Dark Overlord’s Wife (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Series Book 39)

by I. T. Lucas

  “I hope you are right. I like him, and I hate hurting his feelings.” She cringed. “Not that I’m doing such a great job of it. I told him that there could be nothing between us because he is an immortal, and I’m a human, but I agreed to marry you despite that.”

  Kalugal shrugged. “A lady is allowed to change her mind, right? You don’t owe him anything.”

  “I know. But it’s going to be uncomfortable.”

  “I’ll talk to him.”

  “No, don’t. It will make it even worse. I’ll handle it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Jacki nodded. “Positive. When are you leaving?”

  He glanced at his watch again. “The meeting is scheduled for noon. I’ll probably leave in an hour.”

  “If you have any questions about the program, call me.” She grimaced. “I forgot that I don’t have a phone.”

  “I’ll text you. You can get texts on the tablet I gave you.”

  “Okay.”

  She didn’t look okay. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t have a cell phone, and the landlines are code blocked. We are about to be married, but you can’t even trust me with a freaking phone?”

  She had a point. “I’ll get you a cellphone.”

  Naturally, he would screen her calls.

  Kalugal wanted to trust Jacki, but he couldn’t risk it. What if she was a mole, like her friend? It was unlikely, but not impossible.

  On the other hand, there was little she could reveal that wasn’t already known. His location had been compromised, so she had nothing new to report in that regard. If federal agents came knocking on his door, he would just send them away dazed and confused.

  The problem was that Jacki also knew about immortals, and if anyone believed her, that would require a big-time cleanup job. Memories would have to be scrubbed, computer databases erased, and the immune director and his immune recruiter would have to be eliminated.

  12

  Jin

  Jin was packing for the trip to the cabin when her phone pinged with an incoming email.

  In her previous life as Jin Levine, the oblivious human, she would have ignored it. Back then, her inbox had been full of updates from school, promotions, invitations, and emails from the various bloggers she used to follow.

  Now she lived in isolation and had a new email address, and the only ones who had it were her sister, Kian, Arwel, and Jacki.

  Except, the only one actually using it to communicate was her friend. The others texted or called.

  Dropping the stack of clothes into the suitcase, Jin lifted her phone and opened the email.

  Hi Bestie,

  I have exciting news, and you are the only one I can share it with. Kalugal and I are getting married. At first, the idea was to just pull a marriage license and then invite someone to Kalugal’s house to officiate. But then I realized that it didn’t make sense for us to get married using our fake names. Then Kalugal suggested that we have a private ceremony and pledge ourselves to each other in front of witnesses. That way, we would do it as us, and not the fake personalities that we use.

  Anyway, I told him that his men wouldn’t do as witnesses, and that I want at least some of my new friends to be at the ceremony. He said that he would ask Kian about it when he meets him at the summit, but he doubted that Kian would agree to come to his house or let anyone else attend.

  What do you think?

  Is there a chance he would? Because I would really like you to come. I know Kian would veto Arwel’s attendance, but maybe he will let you come.

  I don’t have a date yet, but it’s going to happen soon, so be ready to fly over or drive.

  Love,

  Jacki.

  Plopping on the bed, Jin read the email again. Had Jacki lost her mind? And whose crazy idea was it to get married after knowing each other for less than a week?

  She typed a response.

  All I want to say is, wow! Congratulations!

  But I can’t. This is nuts!

  Why the hell are you getting married?

  And whose idea was it?

  What’s the rush?

  Did he get you pregnant?

  Are you even in love?

  Hitting send, Jin waited for Jacki’s response. This was such an annoying way to talk. If she had Jacki on the phone, she could have yelled at her to come to her senses.

  The only reason Kalugal wanted to marry Jacki was because of her possible dormancy, but Jin wasn’t allowed to tell her that.

  Except, why not?

  She’d kept it a secret because Kalugal asked Kian not to tell Jacki, and Kian asked her.

  But Jacki’s future was more important than the promise. What would Kian do if she told Jacki the truth? Yell at her?

  Let him try. Jin would yell back just as loudly.

  First, though, she needed to know how and why this had happened, and why Jacki had said yes.

  As the return email came in, Jin opened it with trepidation. Hopefully, Jacki wasn’t pregnant. But then maybe she wanted to be?

  We are not in love, not yet, but we are in serious like and lust. The problem is that I won’t have sex with Kalugal unless I have his love and devotion first, and for reasons Kalugal can’t reveal, he can’t give me that until he is sure of my love and loyalty to him.

  I suggested marriage as a joke, but then we both realized that it might be the solution to our problem. Our marriage vows will be about commitment and devotion, but not love because we are not there yet.

  I know that you believe in living for today, but I’m not like you. My motto was ALL or NOTHING, meaning no casual flings. I realize that Kalugal and I can’t promise each other forever, but I figured that a little less than ALL with a demigod is a lot better than NOTHING.

  Does that make sense to you?

  After reading the email twice, Jin figured it out.

  Just as she’d suspected. Jacki was a freaking virgin, and she’d lied when Jin had asked her about it. She didn’t do flings, and she didn’t do hookups, but Kalugal was irresistible and she wanted him, but not without him marrying her first.

  Actually, it wasn’t such a bad plan, given that Jacki had no idea how valuable she was to him.

  Still, it was hard to believe that a knockout like Jacki was a twenty-two-year-old virgin.

  Damn. Jin had lost her virginity on her seventeenth birthday, and she’d been one of the last girls in her friend group to finally get her v-card punched. No wonder Jacki had been embarrassed to admit that.

  It was kind of sweet. It seemed that Jacki was an old-fashioned soul who clung to old values, like saving her v-card for her husband. And she also had a point about marrying a demigod being worth a little compromise.

  It would be an experience, that was for sure.

  The question was what would happen if she didn’t transition.

  Poor Jacki would be devastated.

  Even if Kalugal fell in love with her, he wouldn’t keep her. Every immortal’s dream was to find his true-love mate, or at least an immortal one who could give him immortal children.

  The thing was, Jacki’s transition was not guaranteed like Jin’s, and her chances of being a Dormant were not great. Jin wasn’t sure that immunity counted as a paranormal talent, and Jacki’s clairvoyance was unimpressive.

  If she didn’t transition, Kalugal would divorce her.

  Should Jin warn her?

  It was a tough call. On the one hand, Jacki deserved to know, but on the other hand, the knowledge could rob her of the little happiness she would have until Kalugal realized that she was not about to transition.

  Except, Kalugal was the one who should tell Jacki about it, not Jin. Perhaps she could ask Kian to give him some solid cousinly advice?

  Marrying Jacki without telling her about her possible dormancy was deceitful, and she would never forgive him for keeping it from her.

  Yeah, Kian should warn him. As a married man, he had experience which Kalugal lacked, and his advice carried weig
ht. Kalugal might listen to him.

  Smiling, Jin typed her answer.

  Now that you finally admit to being a freaking virgin, it does make sense. You were saving your V-card for your husband, but Kalugal is so hot that you can’t wait. I don’t blame you for wanting him so badly that you are willing to marry the stuck-up, gorgeous, charming, demigod after knowing him for less than a week.

  There is no way I’m missing your wedding, and if Kian objects, I’ll just do it without asking his permission.

  13

  Wendy

  Wendy had been surprised when ten minutes into the drive Leon had removed her blindfold, but she had a good idea why.

  Once they arrived at the cabin, Bowen would probably get into her head once again, check recent memories, and erase what he didn’t want her to remember.

  He’d done it with the location of the underground that she and the others had stayed in. She had known it before, more or less, but now the memory was gone, and whenever she tried to bring it up, her head started hurting.

  Eventually she’d stopped trying.

  What was the point?

  There was none, but finding what she felt was hidden just beneath the surface of her consciousness was a compulsive need. Cringing, she tried again, but as always all she got for her efforts was a headache.

  Wendy closed her eyes, and after a few moments the damn stabbing needles let up and she dozed off.

  “We are almost there.” Leon turned into a dirt road and stopped in front of a rickety gate.

  The rusted combination padlock keeping it closed looked old, but Wendy was sure it operated just as smoothly as everything else the paranormal organization owned.

  Obviously, it was backed by big money, and Wendy wondered whether the story about its members making a killing on the stock market was true.

  Probably not.

  Maybe the backer was a foreign country. Russia or China or any of the others who would love to undermine the American superpower.

  Having a bunch of paranormals working for them would make spying on the United States so much easier. They could get Jin into the White House as a reporter, or an aide, or any other job that would get her close enough to the President to shake hands with him.

  Jin didn’t seem like the traitor type, but then she hadn’t been raised in the States, so who knew where her loyalty lay. And even if she refused to spy on her country, they could force her to do it by threatening Mey.

  That was probably what was going on.

  Wendy should stop thinking of herself as a traitor. She was a patriot, whose loyalty belonged to her country and not a bunch of people with questionable motives. Contacting her uncle had been the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it hadn’t achieved a damn thing.

  After Leon opened the gate, he drove the car through, got out again, and closed it.

  Wendy crossed her arms over her chest. “Why bother with the stupid gate? It’s not going to keep out anyone who wants in. They could just ram a car through it, and the chain would break.”

  “True, but we would know that someone is trespassing, and we have countermeasures.”

  “Oh, yeah? Like what?”

  “The trail is full of land mines. We can activate them remotely.”

  Wendy gasped. “And you are driving over that? Let me out!” She reached for the handle.

  “Relax.” He chuckled. “I was just joking. There are no explosives.”

  “Really?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Or are you just saying that so I don’t freak out.”

  “No explosives.” He put a hand over his heart. “I swear.”

  Wendy let out a breath. “You shouldn’t make jokes like that.”

  “I’m sorry. But I couldn’t help myself. You were so serious.”

  “It’s pretty out here,” she said as he parked the car next to the cabin. “Can I take a walk?”

  The last house she’d seen had been miles away, so it wasn’t as if she could run.

  “Let’s unload, and then I’ll come with you.” Leon turned the engine off and got out. “There are wild animals out here.”

  “Really? Or is that another one of your jokes?”

  “Look around you. Why wouldn’t this place be teeming with wildlife?”

  Doing as he asked, Wendy finally noticed the serenity of the place. Everywhere she looked there were trees and shrubs, and the sounds she heard were mostly of birds chirping, leaves rustling, and branches groaning. There was no traffic on the narrow mountain road below, and other than the soft whooshing of the huge wind turbine’s blades, all sounds of civilization were absent.

  It was windy and a little cold, but the air was so fresh that she didn’t mind taking in cold gulps of it.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She zipped up her coat.

  Leon opened the trunk and pulled out the suitcase he’d lent her. Thanks to him, this time her things weren’t bundled in a bedsheet, making her feel a little less of a vagabond.

  As she reached for the handle, he cast her a look that said back off, little girl, and let the big man handle this. “It’s okay. I’ve got it.”

  Whatever. She had more important things to argue about. “I would really like to take a walk by myself. I’ll stay near the cabin.” She lifted her cuffed wrist. “Besides, I have this. I’m sure it does more than run interference with the tracking signal I’m supposedly emitting. You can find me anytime you want.”

  Carrying her overstuffed suitcase as if it weighed no more than a shopping bag, Leon walked up to the cabin’s front door, entered a code into the lock, and opened the way. “You are emitting a signal, and the cuff can’t locate you because its job is to interfere with signals, not emit them. But if you run away, I can remotely activate the release of a poison that will incapacitate you until I find you.”

  Wendy rolled her eyes. “Is that another one of your morbid jokes?”

  “Not this time. If you plan on running, you should be aware of that.” He opened the door to one of the bedrooms and put her suitcase on the bed. “But if you still want to go for a walk by yourself, I’ll give you an emergency whistle.”

  “What for?”

  “It’s so loud that the noise itself will scare the animals off, at least for a little while. It will also notify me that you are in trouble and give me enough time to get to you.”

  “And what will you do once you get to me?” She looked at his jeans and tight T-shirt. The only place he could be hiding anything was in his boots. “Do you have any weapons on you?”

  Leon grinned. “I don’t need any. I am a weapon.”

  “Right.” Wendy rolled her eyes. “Are you going to hypnotize the wild beasts or tear them apart with your bare hands?”

  “Depends on the beasts. I can hypnotize a bear, but coyotes run in packs, so that’s trickier. I would have to fight them off.” He said it with a perfectly straight face.

  “Right. You’re such a comedian. Can you get me the whistle now?”

  14

  Vlad

  “Leon and Wendy are already here.” Bowen parked the car next to Leon’s.

  Richard was the first to open the door and get out. “It’s a nice cabin.” He stretched his arms over his head, sucked in a deep breath, and then released it in a long whoosh. “The air here is so crisp.”

  Right now, Vlad didn’t care about how nice the cabin was or whether the mountain air was fresh.

  The only one on his mind was Wendy.

  After learning about the new virus that was rapidly spreading throughout the world, he was glad that she was safe and isolated from other humans. Except for Richard, but he’d been isolated for a long time too, so he wasn’t carrying anything that might endanger her.

  Normally, immortals weren’t concerned with seasonal influenza or other viruses that affected humans, and Vlad wouldn’t have even known about it if not for the notification he’d gotten from his college. Classes were canceled, and from now until further notice, they were going to be held online.
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  His first reaction had been to shrug it off as mass hysteria that had nothing to do with him or the people he cared for, but while listening to the news on the way he’d realized that the situation was worse than he’d thought.

  Wendy was still human, and he cared about her despite her betrayal.

  Bowen popped the trunk and pulled out Vlad’s guitar case and duffle bag. “Here you go, buddy.” He handed him both. “Cheer up. It’s going to be okay.”

  Vlad nodded. “One way or another.” If things got too awkward between him and Wendy, he could spend his days hiking.

  Slinging the strap of his bag over his shoulder, Bowen closed the trunk and then climbed the steps to the front porch.

  “The door is open,” Leon called from the inside.

  Like a chicken, Vlad waited for Richard and Bowen to go in, and then followed, hiding behind the Guardian’s broad back.

  When a quick glance around revealed no Wendy, he let out a relieved breath. She was probably in her room, watching her damn anime.

  “Wendy is taking a walk outside,” Leon said.

  Vlad frowned. “Is it safe? I mean, there are animals out there.”

  Leon shrugged. “I told her to stay close, and I gave her an emergency whistle.”

  “That can scare coyotes away. But what if she encounters a bear? Or a mountain lion? What if she gets attacked before she can blow the whistle?” Imagining those worst-case scenarios, Vlad started hyperventilating.

  “If you are so worried, go after her.” Bowen clapped him on the back. “I’ll take your things up to the loft.”