I opened my mouth to yell at them, but all that came out was another rumbling hiss, and in it I felt my strength for the first time. Saw the fear in their eyes and knew it was because of me. Because of what they knew I could do to them, even if I was still learning the depth of my own ability.
Think of it like learning a new technique in the kitchen, girl. You can do this.
Maybe being a monster wasn’t so bad after all; at least not when it came to protecting my family.
I flicked my tail forward, slamming it into the stacks on one side of my enemies. Sweeping the merchandise at them, I cleared the section of everything but the floor and a few bolts. I bunched my muscles and slid across the floor, scales catching the light, flickering it around like a living prism.
The three remaining Bull Boys ran from my yaya. I snaked my head toward them, mouth open and fangs bared. So fast . . . I had no idea how fast I really was until two of them filled my mouth. I bit down, driving a fang through each of them.
Ernie flew by my head. “You don’t have to kill them. You can make them your minions with your siren abilities. It’s your choice.”
I rolled my eyes to him and he flew back a few feet. That would have been nice to know about ten seconds previous. “Damn, girl, you’ve got the beauty and the beast all rolled into one package. Don’t get pissy with me, girlfriend. I’m trying to help.”
The boys in my mouth writhed and I shook my head, flinging them across the store. One hit the plus-sized women’s clothing, and the other hit the stacks of toilet paper. I didn’t want them to be my minions.
I dropped my head and sniffed at Yaya. Her heartbeat echoed across my skin along with the buzz of the lights. I swept my head back up to the roof and did a swift arc with it, taking out the lights closest to us. The buzzing eased a little and I dropped my head again. Yaya didn’t move and I looked up at Ernie. I wanted to ask him questions, but couldn’t.
Apparently being a giant snake had its disadvantages. As the adrenaline faded, the smoke rose up around me again, and my body sloughed off the snake form like a dead skin that faded away until I stood there, buck naked, in front of my yaya.
“Beauty indeed,” Ernie murmured, and I glared at him.
“I heard that.”
“Sorry, but you’ve got an ass that won’t quit and legs—”
“Shut up, Ernie.”
I ran forward and crouched beside my grandmother, taking her hands in mine, pressing them to my chest. “Yaya, talk to me, please.”
“I’m alive, though I’m going to have a headache the size of Zeus’s ego.” Her eyes flickered open and I smiled.
“Can you stand?”
Her eyes flicked over me. “You shifted?”
I nodded and gave her a somewhat wobbly smile. “Yeah, it wasn’t so bad. I killed someone. That was worse.”
“Ah, my girl. I’m sorry.” She sat up slowly and cupped my chin with one hand. I burst into tears and bowed my head, pressing my face against her shoulder.
“I am a bad person. That’s why I’m a monster, that’s why Merlin made me this creature. It’s a reflection of who I really am.” At least that was what I tried to say; it was hard to actually tell through the sobbing hiccups what the words were.
A blanket settled over my shoulders, and Yaya wrapped her arms around me. “Pull yourself together, Lena. The night is not over yet.”
I lifted my head and wiped my nose. “It’s not?”
“They took Tad.”
My heart sank. “I was hoping he’d made it out. Or left before this mess started.”
“No. We tried to talk Zeus into spilling the beans, and then I decided to get some groceries. You know how it is, once you start shopping you keep adding things, and before I knew it, hours had passed.”
Zeus cleared his throat and we both looked up at him. To be fair I looked, and Yaya glared.
“You fool. You think you can escape your responsibilities by hiding here?”
“I’m not hiding. And your granddaughter is not my responsibility, Flora,” he said, but there was hesitation in his words. As if even he didn’t really believe them.
Yaya snorted. “Please. That’s the least of my concerns. Hera is up to something, and you know it!” She pointed a bony finger at him.
Zeus shook his head. “We’ve been separated for years. If she’d give me the damn divorce, I’d do it in the heartbeat of a hummingbird. But you know her; she’s a jealous bitch. You didn’t get that family curse for nothing.”
Shock zipped through me. “What family curse?”
Yaya’s mouth pinched to a thin line, and she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“What curse?” I repeated.
Zeus looked over our heads as if searching for an answer from the heavens. “Tonight, at Charlie’s Club. I’ll tell you what I can there. If you still want to hear it. Seeing as you did save my kingdom from complete destruction.”
I rolled my eyes, forgetting I sat there naked as the day I was born. Until the police came rushing down the aisle, Officer Jensen in the lead. His dark-brown eyes widened when he saw me sitting there, and I wiggled my fingers at him.
“Hello again, Officer.”
“How am I not surprised?” he said under his breath.
The cops called in the EMTs for Yaya, but she waved them off. “I’m fine, stop touching me, you grabby perverts.” This to the ambulance attendant trying to get a stethoscope on her.
I put a hand on her arm while still clutching the blanket tight. “Maybe you should go with them, Yaya. Call Mom and Dad and tell them . . .” I didn’t know what she’d tell them. Or what good it would do. Not like Mom was going to let Dad help us again. Another burst of anger at my parents and fear for Tad snapped through me. A hand locked onto my shoulder, pressing me into the ground. I stared up at Zeus. His blue eyes held mine. “Not here. Not now.”
What was he talking about? He gestured with his head and I looked to my feet, where the scales I’d seen in my full snake form wrapped up my leg. Nothing else, just scales. I stared at them, unable to look away.
There was no more denying that I wasn’t going to be able to live as a human, no more believing things could go back to the way they were. I was a Super Duper. And not just any Super Duper, but one of literal and most epic proportions.
Officer Jensen was the one who questioned me about the incident. I listened in to Zeus’s account from thirty feet away. Obviously the police had no idea he was a supernatural, or they wouldn’t be taking his statement at all. Nor did they consider me a supernatural, or they wouldn’t be taking mine.
Zeus was explaining that the Bull Boys were disgruntled employees, and they’d trashed the place and beaten each other up, and then the remainder of them had left. I echoed his words to Jensen.
“And the accounts of a giant snake? People from the doors swore they saw a giant snake head touch the ceiling at one point. You didn’t see that? How could you miss it?” Officer Jensen held his pen over his notepad as his brown eyes narrowed. As if he knew I was the one to blame for that particular section of testimony.
Oh dear, this was going to be hard to explain. “Did anyone get a picture of this supposed giant snake?” I did my best to put some sarcasm into my words, but I wasn’t very well practiced.
“No, there were no pictures, unfortunately. Apparently it all happened too fast.”
Relief swept through me.
I shrugged and let a bit of the blanket slip down my shoulder, baring the pale skin. His eyes slid away from me, and the expression in them softened. “Ma’am. The giant snake.”
Here I was, about to break another rule that had been drummed into me since I was a child. Thou shalt not lie. “I would think if there was anything like that, Officer Jensen, we would see it. Wouldn’t we? It’s not like a giant snake can just disappear into thin air.”
I took a breath; the blanket slipped a little farther so the tops of my breasts peeked out. Just skin, no nipple, but it seemed to do the trick.
; “Of course not,” he said, agreeing with me far too easily. Even though I was grateful for it, I wondered if it had to do with who his boss was. If again, Remo was somehow trying to make it so I owed him something.
He jotted something on his paper and turned away. Pausing, he looked back. “The boss. You’ve got him riled up, and he’s not a guy to rile up easy. Try not to get on his bad side, will you?”
I frowned. “Not my fault he’s got sex on the brain and I don’t.”
Officer Jensen’s mouth dropped open. “Sex? Why would you say that? He wants you on his side, not in his bed.”
Oh dear, what had I stepped into this time? “Nothing. Never mind. I’m not interested in his offer. That’s what I meant.”
He didn’t look away, and I couldn’t hold his gaze. Yaya ranted at the ambulance attendants as they wheeled her away on a gurney. I waved at her, glad she would be looked after and kept out of harm’s way. Whether she wanted to be or not.
Zeus and I stood to one side, away from the officers as they tagged and bagged the remaining Bull Boys. That is, the ones that had been killed. By me.
Nausea swam up through my guts, threatening to spill out of my mouth.
“Go get yourself some clothes. No charge.” Zeus shoved me toward the other end of the store. Which in effect turned me away from the body bags.
“I want to know where my brother is. Who has him?” I whispered my questions, knowing the police would want the info if they knew Tad was missing. And knowing they couldn’t help even if they did know.
“Tonight. At Charlie’s Club,” he whispered back, giving me another gentle shove.
I took a step, stopped, and turned back. Yaya had a rod that made lightning. I looked over the area where she’d been lying. No rod of lightning. Ernie flashed his wings, getting my attention. “It’s with her. Kinda like you, it’s compact in its less deadly form.”
I frowned up at him. “Don’t talk to me, you little jerk. You lied about what was going on. Zeus didn’t need my help. He doesn’t owe me anything now.”
“But he’s going to help you anyway. Besides, when you get information that there’s a lightning-and-thunder show going on inside a Blue Box Store where Zeus works, it logically stands that it’s Zeus. Not one of his priestesses. And really, would you have left your yaya here to fight on her own?”
I shook my head. “No, of course not. I’m sorry, I just . . . everything has happened so fast.”
My feet slapped on the cheap tile as I hurried across the store. Thinking at all about what had happened only made me want to either throw up or burst into tears. Time for not thinking. Don’t think about Tad missing; don’t think about the dead Bull Boys. Don’t think about turning into a giant snake again.
I focused on trying to find clothes, underwear, and shoes that fit.
“Here, try these.” Ernie tossed something at me. A pair of leggings that glittered with snake scales in black and green, edged in gold.
I glared at him. “Funny.”
“Well, you’re going to a club later. It’s not like they’ve got clubbing clothes here, and you want to fit in as much as possible.”
Dang it, he had a point. I grabbed some underwear and the leggings he’d tossed at me.
“No, no. You need a thong for those leggings. Otherwise your panty line shows, and that would be a crime against your nature. Friends don’t let friends be frumpy.” Ernie threw a piece of string at me. String. I held it up on one finger. Make that three pieces of string. “This. Is not underwear.”
“It is when you wear tight pants, honey butt.”
I pulled the thong on under the blanket, grimacing as the thin strap slid up between my cheeks. “Who the heck thought this was a good idea?”
“A man. Same as the pants. Only a man would want a woman to be fully dressed and yet still be as close to naked as possible.” Ernie fluttered around the racks of clothes.
“You’re probably right.” I pulled on the leggings and had to admit that both the thong and the tight pants were pretty comfy, if rather revealing. Ernie tossed me a tank top in plain white.
“Kinda cold for this time of year, don’t you think?” I held it out from me.
“You been cold at all since you’ve been turned?”
“No.”
“You run hot, like the rest of the shifters in our world. Which is weird because you’re a snake and not a hot-blooded animal in nature. But something about the way Drakainas are put together makes them burn. Maybe the venom in their system?” He tipped his head and slowly nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably it.”
“So cold won’t bother me?”
“Nope. Neither will extreme heat.”
I dug through a bin of bras and found one in my size. Making sure my back was to Ernie, I dropped the blanket and put the bra on, slipping the tank top over my head quickly.
“Shoes next,” Ernie called, and I followed his voice. A small part of me knew what he was up to. And I was grateful. Maybe he wasn’t a jerk.
A distraction was what I needed to get me through the next little bit, so I could break down elsewhere, after this mess was dealt with. Like after we found Tad. After I convinced Achilles I was harmless. I snorted to myself. That was going to be like selling ice to an Eskimo. Harmless? After I killed three of his Bull Boys?
Ernie fluttered by a rack of high heels. “What do you think? More height?”
I ran a hand over the black glittering heels that had to be at least four inches high. My mother would have had a complete breakdown. While they weren’t as nice as the ones from Merlin’s, they were certainly nicer than anything I had in my closet at home.
An image of Barbie going through my clothes and throwing them out while shouting “Brown church mouse!” made me grit my teeth.
“Easy, Lena, your skin is showing again. It’ll get easier each time now that you’ve shifted once. So watch your emotions,” Ernie said.
I pulled the shoes down and jammed my feet into them. I didn’t even wobble as I strode out of the store. No, I didn’t stumble or wobble until I got back to the car and slid into the seat.
I leaned forward and burst into tears. I’d killed at least one Bull Boy, probably more than that with the venom from my fangs, depending on if they survived. I wanted to believe they were alive. I’d lied. Kissed a man when I was technically still married. Worse than all of that, because of me and what I was, Tad had been taken.
Because I’d chosen this path, with my eyes wide open, knowing I would become a monster.
“I deserve it all,” I whispered. “Everything that’s happened.”
CHAPTER 11
“That’s enough of that bag of Cerberus shit,” Ernie barked at me. “I mean it. Whatever you’re thinking you deserve, you’re wrong.”
I wiped my eyes and turned to him, wondering how he’d gotten in the car when I’d not even heard the door open. “You don’t know anything, Ernie.”
“I do. Let me guess. You think that the way you were raised defines everything you are. It doesn’t. You have to figure out who you are. Who is Alena? Once you figure that out, everything else will fall into place.”
“Figuring out who I am won’t bring Tad home! It won’t bring those I killed back to life, or make me human again!” I yelled at him, and then slapped my hands over my mouth. “Look at me. I’ve never yelled in my life. Never wore clothes this tight. I’m doing everything I was always taught was wrong. Terrible. Things that would make me a bad person. Things that would damn my soul.”
“Defending yourself and your family isn’t wrong,” he said softly. “Come on, let’s go to the bakery. You owe me, and we’ve got time to kill before Zeus will be at the club.” He settled back into the seat and closed his eyes. Not unlike how Yaya rode in the car.
I turned the key and shifted the car into gear, the engine purring nicely like some large jungle cat, which made me think of Remo again.
I pushed him out of my mind. The last thing I needed was to add the feel of him kissing
me to the tumult of emotions and fears tumbling in my head.
The smell of his cinnamon-and-honey, hot-and-sweet kiss. I groaned and shook my head, did my best to push that away.
I gripped the steering wheel. Barbie might not have the greatest taste in men, but her taste in cars wasn’t half bad.
Damn it, and now I was back to comparing Roger to Remo. And really, there was no comparison. I had a feeling Roger would fall short in every category. My mind went straight into the gutter as I contemplated Roger’s small endowment. And how he’d said it wasn’t the size that counted, but how you used things. And my mind rolled over to the size of Remo’s hands as he’d cupped my bum. If there was any relation between size of hands and size of—
I turned the radio up, as if that would drown out my wildly inappropriate thoughts.
“Hey, why is your face all red?”
“I wasn’t thinking about him,” I blurted out.
Ernie laughed. “I didn’t ask who you were thinking about. But I think maybe I should. Who you thinking about, girlfriend?”
I glanced at him, considered telling him. “I . . . that mob boss.”
“Oooh, yeah, he is a dish, isn’t he?” Ernie flew to the dash and sat so he faced me. “Seriously, he’s got the whole bad-boy vibe going on.”
“He kissed me,” I blurted out.
“Oh. My. Gods. Tell me, was he any good?” He clapped his hands together like an excited little girl.
I wasn’t sure if he was mocking me or not. I went with mocking. “Stop it. Don’t tease me. I’m a married woman and I kissed—”
“No, you aren’t married.” He pointed a finger at me. “You cut ties with the human world. Now give me the deets.”
“Deets?” What was he talking about now?
“The details. Was he any good? I mean, I think he would be good. I’d kiss him.”
My eyes widened. “You would kiss him?”
He grinned, “Alena, something you should know about most of the Greek pantheon . . . we aren’t picky. Beauty is to be honored in all forms, appreciated however it is shown to us. That vampire is the boss with a capital B, and there is more than one Greek god or goddess whose eye he’ll catch. You’d best watch over him or he might get stolen from you.”
[Venom 01.0] Venom & Vanilla Page 15
