Dark Princess: Shadows (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance #89)

6. Kian

6

KIAN

" I 'm excited," Anandur said as he parked the car in the keep's underground. "Utilizing a trafficker to benefit humanity in any shape or form is just such beautiful poetic justice."

Opening the passenger door, Julian chuckled. "In this case, the trafficker is going to benefit gods, not humanity, but I agree with the sentiment."

"I vote for testing new drugs on them," Merlin suggested as he waited for Kian to get out so he could follow. "There are so many scumbags out there who have done so much harm to people that using them to test potentially lifesaving drugs and treatments is the least society should take out of their hides." He got out of the car and closed the door behind him.

Kian agreed with every one of the proposals, but he didn't feel like joining in the idea fest. It was bad enough that he was forced to wade through the despicable sludge of humanity, and his Guardians were doing all they could to clean up as much as possible, given their small numbers. He didn't want to immerse himself in it any further.

Then again, that exact sentiment had allowed trafficking to flourish. No one wanted to touch the problem or even talk about it, while millions suffered.

When they reached the clinic, Aru, Negal, and Dagor were already waiting for them.

Aru's expression was pinched, and the frown lines on his forehead were so deep that they looked like a permanent feature, but naturally, they were not.

As soon as the god smiled, the creases smoothed out.

"Gentlemen," Kian greeted them with a nod. "Or should I say gentle-gods?"

That got a chuckle out of Aru. "Gabi uses gentle-male. She read it in one of her romance novels about vampires or shifters. I'm not sure which." He rubbed the back of his head. "What baffles me is why she still feels the need to read those books when she has the real thing right here." He pointed at himself.

Dagor grinned. "Face it, Aru. You just can't live up to the fantasy males in her stories."

Aru lifted a brow. "And you can?"

The god puffed out his chest. "Frankie says that she can't read any more romance novels because the heroes pale in comparison to me."

"Lucky dude," Julian murmured. "Now you've made me feel insecure because Ella still enjoys them."

So did Syssi, but it didn't make Kian insecure, and he even liked reading a few chapters here and there to get a good laugh. It had never occurred to him that he should feel offended by it. Maybe he was too obtuse to realize that he should.

Whatever.

Syssi said that reading relaxed her, and that was what mattered.

"So, did you decide who is going to do it?" Merlin asked.

"Dagor." Aru clapped the god's back. "He's the lowest ranking among us, and anomalies in his tracker's transmissions will be less suspicious."

Merlin turned to the god. "I've removed hundreds of trackers from the Kra-ell, and none of them suffered any negative side effects, but I've never removed one from a god, and you might be different. Has anyone told you that extracting a tracker carried risks?"

Dagor shook his head. "I don't think it does. The idea behind the trackers is for our people to be able to find us. No one expects us to get rid of them to run away on some primitive planet."

Kian wasn't so sure. Governments usually cloaked censorships and infringements on the privacy and personal liberty of their citizens in benevolent-sounding policies and arguments about ensuring safety. In the case of military personnel, they didn't even bother with lame excuses to hide their intentions.

He put his hand on Dagor's shoulder. "There might be risk involved, and Merlin wants to make sure that you consent while being aware of it."

The god nodded. "I'm willing to risk it so the three of us will be free to move into your village with our mates. I want Frankie to live among a community of people who know what and who she is. I don't want her to be a nomad."

"Same here," Negal said. "If you have second thoughts, I'll do it."

"I don't." Dagor walked up to Julian. "What do I need to do?"

"First, we need to put you through the scanner to find out where exactly the tracker is located. Since Merlin has done so many extractions, he is the one who will do that part. I'll perform the transfer. If all goes well, the tracker will transmit normally from its new host, and your commander will be none the wiser." He turned to the rest of the group. "Do you want to watch?"

Kian nodded and then turned to Anandur. "Call the dungeon to bring our guest up here."

"I will do better than that." Anandur headed in the opposite direction. "I'll escort the vermin myself."

As Kian followed Dagor and Merlin to the imaging room, he thought about the potential outcomes of this experiment. Success could mean freedom for the gods and a chance to integrate them fully into the clan's community. Failure, on the other hand, meant coming up with a new solution.

Faking their death was still an option, but it wasn't a good one.

In the imaging room, Merlin gave Dagor another thorough look. "Good, I see that you've followed instructions, and you're not wearing any metal on you." He scanned the rest of the group. "Everyone else, if you are wearing any belts with metal buckles or metal buttons, please stand at least ten feet away from the machine."

Kian had been through enough of those to know that, and he had come prepared.

Negal cursed under his breath and proceeded to remove his belt. "I forgot about that."

"That's okay," Merlin said. "No harm done." He turned to Dagor and pointed to the MRI machine. "Lie down and try to remain as still as possible during the scan."

As Dagor settled on the narrow platform, the machine hummed to life, its rhythmic thumping filling the room. Kian watched the monitors, but the images meant little to his untrained eye. Merlin, however, leaned in close and muttered something incoherent.

"There," the doctor murmured after several long minutes. "Left thigh, embedded in the vastus lateralis muscle. Quite an ingenious placement, really. Easy to implant, difficult to remove without significant muscle damage, but naturally, that wasn't the intention since gods heal so fast. They just wanted it well hidden."

Aru's eyes narrowed. "Will you need to put Dagor under to extract it?"

Merlin shook his head. "A local anesthetic will do."

As Aru released a relieved breath, Kian lifted a brow. "Why were you concerned with Dagor being anesthetized?"

"Because I wasn't sure that it would work on him. Our bodies repel foreign substances that are perceived to be harmful."

"Your body might react the same way to a local anesthetic," Kian said. "Maybe we should get him drunk? I know that you can consume alcohol and feel its effects."

"That might be an option," Aru agreed.

After Merlin completed another full MRI scan to confirm nothing was missed, and Dagor emerged from the machine looking unperturbed, Kian wondered whether the god had heard what was discussed. The gods' hearing was even better than immortals', but the machine had been loud, and it had probably drowned out their conversation.

"What now?" Dagor asked.

"Now, we put you in the operating room," Merlin said. "I thought we wouldn't need it, but because of the location of the tracker, I prefer to do this in a properly equipped OR."