Page 90 of V for Vindictive

Jo never fails to come up with the best way to address the dudes around us. Or how to tell them off. I’ll be forever telling Phillip and Cash to go choke on a dick.

“Prissy? I beg your pardon, devil lady, but I’m far fromprissy.” Cassius harrumphed, a walking, talking contradiction—and he’d never know how much. Tapping his foot in agitation, the Dark Fae petulantly crossed his arms. I couldn’t hide my smile, and neither could Jo. “Well, I wasn’t really sure why Eros called him Four. His name is Fredrick.”

Fredrick the villain, classic.

“But I…mightknow these so-called Seven if Fredrick and his coven are one of them. Only way to know for sure is go and find out,” he went on as if it all bore him. As if he’d been dragged into it when it couldn’t be any further from the truth. As if he wasn’t talking about world-ending stuff here.

“Coven?” I asked, assuming right away that they were vampires.

But Jo’s eyes narrowed alongside Phillip’s, the ominous sensation in the air damn-near lethal. “You mean Fredrick the Blood Mage?”

I didn’t like the sound of this Blood Mage bullshit, and it took me a second to connect the dots. Coven. Mage. Warlock. Were we talking about a magical kind of creature different from a Fae? I really needed to lock myself in a room and read through all the things that could kill me on this plane and the next. It was like the list never ended anymore.

To think I was overwhelmed when it was vampires and werewolves, then Shadow Goblins and Sirens. Not to forget my personal favorite, Green Dude, the Kitsunebi. I’d never forget that anime-inspired villain who wore nothing but latex.

Never.

From the way Sloan quieted near us and Jo seemed stuck inside her head, dagger spinning through her fingers, it was clear that whoever Fredrick was, he wasn’t anyone we wanted to deal with.

“You said Eros called him Four?” I asked.

Cassius fixed his shirt, mumbling about how it was stretched out and wouldn’t lay over his chest the same way. But then his eyes were back up, bouncing from one person to the next. “Yeah. I caught him talking about Fredrick, but he called him Four instead. I only knew because the people he listed off along this so-called Four person were powerful mages who only worked for Fredrick.”

“And he talked about others?” Phillip demanded, hand clenching and unclenching in warning. He’d beat it out of Cash if the prissy Fae tested his luck again. “Who else did he mention?” Phillip enunciated singularly, indicating we were maybe a minute from a brass-knuckle to the face.

Whenever his voice was gruff and dropped so low it technically classified as a growl, violence was a certainty, and I could only do so much.

Cash made his bed.

R.I.P., asshole.

“You really need to work on your people skills,” Cassius complained—and I was dying, bent over my stomach, succumbing to a fit of laughter.

People skills! He’s not wrong, though.

The sound of a dagger hitting the wall with a thud right next to the Dark Fae’s head brought my eyes up and over to Cash. It was barely an inch from his ear, and the Dark Fae squealed in ghoulish horror. “You’re a demon! Scarier womendo notexist.”

I put a fist over my mouth, laughing again.

This dude was so damn ridiculous all the time, and it was tough to keep a straight face. Might need to work on keeping emotions from my expressionaround him. See how long I last. If I could make it through a day without laughing at him, I’d call that a win.

Smirking to herself, Jo tracked her eyes back over to me, the sparkle in them deadly, and I tried not to swoon.

I’d never want to be on Jo’s bad side, that was for damn sure. Every time I saw that evil smile I thought so. But I was already more than a fan. I wanted her awesomeness to rub off on me, so I stuck close to her in hopes it would.

Sloan found his way over to me, touching my shoulders, which I wasn’t aware had pinched together over the course of the conversation until his feather-light touch eased the tension. A second later, his eyes trailed over to Phillip. I hadn’t told the Brit about our conversation, but he was impressively astute about this stuff, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew everything already.

Cassius moistened his lips and planted his hands on his hips, always choosing indignant Karen as his go-to pose when he was on trial. “I don’t know all the Seven, but at least Three, Four, and Six. It’s a start, and if we hit Fredrick’s coven first, we might find out the other four. Who knows. Better than nothing.”

The woman standing beside me hummed before her smile was back. “Fucking Blood Mages. You really know how to have a good time, V.”

Oh, she’d never know how true that was. A never-ending cycle of trying not to die, and it now included all kinds of creatures that grew more powerful by the day, I swear.

My Austrian looked ready to tear shit down and break things apart with his bare hands the way his body was wound up tight, muscles bulging and trembling. He pivoted and came over to me, touching my hand so quickly it felt like an illusion my brain concocted because she was a thirstybitch. Sloan and Phillip shared a silent look before the Austrian nodded and headed upstairs.

I watched him go, surprised he’d left at all. “Do I even want to know what Blood Mages are?”

Jo scoffed and flipped her dagger in the air before sheathing it. With a sassy wink, she headed over to her room as well, evading the responsibility of telling me what it all meant.

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