Sneaky Link Novels & Stories

Getting through the pack ceremony was a cakewalk. Weird but easy. Strange because till Nina woke up, I never had a link, and even when she did wake up, I only unlocked my family link. But as everyone after me sipped from that cup, I felt a Nebrodi link open.

For now, anyway. I crack my knuckles and settle in. First, I pull up the dark web forums, scanning through her posts for any breadcrumb she might have left behind. It takes some digging, but eventually, I find what I’m looking for—a weak link. Her posts might be anonymous, but her connection isn’t. People think the dark web is some impenetrable fortress of secrecy, but even there, people make mistakes. And Nova made one.

The email read: "Dear Customer, To ensure your device stays secure and up-to-date, we recommend installing the latest software update. Simply click the link below to start the process. Thank you for choosing our service!" Below the message was a clickable link labeled: "Update Now." Victor shrugged, muttering to himself, "Better get this over with," and he tapped the link. His associates barely noticed, too engrossed in their conversation. Victor, without knowing, the link he had downloaded was a malicious app, and it had been installed silently in the background.

I said mechanically. Dad froze at my words. Behind him, Bruce's voice rang out. "Mr. Griffin, in order to provide the best behavioral conditioning for our students, our academy has developed a specialized system." He smiled and continued, "Students require an activation command to be awakened. Once that command is in place, they'll never defy a single wish of yours again." After Bruce's explanation, it finally clicked for Dad. My older sister, Sapphire Griffin, pushed her way to the front. There was a mischievous glint in her eyes.

⸻ Marco stared at his cloned interface back in the security centre, watching the logs update in real time. “She’s trying to wipe the logs,” he muttered. He tapped a few keys and filtered the newest entries. There—Rosa was inside the clearance trail, but she’d made a misstep. A very specific one. She’d triggered a **vault link extension**—a trace beacon Camila had installed over a year ago in the design architecture for her personal legal trust. The moment Rosa’s edit touched the core files, the link activated. And it pinged a folder. Marco opened it.

Lena said. That landed heavier. Dylan’s jaw tightened. “Scan the evidence room node,” he ordered. Lena began typing again, fingers precise. The system responded with a diagnostic screen. A moment passed. Then Lena went still. “There’s an outbound packet,” she said. “Size,” Dylan asked. “Small,” she replied. “But structured.” “Destination,” Lily said. Lena’s fingers moved again. She hesitated. “Unknown,” she said. “Masked through layered routing.”

"The core clearing tracks are clear, Miss Sinclair. We unlinked their administrative tokens manually during the morning bell. They’re blind." "They aren't blind if the system is still talking to them," Jade countered smoothly. She zoomed in on the flashing cryptographic script. "Look at the outbound packet routing. Every thirty seconds, a sterile telemetry ping is bypassing our primary firewalls, routing straight through a secondary, unlisted server hub in Lagos. Someone left an open backdoor in the source code." Before Victor could trace the IP coordinate, a heavy, familiar presence slammed into her immediate perimeter.

I smiled as he leaned down, gesturing with his head. "He wants you to get on and he will take you to find Luca." Rori announced, she had been pretty quiet during the drama as she stood from the widow seat. "You two really need to complete the bond, so you can mind link." She added as she walked with us from the room. I held my breath as we found Teddy and Luca, in a hidden underground bunker, planted under lavender and wolfsbane to stop anyone picking up scents.

I had suspected everyone. "Got him," Lewis whispered, his fingers freezing over the keyboard. "Show me," I commanded, leaning in. "The packet sniffer caught a data exfiltration attempt ten minutes ago," Lewis explained, pointing to a string of IP addresses. "It’s routing through a proxy in the Caymans, but the origin point... it's not inside NeXus." "Where is it?" "It's coming from a private server registered to a shell company called 'Obsidian Ventures'." I frowned. "Obsidian? That sounds like a bad Bond villain front."