Page 16 of Infiltrated

A chorus of approvals went up. We walked to our rooms to take a nap but I don’t even know how to fall asleep, knowing my future is sleeping a few rooms away.

8

“You’re gonna be happy,” said life, “but first I’ll make you strong.”-Unknown

“Our strength comes from how far we are willing to go, to make sure we accomplish everything we set our hearts out to do. Anything else is not laziness, it is weakness.”- Pixie

Charlie

Our internal clockset for our daily workout routine dug Pixie and I out of bed. After we carried out our morning routine of cleaning up and dressing, we made our way to the kitchen to make our shakes. We made enough for all the men and who shortly after came out of the spare rooms and grabbed a cup, all grumbling their thanks.

Yeah, I hated waking up too. The only perky one in the morning was Pixie, and even she seemed subdued. I had shared with her about the boys being affected by our magick and she was just as confused as I was. I picked up on her trepidation before I closed our mental link, if she wanted to tell me, she would soon. I wouldn’t intrude.

Stretching my hands over my head, I started walking toward the gym. I noticed all the clean uniforms on the couch, and weapons cleaned and sharpened. I had sent out a quick text last night to make sure it was handled for them. Figured being a little extra nice might be useful. Worst case, the ass kicking they are about to receive certainly will be. “Boys,” I said. They were still stuck on stupid even though they finished their shakes, and didn’t hear me. A ringing phone snapped them out of their stupor.

Luca picked up his phone and immediately took on an authoritative air. “Yes sir, we will question the witness, we will be there in fifteen minutes.” He closed the phone and looked at us apologetically, “We have to go, apparently a witness has come forward about the vigilante, and we are being called in to question her.”

“Awesome, good luck with that. I was actually trying to get your attention earlier to let you all know that I took the liberty of sending all your dirty shit to get washed and for your weapons to be cleaned. Everything is laid out for you on the couch.”

As the men walked over to their uniforms and picked them up, they quickly went to get ready. Now, my mind was somewhere else. Instead of working out, I was going to do more research instead, I had certain alerts set up for certain keywords and I’m thinking I should expand those searches wider. I also needed to run my numbers system because if our magick was purposefully searching for one another and wanted to bond, I needed to calculate how that will affect our plans, short term and long term. Most magicks yearn to bond, it fulfills a deep need one never knew they truly had until that point. I didn’t want to deny them that, shit, I don’t want to deny myself or Pixie that either, but they are the enemy.Aren’t they?I shook my head, I’ll figure it out later.

They stepped out of the room looking ridiculously heartbreaking in all black, their imposing figures just knocking the air out of my lungs.

“It’s pretty fucking nice that you guys have a tip on the vigilante, any idea who the informant even is?” asked Pixie, while I finished my shake.

“Something about a redhead from a bar, apparently the guy she was with was killed about a week ago,” Luca replied.

Pixie turned her head to the side, confused. “So why wait a week to come forward?”

Etienne spoke up this time, “No idea but we intend to find out.”

“Hmm, well, good luck, take our numbers. Let us know when you want to come back and we will re-add your name to the approved list,” I said.

“Why don’t just keep us on?” Dante asked, confused as if it would be fucking obvious.

“Um, because the only people allowed free range are me and Pixie. Period. Hey system? Program Pixie and Ellie into the phones of Dante, Luca, Etienne, and Dimitri please,” I commanded.

“Numbers programmed, Madam Ellie,” replied my system.

“How did you do that, our phones are encrypted,” asked Etienne suspiciously.

“You are really going to have to learn to stop asking me how I do things. You’ll never like the answer,” I replied as I walked to the elevator and allowed them access to leave.

“Don’t Leave” by BlackStreet started to play in the background, and I groaned.

“Bye, boys,” Pixie and I said as the doors closed around their laughter.

We paused.

“Right, so research time?” Pixie asked.

“Yup!” I reply as I head into our security room, hidden behind an undetectable panel near the workout room. We stepped in, take the steps down a level and scanned our fingers as we walked into our oasis. This room is every spy’s dream and it’s where I do the majority of my work and research as I only go back to my parents estate once a year, on my birthday. I did convert the hidden section of the home into a panic room just in case I ever came under fire, and Pixie and I were in danger.

Before we get settled, Pixie picked up her phone and called our contact to inform them of a possible redheaded snitch that needed to disappear in five minutes and gave them the coordinates that the system picked up from the person talking to Luca. Yeah, Exousia is not to be fucked with and she won’t be found unless she wants to be. Pixie waited and after everything looked completed, she cleaned the cameras. Five minutes. All it takes. I gave her a high-five and we settled in to really work.

We sat down at the computers and started to hack into the Council’s records for information about the boys, their parents, and everything we could dig up about their histories and their connections within the Council. We ran this search on nearly every Shadow in the system but we needed a more in-depth search, we needed to get more information.

I searched again for information about my parents and those who replaced them but those were the only two names I could not locate in their entire system. I growled in frustration. What the fuck are these people hiding? We did, though, find more information about purple sparks by trying a different combination of the words purple, magicks, and sparks in all languages. Apparently this type of connection is considered mythical, which didn’t make sense because Pixie and I had the same colors when we met. Apparently, regular connections are gold. That’s all we found though, nothing about what the difference in colors actually meant.

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