Page 46 of Beggars, Sin, and Wine

“I don’t suppose you have any idea when your other mate and friends will get here,” Pax said. “Should we set a plate?”

Good question. They seemed to appear out of nowhere, but not by shadow like Benji. There were only a few creatures I knew of that could do that and how they did it didn’t look familiar. Pax could portal, but they weren’t witches. I knew what they said they needed to do, but I didn’t know how much time they would need to do it.

Medusa just shrugged.

“No idea. They don’t have super speed like vampires do. My head was pounding when they arrived, so I might have missed something, but didn’t they say they were getting everyone here or home and covering up what happened? I’ll bet one of them went after Hannibal. You can’t control them. They will come when their work is done.”

Benji showed back up with Kat, Jezebel, and Calamity and Kat looked like she was ready to rip his tail off.

“We’re going to have to set some boundaries about you shadow poofing when we think we’re having a private moment.”

“I’m not a creeper. I just figured your mates were as hungry as mine and Pax is defrosting Cas’s broccoli cheese soup and making Harmony’s famous goddess dressing. I figured you might want to feed them.”

“I love broccoli cheese soup,” Calamity moaned.

I think we were all pretty protective of the young demon. She had been beaten up when we found her. It looked like they had tortured her pretty badly. She had showered, and it looked like Kat had given her some blood to heal her. Calamity seemed a little better mentally, too. I knew part of it was being out with her mates and the other part was that one of her mates was a siren.

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.”

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