Page 41 of V for Vengeance

Blinking, my body reacted, and every single cloaked figure caught fire. They burned to ash except the woman at the very center. It wasn’t even seconds later that Cash had us wrapped inside a magical barrier, his arms wrapped around me and my face comically pressed into his naked torso.

No, really. I probably looked like a goof with my lips puckered and smooshed into his glittery muscles. I was a goddamn Hunter. I shouldn’t be smooshed against some obnoxiously pretty dude’s chest. I should be the one doing the smooshing. Okay, maybe not smooshing, but definitely protecting my own damn self.

Fuck this night, seriously.

Phillip was going to kill me, but all I could think about was the scent hitting my nose. Why the hell did this asshole smell so good all the damn time? Is that Dior? Yeah, so I had no idea what Dior smelled like, but it sounded like a brand he’d wear. Something expensive. Ironic as that was when he looked like he couldn’t afford a shirt and his pants had been attacked by a werewolf.

I’ll never understand fashion.

My body moved and acted like normal, but my thoughts had a harder time playing catch-up. They were stuck on how firmbut soft Cash was; how the gorgeous Dark Fae was deceivingly muscular but the softest fucking thing I’d ever touched next to Jo. Worse, the delicious scent of his cologne stayed with me the entire time he protected us from whatever attack the gorgeous Chaos Fae sent our way.

When Cash released me, cursing under his breath, I took a second to peer at the space. Everyone in the room had dropped to the ground, and when they finally rose to their feet, the feeling they put out was different. Off. Haunted. Like they were monsters straight out of a horror movie.

“Bugger it all,” Cash growled in a voice I wasn’t used to hearing on him. His purple eyes cut over to the woman near us. “Get her powers disabled, V.” How did he know I could do that? I never told him I could disable abilities. “It’s all you can do right now. The she-devil and I will deal with the rest.”

I didn’t have time to ask questions. I’d pick his brain about how he knew about my powers after we got out of this alive. That, and the fact that Jo had a name and it wasn’t she-devil. Not that I thought he’d ever change the way he referred to her.

Cash’s hands moved, and the uncountable number of bodies running at us were blasted and thrown directly into the people behind them. Jo was already slicing out her whip at the ones near me and lash-dropping several at a time. My arms and legs moved of their own accord, slashing and kicking at anyone who tried to make a grab for me. After a minute, the Blue Magic wore off, and my head started to function normally.

It's time to fucking end this.

Pivoting, sensation took hold of my stomach, slowing time again. The world shuddered to a halt. I navigated the snarling, hungry-for-our-deaths crowd and carefully stepped over the carnage my two companions made in the seconds it took for me to act.

I refused to acknowledge that every person in here was as good as dead now that our enemy had gotten to them, or that so many innocent lives would pay for my momentary lapse in judgment. The pull on my gut told me that I didn’t have time to waste. If I didn’t get our enemy this time, it was over. I wouldn’t get a third try, and the number of deaths that came after that sort of failure were countless.

I eyed the woman Jo warned me about. The smirk hanging on her lips was frozen alongside the rest of the room. I’d never been so relieved to find that my power worked on someone. I didn’t know what it’d do to another Chaos Fae. My abilities could be moot against her. At least this time, luck was on my side.

The light caught the shimmer of her skin. Scales. Fucking scales. What the hell? Jo said she had Siren skin, but it hadn’t looked like scales the last time. Not when I turned one to gravel in frozen time. Of course, I wasn’t paying very close attention because I’d been blindsided by the fact that my enemy had somehow followed me into a time-stall.

Walking closer, I stayed vigilant.

If I knew anything since starting this so-called rebellion and discovery phase of my life, it was that nothing was ever as it seemed. A Hunter shouldn’t get comfortable, so I wouldn’t. There was still so little I actually knew about the world I lived in, and I’d be damned if I got caught because I decided to ignore my instincts.

The gorgeous woman didn’t move, not even her eyes. Instead, she stayed quietly watching where I used to be. Nothing about her expression seemed worried. If anything, she looked confident she’d win, and I needed to know why.

It was odd that someone so beautiful was so lethal. Her blonde hair was nearly as white as Cash’s, save the lavender strips he put in his, but she’d pulled it up into a tight ponytail so that waves of it cascaded over one shoulder. Her silver sequins dresscaught a stream of light from the ceiling, shining at an angle. Her eyes were entirely blood-red—the color of evil I was starting to note—and everything about her was both enchanting and a goddamn warning. It all felt a little tooTwilightfor my tastes, but I’d complain about Kate’s crazy obsession over Edward another day.

This was the test I’d been waiting for. Everything around me had already started to slowly move. I didn’t have time to figure things out. It was do or die time.

My head was woozy—a glaring sign that I’d expelled too much power by reacting instead of controlling. Jo taught me how to minimize usage, but I’d fucked it all up thanks to fear and a little drink a gorgeous asshole gave me. Now, it’d be on me to get things done the way I’d been taught without making any more mistakes.

There was no room for error.

Focusing on the frozen woman, I found the right feeling inside of my core and employed the disabling ability. Before it could hit her body, the world shuddered, and everyone around me started to move before they slowed to a stop again. The Ancient Fae wasn’t in front of me anymore. She’d moved to the side, and it wasn’t clear if I hit her or not.

Then she fucking blinked.

“Oh, what an interesting power you have.”

I didn’t realize I was caught until the cool blade of her dagger was against my throat. I went to fight back, but her lime-green magic was already wrapped around my limbs, holding me hostage. All it took was one sweeping glance to know I wasn’t in the underground club anymore. I didn’t see a room full of snarling monsters. Jo and Cash were nowhere in sight. All I saw in every direction was stone.

Cave? Underground tunnel? Where the fuck was I?

“Killing you would be a real pity. Sadly, I can’t control you any other way. Lucky for you, I’m not ready to use your powers just yet. So, for now, you’ll be my pretty wall decoration. What a treat, right? Be a good little girl and stay there.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, I was thrown back, pinned to the wall, and secured by a thick layer of magic. I couldn’t even turn my head. Couldn’t move at all, really. The only ability I had was to look without moving and listen to what I couldn’t see.

Someone was crying off in the distance, but my gaze stayed fixed ahead of me. On fucking rock. For minutes, the crying droned on. It ebbed and flowed like they were being tortured. Whoever it was, they were in pain. But suddenly, everything went quiet. My pulse was in my ears. The silence was scarier than the crying, and when my captor crossed my path, I noticed she was followed by yet another cloaked figure.

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