Demetrius sat down on a chair in the public park near his office, he couldn't go up there yet. His inner demon snarled at him, a raging beast that wanted to rend and maim, logically he knew that this was truly the only way Ryan would be safe. But the sharp, harsh feeling of possessiveness had taken over him, he clenched his fists as pictures of Ryan and Katherine tangled up together flashed through his mind. It made him angrier and it wasn't what he needed right now.
He knew that this needed to happen or he would have to kill his friend, there was no way he was allowing Jasrahel to win. He knew what his plan would be, to use Ryan as his window and possess him and then use Ryan to kill him, he would thwart that plan. He just had to get his demon to calm down, this would be rough but he would do it for his friend. It also had the side effect of further increasing his power as each demon sired increased the sire's strength.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and searched for his demon, the heavily muscled midnight red hulk snarled at him as he built up his strength of will and forced it against a wall. It howled furiously and tried to swipe out at the force field with its claws, he held firm as he pushed the demon back inside its containment cell. The one he had taken a century to perfect, with recent changes he knew he needed to make it far stronger, but that would take a long time.
He needed perfect focus to re-enforce the shimmering blue-green walls of its prison, he opened his eyes and got up off the chair. Now it was time to deal with what will be a life changing event for Ryan, he just hoped that he could get Ryan to trust him and not the voice whispering to him in his head.
Once he reached his office, he knew he was still throwing off don't screw with me vibes because he noticed that no-one as much looked at him. But he knew that this could be accepted because of what was about to happen, the smackdown with the board members. He expected to find at least one other conspirator amongst them it had always been too suspicious that they didn't seem to pay much attention.
Once he collected all of his papers into a folder, he opened the door and strode out. When he passed Ryan's office he could feel the dark vibes present in there, this time they were all one flavour. He didn't know how Jasrahel had thought that he could get away with this undetected, even now he could feel the strength of the building corruption. Once he reached the board room, he pushed opened the doors and stepped inside to see Ryan sitting near the head of the table.
Ryan looked up at him, a dark fire burning in his eyes. The color reminded him of burnished copper, similar to the color of the dress shirt he was wearing. He only hoped it wasn't too late to turn this around, he knew they had one chance at this he had to convince Ryan that he wasn't the one he should be looking at.
Demetrius took his seat and dropped the folder on the table, he looked at Ryan and said, "Let's see how many toads we can catch with this," the energy burned against him, it felt familiar it reminded him of when he first met Jasrahel. The burn running over his skin, but he could be mistaken because when he met Jasrahel he was dying and he was cold.
"A few at least, they won't be able to hold it together against us. We can clean house after this and make sure it won't happen again," said Ryan. Danger seemed to flood off his words, Demetrius grinned. The power behind his voice would be enough to get them trembling but that mixed with his own enhancements should be enough to pin point the traitors.
Once the boardroom had filled up, Demetrius stood. His nerves were on edge from sitting next to Ryan the aura coming from him was very similar to Jasrahel. He had to push his time table forward, he was going to do it once they had finished for the day. But he didn't know if he actually had that long, he had to take control of the situation once he had finished with the board meeting and weeded out the traitors he would deal with this situation.
He looked around with a predatory gaze watching everyone closely, some of them shuffled in their seats. He could feel the tension in the air, he knew they were all wondering what was going to happen. "As you all know, Mr. Daniel Clarke was fired for insider trading and a criminal investigation will be launched into his actions. If anyone knows about illicit trading, anyone who could possibly be traitorous, now is the time to speak up. Once you leave this room and you knowingly withheld information then the retribution will be harsh. I will not suffer to have traitors working to deliberately undermine all that we have worked for."
Demetrius could feel the burn of Ryan watching him, he knew this had everything to do with Jasrahel whispering to him. Pushing his corruptive influence on him, he had to set him straight afterwards. He could see some of the board sweating, he knew some could be caused by the overall tension in the room, but he knew the truth of it some of it was a direct result of guilt and the threat that their secret will finally come out. He decided to sweeten the deal, he knew gave an incentive, if anyone did know information they'd be more likely to forward it if they got something in return.
"As an added incentive, I'm willing to... overlook your transgression for not reporting the suspicious activity if you let me know what you've seen or heard. It only extends to this meeting, you would also have a good chance of being assigned to the more important cases," he almost smirked as he looked at the change in posture of some of the board. He knew someone would soon speak out, he looked to Ryan who was carefully observing everything that was going on.
Demetrius looked around the silent room, just as he was about to question them again, one sat forward in his chair and looked across the table. "I was going to inform you of the situation at the end of the next board meeting in private to avoid anyone making a public scene. But considering one has already been busted, now is as good a time as any to let it be known that I overheard Clarke have a good discussion with Joseph over there about what he had planned to do forged documents to try and frame you as a thief."
Demetrius smirked, it was who he expected it to be, in past meetings along with Ryan he was one of two others who seemed to pay attention to every detail. Robert was an oily, vicious snake and he very well could have been involved in this plot as well as he was jealous when Ryan got promoted over him. He would have the chance now to allow him to sink or to prove his worth to the company, it didn't particularly surprise him that Joseph Butler had been involved in this scheme.
He was a follower and never had much potential to be a real leader, "What do you have to say for yourself Joseph?"
Joseph appeared to have melted into his seat, he could pull back the aggressive aura his demon was projecting but he wasn't feeling very merciful right then. It probably wouldn't have worked anyway not with the building firestorm burning behind him, when Joseph had been outed he had felt the aggression from Ryan flare up hotter.
"He's trying to set me up, that's what I have to say. He was at that same meeting, but there was no discussion of fake documents. I had thought they were real, I thought that those papers were what was really going on."
He thought it could be the truth, but the incredible naivety to believe everything that Clarke had told him he didn't think that would be true if he was honest with himself. "So why are you only now bringing this up, you've had plenty of time before this meeting to discuss any kind of concern, you also didn't even have to talk to either me or Ryan you could have asked anyone else here what they thought. That was your biggest mistake blindly believing what you've been told, Clarke wanted to take over and it was likely he would have fired you and most everyone else. I'm going to suspend you until more investigation is done on the matter. And Robert you can have your pick of any assignment in the future just let me know which one you would like."
Demetrius smirked again as he noticed Ryan staring at Joseph, a hot glare cutting through him. Before he had an accident in the board room he broke the standoff, "If anyone else would speak up, now would the time to do it."
He watched as everyone stared at each other, he saw Emily scowling at Robert. He wouldn't say it now, but Emily almost became VP. She was going to be his candidate for the VP position when he handed the top job to Ryan when he left but now things were different, he didn't know if he could get her to stay if she wasn't going to be afforded any promotion opportunities for the near future. "I'm sure the rest of you have a lot of work to be doing today, so get on with it. The secretary will be contacting you Joseph about what will be happening.
He watched as they got out of their seats and left the room, the tension and the stress from Joseph fed his demon and especially with the increasing violent force of Ryan's aura had made it anxious and harder than usual to keep contained.
Once the door shut behind the last of them he sat down in the chair across from Ryan and said, "I hope that is the end of that. What do you think if Joseph?"
"I think he's trying to slime his way out of trouble, even if he didn't know all the facts the way it appears to have been handled should have been extra suspicious. So what are we to do with Robert?"
Ryan's eyes had flared again, he knew it wouldn't be long before the corruption progressed enough to allow for possession. "I'm not going to allow him to get away with it, he's a slippery snake and we can't let him get away. For all we know he could have been the mastermind and not Clarke. I'll let him take an important job and I'll have arrangements made with the investor, he's days here are numbered. So do you have any suggestions on who might be suitable replacements?"
Ryan smirked, "I do in fact, recently I got in contact with one of my old buddies from college and he's looking to move up here and will need a solid job. He was one of the best consultants for his investment firm in Los Angeles but he told me he's sick of that place and wants to move here to New York."
