Page 42 of Dark Shaman: Love Found (The Children Of The Gods #99)

ELUHEED

T he hotel bar was nearly empty at ten in the morning, just Eluheed, Tony, and the bartender who was rearranging the bottles on the shelf behind the bar for lack of anything better to do.

Eluheed nursed a coffee that had gone cold long ago, his eyes fixed on the entrance while Tony drummed his fingers against the bar in an increasingly agitated rhythm.

"They're late," Tony said for the third time, checking his watch.

"It's not like they need to show up at a certain time."

He was glad about the delay, still hoping that Zhao would stroll into the bar and start drinking early in the morning. He'd been hunting for the scientist each evening for the past week, but he hadn't seen him, so maybe he would have better luck in the morning.

After all, he was supposedly staying at the presidential suite, and he had to pass by the bar on his way out of the hotel .

Eluheed had tried to get to the top floor, planning to knock on Zhao's door, but the elevator required a special card to go to any of the upper floors, and the exit to the emergency stairs was locked.

He might have been able to break down the door, but that would have brought the guards and achieved nothing.

"They are never this late," Tony said. "The convoy always arrives between ten-fifteen and ten-twenty. It's almost eleven o'clock."

"I'm sure there is a legitimate reason." Eluheed glanced at the bartender, who seemed absorbed in his task but was undoubtedly listening to every word.

In Navuh's domain, everyone was a potential informant.

"Perhaps the ladies had a heated discussion over breakfast and didn't notice the passage of time. "

"Or perhaps something's wrong." Tony's leg bounced against the barstool. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Eluheed shared the unease but kept his expression neutral.

The past week had felt like a gathering storm.

Navuh had been demanding visions every day, but the universe was refusing to show Eluheed anything new.

All he saw each time was the original vision of fire and soldiers fighting one another.

The guards had been tense, though, as if everyone was waiting for something to happen, but the most disturbing thing had been Dr. Zhao's complete absence from the bar.

Every evening for a week, Eluheed had come here hoping to find the scientist and ask him about the poison, but Zhao had vanished like a puff of smoke .

"Maybe I should ask about him," Eluheed murmured, low enough that only Tony could hear.

"Ask about who?"

"The drunken scientist I told you about, Dr. Zhao. I haven't seen him in weeks."

Tony frowned. "Why do you care about?—"

The explosion cut through Tony's question like a thunderclap. The bottles behind the bar rattled, and one toppled, shattering on the floor in a spray of amber liquid and glass. The bartender dropped the one he'd been holding, his face draining of color.

A second explosion followed, even more powerful. The windows vibrated in their frames, and somewhere in the hotel, people screamed, and children started crying.

"What the hell?" Tony was on his feet, but Eluheed grabbed his arm, holding him in place.

"Wait," he said, though every instinct screamed at him to run, to find Tamira, to make sure she was safe. But running blindly into whatever was happening would help no one.

The bar door burst open, and two guards rushed in, assault rifles at the ready. "Everyone, back to your rooms! Now!"

"What's happening?" Tony demanded. "Is it an attack? Are the ladies safe?"

"Move!" The guard's rifle swung toward them. "Your rooms, immediately! "

They had no choice. Eluheed and Tony were herded through the hotel corridors and up the emergency stairs along with other displaced servants. The fear in the air was palpable, thick enough to taste.

Once they were in their room, they didn't feel any safer.

Through the windows, Eluheed caught glimpses of heavy smoke and secondary explosions rising from several points across the island. Someone must have detonated explosives in the armory, and he had a feeling about who that might be.

Tony pressed his face against the glass, trying to see what was going on, but most of the action was happening far away, which was a good thing. "I hear gunfire. Who are they shooting at?"

Eluheed knew. The enhanced soldiers had finally rebelled, just as Dr. Zhao had predicted. The mad scientist had been right about everything.

"The ladies are safe," Eluheed said, trying to convince himself as much as Tony. "Lord Navuh's mansion is heavily guarded. There is no safer place on the island."

The harem used to be that safe space, but Eluheed wasn't sure it would have protected them better.

The enhanced soldiers could have overpowered the guards.

Then again, it was possible that the underground pyramid could be locked down in an emergency so that no one could come in.

If that was the case, then the harem had been as safe as Tamira believed it to be .

Tony snorted. "Navuh would throw his own mother under the bus to save his own skin. I don't trust him to protect my girl."

Tula was far from a girl, but Eluheed wasn't going to correct his friend. "Even if that's true, which I don't think it is, the mansion is so heavily fortified that it would take an army to breach it."

"It's a mutiny!" Tony screeched, waving at the window. "The island is full of immortal warriors, and they are at war with each other. That's not going to end well."

Dread slithered down Eluheed's back. He hadn't considered the possibility that the enhanced soldiers would recruit the help of ordinary immortals.

Zhao hadn't said anything about them being able to compel in addition to being resistant to Navuh's mind control, but what if he hadn't known or had just omitted that tidbit of information out of fear of being overheard?

On their own, the enhanced soldiers didn't stand a chance, but together with other immortals, they posed a real threat.

Another explosion, this one also distant, but powerful enough to rattle the windows. Gunfire erupted somewhere closer—the sharp crack of assault rifles answered by the more resounding boom of heavier weapons.

"We have to do something," Tony said, pacing the small room like a caged animal. "We can't just sit here while this is going on."

A sharp knock was followed by the door flying open. A guard Eluheed knew from previous summonses stood there, breathing hard. "Come with me. Lord Navuh's orders."

Eluheed's heart leaped. After he delivered his services to Navuh, he would get to be with Tamira. He wouldn't take no for an answer. "What about Tony?"

"I was told to bring just you. Move!"

"I'm coming too," Tony said, stepping forward.

The guard's rifle came up. "My orders are to get Elias, and only Elias."

"Tony," Eluheed said quietly. "Stay here. I'll find out what's happening and make sure the ladies are protected."

"How can you make sure of that? You're just—" Tony cut himself off, but Eluheed knew what he'd been about to say. 'You're just human.'

He wasn't human, but he wasn't like these immortal warriors either, and most importantly, he didn't have a weapon.

"It's going to be fine." Eluheed followed the guard out.

The drive to Navuh's mansion was stressful. The fighting was still at a distance, with rapid gunfire now more prevalent than explosions, but the entire island wasn't all that big, and it wouldn't take long before the forces reached this area.

"Rifles are the great equalizer," the guard muttered, following Eluheed's gaze. "Doesn't matter how strong or fast they are if you can put enough bullets in them."

"Can bullets kill them? "

The guard's laugh was bitter. "No, and the bastards are difficult to incapacitate, but once they are out, we cut their heads off. That works."

When they reached Navuh's mansion, Eluheed's tension eased.

Soldiers surrounded the outer fence—hundreds of them, arranged in defensive rings with overlapping fields of fire.

Machine gun nests had been set up at key points, and Eluheed could see snipers on the roof.

Whatever else was happening on the island, Navuh's residence was secure.

Their vehicle was allowed through the gate only after it was thoroughly inspected to ensure no one was hitching a ride with them, and then they were parked in front of the entrance.

Seeing that the courtyard was also crawling with soldiers, Eluheed let out a breath.

He wanted to call Tony and ease his fears about Tula, but he didn't have a phone, and neither did Tony.

The enhanced soldiers might be super strong, but they weren't invincible, and even they couldn't assault a position this well-defended without taking massive casualties.

Inside the mansion, servants scurried through the halls, some carrying supplies, others boarding up windows. The beautiful modern structure was being transformed into a fortress.

Navuh's office door stood open. The lord was at his desk, multiple screens displaying feeds from across the island. His face was a mask of cold fury and determination.

"Leave us," Navuh ordered the guard without looking up .

The door closed behind Eluheed with a decisive click.

"Sit," Navuh commanded, finally raising his eyes to meet Eluheed's. He extended his hand across the desk. "Tell me how this ends."

He took the offered hand, feeling the barely controlled rage beneath Navuh's skin. He opened his mind to the connection and immediately wished he hadn't.

The visions came in a torrent of blood and fire—the island burning, bodies piled up, soldiers running through ruins. But that wasn't much different from what he had seen before, and beyond that, the future fractured into a thousand possibilities, each one shifting and changing like smoke.

He saw Navuh victorious.

He saw Navuh's head on a pike.

He saw the island abandoned, empty except for carrion birds picking at the dead.

He saw Areana weeping over Navuh's broken body.

He saw Tamira?—

No. He pulled back from that vision, unable to bear what it showed.

"Well?" Navuh's grip tightened painfully. "What do you see?"

"Chaos," Eluheed said, his voice hoarse. "The future is undecided. Too many variables, too many choices yet to be made. All I see clearly is chaos. "

"That's not good enough!" Navuh's other hand slammed down on the desk. "I need to know how this ends!"

"The visions don't work that way, my lord. They show possibilities, not certainties. Right now, there are too many paths forward. The rebellion has created a fracture point. Every decision made in the next few hours will determine which future becomes reality."

Navuh released his hand with disgust, sitting back in his chair. "Zhao, the one responsible for this fiasco, is dead," he said, the words dripping venom. "The coward killed himself rather than face his failure."

So, Zhao was gone, and with him, any chance of the poison Tamira wanted. Eluheed felt a complex mix of relief and disappointment. Relief that he wouldn't have to deliver to her the means to end her own life, disappointment that he couldn't give her the only choice she might have.

"You can join the ladies in the basement," Navuh said. "I may need your abilities again as this situation develops."

This was what Eluheed had been hoping for. He would get to be with Tamira and hold her tightly so she wouldn't succumb to panic.

"Yes, my lord."

"Go," Navuh said, waving him off and turning back to his screens. "My men will escort you down. And, shaman? If you have any visions, any insights that might help end this quickly, come up and tell me immediately."

"Of course, my lord."