Dark Haven Found (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Book 49)

by I. T. Lucas

  “Then forget about selling it. How about making it for our own use in the village? It would save Okidu and Ojidu a lot of work.”

  “I have a better idea.” William took his glasses off and cleaned them with his shirt. “Let’s make more Odus.”

  “Do you know how?” Andrew asked.

  “I’m not talking about advanced ones like Okidu and the others. But with how quickly artificial intelligence is developing, we might be able to make a housecleaning robot.”

  Kian waved a dismissive hand. “Until that happens, you can come up with something simpler. I was thinking about a small drone with a dust brush attached to it.”

  Anandur and Brundar walking in with vending machine fare put an end to the dusting discussion.

  “Here is your afternoon snack, gentlemen.” Anandur put down an assortment of sandwiches.

  Brundar followed with the drinks.

  “Thank you.” Kian sifted through the packaged offerings and chose the vegan option. “I wonder if Emmett really needs blood for sustenance. Although I have to admit that his story sounded believable.”

  “What I don’t get,” William said, “is how Mey and Jin came to be. If they are like us, which I assume they are, and only their males take human mates, it’s no wonder that only the first generation of hybrids are born long-lived. The next generation doesn’t carry the genes.”

  “Maybe Mey and Jin’s mother was a Dormant,” Andrew suggested. “Our kind of Dormant.”

  The same thing had occurred to Kian, but it was highly unlikely. What were the chances that one of the few hybrid males born to Emmett’s people had met a Dormant and fathered not one but two daughters with her?

  “I don’t think so. The fact that both sisters have some of Emmett’s people's characteristics implies that their parents had a long-term relationship, at least long enough to have two children together. From what Emmett told us about his leader, she would have never allowed that.”

  Anandur put his sandwich down. “What if Emmett is their father? He left the compound over thirty years ago. Before creating Safe Haven, he might have shacked up with a woman for a while and made babies with her.”

  Kian shook his head. “The timeline doesn’t work out. He founded Safe Haven twenty-seven years ago, and he’s been there the entire time. Mey and Jin were born while he was there.”

  “Maybe he wasn’t the only hybrid who left,” Anandur suggested. “Perhaps others got emboldened by his departure and followed in his footsteps.”

  “That’s one possibility,” Kian admitted. “Another possibility is that their hybrid males can also transmit the special genes. So far, they strike me as a less evolved form of the gods, but perhaps in this, they have an advantage over us.”

  He’d always suspected that their kind had been genetically engineered. What if Emmett’s people were the original upon which the gods' scientists had improved?

  The two had to be connected to be compatible. Another possibility was that they had mutual ancestors, and the groups evolved differently. Given that they had space travel capability, they had probably colonized habitable planets, and over time mutations could have created divergent species.

  Hell, for all he knew, the gods might have been so advanced that they turned uninhabitable planets into habitable ones, shaping them to their needs and creating worlds.

  That would make them real gods even though they were flesh and blood, and not some enormous consciousness that existed outside of spacetime and created matter out of energy.

  Kian put down his half-eaten sandwich and took a sip from his coffee.

  “We are still not sure whether all of what he’s telling us is true or the product of his imagination that he believes in. I can take a leap of faith and accept most of it, but the one glaring hole in his story is how small his community is. No one traverses the universe to settle only twenty people.”

  “Maybe they were refugees?” Anandur suggested. “They could’ve run away.”

  “Or, maybe there are more groups of them scattered over the planet,” Brundar said. “Emmett said that the pure-bloods didn’t share information with their hybrid children. Perhaps one of the secrets they kept was that there were many more of them.”

  “Why would they hide it?” Kian rapped his fingers on the table. “And why would they scatter in the first place? There is strength in numbers.”

  Brundar shrugged. “They are predators, which makes them territorial. Humans are herd animals, so they prefer larger communities, and we are all part human, so we have the same tendency. But think about lions. They live in small prides, and they are not friendly toward each other.”

  Anandur chuckled. “I like the analogy. The main difference is that the females are in charge in Emmett’s community, and the males serve them, not the other way around.”

  26

  Eleanor

  When Eleanor arrived at the café, Greggory was already there, standing at the very edge of it with his hands tucked into his pockets and a grim expression on his face.

  That didn’t bode well. He didn’t look apologetic, and Eleanor was of a mind to turn around and leave him standing there.

  But she wasn’t a coward.

  She was going to put an end to this one way or another. It would hurt to let him go, but it seemed that the choice wasn’t hers. Besides, she didn’t want to be with someone who could be such a jerk over something as insignificant as what happened to her with Emmett. What would he have done if she’d been raped? Tried to kill her?

  Schooling her facial muscles not to show the tension she felt, Eleanor walked up to Greggory. “Do you want to get a table?”

  He shook his head. “It’s too crowded in there. Let’s take a walk.”

  “Okay.”

  Since he didn’t offer her his hand, she put hers in her pockets, mimicking him. “What’s going on, Greggory?”

  “I should be the one asking that, but I don’t need to. I know what’s up.”

  Eleanor’s anger reached a boiling point, but she managed to control her tone from betraying how she felt. “And what’s that?”

  “You’re attracted to the cult leader, which means that you didn’t bond with me, and that we are not meant to be together.”

  She swallowed. How the hell did he know that?

  “I was on a mission, and none of what happened was about sex. I played a role, that’s true, and I pretended to be attracted to him to discover what he did to the women. I didn’t expect him to bite me, though, and I tried to fight him off, but he was too strong.”

  “You enjoyed the bite.”

  “I couldn’t control my reaction. You know that’s impossible.”

  Greggory stopped and turned to her. “Please don’t lie to me, Eleanor. Did you forget that I can smell your arousal? Yesterday, you got turned on just from telling me about what happened with him, and you are turned on now.”

  Damn. She hadn’t been that turned on. Greggory must have developed an acute sensibility to the scent of her arousal.

  “Nothing to say?” He arched a brow.

  There was no point in denying it, but she could at least try to explain. “Everything I told you was true. And it’s also true that I was mildly attracted to him. But it doesn’t mean anything. I might have been turned on by the situation, by the dangerous game I was playing.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “He probably emitted some pheromones that messed with me.”

  Greggory arched a brow. “And they affected you a day later when you talked about it?”

  Desperate to say something to change his mind, she resorted to Safe Haven’s nonsense. “Feelings of possessiveness are dangerous and corrosive, and in this case completely misplaced. I don’t want him, I don’t even like the guy, and he’s locked up in the dungeon, so it’s not like I can even see him. I like you, and I want to be with you.”

  He shook his head. “We are not human, Eleanor. It’s normal for humans, even those who love their partners dearly, to feel attraction for others, but i
t’s not for us. When we bond, we don’t feel anything for others. We can’t.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Up until recently, you didn’t even know about the bond. And suddenly, it’s the most important thing to you?”

  “Yes. Now that having a mate who I can bond with for life is a possibility, I’m not willing to settle for less.” He waved his hand. “There are plenty of immortal females here, and one of them might be the one for me. I thought it was you, but since it’s clear to me now that it’s not, I need to find her."

  His words were like a punch to the gut. He didn't leave even a sliver of an opening. He'd shut the door in her face.

  Eleanor was going to be the first female Dormant who hadn’t bonded with her inducer.

  Except, she wouldn’t be. Eva hadn’t bonded with Kalugal either, but that was because he’d been just a hookup, and she hadn’t seen him after he’d induced her transition. The next time they met, Eva had already been mated to Bhathian and had two children with him.

  "I can't believe you are willing to throw away what we have because of something I had no control over. I didn't choose it, and I didn't do it to hurt you. Why are you punishing me?"

  His eyes softened. "I'm not. I'm setting you free. If you are not the one meant for me, then I'm not the one meant for you. We both need to keep on looking. Maybe the cult leader is your one, and maybe he's not, but the fact that you wanted him is a sign that you need to keep looking."

  27

  Kian

  When Kian and his party returned to the suite, Emmett looked much better. Gone were the dark circles under his eyes, and he seemed in a better mood.

  Perhaps the blood was indeed a real nutritional need.

  Kian took a seat in the same armchair he’d used before and crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me about your diet. What do you eat, and how is it different from what the pure-bloods eat?”

  “We are carnivores. We can’t process carbs well.”

  “But you are half-human.”

  “That’s why I can get away with eating some vegetables and drinking alcohol. The pure-bloods can only eat raw meat and drink blood water.”

  “How do they get the blood? Do they buy it from a butcher's shop, or do they take it from humans?”

  A smirk lifted Emmett’s lips. “Normally, when we drink from a human, it’s a special treat like chocolate or fine wine would be to them, and it is usually part of sex. Mostly, we subsist on animal blood. In my case, however, I had no choice but to get my supply where it was available. The females were plentiful, and I had no shortage of donors.”

  Kian couldn’t hide his disgust. “They weren’t willing donors. You drugged them.”

  “Only lightly. After all, I didn’t want to drug myself by drinking drugged blood. I did what I had to do to survive.”

  “You could’ve gotten blood from a butcher's shop.”

  “True, but it would have complicated things.” He smiled. “And I have to admit that I became spoiled. After enjoying a delicacy, it is difficult to go back to a commoner’s fare.”

  It was an interesting choice of words.

  “Do the pure-bloods prefer to drink from humans as well?”

  “They do. But the leader forbids overindulging.”

  “Do they drink straight from the source?”

  “Obviously. It’s the freshest.”

  “Do they drain their victims?”

  “I assume that you are referring to the humans they drink from. Or do you consider the animals victims as well? Because that would be hypocritical of you. If you eat human food, that means that you consume animal flesh.”

  “I happen to be vegan, but most of my people are not. I was referring to the humans.”

  “They don’t drain humans to feed. Unless they are attacked, even the pure-bloods don’t kill just for the fun of it. It’s forbidden.”

  Kian looked at Andrew, who nodded.

  “What about the animals? Do they drink to kill?”

  Emmett frowned. “Why would we do that? That’s wasteful, and so is eating animal flesh, which is why we prefer blood. When taken in moderation, the blood gets replenished in a day or two, and we can drink again. When you kill an animal for its flesh, you don’t get to eat it again.”

  Kian could see the logic in that.

  “Do the pure-bloods hunt? Or do they raise farm animals?”

  “Both. Hunting is more satisfying, but it’s not always possible with humans around.”

  It all sounded too bizarre to be true, but as Kian glanced at Andrew, his brother-in-law shrugged and nodded again.

  Emmett was telling the truth, and given how much better he looked after drinking blood, he hadn’t made it up.

  “Let’s get back to the issue of children. You told Peter that the second generation born to hybrids and their human partners is fully human.”

  “Correct.”

  “What do your people do with them?”

  “After our ruler realized that they were human, she ordered them placed in orphanages. She also forbade the hybrid males to impregnate human females. It was difficult for them to give their children up for adoption.”

  So that was how the sisters had ended up in an orphanage. And what’s more, they hadn’t been the only ones.

  “What about the hybrid females? Did you have access to them?”

  Emmett snorted. “You are still thinking in human terms. I had to be invited, and there were only two of them. How often do you think that happened?”

  “I guess not often.”

  “Once. I got invited once.” He shifted, and his chains rattled. “Frankly, it wasn’t fun. I prefer human females. They are soft, submissive, and they don’t bite.”

  “But you do.”

  “Carefully. I don’t cause more than the most minimal pain possible, and then it’s only bliss for them. Our females are aggressive, and they bite to hurt.”

  Interesting. It seemed that the males' venom functioned similarly to that of immortal males, but the females' venom either had different properties or they had only fangs but no venom.

  “Can your females bite to bring pleasure as well?”

  He shook his head. “To experience pleasure, our females need to fight and get forcefully subdued. Their venom is like acid. It’s not deadly to the pure-bloods or the hybrids, but it’s painful. I assume that it would be deadly to human males. I guess it’s a turn-on for the pure-blooded males, but it wasn’t for me.”

  Kian heard Arwel let out a frustrated groan.

  Poor guy had probably been looking forward to Jin’s venom glands becoming functional. He was no doubt disappointed.

  “Tell me, Emmett.” Kian leaned forward. “Did you hear anything about other communities your people have established? Because it doesn’t make sense to transport a small group of only twenty people across space. There must have been more of them.”

  “No one ever mentioned any others, but the same thing occurred to me, and I asked my father. Naturally, he didn’t give me an answer, but he looked pained. I think that there were more of them, but they didn’t survive for some reason.”

  Kian looked at Andrew, hoping to see him shake his head, but he got a nod instead. Emmett was telling the truth as he knew it, and it wasn’t much.

  “What about your mother? What happened to her?”

  “She died.”

  “Did she get to raise you?”

  Emmett nodded. “The pure-bloods collected humans and kept them imprisoned in the compound. The females were breeders and performed housekeeping chores, and the males tended to the animals and other menial jobs.”

  It was becoming apparent that those people were not the kind Kian would want an alliance with. They were cruel to each other, so he could only imagine how horrible the lives of their slaves were.

  Furthermore, it could explain Mey and Jin. They could have been born in the compound, sharing a mother but not necessarily a father. Apparently, the leader’s commanding the hybrid males not to impregn
ate the human females hadn’t been obeyed, or perhaps she had allowed it again after Emmett had left.

  “How did they get away with enslaving humans?” Andrew asked. “Are they all compellers like you?”

  “To some extent. Some can manipulate human minds like Peter said that all of you can, and all can force humans to do what they want of them. I was the only hybrid who could compel the pure-bloods, though.”

  “Weren’t you considered a threat?”

  Emmett smiled. “I was smart enough to keep it to myself. If she knew, my leader wouldn’t have thought twice about ending my life despite our pitifully small numbers.”

  “How did you find out that you can do that without alerting anyone?” Andrew asked.

  “By chance. And when I started to suspect what I could do, I tested it on a very small scale to make sure.”

  “Why didn’t you use compulsion to get more information?” Arwel asked.

  “That would have given me away for sure. As curious as I was, I didn’t dare.”

  “I assume that pure-bloods can compel hybrids,” William said.

  Emmett nodded. “Except for me, but they thought that I was immune.” He grimaced. “That was the only thing about me that my father was proud of.”

  Kian had more questions to keep going for hours, but it was getting late, and Syssi had invited his sister and cousin and their mates for dinner. He needed to head home soon.

  The investigation could continue tomorrow afternoon, and he would probably come up with more questions by then. Turner was joining him and Onegus in the office tomorrow morning, and they were going to watch the recordings from the interrogation.

  Kian had no doubt that the chief and Turner would also come up with questions of their own.

  There was just one thing they needed from Emmett before concluding today’s session. Kian turned to William. “You wanted a Rosetta Stone.”

  “Yes.” William pulled several folded pages out of his shirt pocket and put them down on the coffee table. “I need you to translate what I wrote into your language, and the email you sent to your leader into English.” He looked at Arwel. “Once that’s done, send it to me.”