Curses and thanks.

John waved a tad awkwardly at the trio seated in the room. One of them was Angie, he could tell by the scars, and well, basically, he knew what Angie looked like. The one next to her was a person John didn’t recognize. She looked like a satyr, red hair, war paint on her cheeks in three horizontal lines and horns that grew from the back of her skull and curled away. Most of the rest of her body was human, but her feet ended in hooves, red fur growing from her ankles. The one oddity that gave John a clue as to who she was were the half healed burns on her arms and wrists. The final person in the room was a slender woman, also showing multiple caprinea traits. Two pairs of horns, one small sticking out from her forehead and one pair like Serena’s curving back around her head. A feather mantle hung around her shoulders and her feet ended in pointy hooves too. A lot of things were suddenly clear to John; the likeness between the three girls gave away quite a few of the secrets the girl he had saved held.

When Gus approached them and announced them, a pair of chairs had risen from the floor with but a wave of the hand of the third girl. John then walked towards them too earning himself a glare from Serena, a grateful look from Angie and a curious look from the final girl in the room.

“John Newman, Father has shown great interest you. My name is Carmel, nice to meet you.” The voice didn’t seem to come from the girl in front of him, no, it droned out of the walls around them.

“Yeah, thanks for the save. If I had known you were his pet project, I would have actually consider letting those guys take me, thank you very much.” Serena scowled.

John had barely sat down when the sisters spoke up. Gus sat down on the chair next to John. Being the only one in the room he felt comfortable talking to at that moment, John turned to Gus and asked, “So, let me get this straight. You are fucking the ex lover of your boss, his daughter works under you and hates her father’s guts, you also fucked at least one of his daughters, by your own admission even, and you freely offered me to sleep with one of the exes of a guy that keeps heckling me?”

“Wait, he heckles you?” Gus asked when indeed a popup showed up.

Hey! I was told to cut it out. Also, tell Serena her daddy loves her, she has my number blocked.

“Yes, he does, and no, Cern, I will not play messenger for you. I am NOT diving into your family issues, I got my own problems.” John sighed. Shaking his head as his divine headache started to pick up again, he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head one more time for good measure.

“As for the rest, yeah, basically.” Gus spoke without shame.

Angie, Serena and her sister looked at John with an odd expression, concern on Angie’s face, amusement on Serena’s and interest still on Serena’s sister’s face. “Are you done talking to dad? I think we should actually have a chat now,” Serena spoke up as she waved her hand in his face.

As she did, John could clearly see the green light wrapping around her wrists, the burns decreasing slowly as the light seemed to heal her. “Yeah, ehm, ok. So, nice to meet all of you proper. Very nice to make your acquaintance, Carmel; everything kinda fell into place when I saw all of you together,” John responded politely, then his eyes locked with Serena and he took a deep breath, rage building behind his eyes, his jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists. “As for you, Serena, I want you to know three things. One, my life has not been all that fun since I joined the Abyss last week. Two, yes, your father talks to me; he, Gaia and Hemet have been heckling me until Artemis told them to can it. As for three.” John got up from his chair and looked Serena dead in the eye. “If you really prefer to be **** in perpetuity by that freaking creep, then I really think you have problems, girl. And I want nothing to do with you, or your thanks. Gus, I’m leaving.” John bowed at Angie and Carmel, then turned on his heels and started to walk out. “I risked my life to save yours there, yet all you can think of is ‘oh, my daddy shows interest in you, let’s invalidate everything you did just because of that.’” John was fuming, only to be blocked by a wall of wooden tendrils coming up from the floor.

“Please return to your seat, John. I will apologise on my sister’s behalf. She has a… strained relationship with our dad. I am sorry you are in the middle of it right now,” Carmel spoke calmly, a hand raised at her sister to keep her from talking. “Serena, this hunter has a point, you know. At least thank him for saving you.”

“Fiiine, ok, thanks for not letting me die there, or you know, worse,” Serena said with a scowl, refusing to look John’s way. “I didn’t mean what I said, I just, ugh. No, nevermind. I don’t want to talk about him.” Serena’s head jerked forward as she suddenly looked into John’s eyes with a small smile forming on her lips. “Wait, Dad looks at you, he observes you, you just said that. Ok, I’m genuinely sorry, John. Do you mind if I come by the camp sometime to talk to you a bit? I hardly have any people my own age around here, and well, I just wanna talk?”

John was taken aback by her sudden turnaround, the old rule about not sticking it in crazy bubbling up in his mind, but on the other hand, he could use a few more friends and he did think that Serena seemed nice, even if she was a bit intense. “Sure, I’ll introduce you to my girlfriend? I’m around there most days at least for a few hours. Just ask for me there?”

“Now, with that out of the way! I think Johnyboy here deserves thanks, the Wild Hunt style!” Gus cheered while clapping his hands. Gus gestured at Angie and Serena. “I think that saving a demigod’s life at least warrants a double titjob, don’t you think? Ladies, if you please...”

John was conflicted, wanting to both say yes and no to this. Angie, not one to say no to her leader was taking off her top, but Serena… she shook her head. “No. Fuck no. You can’t **** me. I almost got fucking **** today, sorry. Ain’t doing it.” She pointed her finger at Gus accusingly when John’s cellphone started to buzz in his pocket.

He pulled it out, seeing Ilis’ name on the screen. “Sorry, ladies, I need to take this,” John said a bit flustered as he got up from the chair and walked to the side.