Chapter 9 Annani
ANNANI
Mia looked adorable in medical scrubs.
That was not the most strategically relevant observation Annani could have made as they drove through the evening traffic toward the keep, but it was true nonetheless.
The pale blue fabric hung loosely on Mia's small frame, and the white Crocs on her feet made her look like a child playing dress-up in her mother's work clothes.
Her dark hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, and she had even hung a lanyard with a fake identification badge around her neck.
Annani wondered if that was her idea or Bridget's.
Probably hers.
The poor girl had a lot of experience with hospital staff. She had spent years in rehabilitation after both her legs had been amputated and had had enough interactions with doctors, nurses, and therapists to emulate them perfectly.
"I never knew that scrubs and Crocs could look so charming," Toven said, echoing Annani's observation. "I am tempted to try a new Perfect Match adventure with you, but I can't decide if I want to be your patient or a fellow medical provider who seduces you in the employee lounge."
Mia blushed and rolled her eyes at her mate's lack of social decorum.
"Too much information, Toven," Anandur said from the front of the SUV. "As the oldest being on this planet, you should know what things should and should not be shared with company."
"As the oldest being on this planet, I don't give a damn," Toven deadpanned. "I'll compliment my mate anywhere and anytime."
"Good point," Anandur said. "Very old humans are like that, too. They say whatever is on their mind."
"Toven is not like that," Mia defended her mate. "He would never say anything offensive unless it was rightfully earned."
"That's right." Toven wrapped his arm around Mia's slim shoulders. "You look adorable and sexy in equal measures, my love."
Annani had to agree.
Mia was almost as small as Annani, and Toven was as tall as her Khiann, and the resemblance struck her with an unexpected feeling of solidarity.
The fierce spirit housed in a diminutive body, and the protective towering male beside the petite female, trying very hard not to appear overbearing.
It did not matter that Annani had never needed Khiann to protect her.
It had been nice to be cared for with such dedication and intensity.
Anandur didn't respond, but his massive shoulders twitched suspiciously as if he was trying very hard not to laugh. Beside him, Brundar sat in his usual perfect stillness.
"I have been thinking about how this will work," Annani said, turning to Mia. "Are you sure that we do not need to touch for you to enhance my power?"
Mia nodded. "I'm like a battery or a charger that doesn't need wires to enhance paranormal talents."
"You are more like a Wi-Fi booster," Anandur offered from the driver's seat.
"That's a good analogy," Kian said.
Anandur grinned at him through the rearview mirror. "I know, right?"
Toven shifted in his seat. "I've found that Mia's enhancement is strongest when we're in physical contact. But that might be our mate bond amplifying the effect. I have no way to separate the two variables."
That was an interesting question. Did the mate bond add to the combined power, or was physical proximity the sole factor?
If it were the bond, then Annani might receive a lesser boost than Toven did.
But if it was proximity alone, then holding Mia's hand should suffice.
It was also possible that her being close by would be enough.
There was no way to ascertain the effect until it was tried and tested.
"Have you attempted to enter Navuh's mind on your own?" Mia asked.
"No, I have not," Annani admitted. "In fact, I have a feeling that he is immune. But just in case I am wrong, I want to come in at full power." She turned to Toven. "I do not know which of us is more powerful. Perhaps you should try as well."
Toven shook his head. "I would love to go in there with Mia and do what needs to be done, but I can't allow my protective instincts to jeopardize the mission.
You've been visiting him regularly, and he's accustomed to your presence.
You've never tried anything, so he has no reason to expect a mental attack from you, and his shields will not be up.
It won't be the same with me. He knows who I am, and he will be on his guard the moment I step through the door. "
"Do you think he remembers you?" Mia asked.
"I am his father's brother. Of course, he remembers his uncle."
The word uncle settled over everyone in the vehicle.
It was easy to forget in the midst of strategic planning and power calculations that the man they were going to see was family.
Twisted, corrupted, monstrous, but family nonetheless.
Navuh was Mortdh's son, and Mortdh had been Toven's half-brother.
The bloodlines that connected them were the same bloodlines that gave them their power.
Which brought Annani to the thought that had been circling in her mind all day.
Toven might actually have a better chance than she did. He and Mortdh had inherited their compulsion ability through Ekin's line, even though Ekin himself had not been a compeller.
Ekin had been Ahn's half-brother. Both Ekin and Ahn had been sired by the Eternal King himself, the most powerful compeller on the planet of the gods.
They all carried some of the Eternal King in their blood.
Annani through her father Ahn, Toven through his father Ekin, and Navuh through his father Mortdh and his grandfather Ekin.
The power had branched and diluted across generations, expressing itself differently in different descendants, or not expressing itself at all.
"What are you thinking?" Kian asked.
"About bloodlines and power structures." She offered him a smile.
"We all carry some of the Eternal King in us, but not all of his descendants are compellers.
None of my children has the ability. Navuh, on the other hand, inherited a very potent compulsion ability through Mortdh.
The fact that Navuh was immune to Mortdh's compulsion, however, probably means that he is immune to mine and Toven's as well.
But we will not know until we put it to the test."
Kian nodded. "We know it's a long shot, but it's worth trying."
"We will at least know for sure if compelling information out of him is an option."
Reaching into his pocket, Kian produced two small cases of compulsion-filtering earpieces.
He handed one pair to Mia and the other to Toven. "Do you need me to remind you how these work?"
"I still remember." Mia opened the case.
Inside were the pale, flesh-colored earbuds that were nearly invisible once inserted.
"I am not going to be in the room with Navuh," Toven said. "I don't need them."
"Yes, you do." Kian's tone left no room for negotiation. "It's standard protocol that everyone in the clinic wears them as long as Navuh is there. He probably can't compel you even without the earpieces, but I'm not taking any chances. "
Toven was a seven-thousand-year-old god who was probably capable of resisting compulsion without technological assistance, but something in Kian's expression must have convinced him that this was not a battle worth fighting.
Anandur guided the SUV down the spiraling ramp of the parking garage beneath the high-rise that housed the keep, descending past the levels reserved for the building's human residents until they reached the lowest level that was accessible only to clan members.
The concrete walls were bare, the lighting utilitarian, and the space mostly empty.
It looked like every other underground parking garage in the city, which was precisely the point.
Anandur led them to a door marked Maintenance, Authorized Personnel Only, and held it open. Beyond it was a short corridor and at the end of it an elevator that bore no floor numbers on its control panel, just a single button and a biometric scanner.
Kian pressed his thumb to the scanner, and the doors opened.
They descended.
Annani used the brief ride to prepare herself mentally.
She closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, and turned her focus inward.
The power was there, as it always was, a reservoir of something she could not define running beneath the surface of her consciousness and responsive to her will.
She could direct it, channel it, or dam it.
In her youth, she could not always control its force, but she had learned to harness it over the millennia.
She knew how to store it, how to stoke it, and how to deploy it, but she had never really tested the limits of that power.
Tonight, she was going to use all the force she could summon.