41. Dionysus

I was holding Medusa and trying to comfort her, but I was about to lose it myself. Now that I was in the room with the man who hurt her, I was practically vibrating with rage. She was taken because he inherited an institution and kept it going. She was starved because he was an asshole.

I knew my mate. She always avoided turning people to stone. When Perseus showed up to kill her, she tried to fight him off without looking him in the eye and nearly died. If Medusa had intentionally lured someone to her cell to turn them to stone, then they had it coming.

Pax said he ranted about how pious and pure that fake nun was, but she'd still be alive if she wasn't hurting people. It was self-defense. Medusa thought she was protecting herself and everyone in that basement by turning that woman to stone.

She told me they'd been focusing pretty hard on Calamity because she was a demon. Calamity was legally an adult and was in college, but in supernatural terms and compared to Medusa, she was just a baby. Hurting kids was a big no for all of us.

So, we just sat there while they got through their agenda. Some of it was a hot load of bullshit posturing about pet projects that weren't going to help anyone. Frankly, it pissed me off, but I wasn't here to comment on that. Finally, it was our turn.

Pepper and Saul introduced competing bills. Pepper wanted the Coalition disbanded and made illegal and Saul was actually insane. He wanted to create a registry where supernaturals were forced to list their names and he wanted them to wear something that identified them in public. If they didn't agree, they would be deported.

Saul also wanted to deputize the common folks and make it law that any violence against supernaturals was automatically self-defense and no charges would be pressed. If a supernatural hurt a human, he wanted to completely bypass the justice system. Instead of a jury of their peers, the human or their family got to decide if they went to a Coalition facility or were just executed.

This was something the Gold Party had wanted for a long time, but they'd always been a minority fringe group, even when the Coalition was first formed. People were a lot more afraid of the other back then and had this long-ass history of turning on their neighbors. They showed up for executions and witch burnings like it was a highly anticipated opening day of a movie or play, but the Gold Party had been a little nutty for the people who thought witches floated and slavery was a good thing.

In this decade, they were dying out. They ran in every election and there was always one on the ticket for President, but there were fewer of them getting elected. They were trying to reinvent themselves as the protectors of real Americans and trying not to do anything stupid to get labeled extremists.

This? Saul wouldn't have pulled something out this insane unless he had something big. The Gold Party hadn't made a big move in a long time. They'd been trying to slip their agenda into other people's bills and then protest voting when it wasn't included. I couldn't remember the last time they'd authored a bill because they always failed.

What was this little bitch up to?

The Senate majority leader wasn't my favorite, but these two bills were in direct conflict. They could both fail, but if one passed, the other one couldn't. She decided to let them both give their arguments and bring witnesses. She was going to let Pepper go first. Probably because Pepper was liked better than Saul was, but Pepper raised her hand.

"No, let Saul give his presentation. The Gold Party hasn't attempted to author a bill in a very long time, but they have tried to piggy back off a few of mine. Call me curious."

Saul scowled when a few people chuckled. Yeah, Pepper just treated him like that kid who kept farting in his hand and pretending like he was giving you a present, but he actually had something to show this time and everyone was just expecting another fart.

I loved that for him.

"So, my good friend Hannibal has been running the Coalition in secret. To be clear, he was keeping you all safe, and the secrecy was so he could do his work safely without facing retribution from demonic forces. He has some enlightening testimony that should let you see the danger you're all in. Proceed."

What was Hannibal going to do? Bring up New Eden again? I was friends with Persephone before I met Medusa. She was thorough. Cas said there were cameras in New Eden. None of the footage from the day we destroyed it would have survived. As a god of rebirth, if something needed to die for another thing to be reborn, then it was completely destroyed. They wouldn't even be able to access the archive footage.

"I'm of sound mind," Hannibal said. "For thirty years, I've lived on the grounds of New Eden Asylum. I know what the evidence says. All of our historical records are missing New Eden, too. We've been studying demons for a very long time. They aren't capable of any of this.

"We recently hired a new priest and we believe he stole documents and orchestrated the downfall of the first Coalition facility here. I believe this priest was no ordinary man. I believe this man was Lucifer himself.

"He disguised himself as a blind man to lower our guard and he knew things about us that he shouldn't. A low-level demon wouldn't be able to pass our tests to infiltrate us, but none of those precautions would work on an angel, even if they were fallen.

"If Lucifer is here and making his move, then you should all worry. Especially if he's capable of completely removing all evidence of a building as old as New Eden Asylum."

We were all trying not to giggle because we'd all met Lucifer and the rest of the angels who fell with him. They were much cooler than the shitheads who started the Coalition. They weren't fond of humans at first, but they'd been living among them for a while now. He'd think that was way too much work. He was a brat prince.

And thinking Pax was Lucifer was hilarious. He was gorgeous enough to be a fallen angel. I'd been around Pax long enough to know he was in Pepper's office listening and howling with laughter. He was probably going to milk that for weeks.

Hannibal's eyes darted to us because some of us weren't as good at hiding our laughter than others. I was mainly looking at Persephone and the furies. If Hannibal had been a smart man, he would have looked away and not addressed any of those women.

"I don't know what kind of world we're living in that you think it's funny that Lucifer has escaped Hell and is walking the Earth again, but the end of times is near!"

Hades just snorted. None of the various afterlife gods were trapped in their realms. There was security to keep the shades in and most of them had set up security so the living didn't break in. Some of them had such a reputation, no one tried.

Hades and Persephone chose to live in the Underworld most of the year because it fit their goth aesthetic and they liked it there, but plenty of gods didn't live there fulltime. Hell didn't have a god running it like most of the pantheons. The fallen angels got banished there and thought they were in charge, but eventually chose to leave.

"You're being really disrespectful right now!" Hannibal snapped, smashing his fist on the table.

We agreed Medusa wasn't going to use her fury magic because she didn't have any control over it, but Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone were leaking just enough fury to make Hannibal seem completely unreasonable. He was red faced and sweating, even though it was pretty cool in here. I wondered if he was still shitting himself with that concoction Benji gave him.

It was time for the other senators to question him and some of them found this funny, too. It was like I didn't even have to poke him. There was this young upstart I also really liked. Tate Quinn was very much an Incubus and very much gay. He was also an amazing senator. I would love a Crane Quinn ticket for President. Tate shot me this lascivious wink before he turned to Hannibal.

"Sir, it seems rather convenient to trot out Lucifer when you've been caught in a lie on camera. Thus far, the Coalition hasn't submitted an ounce of proof these people are possessed by demons and a danger to anyone unless provoked. They've said themselves they are born this way and aren't any more dangerous than the average human unless they need to be. They have their rotten apples, but so do humans. Saul has brought Coalition members into these chambers before. You've all blown a lot of hot air, but none of you have actually produced an angel to back up your claims, if you've even met one.

"You have zero proof Lucifer is walking the earth just like your organization has zero proof supernaturals are humans possessed by demons. Meanwhile, supernaturals have produced scientific evidence and DNA tests that they are genetically different from humans and those traits are inherited.

"I don't even know why we're still entertaining this nonsense. Saul is talking about making it legal to kill Americans for sport. You can't tell the difference between a supernatural and a human by looking at them. Maybe Saul and Hannibal flunked history, but some of us didn't. This is going to lead to mass violence and people will just use the excuse they thought someone was supernatural if it turns out they weren't. Asking people to wear anything in public that would identify them to groups that would want to cause them harm is UnAmerican. Saul has officially gone insane."

I started clapping. I was pretty sure you weren't supposed to clap if you were testifying in the Senate chambers, but I literally didn't care. Someone needed to say that shit because what the fuck? I didn't know how old Tate was, but most older supernaturals stayed out of the public eye because they stopped aging after a certain point.

In some countries, it was fine because they'd always been open to magic and the supernatural. Others, supernaturals had to constantly reinvent themselves. Tate would eventually have to do that, but he was putting himself at risk because he was constantly surrounded by security and had to work with people like Saul.

So, yeah, he deserved the standing ovation I just gave him. Fuck these people.

Pepper had just been sitting there waiting for her moment. She did that a lot. She was a master at letting people dig their hole before she stepped in and started filling it with water.

"I think it's time to introduce my witnesses. Since DNA and ancestry records aren't enough for all of you, I've got five gods here to set the record straight."

Several people gasped. Hannibal fainted and shat himself. Saul rushed over to help him and then the smell hit him. Man, people should be very wary of coming for Benji and the people he loved because his gifts kept giving. Benji's beautiful brain got everyone in New Eden fed a little better so they got strong enough to escape. It may have saved Medusa's life.

But this? Hannibal didn't have a health condition. He was doing this to himself on purpose. Saul's expert witness wasn't looking like a reliable narrator. He pitched a little tantrum when he got laughed at and he now had shit running down his leg.

I loved this for Saul and Hannibal.

I looked around. Nearly everyone was having an existential crisis. Either because gods existed or because there were more than one of us. There were a few that were glaring at Pepper like she was bullshitting everyone and we weren't gods. Saul was one of them.

Oh, this was going to be so much fun.