32. Vani
32
VANI
I ’ve been here for almost ten days now. I’ve avoided the Vipers like the plague ever since Saint’s little stunt a few days ago. I saw the twins yesterday and did an about turn to avoid them. At night, as well as locking my dorm room, I push the heavy chest in front of the door for added protection. I wouldn’t put anything past Saint right now.
My stomach rumbles. It’s been a heavy morning of lessons, and this afternoon I have calculus, which means I will have to face the twins. I need food first.
Heading to the cafeteria, I walk in and pause. Sitting at a table, near the far corner, are the three girls I met. Angelica, Jarena, and Faith. Faith is gorgeous and could be a model, and Angelica and Jarena have that preppy girl look going on. Angelica spies me and waves, her big grin lighting up her face.
Nervous, I stroll over to them. “Hi,” I say shyly.
“You’re so cool,” Angelica gushes.
I glance down at myself, wondering what she means.
“Your whole vibe is so out there. Like, look at your ink. I love it. I mean, I could never, but I love it.”
Is that an insult covered in a sickly pretend compliment? I’m not sure, so I shake it off and smile at her. “Thanks,” I say.
Her smile falters just a little. A tiny slip but I see it. Yeah, she meant to land a barb, and she didn’t like me brushing it off. It seems maybe these girls are just as nasty as everyone else, but then Jarena laughs.
“Ignore her. She’s got her period. It makes her cranky.”
I nod. “Ah, I see. I can relate.”
“I love your work,” Faith says. She’s quieter than the other two, and she seems a little more genuine. “I have one, on my hip. I’ll show you one day. I had to get it where you can’t see it, but it’s my secret and I love it.”
“I wish I could get a tattoo.” Jarena sighs. “But the man I’m promised to said he’d cut it out of my skin if I dared.”
My mouth falls open as I try to process what the fuck she just said. I start to speak twice, and in the end, I go with. “ Promised to ? What do you mean?”
“I’ve been his since I was fifteen. When I graduate, we’re getting married. He’s gorgeous,” she says dreamily.
“Bitch, you’re crazy. He threatened to cut off your skin. I swear you should run.” Angelica practically snarls the words, but hell, she’s not wrong.
“Where? He’d only find me. You know what our family is like.” Jarena shrugs.
She has a slight accent, but I can’t place it.
“Bratva,” Angelica supplies for me. “Jarena’s marrying into the Russian mob, God help her.”
“I can’t wait,” she says. “He’s gorgeous. And rich. He drives a Maclaren and owns a ten-bedroom holiday home in the Hamptons.”
“Babe.” Angelica fixes her with a deadly serious look. “I am begging you, come and live with me. My family will take you in. He wouldn’t dare go against my father.”
Jarena sighs. “I want to marry him. Now, can we drop the subject? I’m going to grab a Coke.”
She pushes her chair back and saunters off, her slender hips swinging, her short skirt flipping up as she goes, almost revealing her ass.
“I swear to God, she’ll be found in his freezer six months into that marriage,” Angelica says.
“Oh, no, don’t say that,” Faith cries. “That’s awful.”
“She’s going to meet a sticky end, and I wish she’d listen to me, but she won’t.” Angelica looks up at me. “Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to get some food and come sit with us? I have some goss for you!”
She does? I ignore her rude manner because I want her gossip. It might be about my sister; what a stroke of luck that would be.
“I’ll grab some food and be back.”
As I reach the counter, three men enter, and I recognize them as the Devils that some of the other students have pointed out to me. They’re all so striking, they’d be hard to miss, even if they didn’t walk around in an intimidating threesome all the time.
There’s a woman with them, blonde and pretty and glowing. She smiles at me as I try to get past the guys to reach a plate.
I accidentally nudge her with my hip.
“Sorry,” I say immediately.
“It’s fine.”
The girl smiles at me. She’s friendly and breezy, not like the three girls I’ve seemed to fall in with.
“I’m Duch—” she starts to say, then quickly corrects herself “—Mackenzie,” she finishes and holds her hand out.
I take it a little unsure. “I’m Vani,” I say.
“Yeah, Dom mentioned you’d arrived. I hope you’ll be happy here.” She glances at the guys. “I have been.”
The blond guy leans down and whispers something in her ear, and, for a paranoid moment, I think it might be nasty and about me.
But Mackenzie blushes and swats him. “Kirill!”
Her tone is scandalized and makes me smile.
He grins at her, and I wonder what it would be like to have someone look at me that way.
“Thanks. I’m sure I will be,” I lie. “Nice to have met you.”
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 was my gossip 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.
They are criminals, 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 more for 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.
“You’ve got a nasty mouth on you, Saint, and maybe you should look at yourself before you criticize others. I think the last time your clothing was in style was the eighties.” Faith pushes by him, and he tries to kiss her neck, but she dodges him and pulls a disgusted face.
Why is he trying to kiss her? Is he messing about with these girls? I feel as if every time I think I’ve got a handle on this place, the ground shifts beneath me.
“Enjoy the cross-country race, Vani. Be sure to not let any monsters find you in those woods.” Saint smirks.
He saunters away from the table, all arrogant peacock, fucking preening in his fancy clothes. I gnash my teeth. I loathe him, I decide.
“He’s such an ass,” Angelica says. “Imagine having such low self-esteem as a girl that you’d go with him, with the way he talks to women.”
She rolls her eyes, and my shame intensifies.
Does she know? Does everyone? They said they didn’t kiss and tell, but it seems there are already rumors about me and the Vipers.
As for Saint, screw him. He body shamed me and then made a play for Faith right in front of me.
“Well, I won’t be going on this cross country run,” I say, trying to change the conversation.
“Oh, we all have to,” Angelica replies. “Unless you have a damn good reason not to. Each semester there is a cross country run for each house. It’s our house in two days, and there’s a lot of competition between the houses for the best time.”
“Why do we have to do it?” I ask. “That seems stupid.”
“No idea. Tradition. The same way the fights are, and the way the curriculum is. Just … don’t get caught.”
“Caught?”
Angelica nods. “By any of the men. Stick with the girls. If you get caught alone, your reputation will be in tatters, and maybe worse.”
I stare at my salad, my appetite totally ruined. This place is so fucked up.
“Stick with us,” she says, smiling. “We’ll look after you.”