SS 2 -CH1- (Patreon)

 - Luke-warm Sentiments -

Leaning back in the chair Gus had his eyes closed.

He was honestly just enjoying sitting in the chair. He didn’t have to be tied into it so he didn’t slip out. Nor did he have a Elven-Dryad with roaming hands touching him.

Lifting his coffee cup to his mouth he took a sip and set it down on the table.

There were no sounds in his house.

For the first time in a long time, everything was absolutely silent. The only possibility of sound right now was the hitman still tied up in his basement.

Trish had taken on the role of jail-keeper for her and Melody the chef. No one was sure what to do with the woman, but as far as he could tell, no one was looking for her either.

There was a series of rapid knocks on the door that brought Gus out of his quiet contemplation.

Shaking his head, he decided to ignore it.

It was more than likely someone who wanted him to buy a-

“Gusy! Oooooopen the dooooooooooor,” shouted Mark through his front door.

Groaning, Gus lowered his head down and let out a short sigh.

“Of course it’d be you,” Gus said and got up out of the chair. “I’d almost rather it be a door-to-door salesman.”

Reaching the front door Gus opened it.

Standing there was probably one of the five people he’d trust with his life. His former commanding officer Mark Ehrich.

He was dressed in a very expensive looking black suit, white shirt, and matching tie.

He looked like the typical depiction of what you’d get from a federal agent. Tall, dark haired, blue eyed, muscular, handsome, and with a bit of danger to him.

“Gusy!” shouted Mark.

Moving across the threshold Mark immediately wrapped Gus up in a hug.

Unable to help himself, Gus laughed softly and then hugged Mark in return.

“Vanessa mentioned you were all better but I still can’t believe it. Your back was broken. Literally,” Mark said, leaning back and looking at him.

“And you got shot. You seem fine yourself,” Gus said, giving Mark a quick inspection. He really did seem fine for a man who’d been shot repeatedly.

“Once they stabilized me and I woke up they just magicked me up,” Mark said. “Just had to wait for me to wake up. You got the same treatment.”

“Yeah, bullet-holes are apparently much easier to treat than a broken back,” Gus said and then started walking back into his home. “Well? Come on in, Durh. No one’s here right now though.”

“Great! Then lets go out!” Mark said, not leaving the door. “I’m all dressed up and you know I love being looked at. Let’s go get a coffee or something.”

Gus thought about declining, then decided against it. With Melody’s fear cooking, he never really felt hunger anymore. It made eating human foods much more palatable.

“Fine,” Gus said, turning to one side and grabbing a coat from the hanger. While he was fine now, he still didn’t quite feel perfect.

Trish had only got him put back together the previous day. She’d also warned him he’d be pretty weak for a month or two. She’d been using his and her own bodies to fuel the regeneration after all.

“Really? Great! I thought I’d have to argue with you,” Mark said.

“Nah… been cooped up for a while. I could do with an airing out,” Gus said.

While he wasn’t one to normally get out of the house, even he was tired of seeing the inside of his own walls.

Closing the front door behind him and locking it, Gus followed Mark over to the black sedan with blacked out windows in front of his house.

The hell.

Did he get promoted to the “cliche federal agent” position or something?

Glancing at the plates as he walked up, Gus spotted the federal listing.

Shit, he did get promoted to the federal government.

Which means he’s one of the people who’d have my family executed simply because of what we are.

Laughing softly, Gus opened the car door and clambered in.

“I know, right?” Mark said, closing his door and getting comfortable in the seat. “It’s ironic and hilarious. More so when I tell you my plan.”

Gus snapped his seat belt into place and leaned back in his seat.

“Nice ride at least. They pay good?” Gus asked.

“Stupidly well. Especially since… you know… the Fed got blowed up. I was more or less able to negotiate my salary to whatever I wanted,” Mark said turning the ignition. “It also let me dictate who I personally wanted to hire onto my team.”

Not being an idiot, Gus had already figured it would be something like this.

After walking out of the desert with just old glory, Mark, Olsen, and himself they had few others to rely on. Most especially after Olsen ate his own gun.

When the world threw Gus down and tried to stomp him, it’d been Mark who’d swooped in and given him a job.

“At least this time I didn’t find you behind a bar passed out in your own vomit,” Mark said.

“Yeah, that’d been an odd job offer,” Gus said, remembering it.

“Well, this one will be just as odd I think,” Mark said.

“Mm. I take it you had to promise the moon and stars just to be able to make me an offer for me to work for peanuts?” Gus asked.

Staring out the window he watched the houses roll by.

He didn’t feel as despondent since he’d gotten the use of his legs back, but he still wasn’t quite over the fact that he’d been fired from the PID.

“Actually, you’ve got it wrong,” Mark said with a chuckle. “There was no way you were going to keep your job with all those talking heads looking like idiots. I mean… your email got some real traction after the fact.

“It literally spelled out the entire situation. Bad shit gonna happen at the big game, probably a bomb or worse, you need to reel it in. Then of course there’s the time stamp on it. Makes it hard for anyone to deny they didn’t have time to read it.”

“I mean… yeah?” Gus said. “Was trying to get people to make it stop.”

“I know, Gusy. I know. Everyone knows you were just trying to save people. That’s the problem though,” Mark said, wheeling them onto the freeway. “It’s hard for anyone to not see that you were doing all that you could and that everyone at the top of the food chain dropped the ball.”

“Yeah,” Gus said and turned to Mark. “Which is why I got shit-canned. Right?”

“Yup! And to be honest, I was kinda happy they did it the way they did,” Mark said. “I mean, do you have any idea how bad that makes them look after the fact? Hah. Especially after I sent out my report five minutes after your firing went live.”

Gus snorted at that, looking ahead to the road. “You knew?”

“Course I did. As if I wasn’t already looking into what was going to happen to you the moment I woke up,” Mark said, almost sounding offended. “Saw the paperwork they submitted the moment after I took my promotion. Because we all knew I wasn’t going to do shit about you as long as I was there. They did try to force me.”

Nodding his head Gus had wondered what would happen to him once Mark took his promotion. He felt like the axe was looming the moment his promotion was confirmed.

“My report… ooooooo-eee it was a doozy, Gusy. I’ll let you read it later. And the email chain follow up after it,” Mark said and then started to laugh. “There were so many people looking for verification, and then your email magically, done in a way no one can trace I made sure of that, surfaced outside of restricted channels and started making the rounds. Ooopsie.”

There was a subtle under-current of anger in Mark’s words. There was no mistaking it for exactly what it was. Mark was livid at what had been done to Gus and had taken his own form of revenge.

“Love you, too, Durh,” Gus said.

“Shit, what?” Mark asked. “Damn, should I pull over so we can have a quickie in the back-seat?”

“Idiot,” Gus said and then started to laugh. “What’s the job, then?”

“I wasn’t promoted. Not really. I was hired off the PID and brought into the Fed,” Mark said. “As you obviously guessed. But what I wasn’t hired as an agent. Or an investigator.”

“No?” Gus asked.

“No. I was hired as a section chief. I’m running the entire organization for the state. I already made sure to read into everything concerning you, your family, Melody, Vanessa, and Trish,” Mark said. “They have no idea about any of you, or what’s really going on there. You’re in the clear. I also put in a few notes into your own file that’ll help in the future. Like the fact that mind-reading doesn’t work that particularly well on you, and can risk the mind-reader attempting it.”

That’s likely to make any attempt to assign a reader on me impossible. And gives me the opportunity to kill them if they try.

Raising his eyebrows at Mark’s admission Gus could only shake his head. Mark had been looking out for him ever since they made it back.

“What? You did far more for me out there. Let alone what you did for everyone else. Just because they didn’t make it back doesn’t make what you did less,” Mark said. “This isn’t even a fraction of what I owe you.”

“Don’t owe me shit,” Gus said.

“You and I disagree on this, and always have. Anyways,” Mark said flicking his hand dismissively. “I’m the chief for the state. I report to what is essentially the director of the Fed. For the nation.

“I argued for the ability to hire whoever I wanted at whatever pay I felt justified as part of my hiring. She agreed and that was that. I sent over my hiring requirements for you, Vanessa, Melody, and Trish the same day.

“It all went through last night.”

“Ah. I see,” Gus said. That all made sense in a way. “Dare I ask what the salary is?”

“Each one of you is going to be making a hundred and forty grand. It’s the highest I could make it. Even Melody will actually get a raise,” Mark said.

“Shit,” Gus muttered. It was a significant jump. “Vanessa and Trish will be ecstatic.”

“I know, right? Just tell them it’s because of you and you need more sexual-healing,” Mark said nodding his head rapidly. “Job is pretty stupid easy. Agent. I give you stuff, you go fix it or figure it out.”

“In other words… we’re doing exactly the same thing we were before. Just new titles and pay,” Gus said with a chuckle.

“Pretty much! Ain’t it grand? Though obviously the cases we’ll be working will be different. I already know what you’ll be tackling first in fact as soon as you sign on,” Mark said.

“You do? That’s rather quick. Isn’t it?”

“I mean, somewhat. But in the same breath… it isn’t as if there aren’t things to do. The problem is all the existing case-work got blowed up. We get to start from scratch and my boss wants a demonstration of why your team is worth so much.”

Gus shrugged at that. He didn’t mind being tested in such a way. If anything, it was easier for him. Having a test gave him the ability to remove doubt and clear the way.

“Gonna tell me?” Gus asked.

“Noooooope,” Mark said with a laugh. “Not going to tell you till your whole team is together. Your first day is the day after you sign your contracts. I dropped them off in your mailbox while I was there.

“I sent a text to Melody to go check the mail. With any luck they’ll have all read them before we get back and that’ll be the end of the conversation.”

Closing his eyes, Gus rested his head on the headrest and laughed. “Durh, I wouldn’t have said no.”

“Ptttf, as if I’d believe that for an instant. Too much of a risk of you saying no. Anyways,” Mark said. “There we are. That’s the new gig and all that.”

“Thanks, Durh,” Gus said.

“Of course. Gotta take care of my man,” Mark said. “Speaking of, Kelly mentioned you came rushing over to see me when I was imitating swish cheese. She was rather grateful for the guards you put on my door as well.

“Did I mention my wife may love you more than me after that? Should I be concerned you two are going to cheat on me with each other?”

Grinning, Gus didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t have to say anything. Mark would carry the conversation all on his own if he let him.

So he did.

***

Walking up to his front door, Gus already knew that one or all of his house-mates were home.

The mail wasn’t in the mailbox, and Mark had specifically told him he’d dropped the contracts in their.

With any luck it’s just Melody and I can talk to her before everyone else gets home.

Reaching the front door Gus paused when it swung inward.

Standing there in his doorway was Trish. She took a step to the side to let him in.

Dressed in a tank-top, jeans, and looking like something out of one of the numerous magazines he’d read while deployed, she was the picture of beauty.

Smiling at him, her green eyes seemed to glow with an inner-light as she watched him. Reaching up she curled a wisp of her white hair behind a tipped Elvish ear, the rest of it pulled back behind her head in a pony-tail.

“If you’re just going to stare, Gus, I’m not sure how to respond,” Trish murmured, smiling at him. Her eyes were slowly becoming brighter by the second.

Coughing into a hand, Gus realized he really had been staring.

“Uh, sorry, hi,” Gus said, moving past her and into the home he shared with her, Vanessa, and Melody.

“Welcome home my Indigo!” shouted a voice from deeper inside.

“Melody and I just finished feeding our guest,” Trish said, one of her hands trailing down along his back. From his shoulder to his hip her fingers slid over him.

It made his spine and crotch tingle.

Trish wasn’t just an Elven sorceress. She was an Elven-Dryad sorceress. Apparently the old-wives tales of Dryads, or more appropriately named Nymphs, were quite real.

They were sexual predators in the same way Gus was a Boogieman that fed on fear.

Ever since he’d spent days on end being cared for her in every way, whatever barrier between them that had existed, was gone.

Very gone.

Moving away from the Dryad before she could grab his rear end, which he knew she would, Gus walked into the living room.

Vanessa and Melody were sitting around the coffee table, a large amount of paperwork spread out in front of them on it.

Getting up from her seat and moving toward him, was Melody the Rainbow Contractor.

She had pitch-black eyes, black hair pulled back in a pony-tail behind her head, and was pretty in an eerie “unearthly” way. Spread across her face was a wild and blazing smile.

Indigo-colored symbols glowed and sparked all around the edge of her entire face. From her chin to the crown of her hairline. It was a single straight line that made her face look like a cutout. Between her eyes was a glowing red-circle that looked to be glowing red-hot right now.

Damn. She’s going to contract me today or tomorrow and there’s no way out of it.

Much like Trish, she was dressed in a comfortable shirt and jeans. Dressed for being around the house.

Crashing into him she hugged him tightly and bounced in place against him.

“Ooooh, Indigo, welcome home, welcome home,” Melody murmured against his ear as she rubbed her cheek against his. “Indigo… I love you.”

Yep. Going to contract me to Indigo.

Fuck.

Checking a sigh, Gus laid his arms around Melody’s hips and hugged her in return.

She, Vanessa, and Trish had remained with him through thick and thin.

When he was wallowing in despair and depression, they happily trooped along with him, encouraging him, and doing all they could for him.

“Love you, too,” Gus grumbled, holding to the contractor.

Squealing, Melody pulled tighter at him, her strength surprising him. It squeezed the breath right out of his lungs.

Then she let go of him and gave him a shove toward the coffee table.

“We were just reading over our contracts!” Melody said.

Looking up from the paperwork Vanessa met his eyes with her own. Those light-brown orbs gazed into his for a second, before she hit him with a warm smile. Her dark-brown hair was pulled back behind her head as well.

It seemed the hair-style for the day was pony-tails and dressing for indoors. She had on a very loose shirt and jeans.

Where Melody and Trish were pale, Vanessa had a healthy light-brown skin-tone. Trish was beautiful, Melody was eerily pretty. Vanessa was the feisty and cute one of the three. 

“Seems like maybe I should have waited to cash your check,” Vanessa said.

“Not at all,” Melody said, forcing Gus to sit down practically behind Vanessa. Then she scooted over back to where she’d been sitting and started going through her papers. “Nothing wrong with being indebt to Gus. He loves you. Being indebted to him is much easier to handle. It allows for so many fun interpretations of ‘interesting’. At least to me.”

“Me as well,” Trish said, coming over and sitting down in a recliner. Her eyes seemed to have lost their glow, and she seemed much more like her normal self.

“Idiots,” Vanessa muttered, looking back to her paperwork. “We’re going to be federal agents, I guess.”

“So it would seem,” Gus said, not quite sure why Melody had made him sit behind Vanessa. Melody tended to move in ways only she understood.

Though she hadn’t been wrong so far.

“I think it’s hilarious,” Melody said, reading through a page. “I think I was the most wanted on their lists for several years in a row. Now I’m going to be working for them. Though only as an agent it seems. That’s rather low in the Fed’s hierarchy.”

“Uh… not really,” Gus said. “We’ll be reporting to Mark directly. He reports to the director of the Fed. We’re his first hires.”

“How fun,” Trish said, folding her hands in her lap. “I’m rather excited. I’ve never even thought I’d ever be paid so much. I’m just a cleaning lady.”

“Not anymore,” Vanessa said, leaning away from her paperwork, and then leaning into the front of Gus’ legs. “I read your contract. Your title is Agent(Sorceress). Not cleaning lady. I’m apparently an Agent(Detective).

“Gus is an Agent(Squad Leader).”

“And I’m Agent(Contractor). But if we’re reporting like what Gus said, that means we’re… we’re all very senior agents,” Melody said.

“Yeah… I get the impression we might end up being made team leaders in the future,” Gus said. “But there’s still a big ol’fat problem with all of this.”

“We never figured out who was behind the attack,” Vanessa said, nodding her head. “But they know us, and where we live. Probably.”

“Good news,” Melody said, not looking up as she rapidly signed her signature to her paperwork. “I bought us a house. Tonight we’ll all contract to one-another, have a truly fantastic orgy, and then start work tomorrow. While we’re at work, all our stuff is being moved. I already paid.”

Nodding her head, Melody looked up from her signed contract with a massive smile.

“This… is an amazing day. My Indigo, my Red, my Yellow,” Melody practically purred at them all. Speaking to Gus, Trish, and then Vanessa in turn. “An amazing night is before us. I hope you’re all ready for it.”

“I am,” Trish said in a breathy growl, her eyes immediately becoming as bright as the sun. Her being the Red contract made far too much sense.

Vanessa sighed and the nodded her head a bit, still leaning against Gus.

“I suppose I’m ready to become Yellow,” Vanessa said.

Melody clapped her hands together, then slowly laid down on the ground, taking deep breaths.

“Ooh, I need to breathe. I got dizzy there for a second,” she said.

Whenever she needed to reset her contracts she tended to get a bit wild.

Grinning, Gus shook his head and laid his hand to Vanessa’s shoulders and began to lightly rub them.

His life had gotten interesting in the last year.