by I. T. Lucas
“Why? I know much less than the guy they captured.”
“If you tell Kian, he will let you talk to Emmett, and you can ask him about Vrog. Don’t you want to find out what happened to him? Who was he? What kind of person fathered your son?”
Stella shook her head. “I’d rather not. Vlad is a wonderful person. I don’t need to know what his father’s like.” She lifted her hand and cupped Richard’s face. “Vrog was just the sperm donor. You are more of a father to Vlad than he is.”
“Nevertheless, you need to tell Kian.” He took her hand and kissed it. “Here is the thing that worries me. Emmett claims that his community is very small. It might have grown a little since he left, but not by much because they can’t activate their Dormants. But there might be more communities like that in other places. If you talk to Emmett and he doesn’t know who Vrog is, then it proves that. If he knows Vrog, then chances are that his community is the only one.”
“What about my vow?” she whispered.
“Would you like me to talk to Kian? That wouldn’t count as breaking your vow.”
“Yes, it would.”
He took her slender hand and clasped it. “The rumor about Emmett is spreading fast. Everyone who hears the story suspects a connection to Mey and Jin. How long do you think it would take them to realize that Vlad is also a little different from other immortal males?”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Stella jutted her chin out. “They haven’t yet, so why should they now?”
“Before, they had no point of reference. Now they do. Stop fretting about the vow. It’s just a superstition. Either you tell Kian, or I will.”
She glared at him. “You promised.”
“This secret has been eating at you for years. Vlad deserves to know the truth, and he also deserves to learn all that he can about his father’s people. It’s not fair to keep it from him. Besides, what if he figures it out on his own? Wouldn’t it be better if he heard it from you first?”
“None of the clan members know who their fathers were.”
“Because they assume they were human. Vlad’s father wasn’t.”
“Does it matter?”
Stella looked like she was on the verge of tears, and he didn’t have the heart to keep pushing her.
The decision had to be hers.
“It doesn’t have to happen today. Think about what’s at stake, and I’m sure you’ll arrive at the right decision. Just don’t take too long.”
41
Anastasia
The delicious smell of freshly brewed coffee tempted Anastasia to open her eyes, but the soft pillow under her cheek felt so good that it was a shame to wake up. Somehow, she’d pushed it into the perfect shape and had positioned it just right, and that kind of bliss didn’t happen often.
A soft male chuckle was what finally broke through her resistance. “It’s nearly noon, sleepyhead. It’s time to wake up.”
She cracked one eye open, but instead of looking at Leon’s handsome face, she was looking at a steaming coffee mug.
“You brought me coffee in bed?” She turned onto her back and pushed up on the pillows.
“I figured the smell would wake you up.” Handing her the mug, he looked at her expectantly.
Taking one sip after the other, she used the coffee to collect her thoughts.
Evidently, last night hadn’t been a weird dream. Leon really had fangs and glowing eyes, and she needed to decide what to do with that information.
If everything he’d told her was true, then the fangs and venom were a nifty bonus. They induced incredible orgasms and healed diseases.
Who in their right mind would object to that?
So it hurt for a split second when he bit her, but that wasn’t bad enough to nullify all the benefits.
The problem was that Ana was sure he wasn’t telling her everything, and that bothered her on several levels. First of all, she was worried about potential side effects that were not harmless. And secondly, if she couldn’t trust Leon, then what they had wasn’t the real thing.
Trust was crucial in a good relationship. It was the foundation upon which it was built, and without it, it was a house of cards.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
She smiled. “Just a penny? You will have to bribe me with something much better than that.”
“I can make you pancakes.”
“Now you’re talking.” She eyed him from under lowered lashes. “Do you even know how to make them?”
“Margaret said that she will give me instructions.”
She’d almost forgotten about her friend and the scare she’d caused her with her screaming. “How is she?”
“She was worried about you. I told her that you had a nightmare about the fire in Safe Haven, but I didn’t elaborate. Feel free to fill in the details.”
“That’s a good one.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You are awfully good at coming up with lies on the spot.”
“I didn’t lie to you last night.”
“But you didn’t tell me everything.”
“I told you more than I was allowed.”
She could believe that. “What’s next? Where do we go from here?”
“Same place we were heading to before. Or did you fall out of love with me because of my oddities?”
She thought he was teasing, but the vulnerability in his eyes told another story.
“Of course, I still love you, but to call your fangs and venom glands oddities is the understatement of the century. I need time to wrap my head around this.”
He nodded. “It’s Monday.”
“What about it?”
“You were supposed to call your friend.” He picked her phone off the nightstand and handed it to her. “If you don’t call, Megan will put your contingency plan in motion.”
“Right.” She took the device. “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll tell her about you?”
His eyes gleamed dangerously. “You said that you would never put my life in danger. I hope that you meant it.”
“I did, and I’m glad you trust me.” She looked into his eyes. “Trust is the foundation of a good relationship. Without it, this is just a week-long hookup.”
He didn’t flinch, but a shadow crossed over his eyes. He was hiding something important from her. “Call Megan.” He pushed to his feet. “I’m going to start on those pancakes, so don’t take too long.”
“Okay.” She forced a smile.
Leon leaving her alone to call Megan indicated that he trusted her, with his life no less, which was huge. Then again, he had superior hearing and could probably hear her from the kitchen even with the door closed.
Not that she was going to betray him. Ana would never do that. But she was going to be careful and watch out for anything suspicious.
Like what?
Her teeth falling out and fangs starting to grow?
Chuckling, she shook her head. She was not going to grow fangs and her eyes were not about to start glowing, but maybe there were other side effects?
It made sense now that his so-called cousins were married to women with paranormal abilities. The place they called the village was home to people who had been genetically altered. Perhaps some had fangs, while others could tether a string of their consciousness to a person and spy on them.
A freaking real-life X-Men community.
And how cool was that?
It was also no wonder that Leon had accepted her along with the voices in her head. Compared to him and the rest of his friends, she was nothing special.
Perhaps there was a place for her in their village? Or was it restricted to only those who had been altered in some way?
What if she and Leon decided to move in together? Would his friends object to her moving into their mutant village?
It was funny how a change in perspective could turn things upside down. A few minutes ago, she’d felt as if the tenuous foundation of the new future she was starting to build for herself had crumbled unde
r her feet, and suddenly that future looked brighter than ever.
It all depended on how she chose to regard Leon and his altered friends, and also herself. She could think of them as misfits or as super-beings, and accordingly of herself.
The choice was obvious.
She’d rather think of herself as an X-woman than a mutant.
42
Kian
“Hello, cousin,” Kalugal answered the call. “Are we still on for later today?”
“We are.” Kian glanced at his watch. “I’ll pick you up from your office at four.”
Kalugal chuckled. “Are you going to blindfold me on the way to the keep?”
“No. I trust you with its location. Do you want to bring a couple of your men with you?”
“I trust you to keep me safe, cousin. Anandur and Brundar are more than enough to protect both of us, and you have more Guardians in your dungeon. I can’t wait to see it. I’ve heard so much about it from Lokan.”
Kian grunted. “He has nothing to complain about. I put him in a luxurious one-bedroom that looks more like a high-end hotel suite than a prison cell, and he had Carol preparing gourmet meals for him. He was treated like a prince.”
“I didn’t say that he’d complained. It was very smart of you to treat him well. As the saying goes, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Are you doing the same thing with Emmett?”
Kian swiveled his office chair and looked at the café below. “I’m not mistreating him, not yet, but I’m not giving him the royal treatment either. So far, he’s been cooperative.”
“But you don’t believe him.”
“Some people can fool even Andrew. Emmett might believe the story he told us, or he could be extraordinarily good at lying. That’s why I want you to compel him. Compulsion might get him to tell us the real story. But just in case he’s a stronger compeller than you, I’m bringing with me a set of earpieces for you to use.”
Kalugal huffed indignantly. “I’ve already proven that I can override his compulsion. Besides, only your mother is stronger than me, and she’s a goddess. And if Emmett’s story is true, then his kind is inferior to the gods, and he’s a diluted version of that.”
His cousin was a prideful man, who was too confident in his abilities. “Just humor me.”
“Fine. Call me when you are close to my office, and I’ll meet you outside.”
It was Kian’s turn to tease Kalugal. “What’s the matter? Are you afraid of me coming in and discovering what you are working on?”
“You’re welcome to visit my offices anytime you want.”
“I’ll take a rain check. See you at four.” He ended the call and leaned back in the chair.
The invitation was meaningless. Kian had no doubt that Kalugal would hide whatever he was working on.
Except, he already knew the gist of it. Jacki had blurted to Syssi that it involved the Four Horsemen, which was the nickname given to the four tech giants. If Kalugal was planning on giving them a run for their money, Kian had no problem with that. It was about time someone had the balls to do that. The four basically controlled the Western world, and by eradicating competitors quite ruthlessly, they had a monopoly that would be incredibly difficult to break up.
The task was too big for one man, though, no matter how smart or how rich. Bigger fish than Kalugal had tried to get in the game and failed, including mighty China. Not that Kian had any illusions about them giving up. The Chinese were playing a very long game, and they weren’t deterred by setbacks. The next time they tried, they would be more circumspect, and would probably hide behind a Western proxy.
Hopefully, Kalugal would realize that he couldn’t fight the big dragons on his own and would come to Kian for help. Together, they might stand a chance.
Nah, not even then.
Gone were the days when his clan could influence the direction humanity was heading. As much as Kian hated to admit it, the human horsemen were way ahead of him, and regrettably, they didn’t hold themselves to the same high standards that Annani had demanded from him and Sari. Big tech was not nudging humanity toward the right direction by showing the possibilities. In the pursuit of profits and power, it was shoving whatever advanced its own agenda down humanity’s unsuspecting throats.
When his phone rang, he let out a sigh and lifted it to look at the display.
Vlad? What could the kid possibly want?
“What’s up, Vlad?”
“I hope that you’re not too busy. I need to talk to you.”
“Can you do it quickly? I don’t have a lot of time.”
“That’s okay. We can do this some other time.” The kid sounded disappointed. “It’s not a conversation for the phone.”
That sounded serious.
“I’ll tell you what.” Kian swiveled his chair around. “I need to be downtown at four, and I want to relax with a smoke before heading out. If you can be here in under ten minutes, I can meet you on the roof of the office building.”
“Thank you. I’m on my way.”
As he walked out of his office, Kian wondered what that was about. Perhaps Vlad wanted to ask him to be a groomsman at his wedding? But that didn’t require a face-to-face meeting. The kid probably wanted Annani to preside over it and needed Kian to forward the request. That would explain why he’d sounded so nervous.
Had Wendy put him up to it?
Kian didn’t need to wait long to find out. A couple of minutes after he’d lit his cigarillo, the roof access door opened.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me.” Vlad sat on the edge of the other lounger, tapping his long fingers restlessly on his bony knees. “I’ll try to make it quick, but I need to give you some background first. It’s about Wendy’s mother.”
The longer Kian listened to Vlad’s story, the more his fangs itched, mirroring the kid’s own murderous expression, and when Vlad was done, he spat, “That maggot doesn’t deserve to live.”
He would have loved to end that life himself, but regrettably, it was against clan law, and as his mother’s regent, he couldn’t break it whenever it suited him.
“I agree. But Wendy doesn’t want her father’s blood on my hands. All I want to do is get into his head and find out what happened to her mother. If he killed her, I’ll thrall him to march himself into the nearest police station and confess.”
Kian arched a brow. “Do you really think you will be able to stop at that?”
Vlad pushed his long bangs back. “Richard offered to accompany me and stop me from killing the jerk if it looked like I was about to tear his throat out. But he’s not strong enough to overpower me. We came up with the idea of him carrying a taser gun and zapping me if I lost it.”
Kian had heard Bhathian talk about how strong Vlad was, but he’d assumed that it was an exaggeration. The guy was a skinny twig. But apparently, there was something to it.
“That’s not the only problem.” He let out a sigh. “Thralling a human, especially a deep thrall like you are planning, is allowed only when it’s necessary to hide who and what we are, or to save clan members' lives. None of that applies to Wendy’s father.”
Vlad’s face fell. “So, I can’t go?”
“I didn’t say that. It’s your choice whether you want to break the law and suffer the consequences. You should talk with Brundar. He was faced with a similar dilemma and made his choice.”
“What did he do?”
“He followed his heart.”
43
Margaret
With Leon and Ana gone for a walk, the cabin got awfully quiet. Bowen wasn’t much of a conversationalist, and neither was Margaret.
Casting him an inconspicuous glance, she admired his strong profile. His face looked like it was chiseled from marble, but it wasn’t hard. Whenever he looked at her, his eyes were soft, and his lips curved in a ghost of a smile, as if he was glad to have her around.
Why? She had no clue.
Margaret wasn’t talkative, and she didn’t flirt,
not because she wasn’t interested, but because she knew he wasn’t. If Bowen was a ten on the scale of hotness, she was a four.
In a different lifetime, before her world had collapsed, she could have been an eight, maybe even a nine, with the right clothes and makeup. But back then, she’d been young and foolish, and she had put too much stock in her appearance. She could be a cautionary story for other young women who were naive enough to think that a pretty face would help them sail through life.
Sometimes, the opposite was true. Pretty girls attracted a lot of male attention, both savory and unsavory, and more often than not they were too inexperienced to determine which was what.
Fortunately she was older and wiser now, and she knew better. Years of observation had trained her to notice the signs of danger, and she was no longer fooled by charm or good looks.
That’s why she felt safe with Bowen.
Normally, being left alone with a man would have made her uncomfortable, but he didn’t scare her.
“Do you need me to get you anything?” Bowen lifted his head and looked at her with his warm, brown eyes.
“I was just wondering what you were reading. You looked so focused. Is it something about your work?”
He smiled. “I’m on vacation, so no, it has nothing to do with my job. I’m reading the latest Stephen King book just for the fun of it.”
“On your phone?”
“Don’t tell me that you’ve never heard about digital books.”
Once again, he made her feel like a country bumpkin. “I heard about them, but I thought that a special device was needed. I forgot what they were called. Is it electronic readers?”
“That’s old news. Nowadays, you can download a reading application on your phone. Which author do you enjoy reading?”
“Anything by Nora Roberts.”
“Give me your phone.”
She handed him the device. “I like to read at night before I go to sleep. During the day, I prefer to do something more productive.” She sighed. “But to start on a new workshop, I need a library.”