Page 16

Chapter 16

Her Boogeyman Bodyguard

Cassius

B lasted demon mistress!

Rubbing my poor innocent ear, I eyed the she-demon at the other corner of the room. The Fae fiddled with a dagger while gracelessly perched on the dining room table like it was her personal chair.

What a barbarian.

How she blended in with normal society was anyone’s guess. Don’t get me started on her abhorrent fashion sense. Even should I be inspired to lend a helping hand, I wouldn’t know where to start. Not that that savage would ever let me.

She’d lost interest in tormenting me— thank the gods —but something about the Mistress of Evil was different after she emerged from V’s room. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but my gut told me something had changed.

And my gut was never wrong.

The way the she-demon watched the other two in the room argue with each other was too…personally invested in the outcome. Territorial, even. It wasn’t bored interest, either. Tormenting me at every opportunity, for instance, was simply a game an evil woman like her played to pass the time. But the way she watched V and inserted herself into every situation wasn’t out of boredom or curiosity. It was calculating, intentional, done to achieve a goal, and I’d discover what that goal was even if it killed me to do it.

The rest of these cotton-head twits might view Jo—or whatever the she-demon’s name was—as an ally, but I’d seen enough enemies disguised as allies to know she was dangerous. And anyone who went after V was an enemy to me. No one else mattered. V was the only reason I stayed, and wherever she went, I went, too.

I’d gone out of my way to make myself useful to the Hunter after she helped me recover the amulet that had locked away most of my power. Our magical contract was satisfied, and I wanted her to know she was no longer bound to it. I’d gotten what I wanted.

Not even that brute, Phillip, was aware that nearly all of my magic was sealed away by a witch centuries ago; that at one time, Eros wasn’t the strongest Dark Fae on this plane. To that pierced and sadistic asshole of a Hunter, I was the coward who ran at the first sign of danger. To my kind, I was the bleeding Boogeyman.

But that was another life.

This life, I would protect the people who mattered, not sacrifice them for greater power. I might not deserve redemption, but after meeting the spirited redhead, I finally had someone to fight for. Someone I wanted to protect with these marked hands of mine.

I’d be the first to admit I was wrong about her. When I found out what she was, I panicked. I was so sure she’d be the one to destroy us all. But after spending time with V, it was glaringly obvious she was the only one who could save us.

Save me.

Despite everything she was, she didn’t let it define her. As someone who was given little to no choice but to survive and mark themselves as a villain, I knew how truly impossible it was not to become the thing the rest of the world believed you were. But the Hunter did it somehow.

Somehow, V chose her own path.

She was the first person who, despite so many reasons to shun and hate me, treated me like a person. Like someone who deserved a chance to change. While I hadn’t been personally responsible for her parents’ deaths, she could’ve blamed me. Gods knew I would’ve. But she didn’t in the end, not really. Not the way she should.

Perhaps that was what intrigued me about the Hunter who was unlike any other I’d met. Perhaps that was the reason I was drawn to the Organization’s most coveted weapon. But whatever the reason, I looked at her differently after she treated me like anyone else. Like I deserved a fair chance to prove I wasn’t the villain they claimed I was.

I couldn’t help wanting to be around her.

She’d probably never know how much she saved me by treating me like everyone else. Granted, I didn’t give her much choice in the beginning. But in the weeks we’d spent traveling together, she dropped her guard. She regarded me as one of them, and I didn’t realize how much I’d yearned for someone to see me. How lonely I’d become. How her kindness had given me a reason to try again with relationships.

Well, with her.

I’d grown comfortable alone. It didn’t bother me until I met her. It never felt so…empty to be who I was, but something about the feisty bird changed me. Made me pine for things I’d never missed. Made me want to do better, be better. Gods help me, but I wanted to be someone worthy of her trust. It didn’t make any bloody sense, but like I said, my gut was never wrong.

So, I’d become a man she could rely on. Even if it went against every instinct I’d developed over the years as a self-serving informant. Because, before V, I only cared about surviving. Before V, I didn’t get involved with anyone if I could help it.

Before V, I trusted no one.

It wasn’t clear when I’d become so enchanted by her stubborn persistence, or really even how it happened. She was a monster created to destroy and follow orders, but she actively rebelled and chose her own fate. It made me realize that I’d spent my life making excuses for terrible behavior.

And I wanted to change.

It’d been centuries since I had the urge to protect someone. Centuries since I believed in anything greater than myself. An eternity it felt like since I put my faith in someone else. It was time for the Boogeyman to come out of the shadows and shed his darkness. No matter the outcome, I’d be by V’s side to the bitter end.

Unlike in the past, I was confident this time would be different. My darling wouldn’t betray me like others had. I’d seen what lengths she’d go to for the people she cared about, so I’d make it my goal to become one of them. I’d become someone she held dear.

This time, it would be different.

Centuries ago, I made a grave mistake. I fell in love, like a fucking twit. For a witch, no less. It should’ve alarmed me how fast I fell, but instead I drooled and wagged my tail like a good bloody dog for her.

Harmony used a powerful amulet and spell to subjugate me as one of her treats. Later, I learned it was her ability to bewitch her victims and conquests. Whether spell or pheromones, I couldn’t say, but I was prepared for the possibility of both. That disgusting slag was the entire reason I went to such great lengths to make sure no one ever seduced me with pheromones or magic again.

She never thought I’d escape with my magic depleted to a third of what it once was. She never believed I’d find my freedom. But she wasn’t as clever as she thought.

No one ever was.

The amulet containing my power was left in the protection of Fredrick and his Blood Mages, and until I was out from under her and Eros’s nose, I wasn’t able to recover it. With my power diminished, I wouldn’t stand a chance. It was a perfect coincidence that she was the next target for these Hunters.

Harmony was a powerful witch, but I knew all her tricks. I wouldn’t make the same mistakes I made when I first met her. This time, I’d subdue her magic and render her defenseless. This time, I’d make her pay for every year she stole from me.

It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that Fredrick and his Blood Mages were on Lux’s payroll, but it was ironic that V and her obnoxious Hunter crew were after them. Or perhaps it was fate. Whatever the case, I couldn’t risk losing my only chance to finally have my power back, so I blackmailed V into helping me.

Unlike all the times before, it felt wrong to force her hand. It wasn’t like me to regret something I did to survive, but the horrid venom the bird spat and the deadly ice she glared cut so deep I spent several days with weight in my stomach, desperate to make her smile again. Desperate to prove I wasn’t the villain in her story. But how could I prove it when everything I did was evidence to the contrary?

So, I vowed to kill the witch for her. I’d serve that old minger on a silver platter to the devastating beauty who taught me how to hope again. I’d show V, and her alone, how powerful an ally I was.

I’d be her Boogeyman bodyguard.

I’d waited all this time to make sure Harmony got what she deserved. I just never thought it’d be with the first person in a long time I’d chosen to protect of my own volition.

Regardless, I’d show them all that Cassius was a name everyone should fear. Until then, I’d keep my hand close to my chest. Mustn’t let those prats lording over her know just how little control they had over me now that I’d unlocked my magic. They could thank my sweet darling. Because of her, I was a new man.

“You can’t trust him, V. He’ll do something again.”

The little Hunter rolled her eyes the minute Phillip complained about the two of us going anywhere alone where he wasn’t permitted to join, and my hand was on my hip before I realized it.

Who does this prat think he is? Her keeper?

“I think you forget who I am and what I can do, Phil. Besides, Cash has been here this entire time when he could’ve left. You might not like it, but he’s one of us.”

My lips lifted, smug. I didn’t like the way Phillip talked to my darling like she was some bird he kept in a gilded cage, but she never let him get away with it.

The brute’s eyes jerked over to me, ignited by rage but unable to express it. Go figure. Even he couldn’t help but turn into a pussy-footing git around her. Normally, I’d be held captive by one of his horrible contraptions—forced into submission by whatever evilness he contrived with a sadistic and obnoxiously clever mind—but around V, he hesitated. Around V, he was a well-trained and submissive dog.

“Don’t go too far, and ring me if you have any trouble.” His eyes stayed on me while he dished out instructions to her. “ Any trouble. ”

Without waiting for a response, the savage leaned in and dragged her against him like she was about to walk straight into the wolf’s den. Well, the Boogeyman’s in this case. His arrogant ice-blue gaze tracked back over to me before he looked down at her, smiling.

Gross.

Did he not see what an utter twit he became around her? Did he have no pride at all? Not that I had much room to talk, but I’d never pretended otherwise. I never acted like the biggest brute in the room. And loathe as I was to admit it, he was a dangerous assassin who’d put the fear of death into every creature he crossed. But around her, he was a shameless and besotted nincompoop. Dare I mention that it was quite literally sickening how often he put his hands on V like she was his possession.

Barbarians, every single one of them.

Phillip kissed her so long and so explicitly I found my eyes straying, unable to stomach the sight. Even the she-demon let loose a sigh of resignation, clearly agitated by yet another display of unnecessary affection. I rarely agreed with Her Evilness, but in this case, my sentiments exactly.

My skin crawled whenever one of these brutes publicly claimed V’s lips like she was theirs and no one else’s. I noticed it was happening more and more lately. Their obvious obsession with her was like a vice grip on my throat every bloody time. I found myself wishing it was my lips dragging soft gasps from her throat; that it was my mouth she craved. That it was me who she wanted when she could have quite literally anyone else.

I’d kissed her once. I shouldn’t have. It didn’t coax the reaction I wanted, but it was as if I was possessed. I thought about that brief, stolen kiss every time I caught sight of her, and I worried one day I’d steal another. One day, the previous me who took what he wanted might resurface and steal what wasn’t freely given. And then I’d lose her.

Bloody hell…

I retrieved my mobile out of my pocket and pretended to be bored. Hip out, I flipped my always-perfect hair back and ignored a racing pulse that gave all my secrets away. My heart hit with a little more insistence inside my chest, unfortunately aware of their heated kiss and banter-heavy exchange when all I wanted to do was leave and pretend she wasn’t attached to men who didn’t deserve her.

That, instead, it was me she wanted.

I tapped on the text screen I shared with the red-haired beauty currently having her soul sucked out through her mouth. Then I quickly typed my usually on-point commentary about the brutish demon who didn’t deserve her—whose entire agenda was to ruin my life. And of course, I added the usual assortment of emojis because they made her smile and giggle in a way that got my blood pumping.

She’d tried to hide it— naturally —but my experience as a spy meant I caught every emotion she tried and failed to conceal. She wasn’t as accomplished with disguising her reactions as the other Hunters. Thank the gods for that because it was the only reward I received in the company of so many barbarians.

I turned my head just in time to watch V push Phillip off her. Her spiteful glare said it all. She wasn’t amused by his possessive nature. She thought he was being a child. He wasn’t winning her over with his tantrums, and I couldn’t be prouder of my darling. She saw right through his distasteful playboy tactics. Only she ever could.

I didn’t manage to hide my grin as she tossed the barbarian another scathing look before stomping over to me. Snatching my arm, she headed to the front of the house, grumbling under her breath about assholes. It wasn’t the smile I’d yearned for, but it was just as satisfying.

I grinned in victory as I was manhandled all the way out the door. When I cleared my throat, trying not to laugh, she stiffened and released my arm.

“Sorry. Where is it you wanted to go? You mentioned something about our contract and said there’s something I needed to know about Harmony? Since you’re the only one willing to tell me anything right now without patronizing the shit out of me, you’ve got my attention.”

Grinning at my darling, I eyed the sinking sun off in the distance. “Cheers. Let’s go somewhere we won’t be followed by that brute inside. Do you trust me, or do you need his permission for that, too?”

I nearly missed the smile creeping across her lips before she ditched it for a glare. “Shut up. Even if I didn’t, you can’t do anything to me I won’t find my way out of.”

Saucy bird.

I noticed she didn’t outright deny trusting me, though. She walked around it like the clever little thing she was, but her words suggested that, at least to some degree, she did. Maybe not as much as I’d like, but it was a step in the right direction.

“Fair enough, love. Unlike that overprotective barbarian inside, I’ve learned my lesson after the first time I crossed you. I won’t be idiotic enough to do it again. Trust at least that much.”

Her smile hit like the first rays of sunlight after a long, dark night. “Guess you’re not totally hopeless then, Cash.”

“I should think not,” I complained without feeling.

Watching her giggle to herself, I smirked because it was all I could do to keep from leaning in and kissing her sweet mouth. Instead, I grabbed her hand and snapped my fingers not presently tangled with a goddess. Magic swirled around us in a dizzying dance, taking us somewhere we could be alone.

Finally.