Beggars, Sin, and Wine, page 16
Jezebel’s voice could be erotic, terrifying, or soothing. I was betting she sang to her until she calmed a bit. I wished I had that gift, but I didn’t, so I started getting bowls and salad plates down.
My bear wanted to fix Medusa’s plate and feed her, but I knew we should probably ask permission first, so I did. It was my nature as a polar bear shifter. She was old enough to get that. She was also old enough to set her own boundaries.
“Fix me a giant plate, but I can feed myself.”
Yeah, I was okay with that. I would have felt better if I could have baked a giant loaf of sourdough bread to go with the soup and salad with some fresh, herbed butter from the garden, but we didn’t really have the time. Later.
“I need to call Father Nathan in the morning. I couldn’t call him and tell him Oberon was there because of Hannibal’s cameras. We kind of just left him there since he didn’t come to the basement with us. I don’t know if Medusa’s friends will bring him here if he wants, or he ran. He said he wanted to see Father Nathan again.”
Fuck. We couldn’t have pulled this off without the priest. We should have kept his friend close so we could take him with us. It was the least we could have done.
“Oberon? He didn’t run. He’s one of the good ones,” Kat said. “He’s been there a while. Oberon intended to stay until everyone was out. There was a particular fake priest he wanted to kill. You didn’t leave him. You got your mate home and left him in the care of some very powerful supernaturals who will bring him where he chooses to go. Unlike these chuckle fucks, I know who your friends are, Medusa. I’ve been to one of Di’s parties back in the day.”
Medusa’s face lit up.
“Seriously? How have we never met?”
“It was before he met you. And, oh, my fuck. The soup and salad are delicious.”
“You’re going to have to tell me how you met my prison best friend,” Jezebel said.
“Later. These three assholes need to figure it out. And since they now know their mate is Medusa, it’s pretty fucking obvious.”
“No, it’s not,” I sulked.
Because seriously, I was fairly smart, and I didn’t know. It was driving me crazy.
This was perfect. Good food, my mates, and my friends. I hadn’t had much of a chance to get to know Calamity in New Eden, but she knew I’d turned Sister Mary Eugene to stone after she had Calamity tortured. I just clicked with Kat. I usually did when I met someone as old as me. And eventually, I was going to get her to tell me about her going to Di’s parties.
“So, my girl Medusa and me had this plan to get drinks if we ever got out of New Eden and do mean things to stupid, drunk boys,” Jezebel said, finishing her salad. “I’m guessing if all of you cook this good, we’ll get our strength back in no time. Is there a pub somewhere we can complete our quest?”
It just meant so much to me that she still wanted to have that drink with me after everything she knew.
“There’s a supernatural pub in our village and a bar with humans at the bottom of the mountain. If you want drunk, stupid boys, you probably want the bar in the town twenty minutes over. It’s the only place to drink in a city where there’s a small college,” Pax said.
“Totally,” Benji said. “They are drunk at the pub in our village and at the bottom of the mountain, but they understand boundaries and most of them aren’t idiots. The Sheriff barely has anything to do except ruin my Pokémon game.”
“I heard a rumor you’ve been pranking the Sheriff, Benji. Does it have to do with Pokémon?” I asked.
“Yes,” Cas groaned. “And don’t get him started. The Pokémon was rare, and he was illegally parked. Sheriff Riddle had every right to ask him to move his bike.”
“Traitor,” Benji hissed, flinging a crouton at his face.
“If you throw one more thing at me tonight, I’m going to take you across my knee and spank you,” Cas growled.
I got a visual and got instantly turned on. Benji once told me Cas had total daddy vibes, and he did. I was picturing Benji across his lap naked while Cas paddled that perfect ass and what I wanted to do after.
Cas’s nostrils flared and Benji’s hand tightened around his fork. Yeah, I was mated to two shifters. They couldn’t totally feel me yet because we hadn’t completed the bond, but they sure as fuck could smell my arousal. And Pax got a few extra senses when the Coalition blinded him.
“I can sense you like that,” Pax moaned.
“I think Medusa should totally get laid, but I don’t want to be here to watch,” Jezebel said.
“Medusa can barely stand up,” Cas pointed out.
“Medusa can speak for herself,” I said.
“We will do whatever you want, little monster,” Benji said. “You can’t control how you react when Cas threatens to spank me and we can’t control how we react when you smell like that. If you just want to go to bed alone, we can do that.”
I wasn’t ready to have sex. I didn’t feel like myself anymore. I didn’t even recognize my reflection. It would probably be a while before I felt like a cursed green witch again, but they were willing to give me space. I also had a ton of questions for Di. Yeah, my curse could turn the entire Coalition to stone, but he’d never ask me to do that. Aside from Sister Mary Eugene, I was usually devastated when I turned someone to stone. Di knew that.
I wanted to sleep in an actual bed tonight, but I didn’t think I wanted to sleep alone. There was still this part of me that was terrified that Athena was going to be furious I was no longer in New Eden Asylum and was here safe with my mates.
She’d never come for me when Di was with me, but he had to travel for work sometimes. Di was working right now, and I didn’t know when he would be back.
I was safe from Hannibal and the fake nuns and priests, but Athena was still a threat, even thousands of years later.
We reacted when she got turned on, but we’d never act on it. I didn’t even need to ask my coven. We were going to put her straight to bed and in the morning, we’d call every single healer and green witch in the village to see what kind of damage was done to her from the lack of food.
Kat’s blood could fix a lot of things and I knew she’d offer if it could fix Medusa, but it didn’t do a damned thing for starvation. She left with her mates with the intention to come back for breakfast. She left us alone with her.
This was the first time all of us were together with our mate, but we still didn’t feel complete. I knew the missing person was Di. We all did. I was pretty sure I knew who Di and the rest of them were and it was pretty obvious. Cas was being stubborn. I was pretty sure he could guess who Di and his friends were if he thought hard enough about it.
I never kept secrets from Cas and Benji. I don’t think Benji even gave a shit what they were or what their names were. They were important to Medusa and Di was one of us and that was all he cared about.
Cas cared, but now that I was pretty sure I knew, it was fun watching him try to figure it out. I got why they played this game. And holy shit, this was going to make us unstoppable if Di was who I thought he was.
But right now, we needed to get our mate to bed. Benji put the dishes in the dishwasher and Cas and I were getting ready to guide her toward our extra bedrooms. Cas said he kept both of them comfortable, but generic because our mate would eventually pick one and would have her own taste. Cas would do what she wanted to make her own space and she could do what everyone else did and bed hop when we wanted company.
Cas’s bear was in protective daddy mode. Like, way more than usual. It wasn’t just Medusa. It was Kat’s mates and Benji and me. It was the fact that we had to go back there. We didn’t have it nearly as bad as before and we weren’t there as long, but the Coalition either hadn’t figured out species specific diets or they had and didn’t give a shit.
Mine was much easier than Benji and Cas’s diet, but Cas would worry about me, anyway. His lizard brain was going to be on overdrive figuring out menus for all of us and getting the healers here. But Cas was probably dealing with the effects of not getting what a polar bear shifter needed, too.
We could eat anything we wanted, just like humans did. And just like humans, it affected us if we ate the wrong diet. With us, it wasn’t just physical. It also affected our magic. We had other needs the Coalition wasn’t providing either.
Medusa had been cut off from any type of plant life in the basement, Benji needed the moon. Cas was a marine mammal, so he needed to swim. I was much better off than any of them, but was Cas going to let me take care of him, too? Not without a ton of grumping and stubbornness.
Cas’s dad didn’t like to be pinned down, so he took off and left everything to Cas. Or at least, that was the story. His dad built the original house next to a natural spring and waterfall that was perfect for a polar bear to bathe and hunt fish in. Cas needed to do that, and I was going to have to twist his arm to do it. He wasn’t sick, but his skin was paler than usual. He needed his usual high-caloric diet and a swim just as much as the long-term residents at New Eden Asylum needed their basic needs met.
Cas had wandered off to find sheets for both of the extra bedrooms. He was doing what he needed to do to satisfy his bear, so I was doing what I needed to as a member of his pack. Benji knew what was up, but we needed to clue Medusa in. She needed a lot more help than Cas and Benji did, but I could tell she didn’t want it at their expense.
“I need your help,” I said.
“Anything. Just name it.”
“We weren’t there as long as you, so we don’t need as much or as long to recover. I just need a few walks in the garden and a balanced diet. Benji needs the moon and nighttime for both sides of him and meat. Cas is different. Cas needs massive amounts of calories and to swim in the spring out back.”
“Big bear Daddy,” Medusa said. “Is he going to ignore his needs to take care of all of us?”
“This is why she’s fated to us,” Benji said. “You called it, little monster. Now, Cas is onto me. He mostly knows when I’m manipulating him. He’ll do it anyway unless someone is hurt. I have all these kinky ideas for later, but right now, how effective are you with those big, beautiful, green eyes of yours?”
If she was half as good as Benji and a quarter as abusive with them, we were all doomed. Cas and I would do whatever they wanted. If she had a mischievous streak like Benji, Sheriff Riddle was never going to know a day of peace.
“My puppy dog eyes aren’t quite like yours, but I know how to deal with Cas. I’m a lot older than all of you and I’ve been with Di since I was twenty-seven. He’s less of a workaholic than my friend who makes my glasses, but they both forget to eat or take a break when their instincts are screaming at them. It’s a completely different approach depending on who I’m dealing with, but I can redirect them.
“And Cas is just going to have to deal with it because when I can stand up for longer than five minutes without getting dizzy, I’m going to take over some of the cooking. I’ve got thousands of years of recipes from all over the world in my head and I enjoy taking care of people, too.”
Benji was right. Medusa being fated to us was starting to make a lot more sense the more time I spent around her. I thought she was our balance if something happened and we had to bring Benji back from the rails because she was the only person who could stop a shadow wolf.
I could tell she was stubborn. I didn’t know how long she was in New Eden, but she wasn’t nearly as broken as I would have expected. Medusa was fated to us because of Cas, too. When his bear was in overdrive trying to take care of his pack, she was going to be there making sure he got taken care of, too.
We all needed to take care of her. If there were any broken pieces from the Coalition or Poseidon, we needed to put them back together.
A fated mate was someone who was perfect for you in every way. Di had better explain what he meant about her taking down the Coalition.
We couldn’t lose her now that we found her.
Cas came back and said he didn’t know what kind of sheets I liked, but he left cotton, microfiber, and silk in both bedrooms. Pax and Benji pointed it out before I could really notice, but Cas was going to need me to care for him just as much as he was going overboard to take care of me.
I cared less about the sheets right now. I was putting on a brave face, but Athena and Hannibal were still out there somewhere. Pax said Hannibal was the leader of the Coalition. He was an egotistical, greedy fuck, and this was going to make him look bad. If my friends didn’t find him, he’d be doing damage control.
The Coalition had sympathizers everywhere, even law enforcement. He’d want us rounded up and placed back in our little torture boxes. The chances of him finding this place were pretty slim since humans hadn’t so far. Not unless a certain god who was still pissed I dared get raped in her temple decided to swoop in and tell him.
Which I wouldn’t put past her. The whole fucking reason I ended up in a Coalition basement was that Di had to leave for work and she swooped in and fucked up my life just recently. Her magic was running through my veins because of her curse, so she could always find me.
I was getting dizzy and having trouble breathing. My heart was pounding, and I felt hot and cold at the same time. I actually thought I was dying. Maybe Athena found me and finally decided to put me out of my misery.
I was in Cas’s arms in seconds and being pressed between Cas, Benji, and Pax. I knew they couldn’t protect me from a god, but I instantly started feeling better.
“Breathe. You’re having a panic attack. Focus on me. Name three things about me. Anything and they don’t have to be nice,” Cas said.
“Your eyes are insanely blue. That white hair looks super soft. And I can’t get over how good you smell.”
“Good. Now, name three things in this room.”
“You all have really good taste for not having a woman live here. It’s also very clean. Those paintings on the wall are amazing.”
“Your heart rate has slowed. How are you feeling?”
“Better. I can’t believe that worked. The last time that happened was right after Poseidon and Athena and there wasn’t really a name for it. I thought I was dying then, too. It’s just been so long since it happened, I forgot how bad it felt.”
“I had them, too, when I escaped. There wasn’t a name for it then either, but Cas helped me through it. It gets better,” Benji said.
I needed to warn them about Athena. I couldn’t let anything bad happen to them.
“Athena didn’t just curse me thousands of years ago and send me on my way. She keeps popping up when I get settled and happy and blowing up my life. It was her fault I got caught by the Coalition. Athena won’t bother me if Di is here, but he won’t come back until his work is done and right now, he’s focused on New Eden Asylum. She could blow all of his up and send the Coalition here. If you want me to leave, I understand.”
“Never,” Pax said. “We’ve got precautions in place.”
“She’ll tear through any wards you have set. She’s a god.”
Cas shook his head.
“I don’t think she would expose this place to get to you. All Di told us was that we were rescuing a god-touched green witch, and dropped enough hints that it was Athena. We did a deep dive into Athena because we thought we were on one of her hero quests. She’s the patron god of heroes and there are a lot of those in this village. Some of these people are Coalition victims turned people who help them.
“We just helped a lot of people and so did you. I lead one of the biggest networks for getting supernaturals out or away from the Coalition if they think they’ve been had. I don’t know what Di meant about you being the key to stopping them, but maybe Athena has figured that out, too. You’ve met her and we haven’t. Do you think she’s petty enough to make every single supernatural in the United States suffer?”
I blew out a breath because the answer should have been no. Athena was a brilliant strategist, and she always saw the bigger picture.
“Athena is a patron god of heroes and the arts. She’s a god of war, but she’s also the god of peace. She’s not usually about taking innocent lives, but she cursed me and Arachne. It wasn’t my fault Poseidon raped me and Arachne beat her fair and square. Athena is not exactly rational when she thinks she’s been wronged.”
Benji just laughed.
“I did my research, too. She’s the fucking Patron God of Heroes, which means she isn’t going to come here herself. She can hero bless some fucking humans to do her dirty work and betray every supernatural who ever worshipped her and trust me, there are people in this village who still leave offerings to her or she can calm her ass down and let you be.”
If Athena was creeping on me, I hoped she heard that.
“I don’t know what they used to take me down when Athena showed up and broke my glasses. Same with the gas in the basement. I was helpless and out like a light. Pax told me they were disbursing angel tears in the air. I don’t know why, but it took away my magic. They might be humans, but they can do a lot of damage.”
Now Pax was laughing.
“So can black salt. We’ve got a ring of it around the village for protection and we refresh it every full moon. We also have some pretty boring precautions against humans. Cas owns the town at the bottom of the mountain. He takes care of it and the people down there. They know he lives up here with a bunch of folks that aren’t really bothering anyone and have a copacetic relationship with a bunch of local businesses.
“I’m sure they suspect we are supernatural and they don’t give a shit. I know if someone showed up and said the Coalition had us and they needed their help to bring us back, they’d tell them to get fucked and run them out of town. They are all good people down there,” Pax said.
Cas just gave me this goofy grin.
“If she tries to rally anyone else, it’s going to be pretty expensive for them. I don’t own the mountain, but I own the valley. People have tried to take it from me for the longest time. We used the old forge to make some really tall poles and had the eagle shifters and pixies stretch magically infused rope across the entire valley.
