Dark Choices - I. T. Lucas Page 0,84

your mate with appreciation? Would you have reacted like that too?”

Dalhu nodded. “It’s not voluntary. That’s the way we are wired. Unless your flirtation with Jacki was more friendly than lustful in nature, Kalugal must love you like a brother to react so mildly to it.”

“I doubt it. He just has great self-control.”

“He is three-quarters god, which makes him as close to the source as it gets. His predatory instincts must be incredibly strong.”

“If he loved me like a brother, he would have done more to accommodate me. He could have at least promised to give it more thought instead of just saying no.”

“Maybe he thought it through already? He’s a smart guy. He must have known that you would come to talk to him about Edna.”

“That’s possible.”

As Rufsur's anger slowly dissipated, it left in its place a despondency that felt much worse.

Surprising him, Dalhu put a hand on his shoulder. “If Edna is your one, perhaps you should just quit your job and join the clan.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? You’ve just accused your boss of being a selfish jerk.”

“I owe him my life.”

Dalhu looked at him with a pitying expression on his face. “The moment I saw Amanda, nothing else mattered. I decided right then and there to leave the Brotherhood, snag her, and run. The option of joining the clan wasn’t available to me, but that didn’t matter either. I was willing to spend my life on the run to be with her.”

“Did she feel the same way?”

Dalhu snorted. “Of course not. All she saw was a big scary Doomer, an enemy of her people. I pounced on her, bit her to get her loopy and compliant, and kidnapped her. I took her to a remote cabin and then did my best to win her heart. Luckily, the Fates must have been in my corner, so it all ended well.” He squeezed Rufsur’s shoulder. “The moral of the story is that what seems impossible now might become possible if you are willing to give it your all. The Fates demand sacrifice for their gift of a truelove mate. Perhaps yours is Kalugal and your lifelong friendship with him.”

61

Kalugal

The atmosphere around the dinner table was tense. Rufsur and Edna both looked despondent, Syssi and Amanda were doing most of the talking, Kian interjected here and there, and Dalhu only talked when someone asked him a direct question.

Kalugal was doing his best to keep the mood light with stories from his archeological digs and his translations of ancient tablets, but he kept getting distracted by the somber mood of the two lovers.

With Edna, it might have been her normal stern expression, and perhaps she was the type who didn’t talk unless she had something important to impart. But Rufsur was a social animal, and the usual trouble with him was keeping him from taking over the conversation, not coaxing words out of his mouth.

“What are you hoping to find in your digs?” Kian asked.

“Clues to our past, more information about the gods.” Kalugal put his wine glass down. “Now that I can talk with my mother, I’m finding out much more than I ever hoped to, but her knowledge is also limited. I think that the original gods who arrived on earth from somewhere else in the universe kept their children ignorant of their past and their origins on purpose.”

“Why would they do that?” Syssi asked.

“When I was still a member of the Brotherhood, I had a pretty decent relationship with my father.” He chuckled. “It wasn’t what you would imagine a relationship between a father and his son should be, and it wasn’t an easy task to stay in his good graces, but I did my best because he was my only source of information. Here and there I managed to lead him into revealing tidbits that he’d learned from Mortdh. His father had a temper problem, and when he got angry, he would sometimes blurt out things about the gods’ origins. My father collected those nuggets like the treasure they were and committed them to memory.”

“What did you learn?” Kian asked.

“From what I managed to piece together, the gods were banished to earth because they revolted against their father. Wanting to appear a benevolent ruler, he sent them to earth on a gold-mining expedition. At some point, though, communications with the homeworld were severed, and they were left to fend for themselves with no further support. They had no replacement parts for their advanced technological devices, and