Courts and Cabals 2 G.S. D'Moore (the little red hen read aloud .txt) 📖

being honest, probably true. There was no way someone like Lark – despite how he’d taken me aside and taught me about my new powers – didn’t have Machiavelli beat every day of the week. Hell, he might have taught the pompous prick everything he knew.

Morgan Le Fey was fucking Morgan Le Fey. The little tidbit about her turning all the knights of the roundtable into ghouls, so they could eternally serve her, wasn’t the most endearing quality in a woman. She scared the piss out of me, but nothing anyone else had on their resume topped the boss.

Venus Venitas was tens of thousands of years old. She’d been immortalized in cultures all over the world as a goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. There was no doubt in my mind that since the Revelation, there were pagan groups that literally worshiped her. Belief like that went way beyond the power a true ancient immortal had at their disposal. I couldn’t even imagine what Venus had done to survive, become a living legend, or what it took to build one of the strongest supernatural organizations in the world. It would also be stupid to ignore that she’d probably butchered thousands and bathed in their blood to do it. Sacrifice was black magic, but that didn’t mean it didn’t work, and history was full of examples of people sacrificing their own kids to the gods.

That thought made me shiver, and it confused the hell out of me when I compared it to the woman in mom jeans who’d cooked me dinner. She’d taken time out of her incredibly busy schedule to call my parents and tell them I was okay. Megalomaniacs didn’t do stuff like that, or at least I didn’t think they did. She paid me more attention than any other newcomer, and I didn’t know why. Lilith knew I was special, but even then, she’d been willing to trade me on the assumption her mother wanted me. Venus had the fucking Pegasus in her harem. What did I have that topped that?

All those thoughts tumbled around my mind as I tried to get some shuteye. I finally got to sleep a few hours before dawn, but then it was time for the early bird to get the worm and make good on my half of the plea deal.

After the trial, I went through some final medical testing. The docs were all polite, and less distant than last time. They talked and joked with me as they had me activate my Fae gifts so they could test strength, durability, speed, and stuff like that. It was a gold mine of data for them; especially when they didn’t know shit about what the Fae were really capable of. It occurred to me about halfway through the testing that the Fae would be royally pissed I was spilling their secrets. Of course, they were already trying to kill me; so, fuck them.

I even got to know Frank; nice guy, two kids, and a wife who called him every day at lunch. He didn’t talk about shoving his fingers up my ass, and I didn’t ask. I did ask a lot of other questions about the tests they were doing, and the results. He happily answered all of them. It was night and day from being strapped to a table and milked like a well-hung cow.

They’d informed me at the end of the day that all the medical tests were finished. I said bye to Frank and the team, went off to have a sleepless night where I questioned everything I’d gotten myself into, and had a quasi-nightmare where I fucked Marcella. It started with crazy, monkey sex, but she ended up eating my dick at the end. Whatever my subconscious was trying to tell me, I didn’t get it, and now I was facing the two shifters at my doorway.

My plan for them was simple, “Kill them with kindness.”

“You look lovely today, Becky. Vernon, have you been hitting the weights?” I asked with a smile.

“Shut the fuck up,” Becky growled.

“Easy, killer. You have to learn to let go,” I gave her a soulful look. “If you don’t, you’re going to develop a bad case of IBS.”

The mountain lion shifter was literally shaking with rage, and I heard her grinding her teeth into powder; but Vernon put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

“Quit fucking around, Dupree. Let’s go,” he motioned for me to get moving.

“You know I didn’t have anything to do with your little run in,” I said over my shoulder to Becky. “You can hold a grudge, but all it’s going to do is give you wrinkles; and the stress of it is going to eat away at the lining of your stomach. That’s a shitty way to live.”

A few months ago, I would have been suicidal to talk to a supernatural like that; especially with my back turned. Now, I knew I could take a punch. Coming from her, it would still hurt; but then my lawyers would bury her. Vernon knew that, so he kept his cat on a leash.

“Where are we going today?” I asked as he led me to the elevator.

“We’ve got a little meet and greet set up. It should be . . . illuminating.”

Something about how he finished the sentence made my spidey senses tingle. I steeled myself for whatever it was, and put yesterday behind me. I had firsthand experience with everything going to shit at the drop of a hat.

We rode the elevator in silence. I liked to think the sexual tension between me and Becky was thick enough you could cut it with a steak knife, but if she had a knife, she’d stab me in the heart. The elevator climbed up and up until we had to be on the top floor. If anything was universally true, it was that the most