Page 77 of Dark Gambit Reliance

"I meant no disrespect." Jade dipped her head. "I thought that was what humans called their assistants."

"No harm done," Toven interrupted. "Well, that's only true about the sidekick comment. You shouldn't have told Kagra anything without the disrupter, but that's my fault. I failed to warn you not to say anything without me being present."

Toven was starting to realize that he wasn't well-suited for this modern-day style of battle with listening devices, trackers, and collars that could explode. His power of compulsion was necessary for this mission, but they should have given him a tech-savvy sidekick.

Jade didn't look concerned. "The collars are not transmitting or recording our conversations. I told Kagra about contacting Veskar, or Emmett as you call him, long before I actually did it, and Igor never confronted me about it until I entered the writing competition."

"I hope you're right about that."

"I am." She turned to Kagra. "This is the moment you've been waiting for since we were captured. Tom is going to release you from Igor's compulsion."

The woman nodded and stepped forward. "I'm ready."

Toven looked into her eyes. "You no longer have to obey Igor's commands in any way. You are free to act and talk as you will." He gave her an encouraging smile. "Go ahead. Say something that you couldn't say before."

She put her hand on her chest. "I feel it in here. The oily feeling is gone." She took in a deep breath. "I want to tear Igor and his cohorts limb from limb for killing most of my tribe and enslaving the rest of us." She smiled brilliantly. "It's the oddest thing to feel happy about, but you have no idea how liberating it is to actually say that to someone who doesn't already know about it. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

He had known about her tribe, but she hadn't known that he had.

Jade clapped Kagra on her back. "Now, you can help me bring Igor and the rest of them down." She turned to Toven. "Valstar is waiting for me to come to his quarters at noon tomorrow. He expects sex, but he's only going to get the fight for dominance part, and I'm going to end him. Kagra is going to take care of the third, and Pavel is going to help secure the office building."

"About that." Toven sat down on the ground. "You can't kill Valstar before we capture Igor. He probably calls his second every so often, and if he gets no answer, he's not going to return. We also have to change the time of the attack to two o'clock at night instead of two in the afternoon."

When Jade bared her fangs, he lifted his hand to stop her from arguing. "You have to incapacitate Valstar so he can't trigger the explosives when we attack, and that needs to hold until I can get to him. Once we capture Igor, you can do with him as you please."

"I don't like it, but I can understand the logic of leaving Valstar alive until we capture Igor. Why the change of time, though? It's really pushing it too close for comfort." She sat on the ground, and Kagra followed her example.

"With most of the compound population asleep, and the children and humans out of the way, our task will be much easier."

Jade let out a breath. "I'll have to change my plans with Valstar."

"Is that a problem?" Mia asked.

"It is, but I'll come up with some excuse. He's so eager to get me in his bed that he will overlook the warning signs." She looked at Toven. "I assume that you plan to compel Valstar to tell Igor that everything is okay."

He nodded.

"You will have to restore the compound's communication."

"Correct. Once we have the compound secure and I'm done compelling everyone, we will stop disrupting the signal, and when Igor calls, Valstar will tell him that there was a malfunction. But since it will all happen at night, Igor might not call at all."

Jade's enormous smart eyes bored into him. "It's not going to work unless you can compel the entire population of the compound all at once, and even Igor can't do that. Perhaps the humans can be compelled as a group, but I wouldn't risk it. I think that Igor compels each person individually and then reinforces it with his public speeches."

"You think, or you know?" Mia asked.

"I think. He doesn't share his methods with me, and I don't spend that much time around him."

"I was led to believe that the community has limited access to phones and computers," Toven said. "Why do we need to compel everyone at once? Perhaps I can compel just the key players, and we can lock the rest of them up somewhere secure until we trap Igor."

"It's true that the only phones and computers inside the compound are in the office building, but I'm sure that Igor has snitches who have a way to contact him, and I don't know who they are. They might be hybrid, human, and pureblood. Probably a couple of each."

Toven let out a breath. "It means that we will have to keep the disrupter running until I compel them all."

"It will take all night, and if Igor calls and can't get through, he will get suspicious. Even if it takes you only one minute to compel each person, and you don't take any rests in between, that's over three hundred minutes."

It would have taken him much longer than that if not for Turner's idea of delegating the second half of the process to the clan's other compellers. His tasks would be to free them from Igor's compulsion and compel them to listen to the instructions of the other compellers.