by Erin R Flynn
People started sitting, and the only thing that could be heard in the large room was several throats being cleared awkwardly. I didn’t stop it when it got to the end, letting it play once more.
“Please continue, as you were saying how this was our fault,” I bit out.
“You’ve made your point,” the first one said.
“Oh, she hasn’t even started,” Elijah chuckled. “But she is young and lacks the patience for this sort of situation and posturing. Some of you know me but are still in the dark as to what we’ve done, so we’re here to enlighten you and set the record straight. First, this coven also tried to entrap one of your councilmen, so start there.”
Aidan nodded and stepped forward, explaining what had happened, how he’d been invited and realized he’d entered an investigation he didn’t understand.
“You should have come to us then,” that first guy snapped, clearly one of the head guys.
“I suggested as much, a bit miffed I wasn’t asked for help or contacted after I worked with Elijah on the ISLE corruption and thought we had a good relationship. I was told and shown proof of how such information had been given to the council before and the coven in question got a slap on the wrist for drawing attention to themselves with no note of kidnapping demons to be frowned upon.”
It was hard not to snicker when I felt the desires of several of them that we didn’t know it was them specifically and get called on it.
“As a courtesy and to extend the cooperation we did have, we invited Aidan to be part of the investigation,” Elijah took over, and I was annoyed so I started misbehaving right away.
“Wait, who are you?” someone cut in.
He nodded to the councilman. “I’m Elijah, wrath demon and senior vice president of Heavenly Entertainment in charge of legal and contracts.” Most would think it odd for a person to not introduce their last name as well, but demons rarely did as we weren’t “out” to the world, so we changed our last names with covers all the time.
Besides, we were born of angels who didn’t have surnames, so what did they matter then?
Natalia went next and the others in turn. “Natalia, envy demon and senior VP in charge of public relations and the face of the company.”
“Rita, sloth demon and senior VP in charge of clubs, managers, and training.”
“Ally, pride demon and senior VP in charge of personnel and any guest relations issues.”
“Arthur, greed demon and senior VP in charge of construction and facilitation.”
“Joshua, gluttony demon and senior VP in charge of vendors, chefs, and outsourcing.”
“Really? A chain of strip clubs doesn’t have a lust demon in their management?” the guy in charge drawled.
Elijah gave him a withering look. “Don’t be petty. Just because we organized and you undoubtedly know that our corporation’s income and holdings rival dozens of countries, it would be unwise to think you have the upper hand because your council has been around longer.”
“And our lust demon VP, Jasmine Stewart, is young but on assignment,” Natalia added which was true… I was on assignment as Sloan currently. “She’s in charge of acquisitions and expansions, which you undoubtedly know also involves our investigative and security divisions. Sloan is here to speak for the division and investigation, but yes, we have all seven demon types on our management, which is our council.”
“And the owner?” someone asked.
“Stronger and more powerful than all of us combined, and we don’t allow them to stick out their head publicly—ever,” Elijah said, his tone amused. “We’re demons, not stupid.”
I had been working on my tablet the whole time they were talking and reached what I wanted only to find a huge—and very amusing—shock. I burst out laughing before I could stop myself, ignoring all the eyes and annoyance as I went over to Elijah. It took me several tries to get out what I was trying to say, but finally I managed.
“They’re already hacked. The General Directorate for External Security is in their everything and is relaying it to a few people and I would guess one of which is MI5 since this estate is on British soil or maybe to MI6 if they don’t have the right warrants to spy here, but if they got it from the General Directorate then it would be outside spying.”
“Could you find out who’s been getting the feeds?” he asked me. “That’s French intelligence, right?”
“Yes and yes, but it would take a bit to do it without them noticing, and I would need my full setup, not just my laptop,” I answered after a moment.
“She’s not lying,” someone muttered, and I realized the vampires were already discussing what I’d said and someone could tell if people lied like Aidan said. Granted, I could probably get around that with the talents and extra powers I had, but I didn’t think it was the time to try it.
“Can you shut it down?” Aidan asked as he moved up next to me.
“I find it insulting you thought to ask,” I grumbled, hiding my tablet away from him. “Of course I can.”
“I’m so sorry,” he chuckled. “My mind lost all logic as I realized I would be vulnerable in that too.”
“Crap,” I sighed, glancing back at my tablet.
“Aidan, what is your relation to this woman?” the first guy asked, frowning when I looked at him. “And what is on your shirt?”
“The atomic numbers to spell out ‘nerdy brat’ in elements,” I answered.
“Of course it does,” Aidan snickered and then snorted to try not to laugh.
I gestured to Aidan with my head. “He stalks me.”
His eyes flashed shock, but then he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I think that highly unfair, darling.” He looked over to the others. “She’s the contact I made that looped me in on what was going on with ISLE.”
“I thought it was the one undercover, with the rainbow hair,” someone muttered. He turned and glanced at the main guy. “And that Jasmine Stewart is the one dating the new Deputy Director of ISLE that we were getting information from as well.” He focused on me. “So you’re the one who hacked ISLE and got us everything and even tried for a job there?”
“She is,” Elijah answered for me. “She’s under Jasmine Stewart and has handled most of this investigation along with another field operative we have for these sorts of situations.”
Well, me as Cara, but same thing.
I flinched when I felt a bunch of desires in the room. “Wow, pervs.”
“What?” Aidan asked, his eyes going wide.
“Several have desires to become better friends with Sloan and bend her and not just in bed but to do what they want as they clearly already recognize her value while thinking she needs to be controlled—by them of course—as she is too young to know what’s best and well, a woman,” Natalia said with so much disdain I was shocked people didn’t feel it in the air like the temperature of the room.
“So apparently I might have some more stalkers soon,” I muttered, moving closer to Elijah.
“The fuck you will,” Aidan growled, storming over to me and taking my tablet, passing it to Elijah, as he pulled me to him and kissed me deeply. “You turn enough heads without more competition as I chase you all over, darling.” He kissed me again, and I had to pull away when I realized I was too hungry.
“Dude, pee on me next,” I bitched, pushing away from him.
“I’ll bring you a box of Pocky,” he promised.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I believe you promised some hot chocolate with strawberry marshmallows, and yet it never appears.”
“Tonight then,” he murmured, giving me a look that he wanted to eat me more than hot chocolate.
“Fine, I won’t hack you and donate all your money somewhere,” I muttered as I took back my tablet. He burst out laughing, which actually made it hard not to smile, but then I frowned. “For the record, they plan now to put pressure on you to seduce me and get everything from me while others think you’re weak to want someone like me. Ouch.”
; His hand moved in front of my tablet. “Tell me who and I will handle it how I should and without you starting problems when you punish them.”
I stared up at him with anger. “They said it about me.”
“Yes, and my tastes and using me. I will handle it, if you please.”
I only nodded because I saw the seething fury in his eyes. He was pissed someone demeaned me like that even in their thoughts. I pointed out the ones who would pressure him to seduce me and then ones who were so judgy of me.
“And Aidan not only signed the NDA about our company during the ISLE investigation but a full magical one now if he wanted to pursue Sloan given the access she has, as way too many of you immediately thought to use her,” Elijah informed them. “We don’t allow that and cover our people, so he’s gagged on what he can tell you even that he’s found without permission from me.”
I snorted when they all thought Aidan was stupid to have made that deal and not much of a man or vampire if he couldn’t have seduced me without that. I got annoyed and started misbehaving again while the “adults” talked. Elijah told them about our investigation into the coven and what we found.
I interrupted just before he opened the floor to questions. I hit the button to execute and sent alerts to all the council members’ phones. The demons with me simply sighed, knowing it was me.
The head guy reacted to that more than the alerts, taking out his phone and blinking at it. “This says to apologize to you for thinking it wouldn’t take much to seduce you and Aidan was an idiot to sign the NDA when he should have been able to get you without it, as you’re clearly not an idiot and probably smarter than all of us, and if we keep acting like fucking douches, you will donate a thousand dollars of our money to female scholarship programs each time we are because you can.”
“And if you want the new passwords to your phones, I expect you to mean your apologies,” I purred.
“What else did you do, child?” Elijah muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking like he was seconds from laughing.
A few of the other demons were about to lose that battle.
“There may or may not be a rather large order of adult diapers coming to this address purchased with council funds,” I admitted.
Aidan broke first. My side was dying, and the other side was not happy, but several at least looked amused at the jab. Yeah, well, if I was young and easy because of it, I was going to take jabs at their age.
“Cancel the order,” Natalia told me, shaking her head when I opened my mouth to argue. “It’s funny but wasteful, as they won’t donate them or use them. They’ll just end up in a landfill.”
“Fine,” I grumbled, hurrying to cancel it. “The money will be returned in a few business days even if it was charged yet as it’s after hours. I’m still donating their money to scholarship programs if they’re so demeaning and not unlocking their phones.” I flipped through everything I was getting. “Why do so many men take dick pics? Seriously? Even ancient vampires?” My eyes went wide when I saw one.
Natalia looked over my shoulder and laughed. “I’m a lesbian and I’m curious as to who has that monster.”
“Yes, she’s clearly so easy to push over and an idiot woman,” Aidan drawled, rubbing his fingers over his forehead. “And I didn’t want her because of her hacking skills or the access to the demons I didn’t know had organized. I wanted her because she told me to piss off instead of trying to get whatever she could from me like so many others and her mind is sexy.” He cleared his throat. “Plus other things.”
I snorted, feeling his desire to experience those “other things” with me some more and a lot.
“This is only some sort of trick. There’s no way she can learn all of that so fast,” one of the vampires argued.
I snorted again, waving my tablet. “It’s a RAT, of course I can.” It was hard not to laugh when several looked at the floor to look for an actual animal. “Oh, for the love of fuck. Remote Access Tool—RAT. It’s not a trick or an illusion.” I synced up with the projector and started pulling up their private banking information. “Really, you made this too easy. Several of you have one password for everything.”
“And they all access it on their phones, which is how you got it so fast,” Elijah checked and sort of filled them in. “What else?”
“Their emails are mine. I will however take off the bullshit antivirus they have on their phones. There’s no need for that, and most give backdoor access, so either they didn’t do it right or this was the type they had to pay for and that’s the con, as viruses don’t transfer to phones the way computers do.”
“I paid for mine,” the main guy admitted, several others nodding.
“As long as you have the correct secure settings on your phone like not always leaving your GPS active or allowing your WIFI to connect to unsecured networks like any store you pass, your phone and apps are secure. Don’t click on ads, and don’t download apps that aren’t verified. Make sure it’s the right app. There was a Twitter clone that was Twltter and people didn’t notice and downloaded it.”
“This is why I’ve suggested multiple times we get a few tech wise fledglings to handle security for us, as we may be wise and more powerful, but we’ve not taken the time to learn all of this that they now teach as a standard,” Aidan said to the others.
I nodded that it was smart, but several made disbelieving noises.
“Fine, hack me,” Aidan suggested. “I have two fledglings who handle that for my businesses.”
“You’re not coven leader of New York or whatever?”
“No,” he snorted, shaking his head. “I never had interest in that and handling idiots. I have vampires that work for me that are mine even if they may also answer to a coven leader, and I help fledglings now and again like the one you met, but I’m the council member for the East Coast and Eastern Canada covens can contact.”
I nodded, glancing around at the vampires. “Everyone can be hacked. Everyone. It’s not a matter of if I can hack him, I can, it’s a matter of stopping those who don’t have the extensive knowledge or toys I do. It’s throwing up enough of the right walls that people might not be able to take down to deter some, like having that sign at your house saying you have a security system.”
I waited until they nodded and sat at that table, pulling out my laptop and getting to work.
“Why can’t you do it with the tablet?” Aidan asked, glancing at me like he guessed the answer and wanted them to hear it.
“You turn off your WIFI when not able to connect to a secure network, so I can’t go through the estate’s WIFI to get you like I did them.” I glanced up at him. “Any more tricks of the trade will cost them, and I haven’t heard my fucking apology.” I rolled my eyes at the halfhearted apologies they started muttering, but I couldn’t force them to change their feelings or bigotries, but at least they’d said it.
“Admit you were wrong about her if you won’t mean your apologies,” Natalia pushed, bumping my fist when I held it out.
I worked for a bit, and I glanced up at Aidan. “Okay, so the fledglings you have aren’t bad, but they need to step up their game to protect someone of your level. They’re using open source code and programs, meaning it’s all over the internet as the foundation. Great, the US uses those along with lots, but the problem with the specs being online—”
“Is the specs are online and gives people ample time to practice like those math problems people have contests for,” he muttered as he moved closer.
“Correct, and they tried to layer code over code, which isn’t actually a thing like they’re thinking. There’s no meshing, as it tends to invalidate lines of code. Instead, it comes out like a cake with more layers, and if they’re the same layers it just takes more time to cut through. That’s not a threat unless you have a guard dog in place that will attack them while they try to do that.”
“Try me again,” he sighed, giving me a look that I was distracting him with my intelligence.
“If anyone tries to hack us, I have a bunch of these sorts of walls in place. Someone will get through them with time, and I know that, but the time it takes to do that gives me the time to access them. They hit that second wall, and it sets off my guard dog worms that attack their system while the connection is open. They don’t realize it until the third wall and only if they’re good.”
“While they try to get access to the ATM, she sends her programs to rob their houses and banks,” Elijah explained to them.
I nodded. “And every layer of cake to protect us has different tricks and traps. Again, it can be broken, but it delays them with the shift to get me everything though most cannot even start to try for a system that layered and advanced. I’m never so prideful I think I’m the best. That’s just stupid.”
It took me about a half hour to get into Aidan’s system, and what I found impressed me.
I stood and pulled his head down, kissing him fiercely. He didn’t care where he was, his hands moving over my ass as he pulled me closer and giving me back just as much heat.
“What was that for?” he asked against my lips, sounding amused.
“I love people who use their power for good,” I admitted. “You really do donate a shit ton of money and all the proceeds of a few of those restaurants. You’d be surprised how many lie about that.”
He nodded. “I think it important to be grateful for what I have and help others with it. Paying taxes is to keep the system going, but to truly deserve the success and fortune I had a chance at, you have to pay it forward so the next who work hard and fight for that dream have access to it. It’s the only way to keep a healthy system going instead of lords with all the money and plebeians with nothing.”
I went to sit back down, but he pulled a move Dylan had and sat me on his lap as he took my chair. “Uh-huh.”
“I’ll behave.”
“Uh-huh,” I chuckled. “And what do you want?”
He nuzzled my neck. “You know what I want, darling.”
“I think everyone here knows what you want in that respect,” I drawled, elbowing him. “Weren’t we just saying that seducing me isn’t a viable option and you’re making it like it is?”
