“You saw that?”
“I was sitting in the rafters eating my lunch. Got a good view of the whole encounter.”
I took the next off-ramp, clutched the steering wheel, and made myself ask the next question. “That’s not all being a Drakaina is, is it?”
“Nope. You’re a shifter. Should be able to turn into a giant snake. Big as a house. And you’re sensitive to vibrations and smells. You can see in the dark, and of course being something of a siren, you can seduce men and women right out of their clothes if you put your mind to it.”
Wonderful.
“Okay, what else have you got, beautiful?”
“Don’t call me that. I’m a monster.”
“A beautiful monster.” He grinned. “That’s got to count for something.”
I hunched my shoulders. “Okay. Who in my family is a Super Duper?”
He laughed, falling onto his back and flashing me in the process. “A Super Duper? Are you kidding me? That’s not what you call supernaturals, is it?”
“Stop laughing. That’s what we called them in the hospital.”
“Say that to the wrong Supe and you’re going to have a fight on your hands.” He grinned and I glared at him. “Okay, okay. I don’t know who in your family is a Super Duper”—he half choked on the words—“but you’re right. Someone is supernatural, or you never would have caught the Aegrus virus.”
“What do you mean?”
Ernie cleared his throat. “The virus only attaches to those who carry some amount of supernatural blood. It can’t attach to pure humans. So Flora, being a pureblood, and your mom, being a pureblood, would never be able to pick up the virus. A pure-blooded Super Duper”—he snickered—“can pick it up but just gets sick. It’s you halfers that get sick and die. The virus is too much for the little bit of each.”
The epiphany hurt my brain, and I ran it through my brain twice before I realized what he was saying.
“If my mom is pure human, and I caught the virus, it means—”
“That your papa is most likely some form of supernatural. You got it.” He shimmied deeper into his seat.
Fricky dicky, that was a revelation I’d not been ready for. Dad was a Super Duper? How could we not have known?
“Don’t beat yourself up for not knowing,” Ernie said. “Most Supes hide from their families too. It’s better that way with the current atmosphere.”
I counted my breaths in and out as I did my best to calm myself. Nothing I could do about Dad right now. Though a little honesty would have been nice. I frowned. “Why wouldn’t he have said something when we went home?”
“No idea.”
Me neither.
“Okay, back to the other stuff. The halfers who get sick, they’re the only ones, right?”
“Yup.” He fluttered his wing tips over his head as if egging me on. “Keep going.”
I scrunched up my face, the thoughts coming together in bits and pieces. “That’s why the government hides away those who are sick in places like Whidbey. They don’t want everyone to know how many halfers there are out there? Because if they knew how many halfers there were, people would realize how many supernaturals there were?”
“You got it now. You’re a smart one. In the whole wide world, at least half of the population has some amount of Super Duper blood. They don’t have to be halfers like you and your brother. Just a speck of the supernatural, down to I think something like a sixteenth the last time I asked, was enough to make you vulnerable. That’s about half the population in the world. And that’s a big kill zone. Imagine what would happen if half the population keeled over. Or became . . . Super Duper like you and your brother.” He grinned again.
“Wow,” I whispered as I pulled into my parking spot at the back of the bakery. “Ernie, thank you.”
“Anytime you want info in trade for food, you’ve got it.”
I stepped out of the car and he followed, flying near my shoulder. I glanced at him. “Do you mean that?” He’d been more honest with me than anyone else so far.
“Sure. I like you. You remind me of Flora when she was young. Feisty and full of life. Nice rack too.”
I rolled my eyes as I walked to the back door. I pulled my bakery keys out and held them in front of the knob. No need to use them, though; the door was cracked open.
The bakery hadn’t been open since I’d gotten sick; I’d closed it down thinking I’d be back soon enough. Before I’d known it was the Aegrus virus. My main helper, Diana, was supposed to be checking on things every day, making sure all the fridges and such were running so nothing spoiled. But that was an early-morning task.
There was no way Vanilla and Honey should have been unlocked this late at night. I held a hand up to Ernie, motioning him to be quiet.
The back of my bakery was the kitchen, pantry, and cold storage as well as my office. Even though my office wasn’t sealed off, I didn’t mind. When I was doing the numbers I liked to feel I wasn’t separated from the rest of the bakery and goings-on.
Behind my office desk, three men dressed in black pried at my wall safe, their backs facing me.
“John, get that pry bar. We’ll take the whole thing.”
One of the men turned around, saw me, and froze. “Boss. We got a problem.”
“I doubt it, Johnny. Get the damn pry bar.”
“We got company.”
The other two men spun around so all three were facing Ernie and me. The cherub floated up to the ceiling. “You got this. Kick their asses so we can bake some cake!”
“I don’t know how to fight.” Who was I kidding? This was my bakery, my baby, and they were ransacking it. I wasn’t going to just stand there and let them take what they wanted.
“You don’t have to, your instincts should ramp up and help you out.” His blue eyes twinkled down at me. “Here they come.”
What did he mean, I didn’t have to know how to fight? I tore my gaze from him as the first thug approached me, grinning from ear to ear.
“Here I thought we were taking cash, and we’re going to end up with a beauty prize as well.” In his hands he held a length of rope he slowly spooled out in a loop, like a lasso. I took a step back, my butt bumping up against one of the countertops.
I reached behind me, my hand gripping something familiar and solid. I swung the rolling pin, catching the goon on the side of his head. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
“Atta girl! Now the other two!” Ernie cheered me on and a rush of adrenaline zipped through me. I’d never felt so . . . alive.
I strode toward the next would-be thief and brandished the rolling pin. “Get your friends and get out.”
He pulled a gun from his lower back and pointed it at me. “This is our heist. Get out or I’ll shoot you right in your pretty face.”
I didn’t even think. I dropped to my knees and lashed out with the rolling pin, catching him in the knee. A rather satisfying crunch of bone filled the air. He let out a scream as he fell and the gun went off, firing into the ceiling. Goon number three—a.k.a. Johnny—let out a yell and ran for the back door.
“Throw the pin!” Ernie yelled.
I spun and threw the rolling pin, surprised I could do what he said so easily. The heavy wooden pin flew end over end several times before crashing into the back of the fleeing Johnny’s skull. He fell forward, facedown on the pavement.
I stepped toward the still-conscious thief and pushed the gun out of his reach with my toes like I’d seen on every cop show I’d ever watched. I leaned over him and grabbed the phone off my office desk, dialing 911.
“I’d like to report an attempted robbery by three complete idiots.”
Ernie snickered and I gave him a thumbs-up.
Minutes later, the police pulled into the back parking lot. It didn’t take them long to cuff the three thieves. The police took a statement from me but ignored Ernie.
“He saw what happened too, he can back me up. That will make a stronger case, won’t it?” I lifte
d my eyebrows at the young officer.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Officer Jensen said. “We don’t take statements from supernaturals. They don’t exist in the human court system.” His dark eyes darted away from mine and then back again. “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I would take his statement. But it would get the entire case thrown out when the judge realized he was a Supe.”
“That’s discrimination.” I frowned up at Ernie, who shrugged. What would they say, then, if I told them I was a Super Duper too? Would they have even come to help? I had a feeling that they wouldn’t. Or worse, they would have sided with the robbers because they were human . . . and I wasn’t.
“Yes, it is discrimination.” The officer nodded, lifted his hat, and scratched the top of his head before putting his hat back in place. “Nothing to be done about it. If you need anything or remember anything else, please don’t hesitate to call.” He handed me a card that had his name and a cell phone number on the back of it.
I tucked it in the palm of my hand. “Thank you.”
He smiled and backed out as his walkie-talkie squawked to life. He pressed the button and spoke softly into it. Maybe he thought I couldn’t hear.
“Yeah, boss, she’s here.”
My blood ran cold and I swallowed hard. I could only guess who he spoke to. I wasn’t fool enough to believe it was his chief of police. Achilles most likely, even though the image of the Greek hero on a cell phone was a hard one to believe possible.
I forced myself to walk forward and shut the door behind Officer Jensen. “Ernie, I think your time at my bakery is going to be cut short.”
“What? Why? I haven’t had a good piece of home-baked goodies in years. I’ve been living off that cellophane-wrapped crap in the store.” He whined at me and I smiled, though my lips trembled.
“Officer Jensen just said, ‘Yeah, boss, she’s here.’ So I think we can’t stay. Or at least, I can’t stay.” I gathered up my keys for the bakery along with Barbie’s keys and walked to the door. “Maybe you should go your own way.”
“Nah, you’re interesting. I’ve been bored out of my head for the last thousand years. A monster shows up, and things finally start to happen again.”
I paused at the door. The officers had taken my wooden rolling pin for evidence, but I had another one. A metal one I used for making fondant. I reached for it, the cool stainless steel in my hand a nice weight. I glanced at Ernie floating at my left shoulder.
“Just in case.”
He grinned at me. “Not going to be a matter of if you need it, Alena, but a matter of when, I think.”
I pushed the back door open a crack. The moon was only partially up, giving the back parking lot a gloomy look of dodgy shadows among the dark purple of the night. Officer Jensen sat in his police cruiser, his head bent over something. Maybe more paperwork. “Do you think he’s watching the bakery?”
Ernie floated up to peer out over my head. “Pretty good bet. If he’s ratting you out to someone, then they’ll want him to keep an eye on you for sure.”
I closed the door and backed away. Hurrying, I wove through the bakery, around the counter, and to the front door. I peered out into the growing darkness. Across the street from the bakery sat a police cruiser identical to Officer Jensen’s.
A loop of claustrophobia tightened around my neck. Trapped.
“How am I going to get out of here?”
Ernie floated around so he was directly in front of me. “Walk out, see if they follow or try to stop you. They might be here to make sure no more break-ins happen.”
A frown settled on my face. “Really? Do you believe that?”
“No. But I don’t want you flipping out and shifting in here. You might bend my wings. Worse, you could wreck your bakery, and that would mean no pastries for me. Which would totally suck rotten eggs.”
I put both hands on the door and stared hard at the officer. “Ernie, why would I shift? I don’t want to be a giant snake. I’m never going to shift into one.”
The very thought made my skin crawl, and that only made me shudder more. Who in their right mind would want to be a snake so big it could swallow a horse whole? No. That wasn’t—
“You won’t have a choice. If you’re threatened or scared bad enough, you’ll shift.”
“I don’t want to!”
“Sorry, but you will. It’s not a matter of if, but when.” He fluttered his wings and did a slow circle.
“You like saying that, don’t you?”
He shrugged. “It’s a good saying. Not if. When. That’s life. Not if you die. When. Not if you fall in love. When. Not if you get your heart broken. When.”
“Not if you turn into a giant venomous snake the size of a two-story house,” I whispered.
He nodded. “You got it now. So what’s it going to be, beautiful? Door number one? Or door number two?”
Paralyzed by indecision, I stood there in my bakery and bowed my head. “Achilles is going to keep coming after me, isn’t he?”
Ernie didn’t answer right away. He floated over to the cash register and lowered himself to it. “He’s only been woken up to kill you. I think.”
I put a hand to my eyes to cover the prickle of tears. The stainless steel rolling pin in my hand seemed a silly thing now, useless against a hero who had a sword and knew how to use it. I dropped it to the floor with a clatter. “Maybe I can sneak by the officer in the front.”
I flicked the lock and stepped out of my bakery, leaving behind the comforting smells of dough, yeast, and flour. Moving quickly, I strode down the street, putting the bakery and the officer behind me. “Ernie, can you see if he’s following us?”
“Yup, he’s doing a U-turn.”
“Donkey balls,” I bit out, and hurried my stride.
“I don’t think speed-walking is going to get you out of this. Go. I’ll catch up with you later if I can,” Ernie said as he flew above my head and off to the side.
I broke into a run. The buildings whipped by in a steady blur, and behind me the police car’s siren rent the air, shattering the false silence. I took a hard right down an alley and kept moving as fast as I could. I leapt dumpsters and sleeping homeless people, climbed two fences, and took three more turns before I let myself slow down. The siren had been turned off, or I had outrun it. I wasn’t sure which, and really it didn’t matter except that I’d bought myself some time.
My hand brushed against the old brick building and I leaned into it. Just what was I going to do now? I had a hero who wanted to kill me. How was I going to stop that from happening?
I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud until someone answered me.
“I can help you, Alena.”
I spun around with a gasp. Behind me stood Remo, the vampire mob boss. He leaned against the building, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips. The tip burned bright as he drew a breath, the color flickering over the metal fangs in his chin. Violet eyes stared hard at me, as though trying to see through me. I glared at him, hating the way I felt around him. Equal parts intrigued and scared, irritated and amused. Even I knew that was a dangerous combination for a recipe.
“I don’t want your help. And you shouldn’t sneak up on people, it might be bad for your health.”
He smiled around the edge of his cigarette. “Threatening me right off the bat? That’s amusing.”
I didn’t like that he used the word I’d been thinking about him. “Go away. I’m not on your turf.”
“It’s all my turf, Alena. Now, are you sure you don’t want my help? I think you’re going to need it. Rumor is you pissed off some mighty powerful people. I would think you would like an equally powerful . . . friend.” He pushed off the building and walked toward me. Each step he took reminded me of something, the same as when I’d first met him. Like a tiger sliding through the jungle, seen and then not as its stripes blended into the foliage. That same slinking, muscled walk in a man his size was, to say the least, unnerving.
“You move like a cat,�
�� I said, the words escaping my filter before I could stop them.
His eyebrows shot up along with one side of his mouth. “Pardon?”
I couldn’t help the blush that heated up my face, unable to take my eyes from his lips. “Never mind. I don’t want to be your friend. Besides, we aren’t allowed to interact. You being a vampire and me being . . . not a vampire.”
He smiled and flicked the cigarette behind him. “I want to be your friend, Alena. You’re a powerful Supe. Beautiful. Deadly. Confident. Everything I want in a friend.”
I blinked and he was standing right in front of me, our eyes locked as though our gazes had tangled. My earlier assumption was right; he was a good five inches taller than me, which left me craning my head to look up at him. I took in a deep breath, and his scent coursed over my tongue.
Cinnamon and a hint of honey, as if he’d dipped his tongue in a jar of it. My fangs slowly dropped, and I slapped my hands over my mouth. “Sorry.”
He grinned, a slow lifting of his lips. “Did your fangs lower on their own?”
I nodded.
“I must smell good to you, then.” He stepped closer and in a blink had me pressed against the wall with his body. Every hard line of him ran against me: chest, hips, and thighs lining up perfectly with mine. I placed my palms flat against the wall behind me.
“Get off me.” The words I meant to come out in a shout slipped by my lips in a whisper.
“I think you like me on you. In fact, I’d lay money on it.”
“All the same,” I breathed out. My fangs retracted and I moved to shove him away from me. All I could think about was how much my mother would have hated him. How she would have demanded I break off whatever I had with him and find myself a good boy. One who went to church. A doctor. Someone with an education and no tattoos or piercings.
I blinked up at Remo, grabbed the sides of his head, and kissed him. He let out a surprised grunt, then leaned into the kiss, his tongue flicking in and out of my mouth in a way I’d never felt. He slid an arm around behind me and grabbed my bum, tugging me tighter against his very obvious attraction to me. A groan slipped from me, the sound full of want and need I’d never known. Desire pulsed between us so thick and heavy I would drown in it if I didn’t do something.
[Venom 01.0] Venom & Vanilla Page 13