~ISSA
I was a very old creature of the night.
I had centuries on my existence and I aged very slowly. I had developed an uncanny affinity towards technology when it came into existence. I had attended the first unveiling of the iphone and from there I had been fascinated by how the internet worked.
The idea that I could access all forms of information on such a little device intrigued me so much. Back in the ancient days, knowledge was a very hard commodity to come by and some even killed for it. However, I noticed that there was some information that was restricted from public knowledge and consumption. Like the secret meetings of politicians, or information of violent criminals or secret international black operations by the military.
I began to wonder how I could access these secrets and that was where I discovered my gift for hacking. I had of course learned from the best and consumed everything I could about it. The idea that I could get anything I want from Hacking thrilled me and it was the reason for creating my first secret business.
As a Lycan, I had a vast amount of wealth both from my inheritance and through tributes given to me by neighbouring packs but I also made a lot of money as the secret underground leader of anonymous hackers called Garden of Shadows.
My office was called Sentry Inc. It was composed of men and women who I call shadow men. The office was built under a flower shop that sold the best of flowers in the city. The men that worked under me used code names and together we found information and secrets that were complex to find. We were master Hackers and we infiltrated difficult and security tight companies and places for money. Business was very good.
Nobody knew about this business venture and I intended to keep it that way. That was the only way to stay on top of things: anonymity. I worked better with my team in the shadows. To top it all up, my Lycan powers were connected to darkness and I could easily manipulate the shadows.
The transparent tube lowered me down until I reached the steel floors of my office. There were six shadow men at work on their computers as I stepped out of the tube.
Sentry Inc. had a lot of space to spare, and I had installed numerous large screens on the walls connected to many keyboards. These screens displayed the real-life current events that were taking place around the world.
“Shadow leader,” One of the men said as he saw me. He was my second in command. “Shadow One, I need you to put the pictures on the large screens, they are persons of interest,” I said to him
Shadow one nodded, took the files from me and sat behind his computers. He put the twelve snap shots in his scanner and I waited for the images to upload.
“Who are they?” He asked.
“That is what we are about to find out,” I replied. “The man that took these shots could only manage to get the images, there was no way to get their names, the information was harder to get, that is where we come in,” I added.
In a few moments, the eight women and four men had their faces on full display on large screens on the wall.
“The only thing I know about them is that they are witches but I have no idea which coven,” I said.
A green box appeared on each of the faces and began to scan them simultaneously. The rose tattoo came into view and information on it began to fill up the screen. It was showing me what I already knew.
‘Image: Black rose.’
‘Affiliation: Popular among an ancient witch coven known as The Cult of the Black Rose.’
“I am currently scanning for facial recognition, this will reveal their social media account, social number and occupation but it will take hours,” Shadow one said as he typed away at his keyboard.
I sighed. I had suspected it would take thi long but I still wanted to hope that everything could be done in an hour.
Before I could reply, my phone buzzed.
‘Iris is here, you were right but she is asking questions about Yulia.’ The text read.
The text was from Jamal.
I tensed up a bit. Iris must never find out about what is between Yulia and I, it will only make things worse. I had been right to keep Jamal there in case they came for Yulia but instead, it was a Craven that came for her.
I also knew that Andrea would not reveal it to her because she had no idea that her father is planning to marry me off to her elder sister. Everyone was keeping a secret.
I texted Yulia. ‘Try not to reveal anything, Iris is very sharp, do not say too much. This message will self-delete in five seconds.’ I texted and sent.
‘Protect Yulia from Iris but do not try to make her leave, she will only grow suspicious.’ I texted Jamal back.
My phone rang and I saw that it was Deucalion. I had been ignoring his calls all morning and I knew that he was getting desperate. I answered.
“I do not like being ignored, Issa,” Deucalion said in a chilled voice.
“Get used to it, what do you want?” I replied in the same chilled voice he used.
“I realize that I may have been hasty in my decisions to get you to fuck my daughter, perhaps we can reach a compromise,” He said. “I know how important the object in my possession is to you and I want us to meet, so we can talk about this,” He added.
“On one condition,” I said as I looked at my watch.
“Anything,” He said.
“Tell your daughter to get the fuck out of my house,” I replied coldly.
“Which one?”
“The one you want me to fuck.”