Page 63 of The Vipers and Their Venom

Now, I doubt it was half that bad because things get embellished. It’s like Chinese whispers once stories like this get passed down through time, but the fact remains that something happened. Something terrible that meant the hallowed halls of Verona Falls didn’t admit women again for decades. It has lingered in the very air itself, as people talk about the cross-country run and the women promise to stay together.

So, where the fuck is Venom?

As I think about the old legend and then Venom alone, vulnerable, and ripe for the taking, my cock stirs. We don’t do things that way anymore, but there’s a part of me that wishes I could go club her over the head and drag her back to my cave like some Neanderthal.

She’s so damn delicious, and her stupid father’s man warning me off was a red cape to a bull. He knows nothing about me, and if I had a kink—which I don’t; I just like fucking—then it would be doing what I am not supposed to.

Tell me no and watch me do it.

I hear a sound. A muffled cry. What the fuck? I stop running and tilt my head, listening.

It’s to the east. I turn that way and run fast, sprinting. I burst into the clearing in time to see some first-year douche with Vani up against a tree, his hands up her top.

Rage consumes me. It blinds me. I shout a silent roar as I rush him, hitting from the side and taking him to the ground.

I punch him in the face so hard his nose bursts like a berry. Blood splatters us, and he screams. I hit him again, and he turns over and tries to crawl away. I kick his ass and laugh as he goes face down into the dirt.

Three more kids appear, all skinny little fuckers. Freshman dicks who are definitely upper-class mobster kids, because no way would anyone who actually has to fight for anything be so skinny. I bet their daddies are white collar criminals, and these dicks won’t have a chance in hell of surviving the next three years.

I hold my hands up and beckon them toward me. I’m in the mood to take them all.

They shake their heads, and two grab their friend, hauling him up.

“We’re sorry, Zane,” one of them says, voice shaking.

They know my name, but I don’t know them.

I point to Vani and then kiss my mouth to my fingers, indicatingspeak, then point to her again.Speak to her, I’m saying.

They turn to her, and the same guy says, “Sorry, miss. Really sorry. He won’t do anything like it again.”

They start to drag their friend out of the clearing. I let them because my blood is up, and as I stare at Vani, her chest heaving, I’m suddenly in the mood for something other than fighting.

35

VANI

Zane looks like a terrifying ancient god. Huge, muscled, chest heaving and blood spatters on his face. His arms are insanely massive, and I can’t stop staring at them. In his tank top they are exposed shoulder to wrist, and I’ve decided very late in life that I must have a serious arm kink because Zane’s are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

The ink only adds to it all.

He’s beautiful.

My gaze lands on the one that says,HOT BLOOD.

It’s part of the quote that’s framed on the wall of the mansion.Hot blood. Hot thoughts. Hot deeds. Why, they are vipers…

I’m sure it’s from Shakespeare, though I’m not clued up enough to know what it means.

I let myself get separated from the girls, or rather,theylet me, because I think they did it on purpose.

I know what they said could happen to girls if they are found alone on this race. With that previous boy with the halitosis and groping hands, I’d have fought until my last breath, but what would I do if someone as powerful as Zane tried to take my innocence?

I think I’d let him.

He’s just so magnetic, like a wild animal, and it’s calling to me.

I want him.

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