SS2 -CH2- (Patreon)

- Case Load

Turning his wrist over, Gus looked at his watch.

They had more than enough time to make it to the location Mark had sent them. Even with traffic the way it was.

“What if we turned off at the next offramp?” Trish asked from the passenger seat in front.

“We could try, feeling lucky?” Melody asked.

“Not particularly,” Trish said. “I’m afraid my luck has always been terrible.”

“No it hasn’t! It brought you here, to me. And you’re my red, Trish,” Melody said. “And such a lovely Red you were last night.”

“Yes. Well… yes,” Trish murmured, looking down at her phone. They were currently working to get them to their destination.

“I thought it would be different,” Vanessa said softly to Gus’ right.

“What, last night?” Gus said. “No idea what your sex life was like before but that was pretty different from me.”

It’d been the single most intense, extreme, and bizarre thing he’d ever done. What he’d done to all three women in the car and what they’d done to him.

He felt like he’d been passed around to each of them, while passing each one of them to each other at the same time.

This morning he couldn’t quite look Trish completely square in the eye either considering how often he’d been given to her, or her to him.

Or what they’d done to each other or to him.

That and he’d never felt like he couldn’t continue on, regardless of how many times he climaxed.

“I mean, it felt like we were at it for hours and-”

“No!” Vanessa hissed, then continued much softer. “No. Not that. My sex was really tame if you have to know. Last night was… I don’t think I’d want to repeat it for a while. It was almost too much.

“I meant the contracts.”

“Oh, oh, yeah. That was pretty anti-climatic,” Gus said, looking to his palm.

Melody had drawn up some sigil work on the ground in a specific color and different symbolwork, and had each person join her. She’d cut her own palm, their palm, and then press their hands together.

Nothing had happened other than a flash of color.

Vanessa was looking at her own palm. The slice in their palms was already long gone. Trish having healed them all sometime during the mad, lusty, energetic orgy they had.

“She’s really different in bed,” Vanessa said very softly.

“Who, Trish? Yeah. Definitely. Kinda like it… though,” Gus said. “Was a lot of fun, even if it was crazy.”

Vanessa nodded her head and let her hand fall back to her lap.

Looking to the front Gus caught Trish watching him. Her eyes were glowing faintly and there was a seductive smile on her lips.

Shit. She’s partially Elven, right? That means-

Trish’s eyes glowed bright for a moment and her tongue slipped out to lick at her lips. Then the glow slowly bled away and she looked forward again.

“Let’s stay on the highway,” Trish said. “No reason to stress over it.”

She heard it and liked it.

There was a buzz in his pocket that interupted Gus’ thoughts.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket he tapped the screen and unlocked it.

Mark?

Opening the message he read it over quickly.

“Mark just sent me a text to make sure we were coming,” Gus said loud enough for everyone to hear him. “Which means he’s nervous and anxious. I’m suddenly betting our ‘orientation’ as he called it, isn’t quite what we were thinking.”

“No?” Melody asked in a voice that had nothing but joy and excitement in it. She was quite chipper this morning. “We’ll just play it by ear. It’ll be fine.”

She was also acting far more normal than he’d seen from her in a long while.

Apparently contracting with her had stabilized her considerably.

“Melody,” Gus said, leaning forward in his seat. Grabbing the sides of her chair he moved his head up to her shoulder.

“Yes, my one and only Indigo? The man of my life? The only man for me for the rest of all time?” Melody purred.

Feeling a bit fuzzy headed at that Gus tried to collect his thoughts quickly.

“Did you get a benefit out of splitting your contract to us? Because you don’t seem as… contractor crazy,” Gus said.

“You noticed?” Melody said. One of her hands came off the wheel to rest to the side of Gus’ face. “I’m so glad. I sincerely hoped you were paying that much attention to me. But it’s so hard to tell with you sometimes.

“Yes. Splitting my contract with you three offset a lot of the feedback I get. And since you’re not contractors, you won’t even feel it. It’ll just… dissipate. It’s one of the reasons you always see contractors with harems.”

Gus caught his lower lip between his teeth as he thought on that. The way Melody was touching him also made him feel incredibly strange.

What little space she’d been affording him was apparently gone now. His head felt heavy and like he wanted to lay down.

What she said was true, however. If the Contractor was young, they were usually alone. The older they got, the more “contractor crazy” they got. Every contractor he’d met past a certain age had always had a group of people around them.

“Never thought about it,” Gus said. “Makes sense.”

“It’s not that complicated, really. Each color is a contract you make to gain something relevant to that color,” Melody said, her fingers idly tracing the curve of his ear. They weren’t moving very fast in this traffic jam so it wasn’t as if she really needed both hands. “Blue is ones awareness and the physical realm. Green is your own body. Red is sex and power, but also anger and violence. Yellow is your emotions and empathy. Orange is logic or intelligence. Understanding. Indigo is love. Violet is wisdom, wealth, and ambition.”

“And by taking up part of contract for you, you get stronger, and whatever negative effects you would have suffered is minimized,” Gus said.

“That’s right. Cause you’ll never feel it. You’re not a contractor. That’s why contractors don’t end up with contractors. Wouldn’t work,” Melody said, pulling her hand back down to the wheel.

Sitting back in his seat Gus chewed on all that.

It made sense. He’d just never really thought about it all.

“Does that mean you need four more girlfriends?” Trish asked, turning to face Melody.

“I mean… I’d like to have four more. One for every color. That’d mean seven,” Melody said. “But Gus doesn’t like that idea. I think this is the maximum size I’ll ever be able to talk him into.

“But that’s okay. I don’t need to be any stronger than I am today. With you three I’m more than plenty strong.

“Tie my own shoes and everything. That and having Gus and my Indigo is worth having four others instead.”

Grimacing, Gus slouched deeper into his chair.

She wasn’t wrong.

Last night had been incredible, but the idea of literally doubling the number of people seemed insane to him.

He didn’t like that idea.

Melody was right.

***

Pulling on the lapels of his suit, Gus felt strange. He was wearing his nicest navy suit and tie.

There was no way he was going to go full on “Fed” like Mark had. There was no reason for him to.

His boss was Mark and Mark wouldn’t care so long as he dressed appropriately.

Trish, Vanessa, and Melody were all dressed very professionally. Professionally, matching with one another, and like they were above any possibility of a complaint.

Gus opened the door and held it open for everyone else.

They were roughly five minutes early, but Gus figured there was no reason to hang around outside if they didn’t have to.

“Rather conspicuous, isn’t it?” Vanessa asked walking through the door.

Glancing up above himself at the looming skyscraper, Gus couldn’t disagree.

The building Mark had sent them to had been a massive and imposing building that reached far above. In fact, it was one of the tallest buildings in the downtown area.

“That just makes it more interesting,” Melody said. “Especially since we came in through a super secret entrance. It was fun to flash a Federal badge.”

Shaking his head with a grin as Melody walked by he looked to Trish who was taking up the rear.

Her mouth was a flat line and she walked up to him rather than follow Melody inside.

“I don’t want last night to make things awkward,” Trish said. Her eyes very normal, and very serious. That glow was usually an indicator to him of when she was leaning into her Dryad heritage.

“It wasn’t awkward,” Gus said, feeling just a little bashful. There was just no way he couldn’t help but think about what he’d done to her. He hadn’t felt like he was in his right mind, but he’d definitely done what he wanted.

It was just surprising what he’d wanted to do.

And wanted to do again.

“It’s… what I am. I draw it out in my partners. It feeds all the aspects of your desires and encourages them,” Trish said. “At least, that’s what my sister explained. That my first experience last night. I felt like it went well, if a bit chaotic.

“I guess what I’m saying is… don’t feel weird about it. It was normal, and flattering.”

Gus looked off to one side and nodded his head before lifting his eyes back up to meet Trish’s. He needed to be a big boy about this. It was only awkward if he let it be.

“Is it normal to want to do it again to you?” Gus asked.

Trish smiled at that and wrinkled her nose. “Yes. Especially if it pleased you. Means my Dryad magic is working as intended.

“Just be gentler with my hips next time. Come on, Indigo. We should catch up to our contractor. Lest I let my other-self come out to play. I think I’d end up abducting you.”

Grinning with one side of his mouth, Gus indicated the entry. “Off with you then Miss Sex-Sorceress.”

Trish stuck her tongue out between here teeth and patted him on the shoulder as she walked by him. “Silly.”

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Gus let go of the door and followed her inside. If anything he was thankful for the way she’d broached the subject and handled it. Gus wasn’t quite sure he had the emotional intelligence to have gotten through it on his own.

Gus found they were in a building office lobby.

“Agent Gustavus Hellström, welcome. Assistant Director Ehrich is in the main hall,” said a woman behind a desk off to one side. There was a distinct accent to her words but Gus couldn’t place it.

Dressed in a professional dress, jacket, and leggings, she looked like an office worker for a fortune fifty company.

In her hand she held out a piece of paper across the desk to Gus.

Melody, Trish, and Vanessa were all standing nearby with a similar paper in their hands.

Taking it from the assistant he gave her a smile and a nod of his head.

Glancing down to the paper he saw it simply read as one dash one.

“Mines one dash one,” Gus said aloud, looking to the others.

“One dash two,” Melody said.

“I’m one dash three,” Vanessa said, holding up her paper.

“And I’m one dash four,” Trish said.

Gus looked to the woman at the desk, hoping maybe she’d elaborate further.

She only smiled at him for a second, then went back to her monitor and keyboard.

Right. Cause Mark is Mark.

Probably some horror creature that can make most Para’s look like sheep, too.

Gus kept watching the assistant for several more seconds. Finally the young woman finally looked back up to meet his eyes.

There wasn’t anything there. She wasn’t wearing a mask.

Nor did she feel like anything to him. As if she wasn’t even there.

Or real.

Glancing down to her desk he found there was nothing there would one would expect from something that was inhabited by a person at a front desk.

There was no hand sanitizer, no tissues, no water bottle, no mug. There were no small bits that people would clutter a workspace with either.

No stickers, lip balm, chapstick, fingernail clippers, phone. 

Nothing.

“Construct?” Gus asked looking back to the woman’s eyes.

Blinking the assistant finally had an expression on her face.

Absolute surprise. There was just a tiny tendril of fear bleeding from her as well.

“I… beg your pardon?” she asked.

“I was wondering if you’re a Constructed being. Are you material or spiritual? If spiritual… you’re… an amazing spirit,” Gus said indicating her with a fingertip. Now that he looked at her he found it almost hard to look away. She was dusky skinned with black hair and warm brown eyes. Her features were narrow and fit her face perfectly to give her a “sculpted” look almost. “If material, your form is spectacular. Did you craft it yourself? And what’s your name, by the way?”

Opening her mouth and then closing it, the assistant lifted her chin slightly.

“My names Indali. Indali Jaya. I’m a Material, if you must know. And… thank you, I did fashion this form,” she said, a smile curling the ends of her lips inward.

Smiling back at the woman, Gus made a mental note of it and her name. If he was going to have to walk by her every day on his way into the building, he wanted to start off on the right foot.

Compliments and understanding were a great way to do it.

“If it’s not improper Indali, I’d feel indebted if you let me look at your original Material form at a later time,” Gus said. “I can only imagine at it’s composition.”

Smiling wider now, the Construct lifted an eyebrow and then indicated the women Gus was worth. “They’re waiting.”

“I don’t mind,” Melody immediately pitched in. “I’d like to see your body as well. Though your material form isn’t as interesting.”

Realizing that was his cue to let it lie, Gus nodded his head to the woman and left the lobby.

“What was that about?” Vanessa asked a little gruffly.

“Making friends,” Gus said simply. “If she’s going to be the woman who security checks me every day, better her being a friend. Right?”

“That’s… very true,” Trish said. “I was able to get a lot more done when I wanted to. I just made sure to be friends with the building people.”

“She wasn’t human?” Vanessa asked.

“No. Construct. She was an item first it seems. She was possessed by something, or became sentient through a lot of magic transfer,” Gus said. “They tend to be a little… higher-minded?”

“Living things are meatbags to Constructs,” Melody said. “Or just… things to eat. She was a very lovely Construct though.”

“She was interested in Gus,” Trish said in a soft murmur.

“Who isn’t? There’s a reason I had to have my beloved Indigo,” Melody said.

They all left the hall and entered a rather large open room. There was a very large number of chairs arranged throughout.

“I think… one-one puts us at the very front, in the first row, possibly in the first seat,” Vanessa muttered.

“Fucking, Durh,” Gus groused.

“Indeed, fucking me,” Mark said appearing behind them. He was dressed exactly as the last time he’d seen him. “Have a seat, this’ll be fun and quick. Sit, sit.”

Not waiting for an answer, Mark scurried off, looking far too cheery.

Slipping her arm into the crook of Gus’, she dragged him off down the aisle and toward where their seats would be.

“From PI being held at gunpoint, to PID, to a Fed. All within a few months,” Melody said pushing Gus into the seat listed as one dash one. “My niece just laughs at me anymore whenever I talk to her.”

“You have a niece?” Gus asked.

“I do! Her names Irma. You’ll like her. She’s been busy with her business the last couple years. She runs a debt consolidation business with her husband,” Melody said, taking her own seat. “That anda private military company.”

“You mentioned her the other day,” Gus said, looking around. There were hundreds of seats here.

“I did. If we needed a job we could have picked up some stuff from her. She always has out of country work that needs doing at a good price,” Melody said.

Gus chewed at the inside of his cheek.

He was somewhat uncomfortable being the only ones here.

There was a soft boom from the otherside of the hall, and a flood of people entered into the room. It was as if a mob was coming to get him.

“Oh, Mark gave us personal seating. How thoughtful,” Melody said. “We should ask his wife and daughter to dinner sometime.”

Any response he wanted to give would be impossible. The room was a riot of people walking and talking. It drowned everything out.

They were an orderly mob though. Everyone was filtered into their seating arrangements in no time at all.

“Hi!” Mark said loudly getting up onto the stage at the front of the hall. He walked over to the podium and tapped the microphone. “Hello everyone. I’m Mark Ehrich, or Assistant Director Ehrich if you prefer.

“I don’t stand on titles or formality however. This is your orientation and it’s going to suck. Because this is our first day as a section, and the first day we’re in this building.”

Yeah. Not surprising given the Fed was gutted by all those bombs.

“First the easy answers,” Mark said, holding up his hands. “Yes, the Fed was nearly destroyed. You’ve all been hired on to help transition it back to a staffed and working department.

“Yes, the attack at the game was part of the bombing attack. The goal was to expose the entire world to the Para world.

“Yes, it was stopped by agent Gustavus Hellström, Melody Lark, Vanessa Flores, and Patricia Ash. All part of your new section.”

Mark pointed right at everyone he’d just named.

“And their first order of business is taking down the Anthony coven,” Mark said. “The coven was a much bigger player some years ago but somewhere along the way they got taken down a peg. We’re not really sure why, how, or who, but it definitely wasn’t a friendly love-tap.

“That was then though. And this is now. Now, the coven is on the way back up since the Fed building bombings. They’re not the biggest game in town, but we have to start somewhere.”

Right.

Vampire coven.

Because working our way through a car theft isn’t going to be the norm anymore.

“-will be running it. For the rest of you, we’ll be working through your groupings to get you all your starting cases,” Mark said. “Though for some of you, it’ll simply be personnel recruitment. You’re all our first wave of new agents. But we need more.

“Now, let’s break this up and start moving to your new offices. I have a floor plan posted up all over the walls in here, and at the elevator bay on every floor.

“So! Settle in, get comfortable, and get your new digs ready. Normal hours and workloads will start up this week. I’ll be assigning group leaders for multiple groups to work with you to get you full operational.

“Any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.”

Mark slapped an open hand down on the podium. It was like a gun going off.

Everyone was off for the maps to figure out where they’d be sitting.

“You four, don’t bother to get up,” Mark said grinning at Gus and the others. “I’ll be leading you to your offices personally.”

Course you will.