Page 13 of The Vipers and Their Vendetta

She’s become ours, in a way I can’t put into words, but which is vital and real. She can’t leave or be taken away. I won’t fucking countenance it.

Too many people have left me before. I refuse to allow her to be another in that long line.

Vani is ours, no matter what she says or believes.

We have no way of knowing what actually went down out here, and she might be wandering around concussed. Then she’ll be whisked off to a hospital and no way will her father let her back here.

I can take care of her. I’ll nurse her back to health.

Deep down, I know the possessiveness I’m feeling isn’t normal. Neither is the anger at her, bubbling away underneath the worry, ready to blow the minute I find out she’s okay.

The simple fact is that no matter what has happened to her, the minute the authorities get involved, I bet her father will takeher away faster than you can sayVenom. Then we will lose our poisonous little plaything.

I’m so angry at her for running that it hurts, a sharp ache in my gut, and a strange hollow in my chest.

How dare she do this?

How fucking dare she think the things she did?About us. It makes my blood boil.

I remember our motto,hot blood, hot thoughts, hot deeds. I need to cool myself the fuck down, but I just can’t.

She listened to those stupid girls and believed the stupid lies they whispered in her ear instead of coming to us.

It makes me question how smart she is. When we get her back, because I’m determined to find her, she is going to learn that you do not defy the Vipers. You do not listen to our enemies as they talk crap about us behind our backs. We let her into our circle. We let her deeper than anyone else, and she betrayed us.

She’s seen my paintings. She’s seen the dark heart of Zane, and she’s got Lex wrapped around her little finger, despite what he might say. No other girl has ever been in her position, and how does she repay us? She does something like this.

Not only does it risk us never seeing her again, but it risks everything.

Zane has already faced his family discussing pulling him out of college, and if there’s a scandal around the three of us being with one girl, that might become a reality. We managed to keep the rumors about Reagan away from our families’ ears—mainly down to Dean Rossi’s involvement—but he has no reason to protect us from this.

Losing Zane now would be like losing a brother. Lex and I were always super close, as twins are, but we also had lots of issues and arguments. There were times when we were so hateful of one another we almost could have killed each other. Zane acts as a buffer. He’s the perfect referee—always gettingbetween our fights. His presence somehow knits me and Lex together again. If Vani has gotten in the way of that with this stupid behavior, well, let’s just say she will learn the true meaning of torment.

I sweep my flashlight back and forth, growing increasingly sullen and rage filled. My throat is dry, but the air is damp. My bones are cold, but the blood is hot in my veins.

That song from the nineties about aStupid Girlis going around in my head, an earworm that matches the anger of my mood.

She was going to throw it all away, was she? For what? Angelica’s fucking lies! That bitch has always had it in for me.

Something glints as I sweep the light on my phone over the undergrowth.Merde. I’ve already gone past it before it registers. I halt, mid-step, and move the light back in that direction. The flash of metal catches under the bright white of the beam. Frowning, I bend down and brush my fingers over the chain. There’s something at the end of it hidden under some leaves, and I take hold of the chain and pull.

Well, well, well.I grin to myself as I stare at the worn, silver cross. Why the hell would this be out here? I think I know exactly who this belongs to—Roman, one of the Preachers. The ground here is messed up and covered in footprints, too.

I saw Roman yesterday, and this cross was at his throat. He had to have lost it in a struggle, I’d imagine, for it to be on the ground.

Triumph roars through my veins and temporarily cleanses all that corrosive rage I’m carrying. I can guess where our little Venom is. The bad thing iswhoshe is with.

Those masked fucking Preachers are freaks. Still, knowing Roman as I do, he won’t be doing the kinds of things to her I would. I’d bet my entire fucking wardrobe he’s using herto do some dumbass magic with, probably praying to Odin or something because he believes in all that bull so much.

He lives like a monk, and he does believe in the gods—old and new—hence him having this cross.

But he and his stupid hangers-on think they’re modern-day Vikings. The cross is an actual ancient Viking cross, and I only know so much about it because we had to give a talk on one thing we owned, and Roman chose his stupid cross. Now it’s mine, and I know he’ll want it back because it’s priceless and, to him, deeply personal.

He has something of mine, and now I have something of his.

Quid pro quo, bitch,I think, laughing to myself. I’m about to make a trade.

I set off at a jog in the direction of their meeting place, the old, abandoned water tower where we spent those interesting few hours with Vani.

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