Page 9 of V for Vengeance

Grams hadn’t prepared me for this. To be fair, it’d be cringe central if she had. So, I was on my own tonight. I’d have to figure out how to deal with it. Past experiences would suggest I wouldn’t. Deal with it, that is. Phillip and Sloan still got to me, so a vixen of the night with a killer kiss would be death by seduction—and maybe the end of a very short reign.

Whispering, Jo’s mouth teased the shell of my ear. “Over there, nine o’clock.”

The lethal Fae’s eyes were on me as I scanned the crowd and found my way to where she’d instructed me to look. I noticed one of the brothers and then his twin shortly after, only feet away from him.

Their bulky arms were locked over their chests, butt-chins lifted, surrounded by women ready to fight to the death to claim their next word or look. The pair of redheads looked like seriously buffed-up versions of the Weasley twins fromHarry Potter, and the jokes wrote themselves.

Thanks to Kate who, yet again, forced me to watch every movie she loved whenever she was given the chance to torture me, I had a wealth of knowledge when it came to the cinematic adventures of an abused and neglected boy turned hero.

I toyed with whether or not to utter some of my clever jokes out loud, but I wasn’t confident Jo, the deadly little thing she was, would understand the pop culture references. I didn’t want to explain my own hilarious genius, not when I could barely piece two coherent sentences together after our world-altering kiss. So, I wallowed in my own cleverness alone.

Sighing, I finally looked at the woman who’d already made my night ten times harder than it needed to be. Unfortunately, my thirsty gaze couldn’t help but drop to her mouth quickly after. Temptation twisted my insides. Now that I knew what that mouth of hers could do to me, I had a harder time keeping my eyes off it.

Fuck my life.

“The Asshat Twins don’t seem bothered by anything. Guess we’ve gone under the radar so far despite what that other guy said.”

Her smile was doused in nefarious intentions. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t bet money on that whiny Dark Fae fucking everything up in the first five minutes. Guess Sloan is a better babysitter than I thought he was.”

As if summoning the man with her words, I caught sight of Sloan’s gorgeous figure navigating the crowd with professional ease. His startling blue eyes caught mine for a half-second before he moved on, probably to rendezvous with Phillip.

As if summoned by the thought, the Devil himself called out over the ear piece. The Austrian, who didn’t bother to mask his pride—like, at all—had tailed Fredrick to an isolated back room, and once we were finished, we’d meet there and get the bastard bound and at our mercy.

So much rode on this interrogation, we couldn’t fuck it up, or we’d lose our only chance at finding the rest of Lux’s boyband. We’d be no better than amateur Hunters if we couldn’t, at the very least,persuadeFredrick to surrender what information he knew, be it by torture or seduction.

His words, not mine.

Phillip hadn’t lost his flair for the dramatic, and it made Jo eyeroll in exasperation. I’d honestly pay good money to see him seduce some Blood Mage tied down to a chair. Nearly suggested that he give it a go, you know, for training purposes. I mean, I was still learning how to do proper villain interrogation methods. It wouldn’t seem out of place to ask for a simple demonstration, would it?

Might be worth the punishment sure to follow if I ask him blatantly in front of everyone…

I bit my lip to keep from smiling before a flash of platinum-blonde hair stole my attention. Cash was all hips and sway as he pushed between us, cat eyes glowing purple and a deadly grin morphing his usually bored or obstinate expression. In slow motion, the Dark Fae dipped his head down, coming obscenely close to my face, before he grabbed my hand with his.

“Careful, little bird. You’ll get caught in a black widow’s web if you wander too long in the dark,” was all he muttered before his lips touched mine in a deliberately teasing way.

Why the hell is everyone kissing me tonight? Are my Siren pheromones wreaking havoc or something?

Jo smirked from behind the Fae, doing nothing. She didn’t need to and she knew it. My dagger was already at his throat before he could sneak his tongue in.

“The only person I’m wary of right now is you, asshole. Be glad you’re not my target tonight and you have use. Otherwise, I’d slit your throat right here and watch you bleed out on this floor for everyone to see.”

The femme fatale’s laughing eyes met mine, clearly approving of my methods.

The notch in Cash’s throat bobbed, and his hands were already up in surrender. “Can’t blame a bloke for trying, yeah?”

“She can, and she will,” Jo cut in sharply, probably aiming her own dagger at him by the way he grew impossibly rigid.

But he didn’t move away like I expected him to. His eyes danced with things left unspoken. “I’m not the man they say I am. Not anymore. You have to know that by now. We’re only here because I’m determined to prove myself to you.”

“That’s not really an honorable thing, you realize?” I clapped back, dropping my dagger slowly.

The look he gave me struck somewhere deep and meaningful. I couldn’t put my finger on it or figure out why it made me want to listen to whatever he wanted to say, but I let him off for the kiss.If I were honest, his lips were sinfully soft like Jo’s had been, and even though quick and outright wrong, his kiss triggered something inside of me.

Yeah, because you have issues…

With one last fleeting glance, Cash fled in the same direction as Sloan. I wasn’t sure why he’d been left alone or why he felt the need to beg that I see him for more than what others said he was, but we had things to do and I didn’t have time to worry about it.

Glancing the direction of the twins, I was relieved to find that nothing had changed. They were still surrounded by women and unaware that the rest of their coven was being picked off one by one.

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