Elijah Mikaelson & The Dragon's Legacy

Chapter 21

Elijah awoke and lay in bed for a moment, contemplating how much better the world appeared to him from that penthouse in New York City after only three days. Today's activities would take them to the offices of AEM Enterprises, as Angelica wanted to show him what she had created over the last 100 years. Elijah had quickly adapted to the morning routine. He was dressed and joined everyone for breakfast only today they would all be going in to the office.

The three SUVs arrived at AEM Enterprises and the group walked in. Elijah felt the office come alive as Angelica greeted the staff by name as she headed to her office. Elijah followed Angelica and The Seven each peeled off from their group bound for parts unknown. "Are everyone in your employ at AEM vampires?" asked Elijah, and Angelica nodded that they were. They sat down at the small conference table in her office and she explained the company to him.

AEM Enterprises was the parent company of over 30 individual companies that they had acquired. Each of those companies was run by humans but the profits had made them billions of dollars. She explained that the seed money for the business ventures came from a different service she provided that identified forgeries and returned the original masterpieces to the museums and governments that had claim to the original ownership. Elijah grinned as he recalled her monks. Angelica had returned at some point to that monastery and retrieved her vast collection of originals works. "Clever girl," he said with a smile. The advent of technology made the dating of the ink and paper easy to identify true originals from forgeries that were in and of themselves, masterpieces. This was quite a profitable venture and provided all the capital she needed for her next business venture. He wondered if that had been part of her plan all along, it was ingenious.

But Angelica was not one to put all her eggs in the one proverbial basket. She owned patents and rights to over 3500 different products and the profits from those items generated a steady funding stream into AEM Enterprises. Her creativity did not stop there. The beauty of using the Dragonetti name was that it came with a certain degree of anonymity. There were so many of them that they might as well be named Smith. Elijah grinned as this was her way of teasing him about his regular use of the alias Elijah Smith.

The Dragonettis on record as owners and officers of AEM Enterprises had extensive backgrounds that included actual birth certificates, tax records and other documents necessary for them to operate a business out in the open. Her team had even created documents for Elijah Dragonetti and Angelica handed him an envelope that had everything he needed including a passport, a driver's license, corporate and personal credit cards. They were basically able to hide in plain sight.

Angelica next took Elijah on a tour of the company. She walked him by the offices that each of The Seven occupied and explained they each had their own business ventures. The Seven collectively established a company that handled military contracts and global security. The vampire employees of AEM Enterprises also benefitted from a profit sharing program that made them all quite rich. It was amazing what she had done – she had cared for her entire sire line.

When they reached the war room, Charlie was busy at work tapping away at his computers. He looked up as Elijah and Angelica walked in. Charlie told him that it was time to give him access and he had Elijah placed him right palm on the computer scanner and then had him look into an optical scanner. After a few more clicks on the keyboard Elijah now had the same level of access as Angelica and The Seven.

Before they parted from Charlie, he handed Angelica a file folder marked Roman Alexander. She opened the folder and scanned the documents inside. "Bottom line, Charlie," she asked. "He doesn't check out. My recommendation is to pass." Angelica nodded her head in agreement, initialed the folder, returned it to him, and said, "Please see that Legal gets this and transmits our denial to him."

They parted from Charlie and the last stop of the day was the office next to Angelica with a locked door. Angelica motioned for Elijah to use the scanner and when he did the office door automatically opened. They walked into the sparsely decorated office and Angelica turned to him and said, "This is your office." He looked at her and told her it was too much. "Elijah, this is your company as much as it is mine."

He protested, she had spent decades building this company, it would not be right. She smiled and pointed out into the hallway where the company name, AEM Enterprises, emblazoned the wall. "You haven't figured it out yet?" she asked. He looked past her finger at the sign, at that M design that used to be for Medici but came to stand for Mikaelson, and it was so obvious to him now. He should have figured it out the moment he saw it on the business card. She had named the company after them: Angelica & Elijah Mikaelson. She had included him from the start even though he was an absentee husband. Elijah was overwhelmed yet again at the lengths Angelica had gone to for him.

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