Chapter 41 You Did What?!
“No, cousin, I will not explain myself,” Cyrus ground out.
“You damn well better!? You can’t just abandon your job out of nowhere!? What is going on in that brain of yours?!”
“I’m not just,” he drawled, before adding, with probably more glee than he should have, “Killian and I are just.”
“WHAT?!” Brom Grimm roared.
Cyrus smirked. Yeah, he knew that would go over even worse than just him quitting.
Cyrus leaving was one thing…they could bribe, beg, and/or threaten another of his relatives to take over, but Killian was different.
They couldn’t just replace a Director of Intelligence and Technology at the drop of a hat. Though…
Cyrus winced. He definitely should have spoken to Killian first before quitting on behalf of the Siren... He was so going to suffer for this. His Baby was going to make him hurt—oh well.
“Is that why you are leaving? Is he unhappy? If it’s the pay then fucking up it! He is your damn partner, you should know how to make him stay!”
“First of all, I can’t make Killian do anything, and second, this was never up for discussion, so I’d say this conversation is now over. Goodbye.” Cyrus hung up, not answering when his cousin continued to call back.
He shut down his phone as he pulled in front of the small two-story cottage Killian owned. The Siren was standing out front, three large suitcases next to him, along with a few smaller ones.
As he got out and approached, one of Killian’s brows rose slightly when Cyrus crushed and discarded his phone in a compactor bin nearby.
He smiled hesitantly. “Let’s get you loaded up.”
Killian folded the tablet and slipped it back into his purse as he finished disabling all the fun tracking devices on Cyrus’ SUV, some of which he himself had set up, before putting into place signal blocks to ensure nothing could be remotely turned back on.
“It’s done, they won’t be able to follow us.
I’ve also set up a camera block that will force any street cams to loop the seconds before we are on frame.
Though, I’ll have to turn that off once we get far enough.
After a while, it will become too noticeable.
” He grimaced, looking over at the Fate.
“At least, it would be to me. I'm not sure how long it would take the others in my department to notice, despite the training I implemented. Speaking of the Bureau, we only have a maximum of two weeks of leave without reason… Something I haven’t put in for, and I'm guessing you didn’t either.”
Cyrus oddly winced at the mention of work, as he put the vehicle into drive and quickly set it to auto mode, before it started forward, following the route already programmed into the navigation.
Frowning, Killian asked, “What is it?”
“About that… So, I sort of…quit…for us both.”
His eyes widened in shock before the rage took over. “You—YOU DID WHAT?!”
Cyrus groaned. “I know, I know what you are thinking!”
“Oh good, then it won’t be a surprise when I murder you!”
“I definitely realized I shouldn’t have done it only seconds after I said it to my cousin, Brom. But as I had just quit, and well…I really didn’t want to reverse course in the face of the idiot ranting.”
Killian rolled his eyes. “You just didn’t want the arrogant jackass to win.” He blinked. “Wait…why did you tell him you were quitting anyway? Like, why him specifically?”
While Brom Grimm was in the upper rankings of the Cryptid Enforcement Bureau, specifically part of the Governing Council that helped decide inner policy changes, he wasn’t at the top, and he wasn’t who Cyrus answered to as a Branch Director.
“I tried Etholus on his private line, but he didn’t answer, and Brom was who picked up when I called the other number.”
“I see…” Killian frowned. Pushing down the anger at Cyrus deciding something like this for him, he let the shock settle in. “Did you seriously quit the Bureau?”
“I did. I wasn’t sure there was another option now. I do know I shouldn’t have quit for you. That was your decision to make.”
“The decision for either of us to quit should have been made together, Cyrus, not individually. We may not have trouble with money, as many do, but it's still a big financial decision, and we are getting married…at least I hope we still are…”
Cyrus jolted in his seat, looking instantly alarmed, before the man grabbed onto his left hand almost desperately. “Yes! Yes, we are still getting married. I’m sorry, I—” The Fate swallowed hard. “—I should have talked to you first. I don’t know… I just…”
“You have a bad habit, Cyrus, of making decisions and putting them into place without talking to anyone.”
“I do… I’ll do better. I’m sorry, Baby.”
Killian took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I am surprised, though, that you made it so easily. Considering you are the whole reason I work there in the first place.”
“I think maybe the idea was lurking in the back of my mind from the moment I changed your fate. It was reason enough. Really, us staying was a risk. At any time, there was always a chance you’d run into someone in my family.
Which would have put you in danger, if whoever it was happened to peek at your threads.
While an unnaturally mended thread is hardly different than any other, it is still noticeable.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure what we were going to do about the wedding.
And now with the whole Ender being pregnant thing, I guess I just couldn’t ignore it any longer. ”
Killian’s eyes widened at the wedding part. “It never even crossed my mind that we wouldn’t be able to invite any of them.”
Cyrus chuckled tiredly. “Yeah, I was sort of thinking that eloping was the best option, but I didn’t know if you’d agree.”
“I mean, to be honest, I’ve had numerous dreams about my wedding, with most leaning towards the horrifying.
I’ve only had positive thoughts on the matter since starting to date you.
While I definitely had some fantastical ideas in mind, eloping wouldn’t upset me.
And I feel it may be the only option now.
” He sighed. “Wedding and job aside—the latter I am still pissed about mind you—what are we going to do about Ender and the…babies, Cyrus?”
The Fate stared for a moment before saying, “I have no fucking clue. My brain has not made it that far.”
Well, at least they were on the same page there. “How do you—” He wrinkled his nose. “—feel about it?”
“I…don’t know. Terrified? You?”
“Like there is this feeling of impending doom, one that I haven’t had since escaping from the ocean.”
Cyrus grimaced. “What do you want to do about the babies and Ender?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? “Well, I…” Killian sighed. “I haven’t gotten too far into what I want. But I do know I want to be there for them, and possibly Ender, if he lets us. I also know that despite my fucked up issues, I don’t want to walk away from them.
“That being said, while I may not know much about Gorgon pregnancies, I know they can have a lot of complications. And add in my species’ issues…
” He swallowed when there was a catch in his throat.
“I mean, I’m not sure how likely it is that the child I sired will make it to term.
I’m sort of surprised I even managed to impregnate him at all. ”
The Fate gently squeezed his hand. “We have at least a day’s worth of driving until we get there. Let’s just take one day at a time, and try to push the worries from our heads for now? We’ll figure things out…there’s time, right?”
Killian chuckled softly. “I have no clue. He’s almost five months along, but as to how far along that is pregnancy-wise…” He shrugged.
The man let out a groan. “By the threads, we know nothing.”
“When you talked to him, did…Ender sound mad, or…?”
Cyrus blinked. “I didn’t.”
“What do you mean ‘you didn’t’? You got a call, who did you talk to?”
“Um, Soren?”
He stared, brow raising in question. “Why would Soren be the one calling?”
“I didn’t ask,” Cyrus admitted, before sheepishly adding, “I may have been panicking too much to think.”
Killian snorted. “Okay.” He frowned on noticing something. “Where’s your secure phone?”
Cyrus’ face pinched. “I sort of broke it on hearing the news. Wouldn’t happen to have another spare one, would you?”
He slowly counted to ten in his head, trying to hold back his anger, but it didn’t work. “Do you even know the hoops, the outright bribery, the many hours I wasted just to get my hands on that?!” Killian snapped.
“I do know, Baby. It’s just—I-I mean, I really didn’t mean to do it.”
“Where is it?!” he hissed. “Maybe I can fix it!”
Killian’s left eye started twitching when the Fate nervously laughed and whispered, “I may have crushed it like a cracker.”
“YOU WHAT?!”
“I DIDN’T MEAN TO!”