Page 35 of V for Vilified (Hunter V #4)

Nether Douche Trio

F inding Lyra wasn’t tough, at least not for the monsters on my team. Or was it lovers since they’d all pulled that kissing stunt?

Jo made sure Kate had everything she needed and her style was never compromised by our new realm adventure. It was a nice bit of familiar in a world of change. That, and my two boys who still smiled and touched me the way they always had.

Kate’s cute pink hair was up in a messy bun and she was in another one of her favorite punk band t-shirts.

Next to Goth Tinkerbell Dude, they were a matching set.

She was a bit too excited to be on a stroll straight into the belly of the beast, but at least that made one of us.

I’d been a ball of nerves with her tagging along.

Thanks to the mutinous two’s devious plan, Kate would go with me everywhere, so it was a relief she didn’t blink at my new roster of hotties for bedtime partners.

If anything, she was hoping some of that mojo would rub off on her.

Her words, not mine. I didn’t know how to explain it to her that even I wasn’t sure how it all happened.

Phillip and Sloan flanked my sides, carrying the usual Hunter equipment.

The tattooed menace on my left had an arm wrapped around me and crossbow resting on his shoulder like this was a casual stroll through the woods, his thick military boots crunching rocks and probably destroying a population of Smurfs or something.

Wouldn’t put it past this crazy realm to have those.

The celebrity with an accent that was as decadent to the ears as chocolate tossed me the occasional sultry smile, but otherwise stayed vigilant. He treated this world like the dangerous space it was, on the lookout for enemies at every turn, and I was grateful he balanced the reckless Austrian out.

Cash led at the front, and Jo kept pace at the group’s side.

Nearly everyone was on pins and needles.

Aram could show up anywhere and at any time, and we all knew it.

I only hoped it was after we’d gotten Lyra under our thumb.

I wasn’t over the moon about our future partnership with Lyra, but better that than taking on the Nether Royals blind.

Like Jo said, she probably knew more than we did.

The renegade One wasn’t staying in some random city hotel.

She’d taken up residence in a motherfucking volcano.

Or…not-volcano? Cash assured me the volcanoes here weren’t the same as the human world.

They didn’t burn you alive when they erupted.

Their lava wasn’t hot or dangerous. More gel-like and a bitch to wash off.

The Fae realm and all its goo, amirite?

Stopping, Cash’s all-seeing eyes scanned the area, and Jo came to stand at his side. “You feel that?”

“She hasn’t put a ward up,” Jo confirmed with a fold of her arms, bothered for the first time since the encounter with Aram. “Not even to alert her to anyone in the area.”

“One guess why,” Cash murmured, turning his head so I caught a glimpse of his thin mouth.

Jo nodded and melted into the shadows. “Better I go check and you all wait out here.”

For once, he didn’t argue. One curt nod and she was gone. Cash turned and headed for me. Phillip and Sloan watched him come over in a few obnoxiously long strides, but they didn’t stop him from touching me.

His pupils were thin and eclipsed by nothing but purple. “Love, I think we might have to do this—”

Jo was back before he finished, appearing next to me. “We need to leave.”

I was disoriented by the sudden change in her tone.

I’d never heard Jo’s voice shake, but whatever she found bothered her.

She removed several daggers and her magic sparked around her.

Big cursed and grabbed Kate’s hand. Glitter swirled around them, and they were gone before I knew what happened.

Cash had a stone in hand, the little pebble floating above his palm, but he was too late.

The world seemed to shudder and quake underfoot.

Several symbols appeared under each one of us, ones I recognized from my fight with Eros.

Everyone but me was caught in it, held hostage by magic.

Cash’s black mist disappeared, and Jo was solid and frozen with daggers seconds from throwing.

Sloan and Phillip were rigid with weapons already poised in their hands.

Aram landed with his wings spread. My head jerked up in time to catch two others hit the ground next to him, their wings just as black and terrifying. One had horns, short black hair, and green eyes. The other one had messy green hair that fell around his face but stopped at his ears and red eyes.

They were just as large, just as scary, and just as villainous as Aram. It didn’t take a genius to conclude these were the other two infamous brothers in the Nether Douche Trio.

Rayis and Dagon.

Fuck.

The visage the trio struck brought acid into my throat, and my Hunter training kicked in, cycling through the best and most effective moves to make while still protecting the four remaining.

Jo warned me that my powers might not work even if I could use them on his brothers.

I needed to be careful how I played this.

My bond with my enemy screamed and twisted inside me like a snake coiling to attack.

I sensed Aram’s anger and frustration, his desire to hurt them but his inability to.

The urge to command they all fall dead around me was intense, but the overwhelming need to never do anything that would make me hate him won out. Or at least it appeared to.

I felt it all—the epic struggle inside him, the confliction over how best to navigate our bond and my clear attachment to the other four. It was driving him crazy.

Good.

“She’s so small,” the green-haired one said.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” I complained. “I’m average, okay? You guys are just fucking ginormous.”

I tried to summon my power to reverse time, but Aram was already in front of me, destroying every bit of focus I had left.

I didn’t feel the usual throb or responding pulse like I did in our last encounter.

Somehow without trying, I knew I couldn’t use it.

At least not right now. Was it because I planned to use it on him? Was it the bond’s block on my power?

My fucking luck.

Cash’s fear was tearing me apart, his eyes fixed to the two of us from where he was frozen, unable to break the magic they’d used on him and left only to watch as the entire thing unfolded.

I didn’t need to be bound to the others to know it was likely the same for them.

Fuck knows I was a goddamn mess as I tried and failed to summon my time ability.

“I didn’t want to do this, little hybrid, but you’ve left me no choice,” Aram whispered.

“Ditto, asshole,” I said before moving swiftly into action.

I stole the sword straight out of Phillip’s hand, using my vampiric speed to ghost across the space faster than the Fae could follow.

I aimed the blade directly at the green-haired bastard’s throat.

His eyes hadn’t tracked the movement until it was too late, or maybe it was because they never saw me as a threat. Either way, the joke was on them.

I was a motherfucking monster.

Magic danced around him, but Aram’s voice cut through like a knife. “Don’t you bloody dare, Rayis. She’s still my mate.”

“Well, your little mate has a sword aimed at my throat, so forgive me if I don’t feel like that means much here,” Rayis hissed, his dangerous red eyes glaring down at me.

I grinned and winked. “Who’s small now, you Mean Green bastard?”

His lip curled, and the giant green-haired asshole actually snarled at me. “What did you call me, hybrid?”

“What? Do your ears not work? All that length and basically useless. Sad,” I goaded and pressed the business end of Blood Slayer into his throat, watching with satisfaction as he bled. Wait…blue? So they bled the same color as Eros.

Rayis clicked his tongue. “You planning to let your tiny mate kill me, you wanker, or will you put a fucking leash on her already?”

Aram chuckled, and I tried my best not to turn my head and look. “Oh, I don’t know. You have been a right bastard about everything lately. Maybe I’ll let her quiet you forever as a bonding gift.”

“You better be fucking joking,” Rayis growled but didn’t move.

I’d already sort of gathered as much, but this moment confirmed it—Aram called all the shots. Like Jo said, he was the head of the snake. I’d exploit that however I could.

The other one, Dagon or whatever, was inching closer to my group.

He didn’t seem to get the message with his brother at the end of my sword and his other brother doing nothing about it.

My hellfire scorched the earth between him and the people I’d die for in a heartbeat before he had a chance to get far.

His glare beamed an eerie green and red with the fires I summoned, but I noticed he took several steps back.

It didn’t appear he was impervious to hellfire.

Or he was afraid of what Aram would do if he fought back.

Interesting. Neither brother was willing to go against Aram, not even as a pair.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were scared of him.

My advantages were growing by the second. Aram didn’t want to hurt the people I loved, but I could hurt his, made clear by the blue blood running down Rayis’s throat.

I leveled a fiery glare on Aram from over my shoulder, pushing the blade deeper into Rayis’s throat and summoning an intense wall of fire as a warning.

“They hurt a fucking hair on their heads and see what I do to your brothers ,” I growled.

“I’m not bound the way you are, Fae, and trust me, you haven’t seen what I can do yet. ”