Feros and the Underworld Prince (35 page)

“
COLE!” Lila cries and hugs me.

“
Are you okay?” Lila asks as I let my Sic dagger clatter to the floor.

“
Lila!?” I hear Charlotte ask.

“
Yeah… I’ll… be… fine… I… just… need… to… rest.” I gasp out like a fish without water before I turn and collapse facedown onto the couch. Why is this happening? I should be able to stay conscious with one working lung.

(A rib fragment from the entry wound poked a tiny hole in your left lung. I’ll have both fixed in a few hours)

…

“
No, like I told you before, Princess Lila was with me the whole day and there is no one matching that description here.” Charlotte says in her familiar monotone before slamming the phone down.

“
Gods, they just won’t give up. Oh, how are you feeling, Cole?” Charlotte asks before I open my eyes; she’s good.

“
Cole!” Lila exclaims next to me. I open my eyes and see Lila’s concerned face with Charlotte hovering around behind her.

“
I’m fine now; it seems a rib fragment had popped my only remaining lung after the bullet passed through my other one. That’s all fixed now though. What time is it?” I inquire.

“
Almost eleven.” Charlotte replies.

Ten hours? Shit… that’s an unusually long time.

(So it took me a little longer than usual! It’s not like you had anywhere to be!)

“
Sorry… thanks for your help, Airi.”

(You’re welcome)

“
Your phone kept ringing earlier so I dug through your pants, discovered that you dress to the left, and handed the phone to Lila.” Charlotte says.

“
But my phone was in my back pocket!” I exclaim.

“
Yes, it was.” Charlotte answers, as though my statement had been a question.

“
I saw that you had received a few calls from Chezarei so I texted her back, telling her that you were with me and currently unable to answer the phone.” Lila informs me.

From a third party’s perspective, this seems like the right choice of words in case I didn’t want to tell Cheza that I had gotten shot. However, given our recent relationship, Cheza could interpret ‘unable to answer the phone’ as having sex, and ‘with Lila’ as with Lila. I just pray that Cheza hasn’t seen Lila lately and that Natasha hasn’t mentioned what I said about Lila…

“
I need to get going.” I tell them as I stand up.

“
Are you mad that I sent that text to Chezarei?” Lila timidly asks and I see the image of the small girl I saved sixteen months ago.

“
Of course not,” I tell Lila as I hug her. “I just don’t want to worry her further, that’s all.”

“
Well, the police have been calling and asking about the porting they detected, as well as a man with a silver helmet.” Charlotte informs me.

Great… I need to get to Natasha so we can come up with a plan.

“
Okay, thanks for the warning.” I reply.

“
Here, let me get you one of Lila’s sleeping shirts; the bullet holes in your current one may attract attention.” Charlotte says as Lila pulls away from me.

Charlotte heads down the hall and into Lila’s room. She comes out and hands me a men’s large, plain white t-shirt from Hanes that has the back cut out. Lila’s eyes go wide and she starts to look nervous when she sees the shirt.

“
Umm…” I start.

“
This shirt is definitely not yours.” Charlotte says with an uninflected tone. Well, I guess that clears up my suspicion that this shirt might be the one that Lila wore after I rescued her.

“
I agree that the bullet holes will attract attention, but that shirt will hardly be inconspicuous. I’ll just go shirtless and refrain from stopping by any diners to avoid not being served. Do you mind if I leave my shirt here; Oh, and my Sic dagger?” I ask as I strip off my shirt.

“
Sure, that’s fine, Cole. Oh, by the way, how did you know I was in trouble?” Lila asks.

My heart stops in my chest. I can’t tell her ‘oh, it’s probably because of my blood that’s inside of you,’ because it would lead to me explaining why I put my blood in her originally, which may unlock her memories of being raped by Fenrir; plus it might lead to me having to tell her that I spiked her orange juice with my blood last weekend, but it’s mostly the rape thing.

“
I don’t really know… I could just tell that you needed me so I touched my triskele and ported to you.” I lie, hoping that she doesn’t know the details of what I need to port.

“
Well, thanks for saving me again.” Lila says as she hugs me. I pat her on the head and she giggles, just like last time, even though she’s a foot taller now.

“
Anytime!” I softly tell her with a smile before disengaging.

“
I’ll see you guys later.” I say as head for the door.

“
Bye Cole!” Lila waves as I pull her front door closed.

I walk down the hall, take the elevator to the lobby and walk out the main door. As I walk down the street, towards the subway, two things happen: a group of drunken girls calls out to me, and I realize that I should text Cheza and tell her I’m coming so she won’t worry. I pull out my phone and hold the home button down until my phone beeps twice.

“
Text Cheza.” I command.

“
OK, I can send a text to Cheza for you… what would you like it to say?” Airi’s voice replies from my phone.

“
On my way home, I’ll explain everything when I get there—”

“
YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!” a police officer shouts as he ambushes me from an alleyway.

“—
send” I finish as the policeman pushes me towards a squad car that had been coasting behind me.

So much for not making her worry…

Chapter 31: Schrodinger’s Zombie Cat

“
Good morning. I’m Detective Sanchez.” An azeman says as she enters the interrogation room at roughly 1am.

“
Good morning Detective Sanchez; am I under arrest?” I inquire.

“
Nope, I just want to have a quick, friendly word with you.” Sanchez replies.

“
Is this the standard protocol I’d see if I looked up ‘quick, friendly word’ in the policeman’s manual?” I ask.

“
No, that usually involves a tube sock and a couple of oranges, but I’m not too partial to citrus this early in the morning.” Sanchez tells me.

“
And I don’t like orange juice unless there’s vodka in it.” I reply. Sanchez lets the silence hang in the air.

“
So what did you want to talk to me about?” I finally ask.

“
You.” Sanchez says.

“
What about me?” I ask.

“
Who are you?” Sanchez clarifies.

“
Philosophically, theosophically, or paranormosophically?” I reply.

“
Paranormosophically?” Sanchez asks.

“
Yeah, I felt I needed three so I took anthroposophy and combined it with paranormal so that it would apply to our situation because neither of us are exactly human.” I explain.

“
Let’s start with name.” Sanchez says.

“
Slevin Kelevra, k-e-l-e-v-r-a Kelevra.” I reply. Sanchez looks at the two-way mirror and nods. Courtesy of my extrasensory hearing, I listen as someone on the other side of the mirror starts laughing.

“
This fuckin’ guy!” I hear a person say, muffled through the mirror. Sanchez’s phone starts ringing.

“
What?” Sanchez answers.

“
Detective, you’ve obviously never seen the movie
Lucky Number Slevin
, have you? This entire conversation has almost been a parody of it! Anyway, his name is Cole Treyfair. He’s a student at the university.” A male voice says from the phone’s speaker.

“
Thanks.” Sanchez replies as she narrows her eyes at me and hangs up her phone.

“
So, Cole… where were you today at around 1pm?” Sanchez pointedly asks.

“
Well I know that I would have preferred to be having lunch with you.” I say with a smile and a wink. Sanchez’s face falters for a split second before she glares at me.

“
Do you want me to get the oranges? I can promise you though, there will be no vodka.” Sanchez says with a malicious quality to her voice.

“
That depends… will it be considered foreplay?” I inquire while raising an eyebrow. Sanchez looks pretty furious.

“
Do you want to spend the next twenty-four hours in a cell!?” Sanchez asks, venom dripping from her voice.

“
That depends… is there a cot and will you be joining me? I might even let you have a drink; I’m told that I’m quite tasty!” I tell her with a wink. Sanchez is literally shaking with rage. She looks like she’s going to blow at any second when her phone rings.

“
WHAT!?” Sanchez screams into the receiver.

“
Sanchez, you should calm down and get the fuck out of there! We just got the information: The Faction’s Executioner, also known as Feros, is Cole Treyfair!” the male voice frantically says.

I guess the cat is out of the bag… who in the hell is out there stuffing cats into bags to try and see if they can make their way out of them?

(The Germans… aw, Schrodinger)

“
Wouldn’t that be letting the zombie cat out of the box…? Wait, Schrodinger was Austrian, not German.”

(Whatever)

“
What,
the
Feros? Killer of gods? The one that destroyed a town and a snow elf village in Greenland before killing Fenrir? This can’t be him, Feros is dead!” Sanchez argues in a hushed tone while turned away from me and holding her hand over her mouth and the receiver.

“
Well, the word from some of my Agency friends is that Feros is alive. Apparently he was helping on a mission a few weeks back and this werewolf captain picked a fight with him. Feros beat him without getting out of his seat and while only using a single hand! And then he took out an entire gang of enhanced supers after the rest of the operators were ordered to fall back! This would also explain the porting as well as the reports of the silver helmet!” the voice exclaims.

Sanchez looks at me, uncertainty apparent in her eyes. She stands up, exits the room, and comes back about a minute later

“
You’re free to go.” Sanchez says as she slides my phone and wallet over to me.

“
Thanks. See you around, detective.” I tell her and then touch my triskele; they already know my identity so there is no point in me taking the subway.

I port to my room and toss myself on my bed. I just have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that I’m watching the shit hitting the fan and now it’s about to spray all over the place… where in the hell did that saying come from? Did somebody actually take their shit and throw is at a fan to see what happened? Or were two monkeys being observed as they had a poo fight and one toss went high, hit a fan, and sprayed all over the observers, who then jotted down their findings in a lab journal to report the crucial observation of what happens when shit hits a fan?

I should probably call Natasha…

“
You know it’s like 2am, right?” Natasha answers.

“
Natasha… we have a slight problem.” I tell her.

“
What did you do, get Lila pregnant or something?” Natasha asks.

“
I may have exaggerated the slightness…” I reply.