The Adventures of Zeke Jordan Ch. 02

"Nothing. Hell it'd probably be the best thing to happen to one of those old fucks in years. They spend all day ogling me anyhow." Mandy straightened up, and headed over to her desk while she motioned for Zeke to take one of the seats in front of her.

"So, what's so urgent that you needed to come all the way down here to see little ol' me? Girl trouble? Or is it women trouble now?"Mandy asked with a smile on her face.

"Please like I would come to you with girl problems, just so you could tease me relentlessly. Besides if I wanted to talk about that then I wouldn't have come to your office."Zeke told her. " No this is strictly business. I just wanted to ask you to be my accountant."

"It's about time you asked me, I was wondering when you'd come around. I mean I'm already everybody else's accountant. Plus I've been keeping my eye on some stocks that I thought you'd be interested in."

"How much money do you have saved anyway?"Mandy asked. About fifty minutes had passed since Zeke had left the lottery office, so hopefully he could just give Mandy the bank information he received and she'd be able to pull it up on her computer.

"Well it's kinda complicated,"Zeke started,"If I give you my bank information will you be able to access it from here?"

"Sure, that's what this baby is for."Mandy answered as she tapped the computer on her desktop. After booting up the program Mandy asked Zeke for his information. With a 'ping' the computer came back with the information.

"Okay let's see what we have kiddo..."Mandy said as she looked over the program. "Now what do we... oh.. my.. god!"

"Is there a problem?"Zeke asked innocently.

"A problem!"Mandy exclaimed as she turned the computer screen around so he could see. "You have a billion dollars in here!"

"Yeah I kinda won the lotto."Zeke said sheepishly, unnerved by her shock. "You can help me though right?" At hearing Zeke's words Mandy seemed to snap back to reality. With a deep sigh she sat back in her chair, eyes closed running her hands through her hair.

"I don't think I can Zeke. I mean I haven't been working here for that long. I'm not even authorized to handle an account this big. I would have to refer you to one of our senior workers." Mandy told him truthfully.

"Are you sure Mandy. If you talk to whoever you need to then would they let you handle it, I mean the only reason I came here was because I wanted YOU to do it. I don't want to sound rude to anyone else working here but I'd only trust you with this."

"I don't know but I'll try. I mean I can call my boss down here and see.. but I can't make any promises." With that said, Mandy picked up the phone on her desk and started dialling. Zeke zoned out while she talked quietly to the person on the phone. Mentally going over his schedule for the rest of the day he knew he'd still have to go to the bank, but hoped he could hold it off for a later date. His meeting with Mandy had already ran longer then he wanted it to and he didn't know just how long he would be there. On top of all that he still had to do this training or whatever.

"Okay my boss should be down here in a minute."Mandy told Zeke as she got off the phone. They sat there mostly in silence. Zeke thinking about nothing while Mandy poured over some more of the details that her computer was providing her with. She'd figured it would be best to learn as much as she could so she wouldn't fumble over herself when talking with her boss.

After about five minutes of waiting the door to the office finally opened. In strode Jonathan McCullers, who was the senior VP for the Georgia branch of Ernst and Young. Zeke stood up when the man walked in and shook his hand.

"Hello I'm Jonathan McCullers the senior VP here at Ernst and Young, Ms. Foster has informed me that you have some things you'd like to discuss with me."

"Ah yes sir, my name is Zeke Jordan, you can call me Zeke if you'd like. I've known Ms. Foster all my life and I think of her as a sister to me, that being said I recently came into a large sum of money and I wanted her to manage it for me. She told me that she wasn't allowed, by your standards, to do that so I wanted to talk to you, and see if we could work out something,"Zeke stated to the man.

"Okay that could be possible, after all Mandy has worked here for a while now and has always done an immaculate job."Jonathan said then turned to Mandy, "How much money are we talking about Ms. Foster?"

"A little over one billion dollars if Zeke plans on consolidating all of his assets into one account" Mandy responded. Zeke could see Mr. McCullers eyes widen at the mention of so much money. Obviously he wasn't expecting such a large number. But he was also quick to change his expression back to normal. Turning back to Zeke he said,

"Well Zeke I'm sorry to say this, but Ms. Foster is simply not qualified per our criteria to handle such a large sum of money."

"I know, Mandy explained as much to me, but the thing is I wouldn't trust anyone except her with such a large sum of money, no offence. Isn't there anything you could do?"

"Well the problem mostly lies in this. The stock market is unpredictable, so we as accountants and stock brokers have to invest your money to the best of our ability. Obviously if you have a large sum of money you'll want someone with a long track record of success to handle your assets. As a firm we could be tried for malpractice and brought up on vested interest charges if we didn't provide you with one of our best workers."Jonathan explained before continuing."So while Mandy here is an exceptional worker she just doesn't have a lengthy or profitable enough track record to be allowed to handle your account."

"Okay, I see where you're coming from Mr. McCullers, so how about we do this? I'm assuming that to do business with this company I'll need to sign some contractual forms correct? What if I agreed to absolve your firm of all blame in case of monetary losses? That way it wouldn't matter who was my accountant. We can even add that I specifically chose Mandy and you repeatedly told me of the dangers. If both sides agreed to that then Mandy could be my accountant."

Jonathan sat quietly for a minute, thinking over the options in his head. On the one hand, if he accepted this proposal, it would cause an unprecedented circumstance that would reflect badly on him and his decision making abilities if it backfired. On the other hand however, if they disagreed, Zeke could very well leave and the biggest account to ever come into this branch of the company would be lost to a rival operation. He decided to go for it. If things worked out he would be able to reap the benefits and possibly receive a promotion and raise. In addition since Mandy and Zeke seemed to know each other he suspected that Mandy would work much harder to ensure that Zeke profited financially and made the whole operation successful. Turning to Mandy he asked,

"What do you think about this Ms. Foster? You've been terribly quiet the whole time so I've yet to get your input. You're inexperience aside, do you think that you have the skill to handle such an account?"

"In all honesty I can't say for an one hundred percent certainty that I can, but I believe in my abilities and I willing to try my very best. If at any time I feel as if I'm in over my head I'll inform Zeke and we'll go from there."Mandy answered.

"So is that a yes then?"Zeke asked.

"Yes I think you have a deal,"Jonathan said to the young man,"We'll draw up a contract and have Mandy bring it for you and your lawyer to review. It may take a while because our head lawyer is in Chicago for a big conference and we'll want his input when drawing up the paper work."

"No worries, my dad is in Chicago for that same conference so I'd have to wait till he gets back for him to look it over anyway. Just have Mandy bring it by whenever it's ready. She knows where I live."Zeke said before he remembered something,"Oh and one more thing. When you're writing up the contract be sure to explicitly state that I don't want anyone other than Mandy working and making decisions on my account. She is welcomed to come to you or your colleagues for advice and direction, but ultimately I want it to be her with all of the executorial rights."

"Well we've come this far I don't see why that'll be a problem,"McCullers answered. Seeing that everything was done Jonathan left to let Mandy handle the rest of the details. She and Zeke watched her boss leave before Mandy began to talk.

"I can't believe you just pulled that off,"Mandy said to Zeke."I mean do you realize I'm like ten years to early for an account like this. The most I've ever handled was a couple of million and that was in a group. I can't fucking believe it."

"I have all the faith in you Mandy,"Zeke said getting up."I wish I could stay but I have a couple of places to be. But hey you have my number, and you know where I live so if you need me..."

With that Zeke made his way out of the building.

"Have a nice day Mr.Jordan."Julie said as Zeke walked past her. She remembered his name from his I.D., but she didn't know why she called out to him, she rarely even paid attention when customers left. She reasoned he was kind of cute and that's why she did it.

Zeke turned around and looked at the woman sitting at the desk. He thought she had said her name was Julie. She was actually quite cute, he had too much on his mind to notice the first time, but now that everything was taken care of he had time to stop and chat with her a little. Unfortunately he remembered he had to get home. Figuring he had nothing to lose he walked back to her,

"Um, I normally don't do this, but would you like to go out sometime?"Zeke asked.

"Yeah sure. Why not."Julie replied quickly.

"Really. Okay uh here's my number, call me and we'll set something up."

"Okay. I'm looking forward to it."

With a smile Zeke walked off and headed to his car. Hopping onto the highway, Zeke dialed the number to the bank and set up an appointment for later in the week. He really should go now, but he felt like he had already wasted enough of the day. Zeke pulled in to his drive way and headed upstairs. After a quick shower he went to the backyard and sat by the pool. He had plans to practice with these abilities of his and there was no point in risking the house going up in flames.

Zeke was at a loss of how to go about using his powers. He decided to just sit there and hope for the best. Sitting on the floor, Zeke began to focus. In his martial arts training Zeke had learnt the art of meditation. The ability to zone out and be at peace as well as concentrate your mind and energy. Zeke hoped that if he could concentrate his energy something would happen.

Taking a deep breath Zeke cleared his mind and breathed slowly in and out as he'd been taught. At first he didn't feel anything for awhile, but right when he was about to give up he felt something. It was like a small spark of energy that quickly grew until it flowed through his entire body. Being careful to maintain his focus Zeke tried to direct the energy to one point. He figured his hands were probably the best place for now.

Eyes closed tight in concentration Zeke worked on funneling the energy to his right hand. As the energy gathered in his hand Zeke became more aware of his surroundings. There was a light breeze blowing in the hot May air around him. Suddenly Zeke felt his hand heating up as well, as if reacting to the things around him. But even when the breeze subsided and the hot air was no longer flowing, Zeke's hand continued to heat up. Zeke was sure if he opened his eyes he would see his hand in flames or worse, burnt to a crisp.

When the heat became unbearable Zeke quickly rose up and hurried to the pool, submerging his burning hand into the water. Zeke fully expected his hand to be burnt from all the heat he was feeling but strangely it didn't. As he looked at his hand through the water he couldn't find any evidence that it had ever been hot to begin with. There wasn't even any steam coming from the cold pool water.

Zeke pulled out his hand and examined it and for all intents it looked normal. No scarring, scorching, or anything else for that matter. As far as he could tell his hand had never been on fire, it just merely felt that way.

He sat back to contemplate this new development. Zeke figured a bit of trial and error was necessary here. So he sat back down and once again began to meditate and gather his energy. Once again he felt the energy gather, and again he let it collect on his hand. This time however Zeke didn't wait for a breeze or anything like that. He instead imagined cool air and sure enough his hand began to feel cold. Concentrating even harder Zeke imagined he was in the Arctic, in blistering cold conditions. Zeke's hand seemed to get colder and colder until it went numb and he lost all feeling. Breaking his concentration Zeke noticed that his hand went right back to normal. As if nothing had ever happened.

Through a couple of more bouts of trial and error Zeke discovered much of the same. It seemed he had the ability to control feeling. Maybe it was an advanced form of illusion or something, Zeke didn't know any Greek god that controlled feelings though. Well besides Aphrodite.

Having used all afternoon to practice Zeke felt he deserved a break, so after heading inside to shower he sat on his bed to enjoy a good book.

Zeke was engrossed in the book when he felt his phone vibrate with an incoming text message. Unlocking his phone Zeke smiled as he saw the alert that read "One message from sex slave." Opening the text message Zeke saw it said:

"I really need to talk to you in person, do you mind if I come over in the morning."

Zeke read the message over and over again. It seemed like something may be wrong with Melissa. He fought the urge to ask her what was wrong because obviously it was something she needed to say face to face, so instead he just responded with:

"Sure come on over in the morning if you can. Zaira's coming home sometime tomorrow so you may want to come a little early."

In a few minutes he received a text that said she'd be over bright and early in the morning. Sighing Zeke picked his book back up, but found that he just couldn't read it with the same fervor that he had before he got the text message. He feared that something was seriously up with Melissa, and Zeke was worried she had mixed feelings about what happened between the two of them.

Realizing that there was no point in stressing over it Zeke decided to just go to sleep. The quicker he went to sleep the quicker morning would come, and he and Melissa could talk. After one last trip to the bathroom to take care of his pre-bed rituals Zeke snuggled into the covers and off to a deep sleep.

_____

Zeke was walking through a vary familiar castle. Using his memory of the last time he was here Zeke quickly found what he believed was the throne room. When he entered he was relieved to see the same mass of floating energy as last time. When Zeke came closer the light turned his way and seemed to brighten a bit.

"Ah Zeke my boy, it's great to see you. I trust you enjoyed your little gift eh?"Zeke chuckled a bit at the floating orb.

"Are you kidding? A billion dollars, I haven't even begun to enjoy it yet. But I do believe that I will get plenty of enjoyment out of it."Zeke answered. When he finished talking the light flew over to Zeke and circled him a few times, almost as if it was measuring him.

"Well you seem different,"the light said,"You must have been practicing with your powers."Zeke nodded his head meekly and the light flew back to the throne and expanded. Gone was the small ball of light and now in it's place was the glowing outline of a man. The man rose from the seat and walked over to the stunned Zeke and gave him a big hug.

"You know Zeke it's nice to see that you actually practiced. You won't believe the number of demigods that refuse to practice their powers. So how was it?"he asked as he released Zeke. Zeke went on to tell all the details about what he'd done earlier, about his different experiments and the conclusions he'd came to.

"Very nice. So it seems you have already discovered that you control feelings. That's good, as it saves me a lot of explaining. In short you have the ability to control not only what you feel, but what your enemies feel as well."the apparition said.

"Imagine the possibilities. One hit and an enemies arm could feel like it's on fire. A tap on the shoulder of a friend could heal them. The lightest of caress to a lover could make them climax. It's not simple illusion, it's much more than that. It's the epitome of "mind over matter". You believe your arm is broken so therefore whenever you try to move it, it doesn't respond and all you get is the pain that comes when you try to move a broken limb. Or maybe you make a person feel like they just got shot in the head, Bam! They drop dead because their body believes they are, yet there is no wound or anything to leave behind a shred of evidence. Yes this power is both wondrous and frightening, and as is the case with anything it's all in how you use it. But I don't worry about you Zeke, I trust you to make the right decisions."the god said.

"But how do you know that I won't screw something up?"Zeke asked worried. The full scope of what he could do with his powers streaming through his head.

"Zeke I've watched you all your life. You're overwhelmingly smart, good looking, live in a good home and above all you're a gentle soul. You're gifted beyond words and yet you don't want for power, you don't smear you're advance intellect in the face of your peers. To be honest if I couldn't trust you with these powers I doubt I'll ever be able to trust anyone with them."

"The way we Gods work is we thrive of off worship and acknowledgement. We used to create demigods in the hope of gaining more praise. For example, Hercules was the son of Zeus, so every good deed he did gained more praise for Zeus. The same with Perseus or any other demigod. There were gods, of course, who don't need praise to survive. People like Poseidon or Apollo. Everything needs the sea to survive, so Poseidon will always remain in power, so long as he is the god of the sea. The same for Apollo, we use the sun, and we enjoy music, things that will always bring a steady supply of power to Apollo. That's why Aphrodite is so strong, because everyone loves. Even the gods themselves love. Aphrodite only blesses those who she believes will truly benefit from it, not the random pickings that the other gods do."

"So based off your criteria you're even stronger than Aphrodite because everyone feels. Some may never know true love, but from the moment you're born you feel."Zeke interrupted.

"And that's why I chose you, because I don't need to have any blessed. However, you are a shining ray for you species. All humans have a dark side, and that includes you, hell even gods have a dark side, but it's how you deal with that side of you that makes you who you are. You are actually quite lucky Zeke. You see you are the first human I've blessed, and even before that I never sired any children so I'm kind of new at this."

'I'll probably spoil you more than I should, and give you lots of things you could do without, but I believe that you won't change so I'm confident in doing it. Gods like Zeus have to be careful with their blessed. Zeus in his vanity chose to be the god of the skies, but really what do we use the sky for. He gets little praise so he had to sire many children and now he has to bless many humans, but it's a dangerous game. No matter what the blessed human goes on to do with their life Zeus will get power from them. Whether you're feared or loved it's all the same in the grand scheme of things. Where it gets tricky is this. Imagine if Zeus were to heavily bless all of the humans he chose. Some would grow to be good and productive people, but some would still use their gifts for destruction and chaos. So Zeus has to wait until he is sure of someone's moral fiber before he grants them with more of his blessing, this means that a majority of his blessed don't even know it until their old and gray. Until Zeus is sure that they can handle having his blessing. A messy business these gods have gotten themselves into."The apparition said.