Chapter 5

Sister Mary Eugene just had an orderly drag one of the more unfortunate basement dwellers back to their cell. My door only had a small slot where they slipped a food tray in if a certain sadistic fake nun decided I got to eat. I had zero stimulation in here aside from talking to Jezebel, so sometimes, I looked out of the slot.

I hated these people. It was hard to tell how old supernaturals were because, after a certain point, we stopped aging. You kind of just had to go by the look in our eyes. This one hadn’t been here long and at night, she cried for her mother. She was probably just a kid.

They were also probably salivating to catch her. Enough people had tried to make it clear to everyone that supernaturals weren’t possessed by demons. We were born that way. Demons were, too, and they didn’t really have the ability to body hop and make humans do a damned thing.

They took our names here and gave us numbers. The guard down in the basement got mad if we talked, but he couldn’t hear Jezebel and me. I didn’t know this girl’s name, but she was a demon. She was an imp, so she was the smallest, most harmless type of demon.

And it looked like they’d beaten the shit out of her.

Sister Mary Eugene was walking beside her looking like she’d actually done something other than traumatize and abuse some kid. My stomach was twisting on itself from lack of food and I knew if I poked her again, this little hunger strike she put me on would last longer.

Jezebel pointed out turning her to stone wouldn’t mean we could all get out of here, but it would get rid of her. She was the asshole responsible for the basement. Nothing happened down here without her say. I didn’t have much faith in any of these Coalition people, but surely there was someone here better than her.

I was older than her puny mind could even comprehend. Unlike her, I’d actually met gods before. I wasn’t just cursed by one. I was close with plenty of them. I’d never met the one she prayed to, but I had met his demigod son on my travels.

“Why don’t you come in here and try that on me?” I growled.

“How about I just forget to feed you for a few more days?”

Bitch.

“Do you know how old the story of Medusa is?” I purred. “Can you even comprehend how old I am? I actually drank wine with Jesus once. He was a pretty great guy as far as demigods go. Had some good ideas, too. He’d disapprove of what you were doing about as much as the people who excommunicated you. Tell me, do you have to buy your little nun outfit at Spirit Halloween or are the people who sell them to real nuns in it for the cash and take your money, too?”

Jezebel snorted.

“Damn, girl.”

“You’ll pay for your blasphemy,” she spat.

Yeah, she was losing control. I needed it totally gone. I didn’t want her leaving to cool off.

“Why don’t you come in here and spank me with a ruler? I watched a porn video like that once. I might have a kink. Save me, Sister, I’ve been bad.”

Jezebel was losing it and I didn’t know if I needed her to calm down or keep going. I didn’t know if her cackling was egging Mary Eugene on or distracting her. I could practically hear her grinding her teeth from inside my cell.

“Come on, Sister. You’ve been trying to starve me to break my will, and it’s not working. Get your hands dirty. You’re so convinced in your righteousness as you torture and starve us. What are you so afraid of? Shouldn’t you be protected from my curse as soon as you set foot in this cell?”

She was thinking about it. And the problem with my curse was that it was laid on me by a god. I’d never met hers. He could very well come down here and protect her. Athena could just as well show up to protect me. One of her heroes showed up with the intention of cutting off my head. We got into a brawl and he was avoiding looking into my eyes.

Athena showed up right when I was about to die, made it seem like Perseus cut my head off, let me drag my battered and abused body away, and even gave him a head to complete his quest. She didn’t want me dead, she wanted me to suffer.

I heard the lock. Come to Mama. I usually hated turning people into stone. I did everything I could to avoid it. I was going to proudly turn this bitch into a statue and enjoy every minute of it.

The door flung open and Sister Mary Eugene actually believed me. She thought she was fully protected from me. Which was weird because my likeness was now in movies, books, and video games. There was no excuse for not knowing who did this to me.

Sister Mary Eugene looked me right in the eyes. And instantly turned to stone.