Page 16 of Coven Relics
I grabbed the herbs from Scorpia. I could make the tea when we got to the museum. Ravyn and I were both ready now, and everyone was waiting on us. I still wasn’t sure why everyone was required to do their work during the daylight hours, especially since I was pretty confident Ravyn wasn’t the only one who hated it. I wasn’t wild about the concept either.
No one was angry with us. Loki had boxed up massive amounts of food, and Killian, Loki, and Sleipnir had their arms full. Sleipnir gave me this look that reminded me of Freya’s cats when you gave them a bit of cream.
“You have to try chocolate. It looks like what Oddr got up to when he would visit Thorunn, but it tastes amazing.”
“Thanks for that visual. I thought we agreed to never talk about that again?”
“Let’s get to the museum,” Loki said. “You all need to eat, and we have a werewolf to catch.”
Chapter12
Ravyn
Everyone knew this warehouse was off limits unless you had a badge or you were with someone with a badge. No one on the board had badges because they weren’t trained to deal with any of the dangerous objects inside. So, I was pissed to all shit when I opened the door, and Gertrude Von Stein was sitting at my desk with Balthazar. I was expecting him and would have had no problem with someone else letting him in. He was a bit of a Manic Pixie vampire, and he knew how to party, but he also knew when to tone it down and not touch things he wasn’t supposed to.
Gertrudewas notsupposed to be here without supervision. She wasn’t given a badge. For her to access anything at this part of the museum without me, she would have had to have gone to the main area of the museum, ask for a badge, and sign for it. She could have done that if Valentine had asked her to get him the grimoire. Everyone on the board knew this was my domain and not theirs, so none of them did that. They respected me and didn’t try to come in here and mess up anything I was working on.
Shouldn’t she be ousted from her position, anyway? It pissed Toby off enough to call an emergency board meeting to get rid of her. Please don’t tell me not even helping Valentine steal from the museum was enough to get rid of my dragon nemesis.
“I’m sorry, but what are you doing here? I expected Balthazar. This place is supposed to be off limits to board members unless someone is here to supervise you. None of you know how to handle cursed objects, and some of these objects can be fatal. Your lack of respect for me and my abilities has gotten this museum stolen from in the first time in history. I’m not sure why you are here now, but all of us need to be working on finding Valentine, not trying to cure you because you touched something you shouldn’t.”
There wasa lotmore I wanted to say, but we really didn’t have the time. One day, I was going to unload and have a ‘come to Lilith’ talk with this dragon about respect and what I thought about people who abused their position over a husband who wasn’t worth it.
“I might not be fond of you, but I care about this museum, and I’m here to help. I don’t like being used, and I can manipulate just as well as that wolf can. I’m pretty sure the cult wants their entire spell book, not just the one page he stole. Valentine probably intended to take it, but a blow to the head doesn’t slow vampires down much. Completely removing it from what Sasha kept it in to preserve the binding rather than just ripping the page out would have taken too much time, and Sasha would have caught him.
“We can use that. Everyone knows I dislike you. I can reach out to him and tell him I want you gone, and they aren’t firing you after the theft. I can offer to help him get the rest of the grimoire. He’ll agree to meet with me for that.”
More like trying to save her own lizard ass. The stupid thing was, that would totally work because she’d tried every other petty-ass thing to get me fired, so fucking over the museum wouldn’t come as a huge shocker to Valentine.
“You’re just trying to put out the fire you started by dousing shit with gasoline and lighting the match, but I’ll allow you to proceed with it.”
The whole time Gertrude was detailing her wicked plan, everyone was eating breakfast except Balthazar. I already knew he had eaten. Reyson was a lot of things, but he also spoiled the people he cared about. Balthazar and my sister probably had a twelve-course breakfast before they got here. I had that with Killian and Loki. Loki madeamazingpancakes.
“I thought y’all said Valentine was really stupid?” Balthazar asked.
“He is,” Loki, Killian, and I all said.
“Well, the dumbass knew who the evil villain was at the museum who could help him steal shit, and he knows how to hide. He went to the bank and emptied his checking and savings. His credit cards are all canceled, and his social media accounts are now deactivated. He closed his email and cellphone accounts.
“There’s not exactly a paper trail here. He wasn’t exactly emailing anyone or posting on social media he was about to rob the Museum of the Profane so he could raise the Cult of the Aether Sisters. That’s how you can’t go out in public without everyone beating your ass on sight. I’m betting when Loki runs his spyware, he’s not the kind of crazy that wrote a manifesto. Nothing in my initial search could help us find him, and he’s closed my usual avenues. He probably got prepaid cards with the money from his accounts and bought a burner phone with cash and set it up with fake information.”
Motherfucker. Why couldn’t he be a dumbass when it counted? Like, when Ineededhim to be stupid, he was taking it to evil mastermind levels, working with my nemesis to rob my museum, and covering his tracks where Balthazar couldn’t find him. Why couldn’t he be one of those assholes who was fully committed to their dumb fuckery?
“I emailed you a link to my program so you can check his hard drive while I’m eating,” Loki said with a mouth full of pancakes.
Balthazar just smirked and gave him a cheeky wink.
“Ineveropen links from my hacker friends. Those bitches want to tell you it’s a cute video of a cat hiccupping and farting at the same time, but they are just trying to steal your shit. Hell, I’vedonethat to a few hackers I knew because they were being stupid with their skills. So, no offense, but I’mnotopening any links you send me.”
Loki just nodded.
“That’s totally fair. We just met, and I wouldn’t trust your attachments either. The dragon can leave since Valentine can’t be contacted by phone or email. My whole purpose in getting close to Valentine was to prevent Bjorn’s vision from coming true. We can’t just kill him like back in the old days because people get mad about it. Count yourself lucky because that means we can’t kill you either. But I’m going to fuck up your lifereallybadly for this and everything you did to Ravyn. I’m talking full ‘Loki’ style. If they didn’t teach you about that in school, I’d suggest you get on Google.”
Oh fuck. I think I just had an orgasm. I wasn’t about guys who wanted to charge in and beat the shit out of anyone they thought had wronged me. I was capable of getting my own revenge. I could throw hands and beat the shit out of a man if I wanted to. Gertrude’s position on the board was everything to her. She waved it around in people’s faces like it was a twelve-inch cock.
Yeah, it would be delightful to find out when the board meeting was to crash it, have my say, and watch her get fired. It would have satisfied my inner child. Gertrude wouldn’t have been sorry, and she would have found a way to blame me for her getting fired. Once a Trickster finished with her, I had a feeling that there would be no doubt in her lizard brain whose fault this was.
“You said he has a burner phone. I’m still the most likely person he’ll contact to get the rest of the grimoire. I know you’re upset, but I can still help.”
