by I. T. Lucas
Not that it was important. They were going to either compel her to silence or drug her to forget everything that had happened today. When she woke up the next day in a hotel room, she would assume someone had slipped her a roofie.
Not a bad plan, provided it worked.
As Arwel walked in with Eleanor slumped in his arms, he stopped and looked around the bare room. “Are you kidding me? You want her tied to the chair?”
“You have a better idea?”
“Yeah. Put her on a bed. She is not going anywhere with all of us here.”
“If she wakes up on a bed, she is going to panic way worse than if she wakes up in a chair,” Carol said. “She’s a woman. If she opens her eyes and sees six men watching her, she will assume that you intend to rape her.”
Arwel sighed. “I’m not sure that you are right, but I trust your instincts on this. I will need help tying her up, though.”
“I’ll help you.” Carol lifted the stack of washcloths off the chair. “Just hold her, so she doesn’t slide off while I do the tying.”
61
Lokan
The screaming and thrashing started the moment the woman opened her eyes and realized her predicament.
Lokan walked in with the bottle of water Julian had thrust into his hand and tried to calm her down first.
“Relax. Nothing is going to happen to you. All we want is information.”
She squinted. “Who are you? What do you want?”
He walked closer and showed her the bottle of water. “You must be thirsty. Would you like a drink?”
Up close, she could see that it was a sealed plastic bottle, but it still took her several seconds of indecision before she nodded.
He broke the seal and brought the bottle to her lips. She gulped it up until there was nothing left and then tried to wipe her mouth on her shoulder, succeeding only partially.
“What do you want?” Her voice shook.
She was still terrified.
“As I said, we only want information. Who do you work for?” He imbued his voice with compulsion.
“I’m a bookkeeper. I have many clients.”
Damn, she was lying, and it didn’t even require effort. Evidently, his compulsion wasn’t working on her.
He tried again, more forcibly this time. “Don’t lie to me. Who are you working for?”
Pulling on her restraints, she shook her head. “I’m not lying. You must have the wrong person. I’m a nobody.” She started crying.
Damn, a woman’s tears were a weapon he had no defense against.
He turned to look at Kian, who had been leaning against the door and invisible to Eleanor.
Kian pushed away from the door and motioned for Lokan to follow him into the hallway. They’d turned the lights off in the entire downstairs, so none would spill into the room when the door was open.
“Where are you going?” As her panic rose, so did her voice. “Let me go! You have the wrong person!”
If Brundar wasn’t shrouding that portion of the house, the neighbors would have called the police by now.
“I’ll be right back.” He closed the door behind him.
“It seems that she is immune to your compulsion,” Kian said.
Lokan nodded.
“Could her panic do that?”
“I doubt it. In my experience, humans are either susceptible to compulsion or immune to it. Their state of mind at the moment doesn’t matter.” He smiled sheepishly. “If that were the case, Vivian and Ella would have not responded to my compulsion either. They were both terrified of me.”
Sighing, Kian dragged his hand through his hair. “Ella suspects that her aunt might be a compeller like her younger brother, and it would seem that a compeller can’t be compelled.”
“I think that’s true. That’s why my father’s compulsion doesn’t work on me. Then again, it might be because he is my father, and my talent comes from him. We don’t know enough about that to make assumptions.”
“That’s true. Give it another try. Maybe when she calms down a little, she will respond to you better.”
Given Eleanor’s ongoing screams to let her go, that was unlikely.
“Perhaps it would be better for Arwel to talk to her first. Maybe he can calm her down before I try again.” He tilted his head toward the door. “In the state she is in, she is not going to respond to anything.”
“I agree. Let’s get Arwel.”
62
Arwel
“She is not going to respond to me either.” Arwel pushed his hair back. “I’m the asshole who kidnapped her.”
Why the hell did he feel so guilty? And why were Eleanor’s shrieks affecting him like that?
She wasn’t a good person, and there was a reason why she was tied to a chair and being interrogated.
Except, he couldn’t be sure. She might be a jaded grouch and harbor some dark thoughts, but that was not a crime. She might have never wronged anyone, might've known nothing about Jin and her whereabouts, and he might have just helped kidnap and torment an innocent woman.
Kian put a hand on his shoulder. “Look, I’m really not looking forward to interrogating her the traditional way. If Lokan manages to compel her, it will go much easier for her and for us.”
“She is most likely immune to his compulsion, just as she’s immune to thralling. I’ll be wasting my time with her. Worse, she might get even angrier and become completely unresponsive.”
Kian nodded. “I’m willing to risk it. Go in there and do your best. If it doesn’t work, so be it. But at least we gave it a try.”
Taking a deep breath, Arwel let it out slowly through his mouth. “Fine.” He depressed the handle and walked in.
“Hello, Marisol.”
She recognized his voice right away. “You son of a bitch, how dare you show your face?”
“I know you are angry, and rightfully so, but this can be over very quickly if you cooperate and tell us what we need to know.”
“Fuck you, Arwel. If that is even your real name. I’m not telling you anything.”
She’d slipped without realizing it.
“So, you admit to having secrets and being unwilling to share them.”
Her eyes widened for a moment, but she recovered quickly. “I don’t. But your interrogator didn’t believe me when I told him the truth, so there is no point in me saying anything at all.”
He got closer and crouched in front of her. “We know that you are not a bookkeeper. You can drop the charade.”
Hatred dripping from her eyes, she stared into his and hissed, “Let. Me. Go!”
“I can’t do that.”
Looking surprised, she tried again, more clearly this time as well as forcefully. “Release me, right now!”
Had she been trying to compel him, or was she just acting illogically?
Underneath the sludge of darkness that was wafting from her in spades, he could feel her hopelessness and despair, and it affected him even worse than the oppressive negativity.
“Look, Marisol, we really mean you no harm. We don’t even mean your employer harm. In fact, once you answer our questions, we will let you go, and no one will know that you told anyone anything. We are just searching for a young woman that we think you have information on. That’s all.”
Heaving out a sigh, Eleanor stopped struggling against her restraints, and he could feel her panic subsiding. “Who are you looking for?”
“First, I need to ask you a few questions about your employer.”
“You said that you are looking for a woman.”
“I did, but we want to know why your employer needs her, how much money she was offered for her services, etc.”
It was a spur-of-the-moment inspiration to make it seem as if they were after Jin’s ability. The story that was taking shape in his head was that they were another spy organization. They wanted to lure Jin from her current job by offering her a better deal. Someone like Eleanor, who believed that everyone was as self-serving
as she was, would buy this story more readily than anything with a humanitarian twist.
Eleanor shifted in the chair as much as her restraints allowed. “I need to pee.”
“Tell me who your employer is, and I’ll take you to the bathroom.”
“I don’t have an employer. I’m an independent contractor.”
She hadn’t said a bookkeeper. An independent contractor could be doing anything, including spying.
Could she be telling the truth?
“Let’s assume that I believe you. Are you providing services for more than one client?”
“I’m not going to answer until you let me pee.”
It was progress.
Perhaps this was a good time to bring Lokan to try again. Also, he needed to consult with Kian and ask Carol to take Eleanor to the bathroom.
Having a woman do that would help Eleanor calm down even more.
63
Kian
On the other side of the door, Kian and Lokan listened to the exchange between Arwel and Eleanor.
“I think she is ready for you,” Kian said. “She sounds much less frightened.”
“Her defenses are just as solid, though. I don’t think it will work. But I’ll give it another try just because you are asking me to.”
Arwel opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind him. “She needs to visit the bathroom.”
“We heard,” Kian said. “I think it’s the perfect opportunity to press her into revealing more. She’s stubborn and proud, and she won’t allow herself to pee in her pants. We can torment the information out of her without laying a finger on her.”
Arwel waved a hand. “Be my guest.”
The guy was too soft-hearted for a Guardian, but that was the flip side of his empathic nature. Then again, even Anandur would have had a problem with letting a woman suffer. Brundar, on the other hand, would have thought nothing of it. After all, he was a part-owner of a BDSM club and a practitioner. He had no qualms about inflicting pain as long as it didn’t cause long-term harm.
If it came down to it, Kian was going to send him to talk to Eleanor. Hearing Brundar’s robotic, emotionless voice, she might start talking.
“Ready?” Kian asked Lokan.
“After you.”
Eleanor narrowed her eyes, trying to see who was there, but they stayed near the door where she couldn’t see their faces.
“Tell me your real name,” Lokan commanded.
“Marisol Ortega. Now let me go pee.”
Lokan shook his head.
Well, it was worth a try. Kian opened the door to let Lokan out and waved Arwel in.
Leaning against the door, Kian motioned for the Guardian to stay next to him.
“We know who you are,” Kian said. “Your real name is Eleanor Takala, you used to work in pharmaceutical sales, you had a brother who died in a helicopter crash. His wife and two children also died in another accident not too long ago.”
A wave of sadness washed over Eleanor, proving that she wasn’t an entirely emotionless sociopath. But she shook it off quickly. “Who are you?”
“You can call me Kevin.”
“I meant you as in you people. Who are you, and what do you want from me?”
“My friend explained that already. We are looking for someone, and we believe that you know where she is.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I’m an avid skier who finances her hobby working as a part-time bookkeeper.”
He chuckled. “With the amount of money that you have in the bank, you can ski for the rest of your life without working.”
She narrowed her eyes, trying to see his face. “You really did your homework. But what does it prove? The money in the bank is my retirement fund. I’m a single woman with no family. I need to take care of myself.”
“Why did you change your name?”
“A stalker ex-boyfriend.”
The woman was an excellent dissembler. She didn’t hesitate even a moment before spouting her lies.
“I know that you are lying, Eleanor. What do you know about the paranormal talent our government is collecting?”
It was a gamble, but it paid off as he felt a wave of fear wash over her. If she knew nothing about it, she would have no reason to be scared.
“I don’t know what you’ve been smoking, but what you’re asking is absurd.”
Kian was impressed. Despite her fear, Eleanor managed to sound believable.
“We are not after everyone in that program. We need to find just one person. Jin Levine.” Even without his supernatural senses, Kian could tell that she recognized the name, and pressed forward. “Tell us where to find her, and we will let you go, not just to the bathroom but back to your life. We will put you to sleep once again, deliver you to your car, and you will wake up there in a couple of hours free and unharmed.”
He could see the indecision in her eyes.
“What if I don’t know the person you are talking about? How can I tell you where to find her? Are you going to kill me?”
“We are not going to kill you, but we will leave you tied to this chair, and days might pass until someone finds you. But if you die, it’s not going to be by our hands.”
Heaving a sigh, Eleanor hung her head. “Even if I tell you where you can find her, she is not going to accept anything that you offer. You’re wasting your efforts and tangling with forces that you shouldn’t.”
Evidently, Eleanor believed what Arwel had implied. Which was good. Kian could work with that, pretending that he was after Jin’s talent and willing to pay for it.
“Whatever your employer is paying her, we will double it.”
“It’s not about the money. No one is forcing her to be there. She is doing it because she wants to and because she is a patriot.”
Eleanor sounded sincere, but Kian wasn’t as good at detecting lies as Andrew, or even Arwel. He glanced at the Guardian and lifted his brow in question.
Arwel leaned to whisper in his ear. “Truth mingled with lies.”
Kian nodded. It made sense. Some form of coercion might be involved, either monetary or extortion, but Jin hadn’t been abducted, and she probably wasn’t imprisoned either.
“If she is there voluntarily, then why hasn’t she called her parents since she joined the program?” He avoided mentioning Mey on purpose.
“They are not allowed to make phone calls during the training period, but she will be free to do so once it’s over. Can I go to the bathroom now?”
“Just a few more questions. Where is that training taking place?”
“I can’t tell you that, and even if I could, you would have no chance of getting in there. It’s heavily guarded. Your best chance to make contact with her is to wait until the trainees get a day off and are bussed into town. If you wanted proof that everyone in that training program is there voluntarily, that is it.”
“When is that?”
“Saturday.”
Damn. That was three days from now. It could be a clever ploy on Eleanor’s part to stall until help arrived.
He looked at Arwel, who shrugged.
“I’ll send a lady to take you to the bathroom.”
Eleanor huffed out a breath. “Thank God.”
64
Lokan
As Lokan listened from the other side of the door, a picture started forming in his mind.
When Eleanor had said that she was an independent contractor, she’d sounded truthful. He wasn’t the best at detecting lies, especially when so many other intense emotions were present, but he’d believed her. Her story was collaborated by her flexible schedule. An employee didn’t get to spend half days on the slopes two to three days a week.
Then there was Ella’s suspicion that her aunt might be a compeller, and Eleanor’s confidence in Jin’s refusal to accept a better offer.
Eleanor must be the recruiter for the program.
If money and patriotism didn’t do the trick to lure potential candidates, she used h
er compulsion ability to bring them in. Just as she had done in the pharmaceutical field. She must have had nearly a hundred percent success rate, which explained the hefty amount in her bank account.
Shifting from foot to foot, Carol huffed out a breath. “How long are they going to keep that poor woman from going to the bathroom? She is probably about to explode.”
“That poor woman is the recruiter for the program. She probably used her compulsion power to get Jin to sign the contract.”
“How do you know that?”
He touched his nose. “A strong hunch supported by a lot of circumstantial evidence.”
When the door opened, and Kian stepped out together with Arwel, Carol rolled her eyes. “Finally. Can I go in now and take her to pee?”
Kian nodded. “Do you need someone with you?”
“Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes again. “Do I have to tie her up after she is done?”
“Yes. She can use that lamp in the corner as a weapon, and if we take it out, it’s going to be pitch black in there.”
“Got it.” Carol walked in and closed the door behind her. “Okay, girl. I’m going to untie you and take you to the bathroom. Don’t try anything, or you will quickly learn that I’m much stronger than I look. Besides, there is a bunch of burly men on the other side of that door.”
“Just take me to the bathroom, and I’ll kiss your little feet.”
Kian chuckled. “It seems that Eleanor is in a much better mood now that salvation is near.” He turned to Arwel. “So, what do you think? Was she telling the truth?”
“She was,” Lokan answered instead. “I have a strong feeling that she is indeed a compeller, and that’s why she is confident that Jin will refuse to leave.”
Kian nodded. “It occurred to me. The question is, what are we going to do until Saturday? We have to hold her here until we get Jin, and we can’t keep her tied to a chair. What’s more, Brundar can’t go on shrouding indefinitely. Eventually, he will need to sleep, and she might decide to start screaming for help again.”