Page 85 of Five to Love Him
Xander cleared his throat. “I really, really don’t think I should be listening to this. Are we almost there?”
“Almost, but we’re waiting for the lernean to get here too before going in,” Conrad said. He had personally organized the arrival time and meetup, something I trusted him to do even if his attire left everything to be desired.
“This feels a lot like an intervention,” Xander said.
“Nothing of the sort, my dear.”
Conrad’s telephone made a grating noise, and he looked at it, scrolled while driving.
“Have a care, Conrad. This is not how one should conduct himself while behind the wheel. Especially not in front of the young.”
“Oh, I prefer riding my bike places, Principal Farrow. Better for the environment.”
“Well, aren’t you a precious one, Xander? Conrad, isn’t he a most circumspect and responsible adult?”
“Farr, I’m not going to bike through this fucking city, and I’m not going to sell off my cars either. If there’s anything you don’t like about that, you can damn well get your own license or learn to ride a fucking bike yourself. That would be fun to watch.”
“You can’t ride a bike, Principal Farrow?” Xander asked.
I closed the glove box with more force than it needed and readjusted the air condition unit once more.
“Why would I have need of that? I let the suffragettes have the bicycle and contented myself with eating their suppressors. There was never a need for me to wedge myself into what they had claimed for themselves.”
“You’re such a lazy sack of bullshit, Farr,” Conrad said.
“Mind your station, Conrad.”
“Mind your mouth, or I’ll put that ball gag on you and lock you in the trunk.”
“Nope, oh no. I’m not watching that,” Xander said.
I clicked my tongue. “Conrad, you are scaring the pup. What is this, suburbia?”
The houses here had yards and neatly planted flowery things. I imagined the insides being just about as proper, and while it was one thing to uphold propriety at my school, this was quite another hell that I wished not to dwell in.
“Sort of. It’s where they live. Now shut your mouth for five fucking minutes while the lernean catches up with us. Star-Garbed, you been here before?”
“Yes. I’m helping them with their wallpaper and floor.”
“Good. You’re going first then. Oh my god, take your hands off the AC, Farr.”
“Language,” I said before I managed to stop myself.
Conrad cackled while putting the car in park and lifting his right arm to lean on his hand. It was showing off his unkempt armpits, and I was scared the pup might have quite the fit.
It was going to be five very long minutes, what with all the lacking decorum and the sensitive werewolf in the back seat. And with Conrad’s tempting armpit hair of course.
thirty-nine
The hive had calmed down, but that was probably due to the blond hive injecting them with something he assured me wasn’t going to hurt them. The hiveling who’d been dehydrated was looking much better in particular, a huge relief in and of itself.
“You did very well,” the blond hive told me. He’d come back with a red medical bag and was checking over all my hivelings, taking their pulse and even their temperature with one of those ear thermometers. “Yes, he’s improving.”
“What was that what happened to them?”
Two of the blond hivelings looked at me. “In human terms, PTSD.”
“Oh.” I swallowed, my throat dry and my eyes stinging. “Should’ve been obvious, right? Did he tell you I never finished college and never really worked other than the part-timing at St. Auguste? I kept telling myself it was because I almost drowned, but maybe I wasn’t really all that smart to begin with. Guess if I were I would’ve known.”
