"You really said that to Langdon?" Mallory gasps.

Coco nods proudly as Gallant chuckles. "She sure as hell did. You should've seen his face. That smug look faltered for a few seconds; it was absolutely priceless."

"I wish I would've seen it," Mallory shakes her head.

I quickly look around the sitting room. "Why aren't Dinah or Andre here?" I ask.

Coco shrugs distastefully. "They're probably getting ready for the Halloween Ball tonight or something."

"What are you going to dress up as?" Emily asks.

"Marie Antoinette," Coco answers smugly.

"What about you guys?" Emily asks me, Mallory, and Gallant.

"I'll just wear a mask or something," Gallant shrugs. "I'm going to spend most of my time doing Coco's hair."

"I don't even know if Grays are allowed to dress up," Mallory shakes her head. "Although I suppose that the whole concept of Grays shouldn't even be a thing..."

As soon as they heard about Venable's making up the rules about Grays, Coco moved Mallory into her room so she didn't have to share the group bunks with the Grays anymore. They haven't seen Venable yet today, but I'm sure they'd attack her if given the chance.

"I'm so mad at that bitch," Coco grumbles, saying what we're all thinking. "She'd better hope that I never see her again."

"Coco, you've been aggressive lately," I remark. "First saying 'Fuck you' to Langdon, now threatening Venable."

"And what about it?"

I chuckle. "I wish this side of you would've come out sooner."

......

After hanging out with Coco and the rest of the group, I make the lonely walk back to my room. As I walk down the hallway, I realize that it's much quieter than usual. I am yet to see a Gray today; my intuition tells me that they're making their plan to overthrow Venable at the Halloween Ball. 

Right on time, I begin to pass Venable's office. However, I hear a commotion happening through her door. Deciding to see what she's up to, I change direction and walk up to her door.

As I arrive at her door, I knock twice. "It's Valentina," I announce my presence. I wait a few seconds before taking the liberty of opening the door myself. 

As soon as I open the door, Venable looks up from her desk, pausing from throwing its contents across the room. "Ms. Callistra, what are you doing in here?" she asks, her panic and anger evident in her voice.

"What is going on in here? You seem as if you've lost something." A smirk plays across my face, knowing damn well what she is searching for.

Her eyes narrow as she slowly makes her way toward me. My demeanor smug as ever, I take my time turning around and closing the door behind myself. When I turn back to face Venable, she is directly in front of me.

Her voice low and stoic, she forcefully asks, "Where the hell did you put my gun?"

"Your gun?" I reply mockingly as if I don't have it hidden in my room right now.

She swiftly (yet powerfully) strikes me across the face with her open palm. A sharp edge on one of her rings catches my bottom lip, pain immediately blossoming from the point of impact. As I recompose myself, I slide my tongue across my lip to taste blood. 

Her face devoid of sympathy, she asks again, "Where is my gun?"

"Not going to lie, you hit a lot harder than I would have expected," I remark, my voice unbothered.

A glint of amusement in her eye, she reels back before striking me in the side with her cane. While I'm knocked off balance, she uses her cane to push me down to the floor.

I turn to look up at her as I catch myself on my knees. "If you wanted me on my knees for you, all you had to do was ask."

She takes my chin in one of her hands, her sharp nails digging into my tender skin. "Where is my gun?"

A smile spreads across my lips as I tsk, "Do you really think your gun can save you? My, Wilhemina, I don't think you realize how deep you've dug your grave."

She squeezes tighter as she forces me to crane my neck back even further. She threateningly holds the top of her cane against my trachea. "Don't make me hurt you, Valentina."

"You can hurt me as much as you'd like, ma'am."

She glares at me for a moment as she debates what to do. Eventually, she releases me entirely before demanding, "Get up."

She turns her back on me as she storms over to her desk. I pull myself to my feet before sauntering over to her. "What, Wilhemina, are you giving up that easily?"

Suddenly, she turns on her heel to grab me by the neck. Caught entirely off guard, I don't do anything to stop her as she slams me down onto the surface of her desk. She holds me down by her grip on my neck as her brown eyes bore into mine. "I think I may have figured out the only way to get what I want from you."

She keeps one hand on my neck while the other one begins to glide down past my collarbone. It circles around my breast before giving it a squeeze. She watches as I arch my back into her, a smirk spreading across her face as she watches the pleasure in mine. This is all the confirmation she needs as she steps closer, now stepping one leg in between mine. 

Her hand begins to move back up my body as she says, "If you're going to be a brat..." her hand makes its way up my jawline before she closes it into a fist, leaving only her pointer and middle fingers out. "Then I'm going to treat you like one." She taps my lips. "Now open."

I open my mouth and immediately take her fingers in it. She watches through hooded eyes as I suck her fingers, her sharp nails occasionally catching my tongue. 

Suddenly, there's a knock on the door, and Venable immediately pulls away from me. I try to regain my composure as I begin to pull myself up. But when I turn to the door, I realize no amount of composure matters. Michael opens the door, his glare immediately burning through me. Even though he didn't see anything, I know for a fact he must've read Venable's mind, and that must be why he knocked in the first place.

"Valentina," he states through gritted teeth. "A word. Now."

I don't even look at Venable, not wanting to see her face. I make eye contact with Michael to see his glare burning through me. He is beyond pissed. This look... I've never seen him so angry. 

I break eye contact with him as I pass him to walk out into the hallway. I hear the door slam behind me, but I don't bother to look back. A hand suddenly lands on my shoulder, and I gasp as I'm transmutated into Michael's room. Before I can react, I'm sent flying across the room. I slam into Michael's closet door, and it breaks upon impact. I'm showered by the debris from the closet as I slam into the ground. 

"Let's get one thing straight," Michael states through gritted teeth. "You are mine. Not Venable's. Not anybody else's. Mine."

I roll over to face him as I argue, "You don't own me, Michael-"

"But you own me!" he cuts me off. "I've made it plenty clear how crazy you make me. You make me crazy enough that my last bit of self-control is the only reason that you and Venable aren't dead right now. Hell, it's the only reason why you're laying in the debris of my closet rather than having me strangle the life out of you."

"Michael-"

"No," he cuts me off as he begins to slowly make his way toward me. "You're not going to feed me a single lie. If you don't want me to tear your heart out on the spot, you're going to think through what you're about to say very carefully and not tell me one ounce of bullshit."

I climb to my feet under Michael's watchful gaze. I make eye contact with him, my mind racing as I try to think of what to say to him. Honestly, I can't blame him for being pissed off, but at the same time, pissing him off was my whole goal in getting involved with Venable in the first place.

"I will admit, I got carried away," I start cautiously.

"No fucking shit."

I ignore him as I continue, "I did initially get involved with Venable just to piss you off. But that whole stunt was not at all part of the plan. I went into that conversation with the intent to piss Venable off, but she surprised me and caught me totally off guard with that."

"You flirted with her constantly before she did what she did."

"Flirting during serious situations is just in my nature."

"And? Control your fucking nature! Killing people is in mine, yet I somehow resisted the urge to brutally murder you and Venable just now."

"Wow, the bar is low."

He begins to raise his hand, but he catches himself and lowers it. His angry glare burns through me as he shakes his head. "This is me doing my best. It is out of my respect for you that I didn't just slap you even though you more than earned it."

I shrug - I did more than earn it.

"Because honestly, hitting you once and letting you think we're even is letting you off easy. I'm going to make you live with how you just betrayed me. But with that said, this is your last warning. I've put up with enough of your bullshit and tolerated too many antics. The next time you pull something, I will not remain calm enough as to not rock your shit."

I slowly nod, getting the sense that he doesn't want me to respond verbally. Honestly, this reaction is not at all what I was expecting, so I'm having a hard time responding to him; fighting fire with fire is what our relationship was founded on, so having him put out the fire right now is catching me hella off guard.

He nods as well. "Just know that I will be murdering Venable at the end of the night, and you're not going to be able to do anything about it. Then you're going to help me kill all of the witches, and we'll go to the Sanctuary together. And if you somehow find a way to betray me this horrifically while we're at the Sanctuary..." he scoffs lightly. "Hell only knows what I'll do to you."