28. Dionysus

M edusa's plan was a good one. The gods were on board, even Athena. My half-sister was a good person. I was glad she was coming through for Medusa because that was the one thing we always disagreed on. Medusa was still mad. She probably would be for a while, but I had a feeling she would forgive her.

Athena didn't play favorites. She used her math to pick her heroes and if she did have a favorite among them, she never would have told anyone. Athena wouldn't have lied about it, either. If she was openly admitting Medusa was her favorite, then she meant it.

It would have been weird for all the girls to go out and leave Athena, but no one was going to invite her because of Medusa. But Medusa was who she was.

"You should come. It'll give us a chance to reconnect and maybe put all this behind us."

I knew my half-sister. She always said she was a loner, but she liked her heroes and priestesses. She just didn't know how to ask to hang out. She probably got why she wouldn't have been invited, but she really wanted to go. I hoped they resumed their bond before Poseidon ruined it.

But for now, my girl needed her night out. Most of her girlfriends didn't have access to their wardrobes because of the Coalition, so Persephone and I were dressing everyone. We let them tell us what they wanted and conjured their outfits.

And Medusa! She'd gotten some of her confidence back now that she could turn her snakes and gaze off as well as her new fury powers. It was sexy as fuck.

Kat and Calamity wanted black-leather outfits. So did the furies. Jezebel wanted a hot little red number that matched her hair. Persephone was in her signature pink. But Medusa? She was a green witch first, so I went for cottage core, has a hex jar in her bag for emergencies vibe.

I'd known her thousands of years and she'd never looked lovelier.

I watched them go and then turned to the rest of my co-mates.

"So, I'm a little on edge since she's already been taken once. Are we really going to let her go on her own?"

"Kat will eat us if she sees us," Pax said.

"She already beat my ass once this week," Benji said. "She's strong as fuck."

"Not to mention my wife if you ruin her fun. You should be much more afraid of Persephone."

"No shit," Cas said. "She erased literally every trace of New Eden Asylum."

"You should probably fear all of them. They are much stronger than you," Hephaestus said.

My half-brother was the strong, silent type. He only spoke when he had something to say. Hephaestus was more of a loner than Athena was. He could really take people or leave them. Which is why it was such a shocker that he bonded with Medusa the way he had.

And he wasn't wrong. That group was the definition of strong, powerful women.

"She needs to learn and she can't do that if we're chasing people off," Cas pointed out.

"Before anyone asks, I'm not creeping in the shadows. It's morally reprehensible to spy on your mate when she's doing mean things to stupid boys. You wait until she gets home, gives you the highlights, and then you commiserate how stupid the boys were."

"Guys, I'm not saying ruin their night. I'm saying have a guy's night out somewhere close enough we can get there if the cops show up or things get out of hand," I said.

Because I wasn't that kind of man. She could leave me whenever she needed to. I was just a little overprotective right now because she'd been taken.

"There's just a bunch of small towns around here. One has a college, but they all go to the same bar near the college. There isn't a strip club or anything. Our guy's night out would be eating at the diner."

"That sounds much better than a strip club," Hephaestus said.

"Totally. Persephone is okay with strip clubs if she's with me. If I went to one without her, she'd light my asshole on fire."

I laughed because that was totally true. Persephone had a temper on her. Hades and Persephone were weirdly devoted to each other. They went to strip clubs together. They were that weird couple at the pool that sent the young twenty something a drink to see if they wanted to play.

"Then she'd light mine on fire for bringing you because she'd think it was my idea," I groaned.

"Technically, it is, asshole. You're the one who wants to be there if something goes wrong. My wife can handle herself. So can the furies and I'm betting the vampire could do some damage to us since she's an original. Not to mention your mate can just turn the entire bar to stone. You're overreacting."

"He's not," Cas said. "We haven't been able to identify what they are using to disable supernaturals, but it's potent and no one can remember anything that happened after they were hit with it until they wake up at a Coalition facility. We aren't crashing their night. We're going to have dinner at the twenty-four-hour diner in case something goes wrong and we'll be back before they get home."

Yeah, Cas was my bro. He had my back about being totally irrational about her. Benji just shrugged.

"The diner has amazing pie and one of the servers is the owner's daughter. She's a Jamina, so she always gives me the best recommendations and then I talk the diner up on social media. We should probably check in with our local followers, anyway."

We should do that, too. No one had contacted us that they were in danger, which was a good sign. The Coalition knew there were human sympathizers, but they also knew going against them would turn other humans against them. Everyone also knew you couldn't tell the difference and they couldn't really afford to make that kind of mistake again in this day and age. Especially not with Hannibal outed and looking like an idiot at the moment.

We all portalled to the diner. Benji breezed in and walked straight over to a pretty young server. He hugged her and they did air kisses.

"Hey, Daisy. Love what you've done with your hair. I can't decide if I like the pink better than the purple. We're here for your grandmother's delicious recipes and to talk about the project."

"Sure thing. I'm actually having a problem, but I didn't know if it was an emergency or not."

"With everything going on, consider everything related to supernaturals and the Coalition an emergency."

"Are you really a god, Mister?"

"Yup. And this is my half-brother Hephaestus and my uncle, Hades."

"Oh, wow. I'm a big fan of this Hades and Persephone web comic. Please tell me the two of you are desperately in love like that."

Ah, fuck. This kid had no idea what she'd just done. Hades would literally give her a whole dissertation about how those web comics got their bond correct and then vomit from the mouth about all the things they got wrong. Don't get me wrong. It was adorable how obsessed they were with each other even now, but rein it in, man.

"Yes, and we think the comics and memes are hilarious, but they got a few things wrong. First of all?—"

"Buddy," I said, clapping Hades on the back. "She's got a situation that might be an emergency. Can we find out what that is before you wax poetic about Persephone again?"

"Oh, fine."

"What's up, Daisy?"

"You know the foster kid my sister took in? Aidan?"

"I remember."

I had no idea who they were talking about, so I hoped someone filled me in. Daisy looked at Hephaestus, Hades, and me and sighed.

"So, Aidan has been nonverbal since she took him in two years ago. She loves that boy and was planning on adopting him. He's brilliant, kind, and an amazing musician. She sent him to school and apparently, there was a substitute teacher who was bullying him for not speaking. She doesn't know much about his past or why he doesn't speak, but he finally spoke to tell the sub to shut up. She hasn't been able to talk since."

Ah. Kid was a siren. I could guess why he wasn't talking, and it was tragic. All it took was one asshole to call the Coalition on him. Cas told Daisy what he was.

"Where is he now?"

"Hiding at my place. They don't put kids in those places, do they? I know you said they did it to you, Aidan is only eight."

Yeah, they did. We had to get that kid somewhere safe. I was just so pissed.

"They put kids in those places," Cas said. "I have a siren staying on my property that I'm pretty sure can help Aidan. I'm pretty sure he stopped talking because he doesn't know how to rein in his lure. She can teach him how to be a siren. If your sister still loves him and he loves her, it would be safe for her to adopt him after Jezebel gets done training him."

"I already texted her," Benji said. "She's down to help."

"Aidan couldn't ask for better temporary guardians than Jezebel and her crew while all this is going on," Pax said.

"We can go get him now. Who's coming with me?" I asked.

"She knows you and Benji from social media."

"Go," Hephaestus said. "Hades and I will be here to look out for your mate and we can portal everyone away if anything happens."

I trusted the men I was leaving behind to protect my mate and the other men to protect my co-mates. Benji and I portalled to the address Daisy gave us. We noticed an unmarked van parked outside that was a little suspicious, but could have been anything. Daisy said her sister was staying at her apartment and we didn't want to scare the kid, so we knocked.

I could tell she was peering out the peep hole to see who it was. There was some hesitation, then the door flung open.

"Holy fuck, it that who I think it is?"

This wasn't the time for flirting. Benji and I both knew that. We had to help that kid before someone close to that sub hurt Aidan. We introduced ourselves and tried to explain what was going on with Aidan. It was late, so he should have been sleeping, but he came wandering out when he heard voices.

I'd always been good with kids, but I was shocked at how good Benji was. His horns and wolf ears popped out as he gave Aidan a goofy grin.

"Hey, Aidan. I'm a hybrid and Dionysus is a god. We're friends with a whole bunch of supernaturals. You're like us. Maybe you don't know this, but you're a siren. You've been given a very powerful gift and we're friends with someone like you. She can teach you how to use it. I'm guessing you don't like talking because of what your voice can do, but it can do amazing things, too."

"Daisy says you're a musician. Did you know that you can sing and soothe people? You could be a rock star if you wanted to be. I know Orion Onyx. He could give you lessons."

"He's a bit young for Meatball Hellscape."

Benji's wolf ear twitched.

"Excuse me, but there are men coming up the back stairs and I don't think they have good intentions," he said, poofing away.

"Cool," Aidan whispered.

"This might be a good time to get out of here. I'll take you to your sister's diner to my friends and then we'll come back and deal with that."

I quickly took care of portalling them to the alley behind the diner. Aidan looked super excited to be traveling that way and that he just found out he was supernatural. I got back to the apartment complex as soon as I could.

I found Benji in the alley holding a man up by his panties.

"Who's this? I don't like his facial hair," I said.

"Yeah, it kind of looks like he glued a merkin to his chin. Anyway, this guy is that substitute teacher's booty call, and he came to do a citizens' arrest on a kid to turn him over to the Coalition because she hasn't wanted to fuck him since she went mute. It's literally been a day, jackass. Women are allowed a day off," Benji said, shaking him.

The guy let out this strangled cry. Benji was dangling him from the back of his shit-streaked tightie whities, so I'm guessing his panties felt like they were about to cut him in half.

I got right in his face.

"Your girlfriend bullied a kid. If she apologizes to him, I'll get someone to give her the ability to speak."

"She's not my girlfriend," he gasped.

"Dick brain, then why are you in this alley trying to fight a hybrid and a god if you haven't even put a ring on it?" Benji laughed.

"Pretty sure he thought he was just going to have to fight an eight-year-old."

"Dude, that eight-year-old would have totally kicked your ass."

I usually erred on the side of bashing heads and thinking about the consequences later, but what we were doing was important. We didn't just need to get laws changed. We needed to change the minds of people, too.

"Set him down."

"What?"

"Just do it."

Benji set him down. The guy was going to have trouble running with his panties all the way up by his lungs, so I waited for him to dig them out of his ass crack.

"Listen, Aidan is a child. He hasn't been trained. He's nonverbal because he didn't even know he was a siren. He just knew his voice could do things, and he chose to stop speaking to protect people. Your not-girlfriend pushed him to his limits. He probably didn't even know what he was doing when he told her to shut up.

"She can start speaking again when another siren tells her she can. We've got Aiden with a siren to teach him how to control his magic. None of us want to hurt you. Most of them are just reacting in self-defense. Yeah, some of them do want to hurt you and they are just like every human serial killer and murderer. You have them, too."

Benji immediately caught on and went with it.

"The only reason you got a super wedgie was because you were here to hurt a kid. The Coalition got me when I was around Aidan's age. They do terrible things to kids there. They abused me for years. Aidan didn't know what he was doing. He stopped speaking for a reason. Do you want an eight-year-old tortured and experimented on over an accident that can easily be reversed?"

"I guess not. Sorry, I just overreacted because she was upset."

"Bro," Benji said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You can tell yourself she's not your girlfriend, and you just did this over sex, but you caught feeling and got stupid."

"You did. Forget Aidan. Go talk to her and tell her how you feel. Also, tell her she's completely unsuited for substitute teaching if she can't handle one nonverbal kid who seemed well mannered and polite when I met him. Explain to her that this was an accident that never would have happened if she would have just accepted how he chose to communicate. Supernaturals are not your enemy unless you try to hurt us. I want you to remember you came for an eight-year-old child and you walked away with a wedgie and some sage relationship advice."

"So, it was just an accident? She's been stressed because her mom is sick and she got laid off her job. The company she used to work for is shit and saying she quit so they don't have to pay unemployment. That's the only reason she signed up to sub. She's been stressed and I swear to god, yelling at nonverbal kids isn't like her, so I thought he did it to fuck with her since she was a substitute. We did that sometimes when I was a kid."

"Yes, dude. Because of the Coalition, we can't do that shit. Especially not when it's obvious like that. They don't discriminate if you're in first grade. If anything, they try harder to cure you. We're born like this. You can't take it out of us.

"I don't know how Aidan ended up in the foster system, but I'm guessing he didn't know his birth parents. He slipped through the cracks and ended up with humans instead of supernaturals finding him. He probably thought he was human until he said something and realized his voice could do shit. He went silent because he thought he was different. Aidan probably goes to school with other supernatural kids. He's probably drawn to them, but doesn't know why. Since he doesn't talk, they don't know he doesn't know, or they'd tell him."

"Bro, sorry. Thank you for stopping me from doing something terrible. And fuck me, I love her. I'm going to tell her. Hey, can either of you send someone to help her talk again? She can't go to interviews or have calls with unemployment and her lawyer until she can talk again. I swear, she's not the type to bully kids, especially one who doesn't talk. I think she took all the pressure she's been feeling and reacted completely the wrong way."

I got all that. I'd taken out my frustration on people who didn't deserve it. Never kids, though. I had a soft spot for them. The Mad God wanted to make his girlfriend grovel before an eight-year-old before she got her voice back. But regular, uncursed me who was trying to save supernaturals and make his mate whole knew that was a bad idea.

I just needed to convince Jezebel and something told me that wasn't going to be easy.

"I'll arrange it," I said as he turned to leave.

"You know if Jezebel doesn't want to do it and you try to make her, Kat is going to kick everyone's ass, right?"

"Yup."

Which was going to suck. I was a god, but Kat was older than me. Originals of any supernatural race were insanely powerful.

She wouldn't beat me, but she'd come very close to kicking my ass.