Magic Resistant by Veronica Del Rosa

attempting to make the couch presentable. Nothing could save
that blasted couch.
    Sadly, she didn’t hear what he muttered, but
she was positive it wasn’t flattering.
    After that, she swallowed her pride,
apologized and left dishes for him when she cooked. She had to
admit, if only to herself, it was nice having someone else's
help.
    The weeks passed in a truce following this
routine, neither one wanting to upset the delicate balance they’d
achieved. The rest of the time they spent digging deeper into the
slavery organization, trying to find who was behind it all or at
least get pointed in the right direction.
    Julia received a few more healing sessions
from Jackson on her ankle. With her resistance, he wasn’t able to
fully heal her each time, but it did help to speed up her own
natural healing. A few days and she could stand again without any
pain.
    Puzzled by how many times he needed to heal
her, he didn’t push the subject. She didn’t want to lie to him
again, even if by omission.
    She settled back on the couch, nestled into
the ugly blanket and searched through the Coterie archives on the
notebook computer. A few days ago, to her surprise, she found she
had access to the Enforcer’s database. Her username and password
active.
    Even though the Coterie didn’t hold much
respect for technology, they recognized the value of it. Everyone
had smart phones, personal computers while at headquarters and a
fully staffed I.T. department available all hours. Security was
tight, over the top paranoid and hard to crack.
    Keeping that in mind, Julia used the data
plan of a burner phone with the GPS locator turned off to access
her account. She feared they added a flag to it, alerting the I.T
staff whenever she logged in allowing them to track her.
    A product of the computer age, she grew up
with the early offerings of technology. It fostered a fascination
with them and she proudly called herself a computer geek. She
realized she was an oddity, a mage who actively used and loved
technology. The next generation of mages, however, was becoming
more integrated. They learned what society as a whole learned.
    One of her close friends was Nathan, the head
network administrator in I.T. Several years back, when she’d shown
a keen interest and skill, he’d given her backdoor access to the
mainframe. A super user account, it was wholly invisible to all
other network admins. It’d been one of her first lessons from him
about security and hacking.
    It also allowed her to snoop into several
files she normally didn’t have access to. Files detailing missing
person reports for all the races: human, mage, werewolf and
possible abductions of the Fae and demons. The last two didn’t like
to share much with the Earth government, preferring to keep certain
information to themselves.
    The truly disturbing file she stumbled upon
detailed various military bases and research buildings around the
world flagged for surveillance and possible termination. It
contained comprehensive reports about the personnel, security,
shift rotations and clearance level required.
    As she wandered her way through the Coterie
database, lost in the bliss of research, she forgot an important
fact - Nathan monitoring that particular login. It made sense. She
went missing over two weeks ago and only had contact with her
mother the first night. Markus would’ve gotten the update from her
mother and would know she was fine. Not that it would stop him from
worrying. No one in the Coterie knew her location and the deeper
she dug, the less she wanted them to find her.
    While reading a file she had no business
looking through (and had nothing to do with Jackson’s case,
curiosity invited her to play), a text box appeared on her screen
with the words “ Where in the nine hells are you?!?”
    She stared at it for a few moments when she
noticed it didn’t say “Who” which meant the other person already
knew. One person was aware she had this login information.
    “