My Savior(47)

"Normally, I don't condone violence, but in this instance, my quirky daughter is right. That woman is better off dead," Adelaide looked weary.

Marius appeared at the door, his mouth twitching. "All the ladies have left. I think you will find it interesting that most of them offered to stand with Amelia if this goes to the Tribunal. They all confided in me that Daphne was out of line threatening a pregnant human who was in no way responsible for what was printed in The Observer."

Adelaide sat down abruptly on a sofa. "Thank the Gods for that."

Amelia scooted closer to Meryn and rested her head on her shoulder. Without looking, Meryn reached up and patted her on the head, her focus still on the cookie basket. Maybe what she did wasn't crazy after all. No one seemed particularly upset that she had almost killed someone.

Beth stood in front of Meryn, her arms crossed over her chest. "You little demon! How did you get that article in The Observer!?" Beth exclaimed before bursting out into laughter.

Meryn chuckled. "What do you mean?"

"Now Beth, you know there's no way that she could..." Adelaide stopped mid-sentence. She gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. "You wanted to attend the sewing circle this week."

Amelia yawned, emotionally spent. "And you kept checking your phone. I thought you were checking for text messages, but you were checking the time. You knew the paper would be delivered this afternoon."

Ryuu and Marius stared. Ryuu, in an uncharacteristic show of emotion, broke down laughing. He leaned against Marius whose grey mustache was twitching as he tried to hide his smile.

"Out with it, Menace!" Beth took the cookie basket from Meryn who glared up at her.

"Fine! Remember how I said I found something of interest in the history books? It was a reference to the Dear Gentle Reader column. After that, I subscribed to the paper and started reading all the columns. Once the nasty ones about us started, I went to the library in Lycaonia with Noah and looked at all the back issues of The Observer, and I noticed a trend that started about five years ago. A lot of the major articles were pulled from sources found on Facebook and online message boards run by paranormals. I had pulled all that content trying to find correlations with the missing persons so nearly all the articles looked familiar. Daphne may have flooded the city with gossip, but all I had to do was carefully place one or two reference documents online and the rest is history." Meryn grabbed the cookie basket back from Beth who stared down at her in shock.

"Even if you had placed something on a message board, they would have checked sources before printing that in the paper," Beth said.

Meryn nodded. "It wasn't that hard to create a business website for a plastic surgeon. I even hacked the Plastic Surgeons of America and added his name. For all intents and purposes, he is as real as you or I online. Hacking into the local police department was easy since I had already done it last year. It took two seconds to create a police report filed by a concerned local farmer."

Amelia sat up straight and hugged Meryn close. "You little genius!"

Meryn frowned, looking up at Beth. "She's doing it again."

Beth shrugged and grabbed a cookie. "She's family, she's allowed."

Meryn sighed. "True."

Amelia released her baby sister-cousin and sat back. Losing control had been terrifying. She couldn't help noticing that she had only started having these episodes after making love to Darian. It was as if some of his darkness had seeped into her. Never before had she felt such rage. If this was what her mate had faced alone, it was a miracle he hadn't turned yet.

Ryuu walked over and bowed low in front of Meryn. "Well played, denka, well played, indeed."

Adelaide tapped her chin. "But does this help us or hurt us?"

Amelia watched in amazement as Meryn huddled in on herself and began sniffling, wiping at her eyes like a child. "But Elder Vi'Ailean, I didn't do anything. She lurched at me and I was so s-s-scared! I'm only human; I was afraid for my baby!" Meryn broke down into tears. Seconds later, she sniffed once dramatically, dried her eyes and resumed eating her cookies. Amelia held up a hand silently. Meryn gave her a crumby high five and grinned.

"If anything, this should silence the faction that was feeding into the tripe about the Alpha Unit losing its effectiveness. Those who play the game will see this for the power play that it was. Excellent work, Meryn," Beth praised.

"Vaginoplasty," Meryn snorted.

That was all it took to send Amelia into uncontrollable laughter. Beth crumpled into a ball of giggles taking the seat on the other side of Meryn.

"Oh girls, you're good for my heart," Adelaide said.