Page 25 of The Demon's Fire
She paused while everyone absorbed that tidbit. “On to the homepage. It’s down-and-dirty but just wrong. The blinking arrow pointing to the image gives me a headache. By the way, do we know the two guys in the grainy photo outside our building?”
Skyler leaned against the headboard. “Yes. On the left is Alarik, the director of the Ministry of Well Being. He’s with the vampire lawgiver, Viktor. They met with the board in Chicago a while ago.”
“WikiLeaks would be proud. Let’s see what we can see. The design and colors are outdated. And, OMG, the negative space is a time capsule transporting me back to the late 80s. The sidebar is pretty standard. When I click onAbout, we get their mission statement. To unwrap the truth—one secret at a time.”
The tech expert rolled her eyes. “When I openContributors, we see M&M listed. The Managing Maniac.”
Sarah rubbed the nape of her neck. “Below that name is DotNet. She’s in charge of planning all upcoming events, having been a kickass wedding planner. The third contributor is Slash, a guy fresh from a stay at a local psych ward where nobody believed his stories about Aeternals. They also say he’s willing to commit acts of atrocity to get their point across. Sounds to me as if he should still be riding the tractor at the funny farm.”
The tech paused to take a sip of coffee. “They could be intentionally making us think they’re noobs. Let’s move on.” She pointed out the top of the website. “Can I have a blogroll, please?” When nobody responded, Sarah shrugged. “Okay, then. When I click onBlogs, we find two. They could use some dancing baloney.”
The room exchanged puzzled looks while Cal turned to Anna. “What?”
Sarah muttered, “Technotards.” More loudly, she said, “You know. Artwork? The first blog is a lesson on the Blood Coven’s creation of the realms. It could be from the pages ofThe History of Scathif the deadly dull tome had somespice.Peruse, guys.”
In AD 452, thirteen powerful witches and warlocks, aka the Blood Coven, created three realms where before only Earth had existed. Homo sapiens, the heroes of our story, stayed here. Aeternals holed up on Scath. Darque was the prison for the awful, bad, scary creatures who look nothing like us—harpies, sand leeches, gagans, questing beasts, hellhounds, Spriggans, Yeti. You get the picture.
Who are Aeternals, you ask? They are who you might see on a Bella Lugosi or Lon Cheney movie set—vampires, shapeshifters, mages, incubi and succubi, demons, nymphs, satyrs, Amazons. But they’re real, and they look human when they keep their fangs in their mouths, their claws trimmed, and their powers corked in a djinn bottle.
Aeternals disappeared from Earth. Kinda. Some stayed behind, passing for human, living among us, breeding, creating generations of mixed offspring. Oh, and eating. Who’s their favorite snack? We are. Better than chips and salsa.
And guess what? Even today, some sneak from their realm to ours to impregnate us or feed. You are skeptical? I would be, too. But I will offer proof in future blogs.
“Amateurs.” Cal tugged on the knot in his tie. “They sound like baked college kids.”
Skyler heard a tapping noise. Everyone around the table glanced toward Anna. She smiled sheepishly. “My foot has a case of the jitters. Sorry.”
Sarah waited until the attention swung to her again. “The other blog goes into detail about our operation. It tells how there was no contact between the realms for centuries until a mage’s spell made it possible for communication and travel. Later, after an Aeternal created GPS technology for travel through portals, hook ups between Earth and Scath became easier.”
Laurie rubbed a finger across her lower lip. “Holy you-know-what. Everyone thinks the US Department of Defense invented GPS. Truth is, we leaked the knowledge, letting them take the credit.”
Descendants of the semen-spreading, Earth-bound Aeternals eventually hooked up with Scath to form the Alliance, an organization designed to protect secrets. Oops. Gender bias alert. It could have been descendants of egg-incubating monsters.
“They also elaborate on the Alliance’s cover, our private security operation.” Skyler crossed one ankle over the other, adjusting her laptop while she maintained a quiet, expressionless voice, not at all how she was feeling.
“Look.” Cal squirmed in his chair, staring at his screen. “They talk about the bludfrenzied vampire who escaped from Scath and killed the grandmother in San Francisco. There’s another paragraph on the gang of young incubi who terrorized a college dormitory in upstate New York. How do they know this shit? Sorry, ladies. And the demon who stalked the movie star. Clean-up was a bitch after the incident. Sorry, again.”
Sarah drummed two pencils on the table. Laurie cleared her throat to speak but then shook her head. Anna lifted coffee to her lips but decided to cradle it in her hands instead. Cal leaned into his chair, fingers laced behind his neck. Skyler knitted her brows together, gazing out the window at a pine-treed forest in North Shelters.
After reading silently for a few seconds, Sarah spoke. “They posted the origination history lesson about four weeks ago. The blog on the Alliance was two weeks afterward. Next, they promise to ‘unbeast’ demons.”
She sipped her coffee, setting her cup back on the table quietly. “Eventsis interesting. Here, they claim their first planned activity was to kill Chief Legal Officer Skyler Maxwell. Since it didn’t come off, Slash is looking forward to another go at her.”
All four sets of brows in the room arched.
Answers my question. TheBigReveal and my accident are connected.
Skyler lifted her chin as she searched for the right words. It was time to confess. “I didn’t slip or get dizzy and fall as I suggested. Someone pushed me the other day.”
Everyone’s mouth fell open while Skyler stuck to business. “If we’re finished, I have a call to make. There’s no doubt any longer. They do know our secrets. Contact me if they communicate again. Needless to say, Sarah, we must find out who this group is.”
Skyler signed off and phoned the board president, sharing information on the murder attempt at the L station along with everything they knew of TheBigReveal.
Not too long after she disconnected, Cal called. “When you return, Skyler, I’m arranging for a security detail to stay on you.”
“I agree. According to the board prez, Lead Agent Nico Abello, who recently relocated from Seattle, will handle the investigation. It’s fortunate I’ll be on Scath for the rest of the week. We all need to be careful, though, Cal. When you meet with this new guy, suggest bodyguards for other employees, not only me. Tell him to warn the Alliance offices in other cities as well. Give him everything.” Skyler paused. “If this group goes public, the fallout will be disastrous. Especially if they present believable proof. But I don’t understand. Why not unmask us now? Why show their hand first? And what could they gain from my death? What about the Aeternals who raided our office? Are they part of this mess?”
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