Page 52 of V for Vengeance

With a sideways smirk at the woman who beguiled me every time our eyes met, I continued to scope out the area around the cave, looking for any visible points of entry and stationed guards we’d need to take out before getting inside. But so far, nothing. It looked like every other hole in a mountain I’d seen up to this point. Not that I’d seen many.

Phillip adjusted Blood Slayer and walked to the edge of the cliff overlooking Harmony’s hideout, deep in thought. “It’s beensome time since I’ve dealt with a witch. Especially one this powerful. Their magic works differently from a Fae’s. My items aren’t likely to work on her if she uses blood magic.”

Baffled by his admission, I stole a look at Jo, who was casually propped up against a tree. “Getting in undetected is what I do best, asshole. I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m more worried about whatpetsshe’s got in that doom and gloom cave of hers. And how many.”

Pets?

Cash offered me his hand when I started to get to my feet. “Those are easy enough, but it’s her magical traps and barriers that’ll take time. You might be the best at what you do, but she’s better. We’d waste time trying to get in without help. That’s why I still think—”

“We’re not using V as bait,” Phillip cut in sharply, crossing his arms until they bulged. Another goddamn distraction my eyes didn’t need right now. “There has to be an access point we can exploit.”

As if he’d asked her, Jo pushed off the tree and peered down at the cave. Her eyes skated over to mine briefly before she was gone.

My mentor turned his head, then sighed. “It’s a problem she doesn’t know how to work as a team and just goes off and does what she wants,” he complained.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, she was back, twirling a dagger through her fingers. “Is it, Hunter? Or are you just inefficient and incapable of completing simple tasks?” she asserted with a sneaky grin my way.

I didn’t want to smile, but I did. She always got under Phillip’s skin. Problem was, he deserved it. It was pretty ironic to hear him bemoan her inability to work as a team when he struggled to do that exact thing himself. Talk about calling the kettle black.

More and more, I felt like the mother of the group. He and I might work well together, but he couldn’t be bothered to pretend to like Jo or Cash, and it made traveling together…painful.

Walking over, Jo wedged herself between me and Cash. His disdain for her twisted his face, but instead of doing anything about it, he was back on his phone. Then mine vibrated in my pocket too many times to count.

God help me.

Maybe I should ditch my phone before we entered the cave. With my heightened senses, the vibration was yet another distraction I didn’t need. I hated how quickly I retrieved it to see what he sent, but I couldn’t help it. The texts always made me laugh even when I tried not to.

Cash:Her Evilness is heading for a much-deserved spanking.

Cash:…

Cash:I mean it, love. That woman is in desperate need of one.

Cash:…

Cash:I mean, who does she think she is?

Cash:I can tell you what she is. The Devil. Darkness manifest, dove. The root of all evil. *devil emoji*

The laugh that erupted from my mouth I barely smothered in time not to totally give away our position. Fuck. I knew better.The warning glance Phillip gave me was all the punishment I needed to rein it in.

Sometimes, I wondered if Cash knew how often he made himself the butt of the joke. Too often for it to be an accident. Though, it was very unlikely he intentionally put a sexual spin on anything to do with Jo. For someone as smart as he was, he got a little stupid talking to me.

I quickly texted back even though I should ignore him.

Me:Thought you didn’t like her like that, you suave charmer you. But it’s more likely you’ll be the one spanked, let’s be honest. Something tells me you’d be into that. *winky face emoji*

I sent the text and waited for his squeal of horror. It came just as Jo started to talk again, but unlike me, she easily ignored him like he didn’t even exist. And maybe to her, he didn’t.

“Fortunately for you, Hunter, I’m good at what I do. But unfortunately for us, it doesn’t matter how good I am when you’re up against a witch who’s spent her entire life on the run. Every possible entrance is protected by a thick blood barrier. Unless she’s shared blood with you, there’s no way in."Shared blood? Gross."I could get in, but that’d still leave the rest of you to figure it out. My way isn’t something you guys can do. If you’d prefer, I can do a little recon and see what we’re up against while you three figure out another way into the cave.”

Interesting. Did her shadow form give her access to places and spaces no one else could reach? That was super fucking cool. The mayhem I could cause with an ability like that…

I hadn’t shared the secret of her abilities with anyone. Something told me she didn’t want me to. I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask her about it, but her statement about how we shouldn’t disclose our abilities to anyone because it could get us killed stayed with me.

She’d let me see her that way. I didn’t know what that meant, but based on what I knew about Jo, it was a big deal she had. It felt wrong to share something about her with anyone else. It wasn’t even clear what shecoulddo. I didn’t want to lose her trust.

So, I kept her shadow form to myself. And from the way she looked at me since last week, she knew I had. The little smiles were different. It would be impossible to explain how I knew, but it felt like she appreciated that I hadn’t told anyone.

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