Feros and the Underworld Prince (34 page)

“
Well, you can see as well as I can that he isn’t enhanced and he’s been trustworthy as long as I’ve known him, but the choice is yours.” Nagi replies.

“
Wait a second, you can see auras!?” I exclaim.

“
Being a priestess does come with certain perks, Cole.” Nagi says with a sly smile.

“
What does my aura look like?” I ask.

“
It’s silver.” Nagi replies.

“
What about the center aura?” I inquire.

“
Center aura? What are you talking about, Cole?” Nagi asks.

“
The central aura that is unique to each species? Yours looks like a tan, coiled cobra.” I reply.

“
Huh… Cole, all I see are outlines of energy around people, and since it’s a gift bestowed by the gods, I’m relatively certain that’s all they see as well…” Nagi responds.

I wonder if she can see my Mu-cutter… Tia hadn’t been able to, but for some reason Cheza can…

(Since your ability to see the Mu-cutter is because of me, only you and Cheza will ever be able to see it; I couldn’t have you accidentally cutting yourself in half, now could I?)

Well that’s good to know. Nagi and I continue back to Graythorn in silence. I return to my room and strip to get into some clothing that isn’t torn-to-pieces, when I receive a text:

Hey bro, forgot to tell you but the rest of the freshmen decided to go out for drinks. You in?

I look at the time and see that it’s 11:16pm.

Yup. Text me the address.

I throw on jeans and a t-shirt as I get the address from Travis. I head to Nagi’s door and knock on it to invite her along, but she doesn’t answer. I head down to Cheza’s room and knock on her door.

“
Hey Cole… you know it’s kind of late, right?” Cheza answers, wearing tiny track shorts and a tank top.

“
Is there a better type of booty call?” I inquire; I just couldn’t resist. Cheza doesn’t look too amused.

“
Do you want to come with me to get drinks with some people from the fight club?” I ask. Cheza stares at me for a while, which gives me an excuse to stare at Cheza’s beautiful icy-blue eyes.

“…
Okay… let me get changed.” She finally replies and turns around to flash me a most magnificent view while she walks into her room. Admiring her may be the thing I’ve missed most during little tiff.

“
Yeah, I’ve missed that too…” Cheza quietly says as she slips off her shorts and pulls a knit dress over her head. Damn, I said that out loud too? I really need to stop doing that… wait, am I really saying these things out loud? I’ve never had this problem before and it only ever happens with Cheza… I need to test this.

“
Cheza, if you don’t want me to throw you down on your bed and fuck you into next week, say something.” I think with my hand covering my mouth.

Cheza doesn’t respond… Wait, isn’t that kind of a loaded question? What if she really does want me to throw her down?

“
Hey Cheza, I woke up naked next to Lila last weekend!” I think with my hand covering my mouth. Cheza still doesn’t respond.

Well, there’s my answer; there’s no way in hell that Cheza wouldn’t respond had she heard that I was naked in bed with Lila last weekend. However, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t intermediate… maybe I should just slip some of my blood into her drink, reconnect our link, and take the guess work out of it… wow, that’s creepy.

“
You ready to go?” Cheza asks. I nod and we begin our walk into town.

Now that I’m thinking about it, and not that I ever would, but I’d be a very successful date-rapist; just a few drops of blood and I can knock a girl out without there being any evidence that there was anything in her system… why in the hell am I thinking about this!? Damn, Cheza looks great in that sweater dress… for fucks-sake! Why was that my follow-up thought to an inner monologue on date-rape!?

Cheza and I arrive at the bar, Travis waves us over to the table, and we start doing some shots. We’re drinking and having a good time, but the rest of the night is a blur.

…

Chapter 30: Yoga Pants and Ninjas

[September 27th]

At 11:44am the next morning, I awaken to a naked Cheza on my right side, softly breathing on my bare chest. Looking around, I realize that we’re in Cheza’s room. I try to recall my memories from last night, but they aren’t coming easily. All I can remember is that Cheza and I made out a little, got naked, cuddled in bed, and fell asleep; I’m fine with only that, it’s still progress after all. I move slowly to extract myself from Cheza’s grasp, but she squeezes tighter.

“
Please stay… just for a little longer… can we just pretend that the last sixteen months haven’t happened yet?” Cheza quietly begs with her eyes closed as a single droplet slips out of her left eye and rolls down onto my chest.

Her words nearly bring me to tears, simply because of how much I wish they were the truth… As such, I decide that my best course of action is to kiss her forehead and gently stroke her hair with my right hand. We stay like that for about fifteen minutes until my bladder can no longer handle the stress. I get out of bed and look around, only to find no sign of my clothes.

“
Hey Cheza, do you have any idea where my clothes are?” I ask. She grumbles and turns over in response; I’ll assume that’s a no… what do I do now?

(You can: A. look a little harder, B. make the trek in the nude, C. wear some of Cheza’s clothes)

I decide on option A, but nothing turns up so I fall back on option C. Nothing she has fits of course, but I narrow it down to tiny track shorts or yoga pants as the things that I have any possibility of wearing without ripping them. Basically this is a decision between looking like a gay roller-skating prostitute, or a topless transvestite on his way to yoga. I go with the one where the possibility of my dick and/or balls slipping out is least likely.

I step out into the hallway wearing a pair Cheza’s yoga pants and I’m able to make it to the stairs without incident. I swear that these pants are possessed; they can feel my cock and balls, they know that neither are supposed to be there, and they are violently trying to push both of them out through the waistband. With how well my junk is outlined in these things, I would feel more appropriately dressed wearing nothing but a thong in public.

Voices in the stairwell cause my heart to leap into my throat. I skirt around the corner and pray that the voices aren’t exiting on the fifth floor. The voices fade out on the third and I take the opportunity to sneak up to the sixth floor. Now all I have to do is make it to my room without being see—

“
Cole!?” Stacy asks from behind me.

I slowly turn and see Stacy, Sarah, Kacey, and Nagi in various states of shock, surprise, and/or laughter. Nagi quickly pulls out her phone and snaps a picture before I can get a word in; damn you uPhone and your ability to go from lock screen to taking a picture in under five seconds!

“
Rough night?” Kacey snickers.

Should I throw a smoke bomb and make my escape? No, that might set off the fire alarm, which would only increase the number of people seeing me wearing yoga pants. I decide to go with misdirection instead.

“
What? Don’t judge me; this is how I spend every Sunday morning: pretending to be a ninja. Since I’ve been seen, I have failed in my objective and self-evisceration may be called for. Now, if you will excuse me…” I reply with a serious tone before retreating down the hall and into my room where I start dying from laughter because of the looks on their faces. Despite the fact that they now have photographic evidence of me wearing yoga pants, I still feel like I won.

My laughter reminds me that I still really need to take a leak so I grab some clothes and my toiletry bag, take off Cheza’s yoga pants, and wrap my towel around my waist before heading to the bathroom. I walk into the bathroom, set my clothes down, handle my business, and then I hear the door open behind me.

I turn to find Travis walking through the door wearing pink booty shorts that probably have something like ‘Juicy’ written in glitter on the ass, which really is a terrible thing to advertise. That is something that you should be seeing a doctor about, not telling strangers by writing about your condition on the ass of your shorts; it’s not like you see men wearing slacks that say ‘It’s been more than four hours’ written on the crotch… then again, you would hardly need an advertisement to notice an erection…

“
Not. A. Word.” Travis says while covering his junk; I can guess what has happened.

“
That’s why I went with the yoga pants earlier, to make sure nothing slipped out.” I tell him as I walk into a stall, and turn on the shower.

“
So how was Chezarei?” Travis asks as he turns on an adjacent shower.

“
What?” I ask.

“
Don’t play dumb; I saw your arm wrapped around her as you both stumbled out of the bar at 1am. Plus, I can’t think of any other reason why you would have to wear yoga pants this early.” Travis says.

“
Can I borrow some soap?” Travis asks and I set my body wash on top of the partition.

“
Because I
like
the feeling of having my junk forced up towards my waist?” I suggest sarcastically as I turn off the shower.

“
Dude, please tell me that you hooked up with her last night and that you, like me, couldn’t find your clothes so you had to wear her yoga pants, and didn’t just confess to me that you enjoy cross-dressing.” Travis begs as he finishes his shower and hands me my bottle.

“
I woke up naked next to her this morning.” I tell him as I throw on my jeans and t-shirt.

“
Sweet! Could you do me a favor and go to my room and grab some clothes for me?” Travis asks.

“
No, but you can use my towel to go get your own clothes.” I reply.

“
Thanks bro!” Travis exclaims as I hand him the towel and head back to my room.

I start reading when Travis knocks on my door about fifteen minutes later.

“
Hey, do you want to go get some lunch?” Travis asks as he returns my towel.

“
Sure, I could eat.” I reply.

“
Cool, let’s go to that café again.” Travis suggests.

“
Ugh…” I respond.

“
Come on dude; I doubt that waitress even remembers!” Travis says.

“
Fine.” I concede; after all, the food had been good.

Travis regales his exploits from last night on the way to the café.

“
So I had her bent over her desk…” Travis says as we walk into the café.

“
Hey! Sprite guy!” the waitress exclaims when she sees us, but she seems to be good-natured about it. Travis continues the tale of his exploits while we are eating, and on the way back to the dorm.

“
So then I—” Travis continues while we pass through the forest leading to the university.

“
I wish Cole were here… He could help me… Cole… Cole… COLE!” I hear Lila’s distraught voice in my mind as I see an image of her cowering in a clothing store.

“
WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT!?” Travis shouts as my helmet engages.

“
Got to go, explain later.” I reply and touch my triskele.

“
Lila, what’s wrong?” I ask, as a 10mm auto round passes through my right scapula, into my lung, and out through the front of my chest.

I turn around and see a werewolf holding a Colt Delta Elite in his right hand, looking stunned by my sudden appearance. Based on the trajectory of the bullet, the gun hadn’t been aimed at anyone until I appeared in its path, but that doesn’t change the fact that this fucker just shot me. I pull a Sic dagger from my left arm and slice off the werewolf’s hand. As the gun and the severed hand holding onto it fall, I snatch them up in my left hand and fire two rounds into the stomachs of each of the three armed men in the high-end clothing store. I realize that I still have two rounds left in the magazine so I fire a round into the guns of two men that are still armed and drop the empty gun. Grabbing Lila, I touch my triskele and port us to her apartment.