Dark Queen’s Army

by I. T. Lucas

  Syssi turned around and planted a kiss on Kian’s lips. “That’s why my guy is smarter and chose to build the clan’s base in Los Angeles. What about Sari and her people, though? Aren’t they making the same mistake as Kalugal?”

  Kian cupped her butt cheeks and gave them a gentle squeeze. “They are careful, and they are shrouding their castle. The area has many small towns and villages, and they know not to visit the same places too often.”

  “Good. I was worried for a moment.”

  “Kalugal’s other mistake was pulling permits for the underground complex in his backyard. He was practically begging to be found out. It’s like marking a huge X on his location. Even without Lokan’s cooperation, we could have discovered Kalugal’s address by checking the permits.” He chuckled. “That is where I have another advantage over him. As a developer, I can get away with not getting permits for some of the things I build, like the keep’s underground, because I do it in house.”

  “Maybe he didn’t pull permits? If an inspector walked onto the property, Kalugal or his men could have thralled him to think that they had them.”

  “For a project like that, he needed to hire a top-notch contractor with a large crew and office personnel. It would have been difficult to thrall everyone to do work without permits. Especially since he probably didn’t think it was a big deal.”

  “Did you check the records?”

  “I didn’t have to. Lokan found out the address from the description his contact had provided, and he gave it to me.”

  “You see? Lokan is a good guy, and he is trustworthy. He is sharing information with you.”

  “When it’s beneficial to him. Lokan does what’s good for Lokan. He has little regard for others, aside from Carol, that is. I know that he would do anything for her, and conversely, he wouldn’t do anything to deliberately hurt her family. But that’s the extent of it.”

  Kian could be so stubborn sometimes, and trust was difficult for him, especially when Doomers were involved. It had taken him long months to stop suspecting Dalhu, and now the two were almost buddies, which made Syssi and Amanda really happy.

  Perhaps in time, he would start trusting Lokan as well. The two were cousins after all, and Kian could use a friend outside the clan.

  “If Lokan were a bad person, Arwel wouldn’t have befriended him. He can sense who is good and who is bad.”

  “True, but I didn’t say that Lokan was bad. He’s neither good nor bad, just selfish. I don’t have Arwel’s talent, so I don’t know how selfish feels, but my guess is that it feels neutral.”

  52

  Mey

  Mey stood in front of the mirror and opened her mouth. The tips of her fangs had grown overnight, reaching one-third the length of her other teeth. She still looked ridiculous, and eating anything solid was out of the question because it hurt too much. So, the outing wasn’t going to be fun, but she was sick of being cooped up in the cabin.

  Besides, after weeks in the village, she just wanted to be among humans again, to go shopping and do the things she used to do before this bizarre turn of events had changed her life forever.

  Her mind and her body were in turmoil, much worse than what she’d experienced during puberty. Back then, it had been bouts of sadness and inexplicable anger, and her breasts had hurt, but it had been nothing compared to what she was going through now.

  The anxiety was the worst.

  Mostly, it was about Jin and whether they were going to find her and whether she would want to come with them if they did. Mey was going to feel terrible if after all the insane effort that had gone into the search, Jin refused to leave.

  Then it was her future and what she was going to do with it. Working at the café was fun, but it was a temporary thing, not a career. Her modeling days were obviously over unless she modeled Halloween vampire costumes, and Mey doubted there was much demand for that.

  If Jin decided to stay and finish her contract, Mey would have to find something to do for the next five years because she wasn’t going to launch their dream business without her sister.

  Maybe she could use the time to make babies?

  She smiled at her reflection in the mirror and then grimaced. Would her daughters have fangs as well?

  Since her transition had started, Yamanu hadn’t made love to her yet, and frankly, she hadn’t felt well enough for it. The pain medication was making her nauseous, and as many meds as she was taking, the throbbing pain in her gums never subsided sufficiently for her to forget that it was there.

  Poor Yamanu could probably shroud the entire ski resort if needed. But he wasn’t complaining, which she really appreciated. Oliver used to get nasty whenever she’d got her period. She’d usually gotten moody and bloated and hadn’t been in the mood for sex.

  Perhaps that should have clued her in that he wasn’t the guy for her.

  Hey, no periods was another benefit of immortality, and getting rid of those was worth the price of having fangs.

  Almost.

  Yamanu knocked on the bathroom door. “Are you okay in there?”

  “Yeah.” She turned around and opened it. “I was just staring at my wee little fangs.”

  “Let me see.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “They’ve grown since last night.”

  “Tell me about it. But they are still too small to fill the gaps. I’ll have to cover my face with a scarf.”

  “You should let Julian check them before we go out.”

  “Why? It’s not like I’m sick.”

  “Just do it. It can’t hurt.”

  As they got downstairs, everyone was already seated around the dining table, eating breakfast.

  “Good morning, everyone,” Mey said without smiling.

  Julian wiped his mouth with a napkin and pushed away from the table. “Let me have a look at your teeth. I want to see how much they have grown overnight.”

  He whipped a small flashlight out of his pocket and one surgical glove. It seemed that he’d been prepared for her. “Say cheese.”

  To hide her embarrassment, Mey struck a pose, tilting her body slightly to the left and flipping her hair back. “Cheese…”

  He shined his flashlight into her mouth and then patted her gums and new teeth with a gloved finger. “Looks good.”

  “What does it mean?”

  “That the rate of growth is steady, and they are still relatively small. From what I’ve read up in my mother’s notes about the growth rate of fangs in male Dormants, yours is much slower, which leads me to believe that they will not be as long as the males’.”

  She let out a breath. “That’s a relief.”

  “On the other hand, the swelling and the amount of pain you are in indicate that more is going on. I suspect that your fangs will elongate on demand.”

  “That’s so freaking cool,” Amanda said. “I want fangs like that.”

  Bless her heart, the woman knew the right thing to say. If a gorgeous creature like her thought that elongating fangs were cool, then Mey could live with that.

  “As long as they look normal most of the time, I’m okay with that. The question is, why would they elongate if I can do nothing with them?” She eyed Julian suspiciously. “I’m not growing venom glands, right?”

  “You are not.”

  “So, what would they elongate in response to?”

  Julian shrugged. “I don’t know. They might elongate in response to the same triggers that males’ fangs do, just without the ability to inject venom. But even without the venom, fangs can do a lot of damage in a fight.”

  The Guardians, including Kian, all nodded in agreement.

  “You can tear an enemy’s throat out,” Brundar said.

  Mey shivered. “No offense, but that’s just gross.”

  53

  Arwel

  Mey stopped next to a store’s window display. “They have cute things here.”

  “Do you want to go inside?” Yamanu asked.

  She looked a
t him over her shoulder. “What are you and Arwel going to do while I’m trying things on?”

  “We will guard the entry from the outside. Go, have fun.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind waiting?” She turned to look at Arwel.

  How could he say no?

  She’d been so miserable for the past several days and putting a brave face on it, that he couldn’t deny her anything that might lift her spirits.

  “I don’t mind. I can sit on that bench over there and look at the hotties passing by.”

  Mey put a gloved hand on his arm. “Thank you.”

  “Nothing to thank me for.” He leaned closer to whisper in her ear. “It will look strange for you to walk around the store with your snow goggles on, but don’t take them off. Not even in the changing room. They might have cameras in there.”

  She nodded.

  As Mey entered the store, he and Yamanu walked over to the bench and sat down.

  “Mey is in constant pain,” Arwel said.

  “I know. She refuses to take stronger pain meds because they make her nauseous.” Yamanu sighed. “The fangs are really bothering her.”

  “I think they are cute.”

  “I do too, but how they look doesn’t bother Mey as much as being different does. Bridget came up with a couple of hypotheses for why this is happening to her, but no one knows for sure.”

  “Yeah, as someone who has always been different, I get how that might be troubling.”

  “You have a talent. That’s not the same as having a divergent physical attribute, especially if that attribute is gender-specific and it’s not your gender.”

  As Arwel tried to imagine how he would have felt if his fangs were small, static, and feminine, his phone went off in his breast pocket.

  Pulling it out, he saw Brundar’s new number on the display and clicked it open.

  “What’s up?”

  “Come to the Starbucks across the street. We need to show you something.”

  The urgency in Brundar’s tone made it clear that he should get moving fast. “I’m coming.” He closed the phone.

  Yamanu nodded. “I’ll stay here.”

  As Arwel crossed the road and headed for the Starbucks that was further down the street, he saw Brundar and Anandur coming out and walking in the opposite direction.

  Jogging to catch up, he fell into step with them. “What’s going on?”

  Brundar motioned with his head at a woman holding a paper cup and walking briskly. “That’s her, and she is immune to thralling. I tried to get into her head and encountered a wall.”

  The guy was a strong thraller. If he couldn’t get into Eleanor’s head, no one could. It was up to Arwel and his empathic ability to try to assess the risk involved in approaching Ella’s aunt.

  “I got her.”

  Elongating his strides, Arwel caught up to Eleanor in seconds and kept pace a few steps behind her.

  The woman must be an extremely guarded person because she broadcast very little, but it was enough for Arwel to recoil.

  Eleanor’s vibe was one of the most unpleasant he had encountered, and given that he had dealt with plenty of vicious Doomers as well as humans, that was saying something.

  What could have made an average middle-class woman so bitter and hateful?

  From what Ella had told them about her father, he had been a swell fellow, a good husband to Vivian, and an awesome father to Ella and Parker. How could his sister, who had grown up in the same house, turn out so rotten?

  Had something terrible happened to her that Ella and Vivian weren’t aware of?

  Whatever the reason was, though, Eleanor shouldn’t be approached with questions about Jin. Without being able to thrall her to forget them, it was a no go. And that was a big problem. What were they going to do?

  Beat the information out of her?

  Kian was not going to like it.

  Slowing his steps, he waited until the brothers caught up to him. “Keep following her but do not engage. Aunt Eleanor is one hell of a rotten apple. I need to call Kian. Hopefully, he is still here so we can talk face to face.” This wasn’t something he could discuss with the boss over an unsecured line.

  Brundar nodded.

  As the brothers followed Eleanor, Arwel made the call.

  54

  Kian

  It was a rare occasion for Kian to just stroll down the street, holding his wife's hand, not hurrying anywhere, and he was enjoying himself immensely. For the past hour or so, he hadn’t thought about reading emails, solving the various problems that popped up every day and required his attention, or even the mission they were on.

  Syssi stopped in front of a clothing store. “I’m going to take a look. Do you want to come in with me?”

  “Sure, why not.” He looked back at Amanda and Dalhu. “I’m sure Amanda would want to join you, but Dalhu needs to sit down.”

  “He can join Yamanu on the bench.” Syssi pointed. “I guess Mey is inside.”

  Kian hadn’t noticed the Guardian before Syssi had pointed. Huddled inside his coat, his head covered with a hat and his eyes behind a pair of ski goggles, Yamanu looked like any other guy in the resort. Just taller.

  “On second thought, I’ll join Yamanu and wait for you outside.”

  His phone went off before Syssi had a chance to respond. “Hold on. It’s from Arwel.”

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “I’m heading toward the Starbucks. Brundar spotted the aunt, but she seemed in a bad mood. I need to discuss it with you.”

  “Got it.”

  Arwel had conveyed the meaning clearly enough. Brundar had seen Eleanor, but when he’d probed her mind, he’d either discovered information that made it problematic to approach her, or worse, that her mind was impenetrable.

  “I need to call the rest of the team. Can you go inside and get Mey? We are meeting in front of Starbucks.”

  Syssi nodded and pushed the door open.

  Anandur and Brundar were probably following Eleanor, Yamanu was right there, and Amanda and Dalhu had just caught up to him. That left Julian and Ella.

  “What’s going on?” Amanda asked.

  “The aunt has been spotted. Go to the Starbucks across the street. The entire team is meeting there.”

  Amanda nodded, and she and Yamanu headed that way.

  Hopefully, Roni was systematically erasing the records from the team's calls like Kian had told him to and not waiting for the end of the day. It might have been somewhat paranoid to do that, but he was following Turner’s advice, and the guy knew what he was doing.

  When everyone made it to the front of the coffee shop, Kian signaled for them to stand in three separate groups. They could hear each other fine without huddling all together.

  Arwel joined Kian and Syssi. “Brundar tried to thrall her, but she seems to be immune. Although it is possible that she just has strong walls up. What I sensed from her wasn’t pleasant. She is bitter, hateful, and highly suspicious. Anandur and Brundar are trailing her, but we need to decide how to proceed.”

  “Fuck.” That one word that Syssi was trying to make him stop using so much had summed it up nicely.

  To his left, he heard Ella sigh, and Julian whisper encouraging words to her.

  That must have been difficult for the girl to hear, but Kian had no time to consider her feelings at the moment. He had to come up with a new plan on the spot.

  If Eleanor was an immune, they would have to kidnap her and interrogate her the old-fashioned way. Aside from having an issue with forcibly extracting information from a woman, the problem was that they couldn’t erase the memory of the interrogation after they were done with her.

  Unless she wasn’t immune to compulsion.

  They weren’t far from Washington, and he might be able to get Lokan to help.

  After all, if Eleanor talked, they would hopefully find Jin, and Jin could be instrumental in finding out what Kalugal was up to, which Lokan no doubt wanted to know as well.
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  Looking over his shoulder, Kian signaled for Julian to join their group. “Do you have something that can knock her out instantly?”

  Julian shook his head. “I used up what I had on Dalhu, but I can get whatever is needed from the ski-patrol station.”

  “Go and get it. Come back here when you have it.”

  After making sure Ella was with Mey and Yamanu, Julian left.

  “So, here is the plan.” Kian leaned closer to Arwel. “As the only unattached male here, you will have to be the one to follow Eleanor and flirt with her.”

  Arwel grimaced. “Lucky me.”

  “When she gets on the lift, make sure to be the one sitting next to her and strike up a conversation. After she is done skiing, lure her into having dinner with you and then escort her to her car. Julian is going to be there with a tranquilizer and will knock her out. One of the brothers will come with a vehicle and help you load her inside.”

  “Where are we going to take her? The cabin?”

  Kian shook his head. “I’ll drive to where I can use a clan issue phone and call Turner. I’ll ask him to find us a safe house out of the Quiet Zone.”

  He turned so the others could hear him better. “We need to get back to the cabin. Arwel needs to get suited up for the slopes, and someone needs to pack his stuff and load it into the vehicle.”

  “I’ll pack Arwel’s stuff and also Anandur and Brundar’s,” Amanda offered. “I assume that you want to take them with you.”

  “Yes. Good thinking.” He looked at his watch. “If Eleanor is a creature of habit, she will get suited up and hit the slopes in an hour, ski for two, and then hopefully spend another hour with Arwel over dinner. Four hours is plenty of time to get organized.”

  “Are we all leaving?” Ella asked.

  “I didn’t figure out all the details yet. I will need Julian, Arwel, and the brothers with me. The rest should stay here and keep up appearances but be ready to leave on a moment’s notice.”