Page 24 of Beggars, Sin, and Wine

“Oh, there’s a chance. There are names here of people who are still there trying to turn the tide back to them working with the Coalition or at least getting one elected as Pope. I also found their donor list, so we know who is funding them. We traced the shell corporations, but these are actual names. There are some politicians on here.”

“Fuck. Can you see if there’s any kind of tracking on this computer? I’ll bet Father Nathan could fuck some shit up with this.”

I’ll bet he could. He’d been an amazing help with all of this. I was fairly certain he knew all three of us were supernatural and had never said a word, not even to us. Still, we needed to play this carefully.

“We can’t risk it. Take a picture with your phone and email it, but tell him not to do anything with it until we’re out. If this information gets out, the first person they are going to look at is you since you’re so new here.”

“Good call,” Pax said, snapping a photo and telling his phone assistant to email it to Father Nathan. “Think Hannibal is still alive?”

“Nah,” I laughed. “Benji will rant about cats being degenerates because they play with their kills, but he totally does the same.”

“If you tell him that, he’s going to fuck with you for at least a decade.”

Oh, he totally would. It would be just as bad as the shrimp in Sheriff Riddle’s curtain rods and the anal leakage he just gave Hannibal.

Which is why I’d never say that where he could hear it.

Itried not to cackle like a fucking bog witch when Hannibal came flying out of the basement four hours early like his manties were on fire. My wolf ears could hear his guts staging the French Revolution from where I was. I didn’t know if he made it to the toilet on time, but I really hoped not.

I’d casually been visiting the other residents and letting them know enough details of our plan that it actually worked, but not enough that they spilled anything. Hannibal would probably come find me after dinner.

My mate hadn’t reached out to me yet, but she was probably just shy.

There was this vampire who had been avoiding me. I noticed him have to run away to laugh when I started speaking about stupid vampire shit the humans believed. He was sitting on the couch pretending to read. I took a running start and jumped on the couch next to him.

“Whatcha reading?” I asked.

No one could say I wasn’t friendly.

“The fiction in here is pretty shitty,” he sighed, closing the book.

“I’m Benji.”

“Oberon. They prefer you call us by our patient numbers here.”

Holy shit. What were the chances? Was everyone here?

“Oberon Malik?” I asked, leaning in.

“How the fuck did you know that?” Oberon growled.

“Remember little Nathan Reyes? He remembers you. He’s been trying to get you out of here for a while. He just didn’t know where you were. Fucker tried to get in here undercover.”

“Nathan? Is he okay?”

“I can’t say much, but he’s fine,” I leaned in where only supernaturals could hear. “When we get out of here, he says you can stay with him until you get back on your feet.”

Oberon gave me a curt nod. Cas and Pax finally came out from the office and pulled me to the dining hall. The food was pretty shit. They fed us better seventy year ago when shit was less processed. Pax had to leave us because we were pretending, but Cas and I had garlic bread on our plates. Well, kind of. It was sandwich bread with butter, garlic, and some cheese.

Cheap fuckers. This was morally reprehensible.

I took a bite out of the toast and gagged. Cas looked at me like I had a second head.

“Did I not fucking enunciate clearly? This is margarine. I want a manager and a refund.”

“This is a Coalition prison, Benji. You’re lucky you even got that.”

“The parmesan is that wood shaving stuff, too,” I moaned.

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