Page 2 of Dark Gambit Reliance

Her expression turned serious. "That's because I trust you. I know that you will never do anything to hurt me, and you'll protect me with everything you have."

"I don't know how you can still think that after what I told you."

"Nothing has changed for me." Sofia put her hand on his chest. "What happened with that evil woman and her husband is ancient history, and you were a different man back then. If you were a human, you would have died and been reborn again at least four times by now, and the knowledge of what you had done would have been lost. The slate would have been wiped clean. It's only because you are immortal that you keep on suffering endlessly. If you ask me, you've been in hell for the past three hundred years, and you’ve paid for your crime. It's time for a new beginning." She smiled and rubbed herself against him. "With me. And since I'm going to transition and become a new person as well, we will have a new beginning together. Isn't that great?"

Marcel suspected that Sofia was still loopy from the residual effect of the venom. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so optimistic and cheerful.

Kian wouldn't be happy about them starting the process so soon. They were supposed to wait until after Sofia's death had been faked, but Marcel just couldn't tell her that last night. Her eagerness to start the process had infected him, and he'd thrown caution to the wind.

When her tummy rumbled, he asked, "Are you hungry? We can get breakfast at the lodge."

"I don't want to share you with anyone yet, and I don't want to dip my feet back into reality and face the day. Let's stay here and make love like there is no world outside of this bunker, and we are not planning to take down Igor."

Yep, Sofia was definitely loopy, but her happiness was contagious, and Marcel didn't mind following her advice and forgetting that anything existed outside of the two of them. They could stay in bed and make love until they passed out from exhaustion, and when they woke up, they could do it again.

2

KIAN

"Your phone is ringing," Syssi said sleepily.

"I heard it." Kian tightened his arms around her. "I'm choosing to ignore it." He kissed the tip of her nose.

"What if it's an emergency?"

"It's always an emergency. I'm tired of all the emergencies I have to deal with."

"Just answer it, please."

He let out a breath and turned around to snatch the phone off the charger. It had stopped ringing, but seeing that the call had been from Eleanor, he decided to return it. She wouldn't have called if it wasn't important.

"What's up?"

"Did I wake you up?"

"No. I was already awake."

"I just wanted to give you an update on my talk with Sofia."

Alarm bells ringing in his head, Kian pushed up on the pillows. "Did she lie?"

"No, she believes that everything she told us is true, and she didn't hide any additional information except for the fact that her grandfather is Igor's second-in-command, but she’s already told Marcel about that without any compulsion on my part."

This was indeed big news, and he was glad that Eleanor hadn't waited to call him.

"What does it mean for us?"

"Not much. I had a long talk with her while she was under my compulsion, so I know she was telling me the truth. Her relationship with Igor's second-in-command doesn't afford her any special status in the compound. She believes that it gives her only a slight advantage over other human Kra-ell offspring, allowing her to attend university for the past seven years and perhaps more leeway in choosing her bed partners. But that could be her take on it. The pureblooded Kra-ell don't believe in the concept of love, and having or showing emotions is considered a weakness. Her grandfather might care for her, but he doesn't show it. In any case, it makes me reassess our hypothesis about the tracker that was embedded in her. I don't think that he wanted his granddaughter to get caught just so he could follow the tracker to wherever she was taken. I suspect that they embed trackers in all the humans who are allowed to leave the compound. They want to keep tabs on them."

"That makes sense, but I still like the idea of driving the cat with the tracker around to see if we can catch something in the net."

"Poor cat," Syssi murmured. "She didn't sign up for getting Sofia's tracker."

"Neither did Sofia." Kian patted her arm. "The tracker is tiny, and Julian gave the cat an anesthetic."

"She didn't suffer," Eleanor said. "And she's getting more petting than ever. But back to the tracker. If it has a tail, catching it will be easier than traveling all the way to Karelia and capturing the Kra-ell guarding the entrance to their secret tunnel. And what's even more important, Toven won't have to go there either and drag Mia with him, which he will have to do because she enhances his powers, and he can't free the Kra-ell from Igor's compulsion without her help. Did you talk to him about it? He might refuse, and without him and Mia, we have no plan."

"Not yet." Kian turned the speaker on and put the phone on his lap. "I'll talk to him today, but the truth is that I don't want him to go there either. It's too dangerous. I'm waiting for Turner to come up with a plan before we make our next move, and I hope he can come up with something that doesn't involve Toven and Mia going to Karelia."