Page 31 of V for Vengeance

Chapter 16

Her Boogeyman Bodyguard

Cassius

Blasted demon mistress!

Rubbing my poor innocent ear, I eyed the she-demon at the other corner of the room. The Fae fiddled with a dagger while gracelessly perched on the dining room table like it was her personal chair.

What a barbarian.

How she blended in with normal society was anyone’s guess. Don’t get me started on her abhorrent fashion sense. Even should I be inspired to lend a helping hand, I wouldn’t know where to start. Not that that savage would ever let me.

She’d lost interest in tormenting me—thank the gods—but something about the Mistress of Evil was different after she emerged from V’s room. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but my gut told me something had changed.

And my gut wasneverwrong.

The way the she-demon watched the other two in the room argue with each other was too…personally invested in the outcome. Territorial, even. It wasn’t bored interest, either.Tormenting me at every opportunity, for instance, was simply a game an evil woman like her played to pass the time. But the way she watched V and inserted herself into every situation wasn’t out of boredom or curiosity. It was calculating, intentional, done to achieve a goal, and I’d discover what that goal was even if it killed me to do it.

The rest of these cotton-head twits might view Jo—or whatever the she-demon’s name was—as an ally, but I’d seen enough enemies disguised as allies to know she was dangerous. And anyone who went after V was an enemy to me. No one else mattered. V was the only reason I stayed, and wherever she went, I went, too.

I’d gone out of my way to make myself useful to the Hunter after she helped me recover the amulet that had locked away most of my power. Our magical contract was satisfied, and I wanted her to know she was no longer bound to it. I’d gotten what I wanted.

Not even that brute, Phillip, was aware that nearly all of my magic was sealed away by a witch centuries ago; that at one time, Eros wasn’t the strongest Dark Fae on this plane. To that pierced and sadistic asshole of a Hunter, I was the coward who ran at the first sign of danger. To my kind, I was the bleeding Boogeyman.

But that was another life.

This life, I would protect the people who mattered, not sacrifice them for greater power. I might not deserve redemption, but after meeting the spirited redhead, I finally had someone to fight for. Someone I wanted to protect with these marked hands of mine.

I’d be the first to admit I was wrong about her. When I found out what she was, I panicked. I was so sure she’d be the one to destroy us all. But after spending time with V, it was glaringly obvious she was the only one who could save us.

Save me.

Despite everything she was, she didn’t let it define her. As someone who was given little to no choice but to survive and mark themselves as a villain, I knew how truly impossible it was not to become the thing the rest of the world believed you were. But the Hunter did it somehow.

Somehow, V chose her own path.

She was the first person who, despite so many reasons to shun and hate me, treated me like a person. Like someone who deserved a chance to change. While I hadn’t been personally responsible for her parents’ deaths, she could’ve blamed me. Gods knew I would’ve. But she didn’t in the end, not really. Not the way she should.

Perhaps that was what intrigued me about the Hunter who was unlike any other I’d met. Perhaps that was the reason I was drawn to the Organization’s most coveted weapon. But whatever the reason, I looked at her differently after she treated me like anyone else. Like I deserved a fair chance to prove I wasn’t the villain they claimed I was.

I couldn’t help wanting to be around her.

She’d probably never know how much she saved me by treating me like everyone else. Granted, I didn’t give her much choice in the beginning. But in the weeks we’d spent traveling together, she dropped her guard. She regarded me as one of them, and I didn’t realize how much I’d yearned for someone to see me. How lonely I’d become. How her kindness had given me a reason to try again with relationships.

Well, with her.

I’d grown comfortable alone. It didn’t bother me until I met her. It never felt so…empty to be who I was, but something about the feisty bird changed me. Made me pine for things I’d never missed. Made me want to do better, be better. Gods help me, but I wanted to be someone worthy of her trust. It didn’t make any bloody sense, but like I said, my gut was never wrong.

So, I’d become a man she could rely on. Even if it went against every instinct I’d developed over the years as a self-serving informant. Because, before V, I only cared about surviving. Before V, I didn’t get involved with anyone if I could help it.

Before V, I trusted no one.

It wasn’t clear when I’d become so enchanted by her stubborn persistence, or really even how it happened. She was a monster created to destroy and follow orders, but she actively rebelled and chose her own fate. It made me realize that I’d spent my life making excuses for terrible behavior.

And I wanted to change.

It’d been centuries since I had the urge to protect someone. Centuries since I believed in anything greater than myself. An eternity it felt like since I put my faith in someone else. It was time for the Boogeyman to come out of the shadows and shed his darkness. No matter the outcome, I’d be by V’s side to the bitter end.

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