Page 37 of Discord
I snorted, while doing my best not to laugh. That was one of the things I loved about Balthazar. Felix was mean to everyone. He didn’t mean it, it was just how he was. Balthazar just rolled with it and gave as good Felix liked to give. Felix just scowled at him.
“Enough with the cock wagging. A car just pulled up. He’s here.”
I saw this massive man get out of the driver’s seat and a tiny girl get out of the passenger side. Who did he bring? He said he was doing this himself, and that girl didn’t even look old enough to drive, much less work with him.
“He brought Beyla,” Balthazar said. “He adopted her after her parents died. She’s a witch, and she’s already come into her powers. Her parents let her think she was human. She’s still getting used to the supernatural world. He probably brought her to show her the library. He’s sensitive about ass-kissing, but he’s a total bear when it comes to Beyla. I’m talking roasting every last one of us alive and sucking the marrow out of our bones.”
None of us would ever be mean to a young orphaned witch who’d just found out she wasn’t human. Not even Felix would go there, especially since I didn’t see a familiar with her. Whatever strings Lilith had pulled to give her witches familiars, not every witch or warlock had one. No one could ever figure out the reasoning behind who did or didn’t get a familiar.
The young witch was in total awe as she gazed around my library when she stepped inside. Yeah, meeting Kaine Dragovich was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but Balthazar had already warned us about his disposition. I was a total bitch. I was just as mean as Felix was most of the time. He was perfectly suited to be my familiar.
That wasn’t to say I didn’t have a nice bone in my body, some things did hit me in the feels. This girl hit me right there. I could see her aura. She had been through some deep shit, but she was slowly making her way through it, thanks to Kaine. I wanted to adopt her and be like her witchy familiar and guide her through the witch things Kaine couldn’t.
“I wouldadoregetting a library card here when I’m old enough,” she sighed.
I liked that kid.
Ravyn and Killian slipped in the door behind them. I invited them to dinner because they were a part of this now. Ravyn would have come, even if we didn’t have a celebrity over, but she wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble with her appearance if it was just the guys and me.
My twin and I were alike in a lot of ways. She hadn’t gotten the same warning we had about Kaine, but she zeroed in on the kid’s aura right away. She totally ignored the dragon and went straight over to the young witch to introduce herself. That seemed to please Kaine way more than if we had been fawning all over him.
“I can’t test you for a card yet, but I can give you a tour when we are done here,” I said.
“It’ll be too late, but come by the Museum of the Profane one day. We don’t require blood for tours, but I can also bring you to restricted areas in the museum that only I can access, as curator.”
Beyla gave us this shy smile, and Kaine was beaming back at us like we had just won him over just by being nice to this young witch. Reyson stepped forward and offered his hand to Kaine.
“I used to entertain entire thunders of dragons back in the day. I prepared a meal that used to be their favorite, but your young witch should enjoy it, too.”
Kaine just frowned and looked at Reyson’s hand like it was covered in shit. Dragons were all pretty big. I wouldn’t have wanted to try to fight Kaine. Reyson was even bigger than Kaine was, and the dragon looked like he didn’t give a shit about offending him.
“I’m sorry, but what the fuck are you, and why are dragons eatingyourcooking?”
“I’veneverseen an aura like that before, and you’re a little scary,” Beyla said.
Kaine’s eyes went pure gold, and his pupils narrowed into slits at the idea that Beyla felt threatened. He didn’t know what Reyson was, but he was ready to fight him if he hurt, or even looked like he might hurt, Beyla. Reyson held up his hands in an attempt to harmless, even though we all knew damn well he wasn’t.
“I’m on your side with this, and I have no intention of hurting either of you. Please, put your dragon away. I don’t want to fight you. You’ll lose, and my witch is particular about things getting damaged in her library.”
Idid notneed Kaine Dragovich going ass wild with his dragon in my library. He was fighting to protect Beyla, and Reyson would defend all of us. They’d demolish this entire building in the process, and I’d get fired. I jumped in between them.
“Reyson is a god. That’s why you’ve never met anyone like him before. He’s on our side, and he was with us at the shipping container. The only reason we rescued one of our people and rescued a hostage was because of him. Look, how about you come up and eat? You can get the entire story over excellent food.”
“That is so fucking cool!” Beyla shrieked.
Kaine just glared at Balthazar.
“Only you would call me in the middle of my bowling night and bring me gods and revenants. Which one of you killed that thing that way?”
“I did,” Gabriel said. “The spell was in my family grimoire.”
Kaine just huffed and blew smoke out of his nose.
“Balthazar gave me names. The only person I couldn’t find when I ran a background check was one ‘Reyson Discord’… but that sounds like a porn star name, and so I figured it was fake. I’m guessing I would have found more hits on the god if I googled him rather than running his fake name through a criminal database. I know all about your family, boy. People haven’t done you any favors. I probably wouldn’t share that with the bastards who look down on you either. We could sure use it at the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, but I’ll understand if you think we should fuck off, too.”
“What is porn?” Reyson demanded.
I hadn’t shown him any because I didn’t want to make shit weird. Felix and Gabriel wouldn’t. Honestly, I was a little shocked Balthazar hadn’t introduced Reyson to the world of pornography.
