I’m so not in the mood for this.
I took one more step so I was almost standing on his toes. ‘You will never get any powers back, but if you did, just remember I’d be there to take them from you all over again.’
Onyx looked at me, a supreme confidence flickering in his eyes. ‘When I get them back, which I will, I look forward to seeing anyone try to take them from me again.’
‘When you two are finished!’ Dapper called out from the end of the hallway. ‘Honestly, you’re like children going at each other for shits and giggles. And you’re the worst of all, girly,’ he said, jabbing a finger at me. ‘You know he’s harmless now. Leave him to his snarky remarks, they’re all he damn well has.’
At that, both Onyx and I glared at Dapper.
‘I am anything but harmless. You people gravely underestimate my potential.’
‘Then perhaps we should throw you back out on the street we found you on?’ I sniped.
Onyx whipped a hand through his hair. ‘I look forward to the next time you need to come to me for information.’
Steph snaked her arm through mine and tried to pull me to her side. ‘We’re leaving. And Dapper is right, the two of you need to remember we’re all on the same side.’
‘Funny, but when I look at him it’s just so easy to forget.’
Onyx smiled slyly.
‘What?’ I snapped.
‘Nothing. I’m just trying to decide who it is for?’
‘Who what is for?’ I asked, losing all patience.
‘Vi, let’s go,’ Steph said, trying to pull me away. I didn’t budge.
Onyx’s smile broadened. ‘All the pent-up sexual frustration, of course.’
My mouth fell open and before I knew what I was doing, I’d launched myself at Onyx, taking us both to the ground.
‘Violet!’ Steph screamed.
Dapper’s feet thudded down the hall, but all I could see was red. Onyx had said the one thing he knew would get to me and I could still see him grinning beneath me.
I pulled back my hand to hit him, but before I could follow through, someone yanked me off him and locked their arms around me.
I wriggled to get loose from the supernatural grip.
‘Eden, trust me, I know what it’s like to want to beat Onyx. But we can hear you from downstairs and Lincoln just walked in. Do you really want him to get involved in this? The man has been known to have a fairly possessive streak,’ Spence said, holding me as I struggled.
My whole body went into a kind of delayed shock and I sagged in Spence’s arms, suddenly feeling Lincoln’s presence.
How come I haven’t felt it ‘til now?
In fact, I hadn’t been able to feel anything except for my rage towards Onyx.
Onyx crawled onto his feet. He brushed himself off and looked at me with surprisingly calm eyes, the honest eyes that I’d started to associate with him recently – those of an ally.
‘You can take that as a small reminder of what it’s like to have an enemy who can pluck on your emotions.’ He tilted his head as if assessing me. ‘I suggest you work on that, rainbow.’
I finally shrugged free of Spence’s hold; he’d obviously given up trying to restrain me. ‘That was all on purpose?’
The corners of Onyx’s mouth lifted. ‘Can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself.’ With that, he spun on his heel and headed towards Dapper’s apartment.
‘You’re damn lucky she didn’t kill you,’ Dapper mumbled as he followed him.
‘He’s seriously messed up,’ Spence said behind me.
‘Completely nuts,’ Steph reinforced.
But it wasn’t nuts at all.
Onyx had been helping me, and he was right. If Onyx could weasel his way into my emotions, then Phoenix still could, too.
The rest of the day panned out as expected. Much discussing and not much new. Griffin had to retell the story to date a number of times as groups of the city’s Grigori stopped by Hades for their instructions in his absence. Griffin put Beth and Archer in charge in his place and told Nathan and Becca to be ready to join us in New York at a moment’s notice. As warriors, they were not happy about being left behind, but I could tell Griffin was worried about leaving the city unprotected, plus he didn’t want it to look like we were going into the Academy with troops. Sends the wrong message.
Once he’d seen to most of his Grigori he sat down with Zoe, Spence and Salvatore. He made Spence agree to be on his best behaviour back at the Academy – apparently it had taken Griffin’s word for them to even allow him back in. It wasn’t long ago that Spence had left the Academy without permission before his training was completed.
Then Griffin explained to Salvatore that he wanted him to accompany Dapper, Onyx and Steph on their quest for the ingredients for the Qeres potion, in case they encountered any problems.