Page 42 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“The only reason you got a super wedgie was because you were here to hurt a kid. The Coalition got me when I was around Aidan’s age. They doterriblethings to kids there. They abused me for years. Aidan didn’t know what he was doing. He stopped speaking for a reason. Do you want an eight-year-old tortured and experimented on over an accident that can easily be reversed?”
“I guess not. Sorry, I just overreacted because she was upset.”
“Bro,” Benji said, clapping him on the shoulder. “You can tell yourself she’s not your girlfriend, and you just did this over sex, but you caught feeling and got stupid.”
“You did. Forget Aidan. Go talk to her andtellher how you feel. Also, tell her she’s completely unsuited for substitute teaching if she can’t handle one nonverbal kid who seemed wellmannered and polite when I met him. Explain to her that this was an accident that never would have happened if she would have just accepted how he chose to communicate. Supernaturalsare notyour enemy unless you try to hurt us. I want you to remember you came for an eight-year-old child and you walked away with a wedgie and some sage relationship advice.”
“So, it was just an accident? She’s been stressed because her mom is sick and she got laid off her job. The company she used to work for is shit and saying she quit so they don’t have to pay unemployment. That’s the only reason she signed up to sub. She’s been stressed and I swear to god, yelling at nonverbal kids isn’t like her, so I thought he did it to fuck with her since she was a substitute. We did that sometimes when I was a kid.”
“Yes, dude. Because of the Coalition, we can’t do that shit. Especially not when it’s obvious like that. They don’t discriminate if you’re in first grade. If anything, they try harder to cure you. We’re born like this. You can’t take it out of us.
“I don’t know how Aidan ended up in the foster system, but I’m guessing he didn’t know his birth parents. He slipped through the cracks and ended up with humans instead of supernaturals finding him. He probably thought hewashuman until he said something and realized his voice could do shit. He went silent because he thought he was different. Aidan probably goes to school with other supernatural kids. He’s probably drawn to them, but doesn’t know why. Since he doesn’t talk, they don’t knowhedoesn’t know, or they’d tell him.”
“Bro, sorry. Thank you for stopping me from doing something terrible. And fuck me, I love her. I’m going to tell her. Hey, can either of you send someone to help her talk again? She can’t go to interviews or have calls with unemployment and her lawyer until she can talk again. I swear, she’s not the type to bully kids, especially one who doesn’t talk. I think she tookall the pressure she’s been feeling and reacted completely the wrong way.”
I got all that. I’d taken out my frustration on people who didn’t deserve it. Never kids, though. I had a soft spot for them. The Mad God wanted to make his girlfriend grovel before an eight-year-old before she got her voice back. But regular, uncursed me who was trying to save supernaturals and make his mate whole knew that was a bad idea.
I just needed to convince Jezebel and something told me that wasn’t going to be easy.
“I’ll arrange it,” I said as he turned to leave.
“You know if Jezebel doesn’t want to do it and you try to make her, Kat is going to kick everyone’s ass, right?”
“Yup.”
Which was going to suck. I was a god, but Kat was older than me. Originals of any supernatural race were insanely powerful.
She wouldn’t beat me, but she’d come very close to kicking my ass.
Ididn’t have a ton of girlfriends. Persephone was my ride or die bestie, mostly because she knew I wasthatMedusa and Hades couldn’t be turned to stone because of me. Gods were immune. Most of them ghosted me after I had an incident with my glasses. It wasn’t always Athena. Someone would bump me and they’d fly off. I’d have to run again.
Or, sometimes, they didn’t get why I couldn’t wear contacts to do certain things or just take them off. I had to say no to a lot of things because it either involved taking the glasses off or there was the chance or them getting knocked off. They got tired of asking and me saying no, so they just stopped asking.
But I had a feeling I was going to get to keep these girlfriends. We were trauma bonded, and the furies called me sister rightaway. I knew I was supposed to be learning tonight, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t have fun.
I didn’t know what to expect from the bar until we got there. It looked like the kind of place that served cheap beer and watered down drinks. There were people of varying ages on the patio chain smoking and I could make out someone getting a blow job in the alley. There were way more men at this bar than there were women.
Jezebel inhaled.
“There’re lots of stupid drunk boys in there doing mating rituals. About two hours in there and my succubus side is going to be so well fed, my siren half could probably explode someone’s head with my song.”
“That’s my new kink,” Kat said, pulling her into a kiss.
Calamity shot some stink eye at some drunk frat boys who were hooting, hollering, and probably had some ideas about threesomes in their head. People tended to be possessive of unwanted attention towards their mates.
Calamity was an imp, so she could subtly mess with them without them ever knowing. I was guessing for the rest of the night, their drinks and cigarettes were going to taste awful, mess up their stomach, and when they tried to drive home, their tires would be flat. They’d probably never even know they’d been punked by a demon for hooting at her mates.
“Focus,” Alecto said. “There are a lot of people here who have done bad things and they aren’t here tonight with good intentions.”
“You can spot them by the backwards baseball caps,” Kat said.
“No, some of those guys with backwards baseball caps are himbos and totally harmless. They are the ones stepping in if they think a girl’s drink has been drugged. I can feel it,” Jezebel said.
“But…the backwards cap is science!” Kat sputtered.
“My cousin wore his cap backwards, and he was awesome,” Calamity said.
“Didn’t you say your parents wouldn’t let you alone with him and he chafed his dick up fucking a gargoyle when she was shifted?”
