Dark Stranger Immortal (The Children of the Gods #3)(6)

Whatever his reasons for the gallant gesture, at the contact her skin prickled with awareness. And as he held her close, she breathed in his unique musk, getting intoxicated by it. Syssi had to briefly close her eyes. The man smelled absolutely delicious. When he reluctantly released her, she opened her eyes slowly, swaying on her feet a little before turning to Bridget. “When will you have something for us?”

Fidgeting with her equipment, the doctor seemed uneasy with their open display of affection. “The mitochondrial DNA testing will be done probably today. The rest will take as long as it does. I have a slew of tests I’m thinking of, and probably will come up with some more as I go.”

“Don’t you need to send it out to a genetics lab?” Syssi didn’t know what exactly was required, but the small lab they were in certainly didn’t have anything looking even remotely sophisticated.

“Oh, this?” Bridget followed Syssi’s appraising eyes. “This is just my examination room. I have all the best equipment available in the lab proper, a level down from here. Besides this room, I also have an operating room and several recovery rooms. I’m a whole hospital and research facility of one.”

Her chin went up. “I have everything a girl like me could ever dream of.” She blew a kiss at Kian. “All thanks to our very generous regent.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.” Kian blew her a kiss back. “You’ll let us know as soon as you have the initial results?”

“You’ll be the first to know,” Bridget promised.

As they made their way back to the elevator, Michael was a step behind them. “Do you guys really need to keep me locked up? Can’t I at least enjoy the freedom of the basement? Syssi gets to, so why can’t I?”

Michael seemed to be happy and excited about the opportunity he had been given, and Syssi doubted he would bolt. But apparently, Kian wasn’t ready to take the risk.

He glanced back at Michael, appraising him.

“Okay, kid. I’ll take you to William and have him encode the elevator with your thumbprint. However, I’ll have you wear a locator cuff. And just to make things clear, the thing is impossible to remove by anyone but William.

Not without cutting off your hand. Still want one?”

“Hell, yeah! Sure I want it! It’s not like I have any desire to leave or anything. ” Michael shook Kian’s hand vigorously. “Thank you. I hate being locked up.”

“You’re welcome.”

“How about me? Don’t I get a thumbprint pass to the elevator?” Syssi hadn’t thought to ask before, but now with Michael getting it, she saw no reason why she shouldn’t have access to the elevators as well.

“You don’t have one yet? I thought Amanda took care of it. How did you get around?”

“There was always someone escorting me. I never used the elevator by myself. Frankly, at one point I even considered taking the endless stairs down. I’m getting claustrophobic being cooped up in here.”

“Both of you are coming with me to William right now to take care of this.” Kian led them toward another turn in the endless labyrinth of the underground.

“If I’m to navigate it on my own, I’ll need a map of this place. Otherwise, I’ll get so lost, it will take you days to find me.” Syssi wasn’t joking. Besides the place being huge, there were no distinguishing signs between one corridor and another. They all looked the same; same industrial carpet, same concrete walls, and the same metal doors leading to various rooms. With her nonexistent sense of direction, she would be lost in no time.

A wicked gleam in his eyes, Kian bent to whisper in her ear. “I’ll slap a locator cuff on you as well, my sweet.”

“Aren’t you the big bad wolf.” She stretched up on her tiptoes, pretending to go for his lips. But instead of the kiss he’d been expecting, she nipped his nose.

“Oh, I’ll get you for that…” Kian growled.

“As I see it, I owed you a bite… or two… you had it coming…”

“You’re lucky we have company…” Kian pinched her butt.

Michael chuckled.

“Shut up, kid. You haven’t seen a thing…” He twisted back, pinning Michael with a hard stare.

“I see nothing, hear nothing… I’m not even here…” Michael saluted solemnly, his face pinched in an effort to suppress another chuckle.

“You and I are going to get along just fine, kid…” Kian winked at Michael, then wrapped his arm around Syssi’s waist, pulling her closer against his side.





3

S Y S S I

Back at the penthouse, Syssi examined the wide metal cuff on her wrist. It didn’t look too bad. The highly polished metal gleamed like a fine piece of jewelry, and the cuff’s unbreakable locking mechanism was so cleverly concealed that no one would ever suspect the thing housed a sophisticated tracking device.

Except, regrettably, the pretty cuff would trigger an alarm as soon as she tried to leave the compound.

And here she thought she would be free to roam the streets whenever she pleased.

With that thought, Syssi slanted a suspicious glance at Kian, who was sitting beside her on the couch, busy going through his emails on an iPad.

“How come you have these cuffs in the first place?”