11. I Hate You
Chapter 11
I Hate You
A fter confirming the location and about fifteen active vampires plus the elder leader, it barely took the other three an hour to figure out a plan of attack.
Sungho turned out to be an incredible asset. He even spared time to teach me the distinct difference between scents—something I hadn’t been taught by anyone yet.
Despite our weirdly ominous introduction, Sungho turned out to be a joy to talk to. He reminded me ironically of the Japanese term “tsundere.” He came across cold and apathetic, but his actions and gentle regard spoke differently. Like Mia, I was captivated by the dissonance of his character and wanted to get to the bottom of who Sungho truly was.
Nigel texted that he and the pack would be arriving within the hour, so it was decided we’d attack before nightfall. If we killed off the elder first, we’d have less trouble wiping out the rest of the coven.
Vampires in strong clans like these were inherently linked with their elders. These type of bloodline vampires were weakened temporarily when their elders were defeated. Typically, there was a period of vulnerability when the next elder was being chosen by the blood connection within the coven. It took anywhere from minutes to days for the power from the previous elder to find a worthy vampire in the clan .
Under normal Hunter circumstances, this offered us a great advantage. But we weren’t any normal Hunter crew. Still, taking every advantage available to us was good vampire hunting and meant it wouldn’t get messy. Although, truth be told, I needed it a little messy right now. Between my head and body pining after Sloan and my heart aching for Phillip, it’d be a welcomed distraction.
“Sloan and V will take the elder out, and then the rest of us will wipe out the other fifteen. If we play our cards right, we’ll be home in time for dinner,” Kris announced, smirking. “This number shouldn’t be any trouble for our group.”
With a nod, the group broke apart, but Nigel lingered by my side. I offered him a look before his eyes dodged over to the front door. “Can I talk to you?”
“Room for one more?” Sloan asked when I struggled to agree.
Nigel made a sound in his chest before nodding. “I need to speak with both of you, so let’s go outside for a bit.”
After following the two men out, some distance from the house and away from prying ears, Nigel gave the area a short onceover before sighing. “I smell it on you. Did you run into trouble earlier?”
What a fucking nose this dude has on him.
“I thought you might ask,” Sloan said, crossing his arms and offering me a small look. “We did, but it’s handled.”
“What’s to say this mission isn’t a trap? There’s someone in the Organization ballsy enough to send a damn assassin wherever she goes, and you’re not the least bit worried about this little coven invasion?”
Sloan’s body tensed under the attack of Nigel’s words, but he didn’t seem at all surprised by it. “It may not matter soon, but trust me when I say that I’ve prepared for every possible outcome with this mission, and I don’t take her safety lightly.”
What wouldn’t matter soon?
But I’d had enough of the back and forth where both acted like I wasn’t party to the conversation or capable of speaking for myself. Mostly Nigel. Though, it wasn’t new he came across overprotective. It didn’t used to bother me. I used to think that genuine care looked that way, but Phillip and Sloan proved that I was plenty powerful on my own. Nigel needed to trust me more, and I wasn’t sure if he ever would.
Crossing my arms, I cut in, “I don’t need anyone protecting me, Nigel. Believe it or not, I’m the reason we survived today.”
I didn’t relish gloating about a kill like the one today since it was totally by accident we won, but someone had to put Nigel in his place. Maybe this time he’d listen to reason. Maybe one day we could overcome this obvious flaw in his personality.
Nigel’s lip twitched and his jaw tensed perceivably. “You?”
Smirking, I bumped my arm into Nigel’s and his soft smile made my heart pound.
Feelings I’d long thought buried came clamoring into my throat, and the telling blush in my cheeks nearly gave me away. Nigel would always be my first boyfriend, and no matter how much of an overbearing jerk he’d been, he was still the Nigel I’d drooled and dreamed about for years.
Sloan’s hair caught a gust of wind, and the light hit him a second later when the brilliant sun peeked out of the cloud cover. “She’s telling the truth. As embarrassing as it is to admit it, her skills were what saved us on several occasions. ”
By skills he meant this uncontrollable power living inside me, but whatever.
The werewolf’s olive complexion seemed to glow in the unfettered sunlight, and it made me miss him. Miss the playful banter we shared for all those months we dated. Miss the way he smiled at me. Miss the ease of our relationship, even if it was more of a friendship in the end than a passionate love affair. It’d been a comfortable place to go when Grams and Hunter life weighed heavily on my shoulders. His arms were welcoming, his smiles always a comfort, and I’d missed it honestly, enough to make my eyes drop to the thickly-corded arms crossed over the Shifter’s chest.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” I finally stated softly, cheeky grin on my face.
Before I could continue, the hair on my body stood on end and an electric jolt took my spine captive. Strangely, the sensation of someone nearby caused me equal parts alarm and excitement. With my eyes shooting from Nigel to where I felt the bizarre presence, I immediately discerned a familiar figure.
Outfitted in a vest with an obnoxious looking sword strapped to his back, the newcomer was leaned up against a 1967 Ford Mustang.
When did that get there?
“That’s my lass. Telling off some overconfident dog in the middle of the road,” came his sultry Austrian accent, and I’d never wished to hear a voice more in all my life.
For a second, I hesitated. The Siren took the shape of Grams, and it wouldn’t be far off for it to figure Phillip was a good sell for the next one. Clutching my dagger, the two men around me stiffened at the sound of his distinctive voice. Every movement the gorgeous bastard made was entirely Phillip, but I didn’t let my guard down for a single second. Still, Sloan didn’t move to attack or remove a weapon. Only Nigel seemed ready to go for the man’s throat.
“Took you long enough, mate,” Sloan finally said, his happy grin making my grip loosen on the dagger I held. “Nearly started the party without you.”
“We can’t have that. I’ve been itching to use Blood Slayer on some deserving vampires.”
Lamest sword name, ever.
As if he hadn’t escaped death, then gone and gotten himself blacklisted by the Organization, Phillip strolled over with his lips tilted. “And no, you can’t use it. I know how eager you’ve been to get your petal-soft hands on Blood Slayer, V.”
The sexual innuendo wasn’t lost on me, but all I felt in that moment was intense relief. Phillip was back. He was home. I’d never tell him how much I’d missed the bastard, but the feelings of it rushed my throat and made it impossible to speak.
Nigel growled and blocked Phil’s path to me. “You have some fucking nerve.”
“I’d get out of my way, dog, before I forget why I let you stay in the first place,” Phillip warned hotly before his enchanting ocean eyes slid over to me. “I traveled a long way to be here, and you’re no obstacle at all. Don’t test me.”
I hadn’t really seen Phillip bare his teeth, ready to tear out Nigel’s throat, quite like this before. It wasn’t how I expected our reunion to go. I’d had enough pettiness to last a lifetime, and these two never let up .
Before anything else could be said, I landed a blow on Phillip so hard that he was sent vaulting back. Nigel’s eyes widened in astonishment, and even Sloan seemed to be surprised by the turn of events, but neither of them intervened. Nor would they dare.
Phillip deserved nothing less.
In a swift second, I hovered over the jerk who’d toyed with my heart for months. Kneeling, I eyed the Austrian with what was likely a vicious gleam in my eyes. I fought back the urge to fuse our lips together in a violent kiss, one that I’d dreamed about for weeks, and opted for a sneer instead. “You have some fucking nerve,” I repeated Nigel’s words, voice bottoming out.
Phillip’s gentle smile nearly stole my rage, but I held it together. I wouldn’t forgive him so easily, and I’d make him pay for the nights I mourned him—when I didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. All the days I spent drowning in the guilt for leaving him behind.
“I know you hate me. I deserve it. But, pet, I’ve missed you.”
Throat tight, I swallowed again and again to keep from crying, body frozen in the crouch I’d taken. “You’re right.” I stood to my full height, leering down at the bastard, and Phillip made no move to get up. “I do hate you.” Turning around, I left him on the asphalt where he’d landed and headed towards the house without ever looking back at him.
I hate you mostly because I love you so much.
“Isn’t it risky for this asshole to join back up with us and attend one of our missions?” I asked Sloan, after the three men I’d abandoned returned to the house. Phillip didn’t get so much as a glance from me, and I could practically hear his amusement every time I ignored him.
Within seconds of our abrupt return, the rest of the group fought for space in the living room to play nosy neighbor to our less-than-welcoming reception of Phillip. Sloan had gently ushered me to a seat and served me a much-needed cup of coffee. His calming energy helped drag out some of mine.
It didn’t go unnoticed to anyone how affectionate the Brit’s smile was towards me, or how often his hand seemed to find purchase on my body—always touching or caressing within perfect view of everyone else. The least amused was Phillip, but very few would know any better. To an outsider, his usual assholery was plain as day. But to Sloan and I, it was evident in the barely-there twitch in his neck he wasn’t happy about how often Sloan touched me.
Serves him right.
“Ever heard of hiding in plain sight, V?” the asshole Hunter remarked, chuckling in a way that made my heart miss a beat.
But the Austrian’s eyes were stone-cold and calculating my every emotion, tearing apart my poorly constructed facade of nonchalance, determining what was really in my heart, and it was the entire reason I couldn’t let our eyes meet.
He’d know how much I missed him; know how much I wanted to hate him but never could. Know how my heart yearned for him, and how his return had settled the acidic burn living in my chest every day since I abandoned him to his fate. But I’d never let him see that in my eyes. I wouldn’t let the douche-canoe off that easy. I wanted to break him, even just a little, for how conflicted he made me. For the fact that now I was caught between two, all because he left and made room for someone else.
Eyes on Sloan, I touched the gently smiling Hunter’s hand in full view of Phillip, making sure that nothing about my hand over Sloan’s was hesitant or lacking affection. It was a bitchy move, but one the asshole deserved.
Sloan was my strength, had been for weeks, and he eased the trembling in my body with a single touch of his hand over mine. Calmed a rampant pulse sure to destroy me. Soothed an erratic heart, which suffered every time I looked at Phil. From the way his hand wrapped around mine and his azure eyes glinted, the Brit knew it all.
Thank Buddha for this sweet, gentle man...
After sneaking a glance at the Austrian Hunter, it was evident the move had done its job. Phil’s eyes had a dangerous glint in them and his jaw was impossibly clenched, just seconds from breaking teeth.
“Can you relay to the bastard in the corner that I don’t need his snarky-ass response? You’re plenty capable of answering a question I asked you, Sloan.”
Sloan’s mouth tilted, his face expressing how little it bothered him to be used to stoke the other Hunter’s flames. Squeezing his hand and letting my fingers cling to his, I silently apologized to the other Hunter, wishing my desire to punish Phillip didn’t mean tossing the Brit in the middle. His answering smile suggested he wasn’t the least bit angry about it, and the gorgeous man even added a small kiss to the top of my hand for extra oomph.
I owe you one, Sloan, you fucking saint.
Sungho, who I was told knew about our vendetta against the Organization and could be trusted, sat in an armchair nearby, smirking. I caught the smile when I peeked at him through my peripheral. The rest of the group was huddled in a corner, watching the car crash that was my love life in real time like it was a trashy reality show. They didn’t even try to hide their gross interest in what I’d do next to systematically destroy the Austrian for everything he’d done to me.
The bastards were eating it all up.
I hadn’t been open about what I was feeling, but most picked up on the tumultuous relationship I had with Phillip and how attracted I was to Sloan at the same time. At the end of the day, I was a girl wrought with a broken heart, and I didn’t do a good job of hiding it.
Tiff and Mia were joined at the hip, and their whispered conversation didn’t go unnoticed by me. “I love this new feisty V. She’s all bite and no bark. The asshole deserves every bit of poison she spits at him,” Tiff conveyed with a wistful huff.
Mia, nodding, aimed a solemn stare my direction. “I have a few tonics we can slip into his drink.”
Claude outright cackled. “Poor dude wouldn’t last long against one of Mia’s tonics. Not even an all-powerful, vampire hunting monster like him can evade its effects.”
As if none of it affected him, Phillip kept his focus on Sloan and me. He caught my sideways glance, and I internally cursed my curiosity. The lift in his mouth suggested Phillip knew all too well I was struggling.
Then it dawned on me. “There’s a plan, isn’t there?”
Phillip made a sound in his throat, clearly approving. “There is.”
“The mission is a ruse,” I voiced slowly, piecing it all together .
Sloan nodded emphatically. “Kris, Sungho, and the pack will go after the coven like initially planned. But while they do, we’ll take a little trip to one of the Organization’s facilities.”
“For what?”
Sloan shook his head, indicating he wouldn’t share what our true agenda was in front of anyone else. Which meant that whatever we were about to do was going to get us in major trouble. By my deduction, it was likely to do with what resided in my blood.
So this is going to be fun.
My lips lifted for the first time since Phillip arrived. “So, we’re about to do something very naughty. I’m game.”
Phillip rose from his seat and then took a knee in front of me. Without realizing it, my eyes found his and I couldn’t look anywhere else. An expression I’d never seen on him distorted the lines of his face, and it made it difficult to stay angry at him.
“Once we do this, there’s no going back,” he stated, voice rattling deeply. “Are you ready, lass?”
You could cut the tension in the room with a knife, but the second our eyes met, there wasn’t any other answer I could give him. All the rage and bitterness melted away when his gorgeous face came into view.
“Yes,” I whispered, closing my eyes when Phillip cradled my jaw in his palm, “I’m ready.”