The Venom between us.

UMBRIA DISTRICT, PERUGIA IN ITALY, LOCALITA ASPROLI TODI ESTATE. THE UMBRA COLLECTIVE: THE FATAL ATTRACTION SOCIETY...Kessie's Pink Manor.

They all stared at Kessie like she had grown horns. Honestly? She was mad.

Mad because she'd known about the alternative.

Mad because she'd waited..waited until now...to say something. Now, when they were knee-deep in blood and rules and pressure. Now, when it mattered the most.

Magnus stood slowly, laughter still lingering from the room's earlier hysteria. Without a word, he turned and walked out.

"We're not done yet, Mag!" Kessie shouted after him, her voice cracking through the tension like a whip.

But he was already gone.

The rest of them followed one by one, their exits quiet, pointed, final.

Kessie's hands curled into fists. "Don't you guys dare…"

They were gone.

"…walk out of this meeting," she finished under her breath, her voice brittle. Her fingers clawed into her scalp in frustration, scratching so hard her skin screamed.

How dare they…?

"How. Dare. You?" Shante's voice sliced through the room like a blade, slow and venomous, each word deliberate.

Kessie jolted at the sound, not realizing someone had stayed behind.

There she was.

Shante Jarret.

Still seated. Still still.

But her eyes...they weren't the warm white of clarity anymore. They were flushed red with rage, pulsing with fury so vicious it could have curdled blood.

Kessie swallowed hard.

Maybe it was better the others left. Better not to witness the storm brewing in Shante's gaze. Her face was still, almost eerily beautiful, like the moment just before a tempest tore through a city. And yet… it was terrifying.

Kessie forced a breath and dared to speak.

"Ahem…" she cleared her throat softly. Her voice dropped into something softer, pitiful. "Te, it's not like that…"

"When did you find out?" Shante cut in, her voice ice-cold, refusing to even look at her.

"I just discovered it recently, I..."

Shante stood.

Kessie lurched forward, grabbing her wrist in panic.

"Wait! It's not what you..."

Shante yanked her hand free with the grace of a queen casting off filth. Her glare stabbed straight through Kessie's soul.

"Don't you ever, in your miserable, godforsaken, useless little life...ever...put that excuse of a brain you call a head anywhere near me," she spat.

"You incompetent fool."

Kessie blinked. Her mouth opened but no sound came.

"You know what, Kessie? Everything is your fault. You weren't content mocking us,orphans,with nowhere else to go. Treated like high-class slaves, dressed in silk and fed lies."

Shante scoffed bitterly, disgust curling her lip.

"Because of you, we parade into this goddamn compound dressed in meetings and illusions, but all you wanted was company. You were lonely. And we...we let you fool us."

Shante took a step forward.

"You must've been thrilled. Waking up beside your father, your safe heaven,bet it would've been fun. You do nothing,you and your filthy father, yet you both take fifty percent of our earnings every time we spill blood and sell our bodies."

Her voice cracked at the edges, trembling with buried fury and pain.

"Seven fucking years, Kessie. Seven. And you just now discover a faster, cleaner method? After girls died? After they were forced to sleep with monsters on time limits?"

Kessie's lips quivered. "Te, I..."

"I swear to God," Shante muttered darkly, her voice a whisper more dangerous than a scream, "I don't give two shits if you're Mackessie fucking Xandros. If your fingers so much as graze my clothing again, I'll cut every one of them off."

Kessie stood frozen in place, trembling.

Shante's eyes narrowed, laced with venom. "You know what? Just go to hell. Stay there. Rot in it. And maybe...just maybe...your father can fuck you one more time before the flames takes you both."

The words slammed into Kessie like a freight train.

She gasped, recoiling.

Shante wasn't done.

"Rumor was your moans were the loudest. I used to wonder how they knew. But now?" Her eyes dragged up and down Kessie with disdain. "Now I get it. Looking at your broken, fucked-up self...it all makes sense."

A cruel smile tugged at her lips.

"I bet Archon's dick was long. Thick. The kind that split you open and made you scream. And since it was your first time...tight, weren't you? So fucking tight he probably never wanted to let go. Who wouldn't be obsessed with the beautiful little slut he raised?"

SLAP.

The crack echoed across the room.

Shante froze. Her face turned slightly from the impact.

Mackessie's hand trembled in the air, her eyes rimmed with tears, burning with hate.

"Don't push me, Te," she warned, voice hoarse. "One phone call… and you're dead."

Shante turned back slowly, her cheek flaming. She laughed.

"Oops. Daddy's girl," she sneered. "Always running to Daddy...even when Daddy ruined her."

She stepped forward, nose to nose with her.

"If you were really traumatized, wouldn't you stay away from him? But no. I bet you'd die just to have one more round."

SLAP.

Another one. Same cheek. Louder this time.

Shante grinned.

"Now you're proving me right," she murmured. "Tell me something, Kessie. If Archon Xandros summoned you today, if he offered to make you his personal little slut again… what would you say? Yes or No?"

Kessie's mouth twitched. Her face was burning. Her fists clenched so tightly her nails dug into her palms. Of course it's fucking no but...

There was no right answer.

And Shante knew it,but she was hell bent on pissing the little princess off.

"Wait," Shante grinned. "Did I say 'Yes or No'? My bad."

She leaned in closer, her voice a whisper laced with acid.

"Yes or Yes, Kessie? What's the answer?"

"GET. OUT." Kessie's voice thundered through the room.

Shante's smile widened.

"Whoa," she said, mocking surprise. "Mackessie Xandros lost her cool… over Archon Xandros. What a bomb."

"TE!" Kessie screamed. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE...NOW!"

And just like that, Shante's expression hardened.

Her face turned still, empty, unreadable.

"This is it, Kessie," she said coldly. "Hate me. Never admire me. Don't even think of me. Because if I hear you say you envy me one more time..."

Her voice dropped.

"I'll rip your tongue out."

"OUT!" Kessie roared.

Shante slowly peeled the silk shirt off the floor,still not dressed from whatever humiliating performance she'd done for Ace. She dusted her face with the fabric like it was infected with Kessie's breath. Then, with a cruel flick of her wrist, she threw the shirt at her feet.

Mackessie stood there, breathing hard, one heartbeat away from tearing her own skin off in fury.

Shante?

She sashayed out in nothing but a black thong. Her snow-white skin flushed red on one cheek. Her silvery-blonde hair swept behind her like smoke, her expression lifeless,eyes the color of empty ghosts.

She blew a kiss.

Kessie growled in rage.

Then the door slammed shut.

And Mackessie snapped.

She tore through the room, kicking over chairs, smashing glass, flinging every object in sight with screams that ripped from her chest like thunder.

Tears stung her eyes. Her voice cracked in fury.

She grabbed her phone with shaking hands.

Put it to her ear.

Voice steady. Deadly.

"Dad," she whispered, "I want Shante Jarret from The Velvet Vixens… eliminated from the clan."