Page 26 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

Kian gave him an amused smile. "My mother suggested Big K and Little K."

"Which one are you?"

Kian laughed. "That's the problem. Neither of us wants to be Little K, and soon he will start interacting with the rest of the clan, and it will matter."

10

KHIANN

"Stay behind me," Khiann told Ogidu.

"Do you know where you are going, Master?"

"Yes, I do." Khiann lifted his phone and showed him the map.

He was a dot on it, moving slowly, and the path ahead of him was marked in orange, so he knew where to turn to get to the house his men were staying in.

"Very well, Master Khiann." The Odu dipped his head and dropped back ten paces, then fifteen.

Khiann didn't need the Odu to follow him, but Annani had insisted, and he was learning that it was easier to just agree with whatever she wanted than to argue with her.

His mate was a stubborn female.

Her intentions were good. She wanted to keep him safe, and he did not have the heart to tell her she was suffocating him.

Now he understood why he had embarked on that perilous caravan journey, even though he knew Annani's former intended wanted to murder him.

Khiann felt a restlessness he was beginning to recognize as part of who he was. He did not like staying indoors for too long or doing the same thing for too long, even if it was pleasurable. He needed to be active, to be busy doing all kinds of things. He craved novelty, and thankfully there was plenty of it, since everything was new to him.

The morning was cool, and the village was awake in a way it had not been on Sunday. Two immortals coming from the opposite direction stepped off the road to let him pass and dipped their heads as he went by.

He did not know how to respond, so he nodded back and drove on.

The house was one of the older ones, smaller than those in Annani's section of the village. It had a wide porch and a ramp that had been added recently and not yet painted.

Four chairs were lined up on the porch in a straight row, and four men sat in them. Hildegard sat on the top step, cradling a cup of coffee.

"Khiann." Adaluh raised a hand.

His beard had thickened over the past three days, but it was still patchy in places.

"You look good," Khiann said as he rode up the ramp and joined his men.

Adaluh stroked his beard. "Hildegard says I look like a goat."

The nurse smiled and shrugged.

The female had a biting sense of humor, and they had all learned not to take her questionable compliments to heart.

The other three still kept the names the staff had given them. Raffy, Leo, and Michael. Khiann was on a mission to give them proper names, but since he remembered none, he needed Esag's help.

"Today, the three of you are getting new names."

"Why?" Michael asked. "Hildegard said they named us after mighty warriors. Those are good names."

"The staff gave you those names so you would have something to answer to, which was kind of them, but a man should answer to a name given to him by his parents, and if that is not available, one he chose himself."

"I got mine back," Adaluh scratched his beard. "I guess I'm lucky."