Page 72 of Moon Kissed

All around me, chimes, rings, beeps, and song clips tickled my ear as everyone in the frickin’ mess hall opened Loop-Garou, and got an eye full of my naked, bleeding ass dangling from the ceiling. Nyx even gave the video a name.

Pinata de Bitch

Laughs went up so loud and punishing, it flattened my ears against my head.

“Oh, gods,” Nia breathed, cringing. I knew she got to the point when Orion set my feet on fire, because my head-splitting screams burst out of the speakers.

“Look at that,” someone taunted. “Volana barks like a bitch, but squeals like a pig.”

“Attention, attention, everyone.” Nyx was standing on top of the table. “I hope you’re enjoying another NyxNight Production, but show a little support for the creator and buy the merchandise.”

I didn’t have a clue what the asshole was talking about until Edric, Orion, Badr, Ava, Elizabella, Melisent, Tulisa, and the rest of Ava’s epsilon crew opened their backpacks, dumped out the contents, and held them up for all to see.

Pictures of me hanging from the ceiling titled Pinata de Bitch stamped on every shirt, sweater, baseball cap, bandana, and even some earrings. The only one who didn’t have a backpack full of that fuckery, was Paxton.

“Guys!” he shouted. “Nyx, what the hell! I told you to delete that video!”

Nyx grinned down at him. “You did tell me that, brother, but you forgot one thing: you don’t give me orders.”

Paxton’s hands flew up. Clapping his palms together, he yanked them apart and a swirling torrent of water appeared above his head—summoning in the time it took me to blink. He swept the wave down the table, collecting most of the clothes within the shifting, writing orb of—

“Get out!”

Paxton bolted out of the mess hall so fast, he blew my hair back running past.

The waterball splashed on the table, soaking Ava, the epsilons, and my other fates. The hollow victory he won me ended with a single sound.

Nyx laughed out loud. “Sorry for the interruption, guys, but it looks like we’ve got an upgrade. Wet t-shirt contest!”

I roared up on them, shoving through the crowd of people that ran up on the dais. “What the fucking hell!” I shrieked. “I thought this was over. I thought we had a truce!”

“We did,” Orion replied, smirking away. “Nia just ended it.”

“What?” Nia cried from across the room.

“We were good with you as long as we were good with her,” Orion explained. “We weren’t about to cause trouble for you if it’d cause problems for Nia. But now that she’s ready to move onand deal with her business, the five of us are going to deal with ours.”

“What does that even mean!” Anger true and burning clenched my throat. “We don’t have any business. We don’t have anything! If you hate me so much, why can’t you just leave me the fuck alone!”

Badr pushed between me and Orion, crowding my personal space. “You want us to leave you alone? It’s simple, Volana. Confess,” he hissed. “Confess to killing Hall. Confess the reason you killed my brother. And cough up the location of that girl on the other end of the phone.

“Do that, and we’ll never bother you again, because you’ll be buried too deep for us to find.”

“I didn’t kill Hall! I was standing right next to Orion when it happened. What more do you want?”

“I just told you,” he blared right back. “Give up that traitor, or get used to us showing the world what a pathetic, weak-ass psycho you really are!”

Frustration choked me. “You know what? Fine. Fine!” I shoved back, throwing up my hands. “You want to know where Lucia is? I’ll tell you. I’ll even give you her address right now.”

Surprise flickered in his eyes when I snatched a pen and notebook from Ava’s bag, and scrawled the address. Badr obviously didn’t think I’d give her up no matter what he did. But Lucia never needed protection from me.

I wrote the last letter, then flung it at him.

Badr snatched it out of the air, reading it eagerly. His triumphant grin quickly morphed into a scowl. “Wait— This town... Incepe Din. That’s— That’s a—”

“Vampire village! Ding, ding, ding,” I crowed, clenching his jaw. “There you have it, asshole. Lucia is a vampire living deep in vampire territory. Feel free to break the treaty and kick off a war just to go after her, but when I toldEdricthis information”—my fates, and my smirk, shone the spotlight on the tall, tense werewolf—“he thought better of that plan. I assume you will too.”

“It’s a lie!” Badr crumpled the note and threw it in my face. “No werewolf, not even one as vile as you, would ally with a vampire! More than that, no vampire would ally with a werewolf. They hate us. They hate ourtaintedblood. The leech would’ve killed you on sight!”

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