Chapter Five

(**Sebastion’s POV**)

The door of the elevator opening set my mind free from the fog of lust that Irina inspired from me. My sister and Tori staring at us made me chuckle. I just got caught making out in my company elevator like some horny teenage boy. The taste of Irina’s lips are still doing bad things to my libido, so I step out of the elevator to get some distance from her.

That one kiss will not be enough, I need more of her. The burning in my soul is crying out for my mate. Aries is driving me insane with his stupid whimpering. I get it, man; we have her so close but can’t have her yet. Relax, this one isn’t on me. I can feel the annoyed gaze of my twin as she just stands there silently staring me down. Tori looks like she is suppressing laughter. That I can appreciate.

I feel Irina behind me as she exits the elevator car. The heat radiating off her body is doing serious damage to my self-control. Her orange blossom scent makes me want to burry my head in her neck and just breathe her in for hours. I hope there will be a day when I can do that without feeling a sense of impending doom. One thing at a time. Showing her the file room while I go over my plan is the first step.

Trying not to pin her to the wall and ravage her is step two.

“I assume you are down here to show your new assistant the file system,” Arianna spoke with annoyance clear in her voice. She is still pissed at me.

“Yes. She came here to do a job, so I am going to show her how to do it. The charade will be what information she sends back to Vicktor. If most of what she is doing here is what he sent her here for, the less likely he will trip her up with the lies.” I respond to her with more snark that I intended.

Arianna’s brows rose, then a reluctant smile tugged at her mouth, “I see you have given this plan some though. It may work.”

“I have a few more ideas, but they need some fine tuning first,” I look back to Irina for a moment, then back to my sister. “You going to stay mad at me all day?”

“No, since you were right. I will leave you to show Irina they system,” She said as she moved past us to the elevator doors. Tori followed behind her with a smile on her face.

I waited until they left before I turned to Irina to begin the tour. She was looking anywhere and everywhere but at me. A frown was marring her beautiful face. I wanted to make it go away. I wanted to make her smile at me in a look that was only for me. Someday I will make those things happen. Now was the time to earn her trust. Then I will try to earn her love.

I walk over to the desk near the entranceway to pick up a small tablet, “Here, this will be yours eventually. You will log in the file you open, take out, and return to this room. Time and date of every action make with the file,” I say as I hand her the tablet after I sign her in with my thumbprint. “We will just have you use my thumbprint until we can get you scanned in.”

“I will need to have my palm scanned?” Irina asks me as she takes the tablet.

“Palm, retina, and fingerprints. We do nothing in this building with passcodes. My father set it up that way years ago after someone in our company was a found out to be a spy for another business. Not that anything we do here is a trade secret. I found his over reaction funny. Today, not so much,” I reply.

Irina flinched at the last statement, making me regret my words instantly.

“Moving on. The rows are set up by company, then alphabetically. There are only four that Arianna and I deal with directly. Two for each of us. So, you will only ever deal with these two company’s files,” I tell her as I walk her towards the wall where she will work.

“Holy shit, this is a mess,” Irina whistles.

I laugh as I shake my head. The rows of filing cabinets are open with paper hanging out of some files. Some drawers are so overstuffed they can’t close properly. It was a mess that I might need two assistants to fix. “Yes, this is the nightmare they left me with when my last P. A quit. She wasn’t very good at filing, and I suspect she didn’t know how to file alphabetically at all.”

“This will take weeks to fix, maybe longer depending on what messes I find in all these cabinets,” Irina’s voice is laced with annoyance.

“Well, this is the job you can here to pretend to do while spying on me. What were you planning on doing down here all day? Look busy but not do anything?” I asked her curiously.

“Yes. I do however know how to file and do what a personal assistant should do. So, I guess doing the job is better than sitting here worrying all day.” She looks at me with a look that spoke volumes.

“Hey, you are not alone anymore, Irina. I know I am new at knowing about The Collectors, but I have made powerful allies that sre not. With their organization and my warriors, I will try all I can to save your daughter and all the others that Vicktor Treadstone is holding captive.” I reach for her small hand to give it a gentle squeeze.

Irina catches me by surprise when she presses her tiny frame against my much larger body. She pressed her head against my chest as a sob escapes from her mouth. Oh hell, I fucked up again and made her cry.

*You idiot, she isn’t crying because you made her sad,* Aries laughs at me.

*Then why is she crying?* Before he can answer me Irina pulls back, looking up at me with those amazing ice-blue eyes of hers.

“I have been alone for the last five years with no one but my daughter to care about. With no one to give us hope until today. I am going to want to know more about this ally of yours and how you plan to get my daughter free of that monster.” She says with an iron determination.

“I will tell you about all of that, but I need to know that I can trust you first. Nothing about this can leave here and go back to your master, more than just Zasha is at stake here.” I step back from her to make a point to myself. There is more to this situation that just Irina and me.

“I have told you everything I know. What more can I do to have your trust? You hold the cards in this game now, Sebastion,” Irina says as she glares at me.

“How do I know that you won’t tell him everything, anyway?” I ask her.

“You won’t know, but that is a risk that we both will take, isn’t it?” She arches a brow at me.

“Have you met any witches?” I ask her as I wall up down the next row of cabinets.

“No, but I have heard they exist. Vicktor doesn’t believe in that magic is real, so he never tried to find one. To him, witches are humans that are overly theatrical. Why?”

“I am just learning about them myself, so my explanation may be odd. From what I was told, there are three types of witches. White Witches, who practice natural magic, offensive and protective spells. Healers, basically. Then there are Dark Witches, who deal in dark, forbidden magic. I am sure you can guess what they do. Then there are the Gray Witches. They are neutral and deal in earth magic and protective spells. They are more rare than they other two.”

“Why are you giving me a lesson in witches?” Irina asks me as we stop at the end of the row.

“Because my allies works with three White Witches. The three of them separately are powerful, but together they are like a mega power to see. They will come here as soon as they can,” I tell her. I can tell she looks skeptical at what I am saying. I can also see that my explanation has caused more questions in her mind.

“Will you every tell me the name of these allies you keep referring to?”

“Yes, but they are not the only ones that works with the witches. It is a larger, more widespread organization from what I understand. They work to free supernaturals from The Collectors,” I stare at her, knowing that what I say isn’t satisfying her questions. I am just not sure what to tell her now and what not to.

“Fine, tell me as we get closer to figuring out how to get my daughter free. Now, you need to leave me to start on this mess while you figure out what I am to give Vicktor later tonight when I meet him.” Irina says as she turns to head to the first row of cabinets.

I decide she has a point on that last statement. I leave her to work and make my way back up to my office. I have an idea on what to send her home with tonight. Her not coming home with me will make me restless for the rest of the day.

(**Irina’s POV**)

When Sebastion finally leaves, I heave a sigh as I look at the massive disaster waiting for me. What they woman before me a complete idiot or had she just had enough of dealing with this room? From what I understand, I will not spend all of my time down here filing, so that is a plus. I sigh once more, then I take off my jacket. It is going to be sweaty work today.

A few hours pass when I sit back on my heels looking all around me. I ended up on the floor once I covered the top of the first cabinet in files. Looking down the long row of cabinets, my head throbbed. I am only just beginning, yet there is so much more to do. Is Tori coming back down today like I was told? Not that I am in any hurry to make small talk with a woman I don’t want to get to know.

My stomach growling made me look at my watch. Holy shit, it is past noon. I stand up to make my way to the elevator. When I get there, I realized that I am trapped down here. The palm plate will not work for me. I look around when I spot a phone on the desk. My panic subsides as I walk over to it. There are two buttons on the phone and no dial pad. They labeled one button for Arianna while the other is for Sebastion.

Well, at least they made it simple. I pick up the phone, hit the button to call Sebastion, then put it back down when I hear the elevator door open. There is the very person I was calling. Long gone was his suit jacket, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his hair was disheveled. However, it was what was in his hands that got my attention.

Sebastion had brought me lunch. He held two bags of fast food with the logo of an Italian restaurant that I passed several times over the last few weeks. I wasn’t a big fan of Italian food, but since he was kind enough to bring me lunch, I would eat it.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I ordered you the same thing I get. I don’t normally like Italian food, but it was where Arianna and Tori decided to have for lunch. I agreed since it was easier,” Sebastion said as he walked to the desk.

“Thank you. I was just getting ready to call you. I am thought I was trapped down here for a second there before I noticed the phone,” I babble for no reason. Get a grip.

“Oh, that will not be a problem for the rest of the day. Tori will be down here with you since Arianna is going home for the day. I will also come down here, I have some work I can do on my laptop.”

“Going to watch me to make sure I don’t stuff any documents in my bra?”

“You are not wearing a bra,” He said as he sat the bags on the desk beside me.

Oh, hell, why was that so hot that he knows that? Shit, I need to concentrate.

Sebastion moves to sit down in one of the two chairs at the desk. He takes food out of the bags, opens containers, and dividing our meals up. The aromas are amazing, making my stomach grumble in anticipation. I take my seat across from him and we eat in an oddly comfortable silence. I decide now is a good time to ask him some personal questions.

I will start with the one that had been on my mind since he showed me a picture of his son Jace. He mentioned that the boy’s mother kidnapped him but was now dead. Was that why he was now eligible for a second chance mate? His first mate was dead like mine was. Unlike Gustav, who died valiantly, Sebastion’s mate died a coward.

That is what she was to have even been able to do whatever she did to her own child. Children were a precious gift from the Moon Goddess. They are to be cared for, nurtured, and protected. A mother who will harm her own child deserves to be punished. Death isn’t the choice I would make, but I will save that judgment until Sebastion tells me what the woman did.

“Why did your mate kidnap your son?” I ask quietly.

Sebastion chokes on his pasta as he hears what I asked him. A storm of emotion passes through his eyes before finally settling on guilt, then regret. Of all the emotions I expected to see, guilt wasn’t one of them. What went on in this man’s life that he was so guilty of? There is more to Sebastion Drakos than I originally suspected.