Page 26 of V for Vilified (Hunter V #4)

Full Looney

Sloan

P hillip had been gone ever since we returned from Kate’s, and more specifically, after confirming V was gone.

It’d been over a week, and he’d been unreachable.

Meaning, he most likely tossed his phone and didn’t want to be found.

Either he was wallowing in despair—which, fair, I had mind to do the same—or he was up to no good.

Neither of which V would forgive me for allowing.

Unlike Phillip, I had faith she’d be back. Our girl was special. Our girl was a fighter. Our girl would figure out a way to come home. I loved and believed in her, so I’d keep waiting for her as long as it took.

But I missed her so much it was suffocating. The mere thought that she wasn’t in the same world as I was, to know I couldn’t go where she’d gone and be by her side, to have no idea what she faced there or if the other two made it in time, it was absolute torture only Hell could contrive for me.

My arms ached to hold her close. I wanted to inhale her sweet scent and kiss her soft mouth. Her absence was enough to make me go bloody mad, and each day that passed took a little piece of me with it. All I had left was keeping an eye on the others and waiting for my darling to return.

I was in the middle of packing a duffle bag to go search the usual spots, the ones the grumpy bugger often used when he was weighed down by his past, when that very wanker stalked into the house I’d rented outside of town with a slam of the front door.

I lifted my eyes and he was there in the bedroom doorway, a beard growing in, his usually pristine looks nowhere in sight. Standing and staring the way he was made him look like he’d lost the plot. I could only guess what he’d been up to since disappearing.

Phillip clomped in and grabbed my usual weapons to throw into the bag I was already packing. “We’re going.”

“Where?” I asked, reorganizing and properly packing the weapons he’d thrown haphazardly on top.

“To Lux’s little house of horrors—and where he apparently keeps a portal to the Fae realm,” Phillip disclosed to my shock and confusion.

“A portal? How? Why?”

Phillip sighed and grabbed my bag. “The bastard was keeping more secrets than just genetic experimentation and cross-realm weapons. Looks like he’s been working with someone other than the Royal Siren and secured his own means to travel back and forth.

It’s probably where he’s gone. No one’s seen or heard from him in over three weeks, not since one of their own went rogue. ”

“Rogue? You mean the Royal Siren they called One?” I asked, hiding my shock. “How do you know they’ve gone rogue?”

“Because they killed off the rest of the Seven and stole away with V for reasons unclear. What matters is that that kotzbrocken has had a portal this whole time—the means to travel to the Fae realm—and that’s our ticket to getting our lass back.”

I followed him out to the receiving room, a bit scatterbrained. “You’re saying the Fae have something to do with the Organization, then? That they’ve been in on it for some time?”

“No.” His steely eyes met mine. “I think the Fae were the ones who made the Organization and everything they are in the first place,” Phillip corrected, dropping a bomb even I couldn’t have foreseen.

“And now that their entire secret operation has been killed off by one of their own, they’re scrambling. ”

“You’re saying the Fae working with Lux created the Organization?” I asked in awe.

“It’s the only thing that explains why they’ve had more than just technology to do what they do, why they were able to create V, and why they go back farther than any science that makes sense in our modern world.”

He’d made valid points. The science they had didn’t align with this world, and the fact that they got their hands on Royal Siren blood when they were meant to be killed off ages ago suggested supernatural intervention. It also explained why they had such powerful supernaturals on their payroll.

Lux and the Organization were just a face; the true mastermind was whoever made the portal to this world possible, and something told me we’d find them when we found V.

I shouldn’t be surprised that Phillip would happenstance on information, but the high-level secrets he’d gathered in a matter of a week was unheard of. The fact that these things had been unknown to us until now didn’t make sense if it only took this much to uncover them.

“How did you find out about all of this, and more importantly, what did you do to get it?” I demanded.

I shuddered at the thought of what V might do if anything he’d done wasn’t above board. Not after she went to great lengths to make sure every innocent person was left out of everything we did to tackle the Organization.

Phillip hadn’t smirked once since returning, and it wasn’t like him.

I hadn’t seen him this grim and torn up since he asked me to help him create the serum—a serum he planned to use to end himself for good.

I was uncomfortable, thinking the worst. Had he gone full looney and destroyed anything and everything that got in his way?

“Let’s just say there’s a woman who owed V a favor and I tracked her down.”

I glared. “Still alive, I hope, or V will never forgive you.”

His hand was in his hair as he released an unamused chuckle. “Wow, mate, what you must think of me. But yes, still alive. I won’t do anything that will risk my maus’s anger.”

One of my eyebrows rose in taunting. “Oh? Funny, that, because I’d argue that’s all you’ve done since meeting her.”

Finally, a smirk. “You’re an ass, but…yeah, I deserve that. It’s why I can’t do it this time. I have to be that good guy she’s always claimed I was.”

I breathed a short sigh of relief. “Good, because I would’ve kicked your ass myself if you didn’t get your bleeding shit together.”

He stared out the window, thoughts somewhere else.

“Don’t I know it. It didn’t take much convincing to get that woman to divulge her brother’s secrets with him gone and a promise to keep her safe with the other Hunters, but it was all theories she had rather than facts.

Guess even his sister wasn’t privy to the bigger stuff.

Took me the last week to follow up, but as it turns out, her theories weren’t far off the truth. Lux is a real piece of fucking work.”

“Brother?”

“Doesn’t matter. Are you going to keep stalling or get your ass in the car so we can go get our girl back?” Phillip demanded, stomping out the door. With a careless toss, he threw my bag into the back of his car with a number of bags he’d already brought with him.

“How are we meant to find her even if we can portal to that realm? It’s a whole other world, Phillip. With magic, no less. Neither of us has been there. How are we supposed to locate her?”

Phillip unsheathed his sword. “Our wits, mate. Well, and Blood Slayer.”

I crossed my arms and stared at his favorite weapon. “Thought it only responded to you.”

“Ah, right. I forgot you were mugged off around that time and probably not paying attention to anything but your bleeding heart. You were so pouty and sour, mate.”

I glowered at him, unamused.

He went on like I hadn’t. “It used to only respond to me until she was taken and saved Lux’s sister in the process.” The blade flashed under the sunlight. “It’ll find her once we’re in the same realm.”

“It’s made more than one connection?” I asked in disbelief. “Has that ever happened before?”

“Not that I’ve been told, no.” He wore a proud grin, chest puffed out like I’d lavished the bloke with compliments. “Our Liebling is truly something, yeah? Blood Slayer is as much hers as it is mine.”

The scientist in me wanted to know more, but then another thought struck. “So, you never needed that bloody tracking ring.”

His smug grin would normally annoy me, but I was just glad he was back to his usual antics. “I mean, the ring’s tracking is a bit easier to control and doesn’t require me to tune into it the entire time, but no. Sorry, mate. Bothered you, did it?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “It was childish and unimaginative. Of all the things, that was what you chose to focus your efforts on—making your mark on her stronger than mine.”

Laughing, he sheathed his sword and put it in the backseat. “I’m a different person around my maus.” He shrugged unapologetically. “But what a treat, the Great Unbothered Sloan annoyed by a ring.”

“You’re a smarmy bastard.”

“Right back at you, mate. So, are we going to keep standing here squabbling like a pair of monkeys, or are we going to find our feisty Hunter?”

“Let’s go get our darling back.” I got into the front seat and felt the first glimmer of hope since V had vanished.