Page 48 of Feathers and Scales

“No,” she said. “Let her do what she will and keep watching her. Have you figured anything out about the laptop?”

“Actually, I uncovered a lot.” The phone distorted as Simon cleared his throat loudly. “The alarm was set on your laptop a week ago by someone who had remote access. We have a Class A hacker who’s placed spyware on your laptop. My guess is that the Archfiend knew where to find you because you used your laptop to research that cave system in Maine.”

“Makes sense.” Izzy shifted, woodchips crunching under her shoes.

“I sent my own spyware back,” Simon said. “I wasn’t the only one with tricky protection, but the French letter was no match for my jism.”

Daxton’s eyebrows lifted at Simon’s perverse euphemisms, but he understood Simon had information about their hacker.

“Is this about the Tattered One after her?” Keiran asked with heat in his tone.

Daxton nodded.

“An intelligent foe,” Keiran said. “And you brought what it wants straight into Pentros.”

Fuck.Daxton swallowed, picking up the current of Keiran’s disappointment. He’d endangered his people to protect Izzy. Keiran would have every right to strip him of his chief ranking.

“Isn’t hacking them back dangerous?” Izzy asked.

“It can be for those who don’t know the proper channels and ways to hide themselves using a VPN. I can’t track the hacker down. Nor their name. But I think I’ve seen spyware like this before—almost professional. It’s not good, Izzy. He tracked Fotios’s and your lineage a year ago. He knows your family line and can track you each time you’re reborn. That’s how he found you this generation.”

Fotios?Fear ran across the link, thick and acrid. Just like when they discovered the laptop, Izzy’s side of the link thickened with darkness, as if to consume her. Izzy stared off into the distance, but her eyes seemed trained on something that wasn’t there. Daxton’s muscles bunched to go to her, but an image filtered across the link.

A tall figure with curly hair and a beard stood in his mind like a hallucination. He had the impression that the man was speaking to him—speaking to Izzy.

“I know he’s from my past, but I don’t know who he is,” Izzy said to the air.

“Izzy. Stay present.” Simon’s words and worried tone seemed to pierce the delusion.

Daxton’s heart constricted, not knowing what to think about that situation. The darkness and her reaction told him she’d gone into a delusion before on the plane. Immortality brought on many struggles, so he understood losing oneself in memories. But it most likely meant Izzy had lost someone very close to her—maybe this Fotios person. Daxton wanted to find the underlying cause of the disconnection, but she’d have to trust him more first.

She rubbed her forehead. “Has the house been compromised?”

“I don’t know. Nothing links this house to our families, nor did you give anything away on your laptop. If he’d figured out this location, something would have happened by now.”

“Pull the plug,” she said. “Clean up the house. Vacate immediately.”

A nervous weight fell off Daxton’s shoulders. She had made the right decision.

“Roger that, gaffer,” Simon said in an excited pitch. “Does this mean I get to call the emergency number?”

“We already have a team surrounding the house.” She turned around and met Daxton’s gaze through the Jeep window.

“Seriously?” Simon exclaimed. “And you didn’t tell me until now?”

“They’d just be a distraction.”

He sighed. “You’re probably right.”

“Stay safe, Simon.”

“Stay safe yourself. And while you’re at it, get laid. That was a superb specimen, if I say so myself.”

Keiran cracked up laughing, while Daxton coughed into his hand to muffle the heat rising in his throat. Though his dragon rumbled with delighted warmth. Izzy sighed before she walked back. She beamed red as she glared at them. More tension left Daxton’s body as he shared in the humor with his Centurion. Daxton welcomed Simon’s diffusing of the situation with humor—even if it had a different effect on Izzy.

“As much as I don’t appreciate you eavesdropping, at least you’re filled in,” she hissed.

Daxton sobered. “Apologies. Don’t worry about Simon. I’ll update the team. They’ll keep him safe.”