Page 50 of Infiltrated

The boys and I helped them downstairs to Louie's apartment.

When we dropped off the equipment and were about to leave, Louie stopped us outside his door. “Take care of them, boys, we have known them for a long time. They think they are invincible, and I’m not going to lie, sometimes it seems like they can be. You think we don’t know who you are and what your goal was when you all hit the streets?” He scoffed. “Shit, you think we don’t know who Ellie truly is and what she does for this city? We love them, they are family even if we aren’t blood. Our community, this town, thrives because of them.” He sighed and shook his head. “We all feel change coming, you would have to be dead to not feel the charge in the air, but we would like to let you know we are here and you can all depend on us when shit hits the fan.” Louie slapped us on our shoulders and closed the door.

We rubbed our hands down our faces and looked at each other, smiles tugging our faces. We felt the twinge of the fresh ink, pulled the healing magick on the way back to the private elevator, and healed the tattooed area. Magick is helpful sometimes. No need for three-four weeks of healing. I grinned and whistled, knowing I was going back to our women and that we had a little extra in store for them.

23

“There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.”Lou Reed

“In a world full of Magick, the most amazing thing, to me, is the magick of the bond.” -Dante

Dante

When we got backto the apartment, the girls had already taken a quick shower and were in pajamas on the couch. We smiled at the image, they looked so comfortable and it was surreal just walking here and feeling like we were coming home. Knowing we were due to leave soon was going to be an interesting experience in itself. Having to deal with compromises and fake engagements when the only women we wanted and needed were right in front of us.

“We are going to take a quick shower, you ladies wanna settle here or do we want to hang out in the rooms instead?”

“Rooms, I think. I’m a little tired to be honest,” Pixie said with a yawn. She got up and pulled Ellie from the couch, who was staring at the news.

“You guys go lay down, I need to finish watching the news, there's some interesting shit going down in another town, I wonder what’s going on,” Ellie murmured. Pixie gave her a kiss and she looked at us and shook her head, I took that as our cue that she wouldn’t be getting up for a while.

We headed to the room for a shower and we laid down on the bed, exhaustion claiming us all.

Charlie

Nothing botheredme more than an unsolved mystery. The news was highlighting a few more disappearances, but they were vague. Something sat wrong with that and I couldn't put my finger on it. There had to be more ties to it.

There was something going on beyond our town. I know I had to focus on our community first but when the time came, I may have to look into making a few alliances beyond the magickal side of our town. Not only were there other communities with their own Councils, there were hundreds of other otherworldly creatures out there and it's time to realize that our weakness is our seclusion. I put it in the back of my mind, but I was going to put out feelers in the meantime. If there was one thing that hacking had taught me, it was that no information that's digital, can be hidden from me, even within wards. Magick is great, but it cannot stop all technology.

I took advantage of everyone sleeping and headed into my office and started pulling up various towns and their Councils, their magickal universities and their instructors.

While our town had an academy for the Shadows, which were officers of a sort, there were other towns that had academies for students to practice and hone their magick for the good of their communities beyond being lap dogs. Those were the places we needed to work with, if it was just to learn how to effectively run a town. When we disbanded this Council we were going to need a shit ton of help. I leaned back in my chair and took note of a few places, one being Delorean University, a school for high Council children. I scoffed, pretentious I am sure, but I had the system pull up all information about the school anyway. I wanted to be thorough. I had a suspicion that the best way to the Councils were by learning about their family histories. My systems were going to be working overtime, but I needed shit done right. I sighed and rubbed my head. Something told me that the problems in our town were just the tip of the iceberg and I’m not sure if that excited me or put me on edge, but it was the only way to find out what our Council was up to. As it was, there was nothing coming up about communications with the other towns, other than that of regular open communications and events.

I ran an encryption program I developed to pick up coded messages, and started to make sure that was focused between the various communities as well. Call it a hunch, but when my gut told me to search, I searched.

* * *

Hours later,I let the searches run, completed some notes and trudged up the stairs and crawled into bed. Dimitri immediately reached for me and cuddled me closely, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Pixie and I were used to my late night wanderings but it felt good to know she was up here being taken care of while I let my mind relax and catch up to itself.

Pixie

The next fewdays flew by and before we knew it, the boys were gone, and Ellie and I were locking everything down, and making sure the security had everything they needed, our numbers and emergency backup numbers. They also had access to our trackers if anything happened.

We made sure our people were well fed and had extra funds just in case. All cameras were working and word got around that Exousia was leaving for a bit but things were monitored and handled. Everyone seemed to be on high alert. We had confidence that they would come together but it felt good to know they could reach us as well.

Despite it being four in the morning, I smiled at Ellie as she triple-checked her devices and packed before jumping on her bike. We needed essentials only as the uniform sets were delivered to the rooms. We had the boys take our computers just in case we were checked before entering so that we were set, but Ellie insisted on keeping her phones. I pity whoever tried to take those.

“Ready?” I teased. She laughed and shook her freshly dyed purple hair.

“Yeah, sorry. Let’s go. Everything is set and locked down. Let’s enjoy the ride.” She smiled and we cranked our bikes and pulled out of the garage and headed into enemy territory. Shit was about to get real for the Council, they literally had no idea what was coming to their front door. I smiled in anticipation. I was going to love bringing them down several notches.

We drove up to the Capitol city, pulling in a lot of attention on our bikes, and I laughed under my black-out helmet. I always hated this damn city. All the pretty lights and clean streets that didn’t smell of desperation, and people trying to make ends meet. Of course, the further you drove away from our city the better the towns became, however, the city was just overly opulent. I scoffed, as we traversed the smooth streets and passed the main citadel government building and the two large buildings on the side, which were their libraries and convention center; where they mostly held large events and huge parties that showed off wealth. Except, libraries didn’t require round-the-clock surveillance and guard duties. The buildings themselves were amazing, pure white and downright glimmered in the sunlight. They were surrounded by beautiful well-kept gardens and small pathways that forced anyone walking to do so, in a single file line in either direction in order to accommodate two-way traffic. They wanted people to slow down and take it all in, the power, the beauty, the money.

You could argue that I was jaded, but the truth was I knew how they worked, I knew their blueprint plans; I damn near studied them as much as I practiced my magickal skills. If there was one thing you should know, it was your enemy and your own skill set. Anything less than that was sure death and then what was the point of living for your purpose if your purpose has no direction? No. Ellie and I were more than prepared and although realistically, shit can go all the way to west bumble-fuck, we shouldn’t have to go into this situation blindly because of all maybes. Learn what you can, thrive, and prepare mentally and physically for the worst. We sped past the buildings deeper into the capital, the academy itself was about half a mile past the main city, nestled in the woods. It made sense really, training the warriors and then when they came out of the woodworks, it was like “wow magick.” I rolled my eyes.

Pix, reign in the negative thoughts. We know what we are getting into. Let's take it one step at a time, we already have a plan of action and several backup plans. We got this.

I wasn’t projecting my thoughts.

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