Chapter 11 #2
“Don’t speak to her,” I snapped, stepping in front of her to break the hold he had.
He chuckled, actually chuckled, and it sent my blood boiling. The audacity. “Hello to you too, Regan.”
“You,” I growled at him, narrowing my eyes on his stupid face.
He frowned and cocked his head to the side as he rocked back on his heels and slid his hands into his pockets, the picture of ease. “What is it with you two that that’s your default greeting?”
“Cut the shit, Kaso.” I cracked my knuckles and stepped back to stand beside Chanel again. “You had your fun with her—”
“Hardly,” he mumbled as his gaze slid down her body.
Chanel gasped.
“You played your games on her,” I corrected myself. “Enough. You two haven’t had enough fun with Christopher? You have to now obstruct our path to other three-strikers? Is it personal against us? Or are the Tweedles paying you too?”
His dark eyebrows rose. “The Tweedles?” He threw his head back and laughed.
“I’m not laughing,” I growled.
“Oh, I am. That’s great.” He laughed more, still shaking his head. “Which one is Dee and which is Dum—”
“Kaso,” Chanel half-whispered, half-growled, “you lied to me. You tricked me. Now you rub my face in it with these idiots?”
The Tweedles both made a sound that sounded like heyyyy.
All three of us shot accusatory glares at them and they quieted.
“I neither lied nor tricked you, Chanel. If I was going to rub your face in something, I assure you I have much more enjoyable options.”
“Quit flirting with her and tell us why we’re here.”
“I believe we have some things to discuss, Miss Regan.” He motioned to the table. “Consider this a peace offering . . . A chance to explain what happened last week.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What makes you think we’d trust you didn’t poison the food?”
He grabbed a gold fork off the table and then plucked a bite of turkey off the plate in front of him.
After swallowing that one, he scooped mashed potatoes off the plate beside it.
Then he made a big show of walking around and stealing bites of food from the remaining two plates.
Once he returned to his spot beside that first plate, he gestured to the table. “Did that suffice?”
The door behind him flew open, slamming against the wall and carrying a heavy cold breeze that swept across the room and sent a wave of flavors right at us. I sucked in a deep breath. Apple pie . . . I loved apple pie. My stomach growled. Kaso grinned. I snarled.
And then Andreas stormed in through the door. His dark hair was disheveled from the gusty breeze, and his glasses were slightly crooked. The snarl on his face was intense, as was the way he was flexing his hands like he’d just been punching something.
I knew the moment he spotted us because he stopped short. Those amber eyes narrowed on us, then to his brother. “Kaso?”
“Brother, glad you could join us–—
“Us? The fuck is going on here, Kaso?”
Kaso rolled his eyes. “Thanksgiving dinner. That’s what’s going on. Stop being a neanderthal and say hello to our guests.”
Andreas’s eyes widened. “Why are the Virtues our guests, Kaso?”
“A peace offering, dear brother, since someone ruined my perfectly planned capture of that dickbag—”
“For the hundredth time, you didn’t tell me that was the plan, Kaso!”
“Ah, so you lie to your brother as well?” I nodded my head in Chanel’s direction. “Not just pretty girls.”
“I didn’t lie to Chanel.” He turned to glare at his brother. “Andreas made a liar out of me.”
“How was I supposed to know you were ready to throw in the towel and let them have him?”
“How could you believe Christopher when he said I hadn’t given him the potion?”
Andreas’s cheeks flushed. “I’m not doing this with you in front of them.”
“You owe them an apology.”
“Like hell I do—”
“You owe me an apology, in front of Chanel—I mean, them.”
Andreas narrowed his eyes on Kaso. “Fine, Brother. I am sorry that I unintentionally foiled your plan to prove to the Virtues that we’re not the bad guys they think we are. Your turn.”
“You hear that?” Kaso looked to us with a cheeky grin. He turned back to his brother. “Thank you. I’m sorry I failed to fully communicate my plan.”
Andreas nodded. “Good. We done here?”
“Great, let’s go,” I said and grabbed Chanel’s arm.
“Whoa, whoa. Not so fast, hot heads.” Kaso pointed to me, then to Andreas. “The four of us are gonna sit here and share a nice Thanksgiving meal together and make peace. And while we’re at it, we’ll make a plan together on how to exile Christopher—”
“Like hell!” Andreas and I yelled at the same time.
We both turned to glare at each other.
“The Virtues don’t need a couple infant fangers helping us do our job. They need to get out of our way or become our job.”
“I’m not ruining our entirely well-built empire over . . . them,” Andreas snapped. He gestured towards us but held Kaso’s glare. “I’m outta here.”
He turned on his heels and stormed out the same door he came in, in the blink of an eye.
“I beg your fucking pardon!” I yelled as I pushed my wings out and flew after Andreas. I caught up to him just around the corner. I landed right in front of him, our bodies inches apart. “You don’t get to walk away from the Virtues.”
“Go’head . . . Talk ‘bout ya’selves in the third person, see if I care, but I’m a free man and I can walk anywhere I want—”
“Physical violence is a straight shot to exile, an immediate Third Strike—”
“You hit me! You attacked me.” He leaned into me, his breath hot on my face and smelling like chocolate. “If you remember correctly, Barbie, I never touched you.”
I growled and shoved him with both hands.
“See?” He grinned but it was not in humor. “You’ve got a real aggression problem, you know that? How is it you’re allowed to be physically violent with me, an innocent, without threat of exile?”
I smirked. “If I get exiled, it’s back to the Heavenly plane, so go ahead, tempt me.”
“You self-righteous—”
“Careful, I’m an angel—”
“Yeah, from Hell,” he snarled.
I crossed my arms over my chest again to stop myself from hitting him once more. “Maybe you want to rethink antagonizing me then, eh?”
“Now look here lady—”
“No, you look.” I pointed one finger in his face.
“Cut the shit. I know you two have danced the line of the law, and I’m sure if I look long enough, I’ll find an offense worthy of exile.
So how about you keep yourself and your brother out of our way from now on and we won’t call Riven to drag you back to Fourth. Got it?”
Andreas chuckled softly. “Go ahead. Call Riven.”
“Calling my bluff?” I nodded. “Fine. Then I’ll be sure to call Riven’s uncle—Gee, what’s his name again?”
Andreas’s face turned snow-white.
I nodded with a smirk. “You’ve been warned. Back off.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I just spun on my toes and charged back inside the banquet hall. My rage was boiling so high that it took me half of the walk back to the table to realize what I was seeing.
Kaso and Chanel.
Making out on the table.
Behind me, Andreas cursed. “We have got to put a stop to this.”
I shook my head and cracked my knuckles. “At least we can agree on that.”