Venus Crotalus was a dead snake once she got her hands on him.

Brittney had finally managed to escape Trisha’s vigilant watch, only to discover there was no sign of him anywhere. Was he kidding her? If Variant or Valerie caught up with her now, it was over. She probably wouldn’t get another chance like this tonight.

She searched the crowd, rising slightly on her toes to see past the bodies moving around her. There was nothing. No black hair or familiar face. No infuriating serpent who had summoned her over and then decided to disappear.

Then, just as Brittney was considering the possibility of strangling him whenever she eventually found him, Venus appeared between two passing people like a ghost.

He was grinning.

That tasty, slithering bastard.

The moment he knew she’d seen him, he turned and walked away.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Brittney muttered.

She pushed her way through the crowd, keeping her eyes fixed on him. Venus never once stopped to wait for her, but somehow he never moved fast enough to completely disappear either. Every time someone blocked her view, she’d catch another glimpse of his black hair a few seconds later, always farther ahead.

He was doing this on purpose.

Brittney watched him descend from the arena grounds and followed, weaving between the last clusters of partygoers until she reached the bottom. By the time she got there, however, Venus had vanished again. There was nothing ahead of her but the woods.

She stared at the trees. Then came a rustle from somewhere beyond them, followed by the briefest glimpse of black hair disappearing behind a trunk.

Fuck. Was it weird that she could recognize the back of his head now?

She must be losing her mind.

Brittney took one step toward the woods before stopping herself.

Wait. Was she actually out of her fucking mind?

This was practically the opening scene of every horror movie where some woman made a catastrophically stupid decision and everyone watching screamed at the television for her to turn around. Was she seriously about to follow a serpent into a dark forest alone because he’d smiled at her and disappeared between some trees?

How much did she really know about Venus anyway?

They’d shared one passionate night together. One very memorable, extremely satisfying night, yes, but that didn’t suddenly make him trustworthy. He was still a serpent, and for all she knew, this could be some elaborate ploy to lure her away from everyone else and kill her.

Except that didn’t make much sense either.

If Venus wanted her dead, he’d had every opportunity last night. She’d been alone with him, completely vulnerable, and he’d done many things to her, but murder certainly hadn’t been one of them.

Besides, Brittney couldn’t shake the strange conviction that Venus wasn’t going to hurt her. And if she remembered correctly, a certain serpent had quite the habit of tempting her into things and then challenging her to see whether she’d actually follow through.

If this was another one of his games, he had chosen the wrong human to play it with.

Brittney glanced around the edge of the woods one last time. Truthfully, she wasn’t exactly alone out here. She could hear couples scattered among the nearby trees, some talking and laughing while others were making sounds that required absolutely no explanation whatsoever.

The woods had become the unofficial extension of the party.

Wonderful.

At least if Venus tried to murder her, there were witnesses nearby. Granted, half of them sounded far too preoccupied with fucking each other to notice, but Brittney would take what she could get.

With that reassuring thought, she entered the woods.

Light from the arena followed her at first, slipping between the trees and illuminating enough of the ground for her to see where she was going. But the farther she walked, the weaker it became until the darkness between the trunks swallowed almost everything ahead.

Brittney pulled out her phone and switched on the flashlight.

“Venus?” she called under her breath.

There was no response. She continued forward, and after another minute of walking, Brittney slowed.

Okay. Maybe this hadn’t been her brightest decision.

She turned slightly, trying to remember which direction she’d come from. The distant music was still audible, but the trees had begun to look irritatingly identical, and Brittney was starting to wonder whether she’d managed to get herself lost.

A rustle sounded ahead and her light immediately swung toward it. For half a second, she caught the blur of Venus’s hair and the edge of his jacket disappearing behind another tree.

Brittney’s eyes narrowed. Oh, that fucking snake. He wasn’t lost. Serpent Boy wasn’t waiting for her either. He was playing with her.

Unfortunately for Venus, Brittney had never known when to walk away from a challenge. She tightened her grip on her phone and went after him. If the serpent wanted to play, she would follow this game to the end.

The direction he’d disappeared in eventually led her into a small clearing surrounded by thick woods. An enormous oak stood in the middle, its sprawling branches stretching overhead and its roots breaking through the earth around its trunk.

Brittney stopped.

Well, shit.

Unless morning suddenly decided to arrive several hours early, she wasn’t entirely confident she could find her way back to the party on her own.

For the first time since entering the woods, Brittney seriously questioned her decision to trust Venus. She hoped the bastard hadn’t taken his little prank far enough to abandon her out here because if he had, getting roasted would be the least of his problems once she found him.

A shadow blurred past her and Brittney spun around.

She didn’t see him.

Movement came from her right this time and Brittney turned quickly, her phone light sweeping across the trunks and bushes, but once again caught nothing.

Her heart began beating faster.

This was different from following glimpses of him through the woods. She couldn’t see him anymore. She could only hear the occasional rustle of leaves and the low disturbance of something moving around the clearing.

Her adrenaline kicked in. Brittney slowly lowered her phone.

Fine. If he wanted to act like a snake, she could treat him like one.

“You know, for someone who went through all this trouble to get me alone, you’re suddenly being very shy, Serpent Boy.”

Silence fell.

Brittney kept her eyes ahead, but every part of her attention shifted to the sounds around her.

“What happened?” she continued. “All that confidence disappeared because we’re alone now? I expected better from you.”

A faint rustle came from somewhere to her left, but she resisted the urge to look.

“Or perhaps this is all you’ve got. Slither around in the dark and hope the poor human gets scared.” Brittney scoffed. “Very impressive. I’m trembling.”

Another rustle sounded, closer this time.

Brittney smiled to herself. There you are.

“Honestly, Venus, I’m starting to think I gave you far too much credit. Maybe I should just go back to the party and find myself a beast who actually knows how to—”

Movement came from behind her and Brittney whirled around. Her hand caught his arm before Venus could retreat. She planted her feet, used his momentum against him and threw him straight over her shoulder.

Venus hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs, and for one glorious second, there was complete silence. Then he started laughing.

The bastard actually lay there laughing.

“Oh, you think that’s funny?”

Brittney was on him before he could recover, straddling his waist and pinning him beneath her. Venus made no attempt to throw her off. If anything, the grin spreading across his face only made her want to strangle him more.

Brittney leaned down until their faces were only inches apart.

“Now,” she said sweetly, “I’m going to give you a choice.”

Venus’s brows rose.

“Roasted snake or sautéed?”