Page 51 of Anarchy
“Take it out on Dorian because you aren’t getting anywhere near Silvaria now that she’s in my custody. The only reason I’m not demanding Dorian come back with me is that it’s a jurisdictional nightmare because of him being human. Everyone knows he made a deal because he blabbed about it to a writer and everyone knows you can’t get out of them. I put it out that I went to Hell to rescue Ripley, but I think pretty much everyone expects me to leave Dorian to the demons.”
“What was on those electronics?” I demanded.
“A lot of blackmail material on demons, a weird manifesto explaining his actions where he tried to take sole credit for this mess and painting himself the hero. I wanted to take a shower after reading it. Lilith has a copy. As soon as she read it, she said she had a plan, but she didn’t exactly tell me what it was.”
“Well, she has Reyson and Bram with her, so it had better be safe.”
“It is,” Lucifer said. “Sit down and watch a goddess at work, babies. Lilith called a press conference.”
We all piled on the couches in Lilith’s entertainment room. I snuggled with Felix and Gabriel. Several of the Hellhounds were cuddling and looked totally into it. I sighed because my sister and her familiar were sitting about as far apart as possible, but they kept sneaking glances at everyone else like they wanted to move closer, but their stupid heads were getting in the way. Since when did my sister let her brain get in the way of a guy she liked? It was going to be explosive when those two finally got together.
And a press conference? She was going to put Bram and Reyson in front of a bunch of demon reporters who didn’t like outsiders? I hoped she knew what she was doing. They couldn’t hurt Reyson, but he would get pissed if they tried. The sigils tattooed on the Real Housewives of Hell seemed to bounce off Bram, and I could thank Talvath for that. Reyson would be just as protective of Bram as he was of me.
“I hope Lilith knows what she’s doing because two of my guys are out there with her.”
Lilith didn’t tell any ofuswhat she was up to, and she didn’t tell Bram when she roped him into this, but Lucifer seemed to know.
“You didn’t read Akul’s manifesto, Ripley,” Lucifer said. “It was terrible. It was the rantings of a terrorist trying to justify betraying their people, murdering anyone who didn’t agree with them, and abusing living beings. Even if someone agreed with keeping Hellhounds as slaves, they aren’t going to agree with that tripe. All the reporters have it. Every politician in Hell has it. Any influential demon who might want Hellhound slavery to continue has it in their inbox. Add to that, Lilith doing a press conference is a major event. Everyone will be watching. She knows what she is doing.”
“She’d better because I’m just as protective of my men as they are of me. And if you think Reyson just goes all psycho alpha over me, that extended to all of us. If anyone there tries to hurt Bram, you aren’t going to have to worry about him shifting and killing anyone because Reyson is going to do it on everyone’s television screens.”
“It’s not going to come to that, Ripley. Lilith knows what she’s doing. I get you haven’t known her as long as you’ve known Reyson, but I’ve known her for a very long time. Lilith is a cunning strategist. She knows when to fight and when to walk away. If she’s fighting now, it’s because sheknowsshe’s going to win.”
Lucifer had a lot of faith in Lilith, but many of us in this room had every reason to doubt her. Yeah, she answered one prayer of mine, but I was in my thirties. That was a lot of prayers shedidn’tanswer. I’m sure every Hellhound here prayed a lot more than I ever did and for much more terrible situations. So yeah, she was stepping innow,and we all appreciated it, but after everything I had learned so far, my faith was just a bit shattered.
Lucifer started flipping through the channels. I could see an empty podium or a newscaster on every single one. What was he looking for? Any one of these would do.
“Sorry, they pay some of these stations to be shitty. They don’t reportallthe news. They pick and choose what’s going to rile up their base the most. You can bet your ass ifanyonebut Lilith called a press conference about that manifesto, they wouldn’t be there covering it.”
“The news is like that on Earth too, but people like to put their own spin on it.”
“That’s illegal here. News is supposed to be presented propaganda free, but people get around it by only focusing on certain news. This one is a good station. They cover everything.”
If we weren’t getting shitty commentary from any of these people, then any station would have done. I got why it bothered him, but was that really what we needed to be worried about right now?
I saw Lilith take the podium. Reyson, Bram, Talvath, and Samael flanked her in the back. I’d been throwing shade at her in my head like she wasn’t perfectly capable of wiping me from existence. She had just been so relaxed about this entire situation, even when the Hellhounds were ripping apart all those demons.
Lilith looked pretty damned frightening right now as she glared at the cameras. Remind me never to mouth off to her like I did to Reyson. The way she was giving the stink eye to the camera, I got the feeling she wouldn’t give a shit what Reyson would do to her if I made her reach the level of pisstivity she was at right now.
She opened her mouth and just unloaded. She graphically described what happened to Talvath that I didn’t know because he was passed out at the library, and I didn’t ask Bram when I finally had him alone. I should have asked because no one deserved what Silvaria and Dorian did to him.
I wanted to kill Dorian. Everyone who cared about me wanted to kill him for kidnapping me. Aside from a lot of discomfort from the gas and trying to use me to manipulate Reyson, he hadn’t harmed me at all compared to what he did to Talvath. He needed me alive and unharmed if he had any hope of his plan working. Both DorianandAkul wanted Talvath dead, and they treated him as such while he was their captive.
“Talvath would still be in that kind of torment if it weren’t for his Hellhound. Some of you are aware of why Talvath has one in the first place. Bram is right here. You can see that he’s clean, dressed howhelikes to dress, and he’s decorated his body how he sees fit. Bram differs from most of the Hellhounds here. He’s not a slave, and he’s not a pet.
“He was raised like a family member. So, when Talvath didn’t come back after a routine soul collection, he did what family does. He used every resource available to him to get Talvath home safely. Unfortunately, none of your Hellhounds would give you the same courtesy because you treat them like garbage.
“Bram allied with people on Earth, and it was needed because of the sigils Akul gave Dorian. They would have weakened him too. So a Hellhound not only saved the life of one demon, but he also saved countless lives here in Hell.
“Akul had a hit list. He fully intended on murdering anyone who wanted the Hellhounds to be free. But, I want you to know something else. Demons mistrust people on Earth, and they mistrust us because of our deals. Akul had every intention of turning on Dorian Gray, and Dorian knew that.
“Every sigil Akul gave him that could trap a demon and hurt them was uploaded to a cloud server, which would have made anyone going to Earth a target. It would have eventually killed Hell and everyone here.
“I didn’t create Hellhounds to be slaves. I didn’t create demons to be slave masters and abuse my other creations. Thiswas notmy vision for any of you when I created Hell. It stops now. I know several politicians have tried, and we found Akul’s blackmail material on you. I expect it to be done as soon as possible.”
Oh, shit. Lilith wasn’t just dropping she found Akul’s blackmail spank bank to let them know that information was now safe. She was letting them know that if they didn’t do the right thing, she would use it.
That was evil, and I loved it.
