Chapter 16 #2
“No, please, enlighten me,” I shouted over the roar of morning rush hour down below.
“I only went to that pub with him to try and hook you up with another guy so you’d stop obsessing over Kaso.”
“That’s legit messed up,” I snapped.
“I was trying to help you!”
“By manipulating me?”
She groaned. “I know how your mind works. You either don’t like a guy at all or obsess over them. There’s no in-between. Usually the way I help you out of that is to distract you—”
“So when you decide to team up with Andreas to manipulate me it’s okay, but when I give Kaso a chance to prove he’s not a bad guy, you flip a shit on me?” I glanced over at her. “How’s that fair?”
“I wasn’t trying to manipulate you.”
“To-may-to, to-mah-to—”
“My intentions were innocent—”
“I’ll believe that when you admit you messed up.
” I spun around to fly backwards so I could speak to her face-to-face.
“I managed to stop myself from hooking up with Kaso, despite wanting to. I was dealing with my own infatuation as best I could. Whereas you didn’t even like Andreas but fell victim to proximity and lust. Your lack of self-control is not my fault. ”
“Chanel—”
“No, Regan. This is on you.” I pointed at her. “The audacity to still throw attitude at me this morning because I spent the night with Kaso after that bathroom scene at the pub and the fact that you also clearly spent the night with Andreas is wild, dudette. Wild.”
She opened her mouth, then shut it.
I shook my head. “Maybe you should take the rest of this flight for some self-reflection.”
With that, I spun around and flew as fast as I could.
New York City passed beneath me in a blur.
The morning commute for the humans was always chaotic, but at least the Serenity was basically entirely human at this hour.
The flight across Central Park was a breath of relief, a nice chunk of peace within the madness.
From above the building I spotted Zuriel standing in the middle of the rooftop terrace with his arms crossed over his chest. My stomach sank. I swallowed a rush of nerves, then landed about ten feet in front of him. Regan touched down a second after me.
Silence.
Regan and I just stood there side-by-side, not speaking to him or each other. My anger toward my cousin was pushed to the back burner, though. It had to be with that look on Zuriel’s face.
He just glared at us.
My adrenaline spiked, sending shivers down my spine. I took a deep breath, then exhaled. “We messed up. We’ve been a little off our game, but we’re working on it.”
Silence.
Those sapphire-blue eyes just shot lasers at us.
Regan shifted her weight around and cleared her throat. “We won’t let last night happen again. We won’t let a target run rampant in our own city.”
My stomach rolled just thinking about what Christopher might’ve done while I was with Kaso. “How much damage was there?”
“How many were hurt?”
Zuriel pursed his lips, then sighed and dropped his arms, putting his hands on his hips. “I lied. Christopher wasn’t here.”
“WHAT?” Regan and I shouted in perfect unison.
He shrugged one shoulder. “He could have been though.”
My breath left me in a rush. I bent over and braced my hands on my knees. “Seriously? Not cool.”
“We deserved that,” Regan spoke softly.
Zuriel nodded. “While Christopher wasn’t here last night, there were plenty of other incidents with local strikers—including one brand-new third striker. I called both of you several times with no response, so I went looking to make sure you weren’t dead in a ditch somewhere . . . ”
My pulse skipped. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes,” Zuriel said with a little smirk in my direction. “Imagine my surprise to find not one but both of my Virtues in bed with the mafia. Literally.”
Regan cursed. “I can explain—”
“I don’t care.” He shook his head. “The point here is you got lucky nothing happened last night that Bodhi couldn’t handle.
In fact, it was good practice for her. She hasn’t been out in the field in a while.
She needed to get back in there. So, I’m going to let this slide with only a warning.
I could have stormed into that bougie apartment and ripped you out of bed, but I didn’t. ”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
He pointed at us. “Get your shit together. Now.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir—”
“I won’t warn you again,” he growled.
“We understand, sir,” Regan said quickly. “We’re sorry.”
“Is there anything you need us to do?”
“Besides catching Christopher and exiling him?” Zuriel’s eyebrows raised. He waited for us to nod, then he narrowed his eyes. “Actually, yeah. Take Bodhi with you until I say otherwise.”
Regan and I gasped. Bodhi hadn’t come with us on a hunt in centuries. Usually, she stuck to staying in the infirmary.
But Zuriel was gone.
There was a beat of silence, and then Rey said, “You were right. I was being a hypocrite.”
I sighed. “I was being a bit of an asshole.”
“Chanel,” she paused and turned toward me, her blue eyes glassy, “I swear wasn’t trying to manipulate you—”
“I know. You were trying to distract me with a safer boytoy.” I turned to fully face her. “Andreas didn’t want us together either.”
She groaned and scrubbed her face roughly. “I don’t know what happened to me last night.”
“The glasses. It just does it for you.”
She nodded. “Like the suspenders for you.”
We both snort-laughed at the same time, breaking any residual tension between us.
I leapt forward and tackled her with a hug. “I hate being mad at you.”
“It gives me the shits,” she said with a laugh over my shoulder, still holding me tight.
I chuckled and pulled back. “I’m actually so relieved you also fell for them so it wasn’t just me—”
“CHANEL!” But she threw her head back and laughed.
“So . . .” Regan wagged her eyebrows. “Was he as good as you dreamed he’d be?”
I groaned and gestured to myself. “I left in his shirt to meet Zuriel. That should be an indication.”
She gave me a high five.
“Andreas?”
“Damn pleasant surprise, if I’m being honest.”
We high-fived again.
“It’s really too bad we can’t continue with them.” Regan scowled. “What are the odds we find another set of hot brothers who can handle us?”
I pursed my lips. “Since we cannot have Cheese and Crackers ever again, I’m gonna be optimistic and say our odds are good.”
“You’ve always been the positive one of the two of us.”
I smiled. “Well, I’m positive this is going to be difficult . . . staying away from him now.”
“We’re Virtues. We can’t be hooking up with criminals. We gotta quit cold turkey.”
I grimaced but nodded. “Cold turkey effective immediately. Before we’re ruined.”