Satyr Play 04 Pt. 02

Henry raised an eyebrow at the man whose face showed discomfort at his companion's loss of control. The man forced his expression back to a smile and dipped his head slightly to Henry. "Apologies for my servant's poor manners."

Henry tipped his head in acceptance, but his curiosity demanded he ask.

"Do we have privacy?" Henry said, and Camila nodded. He looked back to the woman. "I don't think I've provoked such a response before. I'd be interested to know what happened."

The woman glanced nervously at the older man, who nodded stiffly.

"You are a Bastet, or you've been marked by one!" she said.

Henry blinked in surprise. "I'm not one. What do you mean marked?"

She looked at him more closely and inhaled gently. "Her scent is upon you!" she snarled, then quickly controlled herself and went silent as she saw the older man's annoyance.

Henry looked to Camila, whose sense of smell was so much keener than his. "Can you smell this mark?" he asked.

She smiled. "No, I detected nothing."

"Only those of our kind are able to," the petite female said.

"Thank you for letting me know," Henry said to her, and she blinked in surprise at him but remained silent.

Henry turned to the man. "Obviously, this wasn't what you called for me to discuss. Thank you for your indulgence." Henry dipped his head toward the man again, putting a smile back on the senior's face.

"You are not what I expected," the man confessed. "I am Katsu Sasaki, Leader of the Japanese Spirits Combine of North America. Today, I am here on behalf of certain interests in the financial community."

"Mr. Sasaki's specialty is banking like Walter Zhao's interests was law," Camila said. This was a heads-up for Henry, who nodded to the woman as his eyes returned to Katsu.

So, the older man was a Dragon. Henry glanced at the petite woman and thought of Meixiu. Mr. Sasaki called her servant, but he might have meant slave.

He nodded to the man. "I'm Henry Gable. CIO for VRL."

"It has come to our attention that you have created a firewall technology that defeats all currently known cyberattack methods. The financial institutions I represent are interested in obtaining this level of protection," Sasaki said.

Henry nodded and glanced at Camila before looking back into the man's eyes. "Ms. Villamor negotiates the contracts for this."

"Yes, but we would also be interested in obtaining your exclusive services," the man said with a smile. "As you can imagine, the financial rewards for working for my interests would be substantial." The man's expression could not have been more smug.

Now Henry understood the tiny smile on Camila's lips.

"Thank you, but no. I'm not interested."

Katsu's confidence wasn't shaken in the slightest. "Perhaps you haven't grasped the significance of the salary I'm suggesting."

Henry smiled. "Perhaps you haven't grasped the scale of my disinterest in your offer. I'm not financially motivated."

This caused Sasaki to lose a little of his bravado. He frowned. "Everyone is financially motivated when the numbers are as large as I'm suggesting—"

"Five hundred trillion dollars a year?" Henry asked with exaggerated surprise.

"What? No! Don't be absurd!" the man snapped.

Henry's expression quickly faded back to boredom. "Meh. Anything less is too little to move me from my family here at VRL."

The senior executive stared at Henry in shock and frustration.

"If you are interested in licensing the firewall technology, that option is still open," Camila suggested.

"We require control over the infrastructure of our security systems. This includes the personnel who administer it for us. They are paid very well to ensure their loyalty. We normally develop our applications in-house to ensure there is no external exposure that might lead to a breach," the man explained stiffly.

Henry nodded. "Our other firewall subscribers also offered me excessive financial incentives if I'd come work for them, but I turned them down too. Their systems are safe and secure, and even I couldn't breach them had I any interest in doing so. There are no back doors in my code. Perhaps the concept of controlling the brain trust who writes your applications isn't as necessary as you think," he offered.

"That's not acceptable," Mr. Sasaki insisted. He looked back at Camila. "As VRL is a private company, would you consider selling it to us?"

She smiled and shook her head. "We're not entertaining offers for acquisition. VRL's investment services are offered to our clients as an alternative to those offered by the banks. Being acquired by the same financial institutions these clients are avoiding would breach their trust in us. That's something we cannot do."

Henry noticed the petite woman was becoming agitated once more. He turned his face to her. "Are you okay?" he asked as he touched his temple.

"You are being disrespectful! You should not refuse his offer!" the woman growled.

Henry glanced at Mr. Sasaki to see if he'd scold his servant for speaking out of line, but it seemed the man wanted to see if bullying worked.

Sighing, Henry turned to face her. "What is your name?"

The question caught the woman off guard, and her eyes flicked to her master and back to Henry.

"Roku."

"Okay, Roku. That's a nice name, by the way—" Henry began.

"It means six," she responded bluntly.

"Ah, well, it has a nice sound," Henry said as he looked into her eyes. He didn't know what she was, but if she was the Dragon's security detail, she had to be dangerous. He'd play this cautiously.

"I'm not trying to be rude, but when I gave your boss my final answer, his ignoring it was rude to me," Henry explained.

"Refusing his offer would be bad for you," Roku promised.

Henry frowned and glanced at the evaluative expression on Sasaki's face. He'd seen a similar expression on Walter's face, like he was watching the outcome of two beetles battling. Time to remind the Dragon that beetles can sting too.

"If you're going to threaten me, I'll have to ask you both to leave," Henry said firmly with a scowl.

Almost faster than he could track, Roku leapt at him. She hit his personal shield and bounced off. Henry caught the stunned woman inside a new forcefield, leaving her suspended midair.

As he did this, he stepped close to Mr. Sasaki, placed his hand over the man's rings, and gripped tight, looking deep into his startled eyes. He could feel the potential of the old magic stored in the gemstones.

One of Baba's spells slid front and center in his mind, and he saw it would drain the energy from the gems. Before he activated it, he realized one of these might be supporting the Dragon's health. He didn't want to kill the arrogant, rude man.

"Let's take this down a notch before you get hurt. Trust me, nothing you've got stored away in these gems is getting through my protection, and the backlash won't be pretty. Also, I know how to ride out a Dragon glamor change, so that would be unwise as well," Henry said calmly.

The man was frozen with indecision. His eyes looked to his stunned bodyguard floating in an invisible bubble back to Henry's calm and very close presence. Then he looked to Camila, who just smiled at him.

Finally, he looked back at Henry. "What are you?"

"I'm Baba Yaga's adopted son, and she taught me everything she knew. I've just learned to use her magic... my way." He frowned. "By the way, are any of these rings related to keeping you physically healthy?"

Sasaki nodded nervously.

Henry smiled. "Then it's a good thing I didn't use the spell to drain their energy."

The man nodded again.

Henry released his hand and stood back to look at him. "This didn't need to become a confrontation. I said no. The proper response would have been to accept Camila's original offer to license the software. It's still open."

A loud enraged yowl and hiss erupted behind them. Roku had switched to her natural feline form and was trying to claw her way free from the forcefield. Her large eyes were wild with fury, and her fur was standing on end as she ineffectively clawed at the impervious energy shield.

"A Nekomata?" Camila exclaimed in surprise.

Mr. Sasaki frowned in disappointment. "Yes, and now it's ruined."

Henry looked at Camila. "What's a Nekomata?"

"They're Japanese spirits with cat-like forms, but they can transform into Human shapes. They're notoriously difficult to deal with as they're sociopaths by nature. How you managed to have one serve you is beyond me."

The senior exec waved a hand as the matter was meaningless to him, and he wasn't about to discuss it.

"I must leave, but now I no longer have any personal protection," he grumbled uncomfortably.

"Take Roku," Henry suggested, but the man just scowled at him.

"I just finished telling you she is ruined. Her rage will continue until she is exhausted and passes out. When she awakes, her rage will fire anew. Controlling it was not something easily taught. She is dead to me. Do with her as you will."

He walked to the office door and stormed through it. Henry looked at Camila in shock as Roku continued to yowl and thrash.

"If you let her out of that bubble, she will attempt to kill us. She's lost to her rage," Camila said to him.

Henry looked into the Nekomata's eyes; all he could see was the rabid beast she'd become. Behind those eyes, there was no sign of a civilized being, just rage. He looked back at Camila. "Shit! I don't want her death on my hands!"

Camila nodded. "Another slight aimed at you from the Japanese Spirit Combine. Their first one was sending Yuko after you."

Henry blinked at Camila. "What?"

"Roy investigated how you ended up with Yuko when Sigrid arranged for a service to take care of your household needs when you first moved into your old condo. The Combine canceled the order and had Yuko take their place."

"Huh. Tricky buggers," Henry grumbled, then glanced at the panting beast hovering in the air. He pondered the being. "Do Nekomatas have any redeeming values?" he asked quietly.

Camila gave him a sad look. "I'm sorry to say, I've never heard of a Nekomata with any capacity for empathy. You should know they aren't natural creations. Someone or something really nasty created them a very long time ago and made them despise everyone. The standing order for the Hidden Races Council is to terminate them when they're encountered. They have a terrible reputation for killing Humans, too."

"Shit."

Camila nodded. "I could ask Roy to come upstairs to take care of it—"

"Her," Henry said softly. He shook his head and glanced at Camila. "No, I'll do it. It's just another reason for me not to like the manipulative leaders of the Japanese Spirit Combine."

He scanned his memories for a spell that caused a painless death and found... nothing. Baba's spells really sucked.

Then one slipped to the front of his mind, and he paused. It had a terrible payload, but... it might be better than killing her.

He glanced at Camila. Could he... should he explain what he was about to do to Roku?

No, this had to be his decision alone. He'd bear the responsibility for this.

He examined the spell and made some adjustments, saving his modified copy in his mind. Then he looked deep into his captive's eyes, and she suddenly stiffened. He launched the spell and felt it leap from his eyes to hers. She made a choking sound, reverted to her human shape, then slumped inside the force field he contained her in.

Henry moved forward and held out his arms to collect the unconscious Nekomata as he canceled the force field.

"She's not dead?" Camila asked cautiously as she saw the female breathing.

He watched the innocent expression on Roku's face as she rested in his arms. "No," he said quietly. "There was... another option. One of Baba's spells. It completely erases a person's personality—" Camila gasped, and Henry hurried to finish. "I didn't use the spell as-is. I made my own version. It removed her rage and greatly reduced her hate."

He was afraid to look into Camila's eyes. Would she be disgusted by what could be seen as unethical meddling with another person's mind? It made him uncomfortable to think about what he'd just done, but if it meant he didn't have to kill her, maybe it was okay.

When he finally got the nerve to look at Camila, he only saw compassion, and his breath caught in his throat as his love for her surged.

"We'll see what that means for her personality. Any other changes?" the Succubus asked softly.

"No. Everything else about Roku is exactly as it was. If this doesn't work, I won't make any further adjustments. I'm not a psychologist. This is her second and last chance," Henry admitted.

"Until she wakes, I'll ask Roy to put her someplace safe where she cannot hurt anyone or herself," Camila suggested, and Henry nodded. She moved to her desk and spoke quietly into her phone.

Roy was at her door in seconds, and they stared at him curiously as he eyed the sleeping female cautiously. "I saw the old gentleman leaving without his bodyguard, so I came up immediately," he admitted. He pointed to her. "What happened?"

"Mr. Sasaki let his bodyguard loose on Henry when he couldn't convince him to come work for him. Roku is a Nekomata."

Roy's eyes widened. "Why's she not dead?" he growled.

Henry sighed. "The old Dragon left her behind because I ruined her. She'd gone full rage. He said she wouldn't return from that state. Camila explained Nekomatas aren't salvageable, but I... made an adjustment. Her rage is gone, and most of her hate."

Roy stared at Henry incredulously. "Ya canna be mucking aboot in ah mind!" he gasped.

"I didn't want any more blood on my hands! Instead, I made a lighter version of one of Baba's spells. Maybe this will help her! She's free of her master and shouldn't be able to become feral any longer. With the reduction of hate, maybe she'll be able to learn how to function in society," Henry insisted.

"And what if she can't? What then," Roy returned.

Henry sighed as he looked at Roku. "I know it might not work, but I wanted to give her a chance. This is all I can do. If it doesn't work and she's still a threat to people, I'll do what needs to be done."

Roy huffed, but he nodded.

"Can you put our guest someplace safe until she wakes? We'll do an assessment then," Camila asked.

"When is she going to wake?" Roy asked as he collected the female from Henry's arms.

"I'm not sure. I've never used this kind of magic before," Henry admitted.

Roy huffed again, gave Camila a pointed look, then left the office carrying Roku.

Henry looked at Camila. "Are we going to have more issues with Mr. Sasaki?"

"He arrived believing he was the apex predator in the building and expected to leave with exactly what he wanted. Instead, he left with his tail between his legs, minus his bodyguard. Dragons don't like being humbled, but you handled him well. Polite but firm. It was very sexy." She finished with a grin, and Henry felt the power of that below his belt.

Her phone chirped, and she gave it an annoyed glance. She pressed the button. "Yes?"

Felix's voice came through. "There's an Alice Shaw in the lobby asking to meet with Henry."

"Oh! Yes! I invited her to come speak with me. Can you have her escorted to my office?" Henry answered.

"Will do," Felix said and hung up. Camila gave him a curious look.

"This lady is a Dragon who tried to capture Lorelei and me. Her treasure hoard was lost when she had to flee from London after her home was torched. I gave her a little slap for the bad decision, then told her I might be able to help her get her treasure back. I also want her to speak with General Crane about being a Dragon." He grinned at Camila, then left her office to hustle down the hall to his before his guest arrived.

He waited in the outer office until Alice was led inside by one of the Security Team. "Thanks, Ramone! I'll escort her out." Henry said to Roy's man, who nodded and left them alone.

"Welcome to VRL," Henry said.

"Thank you. Are you still willing to help me collect my treasures?" Alice asked eagerly.

"If the vestibule to the cave is intact, yes. My question is, do you have a new place prepared to bring the items?"

"I do!" she said with a grin.

Henry fixed his gaze on her. "How many of your treasures are people? You recall what I said about that."

"None! I've never taken a living creature as a treasure! The night we met, I was gutted about my lost hoard. Spotting a being like your friend was such a shock I acted without thinking. I'm so sorry," she lamented.

"That's fine. So, what are we going to find?" Henry asked with interest as he moved toward his office door. When Alice didn't respond, he looked back. She was watching him suspiciously.

He smiled. "I have no intention of taking your treasure. I'm not interested in wealth. I'm... content with my life. Well... it could use a little less drama, but I have so many friends now, I feel rich beyond my wildest dreams!"

Alice blinked at him in surprise. "Oh! You collect friends!"

He grinned back at her. "Huh. That's a nice way of thinking about it. Except, I don't keep them locked away in a cave. They're free to come and go as they please, but they're always there when I need them."

Alice smiled at Henry. "That is the best kind of fortune." He nodded.

They stood before his door, and Alice gave him a puzzled look as he wasn't opening it. He looked her in the eye. "We're going to open a magic door between this one and the one in your vestibule. If it's closed but intact, I should be able to link them. I need you to picture in your mind the door leading into your cave as if you were standing before it. Close your eyes and hold the image of that door in your mind as you reach out and touch this one. I'll feed the required magic through your arm to create the link."

Henry recalled opening the General's hospital room door and the surprise within. He activated his shield spell first. Her eyes went to him. "Just a little precaution," he said.

Alice closed her eyes, and Henry prepared the spell as he touched her arm. She reached out and placed her fingertips against the surface. He sent the magic through, then frowned as he felt a vibration through the surface.

"Something's wrong," he said quietly.

Alice looked at him nervously. "It didn't work?"

"No, it did, but it feels like the door is shaking." Henry opened the door, and they immediately put their hands over their ears from the noise. Someone was using a jackhammer on the rock above the vestibule behind the door. Henry adjusted his forcefield to filter out the sound vibrations and sighed in relief. Then he added a forcefield around Alice. She gave him a thankful smile, then anxiously looked at the ceiling above.

"They burned my house down, and now they're after my treasure?" she scowled.

"How much time will you need to move it to the new location?" Henry asked in concern.

She led him down a sloping hall, which Henry recognized from Walter's cave under Meixiu's mansion.

As they reached the main chamber, Alice made a gesture, and fairy lights lit up a vast cavern. She made a little cry of joy and rushed forward to inspect her items. There was a huge pile of loose gold against the far wall. Coins, bars, artifacts, and miscellaneous items made of gold. It was a mess. Against the wall to their left were sculptures, and to the right were stacked flat crates. He looked at Alice curiously and pointed to the boxes.

"Paintings. The ones I didn't have hanging on my home's walls. I lost some masterpieces in the fire. I saved some, but then I had to escape as the home above me was firebombed," she lamented.

Henry looked around and saw a small tunnel leading off the chamber to the left. He pointed to it.

Alice nodded. "My escape route. It takes you to the sewer system. Not a pleasant trip, but it worked."