Crazy Seduction(erotica)

Henry smiled and closed his door. Sandy was good people. The world needed more people like her.

As he got ready for bed, he realized he was feeling a little better aside from the beginnings of a headache. He took some painkillers and drank a glass of water to prevent dehydration.

Talking it out with Sandy had helped. He didn’t know why it was so easy to talk to her, but he was grateful she was there for him.

Speaking of good people, he needed to check if the not so good people had tried their luck with the VRL firewall. He logged in and brought up the logs. He smiled. Just the usual casual poking. So it seemed Kent wasn’t successful in wrangling his hit team after all.

An image of Jun popped into his mind, and that triggered his recollection that he’d left the remote instance of his firewall running on her high school project. He sent a command to the VRL firewall, and a shutdown command would go out with the next scheduled update packet.

He shut down and crawled into bed.

Sighing, he pulled the covers up and let himself drift off, casting off his troubles for just a little while and hoping for a little dreamless sleep.

-=-

Kent was living in a waking nightmare.

Due to his exhaustion, he slept through his alarm. He didn’t have time to shower or change his clothes and raced out of the house to drive at reckless speeds to get to work.

He’d tried to buy a coffee to perk himself up on his way to work, but his credit card wasn’t working, and neither was his bank card. Then when he got to work and walked up to his desk, his PC was missing. The pranksters had gone above and beyond this time.

“You FUCKING ASSHOLES! Where’s my computer?” he screamed.

A large man in a dark suit and a flat top haircut appeared next to his pod. “Kent Davidson?”

“Did you take my computer?” he blurted in a daze.

“Kent Davidson?”

He frowned and nodded.

“Come with me please.”

Kent shuffled after the big man down the corridor to one of the larger boardrooms. He looked around in surprise when he entered as he saw Director Yosman, Supervisor McCalin, and Graham standing together and some FBI agents in a second group.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Did you crack that firewall?” Yosman asked.

Kent sagged with a frown. “No, sir. I need additional time. It’s like nothing I’ve ever encountered-”

“He’s all yours,” the director said to the FBI agents.

The middle agent walked up to Kent and wrinkled his nose at his stench. “Kent Davidson, I’m placing you under arrest for trafficking child pornography. Agents are in the process of collecting the computers at your residence as we speak-”

“You can’t do that!” Kent barked as a second agent cuffed him. They took his cell and put it into an evidence bag.

“We can and are,” the first FBI agent said. Then he turned to the NSA agents. “Thank you for your assistance with this Director Yosman. Good luck with that breach.”

Kent stared at Graham, but the man wouldn’t look at him. Two agents took his arms and dragged him away as the nightmare continued.

“This can’t be happening,” Kent gasped, panic seizing his throat.

One of the agents grimaced and glanced over at him. “The fun has only just begun.”

Director Yosman glared at McCalin as it was his man who caused the breach. Graham Wilkins brought them the email from Kent disclosing the backdoor access but it was too late. Someone had already used that access to infiltrate their network. The extent of the damage was under assessment.

“State of the art firewall technology circumvented by a fucking hack added by your man! We spent millions developing that software. When the FBI is done charging that punk, I’m going to press charges of our own to make sure he never sees the light of day.”

McCalin scowled but nodded. He turned his eyes to Wilkins. “You have anything else you’d like to tell us?”

Graham froze like a deer in the headlights. “No, sir.”

“Get back to work then,” McCalin barked and Graham rushed from the room.

Yosman glowered at McCalin. “You’ve got an eye on that one?”

The supervisor nodded. “He’s under the microscope.”

The Director rubbed his face with his hands. He was going to have to report this breach to the president, and that was likely the end of his career. Many heads were going to roll because of that little freak’s doing. But maybe they could salvage something. “How good was Kent?”

McCalin stared at his boss incredulously.

“With the tech!” he clarified angrily.

“Oh! Well, he was one of the best we had. Maybe the best.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Yosman thought about that. “Yet he couldn’t break this firewall he was investigating. We need that software. Get someone to review Kent’s findings. Get it to agent’s Kaiba and Sparling by the end of the week at the latest. We’ll send them to VRL next week.”

McCalin nodded then quickly left.

The Director stood in the empty room, thinking about the short length of time he’d had this position. He wasn’t going out like this. He’d ensure the agency was secure once more. He’d brief the agents personally. They were going to come back with that firewall technology or there’d be no reason to come back.

*************

Time would not be denied, even for the immortal.

Queen Mab wasn’t particularly worried about growing old. She was already very, very old. What she was concerned about, was power. In particular, the waning nature of it, especially in recent times. That was what led her to make what might be the most foolish decision in her long life. Binding the Satyr’s dragon bone ring to the Fae’s Global Overlay Spell had put her in a precarious position. She’d been working on a plan to extract herself from the mess since that day.

She learned the spell was in no danger of collapsing after its conversion to being powered by the Wild Magic. If anything the spell was stronger. There were positive signs that the disease was abating. Her people would be cured, given time.

That’s where the trap was. As time passed, her power was diminishing. The Fae power base was the original realm of magic and access to that continued to diminish. They’d witnessed a growing number of breaches to the realm of Wild Magic, but the corruption the Humans brought to the world was slowly closing off the access to the realm the Fae drew upon. Her magic was waning!

She immediately thought of the witch responsible for this entire mess. Baba Yaga had her crooked fingers in this and Mab couldn’t yet put all the pieces together to see the crone’s plan. Playing the long game was something the witch did exceptionally well. She’d thought she’d had a grasp of the master plan at the sanctuary beneath Rockefeller Center and enjoyed watching it fail.

Now though, she believed the crone’s plan hadn’t ended with the Satyr’s refusal to spin the ring and end Humanity. She now believed the game continued. Baba Yaga had played her once more. That thought threatened to push her into a rage, so she forced it down.

The Satyr, though, he intrigued her. While not a wielder, the powerful magic coursed through his body. She’d tested his seed and found it saturated with the chaotic energies. While she currently could not use this new power herself, due to being a wielder of the old realm’s incompatible source, it had given her a brilliant idea.

Henry would be the key element in a new spell she was creating. The difficulty would be in getting him to be a willing participant. She wasn’t blind to the fact that she terrified him. She’d gotten quite used to that. She expected it when dealing with vastly inferior beings. They could feel their deficiencies, and that had to be frightening.

Mab summoned Ikehorn to her chambers. Her most loyal subject and enforcer had fallen into melancholy since his partner sacrificed himself in the sanctuary. She would give him a mission to rekindle his spirit.

When the Fae arrived, she had him sit next to her on the small couch. She saw him tremble at the honor and smiled.

“I have a mission for you,” she began and watched him immediately perk up. “The Satyr, I need something from him he will not be willing to give.”

“I will take it-” Ikehorn growled fiercely.

Mab chuckled and looked at her agent fondly as he looked back in question. “I have no doubts as to your abilities, but in this instance, it’s something I need him to give willingly. That’s one of the requirements of this particular ingredient. It’s a component of the largest spell I will ever have crafted. Nothing less than the survival of the Fae is at stake, so sharpest attention is required.”

“Yes, my Queen!” Ikehorn said trembling with new purpose.

“I need leverage against Henry Gable. Put surveillance teams on the Humans who are important to him. Bring me your report by the end of next week.”

“Yes, my Queen! Thank you!” the agent exclaimed. At her nod, he bowed and rushed from her chambers.

Mab smiled again. She knew Ikehorn would come through for her.

She turned her attention to working on the other key component of the spell. That was a very delicate but exhausting task, but the end goal would vastly reward her and her people for the physical toll she paid now.

No matter how painful it might be.

-=-

Siobhan went immediately to Marisa’s desk the moment she arrived at work. She needed to tell her about Nate, but she also wanted to confirm she was ok after rushing off the night before. She sighed in relief when she saw the gorgeous blond behind her desk. Marisa gave her a brilliant smile then her eyes widened in surprise as she took in the mahogany hair. Surprise gave way to confusion then alarm.

“What happened to your evening with Nate?!?” she gasped.

Siobhan smiled at her friend for her concern. “The night was eye-opening and delightful, and we need to talk about it… privately.”

“Ah! Ok.” Marisa stood and joined Siobhan by the door.

“Is Henry in yet?” Siobhan asked with a glance at his closed office door.

Marisa shook her head with a worried look that disappeared as quickly as it formed. “I haven’t seen him yet,” she said simply. She looked at her friend and saw she wasn’t buying it.

“Was this the crisis that pulled you out of the club last night?” Siobhan asked gently.