Mahogany and Teakwood

Chapter 16: Buttercup

you say that i'm paranoid

but i'm pretty sure the world is out to get me

A car honked from the road, startling Virgil and prompting Wrassey to vanish into the brush.

He sighed when he saw Logan's Honda parked on the curb, assuming it was Roman coming to get him. Figures. He pushed himself off the wall and stalked over. He couldn't leave me alone for half an hour.

But as he approached the car, breath left his body in a whoosh. From the driver's seat, a set of heart-stopping, familiar, storm-gray eyes glared daggers from behind half-moon glasses.

Logan's impassive gaze followed Virgil as he opened the passenger door and slid inside.

He's....

"Um. You're back," Virgil stammered, the sheer force of Logan's physical mahogany-and-teakwood presence turning his brain to mush like it always did. Not dead, not captured, not bloody or beat up. All that worrying, and he just shows up like he never fucking left.

Logan said nothing.

They pulled onto the road, heading back toward the apartment. The half-faery's knuckles looked pale against the brown leather steering wheel. Virgil swallowed, the brief burst of joy he'd felt freezing into uncertainty as he realized the half-faery was angry.

"What were you doing out here?" Logan demanded at last in an icy voice.

"Uh...walking?" Virgil pulled at a loose thread on his sleeve. "Roman was being an ass and —"

"Roman?" Logan's gaze flickered with surprise for a moment. "He told you his name? Or he was careless?"

"He...he told me."

Gods, Logan hasn't looked at me like this since the stupid smartphone fight.

"Anyway, we were decorating, and then you texted, and he started being a little bitch, and mocking—"

"You know, Anxiety," Logan began, and hearing that name spat out like the insult it was from Logan's mouth, shut Virgil right up. "I had hoped that perhaps you could be mature enough to put this pointless antagonism behind you. Clearly, I was mistaken."

Virgil swallowed again. "What the fuck, L?"

Tears stung his eyes; he furiously blinked them away. He was well-acquainted with Logan's ability to wound with words alone, but Logan had never turned it on him before. It hurt, all the more for coming out of nowhere.

Regret flickered over Logan's face. "Apologies. Using your alias in such a way was unnecessarily cruel. I am upset with you, but that is no excuse."

"You gonna tell me why you're upset," Virgil snarked, anger creeping into his voice, "or am I supposed to spontaneously develop telepathy?"

They arrived at the apartment, but Logan made no move to get out of the car.

"The Savannah Grimms observed the Wild Hunt passing through Wright Square not two days ago," he allowed. "And they claim to have seen a shapeshifter matching your Deceit's description near the forefront."

Virgil scrambled for a neutral expression, even as his heart kicked into overdrive. "The Hunt is in Savannah?"

"It was in Savannah." Logan shot Virgil a look. "We knew they were heading south, but now we also know that they are less than three hundred miles from here and have shown no inclination to change direction. I am late in coming home because we were waiting for Hunter's lead to confirm this."