by I. T. Lucas
“Your guy’s talent is extraordinary. I need to be heard to achieve the same result.”
Kian smirked. “I know.”
“Can’t he thrall them to drive in a different direction before they get here?”
“Unfortunately, his thralling ability is limited by distance.”
“I was afraid of that,” Kalugal said. “That’s why we can’t leave the vans outside. The police cars have cameras mounted on them, and they record everything. So even if they don’t see anything while driving by the house, they will see it later when they go over the footage. Also, the recording might be streamed live to a monitoring center, which could be out of my shrouding range as well.”
Kian nodded. “We also don’t want them colliding with invisible vans while trying to park in front of your house.”
19
Jacki
As Wonder put Jacki down on the couch, Shamash rushed to her with a glass of water. His lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“Thank you.” She tried to sit up and take the glass, but her head was spinning, and she dropped back down.
Taking it from Shamash, Wonder lifted Jacki’s head and brought the glass to her lips.
Still nauseous and struggling to keep dinner from coming back up, she was afraid that even water might induce the puking that she was trying so hard to hold down. But her mouth was dry, and the water was cold.
Jacki took a tiny sip, just enough to wet her lips. It felt wonderful, but perhaps that was enough for now. Letting her head drop back against Wonder’s strong arm, she closed her eyes.
Big mistake.
The spinning got worse, as did the pulsating pain in her ears.
When she groaned, Wonder pushed another pillow under her head.
The elevated position helped.
“Thank you,” Jacki murmured and closed her eyes again.
As the minutes passed, the pain in her ears gradually subsided to a manageable throb, but she still couldn’t hear anything over the ringing.
Hopefully, it was temporary.
When Wonder put a cold, wet towel over her forehead, Jacki pulled both edges over her poor ears, but it didn’t help with the throbbing that was located somewhere in her ear canal.
What was that horrible sound?
She’d never heard anything like it. Heck, she didn’t know anything could produce a sound so loud.
Had it been an attack? By whom?
Jacki suspected that it had something to do with her, and the guilt caused an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach that had nothing to do with nausea.
It was her fault.
Lifting her hand, she looked at the silver cuff and wondered whether it was still working. What if that sound had damaged it?
What if it had malfunctioned even before, and she’d been broadcasting a signal? What if the attack was because the director and his cronies had come looking for her?
Opening her eyes, Jacki turned her head and looked at Wonder, who’d moved to sit on the coffee table next to her. “Did anyone get hurt?”
Wonder lifted her hands, gesturing that she didn’t know.
“Is Jin okay?”
Wonder nodded, shifted to the side, and pointed at the other couch. Jin was lying in a similar pose to Jacki’s with a compress on her forehead, but instead of using a stack of pillows, her head was resting on Arwel’s lap.
His handsome face wore a worried expression, and he was stroking Jin’s hair.
Lucky girl. Jacki wished Kalugal was with her, but he was probably taking care of the situation.
Was he okay?
Shifting her gaze to the right, Jacki saw Mey, who was sitting on a chair next to Jin and Arwel, and when she shifted it to the left, she saw Syssi and Amanda each occupying an armchair.
Everyone looked worried, but not panicked, so the situation was most likely under control.
The only casualties seemed to be the two humans. Her and Jin.
The good news was that Jin was in a similar state to her but not worse. She was alive, and not too seriously hurt.
Thank God. Jacki let her eyelids slide closed again.
There was a third casualty, though. Her wedding party was ruined, but that was such a petty concern. If that horrendous sound had lasted for even a few seconds longer, everyone’s eardrums would have ruptured, and they would have suffered irreversible hearing loss.
Or worse.
With all the immortals down, someone could have just walked in and killed them all, or taken them prisoner.
That someone was probably the director or the people he’d sent to do his dirty work for him.
It was the only explanation that made sense.
Wendy had betrayed them, telling the director that they had been taken by an organization of people with paranormal talents, which had probably made him salivate with greed.
It was an ingenious idea to use a sound attack, a nonlethal weapon that could topple all the paranormals at once no matter how strong their talents were. He couldn’t have known that the paranormals were immortal, but apparently, the weapon worked just as well on them as on humans.
Simmons had thought that he could capture many talents with one well-planned attack, saving time and money compared to recruiting them one at a time. And thanks to the trackers he’d implanted in her and her friends, he knew where to find them. The party could have ended like the red wedding in Game of Thrones.
Talk about guilt.
Not only had she led the director to Kalugal and his men, but her wedding also provided the perfect setup for him to maximize the number of captured paranormals.
But what in damnation could have made that noise?
Some new secret weapon that had been developed in the underground city?
Except, Jacki couldn’t imagine anyone authorizing an attack like that on a group of civilians. Simmons must have lied and made up some crazy story to get approval.
Or, maybe not.
The director was well-connected, and he knew some very high-ranking people both in the military and in the government.
Who knew how deep this thing went?
God, this was such a mess.
They all needed to leave this lovely house and hide somewhere. Perhaps Kian could offer them refuge?
He could convert more of his underground facility’s classrooms and offices into bedrooms, so all of Kalugal’s men could find shelter there.
Suddenly, the thought of hiding underground seemed very appealing. And the sooner they moved, the better. She had to find Kalugal and tell him that.
Gritting her teeth, Jacki gripped the side of the couch and lifted herself to a sitting position.
“What are you doing?” Wonder asked.
Wow, Jacki actually heard what she said. Even though Wonder’s voice sounded as if it was traveling through a pool full of water, Jacki was ecstatic to hear anything at all.
“I heard you.”
Wonder smiled. “I’m glad. Now, lie back down. Bridget said that you need to rest.”
“I need to talk to Kalugal. Where is he?”
“Still outside. He and Kian and the rest of the guys are cleaning up the mess.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was an attack. Several vans with armed operatives have been taken. And I heard that there were casualties. Theirs, not ours.”
“Where are they taking them?”
“To the bunker,” Arwel said. “Where else?”
20
Kian
Once the dead, the injured, the thralled, and the vans they’d all arrived in were inside the gate, Kalugal signaled for it to be closed, and Kian told Magnus to ground the drones.
He was taking a risk. But at this point, the danger from without was much more pressing than the one from within.
The police sirens were getting damn close.
Everyone had already moved inside the house or into the bunker, and Kalugal had ordered the lights switched off in the back
and front yards.
Sitting on an upholstered bench in Kalugal’s foyer, Yamanu stared at the wall in front of him unseeing, his pale blue eyes nearly white against the backdrop of his dark skin. His pupils had shrunk so much that they were nothing but a pinprick inside his large pale irises.
Kian tapped him on the shoulder. “You can switch to thralling now.”
When Yamanu nodded, he turned to Kalugal. “Can you shroud the property?”
Kalugal shook his head. “I don’t have much practice in that. I’m good at shrouding myself and those near me and projecting that fake image over a large distance. Shrouding places is a completely different talent.”
His cousin was being so frank with what he could and couldn’t do that Kian was hard-pressed to keep suspecting him of subterfuge. And even though taking a leap of faith with Syssi present was the last thing Kian wanted to do, he didn’t have much choice.
It was an emergency situation, and they needed to combine their forces to solve the mess and cover it up.
As three police cars stopped in front of Kalugal’s property, and a moment later, all three turned the sirens off, Kian wondered what Yamanu was projecting into their heads.
Kalugal’s phone rang. “It’s the intercom.”
“Hello?” He answered with a Russian accent and a voice that sounded sleepy and irate.
“Good evening, sir. This is Officer Perez. Your neighbors reported gunshots. Have you heard anything?”
Since Yamanu’s shroud went down only after the noise device had fired, they might have not heard it at all, only the gunfire that followed.
“Damn teenagers and their bloody motorcycles. You need to catch these hoodlums. They make holes in the exhaust pipes to make a ruckus and scare people half to death.”
“I’m sorry, sir. Did you happen to catch their license numbers?”
“I was asleep. By the time I got to a window, they were gone.”
“Next time they pass through, please try to write down at least one of the license plate numbers.”
“I will do my best. Good night, officer.”
“Good night, sir.”
Kalugal ended the call, and a couple of minutes later, the police cars left.
Kian chuckled. “You are an excellent actor.”
“Thank you.” Kalugal dipped his head. “Shall we go see who our uninvited guests are?”
Kian arched a brow. “Are you inviting me to your bunker?”
“I am.” Kalugal nodded. “There isn’t much you can learn from just looking around. Besides, your people are already there. I also don’t intend to stay in this house for long. Especially not after this.” He opened the front door and motioned for Kian to step outside.
“Just a moment.” Kian turned to Yamanu and put a hand on his shoulder. “You can stop thralling.”
The Guardian let out a breath, and his eyes refocused. “Good. I want to get back to Mey and to check on Jin.”
Kalugal shook his head. “Jacki and Jin are in worse condition than the rest of us because they don’t heal as fast as we do, but Bridget told me that they will be fine in a day or two. She doesn’t expect any permanent damage.”
“Good to know.” Yamanu walked toward the living room.
Kian followed Kalugal out the door. “Even if they suffered permanent damage, the transition is going to take care of that.”
“True.” Kalugal cast him a sidelong glance. “But unlike Jin’s transition, Jacki’s is not guaranteed.”
“Nothing in life is guaranteed.” Kian waved a hand at the vans parked on the grass. “You never know where the next blow will come from. I’m glad that you changed your mind about moving.”
Kalugal nodded. “Relocating my collection is going to be a major pain in the rear, but I need to think about Jacki’s safety. I’ve just learned the hard way that I can’t protect her against all threats, not even when I’m right here. And I do need to leave the house from time to time.”
He stepped on the lift’s platform, waited for Kian to join him, and pulled out his phone to activate it.
“Is that the only way into the bunker?” Kian asked, knowing that it wasn’t.
As the platform shook and started its descent, Kalugal smirked. “Of course not, but I don’t want you to see the safety measures I have at the other entrances. I was very creative with those.” He chuckled. “Actually, I stole ideas from several movies, but the creative part was making them real. The booby traps are truly ingenious, and I’m not saying it to toot my own horn.”
The platform stopped at a sprawling garage containing an impressive assortment of luxury cars.
“I see that artifacts are not the only things you collect. Is that a Bugatti Veyron?”
“It is, and I’ll gladly give you a tour after we deal with our uninvited guests.”
21
Kalugal
“Where did you put them?” Kian asked.
“Phinas was in charge of that. We will find out in a moment.”
There were only two rooms large enough to hold the eight operatives and the two old men, one dead and one injured. One was the meeting room, and the other one was a classroom. There was also the extensive storage and his wine cellar, but Kalugal hoped Phinas hadn’t used those.
Betting on the classroom, he headed there first, and he was right.
Partially.
The operatives were there, as well as Kian’s bodyguards, but the dead man and the injured one weren’t.
Anandur pushed away from where he was leaning against the wall, and the blond followed.
“Where are the old men?” Kian asked.
“The dead guy is Director Edgar Simmons,” Anandur said. “We put him in the small classroom to the left of this one. The injured one is Doctor Elijah Roberts, and Phinas told us to put him in the cell. Bridget is taking care of him as best she can.”
Phinas nodded. “I’ve sent Heblon to get the doctor what she needs from the pharmacy. If it’s closed, I told him to break in.”
“I’ll be damned.” Kian shook his head. “I had a feeling that it was Simmons.”
“Who else could it have been?” Anandur smiled smugly. “I knew all along that he was behind the attack. I was just surprised that he took an active part in it.”
“What about the men?” Kalugal pointed at the operatives who sat slumped on the floor, their backs against the wall. “Who are they?”
“Kian’s men thralled them into a stupor before transferring them to us,” Phinas said. “I thought that you would want to interrogate them yourself. But this one we know.” He pointed at one of the men. “This is the guy who’s been snooping around the property. We’ve already established that he’s a private operator.”
Kian regarded the men with a frown. “From the look of them, they are ex-military.”
That seemed like a good guess. The men were in their mid to late forties, but they were all physically fit and still wore their hair military style. They were also in uniforms.
“Did you check their documentation?”
Phinas nodded. “Their wallets contain driver's licenses and credit cards. No military identification. The uniforms are probably from a surplus store.”
“Is Roberts conscious?” Kian asked.
Anandur shook his head. “Bridget wanted him to sleep, so I thralled him.”
“I want to talk to her.” Kian headed for the door. “I need to know if he’s going to survive.”
Kalugal opened it for him. “After we do that, I want to question the head of the team and check how much he knows. After that, we need to scrub their memories and get rid of them.”
“Those men have families,” Kian said. “I suggest that we find out where each of them lives and drop them off near their homes.”
“Should we thrall them to think that they got drunk and can’t remember where they’ve been?”
Kian shook his head. “When I used civilian operatives, I thralled them to believe that they went out on a secret mission and agreed b
eforehand to get hypnotized to forget it.”
“Smart. I like that.”
As they reached the cell, Bridget came out to meet them in the corridor, leaving Turner in the cell to watch over Roberts.
“Is he going to live?” Kian asked.
“The injury isn’t severe, but he has a heart condition, and that complicates things. Once Kalugal’s guy returns with the equipment I asked for, I’ll need a volunteer for a blood transfusion.”
Kalugal grimaced. “We need Roberts alive so we can get information out of him, but I’m not too happy about giving him a blood transfusion. He’s a doctor, and he’s not stupid. An immortal’s blood might have an unusual effect on him, and he could figure out that something is up.”
Bridget leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest. “It might save his life because it will speed up his healing from the injury. It won’t do anything for his pre-existing condition. And I’m not worried about traces of it remaining in his system. The effect doesn’t last long.”
Fascinating. Kalugal had no information on the subject, and now that he had a human wife, it was a good time to find out. Perhaps he could help Jacki recover her hearing faster.
“Forgive my ignorance, but how long exactly would the healing effect last?”
“Four hours tops. After that, our blood loses its extra properties.”
“Do you know why?”
She smiled sadly. “I wish I did, but I don’t. I dedicated my life to researching what makes us different, and all I can tell you is that it’s programmed into our genes.”
“Naturally. What I wonder, though, is whether immortals and humans originated from the same ancestor and then we were modified to be superior, or did we create humans and modify them to be inferior.”
As Bridget prepared to answer, Kian lifted his hand. “As fascinating as the subject is, we have work to do. This discussion will have to wait for another time.”
“Regrettably, you are right, cousin. I just have a few more questions for the doctor. Was Roberts awake and aware at any time after his injury?”