Page 68 of V for Vindictive

Peering down at the stone vibrating in Cassius’s hand, I asked, “What do you want?”

“A little bit of your time and power, love. That’s all. I have something I need to retrieve from some very powerful people, and you’re just the person for the job,” the Dark Fae entreated huskily. “We’ll need to act…close. If they think you and I are besotted, they’ll think I hold some power over you and we can retrieve this very important item I need before returning to my realm.”

I wasn’t even a little bit surprised. More so, I wasn’t stupid either. The Fae made it sound innocent, but Cash was basically using me as bait in a trade and relying on me to deal with the carnage after he’d gotten his grimyhands on whatever it was he wanted back—or to steal, because I wouldn’t put it past the Dark Fae for it not to be his in the first place.

Unfortunately, without Cassius’s cooperation, we’d have to change our entire plan, and it could mean not getting our guy. We couldn’t afford to lose Eros, not with the entire Organization after me now.

It was now or never.

“Okay,” I finally muttered, and Cassius offered me a sneaky smile. “But not until you do your part, asshole.”

He held his hand out to me, and I simply offered him a what-the-fuck eyebrow. Sighing loudly, he motioned for me to put my hand in his. Phillip made me promise not to trust Cash, and I didn’t know how to do that in my current predicament. Either I took his hand to ensure he helped with the trap, or I give him the finger and we start at square one. It was one of those V gut moments, so I put my hand in his.

The Dark Fae’s lips tilted up secretively before a symbol appeared and disappeared on the top of both of our wrists. “This is a binding contract between us magical folk. Should we not do our pledged parts, we will be stripped of our magic.”

What the actual fuck!

“I didn’t agree to that, asshole!” I yelled angrily.

Cash shrugged and released my hand. “You’re Phillip’s protégé, so I can’t trust that you won’t pretend this never happened after I do my part. Since you want this Eros madness finished, and it benefits me greatly to be done with his sadistic arse as well, this contract safeguards your promised end. Unless you don’t hold your end, you’ve nothing to fear, love.”

“That sounds mighty convenient, Fae,” I rebutted in frustration.

Phillip’sgoing to kill me.

Before I could verbally whip Cash with the rage and resentment of a young woman whose life turned to shit under a year ago, the world came back to life and the stone was nowhere in sight. I got the sense that the stone didn’t work for very long, and seeing how he hadn’t used it with us before, it was likely very difficult to make. I wanted to pick his brain about it, but the visibly frustrated Austrian storming towards us shut down that idea.

Phillip sank down onto the chair beside me, hawk eyes tearing apart the look I gave him. “Have a nice chat while I was away?” he asked, words loaded with meaning.

Cassius offered me a look full of amusement. “The best chat I’ve had on this whole damn trip.”

Fuck my life.

Chapter 25

My Liebling

Phillip

My eyes never left Cassius for a second, already sensing that the sneaky bastard had used an enchanted stone that was difficult to create, all so he could steal a private moment withmy woman.From the small glance V gave me upon my return, whatever was said or done while she was stolen away to frozen time would piss me off enough to act on homicidal notions.

I was sure of it.

It took every bit of my Hunter training not to slice the Dark Fae’s throat right then and there, in front of a café full of witnesses. I’d been known to do worse, and it didn’t seem totally out of character for me to go off book and kill the slimy bastard just because I wasn’t feeling charitable.

Cassius was a one-of-a-kind enchanter, his abilities both revered and feared in the Organization. The powerful items he created with his magic were the very reason Eros hadn’t killed the sneaky kotzbrocken in all the years I’d known him.

Cassius had worked with some of the most powerful Fae to cross over to the human world, and his intimate knowledge of enchantments and the complexity of its magic was dangerous to anyone he considered an enemy.

As a Fae who had lived several centuries longer than I had, maybe more, it wasn’t clear, I’d once thought the devious devil could easily outwit me one day. But, ironically, Cash had a fatal weakness—he feared any level of pain and did whatever he could to evade its clutches.

One of Eros’s specialties was magical torture, so Cassius did whatever the other Dark Fae commanded out of fear of one day being held captive to an endless world of torture. And he was right to be terrified. Eros would make the cat-eyed bastard suffer a fate worse than death if he were to ever cross him.

Unfortunately for Cassius, I, too, excelled in various methods of torture, and it was with that very threat I coaxed the bastard into becoming an informant.

Spying for me required the sneaky devil to be cleverer than most, and it was the very reason I was careful to never fully trust anything he said or did without the aid of the Truth Cuff. But if it was one thing I’d give to the wanker, it was Cassius knew how to manipulate and deceive anyone he came in contact with, even one of the world’s greatest assassins, Eros.

But partnering up with Cash was like playing with fire. The purple-eyed Fae was too devious and quick to switch sides. Torture and my clever inventions were the only things that kept the Dark Fae honest. For this reason, I hadn’t killed him. Of course, I never imagined I might one day be on the other end of things, vulnerable to his astute deduction skills—because Cash never dared to make an enemy out of me before today.

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