Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Elijah had expected the worst when he returned to work after unleashing his powers like he had, but aside from a little more distance from his coworkers, his days remained pretty much the same.
He got friendly visits from Brennus and Aoi, as well as Isaac and Avery on occasion.
He went to group interviews in the mornings and loyalty interviews in the afternoons.
The loyalty interviews did become a little more stressful, as the pushback against letting him do his job was more intense, but it also made them more cautious about causing trouble while he was doing a reading, which he felt wasn’t a terrible thing.
And because he was anchored and no longer suppressing his magic, he was no longer plagued with migraines by the end of the day.
His anchor bond seemed to put a lot of people at ease once they found out as well, despite the ‘mess with him and I’ll hurt you’ vibes Alistair seemed to give off during interviews.
Something about him being tied to someone else made him feel like less of a threat.
Elijah wasn’t going to argue about that.
Whatever made them feel more comfortable worked for him.
An alert on his computer drew his attention, and he frowned at the email that came in. “Again?” he murmured.
“What is it?” Alistair asked. He’d finished organizing the files early in the week and was now in charge of inputting all that information into a new system the IT team created to prevent file sharing outside the office and archiving the files of those who’d left during the coup or retired.
He sat with a laptop in his lap on the couch, a stack of files by his hip as he inputted them one by one.
“An employee is giving me the run around about his interview. His was supposed to be earlier in the week, but this is the third time he’s emailed me saying he was too busy.”
“Think he might be a spy or something?”
Elijah shook his head, but he wasn’t entirely sure.
He’d never worked with the man before. Grumly Forgeshield was a dwarf working in Finance for the Medical Innovations Division.
He’d worked for Spellbound for a few decades according to his file, and his performance reviews had always been satisfactory.
But when Elijah looked a little closer, those performance reviews had always been signed off on by Aristeos. Something Elijah couldn’t ignore.
“I’m going to send this up to Brennus, I think. I hate to bother him when he’s so busy, but I’m seeing some red flags, and if the man refuses to meet with me, he should at least meet with Brennus.”
Alistair nodded his approval. “Do it. Do you have any other loyalty interviews today?”
“A few. The satyr from Research finally set up a time, apparently he’d been ill, not avoiding me, and is bringing along a note from his local druid.
And the receptionist from Account Management asked for an intern to replace her so she could get her interview over with, and we were lucky that one was available on short notice.
” The poor interns were always busy, no matter what department requested them.
But the younger supes who worked as interns put up with the crazy schedule, because it guaranteed a spot for them at the company once their studies were finished or at least stellar references if they preferred to go to a company closer to home.
Alistair hummed, closing his laptop to give Elijah his full attention. “Anyone I need to be concerned about?”
It still gave Elijah butterflies feeling the protectiveness swell from his anchor, even several days later.
When they’d gone to the dinner with Brennus and his family, his wife had said he looked like he was melting every time Alistair stepped behind him protectively when the kids were roughhousing and got too close.
She wasn’t too far off from the truth. He not only melted, he also got incredibly turned on whenever Alistair got all protective like that.
“Ah, um, no,” he stammered, feeling his cheeks flush. Alistair’s smirk said he knew where Elijah’s head had gone and thoroughly enjoyed it. “At least, I don’t think so.”
That got him a grunt from Alistair, and he knew his anchor wouldn’t be happy until these interviews were over and Elijah was no longer being put in a position where people would feel the urge to lash out at him.
A knock at the door preceded Brennus stalking into the room with as much of a scowl as he could muster with a beak. “What’s this about someone dodging their interview?”
Elijah offered him the file on his desk.
“While there have been a few attempts to avoid me this week, most make time eventually. This one is trying to ask for another week. He says he’s too busy, but he isn’t clear what he’s busy doing exactly.
And all his performance reviews were conducted by Aristeos.
It’s just raising a few red flags for me. I wanted to know what you think.”
It was the end of the week already and getting in all the loyalty interviews in a timely manner was hard enough without people giving him the runaround.
Brennus clicked his beak in annoyance. “I think he’s avoiding you for a reason. I’ll ask him to meet me in my office. This gets done today.”
It was one thing to ignore Elijah. No one ignored Brennus. He was the head of Supernatural Resources and had a direct line to the CEOs for any and all business matters. Anyone who ignored his summons risked their careers.
Sure enough, the dwarf showed up a half hour later, though he wasn’t happy about it. He stomped into Brennus’s office in a huff, interrupting Elijah’s report of the week, already talking before he was even invited to sit down.
“I told the guy who emailed me that I’m busy. We’re short staffed, and I’m the only one who can handle my clients. I’ve got more important things to do–”
“More important that ensuring your future at the company?” Brennus asked.
After the coup and several weeks of loyalty interviews, he was no longer being polite, as he seemed willing to match the energy of anyone who walked into his office.
Alistair was on edge as well, standing by the door like a security guard ready to jump in if anyone got unruly.
The man obviously wasn’t expecting such hostility and blinked a few times, his voice a little more meek when he responded. “Well, no, but–”
“The CEO himself insisted on these interviews. After what happened, I’m sure you can understand why he needs to make sure his staff is trustworthy.
Now you are well within your rights to refuse a telepathic inquiry, but let me assure you, that doesn’t let you off the hook.
Anyone who doesn’t agree to work with Mr. Washburne is put on probation and assigned a member of my staff to go through their work with a fine tooth comb.
No one will get out of a loyalty interview, no matter how busy they may be.
Now, if you want this over quickly, then I suggest you agree to let Mr. Washburne do his job.
If not, then I need to know now so that someone can be assigned to your desk for further observation. ”
Grumly shrank under Brennus’s glare. The griffin was obviously fed up with the number of people trying to find a work around on the loyalty interviews.
Elijah wouldn’t be surprised if another company wide email went out later this afternoon informing them all of the consequences of missing these interviews.
Hoping to put the man more at ease, Elijah spoke up.
“I guarantee these interviews are painless. I only look into thoughts and memories regarding your work here at Spellbound.” He paused before adding, “Some employees have also felt more at ease when I informed them that I am now anchored.” He gestured to Alistair, who had perfected his not quite a glare face over the past week. “The process is perfectly safe.”
A calculating expression flashed across Grumly’s face.
Elijah no longer got bombarded by people’s emotions without intentionally accessing his magic, but he spared a little to test the air.
Something about the dwarf’s expression made him think he was planning something.
The way the dwarf seemed to suppress his emotions only added to that belief.
“He’ll only look into work at Spellbound?” he asked.
Elijah opened his mouth to correct the man, he’d look at anything related to Spellbound at all, but Brennus surprised him by nodding his head. “That’s correct.”
It wasn’t technically a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. Brennus would have had to suppress his own magic to pull off a lie like that. Something he almost never did. Something about Grumly’s behavior must have been setting off his internal alarms as well.
“Fine,” Grumly snapped. “How’s this work?”
Don’t touch him, Alistair growled in his head.
Elijah shot him a questioning look over his shoulder. What?
He’s got something planned. Do not touch him.
“Mr. Washburne will take your hand–” Brennus began, but Elijah interrupted him. He trusted Alistair’s judgment.
“Actually, since you’re uncomfortable, I think we can avoid physical contact. If you could just maintain eye contact, we can do this without touch.”
Grumly looked taken off guard, spluttering as he tried to figure out what to say. He gave up after a moment, glaring at Elijah like he’d done something wrong. Maybe Alistair was right.
“Let’s get this over with.”
Letting out a slow breath, Elijah called on his magic from where it was happily twined around Alistair.
He used it to connect himself to Grumly and politely knocked against his mental shields as he always did.
The moment those shields were down, he was immediately bombarded by a screaming tirade from the man, trying to distract him from his goal.
Before, when he’d been suppressing his magic, it might have worked, but thanks to his anchor bond giving him full access to his magic, it was easy to silence that voice and focus on what was important.
The psychological attack must have been his last line of defense, because there was nothing blocking him from seeing all the things Grumly had done and was still doing to assist Aristeos.
They’d locked down client files after the coup, but Grumly was still pushing clients to go to Aristeos’s company, despite their hesitance to make the switch.
There had even been a few complaints that he’d had another staff member intercept before it got to SR. Elijah made note of the person and moved on, finding even more than he’d expected to find.
Grumly had tricked a few of the golems in security to allow him building access after hours.
He was trying to gain access to client files from other divisions, though luckily he hadn’t had any success yet.
When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see Alistair standing in front of him, partially blocking the man with his glare firmly in place.
He’d no doubt felt the initial attempt at distracting Elijah but thankfully heeded what they’d discussed earlier in the week and didn’t intervene before it was necessary.
Elijah reached for him, pulling him back to stand next to his chair so he could look Grumly more easily.
“You know what I found, don’t you?” Elijah asked without pretense.
The dwarf didn’t reply, and it took Elijah a second to remember he’d silenced the man’s voice. He pulled his power back, separating their connection. Grumly immediately launched to his feet, shrieking like a banshee.
“What you did has to be illegal! I never agreed to it! I’ll have you arrested! I–”
“What he did was self-defense,” Alistair interrupted. “And while you might have gotten away with it before, as his anchor, I’m a witness for every reading he does. You attacked him. Not the other way around.”
Grumly opened his mouth to argue, but with Brennus still sitting a few feet away, he couldn’t lie. His voice came out as a croak, and no words escaped. Which was proof enough on its own. Even Grumly knew he was the one at fault.
“Mr. Forgeshield, I think I’ve seen enough here,” Brennus said, drawing the dwarf’s attention to him. “You will be put on administrative leave while a thorough investigation is conducted on your professional conduct. Security will escort you out.”
The door opened, and a golem and an orc strode into the room. Brennus must have had them at the ready before the interview even started.
From the way Grumly kept choking and spluttering, he was trying to come up with something to say that wasn’t a lie that would save him and coming up empty. In the end, he said nothing at all as he was forced to leave.