A Kink in the Tail

Chapter 23 - Loose marbles.

There is more of this chapter coming but I thought I would post this bit...get the grey matter thinking what might happen next.

Three things happened all at once. Each setting fate rolling like stray marbles in different directions.

Cyrus walked out of the elevator on the 2nd floor and headed down the corridor towards Paul's apartment. He wondered what he wanted to discuss. Maybe he had an interesting errand for him, he hoped so and started to walk faster.   Once he got a call from his employer with a new case, he'd have to leave and the fun would be over.  

Lewis's annoyed face popped into his head.  Did he step on his toes by getting too chummy with Paul, was that why he was angry? There was a weird hierarchy thing going on within the group that was obvious.  The way they virtually kowtowed to Paul, which was obvious and rather creepy.   Perhaps there was more power play going on than he realised and Lewis didn't like to share his Boss?  He didn't seem the petty sort but you can never tell about people, they do things to surprise you or disappoint you.   With Lewis, anything could be going on in his head and you wouldn't know.  Cyrus told himself to back off a little.  He wasn't interested in fitting in or taking anyone's place.  He definitely didn't want to alienate Lewis.

His brain jumped to another question, what were those little black capsules?  Lewis tried to hide them..obviously making Cyrus even more curious.

His phone pinged. Cyrus pulled it out of his pocket as he got to the door, his hand raised to knock.

He looked at the message and stared at the screen for longer than was necessary for a message only 6 words long. Cyrus did a U-turn and headed back down to the elevator. As he went he texted Paul a message.

"Something's come up."

The minute the elevator door opened he jumped in and pressed the down button and kept on pressing it until the doors finally moved. He looked at the message again, and a nervous tick started in the corner of his mouth. He shot out the elevator, out of the hotel, out to the parking lot to his car, and sped home.

As he drove Cyrus started to slowly turn parts of himself off, like someone going about the rounds at night, turning off one light after another until the house was in darkness.  By the time he got home Cyrus was barely functioning as a human being.

Up in his apartment, Paul frowned at the message he just received. "What the hell did you say to him, Lewis?" He mumbled to himself and tapped in a number.

"Have you got anything to tell me, Lewis?" Paul said quietly.

"No Sir." Lewis could hear Paul using his Guardian's voice, something was up. "No nothing to report. Is there a problem Sir?"

"Not sure. The boy may have done a runner."

"Cyrus? Oh umm..." Suddenly Lewis remembered his last words to Cyrus. "Shit!"

"Lewis?"

.....

Theodore knocked on the door. One of his men let him into Thanos's suite. "He is busy at the moment Sir." The guard looked towards the bedroom. "He doesn't want to be disturbed." Theodore's wolf hearing picked up moaning and grunts. He quickly shut them out.

"Have you found anything?"

The guard sat down on the couch and turned his laptop toward Theodore. "Nothing about the fires but  I came across this and two other similar reports from the night we arrived. It explains why our human contact didn't show up"