Page 83 of V for Vindictive

Most comforting about the ugly face of my enemy was that he might be the assassin who evaded death for countless years and the forbidden name whispered among our kind, but like us, he bled.

And what bleeds can die.

“I’d say it’s good to see you, asshole, but we both know you’re lucky not to be dead already. So tell me, who else has our mutual friend Lux sent after me and my compadres?”

Jo huffed a proud breath. “Atta girl.”

Eros flicked his eyes between she and I, then clamped his jaw shut. By the way Jo’s magic caressed me a little stronger than before, she’d expected as much.

“You know you’re no match for a Royal Siren, Eros,” she cooed, her voice coated with sass. “Answer, or I’ll turn up the heat.” Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Jo pull something out of her pocket. Then she was stabbing it directly into the bastard’s neck.

I caught Phillip smirking, and if what she did got a smile out of that sadistic bastard, then I could only assume it was a level of torture befitting my crazy partner.

Which was plenty comforting to me.

A roar left Eros’s chest, and it did its job because Cash was already taking refuge behind my two Hunters. Even with Eros caught, the cat-eyed bastard was a coward.

Figures.A zebra can’t change its stripes, or whatever bullshit idiom fit this moment best.

Sadly, I only excelled in sarcasm and fucking up my life these days. Clever idioms alluded me.

Note to self: Google more sensational idioms to drop in fights.

A powerful sensation came into my throat, and I asked again, “Who are the assholes Lux sent after me? I need names, asshole. And how do we hit that bastard in his suit-wearing Achilles’ heel?”

Sweat beaded on the bastard’s forehead, and it was obvious the Dark Fae was fighting my influence. But like a cord snapping, the asshole sang like a canary: “He calls them the Seven. Struck bargains with powerful leaders from different groups all over this plane to go after you and the others, and to build his army. Find them, destroy them, and you’d cripple his operation. End it entirely is my guess,” Eros said through his teeth, fighting the truth leaving his mouth.

It was weird to hear the sinister voice of my enemy, the one that lived in my head for months, speak as if pain laced every word. No, it wasn’t weird. It was fucking awesome.

My lips twitched into a devilish smirk. “The Seven? Is that some kind of supernatural boyband or…?”

Jo giggled far too cute for a woman with deadly magic and a dagger twisting through her fingers. “I’ve heard of the Seven, but didn’t know it referred to Lux’s operation.”

Phillip and Sloan came closer, Cassius still using the two of them as a shield. “Get locations,” the Austrian demanded, finally joining in.

Took the bastard long enough.

“Where are they, you sick motherfucker?!” I commanded, voice booming through the quiet hum of power.

Eros lifted his eyes to me, the savage gleam hitting my gut first. Then the world shifted in a split second and the binding spell holding the Dark Fae broke apart with a loud crack. Eros was on his feet, cloak flipping out with a surge of his power. Before I understood what was happening, his handwas around my throat, squeezing, tremendous power sparking around his fingers and burning my skin on contact.

Jo, Phillip, and Sloan all had weapons out, ready to dice the asshole to pieces. The first time all three had something in common was ironically their death-to-Eros expressions as they rushed to intervene. But something exploded from inside my chest, the elusive power finally waking the fuck up, and then everything froze.

Time stopped.

I freed myself from the Fae’s murderous hold and rubbed my neck, the feeling of phantom fingers still assaulting my throat.

For a second, I wondered, as the world stood still and my companions rushed to slice this formidable killer down to the bone, why my intuitive power chose frozen time and not hellfire—or anything else I was capable of doing. Why did it always come to a pause with this bastard?

Of course, I’d take whatever chance I was given. I’d failed to kill the snake-bastard last time, and I wouldn’t this time. I’d rectify my mistake. I’d snuff out a life that had destroyed thousands, probably tens of thousands.

Vindictive V was here for vengeance, for vindication, for violence, for victory, and I’d make it resonate and ripple. Send the message to our enemies, to the ones waiting for their chance, that no one, not this killer, not the next, would ever overcome me. I was V. I was a badass motherfucker, and I’d make damn sure the world knew it. That Lux and his Seven-whatevers boyband knew it.

Looking down at my own daggers, I took a second to breathe through the feeling in my head, the world going topsy-turvy as it always did when time froze. Nausea slammed into my stomach, but I fought through it and jerked my eyes over to Blood Slayer.

Phillip’s stare was the most homicidal I’d ever seen them, save a few other times in the clutches of Eros. I wished I could give him this moment; let the other Hunter be the final blow to the bastard who’d taken good people from him. But I couldn’t risk it, not with the world’s future resting on my shoulders.

Stealing the sword from Phillip’s clutch, I let loose another shaky breath that expelled a lifetime of pain and heartbreak. My shoulders tensed, body poised, and I didn’t waste another second. With a rageful cry, I sliced straight through Eros’s thick neck. At the very least, it’d be Phillip’s sword that delivered justice for every life this bastard had stolen from him. I let that thought guide my hand as I stabbed it into the asshole’s cold, black heart, then cut it down until the metal blade struck violently against the stone floor.

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