Page 53 of Chaos
Pablo flung the door open before I could knock. Being a vampire was like your own personal alarm system. We would hear your heartbeat well before you ever got inside. It was different for everyone, but Pablo would have known a vampire and a witch was out here and he had no enemies.
“Balthazar!” he cried, pulling me into a hug. “Are you in trouble again?”
“Something like that, but that’s not why I’m here. This one has never had Mexican food before, and he wanted to start with Taco Bell.”
“That hurts my feelings,” Pablo said with his hand over his heart. “Get your asses in here and eat.”
I gave Felix anI told you solook and went to the dining room to eat. Pablo always cooked massive amounts of food because people turned up to eat all the time. It was just us today, and for that, I was glad. We needed to talk about that cargo yard, and Pablo was the only person I trusted with this.
“Someone was inside that shipping container,” I said as I dug into my food.
Felix hadn’t even touched his, and he tried to shush me. I waved my fork at him.
“Pablo is a priest. He hears this shit all the time. He won’t tell anyone. He’s studied everything there is to know about Nosferatu. He might have some insights on Reyson and demons.”
“Notexactlythis shit. You should have said that before we came inside.”
“I’m getting offended you haven’t eaten yet,” Pablo said. “Why don’t you take a bite and tell me what the problem is?”
Felix finally ate his damned food after all that bitching about Taco Bell. I asked what I came here for.
“Do you know anything about controlling gods?”
“Many have tried, and they all met horrible ends.”
“Oh, my Lilith! This is amazing,” Felix moaned.
Pablo just rolled his eyes.
“Finally. If you preferred Taco Bell to my Abuela's secret recipe, I was going to have to pray hard for you.”
“We just found out someone may have found a way to trap a demon. The people who trapped him have raised the God of Chaos. He’s on our side and wants to punish these people, but they are acting like they are certain they have a way to control him.”
Pablo’s eyebrows raised to his forehead.
“You do manage to get yourself in the most complicated of shit, Balthazar. Out of all the gods to raise, I’d be asking yourselves why Chaos? No one worships him anymore. Depending on who did it, I would expect to see Lilith, Nosferatu, or one of the various shifter gods. Why raise someone you haven’t spent your entire life paying tribute to? Especially Chaos. He was generally feared since he was so unpredictable.”
Reyson seemed pretty reasonable to me. He cared about Ripley, food, and killing anyone who thought they could control him. He was also being super careful with how he dealt with this because any wrong move would bring an army of demons here. Still, I couldn’t deny he could be dangerous if he wanted to be. He was the god of fucking Chaos.
“They are all trying to get out of deals with demons,” Felix said. “They think he will break their contracts or kill the demon who owns them, but still allow them to keep the gifts the demon gave them. They seemed pretty sure they could get him to do it.”
“We’ve all met him and spent time with him,” I said. “He wouldn’t do that just for the hell of it. I know he’s Chaos personified, but he takes his powers seriously.”
“Unless you bat his Oreos over because you’re a cat,” Felix muttered.
I fell out laughing.
“Is that how you got a dick on your face?”
Felix pointed his steak knife at me.
“I’d appreciate younevermentioning that to my face ever again.”
“That’s the thing,” Pablo said. “Most of the gods wouldn’t abuse their power like that. If I had to pick any god who would help them, it would be Chaos or a trickster god. But the risks are too great with both. A trickster is liable to run off and do their own thing, and Chaos is one of the original gods. He helped create the universe. He could either take offense at demon deals, or he could have been part of the creation of demons.”
It was exceptionally fucking rare I knew something Pablo didn’t. I met him at church. I wasn’t super religious and didn’t really attend. I stumbled through his door broken and bloodied and asked for sanctuary because some vampires I hacked were trying to rip my head off. That was how we met, became friends, and I found out his Abuela was a genius in the kitchen.
“Gods and demons are totally separate. We met a Hellhound too. Gods can’t go to Hell, and demons fear gods.”
