Page 59 of The Vipers and Their Venom

I head to the salad bar and pile my plate high, then after choosing a drink, I return to the three girls. Jarena is back now, too.

“I see you met the slut,” Angelica says with a sneer on her face.

“Why do you call her that?” I ask, shocked at the bitterness in her tone. “She seemed nice.”

“You can’t be nice if you’ve got three guys screwing you at the same time. That’s trash behavior.” Angelica rolls her eyes. “Even if it is the Devils, who everyone thinks are gorgeous. She’s still their toy.”

My face heats, and I don’t know what the hell to say.

Jarena eyes my plate, and I notice how little she has on her own. “Are you promised to someone, or will you go on the open market, as it were?”

Her question is rude and weird, but it takes the conversation away from screwing three guys, so I am grateful.

“I’m not marrying anyone,” I say. “I don’t want to, and I don’t want kids, so I don’t see the point.”

“You don’t want kids?” Angelica repeats my words slowly, as if they don’t make sense to her. “But … that’s the whole point. Keep the families and the community going.”

“Not in my community. My dad would murder a man if he got me pregnant. I mean he’d literally kill the guy responsible.”

Jarena eyes me coolly. “Do the Vipers know that?”

My stomach flips. “What?” How do they know? Oh, crap, exactly what have they heard?

“Jarena, that wasmygossip to share.” Angelica pouts at her friend. “The word in the halls is that the Vipers want to fuck you.”

Tell me something I don’t know.

“They are sick weirdos,” Jarena says.

I want to reply that they might be, but they haven’t threatened to cut my tats off like her betrothed, but I keep my mouth closed. These girls are the only people I can even remotely call friends. I don’t want to mess that up right at the start.

“They will mess with your head,” Angelica warns. “Zane, especially.”

I frown at that. “I barely know them,” I lie, “but he doesn’t seem as bad as the twins.”

“Oh, babe, he’s way worse.”

“Like how?” I’m intrigued now.

“They say he was once having sex with a girl, and he tied her up, and then left her door open with her still tied up so everyone could see her naked, bound, and spread.”

What the hell? That’s really vile, and assault, too. “That’s a crime,” I say.

Theyarecriminals, though, so why am I surprised?

Faith glances at me. “Just be careful of them,” she says. “They like to play nasty games.”

She downs the last dregs of her soda and stands. “I’ve got to go and train,” she says.

“Train?” I ask.

“It’s the cross-country race in two days. Faith is one of the best at it.” Jarena smiles up at her.

“I bet you’d be good at it, too, Vani.” A deep voice from behind has me spinning around.

It’s Saint—or at least I think it is—and he’s staring at me with pure poison dripping from his gaze. “After all, you’re built morefor endurance than speed, and if you got lost in the woods, you could survive on your body fat for a month.”

What the fuck?Did he just fat shame me? I’m about to let loose on him, because no way am I taking that shit, when Faith does it for me.

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