by I. T. Lucas
“No problem. Again, good instincts, Ella. You keep impressing me.”
“Thank you.”
Out in the corridor, Tessa let out a breath. “That went well. Things are moving along.”
“Yes, they are.”
“Are you nervous?”
“I’m shaking in my boots.”
Ella was wearing the monster ones that added six inches to her height. Maybe that was why faking confidence had been so easy. They made her feel like a badass.
When her phone buzzed in her back pocket, Ella smiled and pulled it out, but the message wasn’t from Julian. It was from Kian.
Come to my office as soon as you’re back from the sanctuary. We have things to discuss.
“What is it?” Tessa asked. “You are frowning. Did anything happen?”
“Kian wants to see me this evening. I wonder what he wants.”
39
Kian
“Good evening, Kian.” Turner walked into the office and put his briefcase on the conference table. “Other than Ella, did you invite anyone else?”
“Just you. I spoke with Vivian and Magnus earlier today. Naturally, they are not happy about the plan, but they understand that for Ella to be free of Lokan, we need to capture and neutralize him.”
Turner pulled his laptop and yellow pad out of the briefcase. “By neutralizing you mean put in stasis.”
“I’m not going to kill him, if that’s what you’re asking. That would be a waste.”
“You shouldn’t put him in stasis either. Just keep him locked up and well-guarded. There is a lot we can learn from him, and it will take time.”
Kian waved a hand. “I’m not going to put him away until we learn all there is to learn from him.”
“Even after we are done with the initial interrogation, I prefer to have him available for further questioning whenever needed. As I understand it, stasis is not a state one can go in and out of with ease.”
“No, it is not. But as long as he is conscious, Lokan can enter Ella’s dreams.”
Turner chuckled. “You can tell the story to her parents, but we both know that once she transitions, Lokan’s access to her mind will most likely end.”
“We can’t be sure of that. No one knows anything about dream-walking. It might not be limited to humans.”
“But we can be quite sure that he won’t be able to compel her.”
Rapping his fingers on the conference table, Kian shook his head. “We don’t have him yet, and once we do, we will decide what’s the best way to handle him.”
“Agreed. Now to the next item of concern. I think Julian needs to be here when we present the plan to Ella.”
Kian had contemplated inviting the guy, but had decided against it. Just as with Vivian and Magnus, he wasn’t looking for anyone’s approval.
“He’s not her mate. Not yet, anyway. And he has no say in this.”
Pinning him with a hard stare, Turner lifted a brow. “Semantics, Kian. He is her mate, and we both know it. Besides, not having him here will just put the problem on Ella’s shoulders. She is going to want to do this, and Julian is going to object. If he learns of it with us present, we can deal with him, making it easier for her.”
“I can’t argue with your logic. It is sound as usual.”
After shooting a text to Julian, Kian got up and walked over to the bar. “Can I offer you something to drink?”
“What are you having?”
“Black Label.”
“I’ll take a shot.”
After pouring the scotch, he handed Turner his glass and put his own down on the table, then walked back to the fridge and pulled out two water bottles and one of Snake Venom.
Perhaps Julian would want something to take the edge off, and as far as he remembered the young doctor hadn’t developed a taste for whiskey yet.
When a few minutes later Julian walked in looking concerned, Kian motioned for him to join them.
“What’s going on?” Julian asked as he took a seat across from Turner.
“Ella should be here any moment, and Turner thought you should be here when we tell her our plan.”
“What plan?”
“Let’s wait until she gets here, so I don’t have to repeat myself.”
The guy didn’t look happy, but he knew better than to argue.
“How is the halfway house coming along?” Kian asked to pass the time.
For some reason, Julian exchanged looks with Turner before answering. “The work has started, and it’s going well. I didn’t know Yamanu had construction experience. He claims it’s minimal, but at least he understands the contractors’ jargon and sounds like he knows what he’s talking about. If it had been left up to me, they would’ve known right away that they could tell me any story they want and I would buy it because I’m clueless.”
“I’m glad Yamanu’s found something to sink his teeth into. He spends too much time alone in his house.”
Julian frowned. “I thought he lived with Arwel.”
“He does, but Arwel is a busy guy. Most of the time Yamanu is alone.”
As a light knock on the door announced Ella, Julian jumped to his feet and rushed to open it for her.
“Oh, hi, Julian. I didn’t know you’d be here too.” She glanced at Turner and then at Kian. “It seems like I’m playing with the big boys now.”
Julian laughed, making Kian suspect that there was a double meaning to what she’d said, but the only one who’d gotten it was the young doctor.
“It’s something from an animated movie,” Julian said.
So, it was a generational thing. He really needed to brush up on the latest references. Syssi would probably know what it had meant. Remembering their morning fun time, he smiled. Perhaps he would find an excuse to play with her again tonight.
Pulling out a chair for Ella next to his, Julian waited for her to sit down and then took his seat and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders.
Turner had been right about having him participate in the meeting.
No big surprise there.
By now, Turner probably knew Julian better than Kian knew the young man. In part because he was mated to Bridget, and in part because of the time the two had spent together in New York, preparing and executing Ella’s rescue.
“I’m guessing that we are here to talk about Mr. D, right?” Ella said. “Or is it about the fundraiser?”
“Your first guess was right. What do you think about turning the tables on Lokan and setting a trap for him?”
Ella grinned from ear to ear. “I think it’s a fabulous idea, and one I’ve been toying with ever since I discovered who he was.”
40
Ella
Talk about butterflies.
The swirling frenzy in Ella’s belly should have made her float. They were actually going to let her do it, and she hadn’t even suggested it.
Maybe that was the reason why. If she had offered to entrap Mr. D, Kian probably would have dismissed her idea and told her that she was a weak human that he wouldn’t dare send into danger.
What had changed his mind though?
It hadn’t been Julian, that was for sure. The guy’s brooding expression made it clear that he didn’t want Ella to do it.
“So here is what we propose you do,” Kian said. “During his next visit, start talking about colleges and what you would like to study. Don’t mention any specific institutions because I hope he will suggest one that is close to where he is staying in the States. Once he does, you will fill out an application and schedule a visit to the campus and perhaps a personal interview with the admissions person. The next dream visit, you’re going to blurt the date and time of your interview excitedly, and that you and your mother are going to be there.”
“Okay…but why make it so complicated? I can tell him that I want to meet him in a restaurant or something.”
“He will get suspicious if you suddenly want to meet him.”
“Probably, but he won�
�t be able to help himself. He’d show up.”
Julian’s hand on her shoulder tightened. “Why?”
Crap, she’d almost said too much. “Because he wants me. Mostly for my telepathic ability.”
“I’m glad you are aware of that. Turner brought up the possibility that Lokan is not interested in you romantically but thinks of you as an asset. He might be using seduction as a way to lure you to him.”
Damn, she hadn’t thought about that. Ella considered her telepathy as another attribute Mr. D desired, and not the only one he was after. If that was true, he was a better actor than she’d given him credit for.
Or maybe he regarded sex with her as a bonus.
In either case, it made perfect sense for him to compel her to want him and not want anyone else. Out of all the possibilities she and Carol had discussed, this one was emerging as the most likely.
Except, what about the times she’d gotten excited with Julian?
It was like the small discrepancies Merlin had talked about that had led to the discovery of quantum physics.
Ella stifled a chuckle.
Sometimes her reactions were just as impossible to understand, at least for her. But maybe the explanation was simple after all, and Logan’s compulsion weakened in certain circumstances. Like the adrenaline rush that she’d experienced in the hotel. Perhaps it had burned through the compulsion, allowing her to feel attraction to Julian for a short time before snapping back into place.
The thing was, even the immortals didn’t know much about compulsion and how it worked. They were all speculating.
As she thought about her little brother being the only one who could actually shed light on the subject, another chuckle almost escaped her throat.
What a shame that Parker wasn’t a bit older. If he were at least sixteen, she would’ve explained the situation to him and asked him to override Logan’s compulsion and order her not to feel attraction for the Doomer.
The way she understood it, Parker hadn’t removed Logan’s compulsion, he’d just given her a new one that had overridden the Doomer’s. Which meant that the little guy was more powerful than Navuh’s son, and that was beyond cool.
What was even cooler was that he was going to get stronger the older he got.
Next to her, Julian was sitting stiff as a broom, probably imagining what went on during those dream visits.
She had to say something to reassure him. “Well, Mr. D’s not doing a very good job of it. If I didn’t want to lure him so you could catch him, I would never agree to meet him face to face.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Logan was doing a great job with that freaking compulsion of his. If Julian weren’t as perfect as he was, her lukewarm response to him might have convinced her that he wasn’t the one for her, and that the Doomer was. In fact, the thought had crossed her mind, and if Logan weren't as dangerous and as scary as he was, she might have been tempted to meet him.
“Never is a strong word, and immortals have time,” Kian said. “Eventually he would chip away at your defenses. All he needs is for you to accidentally reveal where he can find you, and most likely your mother too. If he is after your ability, you alone are useless to him. He needs you both. Unless he doesn’t know that you can only communicate with your mother and no one else.”
A chill ran down Ella’s spine as she scanned her memory of their conversations. “I’ve never told him, but he knows. When he said that my mother and I are the only ones in the world with such a powerful ability, I didn’t stop to think how he knew that.”
“He probably got into your head during that one time you were face to face with him,” Turner said. “And then he thralled you to forget it. Fortunately, you didn’t know about us back then.”
“Can he do that in my dreams?”
Kian shook his head. “Not likely. Thralling works differently than compulsion. He would need to be near you. Yamanu can thrall from a distance, but only when it’s a blanket thrall. Everyone is affected. He cannot pick a specific person and thrall only him or her.”
Ella raked her fingers through her short hair. “He said something about being able to dream share only with people who he’d met in person. Do you think he planted some kind of a mental tracker in my head?”
“He established a connection,” Julian said. “But a tracker is an excellent idea. You and your mother should definitely wear one when you go.”
Kian waved a hand. “They will be surrounded by Guardians at all times. I’ll even send Kri with them so they will have a female Guardian to follow them into the bathroom.”
“That’s good. Nevertheless, it will make me feel better if they have another layer of protection.”
“He is right,” Turner said. “I can get tiny trackers they can easily hide. They can be hidden in a hairpin, or in a pair of sunglasses, or even sewn into underwear.”
The idea of trackers helped with Ella’s anxiety, lowering it to tolerable levels. As exciting as the prospect of entrapping Logan was, going against him scared the crap out of her.
Hopefully, the three immortals sitting at the conference table couldn’t smell her fear. It was good that the whiskey Kian and Turner were sipping on had a potent aroma. Hopefully, it was masking whatever she was emitting.
“I didn’t know they made them so small. It’s so cool. It will make me feel safer knowing that in case something goes wrong, my mother and I can be located.”
Pushing his chair even closer to her, Julian leaned and kissed her shoulder. “I’m coming with you too. Think of it as a third layer of protection.”
“Thank you.” She took his hand. “I want you to come.”
Then again, maybe he shouldn’t. What if her dream about him fighting with Logan and losing was prophetic?
She grimaced. “On second thought, maybe it’s not such a great idea.”
“Why? I’m sure Magnus will insist on going once he hears about this.”
Kian cleared his throat. “I’ve already spoken to both Magnus and Vivian this morning, and you are right. Magnus demanded to go.”
Thinking quickly, Ella waved a hand. “But Magnus is a Guardian.” She turned to Julian. “I don’t want you to be in danger.”
He arched a brow. “You know that I’m not exactly helpless. Besides, I don’t want you in danger either, and I’m not telling you not to go.”
“You can’t tell me anything. This is Kian and Turner’s call.”
Removing his arm from her shoulders, Julian looked down his nose at her. “And the same goes for you. It is not your call, it’s Kian and Turner’s.”
Crap. They wouldn’t tell him no.
41
Julian
Julian was silently seething when he and Ella left Kian’s office.
Why had she changed her mind about him accompanying her? He wasn’t a weakling who was going to get himself in trouble.
He knew Turner would clear him to go, and Kian wouldn’t oppose Turner, who he deferred to in these kinds of decisions. But Ella’s lack of confidence in him was irritating.
Hell, it was offensive.
“Did Turner tell you what he did with the druggies?” Ella asked.
Shaking his head, Julian schooled his tone so she wouldn’t detect his anger. “I haven’t had the chance to talk to him yet. He went straight to Kian’s office when he got back to the village, and Kian called me to join the meeting.”
At least Kian and Turner thought that he had a say in what happened to Ella. Apparently, everyone was thinking of them as a mated couple except for her.
“Did he tell Kian?”
Julian shrugged. “Kian didn’t comment on it, so I guess Turner didn’t share. Which is true to form for him. Everything is on a need to know basis.”
“And he didn’t think Kian should know? I would think that as the leader of this community, he needs to be told about anything important that happens to one of its members.”
“But it wasn’t important, and it was irrelevant to the clan.”
/> He was well aware of what Ella was doing. She was very good at changing subjects and redirecting conversations. But it wasn’t going to work with him.
“I don’t get why one moment you wanted me to come, and then the next you changed your mind.”
Scrunching her nose as she glanced up at him, Ella looked so cute that he had a hard time keeping up his anger. With her pink, spiked hair and innocent round eyes, she really looked like a life-sized Tinkerbell.
“Don’t be mad at me. There was a good reason for why I changed my mind about you coming along.”
He snorted. “There can be only one. You don’t think I’ve got what it takes to defend you, and that I will get in the Guardians’ way.”
Letting out a breath, she shook her head. “I had a bad dream this morning. You and Mr. D were fighting over me in an Arthurian style tournament, and he was winning. What if it was a premonition?”
Casting her a sidelong glance, Julian frowned. “It could’ve been one of Lokan’s tricks. He might have generated the scenario to scare you. Or maybe to check who you’d be rooting for?”
Hell, he would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that dream and see for himself.
Lokan was a handsome bastard, his looks reflecting how close to the godly source he was. The Doomer was a second generation immortal and the grandson of one of the most powerful gods. Mortdh might have been insane and delusional, but his power had rivaled that of Annani’s father.
Perhaps Lokan had inherited his dream-walking ability from Mortdh, or from Mortdh’s father, Ekin?
No one knew for sure what those gods could do. Some of them had kept their special abilities a secret.
So yeah, the Doomer was nearly as impressive as Kian, and a young girl like Ella could easily fall for his fake charm even without Lokan compelling her to want him.
Ella might naively think that she was toying with the Doomer, when, in fact, he was toying with her.