Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“Thank you, everyone, for joining us. If no one has any other questions, we’ll end things here for now.”
Emmett pushed to his feet when everyone else did, looking toward Tasha for more instructions.
She was the second in command of this job and decided where everyone would go.
Miguel was none too pleased; following his sister's orders wasn’t what he considered a good time, but Emmett didn’t mind so much.
Yeah, Tasha was younger than him by a couple of years, but she was more dominant and outranked him.
He was just happy to be along for the ride.
Contracting at Spellbound was always fun.
“Alright, I want one of us in each division,” she informed them, looking at the clipboard in her hand.
“Miguel, you can have the tech division. Layla, there’s an office below the research floor I want you in.
Axel, take Medical Innovations. Emmett, Entertainment Division.
I’ll take Dimensional Innovations. Ronan will be here on the ground floor with Alistair and the head of security for Spellbound, working out the kinks.
It’s our job to show the security guys how we do things, not the other way around, so if anyone gives you flak, send them my way. ”
When they were originally called in for this job, Emmett had been surprised.
They’d done a few jobs here and there for Spellbound, usually during the testing phases of experiments and never in the building proper.
Being called into the main Spellbound building because they were reworking their entire security system after an employee was caught sneaking around trying to steal information was a shock to them all.
Ronan was working with the lead of this revamp, a former military mage named Alistair, and he left Tasha in charge of keeping the team in line while he focused on the finer details of how things needed to change.
They’d spent the first week observing, and each of them wrote up a report of the security issues they saw.
The meeting they’d just concluded was going over everything and how they planned to fix it.
Assigning one pack member to each division to demonstrate to the security teams how things would proceed from now on ensured they were spread throughout the company and could step in if they noticed a security issue.
They headed out of the main security office, and Tasha stopped him before they could split up. “Hey, Em?”
“Yeah?”
She waved him closer, and they stepped off to the side so she could whisper to him, “Miguel’s ex is in the Entertainment Division. I plan on rotating everyone, but I need you to make sure he doesn’t go there. I don’t want any drama.”
His face screwed up, and he nodded in commiseration. “Yeah, that’d be bad. I’ll make sure to meet him on the first floor if we’re going to meet for lunch or something.”
Miguel was his best friend, and they sometimes went looking for each other to meet up for lunch. Neither had been in the Entertainment Division yet, so it hadn’t come up before, but if Miguel’s ex was in the building, he really didn’t want them to come in contact. Fur would definitely fly.
Tasha patted his shoulder, jerking her chin toward the set of turnstiles that led toward the Entertainment Division. “Thanks, Em. Let me know if you have any trouble with the security team in Entertainment. They seemed like a good bunch, but one or two seemed distracted. Keep an eye out.”
With a final nod, he loped off toward the elevators, then thought better of it.
The Entertainment Division wasn’t the largest building, but it wasn’t the smallest either.
But fifteen floors wasn’t bad, and he wanted to work off some energy before having to do his rounds.
He pushed into the stairwell, listening to make sure he wouldn’t be crashing into anyone before bounding up them.
He was nearly at his destination when someone came rushing into the stairwell.
Emmett had no time to stop himself and accidentally tackled the guy, wrapping himself around the person’s smaller frame to prevent him from getting hurt when they crashed into the wall.
A strangled, “Oomph,” escaped the person as they bounced off the wall, but Emmett was quick enough to right them before they both fell.
“I’m so sorry. Are you alright?”
He stepped back, only to come up short. He knew that face.
For the second time in a day, he’d literally run into the human who looked and smelled like he was close to a panic attack.
Their collision seemed to shock the worst of it out of him, but he still looked pale and kept shooting worried glances over his shoulder.
“Hey. You okay?” he asked again, putting his hand on the guy’s shoulder. The human jumped, spinning back around, and looked just as shocked to see Emmett as Emmett was to see him.
“Oh crap. I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.”
Emmett snorted, “Didn’t think you were. You alright? I ran into you pretty hard.”
That would teach him to run up the stairs at near full speed. If Tasha found out about this, she’d hurt him. And he was not interested in fighting her. She played dirty.
Luckily, the human didn't seem injured, and he didn’t sway on his feet or anything. Still, Emmett gave the guy a good sniff to be sure.
“W-What are you doing?” the human squeaked.
“Checking for injuries.” He tapped his snout when the human looked up at him wide-eyed. “I could smell a papercut from half a mile away.”
“Oh, um… I’m fine,” the human replied awkwardly, taking a step back. He looked at the door to the floor he’d been on again, and the scent of fear filled Emmett’s nose. Emmett frowned.
“Are you in danger?”
Whipping his head around, the human looked up at him again with a worried expression. “What? N-No…”
That sounded weird. It wasn’t quite a lie, Emmett would be able to tell if it was, but it was almost as if the human didn’t know how to answer.
Figuring it was better to find out for himself, he opened the door to the thirteenth floor and poked his head in, looking around and giving the hallway a good sniff.
He smelled plenty of supes, but he didn’t pick up on any emotions that might make him think someone was going to attack.
He looked back at the human, who was trying to look around him into the hallway. “All clear.”
“I, uh… Thanks…” the human muttered. He seemed to steel himself before heading back out of the stairwell and down the long hallway.
He hesitated outside an open doorway, and Emmett was curious enough to follow him, peeking around the doorframe with the human to see into the room, which was also empty.
He looked down at the human, who looked up at him in surprise.
He wasn’t overly tall for a human, probably about average, but that meant Emmett was at least a foot taller than him.
“Are we looking for someone specific? Or are you playing some kind of game?”
Blinking rapidly, the human looked confused for a second. “Who plays games at work?”
Emmett shrugged, stepping around the human into the room.
It was an equipment room, cameras stored haphazardly on shelves, boom sticks tucked into the corner, wires overflowing from boxes, and more Emmett couldn’t even name.
He looked around curiously, then back at the human, who finally got brave enough to enter the room, heading for one of the boxes to paw through it.
“What are you looking for?”
“A few things,” the human explained a little awkwardly. “One of the servers is down, so I thought I’d try to find a new power supply to start, but I’ll bring some replacement parts too just in case.”
Emmett nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a smart plan. Did something spook you in here or something? Why were you hiding in the stairwell?”
“Uh…”
A commotion in the hallway drew Emmett’s attention, and he looked toward the door just as a big demon with a scowl on his face stomped into the room. He looked around, spotted the human, and growled, “Find it yet?”
It wasn’t meant to sound mean, demons were just growly in general, but the human took it that way. He went pale, practically shrinking where he stood, and the fear in the air came back in a rush. Emmett’s eyebrows shot up. The human was terrified.
“I– uh, I was–” he stammered, eyes wide and locked on the demon.
Emmett looked between them, confused. “Did something happen between you two?” He glanced at the demon, who frowned at him. “Why is he so terrified of you?”
That seemed to surprise the demon as much as it surprised Emmett. He whipped his head back around, frown deepening almost into another scowl when he demanded, “What did you say to him? I didn’t do anything to you.”
The human shook his head, wide-eyed, but couldn’t seem to say anything. It wasn’t until a familiar half-fae menace swept into the room that the situation finally became clear. Kian took one look at the group, narrowed his eyes on the human, then sighed heavily.
“Derrick, ignore Jonah. It’s his first day around supes. Emmett, what are you doing here? He didn’t call you, did he?”
“Nah,” Emmett shook his head, pointing one claw-tipped finger toward the hall. “Ran into him in the stairwell. Got curious. Is it seriously his first day around supes?”
That was a little insane, honestly. The guy looked like he was at least mid-twenties, so he was an adult according to humans. How had he managed to avoid supes for that long?
“Yes. And he wouldn’t take my suggestion to go back to Charmed Away for an easier assignment. Jonah, did you find what we needed?”
Jonah seemed to snap out of his terror, glancing down at the box, then around the room before scurrying over to another table and offering a few things to Kian. “I found a spare power supply. I was looking for spare drives just in case.”
Kian looked down at the electronics, then back at Jonah, raising an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know what to do with those. You said you did.”
Jonah blanched, looking toward Derrick again before jerking his gaze away. Derrick’s expression flattened.
“Grr.”
It was said so sarcastically that Emmett couldn’t help laughing. Kian joined in with a snicker, while Jonah looked downright confused.
Shaking his head, Kian ushered Jonah closer. “Come on, human. You’ve got work to do. Try not to offend the demons. They’re not dangerous, but they do teleport people just to mess with them when they’re annoyed.”
Emmett’s ears perked up, and he swung a wide grin in Derrick’s direction. “Wait, really? That’s hilarious. Have you done that?”
Derrick rolled his eyes at Kian. “It was one time, and you were being annoying. Besides, I teleported you to your mate’s office. You can’t complain.”
Kian just raised an eyebrow at him. “Was it worth it?”
Derrick’s crimson skin darkened on his cheekbones, and his scowl came back. “No. If you’re gonna be afraid of anyone, kid, be afraid of Kian. His pranks are downright evil.”
Their banter was entertaining and made Emmett curious, but he shot a glance at the human as they headed out the door to see how he was handling it.
He looked confused for a while, but listening to them argue seemed to help a lot with his anxiety.
When that faded, shame took its place, and he looked like he was beating himself up, eyes locked on his feet as he followed Kian’s lead.
Emmett nudged his arm, giving him a friendly smile. “Relax. We’re not that bad. I’m sure after a few days, you won’t even notice it anymore.”