Dark Choices: Paradigm Shift (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Series Book 42)

by I. T. Lucas

  She chuckled. “No wonder you look so rumpled.”

  He glanced down at his T-shirt. “I didn’t notice, but you are right. Do you think I should iron it?”

  “If you take it off, I can iron it for you.”

  He could only imagine what Kalugal would think if he came out of the bedroom and saw him sitting there bare-chested while Jacki ironed his shirt.

  “Thanks, but I can do it myself.” He gave the shirt a tug. “Or I can just do this.” He gave it a few more. “Much better.”

  “Men.” Jacki shook her head. “Do you want coffee?”

  Coffee was safe. “I would love some. Thank you. Do you know if Kalugal got any updates from home?”

  If they were saying goodbye to their hosts over lunch, the coast must be clear.

  She handed him a mug and sat on the couch next to him. “So far, Phinas has nothing to report. Kalugal spoke with him less than an hour ago, and there has been no suspicious activity around the house. If not for Syssi insisting on having a bad feeling about it, we would have been on our way to the airstrip by now. Instead, we are leaving at four. Kalugal wants us to have dinner at home.”

  “That’s a shame. Kian’s cyborg butler is a great cook.” He smiled. “Just don’t tell Atzil that I said so.”

  He couldn’t care less about what he ate for dinner. Sandwiches from the café’s vending machine would have been fine if he could share them with Edna.

  Jacki patted his arm. “I know that it’s not about Okidu’s cooking but about having more time with Edna. You don’t need to pretend to be all macho with me. Having feelings doesn’t make you any less manly.”

  “Damn right.” He flexed his bicep. “I am a manly man.”

  “I thought of something this morning. It’s just a seed of an idea, but if all of us gave it some thought, maybe it could be useful for our future plans.” She glanced at the door to the bedroom. “What’s encouraging is that Kalugal didn’t dismiss it out of hand.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “So the biggest obstacles to the unification idea are fear and the wish for privacy and independence. Kian is afraid of Kalugal using his compulsion power to get information out of people or to cause trouble, and now that we know that Annani can compel Kalugal, he is afraid of the same thing from her. Except, both sides have an immune. Kalugal has me, and Kian has Turner. The question is, how can we protect our people from compulsion? Kalugal will not agree to the cuff being permanently attached to his wrist, and I wouldn’t even suggest that the goddess wear one.”

  So, he’d been right about Kalugal figuring that one out.

  Damn. His chances of seeing Edna were not looking good, and Jacki’s idea wasn’t really helpful.

  “That’s thinking out of the box, which is great, but I can’t see how we can use it. You can only shield yourself, and as you’ve experienced, you couldn’t help any of your friends when Kalugal froze them. There isn’t much you can do.”

  “I was still human back then. I’m faster and stronger now, but I still don’t know what I could do to prevent Annani from compelling Kalugal to reveal his secrets.” She glanced at his pocket and the outline of the clan’s phone in it. “Whatever they might be.”

  Rufsur smiled. “You can knock him out with a well-aimed punch to the head. I can teach you how to do that.”

  Jacki rolled her eyes. “And then what? Fight the goddess, so she leaves him alone?”

  71

  Eleanor

  While Jesse went into the kitchen to get the additional order for the mansion, Eleanor changed out of her maid’s skirt and put on a pair of jeans, which was what the guy was wearing along with a plain T-shirt. In terms of uniform, a baseball cap with the restaurant’s logo on it was the extent of it, and she intended to borrow it.

  It seemed like the mansion was full of men, so perhaps she could use her meager feminine assets to distract them. Not everyone was susceptible to compulsion, and there were probably cameras everywhere. Besides, Eleanor could only affect a few people at a time, and she didn’t know how many of them she would encounter. She needed to play the part of a delivery girl well and phrase her questions in a way that didn’t arouse suspicion.

  Taking a look in the rearview mirror, she undid her braids and combed out her hair, but it still looked frizzy and messy, so she gathered it in a ponytail.

  Not a big improvement.

  Eleanor’s face wasn’t ugly, but it wasn’t pretty either, and she would need to wear the eyeglasses that looked like they were corrective lenses but were designed to fool facial recognition technology.

  Her best feature was her athletic, slim build, but the boxy shirt did nothing to accentuate it. Not only that, but she also appeared completely flat-chested because she’d bound her breasts in case she needed to disguise herself as a man.

  The bandage had to go.

  After pulling it down from under her shirt, she stuffed it into her tote. Luckily, her breasts were still nice and perky, so she could get away with not wearing a bra.

  Look at me. She chuckled. Eleanor the Femme Fatale.

  After Jesse finished loading the food order into the back of the van and got behind the wheel, she snatched the hat off his head and put it on hers. “Let’s go.”

  “Can you remind me why you are here, and why am I taking you?”

  “Because I told you so, and my wishes have to be obeyed. Now, be quiet and drive.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Jesse turned into the street where her car was parked, and she pointed to it. “Pull up behind that Suburban, get out of the van, and wait for me inside the car.” She tossed him the keys. “If anyone asks what you are doing there, tell them that you are waiting for your cousin to finish her cleaning job. If anyone asks in which house, tell them that you don’t know. She told you to wait for her here.”

  Perhaps she was overthinking it, but there weren’t any other cars parked on the street, and a ten-year-old Suburban didn’t match the profile of the wealthy residents. Someone might get suspicious.

  Once Jesse was sitting behind the wheel of her car, she put the delivery van in drive and headed to the mansion.

  At the gate, she stopped and pressed the buzzer. “Delivery from Jeremy’s.”

  “What happened to the guy?” the guard asked through the intercom.

  “Jesse is on a break. Can you please open? You are not my only delivery.”

  “Sure, come on in.”

  As the gate slid open and Eleanor drove up to the front door, it opened, and two burly guys came out.

  “We can take it from here,” one of them said.

  “Sorry, no can do.” Eleanor jumped down and walked to the van’s back door. “The boss wants me to make sure that you are happy this time. I have to deliver the food in person.” She smiled at the one who looked a little less intimidating. “But I would appreciate your help carrying it inside.”

  As she handed each of the guys two bags and took the last two, the nice one looked inside the empty van and frowned. “I thought that you had more deliveries to make.”

  Damn, had he been the one on the intercom? She’d thought it had been one of the guards.

  “I need to go back for them. The other orders weren’t ready yet, and the boss didn’t want to make you wait.” She followed the two inside. “How many people do you need to feed that you are ordering so much food?”

  “A bunch of hungry guys.”

  They passed a dining room with at least twelve men sitting around the table, and she counted six more in the kitchen, sitting at the breakfast table.

  “Sixty main courses for twenty men?”

  “We have big appetites.” He put the bags on the counter and took the two she was carrying off her hands.

  In a moment, she would be dismissed, and she still hadn’t learned anything useful. Perhaps it was time to use her feminine wiles.

  Affecting a flirtatious smile, she struck a pose with a hand on her hip. “It isn’t every day that I make a delivery to a household f
ull of hunky men. How come there are no women here? Are you all members of a football team?”

  One of the guys sitting at the table chuckled. “We are a team, but we don’t play football. What’s your name?”

  She sauntered over. “Gina. What’s yours?”

  “Greggory.” He wiped his hand on his pants and offered it to her for a handshake. “Do you have a phone number, Gina?”

  “I do, but I have a rule about that. I don’t give it out. I’ll take yours, though.”

  He looked her up and down. “Do you have a pen?”

  “Sure do.” She pulled it out from her shirt pocket and handed it to him.

  Grabbing a napkin, he scribbled a number on it and added his name. “Here you go, doll. Call me when you are off work.”

  Doll? Who called women that in this day and age? Was he enacting a 50s movie?

  If any of this was for real, she would have told him what she thought about being called a doll. But since it wasn’t, Eleanor stuffed the folded napkin in her back pocket, put on her most coquettish smile, and decided to play along. “You betcha, I will, handsome.” She added a wink.

  Except, none of his friends chuckled or snorted or made fun of him, which was odd.

  One of the two who’d escorted her into the kitchen pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and handed it to her. “Thank you for the fast delivery, Gina. I’ll see you out to the van.”

  So polite and so generous. She must have stepped back in time.

  Eleanor whistled. “Oh, wow. Thank you.” She made a big production of folding the bill and stuffing it in her shirt pocket.

  As she’d intended, all eyes went to her braless chest.

  Men were so easy to manipulate. She wasn’t a looker by any standards, and yet she’d scored the phone number of a guy who was at least ten years younger than her and had a bunch of them staring at her modest but perky breasts.

  Out in the front yard, her escort opened the driver’s door for her, and then waited on the driveway as she drove away.

  Damn, it suddenly occurred to her that they might call the restaurant and ask about the delivery girl. She needed to get back there as fast as she could and compel everyone on staff to confirm that they had one called Gina.

  But first, she had to collect Jesse.

  With paranoia churning her stomach, Eleanor drove past her car and continued for ten more minutes, making sure that no one was following her. When she was certain that she had no tail, she let out a relieved breath and circled back to pick up the delivery guy.

  So far, things were looking good.

  Later tonight, she was going to call Greggory and suggest that they hook up. Then when she got him alone, she was going to pump him for information about his friends.

  72

  Edna

  When a knock sounded at her door, Edna glanced at her watch. It wasn’t one in the afternoon yet, but Rufsur was probably a little early.

  Smiling, she got up from behind her desk and went to open the door. “Did you miss me?”

  He pulled her into his arms, stepped into her office, and kicked the door closed before pushing her against it. “I did.” He smashed his lips over hers.

  It was so good to have his big body pinning her to the door, to feel every hard muscle through his thin T-shirt and his hard length through his jeans.

  They’d made love only hours ago, and yet she was hungry for him as if he’d been gone for weeks. How was she going to survive until his next visit?

  Reaching for his zipper with one hand, she popped his jean button with her other. Regrettably, he was wearing boxer shorts, but his erection had elongated, and the mushroom head was sticking above the elastic.

  As she ran her thumb over it, spreading around the small bead of moisture that had formed on the slit, Rufsur groaned and put his hand over hers. “Stop.”

  “Why?”

  “Everyone is waiting for us down at the café.”

  “Who is everyone?”

  “Kian, Syssi, Amanda, Dalhu, Kalugal, Jacki, and even Atzil and Ruvon have joined. I told them that I’d get you, and we would be down in a moment.”

  “How about five moments?”

  Laughing, he shook his head. “Hold that thought. We can come back here after lunch.”

  “When are you leaving?”

  “At four, Okidu is driving us to the airstrip.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  He rested his forehead against hers. “I wish we didn’t have company in the limousine.”

  “Yeah, me too.” She tucked his erection back into his underwear and zipped him up.

  “I used to love it when duty called. Now, I hate it.” Rufsur closed the button on his jeans, and then tucked Edna’s blouse back into her baggy pants. “You know what I would like?” He tried to fix her hair but only seemed to make it worse.

  “What?”

  “To take all of these pins out, and for you to let your hair down.”

  Smiling, she lifted her chin. “Figuratively or literally?”

  “Both. May I?” He pulled one pin out.

  “Go for it.”

  When he was done, he threaded his fingers through her hair and fanned it out over her shoulders. “Can you do me a favor?”

  “What?”

  “Can you wear it like that while I’m gone?”

  “Why?”

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her out of the office. “I’m not sure. Maybe I need a reminder that I had some impact on your life and that you are having fun without me.”

  Edna chuckled. “My hairstyle has nothing to do with me having fun or not.”

  “I disagree. It’s like smiling even when you don’t feel like it and then feeling happier for it. When you let your hair down, you are more inclined to have fun.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not going to be fun without you. Why should I pretend that it is?”

  “If you let me call you this time, we can have fun.” He leaned and whispered in her ear, “Video calls can be very naughty.”

  Edna scowled at him. “No way. What if our bosses monitor our conversations?”

  “Then we will give them a show.”

  “I’m not an exhibitionist.”

  “Liar. Do you think that I’ve forgotten your story about making love under the waterfall with Robbie’s men within hearing distance?”

  She laughed. “You are right. There was that.”

  It dawned on her then that bringing up one of her favorite memories of Robbie hadn’t been painful. For the first time since he’d died, she could think back to the time she had with him with warmth and fondness in her heart and not an aching, gaping hole.

  She owed it to Rufsur.

  Anyone else would have stayed away from the subject and tiptoed around it, perhaps would have even been resentful of the love she’d shared with another.

  But not Rufsur.

  His heart was big enough to accept her together with the human male she had loved and lost.

  He had helped her heal.

  “I love you.” She smiled at him.

  “Oh, yeah?” He stopped and turned toward her. “How much?”

  “With everything that I have.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “Prove it.”

  Edna knew what he wanted to hear her say, but she wasn’t ready to do that. “You can video call me, and we will have as many naughty conversations as you want.”

  Rufsur looked a little disappointed. “For the next two weeks, it will have to do.”

  COMING UP NEXT

  The Children of the Gods Book 43

  Dark Choices The accord

  To read the first 3 chapters

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  The Children of the Gods Series

  THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS ORIGINS

  1: Goddess’s Choice

  When gods and immortals still ruled the ancient world, one young goddess risked everything for love.

  2: Goddess’s Hope

  Hungry for power and infatuated with the beautiful Areana, Navuh plots his father's demise. After all, by getting rid of the insane god he would be doing the world a favor. Except, when gods and immortals conspire against each other, humanity pays the price.

  But things are not what they seem, and prophecies should not to be trusted...

  THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS

  1: Dark Stranger The Dream

  Syssi's paranormal foresight lands her a job at Dr. Amanda Dokani's neuroscience lab, but it fails to predict the thrilling yet terrifying turn her life will take. Syssi has no clue that her boss is an immortal who'll drag her into a secret, millennia-old battle over humanity's future. Nor does she realize that the professor's imposing brother is the mysterious stranger who's been starring in her dreams.

  Since the dawn of human civilization, two warring factions of immortals—the descendants of the gods of old—have been secretly shaping its destiny. Leading the clandestine battle from his luxurious Los Angeles high-rise, Kian is surrounded by his clan, yet alone. Descending from a single goddess, clan members are forbidden to each other. And as the only other immortals are their hated enemies, Kian and his kin have been long resigned to a lonely existence of fleeting trysts with human partners. That is, until his sister makes a game-changing discovery—a mortal seeress who she believes is a dormant carrier of their genes. Ever the realist, Kian is skeptical and refuses Amanda's plea to attempt Syssi's activation. But when his enemies learn of the Dormant's existence, he's forced to rush her to the safety of his keep. Inexorably drawn to Syssi, Kian wrestles with his conscience as he is tempted to explore her budding interest in the darker shades of sensuality.