Page 36 of V for Vilified (Hunter V #4)

Dagon and Rayis visibly reacted, and I sensed Aram’s alarm through our connection. They hadn’t expected me to read anything off him or be willing to fight back, and it showed. Best news of the day. Now they’d know it wasn’t a one-way street. I’d use every bit of what I learned against them.

Emotions crowded my head, and it was difficult to pick out which belonged to who. It was a bit of a confused mess, so I nearly missed the sensation of quiet determination before Aram was behind me, whispering in my ear.

“I’m not the villain they’ve told you I am, V. You might not believe me yet, but you know in your gut, through our mate bond, there’s a reason Fate brought us together.” His fingers trailed down the back of my neck, tracing the notches of my spine. “And you know I’d never hurt you.”

My eyes sliced over to him, as hot as the fire I summoned. “You don’t have any fucking clue what I know, you Nether bastard.”

Aram’s hand wrapped around the back of my neck and the other one slid down the arm holding Blood Slayer, dragging the tip back from Rayis’s throat.

His brother got the hint and took several retreating steps back, hand on the place I’d impaled him.

I got the sense it was a rare day when someone made any of them bleed.

“Oh, I think I do. You’re craving me as much as I’m craving you.

But I’m guessing you need more than that.

I’d expect nothing less from the mate Fate chose for me.

So, let’s make a deal bound in magic. I might be powerful enough for them to call me a god, but even I can’t break a Fae contract I’ve voluntarily made with someone. Certainly not someone I’m bound to.”

The large hand wrapped around my neck kept me from looking back at the others, but my bond with Cash was flooded with equal parts fear and murderous intentions.

I’d been warned about Aram’s coercive methods. I wasn’t stupid enough to think this wasn’t all some elaborate trick, but I also didn’t really have any other option than to humor him.

Unfortunately, the Nether Royal’s next words shook me. “I can’t use my coercion on you, little hybrid. Nor would I. You’ll see who I am without it. Or are you too scared to be proven wrong?”

I opened my mouth, but the sound of cracking magic had all our heads turning. Phillip was unbound and throwing a ball of steel into the air. The explosion it made bent air and sound, but all three of the Nether Royals reacted without so much as flinching.

Rayis had Phillip lifted into the air by the throat, wings spread out aggressively. I caught Sloan move, but Dagon intercepted him and had my beautiful Brit in the air before I could cry out.

Rage consumed me and fire scorched out of me in a vicious, explosive wave. Everything in my body burned white hot, spires of hellfire lifting and coiling through the air like it was an extension of me.

Both Nether Royals dodged several attacks and were chased away from my two Hunters in the process. I thought maybe my magic was finally responding, but no matter what I tried, time wouldn’t stop or reverse. I couldn’t undo this moment and get us out before they came.

Aram blocked my vision and grabbed me by the jaw, and my angry flames of vengeance faded out of existence.

“I wouldn’t do that, V. While I might not be able to hurt your little pets, I can certainly erase you from their minds.

I can make it so every single one of them forgets who you are.

I can ensure that every memory they have of you dissolves into dust and ashes.

” His voice was deceptively soft. “And they’ll go on with their meaningless lives as if you never existed. ”

My chest hurt at the thought. My eyes burned, threatening tears, but I refused to give him what he wanted. I’d never let him have that sort of power over me.

Make me happy, my fucking ass.

But Aram wasn’t lying. He’d do it. This asshole genuinely believed I’d be happier with him, even if it meant bending their memories and making them forget me.

It was easy enough for him. His power could make them do whatever he wanted, and if he thought it’d protect me, the bond wouldn’t block him from it. Without understanding what his power was, I was confident he could manipulate anyone’s mind with one look.

“Fuck you,” I spat.

My pulse raced and pounded in my ears as I read every bit of his intention through our connection. Seeing me upset was getting to him, but he was determined to do whatever it took to keep me safe and by his side. Every emotion I got from him was confidence he’d be all I ever needed.

“Or…” he started, his voice low and husky, “you give me a chance to prove myself and come with me. We’ll make a Fae contract here and now, and if you still don’t want to be with me by the end of the Season, I’ll let you and all your little pets go back to the human realm unharmed.”

“Don’t—” Phillip started to shout, but Aram sent one glance his way and his voice died on a breath.

The electric sensation of his power tickled across my skin. It only took that much to quiet someone like Phillip. A look. A small surge of power.

It was a warning.

I didn’t have to guess how serious Aram was about every word he’d said.

It came through loud and clear in my head.

He truly believed I’d love him by the time the Season finished; that the threats he’d leveled against the people I cared most about wouldn’t make me hate him.

He thought I was only blinded by the lies I’d been told about him.

Fuck you. I’ll never want you. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the only way this ends is when one of us is dead! I screamed in my head, waiting for his expression to change. Waiting for confirmation he could read my thoughts.

It never came.

Holy fuck. Aram couldn’t read my thoughts the way I could read his. He didn’t know how much what he’d already done, what he’d already threatened, made revenge and finding a way to destroy him and his brothers the only thought in my head.

And then it occurred to me—this could be my chance. This could give me the edge to finding a moment to do whatever Cash had planned. Or at the very least, time to figure out how to use my time ability around him.

Cash’s emotions intensified, but I ignored them. “You’ll let them go if I make this contract with you?” I demanded.

A smile crept across my enemy’s face. “I will.”

“And their memories of me will stay intact?”

“They’ll be left the way I found them here, yes,” Aram agreed, his smile growing and exposing his fangs. “But the contract means you can’t escape or leave my side until the Season’s finished. Should you, you’d be breaking it.”

“And what happens if I break it?”

“Normally, it’ll divest you of your magic and possibly even kill you,” Aram mused, his eyes tracking my mouth.

“But I don’t much care for that idea, so instead…

” His gaze lifted to meet mine, beaming red.

“It’ll wipe all your memories of them and that realm.

It’ll leave you only with your memories of being with me. ”

Of fucking course. I wasn’t dealing with some stupid oaf. This was the Devil himself I was striking a deal with. But without my ability to use time to get us out of this predicament, it wasn’t like I was swimming in choices. Either way I went, shit was fucked.

I wasn’t going to fall in love with him.

I wasn’t going to agree our bond was meant to be.

I’d still want him dead in a month or two’s time no matter what tricks he played.

Nothing he did would make me forget what he was willing to do to everyone I cared about.

If it was one thing I was good at, it was being a vengeful bitch.

“But that’s wholly one-sided. You’re losing nothing in this exchange,” I said, proud when my voice didn’t shake. “Leaving them alive but separating us isn’t high stakes for you.”

He hummed, impressed by my negotiation prowess. “It’s a fair point, I suppose.”

“Aram,” Rayis warned.

He ignored his brother, cocking his head to the side. “Say I add a price for failing to convince you by the time our contract ends…”

“What kind of price?”

“Exactly what you’ve come here to do,” Aram whispered, close enough to kiss. “The contract will kill me and render my brothers vulnerable to you.”

“You have to be bloody fucking joking,” Rayis mumbled angrily under his breath.

Aram put up his hand, the smile never leaving his mouth. “Do we have a deal, little hybrid?”

“Bloody fucking bond,” I heard Rayis mutter.

I slapped the white-haired villain’s hand away from my face and stepped back. “Deal.”