn’t have sex with me. He didn’t even kiss me, other than my neck, that is, and then he went right for it. It didn’t feel the same as Greggory’s bite, but it was close enough. I still got the euphoric high, and I even blacked out.”
“That could have been from blood loss.”
“I doubt it. He wasn’t at my neck for long enough.”
“How do you feel now?”
“Fine, but then I’m an immortal and my body fixes whatever is wrong quickly. The human women he’s been snacking on probably suffered from blood loss, which is why they looked drained.” She chuckled. “Quite literally.”
“He’s either deranged, or he comes from a branch of immortals who think that they are vampires.”
“Maybe they are. Who knows what weird mutation might have happened along the way? We have Mey who has little fangs, and Jin who has larger ones and also venom glands.”
“True. I wonder how come nothing like that has happened in Navuh’s camp. Unlike us, his people are the product of several different maternal lines.”
“We can speculate all we want, but in the meantime, he’s holding us captive and can come back to snack on me again. We need to figure out a way to get out of here, but I can’t break the door down, and even if I could, you won’t be able to get out of that room.” She could carry him out, but for that, she would need to break down two doors, and Eleanor doubted she could manage even one.
“We wait,” Peter said.
“I have to at least try to break it down.”
“You’ll only hurt yourself. It looks easy in the movies, but it’s not.”
“If you can do it, I might be able to do it too. Any advice?”
“Don’t run at it and slam into it. Kicking is more effective because your foot exerts more force than your shoulder, and you can direct the force at the lock area. But if the door swings toward you, which it probably does, that’s not going to work. The other option is to knock on the door to figure out if it’s solid wood or corrugated cardboard. If it sounds hollow, you might be able to kick a hole in the middle of it.”
Kicking was not a good option.
“My boots are made for looks. They are not particularly sturdy. Should I try it barefoot?”
“Go for it. Just try not to break your foot. Without Bridget to set it right, it might fuse the wrong way and she will need to break it again to fix it. That’s the downside of our rapid healing.”
That sounded bad. “Maybe I should just wait for the cavalry.”
41
Leon
As Leon’s phone buzzed, he glanced at the display and walked out onto the front porch before accepting the call.
“Hello, Turner.”
“Peter called this morning.”
That was bad. “What happened?”
“Eleanor went on a date with Emmett last night and didn’t return this morning.”
A chill ran down Leon’s spine.
Damn, he shouldn’t have left her and Peter in the retreat. They should have left with him.
The door opened, and Anastasia walked out, joining him on the porch. “Who is it?”
Leon covered the mic with his finger. “It’s my boss.” He wanted to add that he needed privacy for the call, but with how suspicious Anastasia was, she would think it was about her.
Besides, she couldn’t hear Turner’s side of the conversation, and Leon could be careful about what he said in front of her.
“Maybe Eleanor decided to spend the night with Emmett.” It was unlikely given how much she’d talked about staying faithful to Greggory, but it was better to think that than the alternative.
“Her things are missing from her room, and Peter was told that she had left, which we know is not true. We have to assume that Emmett has discovered who she is, and he is holding her captive. We are sending a team to get her out.”
“That will take too long. Can’t we send the police in?”
“If he is a compeller, which we now are pretty sure he is, the police will be useless. Peter and Eleanor discovered that he has a secret underground facility below his cottage that’s very luxurious and not at all conforming to the modest standards he imposes on the rest of his community. He brings the women there, and Peter suspects that he drugs them so they won’t remember details from the experience. He and Eleanor saw one leave his place and she looked like she was drunk or high. There are also rumors of orgies.”
Damn. All of that had been happening right under their noses, and they hadn’t been aware of anything. What else was going on beneath the illusion of a peaceful, free-loving community?
“How are you planning on getting in there?” That was less problematic than the memory wiping they would need to do after rescuing Eleanor, but he couldn’t say it in front of Anastasia.
“Remember what we did with Gorchenco’s compound?”
“The fire drill?”
“Precisely. The team is going to create a fake fire with pyrotechnics, or the illusion of one, evacuate everyone, and then blast their way into the underground.”
“Is there anything you need me to do?”
“We are going to take Emmett, and I don’t know if Safe Haven would manage to survive without him. Anastasia can’t go back there even if she doesn’t transition. I thought you should let her know that’s no longer an option.”
“I will. Thanks for keeping me in the loop, and good luck with the mission.”
Turner chuckled. “I don’t need luck with that. I just hope that Eleanor is okay and that we reach her in time. We don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“I should have insisted that she and Peter leave with Anastasia and me.” Leon raked nervous fingers through his hair.
“What’s going on?” Anastasia trained a pair of worried eyes on him.
He closed the mic with his finger. “I’ll tell you in a moment.”
“Then they wouldn’t have discovered what Emmett was doing. They had a job to do, but Eleanor took it a step too far. Asking for a date with Emmett wasn’t a smart move.”
“Can you do me a favor? Tell Peter to call me as soon as he can?”
“I will. Goodbye, Leon.”
He terminated the call and turned to Anastasia. “I have bad news.”
“I figured.”
When he was done telling Anastasia what he’d learned from Turner, she shook her head. “I can’t believe it. Drugs? Orgies?”
“It would appear so. That’s probably why his partners looked so drained after being with him and had to take a twenty-four-hour vacation to recuperate. They needed to sleep the drugs off.”
Nodding, Anastasia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Eleanor is a tough-looking woman, but if he drugged her, she would be just as defenseless as the others. I’m worried about her. Why do you think Emmett is keeping her?”
“I hope that he’s only holding her captive and didn’t do something worse. The drugs might have loosened her tongue, and she might have admitted that she was sent to spy on him.”
The thing was, Eleanor wouldn’t be affected by drugs, and being an immune she shouldn’t have been affected by Emmett’s compulsion ability either. Not only that, she should have been stronger and faster than the guy, provided that he was human. To have her under his control, he either threatened her with a gun, or he was an immortal after all, and she couldn’t overpower him.