Workout

John had been running for two hours and now he just couldn't keep it up. When he reached the next bus stop he plopped down on the bench and finished the last bit of water he had. His lungs and legs felt like they were on fire. Even his teeth hurt.

"What took you so long?" Emura asked while stretching out seductively against a light pole.

"When you said a jog, I didn't think you meant 'run at full speed the entire fucking time,'" he replied.

"You did well, though," she said and gave him her water which she hadn't even drank from. Nor was she even winded. As soon as they started their run she told him "catch me" and then dashed ahead faster than an Olympic sprinter. He'd spent the whole time trying and failing to do just that. Occasionally she slowed enough for him to get close, but still just out of reach. Then she ran ahead again at speeds no person could hope to match.

"Are you even human?" he joked.

"Nope," she said matter-of-factly and he just stared at her panting for breath. If she was joking then she did it completely straight-faced. Maybe she wasn't joking. Magic may or may not exist, monsters certainly did, maybe there were people out there who weren't human.

He finished Emura's water bottle and found the energy to stand back up.

"I've seen enough," she said, "In a little while we'll head to gym, after you re-energize. Don't worry, we'll walk back to my place."

"Back to your place," he said, "You make your huge four-story mansion sound like a downtown apartment."

"You should see my other houses," she said which made John roll his eyes. She hurried ahead of him, but she didn't run like she did earlier. She seemed to exaggerate the swing of her hips which made her butt bounce and jiggle. He watched for a second before making himself look up.

Right at her face. She was peeking at him over her shoulder with a smoldering grin and for a fraction of a second, he once again found himself drawn into her deep... gold... eyyyeeeeeesssssss. Then she looked forward again and he shook his head to clear his mind. He could have sworn he heard her voice in his head, saying his name. No, moaning his name.

Now that it was almost noon, there were more people on the street: other joggers and people walking to lunch. John noticed that every single man, and a few women, did a double take when Emura walked by. A few of them kept staring until she was out of sight.

"Do you get this a lot?" John asked while still trying not to stare at her ass.

"All the time," she said, "I like the attention though. I like flaunting what I have: my wealth, my power, my body."

"Rich bitch," he muttered under his breath.

"I'm not a good person, John," she said, "You already know that, but here you are. If you accept my job offer, will there be any conflicts of interest?"

"You said you would give me every opportunity to refuse, right?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, "Because it's going to be very dangerous, every bit as dangerous as your service in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"Ignorance didn't protect me or my squad from the wendigo," he said, "I want to take the fight to the monsters. That's the only reason I'm considering your offer."

Emura pointed to a crowd of pedestrians and said, "What if I told you one of them was a vampire or an oni?"

"I wouldn't know what to do," he said.

"Fair enough," she said, "How about this, what if one of them was a suicide bomber: the kid maybe, or the old man with the umbrella? Could even be the mom with the stroller." The woman in question did a double take when she walked by and ogled Emura's tits. Emura winked at her and the woman flushed beet red then hurried along.

"What if someone was hiding a nuke in a Ugandan village and any of the civilians could be a suicide bomber on top of that?" she continued to say as they approached the main gate.

"Is that what actually happened in Uganda?" John asked.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," she said, "Dragonguard regularly has to deal with situations of that magnitude, when it serves my agenda. You'll get your chance to take the fight to the monsters, don't get me wrong, but you'll be working for me first and foremost. My affairs won't always involve killing monsters, and when they do, it will be far more complicated than a single wendigo in the Canadian wilderness. Think about it some more while we have lunch."

They entered the mansion and Emura led the way to the kitchen where brunch was already prepared for them. Everything looked just as exquisite as anything from the restaurant where he worked. There was a sandwich for each of them, but all of the ingredients were of the highest quality, nothing you could find in just any neighborhood deli. The fruits and vegetables looked too perfect to be real, and he smelled six different spices in the steaming-hot soup.

"Ah, exactly how I like it," she said, "Thank you, gentlemen!"

"Who are you talking to?" he asked while eyeing all of the delicious food.

"My, uh, housekeepers," she said, "They don't like anybody watching them at work."

"But they're hiding within earshot?" he asked.

"No," she said as she dished up her meal, "Just invisible."

"Uh huh," he said. As they ate, Emura pelted him with questions. Some of them were fairly standard for a job interview, others were a little more personal. He answered all of them and she listened intently while making sure not to look him in the eye.

When they were finished, he realized something odd. Although he was close to vomiting up a lung an hour earlier, this meal had left him completely rejuvenated. It was like he hadn't even been running. He practically leapt off the barstool then stretched and flexed.

"Ready to head to the gym?" she asked.

"Absolutely!" he said, "Hey, I thought a bit more about what you were saying. I'm still apprehensive about your company's reputation, but if there's a two-million dollar paycheck with it, then I'll at least reserve my judgement. For now at least, if it's really as complicated as you say."

"Glad to hear it," she said.

"Just promise I'll get some payback on the thing that did... this," he pulled up the leg of his pants and showed her the bite scar from the wendigo. It looked like a cross between a shark and a lion and it was still as bright and ghastly the day it healed.

"It hasn't faded has it?" she asked, "It'll probably never fade. Don't worry, you'll get to butcher that monster soon enough, but don't make any decision until we're finished in Arizona."

"Right," he said as they entered the gym, "Got ahead of myself."

She guided him through the next phase of the physical which was almost exactly like the one back in the army. Like the run, it was a bit less formal than he was used to. He also never had such a sexy physician deliver the tests before. Not that there weren't some hot nurses in the army, but Emura was head and shoulders above all of them. Literally head and shoulders, she was as tall as him without heels, and he was six-five. Her presence was incredibly distracting during the workout and he caught himself staring at her legs, her sexy abs, her tits, her butt, or hell even just the back of her ponytail.

The surprising part was, she seemed to watching him just as intensely, far more than was necessary for the exam. She was a bit more subtle about it, but not by much. That awakened his old high-school jock brain (also known as his lizard brain) and he worked much harder than he normally would to try and impress the woman. He loaded five more pounds to the barbell than he usually lifted, went for fifteen more pullups, and ten more pushups. Of course she hadn't seen him workout before, so she had no frame of reference, but his lizard brain.

This wore him out faster though, even with the oddly satisfying lunch, so after and hour he was struggling to hold up the barbell. She was spotting for him so he had a glorious view of her underboob. After the tenth lift his arms trembled and he almost dropped the weight on himself. She caught it with one hand and casually placed it back on the bar like it weighed nothing.

"I say you passed," she said.

"That bar weighs more than me," he huffed, "How the-"

"I told you I'm not human," she said, "Grab a towel and head to the shower. There's also some ointment in the bathroom you might want to try."

"Yeah," he said, "Thanks."

"After that, join me in my office and we'll close the interview," she said.

"Where's your office?" he asked.

"Sama will direct you," she said and stared at his ass while he was leaving. He knew this because he forgot a towel on the way out, and noticed her biting her lip. When she realized she was caught she winked at him and he hurried to the shower.

After the shower the ointment did wonders for his aching muscles. He thought of buying some for himself but the tube was bare white with no label. He sighed his disappointment and dried off then wrapped the towel around his waist so he wouldn't drip all over the floor.

When he grabbed his clothes, they smelled perfectly fresh, like they were just washed. Except he had only showered for fifteen minutes.

"More magic, I guess," he said then got dressed. Sama was waiting outside the bathroom and led him to Emura's office. Sama knocked and Emura told them to come in.

John was stunned. Emura had apparently washed, applied makeup, styled her hair, and dressed like she headed to a board meeting in only twenty minutes.

"Thank you, Sama," she said. Her personal assistant nodded and left the room.

"Here's where you'll get to ask any more questions before the trip to Arizona," she said.

"What part will I play in the op?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said, "You're an observer only until you're hired."

"Out of curiosity, why not hire me now?" he asked.

"Whatever happens in Arizona, it won't go according to plan," she said.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Nature of the job," she said, "You're opinion on the matter might change drastically after you see what we do, what we actually do, and if you choose to work for me, I expect commitment. This isn't a job you can just quit."

"Oh," he said, "And why is that?"

"My employees, especially my knights, are bound to me," she explained, "Magically so. After you're knighted, you can't change your mind."

"Knights?" John asked.

"Yes," Emura said, "My footsoldiers. They're the ones who enforce my bidding, fight for me, and kill monsters for me."

"And that's the position you're interested in hiring me for?" he asked.

"Correct," she said, "Specifically for your experience with wendigos, but also because you're an incredible soldier."

"If you call getting mauled one time experience," he said, "What do you actually expect to happen in Arizona?"

"The most probable setback is that the FBI will get involved," she said, "That's the other reason I don't want to hire you just yet. If you're questioned I want you have plausible deniability. Less probably, but far more dangerous, the facility may be infested with monsters of any kind. We've had no intel from this area for years, so we're going in blind."

"And what is the purpose of this facility?" he asked.

"Storage and holdings with some manufacturing capabilities," she said but refused to elaborate further. John had been in the army long enough to know that when someone was interested in a warehouse, their real interest was something inside the warehouse. She gave a brief outline of the operation with enough information that he didn't feel out of the loop, but excluded details that were confidential. She also gave him some conditions to respect the authority of her knights, and don't interfere. He agreed and she gave him a schedule. They would fly out tomorrow.

"Thank you for your time, John," she said formally closing the interview, "I hope you'll join us after this."

However when he got up to leave she said, "You don't have to leave just yet. I have something to give you, if you want it."

"What is it?" he asked.

"Follow me," she whispered in his ear. He shrugged and walked briskly after her. She led him to an spacious room on the fourth floor, with twelve-foot high windows around three of the walls. Mt Rainier was on side with Lake Washington on the other, and a basalt stone fireplace in between. One wall was taken up by a bar stocked with every kind of **** John had ever heard of.

"Wow, that's a spectacular view, but what did you want to give me?" he asked. Emura's eyes were literally glowing like the embers of a dying campfire and she was giving him the hungriest, most lustful smile he had ever seen. Her clothes burnt to ashes before his very eyes and the smoke was sucked up the fireplace. Underneath she wore midnight blue lingerie.

She sprawled out languidly on one of the couches, pushed out her impeccable tits and said, "Today, I'm yours if you want me."