Page 15 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“What’s the Underworld like?” Pax asked.
Yeah, Pax was the diplomat. He would always change the subject if things were able to start getting murdery. I went with it because I didn’t want anyone else cursed.
“It’s beautiful. Obviously, you want to stay away from Tartarus since that’s where the Titans are and they are fairly nasty. Don’t go near any water unless it’s in Hades or the furies’ house. The rivers do nasty things, but the indoor plumbing is safe for the living.
“You’re going to have to pay Charon. He doesn’t want coins anymore. What’s he going to spend them on? He likes food now. He’s particularly fond of meat pies and poutine,” I said.
“He has that in common with Benji.”
“Dionysus, too.”
“We have a lot in common,” Dionysus said from the hall. “We’re totally simpatico. What are we talking about?”
“Meat pies and poutine.”
“Charon?”
“Yeah. Did you get the video posted?”
“Yeah, and you’re going to want to stream it to the TV because this is my best work,” Benji said.
“Girl, same.”
Cas started getting things set up, and I just braced myself. I needed a little more good before we went to the Underworld and faced the furies.
Moon goddess, help us all. My social media was for networking saving people from the Coalition. Pax used his for Coalition stuff but he mostly used it to help people who were going blind find the resources he didn’t have when he first lost his vision. He connected people with schools or places they could be paired with a service dog. Honestly, I loved that about him.
And then you had Benji.
Benji’s social media was a hot mess of thirst traps, book reviews, anime, and social commentary…wrapped up in a big thirst trap. I wasn’t a betting man, but I’d lay good odds on Dionysus’s being the same. And honestly, Benji might be sitting there topless with that fucking fez on, but his social commentarywas generallyscathingwith just enough Benji in it that it was perfection.
I queued the video up. Fuck me. They probably posted that video two minutes ago and already had two million likes. They had both apparently thought it prudent to take their shirts off for this and Benji had the fucking fez out again. He said it was his serious hat, which made no damned sense, but apparently his Jaminas got it.
Now that I’d found my sleuth, my pack, my people, I wanted them close to me all the time. I wasn’t going to let the Coalition or the angels take them from me. I picked Medusa up and put her in my lap again, but I needed Pax and Benji close, too.
But it felt wrong. I wasn’t expecting another male in our group. It had just been Pax, Benji and me for decades. I always told myself I’d be open to it if we met another man. I certainly wasn’t expecting a fucking god, orthatgod for that matter.
It didn’t feel wrong that Dionysus was one of us. It was that my bear had accepted him while I was still trying to figure his damned name out and I was fighting it. I hadn’t scent marked him yet.
It was so fucked up. We were in the middle of all of this with the Coalition, Athena just dropped a bomb on Medusa, and I was about to travel to the Underworld and my bear was stressing about rubbing all over Dionysus so everyone knew he was mine before we could all officially claim each other.
Was that even appropriate right now?
He was much older than me and clearly used to shifters. Dionysus also wasn’t pretentious because he came and plopped on the floor between my legs so we were touching. I appreciated that he acknowledged that I needed contact, but didn’t make me ask or beg.
I started the video and wondered what Benji’s Jaminas thought the truth was. Sometimes, he had his horns and tail outin his videos. Benji had worse happy tail than a Pitbull. I was sure some of his fans were supernatural and knew damned well he was a hybrid. Humans knew we were out there now and not all of them hated us. I was fairly certain at least a few of Benji’s fans thought those horns were glued on and the tail had been digitally edited on.
“Friends, I have the social justice fez on, so this is going to be a serious post. I’ve brought my good friend and new co-mate in for commentary. I’m betting some of you know him and we share followers. Meet the original party god, Dionysus.”
“Maenads, if you haven’t met Benji, settle in. He’s my mate’s new mate and I’m his pack. I don’t have a special hat because I’m not going to coverthishair, but we believe the Maenads and the Jaminas have the power to change the world.”
They probably could. The men and women who followed them voted and tended to be passionate people. It didn’t help that Benji and Dionysus were pretty as fuck. Ugh. The egos we’d be dealing with. Something told me I’d have to tell Dionysus he was pretty all the time, too.
“Listen, Jaminas. You know the Coalition is a cause dear to my heart. What you don’t know is why. See these?” Benji said, stroking his horns. “I didn’t glue these on. They are mine. They popped out when I was about five and grew tothisfabulous level later. These people took me when I was just a kid. I grew up in one of their facilities.
“They didn’t care that I hadn’t graduated kindergarten yet. All they cared about was that I was a hybrid. They didterriblethings to me when I was just a kid. They did awful things to my friends, too. They need to be stopped.”
Oh, fuck. Benji had been using his platform to call out the Coalition, but he never outright said they took him and tortured him. I hadn’t read them, but the likes and comments were exploding.
