Dark Prince's Enigma

by I. T. Lucas

  He chuckled. “When I couldn’t do that the second time around with her, it should’ve clued me in. But I assumed that she was doing it on her own.”

  “Who did you think was aiding her? You obviously knew that we were setting a trap for you. You just didn’t know who we were. Am I right?”

  “I believe it’s your turn to answer my question first. How did you obtain a picture of me?”

  “One of your men crossed over to our side. He’s a talented artist, and he drew portraits of the Brotherhood's leadership for us.”

  That was another shocker Lokan had not been ready for. He could understand a Doomer seeking asylum with the clan, but he couldn’t conceive of the clan granting it. He would have asked about it, but it wasn’t worth wasting his questions on.

  “You look surprised,” Kian said.

  “I am. Why would you grant asylum to one of us?” He waved a dismissive hand. “Forget I asked. I don’t want to waste my question on that.”

  “As you wish. Now answer mine. Who did you assume was helping Ella and Vivian?”

  “The government. I knew that they’d been collecting people with special abilities for decades. I thought that Vivian had revealed her and Ella’s telepathy in exchange for their help rescuing Ella from the Russian. After that, I assumed that the entire family had been taken into the program, and that Ella had told them about my dream-sharing ability, which they wanted to get their hands on as well.”

  “Are you sure about the collecting of paranormal talents? I’ve never heard about a program like that.”

  From everything that Lokan had told Kian so far, this seemed to pique his interest the most. And not only his. He could smell the other immortals in the room emitting scents of excitement.

  Why were they so interested in the government's paranormal warfare division?

  Could this be his ticket to longevity?

  Lokan lifted a finger. “I’ll answer that, but then you’ll owe me a question. Yes, I’m sure. I was trying to find out where they were hiding the talents, and with my ability to compel it shouldn’t have been a problem, but I’ve never gotten close to anyone who had inside information that could lead me to them. Still, the sources I learned this from were very reliable. Given more time, I would have found out where the talents were being held.”

  “Fascinating,” Kian murmured. “How come we’ve never heard about this?”

  It was a rhetorical question, but if he answered it, Kian would owe him one more.

  “It’s highly classified. And the only reason I found out was that I had a meeting with a congressman who knew about it, and I peeked into his head. After that, I started looking for more information. Mainly because I wanted to find out if there were more dream-walkers out there, but also because I could use talents like that for a variety of projects. Why is it so interesting to you, though?”

  Kian regarded him with a peculiar expression on his face, condescending but also pitying, as if Lokan was stupid for not figuring out the answer to that himself.

  “What do you know about Dormants, Lokan?”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “Humor me. This is part of the answer.”

  “Dormants can be turned immortal by getting bitten by an immortal male. The propaganda my father spreads is that females are not worthy of being turned, and that is why we don’t allow them to become immortal. But I know the truth. Female Dormants have the same fertility rates as other human females, and they can produce many Dormant children. Once they are turned, however, the fertility rate drops significantly. In order to keep growing our army of immortal soldiers, we need the female Dormants to remain as fertile as possible.”

  8

  Kian

  Kian found it astonishing that even someone as highly positioned as Lokan didn’t know about paranormal abilities being a possible indicator of Dormants.

  To be fair, the clan had discovered this only recently, but that was because they hadn’t had any Dormants to observe until Amanda had come up with her hypothesis. Just as some immortals exhibited special abilities, traits that they had inherited from the gods, so should Dormants. She’d then proven it by testing students at her university and finding Syssi and Michael.

  The Brotherhood, on the other hand, had bred plenty over the millennia. Someone should have noticed that Dormants were much more likely to exhibit paranormal abilities than the general human population.

  Except the male Dormants were induced at a young age, before those abilities manifested, and the female Dormants were regarded as inferior, suitable only for breeding and otherwise ignored. Furthermore, the attitude toward them affected the females’ self-esteem, which probably made them doubt and stifle any extraordinary talents they might possess.

  Could it be that even Navuh wasn’t aware of the treasure trove he possessed?

  After all, the Doomers kept their female Dormants secluded, and the males were separated from their mothers upon reaching puberty, and activated. After that, they had no more contact whatsoever with the female Dormants, ensuring that the immortal males didn’t induce the female Dormants’ transition.

  Still, over the thousands of years that Navuh had the breeding program going, someone must have noticed something and connected the dots.

  “Well?” Lokan prompted.

  Kian pinned him with a hard stare. “You had a treasure trove of paranormal talent under your nose and didn’t even know about it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Dormants exhibit special abilities in a much higher percentage than ordinary humans. I’m sure your abhorrent breeding program is full of them. But you wouldn’t know that because you were probably not allowed in there the same way you were not allowed into your father’s harem.”

  Lokan’s reaction wasn’t as satisfying as Kian had hoped it would be. If anything, he looked skeptical. “I spent my childhood inside the Dormant enclosure. I would have noticed if anyone exhibited anything out of the ordinary.”

  “How old were you when you were extracted from there, thirteen? Until then, you were probably busy playing with the other boys and didn’t pay attention to the women.”

  “I was twelve when I went through my transition, and before that, I spent most of my time with my tutors. I’m not stupid, and I wasn’t as a boy. I would’ve noticed if any of the females had extrasensory perception.”

  Twelve was a little young for inducing transition, but maybe Lokan had hit puberty earlier. After all, Parker had done it at twelve and a half.

  “They might have been afraid to show their abilities.”

  Lokan nodded. “That’s possible. I didn’t tell anyone about my dream-sharing ability. I would have kept the compulsion to myself as well, but I didn’t know I had it until I told my tutor to kiss my ass and he did.”

  Behind him, Kian heard the men snicker.

  “Your tutor was human?”

  “Naturally. Back then, only priests and monks were literate.” Lokan chuckled. “The guy ran to complain to the headmistress, who informed my older brother, who told my father. Imagine my surprise when, instead of a punishment, I received praise. But that was also the end of my childhood. My father ordered my induction, and I was put to work.”

  Grudgingly, and against his better judgment, Kian was starting to sympathize with the guy. Ella had warned him that Lokan could be charming when he wanted to be, and that he was cunning and manipulative. But even though he’d been prepared for it, Kian couldn’t help the affinity, for lack of a better term, that he felt for the son of his arch enemy.

  Was it because they were related?

  Nah, there wasn’t enough shared blood to justify that. The explanation was much simpler than that. Just like Lokan, Kian hadn’t had much of a childhood.

  Both of them were the sons of leaders, both had to assume the mantle of responsibility at a young age, and both had spent their long immortal lives in the service of their people.

  The difference was that Kian had be
en busy doing good, while Lokan had been busy doing the opposite and undoing as much of Kian’s work as possible.

  “Your coffee is getting cold.” He pointed to the cup and the wrapped sandwich that Lokan hadn’t touched yet. “I promise you that nothing has been poisoned.”

  Lokan glanced at the sandwich and then at Kian. “It’s rude to be the only one eating. I’ll save it for later. Back to the issue of paranormal abilities and Dormants. Am I to understand that you wish to find where the government is hiding its paranormal talents because you believe that you’ll find Dormants among them?”

  The guy was sharp, which was another trait Kian appreciated.

  “Correct.”

  “Perhaps I can help you with that.”

  “And you’ll do it because?”

  “In exchange for my life, naturally.”

  Kian leaned forward. “We are not going to kill you. But if you want to keep getting the royal treatment and save yourself a lot of pain, helping us find Dormants isn’t going to cut it. I want the location of your fucking island.”

  Lokan’s good mood seemed to vanish in an instant. “I can’t tell you where it is.”

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Both.”

  Kian hadn’t expected it to be easy, and he’d already shown Lokan the stick as well as dangled the carrot. Perhaps a demonstration was needed?

  Except, he had a feeling that torture wasn’t going to work on Navuh’s son. And in any case, it was prudent to start with persuasion and up the ante as needed.

  “In here, you shouldn’t fear your father’s wrath, only mine.”

  “I’m well aware of that. But I can’t allow you to annihilate my people. I might not agree with my father’s policies, and there are many individuals whose demise I won’t mourn, but there are tens of thousands of people living on that island who don’t deserve to die.”

  “Truth,” Andrew said.

  “Unlike your father, I’m not a monster, Lokan. I would never kill indiscriminately.”

  Leaning back, Lokan crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve been a military commander long enough to know that you don’t have any other options available to you. You don’t have enough men to storm the island. You can bomb it, but that will only kill the humans, or you can nuke it and kill everyone.”

  Sadly, it was a logical conclusion for someone like Lokan, who grew up in the Brotherhood and absorbed its disregard for life, human and immortal alike.

  “I’m not going to nuke the place. For better or worse, we are all that is left from our people, and by we, I mean your people and mine. As much as I despise everything you stand for and everything you’ve done, I can’t annihilate your people even if I could target just the soldiers and spare the civilians. I need the location to launch spying missions.”

  Lokan shook his head. “I don’t buy it. What is it that you hope to learn by sending spies to the island? I can probably give you all the information you want, except for the location, that is.”

  Reaching into his suit pocket, Kian pulled out a box of cigarillos and a lighter. “Do you smoke?”

  Eyeing the box, Lokan nodded. “It’s an indulgence reserved for special occasions. But then, I never expected to meet you, cousin.” He smirked. “I guess that’s special enough to celebrate.” He reached for the box and pulled one cigarillo out.

  9

  Lokan

  Was the cigarillo a condemned man’s last perk?

  As he leaned toward Kian’s lighter and lit up, Lokan cast a sidelong glance at the other immortals in the room. They didn’t look like they had murder on their minds. Even the blond, who Lokan had sensed was the most dangerous of the three, seemed disinterested.

  Did he believe Kian, though?

  Not even for a moment. The guy sounded so sincere while delivering his little speech, but Lokan could sense the smoldering hatred under Kian’s calm and collected façade.

  He took a puff. “It’s really good. Where do you get them?”

  “My wife commissioned them for me.”

  Lokan nearly choked on the smoke he inhaled with the intake of breath, releasing it through his nose and doing his damnedest not to cough. “You have a wife? I thought clan members were all the descendants of one goddess and that you have a strong taboo against intermingling, so to speak.”

  Kian smirked. “My wife, the love of my life, was a human and a Dormant. Now she is an immortal and a clan member.”

  Although Lokan had never wished for a mate of his own, the adoration in Kian’s eyes and the pride in his voice sparked a strange yearning in his gut.

  If he’d only known that Ella and Vivian were Dormants.

  Ella was still a kid, but Vivian was suitable mate material. Except, he hadn’t been attracted to either for some reason. Not in real life, anyway. While dream-sharing with Ella, he’d gotten aroused when they kissed, but she hadn’t evoked that response in him when they met in person.

  He wondered why. Usually, the chase made him lustful, but not this time. Could it be that he had a premonition that it wasn’t going to end well?

  Or maybe it was something else.

  “Are Ella and Vivian mated as well?”

  “They are.”

  Perhaps it was a built-in mechanism that was particular to immortals, warning them to stay away from other males’ mates. Something about Ella and Vivian’s scents must have been different, and even though he hadn’t discerned it consciously, his subconscious had recognized it and had adjusted his libido accordingly.

  Lokan had so much to learn about his own physiology and that of dormant and immortal females. If he ever got out of this predicament, and if by some miracle he managed to persuade his father to allow the activation of female Dormants, this information would be invaluable.

  “Are they about to transition?”

  Kian nodded. “The Fates smiled upon us, gifting us with an entire family of Dormants. Ella’s younger brother has already transitioned.”

  One thing was obvious. Dormants, whether male or female, were even more precious to the clan than to the Brotherhood, and Kian would be willing to pay any price to find out where the government had a whole bunch of them stashed.

  If he were in Kian’s position, Lokan would have preferred to get that information over the location of his enemy base. Especially since knowing where to find the island wasn’t going to benefit Kian half as much as growing his puny clan in one fell swoop by getting his hands on a large bunch of Dormants.

  “Congratulations. It seems like those Fates of yours have sent me to you because I can find many more Dormants for you.”

  Kian blew out smoke, then leveled his intense eyes on Lokan. “I need the island’s location. Everything else is secondary to that.”

  Damn.

  There was one more potential ace Lokan had up his sleeve. “What if I can get Gorchenco off Ella’s back?”

  Kian waved a dismissive hand. “He’s no longer looking for her.”

  Lokan smirked. “That’s where you are wrong. It was a bad idea to sell her engagement ring. He bought it back and is now convinced that she’s alive and hiding from him.”

  “Truth,” the lie detector said.

  “Fuck! I knew we should have killed the son of a bitch.”

  Lokan smiled. “As I said, I can have him off her back.”

  “How?”

  “I have dirt on him. But I’ll disclose it in exchange for your vow not to kill me or torture me.”

  “I can vow not to kill you, but unless you tell me the island’s location, I can’t promise to spare you the other.”

  “I can’t give you that.”

  “What if I vow not to nuke the island, which I really have no intention of doing?”

  “I can’t risk it.”

  “And yet you are willing to trust my word to spare you.”

  “That's different. I can gamble with my life. I can’t gamble with the lives of thousands.”

  “He means it,” said the guy with the hau
nted eyes.

  Did they have two lie detectors? Or was the other one an empath?

  Thankfully, his father didn’t have anyone like that. They had spread rumors that Hazok could detect lies, but that wasn’t true. His half-brother was an excellent sniffer and could differentiate subtle nuances, which was useful for lie detecting, but his ability didn’t come anywhere close to Kian’s guy.

  Shaking his head, Kian tapped his cigarillo, dropping the ash into the cardboard tray that had come with the coffee. “I can’t believe I’m saying this to a Doomer, but I respect and admire your dedication to your people. What if I can prove to you that we are not seeking the annihilation of all Doomers?”

  “How do you propose to do that?”

  “I can prove to you that we don’t kill your people unless it’s in the heat of battle and unavoidable. Most of the Doomers we’ve captured over the years are not dead. They are in stasis.”

  Again with the stasis.

  This was such a ridiculous notion that Lokan felt insulted. Did Kian think he was an idiot?

  “Do you want to tell me that you have them locked up in a dungeon and someone is knocking them over the head every time they regenerate? Because we both know that no one stays in stasis indefinitely.”

  The snickers from the men in the back confirmed his suspicion. But Lokan was surprised they allowed themselves to behave so disrespectfully toward their leader. Apparently, the clansmen lacked discipline and respect for the proper chain of command.

  Shaking his head, Kian stubbed out his cigarillo and pulled a new one from the box. “No offense, Lokan, but I can’t believe how ignorant you are. Not your fault, though. You guys are kept in the dark about the most basic things. A deep state of stasis can be achieved by injecting venom to the brink. The body doesn’t regenerate spontaneously in that state. It has to be revived.”