As for Faith we were tiptoeing around the issue, letting our unfortunate confrontation lie and be ignored. She’d even started to open up a little bit, on the very basic level anyway, but it was still mainly professional between us. I think actually making her a part of my inner circle by soliciting her advice had a much larger impact on her than me just telling her she was.

  But she had a lot to work through, I was sure. I didn’t cheat to find out, but it was clear she was trying to leave her comfort zone. If she was pushing herself, then we didn’t need to. The sexual tension between us was extremely potent, but I felt no true impetus to rush things, since Lianne and Cerise took care of me that way quite often. So, I didn’t get frustrated by that unresolved tension. I just… desired to fulfill it.

  At the moment, I’d just gotten done setting up the meeting for tomorrow morning, between all the pantheons. Indra and Isis had been all for it, not hard to convince at all. Osiris had been a little suspicious but not enough against it to fight Isis on the idea, who was his co-ruler. Odin hadn’t said yes or no, he’d just hung up on me angrily, but I was fairly sure he’d come. I made sure he was aware all the others were coming, and he wasn’t stupid enough to ignore a possible threat like that without putting skin in the game. The little shit was avoiding making a decision, because he knew I’d see it when he did. He had the same kind of power I did that way, while the other leaders didn’t. They had something different, just as useful and powerful, but not the same.

  Odin being a jerk would’ve drove Zeus nuts, but really while it was annoying to me it was also amusing. If I could get the other two pantheons on board with my peace through non-interference idea, then I’d count it a win, even if Odin refused.

  I suppose I could introduce them now, so I can stop using their old names in this account, even if I won’t be meeting them for another twenty-four hours.

  Indra’s rebirth name was Gopal. He was six two, muscular, dark brown eyes and hair. Born and raised in India, but he’d travelled abroad and had gone to college in the UK. I was fairly sure the two of us would get along, as long as I didn’t overstep, which I had no intention of doing.

  Isis was a Floridian named Layla. She was five foot nine, buttery golden-brown skin, long and straight black hair, and quite exotically beautiful around the face with almond shaped eyes. Her body was a perfectly average hourglass for that height, perhaps just a tad on the athletic side. She was gorgeous, a bit arrogant but not cruel in the least. Save the whales type of person. That didn’t mean pushover, she’d be clever and ruthless in saving those whales.

  Also completely taken, the moment she’d laid eyes on her counterpart. Not all that unlike Mark and June when they first met, a truly foreordained match through their mantels.

  Osiris was Karim in this life, born in Egypt. He was tall and wiry, with dusky skin, brown eyes and hair. Despite being instantly besotted with Layla, he didn’t really trust the west at all, and was completely suspicious that I had an underhanded motive in all this.

  Which really, was just Tuesday for me since most of my gods felt the same about me being untrustworthy.

  On top of that, his faith had been shaken. He’d been part of the anti-supernatural crowd who thought all us gods along with shifters, vampires, fae, and witches were all servants of Satan. Despite it being sixty years without bringing hell to Earth, those extremists were still out there.

  So in his mind he’d become the enemy of the god he’d worshipped devoutly his whole life, and at the same time obviously didn’t feel evil or like the spawn of the devil.

  I was fairly sure he’d get over it quickly, no reason not to respect and even worship Allah as the highest god over his mere co-rulership of an earthly pantheon. Right? That was my hope, but I didn’t need to depend on it, that was between him and his god.

  I just needed to be aware of it, as it would shade his opinions and approaches, otherwise it was none of my business or concern. My pack was my concern, the Greek gods, let him worry about his pack.

  Lastly was Viktor, Odin’s rebirth. He was six foot three with blond hair and blue eyes, medium of build and toned. He’d been born and raised in Iceland, also a rabblerouser. Those two facts were unconnected, as far as I knew Iceland wasn’t a bunch of troublemakers.

  Chapter Six

  Misty cocked her hip, and then smirked playfully when I looked over. I supposed the A.I. had me well trained, she often cocked her hip or tossed her hair to get my attention. Of course, I knew she couldn’t be truly smug that she hit my libido every damned time, or was even truly flirting, it was just part of her programming to be challenging and a bit mischievous.

  She was way too sexy for my mental health, even dressed conservatively.

  “What’s up?”

  Misty said, “Faith is finished with her initial overview of all the software, hardware, and magic. She has a few questions and ideas, wants to know if you have time right now? She could come to you?”

  I’d been waiting for that for a while, patiently. The system was extremely complex, after all. Having a good solid understanding of it after only three days was impressive, and not all that far from my expectations of her brilliance and drive. It wasn’t just the modules I’d already built. An understanding of the root capabilities were required to have new ideas that were also viable for the magic to fulfill.

  I shook my head, “We’ll go to her office, let her know we’re on the way.”

  Lianne said, “I’ll meet you there,” then kissed me languidly, before grinning and skipping out of my arms reach.

  She didn’t say why, but we weren’t quite glued at the hip when at home, though she was usually by my side almost all the time anyway. So, I didn’t give it much thought at the time as her swaying ass mesmerized me while she left the room, but later in hindsight I’d understand I’d been plotted against, if in a good way.

  Then I got up and headed for Faith’s office.

  I paused briefly at the entrance to the room when I saw her, couldn’t help myself. She’d worn a red woman’s skirt suit that day, with a stretchy black shirt that had revealed about a quarter of her endlessly creamy D cup cleavage.

  She’d taken off the jacket however, since. No more of her breasts were revealed, but the tight black stretchy shirt left nothing to the imagination as to their rounded shape and how flat her stomach was along with the tight curve of her waist.

  Her long and straight light buttery blonde hair was up in a ponytail, revealing the soft innocent beauty of her face, and her graceful neck. Her green eyes were sparkling as she saw me, and the sexual tension between us ratcheted up tenfold. She wasn’t hitting me with her mantle’s power, but for the first time in her presence she wasn’t holding it back either. It made her sensual allure which was already quite substantial, quite a bit more potent.

  She smiled warmly, with a slightly sensual lilt, and when she spoke she did not disguise her voice. Her naturally seductive voice only added to the devastation of the sexy goddess before me.

  To say I was thrown off a bit by it, would be an understatement.

  “Sir, come on in.”

  The innocent words laced with seduction had my mind going to a completely different interpretation of those words, yet I managed to return her smile with confidence and took a seat in the guest chair. Despite the intense allure, and the scent of desire pouring off of her unmarred by counter scents, I wasn’t sure if it was an invitation to ravish her or just her finally relaxing in our home.

  I also refused to use my power to find out, that would take all the challenge and fun out of it.

  “What do you have for me, Faith?”

  Faith blushed and her head bowed slightly, but her eyes were still on mine as she looked coquettishly through her long eyelashes. I’d always imagined if she seduced men, it would be by playing up her innocent beauty married to the lush sexual invitation of her sinful body, and it was more impactful than I’d imagined on the goddess of seduction. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in that moment, either protect her with everything I was, or fuck her unconscious, and those powerful drives and instincts mixed powerfully in my chest to threaten my control.

  I won’t lie, she already had me as hard as I’d ever been before, and it ached in its confinement.

  She said warmly, “You’re truly brilliant you know, I regret holding back on my compliment three days ago and saying quite good. I was trying to keep things professional, and fangirling on my boss would be… not professional.”

  She blushed, obviously feeling self-conscious about her admission and admiration, “I also haven’t finished reviewing the A.I. operating system code itself, but that isn’t needed to understand the root capabilities, which lie in the ward spells, hardware, and software.

  “Moving on. Ideas first. I’ve added a tentative path for a server version, which will entry at twenty thousand, and go up to fifty thousand or so, based on the company’s software needs. With quantum processing power, the owner just having one inside of them will replace a whole data center worth of servers. The problem that such an approach yields will be a single point of failure. Something companies can’t allow.

  “So two people should have one in the company for redundancy. That’s all in there for your approval.

  “My other suggestions aren’t nearly as far reaching, but it would be worthwhile to add more value. We’ll be offering data retention and cloud services, but some will still want to access their Microsoft, Google, or Apple applications and data, or use other third party services for data redundancy. We need more than just me to port all the various applications, social media platforms, games, and such.”

  I frowned, but she held up a hand to forestall my speaking, it was also an incredibly sensual gesture that made her breasts jiggle distractively. Plus, her voice was far to mesmerizing and sexy for me not to want to hear it some more, even if it was giving my cock stupid ideas.

  Gorgeous didn’t even do her justice, but it was a start.

  “But I know you want to keep the company small. My suggestion there is that all of our A.I.s are horribly underutilized.”

  To my amusement, Misty nodded in agreement and rolled her eyes, then yawned as if she was bored.

  Faith continued, “Just yours, mine, Lianne’s, and Cerise’s could easily port every app ever made to run on the AIOS, and probably make them better than the original. It would be like hiring thousands of programmers, they’re just that fast. They also won’t make mistakes and can correct old bugs and vulnerabilities quickly as Misty already proved. Obviously for copy protected apps, we’ll have to provide a toolkit to those companies, but a lot of apps like that can also be third party written by using their toolkits. So our app store, whatever we end up calling it I mean, won’t be bare until it takes off, and software companies get on board with us.”

  I nodded, “That will work, good idea.”

  Faith smiled shyly and bit her lip, “The other suggestion I have for you is we should add our own version of a meeting app. Like facetime or skype. But ours will be a three-dimensional hologram, so it seems like the person or people are actually in the room with you, and we can even simulate some tactile contact of a non-sexual nature, like handshakes? The directional sound will also add to that illusion.

  “Obviously that wouldn’t work in the shifter or vampire world, no scents or heartbeats would make it feel two dimensional and fake, nor ours because of our extra magical senses, but to a human or witch it should be almost as visceral as truly being in the same room. Of course, the app would only operate as a normal phone call, if both parties don’t have our computer implant.”

  “That sounds good too. Anything else?”

  She shook her head, “You and the others were pretty thorough with the ideas, and it’s a solid offering. We should continue to work on adding new stuff if we can, but it’s already an entire digital life solution from car keys, house automation, identification, phone, television, music, computer, and so on.”

  She smiled, “My worries. The first and largest isn’t really related to the device at all, more just an anticipated negative side effect.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “Do tell.”

  She waved sensually, and her tits swayed, it took a considerable amount of will, not to stare directly at her jiggling cleavage. Fortunately, her sparkling green eyes and innocently coy face were just as mesmerizing, if in a completely different way.

  “Most people don’t know humans have magic in them that they can’t use, that all life does. The witches don’t advertise that fact, and the cuffs don’t really give it away because they’re not meant for normal humans.

  “But this device, and the power device, will tell the humans they can have magical devices made for them. It won’t take long for governments to ask covens to make them weapons, that are powered by their soldier’s magic. It’s a pandora’s box kind of thing, the knowledge itself is dangerous.

  “Most covens will say no, but there’s always one, isn’t there? So it’s only a matter of time before one of those covens reverse engineers that part of your complex spell, and adds their own functionality to it. Be it defense, weapons, influencing others, mind reading… well you get the idea.”

  I frowned, then chuckled, “I hadn’t thought it through that far. Well, good intentions do pave the road to hell, after all. We’ll have to make plans to deal with that sort of thing. It’s a little late to close the box’s lid. I could scrap the computers, but that wouldn’t help. Others are aware of it, too many, and even if I did, the same thing would get out with the power devices. I doubt I could stop the coven I’m in business with from going ahead with it anyway.

  “So, we’ll have to deal with it when it becomes a problem. Plus, the devices are too beneficial to the world to abandon them. All advances are that way, really. They all have good and bad sides, like nuclear power plants and nuclear bombs. Any other concerns?”

  She nodded, “Just one, and it’s pretty major too. I think we need to have an A.I. automatically report it, if anyone messes with the wards running their device. Right now, the system is secure and can’t really be abused, all IO is done through magic making it un-hackable to all humans. But a witch or god could hack one with magic, make one of our A.I.s a cyberterrorist, or the best hacker and thief on the internet. Normal computers and firewalls wouldn’t stand a chance against an A.I. running on a quantum computer.

  “No car or building would be secure from such a thing. Yes, witches can already do a lot of that with direct magic, but not the computer hacking part. Most witches know better, but they’ll surely be at least one stupid and corrupt enough to try.

  “It would also not so incidentally secure the devices against reverse engineering. They’d still be able to reverse engineer the power cores, which would give them the basics of how humans can power magic, but nothing else and not nearly as dangerous as them using our computer implants to commit crimes and terrorist acts.”

  “How hard would that be?”

  She waved, “I could code it in ten minutes, Misty a tenth of a second. A simple security module and directive. Any attempt to modify the magic governing the device could have it shut down and lock out all functions, save to send us an alert and its location so we could deal with the one behind it.”

  “Do it. So no problems with the system itself?”

  She giggled, “No. Misty fixed the few mistakes you made, and I haven’t found any other software issues. If I find any flaws in the AIOS I’ll let you know, but that code is vast and will take months to go through. I should be done with it before we roll out. I’m enjoying the challenge, that kid in China is a genius, and his code is elegant.”

  I nodded in agreement, not explaining that my power had pointed me straight at the best programmer on the planet as far as A.I. went.

  She slowly and sensually stood, and I was completely enthralled as she moved with fluid grace around the desk and sat right in front of me, her legs barely brushing mine. Her body was bountiful, and tight in all the right places, but it was the warm and shy come fuck me look on her face that had my cock twitching and my mind spinning in confusion. Her pulse of golden power and seduction removed all remaining doubt, that she was very much seducing me.

  Had been seducing me, this whole time.

  I wasn’t sure what had changed, but that moment wasn’t the time to ask. It was a moment where action was required, and while I could’ve held back my desires I really didn’t want to. She was stunningly beautiful, magnificently sexy, and incredibly seductive.

  Not any more so than the others, I loved Lianne’s petite and Cerise’s averagely lush bodies, according to my petite and perfectly proportional Misty they were actually closer to my ideal than this bountifully lush goddess before me, if only by a tiny margin.

  That was all true, naturally, anyway, but Faith’s seduction wasn’t just natural. She was the goddess of persuasion and seduction, and I can honestly say I’d never wanted another woman as badly as I wanted her in that moment. I was almost dizzy with it, the need to make her scream in pleasure as I took mine in her body.

  She bit her lip, showing me the longing in her eyes that I’d picked up in her scent since walking the door. She looked sinfully sweet of face, innocence overcome by a lust she just couldn’t resist, which was powerful on me even though I knew it was false shallow perception. The goddess of seduction was hardly innocent in the ways of the flesh.

  I stood up and moved into her, trapping her eyes with my own as I reached up and caressed her face. Despite all that, I felt the need to get her consent. Not to get her consent to sex, that had already and obviously been given through non-verbal communication. No, her deeper consent, and perhaps a warning.

  “Are you sure? Shifters can be possessive, if I take you, you’ll be mine. No one-night stand, no sharing, I won’t ever want to let you go, as long as you consent to be mine.”

  Her eyes widened with shock, and she looked breathless, then she was kissing me. I took that for a yes, and then my mind totally drained of all higher thought as I enjoyed the feel of her warm silken lips against mine. The feel of her hot and lush body pressed against me, and the sweet warm breathy sigh of desire and excitement that fell from her lips.