[Venom 01.0] Venom & Vanilla

by Shannon Mayer

  This was not a time to be prudish. I ran, clutching my now-mangled arm to my side, slipping through the mud and taking advantage of the Bull Boys’ shock. I dropped to my knees beside Ernie. “I’m sorry. Give me the arrow.” He pressed it into my hands, and I helped him out of the mud. “I thought you were on Hera’s side.”

  “It’s complicated,” he muttered. “Go. Before Achilles does more damage.”

  I spun in the mud and started toward the platform. Whatever advantage I had was gone; the Bull Boys were back on me. But the mud wasn’t any easier for them to maneuver in than it was for me. They’d reach for me and I’d flinch away, missed by an inch at best.

  Like a game of horrible tackle football, we careened toward the platform. I’d catch glimpses of weapons, of Remo’s face, of a set of horns as one of Achilles’s minions charged. Twice I fell to my knees, and both times Bull Boys flew over me as they leapt and missed.

  I’d swept around the platform twice before I realized there were no stairs, no easy way to get up to where Achilles stood. Clutching my mangled arm, I spun, put my back to the platform, and faced the Bull Boys.

  A screech that resonated along my skin snapped every eye to the sky. The two Stymphalian birds swept in a perfect dive. I raised my good hand and one of them grabbed me, yanking me out of the mud with a squelching pop. “Drop me on the platform!”

  She did a single loop while arrows and knives were thrown at us. I was hit twice, but they glanced off. My human skin tore, but the scales underneath protected me.

  Thank God for that. Good grief, did I really just thank God I had scales?

  Her claws clung to me as we circled, and then she dropped me right behind Remo. He leapt forward and into Achilles. They went down in a tangled heap. Remo was on top, his fist slamming into Achilles over and over, the power of my blood running through his veins. Achilles dodged several of the blows, which sent Remo’s fist straight through the base of the platform. The second time it happened his fist seemed to stick for a split second. It was enough of an advantage for Achilles.

  The hero pulled a shining silver blade from his side and drove it into Remo’s neck. Remo slumped, his body limp as one hand rose to the blade in his neck.

  “No!” I screamed the word, and Achilles grinned at me.

  There was a gasp from the crowd and one woman cried out. They didn’t want to see Remo go down any more than I did.

  “Turn for me, monster.” He grinned at me, and I clutched the tiny arrow in my hand.

  There was nothing I could do for Remo if I was dead. “You want to fight me, then fight me. Leave the others out of it. Unless you’re afraid?”

  He circled around me, his sword flicking back and forth like a metronome. “Are you not enraged by the death of your brother?”

  His words sparked the anger and I fought to breathe through it, the snake in me lashing with her tail and snapping her deadly fangs as she hissed. The sound rumbled out past my clenched lips, which only exaggerated it.

  Achilles waved his sword at me. “Come then, let us see your snake again. Let this be a true battle between hero”—he gave me a mocking bow—“and monster.”

  The crowd in the stadium gave a low oohing gasp. I wiped the mud from my face, flicking it off my fingers. The arrow I clutched with my bad hand was tucked carefully against my side so it wouldn’t prick me.

  Without warning, he lunged, slamming his shield into my chest and throwing me across the platform. I slid on the wood, caught my hip, and tumbled off the edge. I caught the lip of the platform with my good hand, barely stopping my free fall.

  “Just give up, Drakaina. I’ll make it quick. Easy. Relatively pain-free. I have to make a bit of a show of it, otherwise the good people here”—Achilles stood over me. He lifted a foot and brought it down on my fingers. It didn’t hurt, but he ground his heel, forcing my fingers to slowly release, one by one—“might be upset that they didn’t get what they wanted.”

  The arrow began to slip.

  I stared up into his dark eyes. “You’re more of a monster than me, Achilles.”

  He threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, I don’t think the people would agree. Would they?”

  The crowd was silent as I hung there, fighting for everything I had. He’d wanted an audience, and he’d gotten it. Except the people here had no reason to be afraid of me. Not really. I’d not killed anyone. Achilles had killed Tad without provocation, and now Remo too.

  He was the killer in their eyes, and I think we both knew it.

  Achilles stepped away from me and lifted his hands to the crowd. “Does a monster not deserve to die? Would you rather I let her go? You saw what she can do, how big she is. How dangerous. There is no way to contain that. I will save you, because Hera wishes it. And you will worship her for the goddess she is.”

  The arrow slipped from my fingers, and with it my hope of resolving the situation peacefully fled. How was I going to end this now? How was I going to make him go away without killing him, or him killing me? I could see no way out.

  A murmur began to build in the crowd; fear spilled from the humans and into the arena. I pulled myself back up onto the platform and crawled to where Remo lay. I touched his head, turning him so I could see his face. He gave me a wink, the wound in his neck gone already.

  “I like the dirty look,” the vamp said.

  A hand clamped onto my shoulder and spun me around. I went with it, driving my good hand in a hard fist up into Achilles’s family jewels. He gasped and his face went white, yellow, then green as his eyes rolled back in his head.

  Remo sat up. “Tell me you held back.”

  “Not for a second.” I wobbled to my feet. Achilles writhed on his back, tears streaming from his eyes. I bent and scooped up his fallen sword. “Remo, roll him to his belly.”

  “Whatever you say, boss.” He smiled at me, slapped my ass as he walked by, then grabbed Achilles’s feet. With a quick flip he had him on his belly. “Now what?”

  “I’m just guessing here.” I laid the sword across the back of Achilles’s legs, right above the ankle. I took a deep breath. “Achilles, I don’t want to kill you. But I think if you can’t walk, you might be less of a problem.” I pushed hard enough to cut through the tendons, but stopped at the bone. He screamed as the blood pumped out.

  Remo’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s cold.”

  It took everything I had not to cringe from the criticism. “He had it coming. Besides, it’s his myth, not mine. And I am not the monster he thinks I am.”

  I held the sword out to Remo. “Thanks. You didn’t have to stay.”

  He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me against his side. “I’m one of the monsters too, Alena. Do you think he would have stopped with you?”

  “So this was self-preservation?” I couldn’t help but be a little hurt. After all, it was the first time any man had stood up for me. Don’t blame me for wanting the white knight to at least try to save me.

  I suddenly remembered I was naked, save for the mud, and my upbringing reminded me I was supposed to not show my bits to anyone but my husband. I clung to Remo. “Give me your shirt.”

  A slow chuckle rolled out of him. “Already trying to get me out of my clothes?”

  The crowd laughed, and I closed my eyes. “Please don’t make this day harder than it already is. Is it not bad enough that they killed Tad?”

  Remo shook his head. “We don’t know he’s dead.”

  At our feet, Achilles rolled over. “It was a gut wound. If he’s not dead, he will be.”

  “Shut up.” Remo booted Achilles in the side, rolling him off the platform and into the mud.

  “Here. You are distracting everyone.”

  Remo slowly pulled his T-shirt up and over his head. A low whisper of female appreciation rolled through the crowd. He smirked as he handed me the shirt. I pulled it on, his smell enveloping me. I kept my mouth shut to keep from flicking my tongue out and tasting the air around me more fully.

 
; The vampire wrapped an arm around my waist and jumped off the platform. The Bull Boys shuffled their feet, but none tried to stop us. “What, you don’t want to try to finish the job?” I bit the words out, a part of me wanting them to try. Just let them.

  I’d snap them in half like two-day-old breadsticks.

  One of Achilles’s minions grunted. “We’re cannon fodder. The rules are that when the hero goes down, we have to back off.”

  “Sounds about right,” Remo said. He held me tight to his side, and while he didn’t hurry, we weren’t exactly going slowly as we made our exit.

  “They aren’t following us.” I looked back. The Bull Boys were dismantling the platform, and one of them scooped up Achilles while he cried out that life wasn’t fair.

  A roll of thunder rent the air, and I tightened my hand on Remo. “Stop.”

  He turned as a woman appeared on the partially dismantled platform. Her silvery-white hair floated about her face as if a constant wind blew around her. She was tall and lithe, her body a perfect combination of slim and curved that her sheer dress gave credence to. Her blue-green eyes locked on mine. “We are not done, Drakaina.”

  I had no doubt who she was. “Hera. Leave my family and me alone.”

  Remo grunted. “Hera. You’re shitting me.”

  “Your family will be the first to suffer for this.” She snapped her fingers, and an explosion rocked the stadium. The humans screamed and Remo dropped us to the ground, curling his body around mine. I really didn’t want to like him, but he kept doing things like this. Things that made me think he had potential.

  Bad Alena. Bad. No playing with the vampires, you’re a married woman.

  I wanted to slap my inner voice and tell her to shut up. But she was right.

  We stood and stared into the now-emptying stadium. So it wasn’t the bombs going off? The humans filed out, and with the continued lack of explosions I guessed Max had managed to get the bombs defused. The big bang was just Hera making her exit. Score another one for our team.

  Hera’s words sank in as we walked. “She’s going after my family; I have to get to them first.” I pulled away from Remo and ran through the dark halls of the stadium, following the flickers of fresh air that took me to the main doors.

  The rest of Remo’s vampires waited for us outside, and they cheered when we appeared. I ignored them and ran for my car. I slid into the seat, my body shaking. Not with cold or adrenaline, but fear. Fear that I wouldn’t make it to Tad in time. Maybe he was like the vamps, and I could give him blood and he would heal up. I could only hope.

  I refused to pray.

  Remo slid into the passenger seat. “Do you even know where he is?”

  “I assumed the safe house. That’s the only place Beth and Sandy would know to go.” I put the car into gear and hit the pedal, my bare foot gripping the edge of it.

  Remo was thrown back in his seat and he grunted. “Ease off, crazy woman.”

  I didn’t look at him. As I kept my eyes locked on the road, all I could think about was making it to Tad in time.

  Whether it was to say good-bye or help him, I didn’t know. Either way, I needed to get to his side.

  “You really love your brother, don’t you?”

  “You sound surprised.” I spun the wheel and we drifted through a corner, barely losing speed, my seat belt the only thing holding me in.

  Remo shifted in his seat, and the click of the seat belt made me smile for a split second. “Most siblings don’t get on that well. Rivalry and all that.”

  We sped toward the gate at the Wall. The mass of supernaturals blocking the way was too much. I slammed on the brakes, and the car slid sideways as it lost traction on the slick road.

  Remo reached across and took my hand. “Who taught you to drive like that?”

  “Mario Andretti.” I glanced at him and his wide eyes and realized he believed me. “Never mind, it was a joke. A bad one.”

  “I doubted you about Achilles, and that seemed far-fetched. Why not Mario Andretti? At least I know he exists,” Remo said.

  I laid on the horn as I leaned out the window. “Get out of my way!”

  The crowd rumbled and grumbled but slowly shifted as I revved the engine. At a crawl, we crossed through the gate. As soon as the crowd was clear, I pressed the pedal to the floor and raced along the streets.

  The safe house was lit up, every light blazing out through the windows. “Not a good sign. International distress sign for a vampire safe house,” Remo said softly.

  I leapt from the car and ran to the front door. Dahlia swung the door open. Her green eyes dripped with tears, several catching on her eyelashes like tiny diamonds.

  “Lena.” She choked on my name.

  “Don’t say anything.” I stepped inside, bracing myself for what was coming. The place smelled of blood and something foul I couldn’t place. My tongue flicked out without warning, and the scent solidified in my brain.

  Viscera, punctured bowels. A gut wound, as Achilles had said. I let the smell pull me forward, to the kitchen. Tad lay on the table, a sheet covering him from the waist down. Beth leaned over him. “Stay with me, Tad. I’ve almost got you stitched up.”

  Sandy stood at his head, holding him. “Keep breathing.” Her eyes flicked up as I entered the room. “Your sister is here.”

  He didn’t move, and his skin was chalky and white. I stumbled to his side and pressed my hands against his chest. His heart beat slowly, and the rise and fall of the air in his lungs was sporadic. I looked to Beth. “How bad?”

  She didn’t lift her eyes, only kept on with her stitching. “Bad. We need a doctor, a blood transfusion. Painkillers, antibiotics. We need a hospital, Alena. And there is no such thing here. Supes don’t need doctors, according to the world.”

  I closed my eyes. “We were the same blood type, before we were turned. Will that work now?”

  “He’s going to die if we don’t give him something,” Beth said. “Dahlia, you and Remo get in here.”

  The two vamps came to the door, and Beth fired off instructions like a surgeon. “Remo, clean up Alena’s arm with whatever alcohol you have in the house. Dahlia, I saw a transfusion kit in the bathroom, grab it.”

  Remo took me by the hand and led me to the kitchen sink while Dahlia ran out of the room. “Why do you have a transfusion kit in the bathroom?”

  “This is a safe house. Vamps sometimes come in so close to death that they can’t take enough blood by mouth to survive. We keep the kit on hand.”

  The warm water sluiced off the blood and mud, showing the open wound in my wrist. It had begun to heal, though it was hardly needing to be reopened. Pain sliced through me as the water kissed the edges of it. I sucked in a sharp breath.

  “The vodka is going to burn worse than the water.” He turned and pulled the vodka out of the fridge and unscrewed the cap. “Ready?”

  I nodded and he poured the alcohol over my arm. The pain of the water was nothing to the heat and sting of the high-proof booze. I closed my eyes and bit back the whimper. For Tad, I could do this.

  “All done.” Remo took me by the hand and led me back to the table. Dahlia already had one end of the IV hooked into Tad. She held the other to Remo. He took it and carefully threaded it into the open vein in my arm. A slight pinch and then he took the piece of clean cotton she offered.

  He was incredibly gentle, and to say it surprised me was an understatement. “You’re good at this.”

  “I should be. I was a doctor at one point.”

  Beth’s head snapped up. “What? Why aren’t you helping me, then?”

  Remo’s eyes met mine. “Because Tad is beyond any surgeon’s help, even mine. His sister’s blood will either save him or kill him. Supernaturals don’t respond to traditional methods of healing.”

  Someone pushed a chair into the back of my knees, prompting me to sit down. Remo tightened his hold on me. “Don’t sit. Stand, you need gravity to help you with the blood flow.”

  I steppe
d up onto the chair and looked down to my brother. My sparkling red blood flowed through the vinyl tube and into his arm. “How long before we know if it helps?”

  Remo shrugged. “I’d guess not long.”

  The room was silent except for the steady thump of the hearts of those waiting with me, and the sporadic kick and thump of Tad’s as it fought to keep going.

  “Why aren’t you still a doctor?” I asked, breaking the silence, needing someone to talk to distract me from my brother’s slide into the darkness.

  Remo cleared his throat. “There was a time I believed the world could be changed. That there was a way to help the humans and supernaturals come together. I was wrong.”

  Bitterness, and more than that, fatigue, flowed with his words.

  I stared down at him. “You can’t give up.”

  “Why, because you said so?” He arched an eyebrow. “You can’t change this world, Alena. The humans are too many. The laws too unfair. The only thing that is certain is death. Even taxes can be evaded if you know what you’re doing.” He smirked at that last, but I didn’t laugh.

  “Tad isn’t going to die.”

  My words were met with silence. I looked at each face around the table. Beth wouldn’t meet my eyes. Sandy’s were full of sadness, and Dahlia continued to cry. Tad’s heart still beat, though. I straightened my shoulders. “Until his heart stops we are not giving up.”

  “What do you suggest, then?” Remo asked. “There are no healers here. We’d need a satyr for any real help.”

  I bit my lower lip, and the thought hit me like a boot to the head. “The fauns who were searching for Zeus! Damara was a satyr and she owes me!”

  “Who?” Dahlia blinked up at me. My heart raced.

  “Damara. A satyr Tad and I helped escape the SDMP. She said I could call on her if I had need.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Remo asked. “There is no way—”

  “Hermes!” I hollered the messenger’s name, not knowing if it would work. The others slapped their hands over their ears, and Tad gave a shudder even in his unconscious state.

  “What the hell?” Remo snapped. “That is not how you—”