Courts and Cabals 2 by G.S. D'Moore (best novel books to read .txt) 📕

“All lies and propaganda,” she claimed theatrically as she released my hand. “That old grump across the pond has had it out for me for centuries.”

I had a feeling who the old grump was, but I couldn’t handle that right now. I started taking deep breaths in, and slowly exhaling. I was in the presence of some very famous, very strong magical beings. I was just human, maybe a tad extra; how could I mean anything to these people?

“You’re going to be Lilith’s first,” Morgan continued, “so you better be ready to play in the big leagues. The old grump is indeed Merlin, and he’s been disguising himself as a middling mage in the EU for the last twenty-five years,” she dropped the bomb, and I felt Lilith adding her support to me by propping me up with her shoulder.

“How?” I struggled to get out. “You’re mortal.”

“As mortal as you . . . or as you were,” I felt a sudden breeze whip through the room – although not a single hair on my head was disturbed – as the sorceress of Arthurian legend gave me a penetrating look.

“As you were,” she confirmed with a nod and a grin.

I had no idea what the fuck she was talking about.

“Anywho, it’s a simple matter of soul transference,” she offered, like she wasn’t divulging the holy grail of magical study: eternal life. “But don’t worry, the old wizard and I agreed on one thing long ago, and we locked away that specific magic. Only we can perform it, and if we’re killed, we’re just as dead as the next man or woman. We’re just very hard to kill,” the smile she gave me made my asshole pucker.

“Stop scaring the kid,” Lark frowned at Morgan. “He might belong to my group.”

“The group of misfit toys,” she shot back, in what seemed like an old argument.

“Misfit toys, those banished and tossed aside by others,” he added, and I didn’t like to think he might include me in that group.

“It makes sense,” my mind stubbornly agreed with him. I been tossed aside by my absentee father. I hadn’t been intentionally banished by my mother, but death achieved the same result. I was definitely a misfit, and without a clue what I really was. “Yep, I’ll be throwing my lot in with the would-be Satyr Prince.”

“We value all members of our cabal,” Miss Venitas stepped in and ended the argument with a sharp look. “We have eight members on the board,” she explained to me. “I represent the ruling family, Morgan the mages, and Lark the members of former allegiance. You don’t know my grandson Jeremiah, but he wields the vote for the imps. You will meet Jennifer at some point, who represents our human interests. Victor lives and works out of Bangkok and controls the vampire vote, while Gustav shuttles between Vancouver and Seattle. He’s in a nasty political fight to remain the voice of the shifters. Last, but certainly not least, Via looks after the inactive or retired members.”

“So; the succubus, an Arthurian witch, a Fae that was slated to be one of The Nine, an honest-to-gods dragon, an imp that has to be a total badass if he has the allegiance of people like Xamira, a vampire that probably makes Marcella look pathetic, a shifter who shares a name with the most famous Swedish king in history, and some chick named Jennifer,” I recapped everything I’d heard, and realized Lilith was completely supporting my weight at this point, while trying to look like she wasn’t holding me up.

I breathed deep, found my center, and got my footing as Lilith and her mother shared a look.

“My apologies,” Lilith said between gritted teeth. “Cam, be known to my mother, Venus Venitas; although everyone simply calls her Venus,” Lilith made the final introductions.

“Miss Venitas to the common rabble,” Morgan added with an air of superiority, but I’d already met Venus’s ruby reds, and fallen under her spell.

I wasn’t bespelled. She wasn’t a vampire elder, and I twitched my fingers to make sure I still had full control of my faculties. I did, but I still felt completely helpless under her gaze. She knew it, I knew it, Lilith knew it, and she dug her fingers into the pressure point inside my elbow to snap me out of it.

“Ow . . . uh . . .” I realized everyone was waiting for me to say something. “Venus, like the planet,” was my brilliant response.

Venus looked at me, and then barked a single laugh. I made sure to avert my eyes so she didn’t liquify me like a Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark with her smile.

“Oh, honey,” I could feel the pity in her eyes; like a mother looking at her child trying to take its first steps and falling on its face. “I’m not named after the planet. The planet is named after me.”

I was floored . . . literally. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in a chair with no memory of how I got there.

“Venus, Roman goddess of love, sex, beauty, fertility . . .” that explained the whole Rome angle, but it led me down a rabbit hole. “Was she Aphrodite of Greece, Freyja of the Norse, or The Morrigan of Celtic mythology.” I had no idea how old she even was. “She could be Ishtar,” worshiped in the fertile crescent, “or Hathor, Bastet . . .” there were half a dozen Egyptian goddesses of love and other things.

Thinking about it all gave me a pounding headache. “Oh, my gods, is Lark Pan?

I looked behind me to find Lilith, but saw her face was completely neutral. From the moment I’d laid eyes on Venus, I was comparing her to her daughter. That wasn’t fair to my succubus, but in my defense, I only knew