Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Twenty Nine: A Busy Minister •EDITED•

I and just medicine don't mix. It was the reason why he never had direct access to them. Either he abused them when the pain got too much or he didn't take them at all.

He wondered what Dawn would think if she found out that he hadn't been taking his drugs. A cool stream of sweat trickled down Corey's back and he was suddenly filled with dread.

His fingers against brushed the spot on his left wrist where his chip was supposed to be.

Maybe that was why she left. . . The thought made him suck in a deep breath. Dawn was all the good he had left in the world, it had never been his intention to drive her away.

He let his gaze leave the bottle and looked at the screen above his bracelet.

I'll deal with this later. He tossed the bottle back into the drawer. What he needed to do now was figure out what gift would appease his best friend.

His thoughts wandered to another antique that she had been trying to acquire. It seemed that there were none left in the world today but if he had the designs he could easily make one.

A bicycle. Corey instantly put it down on his mental calendar.

The action made him feel a little more relaxed so he focused on the screen and watched his fight up to the defining moment when he struck Gideon with lightning. As he had expected, the cameras had caught everything even with lights off, anyone with the video would see everything.

"Kathryn, I need you to alter the footage straight from the database."

"Do you want me to remove the lightning?" she asked.

Corey scowled at the enlarged imaged of his eyes during the fight. It had been reckless of him to use his powers, he realized that now. "Forget about that, remove the gold."

"Okay sir." The screen vanished with her voice and Corey turned away from it.

He let out a breath that curled up in streams of steam and stared down at the white vapour oozing out of his hands. "It has been such a long time."

Five years ago it could be said that Corey had full mastery over his powers. But now. . . It was like he was a little kid starting all over again, trying not to burn the house down each time there was a thunderstorm.

Two knocks on his office doors drew him away from a past filled with rigorous training and an absent father back to the present where he had two Lords to deal with.

Corey fixed a small smile on his lips and took the scattered files in his hands along with his bloodstained gloves.

"Burn," He watched the paper and leather vanish in a smokeless flame and dissolve into ashless nothings.

He pushed in the drawers and arranged his desk, willing a tongue of golden fire to sweep around the room and burn all the paper that was strewn on the floor. Naturally, everything that caught fire was an important document.

Extremely pleased with himself for regaining that level of control so fast, Corey burned all the paper in his office, regardless of what had been written on them.

Unlike his private use of clocks, he had forced the use of paper on all his citizens years ago. As with most of the reforms carried out during his reign, it stemmed from a suggestion Dawn had made. Even though poverty had been routed out over the centuries there were still many people who couldn't afford a holo-screen bracelet, and although it was still quite costly and rare, paper solved the problem easily.