Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Good morning, Brennus,” Elijah greeted as he stepped into the breakroom to drop off his lunch. The flat look he got in response would have hurt his feelings if he hadn’t seen the glazed over look Brennus had while watching the coffee pot percolate. He bit back a laugh. “Caffeine not set in yet?”
“The line at my usual shop was too long,” Brennus complained. “I had to wait until I got here.” The griffin’s eyes narrowed. “Sometimes I don’t like how upbeat you are in the morning. It’s not right.”
Elijah snorted, shaking his head. Brennus knew he didn’t indulge in caffeine, and he knew why. He was just being grouchy this morning. “Well, I’ll let you have a few minutes. I’m going to call the plumber and see if I can get a timeline on when I’ll be able to go home.”
He got a grunt in response and snickered to himself, putting his lunch bag in the fridge before heading back to his office. He made the call to the plumber, who didn’t pick up until the fifth ring, his voice rough like he was still sleeping.
“What?” the gruff voice demanded.
Elijah’s voice was hesitant as he asked, “Mr. Wood? This is Elijah Washburne. I was wondering if I could get an update–”
“What time is it?” was the growled reply.
Elijah’s gaze dropped to the clock on his monitor. “It’s eight o’clock, but I figured–”
“Did you seriously wake me up this early to ask for an update? Do you have no common courtesy?”
Blinking rapidly, Elijah tried to interject. “I beg your pardon, but–”
“It’ll get done when it gets done,” the man snapped. “Or would you rather I hurry and miss something? If I’m just gonna end up coming back, I’ll charge extra. Now don’t call me again unless it's a reasonable hour.”
He hung up after mumbling some unkind words about telepaths that Elijah was sure he hadn’t heard right. If he had, then the lack of professionalism was astounding. There wasn’t much he could do about it, though. It was hard enough finding a plumber willing to come to his home.
He set the phone on his desk, biting back a dejected sigh.
He’d hoped he could head home soon. He could ignore the yawning abyss of loneliness most days, but after spending a weekend at Isaac’s home, he was more aware of just how lonely he was.
Isaac’s home was full of laughter and warmth.
Elijah almost didn’t want to return to his home once the maintenance was complete. He didn't look forward to the quiet.
Brennus poked his head in, head cocked in that way all griffins did when they were curious. Seeing Brennus’s children do the same thing at the last company luncheon was positively adorable. “I got a call about a meeting with the CEOs. They asked you to join. Did you get anything from the plumber?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I’ll call again later. Is the meeting now?”
He was pretty sure he knew what it was about, so he didn’t ask as Brennus led the way to the elevator.
Instead, he talked to his friend about his family and their weekend, soaking in the moment of normalcy while simultaneously trying to ignore the group of goblins tucked as far into the corner of the elevator as possible to avoid him.
They arrived at Ozen’s office at the same time as Maverick. It was unusual to see him without his mate, so when Maverick noticed his questioning glance, he explained, “He’s doing research for me. It’s more important than him taking notes for this meeting.”
Ah. True. Now that Isaac was no longer a student, he could be trusted to take on tasks for Maverick.
He probably wouldn’t be promoted to full partner any time soon, not without any real experience, but it was only a matter of time.
In the past six months that Isaac had worked at Spellbound, he’d taken on tasks that no intern would be trusted with and was proven to be quite good at his job.
He was already an asset to the company. He doubted it would take long before his friend was splitting Maverick’s load without any help from his mate.
Ozen was waiting for him, and it seemed Avery had volunteered to take notes, because he was sitting in a chair next to Ozen’s, a pad of paper in his lap and a smile on his face.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Ozen greeted.
The co-founder of the company was a formal man by nature and shook hands despite his close relationship with both Maverick and Brennus.
Elijah was surprised the first time Ozen shook his hand without blinking but had grown used to it over the years and smiled politely at his boss as they shook hands.
“Good morning, Mr. Hawksley. I hope all is well for you?”
“As well as it can be, given the circumstances.”
The whole company felt the betrayal of Aristeos, the founders most of all, because they trusted the demon and hand selected him to run the division like they had all division heads. Elijah didn't judge the incubus for being hurt.
“Is this everyone?” Brennus asked.
“Not quite,” Ozen corrected. “Taron–”
“I’m here, I’m here,” Taron burst into the room, beaming when he noticed everyone else had gathered. “Apologies for my tardiness. I had to stop on the research floor for something.”
Something Elijah was good at was telling when someone was lying.
It tinged their emotions, even if he wasn’t actively reading them.
Only someone who didn’t feel emotions could hide a lie from him.
Taron was lying about why he was late, but it was easy to tell the true reason when his mate came hobbling in behind him.
Tony was somewhat a friend of Elijah’s; he’d been kind from their first meeting and never treated Elijah differently for being a telepath.
He was also disabled and required a cane to walk, but he was supposed to be getting better.
He’d had treatments, but the exaggerated limp was still concerning.
Elijah wanted to ask, to see if he was alright, but he held himself back.
He’d ask when they didn’t have an audience.
Ozen was polite in waiting for Tony to be seated and comfortable on the couch before starting the meeting. “So, Maverick. You called this meeting. What did you want to discuss?”
Elijah wasn’t normally part of meetings like these, so he hadn’t known just how long they would be.
They spent most of the morning talking about the potential pitfalls of division-wide loyalty interviews.
It was in each employee contract that they were subject to meetings with SR if suspected of misconduct, but both Maverick and Ozen wanted Elijah involved.
They weren’t satisfied with interviews by the SR managers.
They wanted readings. And that would be complicated to pull off.
Eventually, Taron pointed out that anyone could refuse an interview with Elijah, but their loyalty would be called into question and the company would have every right to ask for their resignation.
Maverick said when put that way, it was legal to ask, and any complaints would fall flat in court.
It was all more complicated than Elijah had ever imagined.
No one had ever insisted on his involvement in something like this before, and he hadn’t realized the kind of legal issues it could have.
With that covered, the conversation then turned to Elijah.
Brennus wasn’t willing to pull him from the group interviews to fill the missing positions, pointing out that they could face the same issue with newcomers that they were facing with those who hadn’t left with Aristeos.
It would make Elijah’s workload significantly more challenging, and Elijah felt overwhelmed by the demand before he even started.
“Excuse me,” Avery interrupted. While he didn’t technically work for the company anymore, as the CEO’s mate, he had a voice in these meetings.
He spoke up infrequently, but whenever he did join the conversation, he was often insightful in areas the company heads might have missed.
“I think you’re asking too much of one person. ”
Elijah shot him a grateful look. He hadn’t wanted to say he couldn’t do it; he could, it just wouldn’t be easy for him. He had responsibilities that he couldn’t ignore, and adding all this on top of that load would be exhausting.
Brennus made a noise of agreement, his eyes filled with apology. “I’m sorry, Elijah. I don’t mean to ask too much of you.”
“Oh, it’s… fine.”
“Is it?” Ozen asked, sounding truly concerned. “We’re asking a lot from you, but after what happened to Aristeos, I want someone I trust in charge of those interviews. Is it possible to pass off some of your tasks to someone else for the time being so you can focus on these?”
Elijah nodded slowly. “It’s possible…” But even if he was just doing the loyalty interviews and participating in the group interviews, it would be a strain on his magic. He didn’t mention that part. He didn't want to complain. It wouldn’t be forever.
“Even if he passed off some of his tasks, that’s still a lot to ask of him,” Avery argued, voicing some of Elijah’s concerns out loud. If the man wasn’t human, Elijah would have suspected he was the one with telepathic abilities. “The paperwork alone would drown him.”
Elijah winced. He hadn’t thought along those lines yet.
“What about an assistant?” Taron suggested.
He was seated on the couch next to his mate, a little farther from the group, but still an active participant in the conversation.
“I’m sure we can all attest to the benefits of our assistants.
We could pull someone from the secretary pool or send an intern. ”
Ozen shook his head. “I’m worried about having just anyone assisting in this task. We would need someone we know we could trust.”
“What about a temp?” Avery suggested. “They have no connection to the company, and therefore will be less likely to be involved in anything that had to do with the coup. And Morana screens whoever she hires. I’d be stunned if she sent someone with ill intentions.”
The room was quiet for a moment as they all digested the idea. When no one came up with a good reason against it, Ozen nodded.
“Alright. Avery, if you’d please call Morana and see if she can send someone sometime today? I’d like to get started as soon as possible,” Ozen requested.
Which meant Elijah would also be starting as soon as possible. Would it be wrong to ask to wait at least until he had his house back? It was an ever present stressor, and if he was going to be overworking his magic, he wanted his safe space back and ready for him.
The meeting ended while he was considering it, everyone breaking into smaller groups to discuss what needed to be done next.
It was obvious how important this was if the founders of the company were backing it.
Elijah bit back a sigh. He’d make do for now.
The number of loyalty interviews he would have to undergo wouldn’t be done in a single week.
Unless he wanted to burn himself out, he’d have to limit it to one or two a day on top of the group interviews for staff replacements.
The house should be done before he was too burnt out. Hopefully anyway.