Author's Note
:
Alright. Back again after a long wait. I just hope this chapter is long enough to compensate for the wait. As usual, dealing with other necessities of life took away time for writing. And since this chapter covers a lot of background story, it took a lot of writing and rewriting.
Thanks to my wonderful editor Gabriel. Without his keen eyes to find irregularities and mistakes, this chapter would have taken even longer to come out and not nearly as smooth and clean as it is now. If you spot any mistakes, it is purely to be attributed to my post-edit tweaking around.
And many thanks to you, my readers, who faithfully hang on to the story and vote and leave comments. I promise, the next chapter will not take this long.
No more waiting. Enjoy the story.
***** ***** *******
"
That was a good step. Well done."
Kendra's soft voice sounded like a drum on the mental connection as it startled Kiel out of his deep thoughts.
"What are you talking about?"
He frowned at his desk.
"
Of course I'm talking about the way you handled Rohan's need to protect Rayn. By asking him to choose her side over yours, you assured him that you are concerned for Rayn, too. That should influence his decision to some extent if ever a situation for potential defection emerges."
Kendra stated in a matter of fact way.
"
That's not why I did it Kendra. You know me better than that."
His irritation was pretty apparent over their connection. As Kendra's soft 'Gotcha' laughter sounded in his head, he almost wished they were speaking over a phone or something. At least then he would have the satisfaction of slamming down the phone on her.
"
No, that's not why you did it. Good thing you admitted that. Now to the reason why you did it."
Kendra had gone from smiling to serious in a heartbeat. "
I think your reasoning behind the decision to not mate with Rayn is faulty. You should reconsider..."
"I've already told you I'll think about it. Anything else?"
He snapped at Kendra, something he had almost never done before. Even as he realized that, he didn't feel like apologizing. His mind was already troubled.
"
Yes. We have to inform her about her parents."
"I know."
He grew wary. 'Did Kendra know?' he wondered. Shaking his head he banished that thought from his head. If she didn't know what he was thinking, she would know if he kept thinking about it while talking to her. Being an Immortal, she had powers many would die for. Ferreting out information from someone's active memory while connected to their mind was one of those powers of hers.
"
Do you want me to do it?"
Kendra asked, even as her curiosity flared as she felt him strengthen his guard.
"Yes. That'd be for the best. And Kendra..."
"What?"
"Tell her the truth. She has the right to know the truth."
"She might over react. She's still too young..."
"I'll take care of that if she over reacts. But she deserves the truth."
"Yes she does. When does she get to hear the truth about you and what you feel for her? And oh, I guess telling her about you two being mates would be one those truths, too, that she deserves to know."
"
That's for me to decide."
Kiel was trying hard not to scream at her. What were they trying to do, irritate him to death?
"
She was right you know. You do become an ass when it comes to Rayn."
Stunning Kiel with that taunt, Kendra broke the connection, leaving him alone to grumble.
His connection with Kendra now broken, he again wondered if she had gotten whiff of his uninformed activities. He didn't want her to know, not yet. He should be the one to inform Rayn about that, not Kendra. He sighed. Doing a quick search of the main hall when he couldn't see Rayn there, he made his way down to Rohan's office to find him pouring over a design for a new armor. As he saw Kiel enter, he straightened up to greet him,
"Hi. "
"Hey." Kiel's reply was subdued, somewhat grim. Rohan could almost understand why.
"Kendra knows?" he asked knowingly.
"Not yet. But I think she suspects something." Kiel replied in the same tone, picking up a small throwing knife and starting to play with it.
"Quite possibly. The medical bay is crowded and not for a reason she knows. And unless you put that knife down, there's gonna be another patient there shortly. Those knives are poisoned." Rohan didn't seem much worried by the possibility of Kendra knowing their secret. His thoughts were centered elsewhere, "Whether she knows or not is a moot point. She will have to be informed eventually. But I think it should be you telling Rayn about this, not Kendra."
Kiel nodded distractedly, still playing with the knife, throwing it slightly up in the air to again catch it by the small handle, "Yes, I know. Where is Rayn right now? I need to talk to her." he lifted his eyes questioningly at Rohan.
Shaking his head, Rohan said,"Not yet. She's out on a solo trip to meet a contact for her next mission." He paused and flashed a smile, adding, "Her first mission as a full fledged operative. I think Kendra told her this morning about the initiation and her new status as a level two operative. I think Rayn likes the fact that she's not a trainee anymore." Rohan's eyes twinkled with amusement. As he saw Kiel nod and smile in agreement, he continued, "And as far as I know, she then has a date with Rogers, and they will be having dinner at his house. So in all likelyhood, you won't be seeing her until tomorrow morning." seeing the look on Kiel's face change, he swiftly extended a hand and caught the knife Kiel was playing with in mid-air, adding, "and I will take that for you, thank you."
"She's dating Rogers?" was it jealousy he was feeling? Kiel didn't think about it, but nevertheless, he couldn't stop the growl that emanated from his chest, courtesy of the suddenly edgy wolf inside him.
"Uh-huh." Rohan calmly replied, as if he hadn't even noticed Kiel's growl, "In fact," he continued, "I've even started to facilitate their relationship by getting her on his team for the next several missions. They'll grow even more close, just like you wanted." Rohan had the nerve to smile at Kiel as if he had done a great favor for him.
Even as Kiel tried very hard to reign in the sudden urge to snap someones neck, even as he tried to humanly reason with the aggravated wolf inside himself, hearing Rohan's last words almost overrode his efforts, almost. Despite his relatively good control over himself, he took the few steps necessary to close the gap between Rohan and himself, growling, and gritted out, "You. Are. Facilitating...
This
?" he couldn't find a nice term to fit the situation between Rayn, Rogers and himself. He was keeping his arms tightly crossed across his chest to keep himself from doing something to wipe the grin off Rohan's face.
"Yeah. Just like you wanted. You know, that she falls in love with another." Rohan supplied innocently, his words tinged with mock confusion. As his words penetrated the haze of rage inside Kiel's head, he understood the trap Rohan had gotten him into. What is it with these people today? Kiel silently wondered.
"Yes, I wanted it. But only if it happened naturally. I didn't want you to play Cupid. This is not a match making organization we're running. I'd appreciate it if you don't turn it into one." His voice was calm enough, his mind wasn't. He knew what Rohan and Kendra were trying to do - and they were succeeding at it. Kiel was realizing very well that despite what he had said earlier about Rayn loving another, he wasn't ready to let go of her. He would never be ready. He knew that too. And still, he didn't want her to know about them being mates. Loving someone meant keeping them safe. He had not succeeded in keeping her family safe, and that was going to hurt her pretty badly when she would come to know of it. He couldn't save her from that pain. But he was going to do all he could to save her from meeting the same fate as her family. She was irrevocably involved in this war now, the demons knew of her and she was in no less danger outside than inside the organization. He wasn't going to do anything that might give the demons a chance to find a chink in their armor.
Calming himself down he stepped away from Rohan, then turned towards the door to walk away,
"Please tell Rayn to see me when you see her next. And get her off Rogers' team. I want her on my team. I'm her trainer, not Rogers. She needs to learn a lot and learn quickly. That won't happen if she's on his team." with that he walked away. If he had paused and turned for a second at the door, he might have caught Rohan's knowing grin and a murmured,
"Sure pal, whatever makes you feel better."
*****
Rayn slightly swiveled on the bar stool she was sitting on, her back towards the counter, one leg crossed over the other, her left elbow resting on the counter top, her palms clasped firmly. She had walked in just a few minutes ago, and decided she wasn't going to find another bar as shady as this one in town. With her gradually enhancing beast senses, she was hard pressed to control her expression as the bar literally reeked of foul things. She completely hated it. Yet, when she had placed her order, she had smiled as sweetly as possible, all the while swearing mentally at Rohan. She was going to have to yell at him in person for sending her to this meeting because she wasn't allowed to connect with anyone mentally as long as she was here. Supposedly, even demons visit here and some of them have senses that enable them to "listen in" on such connections. The smells were proof that the speculation was true. At least one demon was here. She had to get out of here as soon as her job was done. Rayn casually ran her eyes over the surrounding crowd. The contact should be here by now, and that's the person she was looking for.
"Here's your drink, ma'am." the bar man's voice almost startled her, she hadn't heard him approach. Quickly hiding her reaction, she turned towards him.
"Thanks." Once the bar man went to attend to others, she peered at the drink she was told to order. It was a curious mixture of colored liquids. As she stared at it, the colors swirled and changed continuously, hypnotically. She couldn't take her eyes off the misty looking drink.
"You don't frequent this bar, do you, beauty?" a deep male voice sounded beside her, jerking her out of the trance.
"Huh?" she lifted confused eyes to find a middle aged balding man sitting beside her, surveying her with interest. "Why would you think that, may I ask?" did she look that obviously new to the bar?
