by I. T. Lucas
“I’m not.”
His eyes started to glow, and he lifted his hand again, this time making a feather-light contact with her cheek. “Are you sure? I saw you look away when I drank the blood.”
When Emmett dropped his hand again, Eleanor fought the urge to lean into him. As annoying and as full of crap as he was, she still found him irresistible.
Maybe his potent Kra-ell pheromones were messing with her, but she was quite sure they weren’t solely responsible for her reaction to him.
Emmett’s masculine magnetism was about much more than a chemical reaction.
If Greggory was a Corolla—plain and reliable, Emmett was a Ferrari—sexy, sophisticated, powerful, and dangerous.
What was she, though?
Not a Corolla, because she was neither plain nor reliable, but not a Ferrari either, because she was neither sexy nor a great beauty. Perhaps she was a Harley-Davidson? Powerful, edgy, and opinionated?
Usually, she wouldn’t have thought herself the type of woman a man like Emmett would go for, but he’d admitted to preferring assertive women.
She also had something even more desirable to him than beauty—delicious blood.
“I might have trouble watching you drink animal blood from a cup, but I’m not grossed out by your bite. Immortal males also bite during sex, and the sensation is so similar that, at first, I didn’t even realize you were drinking my blood. It was pleasurable.”
“And yet you tried to fight me off.”
“I was taken by surprise and scared.”
He lifted his eyes to the camera mounted near the ceiling. “What would happen if we tried that again?”
She followed his eyes. “It’s probably not a good idea to try while we are being watched.”
“Is there a way to solve this conundrum?”
As his fangs elongated, all the blood in Eleanor’s body rushed to her core. She didn’t feel fear. All she felt was an intense desire to once more experience his bite, but this time, along with everything else that came with it.
To hell with caution and waiting to get to know each other. Emmett was a captive audience. He couldn’t leave even if he wanted to.
16
Emmett
Eleanor was ripe for the taking, but if Emmett made a move, the males of her clan would come rushing in and beat the hell out of him.
Would he have enough time to get a taste before they stopped him?
He was sure that they wouldn’t activate his cuffs when he was so close to Eleanor, but there would be retribution. Besides, the immediate gratification wasn’t worth the sacrifice of his most valuable playing card.
His only card.
“I wish there was a way,” Eleanor whispered. “I asked them to mute the volume so we could talk privately, but they’ll never agree to turn the camera off. If only there was something that would convince them it was okay to give me privacy with you.”
Eleanor was moving in the right direction, and with proper motivation, she might find a solution. Perhaps she would even think of a way to sabotage the recording. Emmett didn’t know much about surveillance, but he’d watched enough movies to know that there were ways to circumvent it.
Pretending to be deflated, he sighed and shifted away from her. “This is a small room, and the only place where the camera can’t see us is in the bathroom. I would never dare suggest intimacy there.” He smiled sadly. “It’s not very romantic, is it?”
Surprisingly, Eleanor didn’t agree with him right away and seemed to contemplate the idea. But then she shook her head, dispersing the mist of hope her hesitation had offered. “Even if I was willing to do that, the Guardians will see us going in there. They won’t let it happen.”
“That’s what I thought.” He took her hand and lifted it to his lips for a kiss. “I’m afraid that our relationship will have to remain platonic until Kian allows me out of here.”
It was a damn shame that he couldn’t sample Eleanor’s delicious blood again, but if he played his cards right, he could charm her into falling for him even without sex. Emmett didn’t know enough about the clan customs, but there was a chance that mating Eleanor would be his ticket to at least partial freedom.
If Kian didn’t find any clues as to the Kra-ell’s whereabouts, the offer he’d made Emmett would be null and void, but mating Eleanor might grant him the same reward.
He needed to explore the possibility without showing his hand.
Eleanor leaned her chin on her fist. “Do you think he ever will?”
“Not really.” Emmett brushed his thumb over her wrist, eliciting a shiver. “The information I gave him was correct, but knowing my people, they didn’t leave any clues behind for anyone to track them. And unless Kian finds breadcrumbs to follow, he’s not going to let me out of here.”
She nodded. “Is there anything else you can think of that would help us find them?” She glanced at the empty cup of blood. “Maybe going from one butcher shop to another and asking who their most frequent customers are?”
“That’s not going to help. Blood is used in many Chinese dishes, and it’s not unusual for butchers' shops to sell it.”
“The quantities would be larger, though.”
“Restaurants buy large quantities. Besides, human minds are easily manipulated, and just like your people, mine ensure they are not remembered.” He put his other hand on hers and caressed it. “Maybe Kian will learn to trust me like he did with you. How did you pull it off?”
“They needed me for the mission because of my compulsion ability, and Kri vouched for me. It helped a lot having a friend who’s a Guardian.”
“What about other newcomers to the clan? How do they earn their place in the clan’s society?”
She chuckled. “They mate a clan member. The belief is that the bond between true-love mates is so strong that it takes priority over everything else. A mate will never betray her or his bonded partner.”
That was both fascinating and useful. Mating Eleanor might indeed be his ticket out of prison. “Is it just a belief? Or is it real?”
“At first, I thought that it was all a load of crap, but I’ve witnessed enough to no longer shrug it off as a myth. Just think how improbable it was for us to find Anastasia and Margaret in Safe Haven. When Anastasia’s father hired Turner, and we agreed to help retrieve her, no one suspected that she was a Dormant.” Eleanor paused. “Well, that’s not entirely true. Her father told Turner about the voices in her head, and a paranormal ability is one of the strongest indicators of dormancy. But Margaret wasn’t on anyone’s radar. The Fates, or some other higher power, had something to do with her being there in the first place, and subsequently us finding her.”
Emmett wondered if the clan’s Fates and the Kra-ell goddess were similar entities. The Mother of All Life was also believed to shape people’s destinies. But that was a discussion for another time. Right now, he wanted to find out more about Anastasia and Margaret, how they were discovered, who they had bonded with, and whether the bonds were enough for them to get accepted into the clan.
“Have they both transitioned?”
Eleanor shook her head. “So far, only Anastasia has transitioned. Margaret broke her leg when we staged the fake fire at Safe Haven, so even though she and Bowen seem to be an item, they haven’t consummated their connection yet.”
“Does she have a paranormal talent?”
He knew the woman well, and she’d never exhibited anything unusual.
“I don’t think so.”
“So how do you know that she’s a Dormant?”
Eleanor’s smug smile promised an interesting revelation. “Since her daughter transitioned, there is no doubt that the mother is a Dormant.”
Talk about a huge surprise. The daughter Margaret had left behind with her abusive husband somehow ended up an immortal.
“Wendy joined the clan?”
Eleanor nodded. “She’s mated to a fine young immortal, and now she and Margaret are reunited.”
&nbs
p; “I’ll be damned.” He shook his head. “I’m starting to believe in those Fates as well. How did Wendy end up with the clan?”
“She was in the government program that I recruited paranormal talents for. The clan came to retrieve Jin, who as Mey’s sister was a confirmed Dormant, and several of her friends jumped on the escape wagon and joined them. The team brought a compeller along, and he overrode the compulsion I had placed on them to stay loyal to the program. Otherwise, none of them would have been able to escape.”
“Was it the same person who overrode mine?”
Eleanor shook her head. “His brother. Lokan is a weaker compeller than Kalugal, but he was good enough to override my compulsion. I doubt he could have done anything about yours. His younger brother is incredibly powerful, but their father is even more so.”
The clan’s Fates must be smiling upon him because Eleanor was giving him a lot of information that he might find useful in the future. And because she was romantically interested in him, the audio surveillance was turned off, so the Guardians had no idea that she was revealing more than she was supposed to.
“Jin is mated to Arwel, correct?”
With a nod, that knowing smile bloomed on her face again. “And she might be related to you. In fact, she almost certainly is.”
17
Eleanor
“What do you mean?” Emmett asked.
Given his shocked expression, Eleanor had a feeling that she’d said too much.
Why hadn’t anyone told him about Jin and Mey? Wasn’t Jin curious to meet Emmett?
“As I mentioned before, Mey and Jin were Dormants, and once they went through their transition, the sisters developed traits that were uncommon for immortal females. Also, their paranormal talents are unique and unheard of in the clan. It was suspected that they were descended from a different god or goddess, or that somewhere along the line the immortal genes have mutated. But now that we know about the Kra-ell, it’s quite obvious that they were fathered by one of you.”
Emmett’s eyes blazed with excitement. “If that’s the case, it means that our Dormants can be activated.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but it’s a no. First of all, the Kra-ell males probably can’t transmit the immortal genes the same way our males can’t. Mey and Jin wouldn’t have them because you said only the Kra-ell males hooked up with humans, the females didn’t. But even if the Kra-ell males could transmit the gene, they can’t activate Dormants. If that was possible, Margaret would have transitioned a long time ago. The only way Mey and Jin could have been born Dormants and been able to transition was if their mother carried the immortal genes.”
Leaning back, he smoothed his hand over his chin as if he still had a bushy beard. “What are the chances of one of our male hybrids encountering one of your female Dormants?”
“Probably none. It must have been fated.”
He let out a breath. “Again with the Fates. Maybe it’s the goddess.”
“Annani?”
He waved a dismissive hand. “Annani might call herself that, and she might be very powerful, but she’s not a real goddess. The Kra-ell believe in a female deity that is similar in power to the human God.” He chuckled. “More similar to the biblical God of wrath the Hebrews believed in than the more modern interpretations of a benevolent deity that is full of love and compassion. Our Mother of All Life is vengeful and demanding like her Kra-ell female embodiments. She rewards fearless warriors who give their life in battle with heavenly mates who will cherish and adore them in a way their Kra-ell mistresses never did or would.”
Eleanor tilted her head. “I thought that the Kra-ell didn’t believe in love or even understand the concept.”
He shrugged. “Believing in love is not practical for a society that has four males for every female, and since it’s also very militant and aggressive, tender feelings are frowned upon. But I believe that the Kra-ell are similar enough to humans to have it in them to love. In order for us to be compatible and produce hybrid children, gods, immortals, humans and Kra-ell must have a common ancestry.”
“Do you know that for sure? Or is it speculation?”
“It’s an educated guess. Regrettably, the purebloods didn’t share much with the hybrids, so I don’t have the full story. They’ve never mentioned another species that was similar to them but even longer-lived. Still, I suspect that they knew about the people you call gods and were wary of them.”
That was news to her, and probably also to everyone else who had interrogated Emmett. He hadn’t said anything about his people suspecting that there were other immortals on earth, and neither had the guy who Stella had hooked up with twenty-something years ago in Singapore.
“What makes you think that?”
“I've often wondered about the need for extreme secrecy and the frequent moving from place to place. It seemed excessive if their only concern was discovery by humans. I thought it was because they knew of other Kra-ell groups and feared them, or just didn’t want to be discovered by them. But after what I learned from Peter, I started thinking that maybe the purebloods knew about you.”
If Emmett was right about the common ancestry, it was a logical assumption. If the gods and the Kra-ell came from the same planet or solar system, they probably had known about their neighbors’ interstellar expeditions.
“It’s a shame that your father didn’t tell you anything about your origins.” Eleanor pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I bet we could have learned a lot about ours from that.”
A contemplative look passed across his eyes. “Just out of curiosity. What are Jin and Mey’s special talents?”
She’d already told him a lot more than she should have, while he’d only disclosed a suspicion that he’d had about the Kra-ell being aware of the gods and their descendants.
“I’m not sure that I’m allowed to tell you that.”
His thumb brushed over her wrist. “I’m only asking to see if their unique talents could be attributed to my people.”
When she didn’t offer him an answer, he continued brushing her pulse point with his thumb. “From what I could observe, the purebloods didn’t have any special talents except for what you call thralling. So if Mey and Jin have uncommon talents, it could be that there is a third species of long-lived people on earth. Another explanation could be that those born to a Kra-ell male and a female descendant of gods are a superior breed.”
18
Onegus
The café on Santa Fe Avenue was one of Kian’s favorites, but it wouldn’t have been Onegus’s first or even fifth choice for meeting Cassandra, and the only reason he’d chosen it was its proximity to the keep and its outdoor patio.
Humans emitted too many smells, and whenever possible, Onegus preferred either outdoor dining or places that weren’t overly crowded.
Hopefully, Cassandra wouldn’t mind the vegan cuisine. It was actually pretty good, but not everyone appreciated the creative substitutes, like cashew macadamia cheddar cheese, or the espresso cashew flan with chocolate olive oil cake.
Onegus was still poring over the menu when he sensed Cassandra walking onto the patio. Something in the air sizzled, and he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Every head lifted and turned to look at the stunning, statuesque beauty sauntering over to his table.
Dressed in a pair of palazzo white pants, a black blouse, black and white stilettos, and several gold necklaces of different lengths and widths, Cassandra looked classically elegant and every bit the cover model she used to be.
Rising to his feet, he greeted her with a smile and a chaste kiss on her cheek. “Every time I see you, I’m awed anew at your beauty and how well you accentuate it with what you wear.” He pulled out a chair for her. “No wonder Kevin pays you so well.”
She arched a brow. “Because of how I dress?”
“Because you have impeccable taste, and it translates into everything you create. There is a cohesiveness, a theme, and it’s sophisticated and elegant.” He waved a
hand over her. “You are the most put-together woman I know, and that’s saying a lot.”
She rewarded him with a tentative smile. “Thank you. It’s nice of you to notice.”
“It’s impossible not to.” Onegus sat down and took her hand, just because he had to touch her, and that was the only way he could do so without causing a scene.
“Most guys just see the end result and have no clue what went into achieving it.” She smiled. “And usually, I prefer that they don’t.”
“I’m not most guys.” He winked. “And I have very discriminating taste as well.” He leaned closer. “That’s why I chose you. I love how creative you are, and that you apply it to everything you do.”
“You are right about my personal style being an extension of my creativity and reflecting my eye for esthetics. It gives me pleasure to dress well. But some might say that I’m overdressed for today’s casual work environment, or that a woman as tall as I am shouldn’t wear high heels. Others might say that I’m vain for paying so much attention to my looks, and that I wear heels to intimidate people.”
Lifting her hand to his lips, he kissed it. “It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. You should dress in a way that makes you feel good. I’ve seen you in shorts and sneakers, I’ve seen you in jeans and a T-shirt, and I’ve seen you in an evening gown and in a cocktail dress. You looked amazing in all of them. But, for some reason, this power look is my favorite so far.” He leaned closer. “It’s the sexiest.”
That earned him a bright smile. “Sexier than nothing on at all?”
Tricky lady. “It’s a hard choice.” He leaned forward. “But it doesn’t have to be. The sexiest thing would be for me to peel this beautiful outfit off you, one item at a time, until there is nothing left except for those gold necklaces.”