Chapter 12

Wearing a dark pair of sunglasses to go along with her lavender sweatpants, old pink 'D Corp Rocks' t-shirt, and messy wet hair bun, Thea arrived at her office hating the morning. She ended up staying out way too late playing poker. So, this morning she was paying the price. She generally hated mornings anyways, but mornings like this just plain sucked.

As she walked down the hall to her office, she heard a pair of wolf whistles. Flipping the bird at The Twins, she sighed heavily to herself. At this moment all she wanted was her bed. She knew she looked rough but being that she was already late coming in, she really didn’t care.

Right now, she was in desperate need of her private reserve of highly caffeinated coffee, her Bica sent specially from the Lisbon office. She hoped Celia was as tuned into her as she normally was because until her caffeine amount was brought up to the appropriate levels, no one would be safe. As she rounded the corner she was relieved to see Celia standing there with her large coffee mug filled and ready. “Bless you!” she exclaimed as she took the mug and immediately took a long drink.

Celia smiled as she replied, “You’re welcome. Late night?”

“Yeah, Mythos... Damian... Liam... and finally poker. The new investigator kicked Liam’s butt, that was fun to watch.”

“Do you think he’ll adjust ok to Los Angeles?”

“I think so. He has Marcus guiding him,” Thea responded simply. “Anything from Darius this morning?”

“Not yet but there are a large number of reports for your review as well as a couple of newly unearthed documents that need your attention. But, you may need to have Darius talk to the Preservation Department again. They seem to think badly scanned copies of the documents were just fine and refused to send you the actual document when I requested it."

Thea sighed heavily as she rubbed the bridge to her nose. “Well, if any time was good for me to go into bitch-mode, it’s now. I’m tired and caffeine levels aren’t nearly high enough. I’ll be in my office. You may want to brace yourself. Today’s psychic connection will probably give you a headache.”

“Ok. I’ll prepare myself. One last thing, Liam is delivering a ‘Morning After’ meal for you. When he called he said he was sure you needed it. Plus, he added something about needing to apologize. Liam causing some mischief again, huh?”

Thea couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, you could say that, but I still love that man. He’s always taking care of me in unexpected ways. Well, time to go into bitch mode...” Heading into her office, she decided to call the head of the Preservation Department herself instead of having Darius take care of it. After all, there was nothing like full-on bitchiness to build up her appetite.

Picking up her phone, she dialed Norman Amberly’s number. Hearing his voice she said, “Norman, Thea. Don’t you dare hang up on me, little man. How many times do I need to tell you that I cannot properly do my job without the original documents? Do you know how many times I've found cryptic clues embedded in the paper itself?”

“The Preservation Department has decided due to your penchant for sneezing fire it doesn’t feel comfortable having you handle precious documents. As a result, your access has been downgraded to scan only.”

“By whose authority?”

“Mine,” Norman stated flatly before hanging up on her.

Thea growled loudly. He did not just hang up on her. How dare he pass judgment on her genetics. If Norman wanted to play who had the bigger pecker then she would play and kick his skinny arse.

Dialing his number once again, she got even more pissed when it forwarded to his assistant. “Katie, you get that little pissant man on this phone right now. Who the hell does he think he is? If he wants to pull rank, then I’ll play his game and we both know I'll win.”

“One moment.” After a brief moment, Katie came back on and nervously said to her, “Ms. Daniels, Mr. Amberly simply told me to tell you ‘Try it.’”

“Fine. You might want to keep your head down then.”

Hanging up the phone, she immediately picked it back up and wearing an evil smile, called General Webster, head of the Centurions and Corporate Security. “General, Thea. Good morning! I’m calling to report a breach of security protocol.”

“Good morning, Thea! Security Protocol you say?”

“Yes! Norman Amberly downgraded my document access without Darius’ authority.”

“Norman has only a Level 3 security clearance, you’re a Level 9. Yes, that’s indeed a serious breach. We’ll lock down his access to all systems until such time as our investigation is complete as to why he broke established protocol. We’ll also make sure your access is immediately restored.”

“Thank you, General. Have a good day.” Hanging up the phone, Thea laughed wickedly. Mess with her, would he? General Webster was a stickler for rules and established protocols decided on by Darius. He would make Norman's life hell!

Counting slowly to five, as she took another drink of her coffee, she waited for her phone to ring. Sure enough it did. “Norman.”

“You little bitch. Breach of security protocol? I’ll have the Centurions crawling all over my office, not to mention my home for the next month.”

“I warned you, Norman. I tried to play nice with you. You ought to know better by now than to mess with me by now. You always lose. After all, there’s a reason I have a Level 9 clearance and report directly to Darius. I actually save the world, not just paper. And yes, I am a bitch... I’m a royal Level 9 Bitch! Remember that next time. Have a nice day.” With that she hung up on him with a smile and returned to drinking her coffee.

A short time later, as Thea was attempting to make a dent in her workload, her cell phone rang. “Bitch here, what do you want?” she answered distractedly.

“Hello, Ms. Bitch,” Darius replied. “On a rampage this morning?”

“Are you talking about Amberly? Hey, I tried to play nice. He was determined to hinder my job and believed he could push me around. Not to mention, he broke security protocol.”

Darius sighed deeply. “Well, at least this time it was rather civil and there’s no blood or bodies. That’s something I guess. Anyways, can you come see me?”

“Sure thing. Let me finish my coffee and tone down the bitchiness.”

“I appreciate that,” Darius chuckled.

Thea simply snorted before hanging up. Taking a deep calming breath, she downed the last of her coffee. Getting up from her desk, mug in hand, she headed out of her office. She found Celia waiting for her, pot in hand, prepared to fill her mug up. “Thank you, my ever connected friend. If Liam shows up before I get back, make sure he knows how much I adore him.”

Celia smiled and nodded. As she watched her boss walk down the hall, she shivered. Suddenly feeling a bit nervous, she looked around before deciding to get herself a cup of coffee as well.

~~*~~

Thea approached Merie, smiling at how glamorous the assistant always looked. "Good Morning, Merie.”

"Morning, Thea. Need more coffee before you go in?" Merie smiled as she asked her.

"Nah, I’m good," Thea replied as she knocked once and opened Darius' office door. "Morning D.”

“You look rougher than normal, late night?”

“A bit. What’s up?”

“Did Damian make an appearance last night?”

“He did, but had to leave suddenly. Something about one of the gates.”

“After he returned to Ikisat three more gates were breached. It was an inside job. Damian and his lieutenants are in a battle to stop the breaches and find the culprit. I received word that it’s pretty bad.”

“If they breach all nine gates, Ikisat could fall,” Thea replied worriedly as she collapsed on a chair.

“I’ve seen Damian in full Daemoni Prince and Realm Commander mode. There’s a reason Ikisat has never fallen and Damian’s power is so strong. I’m not overly worried about Ikisat but it does tell me that whatever is going to happen will happen soon.”

Thea nodded as she looked down at her hands thinking. “Any further info from Filtairn or any other source?”

“Not yet but I was to meet with the Lord Astaroth and the heads of the Vampire Clans later this evening but they’ve cancelled. They’re nervous.”

“Any word from Gaia?”

“No, but mother will show when needed. She always does,” Darius smiled.

Thea’s great-grandmother, Gaia, was a Celestian Source Goddess and very, very powerful. She was frequently unavailable when she was needed elsewhere by her father, the great Chaos. Thea suspected it was more along the lines that she was involved with someone but it wasn’t her place to ask so she didn’t.