Page 11 of Winners, Losers, and Champagne Kisses
“Do I get to pick the books in the library?” she asked Warden Doyle.
“Absolutely not. Law books, things for furthering education, and the fiction needs to becleanand non-violent.”
“Well, you just ruled out my entire TBR, but very well.”
Persephone thrust her hands at the rubble of the prison. I loved watching her in action. My mates and the rest of the humans here had never seen it before. I knew the reporters were filming the entire thing because none of them had ever seen a god use their magic before.
I was pretty sure a few of them doubted my god friends were actually even gods. As Persephone did her thing, I heard several gasps as the prison knitted itself back together and the additions appeared out of nowhere.
After Jezebel knocked the prisoners out, Kat used her vampire speed to tie their feet and hands together. Hades was one of those men who was proud of his wife for any minor thing. He’d seen her do this countless times over several millennia and he was still bursting with pride.
He came to stand beside her and waved his hand. All the prisoners disappeared from off the front lawn.
“No idea if I got them into the right cell, but they are all locked up again. When a siren uses their song to put someone tosleep, it’s a peaceful kind of sleep. They’ll be pretty docile for the next day or so while you sort things out.”
The angels made their move, and we made ours. We hadn’t stopped them from kidnapping Hannibal and Saul, but wedidprevent them from unleashing a bunch of criminals. Hopefully, we turned some people to our side.
But I wasn’t stupid. It might not be enough for others.
The gods portalled the angel statues back to Dionysus’s place. Benji could have just touched them and did it, but any time we asked him to poof anything heavy, he’d complain about an old rugby injury and say he couldn’t. Benji hated team sports and had never played rugby a day in his life. The most tolerance Benji had for sports was if a team happened to have attractive players unless it was women’s basketball. That was the exception. Benjilovedwomen’s basketball.
I couldn’t transform them back for us to question them until we figured out how to contain them. There wasn’t anything written because the angels just weren’therethis much. When they attacked Kat’s village, it was brutal and quick. The most they were able to learn was that their wings were their weakness.
“You could just turn his wings back and then we can pluck his feathers like we’re cooking chicken,” Benji said.
“You love fried chicken, but you’ve gone on several rants about how the process of slaughtering chickens is morally reprehensible. How are you going to pluck his feathers when you have to leave the house if we’re slaughtering a chicken?” Cas asked.
Yeah, Benji left the house and then ate thirds if we were having fried chicken.
“That’s different. Chickens are dicks, but they have every right to be. They don’t have the ‘rawr, rawr dinosaur’ thing going on anymore to do much damage. They are pissed that they used to be apex predators and now we have to build them a coop to protect them from my degenerate cats.
“I feel bad that all their soft feathers get plucked. I don’t give a fuck about angel feathers. These guys are responsible for me losing my parents, Pax losing his eyesight, Jezebel getting taken, Calamity getting tortured, and they starved Medusa. You should also shift just the top of his head and his forehead so I can give him a shitty haircut, steal some tattoo equipment, and tattoo a cock and balls on his stupid forehead.”
Yeah, Benji was spiraling. He already killed the priest who hurt him when he was a kid. It didn’t really make him feel better. Killing Hannibal wouldn’t either. If we let him anywhere near these angels before we could question them, Benji would annihilate them. We found our center and Medusa had been amazing for all of us, but Benji really wasn’t going to feel better until he found out what happened to his parents, no matter how many people related to the Coalition he killed.
“We can’t do anything until we know for sure,” Cas said.
“What about holy oil? Isn’t that a thing on that TV show? Can’t we self actualize that into a thing?” Benji asked.
“Doesn’t work like that,” Dionysus said. “I suppose itcouldbecome a thing with the angels here, but that kind of thing is difficult now with everyone putting everything on social media.”
Cas’s phone went off. It wasthatphone. Cas had a personal phone and a Coalition stuff phone. He only gave the personal phone number to friends and family and he’d sometimes let that one go to voicemail if he was busy. Healwaysanswered the Coalition phone. He put it on speaker this time because he hated repeating himself and we probably needed someone who could portal.
“Hello?”
“This is Michael.”
That was all he said, and he sounded very calm for someone who calledthatparticular number. He also seemed pretty certain we should know who he was. Cas was getting angry because we were in the middle of shit and we didn’t have time for some asshole to find this number a prank call.
“You aren’t Cher or Britney, bitch,” Benji said.
The man on the other end of the line just chuckled.
“I kind of am. We were never given last names. This is the archangel, Michael. We have a mutual problem and I can give you answers.”
“How do we know this isn’t a trick?” Dionysus asked.
“Well, I’m alone and vastly outmatched with your gods and furies. The faction that has the god-banishing sigil has kept the incantation close to their chests. Even if I had it, by the time I found blood and a place to paint it while avoiding being turned to stone by Medusa, your furies would have melted my brain, I’ll even meet you in a public place, but it can’t be too public because the angels who have been causing all your issues also want me dead. They’d attack.”
