by I. T. Lucas
Brundar shrugged. “Nevertheless, what happened tonight is proof that either they or their boss suspected that we were involved. They wouldn’t have bothered to get those mother-fucking nasty bullets for humans.”
“Yeah.” Anandur rubbed his arm. “Next time we are going fully suited up. We can make our armor look like government issue. Just slap some acronym letters on it.”
“I wonder what will happen to their boss,” Yamanu said. “If I were him, I would pick up and run. Navuh is going to make shish kabob out of his carcass.”
Anandur smirked. “Maybe we should do the guy a favor and snatch him too. He’d be better off in our dungeon.”
“I like it,” Brundar said. “Call Kian and tell him to do that.”
“At four o’clock in the morning? You call him.”
“He’s not sleeping,” Yamanu said. “Kian is waiting for everyone to return home.”
Until the last of the Guardians was safely home, Kian wasn’t going to call it a night.
Yamanu wondered whether Mey was sleeping or anxiously waiting for him at home. Should he call her? What was the protocol for that? He’d sent her a text, saying that the mission had been successful and that he was coming home. The second part was true, the first one not really. With half of the Guardians getting hit and the possibility of an escaped Doomer, he would not call it a success.
“Did you guys call your mates?”
Anandur winced. “I didn’t want to call Wonder and tell her that I was injured. She would have made a big fuss about it.”
“Is she waiting for you?” Yamanu asked.
“Probably.”
“Then call her. She’s probably worried.” He turned to Brundar. “What about you?”
“I texted Callie that I’m fine and on my way home. But I didn’t mention getting hit. By the time we get there, it will most likely be healed anyway.”
Behind the wheel, Oidche chuckled. “Now I don’t feel as bad about being the only bachelor here. All this reporting is a pain in the arse.”
Yamanu wanted to correct him and point out that he was technically still a bachelor as well, but that would have garnered questions he didn’t want to answer, so he kept his yap shut.
“I’m in the car on my way home,” Anandur said into the phone. “I got hit, but it’s nothing. Bridget already patched me up.”
Out of respect for Anandur, Yamanu tried to tune out Wonder’s response, but it was difficult since she was chewing him out for not calling before.
“I didn’t want to worry you. It’s really nothing. A bullet grazed my arm.”
On the other end of the line, Wonder gasped and asked about Brundar and the rest of the Guardians.
“Some got hit way worse than I did, but there were no casualties, thank the merciful Fates. We also managed not to kill any of the Doomers, which was a miracle given what went down.”
“What about Brundar?” Wonder asked.
“He’s fine. Got hit a couple of times, but it’s nothing serious.”
Callie’s background shriek was so loud that they all cringed in unison.
“No, he’s fine. Tell her to relax. He’s right here next to me, trying to kill me with his eyes.”
“Give him the phone!” Callie commanded after taking over from Wonder.
“Sorry, bro,” Anandur smiled sheepishly as he handed the device to Brundar.
“You are going to pay for this.” Brundar’s face looked far from angelic as he took it.
“I have no doubt.” Anandur crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “He should have told her.”
Yamanu smirked. “Aren’t you glad that you listened to my advice? Imagine what would have happened if you arrived home without first telling Wonder that you were injured.”
35
Mey
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me,” Callie fumed. “I’m going home.” She took the empty ice cream bucket to the trash and headed for the door. “Are you coming, Wonder?”
“Yeah. I want to be home when Anandur comes back.” She smirked and turned to Mey. “Get ready for some happy time. After a mission, the guys usually come back pumped up.” She winked and then blushed.
Callie opened the door. “Brundar is not going to be happy, I promise you that.”
“Don’t be so harsh,” Wonder said. “He texted you to say that he was okay a whole hour before Anandur called me. And he didn’t tell you about the injury because he didn’t want to worry you.”
“I know that. But I will not tolerate that macho crap. I’m not some delicate flower that will faint from a whisper of bad news. I’m his partner, and he should share everything with me. The good and the bad.”
Searching for support, Wonder looked at Mey. “What do you think?”
“I think that Callie is right, but I don’t think that punishing Brundar is the way to go. Just sit him down and talk to him. He meant well.”
Callie let out a breath. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess all that stress had to explode and it was just looking for a good reason. I’ll cool down on the way home.” She came back in and pulled Mey into a quick hug. “Thanks for having us.”
“Thanks for coming. I would have gone nuts waiting here for Yamanu by myself.”
Wonder returned for a hug as well. “You know that he wasn’t in any danger, right? His job is to shroud. He rarely takes an active part in raids.”
“But sometimes he does. It sounds like they encountered way more trouble than they’d expected, and I’m sure he jumped in to help the moment he could let go of that thing he does. The shrouding.” She shook her head. “I’m still trying to figure out how it’s possible. It sounds like magic.”
Callie chuckled. “Yamanu, the voodoo shaman. He even looks like one.”
“I see that your mood has improved.” Mey patted her arm. “You’d better get going if you want to greet your guys when they come back.”
“We’re going.” Callie kissed her cheek. “I know that you want to get rid of us and get ready for happy times.”
Covering her mouth with her hand, Wonder giggled.
Mey smiled. “Goodnight, or rather good morning.”
She stood in the doorway watching them go, waved goodbye one last time, and then closed the door.
Callie and Wonder weren’t wrong about men returning all pumped up from the battlefield, their aggression morphing into sexual energy. Some of Mey’s most memorable times with Shimon had been after his return from missions.
But if Yamanu hadn’t taken an active part in the fight, he’d had no reason to get all pumped with energy. And besides, he wasn’t going to act on it anyway.
Not tonight, right after he’d used his powers to shield his fellow Guardians. She hadn’t known him for long, but it was enough to figure out what made him tick.
Yamanu was a defender. It wasn’t what he did, it was who he was. That was why it was so difficult for him to risk giving it up.
If she could only convince him that it was all in his head and that there was no way that his sacrifice was what made him powerful.
He just believed in that.
What she couldn’t understand, and it bugged the hell out of her, was how come the doctor hadn’t told him that. A medical doctor should believe in scientific facts. Not superstitious mumbo jumbo. Merlin should have told Yamanu that his power emanated from him, and that it was probably fueled by his belief, but it didn’t stem from it.
He would have believed the doctor, or at least some of his conviction would have faltered.
With a sigh, she padded to the kitchen and opened the fridge. After eating about half a gallon of ice cream she wasn’t hungry, but perhaps Yamanu would be. That was another thing warriors returning from battle usually craved, although it certainly took second place after sex.
Except in Yamanu’s case, offering him food would be a better choice.
There were a couple of steaks in the freezer, and she pulled them out. There was no time to defrost them, but she could heat
them up in the pan. She also found a pack of frozen corn on the cob and dropped them into a pot of hot water.
Fifteen minutes later, the modest meal was ready, and five minutes after that, she heard the front door open.
36
Kian
The mission had been a mess, and Kian was responsible for it.
Or was he?
Turner had sent a team of humans to investigate, but they hadn’t thought to check the doors for anything other than the material they were made of and whether they were fortified with alarm sensors.
Then again, Turner hadn’t had the time to be as thorough as he usually was. Except, Kian doubted it would have crossed his mind to check for a basic safety measure like the installation of iron rods across the doors.
Other than that oversight, Kian had taken every precaution possible, given the limited number of Guardians he had.
But he’d been hasty. He should have waited for better intel. As it was, they had no idea if they’d gotten all of the Doomers. It wasn’t likely that anyone managed to escape, but still, without an exact headcount, one or two might have slipped through the cracks.
When Bridget’s ringtone sounded from his phone, he snatched it off the coffee table. “What’s up?”
“There were no trackers. We ran all the Doomers through the equipment, and they had no foreign objects in them. Just in case, though, when Julian comes back, he is going to put them through another round.”
“That’s good news, and good job on patching up everyone and bringing them home. I’m glad you had Julian and the nurses to help you.”
She chuckled. “Deep down, you must have known we were going to encounter problems. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have invested in the medic bus, which was a lifesaver. Thank you for that.”
“At least I did one good thing. Can’t say that about the rest of the mission.”
She sighed, sounding tired. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. What’s done is done. The injuries weren’t too bad, and hopefully, we got all the Doomers. None of them are dead either, which should make your mother happy. I’m cleaning up their wounds and bandaging them so they don’t get infected. With their bodies in stasis, they might not be as resilient.”
“Perhaps it’s a good opportunity for you to run some tests. Leave an injury untreated and see what happens.”
There was a long moment of silence. “It’s tempting, but I can’t do that. I swore to do no harm. But if any of ours volunteers for an experiment, I’ll gladly do that.”
Kian’s fingers tightened around the phone. “I don’t get it. So, you are willing to put one of your own in harm's way but not a Doomer?”
She chuckled. “If the Doomer were conscious and volunteered for the test or agreed to it in exchange for some form of compensation, I would have preferred that. I’m just not willing to experiment on an unconscious guy without his consent.”
“Semantics, Bridget. They didn’t give their consent to getting shot or envenomized either.”
“That’s different, and you know it.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, I do. I’m tired and irritated, and I’m talking nonsense. Forgive me.”
“You’re forgiven. Go get some sleep, but before you do, tell me what you want to do with the Doomers. Should we leave them here or bring them to the keep as we originally planned?”
“After Julian's checked them again, you can bring them to the keep.”
“That’s what I thought. Goodnight, Kian. Or rather good morning.”
“Thanks. Wrap it up and get some sleep.”
“As soon as I can.”
When he hung up with Bridget, Kian called Julian. “How are you holding up?”
“No problems here. I’m heading back to the warehouse to help my mother.”
“Are the Guardians back home? Or are some still in the clinic?”
“Everyone is home. None of the injuries required a hospital stay. By morning, ninety-five percent of them will be as good as new.”
“That’s music to my ears. What about the other five percent?”
“No later than this evening.”
“Excellent. I understand that you want to run the Doomers through the machines again.”
“Yeah. My motto is better safe than sorry. If we want to store them in the keep, we need to make sure they are clean.” He chuckled. “Surprisingly, most of them are. I’m starting to think that the stinky Doomer is a myth.”
“Nope, not a myth. I guess these men were selected because they were higher caliber than the average Doomer. They needed to appeal to American girls.”
37
Yamanu
“Yamanu!” Mey ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
As she kissed him, Yamanu cupped her bottom and lifted her up. Getting with the program, she wrapped her legs around his waist and deepened the kiss.
Thirty more seconds of that, and he was going to carry her to bed, which was a bad idea. What was more troubling, though, was that he was aroused when he shouldn’t be. Unlike the other men, he usually felt spent after a mission. Holding up a shroud for hours took everything he'd got, and that included every last bit of energy.
Except, holding Mey’s round ass, having her core pressed against his groin and her breasts against his chest, was affecting him when it shouldn’t.
Lowering her back to the floor, he inhaled. “I smell steak.”
Mey was quick, wiping the look of disappointment from her face and putting on a broad smile. “I thought you’d be hungry. Come, they are still hot.” She took him by the hand and led him to the table. “Would you like a beer?”
“You read my mind.” He started pushing up from the chair, but she put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll get it. You must be tired.”
“Exhausted. Keeping a shroud over a large area like that takes a lot out of me.”
“I can imagine.”
Mey ducked into the kitchen and a moment later returned with a platter loaded with two steaks and four corn on the cob. “I know it’s not much. But that’s all I found in the freezer.” She pulled the beer out from her back pocket and put it in front of him on the table. “We should go grocery shopping.”
As she sat across from him, Yamanu lifted a brow. “Aren’t you going to join me?”
“I had about a gallon of ice cream. Callie and Wonder came over to keep me company, and they brought the ice cream with them.”
He cut into the first steak. “That was nice of them.”
“It was. Although I almost had a heart attack when they knocked on the door.”
Yamanu cocked a brow. “Why? You know that the village is safe.”
She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “I wasn’t afraid of burglars knocking in the middle of the night. Where I come from, a knock at an ungodly hour means bad news. That is always delivered in person.”
It took him a moment to understand what she’d been referring to. “Fallen soldiers?”
She nodded. “Everyone is afraid of that. And of the brown envelope.”
“What comes in a brown envelope?”
“Summons for reserve duty. Up to a certain age, every citizen has to give a month a year, and no one likes it.” She chuckled. “Except for those who want a vacation from the wife. Some men actually look forward to seeing the brown envelope in the mailbox. Or so the joke goes. Personally, I think it's just male posturing.”
Yamanu finished chewing and popped the lid on the beer. “Women don’t get called for reserve duty?”
“We do, but we get released at an earlier age, and married women are exempt, except for highly trained professionals like doctors.”
He cut another piece of steak. “I wonder if this mandatory military service for everyone fosters more equality between the sexes.”
Mey nodded. “I think so. Especially in the workforce. Here, employers might be concerned with women taking long maternity leave. Over there, the men have to serve for one entire
month of every year until they are in their fifties. Officers have to serve even longer, and at times of war, the duty goes for as long as they are needed. Maternity leave becomes inconsequential in comparison. Still, men are men, and they always think that they are better.” She smiled. “Naturally, we ladies know the truth.”
“I don’t think like that. In my opinion, women are better than men at most things.”
She waved a hand. “You’re just trying to be politically correct.”
“Not true. The clan is a matriarchal society. Our Clan Mother is the ultimate authority.”
“Isn’t she just a figurehead, though? I was under the impression that Kian runs things.”
“He does here. His sister is in charge in Scotland. It’s Annani’s choice to let them run things as they please. But sometimes she puts her foot down and demands things be done the way she wants. Like not killing Doomers and putting them in stasis instead. It would make our lives much easier if we could just kill them.”
Feeling his aggression surface, Yamanu redirected it toward the second steak, cutting a piece off together with the paper plate under it.
“Damn.” He flicked the cardboard away. “And that’s where I’m a bit of a chauvinist. I think men’s aggressive natures make them much better suited for combat. I don’t like the idea of women on the battlefield.”
“It was tough tonight, eh?” Mey asked, ignoring his comment about female fighters.
“Yeah. I can’t remember when we sustained so many injuries. We didn’t have enough intel, and we weren’t as well-prepared as we thought.”
“What happened?”
He chuckled. “They used a simple safety measure. An iron rod across the door, secured on both sides to the walls. The Guardians didn’t expect it. When they tried to break the doors down, it took a few extra seconds, and the noise was enough to wake the Doomers up. With the element of surprise gone, the Guardians were greeted with bullets instead of snores.”