7. Vani
CHAPTER 7
Vani
Saint storms at us, aiming right at me, as if he’s about to throttle me. Lex isn’t far behind him, chasing him through the woods.
I don’t know what happened back at the old water tower while I wasn’t there, but I’m still pathetically grateful they’re both here now, even though Saint is clearly angry.
Then I give myself a shake. No, I don’t want to be grateful. I need to keep reminding myself what Angelica told me. What reason would she have to lie?
“Fucking hell, Vani, you like to cause shit, don’t you?” Saint throws at me when he reaches me.
I realize he’s probably angry at me for leaving him in that tower, and he has every right to be. It was a horrible move on my part. After what I found out about them, though, I can’t trust these three men at all. I’m as scared of them as I am of the mask-wearing freaks.
The fact I’ve just let Zane take from me, again, is bad enough, but my weakness for these men knows no bounds because all I want to do is drop to my knees and beg Saint’s forgiveness.
I wonder if Saint has noted my flushed cheeks and the love bite on the swell of my left breast. Can he smell sex in the air? All I can taste is the salty musk of Zane’s cum, and it seems impossible to me that Saint doesn’t know what we’ve done.
“I came back for you,” I point out. “I’m sorry I left, but I panicked.”
It’s not exactly a lie, although it’s not totally the truth either. It was more momentary, blinding rage which had me leaving him behind. Still, I was going back when I bumped into Zane. I also want to add ‘and you were acting like a complete douchebag,’ but I manage to keep my mouth shut.
“You think that’s what I’m angry about?” He sounds utterly incredulous. “I’m not mad that you got out of there. It was the right thing to do. I can look after myself, Vani.”
“I’m totally pissed off that you ran off in the first place. You could have been killed. You came off your bike, and you could have been dead by now. Do you even have any idea of the kind of people who roam around these woods at night? You’re an idiot.”
He spits out the word idiot as if it tastes bad. His words mirror what Zane told me, only he’s much angrier.
“Why should I listen to anything you say ever again? You’re a liar, Saint. You lied to me. All of you.”
“What the hell did I lie about?”
“Your involvement with Reagan.”
“I know what you were told, and it’s all utter bullshit,” he throws back. “It fucks me off that you believe some girl over us.”
I glare at him. “What possible reason have you given me to make me want to believe you? Remember how you all basically blackmailed me into spending the evening with you? Imagine if I was a little more emotionally fragile—the damage you could have done?”
Zane taps his arm, but Saint shrugs him off. He’s pissed, and probably high on adrenaline, the way I am. Or was, before Zane helped me out with that. Guilt steals over me at what we just did. That was sick, because he might have helped kill my sister, despite his denials. I have no clue anymore who I can trust.
“Get in the car, Vani,” Lex sighs. “We’re all exhausted and liable to say shit we don’t mean. It’s best we head home.”
I don’t want to go back there. To the college. To the secrets and lies, and the manipulation, the nasty girls, and the arrogant men. I don’t belong there. The sad reality hits me that I don’t belong anywhere. Not really.
I have a home with my father, but his real family is the club, and I’ll never be one of them because I’m a girl.
Zane walks off, as though he can’t be dealing with any of us right now. He’s half hidden by the shadows, standing under a tree. He lifts his hand to his face, and a burning light glows red in the dark. He’s lit a cigarette—something I’ve only seen him do once before. He takes a long drag, blows the smoke out, and fixes me with his gaze.
“Anytime tonight, Zane,” Lex says sarcastically.
Zane doesn’t move and takes one, two, three more leisurely drags before he drops the butt on the ground and grinds it out with the toe of his boot.
He walks over to a larger utility vehicle and opens the back door.
“Get in,” Lex orders.
I want to argue and tell these men to get lost, but my stomach roils, and I don’t think it’s only nerves. My head is still splitting, and I’m starting to worry I might have a concussion. I can remember everything; I know where I am and who I am. Everything feels woozy, though, like I’ve just gotten off an elevator that’s fallen thirty floors. I walk toward the car door to do as Lex says, but I stumble and fall to the side.
Big arms come around me and hold me upright. Zane grabs me by both shoulders and looks into my eyes. He shakes his head and moves me carefully toward the car, his touch gentle but firm. He guides me into the back and closes the door. Lex climbs in the other side, reaches over me, and fastens my seat belt in place. He sits back in his own seat and looks up at the ceiling as if he can’t bear to even glance in my direction. Zane gets into the driving seat, and Saint sits in front next to him.
The car starts and glides smoothly through the night as we head down the road and then turn right onto the drive leading us back to Verona Falls. Back to God knows what. The minute I walk back behind those walls, I’m never going to speak to these men again. I owe it to Reagan. I can’t let them drag me back into the sick and toxic dynamic we have or back under their spell.
The moment I think of the word spell , I suck in air and turn to Lex. I might be livid with them all, but I don’t want them to turn into frogs or newts.
“Lex, I know you’re pissed at me, but listen. You’re in danger, all three of you. I was taken back to the water tower, and there were two of the men there, and they carried out a strange … incantation. It sounds stupid and far-fetched, but that’s what they did. Roman carried out a magic spell, for want of a better phrase, and it’s aimed at you three.”
“They had her stripped down to her damn underwear.” Saint snarls the words like a guard dog.
I jump as Zane bangs his fist on the steering wheel. Clearly, he doesn’t like that idea.
“Well, they just started a war, then, didn’t they?” Lex shakes his head and glances over at me. “Not because of their dumb rituals but because they’ve seen you in your underwear. Did they touch you?”
He doesn’t sound concerned for my well-being, more like he’s concerned that someone dared to play with what he sees as his.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I shake my head and turn to look out the window.
Strong fingers grasp my jaw and pull my face back around until I’m forced to look at Lex.
“Tell me the truth. Did they touch you?”
“No, they didn’t. It’s none of your business, but they didn’t. I’m trying to warn you, though, because they did take some of my hair and some of my blood from the cut on my arm and they’ve made some weird potion with it. The stuff they were chanting, it’s aimed at you guys. You in particular, Saint.” I roll my eyes when Lex shrugs. “Fine. Don’t blame me if you wake up tomorrow and you’ve turned into a rat or something.”
Saint laughs in the front. “Lex, she thinks you’d be a rat. What animal would I turn into?” he asks.
“A slug, or a spider. Something disgusting,” I say.
“You’re such a tease, Vani. You know you want us, really.”
“None of you will ever touch me again.” I’m not joking. The minute we get back to college, I’m racing to my room and locking the door. “I don’t ever want to see your faces again. You’re all sick in the head, every single one of you at this college.”
“Since you’re part of this college too, I presume that includes you?” Lex says.
He’s being an asshole and reminding me of how awful he was that first day in math class.
“I must say I don’t like this new attitude you’ve developed,” he continues. “Is this because of what those stupid bitches said? You can’t trust a word out of Angelica’s mouth. Only an absolute fool would believe anything that girl says. She has spent her entire time at this college doing nothing but causing trouble and stirring shit because she thinks it gives her a drop of importance.”
“It’s not just her. She said the entire college knows it was to do with you.” I blink hard, determined not to cry. I tell myself they aren’t worth it. “They all think you had something to do with it and that you drove Reagan to her death. After spending time with you, it’s hardly that difficult to imagine, now, is it? You’re hardly upstanding gentlemen who know how to treat a lady with respect. What did you do to her?” I kick the seat in front of me, where Saint is sitting, not caring that I might damage the precious leather of Zane’s fancy car. “Did you like to degrade her the way you do me?”
Saint shoots me a murderous glare before turning back to face the front. “No, of course not. We didn’t have anything to do with her, not in that way.”
He turns around again, and his stupidly handsome face breaks into a nasty grin. “She wasn’t made the same way as you. She didn’t like it the way you do. We degrade you because you love it.”
I’m so damn angry, I can’t speak.
He hasn’t finished. “You’re our perfect little venomous snake, and you like to get down and dirty in the snake pit with us just as much as we like it. You can deny it all you want, but it’s the truth.”
God, how I thought Saint was the nicer one at first just because he has a surface charm, I will never understand. At times like this, I wish Zane could speak. He’s a silent, hulking presence in the front of the car, and I have no idea what he’s thinking. He might even be on my side in this, although I doubt it very much.
We turn through the gates, and the security guard waves us down.
Saint slides down his window so he can speak to the guard. “We got her. Thank fuck. Her bike is on the road, messed up. We’ll go pick it up if we can take one of the trucks?”
The guard scratches his beard. “I should send security to do that, but we’re short tonight. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
“It’s dangerous where it is and could cause another accident.”
“Fine, I’ll ring down and ask one of the maintenance guys to get a truck ready. They won’t be happy at being woken this early, but it’s better than an accident happening and more bad publicity. I ought to let the dean know.”
“Can we keep this between us?” Saint asks. I realize he’s taking his wallet out of his pocket. “If I move it immediately, there’s no harm no foul, right? We’re already on his shit list.”
He hands the guy a massive wad of bills.
“Just this once,” the guard mutters.
As we drive on, I lean forward. “You think your money can buy everything. Well, it can’t buy me. You won’t see me again after you drop me off.”
“We will,” Lex says. “You’ve likely got a concussion, so we need to keep a watch over you.”
“Why? What do you care?”
“Because you are ours,” Lex says. “We take care of what we own.”
Zane doesn’t move, and Saint says nothing to disavow those words.
“I’m not yours,” I say. “Not any longer, and you certainly don’t own me.”
“What if you don’t get to choose, Vani?”
Lex glances at me, and his face is so damn serious. He almost sounds sad, as if he hates the fact too but can’t fight it, either.
“I’ll always have a choice,” I spit back and pray I’m right.
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Look, we screwed up and should have told you the rumors about us and Reagan, but we’re innocent. If we say anything, though, it makes us look more guilty. It’s a catch-22 that we have no way out of. We’re sorry for that.”
“Don’t apologize for me,” Saint snarls. “She lied way more than we did. And she’s been an idiot. Do you even have your phone?”
I glare at the back of his head, wishing I could pierce a hole in it, and I don’t answer because that was stupid beyond belief. The way I ran out of there, no plan, none of my things on me. Idiotic.
“I’m going to get your fucking bike and bring it back here and clean it up. If the dean finds out what happened, he’ll call your dad for sure, and I bet you’ll be carted out of here,” Saint says.
“Good,” I shout.
“Really? Because I can tell you one damn thing, putain .” His eyes meet mine in the rear-view mirror. “We did not have anything to do with Reagan’s death, and I’d think you’d want to find out the truth. You leave here, and that’s never happening.”
He’s got me there. Part of me wants to leave, but I also need to find out if the Vipers did push my sister into her desperate act. I purposefully don’t tell them who she was to me, and they’ve not asked yet. It’s weird, but it’s as if they know it’s a landmine, and once they step on it, things can’t be the same again. Not that they ever will, but the minute we get into that, things get even more tainted and ruined than they already are.
Saint laughs softly. “Ah, poor Venom. Trapped with her Vipers all over again.”
I want to slap the attitude from his face, but I don’t. In a sick way, his shitty behavior gives me a little thrill because he’s angry, and the only reason for him to be angry is that he cares . At least a little. They all do. They were worried, and it made them crazy, and now they’re taking it out on me. The thing is, you only get mad at people if you have feelings for them.
What’s that famous saying? Indifference is the true opposite of love, not hate.
As we head up the drive, I stare up at the towers and the looming building. Whenever I come this way, I always get the oddest sensation, it’s as if the building is watching me. Judging me.
It’s about to swallow me whole again, the way these three men might. It gives me the shivers.
We get nearer and nearer, and the building throws its long, moonlit shadow until we’re driving under it, back into the darkness that is Verona Falls.