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“I feel like I’m in a spy movie,” Jemini said, looking around the dark alley as she crossed her arms over her black tank top. Lights from the mouth of the alley reflected off her black leather pants.
I glanced around. “You’re not wrong. This is weird as hell.”
She checked her phone. “It’s five past midnight. Where is she?”
“Where’s Phoenix?” I asked as we waited for this mysterious stranger to show up.
“He’s... close by.” She winked at me.
“I’m guessing he’s not alone,” I deadpanned.
“You would be correct.”
Movement from my peripheral vision caught my eye and we both turned to see a figure standing at the mouth of the alley. They were slight in build, with dark clothing, including a hoodie over their head.
“Hello?” Jemini called out.
“Just wait,” I whispered.
“Shoot,” Jemini said quietly. “I just remembered. Mack said not to stare or comment on her face.”
I looked at her, puzzled. “What does that mean?”
We watched as the hooded figure began to slowly walk down the alley toward us. Then, in a blink, they were right in front of us.
“Vampires,” the person whispered in a voice too high to be male.
“Correct,” I replied, standing stock-still with my arms folded over my cut.
Jemini asked, “Are you the one Mack referred to us?”
She nodded, but I still couldn’t see her face. “Yes. You’re Face and Jemini?”
“Yes,” we answered in unison.
“What’s the password?” the stranger asked.
“What’s with the Cloak and Dagger bullshit?” I snapped back.
“Password.” She put her hands in her hoodie pockets and looked both ways down the alley.
Paranoid, much?
“Keylogger,” Jemini replied.
I looked down at my partner in question, then back to the stranger.
“I’m Rocky,” she said. “What’s the issue you needed help with?”
Glancing around, I said, “Malware. Are we doing this here?”
Rocky lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “We need WiFi. So, you’ll have to bring me back to your office or wherever you have your computers so I can check out the problem.”
I pulled the laptop I’d brought out of the bag and opened it up. “I’m not comfortable with that, so I guess we do it here, unless you’d like to go to a café or something. I have an external hotspot I can use for service.”
I was frustrated that I couldn’t see this person’s face. Her hood was still up, and I could see eyes the color of fresh grass staring up at me, but nothing else. It made her seem untrustworthy and sketchy. Though—hadn’t Jemini warned me she wasn’t exactly on the up and up?
“I don’t do bright places,” Rocky replied. “But if you want to meet at Zombies, they have good WiFi there.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “Meet you there.”
Rocky blitzed down the alley in the blink of an eye, and once she was out of sight, I told Jemini I’d meet her there, knowing Phoenix would give her a ride.
The owner of Zombies, Theo, shook my hand and provided us with a private back room to conduct our business. He seemed to be familiar with Rocky.
I shook his hand. “Thanks, Theo. I owe ya one.”
He grinned at me before straightening his tie. “Next time my computers take a shit, I’ll be calling in that favor.”
I chuckled. “Absolutely.”
Briefly nodding to Phoenix and Venom, who sat in a corner sipping on drinks, I made my way to the back room with Jemini and Rocky following me. After closing the door, I pulled the laptop from the messenger bag and set it on the table. Rocky and Jemini stood, waiting for the system to boot.
Typing in commands, I brought up the lines of code that showed the malware.
“That’s spyware,” Rocky said.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Jemini replied, rolling her eyes. Then she folded her arms across her chest. “Mind losing the hood? We’re indoors.”
Slowly, Rocky lowered the hood from her head, and I bit back a gasp. There were lines of old white scars crisscrossed on her cheeks and down her neck. Waves of light-brown hair secured in a low ponytail cascaded down her back and her brilliant green eyes held mine in an expression I could only describe as something between curiosity and unease.
Jemini replied, “Thank you.”
Rocky’s eyes held mine for a few more seconds before she put her gaze back on the laptop screen and pointed. “That’s spyware. You need to remove it manually.”
“I’ve tried,” I replied, ignoring the fact that her eyes and voice were stirring something inside me. “It just comes back.”
“Let me see,” Rocky said, shooing me out of the way.
I let her access the device and watched as her long, pale fingers lithely danced across the keyboard, putting in codes to extract the malware. I’d tried some things, but this woman had much more extensive knowledge than I did. I suddenly felt like a rookie watching her. I glanced at Jemini, whose eyes were wide in awe.
“There you go, it’s gone. I put a code in to make sure it can’t get back in.” Rocky moved out of the way.
I sat down and ran a few programs to see if the malware was indeed gone, and to my surprise, it was. I looked up at the new stranger. “Wow, you’re good. I’ll give you that.”
“Thanks,” Rocky replied, holding my gaze briefly and then looking away.
“How long have you been a vampire?” I asked her boldly, wondering if her scars were acquired before or after her transformation, but then I remembered she would have healed scarless if they came after.
She pierced me with her leafy stare and said, “Too long.”
I was caught off guard when I felt the air crackle between us, and it made me uncomfortable. It wasn’t like it was with a blood whore; this was something deeper. It unnerved me so I decided to dismiss it.
“I see. What do we owe you?” I asked.
“Five hundred,” she replied.
Fishing five one-hundred-dollar bills from my pocket, I held them out to her silently.
Rocky took the bills, and when her soft hand brushed mine, I felt a tingle race up my arm. What the hell is that?
“Pleasure doing business with you,” she replied, pulling the hood back over her head and disappearing out of the door.
I looked at Jemini, whose eyebrow was raised in question.
“What?” I asked.
“She was quite... uh...”
“Unique,” I finished for her.
She nodded. “I agree.”
“I’m gonna head back to the club. Phoenix got you?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yep.”
After thanking Theo, we headed out of Zombies. I slung the messenger bag over my shoulder and hopped on my bike. The ride wasn’t more than ten minutes, and once I got back to the clubhouse, I quickly made my way to my office and checked the system again. Sure enough, Rocky had removed the worst of the malware. I had carefully watched the codes she’d put in to do it and hoped it would work for any other spyware that was sure to come.
I sat back and wondered how she knew how to remove it so quickly. According to Jemini, she hadn’t been told much about the type of invasion we’d been dealing with. That was why I’d asked her how long she’d been a vampire. Maybe she’d had years—even decades—to hone the craft of hacking and computer sciences. Unlike me.
After another quick scan, I texted one of the prospects, Fox, to meet me in my office. Then, I got up and went to the supply closet where I kept all my spare computer parts and extras. After selecting a CPU, two twenty-one-inch monitors, a keyboard, and a mouse, I set them on the desk just as Fox poked his head in the door.
“You rang?” he asked in his best Lurch voice.
I chuckled. “Yes. Can you help me carry these things out to the clubhouse? I’m gonna set up a station right outside the breakroom for people to use.”
“Sure,” he said, grabbing both monitors and the keyboard. “Great idea.”
I took the rest and followed him out. I realized I needed a table and chair until I could order a real desk, so we set the stuff down on the breakroom table. I went into a supply closet and pulled out the spare table. It was small and would have to do.
Fox helped me set everything up and once I booted up the machine, I installed a local WiFi connection that was just for this particular computer in case hackers wanted to keep trying to get into our systems. Once I was satisfied with the setup, I thanked Fox before he headed back to the Cobalt Room where he was a bartender.
Viper walked up to the new setup and said, “Great idea.”
“Thanks. This has a local internet connection only, so in case we’re hacked again, they won’t be able to access this one—I hope. It’s not tied into our systems at all.”
“Very nice. What’s the latest on that, anyway?”
I quickly filled him in on the situation from earlier and let him know there was no more spyware or malware on the system—for now.
“That’s great. Do you think we can trust this Rocky person?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Not sure. I paid her cash and didn’t get her contact info. But she did get rid of the problem.”
“Seems like she could be a good backup in case you run into any more problems you or Jemini can’t solve,” he said, piercing me with his intense hazel eyes.
“I agree. If we need her again, I’ll have Jemini get in touch with her.”
“Sounds like a plan.” MyAnna, his wife, came up and put her arms around his waist. “Wanna come have a drink with us? Slow night all the way around,” he asked.
Viper knew I rarely drank so I figured he just meant to socialize while I sipped club soda or water. “Is there something you wanted to discuss with me?”
He shook his head. “No, was just going to hang out and watch the band. If you’re busy, I get it.”
“I just have a few more things to do so when I’m done, I’ll meet you there.” I started to walk away and remembered something. “Hey, am I good to order a computer desk and chair for that station?” I pointed to it.
“Of course. Just email me the receipt so I can put it into the books.”
“You got it,” I replied, heading to my office.