Page 13 of Villains and Vengeance
‘Itisthe best,’ Jayce grinds out, ‘but even it has its limits. She’s literally pissed all over the place. She’s hidden herself by scenting EVERYWHERE. Why don’t you use those famous ears of yours to track her down?’
‘I would if you stopped making so much fucking noise!’ Axel hisses.
They stop. They’re so close now and they don’t even know it. I’m only about ten feet away.
‘Bet you think you’re smart, don’t you, Victoria,’ Jayce yells suddenly.
Axel curses. ‘Shut the fuck up!’
I startle and feel Siggy at my back. I shake my head at her. I don’t want her to go out there. They aren’t the typical run of the mill supes who venture too close to her webs and get caught. I know these guys at least a little and they’re tenacious as hell. If she pisses them off, they’ll probably hold a grudge against her too and start invading her domain to catch her. If they do that, they’ll figure out where I’m hiding … or maybe she’d kill them all. That would solve some of my problems, but it leaves a nasty taste in my mouth and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because Ididget to know them and all the supes Siggy gets because of me are strangers.
‘So how many arania are in these tunnels, do you think?’ Jayce continues in a normal voice like he didn’t just scream at the top of his lungs in anger.
‘No one here seems to know, but they call this Arania Alley,’ Axel says, raising the light and peering into the tunnel I’m hiding in.
I move back.
‘I heard a noise,’ Axel mutters and Jayce steps closer.
I wince.
‘Don’t go on the web,’ Axel says, pulling him back a little.
‘I wasn’t!’ Jayce mutters, scowling. ‘I’m not stupid.’
But he’s dancing his feet along the edge. One wrong move at one of these other tunnels and he’d be breakfast in a millisecond.
Axel scoffs. ‘Debatable.’
‘You’re gonna bring this up again?’ he demands, turning around and embedding his feet in Siggy’s web. ‘It’s been two fucking years!’
I stay in front of her, hoping she won’t be tempted.
‘You were the one who opened the safe in front of her to show her those fucking diamonds of Maddox’s.’
‘And that’s all I’ve heard from you assholes for two years. Let it go already. How was I supposed to know she’d remember a combination like that after seeing it one time? Daemon did more than I did! Besides, it was herjobto make us trust her. Got to admit she was very good at it. She knew all the right things to say, didn’t she?’
Axel nods. ‘Yeah, she did.’
I frown in the darkness. They don’t just sound angry about what I did. They seemsad. I turn away. Not my business.
Siggy leaves thankfully, moving back down her tunnel away from me and incubi outside, clearly bored.
I hear them part ways, Jayce going back the way they came and Axel continuing down the corridor. I frown. Why are they splitting up? They only just got here and don’t even know these tunnels properly.
Before I know it, I’m slipping out into the main passage and following Axel at a distance without really knowing why. I should let him go it alone and meet his end down one of these dark shafts, but, for some reason, I just can’t.
I stay back, out of his light, darting past the other arania tunnels. The way curves around and he keeps going. All that’s down here are more arania nests. Even I don’t usually come this far. But I guess he doesn’t know that.
There’s a noise from up ahead and Axel’s pace slows. He demons up and I gasp. He grows about a foot and his muscles are huge. He turns a dark purple with swirling, light colored tattoos all over him. He’s bigger than Dante too, and I thought the demon king was pretty massive.
‘I can hear you,’ he calls into the tunnel and I freeze, sure he’s talking to me at first, but three orcs materialize out of the shadows.
Axel doesn’t move. Neither do they.
‘Hear you made a deal with Dante,’ one of them snarls.
‘Why do you care?’ Axel says, still not moving.
