Page 20 of Villains and Vengeance
But it makes me consider. ‘Maybe I could use Siggy. I’ve heard arania venom is pretty potent when imbibed. Valuable in super circles too. I have no idea how I’d get it out of her fangs, but …food for thought.’
He looks at me like I’m nuts.
‘Seventy something days!’ I reiterate.
‘Why did you come here?’ he asks. ‘Ain’t exactly a vacation spot.’
‘Long con,’ I say, knowing he’ll buy that instantly and making his low opinionofme workforme.
But the way he looks at me makes me feel like he can see right through me. I don’t like it. The last thing I need is anyone knowing the truth, even here. Nowhere is really safe if my location is known. I wonder what his endgame is. I mean obviously it’s to get me to the others so they can give me to Dante. But how is he going to do that? Is all of this really worth whatever the King in the Mountain has promised them?
‘What’s your deal with him?’ I ask, sitting back down. ‘Dante, I mean. What is he giving you for me?’
‘Power. The clan is going to be here for a while. We don’t feel like spending it doing what we’re told.’
‘You know he won’t honor it, right?’
‘Probably not.’
I chuckle, shaking my head. ‘Of course. You don’t figure you’ll be in the Mountain all that long, right?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You think you can get me to show you how I got here, that you’ll be able to use it to escape.’
‘Yes.’
His candor surprises me. Is he trying to make me trust him? Not going to happen.
‘Well, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but there is no secret way in or out,’ I say, giving him a commiserating look. ‘We’re all stuck here.’
‘That just doesn’t hold water, Victoria … or whatever your name is. Why would you or anyone ever enter one of the most dangerous hellholes in all the realms, knowing you could never leave?’
‘Victoria is fine,’ I say. ‘It’s one of the names I use that I actually like.’
We stare at each other for a second. I need him to believe me. Guess I’ll have to give away something that’s actually true after all.
‘Because a half-life is better than no life at all,’ I say. ‘I— Someone wants me found. The Mountain isn’t a place where people getfound. It’s pretty perfect in that way.’
‘This is all because you pissed off the wrong supe?’ he asks incredulously.
I shrug and force a laugh. ‘You know me. I’m great at pissing off powerful supes.’
‘I don’t buy it.’
‘You don’t have to buy it. But it’s the truth.’
I get up.
‘You don’t have to be alone,’ he says.
This time my laugh is real.
‘You said it yourself. People like me don’t have friends.’
I leave the bunker, not looking back. He’s one-hundred percent trying to get me to let my guard down, and I’m not dumb enough to fall for his bullshit, but I sort of want to, even if it’s pretend. I am actually that pathetically lonely. I have been for a long time, well before I came here, I realize. The reality is that poor little Jules doesn’t have any real friends so she pretends the people she cons give a shit about her before she throws napalm on the relationship and bounces.
In fact, the only time I felt like I was wanted somewhere was in Maddox’s grand estate in Switzerland two years ago where I spent three weeks learning about them so that I could do my fake job of ‘finding them a mate’.
