Page 37 of Beggars, Sin, and Wine

But everyone knew shadow demons weren’t dangerous unless you gave them a reason to be, or you were just a job. Everyone should have known Benji was the sign, so I didn’t know why they were screaming in terror.

Unless something happened when a werewolf mixed with a shadow demon that scared even supernaturals. Since Jezebel was a siren, she had certain gifts with her voice that weren’t just singing. She amplified her voice over the humans and supernaturals screaming and the sounds of bodies thumping as Benji did things with his shadows.

“There’s your sign, bitches! The shadow wolf is on our side. Do you want him having all the fun?”

Uh, shadow wolf? I could see why all the supernaturals were also screaming. That would have been a first for any of us, no matter how old we were. It was also really cool.

The doors of our cells wouldn’t hold us without the wards. I could summon tree roots and rip mine off, but the others had magic or super strength that could get their doors open. I could hear everyone letting themselves out to get their revenge.

I wanted mine, and I was having trouble not going to Benji now that he was here. I curled myself in a ball in the corner of my cell and tried to force myself to stay put. I had snakes for hair, but I still wouldn’t be as scary to another supernatural as a shadow wolf. I was kinda famous.

I was also the deadliest monster in this place, even if Benji was a shadow wolf who scared the other people in the basement. If anyone made eye contact with me, I’d turn them to stone. My mates included.

I knew Jezebel would warn them if she could, but she was fighting her mate bond, too. She had one upstairs and one downstairs. She’d been here longer than I had. I wouldn’t blame her if she took care of Calamity instead of me.

I was a big girl. I was going to try to explain to my mates that I was a monster they couldn’t look at from behind a steel door and let them deal with that on their terms. They could reject me or we could figure out how to get me to Di without killing them so I could get my glasses.

Easy, right?

I had a whole plan. I could do this. Athena took everything from me and repeatedly tried to ruin my life. I had one mate I couldn’t kill. If I played this just right, I could have the other three, too. I wasn’t letting Athena’s curse ruin this for me after everything I’d been through in New Eden Asylum.

Except, fuck me. Athena didn’t even have to be here to fuck up my life with the curse she left behind. The mate bond was screaming at me to go to them so we could complete the bond. I should have known it was calling to them, too. They weren’t going to let a little thing like a triple reinforced steel door stand in their way.

It scared the fuck out of me when my door went flying off by way of a shadow tendril. I couldn’t even control it. My eyes flew up to assess the threat. I knew none of the Coalition members could make that door do that, but they’d been a constant threat this entire time.

My eyes landed on my mates and they returned my gaze. They instantly turned to stone.

Something was wrong. Kat used her vamp speed to find her mates. One was a succubus hybrid, and she was trying to comfort a younger demon who felt terrorized. Kat was at the who did this to you stage so she could kill who hurt the young demon, but the siren was trying to tell us something.

The mate bond was stronger than a siren’s lure. I was at least trying to fight it and hear her out because I had a feeling it had to do with our mate. I hesitated, but I couldn’t even hear a fucking siren over the pounding in my ears because my mate was near and she was weak.

I heard Benji blow the door to her cell in. This whole place was filled with the sounds of supernaturals getting their revenge on their captors, but all I could hear now was the sound of my mate sobbing and I needed to make it better.

I stepped in her cell and something wasn’t right. I could see Benji and Cas’s outline, but something was off. Their auras were wrong and neither one of them would just be standing there while our mate cried.

They didn’t turn when I entered the cell and called their name either. I touched them. Stone. Interesting, but fixable. I peered around the statue to our sobbing mate. I had my suspicions, but I didn’t know she was a green witch first. I could see her hair moving. Snakes.

Our mate was Medusa. Di didn’t tell us her name, but he didn’t really lie about her either. She had been god touched by Athena, but she was cursed, not blessed like we originally thought. We would have refused to take the job if he told us we were rescuing Medusa because she was so lethal, but if he’d clued us in she was also our mate, we would have thought he was lying to get us to take the job.

I kneeled next to her. As a Smith, I could transfigure anything. I could change Benji and Cas back. I was pretty sure my blindness meant I was immune to her, but if I was wrong, those necklaces the bearded guy gave us were starting to make sense right along with his identity.

I kept mine on under the collar I borrowed from Father Nathan, but Benji and Cas couldn’t wear jewelry. Theirs would have gotten confiscated, and I’d been wearing theirs, too. I was pretty sure I just needed to put the necklaces on them and change them back and we could be with our mate.

“Hey, little one. Don’t cry,” I said, trying to touch her cheek.

“Don’t look at me! Didn’t you see what I did? My snakes bite.”

“Medusa, I’m blind. The Coalition took my sight the first time. I don’t think your curse works on me. Even if it did, three strange men hired us to break a green witch out of here and refused to tell us her name. Pretty sure that’s you.”

I explained the necklaces, and that I didn’t think her snakes would bite me. My familiar was a python, and I had an affinity with snakes.

“Why didn’t you tell me Di sent you? Aren’t you mad about Pax and Benji? I am.”

“We had to be sure you and Di’s green witch were one and the same so we didn’t put you in danger. I’m not mad because I can fix this. Benji got to show off. My turn. Watch this. And I can’t see it, but I’ll feel it if you check out my ass when I turn around.”

“I didn’t get to see the shadow wolf, but it scared everyone. Can you really fix what I did?”

“Of course. And Benji would be happy to show it off to you. The damned shadow wolf likes belly rubs and has worse happy tail than the stray Pitbull Benji brought home.”

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