Page 25 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“That’s sister code for it you go to one of his concerts, you have to boo loud enough for him to hear it at least once.”
That was fair. It was totally fair.
First things first, though. I wanted to look at my mates without glass between my eyes and theirs. The glasses just gave the appearance that my hair wasn’t snakes. It was weird to have their weight on the top of my head gone. I was used to it now, but I hadn’t realized how heavy they were until I could make them go away.
Cas liked to have me sit in his lap and I wasn’t complaining about it at all. He had a very comfortable lap, and I felt safe there. Dionysus had always been there for me, but Cas, Pax, and Benji had been more than amazing. They didn’t even know their mate was the one they were rescuing, and they still agreed to Dionysus’s crazy plan to infiltrate New Eden because that was just the kind of men they were.
And I’d been distracted with panic attacks, my weakness from lack of food, and then Athena popping back up, but the urge to seal our bond had been there in the background the entire time. I turned around, so I was straddling Cas. I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders and looked into those ice-blue eyes.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey,” Cas purred.
“Listen, there’s probably a million things we need to be doing right now—fury lessons, taking down a shitty institution that’s been abusing supernaturals, and then planning what we’re going to do if the angels show up. But all of you are going to be a hot mess while you’re fighting sealing your bond and it’s going to help Medusa with her fury magic once you complete it.”
“When the Coalition had me, I got sick. They took pity on me because I was a kid, but instead of giving me a proper healing potion, they prescribed me antibiotics. I peed out my butt the whole time I was taking them and then when they stopped giving them to me, I couldn’t shit at all. It betrayed my tiny trust andnow anytime someone tries to prescribe me something who isn’t a witch, I’m super suss about it. Thank you for breaking the cycle by prescribing an orgy with my mate,” Benji said with his hand on his heart.
“Uh, thanks. We’re about due for a topside visit, especially if we’re going to be punishing the wicked. Do you have a place to put us?”
“How do you feel about staying with an original vampire, her succubus siren mate, and her other demon mate?”
“Yes, please,” Tisiphone purred.
“Down, girl.”
“Oh, please. They’re about to have an orgy. I can’t be excited about staying with other lesbians?”
“Of course, you can,” I said. “You’ll love Kat, Jezebel, and Calamity.”
Pax, my sweet, gentle, always patient Pax, picked me up and stole me from Cas.
“Yoink! Excuse me, someone said we could claim our mate. I want to do that now.”
“I’m always up for an orgy, but you’re eating more ambrosia first,” Dionysus said.
“Yes, sir.”
Dionysus gave me a dark grin. He always loved it when I called him ‘sir.’ It was time to find out what my other mates liked and cement our bond.
Iwas prepared to wait as long as she needed. She’d been through hell in New Eden and it got worse when Dionysus came back with Athena. I knew it was needed, but I hated feeling her in pain. She felt so much better now. Stronger. She was ready to take down Hannibal and the Coalition.
I couldn’tseethe furies, just their outlines, but I liked them. I could tell that Medusa was a little afraid to meet them, but she would have felt the same thing I did. They felt like controlled chaos, but in a good way. There was something soothing about the furies. I didn’t know if it was because my mate was also a fury and they went well out of their way to help her or because I knew what they were about even before they went into greater detail to explain.
We were finally back home. Dionysus was whipping something up with ambrosia and I was realizing exactly how much the Fates were meddling with us. Kat, Calamity, and Jezebel were all crowded around their phones with Hephaestus while Athena had set up some kind of genius murder board in the corner to track Hannibal and Saul.
As soon as we walked in with Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera, it was like Kat and her mates froze when they saw Tisiphone. Tisiphone stood there with her mouth open. It seemed like another fury found their mates. Megaera looked like she desperately wanted to meet hers, too. I didn’t know what was going on with Alecto. She seemed happy for her sister, but I was getting vibes off her that she’d gut her mates if she ever found them.
While we were gone, the network of Maenads and Jaminas had been coordinating with Kat. I was pretty sure half of them were newly questioning their sexuality if they hadn’t already and she was feeding that information to Athena for her murder board.
Hephaestus had apparently used his skills to design satellites and drones and he was using them to track Hannibal and Saul based on the information he was getting from Kat. They apparently knew exactly where they were and would know if they left.
Jezebel borrowed Kat’s ear piece and went right back to work once she was able to talk again after she realized she had another mate here. She was also flirting up a storm. Calamity was glued to her phone.
“Uh huh, kitten, has anyone ever told you how amazing you are?” Jezebel purred.
Kat just rolled her eyes. She was old enough to understand that it was Jezebel’s nature to flirt but that she’d always come home to her mates.
“Got it,” Kat said. “Benji, you’d better start calling this girl by her real name because she got us in the room with Hannibal and Saul.”
