Page 26

Chapter 26

Text Messages & Stakeouts

I wasn’t given time to unpack a crazy night where the two men I’d been dating decided to spontaneously do it together. Our enemies never took a break, so neither would we.

After Grams and Kris returned with more news about the Hunters we’d recruited to the uprising, it was our turn to go off on an adventure to secure our next mark, Harmony. Or as Cash preferred to call her, that old slag.

Pretty butterfly dude had given us a location to check, but as with anything, we wouldn’t take his information at face value. Recon was necessary. It could be a trap. Despite Cash reassuring us that the bro was too afraid to lie at this stage, Phillip and Jo seemed to find common ground and agree that our captive still couldn’t be trusted.

The journey to Canada was uneventful at best, aside from the usual bickering between the other three in my group. Which suited me just fine. Believe it or not, I’d rather my days be filled with the sounds of Cash’s high-pitched Karen war cry and Phillip’s sarcastic antagonization than to drown in the Organization’s bullshit assassination attempts. But I knew better than to think it'd be quiet for long. Being what I was meant I never got a damn day off.

Honestly, it was good I had something to focus on that wasn’t Cash’s crazy new powers and sex appeal, or Jo’s seductive stolen glances and unexplained shadow version. I’d gotten myself back into a messy situationship, and I didn’t have any idea how to fix it. Or where to even begin.

As much as I’d like to say that the sexcapades of Sloan and Phillip were enough to keep me away from distractions, that didn’t seem to be the case. I still thought about the way Jo’s kisses and fingers unlocked a secret part of me I didn’t know existed. Or how Cash being who and what he was had started to intrigue me in ways it shouldn’t.

The Dark Fae had gotten under my skin, and the numerous sex dreams where he wrapped my body in his black magic and had his way with me were starting to make me worry I might actually have a thing for him—more than simple intrigue or a bad boy fascination.

But as was my way, I stuffed it all down until I had time to deal with it. Right now, we still had several of Lux’s boyband left to kill. Not to mention whatever was presently waiting in the wings to get their hands on the weapon the Organization had unwittingly created.

Me.

I hadn’t called on the goth Tinkerbell’s favor yet. I would when we didn’t have Harmony to hunt down. I had a lot of training to do with my powers—made painfully clear by my mishaps with Serine—so I figured this would give us time to do that and get another name checked off our list.

“A cave? Really? That’s something straight out of a fantasy movie,” I complained.

I was crouched at the edge of a cliff, using my heightened vision to scan the hideout pretty butterfly dude’s coordinates led us to. One of Phillip’s inventions was on the ground, continuously checking for residual magic and temperature fluctuations in the surrounding area.

Since Harmony was a witch, she’d retain body heat. Upside to her not being a vampire. His knick-knack would find her if she was out of the cave, but so far, nothing. Unfortunately for us, it couldn’t penetrate rock, so we’d have to get inside to know more.

We’d already confirmed that it was likely the witch’s hideout. Magic was everywhere. Cash even claimed several times that he smelled her magic in the air. And any time he did, all I could see in my head was Cash walking around with his nose up like a dog, sniffing. Hilarious, but not helpful when we were trying to keep a low profile.

I still couldn’t pick out magic. I sensed it, sure, just not whose or what kind. Granted, it probably helped that Cash had personal history with the witch where the others and I didn’t. So, for the first time since our little group was forced to band together, Phillip listened to him and let the Dark Fae lead the way. Oh, definitely begrudgingly and verbally resentful but resolved to the fact that Cash had information we didn’t.

“What is it with these villains and their dark and dank hideaways? It’s such an overused trope, my dudes,” I glanced at Cash, and his Southern belle huff made me laugh into my hand. He hated when I made him out to be the only villain in our group. Maybe because he was trying so hard to prove he wasn’t one to me. But that only made me want to tease him more.

With another one of his front cover of Vanity Fair poses, Cash shrugged. “Not that I have anything to do with all that nonsense anymore, love, but why fix what’s not broken?”

“Fair enough.” I grinned.

It was hard not to stare at how perfect he looked in black leather pants. The man was absolutely insane to wear a tight and entirely unforgiving fabric to a fight, but it wouldn’t be Cash if he hadn’t. And I’d be lying if I said he didn’t look amazing. It was annoyingly distracting after everything that happened the week before.

Focus, V. Do your damn job.

Which was harder than it seemed when the gorgeous man-child always stood close enough to be a distraction. Even Phillip’s scathing glares didn’t put the shameless asshole off anymore. He’d hover at my side and send me texts complaining about my “overprotective boyfriend” and the “she-devil” any chance he got. One such text pinged shortly after he tried to touch me and was forced to dodge another dagger aimed at his arm.

Jo hadn’t lost her edge or punishing ways, but she did seem more engrossed in the Dark Fae these days. Not in a way that made my pining heart jealous, but in a way that set off the well-developed Hunter alarm I’d honed over the years when tracking my marks.

While the heat in her stare was already incinerating my flesh, the tension between us always seconds from combustion, the look she leveled on Cash was colder. Calculated. On edge and ready for something to go awry. What, I couldn’t tell you, though. The woman had been an enigma since the day I met her. I tried not to worry too much about it. Jo didn’t trust anyone, and after everything went to shit, it’d be weird if she didn’t suspect the Dark Fae of tipping off the enemy.

I wasn’t worried. Oddly, I trusted the light-haired menace. After seeing what he’d done to Serine and how far he’d gone to track me down after she took off with me, I was pretty confident he’d never betray me. Which was an entirely different issue, my overpowering trust for someone whose past I knew almost nothing about.

Still, I couldn’t spend my life on guard.

Despite Jo’s insistence that I’d be smart to trust no one, I couldn’t live like that. If one day it got me killed, I would’ve at least lived like me and no one else.

Cash caught Jo’s straying glance and quickly typed another text to me. Another grievance about her, no doubt.

Little did Cash know, after the last epic tiff between him and Phillip that ruined my much-anticipated café breakfast, I’d been planning a brutal revenge with the insistence of Jo. I was just waiting for a perfect moment to revel in their joint disgust. All in the name of training my power, I’d argue.

I still needed to practice slipping into frozen time and deactivating abilities, so why not in ways that gave me some joy? Also, what was the point of being a genetic monster if I didn’t prank all the arrogant men in my little renegade group anytime they deserved it?

With the usual indignant huff, Cash dared to touch my hand again before taking space. Then he was on his phone, monologuing about Jo in another text to me. Apparently, writing his next novel from the number of vibrations that hit my back pocket.

I’d smartened up and silenced my phone when it was clear he’d happily give away our position if it meant he could lay out every possible grievance he had about the other two, and I’d rather not die because Cash was forever annoyed by Jo and Phillip.

With a sideways smirk at the woman who beguiled me every time our eyes met, I continued to scope out the area around the cave, looking for any visible points of entry and stationed guards we’d need to take out before getting inside. But so far, nothing. It looked like every other hole in a mountain I’d seen up to this point. Not that I’d seen many.

Phillip adjusted Blood Slayer and walked to the edge of the cliff overlooking Harmony’s hideout, deep in thought. “It’s been some time since I’ve dealt with a witch. Especially one this powerful. Their magic works differently from a Fae’s. My items aren’t likely to work on her if she uses blood magic.”

Baffled by his admission, I stole a look at Jo, who was casually propped up against a tree. “Getting in undetected is what I do best, asshole. I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m more worried about what pets she’s got in that doom and gloom cave of hers. And how many.”

Pets?

Cash offered me his hand when I started to get to my feet. “Those are easy enough, but it’s her magical traps and barriers that’ll take time. You might be the best at what you do, but she’s better. We’d waste time trying to get in without help. That’s why I still think—”

“We’re not using V as bait,” Phillip cut in sharply, crossing his arms until they bulged. Another goddamn distraction my eyes didn’t need right now. “There has to be an access point we can exploit.”

As if he’d asked her, Jo pushed off the tree and peered down at the cave. Her eyes skated over to mine briefly before she was gone.

My mentor turned his head, then sighed. “It’s a problem she doesn’t know how to work as a team and just goes off and does what she wants,” he complained.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, she was back, twirling a dagger through her fingers. “Is it, Hunter? Or are you just inefficient and incapable of completing simple tasks?” she asserted with a sneaky grin my way.

I didn’t want to smile, but I did. She always got under Phillip’s skin. Problem was, he deserved it. It was pretty ironic to hear him bemoan her inability to work as a team when he struggled to do that exact thing himself. Talk about calling the kettle black.

More and more, I felt like the mother of the group. He and I might work well together, but he couldn’t be bothered to pretend to like Jo or Cash, and it made traveling together…painful.

Walking over, Jo wedged herself between me and Cash. His disdain for her twisted his face, but instead of doing anything about it, he was back on his phone. Then mine vibrated in my pocket too many times to count.

God help me.

Maybe I should ditch my phone before we entered the cave. With my heightened senses, the vibration was yet another distraction I didn’t need. I hated how quickly I retrieved it to see what he sent, but I couldn’t help it. The texts always made me laugh even when I tried not to.

Cash: Her Evilness is heading for a much-deserved spanking.

Cash: …

Cash: I mean it, love. That woman is in desperate need of one.

Cash: …

Cash: I mean, who does she think she is?

Cash: I can tell you what she is. The Devil. Darkness manifest, dove. The root of all evil. *devil emoji*

The laugh that erupted from my mouth I barely smothered in time not to totally give away our position. Fuck. I knew better. The warning glance Phillip gave me was all the punishment I needed to rein it in.

Sometimes, I wondered if Cash knew how often he made himself the butt of the joke. Too often for it to be an accident. Though, it was very unlikely he intentionally put a sexual spin on anything to do with Jo. For someone as smart as he was, he got a little stupid talking to me.

I quickly texted back even though I should ignore him.

Me: Thought you didn’t like her like that, you suave charmer you. But it’s more likely you’ll be the one spanked, let’s be honest. Something tells me you’d be into that. *winky face emoji*

I sent the text and waited for his squeal of horror. It came just as Jo started to talk again, but unlike me, she easily ignored him like he didn’t even exist. And maybe to her, he didn’t.

“Fortunately for you, Hunter, I’m good at what I do. But unfortunately for us, it doesn’t matter how good I am when you’re up against a witch who’s spent her entire life on the run. Every possible entrance is protected by a thick blood barrier. Unless she’s shared blood with you, there’s no way in." Shared blood? Gross. "I could get in, but that’d still leave the rest of you to figure it out. My way isn’t something you guys can do. If you’d prefer, I can do a little recon and see what we’re up against while you three figure out another way into the cave.”

Interesting. Did her shadow form give her access to places and spaces no one else could reach? That was super fucking cool. The mayhem I could cause with an ability like that…

I hadn’t shared the secret of her abilities with anyone. Something told me she didn’t want me to. I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask her about it, but her statement about how we shouldn’t disclose our abilities to anyone because it could get us killed stayed with me.

She’d let me see her that way. I didn’t know what that meant, but based on what I knew about Jo, it was a big deal she had. It felt wrong to share something about her with anyone else. It wasn’t even clear what she could do. I didn’t want to lose her trust.

So, I kept her shadow form to myself. And from the way she looked at me since last week, she knew I had. The little smiles were different. It would be impossible to explain how I knew, but it felt like she appreciated that I hadn’t told anyone.

“I don’t like to agree with the cock-blocking princess over there…” Cash’s ghoulish gasp only reaffirmed her point, and I lost it for a second. Jo went on like the smooth assassin she was, “But maybe the bait idea will get the witch to take one of her barriers down long enough for us to get inside and move into action,” Jo argued, visibly uncomfortable because she’d even remotely aligned herself with Cash.

The pompous platinum-blonde landed a hand on his hip with his other hand out as if he was a mother who’d spent the entire day arguing with her children. “See. Even Her Evilness agrees with me, you brute. That old hag uses blood sacrifices every chance she gets, and it’s impossible to get in without being implicitly invited. Not unless you want to be shredded to bloody pieces. Even with your regeneration abilities, you couldn’t recover from her blood magic. Blood barriers…it’s a new one, but not outside her usual tricks.”

At least Jo could do a little recon. That was better news than going in blind, but I didn’t want to rush ahead without exhausting all of our options. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind being bait, but after what occurred last week, Phillip wouldn’t agree to it. Not even if we didn’t have any other options. He’d argue that there had to be something we missed.

“What if we used butterfly dude? We could get a little of his blood and use it as a way to enter.”

Phillip’s eyebrow rose in confusion. “Butterfly…dude?”

Cash hummed and tapped his mouth, the action striking me as annoyingly adorable. “In theory, yes, but we couldn’t be sure they shared blood recently enough to get us through. It would need to be fresh. It’s been too long since we captured him. The shared blood would be weak, if not gone entirely. The only way to test it is by trying, and if we fail, she’d know it immediately. It’s a bit too risky, love.”

I caught his straying purple gaze, and something about it seemed off. But the glimpse of whatever it was disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.

Jo sighed, playing with her dagger. “It was a good idea.” She smiled at me when my eyes jerked over to her. “I like the way you think.”

If I had to hazard a guess, she assumed I’d woken up and chosen violence today. I mean, she wasn’t exactly wrong, but I didn’t like how tickled she was with my thirst for blood.

Phillip expressed how agitated he was by Jo’s pointed compliment with the click of his tongue before his mouth twitched up. “I hate to agree with this one, but she’s right. It is a good idea, V, and one we can still use.” His eyes dropped down to the cave entrance. “We’ll wait for one of hers to leave, and then we’ll know the blood’s fresh and works.”

It would be risky to attack anyone near the cave, so we’d have to keep track of them until we could trust it’d go unnoticed, but it was clever. We’d need to subdue them quickly and carefully, but that was a task any one of us could do without batting an eye.

Cash sighed and nodded. “That just might work. It could be a long wait, though. Only her favorites are permitted to leave because she knows they’ll come back. It could easily be a week, maybe several, before we see anyone come out of that cave.”

Phillip ran a hand through his dark hair and scanned the area. “A stakeout it is.” His icy blues slid over to me, the usual smirk in place. “This is where you learn how to stalk your prey, maus.”

Rolling my eyes, I crossed my arms, feigning insult.

I was a little tired of him treating me like a total amateur, but I honestly still was. All these creatures were new to me. A witch wasn’t something I’d fought before.

Still, I got a little sassy with my reply. “You must’ve forgotten who my grandmother is. That’s one of the first things I learned to do, Phil.”

The second I turned my head, Cash pointed at his phone. Mine went off again. Probably something about how brutish my “full-of-himself boyfriend” was being. But after the well-dressed nuisance waved his phone in the air like I hadn’t gotten the message— how dumb does he think I am? —I finally caved and took mine out again.

Cash: Your bodyguard has been obnoxiously attached to your hip as of late. We need to talk.

Giving the shameless asshole an eyebrow, I typed out my response while Phillip was still distracted by gathering our stuff so we could trek down the mountain and find the best vantage point for our stakeout.

Me: Oh, sure…because that went super well last time.

The annoyed blonde leveled a sassy glare on me, then typed out his reply before Phillip could catch us in the middle of a secret conversation.

Cash: I’ll do what I did at the café, love. It’s important.

After sighing, I nodded at him. Whatever he wanted to say, I could almost guarantee it’d piss Phillip off, so I’d give him a few minutes of my frozen time. He’d find a way to do it anyway, and at least this way, I had control over when it happened.

Suddenly sidetracked, I noticed two new messages waiting for me from Sloan. He hadn’t been able to reach out for a week, not since our little night together on video chat, so I’d been worried he’d been put off in some way by what the three of us did together. But Sloan addressed me like he always did.

S: Things here have come to a head. I’ll explain after I find Nigel.

Find Nigel? I ignored the discomfort in my stomach and read the second message.

S: I can’t wait to get you in my arms again and breathe in your delicious scent. Feels like it’s been forever since I’ve held you.

My heart still pounded any time the charming Brit boldly proclaimed what was on his mind. I was never left confused or worried long. Sloan wasn’t Phillip. He didn’t toy with my emotions or leave me guessing.

Which was why being separated was new and uncomfortable. He couldn’t reach out to reassure me, and I couldn’t beg him for answers when I was feeling vulnerable. It could compromise his mission. But the minute he could reach out, he did. It was honestly impressive how intuitive the other Hunter was. Like he knew when I was overthinking and drawing ridiculous, off-base conclusions.

Still, where had Nigel gone? What happened on their mission? Did they get Theo? I couldn’t ask. He would’ve ditched his phone after sending those messages, so I’d have to wait to hear what happened while he and Nigel sowed discourse in Theo’s wolf society.

Pocketing my phone, I grabbed one of the bags Phillip hadn’t thrown over his shoulder, Jo having already grabbed a couple herself, and followed Phillip down the mountain.