Page 27 of Chaos
That was just gross, but we all got the picture. It didn’t help us because it still didn’t answer how someone got past the blood magic here.
“We’ve got a god here. I think we should use him,” Balthazar said, looking dreamily at Reyson.
“It would be ideal, but we’d all get kicked out if the library breaks,” Gabriel said.
“Let’s avoid breaking my library,” Ripley said.
These blokes right here. They were going to have to realize this was Ripley’s profession, and she took pride in it. Plus, this library had been around since the Salem Witch Trials. We should respect it.
“Can I break someone if they show up because of my magic?” Reyson asked. “I know you have the truth potion, but I can sense connections. If I can find one person involved, I can probably trace it to the source.”
“I get y’all are the friendly types of witches and warlocks but come on. We’ve got Chaos. Let’s let him have a little fun. He’s probably bored cooped up here,” Balthazar said.
Based on the way that wanker was eye fucking Reyson and Ripley, it was pretty obvious what kind of fun Balthazar had in mind. Based on how obsessed Reyson was with the werewolf porn, he would be totally down with it. Except Reyson wasn’t exactly Captain Obvious. He only had eyes for Ripley. Except when he was asking her for a wolf to sample. This was a pretty shitty team if you asked me. No one needed to be thinking about sex or shifter cock with everything going on. Reyson could have contributed way before now, but he was so obsessed with a new name, even though he’d had countless of them since time began.
Yeah, I got we were supposed to do this together, but I had more at stake. Ripley was my witch. I’d known her the longest and knew her the best.
She wasn’t some obsession of mine that I randomly decided I was going to marry at first sight. I wasn’t here because I like the way her blood smelled.
The only ones here whose motivations I could understand were mine and Gabriel’s. I’d protect Ripley until I couldn’t anymore. I got the feeling Gabriel would, too, since she was probably the first witch that didn’t hold his family name against him. People seemed to have forgotten basic decency since I last had a body.
“I’m fine where I am,” Reyson said. “I’ve got my books and my witch. I can hold off exploring this unknown world until my witch is safe.”
Yeah, Captain Obvious. The fun Balthazar was talking about could have been had in any of the bedrooms in Ripley’s apartments. Balthazar just rolled his eyes and settled his shit down. He was going to have to try much harder than that. I needed to get them to focus.
“I agree, we needed to be making access of Reyson’s abilities as much as possible, but it would be best if no one knows he’s back until we are ready for it. The scene needs to be laid nice and right. The supernatural community is varied, but gods haven’t walked among us for a long time. Some people will view it as a good thing and line up to kiss Reyson’s arse. Others will view him as a threat and kill Ripley for bringing him back.”
“Not with me here. They can all band together and trick me into a tomb again, but the only reason I hadn’t come back in so long until Ripley forced me was that I chose not to.”
Gabriel just grunted.
“I think we can all agree Ripley needs to be protected, but we’re a team. We need to look out for each other, which means concentrating on figuring this out.
“Ripley thinks someone shouldn’t have a library card. If we can figure that out, maybe we can reverse what they did and keep them out of here. You ban people from this library, right? What usually happens?”
It was pretty damned funny the first time I saw someone banned from the Library of the Profane. The look on their face was priceless.
“The library is sentient, and it’s tied to blood. When people come in, they have to bleed in the bowl unless it’s fiction. Those are the only books allowed to leave the library. If something has changed since they approved you, the library knows when it gets the blood. The text I see turns red, and the library forcibly removes you with magic. It also puts a curse on you. From that day forward, even if you want to visit and you’ve been there before, you’ll never be able to find the Library of the Profane ever again.”
The first time that went down, Ripley and I had been told what was going to happen but seeing it in person was something else. Ripley barely had time to react when the text came up red. She didn’t even get the chance to inform that shifter they had been banned.
A mini tornado kicked up in the middle of the library, picked the shifter up, and carried him out the front door. It didn’t stop until he was well off the property. It didn’t look like a gentle exit either. We saw him trying to stand up in the distance. He looked all chundered. When he finally got upright, he ended up vomiting. His hair was everywhere.
He stood outside the property, pulling a right Karen. He couldn’t see the library, but he knew he was just there. He kept shrieking for a manager to come out and let him back in.
It was indeed one of the best Karen tantrums I’d seen in a long time, and we didn’t get many of those in the library. It was beautiful.
“The more I learn about this place, the more fucked up it gets,” Balthazar said.
“I agree with you, Ripley,” Gabriel said. “The only reason either of those men didn’t get banned when they gave their blood and asked to look at the books on primordial gods is that something has happened with the magic.”
“Unless the library let them because it wanted Reyson back and intends on banning them at their next visit,” Balthazar said.
That was a possibility none of us had considered. Maybe the horny vampire had his uses after all. They built the Library of the Profane over the mass graves of witches burned during the Salem Witch Trials, but many people thought the Puritans stopped there. They burned a lot of other supernaturals, too, and had a dumpsite for the bodies.
It was massive, too, because the Library, the museum, and the academy all shared lands with it, and all three were sentient. It took the entire supernatural community to reclaim those lands and tie the spirits to the buildings. This had once been a very haunted place with a lot of angry spirits. They couldn’t pass on because they weren’t given the rites by their community.
The spirits were given a purpose instead. The sheer number of bodies and how decomposed they were made digging up the graves to identify them and give them their last rites would have been impossible. I wasn’t there, but I knew that they would have taken it if that had been an option.
