I struggled to swallow the last piece of cheesecake, thinking about Roger and what he was putting me through. A shimmer of indignant anger rose in me. I would not let him put me through anything. I would get that dang divorce if it was the last thing I did.
“You okay? Your eyes totally just flashed . . . snaky.” Tad stared at me, eyes wide and brows raised.
“Yeah, had a moment of insight. I’m not walking in Mom’s footsteps anymore; I’m not turning a blind eye to things done to me.” I smiled, though I was far from happy. Determined? You bet your sweet hind end. “Roger isn’t getting away with all my money, the house, or my bakery. I don’t care what I have to do, I’m getting a divorce. And I’m getting Vanilla and Honey back.”
He grinned, but I saw the doubt in his eyes. “You know I’ll stand by you, no matter the outcome.”
I didn’t smile back. “But you don’t believe in me.”
He shrugged and his grin faded. “Reality is what it is. You can’t change it, and I know that. Eventually you’ll realize it too. I just hope it doesn’t hurt you too bad.”
I pushed to my feet. “Just watch me, then.”
Tad saluted me with a cookie. “Whatever you say, General Lena Bean.”
The sound of footsteps on the basement stairs turned us both around to see a sleepy green-eyed Dahlia step into the hallway.
Her bright-red curls were wild as always, but not like she’d just woken up. More like she’d just come from the salon with an artful coif that was perfectly messy.
She yawned, flashing her fangs, and ran a hand through her hair, but that did nothing but make it even more wild. “Your baking smells amazing, even if I can’t eat it.”
“Did I hear something about baked goods?” Ernie shot in through the open window, his focus zeroing in on the table laden with treats. I shook my head. “Go ahead.” A part of me wondered where he’d been, if he’d been off telling my secrets to Hera or Theseus. I pinched my mouth shut and did my best to push those thoughts away. They wouldn’t help me any at this point.
“You are a glutton.” I forced a laugh and turned my back while Tad and Dahlia greeted one another, busying myself with the dishes at the sink.
I clunked the pots and pans together hard enough I could almost block out the sound of their kisses. Ernie flew to the edge of the sink and dangled his feet in the sudsy water while he chewed on a handful of cookies. “These are really good.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t like hearing them make out?” He grinned, and I grimaced.
“Something like that.”
He looked to the side and curled up his nose. “They don’t seem to care that we’re here.”
I laughed softly. “Yeah, that’s part of the problem.”
Dahlia spoke, and I assumed that meant they were done saying hello. “What’s up, my snake friend? You’re all wound up like you’re about to strike something. I can smell it all over you.” I didn’t like her metaphor; it was too close to the mark.
“Santos attacked me last night.” I turned back to them in time to see Dahlia’s jaw drop and her eyes look like they would fall out of her head.
“How do you even know Santos?” she blurted out. “He’s—”
“Remo’s rival, I know. Santos attacked Remo at the courthouse while Tad and I were there. I helped Remo, so Santos put a target on me and made good on it not long after.”
Dahlia shook her head, her eyes wide as saucers. “That’s crazy. But you’re saying this like Remo wasn’t with you. He was with you, wasn’t he?”
I shook my head. “I upset him and he let me go home on my own.”
“Oh, he is going to be pissed. At least you’re okay. I mean, you obviously survived them. Did you run away?” She smiled and leaned back in her chair. Tad put an arm over her shoulders, nodding.
Did I run away? I blinked several times as I struggled with the reality that Dahlia didn’t think I had it in me to take care of myself either.
Tad nodded. “Well, it’s not like she’s going to fight them on her own. How did you get away?”
I folded my arms over my chest, hugging myself tight as if I could squeeze their disbelief away. “Santos has something that . . . well, I think it could have killed me. He hurt me bad enough with it last night he almost had me.” I refused to admit that I had indeed run away in order to survive.
Their reactions were polar opposites. Tad sat there and stared at me, while Dahlia jumped up and ran to me, grabbing me in a hug. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Damara fixed me up, but she said . . . I almost lost my leg.”
Dahlia hugged me tighter, and I hugged her back. I was lucky to have her as a friend. Tad continued to stare at me until I snapped my fingers at him. “Hello, I almost died. Do you not care?”
He shook himself. “Sorry, I just . . . I have a hard time believing you were hurt that bad, and then you’re here now, all healed up.”
“You don’t believe me?” I spluttered, shock and hurt bundling up in me once more. Yet I had no proof. What was going on here?
Ernie swept in between us. “I was there, Tad. I saw the whole thing. She really was hurt that bad. If it hadn’t been for Damara, she would be missing a limb for sure.”
At least Ernie was standing up for me. But my own brother . . . he didn’t believe me. Didn’t believe in me. Dahlia didn’t either, though, and that hurt only a small amount less.
Dahlia frowned at Tad and then looked back at me. “What do you want to do?” she asked, stepping back so she could look me in the face.
“I have an idea, but I don’t know how good it is.” The thought had been growing in the hours I baked, slowly forming into a perfect recipe, if I could pull it off. “Santos put something on the weapons, like an acid, and that is what hurt me. It burned right through my snakeskin, eating its way to the bone in no time.”
Tad blanched. “I should have been with you.”
I waved him off. “They would have hurt you too, and there was no way you would have known. If anyone should have been with me, it should have been Remo.” I shook my head and bit my bottom lip, but the words were already out.
Dahlia nodded, then frowned. “I can’t imagine him walking away from you, though. You’ve got him all tied up in knots. It’s killing him that he isn’t supposed to be with you. The whole cross-species thing, you know.”
I did know. I rubbed a hand over my eyes, unsure that I wanted to share Remo’s past, as little as I knew about it. I had a feeling he wouldn’t want anyone else to know. “I can’t tell you what happened. They are his secrets, not mine.”
Her jaw dropped. “He told you . . . about his past? Good God, he does have it bad for you.”
Ernie snickered around a mouthful of meringue, spitting bits of it out as he spoke. “Like a major hard-on. You should have seen him on her after the courthouse.”
“Ernie!” I screeched. “You are such a Peeping Tom!”
Dahlia kept her focus. “Did he tell you about his past?”
“No, he didn’t,” I spluttered, as if denying a crime. “I kinda guessed. Look, that’s not the issue at hand. I need to find out what that stuff is Santos has, and if I can stop him from using it, then all the better. Because he’s going to come after me again. If it will burn through me, it could burn through Tad too.”
Dahlia’s eyes went thoughtful. “And you are thinking of what exactly?”
I took a breath and straightened my back. “Of switching allegiance to Santos.”
CHAPTER 8
“You’re out of your mind! He’ll never go for it!” Dahlia’s denials burst out of her as she paced the kitchen from end to end.
“I think he will,” I said softly. “He kissed me at the courthouse; he wants to hurt Remo, not just me. If he thinks he’s stealing me away from Remo . . . he’ll believe me. I know he will. He obviously wants to hurt Remo, and what better way than to take someone he sees as Remo’s secret weapon?”
“Do you know where he is?” Tad ask
ed.
I looked at Dahlia. “I don’t have to. Dahlia does, don’t you?”
She groaned and shook her head. “This is a bad, bad idea. Santos isn’t like Remo. No matter how tough Remo is, he is fair. Santos is an asshole of the largest kind with a god complex.”
“You mean he’s an elephant bum hole?” I raised an eyebrow, my lips twitching.
She pointed a finger at me. “Don’t try to lighten this moment. This is deadly serious.”
A sigh slid out of me. “I know, but the reality is I need to find out what he’s got on me. And how he got it. Does it not seem crazy coincidental that Santos, after his first run-in with me, mere hours later has something that can hurt me? Something even Achilles couldn’t manage on his own? This doesn’t make sense.”
She stopped pacing. “Do you think Theseus has finally shown up?”
I groaned and tipped my head back. “I know he has, actually. He’s convinced Beth he’s a good guy named Tim. And she and Sandy are still with him.” A fact that made me all kinds of fear filled. Like an overstuffed cream puff filled with curdled cream, my nerves and fear spilling in every direction.
Ernie spluttered. “What? I didn’t know he’s calling himself Tim. What a tool.”
“Huh?” The strangled sound barely escaped Dahlia’s lips before she spit out, “Tim? What’s he trying to do, blend in with the normals? Are the girls okay, though?”
I nodded. “I think so. I think . . . I think he’s not going to hurt them yet. Beth was ready to fight me over him.”
“Oh my God, I miss out on so much being out during the day!” She threw her hands in the air. “Okay, come on, let’s go.”
“No, just tell me where Santos is. I’ll go on my own. I don’t want you to get hurt,” I said.
She pointed a finger at me. “Listen, we are friends, so you aren’t going alone. I could never live with myself if something happened to you when I know I should have been with you. And . . . honestly, you can’t do this on your own. You aren’t a fighter, we all know it.”
And there was the truth, more than anything else. She didn’t think I could do it without her help.
“And you aren’t going without me.” Tad stood and brushed his clothes free of cookie crumbs.
Dahlia and I shook our heads in unison. “No.”
Ernie snickered. “Don’t argue with two badass chicks, my friend. They’ll do you in when you aren’t looking.”
Tad looked from Dahlia to me, and back again several times. “I’m coming with you. One of you is my sister, the other is my girlfriend. I’m not going to be that guy who is ever okay with either of you just walking into danger without me either trying to stop you or going with you.”
“Sweet, but stupid. It’s why I like you,” Dahlia muttered.
He grinned as though it was a compliment of the highest kind.
“There are more problems than Santos, and honestly, what does he want with you, Tad? You’re a naga, not a vampire.”
“You’re not a vampire either, sis.” He pointed a finger at me.
I pointed a finger at myself.
“But he wants me because of my connection to Remo, because of what he sees me capable of, regardless of what you two think I can do.” I gave them each a hard look. “He doesn’t want you, which will make you as expendable as an empty cupcake wrapper.” I waved both hands in the air at him as a thought hit me. “But you could help find Theseus. I don’t know where he took Beth and Sandy. Maybe you can see if they are okay? I bet he’d let you get close to him. We need to watch him and see if he’s amassing an army or something.”
Tad frowned. “The last Greek hero I dealt with didn’t go so well for me.”
He had a solid line of reasoning there. “Don’t engage him. Or maybe . . .” I had another thought, one I really didn’t like. “What if he’s trying to get my own friends to fight me for him? That’s what Ernie thought might be happening. Then he’d welcome you.”
Dahlia’s eyes shot to mine. “You mean actually get Beth and Sandy to fight you? They would never do that.”
I shivered. “Monster against monster.” I didn’t know if the two girls’ metallic feathers could cut through me, but if I were a betting sort, I’d say yes. “After what I saw last night, I’d believe it. Beth was . . . enthralled with him. And even Sandy was uncertain. I’d just been with them hours before, and they were totally different.”
Ernie groaned. “It’s the arrow with Beth. If they are used the wrong way, it isn’t just love they can induce but obsession. I didn’t see her, but I’d bet that’s what he did. So don’t discount her if it comes to a fight. And Theseus has enough of his own charms to bend Sandy if she’s already not sure.”
Tad nodded slowly. “Okay, so you want me in that enemy camp? I can be your spy guy?”
I swallowed hard, hating that I had to ask him to put himself in danger. “Yes, go and tell Theseus you want to be in his camp.”
“And my reason?” He arched a dark eyebrow.
Dahlia laughed. “Oh, that’s easy.” She swung an arm over my shoulder and kissed my cheek. “I chose her over you.”
Tad rolled his eyes. “You think he’d buy that?”
“If you tell him I used my siren abilities on Dahlia, I think he might.” I slowly warmed to the idea. “Be careful, please. Ernie”—I turned to the cherub—“will you go with Tad? Give him backup?”
Ernie’s face was grim, hardly looking like the cherub of love and sex. “Theseus will take him on, I’m almost sure of it.” Which made me think my general idea of what was happening with Theseus was spot on.
I didn’t think I liked being right in this case. I didn’t want my friends turning against me, even on a good day. I had few enough of them as it was to end up losing more.
Within minutes of the decisions being made, the four of us were off and running in our respective directions.
Buckled into the passenger seat of Dahlia’s little punch buggy car, I glanced across at her when she started the engine up. She had a little glimmer of tears at the edge of her eyes.
“You really love him, don’t you?”
“Damn it, yes,” she muttered. “I don’t want him to die. He came so close with Achilles. You really think he’ll be safe going to Theseus?”
I clung to Ernie’s words about the hero we were dealing with. “Theseus has a different game plan than Achilles. I don’t think he’ll hurt anyone until he’s dealt with me.” I covered my face with both hands. At least I was hoping. “What if I’m wrong?” I whispered.
“We’re a team, Alena.” Her voice firmed even as mine softened. “And Tad can help you by doing this. Let him. He’ll be careful; we’ve all learned from what happened with Achilles. You were right to send him to help, and Ernie will watch out for him too.” She pulled onto the road that took us north. I did my best to push away thoughts of Tad, Beth, and Sandy being hurt, though it wasn’t easy.
Hours later, we crossed through the Wall and continued to head north, leaving the border behind, along with any real civilization.
I looked out around us at the desolate road, the lack of people not lost on me. We were out of the main city and working our way steadily north. “Where does Santos, I don’t know, is ‘live’ the right term? Hole up? Hide out?”
“He’s got a place on Grouse Mountain. The hike up is a total bitch; they used to call it the Grind. There’s a checkpoint at the bottom, and if we get through that, we’ll have a trek ahead of us.”
“He walks up and down every time he makes an attack on Remo?” I lifted both eyebrows.
“Ah, no, he has a gondola that takes him up and down, but it’s heavily guarded.”
“You know a lot about his place.” I glanced at her and she nodded again.
“He snatched me right from Merlin’s, and Remo fought to get me back. I mean, it took me about five minutes in Santos’s group to realize I wanted nothing to do with it.”
“Wait, Remo rescued you?”
“Yes, sort o
f.”
“Why? I mean, I’m glad he did, but . .”
She sighed. “He’d come to Santos’s place to try and negotiate some sort of deal right after I was turned. Santos agreed to the meeting and the contract between them. They shook hands and everything. But as soon as Remo turned his back, Santos attacked him. There was a fight, and I already knew that Santos was a nutjob, so I knew which side to be on. He’d told me I would be part of his harem, but I never saw any other women, vamps or otherwise. I was scared that he was going to kill me. So I fought at Remo’s side, against Santos. Remo took a blow that would have killed me, but he protected me at his own expense. I carried him out. He’s like the brother I never had.”
Suddenly her utter devotion to him made perfect sense. He’d saved her from Santos, who by my own experience was not someone I would want in my life, never mind as my boss.
I looked in the rearview mirror and caught a flash of something, and the faintest of vibrations that was not Dahlia’s engine. I spun in my seat and stared back down the road. Another flash of metal catching the starlight. “I think we’re being followed.”
She glanced back, squinting. “I don’t see anything.”
Out of the darkness roared two big trucks, the rumble of their engines giving them away, even if they didn’t turn their lights on.
High beams flicked on as I thought about it. Dahlia yelped. “I can’t see! It’s too bright for my eyes!”
I reached over and grabbed the wheel. “Hit the gas; I’ll steer.”
The car shot forward and I screeched, struggling to keep us on the road. Steering from the passenger side was not as easy as I’d thought it would be. The tiny car wobbled back and forth as though we were on some sort of carnival ride, accompanied by the screeching of two women as they careened out of control at speed.
“More gas?”
“I don’t know!” I yelled back at her.
“Well, make a decision!” she yelped, and I dared a glance at the two trucks bearing down on us in the rearview mirror. Or at least I tried to. Their lights were so bright I couldn’t see them or the drivers.
Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy Book 2) Page 10
