Page 14 of V for Vilified
Cash inserted himself into the conversation, taking the hand not currently hostage to Kate’s. “Love, we’ll need to travel carefully until I’ve secured a few things.”
“Meaning?” I asked and finally looked at him.
A rush of tingles skittered across my arm where he touched me.
Even after supposedly satisfying the Season, as he called it, the sensation and warmth hadn’t gone away. My body still craved him, and it took more effort than I wanted to admit not to kiss him whenever my eyes met his. The way he was looking at me, I wasn’t the only one suffering a momentary rush of urge.
My eyes caught on the glowing red rune on his neck. My rune. So weird.
Kate leaned forward to look at us both, quickly cutting through the rising tension. “Oh! With magic, you mean, Fairy Boy?”
“Yes,” I cut in before Cash could implode into his usual whining complaints over the unflattering nickname. “I mentioned the very powerful Fae after us.”
“Mistress Chaos? Oh yeah. She sounds super terrifying. If she’s some mystical beast from the past, I definitely wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of her.”
Cash scoffed next to me and pulled a multi-colored stone out of his Mary Poppin’s pouch. “Not next to me, human. Not when I’m protecting my mate—”
I cleared my throat with a glare, hoping Kate missed that last bit. “Yes, she’s determined to use me, and I’m going to play her game so I can nip a potential problem in the bud.”
“The Organization or…the other Fae who might want to kill you?”
I nodded. “Both.”
“Sheesh, V. Does everyone want to kill you?”
She had no idea…
Cash smirked, squeezing my hand. “On the contrary, human. Some of us want to kiss her—”
“Anyway! We’ll get what we need,” I interjected. It was Phillip in Kate’s house all over again. “I want to go in with some sort of leverage to negotiate.”
“And leverage we shall have,” Cash murmured. He grabbed hold of my waist and nodded for me to take hold of Kate. I did without hesitation before he snapped his fingers.
Kate was sitting next to me in what I could only describe as a bar for the supernatural. A seedy one. I didn’t need to be from this world to catch on that it wasn’t a place someone with good intentions went.
The air in the room was distinctly dangerous and there were several caught up in the Season the same way we had been. But my pale-haired companion didn’t seem bothered by any of it. Ironically, it was the most at home I’d seen him since meeting the Dark Fae.
Kate and I tried not to stare, but it was hard not to with all the moaning and wet sounds. Sex positivity only went so far, turned out, for my bestie. Her scowl was unbelievably cute and loud.
Cash had his arm around me, his neck bent to display the mark. My rune. If it weren’t Cash, I’d think it was an accident, but the smile he wore whenever he touched it was smug.
I’d noticed a purple one that matched the symbol on his forehead glowing on my neck after a short but much-needed trip to the bathroom—thank fuck they had those and normal human food or I’d riot. The sight of his rune only further cemented his claim.
Mates? Really? Me and him? Did I land myself in a fated mates’ trope or was I really just this unlucky? I thought for sure mates were something made up by pining women bent on an eternal love, not a fucking problem I’d have to deal with someday.
Nothing I’d read mentioned mates or the Season, but Sloan admitted that almost nothing was known about the Fae realm other than what they’d learned from the ones the Organization captured. Even then, the information couldn’t be confirmed. If I hadn’t experienced the Season for myself, I’d think it was a convenient excuse to fuck. Unfortunately for me, it was another problem I encountered in a day full of them.
The rest of the patrons not occupied kept their distance despite their gazes staying fixed to our trio. My friend had been ogling the odd makes and shapes the same way I had. The horns and wings, fangs and oversized irises of the Fae creatures in this place made it hard not to.
We were acting like total humans.
I recognized a few from the books Sloan forced me to study. Classifications of Fae that often aligned with the degenerate sort in our realm, or so the Organization claimed.
The number of them riddled with the same runes as what Cash used to sport in abundance suggested that information wasn’t totally wrong. Turned out, very few Fae avoided the mark of innocent death in this realm. Another reason I’d gotten the distinct impression we were among monsters with how many runes riddled their flesh.
Talk about walking crimes.
A few of the horned Fae with different variations of red skin humans had labeled as demons were congregating near the door, every set of pure black eyes with white slit pupils were settled on the man next to me decked out in all black. None of them saw me as a threat, only him.
