Chapter Thirty-One
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RAHAB’S TEMPER WAS simmering as he took his walky-talky out of his suit pocket.
“This is your commander,” he said to the seventeen other remaining soldiers who’d sired cambions.
They had their own channel for him to communicate with them on.
One of their guards monitored and used the other channel his men utilized.
“Meet me at the gym in five minutes,” he ordered.
“Tell your guards to wait where they are until you return.” They would be able to make it back in time even if they’d been scattered all over the other four boroughs.
Xathan was already waiting for him when Rahab entered the gym. He’d opted to have the meeting there because it was larger than the lobby of their base. “Lord,” his hairless advisor said in cautious greeting.
“Xathan,” Rahab said curtly, then added a temporary ward to hide their presence.
Phul was the next to arrive. He entered, gave his leader the same wary look as Xathan and stood at attention. The rest arrived within the five-minute deadline. Lachial arched a pale blond eyebrow at the second in command. Phul shook his head to indicate he didn’t know what was going on.
“Do any of you have any updates about your search to locate your offspring?” Rahab asked.
Ornias raised his hand. “I do, Lord,” he said, still scowling at the brief glimpse he’d had of his progeny. “Kochab teleported her directly in front of my team,” he reported. “He teleported away again before we had time to react.”
“How unfortunate,” Vetis said with a smirk. “We’ll all have to move quickly to snare our younglings before our enemies can whisk them away from us.”
“I’m beginning to wonder how any of you can possibly capture your cambions,” Rahab snarled.
“You can’t even find eleven escaped humans.
” Vetis made his face go blank, wishing he’d kept his mouth shut for once.
“It’s been six days since GG and her friends ran away,” their commander went on, pacing up and down near the front counter.
They were scattered between the gym equipment that had been rearranged to Rahab’s liking.
Phul had been dreading this moment, but he had to speak up. “Lord, if I may?” he asked.
Rahab spun around to face him. “By all means, Phul,” their leader said. “Tell us all your insights into why you’re all incapable of locating my female!” He was roaring by the end of his sentence. It was just as well he’d muted the building after warding it.
Phul winced, but he didn’t cower away. “As you said, it’s been six days since GG and the other women left,” he said. “I believe Fate is behind this. She’s shielded them from us. They’re probably halfway across the country by now. I believe we’re wasting our time searching for them.”
The veins in Rahab’s neck stood out as his fury increased even more. He was speechless with anger that his second would dare question his orders.
“Phul may be right, Lord,” Xathan said, bravely meeting his leader’s glowing scarlet eyes. It was a sign he was about to explode again. “Fate has always been manipulative and sneaky,” he continued. “I think she orchestrated all of this to distract us from our true task of finding our offspring.”
That was enough to give Rahab pause. He scanned his men’s faces and saw they were all in agreement.
Anarchy had chosen them all to sire their progeny for reasons Rahab couldn’t begin to understand.
Most were no different from the rest of the soldiers.
Lachial and Vetis were particularly vicious.
Xathan being chosen still baffled him, since he was physically inferior to the others.
Fate had obviously interfered with the women he and his men chose to procreate with.
She’d planned all of this long in advance to work in Order’s favor.
“You could be right,” he said, stunning them by controlling his emotions. “Fate is behind this. If I’m meant to finish my personal business with GG, then she’ll turn up eventually. For now, we need to focus on locating our spawn.”
Xathan pinched his lips together. His commander had once again taken his words and twisted them to make it seem like this was his idea. He knew better than to point out that he’d just said that exact same thing.
“We would have located the cambions if they were in Manhattan by now,” Rahab went on. He resumed pacing, but his stride was thoughtful rather than manic. “We need to concentrate our search on the other boroughs. I assume you have a plan, Xathan?”
“I do, Lord,” his advisor confirmed. “I have maps ready to hand out that are broken into grids. I’ve ensured we’ll be able to search the other four boroughs thoroughly, making certain no areas will be missed.”
“Of course you have,” Lachial muttered with an eyeroll. Vetis snickered quietly. Phul cut a look at them both, warning them to behave.
“Hand out copies to everyone in this room,” Rahab ordered.
“Remain in groups of five while you search,” he added.
“The knights will be hunting for us. Their numbers still seem to be limited so far. Use your walky-talkies if you run into trouble.” He directed that comment at Xathan.
His dark-skinned lackey grimaced at the reprimand for not using his own device when he’d encountered his progeny.
Semiaza had absconded with Xanthia after killing two soldiers.
“What about those of us with cambions who’ve become bonded with the knights, Lord?” Ornias asked. “There’s not much point in us searching for them. Their base won’t be anywhere near New York. Not if our enemies can teleport already.”
“Good point,” Rahab agreed, surprising them all again.
“You ran into your progeny tonight by random chance. Phul, Ornias and Vetis can all roam around Manhattan with their guards. You might get lucky and trap the cambions and their knights.” Xathan had other duties he needed to perform, so he was exempted from that order.
Vetis’ daughter hadn’t bonded with a knight as far as he knew, but she was with their enemies.
“By the way, I want the knights to be captured alive,” Rahab said.
It took a second for his words to register with his men. “You want the knights alive, Lord?” Phul asked in shock. “Why?”
Rahab glanced at Xathan, then smirked. “Xathan and I performed an experiment when we captured Tolas and Berit’s offspring,” he said. “We forced them to copulate when the cambion was fertile. I believe the female fell pregnant.”
“You want the knights to impregnate our spawn, Lord?” Vetis asked in confusion.
“How else are we going to increase our army?” Xathan pointed out. “Our enemies have been picking us off slowly. We can’t create more cambions, thanks to Fate’s interference.”
“Using the knights as sperm donors is my solution,” Rahab said, proud of his plan.
“It is a brilliant plan,” his advisor said. “If we were successful once, then we can be successful again. Keeping the cambions hostage will force the knights into compliance. They’ll do anything to protect their females.”
Phul didn’t like being kept out of the loop like this.
He knew he wasn’t as smart as Xathan, but he’d always been loyal to their commander.
He kept his bitter thoughts to himself. His spawn had become bonded to Camriel.
Neither had shown their faces in Manhattan since they’d rescued Jacquin, as far as he knew.
Wandering around the city in the hopes of running into them seemed like a colossal waste of time to him.
He wasn’t about to speak up again after already pushing his luck tonight.
“We’re the only soldiers who know about this plan,” Rahab said. “I want it to remain that way.”
“I’ve heard some rumors that we aren’t returning to the Void when we die this time, Lord,” one of his lackeys said in a disturbed tone. “Is there any truth to that?”
Rahab exchanged glances with Xathan and Phul. Both males nodded at him that it was time to tell them the truth. “It’s true,” their commander admitted. “Anarchy advised me that this will be our final war. New knights and soldiers will be created to take our places after the battles are over.”
Murmurs of fear and anger rumbled around the room. Rahab let them get it out of their systems.
“Quiet!” Phul shouted when his boss flicked a look at him. “Lord Rahab has more to say,” he said, glowering at them.
“Anarchy also told me the survivors of whichever side wins the war will be allowed to remain here on Earth,” Rahab went on. “He said if we bond with our cambions, we’ll become stronger and faster like Amaros and his knights appear to be.”
“Now you’re talking!” one of his lackeys exclaimed in excitement.
“Unfortunately, that appears to be yet another fabrication,” Rahab said, instantly killing the mood. “Berit didn’t notice an increase in his abilities after Wynter became fully healed. I also didn’t receive any benefit from their bond as Anarchy promised.”
Xathan spoke up when mutters were exchanged. “We have a theory that this might be because the cambion was defective,” he said. “We won’t know for sure until we capture another cambion and her sire forces her to bond with him.”
“We can’t allow our offspring and the knights to become linked if we capture them before they discover their potential bond,” Rahab said, tone turning cold and hard. “They’ll both become far harder to control once their strength increases.”
“How many cambions have bonded with knights so far, Lord?” another soldier asked.
“Five that we know of,” Rahab said. “Phul’s daughter is bonded to Camriel.
Ornias’ is bonded to Kochab. Xathan’s cambion is linked to Semiaza.
Berit’s offspring is bonded to Tolas. The final other female killed her sire with lightning and became linked to Jacquin, or so we believe from what Phul overheard some humans saying. ”
“There’s still fifteen cambions who are out there, waiting for you to claim them,” Xathan said. “Fate is working hard to make sure they meet the knights she intends them to become bonded to. We need to find them first and use them as lures to draw their mates into an ambush.”
“Then we’ll spring our trap, force the couples to procreate and slowly, but surely increase our army,” Rahab said. “We can keep the war going indefinitely until we have enough spawn to work with. Then we can finish off our enemies and claim this world as ours forever.”
“Anarchy chose us above the others,” Phul said. “We’ll inherit this planet and the humans will become our slaves.”
Rahab grinned fiercely at the rowdy cheers coming from his team.
They all knew the rest of his squad were mere cannon fodder.
Chaos had made its choice and none of them were about to complain about it.
“A knight and a cambion are heading to Manhattan right now, according to a human they call the Mad Prophet,” their commander said.
“You’ll all be stationed at the bridges and tunnels to keep watch for them until they show up.
This will be the perfect opportunity to capture our next pair, hopefully before they become bonded. ”