Ethan's POV
I open my eyes with a start as I'm jarred awake from the reoccurring nightmare running like a loop in my head. I look around as I start to feel the sun rays streaming in from the open window on my face, I roll over to the other side of the bed with my eyes still closed hand shooting out lazily to grab Kat and snuggle into her soft body but feel nothing but space there.
I sluggishly open my eyes to look around the room for her but instead catch the glint of sunlight bouncing off a piece of steel flying with an astonishing speed towards me. My instincts immediately kick in and in an instant, my legs are over the side of the bed; my head bent low, my hands already wrapped around the handgrip of my pistol which I had just taken out from underneath my pillow.
I dive into the kitchen with not a moment to spare already pointing my gun in the direction of my attacker, my thumb swiping across the safety lock and switching it off, my finger already wrapped around the trigger and squeezing it my ears waiting for the deafening yet satisfying sound of bullets flying but instead I hear the dull click of an empty chamber and clip. I quickly reach behind the oven for another gun and find that one empty too.
Hearing the soft footfalls of my attacker trying to sneak up on me again I dive under the dining table sliding out the other side while grabbing another gun raising my legs up and rolling into the living room, crouching and swinging the gun around the corner and squeezing the trigger but disappointingly finding that one empty too. My attacker, now just a few steps away from me, I crouch down ready to attack.
3, 2, 1
I quickly spring up as I see the hoodie-clad arms coming around the corner grabbing onto the wrists and knocking my elbow into the middle of the radius and ulna hearing the satisfying crunch of bones breaking wrapping both of my assailant's arms under my arm and swinging the elbow of the other arm straight towards the face of my attacker but stopping a few centimetres away from the attacker's face as I see the silky black hair wrapped up in a high bun atop her head.
"Kat?" I ask in confusion
I immediately release her arms and grab her sides to steady her but instead a smile makes its way onto her face. I watch her for a second confused when she suddenly presses a knife to my ribs finally speaking
"Checkmate"
And bursting into laughter right after, dropping the gun to the floor and jumping off the floor in my gigantic hoodie and wrapping her bare legs around me kissing the shit out of me. Damn, I'm never going to get tired of this feeling of elation every time we make out.
She pulls away after some time leaving me wanting more but just long enough to mutter to me"Happy birthday babe" Before smashing her sweet, round, luscious lips back on mine instantly satisfying my immediate needs.
I'm finally turning the big 22 which means I'm finally ready to go on missions I choose.
You see for the past 3 years I've been working for the department of Paranormal Defense ever since I left my hometown of Forestville. You see the gods of Olympus throughout history have always done their best to make sure that the humans they deem fit to receive abilities remained in the shadows.
People will always fear what they do not understand and that has caused a lot of problems for paranormals. The werewolves, vampires, witches and of course the guardians being the major clan, and also in charge of the other clans. A rule that held sway until the clans started cross-breeding and creating cross-breeds that had no control over what the mix of such powers would cause, so with the permission of the gods and the United States government, Lupa the wolf goddess and also the goddess of the full moon created an honor guard to police the other clans. And at the head of these units stood the pure guardians, guardians blessed by all the gods. But over time they died out, the last pure guardian dying 21 years ago in a fire.
Now guardians mostly have one blessing with the blessing of the gods of the underworld and Tartarus being the rarest, the blessings of Hecate, Lupa, and Asclepius being the most common. Some guardians are also permitted to have more than one blessing but they are extremely rare, like me. Two years ago when a guy who had five blessings died I became the guardian with the highest number of blessings. My blessings also happen to be made up of some of the rarest blessings too. The blessing of Zeus; which by default gave me control over storms, lightning, my strength, and don't forget the cool booming voice when I get mad, makes it easier to deal with my little sister when she's annoying.
The blessing of Hermes which is totally awesome by the way. Unlike the popular misconception Hermes does have actual wings on his back, and as civilization advanced he kept gaining control over other forms of transportation which explains some of the weird stuff I can do like; flying, teleportation, and inter-dimensional travel.
Which is the scariest to be honest, because of that time I mistakenly travelled to a black-and-white dimension in my sleep. I thought I was color blind for a month until Hermes found me. Turns out he's a really chill guy.
And I also can't forget the pocket dimension he told me about that he created when he was in his save the planet phase to store his trash. Long story short I cleaned the place up and now I just throw my weapons, armor and really important stuff in there.
And sometimes my little sister when she annoys me. I thought my parents were going to ground me till I was 60 for that one. But one week later, dad started threatening to throw her in the pocket whenever she misbehaved so I'm just going to count that as an absolute win for me.
And lastly the portals for transporting really big stuff.
My last blessing is the blessing of Athena, the goddess of wisdom
Fair warning if you call me a nerd, don't be surprised when I show up at your front door with a flamethrower in my arms. And yes I'll admit Athena's blessing does come in handy during tests.
Kat's hand travelling further down south even after our activities last night pulls me out of my thoughts just as the alarm rings to let me know I'm late for the final evaluation. I quickly rush into the shower muttering "maybe another time" over my shoulder to Kat. But Kat being Kat follows me in which let's be honest was my plan all along.
...................................
After the evaluation is over, which I obviously aced cause let's be honest I absolutely rock. I head down to the lobby ready to hop on my bike and go back home to Kat when I see her waiting for me in the lobby.
Kat and I enter Lupa's office after knocking and salute immediately as we were taught to. Lupa turns her stern eyes to us and says.
"Congratulations Ethan on passing your final evaluation it's an honor to be able to promote you to a higher station. But I would like to assign you one more task and when you're done with this you're free to do whatever you want"
"What's the mission ma'am," I ask sceptically but instead of answering immediately she takes a sip of the neglected and now very cold cup of tea on her table before calmly saying
"the alpha of the werewolf pack in Forestville requested you personally to protect the next alpha of the pack"
In shock, I quickly answer "what do you mean you're assigning me to Forestville?"
Lupa calmly takes her glasses off and wipes them with a cloth then slowly adjust them back on her face, not like she needs them though because
1) she's a fucking goddess, and
2) she knows the motherfucking god of medicine.
It's like she does this just to avoid answering my questions.
"Your family misses you, Ethan. and your family's wealth has helped us keep this place running as we transitioned into the digital age. So if your father makes a request of me I'm going to comply Ethan"
Un-fucking-believable
I rise to my feet my anger already hot enough to speed up global warming, the air crackling with the lightning surrounding my arms and running through my eyes as I harshly retort to Lupa who doesn't even flinch but instead has a bored expression on her face.
"Looks like you'll have to find someone else because I'm not going and if you try to force me I'm going to quit Lupa, and you and I both know you don't want that"
Lupa repeats her ritual with the glasses and in that same monotone voice replies
"you're the best chance she has of surviving, don't let your pride get in the way of that"
Still seeing red, or lightning in my case I retort in a booming voice as loud as the thunder that comes after the lightning
"Tell my father to find someone else because I'm not going home" and I storm out of Lupa's office slamming the door so hard the glass surrounding the office shatters into a million pieces, and I teleport away.