“I don’t know. He said something about your scent changing. He felt like he had to comfort you. It was the same at the club, except that one was different. It was all gross and sexifying.”
Dex’s mouth hung open. “Why the hell did no one tell me?”
Cael shrugged. “Only Therians can smell it, I guess.”
“What about you?” Dex cringed. That was wrong. So wrong.
“Ew, gross. No. You’re my brother. All I smell is your funky citrusy shower gel and you. Sloane doesn’t smell it either. I guess ’cause he’s your mate.”
Dex gasped. “That’s why Zach brought me Cheesy Doodles.” He narrowed his eyes. “And here I thought he was bringing me a peace offering for stealing mine.”
Cael peered at him. “Are you being serious right now? That was like two years ago.”
“I never forget a bag of Cheesy Doodles. So he was just smelling my emo boy scent and comforting me?”
Cael chuckled as he got up. He poked at Dex until he was out of Cael’s chair. “It’s not emo. They were all really worried about you, and I guess whatever you were giving off just amplified that, so they came to comfort you. Seriously, you hadn’t noticed everyone was acting kinda weird?”
Dex shrugged. “I haven’t really been myself lately. No wonder Hobbs keeps texting me all these Internet memes.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “A lot of them are about squirrels.”
Cael shrugged. “He likes chasing squirrels.”
“He likes chasing everything,” Dex corrected. “Remember when that call came in about the disturbance at Chuck E. Cheese?”
“Oh my God, yes! Those drunk asshats in their Therian forms jumped into the ball pit and it exploded. The balls went everywhere!”
Cael laughed, and Dex couldn’t help but join in.
That had been a truly awesome day. It was so crazy Lou thought he’d been making the whole thing up, until Dex showed him the video he’d taken on his phone. “Oh shit. That’s right! I still have the video.” He reached into his pocket to pull out his smartphone. He got up, taking a seat on the de
sk next to Cael. He scrolled through his videos and found it. He pressed play and turned the volume up. The video shook a little from Dex’s laughter as Hobbs in his Therian form chased a bunch of the balls out into the street. Seconds later, Cal barreled out from the building into the street, hauling ass after Hobbs and calling his name. It was the funniest shit Dex had ever seen. The balls went freaking everywhere. It was pandemonium. The pedestrians and commuters launching themselves out of the way clearly didn’t think it was so funny.
Cael was in tears from laughing. “Dude, that guy just climbed his Hummer!”
Dex let out a snort. “Hey, a three-hundred-pound tiger Therian in his Therian form comes barreling in my direction after a bunch of colored balls, I’d get the hell out of his way too.” They watched the video as Dex trailed after Hobbs and Cal. Hobbs bounded and pounced, swatting at colored balls with his giant paws while people around him screamed and ran for their lives. Hobbs was oblivious, too excited about the plastic, colored objects rolling everywhere. He swatted a blue ball, and it bounded down the sidewalk. He took off after it, nearly knocking Calvin on his ass. Calvin was red in the face.
Hobbs chased the blue ball down the sidewalk, straight for a little old lady who’d been swiftly shuffling a couple of feet behind a yuppie in a suit.
“I forgot about this. Watch this,” Dex said with a laugh. The little old lady looked behind her, saw Hobbs, and took off like a bat out of hell, body-slamming the yuppie guy like she was a running back for the Giants, her purse clutched against her like a football. Yuppie guy didn’t know what hit him. “The dude fucking soared, man.”
“Oh my God!” Cael coughed, he was laughing so hard.
“I remember Cal was so pissed. He ran like five city blocks carrying all his equipment and Hobbs’s PSTC kit. And then Ash took home a bunch of those colored plastic balls and stuffed them in Cal’s locker so when he opened it they all poured out.”
Dex almost pissed himself laughing. “I gotta hand it to Ash, that was pure gold. The look on Cal’s face.” Hobbs had gotten told off for it, especially when it ended up on the evening news, but Sparks had made sure he didn’t get disciplined. Instead she had the PR department turn it around to show a different side of the THIRDS and their Therian agents. A softer, playful side. No one had been hurt, the perps arrested, and Therian kids got to see that even THIRDS agents were who they were. That you couldn’t ask them to turn off a part of who they were.
Rosa returned with a cup of coffee in her hand. “What did I miss?” She gave Dex’s cheek a kiss, murmuring in his ear, “Good to see you laughing.” She gave him a wink and sat down. “What we laughing about?”
Cael told Rosa, who laughed, almost spilling her coffee all over herself. “Shit. You could have waited until I wasn’t drinking,” she scolded Cael, or at least she tried. She was still snickering.
Dex got a brilliant idea and ran over to Cael’s desk.
“What are you doing?”
Dex placed his phone on Cael’s desk and tapped away at the screen. He found a picture of the ball pit and e-mailed it to Calvin. Seconds later, an e-mail popped up on Cael’s desk. Dex tapped to expand it and opened it.
It said, “Screw you, Daley!”
The three of them nearly split at the seams. Dex laughed so hard he could barely breathe.