Chapter 18 Showdown
Showdown
JAVIER
While Archie has always been the most laid back of our band of bros, I’m definitely the calmest in nearly every situation.
My bird can be angry and vengeful—don’t get me wrong—but together, we’re also used to engaging in more long-term, cerebral, or social warfare.
That’s a common quirk of phoenixes because we’re rare, often from ancient and wealthy families, and trained from birth that setting someone on fire is the last resort to accomplish your revenge.
It’s lucky for us because all the shorter tempers are going to lose their shit.
“Mina, it’s crass to discuss that sort of thing in public,” I interject as I rake my eyes up and down her and Rogue’s former lover.
My gaze flicks briefly to the other Sickos, then back to the first two as if they don’t matter in the slightest. “Even here, in demon territory, you’re still well beneath the acceptable standards of engagement.
I can’t tell you how glad I was to hear you’d defected to a more… appropriate team and social circle.”
Drawing on the teachings of my parents, I make sure the woman knows I’m looking down my nose at her metaphorically, if not physically.
Her eyes flare with anger, and I smirk as the realization hits the nymph next to her.
Winnie flushes bright red and looks at the ground, the condescension hitting the mark perfectly for her.
Rogue’s ex-booty call won’t be a problem now, though her new ego feed is fuming so hard she might as well have steam coming out of her ears.
I haven’t struck the finishing blow for Mina; no, her delusional narcissism is far too deeply ingrained for one hit to take her down.
“Look, we have places to be,” Rogue says, studying her nails with an affected boredom.
It’s not real; the emotions flooding our bond tell the real story.
She’s not over the betrayal of her ex-bestie yet, but she sure as hell will not let that bitch know the wound is still raw.
“Get out of our way or we’ll move you ourselves. ”
“You can’t do that,” Mina sneers. “If you do anything to harm me, especially in public, I’ll make sure the entire community knows and since I’m much more popular and talented than you, you won’t be able to find a fan with a microscope.
Your career in the Derby will be over, and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop me. ”
Angelo growls, his demonic tail flicking angrily as he pushes to the front of the group.
“Watch it, witch. You’re on my land, in Gemini territory, and Damon and I are the rightful heirs to the Gemini corporation.
Not only do you have powers comparable to TV psychics in this world, but you’re insulting our mate. ”
Mina’s eyes widen as she looks at our girl.
Rogue looks up from her pretend boredom and shrugs.
“What can I say, Mina? You left, and the team has beaten every opponent, I found people who love me, and I’m building my circle of people who aren’t using me to prop up their neuroses.
Unlike you, I don’t need to use fear and intimidation to get people to hang out with me—or to fuck me. ”
That’s our mate—look at her go.
My bird stretches inside of me, spreading his wings as pride ruffles over my soul.
He’s preening for her, and it makes me grin widely on the outside.
“No, you don’t, dragonfly. We’re all drawn to you because of your good qualities, not because we’re scared you’ll use the internet to trash our reputations. ”
“As if anyone could trash some of you anymore than you have yourself,” Mina mutters bitterly. “Especially the Kellys.”
Now she’s got Reb’s attention, and that’s probably the absolute worst thing she could have done.
Not only has he been in love with his step-sister since he was a kid, but he’s the least predictable and has the shortest temper of the bunch.
The Unseelie Fae practically glows with energy as his magic roars to the surface.
His eyes narrowed, Rebel stalks closer to Mina and her now terrified looking brethren.
“Oh, Wilhelmina. Tsk, tsk. Never satisfied with landing your blows and fucking off before the tide turns.” His head tilts as his posture changes to that of a predator—cold, calculating, and unforgiving in the hunt for its prey.
“I never liked you—not once in the years you were Rogue’s supposed friend.
Unlike her, I could practically smell the rot inside of you.
But I let it go, because she felt accepted and happy. But now?”
The smile that comes over his face is bone-chilling, even for him.
Rebel’s wings unfurl, dark and forbidding against the fiery background of Luca’s fake Hellscape.
He looks like a punk rock version of Lucifer, despite being Fae rather than a demon.
Within seconds, his skin goes from the normal pale color to a blue that looks a little like the Avatar aliens.
I haven’t seen him do this in the entire time I’ve known him, but Rogue doesn’t look surprised.
She doesn’t even flinch when his nails grow to almost talon sized and his teeth get sharp as fuck.
Unseelie can be fucking terrifying, and I had no idea just how much he and Rogue keep to themselves about their true forms.
Damon and Angelo fan out, their demon features menacing as they glare at the Sickos behind Mina.
The easygoing lion groans and gives Winnie a withering look before he drops his tail and fangs to join in.
Everyone is getting ready for battle, but I look at our girl carefully.
She’s unusually quiet, especially with Rebel ready to lose his shit in public.
Normally she’d be coaxing him back from the edge to keep their Society mentors from finding out they’re using their extremely dangerous powers in ways not beneficial to supe-kind.
“Dragonfly,” I murmur to her. “Are you going to let this happen? Here? Now?”
She sighs heavily, and the emotions in our bond intensify. It’s going to be a while before she heals, but it’ll never happen if this chick doesn’t stop sticking her metaphorical fingers in the wound. “I don’t know, Javi. How could it possibly be worse than it is now?”
I arch a brow. “Well, your bosses will be pretty pissed if you let him kill them, especially if we all help him.”
Waving her hand, Rogue makes an unconcerned face. “I can deal with that.”
Fuck. Her pain goes deeper than I knew, and the expressions on everyone but Reb’s faces say they just had the same realization.
“You can’t sanction this! I know they put limits on you two freaks; you’ve told me more than once, you porky pixie!”
My jaw drops when the witch resorts to body shaming.
There’s no way she doesn’t know where that wound is after being friends with Rogue for so long.
Graciella tortured Rogue over being curvy and while she’s more muscled and solid than she is overweight, it plagued her all throughout middle and high school.
Reb used to burn off his fury about it in fight clubs and races when we were younger.
Derby has helped her in so many ways, which is why we’ve all been supporting her since she started skating with the Bombers.
This is a ‘sink your battleship’ moment emotionally, and I have no idea what’s going to happen now.
After all, Reb can strike out at Mina when he couldn’t with his adoptive mother.
“We’re not pixies,” Rebel snarls as his wings flap slowly. He’s not spreading the paralytic yet, which is good, but he’s awfully close to losing his grip. “You’re well aware of that fact, spell sucker.”
“Potay-toe, poe-tah-to,” the witch replies as her lips curl up. “Trash is trash. That’s why your parents had to buy you like hookers.”
Oh, fuckitty, fuck fuck… not the trafficking thing, too.
As if summoned by the cruel words, Rogue’s wings pop free of her shoulders and the iridescent tattoos appear on her body as her humanoid form fades.
Her posture goes rigid and the gorgeous, sparkling dragonfly wings on her back flutter quickly with her rising anger.
I watch in awe, as even in this fluffy dress, my mate looks fierce as fuck.
There’s not a single hint of her inner turmoil on the outside as she faces off with the woman who seems determined to keep stabbing the dagger into her back at every turn.
Before she and Reb can attack, the selkie captain of the Sickos steps forward and shakes her head. “No. We’re not doing this here, Mina. There are things we need to take care of that are more important than your grudge with your former captain.”
“But I—”
Beatrice Janssen stomps in front of Mina, and her teammates follow.
That puts them between the ex-friend and us, which is very strategic for heading off the fury of my Fae family members.
I jerk my chin at Archie, who looks unsure but nods back.
We have to get them out of here while BJ is trying to wrangle the deranged chick she brought on board.
After I get Angelo and Damon’s attention, we split two per fuming Fae.
Archie and Damon take Rogue, grabbing her arms to drag her away while Angelo and I capture Rebel.
There’s a lot of cursing and snarling as they’re trying to break loose, but it’s not optional.
If they’d done what they were about to, it would have destroyed all our covert info gathering and completely fucked any hope of figuring out what the hell is going on with the larger community.
I agree with anger, and I’d like to slit Mina’s throat for the hurt I felt coming from my mate, but now just is not the time or place.
Reb is fighting us, but Ang and I finally get him far enough away that we can let go.
He moves to push past us, but Angelo stops him with a ring of fire that surrounds us.
My bird fluffs its feathers internally, but it doesn’t hurt me, so I let it go.
“Rebel, you can’t. We all want to, but you know we can’t. At least, not yet.”
“It’s the same with Luca and Lola, you know,” Angelo says, shrugging. “We’d love to fix their bullshit and make the organization less… unsavory. But it has to be the right time, and that hasn’t come yet.”
“Might soon,” he seethes, his blue skin getting darker as his temper flares again. “They’ve gotta be in cahoots with these bitches and the Stuhlls. I can’t imagine how else they’d get down to this level. It required demon intervention, Ang.”
“There are no demons on the Sickos, nor can those two disloyal slags manipulate the elevators,” I say quietly.
Rebel stops dead, his expression surprised. “I didn’t think of that.”
“Of course not, man. You were too far gone into rage-land.” I grin and look at Angelo’s flame cage pointedly.
“Rogue’s getting the same speech over there, but just because Mina insulted her doesn’t mean we have to fuck up our entire lives.
We will deal with her, but like Ang said, we have to be more strategic. ”
His sigh is heavy and he murmurs, “She said the worst possible things someone can ever say to her, Javi. Those are bleeding wounds, and that fucking whack job just jabbed her finger in and made it worse. I want to kill the witch and I want to make it so painful that people talk about it for years.”
Angelo snorts, snapping his fingers so the flames disappear.
“Me, too, bro. But what good will it do to get our revenge now and have you two get thrown in some supe jail like the gargoyle chick we just met, eh? We might not be so lucky and get assigned to run some stupid college. In fact, I’d venture to say some of us will be banished to our original realms, where they’d definitely execute us. How does that fix anything?”
Now we’re talking… calm and logical assessments, not overreactions that will end in sorrow.