Feros and the Underworld Prince (20 page)

“
Oh, I see. You didn’t consider them did you? What, did you think you could just blow up half of a town and no one would get hurt? Just thinking about the 370 children that never got to grow up because of you just breaks my heart. The least you can do is come and keep them company. Why don’t you join us Cole? It’s not like you have anything worth living for anyway. You can’t even be of any use to Natasha anymore; it’s only a matter of time before she gets smart and throws you away like Chezarei did. You know what you have to do Cole.” Bullet-hole Kita gestures to the gun in my hand.

I pull the slide back.

I press the barrel to my temple.

I pull the trigger.

****

[September 15th]

Have you ever woken up with a massive hangover, little recollection of the night before, wearing a thong that has been stuffed with money, covered in glitter, and in the same bed as your naked best friend, with your ass hurting?

If you have, then you may know what I’m going through right now.

“
Bro… what happened last night?” I ask while staring straight ahead.

“
Not so loud dude, my head is killing me… why are we naked in my bed? And why does my ass hurt?” Jason asks.

“
Yours too huh… fuck. What in the hell happened last night?” I ask aloud.

“
WELL! LOOK WHO’S AWAKE!” Reyna announces as she and Natasha barge into the room.

“
So did you guys have fun last night? Try some new things? Discover a love of catching?” Natasha jokes.

“
Well, I guess everything works out then! Natasha and I had a long chat and we’ve decided to get back together because we are so much better than you guys!” Reyna exclaims.

I guess Kita was right… Natasha is throwing me away too; not all that surprising when I can’t even satisfy her… and then there’s all the people in Ilulissat that I killed… Kita was right… too bad my gun isn’t here… I guess I can always make an explosive and set it off in my mouth; that should be enough to kill me… I should be able to just bite my tongue off and do it now…

“
COLE, NO!” Natasha screams as she jumps onto the bed and tackles me.

“
I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! It was just a stupid prank! Please don’t do it Cole!” Natasha frantically exclaims.

“
Natasha! We spent all that time setting this up!” Reyna says somewhat pointedly.

“
Sorry, but Cole was going to kill himself!” Natasha explains.

“
Wow… that hurts bro. You’d kill yourself just because you had sex with me?” Jason asks.

“
No, he was going to do it because he thought I was leaving him too when this was all a joke.” Natasha clarifies.

“
Okay, you two have some splainin’ to do.” Jason says, poorly impersonating Ricky Ricardo.
6

“
Last night I saw you guys freak out, through Cole’s connection, when you thought we might be having sex, so Reyna and I decided to play a practical joke on you. Reyna started massaging my shoulder and we just waited for you guys to show up. I heard Cole’s misunderstanding, thinking that he can’t please me sexually anymore with his new arm, when I was actually talking about his shoulder massage, which wasn’t that great to begin with. I was going to straighten things out with you, but by the time I got into the hall, you two were gone. Then we got a call from the club at about 1am.” Natasha explains.

“
Yeah, by the way Jason, what did I say about the drug Neapolitan?” Reyna asks.

“
You said ‘no drug Neapolitan.’” Jason answers.

“
And what did you do?” Reyna asks.

“
Drug Neapolitan.” Jason replies.

“
Okay, I just wanted you to acknowledge it.” Reyna says.

“
Really?” Jason asks.

“
Yep, everything is totally fine.” Reyna replies.

(Haha! His ass is so screwed!)

“
Anyway, we got a call from the club at around 1am to come and pick you guys up. By the time we got there, you two were gone and the bartender said he overheard that you were headed for the strip club. Apparently Jason got slapped by some girl after telling her ‘if I put one hundred dollars on the ground and you pick it up and have sex with my friend in the bathroom, that’s not a crime; it’s a coincidence.’” Natasha recants.

“
Yeah, using a Eugene Mirman joke as a pick-up line does seem like something I’d do.” Jason comments

“
Then you two decided that you would try again at the strip club. So we head to the strip club to keep you guys from getting arrested and what do we find when we get there? Both of you wearing thongs while strippers stuffed bills in your panties and made it rain on you. We finally got you guys home and in bed at about 3am. Then at 3:30am, we found both of you trying to slide the length of the hallway, which you had covered in canola oil, dish soap, and lube. You both failed rather spectacularly, which is the reason that both of your asses hurt.” Natasha explains.

“
Well, at least that sounds better than anal sex with my bro… especially since we used up all the lube on the floor. I’d better apologize to Helga for the mess.” Jason says.

Natasha’s phone starts ringing and she answers it.

“
Hello… yeah, we can be there soon. Just give us about thirty minutes… okay, bye.” Natasha says and hangs up.

“
Reyna, could you please go and grab Cole’s clothes? We just got called in. Come on Cole, let’s go take a shower. We need to try and get some of this craft-supply-herpes off of you.” Natasha says as she grabs my hand and pulls me out of bed.

I nod somberly in response and follow her to the bathroom. I strip off my thong and toss it in the trash; not going to need that anymore. I step into the shower and turn it on as Natasha steps in beside me.

“
Hey… are you okay now? You know that I’m not going to throw you away, right?” Natasha asks as she presses up against my back.

“
Yeah… thanks Natasha…” I quietly reply.

After washing the majority of the glitter off of me, I towel down and get dressed in my clothes that are waiting for me on the sink’s counter when I exit the shower.

“
So where are we going?” I inquire.

“
Minneapolis office.” Natasha replies as she grabs my hand.

“
See you guys later!” Jason announces from the other room.

“
Yep, see you bro.” I say before touching my Haglaz rune.

“
Carla, I can’t! I’m not cut out for field work!” Ryuji whines as Natasha and I port in.

“
Ryuji, we need a second faculty member and a tech specialist. You already know the campus and you are going.” Carla orders.

“
Hey guys, what’s going on?” I ask.

“
Ryuji was able to find the source of the Trojan and found that it originated from Fogquartz University. We need you to go in posing as a student while Natasha and Ryuji will go in posing as faculty. The quarter starts next week so your transfer in won’t be viewed as suspicious by the students or the faculty.” Carla explains.

“
Alright, I guess I can do that… I’ve already missed a load of classes at ASU anyway.” I unenthusiastically reply.

“
What’s wrong with Cole?” Carla whispers to Natasha.

“
Don’t worry about it; he just had a rough night is all.” Natasha replies. Carla pulls her off to the side.

“
Natasha, don’t break him! If he’s like this after a night with you, it means you’re riding him too hard!” Carla whispers.

“
Hey Feros, I was able to get some information on the guys that attacked you.” Ryuji says over Carla’s whispering.

“
Great, who were they?” I ask.

“
It appears that they were Freemasons.” Ryuji answers.

“
What? Freemasons? Why would an international fraternity be after me?” I inquire.

“
Well, I guess it’s more accurate to say that it’s a sect of the Freemasons that have started calling themselves Templars. As you probably know, the Knights Templar were used as protection for Christian pilgrims during the crusades. What most people don’t know is that the Templars main role was hunting supernaturals. This pissed off the larger organizations of supernaturals in Europe until they’d eventually had enough. The supernaturals coerced Pope Clement V and King Philip IV into charging and dismantling the Templars. Then they assassinated both of them and made it look like God’s divine punishment based on the dying words of a burning knight, which seems unlikely that you could say anything while being burned alive besides ‘AHHHH!’ followed by coughing because your lungs would be filled with smoke.

Anyway, this sect of freemasons has taken up hunting supernaturals and they somehow know about you. They seem to be well funded and well equipped, but I don’t know where they are getting their backing from. I also don’t know why or how supernatural hunters are getting access to supernatural powers.” Ryuji explains.

“
Alright, can you keep searching for information? I don’t like the feeling of this…” I tell him.

“
Of course, Feros. I’ll keep looking into this while we are at FU.” Ryuji replies.

“
Alright Cole, so I have you registered for a writing class that will be taught by Natasha, a computer science class that Ryuji will be a teaching assistant for, second quarter organic chemistry, and a kickboxing class. The point of the kickboxing class is to get noticed by the boxing team to get a lead on the enhancement drug. After all, who would value an undetectable substance that would make them faster and stronger more than athletes?” Carla informs me.

“
You will have to go in unarmed at first, but we will be able to sneak in a small cache of arms during the second week. Any weapons that you need are going to have to be here when you come on Thursday. Welcome Weekend starts on Friday and you should plan to stay for the whole ten weeks of the quarter, just in case. Finish anything you need to get done before Thursday because you won’t be able to port once you arrive at school; there is a detection system that notifies of all porting so you will immediately blow your cover if you do.” Carla explains.

“
Okay, then I guess we will see you guys on Thursday.” I reply.

I grab Natasha’s hand and port us to my house.

“
Look who’s home Adelaide.” Sara says.

“
DADDY!” the little werewolf girl yells as she runs toward me, her tail swishing through the hole in her skirt. She hugs my leg and I just stare at her in confusion.

“
Hey Adelaide…” I say, sounding really unsure as I pat her head, in between her ears. She looks up at me and smiles; I’m pretty sure I just felt my brain melt.

“
Where were you, daddy?” Adelaide asks.

“
I was working sweetie.” I reply while still trying to get a handle on the situation.

“
But you’re home now, right?” Adelaide asks, not pronouncing her r’s very well, which only adds to the overall cuteness factor of this tiny creature.

“
Yeah, I am!” …for now. I can’t tell her that I’m leaving for a ten week mission in a few days. Adelaide hides behind my leg when she notices Natasha.

“
Addie, this is daddy’s friend, Natasha.” I introduce her and Adelaide pokes her head out to look at her.

“
It’s nice to meet you, Adelaide!” Natasha says with a smile while kneeling down. Addie nods at Natasha and then hides behind my leg again.

“
Don’t be rude Addie, say hello.” I softly say. Addie peeks around my leg again.

“
Hello…” Addie quietly says before retreating behind my leg. The ‘Aww!’ look on Natasha’s face tells me that she thinks Addie is adorable.