39
At nine am I heard the doorbell as I sat in my office and I waited patiently for the vampire to make his appearance. I wasn’t looking forward to meeting him, not because I hate other species but because vampires especially had a terrible reputation.
“So do you Lucas,” Baz chimed in my head.
“True,” I said as Hannah knocked on my door.
“Come in,” I said and she opened the door to reveal a man around my age with pale skin, dark blonde hair and striking blue eyes. He looked quite ordinary dressed in a suit and carrying a laptop bag over his one shoulder.
“This is Lucas Grey, my brother, and this is Timothy Black, my friend,” Hannah said putting emphasis on the ‘friend’ part. I stood up and shook his hand firmly, promising myself to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“It’s nice to meet you Timothy,” I said and sat back down motioning for him to take a seat as well.
“Hannah didn’t tell me much, only that you need IP addresses located,” he said as he sat down.
“My sister tells me you can be trusted that despite the reputation of your species you’re supposedly one of the good guys,” I said and looked at him.
“She said the same thing about you and trust me your reputation is much worse than mine,” he said as he looked me straight in the eye.
“I see you’re not one for bullshitting around, I like that,” I said and offered him coffee.
“I brought my own,” he said and took out an insulated bottle and I could smell the blood as he took a sip.
“There's a website being run by certain people, auctioning off young girls and women to the highest bidders, I want to know who the buyers are and a possible location on the seller,” I said to him and opened the website on my laptop and turned it around.
“I’ve heard rumours of this,” he said as he looked intently at the screen.
“This needs to remain confidential,” I said to him.
“Obviously, otherwise you’re as good as dead,” he said as he opened his bag and took his own laptop out.
“So are we going to talk business or what?” I asked him.
“I’m not going to lie to you, this is dangerous work, not that I’m scared, the thing is you have to be very careful in who you tell this stuff to, the sort of people that participate in this shit will most likely be very prominent and influential figures in our society, well within our species societies and with that comes danger,” he said.
“If you do your job correctly then nobody will know who hacked their system or even that they were hacked for that matter, the buyers won’t know who’s targeting them,” I said.
“What exactly are you planning to do once you have these addresses?” he asked me.
“Save the girls they buy, it’s easier to target the buyers than the seller,” Hannah said as she joined in on the conversation.
“Shit, you’re really serious about this,” he said as he started typing.
“I already have one girl here, she’s traumatized as hell, scared out of her mind and I don’t even know what the hell really happened to her, so yes I’m really serious about this,” I said.
I leaned back in my chair and watched as Timothy typed away on his laptop. Hannah left us alone after a few minutes and we sat in silence. I continued with paperwork and left Timothy to do what he does best and waited for him to speak first.
“Okay, so the seller’s location is going to be very difficult. The IP changes every few seconds and pings off towers all around the world, whoever did this setup is really good,” he said.
“I know who they are, proof is what I need to take them down,” I said to him.
“That’s going to be somewhat difficult. I see we have four more days before the auction goes live. I’d say we wait until it opens and I hack it live as people start bidding and trace the buyers since they’ll be online for longer than thirty seconds, that’s how long I need to find someone,” he said to me.
“What’s your price?” I asked him.
“I don’t need your money but I am bored,” he said with a lazy smile.
“You want in?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said.
“Some of the buyers are vampires,” I said looking at him intently.
“And if there’s a buyer that’s a dragon will you let him go simply because you’re the same specie?” he asked me.
“No,” I said with a laugh.
“Exactly. I know most people think we have no morals, but in reality we’re just like you. Some of us are good and some of us are bad. I just happen to be one with a high set of morals, I drink human blood yes, but I don’t feed on live humans and I don’t kill to feed,” he said.
“I guess I’ll see you in four days then,” I said to him.
“Oh and you might want to stock up on some Silver-leaf Nightshade,” he said as he stood up with his laptop already back in the bag.
“Why?” I asked him.
“It’s the only thing that kills a vampire without you having to chop off their heads or rip their hearts out,” he said with a small smile.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said to him.
“I have a good feeling about you Lucas Grey,” he said and we shook hands.
“See you soon Timothy,” I said and he left my office without another word.
It was just before lunch and I went upstairs to find Rylee and try to talk to her. Rev had gone out with Hannah with a list from Martha for the house and I knew it would be hours before they were back. Preston was at The Drake and Jennifer was in class, she was completing a business degree.
“What are you doing?” I asked Rylee as I walked into the bedroom and saw all her clothes on the bed.
“Moving to the second floor,” she said not looking at me.
“Come sit here for a bit, we need to talk at some point,” I said to her as I sat down on the sofa.
“Fine,” she said emotionlessly and sat down on the other end.
“Tessa asked to talk to me in private. She showed me a video that her friend made, that’s the other girl you saw me carrying into the guest house. Her name’s Nadia and she had information about things that are happening around us. Girls and young women are being abducted and then auctioned off on a website to the highest bidder. Dragons, vampires, wolves and humans are all part of this and Tessa asked for my help,” I said to her.
“The sounds you heard was the video she showed me of JD raping a young girl, Nadia was raped too on the video and I offered them protection and that’s why I brought them here,” I continued.
“So you never slept with Tessa?” she asked me.
“Of course not,” I said to her.
“Why didn’t you just tell me this?” she asked me.
“I didn’t want you involved because of what you went through with JD,” I said to her, “and then when I finally came back you were out drinking and screwing around!” I hadn’t intended to shout that last part.
“I didn’t sleep with anyone else!” she said loudly.
She got up and I grabbed her arm pulling her towards me. She landed half on my lap and my hands were on either side of her face. She leaned forward and we started kissing, she was pulling my shirt out of my pants and unbuttoning it at the same time.
I kept smelling that man on her and seeing her walking out of that bathroom pulling her dress down and him following her out. It almost made me gag as she unzipped my pants and my hand snaked underneath her dress.
“See how easy it is to excite you,” I said as my fingers pushed inside her. Her whole body stiffened as she looked at me.
“I don’t love you Rylee and I wouldn’t fuck you even if you begged for it,” I said.
Her hand made contact with my cheek as she slapped me as hard as she could and it stung a little as she pushed herself up and away from me.
“I fucking hate you,” she said coldly and walked over to the bed.
“You hate me? I hate you back!” I yelled at her.
“You expect me to believe your story but you won’t believe mine?” she said angrily.
“You can’t even remember what the fuck you did that night, I saw you coming out of that bathroom with him following you! Can you honestly tell me you remember what you did in there?” I yelled.
“I know myself and I wouldn’t sleep with some random stranger,” she said as she looked at me.
“Except that you did! His scent was all over you! Even now I can smell it on you, it’s fucking disgusting,” I said and stood up. She turned her back on me and took her clothes from the bed and stormed out of the room.
“Was that really necessary?” Baz asked me.
“She cheated Baz,” I said to him.
“I know but you didn’t have to be so cruel,” he said.
“She was cruel first,” I said and he looked to be deep in thought.
I spent the day at The Drake going over the books with Stephen, our accountant, and things were looking good. I did inventory with Andre and Preston and it took my mind off everything. I kept myself busy and went back home ten minutes before dinner time.
Rylee barely touched her food and I wished that I didn’t notice these minute details about her. We ate in relative silence as Preston and Jennifer sensed the mood in the room. Hannah and Rev went out for dinner and I didn’t expect them back anytime soon.
After dinner I showered and lay down on the bed with the towel still wrapped around me. Rylee knocked on the door and then opened it slowly.
“Everything okay?” I asked her. She looked like herself except that her eyes were red from crying.
“I forgot my toiletries,” she said and went into the bathroom.
“Rylee, you don’t have to sleep in the guest room,” I said as I sat up straight.
“If I could divorce you I would, if I never had to see you again my life would be perfect. I meant it when I said that I hate you, you’re an emotionless, selfish asshole and I wish I had never married you,” she said and left the room before I could say anything.
“Rylee!” I said loudly but she ignored me.
“That went well,” Baz said.
“Oh shut up,” I said to him.
“Asshole,” he chimed after a while.
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