章 13: Confrontation
Inside the house was pure chaos, just as Adam expected. Just a massive throng of packed bodies wildly dancing to booming music. The main lights were off, and flashing neon party lights of various colorful shades fluxed around to add to the chaos of the whole scene.
A DJ, one of the guys living in the house that probably was convinced his horrible mixtape on Soundcloud was going to blow up, blasted music from a DJ kit that was way too expensive for someone of his talent to be using.
Chad led Adam and Leila forward, sticking his arm out and shouting to make people part for him.
"Move, move!" said Chad. "Got guests here!"
Chad's shouting barely registered above the music and the crowd, so he mostly shoved his way through.
Leila's hand tightened around Adam's, and he squeezed her hand comfortingly, easing her worries.
"What's wrong?" said Adam, and though his words were spoken at normal volume, their ears were sensitive enough to pick things up.
"There are so many people," said Leila. "And any one of them could be a threat. I know it is silly to worry, but I smell something foul in the air that concerns me."
"Vomit, spilled alcohol, weed, and sweaty, smelly dudes will do that," said Adam. "But I'm assuming you don't mean that, right?"
"No," said Leila. "It is something else. There is…there is someone with a Lust Gene here."
"Same as me?" said Adam, brows raised.
"No, yours is corrupted, meant only for inhuman kind. This one is normal, meant only to attract humans. Thus, it smells repulsive to me," said Leila as made a disgusted face. "At the very least, this gene is far less pure than yours, weaker comparatively so that stench is not too bad."
When people saw Chad was part of the house, they willingly respected him and moved, and those too drunk to get out of his way, he pushed away. He led Adam and Leila to a more secluded corner of the house blocked off by a door guarded by a house mate that acted as a wannabe bouncer.
Behind it, Adam and Leila saw a large room with a makeshift bar counter. One of the fraternity guys manned the counter, and Chad motioned at him.
"Pour these two a drink," said Chad, closing the door behind. The booming music was still audible behind it, but overall, this room was far quieter.
"Who are these two? I get the girl, but why bring the guy-," began the 'bartender'.
"Just make the drinks," said Chad.
"Uh, okay. What do they want?"
Chad turned to Adam and Leila with a groveling smile. "What do you two want?"
"Anything you've got," said Adam, not all that picky about his drinks.
"Wine," said Leila.
"Wine?" said the bartender. He scratched his head. "We only buy good wine, and we never pour that out for parties-,"
"But you do have it," said Adam, his voice reverberating. "You know what, I'm feeling some wine too. Do me a favor and go get some."
"You got it," said the bartender, his eyes turning blank as he fell under Adam's hypnosis. The bartender left the room, probably to get a personal bottle of his.
"Chad, whose the guy? This place is ladies only, my man, or did you forget?" said a man sitting on a large couch with several women under both arms. Another member of this house, it seemed, judging by the Greek letters on his shirt.
Far more of a standout in terms of looks than the other guys in the house, Adam noted.
Leila made a disgusted face at the guy. "That's him. The source of the stench."
"Wait, hold up a second-," The guy stood up and walked over to Adam. "Holy shit, it's you! Mr. Permavirgin!"
"You would dare to insult my darling-," began Leila, but Adam squeezed her hand, letting her know this situation was under control.
Leila whispered in Adam's ear as the guy started to approach. "Darling, I know you want to handle this on your own, but if you ever want him disposed of, I will be more than happy to do it."
Adam smiled at Leila but whispered back, "Got it, Leila, but I've got this."
Firstly, Ada nodded to Chad to get him to leave. "Go take your nap now."
"Damn, how'd you get Chad to listen to you like that?" said the guy as he saw Chad leave obediently without a word.
"Who were you again?" said Adam as he thought hard. The guy in front of him looked familiar, but he had to reach deep into his memories to remember him.
"It's Zach, man, don't you remember? From sophomore year! I tried to set you up, things didn't work, remember?" Zach reached out to Adam and patted him on the shoulder with a big smile.
"Holy gains, man!" said Zach as his eyes widened when he felt how much more muscular Adam was. Zach cupped his hand around Adam's bicep. "Bro, you been lifting? You put on twenty pounds of solid muscle. You gotta' teach me how you've been doing it!"
Adam sensed that Leila's killing intent was starting to rise when she saw Zach touching his arm, and Adam saved the man before he killed himself.
"It's nothing. Just lifting consistently," said Adam as he pulled back from Zach.
Zach cocked his head as he took a step back and analyzed Adam even further. "And did you get taller? Wait, don't tell me, have you been roiding?"
"No," said Adam simply. He sighed. There would be no need for Adam to use hypnosis or force on this guy. "And now I remember who you are."
Zach was a well-known womanizer in Adam's college. He was a well off son of a famous action movie star who had inherited his dad's looks and physique, and on top of that, was poised to get in on the show business himself with all his dad's connections.
Zach was an idiot, but a harmless idiot overall and relatively friendly. He was also known as the college's greatest wingman who could set anyone up with a date, and once, during sophomore year, Adam's friends had reached out to Zach to try and help Adam, labeling rather unhelpfully as a 'permavirgin'.
Zach had tried to set Adam up with several dates, but none of them had worked.
And now, Adam knew why. It was because he had a corrupted Lust Gene that made any human women stay away from him like a rotting bag of garbage while Zach had a normal Lust Gene that drew women to him like a magnet.
Though evidently, Zach's Lust Gene was not as strong as Adam's considering it didn't reduce the women around him into drunken messes.
Zach whistled when he looked at Leila. "Don't tell me, Adam, is this what I think it is. You have a girl now!? An absolute looker like this, too!" He nodded at Adam with legitimate happiness. "Make sure you never break her heart, because just by looks alone, she's a keeper, though I'm sure considering how good of a guy you are, she's an amazing woman too!"
"Perhaps I will spare you after all, yes, mhm," said Leila softly to herself.
"Huh?" said Zach.
"Nothing," said Adam hurriedly. "So, you joined this frat?"
It made sense to Adam when he thought about it. Zach was good looking, bound to draw women to the house, and he was the son of a big name action star.
"Yeah!" said Zach as he sat back down on his couch. The women near him cozied up to him, but he waved them off. "Girls, I have to catch up with a friend of mine. Mind waiting for me outside?"
The girls nodded and left, obedient and utterly smitten with Zach.
From what Adam could tell, Zach had no idea he had a Lust Gene. He just took his effect on ordinary human women as luck or something that was just granted to him.
"Y'know, I never thought I would settle down in a house like this," said Zach. "I always thought the whole concept was weird. Bunch of dudes circle jerking themselves in a house to get laid when it's just so damn easy to get girls anyway."
Adam's lip twitched as he heard the point of view of a man who had been given everything to him romantically on a silver platter where Adam himself had only suffered through fruitless rejections, but he kept his annoyance down to a minimum.
"But these guys treated me real good," said Zach as he took a sip of alcohol from a solo cup. "They said I didn't have to pay for any of the parties, pay for rent, pay for anything, go to any of their meetings, plan anything, or do anything with any real responsibility at all, really."
"What?" said Adam, confused. He knew that every member in a fraternity had to pay a fee called dues to finance the house's parties and events. He also knew that they were still school organizations, so they had to do at least some level of planning and budgeting with responsibilities split among members.
The fact they would let Zach completely freeload was completely unheard of.
"Yeah, awesome, right!? All I have to do is show up to parties and set the president up with a couple of girls every weekend," said Zach.
"Oh, I get it now," said Adam with a sigh, starting to understand a bit more now. The president of this fraternity was just a horny dude who wanted Zach to pull girls for him.
"Odd," said Leila as she put a thinking hand to her mouth, evidently thinking a lot more about this situation than Adam was.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened again, and this time, Adam turned to see not the bartender, but three men walk in. Tall, noticeably muscled guys with short hair. Their jaws were square and their eyes strikingly colorful, almost piercing in their intensity. Two of them had black hair, but one had silver hair that Adam thought was dyed.
"Oh, hey pres!" said Zach as he waved at the tallest of the guys, the one with silver hair.
"Zach, there's a couple of girls fighting upstairs. Can you go calm them down?" said the president, and though he talked to Zach, his eyes were fixated on Leila and Adam.
There was a distinctive sense of tension and hostility in that stare, and Adam tensed up, sensing the atmosphere of the room change.
"Sure thing!" said Zach as he hopped on to his feet. He patted Adam's shoulder and gave him a bright smile. "Looks like the pres wants to talk to you! He's a fun guy, so I'm sure you'll have a great time. It was nice seeing you Adam, and whatever you're doing-,"
He motioned to Leila. "You're doing great! Keep it up!"
With that, Zach left, whistling to himself in utter oblivion.
When the door closed, the president sighed. "An idiot. But a useful one, nonetheless. Especially considering he masked our scents."
Adam could sense killing intent from the three men barely contained in their stone-faced, sharp eyed stares. Their lips started to curl up at the ends in the beginnings of bestial snarls, and it was then that Adam could tell that their teeth were long, far longer and sharper than a normal human's.
But this killing intent was utterly nothing compared to Raum's. Considering Adam had faced that with confidence and lived through it, these three stooges did not faze him at all.
"Werwolves," muttered Leila under her beath. Her own fangs began to protrude from her lips as her eyes turned an angry red.
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