“Lana! Where the hell were you?” I demanded, stomping toward her.
Lana froze, hovering perhaps a meter off the sidewalk and looking like a deer trapped in headlights as she stared over at me. “I-I was just…” her lower lip quivered as she glanced around like she was searching for a suitable explanation.
I shook my head in anger and disappointment, those last tense few seconds watching Selene struggle against the final zombie replaying over and over in my head, and cut her off before she could blubber out some excuse. “Yeah? Well, while you were ‘just’, we were busy fighting for our lives. Same thing happened upstairs with the chimera, didn’t it? Euna and I fought while you cowered in the rafters! Maybe you’re not cut out to be a field agent after all.”
Lana’s eyes went even wider than before and she shook her head, spilling a few tiny droplets of tears from the force of her refusal. “N-no! I’m sorry, Ryan! I didn’t mean to disappoint you. That chimera’s pelt reflects magic. Anything I would’ve tried would’ve just bounced off and endangered you and Euna.”
That… makes sense, I admitted to myself. “Right. So what about just now?”
Her wings beat slower and she dropped dangerously close to the cement as she wiped tears from her eyes. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“I don’t care. Tell me why you left us out here without any magical support.”
Lana dropped all the way to the ground and sniffled slightly, shaking her head defiantly.
“Now!” I insisted.
“Ryan,” Selene’s voice suddenly cut in. “Maybe we should just leave it be for now. We have bigger concerns at the moment. Like all the phantoms we need to round up.”
I did not like the tone of her voice, regardless of whether it was Selene (who I barely knew) or Hannah (who I knew very well) speaking. “No offense Hannah, or Selene, or whatever the two of you would like to be called, but your ghosts have been dead a long time. They’ll just have to stay dead a little while longer while I address a few more immediate concerns.”
Hannah blanched and narrowed Selene’s eyes into angry slits. “What do you mean ‘more immediate concerns’ exactly?”
“Well let’s see. There’s zombies loose in Eastport. My ex is back from the dead and possessing the body of a cop. My werewolf girlfriend is pregnant and ready to give birth any day now. My guns are broken. The Bureau is understaffed after a demonic coup a few months back. There seems to be an anomaly cropping up every two days right now, which is a helluva lot faster than every two weeks like when I first started this job. There are still three Signal emitters ready to go off at any minute and turn local monsters feral. And oh yeah, waaaaay down at the bottom of the list? A bunch of ghosts aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Not really my main priority right now.”
For a tense few seconds, nobody spoke. Lana’s wings were drooping by her sides. Selene’s face was warped in disbelief and anger. My chest was rising and falling rapidly as an overwhelming anger surged through me.
I made a disgusted sound and pulled up my wrist-mounted tactical screen, keying in a few commands to bring our modified assault vehicle around to pick us up.
Uh, Ryan? Io suddenly asked via our psychic link.
What? I replied tersely.
Yikes. Guess I have my answer. I was about to ask if you were experiencing any sudden burst of anger. Remember the last time you swung by?
My mind drifted back to the most recent time I visited Io in her new office at HQ. Leading a whole department of drone operators had its perks, including an office with a lockable door. I had come to her complaining about some weird moodiness I’d been experiencing lately and she had offered to help relieve some of my stress.
As a lamia, Io’s jaw could unhinge slightly and she had no gag reflex to speak of, so she had generously become the go-to blowjob queen out of my three girlfriends, as she was the only one who could actually accommodate my size. She had not-so-subtly suggested I take advantage of her unique ability and I, being a red-blooded male of the heterosexual persuasion, had taken her up on the offer… vigorously.
The memory of her laying backwards across her desk while I fed her my cock upside down, her massive tits busting out of her blouse as my heavy balls bounced off her forehead, and the sheer relief I felt once I had finally finished (it took a while, I was tense and I like taking my time and enjoying the view, alright, don’t judge me) was almost enough to cut through the tension I was feeling on the zombie-covered street. Almost.
I remember what we got up to, yeah, I flirted back.
Through our connection, I felt Io’s cheeks blush purple and could easily picture the way she fanned herself slightly as she replied. Oh Ryan, don’t turn me on while I’m at work, please. You’ll have me craving you throughout my whole shift. Besides, that wasn’t the part of your last visit I was referring to.
Oh? Well, then you’ll have to refresh my memory. All I remember right now is watching your throat bulge around my cock, sorry, not sorry.
Io sighed wistfully. You should stop by again soon, handsome. I miss you. But let’s try to stay on topic. Before that, we were discussing how Tabitha’s mood swings might be affecting you due to the special bond the two of you share, remember?
Now that she mentioned it, I did remember that, and I remember not liking it. The implication that Tabitha’s pregnancy-related hormonal shifts could affect my emotions? Unacceptable. My indomitable will had already beaten out the Signal emitters and allowed me, and my girls, to completely ignore the Signal’s ability to turn us feral with its weird cursed frequency it produced. If I could stop that thing from influencing my mood, then a couple of lousy hormones didn’t stand a chance.
I remember just fine. But I still think your theory needs work.
Right. Well, for what it’s worth, Tabitha just spent the past few minutes beating the shit out of five recruits in the training grounds. They were all trained military types, too, and she’s eight months pregnant. Something tells me she got a jolt of anger in her, and it might have affected you too. Just… think about it. Oh, and feel free to think about what else we got up to in my office, any time you feel like it. My door is always open to you, handsome.
Even as our connection dissipated and the assault vehicle rolled up to us, I felt my anger evaporate and decided to replace it with a cold calm feeling. This brain I occupied was mine. I controlled what it felt. Me. Not some psychic bond to my gorgeous (but occasionally homicidal) pregnant werewolf girlfriend.
I owed a pair of apologies and I was man enough to admit it.
I turned to Lana first. “Listen, twinkle-toes. I’m sorry I snapped at you. I didn’t know that about the chimera. Honestly, still kinda mad you left us to fend for ourselves against the zombies, but if you can give me a solid explanation as to why that happened back there and why it won’t happen again, by the end of the day, I’ll forget all about it.”
Lana nodded, though her eyes never strayed from the ground between her feet and she walked over to the car instead of flying. That would have to do for now. As much as I wanted to make amends, she still fucked up today and she knew it.
Next up was Hannah and Selene. “As for you…it’s good to see you. Hell, it’s good to see both of you. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, but if you come with my back to HQ I’ll make sure you get all the help you need to deal with these runaway ghosts. Alright?”
Selene’s arms crossed. “That’s better. First off though, they’re phantoms, not ghosts. Ghosts are spirits trapped in the mortal world that never crossed over into the afterworld. Phantoms crossed over for a little while but came back. There’s also wraiths, which are even more dangerous, but with any luck we won’t run into any of those. Secondly… it’s good to see you too, Ryan. I’m Hannah, by the way, but between you and me Selene is in here chatting my ear off about how good you look and how safe she feels around you. So I think it’s safe to say we are happy to see you. Thirdly, thank you for the offer. We’ll happily accompany you back to your headquarters.”
With that settled, I glanced back over my shoulder to check on Euna, and my heart skipped a beat. She was leaning up against the front of the tour bus, her normally pink biomass now a sickly shade of white. She was also sweating little pink droplets that were creating a small greasy pink puddle at her feet.
“Babe?” I asked hesitantly.
“Ryan?” She called out softly. “I don’t feel so good. I think…I think maybe absorbing that zombie was a,” her hands shot to her stomach as she lurched down to her knees.
I took one stride toward her and broke into a run, my heart hammering in my chest.
“...a bad idea.” Euna finished, her voice distorted painfully as all the color leached from her body. She shook, violently, and suddenly looked up at me. Her entire form was now stark white and lifeless, but her gelatinous biomass was still animated.
And…She was a zombie!