Page 64 of Whiskers on Kittens

“I’m going to forget how to cook by the time this trip is over.”

“Hardly. Expect assistance with your Christmas feast. You’ll be able to handle your turkey and roasts like you want but leave the sides to us. We’ll prepare some extra, as you will surely underestimate the number of beings crammed into your home and guest home.”

I nodded, as I already had lost count of the number of people invited to invade for Christmas Eve and Christmas. “That’s sensible. Thank you.”

In the guest bedroom, Easton was buried beneath children, as the number using him as a bed and pillow had increased from three to five. The wolf’s sleeping state put me at ease, and rather than test if he’d wake up when disturbed, I eased out of the room. “Is there any way to monitor them while I handle other matters?”

“There will be some succubi around the penthouse, but they’ll stay out of your way. Lucifer wants baby demons and devils running around, so he’s using the kids to whet the appetites of some of his succubi. Everyone is happy, particularly the men those succubi will seduce.”

No kidding. “Are you sure taking them to amusement parks is really the best idea?”

“It is. You’ll have a good time, you won’t need the escorts who will inevitably shadow you, and you’ll arrive back to your home right on schedule. The children will be tired but not tired to the point they are unmanageable, and this will keep their parents calmer. Happy, tired children keep the lycanthropes at bay.”

“Right. And if their children come home absolutely reeking of contentment, they won’t try to take my head off.”

“That is definitely a factor in our recommendation to take them to the amusement parks. I recommend purchasing gift certificates for the parks so their parents can take them again. They will love all the parks, and it will make an excellent gift. We can make the arrangements so the certificates do not expire.”

“Vouchers for travel will be important, too.”

Belial nodded. “Time off work will be more important to them than the travel expenses, but you can assist them on that front—or we can.”

“Breakfast, then I’ll see what sort of chaos I have in my email box from abandoning work for the holidays.”

“More than you’ll appreciate,” Belial warned before teleporting away.

According to my email, I had sacrificed over twenty million dollars of work rescuing the kittens. I invited myself to the Devil’s salon, poured myself a stiff drink, sighed, and accepted I’d lose even more money before the holidays rolled around. The incredulous emails from my colleagues, shocked I’d offered them such lucrative contracts, helped somewhat.

Most of them, while skilled, hadn’t gotten any invitations to the big leagues. I’d managed to set up the filtering system to divide my contacts mostly equally, successfully dumping all the work on somebody else. I disabled the filters but kept them; I would likely need them while traversing the country in search of amusement parks. Of the emails I’d received, only one hadn’t been filtered.

I’d never worked for the company before nor had the contact approached me through a regular channel, thus dodging being filtered.

There was no offer associated with the proposal to do the work, but the timeline worked for me, beginning a week after Christmas and expected to last six months, with the first three months consisting of information gathering between the six unions involved and the corporation the unions needed to work with. The unions ranged from skilled labor in the construction field, mining, and general labor. All had decent reputations in terms of working for their members.

That left me a few questions, including why so many unions were needing to negotiate with one company at the same time.

I emailed a reply that I was interested but would need to be given more details regarding the job, their proposed pay for the work, and a request that all parties directly contact me with an acknowledgment that they understood a mediator would be used. I sent over a copy of my sample contract and informed the contact, one Dr. Lowdry, I was handling personal affairs until after Christmas and would be only available for a limited time each day in the evenings.

Then, as I was insane and would survive losing another gig, I gave Dr. Lowdry a list of contacts, their skills, their general information, and a recommendation to contact them if my current situation did not appeal.

I made certain to exclude any email addresses from the union and the corporation from my auto filters, finished off my drink, and paced around the penthouse, alternating between hissing and clicking my tongue over the consequences of having walked away from work.

“You’re testy,” Easton observed from somewhere behind me. “Who pulled your tail?”

I turned and unleashed my loudest, longest hiss. “I investigated why Lucifer claimed I had sacrificed while working on recovering the kittens. I did the basic math. If there weren’t children in the penthouse, I would have gotten exceptionally drunk.”

The cop winced. “That bad?”

“It was bad enough I got a drink, so yeah. My colleagues? They absolutely love me right now. My wallet does not love me and it may never love me again. And then because I refuse to quit before this job is done, I might be losing another contract to my favored competitors, who will have to suffer through being praised.” Stomping my foot, I thought about just flinging myself onto the floor and kicking my feet and indulging in a true temper tantrum. Rather than indulge, I said, “I’m considering my good deeds fully punished. I’ll get over it.”

It might take a few months before lucrative work came my way if the latest job proved to be cheap, but I kept a rainy day account for a reason.

“Would researching amusement parks help with the sting of fiscal punishment? I can pay for the first park we go to.”

I recognized when the wolf needed his independence, and I nodded. “That might help. And yes, you can pay for the first park. But only the first one. After the first one, I’m taking the Devil for all he’s worth and demanding compensation for all expenditures. If the kids ask for something expensive from one of the gift shops, we will bill Lucifer.”

He relaxed, and he graced me with a smile. “I can work with that. Dare I ask how much you lost?”

“Over twenty million.”