Page 12 of Anarchy
I wasn’t even mad at him for saying that.
“No woman has ever said that to me before,” Gabriel said.
“You know I love you back, right?” Felix said.
Balthazar scooped me up and jumped on top of everyone with the both of us.
“Love fest cuddle pile!” he yelled.
“Your knee got my junk, and I’m not even mad about it,” Felix said.
“Payback is a bitch. You threatened to curse mine.”
“We need to celebrate,” Reyson said. “Dorian isn’t happening until tomorrow. Bram has time to check his phone. Ripley is right. This is a victory. I’m sure Dorian Gray already took into account that his warehouse was compromised. Still, he couldn’t know Balthazar had connections to the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, and the arrests would come this fast. He won’t know until he checks his phone. Dorian might have had plans for Silvaria still that we messed up. It’ll make him careless. We can use that. I want a feast, mead, and cake. I’m going to cook.”
I wasn’t wild about the idea when Reyson informed me I would be his wife, but the god literally cooked massive, delicious meals for any occasion, didn’t leave the toilet seat up, was sexy as all fuck, and was just generally amazing to be around.
I wasn’t mad at the idea anymore.
And yeah, shit was going to get real when Dorian landed. We weren’t relying on Kaine and an entire team of trained agents. It was going to be all us, and our resident god was getting bad vibes about splitting up. And I still hadn’t heard from Bram to give Dorian to him if we pulled this off.
I needed to forget about that and just celebrate our wins for now.
9
Balthazar
These guys were just so great, and Ripley just informed me she loved me. This was better than any illicit substance I may or may not have taken in my younger days at a club. I felt light and ready to party.
Most of the time, when I did this kind of stuff, I worked alone. Someone messaged me about a job, and if it was a shit job, I turned it down. I took all the information and usually worked alone in my apartment until it was done. I sent them a link to the information they wanted on an encrypted server I owned, and they wired me payment. We generally did everything via message.
The only person who ever spoke to me when they needed something was Kaine. He’d threatened to throw my ass in jail or burn me alive several times, but I knew hereallyloved me.
This was the first time I put my skills to work for people I actually liked and as a team. I was havingfun,and they appreciated me. They didn’t just throw money in my account and disappear until they needed something again.
I was going to help Reyson throw the best party ever. Unfortunately, Ripley had to go back to work. Minerva Krauss agreed to watch her desk if Ripley promised to give her the good gossip when she got back. I knew Minerva meant a lot to Ripley and Ravyn, but I found her extremely awesome even before she gave us her diaries to help out.
She was this prim, buttoned-up witch with her hair in a tight bun, but once you started talking to her, she was anything but a prim, buttoned-up witch. She even made Reyson blush. I sat there as the two of themgraphicallydiscussed the werewolf porn in this library, and I was blushing too. I needed to read those books.
Reyson was cooking up a feast, and Gabriel was using his magic to help me decorate. Felix was where he always was—looking out for Ripley when we weren’t there.
I liked Gabriel. I couldn’t exactly make this a proper party unless I left for supplies. Or, I had an open-minded warlock willing to abuse their magic to make this place fabulous. Reyson was helping too in between oven duty.
Ripley painted all the walls in here black or purple, and she had this banging décor scheme going on, so there wasn’t a ton of work to do. We just needed to dim the lights, hang some magical fairy lights, and light all the candles when Ripley and Felix returned.
I sat back and admired my handiwork. Was asking Reyson to conjure a smoke machine too much? Was Ripley even into raves? Reyson interrupted my thought process to hand me a plate with an absolutely gorgeous cake on it.
“Can you bring that down to Minerva if she’s still here? I’ve got a bit of work left to do in the kitchen, and we all owe her thanks for relieving Ripley so she could watch the arrest.”
“I’ll go too,” Gabriel said.
I knew why Gabriel was going. Minerva Krauss was a highly respected witch, and she had been nothing but kind to Gabriel. But, unfortunately, the rest of the witching community wasn’t like that for the most part. I got it. I wanted everyone to be nice to him.
Minerva was still there chatting with Ripley. I honestly didn’t expect her to still be there since the library was going to close soon. I slid the cake in front of her and pulled a chair up.
“You should always eat it when then God of Chaos bakes for you. I think this is lemon,” I said.
“It probably is,” Ripley said. “He knows I keep lemon cookies here just for you when we are talking books.”
