by I. T. Lucas
Kian nodded. “You felt like you were paying for your sin.”
“I felt that I deserved to suffer, but I treated it as a sentence and had every intention of resuming my sex life when it was over, just not with married ladies. I realized the wisdom of the Clan Mother’s rules and vowed to obey them to the letter. But that was it. Then the six months were up, and a Guardian with a boat was sent to pick me up. I think it was Gondel who came for me.”
“I remember Gondel. He is serving in the sanctuary now.”
“Yeah, I guess he deserves a semi-retirement. Anyway, I got home, spent the day with my mother, and the next day headed to the village to purchase some supplies and find me some paid company. That was when I discovered what the abstinence had done for me.”
Kian leaned closer. “What happened? You couldn’t do it?”
Yamanu laughed. “I could have pounded nails with the club in my pants from just thinking about finally getting some. That wasn’t it. A horde of marauders descended on the village, and I was the only immortal there. The village men ran out to block the attack, but I knew they didn’t have a chance. They were going to get slaughtered and the women raped. Out of pure desperation, I decided to shroud as many of the villagers as I could, hoping to give them at least a fighting chance against the attackers.”
The gears in Kian’s head picked up speed, and he knew what Yamanu was about to say next. Nevertheless, he kept quiet and let the Guardian continue.
“Imagine my surprise when the marauders stopped their advance, looked around in confusion, and then changed direction and kept going. I shrouded the entire damn village.”
“What did the villagers do?”
He chuckled. “Dropped to their knees and thanked the Lord and every saint they could think of.”
“Are you sure you couldn’t do that before? The sudden flare in power could have been because of the desperation you felt, not the celibacy.”
Yamanu shook his head. “By then, I’d been in enough battles to know the extent of my powers. Until the exile, I could thrall and shroud with the best of them, but it was no where near the godlike power I felt that day. I realized that what fueled it was the pent-up sexual energy which got channeled into the shroud. And the best proof of that was that I felt spent afterwards. It was as if I climaxed twenty times in a row. I no longer needed to seek out the village prostitutes. I purchased the supplies that I came for and headed back home.”
Pushing away from the desk, Kian walked up to the concealed bar in the sideboard and pulled out a couple of beers. “I know it’s too early for this, but I need one. How about you?”
“Snake Venom sounds perfect right now.”
Kian handed Yamanu the beer and pulled out a chair next to him. “I can’t imagine you going home and deciding to give up sex for good.”
“I didn’t. I decided to give it another six months and see what happened. But that was after long contemplation. As I walked home in a daze, thinking and rethinking everything that had happened, it dawned on me that perhaps there was a reason behind the tragedy I caused. It had pushed me to become the clan’s protector. If I could become the shield who kept my people safe, then perhaps the terrible loss of life wouldn’t be as meaningless.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
Yamanu shook his head. “I didn’t want people to know that I was abstaining. At first, it was because I couldn’t be sure whether it was going to work again. I was afraid that it had been a one-time fluke. Later, after I proved to myself that I could do this at will, I didn’t want people to know and treat me like a martyr.”
“When did you take up the vow? And how did you manage to hide it so well?”
“I don’t remember the exact time, but it was once I realized that the power was there to stay, and that after each depletion I needed time to recharge. I didn’t need to be a genius to figure out the connection. And as for keeping it hidden, I pretended to be discreet. At first, people teased me about it, but after a while, they got used to me ignoring the jibes and stopped.”
“I assume that you are here because you want to break your vow?”
“I don’t want to. But I have no choice if I want to keep Mey. If I don’t, I’ll have to let another male induce her transition, and I can’t stand the thought of that.”
Kian debated whether it was okay for him to ask how Mey was reacting to this. He’d been sure that the two of them had already been intimate. In this day and age, people didn’t wait months or years to have sex, and she must’ve thought it odd that Yamanu didn’t initiate it, or worse, refused her.
“Does Mey know about your vow?”
“She knows that I have taken a vow, and that it has to do with the safety of my clan, but she doesn’t know the reasons behind it. You are the first to ever hear this story, and the only reason I’m telling you is that I need to talk with someone about it. Someone who is not emotionally involved but who understands the ramifications.”
“Is she okay with that?”
Yamanu chuckled. “Mey is incredible. She accepted me thinking that a physical disability was preventing me from being fully functional. She even talked about adopting children.”
“What about intimacy? Was she willing to give it up?”
Yamanu smiled and looked away. “I’m sure that I don’t need to explain to you about all the ways a man can be intimate with a woman.”
Yeah, the conversation was getting way too personal, but those questions had to be answered before life and death decisions were made.
Kian raked his fingers through his hair. “What if you take a break from the celibacy and then go back to it once Mey has transitioned?”
19
Yamanu
Yamanu regarded Kian for a long moment. Had he even realized what he was suggesting?
The guy really had the emotional intelligence of a brick.
It wasn’t like taking a break from being a vegan and indulging in eating steak for a week before going back to it. Although maybe that particular example would make it easier for Kian to understand. Unless he was repulsed by meat, but Yamanu didn’t think that was the case. It was a matter of principle for Kian, not a culinary preference.
Instead, Yamanu went with something simpler and more obvious. “I’m needed for the raid tomorrow, remember?”
“I meant after the raid.”
“I’m afraid that once I get a taste, I won’t be able to go back, and I’m terrified of leaving the clan without protection.”
Kian nodded. “Yeah, I get that, but you’ve already sacrificed so much. Except, the prospect of losing your blanket-shrouding abilities terrifies me as well. Knowing that we have you to shield us in case we get discovered by humans is a security blanket we’ve become dependent on. That being said, humans haven’t posed a threat to us in a long time. Our biggest concern is the Doomers, and your shrouding and thralling don’t work on them. Perhaps we can do without.”
Yamanu had a feeling that Kian was saying it out of guilt and not conviction. “With how advanced the facial recognition technology is becoming, and security cameras being installed everywhere, my ability to shroud us might become a matter of survival again.”
“You’ve got a point. Especially in light of the interesting and discomforting conversation I had with Turner yesterday. I asked him what he knew about the Radio Quiet Zone, and what he told me kept me awake all night. Apparently the US government, along with several strategic allies, has a system called Echelon, and the quiet zone is home to its main installation.”
“What are they doing with it?”
“They monitor electronic transmissions throughout the world. For now, our encryption keeps our intercommunications secure, and I’ve learned from Lokan that the Doomers use a similar system, just not as sophisticated. But still, there will come a day when that monitoring will include conversations picked up in public places and even in people’s homes. With all the Alexas and Google devices and whatever else is on the market, that future is already here
.”
After hearing the first part, Yamanu barely listened to the rest of what Kian was saying. “They have a spying base in that area?”
Kian nodded.
“And Mey thinks that Jin is working there, and her special ability is spying. There must be a connection.”
“Perhaps. We are still trying to figure out what to do about it.”
“I think that sending someone to snoop around should be our first step.”
“I wanted to get Roni to hack around their system, but Turner advised against it. We don’t want to attract the big guns’ attention.”
“He isn’t wrong. But how are they doing it? I mean, I get that they are collecting transmissions, but then someone needs to actually listen to them.”
“Bots. They program a bunch of trigger words which the bots flag, and then a human checks it out. For now. With the advancements in artificial intelligence even that won’t be necessary. The computers are going to be the Big Brothers watching. It’s only a matter of time, and I have a feeling that we are running out of it.”
Yamanu snorted. “We have only ourselves to blame. If not for the dripping of technology we’ve been providing, it would have taken humans another thousand years to get to where they are now.”
“True, but then we wouldn’t be living the comfortable lives that we do. We had the knowhow, and they had the manpower and resources to actually build all the gadgets we now can’t live without.”
“Can’t argue with that. It’s just another Catch-22. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't.”
“Unfortunately, life is full of compromises.”
Yamanu nodded. “Ain’t that the truth. But for now, we can still do things the old-fashioned way. I can go there and snoop around. Humans are defenseless against me. I can probably get inside that super-secret facility and get any information we need. And if Jin is there, I can get her out.”
Kian shook his head. “It’s not that simple. There is another possibility that we need to consider. If they are collecting paranormal talent, there might be people in that facility who can sense who you are. But that’s something Turner and I are going to put our heads together and come up with a plan for. Right now, we need to figure out what to do about your lady. You have a two-week window to induce her before she accumulates too many memories to thrall away without causing her damage.”
“I’m sure she is a Dormant.”
“So am I, but we can’t take chances. What are you going to do if she turns out not to be a Dormant? Keep her a prisoner in here for the rest of her life?”
Yamanu slumped in the chair. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Talk to Bridget. Maybe there is another way to induce Mey’s transition…” Kian stopped mid-sentence, and Yamanu caught his eyes widening for a split second.
“What? Do you have an idea?”
He shook his head. “No, I was just thinking that you might be more comfortable talking to Merlin about this. You know, man to man.”
20
Mey
When Yamanu had left to meet with his boss, Mey considered taking a walk around the village. A visit to the café would have been nice, but she had no reason to go other than meeting some more of Yamanu’s people, and it would be better if he came along.
God forbid she stopped to talk with one of the bachelors, which the majority of the clan’s males were. Yamanu would throw another jealous fit. She was going to eventually cure him of that, but it would take time.
Baby steps.
Rome had not been built in a day, and lasting relationships were no less difficult to build than cities.
Perhaps they could have lunch there.
Or stay at home and enjoy each other. Getting to know others could wait.
The welcoming committee had stocked the refrigerator as well as the pantry, and there were plenty of leftovers from last night's party, so there was no urgency to go anywhere.
In the end, Mey had settled on the backyard. It was so incredibly peaceful up on the mountain, so quiet that she felt like she could spend days sitting on a lounger, sipping on a tall glass of iced tea, and just chilling with a book.
Except, on the inside, she was nowhere near as tranquil as her surroundings. There was the worry over Jin and what could be done to find her, the uncertainty about her induction into transition, and her future with Yamanu.
Things couldn’t continue like this. If he kept on drinking that potion to excess, he was going to harm himself despite his superior physiology. And besides, it was obviously losing its effectiveness, and quite rapidly so. Eventually, it would stop working no matter how much of it Yamanu consumed.
Hell, it was already happening.
If Yamanu refused to break his vow, or couldn’t, she would have to leave. At the thought, Mey’s gut squeezed painfully. Leaving Yamanu would be devastating, but luckily for her, she wouldn’t remember any of it.
Not that she believed that wholeheartedly.
Even if she didn’t remember Yamanu, the hollow feeling in her chest would let her know that she was missing someone terribly. Mey was sure of that.
Perhaps she would dream about him?
Except, more than her relationship with Yamanu was at stake. She needed the clan’s help to find her sister, and she wasn’t willing to give up on her chance of becoming an immortal.
If he couldn’t induce her, then someone else would have to do that, or it would have to be done by the clan’s doctor.
There had to be a way to solve this problem. As Yamanu had said, fate would not have brought them together just to dangle happiness in front of their faces and then snatch it away, leaving them both broken.
An hour and two iced teas later, she was still thinking about it when Yamanu returned.
“You look relaxed.” He closed the sliding door behind him, then sat on the lounger beside her. “Having fun?”
“It’s very peaceful up here. How did your meeting go?”
“It was interesting. It turns out that the Quiet Zone is home to the Navy’s information operations command, and it is rumored to be the key station in the Echelon system, which is all about electronic intelligence gathering. They can eavesdrop on phones, computers, and all types of electronic transactions. I don’t know how it’s connected to Jin and what she can do, but it seems like something that we should investigate.”
Mey sat up straight. “When can we go?”
“The better question is when I can go. You can’t leave the village until you've transitioned. Besides, it’s not safe for you out there.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Mey pinned him with a hard stare. “I’m not going to stay behind while you go looking for my sister.”
“Why not? I know what she looks like, and I’ll probably take several Guardians with me. But it will have to wait until after the raid. Right now, everyone is busy preparing for that, and no one has the time to start planning another mission.”
Mey lifted her hand. “Wait a second. What raid?”
He closed his eyes. “I forgot that you know nothing about it. The Doomers, our enemies, moved into our territory. We need to get rid of them.”
“When is it happening?”
“Tomorrow. That’s why I was needed back.”
Mey frowned. “Aren’t you risking exposure? Immortals fighting each other while humans are around to witness it is sure to attract attention.”
“That’s my specialty.” Yamanu smirked. “I can shroud the entire area. No one outside that building is going to see or hear anything.”
Her eyes widened. “You can do that?”
“Yup. And I’m the only one who has the ability. That’s why they needed me here.”
She didn’t like that he was going to participate in a raid, but he was a Guardian. And he had a duty to his clan.
“Can’t you just leave them be?”
He cocked a brow. “The Doomers?”
“Yeah. Are they here to get you?”
“No, but they plan
to abduct female students from colleges and universities in the area. We can’t allow them to do that.”
Mey recoiled. “Why would they do that?”
Yamanu’s eyes blazed with anger. “For the sex resort on their island, which serves the Doomers’ army and the various deviants from all over the world who can afford the exclusive sex vacation package. They kidnap women and force them into slavery, either sexual or housekeeping. Once they are brought to the island, they never get to leave. We can’t do anything about those they’ve already taken, but we can make it really difficult for them to get new ones.”
“Why can’t you free the ones they have over there?” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine how terrible it is for them.”
He smiled sadly. “As I explained before, they outnumber us significantly. We don’t stand a chance in a direct fight with them. And bombing the island is not possible because many innocents would die.”
Regrettably, he was right, but that didn’t make her feel any better. Wrongs had to be righted, but it wasn’t always possible.
If only the clan could cooperate with Mossad on that, together they might stand a chance. But that was wishful thinking, and she knew it. Mossad was legendary, but it was operated by humans and it had enough on its plate. Defending the minuscule Jewish nation from its countless enemies was a mission almost as impossible as freeing those women.
Both the clan and Israel could use a powerful alley in their fight for survival.
She chuckled. Where were they going to find one? China?
Yamanu frowned. “I can’t see what’s humorous about this.”
“Nothing. It’s sad and hopeless. I was just thinking that the clan’s situation is similar to Israel’s. Both are tiny and rely on technology for their continuous survival, and both could use a powerful ally. Then I thought that the ally needs to be a country with a huge population, like China. But the Chinese are not interested in helping others, probably because they don’t need anyone. They are a force unto themselves.”