Chapter 9 – IVY
Chapter
Nine
IVY
After spending most of the morning and early afternoon with Evelyn, I feel a bit lighter. It was refreshing to be around such a kind person. Where Venom is as cool as ice, the eye of an Arctic storm, Evelyn is the warmth in this home, the kind that wraps you in sunlight and settles into your bones.
There’s still so much to learn but I hope I expressed how much I appreciate her taking the time to teach me her language.
She said she can teach me more whenever I want, and honestly, it will be a welcomed distraction from the haunting memories and fears in my head.
It will also give me something to do here besides wandering Venom’s great estate while hoping I don’t run into him.
Speaking of, I want to visit the greenhouse again, see the beautiful plants, smell the flowers, and press my toes into the dirt, but I have no idea if he’s in there right now.
As much as I want to keep my good mood flowing, I decide to head to the end of the hall, into the tropical heaven, hoping I don’t run into the man who so easily gets under my skin.
All my senses light up the moment I step inside the greenhouse. It’s nothing like the last one I was imprisoned in—that place reeked of dirt gone sour, rotted plants and piss. This one smells clean, almost sweet, the air so pure I can almost taste it.
Everywhere I look, something beautiful greets me: broad leaves, bursts of color, careful order in the wild. A faint trickle of water drifts from somewhere unseen, and the high, bright notes of a bird echo through the space as if it’s made this its sanctuary, just as I wish to.
I could spend hours here, breathing it in, letting the warmth and humid air cling to me, soothe my worries. After nine months of hell, this place feels like another world.
“Like what you see?” Venom says from behind me.
I whirl straight into his chest—half bare. The top buttons of his black shirt hang undone, revealing smooth, toned muscle and the curling head of a snake tattoo, the rest disappearing beneath the fabric.
A bead of sweat trails down the center of his chest, vanishing into the shadow where I can’t see. My throat tightens. I clear it and step back, forcing myself to meet his bright blue eyes.
I blink, break the stare, and finally answer his question. "Yes. It really is amazingly beautiful in here. I’ve never seen anything like it."
“Even though most of the things in here are poisonous?” he asks with a raise of a dark brow.
“Even so.”
“It truly is a beautiful thing. Life and Death. These hands plant, nurture and give life. These hands also create death from my very own garden of life.” I swallow the sudden lump in my throat.
“You know,” he continues, taking a step toward me, causing me to bump into a table.
He then takes a strand of my hair, twirling it around his finger.
“You really are as pretty as a peach, but something tells me if I were to take a bite of you, darlin’, I’d end up choking on a type of poison I’m not immune to. ”
His eyes move from my hair to my wide-eyed gaze. He then tips his head slightly, waiting for a response.
I don’t know why words suddenly fail me. Normally, I’ve got a dozen sharp remarks lined up for him. But now, with his fingers tangled in my hair, his eyes drilling into mine, his body so close the heat rolls off him, I can’t get a single one out.
His scent, clean and fresh like spring rain, fills my lungs until my head feels foggy and the air between us grows too thick to breathe.
“Viper got your tongue, darlin’?”
His smooth voice slices easily through my hazy mind and I snap out of it enough to respond with the only thing I can think of.
“How’s your leg?” I ask smugly. Venom slowly smirks, then yanks my strand of hair before releasing it. “Ow! That hurt, asshole.”
He walks toward the back of the greenhouse, and I follow. “Are you going to cry about it?”
“I don’t cry.”
“Never?” he asks as he sits in his recliner.
“Not since I was a child.”
“Mmm, something we have in common.”
“I’m disappointed to hear stabbing you didn’t upset you more.”
“Pain is an old friend of mine. If you want to upset me, little beast, you’re gonna have to figure something else out.”
“Is everything a game to you?”
“It sure keeps life from being boring. Now tell me, did you come here searching for me?”
I scoff and cross my arms. “No. In fact I almost didn't come because I didn't want to see you.”
“Yet here you are, seeing me.” He winks.
“You should be careful up there on your high horse. It’s a long way down if you fall.”
“You mean you wouldn't catch me?” He places a hand over his heart, feigning offense.
“I would much rather watch you break your neck in the fall.”
He laughs. “Vicious beast.” After a few awkward seconds of silence, he walks over to his snakes in their glass homes with his hands in his pockets. “So, Evelyn is teaching you sign language?”
“She is.”
“Learn a lot today?”
“A lot to me but probably not according to you. She taught me the important stuff, like how to tell you off.”
He turns to me. “My sweet Ev wouldn’t teach you such things.”
I shrug.
“So how is it you’re immune to poison anyway?”
“Besides gradually building up tolerance with non-lethal doses, I also have a particular unique innate immune system, according to doctors. According to me, I’m just very special.”
I roll my eyes at that. What an arrogant prick.
He turns back toward his pets, but his leg buckles mid-step. He steadies himself, then limps to his chair. Watching him struggle, an unexpected pang twists in my chest—guilt, maybe. For the first time, I almost feel bad.
Why should I feel bad? He deserved it. He deserves worse… I think. Maybe.
“I’m sorry. About stabbing you.”
His brows furrow as he stares at me.
“Strange.”
“What is?”
“I think you might be actually telling the truth.”
“Well, I am. I just… you were right. I kind of have an anger problem.”
“You think?”
I exhale. “For as long as I can remember, I've been angry. At my life, at myself for choices I’ve made, and why I’ve had to be put through so much.”
“Fate only gives the strongest the burden of a rough life.”
“I don’t see it that way.”
“And perhaps that’s your problem. At least one of them.”
I narrow my eyes, feeling annoyed. “Well, maybe I don’t want to be strong then.”
“I don’t think you can be anything but strong, little beast.”
He quickly pulls his dark jeans down, revealing his tight gray boxers and a blood-soaked bandage on his thigh. Shrieking, I turn away.
“Geez, give a girl a warning before you take your pants off.”
“You’re welcome to look, darlin’. Maybe see something else you like in here.”
I shake my head. He never lets up. “Just do whatever you're doing and be done with it.”
“I reckon I might need some assistance.”
Turning back around, I look at him like he truly has lost his mind. “You expect me to help you now? Can’t you ask Evelyn?”
“You were the one to stab me. And you’re sorry, aren't ya? Come on, it’s at an awkward angle and I clearly did a shit job at stitching myself up.”
“You want me to redo it? I don't know how to do that!”
“I’ll walk you through it. It’ll be easy. Besides, you’ll get to inflict pain upon me—your favorite.”
“Yeah, but you like it apparently. That's not really a punishment.”
“Come now, beastie” he says, holding out his hand.
I begrudgingly accept it. He gently pulls me to him, then sits. Motioning to a cart on wheels next to him, he says, “This has everything you’ll need. You’ll clean the area and sew me up. It will be fine.”
I let out a long sigh and get to work.
With each step, Venom walks me through everything, a few times placing his hand over mine to show me how to do something or to stop me from fucking up.
Toward the end, once I get a hang of it, neither of us speaks, but I don’t miss the way his gaze never leaves me or the way he stiffens when my fingers graze his bare skin.
Twenty minutes later, his wound does look a lot better than before. I apply a bandage over it, and he stands before I do, putting his groin at my eye level.
Oh fuck. I almost fall back, but he catches my arm and helps me stand.
“Thank you,” he says. “That should hold. Unless you attack me again.”
“No promises.”
“Wouldn't expect anything less. Now run off and go do whatever beastly things you do around here.”
Before I turn, I sign, “Eat a dick, asshole.”
And his shocked expression is the most satisfying thing I might have ever seen.
Thanks, Evelyn.
It’s 3AM when I wake up to noises. No, not just noises… yelling? Is that Venom?
I crawl out of bed and leave my room.
“No! No! Please!” Venom screams from the room next to mine.
I walk over to the door and press my ear to it.
“Please, no more!”
I’ve never heard him so… distraught.
I try the doorknob—it turns easily. Against my better judgment, I ease Venom’s door open.
The hallway light spills just far enough inside for me to make him out on the bed. Alone. His body twists, muscles tight, low groans slipping from him as though he’s trapped in some unseen struggle.
I step closer, slow and quiet, until I’m standing at his side. Sweat beads on his forehead, platinum strands of hair plastered to his skin, his face contorted in raw agony.
Is he having a nightmare?
“Don’t! No more!” he cries out again.
“Venom,” I hedge.
Nothing.
His body jerks again.
“Venom. Hey.” I reach out. “It’s just a nightmare.” My hand lands on his chest.
His eyes fly open, and I’m instantly roughly grabbed and twisted onto the bed, a blade placed to my throat.
He heaves above me with fury, his eyes boring into me, wild and murderous.
“Venom.” I manage a breathless whisper and raise my hands in surrender.
His eyes soften just a bit but still anger coats them.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?” he snarls.
“I… I heard you. It sounded like something was wrong and you needed help.”
“Does it look like I need your fucking help?”
“Um… maybe not so much now but it sure did a moment ago.”
His glare intensifies and the blade digs deeper.
“I could have killed you.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Not yet,” he says through clenched teeth. “Get out.” He pushes off me and stands. He’s nude, but I quickly avert my gaze from the shadowed parts of him.
Slowly sitting up, I touch my neck to make sure I’m not bleeding.
“I was just trying to help. You were having a nightmare,” I say as I stand, smoothing my shirt down to cover my panties.
He whirls on me again. “I was not having a fucking nightmare! Now, get out!” he shouts.
I say nothing further and leave him.
I know I’ve only known Venom a short time, but I’ve never seen him so out of character. He’s always so put together—all cocky confidence. Just now though, he was a broken, disheveled man.