Page 49 of Beggars, Sin, and Wine

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.

“It’s an added layer of protection and apparently really pretty if you’re flying over, but it also let me trademark the valley as a work of art. No one has bothered me about buying my valley again because it got really expensive to talk to me. No one with any training is going to go into the mountains blind to fight supernaturals.

“Humans are greedy as fuck. Most of them like money more than they like being heroes. It wouldn’t be too hard to find out I have a lot of money and so do most of the people who live here because we are so old. They’d have to take all of us to avoid getting sued into oblivion.”

“Public opinion wouldn’t be on their side,” Pax said. “The tide has really turned on rounding innocent people up. The only reason some people still think the Coalition should still be around is that they believe the propaganda that they are only snatching us when we break the law.

“We have this whole place wired with cameras. If our wards are breached, the footage is not only going to get sent to Cas’s network, it’s set to live stream so everyone can see we weren’t doing a damned thing wrong when they invaded our home. They are welcome to try, but even if they manage to take us, the public outcry would get us all released soon.”

I shuddered. That was honestly a lot I didn’t want to deal with when I could barely stand up.

“I swear to shit, if Di meant me getting my ass beat by the Coalition while it gets live streamed for bringing them down for good, I’m going to find a super creative way to get back at him.”

“We all will because fuck that,” Benji said. “Mates don’t do that. I went to Save Mart and bought tampons. Di needs to learn to carry his weight if he wants to be a sister husband.”

“You bought tampons?” I asked.

What was happening right now?

“You don’t even want to know what happened on the tampon aisle at the Save Mart, just know Kat and a human woman nearly beat his ass. Why don’t we table that conversation until the morning? You’re exhausted, and it’s been a long night. Why don’t I show you to the extra bedrooms?”

I was exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in an actual bed. There was also a part of me that was terrified and overstimulated after being out of that windowless cell for the first time. I hated that cell, but there was also only one entrance. If anyone tried to breach it, I just had to look at them.

This place was cozy but unfamiliar. It had a ton of natural lighting, which the green witch in me loved because there were plants everywhere, but the part of me that had been kidnapped couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it would be for someone to get to me from one of those windows.

I could feel a panic attack coming on again at the thought of sleeping alone, but I had three amazing mates here who had done nothing but take care of me since they broke me out. Benji seemed to have big opinions about the Save Mart, but he went anyway and bought me tampons.

“Can I sleep with one of you? I don’t want to pick and I probably never will. Can I sleep with one of you and it not be complicated?”

Cas chuckled and kissed my forehead.

“We’ve got separate rooms for when we want privacy, but the beds in each room are big enough that you can comfortably sleep with all three of us.”

Seriously, how perfect were they? I would have felt safe with one of them, but all three were even better. Everything they’d done here was amazing, but the only thing that would stop Athena from showing up herself was Di.

I could relax and that missing part of me would be complete when Di got here.

My body wanted to stay in bed getting a little more sleep snuggling with my pack. Medusa was having panic attacks, and I had a feeling she would keep having them until Di got here. Whatever he was, it kept Athena away from her. Benji hadn’t gone into full-blown panic attacks, but he wasn’t dealing well with being back at a Coalition facility.

Benji hyper-focused on something when he didn’t want to deal with his memories. It was natural for him to fixate on Medusa now that we found her, but everything that happened at the Save Mart was Benji overcompensating to care for her instead of caring for himself.

There was also the matter of a young demon and my mate’s hybrid friend. I would have taken care of them even if they weren’t Kat’s mates. Kat had become a good friend to me. It wasn’t just that she helped us break out. She could read that traumatized kid Benji tried to hide and help him.

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