Page 55 of Hellfire & Tinsel
Kassel rocketed back into the opposite wall and was just about to propel himself forward to meet Zorun in a real clash when tiny footsteps rounded the corner.
“Why is the ground shaking?” Oren asked, aghast as soon as he saw them. “Zorun! Kassel! Are you fighting?”
Zorun groaned. “Can’t have any fun around here anymore.”
Oren stomped up to them, hands on his hips. His flamingo-patterned shorts matched his bowtie of the day. “We’ve talked about this, Zorun. It’s unbecoming for senior management to be starting fights in the workplace. And, Kassel, I never would have expected this fromyou.”
Kassel glowered and said nothing, still seething with roiling emotions.
Oren’s stance deflated and he gave him a comforting touch on the arm. “You’ve been having a rough time since you got back, haven’t you?”
“Which is why I was trying to get him to let off a little steam,” Zorun interjected, waving an exasperated hand at him. “The moron doesn’t even know he’s upset.”
“I’m not upset.” Kassel denied it, even as the words rang in his head. “Am I?”
“Oh, you poor thing. It’s worse than I thought,” Oren said, taking his hand quickly. “Follow me.”
“Why?”
“I’m staging a PowerPoint Intervention.”
“A… what?”
“Zorun!” Oren called back, ignoring Kassel’s question. “Go find Luc and tell him this afternoon’s booty call is on pause.”
“No way! Last time I walked in to tell him something like that he had his dick already pointing in my face, waiting!”
“Delegate it then.”
“Ooohhh Jeeeek!” Zorun called, walking away.
“Poor Jek,” Oren murmured. “He always gets picked on. Maybe I should make him employee of the month this time to make him feel better. You wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“No.”
“Fantastic.”
They made it to the meeting room, and Oren pushed him into a chair, moving to the front of the room where he pulled down a projector screen.
“Routing electricity and internet down here required a legit miracle. I’m happy G owed me,” Oren said as he pulled out his laptop.
“I thought you cashed in that favor already?” Kassel mumbled.
“Not in writing I didn’t.”
Cutthroat. Scheming. Inherently good, but with a tinge of darkness making it murky and gray.
Nothing like Beau’s ethereal spirit.
Kassel longed to see it again. Just a glimpse. To be near its calming, warm presence.
“Kassel?”
Kassel turned his hazy gaze upward.
“This is worse than I thought. We may have to skip slides one through twenty,” he muttered, adjusting his glasses before tapping away at his keys.
An image appeared on the projector screen, a large heart with the word LOVE written under it in every human language and even demonic script.
