Kelvin #5: MM Fated Mates (Tangled Tentacles), page 12
“How many of us know the names of those that run the shifter council?” Cassius’s gaze swept those staring at him.
“They are kept secret to prevent assassination. From what I recall there was some big massacre of the ruling council members not long after it was formed. It involved the death of children. That was around the turn of the fifteenth century. It’s in Todd’s records, somewhere,” Kelvin supplied, trying to remember the exact details. “The council was formed initially to control shifters and stop them from causing issues amongst the different species. It was believed a mix of species would prevent one being more dominant over the others. It was also to prevent humans becoming aware of our existence.”
Magnus stopped playing with the card in his hand. “Well, that didn’t work. Humans have known about us now for over two centuries. However, let’s go back to the council. Are you saying that no one knows who the actual council members are? There has to be some record. Otherwise, how do we know it’s actually the council sending all these decrees and legislation on what we should and shouldn’t do.”
Victor shifted in his seat, his expression grim. “You make a good point. But surely those who work for the council that deal with day-to-day business know? I’d wager they have to sign a non-disclosure form to agree to protect the council members identity.”
Not sure they were going off on the wrong track, Kelvin pointed out, “Thing is, none of us has had any real dealings with the council, except through this case. Would you have thought about the intricacies of how our council is run?”
All except Marvin, who looked a little confused, shook their heads. “Exactly, it’s been a non-issue because we all believe they had our best interests at heart. They came in and dealt with the shadow team and that didn’t send up any alerts.”
Magnus laid the card down, his gaze never leaving it. “That house was cleared out. This card has been dropped without knowledge. Regardless of what we know or don’t know about the council, it’s maybe time we did a little more digging. There is a shifter out there right now missing their identity card.” He picked the card back up. “First priority is to find out what this card can access.”
Kelvin got up and took a picture of both sides of the card and sent them to Todd. “Todd should be able to help with that. Those types of access cards have inlaid security numbers. The pictures might help to get him started until we can give him the card.”
Todd, I’ve sent you some pictures, can you see what magic you can work finding out who the person is and what this identity card is used for. We need information on the shifter council, which won’t be easy with the lack of details out there.
Got them, I can start a database search running on the name. And I’ll do the same, looking at companies that supply the card and who on the shifter council receives them. I will need it though to scan it to look for the security number to match to batches sold.
Yeah, I figured. We should be back in three hours.
Fine. I’ll start going through my archives on the shifter council.
Great.
“Todd’s on the case. He needs the card but is going to start with some database searches for identifying the card and holder in the meantime. He’s also going to access his archives on anything he’s got on the shifter council. If anyone has information, it will be Todd.”
The remaining flight everyone ran through what they knew about the council. Marvin’s contribution was very little, as his came from small snippets he’d overheard.
When they finally got back to the Thalassa building, Kelvin was picking up excitement from Todd.
Magnus went straight to Todd when they entered the large conference room. “Here you go.”
Todd carried on tapping at the keys on his computer and nodded his head to the desk. “Thanks, leave it there. We’ve found something.”
The men who’d filed into the room all took a seat, Marvin had gone off to find out where the babies and Riley were.
When Todd finally looked up, he wore a somewhat smug expression. “I knew my love of history and storing the information would come in handy.” He picked up his half-filled glass, had a drink then placed it back down. “First, let me finish talking before anyone starts to pepper me with questions.”
Markov appeared in the doorway with Alexi and Danik close behind. Kelvin assumed that Cassius had alerted Markov they were back. And Alexi, being his usual self was aware everyone was here. “What have we missed?” Alexi questioned taking a seat after pulling out a chair for Danik.
“Nothing, I was just going to start. Azim and I have found some interesting facts.”
Azim’s blushed, a shy grin appearing as Victor kissed the top of his head.
“Let’s start at the beginning, I didn’t start writing things down about our history until I was about fifty, but as I was interested in what had come before I went back further, to before I was born. Azim took the first century I’ve got information on, and I took the next. In both the council are mentioned a lot. In the fourteenth century there was a lot of ‘in fighting’ between shifters and magic users. Demons back then liked to do all manner of nastiness.”
“They still do,” Markov said, then shut his mouth when Todd’s hard stare landed on him.
“As I was saying, this brought some very unwanted attention. The human population back then outnumbered shifters and there was concern there’d be an uprising against us. In came the formulation of the shifter council. The significance of having twenty-one members is unclear, I’d hazard a guess the uneven number means whoever is leading the council has a deciding vote.
“The massacre of the council happened nearly a century after its formation. This is where it got interesting. It seems to have started first with a dragon council member proclaiming his child had been taken by something dark and sinister ─ only when the council investigated, they found the child, alive and unharmed. The dragon was convinced the child was not his, but a replica.”
“Fuck, are you talking about changelings?” Alexi gasped, his face paling.
Todd sighed and rolled his eyes at Alexi, but everyone else was motionless. Kelvin had heard all the myths about the scary changeling mothers that ate children and replaced the dead children with their own. Evil fairies condemned and forever changed, cast out from their own realm to fend for themselves. Their children could, it was told, mimic a person once the mother had consumed the child. Pretty disgusting, but to date Kelvin had only read about them.
“I am. Have you ever encountered one?” Todd directed the question it appeared to everyone in the room.
Danik ran a hand down Alexi’s arm, then intertwined their fingers. “I thought they were a myth.”
Alexi glanced at his mate. “They are no myth I can assure you. I’ve only encountered one, I wasn’t more than a couple of hundred years old.” He glanced at Markov and Kelvin’s blood ran cold. “A changeling mother cornered me whilst I was taking care of you for our parents. The hideous thing, because that’s the only way to describe something that has no real face and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, wanted Markov.”
Markov slammed a fist on the table. “What the fuck! Why am I only hearing about this now.”
“You think I want to relive one of the worst days of my life? Because that’s what it was. Seeing you in its arms, mouth open ready to take a fucking bite. Yeah, how was I supposed to just drop that into the conversation? Hey, I turned my back for two seconds and you were nearly eaten!” Alexi got up and paced at the side of the table not looking at anyone. “It haunted me for years, every time I shut my eyes. If my kraken hadn’t been strong enough to whip the changeling into giving you up…”
Markov got up and went and wrapped his arms around Alexi’s shaking shoulders. A lump formed in the back of Kelvin’s throat and Magnus slung his arm around the top of Kelvin’s chair stroking his shoulder. Thanks. Kelvin leant into Magnus’s touch, taking the comfort offered.
“Well, fuck, that was unexpected,” Victor said, breaking a little of the tension in the room.
“It was… did you kill it?” Todd pushed up his glasses, his eyes glimmering behind the glass.
Alexi’s arms bulged in his shirt before he let Markov go. “No, the second I had Markov in my tentacles, it scrambled over the ground to a wrapped bundle and disappeared faster than I could blink.”
Alexi returned to his seat as did Markov. Cassius, not one to show affection before, wrapped Markov in his arms and kissed him.
Todd sat back in his seat, his expression concerned. “This confirms my belief that it started with that dragon child. Whether it was a changeling that swapped out the dragon child, I can only go on what the father stated at the time, the child was not his.” He rubbed his lips. “After the slaying of the majority of the council members, guess who replaced the dragon council member?”
The room was utterly silent. Kelvin could feel the unease from his mate and his brothers waiting for the bomb to drop. “The child who the dead father believed wasn’t his. The name of that dragon… Ryujin Urt.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Magnus
It was late when Magnus and Kelvin finally made it into bed. After Alexi’s revelation about a changeling trying to take Markov when he was little, it seemed no one was keen on leaving the room. In another life Magnus might have been jealous of the closeness shared among the brothers – his kind weren’t known for it, although his sister had been his closest friend for years until she disappeared. But Kelvin didn’t let Magnus feel left out in any way, and as the evening went on, Magnus noticed the other kraken brothers were the same with their mates.
Crawling into bed, he wrapped his arms around Kelvin’s waist pulling the man closer. Kelvin buried his face in Magnus’s neck, and Magnus could feel through their bond how much he needed that closeness right now. The thought that Alexi had been able to fight off a changeling once was cause for optimism. But the creature Alexi faced was hundreds of years ago, and if the dragon baby was the changeling the mother had tried to swap for Markov all those years ago, then they were talking about taking on a very old, and likely powerful creature who’d managed to stay under the radar for centuries – to the point of being a member of the shifter council. Shit, it was likely Ryujin Urt was ruling the council by this point, especially if he was presenting as a dragon shifter.
But something had been niggling Magnus, and in the privacy of their room, with his mate in his arms, he voiced his concerns. “If this guy is ruling the shifter council, like we suspect, then what’s he getting out of all of this?”
“How do you mean?” Kelvin sounded sleepy and Magnus regretted asking, but the thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone.
“You think about it. If all of the cases we’re trying to solve are connected in some way to this dragon, then what’s the point of it all? You’ve said there are huge sums of money involved. If Urt is a true dragon, then we could assume he has an overdeveloped hoarding sense perhaps, but does that sound right to you?”
Kelvin, to his credit, seemed to pick up on what Magnus was asking. “Dragons don’t tend to hoard money, although an old-time dragon might. But as a species, and I hate making generalizations here, they usually look for gold or gems to collect, rather than actual cash. He could be an anomaly in that respect, I suppose, or maybe if Urt is the changeling as we strongly suspect, then maybe hoarding money is what he thinks he should do as a dragon.”
“But you don’t believe that either.” Magnus could sense that through their bond. “The thing that bothers me is the way he’s making his money. If this Urt is at the top of our pile, the one pulling all the strings, then what is he getting out of all the experimenting being done on such a wide variety of predatory shifters?”
“We’re assuming it has all been predatory shifters. The sex slave to order wasn’t all shifters – look at Azim – and it wasn’t all predatory shifters either. Those poor people were stolen because they fitted some sick fucker’s idea of what a perfect slave would be.”
Magnus winced. “Well, they sure picked wrong with my sister, didn’t they.”
He regretted the harshness of his words as soon as he’d spoken them. Kelvin was telling the truth as he saw it, and he was right. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “My tone was uncalled for. You’re totally right in what you said.”
“No, it’s me that is sorry.” Having Kelvin close was a gift Magnus was never going to take for granted and having him drape his torso over Magnus’s, bringing him extra comfort was an amazing feeling. “I spoke thoughtlessly. We will find out who is responsible for your sister’s death.”
“I thought we had.” Magnus needed to get his head together. “All fingers point to this Urt character who may or may not be a changeling. I just can’t see the need for the experimentation or the dragon eggs stealing for that matter either. What is the reason for all this?”
“It’s difficult to answer with so many variables,” Kelvin said softly. “From the investigation I’ve done on the resources Markov and Cassius recovered, it’s almost as though they were looking at what the essence of a shifter was. Like that stuff that Andromeda was selling to the higher up humans leading the shadow command teams. It was promoted as something that would give humans certain shifter attributes like strength, speed of movement, and virility.”
Magnus frowned. “But you said the scientists and Andromeda already knew those experiments and the products they were selling didn’t work.”
“That’s because you can’t distill the essence of a spirit – that’s not something that can be captured or put in a test tube.”
Kelvin was right in that respect. It was a shifter’s animal spirit that made them who they were. “Andromeda wasn’t stupid. Surely, he knew that already.”
“He was also human, so no matter what he injected himself with, or what magic he performed to keep death at bay, he would never truly understand what makes a shifter who they are.”
“True.” Magnus had to agree with what Kelvin was saying. “It still doesn’t explain why a changeling, or a dragon, would work with, or have anything to do with someone like Andromeda. From what you told me, so many of the shifters experimented on died. All of the dragon babies that were stolen did.”
“Yes, well that’s something else again entirely – a callous disregard for life. From what Markov told me, Andromeda was as narcissistic as they come, and chances are Ryujin Urt is much the same.”
“So how did someone like Marvin happen? As opposed to Riley who is a hybrid from birth, I mean. Marvin was born a wolf shifter.”
“You’re forgetting I’m the accountant. I don’t understand a lot about the science behind all this shit.” Kelvin yawned. “When you think about it, what causes one person born in exactly the same way as everyone else, to decide they can order a living being from a menu on the internet, just as if they were ordering dinner. That mentality, their sense of entitlement is mind boggling to me. Are they all complete psychopaths with no feelings or empathy for others at all?”
“Probably.” Magnus agreed. He didn’t understand how anything a person could experience in life would justify believing that was an acceptable form of behavior.
“If I had to guess, I believe Marvin was likely injected with stem cells, or something similar from an ape shifter.”
“Not an actual ape?”
Kelvin shook his head, his hair rubbing on Magnus’s chest. “Despite the similarities of genetics between apes and humans, the wolf shifter spirit would overpower any DNA or similar genetic material from a natural animal. A shifter’s natural healing powers would render anything injected into them useless within days, if not immediately.”
Unless they were separated from their animal spirit at the time and kept that way until the process stuck. But Magnus didn’t share that with his mate. In his opinion what happened to Markov was a stark warning about what could happen when people started playing god. Markov was lucky his animal spirit was so damn strong, but how many other shifters could say the same. And was that why they’d not been interested in following up with Marvin as he was a defect of whatever madness they were cooking up in the lab?
Kelvin slowly relaxed against him as he fell asleep, and Magnus kept his arm firmly wrapped around his mate. But he couldn’t stop thinking there was something else they were missing, that wasn’t money related. Like why a creature of apparently mythical strength with no conscience at all like a changeling, needed someone like Andromeda conducting experiments for him. Wasn’t being head of the shifter council enough?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kelvin
Wake up, I need you to come to the conference room. Todd’s voice roused Kelvin. The amount of daylight peeking through the blinds suggested the sun hadn’t risen yet. Kelvin slid out of bed trying not to disturb Magnus who looked peaceful.
During the night Kelvin had picked up Magnus’s unease and the continued nagging thought they were missing something. The dark circles around his eyes suggested he’d had very little sleep. Not wanting to disturb him until he had good reason too, Kelvin dressed in a low-slung pair of sweats, and bare foot he headed silently out of the apartment to the conference room.
He rubbed at his tired eyes, a slow smile forming at seeing all his brothers at the table huddled together with Todd. He was pleased to see all the differences appeared to have been set aside. Over the centuries they’d all had some disagreements, but never like recently.
Andromeda and whoever else was pulling damn strings had a lot to answer and pay for. “So did we all leave our mates tucked up in bed sleeping?” He went to the counter where some kind soul had made coffee and his chosen tea and poured a cup, savoring the first few sips.
Pushing up his glasses, Todd’s nose wrinkled. “The girls were up, and it was my dragons turn for bottles and diapers.” He held up a hand to stop anyone from saying more. “I used my free time to run multiple searches on the name Ryujin Urt and I may or may not depending on who we mention this too, have breached the shifter council computer systems.” He sighed and shook his head, his hair flopping over his forehead before he pushed it back. “They really need to update their security. It was way to fucking easy to get in and dig around.”
