The blinking red light on the camera behind the reporter went off, and she nodded at me. “Well, that’s going to be quite the piece. Thank you.”
Behind us, the door busted open. I was thrown forward with the explosion. The news crews all yelled and ducked. Except for one of the cameramen, who held steady. The red light above the lens came back on, blinking. I stared at the open door but couldn’t see through the smoke that filled the space other than the flicker of movement. Shadows that shifted, lurching toward us.
This was what Theseus wanted: an audience—not just the judge and a courtroom full of people, but the world too. He was far more organized than Achilles had been.
Remo looked at me. “Run, you need space to fight him. I’ll hold them back.”
I nodded and pushed myself up. The window over the sink beckoned. It had worked for me before; no need to change methods. I leapt up and crashed through the window, falling to the cool grass outside.
My leg that had been hit with the fennel oil buckled under me, weak. Above me came the hunting cry of a bird. I ran around the side of the building. Lights blazed to life, blinding me. I threw a hand up to block the lights. More reporters, cameras, and microphones at the ready. In front of them stood Theseus. He had his hands in the air, as if soothing them all. Not a single strand of his hair was out of place. Of course not; he hadn’t been fighting me, chasing me. He had Beth and Santos for that. He’d sat back and put his pawns into play.
He spoke to the reporters in a booming voice that echoed with a confidence and power even I felt vibrate along my skin.
“Justice will be served. I will not allow a monster of the Drakaina’s size to terrorize anyone a second longer than I must.”
Enough of this nonsense. “I am not terrorizing anyone, you dumb jock!” I limped toward them. Theseus held a hand out to me, as if that alone would hold me back, then he swept a sword up into the ready position.
“Stand back,” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll protect you.”
I blinked, at first thinking he was talking to me, then realizing he was talking to the reporters about me. My jaw ticked and then I laughed. Because it was beyond ridiculous.
Except that Theseus was a performer, and he knew the game we played far better than I did. One of the Stymphalian girls swept into view, hovering in the air above Theseus. He flicked his sword tip in my direction, and a multitude of metal feathers shot at me. There was no way I’d be able to dodge them all. I tried, though. I threw myself to the side, missing all but two.
They hit me in the hip and right near the oil damage in my thigh. There was no stopping the snake in me this time. She roared up through me, smoke curling around my body as the shift took me.
I blinked and was looking down at the reporters from twenty feet above. My body coiled and twisted as I tried to protect the spots where I’d been hurt. Apparently another monster could do damage to me, as I’d feared, because the feather burrowed under my skin, digging hard as though it actively sought its way into my flesh.
I let out a long, low rumbling hiss and snaked my head toward Theseus. Which happened to be toward the crowd too. I figured it out at the last second and reared back. I flicked my tail around and smacked him in the side with it, sending him flying away from the crowd. The screech of two birds snapped my head up. Beth and Sandy streaked toward me, claws outstretched. I bared my fangs but at the last second ducked, dodging them both.
“Drakaina, come to your death!” Theseus beckoned. I twisted around, my scales glittering in the bright lights. I had no words for him in this form, but someone else did.
Ernie flew up by my head, huffing and puffing. “You have to stop the girls first. Without them, he has nothing. Remo is dealing with the vampires; he’ll keep them off you.”
I nodded. But I didn’t really know what to do. Theseus held back, and I realized Ernie was right. He was waiting for Beth and Sandy to do the work for him. Just like Achilles with his Bull Boys.
I sucked my coils in around me into a tight ball, hiding my injuries. The open wounds were an invitation I didn’t need to give.
One of the girls swept past my face and shook her head. Sandy, then. I bobbed my head toward Theseus, begging Sandy with my eyes. Help me. Help me stop him.
I could only hope she still had her own mind, that unlike the others she wasn’t completely lost under the influence of Theseus.
Slowly she came around in a circle and flew beside me. Our eyes locked. She was close enough that, with a single swipe of her claws, she could blind me if she chose. With a wild screech, she flicked her wings . . . at Theseus. I wanted to cheer. Sandy was with me.
Theseus leapt out of the way of the metallic feathers, barely dodging them. Then again, she’d thrown only two.
From behind us came Beth, screaming. She slammed into Sandy, and they spun through the air, gold and silver glittering under the bright lights in flashes like camera bulbs going off.
Good enough. They would keep each other busy. I opened my mouth and hissed at Theseus.
Ernie floated close by. “You have no choice. Your venom will do the trick; just do it fast.”
He was right, I knew it, and I hated it. I shot forward, mouth open. Thinking it would be that easy. More the fool was I for that.
Theseus bolted out of my way and straight back toward the crowd. They fell back from him, but not fast enough. He grabbed a young man with gangly legs and a long, narrow face. He pulled the youth around in front of his body, using him as a shield.
“Now what will you do, monster?” He grinned at me from around the kid.
I pulled back, lowering myself so my jaw was on the ground. Theseus held his sword pointed at me, his other arm around the youth’s neck. “What’s your name, boy?”
“James.”
“Well, James, have you ever seen the inside of a snake?” Theseus laughed the question. The crowd pulled back farther, a rumble going through them. Theseus glanced at them, and I slithered forward again while his eyes were averted. I had an idea of what I was going to do; I just didn’t know if it would work. If I could pull it off and still save the boy.
“You think I should not protect myself? That one of your lives is not worth my own?”
His words told me all I needed to know. Ernie was right; Theseus could be killed by me and my venom, or he wouldn’t have run. I stared at him, watching sweat curl down one side of his face. I had to be patient, to wait for his confidence to override his common sense.
Theseus glanced over his shoulder at the crowd and opened his mouth. This was my chance.
I shot forward, my mouth clamped shut, as I drove my head between James and Theseus. I shoved Theseus to one side of my body and blocked him from James and the rest of the crowd.
“You think you’re so smart,” he snarled.
I had only one answer for him. I reared up, pulling more of my body into the air than ever before. I almost doubled my height as I reared above him.
“Monster!” He pointed his weapon at me. “Do your worst. Good will prevail.”
I dropped from the sky, my mouth open, eyes closed. I didn’t want to see this happen.
Theseus jammed his sword into my mouth as I tried to close it on him. He dug it in, encouraged by my own momentum, digging the blade into the soft palate. I ripped away from him and writhed on the ground, the pain in my mouth blinding me.
Screams rent the air around me, and I tried to still my thrashing.
“Stymphalian bird, pin her,” Theseus bellowed. “And for all that you hold dear, do not let go.”
A set of claws settled above my head, and a weight held me down. Beth. Had she killed Sandy? My heart clenched at the thought . . . they were best friends. How could she have turned on Sandy?
I rolled my eyes to stare up at Beth. She bent and tried to peck my eyes out. I bucked and writhed and managed to throw her off balance, knocking her with one of my coils. She fell to the side and scrambled up, and I snapped at her, desperate to keep her away, to
keep my eyes intact.
Except I underestimated my lunge . . . or maybe my Drakaina knew exactly the distance between us. My fangs buried deep into her flesh, cutting through the metal feathers that covered her like they were made of tinfoil. I jerked away as fast as I could, but even I knew it was too late.
Theseus laughed. “You should finish her off, but you won’t. It would make my life easier, one less monster to deal with in the end. So let me do it for you.” He flicked his sword hand at Beth’s bird form as casually as if he were waving to her.
He cut through her neck, taking off her head as if it were nothing to him. I stared, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Theseus smiled at me. “You see? She was a tool, like all the others. But your venom . . . it would have killed her anyway. This was a mercy I gave her.”
I reared up, grief for my friend driving me. It wasn’t anger, exactly, but a sense that if I didn’t do this, no one would be able to—Theseus wouldn’t stop with me, he’d kill Sandy next. And then Tad. And Remo. And Dahlia. He’d clear out the north side of the Wall, killing supernaturals, even as he found ways to make them turn on one another.
I felt it then, a true understanding of who and what I was to the Super Dupers. I could be the one who tipped the scales in our favor. I could not only stop Theseus, I had it in me to be the monster that made the world realize we weren’t all evil. We weren’t all true monsters, but were of value to the world as we were.
I unleashed my full speed on Theseus, wrapping coil after coil around him and squeezing for all I was worth, but he slipped through.
“You think I don’t know how to kill you?” he screamed, the heat of battle driving him. He drove his sword into one of the open wounds, a battle cry on his lips.
I didn’t flinch, despite the agony that roared through me. Finally, I wrapped a coil around him, pinning one arm to his body. I squeezed harder, lowering my face so we were eye to eye. I saw now why Hera held him back . . . he was mad with power, with his hero status. Perhaps she saw that.
He laughed at me, eyes wild, breath coming in gasps. “You can’t squeeze me to death; I’m a demigod.”
I wanted to tell him he would die, that I would kill him. I settled for flicking a single fang out and leaning over him. I let a drop of venom fall, and then another, like adding just enough flavor to a cake. Wouldn’t do to waste. He squirmed and thrashed as the venom fell from my fangs, avoiding it at first.
And then a drop landed in his eye. He screeched, his mouth wide open, and a second drop fell into his mouth.
He gulped once, stiffened in my coils, and slumped over. I didn’t let him go, but I did pull back, my head cocked to one side, listening closely.
From the group of reporters I heard a single voice speaking, the woman reporter from inside the courthouse. “As you can see, the madman has been dealt with by a powerful guardian. I believe our city is a safer place with the Drakaina looking out for us.”
I stared at her, unable to believe what I was hearing. Ernie flew close to my head and whispered softly. “The huntress sides with you. You are gaining allies whether you know it or not.”
The huntress. Artemis. The female reporter gave me a slow nod and a salute.
Theseus’s heart gave one last beat, then stopped, and I uncoiled from him.
But the night wasn’t over. As if an unseen signal had been given, vampires poured out of the courthouse, running every which way.
Dahlia and the rest of Remo’s crew drove Santos’s people out and away. My heart lurched. Where was Remo? With the adrenaline gone, the reverse shift took me, and I was on the cool grass, buck naked, shivering and unable to stand, my body aching from all quarters, from my mouth and head to my legs and feet. I glanced down. The sword of Theseus had to have been coated in the fennel oil. Even as I thought it, the burn began deep within the sword wound in my side, the power of the oil spreading through my innards. I cried out and fell. I’d stopped him, but at what cost?
Hands caught me up. “We need a healer,” Ernie yelled.
A gentle voice spoke, one I didn’t know. “I can help with that. She has earned her stripes, protecting her friends. Protecting everyone.”
Heat and cold flushed through me, one after another. I gasped and sat up, staring into the face of a woman whose blue eyes made me think of the neon-blue frosting I’d used on a birthday cake once.
“Who are you?”
She smiled. “I am Panacea, healer of the pantheon. Artemis and I . . . we don’t agree with what Hera and Aphrodite are doing. They’re being stupid again.” She brushed her hands on a long, loose skirt that pooled at her bare feet. “While we can’t directly help you, we will do what we can. Because until Zeus pulls his head out of his ass, this is going to be harder on you than it needs to be.”
She pulled a cloak from her shoulders and swept it around my bare ones. “Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and are different for every generation. You are the hero now, Alena. Do not forget it.” She bent and kissed me on the forehead. Cameras clicked and bright lights seemed to intensify, and then she was gone. Like she’d never been there.
The pain and wounds were gone as suddenly as Panacea, though they were replaced by a bone-deep fatigue. Clutching the cloak closed around me, I stood and looked around. “Remo?”
“I’m here.” His voice was fatigue filled, but as he approached I could see he wasn’t hurt, at least not badly.
Behind us a muffled cry resounded in the night air. I turned to see Sandy in her human form, on the ground next to Beth’s now human body, her head off to one side. Sandy’s shoulders shook as she sobbed over her friend. I hurried to her side and folded my legs under me to rest on my knees.
“Sandy, honey, we have to go.”
Her eyes were swollen with tears when she looked up at me. “I can’t leave her here.”
Remo stepped up beside me. “We’ll take care of her. We won’t let her stay here.”
I tucked a hand under her arm. “Come on, let’s go home.”
She leaned into me, as naked as I was. The curse of a shifter. “Tad,” I said, “give her your jacket.”
My brother jogged over, his eyes downcast, but he slipped off his long jacket and wrapped it around Sandy’s shoulders.
In a matter of minutes, Remo, Dahlia, Tad, Yaya, Sandy, and I walked in a tight group toward the front of the courthouse, where we’d parked. Somehow we managed to exit the building at the same time as Judge Watts. He glanced at me, stopped when he saw my obvious state of undress beneath the cloak. He spluttered once and shook his head. “Your divorce hearing is tomorrow at one in the afternoon. I suggest you be there, Ms. Budrene.”
I slumped, defeat finally taking me. “Why, so you can just take it all from me? Pretend I don’t really exist, even after I saved your life?”
He pursed his lips. “Perhaps don’t argue with the judge who can change things for you, yes?”
I slumped further, turned, and walked away. Yaya caught me around the waist with one arm. “You know, you’re getting really good at this ass-kicking business. Perhaps you could charge money for spectators. Like a staged wrestling match.”
I smiled but couldn’t even manage a laugh. We’d lost someone this time, someone who’d been a friend. I couldn’t stop seeing Theseus as he took Beth’s head, lopping it off as though she were nothing to him.
Because she was just another monster. And he’d been able to do it only because I’d bitten her. I’d mortally wounded her. Tears tracked down my cheeks as I finally began to process the events of the night.
“Alena.”
I stopped, sniffed once, and turned to Merlin. He didn’t smile, but there was a light in his eyes. He ran a hand over his slicked-back hair.
“What?”
“I think . . . I think I made a mistake. I need to speak with you.”
Why did I think that wasn’t going to bode well for me?
CHAPTER 21
We arrived at Merlin’s house ahead of him. “Why would he as
k us to meet him here?” Dahlia asked.
I had a feeling I knew, but I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want to jinx what was left of the night by saying my thoughts out loud. The last thing we needed was more drama, bloodshed, or fighting. But I expected we were going to get more of that sooner than I wanted.
Merlin pulled up in a slick sports car. He got out, nodded at me, and then flicked his fingers for me to follow. Remo, Yaya, and the others moved with me. Merlin held up his hand. “Alena only.”
The others bristled, except for Remo. He shared a look with me and nodded. I could handle myself, we both knew it, and that trust in me gave me renewed energy.
I followed Merlin into his house, and he shut the door behind us. “I think . . . things are not working out the way I’d hoped. I need to come clean.”
I folded my arms, holding my cloak tight around me. “Really?”
He went to his dining table and slid down into one of the high-backed chairs. He picked up a red poker chip and danced it across his knuckles. “You see, when I was first approached and asked to start reviving Greek monsters, I thought it would be to the supernatural world’s benefit. Hera had a . . . convincing case. And I had my own ideas of what needed to be done. I thought the heroes”—he rolled the chip and then snapped it into the air and grabbed it—“were the answer. That they would be the ones to set our world right. To show the humans that, while they should fear us, we could go back to living the way we had before. Side by side. That they, Achilles, Theseus, and the others, would bring down the Wall.”
He sighed and I raised an eyebrow. “Hurry it up, Merlin. It’s been a long couple of days.”
“So feisty now.” He smiled at me. “I did turn you because I thought you weak, and your weakness offended me. I sent your brother to infect you so I could approach you with the offer of being turned.” He caught the poker chip, clutching it in his palm. “Then you ousted Achilles.” He frowned. “And you rallied the protestors at the Wall, without meaning to. You even displaced the SDMP to some degree, changing how they viewed different Supes.”
Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy #2) Page 23
