31. The Boogeyman
Chapter 31
The Boogeyman
T he pitch-black room suddenly burst with colorful light, wisps of it floating and fleeing in all directions. Then a second later, a swirling vortex took hold of the room, hitting the five of us with hurricane-strength winds.
Jo stood with her hip out and arm up, hair airborne and the summoning rock levitating above her palm. Her beautiful purple magic exploded in strobe-like bursts all around her, and the power throbbed and took her shape with a low buzzing hum. I’d never seen anything like it.
Totally badass.
Her once-dark eyes beamed a brilliant amber as she murmured something under her breath. It wasn’t English, that much I knew. Her flame-like irises, two stars caught in a sea of black, glided over to find mine. Our gazes locked before a shuddering pulse hit the air and a bright red symbol formed on the ground in front of us.
Perfect moment for some twelve-year-old caught in a woman’s body to say “I think it’s witchcraft!” but I managed to keep that little bit of crazy to myself.
Sensation slithered all over my body, stroking my flesh to attention—the ominous feeling of danger. I’d know that feeling anywhere. It woke the dormant power inside, rousing it from its slumber, and an answering throb echoed in my chest. Almost as if my power was responding to hers. Almost as if her power was a perfect match for mine.
The steady hum of magic intensified, drowning out every other sound, and then a figure flickered in and out of existence in front of us. The huge shape, one I’d unfortunately know anywhere, made my blood run cold.
He always did.
Eyes full of homicidal rage shined in darkness, and Eros was brought to his knees. A sound similar to a grunt but more animal than human left his throat. The air was thicker, entrenched in malice, and it seized me, body and soul, before I got my head in the game.
This was what we planned every day since Eros appeared, a real deadly pain in our asses and the ghost of a tragic past. I couldn’t let fear take hold of me, not now. Eros’s horrible bitch-ass life ended today , and I wouldn’t let him slither away like he did last time.
I was a different woman today than I was yesterday. Okay, not really, but I’d been solely responsible for destroying an evil dude’s laboratory. That meant I was better prepared to take charge and burn shit to the ground.
It was clear by the strained muscles along the elusive Dark Fae’s neck that he couldn’t move at all. All he had was his mouth and eyes from the way he ground his jaw and set his angry gaze on every person nearby, his neck never joining him in the look. Eros’s arms were pinned to his sides, his body held hostage to a power unseen, prisoner to a gleaming red symbol on the floor, and the powerful Dark Fae struggled to get himself free.
But whatever Jo did, it worked. Sure, it was a little anticlimactic for all the hell this bastard put us through; that it only took a bit of hair and a summoning stone—oh, and a random-ass femme fatale—to get him bound and at our mercy, but I wasn’t complaining. As someone who’d won a few times on sheer luck and circumstance, it seemed fitting that’d be the way one of my greatest adversaries was brought down.
In the V’s-a-lucky-bitch style.
Still, you had to marvel at the irony of it all; how odd it was that the same way he’d nearly overcome me with magical binding would inevitably be the very same way he was later done in.
Pure fucking poetry.
I hadn’t sensed her move, but Jo was suddenly leaning in close from behind me, hands touching my shoulders. The heat she exuded soaked into my skin, and I shivered without intending to.
Must ask about her super cool magic and what it can do later.
Her sultry voice came next, the tantalizing slide of her hands down my back stealing my focus for a second. “I’m going to lend you my power so you can channel yours. All I need from you is to focus on what it is you want from him—the answers you need. Who he works for, why they sent him, who else is involved. Keep that in your head. Let it guide you,” she whispered into my ear, her seductive voice prickling the senses. “We don’t have long, but you’re a smart girl. You can do this better than any of the assholes in here.”
I thought girls wanted pretty things said to them. To be lavished with gifts, told they were beautiful, and taken on midnight strolls around a beautiful moon-lit lake. Shit like that. But this chick was won over by someone saying I was smart and capable of evil-assassin-who-lived-too-long destruction. That got my pulse going.
I moistened my lips and closed my eyes, ignoring the urge to ask her to go on.
Say more about me being smart …
Sloan appeared to shift in discomfort, jaw working, but I smiled at him to put his nerves at ease. And when Phillip took a step my direction, his furious eyes pinned to the woman presently hovering close to my ear like the devil on my shoulder, I quickly cut my eyes over to him.
“I’m fine,” I promised them, voice softer than I meant for it to sound.
Shit, this woman totally throws me off.
Phillip’s jaw clenched and unclenched, every muscle in his body flexed and visible, even his hands were wrapped into fists, but he backed off. His eyes never left me, but the Austrian didn’t try to intervene either, so I sighed a thankful breath I wouldn’t have to fight him while going up against the man of my nightmares.
The low growl of Eros resounded within the room, and my gaze was drawn back over to the trapped killer. His blazing eyes narrowed, the mask he wore still in place, and it gave me a powerful feeling to watch someone so formidable imprisoned by their own arrogance. Lifting my chin, I walked forward with Jo trailing me, her hands still touching my back. The caress of her magic continued with every step I took until I was inches from Eros.
Taking a knee, I stared the bastard right in the eyes, then yanked the mask down to expose the corrupt face beneath—the one I’d only seen once before.
Like I remembered, Eros had hints of a great beauty in his features, but they were corroded by evil. A pure sludge-like darkness oozed from his pores. A gruesome scar separated his top and bottom lip, and several old wounds marred his face. But the pretty eyes, strong jaw, and full lips didn’t totally fit the Boogeyman under my bed .
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 hand was 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.
The air shuddered and time moved again.
Before anyone could reach him, Eros’s eyes widened and the light in them died and dulled. Blood spilled out of his body, pouring onto the floor. At least, I thought it was blood. The color was far from human. It was pale-blue with a pearlescent sheen, and it gave me the heebie-jeebies. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed the color the last time I got a hit on the asshole with a few arrows, but it was hard to miss with it pouring like a fountain out of him.
Phillip’s eyes shot over to me before slowly sliding down to Blood Slayer in my grip. He lifted his tattooed hands in confusion, and then stared at me for answers. Answers he already knew.
Sloan was quickly yanking me away from Eros’s reach, but the Hunter couldn’t say anything before the Dark Fae collapsed in on himself, body suddenly consumed in magical blue flames. Then the bastard who’d haunted my nights was gone, the blood on the floor the only evidence he’d ever been there.
It was silent for a few moments before Cassius sighed loudly, combing through his hair with a smile. “Oh, good. I was really worried there for a second we were all done for.” Our group’s eyes were on him, and his Adam’s apple bobbed, eyes flicking from one person to the next. “What? I’m just saying what we were all thinking. But also, um, what just happened?”
Jo was near me, her face removed of all emotion. “You can move through pauses of time?”
“Say what?” Cash squealed, his comical reaction lost on me when Jo’s words registered almost as accusatory. “You mean to say she’s a Time Mover?”
Time Mover? Guess whoever made their names didn’t have a great imagination. A high schooler could’ve come up with something better.
Suddenly, my body was made of jelly, and my legs gave out from under me. Sloan moved like a flash of lightning and saved me from an ill-timed “Well, hello there!” with the floor.
“V needs rest,” was all the Brit said before scooping me up into his arms in a princess hold that instantly brought color to my cheeks.
I didn’t need to look over to know Phillip’s face and body were probably saying a lot of angry and homicidal things right about now, but I also didn’t have the strength to do anything about it. It was a chore just to hold my head up, and honestly, I really didn’t. I let it fall onto Sloan’s shoulder after a few seconds of trying.
I hated how much my heart responded to the beautiful Brit’s touch, and how a little part of me wished it’d never stop. Wished he’d hold me in his arms forever so I could breathe in his masculine scent. Let the alluring fragrance wash over my body and paint me in Sloan’s aroma.
Would I smell like him after this? Something about that gave me butterflies in my stomach, and I combatted my urges for one while the other looked on, unaware my head was cheating on him already.
Fuck.
It was another reminder that now that the nasty business of killing Eros was finished, another beyond uncomfortable moment was in my near future.
But I’d heed Jo’s words. I’d live messy and apologize to no one. Okay, so I’d apologize, but only for being a confused mess of a woman who was probably putting a spell on everyone, definitely a shameless sex addict, and apparently attracted to anyone with a pulse these days.
I was hit out of nowhere with a dizziness rivaling one of those playground merry-go-rounds from my childhood. You know, the ones that probably killed and dismembered children in the eighties.
Sloan’s hold on me constricted before the world faded away to darkness, and I sunk into the deep abyss of sleep.