Page 4 of I Dated a Holiday Hero (Blind Date Corporation #19)

They were back in the car and on the way home when she made the call. “Hey, Zera.”

Zera looked at her. “ Are you all right? ”

“Sure. Just really depressed. Was it really Desmond?”

“ Yes, he took bribes to weaken you and mark you for the team. ”

“Was it for his family?”

“ Which one? A forensic accountant found three. ”

“Holy heck. That’s shocking.”

“ Yes, well, the defenders are holding him, and charges will be laid in the morning. ”

“Okay. Is that it?”

“ No. What the hell did you do to Krix? ”

“Nothing. He made me a fur cloak and flew me home. I didn’t know he was a speedster.”

“ Speedster, heavy-hitter, alpha, Serathoan. ”

“He’s Sethir.”

“ His father is Sethir; his mother is Serathoan. ”

“Oh, so he didn’t lie, all the way.”

“ No. Not completely. Are you alone? ”

“Nope. In the car with my mom and the driver, Mirol.”

“ Right. Call me when you have privacy. The next bit is delicate. ”

“Sure. I might have to be debriefed by the defenders and agents, given the nature of the events.”

“ Of course. Call me after that. ”

“Fine. Have a good evening, Zera.”

“ Call me. ”

“Yes, boss.”

She ended the call and thought about it then contacted a friend and asked them to take a look at her house and bring the wrapped stuff over to the ambassador’s home. Keera agreed and promised to take a video.

She sat back and smiled. “Mom, I also have to tell you that I know where my sister is, and I know who she is.”

“The little golden one?”

“Yup. It’s Leska from the accounting department. She’s about to have a baby, so she’s off on mat leave.”

“Aw, that’s sweet. Does she know?”

“About me? I left some clues. She will know me if we meet again.”

Her mom nodded. “So, if you are, um, dating, is there a chance of me becoming a grandmother?”

“Not with the current organization for my social life. I am using a ton of birth control, just in case the dates are interested in more than recreation.”

Veradil sighed. “I should have helped you more with social dynamics.”

“I was raised in a lab, Mom. You grow up naked, and you figure things out. I am just at the phase where I will let others touch me. That is huge and strictly due to your constant hugs and light contacts, stopping when I stiffened up.”

Her mother squeezed her hand, and Hever squeezed back. “I am really sorry I didn’t suggest you keep your scales.”

“They were looking for them. I knew I needed to hide them, and by the time we finished in Hyreno and made our way to the Sethir Stronghold, I figured it out. That was where the other children were mocking me, calling me a snake and a black hole.”

“Honey, I had no idea.”

“I know. It’s okay. Kids are mean little buggers, and then I found my human shape, and that is the one you managed to adopt.”

“I love you scaley, and I love you pink.”

Hever grinned. “Thanks. Now, do you want to know how old I actually am?”

“You weren’t eight?”

“Six.”

“Fuck.”

Hever laughed and leaned to hug her mother as they pulled into the drive, and the gates swung open. There was a crowd of actives and the prefect waiting for them.

Hever sighed. “There goes the quiet dinner.”

“I will order takeout, so the chef doesn’t have an aneurism.” Her mom smiled. “Take them into the solarium. It should fit them all.”

She nodded, and when the driver opened the door, she smiled and nodded, and he gave her a slight wink. She walked toward the group of people, and Salmet rushed toward her and hugged her. “Auntie? This is a little weird for you.”

“What?”

“You give me A-frame hugs or pat me on the head.”

“Someone tried to blow you up and kill you today. Consider it a special occasion.” Salmet smiled. “You are so soft.”

“Yeah. It’s a whole thing. Mom said we can use the solarium. Anyone who is coming, please come with me.”

She turned and walked into the house, through the entryway, past the formal living room, the family dining room, the formal dining room, and into the solarium.

Abbi brought in beverages, lots of lemonade and water, with Hever’s special cartoon cup.

Hever filled her cup with cartoon supervillains on it and sipped at it while others watched with raised brows. Salat and Khytten were grinning. Salat said, “You still have that thing?”

“Sure. After the cousins took the hero cups, the villains were the only ones left.”

Salat winced. “I could have made replacements.”

“When your kids have their favourite things broken by a sibling or cousin, try and replace them. I dare you.” She smirked.

Everyone settled, and it was a lot of bodysuits.

Salmet said, “Fine, from the start of the day, tell us what happened.”

Hever went over it, filling in details. Everyone scowled when she mentioned spending the day with Desmond’s family. She nodded. “I know. I know.”

She continued and then said, “That tank was so basic. I mean, it was first-year design school basic. I mean, Kritz could have designed it.”

There was a “Hey! ” from a com link on someone’s shoulder.

“Seriously. They wanted it altered to do everything, but this thing could barely turn. They also had no equipment for me to do any work, so I just splinted my broken hands and flipped through the tank designs.”

Zera spoke quietly from another open com.

“ Hever has won nineteen defense contracts and seventeen design awards. Salat, she designed all of your vehicles, including all the extras. She also does the suit designs when Kritz forwards the specs. The prototypes are all hers, and then she uploads the print to the computers. ”

Hever smiled. “Mom has impressed the importance of fashion on me. And I am a huge fan of function.”

Salat looked down at his body suit. “This?”

“The original. You have taken the copy and tweaked it. Same with Khytten’s suit. I did the basic, and you added all the entry points. All the entry points.” She sipped at her lemonade.

He frowned. “I thought that was done in Kritz’s office.”

“Arcady, if you are listening, I also added placement of all your extras, including the skin designs,” Hever smirked.

The other cousins and defenders looked at her with surprise. Salat said, “How did Krix come to find you?”

“Zera sent him. As my patron, he had the right to know why I wasn’t available.”

Salat grinned. “You are an escort?”

“Niche market. And I am picky.”

Zera sighed. “ She really is. She had a line out the door. ”

Hever snorted.

“ Krix is just the one who made the cut, and he isn’t the best match for her, so I am still trying to get her to take on a different alpha. ”

Four of her cousins jolted. She gave them bland looks.

Khytten blinked. “Oh. You are an omega.”

“Yup.”

“Wow. Salat said I wasn’t to hug you to death.”

“Family rule.”

Salmet winced. “Yes, well, now that we know you need it, all the hugs you can handle.”

“It’s fine. They make me queasy now. I can handle Mom’s contact and not a lot else. Well, and the kids. The kids are fine.” She smiled. “Good thing the family started breeding. I get the contact I need a few times a year.”

Salmet covered her mouth. “So, you went to the BDC...”

“To have someone who didn’t resent contact. I didn’t have to beg for it. Anyway. I got back to the hospital once Mom made sure I washed all the blood off and got the information about the poisoning, and I got rid of it.”

Salmet asked, “How?”

“I took on my actual shape minus my missing wings. That was the last thing they did to me when I was a child. Cut off my wings and locked me into a small stasis pod attached to one of the explosive buoys in the harbour.”

She sat and went silver, and then she went black. Then she went back to pearly pink.

Salmet blinked. “That’s... you...”

“Mom thought you would accept me more easily if I looked more like her. It didn’t really work, but it was better than nothing.”

Salmet covered her mouth.

Zera said, “ You look like one of the Z-Corp staff .”

“Yeah. I know. We were created from the same source. I was first, and then she came a few years later. When she was trained to feed and clean herself, they cut off my wings, used them for research, and threw them away. She didn’t grow wings. She had energy manifestations.”

Salat was staring at her. “Leska?”

Khytten was staring at her features. “You don’t look like her.”

“Plastic surgery so that I wouldn’t look like the creature they threw away. No one looks for you if you don’t look like what they are looking for.” She smiled.

Hever was hungry. “Is there anything else?”

Zera asked, “ Are you coming back to work? ”

“Sure. I just need someone to do a bug sweep.”

“ No. I mean to work. ”

“Oh, wow. I thought he took off.”

“ He did but is still on your books. I want you to consider a few of the others. ”

Salat growled. “How many are there?”

“That matches with her physically in this form? Twenty-four. If we can get her in for a scan in her scaled forms, we should be able to knock that down a bit.”

The cousins were looking at each other with uncertainty. She sighed. “You aren’t alphas; you don’t have the requisite drive to be anywhere near my file.”

Zera snickered. “ You really don’t. Her need for contact is extreme. Well, I look forward to you doing a recalibration. I can’t wait to see what happens once we narrow down the field a bit. ”

Khytten looked at Hever with understanding and pity.

“Yeah, but Mom gets irritated if I am more than forty minutes away from her. The vast majority of the alphas are Sethir. They don’t particularly like to commute. They like their omegas locked down and where they can find them.”

Zera murmured, “ Not only that, but you are a tech of international renown. You can get a job anywhere, but our designs are proprietary .”

“Oh, honey bunny, I have designs for vehicles you would never let me build. And line after line of interactive children’s toys that don’t match Z-Corp’s brand.”

Zera’s voice was amazed. “ Seriously? ”