Hisses and Honey (The Venom Trilogy Book 3)

by Shannon Mayer

  I reached the rubble of the bakery and shifted down. Shaking, blood dripping off my body from multiple gaping wounds, I stumbled up onto the still shivering rubble. “Mom!”

  There was no reply as I fought my way to the top of the heap, coughing on the dust, waving it away to try to see through. Oh, God, what if she was in there? What if she didn’t make it out? I couldn’t help the cry that slipped past my lips. “MOM!”

  I spun around, caught a glimpse of Hercules watching me, a look of confusion on his face, before I spun away again, continuing to look for my mom. “Mom, please answer me!” I went to my knees and forced myself to take a deep breath. I could find her. If she was in the rubble, I could find her by her scent. I was strong enough to dig her out on my own too; I knew I could. Of course, I was discounting the fact that I was hurt badly. Really badly. There were broken bones in me that were just starting to register, wounds that had begun to fester with a green ooze from Angel’s bite.

  I ignored it all and drew in a deep breath. Through the dust and the faint whisper of baking ingredients was the hint of my mom. The one who’d smoothed my tears away as a child, the one who’d chased away the fear of the dark, the one who’d pushed me away in what I knew now was a desperate hope to protect me, the one I’d held just an hour before, finally finding safety and peace in her arms. There, deep under the debris, the smell of her floated up to me. Her unique scent, and with it, blood—a lot of blood.

  I grabbed the first block and heaved it sideways. “Hang on, Mom, I’m coming.” The words were hitched, and I couldn’t help the tears as they slipped down my cheeks. This was not happening. It couldn’t be. Another set of hands heaved stone on the other side of me. I didn’t care who it was, didn’t care as long as we got to my mom. I had to get to her; there had to be time yet to save her. I caught a glimpse of blond hair and distantly knew Hercules was helping me. Why, I couldn’t say, and I didn’t want to guess. “Mom, talk to me. Please!”

  There was no answer, no cry that she was okay. I heaved the last chunk of cement off my mom, and there she was, lying on the floor of what had been the back of my bakery. I slithered down over the rocks, my blood making it easy to slide. I listened hard for her heart, but already I knew . . . her heart wasn’t beating; it had stopped completely.

  “No, no, no!” I scooped her up and clutched her to my chest. This was not happening. This couldn’t be the end. Not when she’d finally reached out to me, not when we were finally mending the wounds of the past. “Mom, wake up. Please wake up. You can’t be gone. Not now, not when I need you the most.” I buried my face against her neck and sobbed, my shoulders hunched, unable to care that Hercules stood over me. Probably with a sword that could run me through. I couldn’t make myself care, not for a split second.

  “Do it, if you’re going to,” I whispered to him, my whole body shaking with grief. With disbelief. If I were gone, the fights would be over. Hera would win, but no more of my family would die. Tad and my father would be safe, and that would have to be enough. I had to believe that. I didn’t look over my shoulder.

  “I’m sorry. She wasn’t supposed to die,” Hercules said, and then he was gone, the sound of wreckage falling around him as he climbed out of the hole we’d made. I brushed my mom’s hair back from her face. The first time in years she and I had finally understood one another, and then . . . I couldn’t help the cry that erupted from me. The loss that was everything in the world. The bakery was nothing, I could rebuild that, but this . . .

  Voices flowed around me, emergency workers, police officers, ambulance attendants. Someone tried to take her away from me, and I snapped my teeth at them, every bit of me willing to fight them off if I had to. With shaking legs, I stood, still holding her to me. The uniformed people stepped back and let me carry her out. More than one looked away, tears of their own slipping down their faces. Too much, this was too much. Somehow I was out of the hole and standing on the road in front of an ambulance. “You have to give her up,” a voice said.

  I turned my face to see Smithy standing there. Tad was beside him, his face pale and his cheeks stained with tears. “I’ll go with her, Alena. She won’t be alone.” My brother choked on the words, and that brought another round of tears from my own eyes.

  Smithy had a hand on my arm, and he squeezed it gently. “Alena, you have to let them take her, and I need to get you some help. You’re dying, sweetheart.”

  “I don’t care,” I whispered.

  “I do.” His blue eyes were intense, and I fought not to sob.

  “You shouldn’t.” Because what I had in me was nothing short of revenge. I wasn’t sure I could hold the Drakaina in me back anymore.

  Maybe worse was that I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I wanted to let her loose and watch Hera and her pets run for cover while I rained down venom and destruction.

  Smithy held his arms out to me, indicating I should give him my mother. “They need to take her, Alena. You can’t help her now.”

  Another voice, one that was as dear to me as my mother’s, called out. “That’s not true, Hephaestus, and you know it.”

  CHAPTER 9

  My distraction with what my grandmother said allowed Smithy to take my mother from my arms and hand her body off to Tad. I stared at Yaya, not caring that I was naked and covered in blood. “What are you talking about?”

  Yaya’s blue eyes were soft with tears, but under that was a determination that I’d seen in her before. “Death is never the end, Alena. Your mother is not gone forever, not if you’re brave enough. Look to Orpheus.”

  I reached for Yaya, and my knees buckled. A pair of strong arms swept under my legs and scooped me up. My head lolled back, and Smithy stared down at me.

  “Let me go,” I said. “If I’m dead, this all ends. Hera wins. No more fighting.”

  He frowned. “No, you need to heal before you can even begin to consider what Flora is saying.”

  What Flora was saying? What was my yaya saying? That I could save my mother somehow from death? Who was Orpheus, and what did he have to do with anything? If it was possible, I would do it, I would bring my mother back. I would. I struggled, but the struggle was small and weak. I doubted that Smithy even felt me twitch. He held his arms a little tighter around me. “I’m taking Alena to my place. I’ll have Panacea meet us there.”

  Panacea, the healer. I didn’t mean to close my eyes, but I couldn’t help it. There was something pulling the lids closed, something I couldn’t fight, couldn’t deny. My mother was dead, gone, killed in a battle with another monster. This was all . . . “My fault.” the words slipped, slurred past my lips like I’d been dipping into the ouzo while baking. I reached up, touching someone’s face, feeling ridged scars along a thick neck.

  “Hush, Alena. Just hang on, we’re almost there.”

  “Almost where?” was what I wanted to ask, but what did it matter? I’d killed my mother. Tad . . . he’d find out it was my fault soon enough, and then he’d hate me too. He’d hate me. Oh, God. I groaned. Dad. I still had to talk to Dad, to tell him. I whimpered, unable to keep the pitiful sound back, and I closed my eyes, suddenly exhausted.

  Voices floated around me, and time passed. I knew because the voices kept saying it. “Too much time, we’re going to lose her. Too much time.”

  I didn’t really care. The dark of unconsciousness was blissful and I hid in it, a part of me hoping that I never fully escaped it.

  I woke up as I was being set down on something soft and cushiony, like a marshmallow filling. I sank into it, and water slipped over my head. Smithy was drowning me, that was the only thing I could think, and I didn’t want to fight it. All along he’d been working for Hera, working for her. Damn him. But I didn’t damn him, not really. What was the point? I’d asked him to let me go, so he was. A voice slid through the water. “Breathe it in, Alena; it will flush the toxins out of your system.”

  I recognized the voice as Panacea’s, and my body lurched as I opened my mouth to do as I was told. To brea
the in the water. I sucked a lungful in deep, and the water didn’t taste of water but of flowers and herbs, spices I could recognize, and then their names floated away on my thoughts like the bubbles escaping my lips. Lavender and eucalyptus, sage, rose petals, saffron, and honey, the honey so thick it coated my tongue. In and out I breathed, as though the water were air, and slowly my senses came back to me, and I was staring up at two people above me through a clouded glass. No, I was in a tub, a big tub, staring up through pale-green liquid. I recognized Smithy and Panacea.

  “You can’t be serious,” Panacea whispered, her words amplified through the water.

  “She’s going to get herself killed if she goes after her mother. Not to mention I don’t think she’s strong enough to face the Hydra or Hercules on their own, never mind together. The Hydra got up and walked away from that fight; Alena has been unconscious for days after being carried out.”

  Panacea shook her head. “You give her too little credit because you have feelings for her. That was always your way. It’s why you fell out with Aphrodite, you know, you didn’t allow her to own her own strength.”

  “I don’t need a marital lesson from you, someone who’s never even been married,” Smithy snapped. “And I’m saying this because it’s the truth. Alena has come a long way, but look at her. Look at the damage she took, and that was without Hercules doing much. How can anyone expect her to survive the both of them if they come against her in full force?”

  “Because she has more heart than anyone else I have ever met. And she fought while fearing for her mother’s life. That was not a fair fight, not in the least, you big, dumb ox,” Yaya said, stepping into view. “She will find a way to defeat Hercules and the Hydra. We have to let her find her own way; that is the only thing to do. Do you understand?”

  I kept breathing the fluid in and out, and the water grew deeper green in color until their faces were obscured. I realized it was the toxins filtering into the water. Toxins that the Hydra carried in her bite. I pushed myself up, liquid streaming down my face, dribbling out past my lips and out my nose. I coughed, clearing my lungs. Large chunks of green came up, thick and heavy with blood as well as the poison. I held the edges of the tub and drew in a big breath. “I’m going after my mom.”

  Smithy shook his head. “No.”

  I glared at him. “You think I’m weak, just like everyone else.”

  He shook his head. “You are weak, compared to what you face. You’ve been unconscious for days, and barely survived. The Drakaina can only take you so far, Alena. Part of being strong is knowing when you can’t accomplish a task on your own. I know you want to prove yourself, but I don’t want to see you get killed because of pride.” He crouched beside the tub and reached one hand out to me. I batted it away.

  “I may be weak, but I can bend. I can bounce back. I am not going to go down without a fight. And I will ask for help. If I need it.” My muscles protested as I pushed myself into a standing position. Smithy’s eyes never left mine.

  “I don’t want you to die, Alena,” he said.

  I held a hand out to Yaya, and she took it, balancing me as I stepped out of the tub. I glanced at her. “We all die, Smithy. Even the gods, isn’t that right?”

  I caught a look from Panacea, a soft smile and a twinkle in her eyes. She gave me the barest of nods. “You are correct. We all die, at some point. But perhaps you will show us a new way to live, yes?”

  Smithy grunted. “I’m not going to encourage you to do this. I’m not going to watch you throw yourself into the flames.” He turned his back on me, shoulders and movement stiff. Hard. Unyielding.

  “Thank you for your help,” I said. He didn’t turn around, and I knew that we’d crossed some barrier that was yet unseen to him. And maybe it always would be. In another life, another time . . . he would have been a match for me in so many ways. Maybe if I hadn’t met Remo first, if I hadn’t felt the strength of a man who believed in me, who let me find my own way for right or for wrong. A man who saw my weakness as strength, and my strength for what it was. I put a hand to my face. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. Or lead him on.”

  A thick towel was swung over my shoulders and wrapped tight around me. “You woke him up,” Panacea said. “To the possibilities that lie out there. Just as you’ve woken Zeus up. Just as you’ve woken all the gods up.”

  “That’s not what Hera wanted, is it?” I asked. Better to ask questions than think about what had happened at the bakery. My mind skittered away from that, from the memories that were so fresh I could still smell them. Could still taste the scent of my mom’s blood on the back of my throat if I let my mind go there.

  “No, I believe Hera thought to only wake up her own followers. But she forgot that the pantheon is a whole, that we are all connected. In waking up her believers, she also made it so that there were people waking up to the rest of us. Remembering that there is a plethora of gods to be seen.”

  I shivered, and Yaya rubbed my arms as she stared up at me. “You must find Zeus. He holds the key to all of this; he holds it completely. Do you understand? If you can convince him to come back, to actually become the leader he is meant to be, he can stop the virus. And he can bring your mother back.”

  I stared at her, seeing the shape of her mouth, the gentle plump skin of her cheeks. She looked to be in her late fifties now. Maybe younger, even. I glanced at Panacea, who had a frown on her face. That did not give me confidence in my grandmother’s words. At the same time, she was probably at least partially right. If I could convince Zeus to pull his cookies out of the oven before they burned to a crisp and get his butt in gear, maybe he could slow things down. Maybe he would have a way to bring my mother back from the dead.

  Then there was Orpheus. Yaya shook her head, almost as if she knew what I was thinking. “Not here.”

  The twinge in my heart almost brought me to my knees. I focused on the here and now. “Where is Zeus? I thought maybe Whistler when you said he went north, Panacea.”

  The goddess shook her head. “No, that is too close, even for him. I would go farther north yet. Hermes could lead the way if you could convince him.”

  There was a flutter of wings that was far too loud for a single set. Behind Panacea appeared Hermes and Ernie. The two tiny winged men argued back and forth like siblings as they flew through the window. I wondered for a moment if that was actually the case.

  “You have to help us,” Ernie pleaded. “We have to find Zeus if we’re going to stop the mess Hera is making of things.”

  “No, no, that’s not how it works, and you know it.” Hermes shook his head, his lean body shaking. “I’ll get my messenger license revoked if I do that.”

  I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “And if everyone dies because you aren’t willing to break a rule, what then? The virus is sweeping the world, Hermes. My mother was killed”—oh, those words hurt, and I struggled to keep going, but I forged on—“and I need you to take me to Zeus. Please, he’s the only one who can help us stop this madness.”

  Hermes cringed and shook his head. “It’s not that easy.”

  Panacea made a soothing motion with her hands, as if to calm him down. “Hermes, these are desperate times. You can take a single person with you. That is allowed with your messenger license, you know that.”

  Hermes cringed further. “But what if Hera finds out?”

  “No buts, and Hera won’t find out,” Panacea said. “Artemis, Hephaestus, and I will stand with you if there is any backlash. But I doubt there will be once Zeus understands how bad things have gotten. Alena will show him what he has to do, and Hera will be dealt with.”

  “He’s a coward,” I said, and Hermes flinched as if I’d struck him. I wasn’t going to apologize.

  “No, he’s a survivor,” Yaya said. “As we all are to some degree or another.”

  I didn’t like her defending him, mostly because I didn’t think he was anything of the sort. “More like an opportunist,” I muttered, but Yaya still h
eard me and gave me a dirty look.

  Panacea motioned for me to follow her, but a figure in the doorway stopped us. Smithy stood with a handful of clothes. “Here, they are my wife’s, but I believe they will fit you.”

  I nodded, somehow feeling like I’d betrayed him. “Thank you.” I took the clothes, and our hands brushed. He paused, and his eye searched mine, intense and serious.

  “Are you sure?” He asked the question, and it had so many layers, three simple words.

  Was I sure? Not really, but I knew that I’d been held back my whole life. The last thing I needed was another person telling me I wasn’t capable. That I couldn’t do what I set out to accomplish.

  “Yes, I’m sure. You . . . You’ve been a good friend, Smithy. I can’t thank you enough for that.” I knew he deserved more than that. I closed the distance and looked up at him, close enough to kiss. He stared down but didn’t touch me. “Another place, another time . . . I think . . . I think it would have worked. But not here, not now with the cards we’ve both been dealt.”

  He nodded, the whisper of a smile on his lips. “Yes, I think you’re right. The vampire, do you think he will come for you?”

  I closed my eyes, my heart tugging at me with the thought of Remo. “I don’t know. I can’t count on it. I can’t. Not when so many lives depend on me making the right choices.”

  Smithy’s mouth twitched again, but his eyes were sad. “Well, I think you’re going to have to decide.”

  “Not for a while.” I stepped back, clutching the clothes to me.

  The smell of cinnamon and honey floated to my nose, and I closed my eyes. Not now, not here. No wonder Smithy had looked at me that way.

  A soft footstep, and then a hand I knew all too well turned me around gently. I kept my eyes closed. “Remo, what are you doing here?”