Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,70

bodies as the conversation heated and eyes blazed. I closed my eyes, blocking out the sight of their white teeth, and the discomfort eased somewhat, though it was annoying not to see their body language and expressions.

“We’re owed a favour by a town planner. Julia Dinh,” a male said. “If there are purchases today, Fyrlia will attempt to change the status of the secured land from agricultural to rural for development, of course.”

“Bastards,” another spat.

My brows climbed and remained there through what was essentially a roll call of every human they had in their control who could help them succeed and Fyrlia fail.

This was the real deal. And right now there were eight other conversations in eight other towers happening just like this one.

For a minute, I baulked at the sheer magnitude of their operations in comparison to mine. But my strategy possessed none of their restrictions, and they weren’t actively working against me.

No. I had belief in the Le Spyre network. Being from here—and human—made my strategy stronger than anything they had.

The door opened, and I squinted at Angelica before checking my watch. 1:00 a.m.

The head of each team was required to report back to the seconds and Kyros now.

I swivelled my chair so my back wasn’t to her.

She stood, hands clasped, but her eyes darted to me and she smiled.

Angelica needed to get a life. If I didn’t know she already had a harem, I’d say she should get laid.

Dang it. I was probably the only person in this room not getting any—aside from maybe Kyros.

“May I direct your attention to house acquisition,” she said.

Ilion leaned over, tapping on my tablet. He exited the slideshow I was in, clicked on the file labelled House Acquisition.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

The new document displayed a list of target properties for the day. Usually, I received a few properties from the trouble list to visit. Of course, I knew which suburbs the other realtors were working in, but not a comprehensive list of the exact properties.

This was exactly what I needed so my acquisition staff could work with confidence and ensured safety. If Sundulus was after these properties, I felt safe assuming Fyrlia would be after them too.

I worked to keep my glee under wraps, feeling Kyros’s gaze heavy on me. Pretty sure glee wasn’t the normal response to the house acquisition report.

The first page of Angelica’s summary was a list of privately-owned agriculture properties. Shoot, there really weren’t many left to secure. I read the first address and scanned the page anew.

I owned six of these. Well, I was reasonably certain.

Angelica continued talking, but I listened with half an ear, scrolling through the rest of the file. I’d already been briefed that no reports left this level. Taking pictures on my phone—even in a private corner or the bathroom—felt like a really bad idea.

Memory, it is.

I returned to the first page as Angelica detailed what was known about each property. Another head team member entered after her, and I opened the file Internet Marketing without Ilion’s help.

I skimmed over what appeared to be an online marketing plan but soon went back to the first document.

How was I going to play this?

I needed the clans to keep fighting while I crept up in the wings.

Clan Sundulus kept Fyrlia weaker. Overall, two were easier to fight than one. I had my own forecasters for Ingenium. I knew what my position would be in two years or three decades based on my accelerated strategy.

Decades that, with enough expansion, I might have a chance to finish this thing.

Seven Vissimo came in and out to give their reports. By 1:30 a.m., in addition to the first two areas, we’d covered general marketing—television and street marketing, offensive marketing, council strategies, banking strategies, SEO, industry budget, human liaisons and the largest file—forecasting for what would happen in over one hundred different scenarios, arranged from most probable to least probable. Thankfully we’d only gone through the top five most likely situations.

Keeping track of the moving parts was nearly impossible, but I focused on the worst possible outcome. If Fyrlia acquired six of the remaining agricultural properties, the percentage of their Bluff City holdings would increase by 2 percent. The end cascade would be triggered.

If they acquired one agricultural property, it gave them 50.1 percent likelihood of winning Ingenium because of the power of word of mouth.

The report also detailed what the likeliest suburbs for their turn would be based on the most probable rolls: seven, six, eight, five, and nine.