Page 29 of Anarchy
Still, she wasn’t really one of us. Could we even trust her? We all looked to Reyson.
“If you help get my witch back, I’ll help fix your sun. No tricks, Lilith. Do we have a deal?”
“It was I who created the witches and taught them how to make a blood oath. Would you like to spill our blood and seal it that way?”
Reyson just grunted.
“Ripley, tell Dorian what he needs to hear about my cooperation. Then, if he allows you to call again, make sure you’re alone so we can keep you up to date.”
“We’ll have to speak in code. He wants everything else done by text message, and I’m sure he will want to read them. The only reason I got privacy for these phone calls was that I told him Reyson would definitely kill him for manipulation me.”
Reyson just snorted.
“I would have killed him for being an inadequate lover to you. There’s no scenario in this situation where Dorian lives through this.”
“You’ll have to be crafty,” Lilith said. “I created witches and warlocks to be exactly that. Manipulate that bastard through your text message, so he doesn’t see us coming. Let him think he’s won. Let the traitor think they are getting what they wanted, betraying all of Hell. It’s going to make it that much sweeter when they realize all that planning and all the people they threw under the bus to get there still wasn’t enough, and they lost.”
Kaine was still sitting with us because his people were still gathering evidence, and he thought Dorian would eventually call with demands.
“Hell is not even remotely in my jurisdiction, and I’ve got a teenager at home with two broken feet whose magic just awakened early, but if you need a dragon, you’ve got one. But, unfortunately, the kid that broke Beyla’s feet has disappeared, so I can’t eat him. It would be nice to take out some of that rage on Dorian Gray and this traitor.”
Oh, fuck. I got Reyson and Lilith being mad about this. I knew why the rest of us were mad. Dorian Gray didn’t lay a finger on Beyla, but Kaine was tired of his shit, anyway. He was about to unleash his dragon on him.
Lilith broke into this devious smile. She’d been fairly relaxed like she was on vacation this entire time. But she looked downright dangerous right now. I was probably more scared of her than I was of Reyson, and I’d seen him in action.
Dorian Gray was about to find out the hard way what happened when you fucked around with one of Lilith’s creations.
22
Ripley
Holy shit. Lilith not only answered my prayer, but she also showed up at my fucking library. And I was stuck in this cage and couldn’t give her a proper tour. I was pissed, to say the least. I didn’t know why she was coming out of retirement now, but I wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. She was bringing my guys to Hell, and she was promising to help the Hellhounds.
Dorian had little patience. I was saying my goodbyes when he came barging in, glaring at me.
“That took a long time, Ripley. You’d better not be up to something.”
I plastered an innocent look on my face and rubbed my fingers together where he couldn’t see. I knew several ways to cast magic without being obvious about it, and Dorian Gray now had a raging case of treatment resistant crabs. Those buggers weren’t going away without magic. Don’t fuck with witches.
“You gassed my library and kidnapped me to manipulate a god, Dorian. How long do you think it takes to calm a man down when you kidnap his future wife? You wanted the God of Chaos. You’re going to have to give me longer than ten minutes to deal with his moods.”
I tried not to smile as Dorian’s feet started doing a little dance as my magical crabs went to work. Suck it, asshole. I’d get much more creative later. I know Lilith and Reyson said to cooperate with Dorian and let him think he had won, but he needed me alive and unharmed for this plan to work.
“And what did he say?”
“I have to pee, Dorian. I had a lot of coffee before you gassed me, and I’ve been in this cage since I woke up. I still have bodily functions, and I have to eat to stay alive. Did you even take that into account when you snatched me?”
“I’m not uncivilized, Ripley. There’s a bathroom just beyond that door. I’ll let you use it as soon as you tell me what I need to know, and I’ll have food brought in.”
“Reyson is mad, but he knows he doesn’t have a choice. So he’ll do what you ask.”
“Are you going to be a good little witch when I let you out? I tried to get some of the magic dampening bracelets like they use in the supernatural prisons to keep you docile, but it proved too difficult for my source to sneak a pair out.”
Score one for the prison system. Supernatural prisons were never for profit like the human prisons were, but they had some of the same problems. The fact that someone who worked in one was willing to sneak something that took away magic from the inmates for an immortal human for some cash told me exactly how they treated the inmates. I was guessing the fact that they skimped on costs for a lot of things for the prisoner’s care, they kept damned good track of the inventory they paid for in case someone wanted to steal.
“What exactly do you think I’m going to do, Dorian? I’m in an unfamiliar realm where people don’t like outsiders, and I can’t exactly kill you without your painting.”
“No, you can’t, but it still hurts when people try.”
