by I. T. Lucas
Luckily for them, it was cold outside. Unluckily for the rest of the house’s occupants, they had to go without heating.
“That’s because you can see only my face and it’s a small screen. I can’t hide my height, and that’s what people notice first about me.”
“You look fifteen years older. Can I see Jacki?”
Her friend popped her head next to Jin’s. “What do you think?”
“Same for you. Fantastic job.”
Jacki grinned. “I never thought that I would be so happy about looking old and ugly.”
“You’re not ugly. Not even with that on.”
Jacki waved a dismissive hand. “You’re such a charmer, Lokan. But let’s get down to business. Tell Jin not to listen to anything Kalugal tells her to do, and just in case I’m not immune to him, do the same for me.”
He chuckled. “Compulsion needs more precise wording. If I do what you suggest, neither of you would hear a word he says.”
“Yes, master.” Jacki mock bowed. “Whatever you say.”
“Refuse to obey Kalugal’s commands. It’s as simple as that.”
Jin frowned. “That’s it? What if he asks nicely?”
“Jin, you must refuse Kalugal’s commands and requests no matter how politely he phrases them.”
“That’s better. Is that all?”
“Yes. You can give the tablet to Jacki.”
As Jin listened to Lokan give each of them the same command, she wondered whether it would do any good.
Logically, the answer was no. Given that Kalugal was much more powerful than his brother, he could most likely override Lokan’s compulsion.
And yet, combined with the new disguise, it helped her feel a little more confident and a little less scared.
When he was done with the last Guardian in the room, Arwel took the tablet, thanked him, and ended the call.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Even though it’s probably a placebo effect, I feel more confident.”
Kri walked over and put her hand on Jin’s shoulder. “Your problem is not enough practice. When you saw Kalugal, you started to think about how you were going to touch him and about everything that could go wrong. The trick is to just do it. Move forward without thinking, and that can be achieved only with a lot of training.”
“Who am I going to practice on?”
Kri waved a hand around the room. “Everyone here. We will put music on and pretend the living room is a club. All of us will dance while you walk around with a drink in your hand, bump into people and tether them. Then you are going to release the tethers and start all over again.”
Arwel shook his head. “If Jin expends all of her mental energy on practice, she will have nothing left by the end of the day. And since it’s Saturday, there is a good chance Kalugal will go out hunting tonight.”
Jacki grimaced. “Why do you call clubbing hunting? It sounds like a safari.”
Kri snorted. “Because that’s exactly what it is. But back to Jin. She has to practice no matter what. Worst case, she will get Kalugal some other day or even next Saturday. It’s better than blowing another disguise.”
“I agree with Kri,” Jin said. “The draining part is not attaching the mental hook or removing it, it’s holding on to several strings at once.”
“Then let’s party.” Vivian clapped her hands. “Guys, start moving furniture. We need to clear an area for a dance floor.”
When the living room was ready, Arwel put on music, and everyone other than Jin started dancing. It was fun to watch, especially William, who had surprising moves.
Even Jacki looked impressed.
Two of the three burly bears just swayed in place, holding their beers and pretending to be scanning for girls.
Hunting, as Arwel called it.
Wine glass in hand, Jin concentrated on the loud music instead of looking at the people she knew well. Letting her vision blur, she started a meandering path.
She bumped into one person and then another and caught the arm of the third as if to steady herself.
“I’m so sorry.” She wiped nonexistent wine drops from Ewan’s sleeve while tethering him. “I spilled some on you.”
“That’s okay,” the Guardian said. “No harm done.”
And so it went on.
After she’d tethered and released everyone twice, Arwel turned the music off. “I think that’s enough.”
“For now,” Kri said. “We will take a break for lunch and then do another round.”
Arwel looked at Jin. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m good. Kri is right. After the third or the fourth tether, I stopped thinking and just did it on autopilot. Another round of tethering after lunch is a good idea.”
Arwel didn’t seem convinced. “Did it become harder the more people you tethered?”
“Not if I released the tether right away. If I kept more than three at the same time, I felt fatigued.”
Kri clapped her on the back. “Good job, girl. Your act was very convincing. You looked a little tipsy but not stupidly drunk, and your apologies didn’t sound fake.”
Jin let out a breath. “Thanks. I was worried about that.”
To her, the act seemed forced and her apologies sounded insincere. She was glad Kri thought otherwise, but she wanted another opinion. The one person she knew wouldn’t try to be nice and would give it to her straight was Jacki.
“What do you think?” she asked her.
“It was good. But more practice wouldn’t hurt. And don’t look at the person you are apologizing to. Pretend to be embarrassed and focus on the spilled drink.”
Jin nodded. “If I don’t look at Kalugal’s face, I can pretend that it’s not him.”
“That too,” Jacki said. “But I was thinking more along the lines of him not getting a good look at you. He might recognize you from before.”
61
Kalugal
Rufsur walked into Kalugal’s study. “Are we going out tonight?”
“I’m not in the mood.” He didn’t even lift his head from the book.
The Inca were much more fascinating than chasing tail in clubs.
Last night had been meh. The sisters had been a no show, and the girl he’d picked up had been a bore. She’d seemed so promising but had turned out disappointing on all accounts.
As an English major who loved literature, she should have been well-read and interesting to talk to. But after twenty minutes or so he’d found himself carrying on a monologue because she had nothing to say.
Perhaps he’d intimidated her into silence. That happened sometimes. Not because he was overbearing or condescending, but because he was so knowledgeable.
And the sex had been meh as well. The girl had no spirit.
“You are never in the mood. That’s why you have me to drag you away from your musty books and your dusty artifacts. You need to interact with people, and you need to get laid.”
Kalugal lifted his head. “I really hate that expression. Getting laid implies passiveness. I’m anything but.”
Rufsur bowed low. “My apologies, supreme ruler. Let me rephrase. You need to hunt.”
Despite his best efforts to keep a straight face, Kalugal’s lips lifted in a smile. One of the main reasons he’d chosen Rufsur as his second-in-command was that the guy refused to take any crap from him and was immune to his bullshit.
“Where do you want to go?”
“I liked the Magnet. Plenty of quality females to choose from, not too loud, and the bar doesn’t serve diluted drinks.”
Kalugal grimaced. “Let’s agree to disagree about what qualifies as quality. Our tastes are different. If I am to abandon this fascinating book, it would be for fascinating company.”
Rufsur didn’t look happy. “Stanford. That’s where you want to go.”
“Obviously. Why do you think I chose to live fifteen minutes away from the campus?”
“The startups?”
“That too.
You’d be surprised how much more interesting the sex is with a smart woman.”
Rufsur shook his head. “I have a rule against schtupping women smarter than me, and I’m not into the mind games that you like to play.”
“Not every smart woman is into them either, but I find that the higher the IQ, the more the lady is willing to experiment.”
“And the less appealing she is. Brainiacs don’t put as much effort into primping.”
That was true, but Kalugal didn’t like overly done-up females either. “To each his own. But since I compromised yesterday, it’s your turn to do so today.”
“Can’t argue with that. Do you want to include Phinas in our outing?”
“Ask him if he wants to join.”
Ideally, Kalugal would have preferred to go out by himself, but his men wouldn’t have it, which was quite absurd given that he routinely traveled alone to troubled areas around the world.
They weren’t happy about that either, but he’d put his foot down.
After Navuh, Kalugal was the most powerful man in the world, and no one could mess with him. Besides, old Professor Gunter didn’t attract attention. And if the unthinkable happened and his plane went down or a bomb exploded right over him, his men would perish with him. He didn’t need them for protection.
Still, he needed at least one to accompany him to clubs and bars and such. His shrouds worked only locally. If anyone unaffected by his shroud checked the footage from the surveillance cameras later, or the checkers were in a distant location, they would see his real face, and donning a disguise was not practical for hookups.
Naturally, Kalugal could have taken care of the recordings himself, but it was more efficient to have Rufsur or one of his other men do it for him.
That way, he could concentrate on having fun.
“Phinas is going out with Dandor and Welgost. So, it’s only the two of us.”
“As it usually is.”
On the weekends, Kalugal kept only a minimal guard on the premises, and the rest of the men went out to hunt. On weekdays, they each had two evenings out.
Some complained that it wasn’t enough, but Kalugal figured that if it was enough for him, it should suffice for them. After all, he and his older brother were the most pure-blooded immortals out there, and from what he had learned, the more pure-blooded the immortal was, the stronger his libido.
Did it work the same way for immortal females?
Kalugal had been too young to think about sex when he’d snuck into the harem to see his mother.
As always, thinking of her brought about a sharp pang, and he rubbed his chest as if the motion could relieve it.
If only he could talk to her again, see her beautiful face, have her hold him in her arms…
Shaking his head, Kalugal put his book away and rose to his feet. It was absurd for a grown man to long for his mother’s embrace.
62
Arwel
“It’s busy at Kalugal’s today,” William muttered. “More people are living in that mansion than we estimated. I counted eight cars so far.”
Each time a car left the gate, Jin and Jacki would be on high alert. Since none of them had been a convertible, they couldn’t see who was inside until the car reached its destination and the Guardian following it snapped photos of those getting out.
None had been Kalugal, but they were collecting valuable information about his men. So far, it seemed like there were no females in the compound. Not a single woman had left the place or had gotten in.
Which was odd.
Arwel had expected housekeeping staff, but it seemed that Kalugal’s men were responsible for the upkeep. Either that or they kept a bunch of enslaved women in his bunker. Given what Sharim had done in the basement of the monastery, it wasn’t such a farfetched scenario.
Arwel flipped through the photos that the watchers had snapped. “Even without following them, it’s obvious that none of these was driven by Kalugal. He likes fancy cars.”
“We can’t be sure of that. A careful guy like him is probably aware of how noticeable those are.”
“In this neighborhood, he is not the only one driving an expensive vehicle. Living here, he can get away with it.”
“Still, if it were me, I would keep a lower profile. Mercedes and BMW are fine automobiles and don’t attract as much attention.”
When Jin walked into the office looking like someone else, all Arwel had to do was close his eyes and inhale her familiar essence to reassure himself that everything was as it should be.
The poor girl had been stuck in the costume the entire day, but he’d convinced her to at least take off the layers of clothing. Putting them back on would take a minute, and there was no sense in her and Jacki sweating buckets while waiting for the right car to leave the gate.
“Dinner is ready,” she said.
William shook his head. “I’ll eat here if you don’t mind. I don’t want to miss Kalugal.”
Jin put her hand on her hip and struck a pose. “You can’t sit in this chair all day long and not move. We have watchers upstairs, and they take turns. They will alert us when a car leaves that gate.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He rolled his chair back and got up.
In the dining room, everyone other than the Guardian on duty was already seated at the table.
“Who cooked?” Arwel pulled out a chair for Jin.
Vivian waved a hand. “Magnus, Kri, and Michael. I only made the salad.”
“Thank you.”
Regrettably, none of them was a good cook, but Jacki couldn’t perform her culinary magic while wearing an itchy wig and tons of makeup. Both girls were uncomfortable, but it was unavoidable.
“I hope this ends tonight,” Jin said. “I don’t want to spend another day like this. I’m a nervous wreck.” She bit into a piece of dry toast.
“Aren’t you going to eat the spaghetti?”
She shook her head. “I’m nauseous, and toast is the only thing I can stomach right now.”
He took her hand and brought it up to his lips. Her hands and the back of her neck were the only spots not covered in makeup and safe to kiss. “Try to relax.”
Jin chuckled. “That’s the best I can do.”
Jacki had no such problem. She was slurping the spaghetti up one noodle at a time, oblivious to what it was doing to the bachelors watching her.
“Can you stop that?” Jin made a face. “The slurping sounds make me even more nauseous.”
Jacki frowned. “Sorry. I didn’t realize it was so loud.” She looked around the table, finally noticing the men’s eyes on her. “Am I grossing you out?”
“Not at all,” William said. “I’ve just never seen anyone eating spaghetti like that.”
The discussion that started about the best way to eat noodles was interrupted by William’s phone buzzing with an incoming message.
“The Ferrari just left the gate. I’m sure it’s Kalugal behind the wheel, but you’d better verify.” He passed the phone to Jacki.
“It’s him.” She handed the phone back. “What face is he shrouding himself in this time?”
“It’s the same one from yesterday,” William said while texting the info to the Guardians waiting to follow the car. “Apparently, he has several shrouds that he uses for different activities. This one is his hunting face. He needs to look handsome for that.”
Jacki pushed away from the table. “We should get in the cars and wait for directions.”
Arwel motioned for the others to do the same. “I want everyone in the garage in five minutes. Kri, you are going with Jin and Jacki. Michael and Ewan, you are with me. Magnus and Gregor, you are in the third car.”
They hadn’t planned on Kri accompanying the girls, but suddenly it seemed like a good idea to him.
Jin would feel safer with Kri around, and if shit went down for some unforeseeable reason, the Guardian was a force to be reckoned with.
63
Jin
Arwel poked his head
through the passenger side window. “He is heading to Stanford. You can start driving in that direction, and as soon as he arrives at his destination, the guys will text you the address.”
“You’re going to follow close behind us, right?” Jin knew that, but she needed reassurance.
“That’s right. And you have Kri with you. She can kick ass just as well as any of the guys.”
Jin smiled. “I’ve seen her in action, and I’m glad she is coming with us.”
Behind the wheel, Kri snorted. “You’ve seen nothing. That was just friendly sparring. I’m a killing machine in a real fight.”
Jin leaned away. “Have you ever killed anyone?”
“Not yet. Humans are too easy to kill to bother, and Kian would not let me fight Doomers.”
Arwel growled.
Kri had just blurted stuff she wasn’t supposed to next to Jacki.
Thinking quickly, Jin lifted her finger. “I’ve heard about those gangs. The Humans are not nearly as vicious as the Doomers. No wonder Kian keeps you away from the fights. I’ve heard they do ritual killings, really gruesome, horrible stuff.”
Luckily for them, Jacki wasn’t an empath. “I’ve never heard about those gangs. Where are they operating, Chicago?”
“They are all over.” Jin turned around. “They are quickly becoming the two largest drug cartels in the States. And there have been rumors about the Doomers getting into trafficking as well.”
Jacki shook her head. “I really need to pay more attention to the news.”
“You’d better get moving.” Arwel leaned and kissed the top of Jin’s head. “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
As Kri eased out of the garage, a ghost of a smile lifted the corners of her lips. “You are going to be fine.”
Jin slumped in her seat. “I hope so.”
“Don’t think. Just do. Pretend that you are back at the house, training. Do exactly what you did this morning. You were perfect.”