He stared out the windshield, calm as could be.
“You aren’t mad about the picture?” I blurted out, unable to wonder any longer.
He laughed. “No. That is the price of being with a beautiful woman. Men will always be drawn to you, try to steal you away from me. And it will happen if I let it get to me, if I don’t treat you right.”
That seemed far too rational to me. Then again, it wasn’t like he was really only thirty years old, even if that was what he looked to be.
“What is your plan when we get there?” he asked, forcing my mind away from him and to the task at hand.
“I need room to maneuver if I’m going to shift. I think . . . I think if I can go in and draw them outside, that would be best.”
“And then?”
“I guess I fight whoever is there. There really isn’t any other option.”
Like it was going to be that easy. I knew it wasn’t. Remo knew it wasn’t. We had no help; no one was going to stand by us in this. Remo had to get his vampires back, and we had to get my friends back while somehow incapacitating Theseus.
We pulled onto the street where the courthouse stood, and Remo pulled the muscle car over. Scattered here and there were vans and a few trucks. It seemed too busy for a January evening at the courthouse, but what did I know?
From where we sat, the courthouse was lit up like ten thousand candles burning bright, every light in every window on.
“I think I should go in, act like I don’t know that there is a trap,” I said. I gathered up the papers sitting between us and clasped them to my chest. “If I act dumb, I’ll get further.”
“I don’t like it,” Remo said. “I’ll hold to the shadows and follow you. But I won’t come into the courthouse unless I hear a ruckus.” He took my face in his hands and kissed me softly. “Be careful.”
I smiled, though it was wobbly, and kissed him back. “You too.”
Without another word, I slid from the car and strode toward the courthouse. I strained my ears and picked up nothing. Not a single heartbeat between me and the courthouse. Which did nothing to soothe me. I could be surrounded by vampires and not know it. Breathing through my mouth, I tasted the air and caught a faint hint of blood on it, the coppery tang zinging along the back of my mouth. I clutched the papers harder and hurried my feet.
The front doors of the courthouse beckoned, and I knew that I’d soon be truly on my own. No, that wasn’t true; Remo was here. And Yaya had said she would meet me here too. Though it didn’t make me feel any better to think of her somehow in the middle of a trap set for me.
The halls of the courthouse were empty, devoid of life on the surface. I listened and picked up several heartbeats at the end of the hall, behind the final set of doors.
I jogged toward them and stopped in front, listening. I leaned close and pressed my ear against the wood paneling.
“I don’t really want to kill her, Tim,” Beth said. “I just don’t want to live with her anymore. I want her to move out so you can move in and we can be together. That’s all.”
“The only way she is going to leave,” Theseus said, enunciating every word, “is if we kill her. She loves me, and I can’t keep her away from me. I bet, even now, she’s on her way here to stop us.”
Beth sucked in a sharp breath. “But she won’t. We’ll be married, and she won’t come between us.”
Married? Great gobs of rotten peach pie, this was beyond crazy. Sure, Ernie had said the arrow caused obsession, but to marry Theseus? Fear clutched at me. If Beth was that far under the spell, how was I going to help her escape?
“That’s why we have to end her life,” Theseus all but cooed.
A laugh rumbled through the air. “She won’t survive, boss. Between the fennel oil and my vampires, she won’t be leaving here with her skin intact.”
The Drakaina in me didn’t like that at all, and all the rest of me had to agree. I stepped back, lifted a foot, and booted the door open. It swung so hard it crashed open, and I got a glimpse of shocked faces before the momentum swung the door back shut with a thud.
“Honey puffs!” I kicked the door again, hard enough this time to blow it off its hinges so it dangled by only a few shattered pieces of metal.
The room held Theseus, Beth and Sandy, Santos, and several vampires I didn’t recognize. I didn’t see Dahlia or Tad. Or Yaya.
“I like my skin the way it is, dingle nuts,” I snapped.
Santos moved like buttered-up lightning. In his hand he held a flask I knew all too well. He unscrewed the cap and flung the contents at me. I backpedaled, scrambling on the floor, hitting the far wall of the hallway with the flat of my back.
Theseus laughed as the oil splattered me in a few spots, my left hand and thigh. Two drops, and within seconds they’d already eaten through my clothes and skin and into the diamond-patterned snakeskin below. The pain was instant, more intense than I remembered, scattering my thoughts like flour blowing in a fan. This was the oil undiluted, and it sent me into sheer survival mode. There was nothing but pain rippling through me and the white noise of my own heart and heavy breathing.
Theseus’s voice cut through it all. “Drive her to the main courtroom.” My instinct to run screamed at me. If I was going to get back outside, it was now or never. I spun and moved to run back the way I’d come. Beth stood in my way, her blue eyes hard but her bottom lip trembling. She was a nurse, and despite Theseus’s spell holding her in its thrall, she was a healer, not a killer.
“Don’t make me hurt you, Alena.”
“Beth, please, don’t do this. I saved you from Merlin,” I whispered through the pain. “Please, you’re my friend.”
For just a second I thought she heard me. Her eyes softened, and a tear gathered in one, then slid down her face. Theseus stepped up next to her and put a hand on the back of her neck, squeezing.
“She lies. Even now she’s trying to manipulate you.” He kissed her cheek, and her eyes frosted like overchurned ice cream.
“Bullshit, Alena. Merlin turned me for Tim. You aren’t my friend.” The way her eyes glittered, I could see she believed the warped words.
She didn’t shift but instead reached for a sword hanging from one hip, a sword that had Athena’s symbol on it. Call it a hunch, but I suspected that sword would cut me. She pointed it at me. “Go on, the other way.”
The drops of oil seared my mind, reminding me that I had more than one problem. The Drakaina in me went crazy, writhing and twisting to be released. To fight, to battle our way out, to shift and thrash the building to the ground. But it wasn’t time. Not yet. And I couldn’t be sure that Yaya and the others weren’t in here somewhere. I wasn’t going to destroy a building knowing innocent lives could be lost.
I would have only one shot at this, and I knew it. With my mouth pressed in a tight, thin line, I bit back on the whimpers that filled my mouth.
I let Beth drive me down the hall and into the main courtroom with towering ceilings and enough seating for three hundred people. Not that there were that many people in it, but there were enough. Mostly vampires, but I saw Tad and Yaya up at the front, confirming my worst fears. Dahlia sat to one side of Tad, and their eyes . . . they glared at me before looking away. As if I truly were the monster. Shaking, I tried to get their attention, staring hard at them. But they wouldn’t meet my eyes.
At the front of the room, Judge Watts sat in his chair, towering over everyone. His face was white, pale with fear, and sweat slid freely down his wobbly cheeks.
Theseus strode to the base of Judge Watts’s podium. “Thank you all for coming. I like things to be as fair and judicial as possible. I am not some random hero, some killer that will take to the streets and cause mob justice. No, as you can see by those I’ve gathered here, I am friend to all those who would be my friend. And enemy to those that would do harm to the world.”
What was he doing? I rubbed the back of my left hand on a bench in a vain attempt to get the oil off but only succeeded in sprea
ding it over my hand more. I whimpered, the heat and pain taking my focus off what was happening. I forced myself to look around, to see what I could use, to see if there was anyone who would be on my side. Everyone who was in the room stared at Theseus as though he were indeed a god. Including Tad and Dahlia. Even Roger and Barbie were there, dumbstruck as they stared at Theseus. What surprised me the most, though, was Merlin. He stood to the side, nearest to Roger. He frowned as he watched Theseus speak, his brows drawn low over his hawk nose.
Then there was Yaya. Her eyes were glued to me as she mouthed Remo’s name. I shook my head ever so slightly. I didn’t know where he was; I mean, he was here somewhere, but that didn’t help. The last thing I wanted was for both of us to be trapped.
There was a struggle behind me, the thumping of feet and bodies, a snarl, and then that small hope died. Remo was strung up between four vampires and dragged into the room, then tossed at my feet. I helped him stand up. He was bruised and battered, but he wasn’t hurt badly.
“You okay?” he murmured, touching my face gently. I shook my head.
“Oil.” I held my hand up, showing him where the oil had sunk in, opening me right up.
He took my hand and raised it to his mouth, suctioning onto the wound, licking the oil off. He grimaced, and I felt him draw some of my blood into his mouth. I gave him the barest of nods to keep going. With my blood racing through his veins, giving him strength and power like no other vampire alive, we might have a chance. Maybe.
We were jerked apart. Theseus pointed at me. “You see, she has him bowing at her feet. She is a siren of the evilest kind, one that preys on men. Even the undead follow her.”
I rolled my eyes, fighting the pain in order to speak levelly. “Is this for real? Are you actually presenting a case to the judge to decide if you should try and kill me or not?”
Theseus smiled, his back to the judge. “You wanted the law to claim you exist. If you exist, then you can be judged, you can be tried, and you can be executed.”
Anger flared in my gut. “You can’t do this!”
Theseus shrugged. “Your Honor, do I have your go-ahead to present my case? Of course, if you disagree, we can always find someone else.” The threat was obvious. They would kill Watts if they didn’t like his answer.
The judge nodded, his eyes wary and the tension in his shoulders obvious. “Do it. Prove she is guilty.”
I took a step back, and my leg with the oil burning through it buckled. I went to one knee as Theseus spoke. “I have witnesses that the Drakaina attempted to poison her family.”
One by one my cousins, Samantha and Everett, and Aunt Janice and Uncle Robert stepped through the crowd and up to the base of the podium. They spoke about the sickness I’d caused, that by my own admission I’d claimed it was not an accident at all that my venom had gone into the cupcake frosting. They spoke about my callous words. “She said she didn’t give a shit about us,” Samantha snapped, her eyes glittering as they landed on me.
“I would never say that! I don’t curse!” I yelled back. I mean, it wasn’t like this was a real court proceeding. I certainly wasn’t going to play by the rules.
Samantha shrugged. “That’s what I heard.”
The judge wrote something down.
The one that hurt, though, was Tad as he stood up and gave his account, Dahlia clinging to his hand in support. Neither of them would look at me.
“I thought she was my sister still, that being turned hadn’t changed her. But the truth of it is, she is a monster. A killer who would prey on anyone weaker than herself. Including her family.”
“Those cupcakes weren’t for you!” I stood and realized I was about to back myself into a corner.
“Who were they for, then?” Theseus asked, his eyes narrowing.
I struggled with the words. “For Merlin. He . . . was coming to defend Roger.” Oh, God, I knew the words were bad.
Remo groaned. “Not the time to be honest, love.”
The judge stood up and slammed his gavel on the bench. “Is that all the witnesses?”
Merlin cleared his throat. “I do believe I should have some say in this, since I was the target of Ms. Budrene’s devilishly good cupcakes.”
Remo shifted so he stood just a little bit in front of me. I put a hand on him. “No.”
He muscles tensed, but he stepped back. Whatever Merlin had up his sleeve, I would deal with him.
Yaya gave me an encouraging smile.
Merlin gave me a wink. That did not make me feel better after our last conversation.
He strode across the floor, pacing slowly. “I do believe a family feud is something that should be left within families. And while Alena’s family was caught in the crosshairs, it should be no skin off your nose, Your Honor, if she hurts other supernaturals. All those speaking today are such. Correct?”
The judge whipped around to stare at my cousins, aunt, and uncle, along with Tad. Slowly, they all nodded.
The judge rolled his eyes. “Good God. I don’t want anything to do with supernatural infighting. Go back to your side of the Wall, and what you do there, keep it there. Case dismissed.”
Theseus gaped at him, and I took a step back while he spluttered, “But that isn’t fair. She’s a monster. My case is airtight! I have been planning this for weeks!”
Now that was interesting. Weeks would mean he’d been around before Achilles and I had had our fight. So he’d just let another hero take a fall?
The judge shrugged. “It’s a family feud, that much is obvious to me now. Families have a strange way of exaggerating things when they are angry at each other. And while I don’t like supernaturals, I can’t argue with what he’s suggesting.” He pointed at Merlin. Who’d essentially saved my bacon.
After I’d poisoned him with a cupcake. Why did that make me nervous? Merlin smiled and blew me a kiss. My stomach fell to my feet.
Theseus pulled a sword. “Then I say we need a new judge.” Watts’s face went white as Theseus pulled his arm back, prepping to throw the sword. The sword Beth had pointed at me with Athena’s crest on it.
I pushed with my good leg and landed in front of Theseus as he swung. I took the blow to my right shoulder, stopping it from hitting Watts. “No, I won’t let you kill anyone!”
The blade nicked me, cutting through both human skin and snakeskin, but it was a glancing blow, barely a scratch.
I shoved Theseus hard, sending him flying through the air. I glanced back at Watts. “Go, while you can!” He didn’t hesitate, but scrambled away, his black robe flying around him and flashing a pair of bright-orange undies.
I glanced at Remo.
“Run!” he yelled.
I bolted from the courtroom—okay, limped—bowling over several vampires, and then I ran into my Aunt Janice as she attempted to escape.
“Outta my way, brat!” she snapped, shoving a clawed hand into my chest that sent me flying down the hall. Away from the exit. Remo leapt over her and reached for my hand, pulling me to my feet. “We’ll find another way out.”
The ping of metal slamming into the ground at my feet drew my eyes. A perfectly formed metal feather quivered where it stuck. The screech of a Stymphalian bird snapped my head up. I didn’t know which of the girls it was, but a good guess was Beth was the one shooting at me.
I scrambled to my feet, and Remo helped me as we whipped around the corner. Beth was right behind us, slinging feathers like a machine gun. Remo grunted as a feather hit him in his right side, slicing across his ribs.
He healed, though, as fast as the cut appeared. At least my blood was good for something. We raced through the halls, Beth tailing us. Driving us.
“You’re going to have to fight her,” Remo said as we slid through a door and slammed it behind us. The thud of metallic feathers hitting the door echoed through the room.
Behind us came the shuffle of several sets of feet. I spun around, unsure of exactly what I was looking at. Cameras pointed at me, reporters held microphones to
ward me, and one brave reporter cleared her voice. “This was a landmark case. How do you feel about losing?”
Hold the powdered sugar, what in the world was going on?
CHAPTER 20
“I didn’t . . . lose,” I stuttered. Not really. Though I really hadn’t won either. The case with Roger wasn’t what they meant, of that much I was sure. This whole situation had been all about Theseus proving I was a monster, that I was worth killing. These were his final moves on the chessboard.
I stared at them, beginning to see just how he’d put things in place. “Theseus set you up here?”
The three reporters nodded and pushed their microphones closer. The one who’d spoken tried again, her eyes filled with what could only be fascination. “This is a live feed. Do you have something to say? The entire city is watching.”
Several more thumps hit the door, making me jump. Remo pressed a hand to my back and lowered his voice. “Talk to them, and make it juicy.”
I glanced at him and then back to the reporter. To the side of her was a sink. I hurried to it, limping. “My name is Alena Budrene, and I contracted the Aegrus virus four weeks ago. I didn’t want to die. While I was on my deathbed, my husband left me for another woman. Apparently he’d been boinking her long before I got sick.” I took a breath and gripped the faucet handle. With a quick twist, the water was running. I lifted my leg and jammed it under the flow of water as I went on, talking as fast as I could. I only had so long before we would be interrupted. Maybe I would die at Theseus’s hand, but at least the world would know something about me.
“So I took a chance and let a warlock turn me into a supernatural; that’s the only way to survive the Aegrus virus, you know. But now the courts say my two-timing loser of a husband gets everything. My bakery, Vanilla and Honey. My inheritance from my grandparents. And even the house my grandparents left me.” The door behind us shuddered.
The reporter nodded. “Go on.”
“I only want it to be fair. I want what is mine, nothing more. I’m not dead; I’m still me. I’m still a person too. Just because I’m different on the outside doesn’t mean anything.” I stared into the camera, begging. “I want to be acknowledged, no different than anyone else, and be able to say that I fall under the same rules and legislation, not some trumped-up ridiculousness saying that I”—I took my hands out of the water and touched my chest—“don’t exist.”
Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy Book 2) Page 22