Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster
ROGUE
Javier whipped the others into shape quickly, and we could settle in the living room with our food.
I’m chowing down like I haven’t eaten in days, but I bet that’s because I spent so much energy being hyper aware and moving around that damn evil fairground while we sleuth’d.
The guys are eating just as ravenously, so I guess they worked up an appetite, too.
It probably would have been better if we’d eaten while we were there, except I was scared as fuck about being goddamn poisoned.
“You know, we’d eat nothing but takeout if it weren’t for you,” I say as I smile at the quiet phoenix. “I really appreciate everything you do.”
He ducks his head as the smile creeps over his handsome face. “I enjoy it. But I worry you were eating poorly before we moved you into our house.”
I chuckle as I spear another bite. “I did okay. Besides, you don’t have to fret about it now, right?”
Rebel snickers, shaking his head. “She ate trash unless she was dating people who cooked; I guarantee it. I didn’t hang at that apartment, but the whole ‘Betty Crocker’ thing isn’t really our girl’s deal.”
I throw a potato at him, scowling as they all laugh. “Everyone has unique skill sets, Reb. Mine aren’t the traditional female stuff, but I’m definitely the person you want in scrappier situations. Plus, I’m funny as fuck.”
“Okay, okay. Enough of that shit,” Angelo says as he sips his drink.
“Let’s get this bullshit over with. I feel like the Apalachin has been a looming specter in our lives for way too long and now it’s over.
Everything is so much worse, but it’s over.
Life will move on tomorrow and we have to move with it. ”
“This is much bigger than we could have imagined, Ang. I don’t have a clue how we’re going to fight…
any of it. Even if Reb and I told our bosses everything?
It would still be too big, because they can’t guarantee that your dad and all those fuckers from all over don’t have plants in the Society.
They certainly do in the Councils… that much is blatant. ”
Damon sets his plate aside, then runs his hand through his hair.
“Agreed. There’s no way this thing could have been put together in that short of a time without people greasing the wheels on the legitimate side of things.
I’ve never been privy to the ones in the past, but I assume you’ve heard about that, Ang? ”
The elder twin shakes his head. “No. Luca never needed me to work on prep for these, only make appearances. And it wasn’t… as elaborate as this, so I couldn’t have warned you guys. This is the first one that’s been that highly attended and vastly designed. The scale was surprising.”
“What do we do, then?” Rebel asks as he leans forward with his elbows on his knees. “We can’t tell the good guys, and we can’t stop this shit alone. I mean, there’s a fucking trike coming, plus Rogue’s matches. Regular life will not pause for this because most people don’t even know what’s coming.”
“My matches will be fine, Rebel.” I shrug before taking another bite of dinner.
“If we follow the protocols you guys set up before this dumb gathering, everyone will be in public places when they are at work or practice. Yes, the race is a huge blind spot and we’ll have to deal with that issue as it gets closer.
But Archie, Javi, and I are probably going to be okay going to our normal stuff as long as we’re accompanied to and from. ”
That gives them pause, but Archie is the one to state the obvious. “Damon and Ang won’t be. At least, they’re going to be a lot less safe. You and Rebel will be in more danger than usual if the Society assigns you tasks. You’ll be fine—theoretically—at training, but not in the field.”
“They don’t put us in the field often because we’re waiting on a charge.” Rebel frowns, then continues. “I suppose if they escalate that, it will confirm our fears about moles. Traitors would want to place us in harm’s way as much as possible, so someone could do their job for them.”
I hadn’t considered that, and now my brain is racing with the possibilities.
“Just fucking perfect,” I mutter as I grab the fruity thing Javi made me. “Now I’m going to question everyone I see in the building, everyone in the parking lot, and everyone who contacts us. But I guess it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get us, right?”
“Truth.” Javier bites his lower lip, looking thoughtful for a second. “You know, I’m pretty sure we need to take some people off the board or we’ll never be able to function. I’m not saying we need to kill them, but we definitely have to prune this shit down a bit.”
“Javi’s right.” The elder demon leans his forearms on his knees, leaning into the circle with a serious expression. “Bit players have to be neutralized or taken out so we can focus on the bigger picture. And we need to contact our potential allies to keep communication open.”
Setting my plate aside, I rise and stretch up on my toes to work out my now tense muscles.
“I suppose the easiest target is Mina and the Sickos. I think they’ll abandon her in a New York minute, if we can make her look bad enough.
It won’t matter that they ‘stole her’ or even that she’s working for the Stuhlls if she gets a crap ton of negative attention. ”
Damon snaps his fingers. “We need footage. Cameras are everywhere in Bay City, but they’re not always aimed at what they think they are. Because we have to stay separate from the humans, the Council sends teams to enchant them to not be able to see supernatural occurrences, don’t they?”
I blink, a slow smile spreading over my face. “Yes. Guardians and agents who… wash out… are assigned to preventative duties in their home cities. They get menial tasks like that so they can stay active, but not be directly responsible for others’ lives.”
“Wash out?” Archie asks in confusion. “What’s that mean?”
Reb makes a face, but after a moment, he figures out what to say.
“They may fail training assessments too many times. Or they lose a partner or a mate and can’t function properly anymore.
Sometimes it’s a lost one we retrieve but they never actually emerge with any actual powers, so we’re stuck with them.
It’s a toss-up and depending on what their issue is, they are assigned different things. ”
“You want to tap rejects to help us?” Javier says and we all stare at him. His face flushes bright red; it’s not normal for him to be so callous. “I’m sorry, but I just… It’s our family’s safety, you know? It makes me a little heated.”
Archie claps him on the shoulder, smiling wryly.
“I get it, dude. I’m pretty laid back unless it’s this and that’s odd for me, too.
But I think D was suggesting he work with them on getting the feeds or whatever from their tech.
That would, um… possibly have stuff no one is looking at, yeah? Because it’s the humans’ stuff?”
“Exactly right, baby,” Damon says with a firm nod.
“Council surveillance folks don’t monitor the human stuff after they do the enchantments because they aren’t monitoring our neighborhoods or businesses, etc.
They might question them if something terrible went down, but otherwise? They assume it’s not our problem.”
Very isolationist of us, I know, but humans are more likely to discover us and commit genocide than live peacefully, so I guess that’s fair.
Barely an hour later, Damon has contacted both the ‘Human Interaction and Supernatural Secrecy Team’ and gotten access to their systems to dig.
I didn’t think it would work without an official request, but apparently, computer guys of all stripes have a ‘code’.
The team was happy to provide him with the access to help him hunt down a girl who may have been involved in an attack outside a human club.
Obviously, that’s not actually what we’re looking for, but it worked.
“How did the owners of our favorite dive get a pass to run in their territory, anyway?” Damon asks as his fingers fly over the keyboard of his chunky laptop. “We’re not supposed to operate supe-only places in human land.”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I’ve heard whispers that they bought the place when one of the old gangs had control of the area.
That group was cleared out and there was immediate gentrification—it just sort of…
happened? But again, that's a rumor and I don’t trust Winnie’s version of the story for shit.
She’s obviously a scheming bitch looking for the most powerful sugar momma she can find. ”
“Agreed. She’s a wh—”
I glare at Rebel scathingly. “Absolutely not. I don’t care if she’s promiscuous; I certainly was.
I also don’t actually care if she’s someone who wants to have a ‘benefactor’ in that way except that it’s Mina.
We will not shame someone for sex work or their sex life in this house—not on my watch.
I’m shaming her two-faced, evil villain sucking bullshit, nothing more. ”
My stepbrother groans, throwing himself backward in his seat with a growl. “You have so many rules, little sis. It’s exhausting.”
“You need them, Rebel Kelly, if you think you can act like an asshole about legitimate life choices in my presence.”
“Hot.”
Our heads whip around to see Archie smirking. “I see it now. The fighting thing? It’s because it makes you guys get riled and horny. When you were pretending you really hated one another, it seemed stupid and proud. But now? It’s like… watching two idiots fight their lust on a TV show.”
“They call that ‘enemies to lovers’, I think,” Javier adds. “The appeal is pretty obvious when you two snipe, I’m afraid.”
Traitors—they’re all fucking traitors. Rebuking Rebel is not hot, nor is it… appealing.
“Whatever. She’s still a pain in my ass.”
“Making it hard to focus,” Damon sing-songs as he continues clicking and clacking in his chair. “If you want me to find and capture incriminating stuff, there are some parts of it that are not automated.”
My brow furrows as I tilt my head. “I thought this was about the club. Isn’t that how this convo got started?”
“Maybe, but I’ve expanded across the city.
I believe we can catch her and the Sickos doing shit everywhere, which might be troublesome enough to back them off.
” Damon looks up, his grin wicked. “The internet may have made your ex-best friend a minor star, but I can make her untouchable if we find the right footage.”
“Now that was hot,” I say with a big grin as I look at little D. “Like super fucking hot.”
Archie gets up, grabbing his plate and mine to take them to the kitchen. When he comes back, he plops down at Damon’s feet and leans against his legs. “I whole-heartedly agree. D getting vengeance is pretty sexy, and seeing you that happy for even a second is even better. I’m all for this plan.”
“Then let’s get it over with,” Angelo growls. “If we get other computers, can we make this go faster? Everyone has a laptop. We can all pitch in if you tell us what to do, bro. I’d like this evening to have a happy ending before the sun comes up.”
Yet again, a statement I’m totally on board with.