Page 71 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“Uh, guys?” Calamity said.
“Seriously, I could just poof over and take a peek,” Benji said.
“Guys?”
“No!” Cas said. “This all has to be above board. You might not think anything got messed up, but if it does, Saul and Hannibal’s supporters could use that to say supernaturals made this up and they were innocent.”
“Guys!” Calamity yelled.
We all turned to look at her because the young imp rarely raised her voice.
“We beat the big boss of this level. Pepper did it. The vote is in and everything the Coalition stands for is illegal now. If they are found holding supernaturals and experimenting on them, they are going to jail. They’ve been ordered to empty their facilities and release anyone they’ve been holding prisoner. Saul and Hannibal arenothappy about it. None of the Gold Party members are. I have a feeling they are going to bogart the press conference.”
Oh, sweet fuck. We’d done it. But this was just step one. Persephone was right. Changing beliefs was hard, if not impossible.
Getting this law passed was hard. Convincing the masses we weren’t possessed by demons and working for Satan was going to be a lot harder.
And even if we convinced them we were born like this, we still had to address they fact that wecouldbe dangerous if we wanted to be. We just needed to let them know that not all of us wanted to be.
Zeus’s saggy ball sack, we did it. I tried not to scream when we won. I was over two thousand years old. If Pepper Crane could have the decorum to just sit there looking pleased, I could, too. It was the last thing on the agenda today, so we had the press conference next.
Pepper rounded us up to walk us out. Saul and Hannibal were whispering like hens to the three other Gold Party members. The other three weren’t as high profile as Saul. My fury sisters surrounded me.
“If you want to unleash on them in front of the cameras, we aren’t going to stop you,” Tisiphone said.
“They profit off exploiting the weak. This is textbook fury,” Megaera said.
“No one is going to get mad if you get a little fury on the other Gold Party members, even though I don’t sense they’ve bought women. They’re still complicit in hurting our kind,” Alecto said.
“I’m a fury now, but I was Athena’s priestess first. We couldn’t have pulled that off without her. I’m still a little mad at her, but she’s still brilliant, and I remembered something. Athena is about justice, but she’s also a master strategist.”
“Now, a fury-Athena team up is something I can get behind,” Persephone said. “You’ve been bugging since those two started talking. Spill.”
“The Coalition, or at least Hannibal, is selling some of the younger succubae they get with some of the angel tears to keep them from fighting back. Saul has one.”
“Piece of shit. Don’t tell my husband. He takes that kind of thing seriously because of his brother. If he finds out before you’ve done whatever devious plan you’ve got in mind, he’s going to explode and this place is going to get filled with ghosts.”
“Remind your fucking husband this is our domain, love. What did you have in mind, Medusa?”
“My other halves were in Pepper’s office. I asked them to do something about it. Cas has a whole network. That includes FBI agents. They are searching Saul’s house, but Jezebel gave a few pointers and they are looking in Hannibal’s house, too, because that’s probably where he’s keeping the records.
“Cas said they are going to find the women first and then they are going to try to make an example of them.Thenwe can do the fury thing. I want to use them first to show the people they are the real enemy.”
They all laughed and hugged me.
“I do love you. You know that, right?” Persephone said.
“Right back at you.”
We got to the podium. Saul and Hannibal had already crashed and were spreading nonsense about how this was a darkday for Americans. It was a lot of horse shit and my inner fury really wanted to be released. I was restraining her because now wasn’t the time.
A werewolf appeared behind us and tipped an imaginary hat to Megaera.
“I’d love your number later, but I have to work. Shit heads gonna shit.”
He made a hand signal and suddenly the stage was swarming with men and women. They were all supernatural, but no one but other supernaturals would know that. A bear shifter tackled Saul. Hannibal had changed his pants, but shit himself again when a Redcap tackled him. The Redcap jumped back in horror.
“Argh! Ye fucking shat on me, ye walloper! Why aren’t ye wearing a diaper, we radge wee shite?”
