"We caused you harm," Akira said quietly, and Kay took a deep breath before raising her head to look at her. She expected hatred but only saw a haunting emptiness there.
"Yes," Kay leaned back to rest against the wall."It could not have been an easy decision, not for you. It was a last resort, and if you hadn't done it, would we be sitting here, having this conversation?" Kay asked, and awe filled Akira.
Would she be so understanding if she had been in her sister's shoes?
"No, I would have died with my sisters in that hole," Akira said quietly, and Kay nodded.
Until then, it hadn't occurred to her that the eighth cell had been intended for her.
"You are the best of us, you know that?" she admitted, making Kay uncomfortable.
"What would you have done in my shoes?" she asked, and Akira grimaced.
"Killed Dad and me and destroyed Azera, even if it took forever," she admitted, and Kay stared at her as if she saw into her.
"No, you would not," she said with a certainty Akira did not share. "But this must stop. No more seedlings being turned into newborns and given to immortals like puppies to do with as they please. No more death and murder in the name of survival."
"Yes, it is my intention, but we must convince Father and the rest of our world that times changed, and we need to change with them."
"Stop Cat from wiping those videos from existence, or we won't find our brothers. I am alright now. It caught me off guard, just like the dark of that water-filled tunnel caught me off guard, and I almost drowned Adrian," Kay admitted.
She stood and held out her hand, but Kay motioned to the mess on the floor, and she dismissed it with a nod to the three cleaners, nearly vibrating with anxiety, who stood just out of their hearing.
They were dark fae, and it would take them a while to realize their new leader didn't kill people for failing to mop up a mess instantly.
Kay accepted her offered hand, and they re-entered the boardroom together.
"Don't erase that," Akira said, and Cat shrugged.
"We heard everything," the vampire admitted without looking at them.
The door had not been entirely closed, and Kay put her chair back on its feet before she sat down.
"What do you mean the dark caught you, and you almost drowned Adrian?" Clio asked, and Akira was as surprised that she would ask as Kay.
"Azera kept me in a dungeon under the castle. After I was saved, I could not sleep in a dark room. It closes in on me, and I still can't. It was suddenly so dark in the tunnel, and I got turned around. I only realized it when I swam into the wall. I didn't have enough air to go back, and then the rock fell, and I blacked out," Akira admitted, and Cat stared at her with those knowing vampire eyes.
"You told no one of your fear, not even your new mother?" Cat asked, and Kay shrugged.
"So, how do you hide stuff from them?" the vampire asked, curious, and Akira found she wanted to know as well.
"It is not an open link into someone's brain, Cat. It is just a form of communication. If your waking mind thinks it is private, it is. Sometimes if you share, you might share more than you thought, but those deep dark secrets are in a vault," she explained, and the vampire frowned.
"I still creepy," Cat said, and gauging from the other's expression, so did they.
Kay smirked, and Akira glanced right into those knowing eyes.
"Don't," she warned, and Kay pretended to pout.
"Don't what?" Cat asked suspiciously, and the others were a little confused as well.
"Akira and Kay can mind speak," Cat enlightened them.
"That is not possible," Artemis said.
"It is, actually," Akira said without elaborating.
"Chicken," Kay taunted inside her mind, penetrating the barrier as if it were made of toilet tissue, and her power was just the slightest bit intimidating.
Cat opened a clip, and the monitors showed a man tied to a wall glaring at the screen with hatred. Everything else ceased to matter as Akira stared at the screen.
"See Azera, I told you, he is still alive. You just keep paying me my money, and he will stay that way," a Russian voice said, and then the clip cut.
"That is Ares. How old is that clip?" she asked, and Cat checked.
"Month, he sends one of these every three months. I can find the IP address. This guy is about as technologically savvy as an orangutan," the vampire said, furiously typing.
"See if all the clips in that bunch are of Ares?" she suggested, and Cat nodded.
"Found the address, and it's not local, Paris, France. I will sort through these, and I tell Savier, they are our allies, to go check it out," she said, and Akira nodded.
"Is he good?" she asked, and Cat smiled.
"For the right price, he's golden," she grouched, but there was a touch of color to her face as she fought with her emotions and lost.
To the succubi in the room, her attraction to the man was so loud she might as well have taken out an ad.
"How much would he ask?" Akira asked, and Cat avoided her gaze.
"Oh, we're not talking money here," Kay suggested, and the vampire smirked secretively.
"How are things going?" Claudia asked from the door, flinching slightly at the light before she made herself a coffee and flopped into a chair.
Akira half expected tension between the alpha female and Kay, but there wasn't any. Not even after Thane's ultimatum, but there were new shadows in Claudia's eyes.
"We just cracked the password and maybe found Ares," she shared, and Claudia nodded.
"There was a little turmoil?" she asked, glancing from Kay to Akira.
Had she sensed Kay's distress? And the scent would linger in the corridor for a couple of days, no matter how well the cleaners took care of it.
"It has been sorted," Akira said honestly, and the werewolf nodded.
"Where are the others?" Kay asked.
"Mother and Marcella returned home to see what could be salvaged. We can't stay here forever, and Azera's people destroyed it while we were gone. Marcus sent Talia to supervise the bulldozers clearing the rubble, but at least the underground bunkers survived, but we don't want people to know they're there.
"Thane, Marcus, and my father are all locked in Thane's study and have been since dawn. The rest are in the other conference room, dealing with the fallout. About ten of Akira's new subjects are waiting for her in her private conference room," Claudia informed them, and she frowned, groaned, but got up.
"They need your help and leadership, and I suggest you step up before someone else does and we're stuck with another Azera," Artemis voiced her opinion, and Akira straightened her back.
"I know, sister. Thank you. I think I'll need Kay to help me figure out my new frenemies?' Akira asked, and to her surprise, Kay nodded without hesitation.
"Before Kay does that, can we have a word?" Claudia requested, motioning between herself and Kay
"Yes, sure," Akira said.
***
Kay followed Claudia down the hallway to the lab, which was eerily unoccupied with an uneasy feeling in her stomach at the intent she sensed from the werewolf.
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