Dark Prince's Dilemma

by I. T. Lucas

  Mimicking him, Lokan put his plate on the coffee table as well. “I know who you are. You are the guy who shot me.”

  Turner nodded. “I did my best to minimize the damage.”

  “I’m aware of that. You are a good shot and an even better actor. Because of your lack of emotional scents, I was sure you were a sociopath human.”

  Turner didn’t seem offended. “I’m an anomaly. I also didn’t trigger your immortal alarm.”

  Lokan frowned. “That could be a very handy trick. You can easily pass for a human, which means that you can get onto the island undetected.”

  The same thought was probably passing through everyone’s heads, and there was a long moment of shocked silence. Lokan wondered how come no one had thought of it until now.

  Instead of involving Gorchenco, who was a wild card, Turner could impersonate a rich guy and take Carol to the island instead.

  Turner was the only one who didn’t look surprised. “I’m aware of that, but at the moment I don’t see any tactical advantage in doing so. We came here to discuss a different issue. What can you tell us about the abductions of young women from the Bay Area to serve in your island’s brothel?”

  33

  Lokan

  The question took Lokan by surprise, and he wondered how to answer it. He could claim to know nothing about it, but the lie detector would know he wasn’t telling the truth. He could talk in generalities, though, without divulging any particulars unless asked directly.

  Rubbing a hand over his jaw, he nodded. “From what I understand, the tastes of the resort’s clientele are changing, and there is a rising demand for English-speaking service providers who can also carry on an intelligent conversation.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Turner said. “Who are you using to lure the women, your warriors?”

  “Since this is not something I’m involved in, I’m not using anyone, but I’ve heard that choice warriors have been selected for this task.”

  From the corner of his eye, Lokan could see Kian’s jaw muscles clenching, but Turner’s expression was as impassive as if they were discussing commodities. The guy either didn’t care or was just as emotionless as his lack of scents suggested.

  “Isn’t it a waste of manpower?” Kian asked.

  “As you are well aware, as of late there aren’t that many military opportunities for us. The Brotherhood has less income and an excess of men who have nothing to do. It has been decided to use them in more creative ways.”

  “Selling drugs and trafficking,” Kian said. “I’m sure your father is not happy with that state of affairs. What are his plans for the future?”

  “He didn’t share them with me.”

  Kian leaned forward and offered him a chilling smile. “Come on, Lokan. You are a smart guy. I’m sure you have some idea where things are going.”

  Lokan crossed his legs and draped his arm over the couch’s back. “As much as things change they also stay the same, and this lull is not going to last long. Humans are restless and aggressive by nature, and there will always be wars. Progress and technology only mean a larger body count.”

  With a sigh, Kian leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Regrettably, I have to agree. Hoping for everlasting peace is naive. It doesn't take much to start a new war.”

  “Why college students, though?” Turner ignored the entire philosophical discussion, going back to the reason for his visit. “From the information I gathered about them, all three were excellent students.”

  Lokan shrugged. “If they are looking for smart ladies, it is easier to find them in colleges. It beats running them through intelligence tests before snatching them up.”

  From the corner of his eye, he caught Carol shaking her head. Seated between the lie detector and the tall redhead, she wasn’t even trying to hide her displeasure from them.

  Apparently his comment hadn’t been as humorous as he’d intended.

  Touchy people.

  “Who is running the operation in the Bay Area?” Kian asked.

  Damn, he didn’t want to give Losham away. Except, he could talk in generalities, and if they pressed, provide them with the name. Hopefully, they were not going to ask him for more.

  “One of my brothers.”

  Turner arched a brow. “For your father to assign the task to one of his sons, it must be important to him. I would have assumed a lesser commander would have been good enough.”

  “In time, when the operation is streamlined, I’m sure that will be the case. My brother’s job is to set things in motion and standardize the procedures.”

  Kian snorted. “Not going to happen if we can do something about it.”

  Turner was still eyeing Lokan with his unnerving pale blue eyes. “The emphasis on smarts is new. I was led to believe that the average Doomer is bred for physical strength and aggression, not for intelligence.”

  The guy was sharp and didn’t let himself get bogged down by minutiae. Like a laser beam, he kept his eye on the target.

  The question was whether disclosing details about Navuh’s new breeding program would be beneficial or detrimental to Lokan or the future of his people.

  Adding smarts to the gene pool had been a good move. The modern world was run by geeks with computers and not by warriors with swords. The Brotherhood needed the infusion, and to achieve that, the program had to keep going.

  But even if he told them about it, there was nothing the clan could do to stop it. The Brotherhood could collect genius geeks from anywhere in the world and bring them to the island to breed with Dormants.

  “To compete in an evolving world, the Brotherhood needs its members to evolve as well. We need scientists and engineers more than we need muscled goons. We have enough of those.”

  Turner shook his head. “But the girls you collect are humans, not Dormants. How does it help you produce a smarter next generation?”

  Lokan smiled. “That’s what the boys are for. The clients. We used to lure in dangerous men. Warlords, arms dealers, drug lords, corrupt politicians, and they usually came with a goon squad of bodyguards. All fantastic gene donors given the old objectives of our breeding program. Now that the objective is brains, we lure in the computer geniuses, the startup mavericks, the heads of scientific research teams, and the like. We pair them with Dormants to produce our next generation of immortals, but in addition, we need to supply them with the kind of female companionship that will have them coming back for more. Hence the college girls.”

  “Fascinating,” Kian said. “But what I want to know is how we can stop these abductions.”

  Lokan would have liked to help them, but the truth was that he didn’t know how. Even if he were okay with eliminating Losham, which he definitely wasn’t, Navuh would just replace his brother with someone else.

  “You can’t. The warriors work alone, befriending the young women and luring or thralling them into accompanying them on a weekend trip abroad. How are you going to prevent it? Check every girl’s new boyfriend?”

  Kian grimaced. “I need to think about it.”

  Reaching for his briefcase, Turner pulled out a large aerial photo. “Before we conclude our meeting, I want you to verify that we have the right island.” He handed Lokan the photograph.

  He recognized the shape immediately. “That’s the one.” He handed it back to Turner.

  “Not so fast.” Turner produced a sharpie from the briefcase. “Let’s go over the terrain. Mark for me the area the Brotherhood compound occupies.”

  “It’s underground.” Lokan took the photo and drew a circle around the location of the subterranean compound.

  “Are the harem and the Dormant enclosure in the same place as the other facilities?”

  “They are not connected. The harem is here.” He circled a small area north of the compound bordering the rock cliff. “The living quarters are underground, but they have several above-ground pavilions and a sizable fenced-off garden area.” He drew another circle. �
��There is one more fence around it, and immortal warriors patrol the clean zone between the two. They have no access to the inner grounds. Only humans are allowed inside.”

  “What about the cliff?” Turner asked. “Is it fenced off too?”

  “There is no need. Even professional climbers can’t scale it without getting noticed. It’s nearly vertical, covered with slimy moss, and about three hundred feet above sea level.”

  “I wonder why Navuh would leave it open. With how paranoid he is, I would think he would put a fence there too.”

  Lokan shrugged. “Perhaps he wants to give his concubines an illusion of freedom and an unobstructed view of the ocean. Besides, I assume that they are always guarded and never left alone when venturing outside. That area is not visible from outside the enclosure, only from the air, so I’m not familiar with its safety protocol.”

  Kian leaned over the photo. “So every time your father wants to visit his harem, he has to go above ground and then down again? That doesn’t make sense. I’m sure he has a tunnel connecting his quarters to a secret entry into the harem.”

  “The thought has crossed my mind. But my father’s personal quarters are guarded better than the US Treasury. They are just as inaccessible as the harem.”

  “Who cleans them?” Carol asked.

  “His personal servants.”

  “Are they immortal or human?”

  “Immortal.”

  “Damn. So, you can’t compel them.”

  “What about the Dormants?” Turner asked. “Where are they held?"

  “It’s adjacent to the resort for obvious reasons.” Lokan drew a circle around the area. “It’s built the same way as the harem, but it is much larger and separated into two sections. On one side there are several individual bungalows for the assignations, and on the other side there is a play area for the children. The rest is underground.”

  34

  Kian

  “Are you in a hurry? Or can we talk for a few minutes in my old office?” Kian asked Turner as they headed toward the elevators.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  Kian chuckled. “Plenty. But what I want to talk about is what can be done about the San Francisco situation. I can’t just ignore it and let the Doomers snatch up more girls.”

  “I agree. We need to go hunting.”

  “I like the sound of that,” Anandur said.

  As they exited the elevator, Andrew remained behind, holding the door open. “If you don’t need me, I’d rather head home.”

  “You can go.” Kian clapped his brother-in-law on his back. “Thank you for coming.”

  “Any time.”

  As the door slid shut, the four of them continued down the corridor to Kian’s old office. The place was probably covered in dust, but Kian wanted to discuss the new information while the details were still fresh in his memory, and he knew Turner wouldn’t want to leave his Tesla behind and carpool with them to the village. The guy loved his toy so much that he’d even had it retrofitted to meet the village’s safety requirements.

  Which hadn’t been necessary since the bastard had discovered the location a long time ago, and Bridget, who sometimes rode with him, was a council member and privy to the information.

  “I apologize for the dust,” Kian said as they entered his office. “I should get Okidu to vacuum here from time to time.”

  Turner pulled out a chair and cleaned the seat with his hand. “This will do.”

  Kian followed suit and so did the brothers.

  “Can you elaborate on your previous statement? How do you suggest we hunt for Doomers?”

  Turner crossed his arms over his chest. “We will have to divert resources from the rescue missions and send Guardians to San Francisco. Remember how they hunted for your civilians in clubs and bars? Now that you have a large force, you can turn the tables on them.”

  “Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that. To run the drug distribution and to lure girls to the island, they must have a large force in the area. If we catch one, we can discover where the rest are living and ambush them.”

  Turner smiled one of his rare smiles. “Precisely.”

  “I love it. Going on the offensive and giving them a taste of their own medicine would be immensely satisfying. What I don’t like about it, however, is dividing the force and reducing the number of rescues.”

  Turner shrugged. “The SF mission qualifies as a rescue too. Only this time we would be preventing the abductions instead of freeing those who were already captured.”

  “True. But by splitting the force we will be weakening our defenses.”

  Turner arched his brows. “Up until not too long ago you had a total of seven Guardians, and you managed with that.”

  “I like the feeling of safety the large force provides. It gives me peace of mind.”

  “Could've fooled me.” Anandur snorted. “You’re just as stressed now as you were then. It’s who you are.”

  Kian pinned him with a hard stare. “I wasn’t aware that you’d gotten a therapist license.”

  The Guardian shrugged his massive shoulders. “I’ve known you for a long time. I don’t need to be a shrink to get you.”

  Across the table, Brundar’s lips curved in a shadow of a smile.

  “Do you want to hunt for Doomers or not?” Ever the pragmatist, Turner ignored their banter.

  “I do.”

  “Then we split the force and do it.”

  “Eventually, they are going to spread their operation to the Los Angeles area as well,” Brundar said. “It’s a much bigger market for drugs, and there are more colleges here. They’ve only gotten three girls so far and they are already attracting attention. They will want to spread out.”

  This was probably the most Kian had ever heard coming from Brundar’s mouth at one time.

  “You are right,” Turner said. “When the time comes, we will address this problem as well. Right now, we need to focus on the Bay Area. We might be able to capture a big number of Doomers in one fell swoop.”

  “We don’t have enough space in the catacombs,” Anandur said. “Perhaps we should build new ones under the village.”

  Kian shook his head. “I thought about that when the original plans were made and I decided against it. The Doomers will stay in the keep, but I want to move our dead to the village where their loved ones can pay their respects.”

  Anandur nodded. “An excellent idea. But that still leaves the problem of available space for storing the Doomers in a temperature-controlled environment. The fuckers are troublesome even when almost dead.”

  “Perhaps you won’t need to store them.” Turner got up and dusted the back of his pants. “Maybe we can free the Doomers from Navuh's compulsion and bring them over. Now that we know what makes them the way they are, it will be easier to undo.”

  Kian looked up at him. “And how do you propose to do that?”

  Turner lifted his briefcase. “Maybe when Parker grows up and his powers mature he will be able to compel immortals as well as humans.”

  “Not likely.” Kian pushed to his feet. “Even Annani finds it difficult to do.”

  “You never know.”

  Anandur clapped Turner on the back. “A fellow optimist. I like it. Imagine Parker freeing all those Doomers from their compulsion. If we get enough of them, they might help us free the island. Who knows, perhaps in the distant future the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf with the young lion.”

  “Quoting scriptures?” Turner asked.

  Anandur shrugged. “I heard it somewhere and it got stuck in my memory.”

  Turner headed for the door. “I was thinking more along the lines of helping the Doomers live as free men on the island. Not coexisting with them. I’m not that optimistic.”

  It was an interesting thought, and it aligned with Lokan’s vision.

  Kian was never going to trust a bunch of Doomers with the clan’s safety, but he could see them fighting f
or the right to live free from Navuh’s oppression. Maybe even under Lokan’s banner.

  35

  Ella

  “Ella, sweetheart, it’s time to get up.” Julian sat on the bed and handed her a cup of coffee.

  “Can I have five more minutes?” She pulled the comforter all the way under her chin.

  It was so damn cold in the mornings, and Julian had left the window wide open.

  “Can you close the window? I’m freezing.” She shivered under the down blanket.

  He frowned. “It’s over seventy degrees in here. Are you feeling all right?” He leaned and touched his lips to her forehead. “I think you are running a low fever.”

  Excitement bubbled up in her tummy. “Maybe I’m transitioning?”

  “It’s possible.”

  He was infuriatingly calm in the face of such a monumental event.

  “You’re not excited?”

  “I don’t want to get my hopes up. You might have a cold. Any aches or pains? How is your throat?”

  “Dry.” She reached for the coffee. “Easily fixed.”

  A few sips later she felt much better. “Maybe you are right, and this is just a cold.” She handed him the cup. “Can you get my bathrobe? I need to go to the bathroom, but I don’t want to leave the warmth of the blanket.”

  “Sure.”

  When Julian came back with the bathrobe, she pulled it under the covers and shimmied into it, then tied the belt securely around her waist before swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

  Standing up, though, proved problematic. As soon as Ella pushed off the mattress, her head started spinning and her knees buckled.

  Julian was right there to catch her. “Let me carry you to the bathroom.”

  “I feel dizzy. Is it one of the signs?”

  “I don’t know. But just to be safe, once you get dressed, I’ll take you to the clinic.”

  “I think I’ll need help with that.”

  “I’m here for you, sweetheart.”