Kelvin #5: MM Fated Mates (Tangled Tentacles), page 10
Her teasing him about always working, her aborted efforts to bake. How she’d doubled over laughing as he manfully tried to eat the burned brownies she’d made, following a no-fail recipe on the internet. Those few occasions when she’d dated, and Magnus had made a point of wearing his FBI jacket to answer the door when someone came to pick her up.
Magnus was crying – he didn’t even realize it, but as the lump on his chest shifted, it had to go somewhere. Tears poured down his face, as slide after slide, image after image of his gorgeous sister flowed through his mind. As the memories finally slowed, he became aware of the kraken’s song, singing a lament for a life cut short and his tears fell all over again. He wasn’t alone in his grief – his mate shared it and expressed it in a beautifully poignant way. Closing his eyes, Magnus trusted Kelvin and his gorgeous kraken to keep him safe as he let the pain and anger at her being taken that he’d held for the past two years go.
~/~/~/~
It was quite some time later, Magnus came to, lying on the chaise lounge. He stretched as he sat up, wondering what time it was as he looked for Kelvin. The giant kraken was still in the pool, a tentacle outstretched towards him even as he enjoyed the water.
He eyed the tentacle, his leopard coming forward. As if reading his mind, the tentacle was joined by a second, and then a third – wiggling like cat toys. Magnus grinned as he stood, letting his leopard come through. His shift was quick, too quick for a kraken who was still teasing him. Within a blink, he’d leaped onto the wiggly tentacles, and then just as quickly let them go.
Prancing around the edge of the pool, the leopard escaped the tentacles reaching for him. Leaping forward and lunging back, when a particularly large tentacle flopped along the floor, over the edge of the pool, the cat rolled next to it, batting it with his paws, and then rubbing both cheeks against it – first one and then the other. Then as another tentacle landed on the other side of him, the cat jumped back up again, skittering around the edge of the pool, and then jumping with nimble feet, landing on the kraken’s head.
There was a flurry of water as the kraken submerged himself, and the leopard was left swimming as streams of tentacles tickled through his fur. He’d kept his head up. Instinct. Leopards couldn’t breathe underwater. But when his huge companion nudged the top of his head with yet another floppy toy, the leopard went with it because he knew his mate would never do him any harm.
Swimming under the water was more fun. The kraken created obstacles with his tentacles, ever moving, constantly shifting, as if trying to catch the leopard out. But the canny cat could sense the glee the kraken had in playing with him, willing him to do well, and yet testing him all at the same time.
Finally, his lungs aching, his limbs feeling heavy, the leopard used a thick tentacle like a tree branch and jumped back out of the pool, lounging on the side so he could stay close to his mate. A few minutes later Kelvin emerged, flicking his hair back, a huge smile on his face.
“Look at you, such a pretty cat, yes you are.” Hoisting himself out of the water, Kelvin sat on the side, dangling his legs in the water, holding out his hand and letting the leopard rub his cheeks against his fingers. “You honor me,” he said softly, “with your greatest pain and your love for fun. I will thank the Fates every day of our very long lives that they brought you into my life.”
The leopard thought that was sweet, but he wasn’t about to shift forms just yet. The pool room was warm, he’d played and now the only thing that would make life perfect was something to eat. But the cat could wait. He stretched his body right out, encouraging Kelvin to stoke him, petting his fur, fluffing it up so it could dry. Any time he thought Kelvin was stopping, he nudged him to keep going again.
Kelvin’s stomach rumbled. The leopard mentally sighed. So in tune with him, Kelvin chuckled. “You’ll get the chance to change back real soon my precious cat, but right now, I think we both need feeding, and for that we need two legs and clothes.”
Magnus shifted easily. “Did our clothes survive?” He rolled his neck and shoulders as he adjusted back into his human form. “I seem to recall a bit of shoving and ripping going on not that long ago.”
“Well over two hours ago.” Kelvin indicated the clock with a nod. “It’s easy to forget time when we’re spending it with each other.”
Magnus frowned as his cat alerted him. “We shifted at the right time. Someone’s coming.”
A moment later there was a pounding on the door. Magnus knew Kelvin had locked it, but apparently there was an override as Alexi came bursting in.
“Marvin knows where the children are.” He panted, hanging onto the side of the door.
“We know.” Magnus looked at Alexi curiously. “Marvin already said he used to go and visit Riley.”
“No, you don’t get it.” Alexi huffed. “Damn, I need to get out in the field more often. Marvin can take us to where the kids are now. We could save them.”
Magnus looked at Kelvin, and then back at Alexi. “You have that much manpower that you can trust?” He asked. “Only, if you have, I’m all in, but if Marvin already said he traveled to different places, so there is more than one. If we hit one, and save those kids, what’s to stop the other institutions hearing about it, and either moving their captives, or killing them before we can get to them.”
“Fuck. Point taken.” Alexi huffed again. “But wait. What if we save the kids, and then see if any of the adults want saving?”
“Have you been grilling Marvin while we’ve been trying to take a bit of time for ourselves?” There was an edge to Kelvin’s tone.
“No. No. But Azim and Todd, they are all over the idea of saving kiddies, and yes, there are adults too, apparently…”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Kelvin rubbed his head. The look he gave Magnus was one of regret. We got a few hours at least.
We will get more when this is over. Magnus shook his head at Alexi. “There’d better be food around, and if Marvin is upset in any way, then you will have me to deal with. The whole objective of what Kelvin and I are doing is to try and find out who the leader of this whole freaking mess is, so it can be stopped for all time, not just long enough for them to start up again in a new location. Saving children is important, yes. Stopping this whole mess of altered shifters for some nefarious process we don’t even know about yet, has to take precedence. Surely you can see that?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Alexi didn’t look happy. “But if kids are being hurt…”
“Are they though?” Uncaring about his nakedness, Magnus got up and held out his hand to assist Kelvin. “You said when Riley was returned he was happy, healthy, well-educated, and obviously looked after. Has Marvin given any indication any of them are being ill-treated?”
“Treatments seem to start after puberty,” Alexi admitted. “That’s when Marvin changed.” He chuckled. “You should see him now. Mel called in a barber, and yeah, there’s an impressive looking man under that hair.”
“You cut his hair? And who is Mel?” Magnus swallowed the rest of his outburst. Marvin had wanted that – he wanted to look like everyone else. It wasn’t Magnus’s place, or anyone else’s to say otherwise.
“Welcome to my family,” Kelvin said drily. “Their hearts are in the right place, but they can’t stop interfering if their lives depended on it. And Mel is Alexi’s PA, you have nothing to worry about with her.”
“Maybe raid the clothes trunk before you come up for food,” Alexi suggested. “We do have young children upstairs.” He disappeared out the door again, leaving it clanging behind him.
“Thank you for this evening,” Magnus said, holding Kelvin’s hand, that he still had in his, up against his chest. “It means the world to me.”
“I do see a long holiday on our island in our future.” Kelvin’s eyes gleamed. “Your lovely leopard can dance around the treetops – we have lots, and then join my kraken for a swim. No need for clothes, just sun and sand, and trees and each other.”
“Sounds like heaven.” Magnus agreed. “By the way, this kiddie thing…”
“Going to save them?”
“No, giving birth to them. The way Danik and the dragons seem to have done, and Markov will soon do.” Magnus looked down at their joined hands. “How does that happen? Or perhaps the more pertinent question is, is this a power all kraken’s have and will it happen for us?”
Chapter Seventeen
Kelvin
As he headed to the clothes trunk they’d left in the pool room, Kelvin considered his answer carefully, unsure what he was picking up off his mate. “Kraken’s can impregnant their mates, yes. It tends to be governed by the kraken.”
Kelvin slipped on a pair of sweats and reached back in for a T-shirt, then watched his silent mate dress. His clothes were in decidedly better shape than Kelvin’s, though he wasn’t complaining.
When his dark gaze finally met Kelvin’s there was nothing to indicate what he was feeling. “I’m not sure how I feel about getting pregnant. It’s not something I’ve given much thought to. I’d always considered when I found my mate, they’d be the one getting pregnant.”
Kelvin walked back to Magnus. “Thanks to my kraken we both have the ability to get pregnant.”
“I figured that with Markov’s reveal earlier. Is it wrong to want to put that type of thing on hold until we’ve had some real time with each other? My emotions are already strong for you, but I want to get to know you before we talk about possibly having a family together.”
“That makes sense. I’ll make sure my kraken understands that.”
A brow quirked up. “Is it that simple?”
Kelvin’s grin was cheeky. “It can be. My kraken is better behaved than my brothers’.”
Magnus slung an arm around Kelvin’s waist. “Thank the gods for that.”
Laughing they left the pool area and went in search of food. They both stopped in the doorway of Alexi’s apartment at the sight of Marvin. First, he was dressed casually in jeans and a sweater, ones that fit. His feet were bare and hairless, looking like he’d had a pedicure too. As for the rest of him, the hair was gone. His face was stunning. A square jaw line had a dimple in his chin, his cheekbones were striking as was his full mouth no longer hidden by overgrown hair. His hair no longer reached past his shoulders it was cut into a choppy style that framed his face.
“You scrub up well, Marvin.” Kelvin walked over to where he was sitting, Mel sitting next to him. “Mel, I hope you didn’t wax him.”
The eye roll was followed by a head shake. “There are other, kinder ways to remove hair such as hair removal cream. Once the hair was cut short, it was easy to apply the cream to the parts Marvin wanted the hair gone from.”
A blush coated Marvin’s exposed cheeks. “I didn’t do,” he pointed to his groin, looking at the children scattered around the room with their respective parents, whispering, “down there.”
“Wise move,” Magnus muttered, his mind projecting to Kelvin how itchy it might be with new hair growth.
“I’ve a friend coming to organize a more permanent solution for the hair. This is just to tide us over at short notice.” That was aimed at Alexi who shrugged.
Mel got up not long later and left with Alexi having been promised she could take off the next couple of days for coming to his aid, or more Marvin’s aid.
The conversation continued as Kelvin filled two plates with a mix of foods from the refrigerator that could be eaten cold. By the time they’d demolished it, Alexi had returned and then he and Danik had disappeared to put the babies down.
Lucas, Ki, and Todd had also gone to do the same with the girls. Markov was still there, but Cassius had taken Riley, a few minutes earlier, who had been yawning for the past hour.
Marvin had lain down on the sofa, his eyes shut, but Kelvin suspected he was fully alert by the way he held his body. He didn’t look as peaceful as he had earlier when he was sleeping with the babies.
“Do you think those who are like Marvin, adults now, will come willingly with us?” Trust Markov to dive back into work.
Kelvin pushed aside his empty plate and reached for the beer he’d gotten earlier while foraging in Alexi’s refrigerator. “I’m not sure. I think firstly we need to get a map and see if Marvin can pinpoint the houses or facilities, whatever they are, he’s been visiting to give us a clue as to exactly how many children or adults there are out there.”
“I thought we’d decided to hold off on that?” Magnus asked frowning.
“Yeah, but I’m thinking about the money trail here. Those places have to be funded by someone. If we can get the addresses, then I can start a search of the deeds and find out if there are any connecting names or corporations to poke at deeper.”
A huge grin appeared as Magnus doffed his head at Kelvin. “There’s my brainiac.”
Answering the smile with one of his own, Kelvin continued. “The money is the key. I’ve always thought that. It’s buried deep, mine and Todd’s skills are second to none. Yet, the patterns and transactions show there is no damn pattern. Which could be because when all this started, they might have been using different methods and they’ve kept to those.”
Victor, who was cuddling Azim on his lap in one of the armchairs nodded. “Keep going with that line of thought.”
Kelvin jerked forward as the idea took root at Victor’s prompting, his beer splashed on his hand unnoticed. “That might be the key. We’ve been thinking about money transactions from a modern perspective, but we already believe this system or whatever it is, has been around at least as long as Andromeda. Five hundred years.”
Markov glanced from Victor to Kelvin. “What are you talking about?”
His brain circling around the idea, Kelvin stared at Markov. “Think. Hundreds of years ago, there were no banks, fuck, people kept their money locked in safes or hidden under the mattress. What if our, for want of a better word, ‘mastermind’ is old school? That very first case, we were stumped by what or where the money Henderson was skimming – we couldn’t find its purpose. He wouldn’t let on, which suggests whoever we are dealing with wields a lot of power. Then think about how confident the fucker was who had Azim. Even after he was caught he thought he could walk away scot-free.” Kelvin tapped at the beer bottle. “This person has an arrogance that seems to surpass Andromeda, if those involved feel confident about nothing touching them.”
Markov didn’t look convinced as he remained silent.
“What if it’s as simple as the person involved only likes to deal in cash? No banks, no trace, no hassles.” Kelvin glanced at Magnus as his mind ran through Magnus’s cases. “The cases you’ve been dealing with, Azim found the same pattern with money that couldn’t be accounted for.”
Magnus sat forward, an air of excitement coming from him. “You think that’s the pattern we should be looking at? What the assholes who were running these rings, were doing on the days they took the cash out?”
“Yes, yes, I do. We were so focused on the big numbers that we lost sight of these smaller amounts. Was that the point? A distraction. I need Azim to run the numbers he’s collated to see how much all those little numbers amount too. There’s no record or anything that indicated it was going to Andromeda, however, it can’t be ruled out there wasn’t a stash of money on that ship. We aren’t going to be able to check now.”
“You don’t need to worry brother.” He met Markov’s unconcerned stare. “There was nothing to indicate Andromeda had money stashed on the boat. From the search Cassius and then I did we didn’t find anything that remotely looked like a large safe. The man was an egotistical ass, there’s no way it wouldn’t have been in plain sight.”
Kelvin nodded, trusting his brother’s knowledge. The key, Kelvin’s gut was positive of, to unraveling this huge mess was the cash. “We follow the money.”
~/~/~/~
The next day after breakfast, they set up Marvin in the conference room with a large map, pins, and string after it turned out he was able to recite all the addresses and states he’d visited. Cassius was working with him, with Riley sitting nearby drawing and coloring pictures next to Marvin. Content just being close to his friend.
The question of whether there was anyone else who looked like Marvin, came from Cassius.
“Not that I’ve met.” Marvin answered, his smooth brow wrinkling. “I listened when the men who were searching for me talked. They mentioned other Bigfoot sightings in Canada. I’ve never been that far.”
Kelvin turned his attention to Magnus. “You don’t have jurisdiction there, do you?”
“No, but my badge might help with asking some questions about the sightings if they have been reported to the FBI, like here. Though, as I pointed out, no one really believes in Bigfoot, they just think they’re sending me on a wild goose chase.”
Marvin glanced up. “I’m not a wild goose.”
Magnus smiled softly at Marvin. “No, you’re not and you aren’t a Bigfoot either. People are just plain stupid is all.”
Appearing happy with the answer Marvin went back to looking at the map.
Azim who was at a laptop, running figures, mumbled but didn’t look away from the screen. Victor glanced at his mate for a moment, then went back to his computer which he was using to go through the addresses Marvin had identified to see who owned the properties. At last count there was one hundred and six.
Alexi wasn’t with them. He had been delegated by Danik to stay with the babies while Danik was reaching out to other police departments to see if he could get any more information from the cases Magnus had been working on these last two years. As Magnus couldn’t do it for fear it would get back to his boss when he was supposed to still be Bigfoot hunting, Danik with his law enforcement background was the next best choice with his procedural knowledge.
