Her shoulders slumped, and I thought for a good minute she wasn’t going to answer me. The word that escaped her was quiet, barely above a whisper. “Yes.”
Okay, to say I was surprised she actually admitted it was an understatement.
I took a step back, leaning against the counter. “How long have you known about Dad? Before or after you became a Firstamentalist? Before or after you were married? I don’t understand how you could stay in the church when he’s a Super Duper.”
Slowly she turned toward me, like she was turning to face a firing squad, her body stiff and reluctant. “You already know about your grandmother’s part of it.”
I lifted both eyebrows. “You mean how Yaya and Zeus . . . ?”
She nodded. “Yes, that affair between my mother and the king of the gods caused the curse that I didn’t believe in at first. But it was true, and once I realized that . . .” She closed her eyes so tight the edges were pinched. “I was married before I met your father.”
The words hung between us, and all I could do was stare at the woman who was my mother, but who I wasn’t sure I knew at all.
“What?” I blurted out, unable to keep the word to myself. “What? Who?”
She frowned but didn’t open her eyes, as if she couldn’t bear to look at me. “The doctors . . . they couldn’t figure out what the problem was, but I wasn’t able to carry babies to term. Something about my uterus being heart shaped. I couldn’t do it. We tried all sorts of things. My marriage was falling apart; it doesn’t matter who he was either. He’s been gone a long time.” I realized suddenly that I was about to get the confession of the century. I held on to the edge of the counter for all I was worth.
“I’m so sorry, Mom.”
She finally opened her eyes and gave me a tired smile. “I knew about the supernatural world; how could I not with my mother being who she was? She suggested I go to a warlock for help. Your father . . . he had some . . . small abilities. He was a minor warlock at the time.” Which meant he was a minor warlock now too.
Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. She’d said it out loud. I thought my heart and lungs would burst with the adrenaline. From the ceiling came a soft sound of a breath being sucked in. I glared sideways at Ernie, and he clamped both hands over his mouth, his blue eyes wide.
“Okay,” I said. “What happened then?”
“He said he could help me carry to term. Except that my husband at the time, he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. He said I was broken.” She put a hand to her head and closed her eyes. “Clark was so sweet, so kind. And I . . . I kissed him when I was still married.”
Double holy shit. I could think of nothing else but holy shit. Suddenly her treatment of me when I’d not officially been done with Roger but I’d brought Remo around made a bit more sense. Guilt being foisted onto me from her past. “You fell in love with him while you were still married.”
She smiled now, the first real smile I’d seen on her since I’d been turned. “Yes, I got a divorce, and a week later Clark and I eloped. He promised me babies, and after some time and trials with the magic, we had you and your brother. Of course, being that happy terrified me. The curse was still in effect, you know. Just like it is for you and your brother. Haven’t you noticed your love lives have been less than . . . normal?”
I thought about Roger, Dahlia, and Tad, and of course the fiasco with Remo and Smithy. I sighed and nodded. “Yeah. I know it. But all of that . . . Why did you join the church of the Firsts, then?”
She slumped into a chair. “I joined the church not long after it was started, when you and your brother were still very young. Because your grandmother pointed out that I wasn’t supposed to have a successful marriage. That if Hera caught wind that maybe her curse wasn’t working, she might decide to do something to you and Tad. I joined the Firsts because they are so—”
“Awful?” Ernie tried to help, and she shook her head. He floated down so that he sat on the counter beside her. She gave him a tired smile, seemingly unbothered by his appearance.
“No, that isn’t why I joined. While that can be true, they are zealous. If I was to make it look like I truly believed in what they taught, I had to be zealous too. I was trying to protect you all. I was trying to keep my marriage intact, and Clark understood. The antagonism between us was all an act, but . . . I got caught up in the false belief that I could truly stop a curse on my own. When in reality I’ve been as miserable as I made the rest of you, so I guess the curse worked still.” She shook her head but couldn’t seem to meet my eyes.
“I never stopped loving you all, but I . . . the Firstamentalists felt safe, but I know that it was a false comfort. I knew it when you and Tad got sick and were turned, and I didn’t know how else to keep you safe but to keep acting like the Firsts were right.” She reached out and touched my face, and I realized I was crying. My mom . . . she walked up to me and swept me into a hug. I pressed my face against her neck and sobbed.
“I thought you hated me. You said you would rather I die than become a Super Duper.”
“I was trying so hard to protect you.” She squeezed me harder, a sob escaping her. “I would rather you think I hated you than watch you die with something Hera would cook up. She is so very dangerous, and I couldn’t live with the thought that she would torture you and make your life a living nightmare. I didn’t think I could bear to see you under her rule. But the truth . . .” She stepped back and cupped my face with her hands. “The truth is you are strong enough, my beautiful girl. You are more than strong enough, and I should have seen that you have had that strength all along. That your bloodlines run true, that the power in your grandmother went right through us both. I should have believed that I was strong enough too.” That last was said so softly, I wasn’t sure I was meant to hear it. But I did, and it cemented something between us. Her fears were not so different than my own.
Shaking, I hugged her again, relishing the feel of her hugging me back. Really holding me for the first time in what felt like forever. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, but ease off a bit. I’m not a Super Duper like you,” she whispered. I laughed and stepped back.
“Sorry . . . wait.” I let her go and ran to the phone and called my house. Tad picked up, and before he could say anything, I blurted out, “You’ve got to come to the bakery, right now. You have to.”
He didn’t ask why, just hung the phone up, and I knew he was on his way. “Tad, he’s missed you too.”
She nodded. “I was wrong. You are both so much more than I could have ever hoped for in children.” She clapped her hands together and smiled at me, really smiled. “I think we need to start again with so many things. But let’s begin with this anniversary. I don’t want to hide how much I love your father anymore.” She patted my face again, smiling as she pointed at the samples. “Which one do you think Clark will like best?”
Still sniffing and wiping at my face, I bent over and pointed at the red velvet. “He loves chocolate, and it’s a nice twist. We could fill the center with raspberry and then do fresh raspberries as part of the toppings.”
“Please tell me I’m invited,” Ernie stage-whispered, and my mom laughed.
“Eros, you are invited. Seems fitting, don’t you think?” My mom lifted an eyebrow at me, and I grinned, my heart all but floating. This day . . . this day would stay with me for the rest of my life. The day my mother and I finally were honest with each other.
The day I saw that, while she’d gone about it the wrong way, she’d been trying to protect us, because she loved us.
She nodded. “Now, what else do we need for the platters?”
I opened my mouth to tell her that I had a few ideas, but no words came out. I froze, hearing the heartbeat of something far bigger than any person. The beat was like a section of drums echoing one another. A heartbeat that big could mean only one thing. I stared at Ernie. His face paled.
He flipped around in a sudden circle, his eyes worried.
“Alena. I think we have a problem.”
The ground shook, and I put my hand on my mom’s back. “Mom, stay here.” I ran out into the main part of the bakery. The plate glass had been replaced, and through it I saw a thick, hard skin that looked like pebbled gray leather. The image filled the plate glass as it moved. “Diana, get my mom and the girls and get out!” I pointed to the back even as I ran to the front door.
And right into the monstrous danger that waited for me.
CHAPTER 8
I stood on the front step of my bakery and stared up at a creature that was easily the same size as me in my Drakaina form. I thought about shifting, and smoke curled up around me, leaving me blind for a split second, and then I was staring down at the top of my bakery from two stories up. I whipped around and faced the creature in front of me. Her body was that solid gray that came from overdoing the mixture of too many food colorings as you tried to swirl them together. Pasty gray and ugly, it covered her entire body except for a strip of black down the center of her back. Her body was thick, and she had four legs, the front two tipped with three claws each that dug into the cement with a screech. Nine long necks topped with nine heads wove and bobbed in front of me. Sitting on the center head was a man dressed in solid black body armor. It looked to be a blend of old and new with the bright, shiny brass buckles tightened over black hard-shelled armor that reminded me of a SWAT team. A golden shield rested on his left arm, and a sword was gripped in his right hand. He slowly pointed it at me.
“Drakaina. Your death is here.” His words were firm, and he was obviously strong in his belief. That didn’t bode well.
“Don’t count on it, chump!” Ernie yelled as he flew up next to me. He had a wee tiny bow that he pulled taut. “Don’t think she’s doing this alone.”
Hercules sighed. “Eros, get lost, you little bugger. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then go away! Alena is not the one you should be fighting!” Ernie yelled.
The Hydra’s nine heads hissed together, the noise echoing back and forth. I opened my mouth and hissed right back, the rumble of my voice deeper and far more deadly sounding. At least to me.
Without warning, she launched herself at me, claws outstretched along with her heads. I dove down, sliding under her belly and wrapping myself around her middle. I squeezed, and she roared, then didn’t roar again as she struggled to get air. Of course, she wasn’t alone.
Hercules leapt off the back of her head and sailed toward me almost in slow motion. His sword was angled downward, straight for my coils. I stared at him, tried to strike, and was cut short. My coils around the Hydra’s body kept me from completing the blow. He landed, and his sword drove down through my hide. I roared, my head thrown back with the pain, but I didn’t let go of the Hydra. I knew how this worked. If I let her go, then she’d attack again. I wasn’t going to make that mistake. Not if I wanted to come out on top.
Ernie zipped into view, and I locked eyes with him and shook my head. He couldn’t help me with this. Or maybe I just wanted to do it on my own.
“Alena, let me help!” Ernie shouted, and again I shook my head. He flew out of sight. Good enough for me.
“Strength of character was not something I thought you would have,” Hercules mumbled as he pulled his sword out and prepared to drive it in again. From his left side, a flutter of wings, and then Ernie was there, slamming into his head and knocking him sideways.
“Get her, Alena. I’ve got him.”
If I could have smiled I would have. The thought of Ernie taking on Hercules? Nothing short of brilliant, even if I’d told him not to. I had to loosen my hold on the Hydra to get the room to strike, but as soon as I did that, she wriggled away from me. Two of her heads whipped around and bit into my side, pinning me to the ground, cutting right through the diamond-hard snakeskin. Fighting through the pain, I flicked my tail up and slammed it into her side, sending her sideways and into an empty building across the street from my bakery. The structured crumbled under her weight, and the rubble dust billowed up. I took stock of my injuries. I was hurt, but nothing was a mortal wound. I would heal. I lurched forward to see where Ernie and Hercules had disappeared.
Hercules held the cherub by his foot in one hand, his bow and arrows in the other. “Look, Eros, I’m not exactly happy working for Hera, but we can’t have a monster like the Drakaina floating about. We can’t. It’s bad for the people.”
“She’s not like the others, you idiot!” Ernie screeched. “Put me down, fool hero! You’re making a mistake! She protected people from Theseus!”
I hesitated, thinking that Hercules didn’t seem like Achilles or Theseus. Maybe I could talk to him and convince him not to go through with all this. I had to try. I let the shift take me down in size.
I was completely naked, as per the usual shift out of Drakaina and back to human. “Don’t hurt him!” I yelled as I scrambled toward Hercules and Eros. Hercules turned to me, a frown on his face.
“I’m not going to hurt him. But what would it matter to you?”
I glanced over my shoulder to where the Hydra was scrambling back to her feet. I didn’t have long. “He’s my friend, please don’t hurt him.”
My words only seemed to confuse him further, but he did let Ernie go. “You aren’t . . . I don’t understand why you would care. You’re a monster.”
I rubbed my hands up and down my arms and all but danced in place. Hercules seemed to be coming around, and unlike Theseus and even Achilles, his eyes didn’t rove over my body like a kid with his face pressed against the glass display case in my bakery.
A roar from behind us snapped me around. The Hydra was back up on her feet, all nine heads swinging my way. All with wide-open mouths. Sugar doodles, this was going to be close. I dove out of the way, rolling across the street, my bare skin ripping from me in bits and pieces, showing off my snakeskin underneath. I stood. “Over here, you big dumb jerk.”
She whipped her heads around and snarled at me. I lifted one hand slowly, and then one middle finger. “That’s from my yaya.”
The Hydra screeched and launched at me, but she was so big I could avoid her . . . I dove between her legs and then rolled back to my feet behind her. She smelled like an oil slick, and the Drakaina in me did not like being this close and this small. The desire to shift caught me unawares, and I struggled to fight it off. Not yet, not yet!
I wrapped my arms around my upper body and squeezed tight. “Not yet, she can’t find us.” Us. Like we were two entities. Time to think about that later. Not right now.
I ducked between the Hydra’s stomping legs, grabbing onto her fat ankles and spinning around them. She screeched, and above us Hercules called out, “That’s enough, Angel. Time to go.”
Angel. What a name for a monster with nine heads. She roared, and the grinding noise of teeth cracking together one after another, like an echoing rumble, ripped through the air. I dodged out from under a stomping foot and ran to the front of the bakery. Ernie zipped over, floating by my shoulder.
“Holy shit,” he muttered. “If you don’t have to fight him, don’t. I’m not . . . I’m not sure you can beat the two of them now that I’ve seen them together.”
I nodded, thinking he was right. I stared as the Hydra and Hercules conversed. I didn’t disagree with Ernie. Not for a second. The wounds the Hydra had given me finally made themselves known. Aching, throbbing as they announced themselves on my hip and upper rib cage. I pressed my hand to the worst of them. “Ernie. Go get Damara. I’m going to need her help.”
He saluted me and zipped off. I shouldn’t have sent him. I know that now, but . . . hindsight being twenty-twenty and all that jazz, I’d done what I thought was best.
I pressed my back against the bakery, and the door opened. I spun sideways. “Mom, get out of here.” I kept my voice down so that Hercules and the Hydra wouldn’t hear me.
Apparently the Hydra had excellent hearing, though. Angel whipped around, away from Hercules. On all nine heads a g
rin spread from one corner of her wicked sharp-fanged faces to the other. I pushed Mom back into the bakery. “Go, out the back, run!” Her eyes widened as she stared up at the Hydra, which seemed to freeze her in place. I shoved her again. The Hydra was after me. I could draw her away, that’s what I told myself. I yanked the bakery door shut, praying my mom would listen to me and run for the back. I bolted toward Angel and ducked between her legs, trying to draw her away. Away from my mom.
She lurched forward. Hercules yelled at her.
“Angel, stop! That is a command!”
I grabbed at her legs, smacking her with my hands. “Come on, you’re after me, aren’t you?”
She ignored us both.
The Hydra bunched her leg muscles, leapt up . . . and came crashing down on top of Vanilla and Honey. The roof collapsed in a heap of cement and dust that swirled around her, hiding her for a brief moment. The roar of a dying building rushed through the air, but none of that mattered, the bakery didn’t matter.
My mom was in there. My mom was in the bakery. The shift happened faster than ever before. I was on the Hydra in a split second, wrapping around her and jerking her off the building. I bit her over and over again, driving my fangs and my venom into her hide as she roared, screeching.
We tumbled sideways into two more buildings, bringing them down around us in more dust and cement. I felt none of it. I was not there—my heart was in the bakery, and it had nothing to do with my business. My mom was in there; the thought hit me over and over. She was human, so there was no way she could have survived. Terror drove me in a way I had never felt before. Sheer and absolute panic at the thought that Mom had been inside the bakery when it collapsed. It had happened so fast I couldn’t have stopped it.
I uncoiled from around the suddenly still form of the Hydra, not caring if she was alive or dead, and slithered away as fast as I could. Distantly I knew I was hurt badly. That Angel had inflicted at least as many wounds on me as I had on her. I didn’t care; the pain meant nothing compared to the fear that coursed through my heart.
Hisses and Honey (The Venom Trilogy Book 3) Page 10
