Page 59 of Anarchy
Lilith cocked an eyebrow at Balthazar like she had no idea what he was talking about. They probably didn’t have that here. Balthazar was constantly getting into people’s online activity without their permission, but he probably took offense at the government doing it. He probably hacked them and deleted shit just because he could.
“I can assure you that the government here in Hell is not looking at pornography on people’s computers. They have other ways of locating that if it involves anyone underage. Can we move on?”
Only Balthazar could manage to distract Lilith during battle. After that, we all just nodded like it was us who got caught talking back to the teacher.
“Sozath thinks most of the problems are going to come from Akul’s neighborhood. It’s a pretty big one. Vegran didn’t nearly bring all her friends with her when the house was under attack. The Hellhounds here probably aren’t all the Hellhounds at those particular houses. People there are angry. They lost wives and friends. They saw Samael and Lucifer in the air with Kaine, so they knew I was involved.
“Most of them closed their curtains and hoped they weren’t next, but some were foolish enough to follow Vegran. They will want to blame someone, and it will be the Hellhounds since they aren’t dumb enough to take most of the government or me on. I’ll be out there with you.”
“If they touch my people, I’m going to kill them,” Reyson said.
Lilith just gave Reyson the stink eye.
“If they don’t do what they are told and free my creations, I’ll kill them myself.”
41
Ripley
Ihad no problem magically kicking some asses to get the Hellhounds to safety. Honestly, I didn’t, but no one was talking about what would happen to Akul and Dorian. They weren’t even in jail. We chained them up in Lilith’s plush mansion, being fed the rich food everyone else was eating. I was fine with the Hellhounds living it up on gourmet food, and they got so excited about every new dish. Personally, I thought they should feed Dorian and Akul dog food since they thought it was good enough for the Hellhounds.
Whatwerewe going to do with them? Kaine didn’t even want Dorian, or he would have taken him with him. I got it. Some opportunistic lawyer would have made the case he couldn’t be tried in supernatural court because he was human. No one was about to bring this to the attention of the humans. They all thought Dorian Gray was fiction, and the real Dorian Gray was just some pretty social media celebrity who took that name for likes.
Hell wouldn’t need their souls once Reyson did his thing with Lilith, but I sure hoped no one intended just to throw them in jail where they could spread their vile nonsense. Then again, killing them could turn them into martyrs for extremists. I just wanted to know what was going on, and Lilith was only revealing things a little at a time as she went.
She certainly wasn’t clarifying now. She opened one of her doors and sent the Hellhounds here to one of her resorts. She opened a second for us, and we all marched through.
Samael and Lucifer went first. They could hide their wings, but as soon as we stepped out on the street, their wings were out, and they were holding flaming swords. Where did those even come from? Their trousers looked painted on. I wasn’t complaining about the view of tight angel ass, but where were they hiding the swords?
I’ll give it to Lilith. She moved fast. There were all these demon party buses lining the street. The Hellhounds deserved to be taken to those resorts in style. I was all for that. Tattooed demons in uniform were going around knocking on doors. There were dazed and confused Hellhounds following them out that didn’t know if they should be hopeful about this or not. Some were already waiting at the curb, holding a trash bag with the few rags they were given to wear.
Most everyone seemed to cooperate, but we had addresses for people that might not. I got horrifically lost in the place I lived and worked without the GPS on my phone if I’d never been there before. Hell was totally unfamiliar territory for me.
This neighborhood reminded me of the places rich supernaturals lived that they inherited, and the house had been in their family for generations. I had way more rooms than I needed at my apartment at the library because they took up the entire top floor. The people in this neighborhood probably had rooms just for antiques.
Talvath went straight to the front. I got that in terms of demon magic, he was probably strong, and he tattooed Bram with some pretty potent sigils. Ravyn and I were taller than Talvath was. Killian was thin with wiry muscles, but he still had more meat on his bones than Talvath did. He was dressed in a pinstripe suit, for Lilith’s sake. How was he going to fight in that? Lilith stepped up and joined him.
“You have the list, Talvath. Lead the way.”
Oh, yeah. Talvath was the only one who knew where these cunts lived. Bram was with us. The Hellhounds making their way to the buses all saw him. Their eyes would draw to us, and he would wave. Even though I was sure they hadn’t been allowed to watch the press conference, they all seemed to have heard of him. They looked at him with awe. Bram would give them a reassuring nod, and their spines would get a little straighter.
Talvath led us to a cul-de-sac at the end of the neighborhood. There was a bus there, but no one in uniform had made it back there yet.
“This is where the HOA lives. They are going to be the ones we might have a problem with,” Talvath said.
There were a lot of things about Hell I didn’t like, but some of the things I’d learned so far, I really did like. I was a little shocked they had demonic HOAs. The supernatural community tried to adopt that from humans, and it epically failed. Most neighborhoods were mixed now, and any rules for one species were going to be totally against the nature of another. So we got rid of them.
“Who do we start with?” Gabriel asked.
Talvath pointed to a large stone house with spires. It looked like a fucking castle. It was a little ominous. A few of the neighbors had poked their heads out. When they realized Lilith was here with Reyson, Samael, and Lucifer, they went back inside, and their Hellhounds started filing out.
I saw the curtains part on the creepy castle, and then they slammed shut. The door didn’t open, and no one came out. Okay then. I guess they wanted a fight. I was ready for that too. So was Lilith, apparently. She did that thing where she magnified her voice.
“Hellhounds, step away from the door!”
She gave them exactly one minute before she flung her hands out. The front door blew in, and every window shattered. A demon woman with a whole lot of balls peered her head over the shattered window frame.
“You’re paying for that!”
