22. Criminal Energy x 2

Chapter twenty-two

Criminal Energy x 2

*AURELIA*

A rden, Gustave, and Zoé claim it will take them a whole day to sort through everything Leila and I collected. They sounded disappointed in themselves, while I think it's insane that they are able to do it that fast! And I know the fact that it's only a day is thanks to Arden's photographic memory, his ability to sort through everything fast and decide what's important and what's disposable, for now. They want to digitize everything so that we have it all easily accessible.

The rest of us linger around for a bit, still indecisive about how we can make ourselves useful, while the other three are working.

"Say, everyone," I say into the silence. I hate to interrupt them and am well aware they need the silence to work efficiently. "Do you think her father might be involved?"

"Whose?" Gustave asks.

"I mean Meg's."

For a moment, everyone pauses while Leila turns to look at me. "Right," she mutters. "Mr. Simon said Meg's mom was on the run."

"We don't know if she ran from her husband or mate," I say. "But she refused to say a name."

"She was definitely hiding Meg from someone," Emilien agrees.

"That's something we need to research, too," Arden says. "It's all the more important to get these documents sorted and digitized."

All of us still linger on the possibility of Meg's father being responsible for this all when Nox taps on the door and approaches me. "Aurelia," he says. "Good, you are not working for once. I'm going to steal you away to have lunch with us." He looks at Arden. "Only if you don't mind, of course."

"No, I want her to enjoy her vacation," Arden says. "Please go and eat with your friends," he begs. "I'd hate for you to work your whole vacation."

"I know you said you want me to stay with the others," Nox says, "but I can't do that. I'm definitely going to join the team. That is if you all want me. I assure you I can bring something to the table no one else here has."

"And what's that?" Emilien asks.

"Criminal energy," Nox says. It's subtle, but I can hear the hint of amusement in his voice. Most of the time he comes off as quiet and introverted, and a bit dark, but that's only to those who don't know him.

I elbow him and grin. "Nice try, but that's already my contribution to the team."

"You know what they say, better two gangsters than one," Leila says.

"No one ever said that," Emilien chuckles.

"Well, I made it a thing now, and I've also found something," Leila says while tapping against her phone. "I just looked up the orphanage again and noticed what else is located near it. Guess what?"

"We have no idea," Emilien says. "Please enlighten us."

"A hospital," she says. "It's close to the orphanage, and it has a huge blood bank, the biggest one in France."

Leila has successfully gotten Arden's attention now. "I didn't know that."

"I have been thinking… where does this group or organization or whatever, our culprits, get the information on blood groups from? Now, Meg might have had hers in her regular data, but we all know the pack wolves that were kidnapped didn't."

"What are you implying?" I ask.

"They must have all been somewhere where this information was collected, and there is no better place to do that than a hospital, is there?"

"You're right," I say. "This is something to check on. I'll call my father and ask him to research it."

"Isn't this something Marius might be suitable for?" Nox asks. "Thanks to his many projects, he has lots of contacts with various healthcare organizations."

"Good point." I nod. "I will inform them both and ask them to coordinate their findings with each other."

"Do we have any way to get this information here, as well?" Leila asks.

"It's almost impossible to get our hands on it just like that," Emilien says.

"But you were able to hack into Interpol," I point out.

"Yes, but that's because we have a few contacts that help us on the inside. I think I didn't voice my concern correctly. Hacking into surveillance cameras will be the easiest task. The hospital itself wouldn't be a problem either. The issue is that not everything is digitalized there and that they have their own intranet. We would be better off proceeding with sending them a phishing email and then hacking them, but it's not going to be a fast process."

"And we don't have the time," I conclude.

"What do you think, Zoé?" Arden asks her. "IT is your forte."

"I think Emilien is right. I'd need to have access from the inside," she says. "I don't know what type of system they have, but if what Emilien said is correct, then it would be best to be inside; quite literally in the building. It would also be good to have access to the cameras maybe. Oh! Ideally, I could have a camera attached to someone walking around there and get a feel for the building."

"Emi mentioned another important point, though. What about the data that is stored physically?" Leila wants to know.

Nox and I exchange a gaze. "Criminal energy, like I said," Nox points out.

"Two are better than one, like I said," Leila adds, catching on immediately.

"What exactly do we need?" I ask. "I mean from the hospital. What exactly are we looking for?"

"A list of names with anyone who is, or was, registered as AB negative," Gustave says.

"Gustave is right. That's a must," Arden says. "Additionally, any records about Meg, and data about our potential victims from this region. Let's check if they were truly in that hospital for their bloodwork."

"Got it," I say. "I will inform Dad and Marius, and then Nox and I will discuss a way to break into the hospital."

The others stare at us. "You can't be serious," Gustave mutters.

"We are," Nox says.

"Zoé said it would be best if someone walked through the building with a camera attached to them," I point out. "Like Emilien said, certain documents might not be digitalized. We will just waste time by doing the trial and error method. Let's go directly to the hospital. You can still hack into their system, Zoé can get her map through the camera and guide us, and Nox and I will retrieve anything we need."

"I can't believe I'm about to agree to this," Emilien mutters. "I need to get Eric's okay, though."

"Do that, please," Arden says, not against the idea at all, much to my surprise. "You and Nox should discuss how you will go about this and how we'll manage to get Zoé inside, too. I don't want her to be involved in something too dangerous."

"She just needs to be there with her laptop," Nox says. "Aurelia and I will make sure she can have access."

"Emilien, you said you could access the surveillance cameras, right?" I ask. "And the alarms?"

"Yes, I think that should be possible," Emilien says.

"Good, come, Nox, let's go and have lunch. I think I have an idea."

"Almost feels like we are fifteen again." He grins.

"What did you two do when you were fifteen?" Gustave asks.

"I think it's better we keep that a secret," I tease.

"Alright," Leila interrupts us. "I'm hungry, too. Emilien and I will catch up with Eric for lunch and tell him about our progress."

"Are you sure we can't help with this?" I ask, gesturing towards the boxes with documents.

"Yes, I'm sure," Arden reassures me. He gets up and pulls me into a kiss. "I prefer you meeting with your friends and planning the next steps with Nox."

"After lunch, I will go through the police reports from six years ago," Emilien says. "Mr. Simon said that there was another girl who was kidnapped."

"Yes, he said they found her body only a couple of months after she was abducted," I say. "Leila and I think her father might have been a rogue."

"So far we don't know if she fits the criteria, except for them being on the run, and no pack to care if they went missing or not," Emilien says. "But it's interesting enough to research on."

While the others discuss a few details, I make calls to my father and brother, filling them in on everything. Marius is eager to help and promises me he will reach out to his contacts. With that set, we leave Arden with Gustave and Zoé and head to our lunch dates.

"Leila," I say before we can go our separate ways. "There is something I wanted to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"Your gift… you are an oracle. Does it just come to you, or can you force your gift to appear?" I ask.

Leila sighs. "I knew someone would ask that eventually." She exchanges a gaze with Emilien. "It's not really a secret, but it does make me a bit inefficient. I should be able to control it," she admits. "My gift, I mean. But due to my restrictive upbringing, I was never able to learn much about it."

"I'm sure you will master it," Emilien reassures her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry," I say. "I just thought that you might find some leads for our case here."

"I mean, I have seen Meg in a vision, so maybe I could try to focus on her and provoke a new one," she admits. "But as I said, I've not mastered it. Emilien and Eric work with me on it, but it's a process. I can't make any promises."

"Don't worry," I say. "We will proceed with our plans like we discussed. If you manage to see something, that's awesome, but we'll treat it as an…extra."

"I would appreciate that," she agrees. "I will try to get a vision, but let's follow the plan for now."

*ARDEN*

At the end of the day, my brain feels like it's melting. I usually don't mind spending hours reading documents and sorting through them, but this here was a lot, even for me. Gustave and Zoé look similarly spent.

"We did it," I say, rubbing over my face. "I can't believe we finished it, today."

"All thanks to you," Gustave says, sounding seriously stunned. "I have never seen someone go through papers so quickly. How can your eyes move so fast."

"It's not so much the movement of the eye, but the pace of my mind registering words," I explain.

"Whatever it is, it is mind-boggling," he says.

"You two worked very well, too," I tell them. "It's true that I sorted through everything, but Gustave checked the files a second time, and Zoé, you digitalized everything. It was a joint effort. You were both so fast and efficient; I couldn't have had anyone better to assist me."

At the silence that's greeting me, I almost feel like I overstepped again. It's so much easier with people I know, while everyone else easily misinterprets me.

"Thank you," Gustave blurts out, his eyes lighting up in pride.

"We were really efficient, weren't we?" Zoé beams before she and Gustave start a little silly dance together.

"At first, I thought we'd never finish everything, but we were such a good team," Gustave says.

He and Zoé enjoy their moment for a little longer while I'm stunned that they indeed understood my words of praise. "How about we go and grab a drink?" I offer. "Well, at least Gustave and I can grab a drink. For Zoé, it will be one of the mocktails. My treat."

"Really?" Gustave asks.

"I would love to," Zoé agrees. "I'm just not sure how to return to the pack. I'm going to miss the last bus again."

"I can take you," Gustave tells her. "I will only have one drink or none at all."

"That's a pretty huge detour," I say.

"It's okay," Gustave says. "Zoé is a friend and co-worker." He looks away from me, almost like he is embarrassed to look at me when he says the next words. "It's about basic respect," he says quietly.

"What do you say?" I ask Zoé.

"Absolutely yes," she exclaims.

"Well, then it's set." I open the door for both of them, following them down the corridor. The Council has a few places, and we choose a cocktail bar.

"Oh look." Zoé beams. "Aurelia is there, too."

She is right. Aurelia is sitting with her friends, having a few drinks. She perks up when she spots me and waves. It makes me realize how little time I actually spend with her. I really want to change that as soon as possible.

"Do you mind if we join them?" I ask Gustave and Zoé.

Zoé looks like that's exactly what she hoped for, while Gustave looks a bit anxious. "Is this really okay?"

"Yes, of course. Come." I lead the both of them to the table with Aurelia and her friends, happy when they all greet me with excitement. I know some of them have been her friends for a long time. It means a lot to me that they don't hate me.

"I hope we aren't interrupting anything," I say.

"Only if you don't have a drink with us," Jazz says with a bright smile before turning to Valerie. "Why don't you call Eric and ask him to join us?"

"It's not a mate-free zone, anymore," Terry teases, putting his arm around Marilou.

"Since it wasn't a girlfriend-free zone to begin with, I don't think it matters," Tori teases him.

Tori was the one who suffered from a hangover yesterday. I remember Aurelia telling me about it. She looks fine today, albeit a bit quiet. I only know what Aurelia told me, so my mental notes about her friends aren't really detailed, yet I make sure to briefly visit my memory palace. Tori: sweet, kind, talkative, bubbly. I'm not the most skilled in reading people, but she seems to be much more reserved than I would have expected.

I sit down next to Aurelia, instantly feeling at home by the way she puts her hand on my knee. "Allow me to introduce my two co-workers…and friends," I say, not sure if that's the right way to introduce them, but by the way Zoé beams and Gustave looks hopeful, I think it's okay. "Zoé and Gustave. Zoé is an IT genius and is from my pack. Gustave is from an allied pack. We went to school together."

"Come sit with us," Tori offers, making room for Gustave to squeeze himself between her and Marilou, successfully pushing Marilou closer to Terry, so that she is almost sitting on his lap. "That's why my sister is the best." He grins.

"Another genius?" Lion asks Gustave. "Must be awesome to be good-looking and smart."

I'm not sure if it's a jab or not. Judging by the way Aurelia glares at him, I feel like it's the first.

"Ignore him," Nox says. "He sometimes can't read the room."

"Well, he isn't the only one," Gustave admits. "It's nice to meet all of you."

Aurelia watches them chat before leaning towards me. "Is this really okay?" she whispers, subtly gesturing towards Gustave.

"Yes, I'm trying to move on from the past," I answer quietly. "It's not easy though."

"Okay," she says with a smile before kissing me softly.

For a while I just enjoy sitting next to Aurelia while listening to everyone talk. Normally, big groups make me nervous, but this time it doesn't. They are all surprisingly pleasant to be around. Eric joins us, too, making the whole gathering even more lively. Eventually, my ears start to hurt as with every time I am with a lot of people.

I know it's just in my head and not a real physical condition. I just get overstimulated, though it took me much longer this time than usual. I excuse myself for a moment, deciding to step out onto the balcony to catch some fresh air. The moment I am outside, I switch off my hearing aid, allowing the silence to settle in.

Cato projects Aurelia's image in my mind, but even without doing so, my bond to her tells me she is close, so does her heavenly scent. She doesn't say anything, just wraps her arms around me from behind, her touch adding to the comforting silence. We stay like that for a while before I switch on my hearing aid again and pull her into my arms.

"Were my people too much?" she asks.

"Not at all," I reassure her. "Actually, it's been a while since I was able to last that long. I like them."

"Really?" She smiles. "That makes me happy, because they like you too."

Aurelia wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me into a kiss. I press her against the balustrade while she opens her lips for my tongue to slip past them. I've kissed before, but nothing is like kissing her. It's the tingles all around, the way her tongue battles for dominance, and how it spurs Cato on to engage in her game.

Only when we hear someone giggle behind us do we draw apart. A teenage girl gapes at us, giggles some more, and dashes away. "That's our cue." Aurelia chuckles.

"Yes, let's go to the others before someone comes looking for us."

She nods. "Or worse, until we have more spectators."