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

by I. T. Lucas

  Bowen nodded. “You’re right.” He put his hand on Leon’s shoulder. “Keep me updated.”

  “I will.” Leon followed the doctor into the elevator bay.

  “I’ll call Peter to bring your car.”

  “Thanks.” Leon kept walking.

  Since Peter was still on leave, using his so-called ordeal as an excuse to get a few days off, he was the best candidate to hit for delivery.

  As Bowen got back behind the wheel, he glanced at Margaret with concern. Thralling her to go to sleep had been a reflex, and he regretted it now. Leon had been distraught, and the last thing he’d needed was to watch what he said because she was there.

  Hopefully, the tiny thrall he’d used wouldn’t be detrimental to her. She seemed so breakable, as if the parts of her were connected with loose threads that could snap from the slightest pressure.

  She wasn’t weak, though.

  The woman was stubborn and determined to fend for herself, which he respected, but he wanted to help her get stronger. So far, the efforts to fatten her up had not been successful. Margaret enjoyed his cooking, but she ate like a bird. Not because she wanted to appear dainty like some other women did, but because she didn’t have the capacity to consume more.

  With a sigh, he leaned over and shifted her head to a more comfortable position, and without thinking, tenderly kissed her cheek.

  She smiled without waking, and her response tugged on his heart. Even if she wasn’t injured, there could be nothing between them. He liked her too much to seduce her and then part with her.

  Friendship was all they could have.

  Tearing his eyes away from her, Bowen pulled out his phone and called Peter.

  “What’s up, Bowen?”

  “Anastasia is transitioning.”

  “Thank the merciful Fates. Is she okay?”

  “Julian has her in the keep’s clinic. I drove everyone here, but I need to get Margaret back to the cabin. Can you get Leon’s car here and hitch a ride with someone back to the village?”

  Margaret would be disappointed that the four of them were not going out for dinner in town, though, so maybe he would take her to a restaurant first. The woman hadn’t been out of Safe Haven for years, and going to a restaurant would be a treat for her. She hadn’t said anything, but she’d seemed a little jealous when Leon took Anastasia out on a date last night.

  “Do you have Margaret with you in the car?” Peter asked.

  “Don’t worry. I thralled her to sleep. I wouldn’t have said anything about transition if she were awake.”

  Peter let out a breath. “For a moment there, I was afraid that in all the excitement, you broke protocol. Eleanor and I were about to head out to lunch at Bluebird’s. It’s not far from the keep, so she can drive Leon’s car, and we’ll go from there.”

  “Is there something going on between the two of you?”

  Peter laughed. “Not a chance. We are just buddies, right, Eleanor?”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, Bowen,” she grumbled.

  “Don’t you just love that prickly attitude?” Peter sounded amused.

  Bowen chuckled. “I think that you two are perfect for each other. What happened to Greggory?”

  “Don’t ask. We don’t mention that name,” Peter whispered dramatically. “I have an idea. How about you and Margaret join Eleanor and me for lunch?”

  Margaret would love that, and he preferred that they have company so she wouldn’t think of it as a date.

  “Sounds good to me. Just remind Eleanor that Margaret doesn’t know anything and to be careful what she says around her.”

  “You don’t need to remind me about anything,” Eleanor grumbled. “I might be a newbie compared to you, but I have a lot of experience in keeping secrets.”

  She seemed in a combative mood, which wasn’t surprising if things had gone south between her and Greggory. She’d thought he was her one and only, but apparently it wasn’t so.

  “I stand corrected. Oh, and before I forget. Can you do me one more favor?”

  “What is it?” Peter asked.

  “Can you stop by the chocolatier on 2nd Street and get me five pounds of assorted truffles and other goodies? I’ll pay you back.”

  “Since when do you have such a sweet tooth?”

  “It’s not for me. It’s for Margaret.”

  “Is there something going on between you two?” Peter sounded smug as he paid Bowen back for the same intrusive question.

  “Not at all.” He cast Margaret a quick glance. “We are just friends.”

  “Five pounds of chocolate says otherwise,” Eleanor teased.

  54

  Margaret

  “Time to wake up.” Margaret felt Bowen’s hand on her shoulder, the heavy warmth of it reassuring.

  She opened her eyes, expecting to be in the underground garage. Instead, they were parked in front of a restaurant.

  “Where are we?” Margaret asked.

  “We are meeting Peter and Eleanor for lunch.”

  Weren’t they supposed to go out with Leon and Ana to dinner? Not that she minded having lunch and dinner in a restaurant.

  A valet opened the door for her, took a look at her cast, and then shifted his eyes to Bowen.

  “I got it.” Bowen got out of the car and retrieved her crutches from the trunk.

  He helped her out and then made sure she was stable before tossing the keys to the valet.

  “How long was I asleep?”

  “Not long.” He waited patiently for her to hobble toward the restaurant’s entrance.

  “Is Anastasia okay?”

  “They are running tests. Leon will call me as soon as there is something to report.”

  “Do you have a reservation?” the hostess asked.

  “Our friends are already inside.” He waved at a couple sitting at a table in the back.

  The girl grabbed a couple of menus, and as she followed them to the table, Margaret could hear her impatient huff at her slow progress.

  What did she expect? This was as fast as she could go.

  Bowen pulled out a chair and helped her to the seat.

  “Hi.” She smiled at the two. “I’m Margaret.”

  “Eleanor.” The woman extended her hand.

  “And I’m Peter.” The guy did the same.

  “Ana told me about you, but it wasn’t much.” And their names had been different.

  The hostess waited impatiently for the introductions to be over before handing them the menus. “Your waiter will take your orders when you are ready.” Her eyes remained on Peter’s handsome face.

  Ana had said he was a handsome devil, but he had nothing on Bowen. They seemed to be about the same age, but Peter looked like a boy compared to Bowen, who was all man.

  “Thank you.” Bowen dismissed the hostess.

  “How is your leg?” Eleanor asked.

  “It’s fine. I hope.” Margaret looked at her cast. “The doctor who operated on my knee said that the surgery was a success.”

  “I’m glad.” She lifted the menu. “Let’s see what they have here.”

  Margaret followed her example. It had been ages since she’d been in a restaurant, and as she looked over the menu, she couldn’t decide what to order. There were so many choices, and everything seemed so appetizing.

  “Have you eaten here before?” she asked Bowen.

  “Many times.”

  “Can you order for me? I don’t know what to choose.”

  Eleanor snorted. “You are every guy’s dream date.”

  “It’s not a date,” she and Bowen said at the same time.

  Peter smiled knowingly but didn’t say anything.

  “Are the two of you together?” Margaret asked, mainly to shift the focus from her and Bowen.

  “We are just work buddies.” Peter put his hand on Eleanor’s shoulder.

  “That’s right.”

  She flicked his hand off, but it hadn’t been an angry move. Eleanor had done it wit
h a smile.

  “What’s the story with the one whose name shouldn’t be mentioned?” Bowen asked.

  Eleanor grimaced. “He couldn’t accept what happened between Emmett and me.”

  “What happened to you?” Margaret whispered, afraid to hear the answer.

  “Nothing.” Eleanor reached for a piece of bread. “I had to pretend that I wanted him, so I could find out why his sex partners needed a day to recuperate after being with him, and when he figured out that I was there to investigate him, he locked me up in a room. Peter tried to save me, but Emmett knocked him over the head and kidnapped him so he could question him without anyone interfering. Our people found him and released Peter.”

  “Do they have Emmett?” Margaret asked.

  “He escaped,” Peter said. “He drugged Eleanor, and then he drugged me as well, so I wouldn’t resist him and tell him everything he wanted to know about our organization.”

  “Did you?”

  “Yeah, that’s why he left me behind and ran. He knew he was going to jail if he got captured.”

  Margaret shook her head. “I still can’t believe it. I thought that I didn’t remember much from my time with him because it was so overwhelming. I never suspected drugs.”

  “Didn’t he offer you wine?” Eleanor asked.

  “He did, but I never had enough to get drunk.”

  “The wine was spiked.”

  “Oh.” Feeling stupid, Margaret looked down. As someone who knew what being drugged felt like, she should have realized that he’d been putting something in the wine. But she’d been too excited and too overwhelmed to notice anything. “I should have known.” She looked at Eleanor. “I still don’t understand why your boyfriend got mad at you. Did you and Emmett get intimate?”

  Eleanor shrugged. “I had to let him kiss me. But that was all. I admit that I feel a little guilty over it because I felt something. Emmett is very charismatic.”

  “Were you afraid of him? Because sometimes fear can be mistaken for attraction.” Margaret shifted her gaze to a spot above Eleanor’s shoulder.

  She shouldn’t have said that. Only a weak woman like her could confuse between the two. Eleanor was a fighter, and she probably hadn’t felt any fear.

  “I wasn’t afraid of him,” Eleanor said. “Not at the beginning. He didn’t strike me as a violent man, and I knew that I could take care of myself. But I found out that he was very strong, and he overpowered me with ease.” She shrugged. “My unwanted attraction to Emmett was probably the spiked wine’s fault. Anyway, Greggory sensed my guilt, and he suspected that more happened than what I told him. It’s sad that it ended like that, but I’ll get over it. It’s not the first time I got dumped.”

  “Some men get very possessive,” Margaret said quietly. “And it can get really ugly. Count yourself fortunate that he only left you. He could have done much worse.”

  Eleanor leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not afraid of him. If he had tried anything, he would have paid dearly for it.”

  Looking at the impressive biceps bunching under the woman’s long-sleeved shirt, Margaret could believe it. Eleanor was strong, and she was an undercover operative, which meant that she was also well-trained.

  Her strength was enviable, as was her confidence.

  “Did you always want to be an undercover agent?” Margaret changed the subject.

  Eleanor smiled. “Not always. My first job was in pharmaceutical sales, and I was very good at it. I made a small fortune.”

  “That makes me even more envious. You never needed to depend on anyone for anything. You are a strong and independent woman.”

  Eleanor grimaced. “Yeah, and look where it got me.” She let out a sigh. “Not that I would trade my independence for a white picket fence and two and a half kids, but why can’t I have both?”

  “You can.” Peter clapped her on the back. “Just not with Greggory.” He motioned for the waitress to come over. “Let’s order.”

  55

  Anastasia

  A rhythmic beeping sound woke Ana up. Was the battery in the damn smoke detector dead again? She’d just changed the thing last week. It couldn’t be dying already.

  No, it couldn’t be the detector. The beeping was much softer, and it was continuous, unlike the smoke detector that would beep every few minutes. It was still annoying, though.

  Cracking her eyes open, she waited until the blur cleared and the unfamiliar room she was in came into focus. It was a small hospital room. The lights were dimmed, and there was no window, so she had no idea what time it was.

  As the cobwebs of sleep began crumbling, she remembered getting in the car with Leon, Bowen, and Margaret. At some point, she must have dozed off, and Leon had carried her to the clinic.

  Where was he? And where was the doctor who was supposed to run tests on her?

  Her head hurt, the damn nausea was still there, and her eyesight became blurry again. Forcing her eyes to focus, she lifted her head an inch off the pillow and looked at her prone body. She was hooked up to an IV, a blood pressure cuff was strapped around her bicep, and a wire was attached to her chest with a sticky pad.

  Something must have gone really wrong.

  Had she passed out? And where was Leon?

  His venom was supposed to keep her healthy, but apparently that had been a lie or a gross exaggeration because she was definitely not okay.

  As the last of the sleepiness evaporated, she became aware of another sound in the room, someone’s even breaths, and they weren’t hers. Lifting her head a couple of inches, she glanced in the direction the breathing was coming from and found its source.

  Leon was sleeping on a cot next to her bed, which was much too small to contain his large body. His arm was hanging over the side, and his feet were sticking out of the frame. He was still dressed in the same clothes he had on when they left the cabin, which meant that he hadn’t left her side.

  God, she loved this man. He might not have been entirely truthful with her, which bothered Ana greatly, and he was a mutant, which surprisingly didn’t bother her nearly as much, and yet he was perfect for her. He cared for her like no one else ever had, and for the first time in her life, she felt that she belonged with someone. He was her home, her future.

  A warmth filling her chest, Ana watched him sleep for a long moment before calling his name, or rather whispering it because that was all she could manage.

  He bolted up, the cot rattling from the sudden movement and then sliding the other way. “Anastasia?” He was on his feet and next to her in a blink of an eye. “Thank the merciful Fates. You’re awake.”

  “What happened?” she murmured.

  “You passed out on the way to the clinic.”

  “Yeah, I figured out that much. But why? What’s wrong with me?”

  He smiled, which was incredibly inappropriate given her situation. “Nothing is wrong with you. You are transitioning.”

  She frowned. What the hell did that mean?

  “Transitioning to what? Am I pregnant after all?”

  “No. But it’s kind of a rebirth.” He leaned and kissed her forehead. “I’ll explain everything, but I want the doctor to check on you first.”

  As Leon turned to the door, it opened, and a guy walked in with two cups of coffee. “I saw you waking up on the app.” He handed one of the coffee cups to Leon and smiled at Ana. “I’m Doctor Julian.”

  He didn’t look like any doctor she’d ever seen. First of all, he wasn’t wearing a lab coat, and secondly, he was magazine-cover gorgeous with piercing blue eyes and a face to die for, and thirdly, he had long hair that brushed his shoulders.

  “Hi. What happened to Doctor Bridget? And what about coffee for me? Don’t I get one?”

  “Doctor Bridget sent me to take care of you. You can’t have coffee yet, but you can have water.” He walked over to the sink, opened the cabinet above it, and pulled out a paper cup and a straw. “The water is filtered.” He filled the cup and brought it
over to the bed. But instead of handing it to her, he handed it to Leon. “Slow and easy.” He raised the bed’s back until she was semi-reclined.

  “Is that it?” Leon asked as he held the cup for her to sip on the straw. “Is she out of the woods?”

  The guy shook his head. “Waking up this early in the process is a good sign, but it’s just the beginning.” He looked at Ana. “You’ll probably slip into unconsciousness again, but you have nothing to worry about. I’m watching you, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Lifting a hand, she pushed the cup away. “I don’t get it. Do I have food poisoning or not?”

  The doctor shifted his eyes to Leon. “How much did you tell her?”

  Leon shook his head. “Not much.”

  “Tell me what?”

  The doctor smiled sheepishly. “I’ll leave you two alone to talk.” He headed for the door, and then turned to Leon. “Good luck.”

  “What’s going on?” Ana motioned for Leon to bring the cup back. “Am I dying or something?”

  He chuckled. “The opposite of that. You are going to live forever.”

  56

  Leon

  Anastasia rolled her eyes. “Can you stop with the joking? I need to know what’s wrong with me.”

  Leon sat on the bed and took her hand in his. “The genetic manipulation I talked about wasn’t done on me. It was done on my ancestors, the mythological gods, who took human mates and produced immortal offspring like me. I’m immortal, and since you have the same ancestors, you have the immortal gene in you. My venom activated it, and you’re now transitioning into immortality.”

  He’d expected Anastasia to get angry at him for not telling her the entire truth, but she wasn’t there yet. First, she needed to believe him, which she didn’t, given her bewildered expression, and it annoyed him to no end that she was still so suspicious of him.