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Chapter 1
Cosplaying Hotties
W ith my group of elite flanking both sides of me, dressed in our best Hunter attire—save Jo and Cash who fashioned their own unique brand of fighting clothes—the understandably confused hotel receptionist stared at us, wide-eyed. The little darling who couldn’t be any older than me, probably working her first big-time job, was stunned silent the second she locked eyes on us.
Her curious stare wandered to my right, where Phillip and Cash stood, giving the poor dear a heart attack because glamour magic didn’t work on his runes and Cash’s eyes were one of a kind and Phillip was…well, Phillip.
Then after drooling a little at the sight of the first two, her wandering gaze went to my other side where Jo and Sloan stood, both too beautiful for words and far from the norm. Honestly, one glance from the two of them sent women and men to their knees in worship.
The panicked woman—Rachel from what her nametag said—smacked her lips in wonderment before she hastily looked at her computer screen, failing to hide a blush already reaching her cheeks.
I feel you, Rachel. The scale of hot in this group is a lot for me, too.
“Um, here are your…room keys,” she murmured, sliding three keycards over the counter to me and eyeballing the group with fascination again. “If any of you need…” Her eyes danced from Phillip to Cash to Sloan, the poor thing short-circuiting. “I’m sorry, but are you here to film a movie or music video? Models?”
Oh lord.
I could almost hear Cash’s excitement. I didn’t need to look over at the asshole to know he was already preparing some ridiculous response. He brushed through his hair, bringing all that pretty-boy flair to his self-important pose. Phillip and Sloan both smirked, but Cash, as was his way, flipped his hair back and fluttered his pretty eyelashes at her.
Called it.
“Shhh!” He hushed the unsuspecting woman with a cute finger and wink, pretending he was a little girl telling secrets. “No one can know we’re here, love. You understand, yes?”
Her brown eyes went impossibly wide, a look I’d unfortunately seen more times than I cared to admit. Sort of went hand-in-hand with being the travel companion of a bunch of supernatural hotties.
Huffing contemptuously and wishing I could get to my room for a hot shower after nearly a week of traveling, I rolled my eyes. I was already exasperated, and we’d only just gotten to the location.
“Cosplay convention,” I told her, enjoying the horrified sound leaving Cash’s mouth, knowing it’d be the last thing the Dark Fae wished to be associated with.
As expected, Cash quickly mumbled angrily he would never be caught dead or alive at some sort of adult roleplay . His grumpy monologue only made me smile and the hotel receptionist all the more confused.
“The convention center is just a short walk from here, right?” I asked, beyond amused.
Rachel nodded, a little slow to react. “M’hm,” she murmured, catching sight of Sloan and biting her lip. “All of you are cosplayers?”
Sloan took the keys and tossed one to Phillip, the other to Jo, and then waggled his with a swoon-worthy smile. “Oh, aye, love. Haven’t missed a convention yet.”
Sloan’s cockney-slathered voice was an instant K.O. to the poor thing’s heart. Her pulse was so loud it echoed in my ears. Rachel went a deep red as the saucy Hunter’s hand hovered over my lower back. Tossing Rachel a wink, he led me away from the desk. I shook my head, expecting Phillip to lay on the suave charm and a little surprised to find Sloan doing it instead.
“I literally can’t take you guys anywhere,” I complained with a sideways glance at Sloan.
“More importantly,” Cash interrupted, “what are the sleeping arrangements? Please don’t tell me I have to subject myself once again to this devil’s bedtime noises.”
“Sounds naughty when you say it like that,” I taunted.
Cash balked like the fully transformed Karen he was. “Hardly. I’d rather eat glass than do anything remotely sexy with this wanker,” he ranted, thumbing at Phillip. “Now, who am I rooming with?”
“Me,” Phillip said to the group’s surprise. “Sloan and V will take one room, and Jo can stay in the single.”
As we loaded onto the elevator, drawing the eyes of every person within viewing distance, I stared openly at Phillip. “You want me to room with Sloan?”
The tattooed bad boy shrugged his massive shoulders and crossed his arms, stealing a look at the man in question who seemed just as surprised as I was to hear it. “I don’t trust Cash not to slip away in the dead of night, and Sloan lets this little bitch off with too much as it is.”
Despite what he said, something was in his eyes, in the way his body moved and the tone of his voice, that made me wonder if there was an underlining meaning to his words.
The quiet moment between Phillip and I was quickly interrupted by noises leaving Cash’s mouth, which could only be compared to the insulted gasps of some chick on The Real Housewives . I was forever entertained by them. “Did you really just call me a little bitch? What a bloody Neanderthal. Oh, sure, let’s all gang up on Cash. I don’t know why I bother. I should’ve left you lot to figure out the Seven by yourselves.”
Jo was smirking, which was never a good sign when it came to Cash. A dagger danced between her fingers, worrying a few of the tag-along humans taking the elevator with us. “Why didn’t you leave, then? I, for one, wouldn’t miss your incessant whining.”
The Dark Fae edged closer to me, hiding his body behind mine, which was ridiculous all on its own. He was over six foot four or five. With Jo’s aim, there was nowhere he could hide in here. Or anywhere in the world, if we were being honest.
“I’m here for V.”
Scoffing, I flicked my stare up to the number dinging our floor and took a step out with the rest of the group trailing me. “More like you’re after something you can’t get without me.”
Sloan and Phillip fell into pace with my steps, but Cash weaseled his way between me and Sloan before fitting his arm through mine. “I thought my affection for you was clear, or do I need to give you a ring, too?”
A slap rang out, stopping several people ahead of us in the corridor. Cash mumbled an ouchie before cradling the hand I’d punished. The two men beside me might not have shown how the comment got to them, but after being around both for long enough to pick up on their unique nuances, it was obvious it had.
Awkward night, here I come.
It’d been several weeks since the Austrian and I talked about our relationship. Weeks since I decided to let both relationships develop however they needed to. Stolen kisses and touches were the norm, but nothing remotely sexy enough to satisfy my cravings happened in the last month and a half.
It might be shameless for me to think it, but I couldn’t understand how I had two unbelievably hot Hunters proclaiming their affection for me and I hadn’t had sex with a single one since Phillip and our weird ring exchange. For a sex addict, it was impressive I’d lasted this long without luring one to my bed.
Some Royal Siren I was turning out to be.
Of course, we had other pressing matters that meant my weirdo love life was put on the back burner.
Grams and Kris worked together to find more of the Hunters on the list we’d stolen from the Organization’s archive. It was our hope they’d lead to more, and we could build our kickass Hunter army for the future takedown of the Organization. In the meantime, we were made busy with getting to where the elusive Four of Lux’s boyband, the Seven—better known as Fredrick the Blood Mage—was supposedly hiding out with his motley crew of villains.
So here we were, in L.A. of all places, about to infiltrate a nearby club where whispers of dark dealings suggested we’d find our guy. Rather, our guys. To be fair, Los Angeles was its own kind of hell, and it’d make sense a group of nefarious mages would make their home in it.
When Phillip got around to explaining the danger of Blood Mages, it made more sense that we’d need to be careful about whatever we did at this club. Blood magic was Fae magic on steroids. But it required ritual-based activation, thankfully. Chants, virgin sacrifice, calling forth the powers of evil or some shit, and dudes in hoods, probably. Unfortunately, it was a real bitch once that’d been achieved.
As a crew, their magic was kind of like separate pieces coming together to form a mega piece. The trick was to get them alone. Fredrick was formidable on his own, but even more so in his group of seven.
The number seven was apparently the number because every ritual or magic-based activity required it to reach maximum power. Seemed silly to me that a number would dictate someone’s power, but I was also created in a lab, and that’d seem pretty ridiculous to a lot of people.
After a little wind-down and freshen up, our first objective was to find and track the six Blood Mages who weren’t Fredrick. Cash had names and pictures he’d drawn with magic. I hated how impressed I was when he offered each picture to us, an arrogant smirk tilting his lips. I didn’t want to stroke his ego, but he’d done half the work for us, and it’d be easier to get right to tracking the six bastards with their faces and names in beautiful detail.
Jo, being the powerful thing she was, would find and track the two who were inseparable. Brothers, I think was what Cash mentioned to us. Then the other four in our group would track the remaining four.
On their own, these assholes didn’t stand a chance against us. They may be powerful, but we were trained Hunters with Phillip’s inventions at our disposal to smother their magic for a few seconds of vulnerability.
Especially now that I was better at using my own magic.
For the last several weeks, Jo helped me find my power center. When I giggled after her calling it that, she put a hand on my stomach and said, “Your core is where your power collects, so yeah…silly as it is, that’s your power center.” And I devolved into a giggling, blushing mess afterwards.
So far, I hadn’t been able to summon my power on command without issue, but Jo said it would get easier over time when I learned what triggered it and used that to activate my power preemptively. Meaning, I had to convince myself my loved ones were in danger, which was harder than it seemed.
After that, Jo promised to teach me how to sort through what I could and couldn’t do. What we knew so far was that I could stop time, summon hellfire, and deactivate someone’s abilities. Each power came at a cost to my body, so using them all at the same time would be impossible. It’d result in another three-day sleep. Or death, as Jo so sweetly added to my awesome list of things that could kill me before I got revenge. Jo cautioned me to be careful how long I used each ability, too. Controlling them was key to my success in a fight. It made sense. I’d fought enough evil villains to know no power was limitless.
Small miracles.
Tonight, I’d be putting my hard work into practice. If that failed, then my superior Hunter abilities and Phillip’s knick-knacks would save the day. A good Hunter always had a back-up plan, and this chick learned from the best. Grams always threw me a curveball when we trained.
We reached our rooms. Phillip glanced at me, the emotion in his light eyes intense, and time seemed to move slowly as his glacial gaze dragged from me to Sloan. Then his lips lifted into their signature grin before he pushed Cash to get the whiny bastard to move, and the two men entered their room.
I couldn’t be certain what went on in that diabolical brain of his, but something told me Phillip was doing what he could to honor the words he’d said to me—when he asked me to stay, if only a piece.
The image of his tattooed hands raking through his hair, his entire body slouched, and the palpable grief on his face were still tough to think about. But it’d gone better than I ever imagined it would. I half-expected him to get angry, throw something, break a wall, or maybe stomp off to have it out with the other Hunter, but he hadn’t. In his own way, my stubborn mentor took responsibility for the part he played in my heartbreak.
I didn’t blame him for it. Honestly, after falling for them both in different ways, I wondered if it was just who I was and what I needed right now. My future was in the balance, and I selfishly wanted to explore everything. It was still crazy-sauce my own grandmother encouraged me to embrace my ho-ho, but it was honestly the push I needed to love them both without guilt.
Still, it was new and uncomfortable. I’d only ever focused on my vampire training and hunting. Relationships and their complicated dynamics alluded me for nearly eighteen years before I was suddenly thrown into several. First Nigel, and now Phillip and Sloan. Even fiction wasn’t this chaotic.
Jo’s straying gaze caught mine, and her lips slanted into a knowing smile. My heart reacted the same way it did with Sloan and Phillip. Rubbing her lower lip with a finger, her dark eyes took an overt path down my body before her grin broadened. “Can’t wait to see what you wear tonight,” she whispered, voice dropping seductively. “Let me know if you need any help.”
I sucked in a breath as she winked then disappeared into her room. Goosebumps peppered my arms like a cold draft had blown through the corridor. Why did Jo’s words and looks always get to me? What the fuck was happening these days?
“You must be hungry,” Sloan murmured, and my shoulders stiffened in surprise. Dammit, I needed to work on my body’s reactions. It was always amateur hour with these sexy bastards. “Let’s get inside so you can shower, and I’ll order some room service.”