Chapter 2
There was an update I wanted to get from Kyle and to discuss a few things with his team, so after I left Owen, I set the portal to the home base we were leaving in Atlanta for now.
Fine, only after an excessive number of kisses from Mudbug and Owen did I do it. I really did want to just hang with them all day, but there was too much going on.
I froze when I heard an inhuman noise, dread filling me as images of my fight with Lucifer pounded my brain. I dropped what was in my hands and searched for something sharp to start slicing through my dampeners when I heard Kyle’s voice cut through my fear.
“Enough, you fucking morons!” he bellowed. “We’re all in deep shit—”
“We’ll fix it and Jasmine will never know,” someone snapped.
So clearly the guy had a death wish.
And now I was curious and annoyed that they’d scared me, so that wasn’t good. I scooped up what I’d brought and organized it on the way. I tripped over my feet as I found the living area of the house—my house fucking trashed.
“What the fuck happened here?” I demanded, my voice cold and deadly.
“Oh, we’re all fucked,” one of Kyle’s guys groaned.
“Yeah, we are,” Kyle sighed, blowing out a harsh breath and looking up at the ceiling before meeting my gaze. “We’ll take the punishment and—”
“I can’t fucking believe this fucking shit!” someone bellowed from the other room and I heard crashing that absolutely was going to be costly.
Like ruined walls and probably flooring costly.
“Take it outside!” Kyle roared before trying to calm down.
And clearly failing miserably from the way he adjusted his neck.
“Oh, this should be good,” I drawled.
“I’m fucking pissed about it all too and fucking pissed we all let—we were children,” he admitted, nodding when I couldn’t hide my shock. He pointed over to the destroyed kitchen island. “I did that.”
I dropped what was in my hands again, trying to make my mouth work for a full minute, which chilled out a lot of people. “Okay, so who seriously is dead? Like… Where are we burying them?” Then I was scared again. “Did something happen at the safe houses? The snakes or someone made a move or…”
Everyone had winced and looked super guilty, which was why I’d trailed off.
So that was why they had acted like children. Great, so I was back to thinking this would be good.
“Just tell me,” I sighed.
Unfortunately, they tried to all tell me at once and defend their stupid. I glanced among the seven demons in the room and picked up this and that before I stuck my fingers in my mouth and let out an ear-shattering whistle.
I looked at Kyle and waved for him to go ahead.
“Always Mom’s favorite,” one grumbled.
“I will fucking shove my foot up your ass right now,” I warned them. “I just handled something huge on my shoulders and stress and wanted to get more done and walked into this fucking crazy. When I’m working to make our lives easier and—fuck you.”
“Yeah, fair,” he admitted. “Sorry. Just—you won’t get it like we do. We fucked up, but you won’t understand how badly we got screwed and it makes me pout.”
“I’ve been pretty damn understanding on more than one occasion,” I reminded him and, by extension, all of them. I crossed my arms over my chest and made it clear that it was time to spill what happened.
And make sense this time.
“Okay, so here’s the deal,” Kyle sighed. “We all play WoW. You know this.”
I rolled my eyes but nodded. World of Warcraft was a game you basically needed a damn degree to know how to play, and I was someone who tore into computers, systems, and more for fun.
But it was also incredibly toxic. The online game lobbies were… Toxic wasn’t actually harsh enough. The public servers were just dumpster fires of angry people who spewed bile for fun and it gave me the ick that people played it.
And the fact that Kyle and his team liked that shit was only excusable to me because they were demons. They didn’t get like a feed through the internet—though that would be awesome—but they were desensitized to it basically since most of them fed on wrath.
Or were tight with people who did.
But my eye twitched learning it was about that stupid fucking game that I thought was a waste of time, energy, and internet.
“Yeah, I know,” Kyle sighed heavily. “But we weren’t playing on the public servers you hate and come on, we don’t like fuck with kids and—you know us. We also gotta blow off steam like you do, and there’s only so much beating each up or hitting the gym.”
Fair. I gave a quick nod.
I listened as he explained that a few years ago they had joined some private server for a challenge and the whole hook was they only had one life in the game. On the server. They died and that was it. Their everything was gone. It was like an elite server game… Thing.
Program? Modification?
I wasn’t into gaming, but I understood. It was the ultimate challenge for people who played the game and apparently were insane since everything was on the line.
Yeah, I couldn’t even judge since I went undercover without a safety net or a tiny one too many times and—we were adrenaline junkies. I got it.
I held up my hand when Kyle and a few others went on and on and on about how much time they’d spent setting up everything again. “So what went wrong and got my house destroyed?”
Kyle covered the mistake well. “You take that title of Mom seriously to protect the company.”
I internally flinched but then played along. “No, I thought—right, this wasn’t one of mine. I get it all confused, and apparently I have way more than I—I gotta go over the list with Melissa again.”
Crisis averted when they all snorted or chuckled.
“We’re not exactly sure, but the reason we all blew up more than once is we avoid raids that are livestreamed for obvious reasons and someone lied about that too,” one of the guys explained.
“Back up. So we’re our own guild, but there are also raids.
And you need materials for those raids because if you win, you can get awesome gear and loot. ”
I bobbed my head to more rambling and got the idea even if I didn’t care. “Okay, so what happened?”
“We were set up,” Kyle answered, cutting to the chase.
“No, that, we could fucking handle,” someone growled. “The asshole set up someone else in the raid and we were all collateral damage. The fucker wanted to get one guy back and threw the raid, killing thirty of us.”
“Oh fuck,” I hissed, getting it better. “And just took years of your work and more?” I winced when they all nodded, the temperature of the room rising. “And did you all need to die?”
“No,” they all growled at varying levels, Kyle continuing. “But he took the surefire way and took me out because I’m the tank and it was my job to block the boss so everyone else could get in and set up. So he literally stabbed me in the back so everyone else was slaughtered to get this one guy.”
“Instead of taking the chance to stab the one guy and he might die and not get his revenge,” another demon yelled from the other room. “Mother fucker! I—I’m going outside!”
Okay, even if it was a game… I sort of saw their upset.
“So we find this fucker and peel his skin off,” I muttered, shrugging when they looked at me with shock.
“Look, I’m not a gamer and you know how I feel about this game specifically, but this was years of your work.
That’s some serious bullshit for his petty revenge.
I can’t even imagine what—” I jumped when a door slammed.
One of Kyle’s buddies who wasn’t even on this team but worked for us came stomping into the room.
“It was over a fucking girl. The target slept with the guy’s fucking girlfriend three years ago.
He’s on his stream fucking laughing at it and giving zero shits about all of us he killed too.
He’s like whatever that we were stupid enough to fall for such a smart move. ”
“Don’t you dare!” I bellowed when people looked like they were going to ramp back up. “Feed from the guy until he changes his tune or—we’ll get your revenge on him, but you are fixing this house and paying for your damn tantrum.”
I gestured around the destroyed house and equipment when they all gave me hurt looks. No, I stood by “tantrum.”
Even if I had just as bad of a temper.
Probably worse.
“You’re fixing it!” I roared when they started arguing and others came in and joined.
They all instantly backed down… And even took a few steps back.
“You are fixing what you broke like the rest of us do. You will work it off in the time you would spend on your gaming or whatever else! This isn’t a discussion or I will work out my annoyance on all your asses. ”
One of the youngest demons there that I barely knew cleared his throat and stepped forward. “I’ll work all the unpaid OT you want to make up for the cost of my damages. I was arguing that I can’t like—I’m a klutz when it comes to using a hammer or—I wouldn’t be useful on this shit, boss.”
“Fair,” I accepted when they all seemed to agree to that.
“I’ll figure something out and block you from Elijah.
But not again and we keep this quiet.” I shook my head and growled.
“I’m getting promoted. No more of this junior VP shit.
I’m now a councilwoman, and everyone knows you are my guys. Just—we fix it and I spank you.”
“Agreed,” Kyle said flatly. “And whoever needs to know we were spanked does. We—hell, I fucking admit I lost it. But like… We have enough bullshit, and this was our fucking stress relief that someone torpedoed and for something so fucking stupid. Like… I know you hate it, but I like my stupid little tank guy and—for real? Someone had to shit on it and now it’s gone? ”
Yeah, again, fair enough. Even if I didn’t really understand the game or their draw to that, I understood that.
But it also gave me an idea.
Maybe a good one.
I handed Kyle what I’d brought and asked for a few things before setting the portal and heading right back out. I shared shocked looks with those gathered and sighed.
Loudly.