Life as a New Hire Ch. 10

"Congratulations, you and Aya are forbidden to work. I thought keeping you in the building would be safer. I'm mature enough to admit I was wrong," Katrina conceded. "No place is safe for you, or from you. I'm sending you home, under guard."

"Can I choose Buffy?" I perked up. Katrina arched an eyebrow.

"I also need something," I kept slaloming down toward Hell. "I need a six hour dispensation from you on the whole sex thing with employees."

"Oh Goddess," Katrina laughed. "What part of me wanting you to stay alive have you missed?"

"Are you going to sleep with my Mommy now?" Aya grinned.

"No," Katrina answered for me, "he's going to play with Buffy." Right on the money. One scary-smart woman without a doubt. "Best of all, I'll let you assign Buffy to be your security for the night and you can tell her the good news when you get home. Aya, that means Cáel does, not you."

"Yes Aunt Katrina," Aya moped.

She wanted me to be banging Caitlyn; her Momma. We would make love, Caitlyn would take me as her mate and I'd be Aya's Daddy for real. She'd kill me a month later for my twelfth indiscretion. I'm not a fortuneteller. I'm a bookie and I knew the odds of me staying faithful were a sucker's bet.

The only questions were how many and with which one Caitlyn would kill me with. I wasn't sure how to break that reality to Aya. After getting bandaged/tortured my doctor, cleaned up and redressed, I managed to survive the rest of the day without catastrophe.

(Later)

"Cáel, do you realize that you've been wounded more than most Security Detail recruits do during their basic training?" Violet teased me.

Buffy was too furious for coherent speech.

"It isn't his fault, Buffy," Aya pleaded. "He wasn't seducing a woman, or anything like that. Oneida tried to sex him up all on her own." Huh? "Constanza's nipples were very aroused and we all know what she wanted."

I really was worrying about the twisted sexual education Aya was getting. She knew the terms, but was missing out on the complete meaning of what she was saying.

"Oneida? Who the hell is Oneida?" Buffy growled.

"She's one of the new hires with Acquisitions," Violet answered. Brian Fung's group.

"What were you making eyes at her for?" Buffy snarled possessively.

"He didn't," Katrina swept into the office. "She made a Death Pledge and Cáel, acting as a vessel for our Ancestors, refused it - so the youngest breeding female in House Arinniti gets to keep living." I grunted because I knew who Arinniti was, or had been.

"Vessels for the Ancestors?" Violet gasped.

"Arinniti - that name rings a bell," Buffy mumbled.

"She's one of the twenty founding bloodlines," Aya gladly provided. Katrina took her seat behind her desk and regarded me with something between amusement, annoyance, and pride. Oh, and sex.

"Violet, Cáel held a weapon in the presence of Hayden - the spear that Oneida had dropped to seal her pledge. If he was a male acting alone, he would have to be killed. Is that the course of action you wish to recommend to the High Priestess?" Katrina suggested.

"Ancestors work for me," Violet gulped.

"You can't take back a Death Pledge," Buffy turned to Katrina. "It is a Death Pledge."

"It appears you can if Cáel is in the room," Katrina smirked.

"Best Daddy ever!" Aya yipped. "He caught the spear before it hit the ground and held it until Hayden came by and read the signs from the Ancestors that Cáel was supposed to retract Oneida's words. Hayden even had Oneida stand on the spear, but Da - Cáel didn't let it fall."

"Maybe the Ancestors think Cáel is sexy too," Aya added. Groan.

"They had better not," Buffy spun back to me threateningly. Fine, if some undead man-haters thought I was hot...sigh...that might entail there would be no rest for me even in the afterlife.

"Buffy, do you have plans for this weekend?" I glared.

"Why?" she snapped.

"Great. Katrina, I want Buffy to be my bodyguard for this weekend," I looked to my boss. Aya almost slipped up, but bit her lip to hold herself back.

"Fine," Katrina grumbled. "I promised you that you could choose your guardian. I was truly hoping you would pick among the candidates from SD I suggested, but so be it."

"I have to be around him all weekend?" Buffy howled.

"Yeah," I exhaled happily, "and I plan to have sex all weekend long." From the look on Buffy's face, she knew she was going to die. She was going to see me having sex with someone else, snap, kill me then kill herself out of shame and grief. Yep, she was going to die.

It turned out Aya was off to Amazon Summer Camp for Squirts. We quickly arranged a series of smoke signals she could use to send for me if she was in danger. Desiree rolled her eyes, hefted Aya's luggage and left with my tiny boon companion. I sobbed.

"Katrina, can I go see her when she's at camp?" I turned to my boss.

"Cáel Nyilas, this is a place where we send our greatest treasure - our children," Katrina smirked. "We will not discuss the abuse of power it would be for me to reveal the location to you."

"Cool...Daphne, where is it?" I turned to my closest female new hire.

"I won't tell you and it changes every year," Daphne smiled.

"But you know where it is this year," I persisted.

"I didn't say I didn't," Daphne beamed.

"Fine. Come home with me. While my ogress henchwoman holds you down, I'll tickle the truth out of you," I menaced.

"Buffy don't!" Tigger shouted. Buffy was about to brain me with my reading lamp. I was fearless.

"Okay, Bubbles," I beamed vindictively. "Go get us a car and make it snappy." There was a hush. "What? Did I use any words that were too big for you to understand?"

Buffy's screamed caused people to reach for their sidearm three floors away. She stormed out, thankfully not running over anyone.

"Do you want to die?" Violet tugged my sleeve.

"Let the 'Lost Blood' (OKH) deal with him," Fabiola sneered. "They are both annoyances."

I took a deep breath.

"Fabiola, your laws regulate what I can and can't say to you," I stared at her. "Instead, I beseech you to never insult a 'Runner' (OKH) in my presence again."

"Buffy is a 'Lost Blood' (OKH)," Fabiola defied me. I took another deep breath then hobbled over to Katrina's desk, retrieved a pen, piece of paper and a nice, soapstone-encased lighter.

By the time I got back to my desk, I certainly had the new hires' attention. Since Fabiola was a Latin name, I had to guess at what it would look like in the Amazon alphabet.

"Daphne, is this right?" I asked. She shook her head. She wouldn't give me the answer. I got it on the third try. I showed Fabiola her name on the paper then burned it. I rubbed the ashes between my palms then showed Fabiola my blackened palms.

"What does that mean?" Paula inquired. She was worried. I was both flamboyant and hardcore at the same time.

"Who cares?" Fabiola mocked me.

"'Ghost'" I said in Old Kingdom Hittite. It took them a few seconds to realize it had a second definition - invisible.

I had no doubt Katrina fully understood the implications of my actions.

"Cáel, I will have to consult with Hayden over this," Katrina mused. I gave a nod, collected my stuff and headed for the elevator.

"Katrina, what did he do?" Dora chimed in.

"He murdered Fabiola," Katrina enlightened them. "In his mind, she no longer exists."

"Can he do that?" Violet wondered. Fabiola took after me.

"Cáel," she called out. I ignored her. She caught up. "Cael." Ignored. Then she shoved me from behind in the shoulder. I kept walking.

"Don't you ignore me!" she seethed. Daphne was coming up fast.

"Leave him alone," Daphne insisted. Fabiola shoved me again. I was almost at the elevator.

"Don't," Helena came up. She was aiming for Daphne because Daphne was about to kick Fabiola.

"She's insulting you!" Daphne reacted to Helena while pointing at Fabiola.

"He is a man," Helena explained. "We don't fight over men." Meaning that couldn't be the primary excuse, not that it never happened.

"Katrina, make me Cáel's boss," Fabiola shouted.

Well, I would never dare shout at Katrina unless her life was on the line. Also, technically Fabiola couldn't be my boss, being a 'new hire' and all.

"Cáel Nyilas, Fabiola is your boss for the next five minutes," Katrina intoned. Oh fuck.

"Cáel, to my side," Fabiola gloated. I looked past her to Katrina, sighed and punched the elevator button.

"Don't turn your back on me," Fabiola snarled. A tug of war developed. She kept trying to turn me away from the elevator doors and I refused to be budged. Fabiola drew her blade. Shit.

"You cannot run far enough away that I will let you get away with that," Daphne seethed in OKH. Fabiola was about to meet that challenge.

"What are you doing?" Katrina had been coming out of her office when she caught the exchange.

"I..." Daphne stammered. She'd screwed up.

"Apologize," Katrina commanded. Daphne apologized grudgingly. The doors opened. "Cáel, hold the door." I did.

"Cáel, to my side," Fabiola repeated. She thought she was about to win. I stayed where I was.

"Fabiola, he can't hear you," Katrina pointed out.

"Of course he can hear me," Fabiola rebutted.

"No - no he can't," Katrina remained calm. "You have rendered yourself dead to him. Since he is not a priestess, or augur, he cannot hear the voices of the dead."

"He cannot willfully decide he can't hear me," Fabiola demanded.

"Oh, I agree. That would be wrong for him to willfully ignore any Havenstone female. Conversely, he can't allow any of our women to be harmed either," Katrina explained patiently. "So, when he witnessed an assault on the spirit of our women, he attempted to address it."

"He approached the perpetrator and politely asked them to refrain from that activity. He was rebuffed. It wasn't like he could physically resolve the issue. To resolve that internal conflict - to defend his sisters but not attack a sister, he symbolically killed the problem. This allowed him to constantly and continuously forget the cause of this disruption."

"He can't do that," Fabiola persisted.

"Actually, it is pure Cáel," Katrina smirked. "I personally unaware of any scripture, bylaw, or statute that forbids him from doing this. I have given you a reasonable argument that explains his actions. He is essentially working through two conflicting orders."

"Now Fabiola, as a perspective leader, what do you suggest he do? Let you force him to be relocated when he breaks your jaw? Let you insult half of Havenstone's staff until one day, one of them snaps and you end up in a Newark landfill? That would be wrong of him to do as he is supposed to lay his life down for us," Katrina kept at it. "What do you suggest?"

"How do you resolve the crisis? Before you answer that, consider the fate of Leona," Katrina gave a predatory twist of the lips that would make a Momma T-Rex proud.

"This male is making us fight amongst ourselves," Fabiola complained.

"I'm not fighting just for the male," Daphne growled. "I'm fighting to have offspring that are strong in both body and mind."

"Hey," Helena snorted, "can you imagine how much tougher the women in Acquisitions and Business Management have it? We get to talk about the New Directive without fear of weirding Cáel out."

"Please believe me," I chuckled. "I'm still weirded out. There is simply nothing I can do about it so I get on with my day."

"I don't understand any of you," Fabiola protested.

"Fabiola, will Aya die?" Katrina asked.

"Yes."

"Why?" Katrina continued.

"She is small, weak and hyperactive," Fabiola explained.

"Cáel, will Aya die?"

"No."

"Why?" Katrina gazed at me. "Isn't she small, weak and hyperactive?"

"Sure, she's small now, but she's only nine. Look at the size of all the other women in her house. None of them are super-tall either," I answered. "She's not hyperactive. She is very bright with a very active imagination. Once she finds her 'stillness' - her center - she'll do fine. If anything, she's too smart. She figures out that her guardians are worried, why they are worried and has to fight against their disappointment every time she does anything."

Fabiola snorted, proving yet again she was clueless to her surroundings.

"After all, Katrina, she's related to you and you are one of the scariest-smart people I've ever had the pleasure to know," I smiled. I could reply to Fabiola while not replying.

"Cáel, go. You are unlikely to survive Buffy as it is," Katrina directed.

Buffy was indeed apoplectic. She did manage to let me retrieve my bike before driving me home. Since I was dragging both all my business clothes, toiletries and my bike upstairs with crutches, it was painfully comical. A furious Buffy relented and took a few of my things. We had barely made it in the door when my phone rang.

Buffy dumped my belongings in the center of the living room.

"Hey," I answered the phone.

"Hey, it's Odette," she greeted me happily. "Are you still in the HQ?"

"Nope Odette," I grinned at Buffy. "I'm home. Do you want to come over?"

"Sure...it's not going to be a problem, is it?" she asked.

"I have a good friend over, but if you can stand my illicit behavior, you are more than welcome," I informed her.

"Cool," she chirped. "I'll be over in about an hour."

"See you soon. Until then Odette," I said.

"Now I have to watch you fuck a whore?" Buffy stared at the ground. I wasn't going to go after for the 'whore' thing. She was at the end of her endurance. I knew that. I limped in front of her and pulled out her phone. She was too angry to look up at me so I knelt down.

"Buffy," I showed her the text from Katrina about my six hour sexual exemption. She looked up and read it.

"So? What does this mean?" Buffy looked ready to explode in tears and fists.

"It means that when Constanza had her sword aimed at my throat I figured out a way to ease some of your fears," I stated. She blinked.

"You worried that I'd be dead by the end of the month, and I did promise to try and make you the first Havenstone woman I made love to," I explained.

"Constanza was about to kill you and you were thinking of me?" is what Buffy got out of all that.

"Yeah. I also realized that Aya was far calmer than she was last Saturday, but the major thing was how to ask Katrina for the exemption and lure you here for the weekend," I told her.

"Weekend?" Buffy studied me intently.

"Yeah," I grinned seductively.

"See, I figure we time everything. When we start something naughty, we cut on the timer and the moment we are done, we cut it off," I met her gaze. "That way me squeeze as much out of the six hours as possible - if that's what you want to do?" Buffy hugged me suddenly.

"You were about to die and I was the one you were thinking about," Buffy wept.

By that, I meant she fell apart emotionally. I had always seen Buffy so fierce that I was caught off-guard by this open vulnerability. I hugged her back and snuggled her close. She sniffled for several seconds.

"This doesn't count, does it?" she hiccupped.

"This is purely platonic. I'm bonding with my supervisor - team-building," I stated firmly.

"Oh Goddess, you are crazy, you are crazy, you are crazy," she murmured into my shoulder.

"Okay, I'm crazy. I also really want to have sex with you," I pushed her back so we could look eye to eye. "Or, are you going to make me beg like a big baby?"

"I really want to have sex with you too," Buffy smiled...romantically. The fiery freakiness was gone to be replaced by a deeply sensual, gentle spirit. What the hell?

"Let's go to the bedroom," I suggested. "We can try out the sofa later."

"Is your leg going to be okay?" she suddenly worried.

"Which one? Two of the three are working fine," I teased. No anger.

"I love your sense of humor," Buffy snickered. I repeat - Huh? We stripped down then crawled under the sheets. Buffy was demure, calm and at peace.

"Buffy, I don't want to ruin the mood," I said as I pulled her close.

"But you are not acting normal and I don't know what to make of it," I completed.

"I won," Buffy stroked my cheek lovingly. "I beat out everyone else for you. I gave it everything I had, you recognized that and came to me. This is me being happy, Cáel. Would you prefer me to be combative?"

"I prefer you," I teased. The 'thank you' hovered right on the other side of unspoken. It wasn't in her. She was starting to get amorous. I pulled away to Buffy's momentary confusion then the condom came out, I ripped open the packet, slipped on the prophylactic and returned to my lover. I was about to slip into Buffy, missionary style.

"Wait!" she stopped me. She hit two buttons on her wrist watch. "Timer," she explained. In I went. Buffy gasped slightly then began moving her legs up along my thighs. Years of experience made this a slow, gentle screw. This wasn't me wasting time; Buffy wanted savagery later. For her triumphal moment, she wanted to savor every second of this first time with her prize - me.

Tender kissing and nuzzling were the signs of our affection. She ran her hands over my shoulders, back and buttock. I would balance on my right arm while I coaxed delightful hums from Buffy. This was not Buffy's first time. By the level of stimulation she was giving me, this was unlikely to even be her 100th time. She knew her stuff.

She had mentioned me physically and cerebrally engaging her being a reason she was so desperate to 'have' me. I had misinterpreted that. Buffy wanted a sex partner that could keep up in a way that went far beyond stamina - she hungered for matching skill and maturity. She could give me subtle clues with her body and I'd pick up on them, folding them back into my own actions and signals.

There aren't too many that can meet me orgasm for orgasm. Buffy did. She crested to her climax first, but I was only seconds behind her. Before my final ejaculations, I rolled us over so that she was on top. I tried wiggle my cock out of her vagina. Buffy resisted.

"Don't pull out yet," Buffy requested.

"If I pull out, we can stop the clock," I insisted.

"Oh," she giggled, "me lying naked on top of you in your bed isn't 'inappropriate behavior'?"

"I won't tell if you won't," I snickered. Buffy cut of the timer on her wristwatch. Buffy was bringing her breathing under control and getting comfortable with our sweatiness.

"If you hadn't been as good as your hype," Buffy whispered after a minute, "I think I would have fallen apart...and killed you...then probably myself."

"Whoa," I reacted. "Explain that. Girls wanting to kill me is fine. Girls killing themselves for anything remotely involving me isn't." She mulled that over. She wasn't going to apologize yet felt a need to share something. I had to be patient.

I've been with a lot of girls and a few guys who didn't take rejection well. That rarely had anything to do with the actual rejection. It was some festering wound much deeper and older than their encounter with me.

"In high school I discovered the wonders of sex. I loved it. Not the lover, but the carnal act. I'd screw anyone, as long as it was something new and different," Buffy confided.

"After a few bad incidents, my parents - my stepfather and my mother - threw me out because they thought I was a bad influence for my two younger sisters. I went to a city and did the only thing I was good at. I met this guy - you know the story. He would protect me, love me, blah, blah, blah," Buffy recalled painfully.

"Slowly the sex stopped being fun. It was money and not my money at that. One night I got sick of it. 'He' wanted me to perform, I told him I was leaving so he and two buddies raped me. They raped me a lot over the next two days while they smoked meth and drank," she continued. "Finally, when they all passed out, I went to the place where he had his gun."