Page 34 of Beggars, Sin, and Wine

“That was a horrifying time in my life where I lost someone I really loved. The only reason I’ve been talking about it with you chuckle fucks is that I have my suspicions about the people who hired you. If anyone is going to stop these people for good, it’s going to be them and you.”

“Do tell because I think Di is pack and his mate is ours, even if his hair is big because it’s full of secrets.”

“Spoilers, sweetie. I suspect they are having a bit of fun with you and I’m not fucking up that big reveal.”

“Seriously? You got all kinds of nasty with your fangs in my neck and you won’t even give me a little hint?”

“There are people who would pay good money for me to bite them, honey.”

“And I don’t kink shame. The mate bond is sacred, Kat. Don’t be stingy because one of ours might be pranking us.”

“No way. If I’m right, Di and his friends are not the kind of guys you want to ruin their punchline. They are scarier than you are and you’re kind of crazy. No offense.”

“Are you flirting with me? I thought you were gay.”

“Don’t make me bite you again, asshole. I’ve grown quite fond of you and your group. Whoever your mate is down there, she’s a lucky girl. This place fucks with your head. I don’t have to tell you that. The wards are fucking with your bond, but so is the trauma from this place, especially if she’s in the basement as punishment. I was down there once for the same thing.

“When you get her out of here, she’s going to need time, love, and maybe a little space to deal with all of this. You might have to back off and let her come to you. Don’t be an idiot and fuck it up or I’ll fuck all of you up. You’re all fairly young to have met your entire group. Some of us are one of the originals of our kind and still haven’t. People wait thousands of years to meet just one mate. You should all consider yourselves blessed,” Kat said wistfully.

“We do. And Kat, you’re going to find your nest and mates. It’s going to be all these bitching hot women who take no shit and are worthy of your awesomeness.”

“You’re a good kid, Benji. I’m glad if I had to get kidnapped again on accident, it was when the three of you idiots got kidnapped on purpose.”

Yeah, we were all idiots. And everything she said was true. Our nameless mate had probably gone through some shit in the basement, especially if she killed one of them. She would need all kinds of love when we got her out of here and space would probably be one of them.

We didn’t have all the information, but Di said his girlfriend was essential to stopping the Coalition. I was pretty Di also meant some of the more deranged angels whose plan we didn’t know yet.

I still didn’t know how a green witch was supposed to do that, even a god-touched one, but now that we knew she was our green witch, our three mystery benefactors who said she was important to them better have an iron-clad plan to do this without her even breaking a nail.

These bitches. Hannibal was done with me, either because Benji had somehow given everyone here diarrhea or whatever Benji had started with the food that we were all lying about got him to back off. It was something.

I didn’t really know what was going on upstairs, but downstairs, everyone was being fed better and no one was being dragged from their cells to be experimented on. I desperately wanted to look my mates in the eyes and thank them for that because these nasty people had finally left that demon girl across the way alone. I couldn’t see her but I could feel her now that my magic was coming back. She was young in terms of supernaturals, but not a child. She could have been snatched from a college campus from a drinking incident gone wrong.

Her parents have given her the moniker Calamity, and it seemed like Jezebel was the only one who could soothe her, even if they were in two totally different cells. Our guard always tried to shut her up when Jezebel sang, but Jezebel didn’t start singing until Calamity showed up.

Jezebel wasn’t saying anything during our girl talk, but I was getting mate vibes. Sirens were everywhere in Greece back in my time. I was friends with a few. Their voices were deadly, but they could also be used to soothe and heal. You only got the non-deadly songs if you were important to the siren.

Jezebel could be singing to the entire basement to keep us calm so no one fucked up whatever plan was going on upstairs, but I highly doubted it. She only started doing it when her Siren magic started coming back and Calamity got upset.

Jezebel could have used her voice to kill everyone who’d hurt us. I wouldn’t blame her. She knew something was being planned upstairs and if she failed, she wouldn’t be punished long. But I think any member of the Coalition who had been down in the basement resented that they hadn’t gotten their hands on Jezebel or me.

If they thought Calamity was important to Jezebel, they would hurt the young demon as part of Jezebel’s treatment because that was just how they worked.

Jezebel had just finished singing. I was pretty sure Calamity and everyone else was asleep. She came to join me at our shared vent since we were both awake and now we could sense that.

“Any more updates? My song can heal a lot of mental trauma, but if you’re still in the middle of all the nasty shit, it’s like plugging the hole in the boat with chewing gum.”

“Thinking of cashing in on your Siren side instead of your succubus side when you get out of here and changing careers or are you keeping secrets so they don’t use her against you?”

“Man, fuck you. I hate that you don’t even know what I look like and you still know my secrets. Love you, bitch. But both? I had it easy using my succubus gifts the most. I was loved and spoiled and yeah, maybe I abused that a bit.

“It was both sides of my magic malfunctioning that kept me safe down here and these people hated me just for being born. I know it could have been much worse for me. Instead of going back to sex work, I want to combine my magic to help people who ended up here. And seriously, how perfect is her name?”

I knew it.

“Girl, I’m happy for you.”

“There’s another one here. Upstairs. She just got here, and she’s got some insanely strong mental wards. She’s been blocking me, which sucks, but she hasn’t rejected me. The whole fucking point of being supernatural is that you don’t have to choose, but I’m basically having to pick between killing everyone down here to get to one of them and staying and soothing another in case something goes wrong.

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