I sat on the bed and took a big breath. I leaned back and closed my eyes. A few minutes of quiet was all I wanted.
A soft knock on the door brought my head up, but I already knew it was Ernie by the fast staccato of his heartbeat.
“Come in.”
He opened the door and flew to sit beside me on the bed. Through the entire conversation downstairs he’d been rather quiet. Besides Remo he probably knew me the best.
“You’re sending them away to protect them.” He put a hand on my leg, and I nodded.
“I hate to ask, but I need something from you,” I whispered.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere but at your side, Drakaina.” His blue eyes teared up, and I had to look away.
“Hermes.”
The messenger zipped in through the open door. “What’s the message?”
I opened a drawer in the dresser by the bed and pulled out a pen and pad of paper. I scribbled a note and handed it to him. “For Hercules.”
The words were simple.
I’m going to try and stop the virus. I will meet you after that. Please don’t hurt my friends. I know you aren’t a bad guy. Don’t let Hera make you do things you know are wrong.
Hermes nodded and was gone in a flash.
“How do you want to do this?” Ernie asked.
A footstep at the door snapped my head up. Remo leaned on one side of the doorframe. “Yes, Alena. How do you want to do this?”
Dang it, I was hoping I would be able to get through this without him realizing what I was up to.
CHAPTER 13
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I lifted my chin, and Remo stepped into the room in complete defiance of what I thought was my obvious look that said, Stay out.
“I know what you’re doing. They may not realize it, but you’re sending them away to keep them safe. I should know, I did it to you,” he said softly.
I kept my eyes on his. “And if I am? So what?”
“Why didn’t you give me something to do? I mean, other than to make a single phone call.”
He had a point. Then again, I had my own. “I knew that if anyone would guess, it would be you and Ernie.” I paused. “Am I going to be able to get rid of you?”
His lips twitched. “No, you aren’t.”
“Then you can drive me to the hospital.” I stood and went to the closet, searching for something that would be more suited to what I was going to do. Going into the underworld was no small task. I panned through until I found a pair of black jeans, knee-high black boots, and a black tank top. I took them and then glanced at Remo. “If you don’t mind.”
He grinned and waved a hand at me. “Not at all, you go right ahead. I’ll keep an eye on you.”
I blushed and pointed at the door. “Get out.”
He backed out, standing in the hallway, still looking in. “Done.”
The door remained open between us, and he grinned across the open space at me. I strode across the distance, grabbed the door, and slammed it in his face. Ernie snickered. “You have it so bad for him. You know he’s seen you naked a number of times with your shifting.”
“Shut up, Ernie. He can hear you,” I said.
“That I can, beautiful, and I will amend that I have it rather bad for you too,” Remo said from the hallway.
I shucked my clothes, blushing furiously, doing my best not to think about just how bad he had it for me. I hurriedly pulled on the black attire. It suited my mood and clung to my body without reserve.
“That’s good for a fight. Means you won’t get hung up on loose clothing,” Ernie said. “You could use a jacket, though. See if there is anything in there that will cover your arms. If the council really has that fennel oil shit, you can peel out of a jacket before it eats through.”
I looked back into the closet and found a leather jacket near the back, like it had been stuffed there and forgotten. I ran my hands over it, thinking. There were tears and cuts that had been stitched together over and over, as though it had been through its share of monsters and battles. I pulled it off the rack. Maybe wearing it would be good luck, seeing as it had obviously survived a lot. The tag at the back had two initials stitched into it. RA. I ran a thumb over the initials and felt a surge of confidence. Yes, this was the jacket I needed to wear. Whoever had had it before me . . . somehow I knew she had been a badass of epic proportions.
I slipped it on, and Ernie gave a low whistle. “Now you look like a tough-ass chick.”
I laughed. “Looks can be deceiving, Ernie. Surely you know that by now.”
From outside the door, Remo laughed quietly under his breath, but I heard him. I opened the door, and his eyes went wide. “Ernie is right, you look like you could take on an army of demons by yourself.”
I snorted. “Let’s not get crazy. How about we deal with Hades first?”
Remo led the way out to his muscle car, and I enjoyed the view of his broad shoulders tapering down to his hips and long legs. “You know you can’t get his clothes off, no matter how hard you stare,” Ernie stage-whispered.
I took a halfhearted swat at him. “Ernie, knock it off!” He dodged me easily, laughing.
Remo turned and winked at me, and it was the first time I saw the fatigue in his eyes. Like even he didn’t want to be dealing with all the crap that came along with me.
Or maybe I was just reading into it too much.
“Come on, let’s get you to Merlin.” Remo slid into the driver’s side, and I stepped into the passenger seat. Ernie zipped through my open door and into the back, where he sprawled in the middle, both hands behind his head.
Remo started the car, and the roll of the engine vibrated along my skin, tingling and dancing. I closed my eyes and breathed through it, quickly blocking it out so I could focus on other things. Like apologizing to Remo.
“I am sorry about Santos, and for whatever grief it caused you with your superiors.” I stared straight out the window, not even daring a glance at him. “I didn’t have much choice, but—”
“There is no apology needed, Alena. None whatsoever. Santos . . . the Santos who was my brother died a long time ago, and I would have done the same as you had I been in your situation.” He turned the wheel, taking us onto the highway via a circling on-ramp. “As for my superiors . . . they will not allow my relationship with you to continue. That much has not changed.”
“I thought that was already done?” I kept my tone neutral. “You dumped me, remember?”
“But I’m here now with you, and that is enough for them to realize I am anything but done with you. Until I can straighten things out with them, this will be the last time I can work with you like this.”
Work. Like this was some sort of business merger, a deal gone south. The shot of pain was sharp as a knife to the finger and just as unexpected. I locked my jaw to keep it from trembling, and made myself not close my eyes; if I didn’t blink, no tears would fall.
“Alena, I am sorry. I should never have . . . I knew it was taboo between us, but I truly didn’t think it would ever amount to anything. You are a good girl, no matter how you think you’ve changed. You deserve someone better than me,” he said.
I kept my mouth shut, and he seemed to think it was a good idea to keep talking. Idiot.
“Smithy cares for you, and I think he—”
“I don’t love him.” I cut him off. “And that’s all there is to that.”
“They will destroy everyone around me if I do not break ties with you.”
Of course, that would be the reason. Even in my heart of hearts I knew he wouldn’t just push me out of his life for no reason. Remo was not the bad boy he thought he was, not by a long shot. He was going to protect those in his care, no matter the cost to his own heart. Or mine.
There had been one girl he’d fought for, though, one that he’d lost before her time. Suddenly I needed to know about her, to know what it was that I was missing. “Tell me about the girl you went to medical school for.”
I smiled back, but my stomach was tense with fear of what was coming with his story. He went on. “She was human, and that made her acceptable in our world. I could pretend she was a donor and nothing more in front of the other vampires. She . . . she was very sick. And she wouldn’t let me turn her. So I went to school for her, to become a doctor. I thought I could still save her. I still believed that love had that kind of power.”
He shifted the car into a higher gear and then clutched at the steering wheel. “I thought I found something that would help her. That would keep her alive.”
He was quiet long enough that I finally asked, “What was wrong with her?”
“Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her body was wasting away.”
I closed my eyes and shivered. “What happened? You said you thought you’d found something that could help her?”
“I did, it would have slowed the disease, maybe bought me enough time to find a cure. But it wasn’t to be. Santos found out about her, and . . . he turned her. Not to help me; he knew she didn’t want to be a vampire. She was furious because he told her I asked him to do it.” He didn’t look at me once. “The first morning of her new life she sat at the edge of the water as the sun rose.”
I closed my eyes, grief tearing through my chest for him. “I am so sorry, Remo.”
“It’s not your fault. But maybe . . . you can see just how hard it is for me to see you in these situations. I lost her because I wasn’t with her. I don’t want to make the same mistake twice.”
We drove in silence the rest of the way, hoping to get to the ferry terminal for the last sailing. Each mile drove the tension between us higher as I struggled to know what he really felt. Did he love me? Or was it just that I reminded him of a girl he’d really loved and lost?
As we drove up to the docks we were guided onto the ferry. We were one of the only cars; it was going to be a light load. That it was even still running was a surprise, but then again, it was the only way on and off Whidbey Island.
“You all know that the hospital is overrun?” The attendant peered into the car. He wore a mask over his nose and mouth, which muffled his words. “You’re taking your lives into your hands by going.”
“I think we’ll manage just fine.” Remo flashed his teeth. The attendant backed up and waved us on.
As soon as the car was parked and the blocks were set under the tires by the attendant, I was out of the vehicle and running for the stairs that would take me to the top deck. I needed fresh air, away from the intoxicating cinnamon and honey that was Remo. I hit the railing hard, bending it a little as I leaned over the edge, sucking in big lungfuls of fresh, salty ocean air. Slowly, my heart eased its rapid beat, and I stared at the water below . . .
Remo . . . his past was as messed up as mine. But where did I fit into his future? Would he defy protocol to be with me, or did he really mean it about this being the last time we worked together? Did he care at all? The questions swirled in my head like the water below the boat.
Ernie cleared his throat as he sat on the railing next to me. “You know, he’s hurting too.”
“It’s just so stupid. Who cares if we’re breaking rules? I mean, no one gets hurt, he doesn’t have to feed as much if he takes my blood. I . . . I love him, Ernie. I thought love was supposed to be enough? But what if he doesn’t love me?” My hair whipped up between us, a mass of black strands. Ernie sighed and shook his head.
“I’m supposed to tell you that love conquers all, but that’s not always the case.” He shrugged. “I mean, you’d have to convince Aphrodite to help you out if you were going to somehow get through this. She’s got the kind of influence that could change the rules of the heart.”
I snorted. “Even I know the chances of that are zero to none.”
He grunted. “Yeah. Sorry. She can be a real twat.”
I laughed, horrified at the term, but still it broke a little of the tension. “I understand his position; I wouldn’t risk my family for him either. If I had to, I’d let him go to keep them safe. I do understand. I just . . . it just sucks.”
Ernie laughed, but it wasn’t mean. “That’s because both of you are grown-ups. Idiot teenagers like Romeo and Juliet throw their lives, and their families’ lives, away for supposed instant love. Grown-ups look at the reality.”
“Did you really just compare us to Romeo and Juliet?” Remo said as he stepped up beside me. Damn him and his lack of a heartbeat. Between that and the sound of the waves smashing against the boat, there was no way I could hear him sneak up behind me. He leaned against me, his chest to my back, his arms circling around me. He put his chin on my shoulder, and I leaned my head into him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Ernie winked at me. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
I put my hands over Remo’s, sorting through my thoughts for the right words. “I’m not sorry. No matter what, I’ll never believe that love is wrong. Even with Roger . . . it helped save me from the Firstamentalists. Even if it did end badly. And I won’t regret you either. No matter what happens.”
“I will never regret you either, Alena.” His mouth was next to my ear, and I leaned into it, wondering if this would be our last few hours together. I could feel the end coming; I just wished I knew how it would happen.
He kissed my cheek, and we stared out at the water together. The waves rose and fell as the wind picked up, and the cry of the gulls above us seemed to echo off the water below. Minutes passed, and in that time there was a sense of peace that I knew wouldn’t last. But I held on to the illusion of it anyway. I could pretend that we were on a date. That we would be okay. That we were safe.
A hump of water slipped upward in between the waves, and I stared at it, squinting. “Do you see that? Is that a killer whale?” They weren’t unheard of in the water between Seattle and Whidbey Island. But I’d never seen one quite that big.
“I don’t think that’s a whale,” Remo breathed. “I think that’s trouble.”
I let go of him and clutched the railing edge. “How far are we from the docks?”
Remo looked over his shoulder. “We’re right in the middle of the trip.”
“Oh fricky dicky, this is going to be bad, isn’t it?” I whispered.
Ernie shot down beside us. “I’ve got bad news and worse news.”
I looked at him. “Spit it out, Ernie.”
He grimaced. “Bad news is that out there is someone from Hera’s team. Worse news is, it’s Poseidon. You know, father of Theseus, who you recently offed?”
“Fricky dicky” didn’t even begin to cover things. “I don’t suppose we can hide?”
“He knows you’re here, and whatever he’s sending is coming straight for the boat. He won’t spare the people on here, Alena,” Ernie said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what we can do to stop him.”
I looked at the boat, the humans on it. While there weren’t that many, there were enough that it would be a huge loss if the god of the oceans decided to take the entire ship down.
I grabbed my jacket and pulled it off. Next came my shirt, boots, and pants. I shoved them all at Remo. “Meet me at the hospital.”
“Wait, what are you doing?”
I didn’t give him a chance to stop me. I scrambled over the edge of the railing, stood on the thin metal lip for a split second, and then pushed off into the open air. I hit the water feetfirst, the icy cold swirling over me. For just a moment I hung suspended in the ocean. I could almost feel the animosity from Poseidon rolling over me, making me unwelcome in his world. I kicked, propelling myself through the water as I thought of only one thing. Shift
ing.
CHAPTER 14
The change took me as swiftly as ever, but there was no smoke to disguise it in the water. I watched in fascination as my legs blended together, my arms stuck to my sides, and I slipped my human guise to grow into a Drakaina. I felt nothing, which made watching the shift even stranger to actually see.
Snakes could swim, I knew that much, and I’d banked my life on it.
The Drakaina in me approved, her pleasure rolling through my body. I swam to the surface, my tail propelling me as I sped away from the ferry boat. I didn’t dare even glance back. I knew without looking that Poseidon and whatever he’d sent after me would follow. What I didn’t expect was the creature that ripped out of the depths far below me, tentacles reaching for my multicolored scaled body.
I swam harder, the surface of the water holding me, as a multitude of suction cup–covered tentacles waved at me from every direction.
“You can swim as fast as you like, Drakaina, but in the water you are mine!” a voice roared and echoed through the water, battering against my skin with all the power of the ocean behind it.
A tentacle wrapped around my middle, and I coiled back, driving my fangs into it. It let me go, and I shot back to the surface, swimming with renewed vigor, sucking wind hard in case I got dragged under the waves. I might be strong and filled with venom, but I needed to breathe.
“Take her, kraken.”
Fricky dicky, someone please tell me I heard wrong. I was grabbed by the tip of my tail and jerked, full length, into the air. All thirty or so feet of me hung upside down. I spun to see the face and parrot beak of the kraken staring back at me. Its eyes were flat black and dead, as if there were no soul inside there. For just a moment I wondered if my eyes looked the same when I was a Drakaina, but I shook it off. No time to wonder anything but how the heck I was going to get out of here alive.
I lifted myself up as fast as I could, driving my fangs into the tentacle holding me. I bit down on the squirming flesh, thinking only of undercooked calamari. Over and over again I bit the kraken until it finally let go and I was dropped. I shot down, expecting to hit the water.
Hisses and Honey (The Venom Trilogy Book 3) Page 15