Chapter 11 #4
Morgan gave a worried glance at Justin/Josh and Josh/Justin.
Should she help? She wasn’t a healer, although she’d picked up some first aid helping clean up her mother over the years.
Broken bones were beyond first aid. They were waving off other colleagues as they headed toward the door.
Instead, she pulled up her phone to look up Ravenfell.
There was a sleek website with almost nothing on it, although she suspected that was not unusual for venture capitalists—good VCs would not have to advertise, or be particularly interested in SEO-driven randos begging for cash.
There weren’t even photos of the investors themselves, which felt odd but maybe was privacy-driven.
The names were bland but also faintly familiar.
On impulse, she plugged them into LinkedIn. Oh no.
“Hey, what’s everyone’s next round of drinks?” she asked with forced cheer. “Luke, come give me a hand carrying stuff.”
“I was making progress,” Luke insisted as she dragged him toward the bar by the elbow.
“That’s exactly the problem—Ravenfell is the last people in the world we want to get involved with.” He looked at her uncomprehendingly. “They’re a bunch of vampires, Luke!”
“I know you’re not crazy about how the venture capital thing works—”
“I mean literal vampires! The founder’s, like, three hundred years old! And notorious for bragging about having pulled one over on the Infernal Plane. My father complained for weeks about him refusing to share any information about how he did it.”
“Oh.”
“Oh is right,” she said.
Across the room, a whole team screamed and jumped as a biscuit skipped off the floor at ankle height.
“Yeah, let’s see some healthy competition!” Brad called. The equipment manager said something sharply to him.
“Do you know which House?” Luke asked.
“I don’t know the name, but Mom said something about a lion’s head sigil. Does that help? Does it matter?”
“Yeah, it matters.” They placed their order and stepped back from the bar to discuss while the bartender started mixing drinks. “That’s House Valefar. They’re a major competitor. If Ravenfell managed a victory over Valefar, that’s really bad.”
She watched Carter line up a shot. He didn’t look particularly steady on his feet. Just as he gave the biscuit a shove, one of the opposing team called out something taunting. Carter slipped. The biscuit flew through the air.
Ayumi from Accounting took it right between the eyes.
She bent over, blood streaming from her nose. Her teammates gasped and clustered around her. Someone called for another Lyft.
The equipment manager marched over to Brad, looking murderous, and started gesticulating. Brad raised his hands soothingly. Then reached into his pocket and handed the guy what looked like a hundred-dollar bill.
“Crap. So is Brad off the table?” She’d really wanted to see him fall, she realized.
“I’m going to have to ask Bel’aliol,” Luke said slowly. He glanced at his bracelet, reluctant to start another round of interdimensional messaging.
“Shit.”
“Definitely.”
“Woo!” Ronaldo tried to chest-bump Vijay as their team was declared the winners of the second match despite their lack of teammates. Brad glowered briefly and then rearranged his face into a smile.
“Best three out of five!” he declared.
The other teams who had finished their games and were waiting to rotate in glanced around. No one was going to complain to Brad about the tourney brackets getting ruined, though. They cautiously started setting up another game against their current opponents.
Hayley tottered her way back toward the bar.
“What the hell, girl. You need to slow down,” Morgan muttered under her breath.
“She doesn’t want to be here,” Luke said softly. “She wants some kind of shield between her and Brad. Alcohol’s all she’s got.”
“What?” Morgan asked, startled. Hayley was always one of Brad’s biggest cheerleaders.
“She doesn’t want to do the PTO thing,” he said.
“Oh.” She’d always found Hayley’s endless cheer to be irritating, but it had never occurred to her it might not be genuine.
“She’d do anything to get into a better position somewhere else,” he said, intrigued.
“I don’t…” She’d kind of hated Hayley, she realized, but now she felt bad.
“Cheater!” Across the room, one of the ops team pointed accusingly.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Kelly said coldly. “You think I’m going to cheat at shuffleboard?”
But the ops guy stumbled forward, taking a clumsy swing at her. Kelly dodged, shocked. One of the other developers grabbed him, trying to hold him back.
“Ow!” the developer cried out. “Bro, did you just bite me?”
“You said I couldn’t bite people,” Luke turned to Morgan, wounded.
“That’s it, you’re all cut off from the bar,” the equipment manager declared.
“Who’s ready for the next round?” Brad demanded. “Vijay just went. You’re up, Molly!”
“Morgan,” she muttered. She took a deep breath.
Focus. People scuffled in the background.
Office workers plus midday alcohol were a shitshow.
But Brad wanted to win and she needed to impress Brad even if they couldn’t offer him a Deal, so right now she had to concentrate on hitting a little plastic disc.
Luke caught her eye and raised his eyebrows.
She supposed a little demonic help winning would count as part of the miracle budget if it made Hayley’s work event successful.
It wouldn’t take all that much. But some stubborn part of her still wanted to prove she was at least marginally competent, even if she didn’t have magic.
She just needed to stop pulling her own blows.
She lined up and gave her biscuit a sharp tap.
It sailed over the dead line, continuing right into the triangle at the top.
It tapped into Vijay’s, sending his sliding into the negative zone.
“I—I did it!” She turned and Brad gave her a blinding grin.
“Attagirl!”
Hayley stood, wobbling, and without warning, threw up all over the shuffleboard court.