41. Benji

A thena and Hera got my mom a cell phone, and she programmed her number into mine before she left again to go find my dad. I immediately called her because we missed out on a lot of mother-son shadow-demon bonding because of the Coalition and we needed to make up for lost time by killing people together.

Mom was tiny, but she was a fierce woman in that small packaging. Like, no one wanted to mess with me because of Mom when I was little. She made it clear that she didn’t care if you were five-years-old. She’d throw down if you were mean to me.

I eventually learned to fight my own battles, but this one we could do together. Mom poofed to us and she was already looking better than the last time I saw her and it hadn’t been that long. If she was with Athena and Hera, I was guessing they were giving her ambrosia, too. It was the right thing to do, but you always wanted your shadow demons in fighting form.

Mom walked over and hugged me. I missed her hugs. She always smelled like Songpyeon, these Korean cakes I loved that she made for me all the time. I had a feeling she hadn’t been baking, but she still smelled the same. I inhaled. It was a comfort scent.

“Ready to find Dad?” I asked, squeezing her.

“And get a little revenge. We didn’t get that where they were holding me. There was no television, so we didn’t know what was going on. The cells in the basement were electronic. Everything just unlocked and when we wandered upstairs to see what was going on, everyone realized we were alone.

“Some of the newer residents who were taken with cell phones ransacked the place until they found theirs. We thought this was some trick and they would just murder us when we stepped out the front door. We figured out what was going on and left. Hera’s people found us shortly after and that’s where I met Athena, who took me to you after I got cleaned up.”

“I should get her a present. What do you get for a god who’s really smart and has a mean resting bitch face?” I asked.

“She doesn’t like being fawned over. Anoint a candle with olive oil and burn it next to some lilies while giving thanks. That’s enough for her,” Medusa said.

I blew a raspberry.

“That’s boring as fuck. If I was a god, I’d want cake, the potato chip flavors you can only get in Korea, and everyone kissing my ass.”

“You basically have that now,” Cas said.

“Oh, yeah. Love you. Let’s go get my dad.”

Between all of us, we had the means to travel anywhere in the world in seconds. We appeared outside this absolutely dire facility. I’d spent the night in jails that were more cheerful than this place.

It was this ugly beige rectangle surrounded by chain-link fences and barbed wire. It looked like it had been landscaped with herbicide and salt. It just put me in a bad mood, especially knowing my dad was in there.

“How are we doing this?” I asked.

“It’s like New Eden,” Dionysus said. “I was able to portal here because I had the address, but none of the gods can actually see the building or get inside until the sigil is destroyed. It’s going to be somewhere the prisoners can’t get to it. A supernatural wouldn’t know what it does, but they’d think it was what was stopping their magic and destroy it.”

Bitches. I hoped someone was giving whoever invented that sigil Hell in one of the various afterlives somewhere because it had been nothing but trouble so far.

“How did you handle New Eden?” Michael asked.

“We got captured with intel from a seer. One of our friends is one of the good priests and he hates the Coalition. Father Nathan tried to infiltrate them once, so he coached Pax on how he went wrong. Pax transfigured all the silver from the outside and then we gained access to the attic and neutralized the angel tears. Once everyone got their magic back, we used the chaos of everyone getting justice to get to the basement,” Cas said.

Michael was kind of this intense fucker, but I was loving the evil grin on his face right now. I was okay with evil angels as long as they were on my side.

“If you can get Pax close enough to transfigure the silver again, I can handle the rest.”

Mysterious cheeky fucker. Cas was a planner. He needed every single detail ironed out before he would do anything. Honestly, I loved him for it, but that was just not me. I was a free spirit. I grabbed Pax and poofed him to an unguarded wall.

“Do your thing, bro.”

“Benji, what did I tell you about poofing blind people without warning them?”

“That you’d kick my ass and no one would have sex with me for two weeks if I did it again? Kind of an emergency this time.”

“You still had time to warn me.”

“Sorry. I just don’t want my dad in there any longer than he has to be.”

“I get it. Which is why I’m not going to kick your ass and you’re only on a sex ban for a week.”

I nodded. Worth it.

Pax transfigured the silver and then all Hell broke loose. Michael decided to work through some shit by flying over the prison and bombing the hell out of the roof. That was one way to take the diffusion system out. The gods couldn’t even see the building and the rest of us couldn’t go inside without losing our magic.

It was too dangerous to send Michael. The humans were onto the divide among the angels and the supernaturals wouldn’t know he was on their side. This worked, too.

The rest of my squad realized it was on and joined us. The humans realize they were under attack and started spilling out of the doors. These weren’t fake priests and nuns. These were more like prison guards and they were armed. Bullets wouldn’t do much, but I was guessing those guns shot whatever completely knocked us out and let them transport us several states to wake up with no memories.

But we all knew that and were prepared for it. Cas was already shifted and going human bowling. The furies were invading minds, and the humans were turning on each other. My glorious mate had her snakes out. She was fucking up minds and turning people to stone. Total boner there.

But I was trying not to tear up. My mom and I were poofing behind the enemy and snapping their necks together for the first time ever. Total bonding moment. Hopefully, we’d get to make more memories like this for me to treasure forever.

I caught a look at Medusa over the shoulder of some asshole whose head I was about to rip off. I knew she could handle hand to hand combat, but she was using her long-range gifts right now. And taking photos of me and my mom going on a killing spree so I could make a scrap book.

My baby pictures were probably lost, and I’d missed so many memories, but this scrap book would mean a lot to both of us. Medusa was making sure it happened.

The supernaturals inside realized all the shit was going down outside. Maybe they realized it was a rescue, or they knew this was illegal all along, but they started peeking their heads out. They didn’t have their magic, but they could sense that we did and that we were winning.

It might take a while for them to get their magic back, but they weren’t totally helpless. Most of them were bigger than the average human and they had them doing manual labor, so their bodies were stronger than the average Coalition victim.

They joined the fight, and that’s when I heard my dad roar my mom’s name. I guess he realized we were here. My mom poofed her way to him immediately, and I joined her.

“Hey, Dad. Fancy killing people with us?” I asked, snapping a neck.

“Benji?”

“The family is back together,” Mom said, ripping some dude’s head off.

I hoped Medusa got one of all of us killing together for the scrapbook. All the guards were dead, and I didn’t feel bad about that in the slightest. Cas shifted back and no one here was going to get all prudish about a naked bear shifter covered in blood. That was just Tuesday for a supernatural.

“Is there anyone else inside who needs help? If we can air the place out, the rest of us can follow to help you get them out. Oh, and that angel up there is on our side. The angels who set the Coalition in motion are dead and he also helped with that. Any angel you see on Earth from now on had nothing to do with the Coalition and are trying to help us. Understood?”

“Anyone who’s still inside was being treated for exhaustion,” Dad said. “They found out there was a vein of Lithium on this land and they moved us here to mine it for free. They feed us awful food that’s just enough to keep us going, but it’s never what we need for our race.

“We’re given one bottle of water to last for a ten-hour shift and it’s not enough for the Louisiana heat. People get dehydrated all the time. They stick them in a bed, hook them up to an IV, and put them back to work immediately. We’ll get them. No sense for the people who rescued us to lose their magic. Ours is going to come back, right?”

“In about two days,” Pax swore.

My dad and my mom had always been my heroes. The fact that my dad was willing to go back in there to save people just elevated that. He didn’t go back in right away. He stopped and gave my mom a scorching kiss and then hugged me so tight, I could barely breathe.

Cas was already in daddy mode and looking to take care of everyone. He was offering his resources and Hera’s to get people back where they needed to be. Hera at least acknowledged that Dionysus wanted nothing to do with her, so Athena was the point of contact for her organization.

Several people didn’t know they were in Louisiana. They didn’t really know where they were and the guards refused to tell them. My dad would have known and told them, but I guess I could see why they wouldn’t believe him. He once told me if I was bad in December, Krampus was going to put me in a sack and beat me with a stick, so he did lie sometimes. Shit, did someone self actualize fucking Krampus?

“Come home with me, Mom. We live in an isolated supernatural community, but it’s close enough to civilization that we can get anything we want. There are tons of space for shifters to run and it’s beautiful.”

“You don’t have to sell us, Benji. We want to be where you are. We missed so much. We aren’t going to be helicopter parents, but I want you where I can see you. I don’t have to ask your father. We’ve always been on the same page and been able to finish each other’s sentences.”

They had. That feeling that was always in the pit of my stomach was finally gone. I’d met our center, my parents were alive, and I guess I’d finally killed the right people because I felt loads better.