Page 4 of House of Pain
But the nakedness and public sex wasn’t even the craziest part.
Right then, Val took her athame out of the pocket of her jeans and brought it to Killer’s defined V line. His eyebrows furrowed when the dagger pressed into his skin. But he didn’t stop Val carving out the pointy first letter of her name in his flesh.
Then, Val did the same to Hendrix and passed her dagger to Killer, pushing her jeans down and turning the side of her hip towards them.
As Killer brought the knife to her soft flesh, she hissed and then giggled. And when she lifted her dark eyes to meet Alecto’s, she winked before returning her attention back to the boys, carving their own initials into her flesh.
“She’s usingbloodmagic,” Andro hissed. “This bitch is going to get us all in trouble.”
A tremor passed through Alecto’s body as her anger rose.
Val was out of line.
Public sex, fine, it’s her prerogative.
But using blood magic, in such a public manner when their enemies were around them,underher, was beyond everything.
She was risking the Snakes’ reputation, their legacy, and their damn future with such behavior.There were lines even witches couldn’t cross.
“Orshe’s just making sure that we win this year’s Game.” Blaze’s voice was calm and collected, which only made the fire inside Alecto burn brighter.“Mixing blood and sex magic will get us the results we need.”
“If the Dean finds out about our little ritual, we’re fucked,” Alecto said through clenched teeth. “If he finds out about the ritualandthe blood magic, we’re going to be expelled. Nobody’s exempt from breaking the blood magic rule. Not evenlegacy.”
Alecto spat the last word, willing as much anger into it as she could muster. Blaze liked to think that being legacy made them invincible.
“Nobody is going to find out. Val is known to have a taste for wild sex. Nobody will even guess a little bit of carving of the flesh is part of blood magic.”
I bet you would know all about it, Alecto wanted to snap at him, but she swallowed the bitterness and turned back to Val.
“Well then, let’s hope she fucks them senseless.”
3
The next morning, Alecto found herself sitting on the monthly Liaison meeting, her hangover making her wish she was anywherebuthere.
“You cannotnotparticipate in the Game,” Garcia announced, her sharp face set in stone as she glanced at Mariana sitting on the opposite side of her by the massive round oak desk. “These are the rules for all Houses on campus. You either participate in the Game, or you lose the right to call yourself one of the Houses.”
Alecto sat on Garcia’s left, trying very hard not to lose her shit at the argument that’s been going on between the Pigs and Goats for what seemed like forever.
You would think that two Houses that were supposed to be compassionate, gentle, and calm wouldn’t waste everyone’s time with petty arguments. But apparently today they woke up and chose to be a pain in everyone’s ass.
“Last year, we lost three witches because of the stupid Game,” Mariana complained, shifting her thick black-frame glasses higher up her nose. “If the Rats hadn’t slaughtered our members in order to win, we wouldn’t be struggling with the new pledges this year.”
“Don’t blame this on us, sweetheart,” Killer snorted. After yesterday’s party, Alecto didn’t think he would show up to the meeting. “If your witches can’t protect themselves against a few loose spiders, then maybe you shouldn’t even be at Venefica. And by the way, you can’t throw accusations like that on other Houses. Not unless you want to get sued.”
“It’s public knowledge that it was the Rats who removed the enchants on the cages holding the Hollowa spiders that attackedmywitches,” Mariana argued. Alecto could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. “You set the trap because you knew those pledges will be in the possession of the Book that night. That’s how you took our Book and won the Game. So don’t give me this nonsense,Jenkins.”
Yeah, how unfortunate that win was. The Snakes were so close to acquiring the Book from the House of Tigers and winning. But the House of Rats were faster.
Alecto and the rest of the Snakes still held the grudge.
That’s why they were determined to win this year. So determined, in fact, that they used their magic to create a magical Guardian to help them cause havoc amongst other Houses and used blood magic to seal it.
Alecto still wasn’t sure how she felt about the whole thing.
“Listen,” Garcia said. “Shit happens. Any one of us can die at any moment during the Game. Just deal with it. As I said, you’re either participating in the Game like all the other Houses, or you’re going to lose your privileges. I can’t wait to see you explain that to the Dean and your Alumni.”
“Yeah,Cantini,” Killer teased Mariana. “Daddy’s not going to be so happy if he spent all this money and his girl ruined his legacy.”
