“HERMES!” I yelled his name, and seconds later he zipped through the window, skidding to a stop in midair.
“What’s up?”
“Get Dahlia, bring her here, and if not her, then get Tad. Or someone. Remo needs someone here with him.” I clutched Remo’s hand, and he shook his head.
“No, you need them all with you . . .”
“No, I don’t.” I wanted to smack him. Hermes was already gone, off to gather whomever he could. The night sky was dark, and Dahlia would still be up. No doubt she and Tad would come together. That would keep them out of harm’s way at least.
I bent over Remo. “I can do this, but only if I know there is someone here with you.”
He let out a sigh and closed his eyes. “Shit, I remember being human all too well now, and it sucks being so weak.”
I bent and kissed him on the lips, a tear slipping down over my cheek. “Hang on, please hang on.”
“Only for you,” he breathed back, and then he was asleep. I pulled a blanket up over him and took a step back and then another. Once more I escaped the hospital room that held nothing but death in it. Only now it wasn’t my death I ran from but Remo’s.
“You’ve got a plan?” Ernie asked as he flew by my side.
“Yes, but it’s not solid. It may not work.”
“Oh, that’s not what I want to hear,” he said.
I didn’t disagree. I burst out of the hospital and ran for the water. I stripped out of my clothes and tossed the leather jacket to Ernie. “Hang on to that for me.” I took two more big running strides and then leapt off the rocks that overlooked the edge of a cliff. I dove into the water, shifting as I fell so I emerged on the water’s surface in my snake form. I already knew I couldn’t wait on the ferry, if it was even running this late at night, which I doubted. I swam hard for the other side of the sound, my eyes on the lights of Seattle. I didn’t know where to find Angel and Hercules, but I knew what would get their attention. And for Remo I would do everything I could to bring that attention down on me.
The water sluiced around me, and a coast guard boat swept up beside me. Poseidon waved. “Heard you’re taking on Hera. I can’t say I’m rooting for you, but . . . get her, Drakaina.”
I bobbed my head, glad he wasn’t attacking me this time at least. I emerged from the ocean and made my way up over the loose sand and rocks and onto the docks. Screams erupted all around as I slithered forward. Sure, I wasn’t moving as fast as if I had a vehicle, but I wasn’t really all that worried. What I wanted was attention, lots and lots of attention. The first major intersection I came to, I slithered out into the center of it and coiled up in the middle, completely blocking traffic. Was it the best idea I’d ever had? Probably not, but then again, it was the only idea I had, and all that mattered was that I saved Remo. No matter what I had to do.
Humans hurried out of their cars while I stayed silent and still, waiting. Cameras clicked, and I saw more than one person using their phone to take a video of me. I held still, wondering how long it was going to take to get Hercules and the Hydra to show up.
Ernie was there suddenly, puffing hard. “Snake, shit, you can really move when you want to. So now what? We wait?”
I nodded, and he flew up to sit on the top of my head. A cherub on top. A cherry on top. I shivered, and my skin rippled down the entire length of my body, casting sparkles of light and color every which way. I sat there, waiting, and I could feel the time slipping by. I could feel Remo’s death beckoning him and could almost hear Hades’s laughter. I wanted to cry with the frustration of it. Twenty minutes passed, and I knew they weren’t coming. I let myself shift down into my human form. The people around me rushed forward, and I cringed, waiting for them to hit me. Except they didn’t. One woman wrapped her coat around me. “Oh, my dear, you must be freezing.”
Another person, a man, held open the door of his car. “Here, it’s warm in here.”
“Why are you being nice to me?” I whispered, shock and uncertainty making me hesitant to take what they offered.
“Because you are looking out for us. You’re like our . . . our very own Jedi facing down Darth Vader,” a young man said from the left of me.
I looked at him. “Seriously?”
“Okay, well, we could call you our very own Batman, but he isn’t supernatural. Just a billionaire with nice toys.”
I cleared my throat. “Thank you, all of you.”
I held a hand up to Ernie, and he dropped not only my jacket but the rest of my clothes down to me. “Thought you might need everything.”
He had a good point. I quickly dressed. “Thank you, all of you, but I have to go.”
“Where? Maybe one of us could give you a ride?” the young guy said, and while I wanted to believe he was helping me only because he saw a pretty woman, I had a feeling it was more than that. He wanted to be a part of whatever was going on. Whatever he saw as an adventure, and he had no idea how dangerous it was.
“No, I have to go alone. I don’t want you to get hurt.” It was only then I saw how few people there actually were. For a main intersection, the place was downright deserted. In a city of over six hundred thousand people, we should have been swarmed with cars backed up, people shouting and yelling, police and ambulance sirens. Yet there was a total of a dozen cars, and maybe twice that many people. I tightened my jaw. This was the virus running rampant—it was clearing the streets of life.
A new idea swept over me, and I knew it was probably my only chance. “Ernie, you know where Hercules has holed up, right?” One way or another I was going to face the hero and the Hydra.
He nodded, his face serious. “Yes.”
“Then we will go to him.”
The people around me cheered, but I couldn’t be happy, not when I knew what I was going to do. Or at least try to do. Death should never be cheered for.
A cop car pulled up, and a police officer stepped out, and for just a moment I thought it was Jensen. For once, it wasn’t, but that didn’t mean my plan changed.
I ran over to the cop car, and the police officer’s eyes widened. “I know you.”
“Bully for you. I need your car. Give me the keys.”
“I can’t do that.”
I stared him in the eyes, flexing my siren abilities. “You can and you will. Give me the keys.”
He tossed them to me and stumbled back. There was no obsessive love in him; I hadn’t made him love me. I’d made him do what was right, what he already knew was right. I took the keys and slid into the driver’s seat. “Ernie.”
“I’m here. You’ve got a better plan now. I can see it on your face.”
“Zeus was supposed to meet with those who were supporting him at his office; that’s what he said back at the cabin. They may still be there, and I need them. This is more their war than anyone else’s.” I turned the key over in the ignition and slipped the car into reverse. I hit the pedal and spun the steering wheel. The tires squealed, and the smell of burning rubber filled the air. I flicked it back into drive and hit the gas. We shot down the mostly empty street. Ernie leaned over and flicked on the lights and the siren.
“I always wanted to do a ride along.” He smiled at me, and I managed to give him a quick, albeit wobbly, smile back.
“Ernie. Tell me I can do this.”
He sobered up instantly. “If anyone can, it will be you. You’ve defied the odds so far; I can’t imagine this will be any different.”
I clutched the wheel, driving as if I truly were inside Gran Turismo. Tad would be proud of me. I blinked several times, thinking of the way my mother had looked in the underworld. “I saw my mom there.”
“You mean . . . back there?”
“Yes, she wasn’t being hurt. She seemed . . . happy. And she didn’t want me to bring her back,” I whispered.
“It has nothing to do with you.” Ernie moved so he sat on the dash, facing me. His wings were backlit by the flashing lights. “Look, your mom had been unhappy for a long time, stu
ck between protecting her husband and two kids, pretending to be one thing, while truly being another. It’s a shit way to live. I should know. I have to pretend to be working for two different sides all the time. I’ve never been happier than the last few days once I sided with you, Alena. And as for your mom, I bet it’s the same. A release, freedom in a weird way, even if it means she loses out in other areas.”
“But why wouldn’t she want to be with us?” The cry slipped out of me, and I bit down on my lower lip. “No, don’t answer that. I can’t deal with it right now.”
He answered me anyway. “It’s not you she doesn’t want to be with, Alena. It’s the world and the fear she’s lived with for so long. She probably doesn’t realize she can have her family and her freedom. Or she could have.”
I drove onto the highway and really pushed the gas pedal, staring hard through my tears. I wove the car around the few other vehicles that were there. Again, so few that I would have known something was wrong even if I didn’t know about the virus going viral. It wasn’t long before the Blue Box was there in front of us. I pulled into the parking lot, driving right up to the front doors. I pulled over and flicked the siren off, but I left the lights flashing. I took the keys and tucked them into my pocket.
“I’ve never seen Blue Box so empty,” Ernie said.
“Everyone is sick,” I said as I strode through the doors, surprised they were open at all. Not because of the lateness of the hour, but because there had to be a fair number of employees that hadn’t shown up to work. There had to be . . .
A greeter waved at me. “Welcome to Blue Box, deals of the day in the meat department.”
Meat department. I saw the sign, and my stomach rolled with hunger. I’d not eaten much the last few days.
“Where is the manager’s office?”
“Back of the store, behind the women’s lingerie section.”
Of course it was. This was Zeus we were talking about after all. I hurried toward the meat department first. I grabbed three packs of steaks and a package of hot dogs. “Ernie, grab me some milk.”
“Okay.” The uncertainty in his voice would have made me laugh another time. As it was, I was on a time limit. I ripped the packaging off the steaks first and crammed them into my mouth. My teeth cracked the T-bones, and I swallowed the steaks in big, bloody chunks. The hot dogs were next, mostly because I could eat them as I walked. Ernie caught up to me, carrying a jug of chocolate milk. I took it, cracked it open, and tipped it up to my lips. The few people in the store stared at me with wide eyes as I chugged the entire container.
“Shit, you really were hungry.” Both his eyebrows had disappeared into his hairline.
I tossed the empty container to one side and headed to the section where the shoes and lingerie were. “I’m going to fight, and I need all the energy I can get.”
Ernie bopped in front of me, nodding. “There may be no one here; the pantheon on Zeus’s side may not have shown up at all.”
“True, but I doubt it. I think they would try and make things happen even without Zeus. I think Smithy will organize them.” At least, that was what I was hoping for. I passed by the shoes and the lingerie section, then hit the swinging doors that led into the back storage room. To my right was a set of stairs, and I hurried up it, not bothering to be quiet. At the top, there was a single door, and I didn’t knock. Just turned the handle and pushed my way in. And pushed was the right term. The room was loaded with people. At the front of the room was Smithy, and his eyes shot to mine. “Alena! You’re alive?”
“For now,” I said and shoved my way to the front of the room. I took a good look around. Yaya was there, or at least I thought it was Yaya. The woman I’d called grandmother for so long stared at me from a face as young as mine. Again the doubts surfaced about her motives, and I had to push them away. One problem at a time. “I need to get to Hera.”
“That’s what we’re all discussing,” a woman said, and I turned to see Artemis watching me, her body bristling with weapons. “Hera has made it clear that she will not be coming out of hiding anytime soon.”
A surge of anger flushed through me, and I struggled not to shift right there. Breathing carefully, I got the urge under control after a few deep breaths. I looked around. Everyone had peeled back from me and had pressed up against the various walls. I wanted to laugh. I blew out a breath. “I think—no, I know—this has to be a full-on assault. I will meet the Hydra and Hercules, but I need the rest of you to actually stand with me.”
“You want us to fight for you?” a man from the back slurred, his eyes not entirely focusing on me. I struggled to place him for about three seconds before I recalled his name in the recesses of my early learning. God of wine. Of course we would get him on our side. “No, Dionysus. I don’t want you to fight for me. I want you to face the pantheon that Hera has brought to her side. I will face the monsters; you keep the rest from attacking me.”
“And the vampires?” Yaya asked, arching a delicate dark-brown eyebrow at me. “They are completely out of control without Remo or Santos guiding them, though that young one, Max, is making an effort.”
A bakery full of smoke and burnt cookies when there was a line of customers waiting outside couldn’t have been more stressful, though it was close. I went through my options quickly in my head. There wasn’t a lot I had left to me.
“I need the vampires held off; they can’t be brought into this. I will deal with them if I survive.” I stared hard at her. “You and your priestesses got any juice left in you?”
She grinned, a slow spreading of her lips that made me think I wouldn’t want to cross her, even if she was my yaya. “That we do.”
“Great. Get the last of the SDMP together, and they can help you with the vampires.” I glanced at Smithy, and he nodded.
“I’ll put in a call to Oberfall. He’ll help,” he said.
I looked back to my yaya, who seemed fiercer than I’d ever recalled her being. “Keep them off me until I can deal with Hera.”
My shockingly youthful grandmother gave a salute. “General.”
Someone at the back raised her hand and pushed forward. It was the satyr and healer Damara. Her horns glittered in the fluorescent lights. “What about the rest of us who aren’t actually part of the pantheon?”
I thought for a moment. “Triage. Do what you can to keep the casualties down. Get the humans and Super Dupers who don’t want to be a part of the fight out of the area.”
She nodded. “Done.”
I looked around the room, seeing all the faces. Seeing they were looking to me to make it happen. They thought I could take out a goddess. A sudden wave of anxiety flushed through me, but before it took root, I pushed it away, forcing it back. “No more hiding. We do this and bring Hera to her knees. If I . . . do this right, you will all be free to divorce those you want to.”
Behind me, Smithy jerked as if I’d punched him in the gut. “Why would you do that?”
I didn’t look at him. “Because it is the only thing I could do to convince Hades to stop the virus. It’s a boon for all of you, though.” I did look at him then. “You can be free from the bonds that have held you all for so long, if you want.”
They seemed stunned, so I kept talking. “Ernie, you said that you knew where Hercules and the Hydra are holed up?”
He nodded and lowered himself to stand on the table. “Yes.”
I was ready, I could do this. “Then take us there.”
CHAPTER 19
It didn’t take long to mobilize everyone. The pantheon had their own ways of traveling, and I sent them all off first. As the room emptied, they touched me, wished me luck, and in general said their good-byes. Artemis gave me a nod, as if I should know what she was getting at. I just nodded back.
Panacea was the last to leave, and she took both my hands in hers. “You have a bit of a healer’s touch, Alena. You are not all monster and power and rage. Remember that.” She leaned in and kissed me on the mouth, surprising me, and
then she was gone.
Okay, so Panacea wasn’t really the last one in the room. “Why are you really doing this?” Smithy said.
“My family, Remo, my life. I want it back, Smithy. Hera is not going to stop, which means either I die or I find a way to thwart her. I can’t keep living like this. Running, fighting, trying to find a life, trying to find peace when around every corner someone I love is threatened.” I thought about Remo lying in the hospital bed, my heart breaking. What would I do if I lost him?
Smithy put a hand on mine. “He’s dying?”
I nodded and pulled my hand away. “I love him, and I can’t save him if I don’t do this.”
“You could die trying to stop her.”
“Then at least Remo and I will be together.” I looked up at him in time to see a shot of pain rush over his features.
“I remember a time I loved like that,” he said softly, “and I have known that desire again recently.”
I shook my head. “No, we have had that discussion.”
“I know. But I hope you remember that if your life is on the line, Remo wouldn’t want you to die just to be with him. Life is precious, Alena. Even after all these years, I still feel that way.” He leaned in and brushed his lips across mine, in the same way Panacea had done, though his touch was far less platonic. Even so, the flicker of desire I felt was nothing like the way I felt with Remo. The fleeting feeling was more of an acknowledgment of what almost was—what could have been.
Smithy left the room, and I leaned on the table. “Ernie, you ready?”
“You got it. What do you need me to do?”
“Have your arrows ready; I may need you to shoot someone. But it will be a last resort, okay?” I stood and took a deep breath. This was it; I was going to battle, and I was probably going to die. Funny enough, the second I let myself just accept that fact, the fear and terror slid away from me, like sloughing a skin, and I was able to breathe. I was able to see things clearly.
Hisses and Honey (The Venom Trilogy Book 3) Page 20