Page 7 of Anarchy
“They’d be stupid to come here. It’s not just me who can fight. The library patrons here are fiercely devoted to this place. Sometimes, there’s an audience when someone applies for a card. They’ve come together to make someone leaves when they get escorted out of the library. They can’t see it anymore, but they know it’s there. So they stay on the property, getting belligerent. Felix, do you remember that time there was an entire shifter pack in here that wailed on that Unseelie that got denied a card?”
“She’s right,” Felix said. “Ripley had the best fight instructor in the country when she was at The Academy of the Profane. She can handle herself. People take their library cards seriously because they know not everyone gets one. If people aren’t dumb enough to be afraid of Ripley and the spirits, they don’t seem to realize this library is full of a multitude of species that would kick their asses.”
I got that. But I didn’tknowthem. I didn’t trust them like I did these people. All I knew was that the possibilities were bad if we left her behind, even if all the reasons to do so were perfectly logical.
“I’m sure Ripley and every patron here can handle a disturbance. But, unfortunately, some of the spirits here have been compromised, and we can’t guarantee some of the patrons in the library aren’t Dorian’s. The possible outcomes keep changing as our plans do, but the outcome is always bad if we leave Ripley here alone.”
“I’m her familiar. So I’ll stay,” Felix said.
That satisfied me. Felix strolled this library as a house cat. He was also a powerful warlock, or he wouldn’t have been reborn as a witch’s familiar. He knew Ripley better than all of us. Felix also knew all the regulars like Ripley did. So there would be two sets of eyes looking out for danger.
I just hoped it was enough. Dorian Gray couldn’t hurt me, but he could hurt the people I cared about.
6
Gabriel
Ididn’t care for Dorian Gray long before I came to this library to figure out my tarot reading and found out what he was up to. I was centuries removed from my demon summoning ancestor, and I was still paying the price for their deal. Dorian was celebrated. People loved the book about him, and humans read it at their schools.
I was all about snatching him when he was sleeping off using alcohol to come down from his cocaine bender. He wasn’t worth anything to me. He hadn’t used his immortality to contribute anything good to the world. Dorian Gray got by on being pretty. Even if they couldn’t kill him, the supernatural community certainly could have locked him up until his payment came due.
Orion tightened around my neck and flicked me with his tongue.
“You should have offered to stay behind and protect her. The God doesn’t need a babysitter,”Orion hissed.
“I think it’s safe to say none of us should be alone right now, even Reyson.”
“You could have gotten warlock brownie points if you spoke up before the cat.”
“Since when do you give a shit about my love life?”
“I didn’t like the women you got up with before. They were all using you, and none of them liked snakes. So don’t fuck this up.”
“I’m not. This is my family now.”
“Then protect your family, Gabriel. Reyson has a bad feeling about splitting up. When a fucking god has a bad feeling, you listen to him.”
Orion was right. He usually was. This wasn’t just him trying to make me look better to Ripley. This was about protecting my coven. Now that I had one, I needed to make damned sure we were all safe.
“What if they send a revenant here? I’m the only person here that knows how to kill one. So maybe I should stay too.”
“The grounds of the library, museum, and academy or revenant proof,” Ripley said. “They had to do that a few years after everything was up and running. Not everyone at the Academy of the Profane acts like they’ve graduated high school and are in college. Assholes used to think it was a great prank to create a revenant and let it run loose. Property got damaged, freshman got killed, and it made the spirits angry. There’s a magical alarm system that alerts the faculty if one is in the process of being made. They’ve got enough protection crystals and railroad spikes buried around the boundaries to keep anyone not in the academy from sending one on the grounds.”
“Dorian likes to get other people to do his bidding, but when he comes back to the library, it’s going to be for Reyson, not us,” Felix said. “We don’t know what his plan is or what he’s telling people when he promises he can control Reyson. If they joined him because they fear demons and Hellhounds, I would imagine they fear Reyson too. So they aren’t going to make their move unless Dorian is with them, even if he’s human.”
Reyson just grunted, and I nodded. That made sense. Balthazar hadn’t even looked up from his laptop, but I knew he was paying attention. He liked to pretend otherwise, but that vampire was smart as fuck.
“We still have time,” Balthazar said. “The only person who knows about Dorian’s flight back to the states is Silvaria. He hasn’t alerted anyone else he’s coming back, and he hasn’t even announced it on social media. His last post is a selfie surrounded by pretty people in Amsterdam like he has no intention of coming back any time soon.”
All of that made a lot of sense. I grinned at Balthazar. Reyson’s ability to astral project came in handy quite often, and it was his powers that were going to allow us to grab Dorian. We wouldn’t know anything at all if it weren’t for Balthazar’s intel. We wouldn’t have rescued Talvath, and we’d be totally blindsided when Dorian came to the library.
“I don’t know if anyone has ever told you this, but you’re pretty amazing, Balthazar,” I said. “Everyone in this coven has unique skills, but I can’t begin to do what you can with a Wi-Fi connection, and it’s gotten us pretty damned far.”
“I agree,” Reyson said. “I can astral project any place I want, but I can’t get into electronics like you can. You are an amazing vampire, and I look forwards to bedding you with my witch again in the future.”
Felix and I both cleared our throats. I liked sex. I was pretty sure Felix did too. We wanted to have it with Ripley as often as possible. We weren’t as direct about bringing it up as Reyson and Balthazar. We were all in danger and I wasn’t personally thinking about orgies right now, though eventually, we should totally have one.
Balthazar turned purple, and for once, we didn’t get some of his sarcastic wit back. It looked like we had embarrassed him. I knew he put his hacking skills to good use, but I think most people just gave him money and sent him on his way rather than thanking him and telling him how smart he was.
