Dark Spy’s Mission

by I. T. Lucas

  “Wait.” Arwel stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s check her bedroom first. I need to know if she slept in her bed at all, or if she snuck out last night after she and William returned from the store.”

  “Her bed is made, but she didn’t leave last night. I know that she dyed the wigs this morning because they are still wet.”

  If she could get Arwel alone, Jin could tell him what she suspected about the Guardians listening in on their lovemaking instead of paying attention to Jacki’s comings and goings.

  “Let’s check the garage.” Arwel turned to the three men. “Duncan, you stay here. Ewan and Gregor, you come with us. If she’s on foot, we still have a chance to find her.”

  54

  Arwel

  Arwel scanned the garage. “All the cars are here, which means that she’s walking. She couldn’t have gotten far.”

  He turned to the Guardians. “Ewan, you go west. Gregor, you head north. Magnus, you are going south. I’m going to take the east.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Jin said.

  “Of course.” He opened the passenger door for her.

  “I don’t think Jacki ran away.” Jin buckled up. “She wouldn’t have bothered dyeing the wigs if that was her plan. She’s probably out jogging.”

  Arwel arched a brow. “Is she a jogger?”

  “Not as far as I know. But it’s a nice day, and her room is stinky from the hair dye, so she might have decided to go out for some fresh air.”

  “She could have waited for the right opportunity.” He cast Jin a sidelong glance. “We gave her the perfect cover this morning.”

  “So you figured it out, huh? The perverts were too busy listening to us making love to hear Jacki leave the house.”

  “It’s not like they could help it. This house has standard insulation, and we didn’t bother to keep quiet.”

  Jin had been loud, thinking that the running water would mask the sounds she’d been making. On his part, Arwel was just as guilty for not saying anything. He’d enjoyed hearing her sounds of pleasure too much to do anything to stop them.

  “It’s so damn embarrassing. Maybe the noises we made were the reason Jacki left. She doesn’t have immortal hearing, but she’s in the room right next to ours. It’s not fun listening to other people making love.” She grimaced. “Although it seems like your fellow Guardians enjoyed it very much.”

  “Don’t let it bother you.”

  “I can’t help it.” Jin crossed her arms over her chest. “I think your freaking Fates are messing with us. Do they want us to abstain? Because it seems that our sex life is endangering the mission.”

  “At least we were good and used a condom this morning.”

  Jin huffed. “Yeah, like it’s a good thing.”

  Arwel decided not to respond. It seemed like Jin needed to vent her frustration, so it didn’t matter what he said.

  “Look.” She pointed at a woman walking stooped over with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her hoodie. “That’s her. I recognize those sweatpants.”

  As Arwel pulled up to the woman, she turned to look at them. “What are you doing here?”

  Jin lowered the window. “Looking for you. Everyone is worried sick about you. Get in the car.”

  “I’m just taking a walk. What’s the big deal?”

  Arwel threw the gearshift in park and got out of the car. “You are not supposed to be alone on the street.” He opened the back passenger door for her. “Did you forget that you are a wanted woman?”

  Letting out an indignant huff, Jacki got in the car. “I have the hoodie up, and I’m wearing the special glasses. That’s good enough to fool surveillance cameras if there were any out here. But there are none. Do you see any? Because I don’t.”

  Jin turned around to look at her friend. “Still. You should have at least told someone that you were going out.”

  “Why? So they could tell me that I can’t? I’m sick of being treated like a freaking prisoner and at the same time being expected to help your organization.”

  Arwel looked at her through the rearview mirror. “You are not a prisoner. Do you think that you would have been allowed more freedom in a witness protection program?”

  Shrugging, she looked out the window. “I’ve never been in one, so I don’t know.”

  “Next time tell someone. There is also the issue of Kalugal and his men. It’s not smart for you to be walking around his neighborhood, and especially not after last night. What if you were recognized? It’s not like there are many people out on the streets for you to go unnoticed. In fact, we haven’t seen anyone else walking around.”

  Jin nodded. “You should have taken one of the guys with you.”

  It wouldn’t have helped Jacki if she was discovered by Kalugal or his men, but the immortals were not the only threat to a woman walking alone on a deserted street. Human males were dangerous too, even in broad daylight.

  Jacki ignored Jin. Looking out the window, she appeared just as pissed as Arwel felt she was. Usually, he didn’t pick up on her emotions, either because they weren’t strong or because she was good at erecting walls around them.

  Still, Jacki knew that he was an empath, and anger was a strong emotion that easily overshadowed other, more subtle ones like anxiety over plotting an escape.

  This whole episode could have been designed to test the waters and see if she could get away with sneaking out of the house unnoticed. Even dyeing the wigs and leaving them to dry could have been part of the setup.

  Was he giving her too much credit?

  On the contrary. He probably wasn’t giving her enough.

  Arwel had a feeling that the girl was much smarter than she appeared and way more devious.

  55

  Wendy

  Wendy checked the time on the television screen. She still had a few minutes until Vlad got there.

  She’d hoped he wouldn’t come over again. He was such a nice guy and leading him on was wrong.

  Not that she had done it intentionally, it just happened. Yesterday, she’d planned to act indifferent so he would get the hint and not bother coming back. But she’d found it impossible to be mean to Vlad. He was so sensitive, so unsure of himself, that she’d felt compelled to help him out.

  No, not compelled. She shouldn’t use that nasty word when she knew what it really meant.

  How could the director have allowed Marisol to use it on her?

  Eh, who was she kidding? He probably told the bitch to do it. The guy didn’t trust anyone, not even his own niece.

  Still, she owed him. If not for Director Edgar Simmons, she would have still been in her father’s grip.

  Literally.

  Wendy hadn’t known anyone on her mother’s side of the family until one day the director had knocked on her father’s door, introduced himself, and offered her a lifeline.

  Her father had been more than happy to get rid of her, but only after negotiating with her uncle that half of her pay would go to him, supposedly to compensate for the expenses he’d incurred raising her alone.

  There hadn’t been any warm and fuzzies between Wendy and her uncle. He’d claimed that he hadn’t known about her existence and that as soon as he’d found out, he’d come for her. Not because he’d wanted to get to know his niece, but because as his blood relative, she was likely to possess some paranormal talent. And if not talent, then at least an immunity to mind manipulation like his.

  Hopefully, he knew that she’d joined the escape group only to gather intel for him.

  That had been the task he’d assigned her to. She’d been his ears, eyes, and sensor to anything out of the ordinary going on in the trainee group.

  She’d failed to detect Jin and Jacki’s plotting an escape, but she had salvaged the situation by going with them.

  Except, she was stuck with no means of communication, and she couldn’t leave. Perhaps she could use Vlad to do that.

  He was so sweet and naive that it shouldn’t be difficult. Fi
rst of all, she could find out from him where she was. He’d been told to keep quiet about it, but she could trick him by asking him the name of the college he attended or to tell her about his favorite hangout places.

  Maybe she could even get him to sneak her out.

  The worst part was that she really liked Jacki and Jin, and Mey and Yamanu and Arwel and everyone else. Betraying them wasn’t easy.

  She even liked Edna, whom she’d been terrified of but had managed to fool just like everyone else, despite her probing ability.

  There were advantages to having been so well-practiced in disassociation. Only this time, she’d done it in reverse, stepping back into her real life instead of the one she’d created as a substitute and was living so comfortably in.

  First, Wendy had swamped her mind with memories of the abuse she’d suffered throughout the years. With that filling every brain cell and nerve in her body, there had been little else for Edna to latch onto. But then Wendy had added a twist, imagining the director making advances towards her.

  It wasn’t hard to do since there was some truth to it. He had never actually done anything, but she’d felt his perverted desire for her.

  Having an empathic ability was both a gift and a curse. Without it, she probably would never have known her uncle had the hots for her because he wouldn’t have acted on it.

  At least she hoped he wouldn’t have.

  Men could never be trusted.

  Nevertheless, she owed him and was dependent on him for her future. The lifeline he’d offered her had been the first stroke of luck she’d had in her entire life. It got her out of the house and provided her with a great income for skills she’d been born with and didn’t have to work on acquiring.

  It was a chance of a lifetime. Heck, it was her only chance.

  Hopefully, Edna had forgotten all about her promise of cupcakes and girl talk and wasn’t going to show up anytime soon. Wendy wasn’t sure she could pull off the same trick again, and if possible, she would rather avoid immersing herself in memories of pain and insults.

  It had been hard enough when she’d forced herself back into her real life. In fact, she was still reeling from the aftershocks. Usually, the catalyst for entering her alternate reality had been her father’s abuse. Without it, she was struggling to go back to the better place she’d created for herself.

  56

  Jin

  The drive back to the house lasted less than five minutes, but those minutes were tense. As soon as Arwel parked the car in the garage, Jacki opened the back passenger door, got out, and then slammed it behind her.

  “Someone is in a bad mood,” Jin muttered. “I’d better go talk to her.”

  She got out of the car and followed Jacki inside.

  “Wait up,” she called after her. “Are you hungry? You left the house without eating breakfast.”

  “I’m going to my room.” Jacki continued up the stairs.

  Arwel put a hand on Jin’s shoulder. “I’m going to the office.”

  “Coward.”

  “She is your friend. You deal with her tantrum.”

  Jacki was already at the top of the stairs, and Jin had no intention of going up after her.

  “Don’t be an idiot, Jacki. Are you punishing me by going hungry?”

  Jacki stopped and turned around. “I did nothing wrong, and yet you and your boyfriend treated me like a criminal.”

  Rolling her eyes, Jin beckoned with her hand. “Come on. You can yell at me over eggs and toast. I’ll even make them for you. Together with hot chocolate.” That was an offer her friend couldn’t refuse.

  One corner of Jacki’s mouth twitched with a ghost of a smile, and then it bloomed into a full one. “How can I stay mad at you when you offer to make me food and hot cocoa?”

  “That’s the idea.”

  In the kitchen, they found Vivian waiting for them with fresh coffee.

  “I heard you coming in and made two cups. Would you like some?”

  “Yes, please.” Jacki sat at the table. “Aren’t you going to berate me as well?”

  Vivian shook her head. “I’m sure you’ve gotten an earful already. We were worried about you. That’s all.”

  Jacki took the mug Vivian handed her. “I’m a grown woman, and I wasn’t abducted by humans or aliens through my second-floor bedroom window. The logical assumption should have been that I’d gone for a walk.”

  The fact that they’d thought she had run away hung in the air unspoken.

  “I actually considered the alien theory,” Jin said to break the silence. “They’d taken you during the night but were nice enough to make your bed and dye the wigs.”

  She pulled a tray of eggs out of the fridge and cracked three into the pan.

  “The stinky hair dye was the reason I went out for a walk. How did they come out?”

  “I don’t know.” Jin popped four slices of bread into the toaster. “They were still wet when I saw them. You should have blow-dried them.”

  “I thought about doing that, but then I figured that we should ask Eva if that was okay. It didn’t occur to me until after I’d applied the color that maybe the wigs were not meant to be dyed.”

  “I’d better call her while you eat your breakfast. We need to ask her how to change our appearance with what we have. We might have to buy some new stuff.”

  When the eggs were ready and the toast popped up, Jin put everything on a plate and brought it to the table. “Enjoy.”

  “Thank you.”

  As Jacki dove in, she placed the call.

  “Jin. I was waiting for your call.”

  “Why? Have you already heard about what happened?”

  “Kian called me and asked me to design a new disguise for you. I’m waiting for Ella to come over so I can demonstrate on her. We can do a Skype session, and you can do Jacki’s makeup while following what I’m demonstrating on Ella, and then you can switch.”

  “Awesome. By the way, Jacki dyed the wigs. I hope that’s okay.”

  “That’s fine. What colors did she use?”

  “Let me put you on speaker.” She turned to Jacki. “Eva is asking what colors you used for the wigs.”

  Jacki wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I used L’Oréal. One was cayenne red and the other deep golden brown. After I washed the color off, I left them to air dry. Any styling ideas?”

  “We will do the makeup first, and then check on the wigs. You didn’t alter the colors by much.”

  “I was afraid to go with something too bold. We are supposed to blend in, not stand out.”

  “True. Most of the work will have to be done with makeup and hairstyles rather than color. I’ll call you as soon as Ella is here.”

  “Thank you, Eva.” Jin took the call off the speaker. “And I’m sorry for bothering you on the weekend.”

  “No problem. As a stay-at-home mom, weekdays or weekends makes no difference to me.”

  “Nevertheless, I’m sure you would rather have spent the day with your family.”

  “I’m glad to help, Jin. In any way I can. Besides, nowadays, that’s the only excitement I get. I’m living vicariously through your and Jacki’s adventure.”

  Jin chuckled. “I could have done with much less excitement. I don’t think that the spy lifestyle is for me.”

  57

  Vlad

  “Hello, Vlad.” Mey welcomed him with a hug.

  When she let go, Yamanu clapped him on the back. “I’m glad you came.” He slung a towel around his neck. “I’m heading to the gym. You don’t need me here, right?”

  Vlad glanced at the couch where Wendy was patiently waiting for her turn to say hello.

  “I hope you are not leaving because of me.”

  Yamanu laughed. “It’s not you. It’s me.” He winked. “I have a date with Richard at the weights station.” He looked Vlad over. “You should come with me sometime. I’ll show you the proper way to build up muscle.”

  From the corner of his eye, Vlad saw Mey glarin
g at Yamanu.

  She probably thought that Vlad had been offended by the suggestion, but the truth was that he didn’t need the training. He was already freakishly strong. To develop muscles, he would probably need to push up semitrailers.

  “I’ll take you up on your offer once you and Mey go back to the village.”

  Now it was Yamanu’s turn to glare. “You mean the neighborhood gym.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

  “Good deal.” Yamanu clapped him on the back again. “Have fun, kids.”

  Vlad rolled his eyes. Yamanu looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. Calling Vlad and Wendy kids was telling.

  When he left, Mey ducked into the bedroom but left the door open as if they needed a chaperone.

  “What’s all that?” Wendy pointed at the duffle bag slung over one shoulder and the guitar case slung over the other.

  He dropped the bag on the floor and put the case on a chair. “You said you were bored, so I brought you video games and books...”

  “Thanks. And what’s that?” She pointed at the case.

  “I brought my guitar, thinking that you might want to hear some of the songs my band used to play. We wrote them ourselves.”

  “I would love that.”

  He clicked the fasteners open. “I play the bass and Jackson plays the lead guitar, but for a solo performance, I figured an acoustic would be best.” He pulled it out.

  Wendy sat up straight. “I’ve always wanted to play an instrument.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  She grimaced. “My father didn’t think it was necessary.”

  “I can teach you if you want.”

  “That would be nice. Although I would have preferred to play the piano.”

  “I can teach you that as well, but we don’t have one down here.”

  Her eyes brightened with admiration. “You play three instruments? That’s amazing.”