Page 53 of Wicked Allure
A message came through. Ciro requesting a video chat. She hit the accept button. Within seconds a call came through on the screen. She tapped the second accept button. Ciro’s face came into view.
“General.” The vampire warrior bowed his head to her.
Dru set the tablet on the desk where it could stand up. “I take it you have news for me if you’re video calling me.”
“That I do. I won’t keep you long.”
He panned out the video to show a female warrior sitting next to him. They were in a darkened room with plenty of monitors and computers. She recognized the female, June Kline.
“Hello, General.” June offered a tight smile.
“June. I hope the two of you have found some information that will be useful,” Dru said.
From the looks of it, Ciro had traveled to Princess Hegna’s in order to work with June. These two vampires were extremely smart and talented with technology. If anyone could find the new alpha of the lycans, it would be them.
“We have. It’s not much, but it’s definitely more than we had. I’ve stayed in contact with Gale and Ishmael who have infiltrated the two dens,” Ciro announced.
This piqued Dru’s interest. She hadn’t expected to hear from Gale and Ishmael so soon, but if the two had already found something out, then it proved her team was phenomenal.
“What do we have?” Dru asked.
“Gale is in Oklahoma right now, and Ishmael is in Oregon. They have gained one piece of information that is identical,” Ciro said. The sound of fingers flying on a keyboard clattered in the background. He shifted to the side and got a little closer to the screen.
“And that is?” Dru arched an eyebrow at him. She glanced at the time in the corner of her tablet and saw that Tomesha should be arriving at any moment.
“Both of the lycans they interrogated claimed there is a female in charge. A pure-born who’s extremely intelligent,” he said.
“We need more than that. It’s likely they’re speaking of Rayna. They need to keep hitting the lycans harder until they find one who’s desperate.” She tapped her nails on the desk. Maybe this was why the two warriors hadn’t reached out to her. Anyone could have thrown out that kind of thing. She needed confirmation of the damn lycan alpha and the whereabouts of said alpha.
“The only problem they’re running into is that the newly turned lycans aren’t being told anything. Of course they tried to get the name of the alpha, but even with extreme measures, they failed. I truly don’t think they know,” Ciro said.
Dru froze at this.
If the lycans wanted to protect certain data, it would make sense to not have critical plans be known by all. Dru bit back a growl. That would have been a move she’d have suggested.
“Then it looks like they need to expand the targets. Someone is going to talk. I don’t care what or who they have to kill to get the information, we need to know if this is Rayna and where her location is,” Dru snapped.
“Yes, General. I do have some news as well. June here is a genius?—”
“I don’t know about that,” June muttered from off the screen.
“Anyway, we’ve been combing the dark web?—”
“The who?” This time it was Dru who interrupted Ciro. What the hell was the dark web? She knew what the internet or what websites were, but the dark web? He was losing her quickly.
“It’s part of the internet that is sort of off the books, so to speak. Its’s a non-indexed part of the internet with hidden sites that cover up illegal activities,” Ciro explained nonchalantly.
“And anyone can access it?” Dru ran a hand down her face.
“Not really. It would request certain software and configurations.” Ciro paused. He must have seen Dru’s blank expression. “People like me and June are able to access it. What I was alluding to is there are a few forums where it’s been discussed about an appearance of the alpha.”
“Really?” Now this was information that Dru needed to know. This alpha had been eluding them since Azura was killed. If they could find her, then they could end this war before it began. “And this is confirmed?”
“Nothing is ever confirmed online, General,” Ciro said.
“But we’re going to keep looking into this. There are too many inconsistencies with what we’re finding, but this lets us know that some of the lycans are chatting amongst each other.” The view turned to June who glanced away from her screen to face Dru. “We all know what happens when people get comfortable in certain spaces.”
“They’ll unknowingly give us what we want,” Dru murmured.
