Chapter 69
“—so therefore, Cyrus will be coming with us on the exchange as our lie detector, and he will tap my back two times if something is really wrong, or once if it’s just a simple lie!
” Ender finished his announcement with, he’d say, the same amount of enthusiasm as when he had started the whole spiel.
Which was a grand old feat in perseverance, as he’d sat there being blankly stared at.
The full Cryptid Means Inner Circle were at the meeting today.
And the blank, baffled stares were coming across very clearly on Kore and Meara’s face, even though they were currently just hologram projections, as the two were in space.
Though the way their forms sometimes flickered in the seats they were projected in, told him either the power cell in the machine was dying, or something was glitching.
Though, all of their expressions had nothing on the frozen stupor that was on Cyrus’ face.
Soren took a deep breath, slowly letting it out before saying, “Okay…if you think that’s a good idea, why the fuck not.”
“Really?! That’s all you’re going to say? No argument?!” Kore sputtered.
With her hair a forest-green color today, Dessa giggled.
“Aside from the fact that taking a former Bureau Agent to a meeting with Jurosso Condi, the boss of the Condi Syndicate, would be highly unrecommended, I feel I must point out the other side of the stupid equation… How is Jurosso going to react to seeing Cyrus there?”
“I mean, the man will likely already be aware of the shake up at the North American Branch, so he probably won’t care. He may even find it hilarious that he’s working for us now,” Soren mused, before sneering, “If you could call what he is doing here working.”
“Be nice!” Ender snapped. “Besides, we can have him disguised to avoid problems. No one has yet been able to detect when we’ve used the Perm Shadow Shells, so it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Let me get this straight,” Cyrus said stiffly, the Fate seeming to finally snap out of his shock.
“The plan is…you are going to meet Jurosso Condi, a highly dangerous Cerberus, who is a known fucking arms dealer and drug lord, who, oh, by the way, likes to traffic things and rare Cryptids, while you are six months PREGNANT, and happen to be a very rare and almost extinct species of Cryptid that is worth who knows how many millions on the fucking black market! Is that right, or did I accidentally leave some of the stupidity out?”
The Harpy snorted. “Yep, that’s pretty much what his dumb ass intends to do.”
“Toddles!” he hissed.
“What?!” his brother huffed. “I agree with him. While he has been zoning in and out during these meetings, I, and the rest of us, have been telling you for weeks that it’s a dangerous, bad fucking idea, ever since you brought it up!”
Ender glared at the mutinous bastards around the table when everyone started murmuring in agreement. “I need what he has!”
“We could find a different source,” Arco rasped.
“Quickly and easily?”
The Cerberus wrinkled his nose, before admitting with a sigh, “No.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“What could you possibly need from him that would be so hard to get elsewhere?!” Cyrus growled.
“A pixie-powered gem rod.”
The Fate’s eyes grew wide. “Fucking hell, Ender, what are you building?!”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out!” he huffed.
Well, it wasn’t even anything super secretive. Ender was just trying to make a cool laser. Besides, he planned to kill Jurosso later. They’d been tracking the bastard’s operations in the continent, so they could obliterate it when the time was right.
Until then, he’d use the man’s vast reach to get the specific materials he wanted and finally make his giant laser! Because he needed it.
Ender didn’t necessarily have any current plans to use it, but he would have it in case he ever did.
And there was a possibility he would. The world was always teetering on the edge of war, no matter how peaceful the humans were pretending to be now!
Also, they’d be stealing intel at the same time, so like, double purposes—multitasking for the win!
“Is whatever it is really worth the danger?” Cyrus asked, after staying silent for a few moments.
Ender slowly ran his hand over his extended baby bump. “I know it’s dangerous, but that’s why you are going with us. So we know when something’s off.”
“Killian is going to kill us both when he finds out.” The Fate’s gaze trailed over everyone else, before adding, “And possibly all of you for not stopping him.”
The others winced and started avoiding eye contact, while the two holograms had the audacity to blink out—the cowards! He wasn’t sure if he should be proud or annoyed that the Siren had somehow managed to ingrain a sense of fear in his people.
Ender cleared his throat. “Killian may be your boss, but he is not theirs, and he certainly is not mine.”
“Is that so?” Cyrus mused with a smug smirk. “Then tell him. Tell him exactly what you have planned.”
Ender wrinkled his nose. “No, I don’t think I will. Either way, this meeting is over since things have been decided. You can all leave. Kaisa, go and make sure that the people who are going with me are getting prepped to leave.”
Kaisa, who had candy-apple hair at the moment, nodded. “Want me to pick someone to stay behind, since Cyrus will put us over the negotiated forty-five people limit?”
“Yeah, do that.”
With that said, aside from Soren, the rest of Cryptid Means’ inner circle left.
As soon as they were gone, Cyrus asked with a chuckle, “You wouldn’t happen to not want to tell Killian because you’ve realized he’s scary when pissed off, would you?”
“No! I am not a coward, but I also don’t have to tell him shit.”
He was not afraid of Killian! Ender winced as the Siren’s glowing jean-blue eyes flashed in his mind, them narrowed dangerously as the man’s compelling voice called his name in clear warning.
Okay, Ender would admit, he found the Siren slightly intimidating. That voice of his…ugh. It was both wonderful, yet awful.
Cyrus obviously planned to respond to his bullshit, but whatever he was going to say was lost to the ether as the man’s necklace began to ring.
Frowning, the Fate pulled the dangling secret box phone from around his neck. Eyeing the screen once released, Cyrus hesitated before saying, “It’s Severo.”
He waved him on. “Answer it.”
Cyrus did, holding it up to his ear. “What’s up?” The Fate’s expression twisted in anger at whatever the Shadow Dweller had said, before cursing, “Fucking hell! I’m sorry, Severo.”
Ender’s brow pulled at that. They were obviously missing a hell of a conversation.
The Fate listened quietly, before nodding to himself and murmuring, “Yeah…yeah…I’ll tell him… Yeah…okay, see you soon. Bye.” Closing his phone, the Fate hung it around his neck again with a clearly exhausted sigh as it collapsed back into a square.
Soren tsked. “Judging by the ‘see you soon’ part, I'm assuming something has happened?”
Instead of answering the Harpy, Cyrus’ gaze flicked to him, and the man hesitated.
“What? What is it?” He blinked, his eyes widening when the Fate slowly reached out and grabbed one of his hands. “Uhh…?”
“My cousin, who they put in charge, tried to…Mind Rake Severo.”
Ender tensed at the words, as his mind made a valiant effort to drag him to places where he didn’t want to go. That was when Cyrus started to caress his hand. The gentle touch oddly worked, drawing his focus as he took one deep breath after another.
As he calmed, Ender would admit he felt a bit embarrassed. He usually wasn’t this sensitive to the damn topic, or anything really. But then, he supposed, his hormones weren’t exactly within normal range at the moment.
After a minute or so, while the other two men stayed as quiet as can be, Ender finally asked, “Did he succeed?”
“No. Severo knows the signs, so he slipped into the Shadow Realm at the first hint of something being wrong. The Dweller grabbed Seri, Skya, and Avery, before hitting the road. They’re coming here.
He no longer trusts they are safe there, and I can’t say I disagree with that assessment, as Brom has clearly lost his fucking mind. ”
Ender frowned. “Why isn’t Severo going to his parents?”
“Because the idiot still doesn’t realize how much more scary they are than you.”
“That boy has a damn blind spot a mile fucking wide when it comes to them,” he said with a chuckle.
“That he does,” Cyrus sighed.
Even though he felt a bit reluctant, Ender slowly pulled his hand free, to wrap his arms around his stomach.
It wasn’t like he needed to have his hand held. He was a grown ass man. It was just that Cyrus’ was warm, and bigger than his…and veiny. It was nice…real nice, especially when it—AH, nope, his mind could not go there right now!
“Anyway, we should be getting ready to go.”
“Now?!” Cyrus gasped. “We are really going to meet that bastard today?! You know, I probably should call my parents and let them know what’s going on, and what my cousin tried to do. Not to mention, Severo’s, since who knows when the Dweller will have time, or get up the courage to.”
“It can wait until after we get back. We need to leave in the next thirty to forty minutes or we will be late to our meeting.”
“Seriously?! Ender, I—”
“Cyrus, it will take them a full day to get here. I know you feel guilty, and like you have to do something about it right this very moment, but there isn’t time.
Also, there really isn’t anything you can do for them right now.
So, I’d say you have plenty of time to try and help.
” Ender, for some reason, didn’t suppress the urge to comfort the man, and lightly gripped his shoulder in a way any…
nice, platonic companions that sometimes fucked would.
“Look, what happened isn’t your fault. It’s your family’s fault, and their need to control what they consider their assets.
Your family doesn’t know where I’m at, right? ”
Cyrus stared for a moment before saying, “Not as far as I am aware. Any inkling the agents at my branch had on your location, I kept to myself and out of reports.”
Ender’s brow rose at that. “Did you?”
“Yes…”
“Interesting. Well, you can explain why later, as we need to get going!” He checked his watch. “I imagine those accompanying us are currently readying the vehicles.”
Cyrus sighed. “I am not going to be the one explaining any of this to Killian.”
Ender smiled as he had a brilliant idea. “Why do it when neither of us have to. Toddles! You’re up! Since you are staying here, and graciously decided to stick around and listen to this drama, while we head out, you can go down to the Intel Center and let the pretty Siren know what we are up to.”
“In what universe would I ever stay behind while you go meet someone as dangerous as Jurosso?!” Soren squawked.
His eyes narrowed on his brother. “You can stay behind on your own willpower or as a stone statue. Your choice.”
The Harpy’s eyes narrowed back, fire lighting up inside them as he trilled, “Try it, see what happens.”
Ender grimaced. Having lived with Gorgons since being hatched, Soren had built up quite a resistance to his eyes, so…try would likely be the operative term, in that it didn’t always work. During the first few hundred or so years, it did, but now it mostly didn’t.
“So fucking annoying,” he hissed, before huffing, “Fine, you can come too! Let’s go!”