Page 66 of Dragon's Code

“Under the strip,” he replies. “This is a fae facility.”

“The fae need technology?”

He gives me a wildly cocky sneer. “You think humans came up with half the technology you all use? You think development would move so fast without some magic?”

I eye him carefully. “As a human, and a pretty smart one at that, I do think we’re capable of developing and creating the technology we have. Try again, Raphael.”

He chuckles. “I forgot how annoying you are.”

“You mean, right. How right I am.”

“Among other annoying qualities as well.” He gestures for me to follow him.

I tentatively get to my feet and take a breath to make sure I’m steady. When I’m pretty sure I’m not going to throw up and that I can walk, I follow him into the server room.

There’s a large desk with four large flat screen monitors on it with the same ball screensaver bouncing across the black screen changing color every time it hits the edge.

“What am I doing here? You should know that when Kash learns what I’ve done, he’s going to come after me.”

Raphael gives me a curt nod. “As one should for their fated mate.”

I jerk my head around so fast my muscles give a sharp jolt of pain in my neck that I ignore. “You knew?”

“I’m a fae. I can feel elements, sense them. You wear his tourmaline around your neck. It’s in that locket you wear all the damn time. Every time we fucked I could feel that you belonged to another. It pissed me off.”

I blink at him. Shock radiates through my entire body at his words. There’s so much to unpack there, I don’t even know what to say.

“I knew you were destined for someone else. I’ve been alive for a thousand years and haven’t found my mate, but you and your mate are barely in your twenties and you’ve known each other since you were children. Fate’s an asshole and a fucking joke.”

Over a thousand years? Wow.

“If you knew I was meant for someone else, why did you even–”

“Because you were vibrant, insanely cautious with your trust and heart, hurt down to your soul with sorrow and fury, and for a small moment, I thought fate had shined down on me and gifted me with my mate at long last.”

“Wait, you thought I was your mate?”

He doesn’t answer me. He turns to the monitors, touching the mouse so the computer comes to life. “Wouldn’t you rather know why I brought you here?”

I turn to face the monitors too. “What am I here for?”

“I need your help to save my life and my brother’s life. A vampire named Grey has been snatching fae where he can and making them do his bidding through a few different magical means. He grabbed me because of my technological abilities, but I can’t do what you do with computers. I need your help to finalize the virus.”

“Virus?”

“Yes. Grey forced me to create a virus.”

“To do what exactly?”

“He’s been tracking shifters, witches, and fae for some time now. He’s struggled with the fae and he’s allowed me to omit them from this virus. He wants to infect the human databases with markers for who is a shifter and etcetera.”

“What databases?”

“All government databases.”

“Impossible.”

Raphael shakes his head. “No, it’s not. With my abilities as a fae, I can access any program I want to and everything in that program is accessible for me. What I can’t do is code like a human. I mean, I probably could if I took some classes or something, but who has time for that? Coding is just so… mundane. Most of my abilities give me what I need. I don’t need to create elaborate viruses.”

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