Page 26 of The Vipers and Their Venom

It takes me exactly an hour to get into the security system, hack the cameras for the hallway outside the dean’s office, and put them on a loop for an hour covering the time I will be there.

I couldn’t see any camera inside the office on the same system, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t one. He might keep that one on a separate server. I’ll just need to pray he doesn’t have one in there.

I spend the evening alone, sitting on my bed, watchingFriendsreruns on my laptop. A part of me had been tempted to go and find the student bar and see if I might bump into my new friends—both male and female—so I didn’t feel quite so lonely. But I’d been worried I wouldn’t know anyone there, and I’d stand around looking like a loser, so instead I’d hidden in my room.

Like a loser.

Sometime after the episode where they get a couch stuck halfway up the stairs and have to pivot, I drift off to sleep for a couple of hours. When I wake with a start to my phone alarm bleeping, I have a moment when I have no idea where I am, but then it all comes back to me. I’m in a room at Verona Falls University.

And I’m about to try to break into the dean’s office.

My stomach swirls with nerves at the prospect. What if there are cameras in the office? Crap, this really could go horribly wrong. Still, I must do this, I have to take the chance.

I swing my legs out of bed and go to the bathroom. In my washbag, which I still haven’t unpacked, I pick out a couple of hairpins and tuck them into the sides of my hair. With how thick and curly my hair is, it’s not as though it looks suspicious. In fact, they basically vanish into my mop. Aware that different locks respond to different amounts of tension, I also find a heavy-duty paperclip in the desk and slip it into my pocket. In a perfect world, I’d also have a small screwdriver, but I’ll have to make do. It shouldn’t slow me down too much.

I’m still nervous, though. My palms are clammy, and my pulse is racing. I go to the door, crack it open, and peer out. As I’d hoped, everything is quiet. Anyone sensible is in bed, fast asleep at this time.

If someone does come across me walking the corridors in the dead of night, I don’t want them to recognize me. I have the fact that I’m the new girl and most people haven’t met me yet going for me, but still, it doesn’t hurt to be careful. I hurriedly pull on a hoodie, making sure the hood is tied tight around my face.

I pull the door shut behind me. It’s eerie creeping through the corridors in the dark. Those damn old men on the oil paintings make me feel as if eyes are following me along my journey. A few lights have been left on, but I’m not sure they’re of any help. All they do is create pockets of shadows where anything could be hiding.

I’m as light-footed as possible, my ears straining for any sound that indicates I’m not alone. I remember my route from earlier in the day and take the grand staircase down to the first floor, my fingers trailing the smooth, mahogany wood of the banister.

On the first floor, I navigate the corridors until I find myself in the same position as earlier, standing outside Dean Rossi’s office.

I glance at the blinking red light of the camera and just damn well hope that my program is looping the footage from an hour earlier right this minute. To be on the safe side, I keep my hooded head turned away from the cameras and focus on the door. Just in case there is someone in there, I place my ear to the door. No sound filters through the wood, but I give it a light rap with my knuckles anyway. The last thing I want is to break in only to find Dean Rossi asleep on the couch because he’s had a fight with his other half of something—not that I even know if he’s in a relationship.

No reply comes.

I’m sick with nerves, but I can’t back out now.

I pluck one of the hairpins from my hair and the paper clip from my pocket then twist them both into the shape I need. I drop to a crouch, bringing myself at eye level to the lock and start with the bent hairpin.

This lock isn’t the easiest. I’m overheating, and my palms are sweaty, which doesn’t help. I’m poised to hear a shout of ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ but none comes. When I finally feel that release in the tension of the mechanism, I hold my breath in anticipation. It’s going to give. Any moment now. Tongue poking out of my mouth in concentration, I jiggle the hairpin again, and I exhale a soft laugh as the lock clicks open.

Glancing down the corridor again, even though it’s totally deserted, I open the door and slip inside the office. Gently, I pull the door closed behind me. If the dean turns up, I’ll say I was looking for him and the door was open, and I came in to see if he was here. I have no idea what I’ll say to the fact it’s the early hours of the morning, though.

The slats of the blinds are open, and light from the lamps beyond the mullioned windows illuminates much of the room, enough for me to see where I am going, but not enough for me to peer into the dark recesses.

I turn on the flashlight app on my cell and sweep the room, careful to avoid flashing the light by the windows and maybe alerting someone outside to my presence. No cameras in here from what I can see, which is good. I turn my flashlight app back off and allow my eyes to adjust once more to the light being thrown into the room from outside.

Heart pounding, I rush over to the filing cabinets against the back wall. This is as good a place as any to start. I tug on the handles, expecting to need to do more lock picking, but they slide right open.

Holy crap.

This is easier than I thought.

15

LEX

Icouldn’t sleep.

That fucking girl had been playing on my mind, torturing me with her wicked body and smart brain. In the end, I’d given up and taken myself to seek out her room. She’s in West House, like the other Vipers, so even though she’s not in the same year, we share this wing with her.

I had thought of slipping a note under her door, reminding her of our meet with her tomorrow. “Play it nice,” we said. Then fate intervened.

I turned onto her floor just in time to watch her slip around the corner down the other end of the corridor.

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