Chapter 16

Benji confirmed the rest of Hannibal was blue. Did I even want to know how that happened? It was always cold in the basement. Always. They didn’t run the heat in winter and they blasted the air conditioner in summer. I was pretty sure it was because they had demons confused with reptiles.

It was mostly just uncomfortable and fucked up my hair. Before Athena cursed me, I had long, wavy hair. It got frizzy if it was humid outside. Now, I had snakes who didn’t like the cold and were limp and barely conscious.

Hannibal didn’t start coming down here until I killed Sister Mary Eugene. I could only ever see his hand, but I could smell him. I wasn’t a shifter, but my snakes gave me certain gifts, even now. If they tasted something with their Jacobsen’s Organ, I did, too, and I knew what it was. Hannibal sweated, even in the cold of this basement, and he seemed to like onions about as much as he didn’t like supernaturals.

I was pretty sure that was intentional, too. The Coalition had been around long enough to know about supernatural senses. This was a passive-aggressive stench. I didn’t know if a human could pick it up, but it was overwhelming to us.

I think he was butt hurt that his exorcism didn’t work, but honestly, they’d been doing this long enough to figure out they never did. It was ironic they still called these places asylums and didn’t realize the saying was that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

He was now boring me to death trying to convince me to repent and repel my demon out myself. Hannibal was also pissing me the fuck off by gaslighting me that my curse was given to me by his god because of my demon and if I cast it out and begged forgiveness, it would be lifted.

He finally left, and I was so mad. I didn’t think I could trick another one of them into my cell to kill them, but I’d really like to turn him into stone. All I had was this small cell to pace in. I would have given anything to punch Sister Mary Eugene in the face, but I’d break my hand now. Fuck me. And the guard was prowling just in case someone came back down here instead of whatever he did when it got quiet and I could chat with Jezebel. He seemed like a narc. I didn’t want anything I said being repeated to Hannibal.

I had three mates here and the entire point of mates was to comfort each other. I didn’t reach out. I couldn’t encourage them and they might be going through something just as awful. But I felt buzzing in my brain. One of them was trying to contact me.

“Mate,” he growled. “Who hurt you? I can feel it.”

Caspian, or Cas. I hadn’t spoken to him much. He had this deep, sexy voice and his presence was soothing. Bear shifters tended to go two ways. Wilds bears were kind of slutty. Sometimes male bear shifters slept with anything, had zero loyalty, and blamed their bears. The rest of them were their polar opposite and were all about family and pack.

I didn’t even have to know what Cas looked like to know which one he was.

“No one hurt me. I’m just pissed off.”

“Hurting your feelings is still hurting you. Benji already called dibs on Hannibal, but if it was someone else, I’ll eat them.”

“Kind of hard to do without your magic.”

“You managed, little monster. I can rip a man apart with my bare hands if he hurts what’s mine.”

“Even if you manage, you’ll just end up in a cell in the basement. They have this place set up with some kind of gas. It knocked us all out. I’m a big girl. I can handle my feelings getting hurt.”

“Oh, I’m aware. Doesn’t mean you should have to. I do the same for Benji and Pax.”

Which was really nice. I didn’t know how long I’d been down here. I had a small, standup shower in the corner, but it didn’t have hot water. Showering when it was this cold down here wasn’t fun. In winter, it was downright miserable. They’d never given me a fucking bar of soap or shampoo. I probably stunk just as much as Hannibal did right now.

I shouldn’t be feeling even remotely sexy right now, but Cas threatening to rip Hannibal apart because he was mean to me was definitely doing something to me.

“Listen, I know I sound like a broken record, but the three of you have to forget me.”

“Not going to happen. Ever heard the term stubborn as a bear? I’m all bear, baby.”

“Isn’t it stubborn as a mule?”

“Nah, Benji is crazy. Every year for my birthday, he gets me a book about a stubborn bear. They range from kids” books to gay erotica. It’s a thing now.”

“Honestly, you’re all kind of crazy.”

“Probably. But it means we can get you and everyone else out of here.”

I pulled back. Maybe they could, maybe they couldn’t. I needed to stop having these chats with them because I was getting attached.

I needed them to forget about me.