He continued, “The attack wasn’t random—”
I raised my hand high into the air, cutting him off.
Lord Belshazzar’s aggravated blue eyes cut to me, disliking being interrupted…and my flirt-working on our king. “Yes, your majesty?”
I lowered my hand to the arm of my chair. “With all due respect, my lord, I was tired of waiting for the news, so I took matters into my own hands. I already know what you’re going to say.”
“As do I,” King Niallan murmured. He yawned behind a fist and kicked his feet up on the conference table, crossing his ankles. “I was tired of waiting also.”
My lover’s nostrils flared and his jaw clenched. “Please, do tell. I’m sure you both know more than the other lords and myself,andthe research we’ve been doing for the past ten fucking years.”
Our king’s lips twitched. “Where do you think I got the information from last night after everyone passed the hell out?” He pointed toward the ground. “Your servers are shit, and your firewalls are lax. That’s something we’ll need to rectify and soon. I understand you’ve spent the majority of your funds on building a strong army—from what I could decipher—but the lack of talented and skilled individuals here showed. I hacked into the system far too easily. We need to set aside funding to hire more employees for our own safety—against foreign and friendly foes.”
I pressed my lips together and rolled my chair back a good foot, getting out from between them. Because…my king was right. Most of Harmony’s intel had come from our own ‘secure’ servers. And Lord Belshazzar was not a man to take well losing an argument to the druid.
But my vampire Overlord just smirked and pointed down, as my king had. “Those servers? Those are the ones you obtained your information from? On the lower level?”
King Niallan’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded his head gradually. He didn’t comment, knowing something was amiss.
Lord Belshazzar explained, “Those servers are meant as decoys—for the friendly foe, as you so helpfully mentioned—and track anyone who hacks them. Which Lord Xenon knew you did last night. Our real servers are underneath the old jail, and only a few brilliant individuals are entrusted with their care. Everything that you hacked into is what the Overlord allowed you to see.”
Our king’s mouth opened. Then snapped shut.
Properly put in his place.
Damn. I really didn’t want to say anything now.
But…fuck. It needed to be said.
I cleared my throat and lifted my hand again—not so high—into the air, trying to be respectful.
Lord Belshazzar’s eyes zeroed in on me. “Yes?”
Well, here I go.I lowered my hand.
“Um, actually those servers and firewalls under the jail could use a few updates, too. I was able to obtainallthe information from them, including the fact the attack was not only to test our borders but also our response time. It was initiated by the human group HLF—Human Life First—and it appears to be funded by multiple governments across the globe. There were one hundred HLF agents who were on our grounds the day of my crowning.
“Humans now know of us, both vampires and druids, but the government officials are currently keeping it quiet so the human public doesn’t panic. We have ‘friendly foes’ on both sides of our races, two of which were of the druid faction that Lord Otto eliminated while we were at Cape Argent. Also, there’s a certain redheaded vampire traitor, Ms. Olivia Francis, whom you have been sleeping with to obtain intel from—most recently, the night of the Blood Rite; your notes on her wereverythorough, by the way. I was most impressed by her ticklish spots. Who would have thought behind the right ear, right? That’s just bizarre.”
I glared hard enough to scare most people, my eyes now fire red, unable to cover my jealousy. I had broken a few vases in my room while reading that fucking report this afternoon. Thank fuck for housekeeping.
Lord Belshazzar’s lush black lashes fluttered down, shuttering his intimidating gaze from me. With extreme nonchalance, he stated, “Please. Do continue.”
“Fine,” I spat, unable to argue about a work fuck. “The man I killed during my Challenge, Timothy Ginter, was a man all of you wanted to be destroyed. Lord Cato even put a newly turned vampire into his house to watch him while she worked as a maid.
“Mr. Ginter was a golden child the HLF was watching and wanting to turn to their side, a possible Senate candidate and wealthy enough to help fund their cause. Although the new vampire losing her shit when I showed up put an unintended twist on my Challenge—really, the five of you should have warned her I was coming. The poor gal probably thought I was on the wrong side when she followed us to Samson’s house. Lord Cato’s main rule for her was to kill Mr. Ginter if the HLF came for him. And she thought someone had.”
Lord Cato sighed heavily. “I didn’t expect her to act that way during your Challenge. You handled it very well given the information we fed you.”
I shrugged a shoulder, not glancing in his direction. My attention was wholly on the Overlord ready to pounce on me. “Do you want me to continue, Lord Belshazzar? I believe I have information that even you don’t.”
He growled quietly, “How?”
“How did I get the new information? Or how did I get the information from the ‘secure’ servers?”
“Both,” Lord Belshazzar grunted.
“The same person.” My lips twitched. “Even though my assistant is godawful at her normal duties, she’s really good at her old profession.”
