Page 17 of Winners, Losers, and Champagne Kisses
“The Father? Not how anyone thinks. He used to like dad jokes and family dinners. It really hurt him when we rebelled. A lot of stuff that I blamed him for really wasn’t his fault. He was created alone with just us. He made the same mistakes everyother god makes in thinking they are the king of all gods and their way is the right way. Shit. I know exactly where he is and none of you are going to like it.”
Fuck. There were only a few realms Dionysus hadn’t taken me to because they were wholly unpleasant and I had a feeling I knew where Yahweh was.
“Where?” Michael asked. He seemed desperate.
“If he was banished, we don’t know where he ended up or how long he stayed there. He’s been away from home long enough to know the truth about self actualization and the various afterlives. The Father would be feeling betrayed he was banished from home and he’s smart enough to know if he stayedhereand tried to help, innocents might die if the angels came.
“He’s a decent man, even if he lost his way for a bit. If he found out the system of Heaven and Hell wasn’t based on actual goodness but on where people thought they deserved to go, he’d go to Hell to help souls who didn’t really deserve to be there. And if he was doing that, he really wouldn’t know what was going on here or back home.”
That…made a ton of sense. Hell was one of the few realms I’d never been to. Hades went out of personal curiosity and said it was self actualized by sadists during a time people thought public executions were entertainment and actual theatre was for deviants.
“I’m probably the only person here who has met Satan,” Hades said. “He likes me as a fellow Underworld ruler, though our realms arecompletelydifferent. No one keeps trying to break into his and steal any souls because they think they are all bad. He’s not going to take kindly to angels without an introduction.”
“Excuse you, but Satan plays fantasy football with the rest of the fallen. Unlike the rest of you bitches, he owesmemoney. If you aren’t a god or a part of our pantheon, Hell is going to betoxic for everyone here who isn’t dead and it’s a dangerous place. So, Michael, gather any other archangels you have with you and we’ll need as many gods as you can spare.”
“I’ll stay,” Persephone said.
“I just found you again,” Dionysus said, nuzzling my neck.
Dionysus wasn’t worried about leaving me unprotected. He knew I was capable and so was everyone here. He lost me when the Coalition kidnapped me and there wasn’t much he could do about it because of those sigils.
“You’ll be back before you know it and you know you’re curious.”
Dionysus was a curious creature. I loved that about him. He’d never been to Hell because it was supposed to be so awful, but he wasn’t going to say no to a quick trip. Especially if it helpedeveryone.And he loved meeting other gods. He’d met nearly everyone who hadn’t faded or wasn’t a violent shit except for this one and I knew he always wanted to.
We were so close. Hopefully we could do this before whatever shit storm the angels were planning to unleash with that prison break happened.
Ihadn’t figured out what to feel about Athena until now. I knew Medusa had forgiven her, and I got that the Fates were involved, but at the same time, Medusa had been through a lot because of her. It wasn’t my place to get angry at someone on behalf of Medusa, but I couldn’t help it. I’d never say anything, of course.
But she’d found Benji’s mom, Hwan, as soon as she could and brought her straight to him. I had no doubt if his father was alive, she’d find him and bring him back. Benji needed this. We’d found our center, and I’d gotten enough schooling to talk him through the worst of it, but the worst of it wasn’t going to get totally better until he knew for sure what happened to his parents.
Hwan would need help, too. She’d been held by the Coalition for a very long time and they always focused harder on the actual demons. They thoughteveryonewas a demon, but I guess they thought those that admitted it were worse. It was also nearly impossible for them to escape because they were always kept in the basement.
Benji was from Louisiana. He said none of the Gulf states had basements because of the flooding and hurricanes. He said it was rare, in any case. If the flooding wasn’t a nightmare, the flood insurance was insane. The Coalition in those areas had them, anyway. They just left them in the basement and let them drown if the basement flooded.
Benji ended up near me, they sent Hwan to Ohio, and we didn’t know if Benji’s father stayed in Louisiana. Benji’s father was a werewolf and only would have ended up in the basement if he got violent. Louisiana had experienced several devastating hurricanes and many floods since Benji got taken. I just didn’t know about his dad.
Hwan was an amazing, resilient woman. She’d just been released from decades of torture. She came straight to Benji to make sure he was okay and see him again and she was ready to jump straight into the fight. She recognized that even though she was a shadow demon, and those were always an asset, she’d been through a lot and her abilities would be better suited to helping victims.
She’d already left to join Athena. Benji was in a better mood than I’d seen him in a very long time. We were down three gods and two archangels, but we could handle it without them. Persephone was probably scarier than any of the gods I’d met so far.
“Look to the TV! You’re going to want to see this,” the bartender hollered.
All the TVs lit up to the same broadcast. The bar quieted down, and the volume went up. The newscaster was sitting in front of her table.
“We’ve just received a video from escaped prisoners Hannibal Payne and Saul Wood. We’ll be playing the video shortly. If anyone sees them, please contact local authorities and do not approach them. They are considered armed and dangerous.”
Mother fucking shit. We should have known they were going to address the press. The angels might not have a plan, but Saul was a politician. He’d know he needed to smooth this shit over so all the people who were pissed they were willing to let all those prisoners into their backyard got back on their side. We should have beat them to it.
Their video flashed on the screen. Hannibal and Saul were sitting on a couch. The Gold Party wasn’t very large, but there was only one other member with them. Several of them got arrested with Hannibal and Saul, but I guess the ones that didn’t either didn’t want to be associated with them or they were pissed the angels made a mess breaking those two chuckle fucks out but not the rest of their friends.
They were flanked all around the couch by angels with their wings out. They were all standing at attention with their swords out and looked pretty badass if you didn’t notice they all looked completely unhinged.
“Friends, some of you heard about the prison break, but you have to know it never would have happened like this if we weren’t arrested without cause. Ithadto happen like this. This was cooked up by our enemies to silence us because they knew we would have fought this. We would have come back stronger and wiped the supernaturals out. This is what we intend to do now and we’ve got the angels on our side now.
“We’re coming for you. Those aren’t gods with you. Those are powerful demons doing parlor tricks to confuse you. Don’t fall for it. It’s what the demons do. They trick and try to pull you away from your purpose. We need your help. We need you to?—”
The video cut off and went back to the newscaster.
