Dark Dream’s Trap

by I. T. Lucas

  Understanding dawning, Julian nodded in agreement. “He will not be alarmed because he is going to expect them to get the same treatment.”

  “Precisely. Except, I’m going to pretend there is a problem with their papers and ask them to come with me.”

  “He’s not going to allow it,” Magnus said.

  “Not much he can do other than attacking me, but it’s not going to get to that point. By the time Ella and Vivian are inside the bulletproof vehicle with the doors closed, the rest of you will have enough time to sneak into position. I’m going to go back up to explain the situation with the papers and reassure them that it’s only a formality. That will solve two problems. He and his men will have no time to pull out weapons, and since I’m going to stand in the doorway, I will block the view. When their immortal alarm goes off, it’s going to be too late for them to do anything but surrender.”

  “That’s not true,” Julian said. “They could kill you before anyone else makes it up there.”

  Smirking, Turner pulled out the gun from its holster. “I’m armed, and they are not. That gives me all the advantage I need.”

  54

  Julian

  As Julian watched Turner climb up the stairs to the Doomers’ plane, Magnus shook his head. “I don’t like him going in alone. He is not a trained Guardian. But it’s not as if we have any other choice.”

  “I trust Turner. He’s the best man for the job.” Julian meant every word.

  Not only that, he was infinitely thankful for Turner and the huge ego that was allowing him to take on Navuh’s son with his typical fearlessness and nerves of steel. No one could’ve pulled off this job better than Turner. Lokan wasn’t going to suspect a damn thing because Turner didn’t emit any scents that would’ve given anyone else away.

  The Doomer might wonder about the strange guy he was going to mistake for a human, but he would probably assume that he was dealing with a sociopath.

  They were all wearing earpieces, but, unfortunately, not the sophisticated ones that William had equipped them with. Impersonating airport security meant using their equipment, and they had those clunky old things that were at least a decade-old technology.

  Still, the earpiece was functioning just fine, and they could hear Turner talking to the Doomer.

  “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I apologize for the delay, but a terror threat has been made, and we take those very seriously, even though this one is probably a hoax. Are you the owner of this plane, sir?”

  “Yes.”

  “I need you and the pilot to come down with me. And bring your passports with you. If you are not American citizens, please bring your visas as well. The rest of you please remain seated until I come back for you.”

  “I’m sure it is not necessary. Our papers are all in order.”

  That was no doubt Lokan’s attempt at compelling Turner to leave.

  “I’m sure they are. But I have my orders, sir. This is the standard procedure in case of a terrorist threat. Please follow me down so I can run your documents through the scanner and verify your identity.”

  After watching them perform the same procedure with the other planes, Lokan didn’t press the issue and did as Turner asked.

  Turner made a big deal out of examining the paperwork, went inside the vehicle and checked things on the attached laptop, then came out and handed the documents back.

  “Everything seems fine. Thank you for your cooperation, gentlemen.”

  He escorted them up, and then came down with the two Doomers, repeating the same procedure.

  Hopefully, Ella and Vivian were playing it cool and not doing anything to give him away. Julian trusted Ella’s acting ability, but he wasn’t sure about Vivian.

  Waiting for the two of them to come down was nerve-wracking.

  Like the pro that he was, Turner didn’t act hurried, taking his time with the two Doomers as if there was no urgency, his expression as stoic as usual and his tone bored and even. An Oscar-worthy performance.

  “Balls of titanium,” Magnus murmured.

  As soon as he escorted the two back up, the four airport security vehicles started moving toward Lokan’s jet.

  “Ladies, please follow me down,” Turner said.

  Apparently, nothing happened because he said, “Is there a problem?”

  “No, not a problem,” Lokan said. “My fiancée is just a little timid. It’s okay, darling. You can go with the officer. He’s only going to check your papers. You too, Mom.”

  Magnus cursed under his breath, probably because of the mom address, but Julian let out a relieved breath. Lokan had just removed his compulsion, allowing Ella and Vivian to move.

  Once on the ground, Turner repeated the same act, taking the paperwork into the Jeep and pretending to check it on his laptop. A moment later he came out.

  “I’m afraid there was a problem with your papers. You need to come with me.” He opened the Jeep’s back door and helped Vivian in and then Ella.

  Lokan appeared at the top of the stairs. “What seems to be the problem, officer?”

  “Their passports don’t check out. I’m sure it’s just a technicality. Please step inside the plane, sir.”

  Ignoring Turner’s order, Lokan started down.

  Several things happened at once.

  The Jeep sped away leaving Turner to face the Doomer alone, Turner whipped out his gun and pointed it at Lokan’s head, the laser beam point blank between his eyes, and all four vehicles screeched to a stop with Guardians piling out.

  “Game over, Lokan. You don’t want me to splatter your brains all over your nice jet. I have perfect aim.”

  The Doomer leaped back.

  His reflexes were fast, but not faster than a bullet. Turner nailed him in the leg, and then immediately shot the other, sending Lokan toppling down the stairs.

  55

  Ella

  Turner was putting on the act of a lifetime. Lucky for Ella and Vivian their nervousness could be attributed to other causes. Like the compulsion not to say anything about being taken against their will or disclose any information that could be harmful to Lokan in any way.

  If asked about him, Ella had been instructed to say that he was a wonderful fiancé and that she was madly in love with him.

  “Ladies, please follow me down.” Turner motioned for them to get up.

  Except, Lokan had forgotten to remove the compulsion not to move from their seats.

  Turner arched a brow. “Is there a problem?”

  “No, not a problem,” Lokan said. “My fiancée is just a little timid. It’s okay, darling. You can go with the officer. He’s only going to check your papers. You too, Mom.”

  If looks could kill, Lokan would be dead now.

  Ella’s legs shook as she followed Turner down, and she felt faint as she stood by the Jeep and waited for the pretend inspection of their passports, which Lokan had handed to him.

  She’d thought that the Doomer who’d taken their stuff had been driving around town with the duffel bag and leading the Guardians on a fake trail, but apparently, he’d pulled out their passports and driver licenses first and had given them to one of Lokan’s bodyguards.

  “I’m afraid there was a problem with your papers. You need to come with me.” Turner opened the Jeep’s back door and taking her mother’s elbow, helped her to get inside. Ella was next.

  Exchanging glances with her mother, she gave her a discreet thumbs up.

  They were free.

  “What seems to be the problem, officer?” Lokan asked and started getting out.

  Turner shut the door behind them and blocked Ella’s view of Lokan with his back. “Their passports don’t check out. I’m sure it’s just a technicality. Please step inside the plane, sir.”

  She didn’t hear the answer, because the jeep’s driver peeled out and sped away.

  He and the other officer sitting in the back weren’t Guardians. She had a feeling that they were ordinary humans. “Where are you takin
g us?”

  “To the warehouse. Turner said to keep you there until he comes for you.”

  The guy sitting next to them in the back smiled reassuringly. “Everything is going to be okay, ma'am. The scumbag who was trying to kidnap you is going to be apprehended, and after you give a statement, you’ll be safely returned to your father.” He looked at Vivian. “Your husband must be anxious to hear from you. Would you like to call him?” He handed her his cellphone.

  What kind of a story had Turner told the human authorities?

  Vivian gave the phone back. “Maybe in a little while, after my heart stops racing. I’m too shaken up to talk.”

  “Naturally. What did the scum do to you?” He looked at Vivian and then at Ella.

  Ella shook her head. “I’d rather not talk about it.” All that would come out of her mouth would be that Lokan was a wonderful fiancé and that she was madly in love with him.

  The guy looked disappointed, but he nodded. “I understand.”

  Once they reached the warehouse, the officers escorted them inside and stayed to watch over them.

  Regular conversation was not possible, but with Lokan neutralized, Ella could open a channel to her mother.

  I hope everyone is okay.

  Her mother patted her knee. I’m sure they are. Thirty Guardians, one Turner, and one Julian can handle three Doomers no matter how powerful.

  Stupidly, Ella hoped they didn’t hurt Lokan too badly either. He wasn’t a good guy, but he wasn't as bad as she initially believed him to be.

  She’d seen real evil, and it had been all human. Romeo, Stefano, the two druggies in the hotel that Julian was turning into a halfway house, and all of those men who’d violated and abused the girls in the sanctuary. Those people had no redeeming qualities, or rather nothing that could redeem the evil they’d perpetrated.

  Gorchenco and Lokan were different than that scum. They weren’t good people, but they both had redeeming qualities. Or at least she believed they had.

  Less than fifteen minutes later, Turner entered the warehouse alone.

  “Thank you for your help, gentleman,” he addressed the officers. “My associate is waiting for you outside for debriefing.”

  Which probably meant thralling. After their talk with the associate, they were not going to remember any details from the rescue operation.

  “Glad to be of assistance. Is the airport cleared for takeoffs and landings?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  When the men left, Turner lifted his hand to stop Ella and Vivian’s barrage of questions. “No one got hurt, except for Lokan and his men, but nothing fatal. Their injuries are going to heal in no time.”

  “Thank God. Or rather, thank Turner.” Ella ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you.” She kissed his cheek. “Thank you so much. You were amazing. You should get an Oscar for that performance, and I mean it. Totally believable.”

  “Let the man be.” Her mother tapped her shoulder. “You’re smothering him.”

  “Sorry.” Ella let go, realizing too late that Turner had been like a stiff broom in her arms, waiting for her assault to be over.

  She needed to remember that her future father-in-law was not a hugger.

  56

  Julian

  Julian couldn’t wait to hold Ella in his arms, but there was a lot of cleanup work to do.

  His job was to patch up Lokan and the other two Doomers, while the Guardians conducted interviews with everyone on the field, erasing memories and planting a story that Turner had prepared.

  Reluctantly, Julian headed toward the bigger of the two clan’s jets, where the injured Doomers had been stowed.

  There was only one Guardian with them, but it seemed the three were neutralized.

  “I already knocked them out with sedative shots,” Liam said.

  “If he were awake I would have knocked him out with a punch to his smug face.” Even injured and knocked out, that expression was still there. “I’m going to wash my hands.”

  After scrubbing up the best he could in the small bathroom, Julian wiped his hands with a paper towel because that was all there was.

  Immortal bodies would not get infected, but washing before touching a wound was so ingrained in him that he hadn’t stopped to think that he didn’t need to scrub so hard.

  When he came out, he looked for the med kit, finding it in one of the overhead compartments. “Did he ask any questions before you put him to sleep?”

  “I knocked him out before he regained consciousness after hitting his head falling down the jet's stairs.”

  “That’s a shame.” Julian opened the kit and pulled out a pair of scissors. “I would've paid to see the expression on his face.” He started cutting the pants off to expose the wound.

  Seeing the defeat in the Doomer’s eyes would have been so satisfying.

  He wasn’t a vindictive kind of guy, but that scumbag had almost gotten away with stealing Ella, the most important person in Julian’s life, and that was unforgivable.

  After tearing the rest of that pant leg off, Julian went to work on the other one.

  The wounds weren’t serious. Apparently, in addition to all his other talents, Turner was also an excellent sharpshooter. Somehow he managed not to hit any major artery or shatter a bone. Was it a fluke? Or had he been careful not to damage the important Doomer?

  They needed to interrogate the son of a bitch, but that didn’t mean that he had to be delivered in pristine condition. The types of injuries he’d sustained were going to heal by the time they returned to Los Angeles.

  “Was he disbelieving, raging, anything?”

  Liam shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint you, mate, but the dude was as cool as a cucumber. The only emotions I picked up from him were sadness and resignation. He probably expects us to kill him or torture him.”

  “The second one is going to happen for sure. Kian wants to get information out of him, and he’s not going to volunteer it.”

  “Who knows?” Liam shrugged. “I wouldn't be surprised if he has daddy issues. Can you imagine being Navuh’s son?”

  “Could be worse. The bastard is not a loving father, that’s for sure, but he puts his sons in positions of power. That’s a better fate than that of the other Doomers.”

  After digging out the first bullet, Julian sutured the wound closed and bandaged the leg.

  “We don’t know that. Sometimes it’s better to be an invisible speck than a diamond under the microscope of evil.”

  Shaking his head, Julian started on the other leg. “Where did you hear that saying?”

  “I made it up.”

  Ignoring his hatred for the Doomer and treating him as he would any other patient, Julian did a good job. That was what decent doctors did. He could always beat Lokan up later when they got home.

  The guy wasn’t going anywhere.

  Once Julian was done with the other two Doomers as well, he went to the bathroom and washed his hands again.

  “I’m heading out. Are you okay here by yourself with the three of them?”

  Liam smiled and lifted a case full of syringes. “No one wakes up without me allowing it.”

  “I’ll see you back in the village.”

  “Say hello to Ella and Vivian for me and tell them welcome back.”

  “I will.”

  Now that he was done with his duties, Julian was going to take Ella into his arms and never let her go.

  Turner had said that he was going to keep her and Vivian in the warehouse until the cleanup was done. That was about a mile and a half away, and the vehicles had been returned already, which meant that Julian was going on a run.

  57

  Ella

  When Turner left Ella and Vivian alone in the warehouse, it was somewhat anticlimactic, especially after the movie Ella had created in her mind.

  In that scene, Julian was running up to her in slow motion like the hero of a romantic movie, sweeping her into his arms and swinging her arou
nd.

  In real life, she was sitting on a dusty crate beside her mother, both of them waiting for their men to be done.

  Julian had been tasked with tending to the wounded Doomers, while Magnus and other Guardians were busy thralling memories out of the minds of humans.

  Still, it was so much better than the alternative.

  “What do you think they are going to do with Lokan’s jet?” Vivian asked. “They can’t just leave it like that. Someone has to take it away.”

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure Turner has a plan. He thinks of everything.”

  “I wonder what Navuh will think? Is he going to worry about his son? Does he care about him?”

  “What I wonder about is whether Turner is going to make it look like Lokan had deserted.”

  Vivian chuckled. “I’m glad that it’s no longer our concern. We did our parts and are now free to live our lives. The only thorn in that beautiful future is Gorchenco.”

  It wasn’t the only one. Her mother still had to transition without incident, and so did Ella.

  As she thought about Julian ushering her on that journey, a flutter of excitement started in her belly. There was no more reason for waiting. No more worrying about Lokan, and no more compulsion preventing her desire for Julian from manifesting in its full intensity. Ella wanted him with every fiber of her body and soul.

  Was he in for a big surprise.

  As the warehouse doors screeched and started to open, the butterflies in Ella’s stomach took flight, their wings flapping in a mad frenzy. And when Julian entered and started running toward her, Ella jumped off the crate and ran into his waiting arms.

  It was just as she’d imagined.

  With a face-splitting grin, his arms closed around her, and he swung her up and around.

  “Ella,” he whispered her name like a prayer. “My sweet, beautiful Ella.”