by I. T. Lucas
Dark Queen’s Army
The Children of the Gods book 34
I. T. Lucas
Copyright © 2019 by I. T. Lucas
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Dark Queen’s Army is a work of fiction!
Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations and/or events is purely coincidental.
Also by I. T. Lucas
THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS ORIGINS
1: Goddess’s Choice
2: Goddess’s Hope
THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS
Dark Stranger
1: Dark Stranger The Dream
2: Dark Stranger Revealed
3: Dark Stranger Immortal
Dark Enemy
4: Dark Enemy Taken
5: Dark Enemy Captive
6: Dark Enemy Redeemed
Kri & Michael’s Story
6.5: My Dark Amazon
Dark Warrior
7: Dark Warrior Mine
8: Dark Warrior’s Promise
9: Dark Warrior’s Destiny
10: Dark Warrior’s Legacy
Dark Guardian
11: Dark Guardian Found
12: Dark Guardian Craved
13: Dark Guardian’s Mate
Dark Angel
14: Dark Angel's Obsession
15: Dark Angel's Seduction
16: Dark Angel's Surrender
Dark Operative
17: Dark Operative: A Shadow of Death
18: Dark Operative: A Glimmer of Hope
19: Dark Operative: The Dawn of Love
Dark Survivor
20: Dark Survivor Awakened
21: Dark Survivor Echoes of Love
22: Dark Survivor Reunited
Dark Widow
23: Dark Widow’s Secret
24: Dark Widow’s Curse
25: Dark Widow’s Blessing
Dark Dream
26: Dark Dream’s Temptation
27: Dark Dream’s Unraveling
28: Dark Dream’s Trap
Dark Prince
29: Dark Prince’s Enigma
30: Dark Prince’s Dilemma
31: Dark Prince’s Agenda
Dark Queen
32: Dark Queen’s Quest
33: Dark Queen’s Knight
34: Dark Queen’s Army
Dark Spy
35: Dark Spy Conscripted
36: Dark Spy’s Mission
PERFECT MATCH
Perfect Match 1: Vampire’s Consort
Perfect Match 2: King’s Chosen
Perfect Match 3: Captain’s Conquest
SETS
The Children of the Gods books 1-3: Dark Stranger trilogy—Includes a bonus short story: The Fates take a Vacation
The Children of the Gods: Books 1-6—includes character lists
The Children of the Gods: Books 6.5-10—includes character lists
TRY THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS SERIES ON
AUDIBLE
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Contents
1. Mey
2. Yamanu
3. Mey
4. Yamanu
5. Mey
6. Yamanu
7. Kian
8. Losham
9. Mey
10. Yamanu
11. Mey
12. Yamanu
13. Mey
14. Kian
15. Yamanu
16. Mey
17. Yamanu
18. Mey
19. Magnus
20. Kian
21. Yamanu
22. Kian
23. Mey
24. Yamanu
25. Mey
26. Mey
27. Yamanu
28. Mey
29. Yamanu
30. Kian
31. Annani
32. Kian
33. Mey
34. Yamanu
35. Mey
36. Syssi
37. Yamanu
38. Mey
39. Kian
40. Yamanu
41. Annani
42. Mey
43. Ella
44. Yamanu
45. Syssi
46. Kian
47. Mey
48. Yamanu
49. Magnus
50. Kian
51. Syssi
52. Mey
53. Arwel
54. Kian
55. Arwel
56. Kian
57. Ella
58. Arwel
59. Lokan
60. Kian
61. Lokan
62. Arwel
63. Kian
64. Lokan
65. Kian
66. Arwel
67. Kian
68. Mey
69. Kian
70. Mey
71. Yamanu
72. Mey
The Children of the Gods Series
The Perfect Match Series
FOR EXCLUSIVE PEEKS
1
Mey
Mey leaned over the vanity to get closer to the mirror and touched the small pimple that had popped up on her cheek overnight. It had been years since she'd had an outbreak.
Was it because of the stress?
She used to get breakouts during finals in high school, but that had more to do with stress eating than with the stress itself. If finding out that her boyfriend had been cheating on her hadn't ruined her perfect complexion, and neither had her sister's disappearance, stress was not the likely culprit.
It was probably what she'd been eating lately.
Since meeting Yamanu, Mey had been on an emotional rollercoaster. She'd been letting herself indulge in foods she hadn't touched in years and in quantities that were sure to end her modeling career. With the camera adding at least fifteen pounds in addition to what she'd gained already, she would have to go on a severely restrictive diet if she were to model again.
Except, going back to that lifestyle would be difficult. It felt good not to agonize over every bite and to eat until she was sated.
The irony wasn't lost on her.
In the same way that Yamanu couldn't go back to being celibate after taking a break from his vow, she couldn't go back to being hungry after taking a break from her strict diet.
Perhaps she should follow Yamanu's example and abandon modeling like he had abandoned martyrdom.
Both lifestyle changes had an adverse effect on their jobs, but while hers only meant the potential loss of income, Yamanu's meant the loss of his powers and protection for his people.
And stressing about that was probably the reason for the damn pimple.
That and the guilt.
Carrying the burden of responsibility for depriving the clan of their shield was so stressful that it cast a dark cloud over her joy at being with Yamanu.
And then there was the worry of whether or not she was going to transition.
If she wasn't a carrier of the godly genes, then the clan had lost its protector for nothing, and she was going to lose the love of her life. Not only that, if she wasn’t a Dormant, neither was Jin, and the clan was not going to help her find her sister.
Despite coveting Jin’s spying talent, Kian would not welcome a non-Dormant into the clan.
Not because he was cruel, but because he couldn't.
With a sigh, Mey dabbed a little c
oncealer over the pimple and stepped out of the bathroom.
"How does a Saturday morning stroll through the village sound to you?" Yamanu asked. "We can have breakfast at the café."
"I would love a stroll, but didn't you say that the café was closed on the weekends?" She stepped out of the bathroom and went into the closet.
Leaning against the doorframe, Yamanu crossed his arms over his chest. "Jackson keeps the vending machines stocked. We can have fresh sandwiches, pastries, and even cappuccinos."
"Sounds like a plan." Mey pulled a hoodie off the hanger and shrugged it on. "Aren't you going to put something over that T-shirt?"
As she eyed Yamanu's muscles bulging out of the short sleeves, a tingling warmth started at her belly and traveled south.
Damn, her man was hot. They had made love twice last night and again this morning, but she could easily go for another round. Sex with Yamanu was out of this world, and thanks to the venom, it didn't leave her sore or fatigued either.
Talk about the perks of being with an immortal. At this rate, he was going to turn her into a nymphomaniac.
"I'll be fine. It's not that cold." He took her hand.
As they stepped onto the trail, Mey inhaled deeply. "I love how clean the air here is. I always imagined Los Angeles as a city drenched in smog."
Yamanu wrapped his arm around her waist. "This is Malibu. We are not really in Los Angeles."
Despite it being a beautiful morning, Mey didn’t see anyone else taking a walk. Not that it meant that the entire village was still sleeping. The meandering path was surrounded by trees and tall shrubs, so there could have been people strolling the other trails that she couldn’t see.
Yamanu, on the other hand, could probably hear their footsteps.
"Are we alone here? Or are there others taking a morning walk?"
"Someone is jogging behind us. I think it's Ella."
That was too specific to deduce from just hearing footsteps.
"Can you sense that it's her?"
He shook his head. "She is still too far away. I can sense that the jogger is a female, though, and Ella is the only one I've seen running this time of day."
A few minutes later, Mey heard the light footsteps getting closer and looked over her shoulder.
"Hi!" Ella waved. "Are you going to the café?" She caught up to them and kept jogging in place.
"Good morning." Mey smiled. "And yes, we are on our way to having a vending machine breakfast."
"Awesome. Julian is there waiting for me. You can join us, and we can have breakfast together."
"We would love to," Mey said.
"I'll see you there." Ella waved again and jogged away.
"She is the one with the missing aunt, right?"
Yamanu nodded. "Personally, I think it's a long shot. Eleanor is Ella's aunt on her father's side, not her mother's, so there is no guarantee that she is a Dormant. In fact, she probably is not, and her being in West Virginia could be purely coincidental." He chuckled. "From a nonbeliever, Kian has gone all the way to the other extreme. He is now seeing patterns where there are most likely none."
Mey's heart sank. Kian was planning to find Jin with Ella's aunt's help. Without Eleanor, they wouldn't know where to start searching. The Quiet Zone and the area around it were sparsely populated, but there were many tiny towns scattered over the plains and mountains of West Virginia. They would need an army of investigators to comb through them.
2
Yamanu
Mey sighed. “I hope Kian’s hunch is right. Otherwise, our chances of finding Jin are slim.”
“I hope so too.”
Yamanu wanted to slap himself. He should not have voiced his thoughts about Eleanor being a long shot and ruined Mey's mood.
Not that her mood had been all that great to start with. She smiled and pretended that everything was fine, but her eyes and her scent told a different story.
Mey was worried, anxious, and not as overjoyed as he was about them finally consummating their bond.
Hopefully, it wasn't about his lovemaking skills.
After six and a half centuries of abstinence, Yamanu was a bit rusty, but he'd still managed to wrest several orgasms out of her each time they'd made love, which had been quite a lot, especially given that it had been only two days.
Mey seemed just as hungry for him as he was for her, eager for every moment of intimacy, touching, caressing, kissing.
He was in heaven.
The only thing that could make his life absolutely perfect was discovering that he hadn't lost his powers. The problem was that testing wasn't simple. First of all, he needed to be around humans. Secondly, for his test to be conclusive, he needed to shroud a major disturbance that would have otherwise attracted a lot of attention.
Almost every Guardian could shroud to some extent, but to test his blanket shroud, Yamanu needed something big to happen, and he wasn't about to set up explosives in downtown Los Angeles just for an experiment.
But that wasn't the only problem.
The truth was that he was afraid.
As long as he didn't test his abilities, the possibility that he hadn't lost them still existed. But if he tried and failed, then that little bit of hope would be snuffed out.
Mey was going to take it even harder. Besides feeling guilty, she also feared the clan's response once they found out that she was responsible for the loss of his powers.
Not that she was, but that was what she believed.
Yes, he had broken his vow of celibacy for her, but it had been his choice, and he'd gotten approval from the goddess. Hell, Annani had practically commanded him to induce Mey and even provided a valid justification.
If Yamanu angered the Fates by refusing their gift, they might retaliate by taking both his mate and his powers away.
Mey thought that it had been pity talk, but Yamanu knew that Annani had meant every word. Like him, the goddess was a firm believer in the Fates. And just like him, she attributed the good fortune of all the recent truelove pairings to their intervention. After eons without mates, clan members were suddenly finding them one after the other.
Even Kian, the staunchest skeptic, had finally accepted that the Fates had had a hand in arranging the seemingly random discoveries of Dormants.
As they neared the café, the murmur of voices got louder, and after listening to them for a moment, Yamanu could distinguish the speakers.
He pulled Mey closer against his side and whispered in her ear, "In addition to Ella and Julian, Wonder and Anandur are there, and also Callie and Brundar."
She lifted her eyes to him. "You can sense all of them?"
"I can hear them."
"Will my hearing improve to such an extent after I become immortal? That is if I transition?"
He chuckled. "Are you still doubting that you will?"
Mey nodded.
He leaned and kissed the top of her head. "Don't. Trust the Fates."
She snorted. "Yeah, like you trust them with Ella's aunt?"
For a long moment, Yamanu debated how to answer that. If he told Mey why he felt that Eleanor was a long shot, it would upset her, but he didn’t want to lie to her and falsely raise her hopes either.
In the end, he decided that the truth was his best option.
"I talked with Roni and got some more information about Eleanor. Vivian and her family haven't seen the woman in years, and the reason Kian is jumping to conclusions about her is Ella and her brother's extraordinary powers. Their mother is not powerful enough to account for that, so Ella came up with the theory that her father must have been a Dormant as well. Except, I can't see how that could have happened with Dormants being so rare."
"I assume that the father is not around?"
"He died in a helicopter crash while serving in Afghanistan."
Mey sighed. "That's so sad."
"Yes, it is."
Mey shook her head. "What if the Fates brought Ella's parents together? Why is it harder to believe than the
other pairings?"
"Because two Dormants are just like any other two humans. So unless we believe that the Fates are involved in every match, not just the clan's, that doesn't make sense."
For several moments, Mey didn't say anything, her strides matching his as they walked along the path. Then she lifted her eyes to his. "Why would the Fates want to help your clan out of all people? I know that you are special, but still. Every person is special in some way."
Yamanu shrugged. "Perhaps we are the key to humanity's continued survival. Or maybe the Fates got involved when they realized that without mates, we were facing extinction. Or perhaps they sought to reward us for all the good we've been doing for humanity. I believe that they have a grand plan and that they choose key players that will help make it happen."
Mey's lips lifted in a knowing smirk. "If we continue along that thread, then the Fates might have had a good reason for bringing these two particular Dormants together. What if Ella and her brother were needed for that grand plan of theirs? Perhaps in order for them to be born with those special powers, the Fates had to pair up their parents first."