“But he doesn’t care enough to stick it out. He’s . . .” I sat up and gripped the leather-wrapped steering wheel. “He’s doing what I did for years. Conforming because it’s easier.” My shoulders slumped as fast as I’d straightened them. I knew all too well the pressure of trying to do what was right, even when it hurt. I scrubbed both hands over my eyes. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“He said that he told Dahlia and Tad to break up.”
I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat and pulled my cell phone out. I dialed Tad first. He answered on the second ring.
“What’s up, sis?” His cheery, upbeat voice told me everything I needed to know. Dahlia hadn’t broken it off with him.
“Can you meet me at Vanilla and Honey?” I asked.
“Um, aren’t you supposed to be on a date with Remo?”
“Never you mind about what or where I’m supposed to be,” I snapped. “I need to try out some new recipes, and I need a taste tester who isn’t afraid to tell me when something tastes bad.”
“Don’t have to ask me twice.” He hung up, and I hit the “End” button. I looked at Ernie.
His blue eyes were sad. “I’m sorry, Alena. I really am.” I nodded and he flew at me, wrapping his arms around my neck. I hugged him back.
“Thanks, Ernie. You’re a good friend. I think.”
He snorted. “Don’t go there. I’m on your side, even when it looks like I’m not. You know that.”
I nodded. I did know that now. Being in the Greek pantheon, Ernie—Eros to those who knew their history—was pulled in multiple directions. And to keep his wings and skin intact, he played all sides of the field. He had ties to multiple deities, and they didn’t always treat him well if they thought he was disloyal. So he’d learned to keep under the radar the best way he could, which sometimes left him right in the middle of fights and arguments among the gods and goddesses. I’d not understood at first, but I realized he really was on my side. For the situation he was in, he did the best he could.
I started up the Charger and pulled into traffic. Two streets down, a set of police lights flicked behind me in the early-evening light, beckoning me to pull over. I groaned. “Like I need this tonight. I wasn’t even speeding!”
Ernie leaned back in the passenger seat as he went through my purse. “Yeah, but I’ve no doubt that Officer Jensen just found out that you and Remo are no longer an item. You should never have rolled him; that cop is more than half in love with you. Not that I blame him, even if you hadn’t rolled him.” He winked as if that would make his words easier to swallow.
“I didn’t have a choice, and I didn’t know he’d already been rolled by a vampire!” I pointed out. Officer Jensen worked for Remo, as one of his human servants, in a way. Because the good officer had been charmed, or influenced, or whatever the vamps wanted to call it, that made his mind susceptible to other forms of influence. Like, say, from a siren who had no idea what she was doing with her abilities. So he’d gotten a rather large dose of influence from me. More than enough to make him think he loved me.
I pulled over, turned the engine off, and rolled down my window. The early-February air was chilly, damp with rain waiting to fall but overall quite fresh and lovely. A perk to being a Drakaina: not being bothered by extreme heat or cold.
Officer Jensen strolled to my window and peered in, and his chocolate-brown eyes swept over me and Ernie. “License and registration.”
“Seriously?” I stared up at him. “For what? I wasn’t speeding.”
His eyes narrowed. “You want me to take you in? I can do that, if you like.”
With a grumble on my lips, I reached over to my dash, opened it, and grabbed my registration. Next came my newly minted driver’s license. Okay, it was temporary, just a piece of paper with a black-and-white photo of yours truly laminated on it, while I waited on the new color-picture version to come through in the mail. But it was mine, and that was all that mattered.
I handed it to him. He looked it over, checked the registration, and handed them both back to me. “Glad to see you are following the rules now.”
There was a weight to his words that made me narrow my eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means. I told you he’d hurt you. I’m glad you broke up with him,” he said, not backing away from the car an inch.
I blinked several times. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
“That you broke it off with him. He said you didn’t want anything to do with him.” Jensen tipped his head. “He said that you were looking for your own kind.”
My jaw ticked and my eyes burned. Why would Remo blame me for this? Wouldn’t he want the other vampires to think he’d cut me loose? I mean, he had, but even if I had broken up with him, wouldn’t he have wanted to look like the tough guy? I couldn’t make sense of what he was doing.
“Are we done here?” I kept my voice even, without a single indication of the confusion I felt.
“Alena, we are friends. Even though I work for him, I want you to know that I will help you if you get into trouble again. I care about—”
“I’m not getting into any trouble,” I snapped. Well, the truth was I knew that I had more trouble coming. Hera, Greek goddess and estranged wife of Zeus, had a serious hate-on for me. She was earnestly trying to find a way to kill me by any means necessary. I’d defeated two of her chosen heroes, Achilles and then Theseus. One I’d maimed and the other I’d killed. Now she was raising another hero to face me, and she’d already set him up with a pet to help take me down. I didn’t know which hero she’d called on this time, but I did know what creature she’d had created, because Merlin had shown her to me.
A nine-headed Hydra.
I shivered and rubbed my hands over my arms. “Again, I am not getting into trouble. It keeps finding me. There’s a difference, you know.”
“Not from where I stand. You don’t need him to help you. Trust me on this. No matter which of you broke things off, this is better for you.” He stepped back. “Have a good night, ma’am.”
“Ma’am. I hate that, don’t call me that!” I rolled my window up as if that would keep him out. I turned the engine over and pulled away from the curb. I shot a look at Ernie. “Nothing pithy to say?”
“I was going to say that you have better help than Jensen, but it was nice of him to offer.” That didn’t sound like Ernie.
“Spit it out, what did you really want to say?”
The words exploded out of him like he couldn’t contain them any longer. “He’s got such a hard-on for you, girlfriend, it could be seen a mile off in the dark by a blind man!”
The laughter burst out of me, and I didn’t stop until long after the tears rolled down my cheeks. “Thanks, I needed that.”
“Well, it’s true. I mean between him and Hephaestus, you at least have options.” He gave me a big wink, and I did my best not to think about Smithy, a.k.a. Hephaestus. I’d met Smithy when he’d been part of the SDMP—Supernatural Division of Mounted Police—and I’d thought he was a werewolf. Turns out, he was a Greek god in hiding, Hephaestus, the cranky old blacksmith responsible for arming his fellow gods and goddesses. Except that he looked far from old, and with me, he was far from cranky. I tried not to consider just how kind he’d been, or that he’d all but said I was the kind of woman he’d want in his life. If he hadn’t had to deal with his crazy wife, Aphrodite, that was.
It seemed that all the men in my life had an excuse why I wasn’t quite good enough. The thought galled me, and at the same time made my anger flare. I was good enough.
I obviously just hadn’t found the right man yet.
I turned left, using the moment to check my mirrors and give me time to think of a proper reply. “Smithy is in the middle of his own divorce, if you recall, and he only liked me because it irritated his wife.”
“Oh, don’t sell yourself short. I bet if you offered him a taste test, he’d run with it all the way.” He waggled his eye
brows at me, which made me laugh again.
“Ernie! I’m not that kind of girl!” I spluttered.
He laughed. “I meant at your bakery, you know, the kind of taste test you just offered your brother. What kind of taste test were you thinking, you naughty girl?”
The heat in my face could have baked two batches of macadamia-nut cookies in under a minute. “Stop teasing me; I don’t want to be laughing and joking right now.”
“No, I won’t stop. Because until you realize that Remo was a fool for walking away from you, I’m going to keep pointing out that you have options. Good ones too. You might not realize it, because all you can see is that smoking-hot vampire.” He leaned back in his seat and ticked his fingers with each point. “Jensen is human, which means you can be with him, even if you’d have to be awful careful not to squeeze him too tight. Same as Hephaestus—except you could squeeze him all you like with those long legs, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be bothered in the least. Perks to being a god, you know.” He winked again, and I clutched at the steering wheel.
“Smithy,” I corrected him.
“Fine, Smithy.” He shook his head. “Either of those men is free and clear to be at your side with no issues. And with Smithy, he is something of a powerhouse. He’s strong and could really help you out with the whole hero-coming-to-kill-you business. And you’re going to need help. I know you’re one tough badass, but a nine-headed Hydra? All hands on deck for that big bitch.”
I was silent a moment as I took in what he was saying. “So you think I should whore myself out for help?” I didn’t like what he was implying.
“Isn’t that what you did with Remo? In the beginning at least?” he pointed out, and I cringed. It was true, though. That had been the deal—my blood for Remo’s help.
“That was just blood, not my body.” I didn’t want to think he was right, but maybe . . .
My bakery was ahead, and it occurred to me that, for the evening hours, the road was packed with far too many vehicles. I frowned as I did a quick count. Over twenty cars and trucks, and I knew none of the businesses were open at that late hour.
I drew closer to see people standing out front of Vanilla and Honey, my bakery, with signs in their hands and Halloween masks over their faces.
“What the fricky dicky is this?” I whispered. I pulled around to the back parking lot, turned the engine off, and glanced at Ernie. “This conversation is not done.”
“Well, I hope not.” He smiled and rubbed his hands together like an evil genius. “Because I’ve got all sorts of ammo to use against you to prove why you should just let the vamp go.”
Dang it. I slid out of the car as the crowd rushed around the back of the building and surrounded my car, slapping it with their wooden signs.
“Stop it!” I yelled, trying to get them away from my new baby. The paint job was going to take a literal beating. Of course, no one listened to me.
“Humans first!”
“Cage the monsters!”
“Go back to your side of the Wall, you freak!”
The words came fast and furious as the people pressed against me, and I struggled not to lash out at them. I would hurt them badly without even trying if I wasn’t careful.
“Stop it! What are you doing?” I tried to push through, but the throng of people was thick, and I couldn’t make them move without hurting them.
“You’re a freak, get out of here,” a man in a gruesome zombie mask yelled.
There were even some children in the mix, and they were as mean as the adults as the children picked up loose stones and threw them at me. I dodged the stones, and several bounced off my car. I’d seen this before, I’d even been a part of a mob or two like this, which made the guilt all that much stronger.
“You should have died! God called your soul home, and you denied him!” That was from a woman wearing a long drab gray dress that covered her from ankle to wrist, and a witch’s mask.
Her words only confirmed what I already suspected. I wasn’t facing just some random crowd of people who were irritated by my existence as a Super Duper. I was facing those people I’d once called friends, people who’d been my extended family, who’d shared the same beliefs.
As a supernatural, I was facing my first mob of Firstamentalists determined to send my soul to hell.
CHAPTER 3
My initial thought about the mob of religious nuts was to wonder if my mother had organized the group. That might not sound fair; I mean, who would think that badly of her mother, right?
Me. I would, and it was warranted too. She’d denied me the second I’d been turned. She’d said it then; it would have been better that I died than to live on as a monster.
“Mom, are you here?” I stood on my tiptoes as I scanned the crowd.
“Look at her, she’s calling for her mother. Your mother doesn’t want you!”
“You’re dead to her!”
Okay, that was not nice to hear out loud, even if it was kinda true.
They jostled me, not really hurting me, but I didn’t know how to get around them without actually hurting them. How to get away from the words, to get away from the brutal truths they hurled . . . unless I scared them so badly they left. I looked up at Ernie as he flew over all our heads. “Back me up,” I said.
He cocked his head to one side, confusion clouding his eyes.
“What?”
I doubled over at the waist and coughed violently until I almost choked, forcing myself to gag.
“Oh no!” Ernie yelled, right on cue. “She’s got the Aegrus virus!”
The crowd shifted away from me at a speed that almost made me smile. I kept coughing, forcing myself to wheeze and clutch at my belly, really putting the act out there for all I was worth. “Oh, I think I’m so, so sick. I think I’m going to vomit.” I put my hands on my knees and hunched my back. Ernie cleared his throat. “Empty stage, girlfriend.”
I looked up, and my eyes widened. The back alley had cleared; there wasn’t a single trace of the mob that had been there. I’d not even heard them go over my coughing and gagging.
“Damn, that’s a good trick.” Ernie floated with his hands on his chubby hips like a miniature Peter Pan. “But don’t overdo it, though, or they’ll catch on.”
“You say that like they’ll be back.” I brushed my skirt flat, knocking off a few clots of dirt from the stones that were thrown.
He grunted. “You say that like they won’t.”
I sighed, knowing he had a point—again—and grabbed my keys. I pushed the “Lock” button, and the beep of my Charger acknowledged that it was indeed locked. I did it a second time just to make sure.
What Ernie said, though, was truer than maybe even he realized, and it was something I didn’t want to think much about. Once the Firstamentalists decided they were going to run someone out of town, they were unrelenting until they got what they wanted. I didn’t know of a single case where they’d backed down. Where they’d let anyone get away with what they thought of as sinning, or evil. I knew; I’d been a part of them for so long.
It seemed fitting that I was now one of the monsters that they were trying to cast out. But I knew their tricks; I would find a way to make sure the Firstamentalists didn’t get what they wanted this time.
I let us into the bakery, closed the door, and leaned against it. “Could this night get any worse?”
“Oh, don’t say that out loud,” Ernie groaned. “Rule number one of the pantheon, don’t ask for trouble.”
A loud knock on the door behind me made me cringe, and Ernie flew backward. “Don’t open it.”
“It’s probably Tad.” Mind you, I whispered that. Just in case.
“Be sure,” Ernie whispered back.
I nodded and then tipped my head back to listen for a heartbeat. I picked one up on the other side of the door, steady and solid. So, not a vampire at least, and I refused to acknowledge that a part of me was disappointed Remo hadn’t followed me. I drew in a breath, and my mo
uth dried up as I recognized the smell.
I moved back away from the door as he knocked again.
Ernie drew close to me, still keeping his voice low. “Not Tad?”
I shook my head, debating if I wanted to open the door. I licked my lips, uncertainty flowing through me. No. I wouldn’t buckle. I wouldn’t hide from him no matter what. But I wasn’t going to just open the door for him either.
“We aren’t open. If you’d like some baked goods, we open at six tomorrow morning. Or you can place an order on our website for pickup.” My store manager, Diana, had insisted that a website ordering service would work. She was right. In the first week, we’d almost doubled our sales.
“Alena, I’d like to speak with you,” Smithy said, his resonant voice muffled slightly by the thick door.
Ernie grinned at me, his eyes going big and wide with glee. “Open it up, girlfriend. Things happen for a reason. Which means he’s here for a reason, I’m sure of it.”
Except I didn’t know how to explain to Ernie that Smithy, as handsome as he was, and as strong as he was, didn’t flip my switch like Remo did. Not by a long shot. Really, honestly. Didn’t do it for me.
Liar, liar, pants on fire, a tiny voice sang to me. I recalled all too easily the feel of Smithy’s rock-hard body under my hands when I’d been half-gooned on the punch at Zeus’s pool party. To say he had a nice body was a serious understatement. Not that I’d noticed it.
I ignored my inner voice. “I don’t want to talk to you. Talking to you got me into trouble with your wife, and now she’s trying to kill me, if you’ll recall.”
“You were in trouble with her long before you fell into my lap drunk as a nymph at a frat party.”
I blushed, thinking that I had indeed had my face all but planted in his crotch at the pool party. Dang, I had hoped he wouldn’t bring that up. “That wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know the punch was spiked.”
A low rumble of a laugh rolled through the door. “The punch is always spiked, Alena. Lesson number one of the pantheon.”
“I thought lesson number one was never ask for trouble.”
Hisses and Honey (The Venom Trilogy Book 3) Page 3
