Page 14 of V for Vilified (Hunter V #4)

Devil Woman vs. Princess

C ash couldn’t look any unhappier than he presently did after Jo and I discussed our new plan with him. “You’re suggesting I bind myself to you of all barbaric women to avoid my dove using her chaos magic? Are you bloody mad?”

Jo rolled her eyes, all bad and dangerous leaned up against the wall with her foot planted behind her.

“Oh, and you think I want to be bound to you like this? Un-fucking-likely, princess. Besides, you know for a fact that’s not how it works.

It can be broken after this bullshit is finished.

And my bind would be to her, not you. That’s why it works for Rayis and Dagon. Aram is the one between them.”

“Hah! You think that gives me any amount of comfort? I’m her bonded mate.

Strong emotion can’t be muted no matter how powerful she and I are.

I’ll know it all. Your connection is already problematic,” he complained, throwing me for a loop.

“It’ll be that much more difficult if you enter a magical bond with her. ”

That was news to me. Was that why I felt a sudden surge of anger and disgust? It didn’t impact me like it would when it was me who felt it, so I thought it was another side effect of the Season. But was I feeling what Cash felt? Weird. Also, horrifying for so many reasons.

I wasn’t given time to question it because Jo was quickly clapping back. “Ah, you must mean that you know you’re not the only one she’s chosen for the Season?”

Cash dragged me closer. “Your connection with her is nothing like what we have, devil woman.”

“But it’ll need to be satisfied all the same, princess,” Jo countered.

I didn’t bother to interject. I’d let the two fight it out.

Over the last few months, I’d learned it was the only way they knew how to talk to each other.

Jo slung words like “prissy asshole” and “princess” his way anytime she found him annoying, which was all the time, and he tossed “devil woman” and “she-demon” around like those were the only words he could come up with to describe her.

The two had been bickering since we locked ourselves in the study, sealing it with magic so that Kate couldn’t overhear anything even if she wanted to. They might not be tugging me back and forth, but that was how it felt to be party to their argument. It was Sloan and Phillip all over again.

What the fuck, life? You really thought this plot line needed another go? Just nothing but a shit storm since I got to this crazy beautiful plane of concealed Fae horror.

“I’m not exactly elated either to know that anything I do with her will have a prissy bastard like you playing emotional voyeur, but we’re out of options.

Someone made sure the Nether Royals were aware a certain asshole they’d like nothing more than to hunt down and kill was back in the realm—and with the full use of his magic.

No doubt Marius was intercepted on his way back to wherever assholes like him go and given an impromptu interrogation, seeing how it was his personal Siren spotted with you at Nix’s. ”

Insulted, the gorgeous man who’d refused to let me sit anywhere but right beside him addressed Jo with a glower.

“It was the fastest and most efficient way to get the message out to the ones I plan to call on for favors, devil woman. I don’t want to chase them down.

I need them to know that I’m coming for them and will do whatever necessary to get what I want. ”

“That’s been made painfully clear,” she spat, glaring daggers instead of throwing them. For once. “Couldn’t stop there, could you? You had to go and claim V as your mate, ensuring she was also a walking target for the Nether Royals.”

“But a standing warning to anyone else. Not that I owe you an explanation, but I’ve been gone too long to do this underground.

We don’t have much time, and I don’t want to go back to that ancient hag without every bit of leverage my name and power has afforded me over the thousands of years I’ve lived. ”

It still shocked me every time I thought about how old Cash was. I’d thought centuries bothered me, but age gap wasn’t a strong enough word. I’d basically fucked the Mummy.

A dagger danced between Jo’s fingers as she stared at us, lethal and ready, near a massive bookcase filled with weird glowing tomes and items just as odd, and also for some reason, glowing.

I really wished I hadn’t ditched my phone back in the human world, or I’d take pictures to show the boys when I found my way home.

Just thinking about Sloan and Phillip twisted my stomach into knots I didn’t have any hope of unraveling. But any time I so much as drifted into sad thoughts, Cash touched me and dragged me out of my head.

His hand wrapped around mine, twining our fingers together, and my eyes dashed up to his. He didn’t say anything, just held onto me like my own personal lifeline.

“You took what could’ve afforded us weeks to plan out our next move with Lyra down to days, oh great Dark King.

We don’t know what will or won’t work on her.

I need time to train V so she can use all her abilities without issue.

Time you’ve stolen with your little Monster of the Realm stunt,” Jo accused after a short stretch of silence.

“A stunt?! How dare you. Even your godawful mother was afraid of getting on the wrong side of me.” Cash prickled, his flamboyance dialed up to the nth degree. “And I will train V. Whatever you have to teach is only going to tempt her to access her chaotic darkness.”

Jo’s grin was downright dangerous. “Want to bet it’s you who tempts her, not me, princess?”

Unable to help himself, Cash lifted his chin and looked every bit the prim and proper princess she accused him of being. “You have some bloody nerve,” the big whiny baby next to me squawked.

What was I, a room decoration?

I sighed, glad that Kate was safely bundled away for the night. No one deserved to be caught up in this argument. Though most of it was escalated by the indignant Fae Karen next to me, Jo didn’t let any part of it die. She wanted to get under his skin. I shouldn’t have expected anything different.

I was glad to hear that the bond could be broken in the future, but from the way Cash was acting, it wasn’t going to be easy to do.

My eyes strayed to the door leading out to the hall, a few rooms away from my very human best friend kidnapped to another world.

Kate had been exhausted after everything, so as soon as Marius created the void haven, we all relaxed a little. I’d sent her off to bed an hour before, promising to join her later. Kate laughed it off, but I could see how afraid she was.

She didn’t want to be alone here.

She put on a strong act, but anyone would be overwhelmed and scared after being kidnapped by a powerful supernatural villain and imprisoned in a world they knew nothing about.

It was only natural she’d want someone to cling to, and I’d damn well do my best to be there for her, crazy villains and their evil mastermind plans aside.

Time to tame the battling monsters in the room.

“Okay, guys. I know this is hard, but we’ll have to get along to get back home,” I asserted before we got any more off track.

“Do you have any other ideas than bonding, Cash? If so, I’d like to hear them.

If not, we’ll do the bond because I personally don’t want to go full psycho drunk on evil chaos magic, thanks. It’s not part of my ten-year plan.”

Finally looking at me, his cat eyes beamed a gorgeous shade of purple. “A bond is rather extreme, love. Even in this case. Breaking it could weaken your magic.”

Jo stayed silent, which confirmed what he said was true. She’d refute it if it wasn’t.

“Okay, cool. I’m willing to take that risk if it comes to it, but that’s not even close to what I’m worried about right now. I need to go back home before they think I’ve joined the villain team. No offense, but that’s not a look I want.”

Jo’s grin made my heart start in my chest, and Cash’s insanely gorgeous smile sent it right into a death sprint.

He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it. “The she-devil is right. It’s the only option if we want to defeat the Nether Royals and Mistress Chaos in one fell swoop.”

“All of them at once?” I sent a quizzical look Jo’s direction.

She nodded. “If you want everyone back in the human world safe, she can’t be spared.

She’ll need to die as soon as the Nether Royals breathe their last. She’s likely to expect it, so we’ll need to act quickly before she can escape.

We’ll be too powerful for her to fight, and I’m one of few who knows what her powers are and how to kill her,” she explained, her usual apathetic air dissolving to a deep, long-standing sadness.

I was desperate to know, but I’d never put her on the spot. Especially not around Cash.

“So…”

Sighing melodramatically, Cash brushed back his hair with the hand not already holding mine. “So, dove, we’ll train you to protect your mind and…use our bond so that your abilities are stronger. I’ll call on the necessary favors in the meantime.”

“What about Lyra? Won’t she know I haven’t accessed the chaos or whatever? I’m not sure how that all works.”

Jo came over and sat next to me, giving Cash every reason to scowl at her.

“It’ll be too late when she realizes. Magically bound Chaos Fae can’t access it.

That includes mixed breeds. It’s why she and the others didn’t enter magical bonds to elevate their power like the Nether Royals.

They’d lose access to their chaos magic, and it’d eventually drive those dependent on it insane.

Well, the ones not already completely insane already.

” Her eyes strayed as if she was speaking from experience.

I pointed to the rune on my neck, and she shook her head.

“That’s a different kind of bond. It doesn’t seem to affect our chaos. Unfortunately.”

“Fae magic is weird,” I mumbled, trying to digest it all.