Page 54 of Chaos
“You certainly have been on an adventure.”
“We need to talk about that storage container,” Felix said.
“There’s someone in there,” I said. “I could hear their heartbeat. It was faint, like their magic is being tampered with. I saw the blood lock too. The shifter guarding the door has made a deal. He reeked of Sulphur.”
“I figured as much. The storage yard isn’t just on a burial ground. Silvaria’s container is on a ley line. She’s got some seriously dangerous objects in there, and I sensed a lot of blood.”
“Oh, yeah. She’s got all kinds of blood in there. I smelled witch, vampire, human, and all kinds of shifter. She’s got her bases covered.”
“Bits and pieces! Bram said bits and pieces from those books would work. One binding ritual said the blood of all races would bind the demon, and the other said drawing the rune in blood would bind them. I’ll bet she drew it in the blood of everyone. She must have been preparing for this for ages.”
Pablo pulled out a bottle of tequila and poured it into three shot glasses. He slid them across the table and downed his.
“I don’t suppose I can talk you into sitting this one out?”
“You know me. I have to stop the end of the world.”
“Thank you for the food, Pablo,” Felix said. “It was truly amazing, and I’m glad I had your Abuela’s recipes for my first time eating Mexican food.”
Pablo just grinned.
“Good. Now swear to me you’ll never eat Taco Bell.”
“Can I bring Ripley here, soshe’llstop eating Taco Bell?”
“If she comes, Reyson will tag along. You’ll get to meet a god, Pablo.”
“You know my table is always open, Balthazar. I look forwards to meeting your new family. Now, go stop the end of the world and try not to get killed.”
It was time to get back. Dorian Gray should be good and dead by now. It was time to report back what we learned about Silvaria. Personally, I thought we should only free this demon if he agreed to grant Bram his freedom, but that was just me.
Slavery had never been cool.
Chapter 41
Ripley
I
t made sense to split into teams since our numbers had grown. I didn’t like the idea of Felix or Balthazar going off to a storage yard built on a gravesite alone, but I knew they were both capable, so I would just have to deal with it. I was on painting duty with Gabriel, Reyson, and Bram.
I realized the level of hot shit I’d be in destroying this painting while it was in my care. I had no legally obtained proof against Silvaria. The spirits here at the library seemed willing to help me, but would they cooperate if anyone else summoned them? The only reason they really did for us was that Reyson made them his little bitch.
I couldn’t be in there with them because I had to work. I could get fired for that too. I unlocked the vault on my lunch break and let Reyson, Gabriel, and Bram inside.
“Do notbreak anything in here. Deal with the painting and get out. We keep our sentient books in here. Try not to be loud, or they will attack you. Please do not damage these books. If you have to move the painting to my apartments and do it there.”
“It’s going to get messy, so I’ll move it,” Bram said.
I didn’t know the first thing about harvesting a soul from a painting, but if it made a mess, they had better not do it in the vault and clean up after themselves afterward.
I didn’t want to leave, but I went back to my desk. A face I really wanted to see strolled up to my desk to return a book. I needed to pick Professor Krauss’s brain about Balthazar’s curse.
“Hi, Professor Krauss. Can I ask you a few questions about curses?”
“Dear, haven’t I asked you to call me Minerva now that you aren’t my student anymore?”
Yeah, she had. Probably a million times, but it was just so fucking embarrassing. I was terrified of this woman when she was my teacher.
