Hisses and Honey (The Venom Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  ALSO BY SHANNON MAYER

  The Venom Trilogy

  Venom and Vanilla (Book 1)

  Fangs and Fennel (Book 2)

  The Rylee Adamson Series

  Priceless (Book 1)

  Immune (Book 2)

  Raising Innocence (Book 3)

  Shadowed Threads (Book 4)

  Blind Salvage (Book 5)

  Tracker (Book 6)

  Veiled Threat (Book 7)

  Wounded (Book 8)

  Rising Darkness (Book 9)

  Blood of the Lost (Book 10)

  Elementally Priceless (A Rylee Adamson Novella 0.5)

  Alex (A Rylee Adamson Short Story)

  Tracking Magic (A Rylee Adamson Novella)

  Guardian (A Rylee Adamson Novella 6.5)

  Stitched (A Rylee Adamson Novella 8.5)

  RYLEE (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues Book 1)

  LIAM (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues Book 2)

  The Elemental Series

  Recurve (Book 1)

  Breakwater (Book 2)

  Firestorm (Book 3)

  Windburn (Book 4)

  Rootbound (Book 5)

  Ash (Book 6)

  The Blood Borne Series

  (coauthored with Denise Grover Swank)

  Recombinant

  Replica

  The Nevermore Trilogy

  Sundered

  Bound

  Dauntless

  A Celtic Legacy

  Dark Waters

  Dark Isle

  Dark Fae

  Contemporary Romance

  High Risk Love

  Of the Heart

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2017 Shannon Mayer

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by 47North, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and 47North are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781477818138

  ISBN-10: 1477818138

  Cover design by Jason Blackburn

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  A vampire mob boss and a reluctant Drakaina—a.k.a. a siren who can shift into a two-story snake—walk into a bar in downtown Seattle followed by said Drakaina’s very human ex-husband as he begs on his knees for forgiveness. Unfortunately it was not a silly opening to a joke but my actual life. Burnt cookies coating my mouth couldn’t have been more unpleasant.

  “Alena, please take me back, please, please, please.” Roger clutched at my right hand, seeing as my left was firmly caught up in Remo’s tight grip.

  Remo raised a single eyebrow, and a corner of his lips turned up, showing off a glint of one fang. When the light caught his eyes right, the violet color that rimmed his dark iris all but glowed. I rather liked the look of him, from those strange eyes of his, to his lovely mouth, to his hand on mine, and right on down to . . . well, to other parts that I fantasized about far more than I would ever admit.

  “You want me to do something about him?” Remo flicked his eyes in Roger’s direction. A sigh slid out of me as I shook my head. Remo dealing with Roger would likely mean more than Roger being picked up and tossed back out the door. And as much as I disliked my ex-husband and all he’d put me through, I didn’t want Remo to hurt him.

  “No, I’ll deal with him.” I let go of Remo’s hand and turned to face Roger, who still clung to my other hand. He stared up at me from down on his knees, clammy fingers squeezing mine over and over. I couldn’t help but be surprised he’d even touch me. The last time we’d had dealings, he’d been terrified that I was going to give him the Aegrus virus, and that was a pretty valid reason not to want to so much as brush up against me, never mind cling to me.

  The Aegrus virus was currently sweeping the world and wiping out humans left, right, and center despite the various governments and health officials doing all they could to slow it. Seeing as it originated from the Super Duper community—of which I was now a part—Roger should have been staying away from me. Which made me wonder just what he was up to.

  I tried to untangle my hand from his without hurting him. Not such an easy task as it would seem now that I was a Drakaina. “Aren’t you afraid you’re going to get sick, Roger?”

  “No, I want to get sick; I want you to get me sick.” He smiled up at me, his eyes wild, like he’d been drinking heavily. But I didn’t smell anything on his breath. I tried to reel back, but he clung to me like a burnt piece of stubborn banana-nut muffin clinging to the bottom of a baking tin.

  “What? Are you out of your mind?” I pushed his hand off mine finally and took several steps back. I might not have carried any lasting warm feelings for the man who’d cheated on me and left me to die on my own, who’d tried to take everything from me, including my home, my bakery, and my inheritance. But that didn’t mean I wanted him to die.

  Okay, I had wanted to kill him myself, but still, I didn’t really want him to die. Really, honest, I hadn’t fallen that far from my mother’s teachings.

  He scrabbled across the rough floor of the bar on his hands and knees, drawing attention from all quarters. Hickory sticks, this was not how I’d thought the night was going to go when Remo asked me out for a date. A nice night out, with a . . . well, “nice” wasn’t the word I’d use for Remo, because “a nice night out with a gorgeous vampire mob boss” aren’t really the kind of words that go together. I shook my head, knowing Roger better now that we were no longer married. A narcissist through and through. His real colors had truly shown when my life and our marriage had been on the line.

  I put my hands on my hips and stared down at him. “Roger, what are you planning this time?”

  “I just want to be with you.” He smiled up at me, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. I frowned and pointed one finger at him.

  “We are divorced, dingle nuts.” He jerked as if I’d slapped him, but I kept talking as if I hadn’t seen him move. “I don’t want to be with you, and why you think you being sick would mean there’s any chance I would is beyond ridiculous! The only thing that getting sick would give you besides death is being turned . . .” Understanding hit me like a rack of pans falling from the top shelf and landing on my bare toes. My jaw dropped, and I had to catch myself to keep it from unhinging with the shock. Something that was entirely possible, considering what I was.

  “You think that if you get sick, you can be turned into a Super Duper, don’t you? You think that you can convince Merlin to make you like me?” I spit out the words as I took another step back.

  Roger smiled and held a hand out to me. “Come on, baby. We’ve been through so much.
I just want to be with you. Come on, cough on me.”

  I glared down at him. “You mean you want my money and inheritance. What, did Barbie put you up to this?” Barbie being the woman he’d cheated on me with. The woman he’d been about to give all my money because apparently she was good in bed. Or whatever his reasoning was in regards to her talents. I didn’t care.

  “Barbie and I broke up,” he said. “I realized that I’d always loved you. She was just a phase. I’d just needed to sow some wild oats.”

  I snorted and put my hands on my hips. I raised my voice so the onlookers that were drawing close would hear me. “You mean a phase that lasted our entire marriage? You don’t sow oats when you are married, Roger. You are out of your mind if you think I’d ever even consider going back to you. It’s not happening. Rog.”

  The crowd in the bar tittered, and all eyes were on us. I didn’t like being the center of attention, but I was not backing down from my ex. Not even to avoid the embarrassment he was causing.

  He was, unfortunately, not deterred. The growing crowd oohed as he scooted forward in a weird bunny hop off his knees in order to clutch at my hand once more. “Please, please forgive me. You made me a better man. I know that now. You’ve humbled me, and I can be better. I am better, but only with you at my side.”

  I rolled my eyes and jerked my hand away from him. “Please, the only thing you want is the money.”

  “No, not true.” He looked away, though, unable to meet my eyes. “You are beautiful now, and I would be proud to call you my girl.” He smiled up at me, and there was more than a hint of lust in the depths of his eyes.

  That was the other part of this recipe he was trying to sell me. I wasn’t the quiet, drab church mouse he’d married, the girl who’d been raised in the Firstamentalist church, raised to be submissive. Raised to be a doormat, to do what I was told and not question the patriarchy. Once I was turned into a Super Duper, I’d become a siren, and my beauty was a part of my deadly power to control those around me. My brown hair had darkened to a raven-wing black, my brown eyes had brightened to brilliant emerald green, and my body had lengthened and refined in every shape and curve. But none of that defined me. None of it.

  I was the same Alena as before, and just happy to be alive and living my life.

  I drew myself to my full height, over six feet with my heels on. “I was beautiful before.”

  Some of the women in the crowd hooted, and several of them hollered.

  “You go, girl!”

  “Give him hell!”

  “Dumb ass should never have cheated on you!”

  I raised an eyebrow at the man at my feet as the women in the background cheered me on. “Go away, Roger. Go away and don’t bother me anymore. Ever. If my parents invite you to dinner”—yes, that had happened after he’d left me for Barbie—“you better decline. You are not a part of our family, and you never really were, so stay away from all of us. Understand?”

  His eyes hardened, flashing with nothing short of pure rage. “You should have died in that damn hospital.”

  Now there was the Roger I was expecting. I pointed a finger at him. “And you should have never underestimated my desire to live and survive without you.”

  “Oh snap!” someone yelled from the crowd. The voice sounded suspiciously like Ernie, the cherub who had, for the most part, helped me in my journey as a Drakaina.

  A smiled twitched over my lips as I turned away from my ex. “Leave me alone, Roger.”

  “You never updated your will, did you?” he shouted.

  I rolled my eyes but didn’t look back. “Roger, I have not had time; I’ve been rather busy.”

  “Good,” he growled. “Don’t forget that you had a choice—I gave you a choice—and you picked the hard way.”

  I didn’t even flinch at his words. Didn’t think anything of them, because he was full of hot air and promises that never came to fruition. That much was the same before and after our marriage collapsed. Roger was a user, and a lazy one at that.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised at what happened next, but it happened so fast, and, really, I didn’t think he had it in him to be so ballsy—not Roger.

  The crowd crying out a warning, the noise of a gun cocking, the click of the hammer falling, the boom of the weapon inside the pub, the sounds right on top of one another.

  I spun to face Roger, and with my inhuman speed I turned in time to take the bullet in the right side of my chest at the top of my breast instead of my heart. The hit threw me back a few steps, and I clamped a hand over where the bullet had slammed into me. The pain was dull, and while I gasped for air, I already knew I was fine. I’d only had the wind knocked out of me. Roger, though, didn’t realize the can of worms he’d just opened.

  He grinned, wide enough that I could see all the way to his back teeth. “Law is law. You might have beaten me in the divorce”—he lifted the gun and waved it in the air—“but I can still kill you and not go to jail because you are a supernatural beast, and I am a human. I exist; you don’t. That hasn’t changed. I checked. And your will leaves everything to me, doesn’t it?”

  Rotten bananas couldn’t have left a worse taste in my mouth. Who was this man? Had I ever really known him? And he was wrong. I did exist in the eyes of the law; that was how I’d managed the divorce.

  Remo cleared his throat. “You still got this?”

  God love him, he was trusting me to take care of Roger on my own. Now that was a man who respected me and my abilities.

  I pulled my hand from where the wound would have been if I’d still been human. As it was now, there was just a burnt-out hole in my top that stunk like gunpowder and charred fabric. “Yes, thanks. I’ve got this.” I held my hand out to Roger, showing him the bullet, which was squashed flat. “Roger, you should do your research before you try and kill a Super Duper, especially one like me.”

  His face paled, and his hand trembled on the gun. “Oh shit.”

  I smiled at him, and my two oversized fangs lowered. The tips dripped with a venom that would kill him if I so much as flicked a single drop into his mouth, never mind if I bit him. “Would someone call the police, please?” I asked, keeping my voice light and calm. I might not be bothered by a bullet, but Roger still had a gun with ammo in it, and the pub was full of humans.

  I couldn’t let any of them get hurt.

  “Already done, sweet cheeks!” someone called from the direction of the bar. I took a step and snatched the gun away from Roger as fast as I could, which meant that in the blink of an eye it was out of his trigger-happy fingers. I pressed the flattened bullet into his open hand, then lifted the gun up to his eyes so he could see what I was about to do.

  “Please don’t shoot me,” he whimpered. He truly didn’t know me if he thought I could shoot him.

  I put a hand on either side of the gun and bent it in half as if I were making a pretzel. The crowd oohed, and there was a distinct snicker from Ernie somewhere on the sidelines.

  “Roger. If you ever come near me again, you’re going to wish you were this gun. Do you understand?” I smiled at him, but I could feel that the smile was anything but pretty.

  Dangerous, that’s what it felt like. If that was even a thing. Could a smile feel dangerous? Well, in that moment it was.

  He swallowed hard several times and gave a nod, but said nothing. The door behind him opened, and two police officers stepped in. I wasn’t surprised to see that Ben Jensen was one of them, since he was one of Remo’s men. Human, but bound to serve the vampire, Jensen always seemed to be around. Suspicious? Yes, but then again, Remo didn’t like to let things slide. He trusted me to take care of myself, but a little backup wasn’t a bad thing either. After all I’d seen in my few weeks as a Super Duper, I wouldn’t turn down a friend who was good in a tight spot.

  Jensen nodded at me, and within seconds he and the other officer were escorting Roger through the door while my ex babbled about being out of his mind.

  “I didn’t know w
here I was. I just thought that I should come here—the voices told me to!” Roger’s legs seemed to give out from under him, forcing the two officers to hold his weight up.

  “You should take him to the psych ward then,” Ernie called out, helpful as always.

  “Put him in a straitjacket!” someone else yelled.

  “Give him a prostate exam.”

  My fangs retracted as I thought about that last suggestion, my lips curling up with distaste. No one should have to be exposed to Roger’s private parts.

  I turned away from the open door to see Remo still there. Waiting. The man had the patience of someone who was far older than he looked. Which, from what I understood of him, was exactly the reason he could manage the calm, cool look under severe pressure.

  He held a hand out to me, his eyes sad. “That’s some way to start a date, even for you and me.”

  I flicked a finger at the hole in the top of my chest. “Hole” wasn’t really the right word. The bullet had torn through my human skin and revealed the brightly colored snakeskin below. Snakeskin that was harder than diamonds and had very few weaknesses. That I knew of anyway. Fennel oil was at the top of the list, and it could burn me like flames to a piece of paper, eating up the snakeskin and cutting right through bone if left on me long enough. It was my kryptonite, but I hoped I’d seen the last of it.

  I combed one hand through my hair and gave Remo my other.

  He led me through the room. Several people smiled at us, some even going so far as to wave, which I didn’t understand at first. It was like we were royalty or something. What the heck was going on?

  “They saw you on TV.” Ernie floated close to my shoulder, his wings brushing against my skin. The thin straps of my tank top left my shoulders mostly bare, something I never would have worn before. Not because of a lack of confidence but because of all the rules I’d followed for so long. Which made wearing the top and matching skirt so much more enjoyable, knowing that I was finally making decisions based on what I wanted and not what was expected of me.

  I glanced at him.

  “So?”

  “You’re kinda famous now, girlfriend.” He smiled, flashing his white teeth even as his blue eyes sparkled.

  “I don’t want to be famous,” I said.