[Venom 01.0] Venom & Vanilla Page 21

  I shrugged but couldn’t meet her eyes.

  “Wait, you don’t really like him . . . do you?” Dahlia gasped. “Oh my God, you’re hot for Remo.”

  “I am not hot for anyone. I’m married.”

  “You keep saying that,” Dahlia snorted. “I don’t think it matters anymore.”

  I frowned, hating that part of me agreed with her. “Whatever. We need to focus on getting Tad safe and making Achilles see I’m not the monster he thinks I am.”

  Dahlia shook her head and picked up the car keys from the counter. “You think you can convince him to simply back down from the fight?”

  I nodded. “Why not? I’ve been able to convince other men to do what I want.” The words popped out of me and I cringed. “Never mind, it will be up to me anyway.”

  “We’re coming with you,” Beth said. “If what you’re saying is true, he’ll come after us next, won’t he?”

  I bit my lower lip. “Yes, I think so. But that’s only if he kills me.”

  “What’s the chances of a hero, trained in the killing arts, with superhuman speed and a track record of 10–0, killing you, a brand-new monster with a dislike for ruffling feathers?” Dahlia glanced at the two girls. “No pun intended.”

  I slapped my hands on the table and leaned toward her. “I’m not leaving Tad. At the very least I’m getting him out of there. Do you understand me?” I didn’t realize I was shouting until I stopped and the room echoed with my words.

  Dahlia gave me a tight nod. “Got it, General Alena.”

  Beth and Sandy bobbed their heads in unison. “Understood.”

  “Then let’s go. We’re wasting time.” I held my hand out to Dahlia and she dropped the keys into my palm.

  They fell into step behind me.

  “She really could be a general,” Beth said.

  Dahlia grunted. “Here I was thinking I’d be the one protecting her.”

  A flush of pride washed through me, and I knew in that moment I’d at least go out on a high note. Achilles would probably kill me, but I wouldn’t go down without a fight. No, the dark night wouldn’t claim me without a battle to remember.

  CHAPTER 15

  The gate at the Wall was open without a single SDMP member guarding it. Not one. And the Super Duper community was taking advantage of the lack of guards. A steady stream of Supes headed through the open gate. My first thought was the tracking chips they all had implanted.

  “Why aren’t they getting shocked?” I stared at them as they went through; not one Super Duper so much as twitched.

  “Damn, I can’t believe it worked!” Dahlia crowed. “That’s part of what we did at the SDMP when we picked you and Tad up. We disabled the tracking chips.”

  I couldn’t help showing my geek flag off. “How? What did you do, blow out the thermal exhaust port?”

  “With a well-timed proton torpedo.” She winked and leaned forward. “It’s a lucky break for us, though. Don’t slow down, just go.”

  I nodded and hit the horn with the heel of my hand. We got a few glances, but nobody hurried up. One werewolf flipped us the finger and a snarl. I pursed my lips. “Dang it all.”

  Dahlia hung out the window. “Everybody move or we’ll call the SDMP on you!”

  The way parted in front of us like an ocean splitting down the middle. I hit the gas and we sped forward.

  Ten minutes later, the stadium could be seen in the distance, lit up like a game was being held.

  I grabbed the walkie-talkie from my waist and pressed the button. “Jensen, what’s going on?”

  The static on the other end made my heart pick up speed. I spoke again. “Jensen, talk to me.”

  The click came from the other end and I breathed a sigh of relief. Until he spoke. It wasn’t Jensen.

  “Drakaina. Your minion is with me now. He and your brother for your life. Hurry, little monster, I’m losing patience,” Achilles said.

  “Don’t hurt them! I’m coming.”

  “Hurry, little snake. Hurry. I’ll give you ten minutes, not a single one more.” He whispered the last word, and the walkie-talkie went dead in my hand. I threw it to the floor, focusing on the anger that built in my belly.

  “You aren’t really going to try to talk to him, are you?” Sandy asked from the backseat.

  “Not anymore.” I bit the words out, my fangs lowering and my skin itching. Not a good sign. Not at all.

  We reached the stadium with only minutes to spare. I kicked my door open and the hinge snapped off. I didn’t care. I fed the anger that burned, that made me forget everything I’d ever been taught. Remo stepped from the shadows. “Do you have a plan?”

  The final pieces of what I saw happening if this went right came together in a flash, like the final ingredients to a masterpiece.

  “Beth and Sandy will take you and Dahlia over the top right to Tad and Jensen. The rest of your vamps will be ready to help you out if necessary. As soon as you have them, I’ll deal with Achilles.”

  Remo nodded. “You sure you can take him?”

  “Right now? Yes.” My whole body shivered, and I snapped my head to the side. I flicked my tongue out, tasting the air.

  Beth cleared her throat. “But we’ve never shifted into our other forms.”

  “No time like the present.” I turned and put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re a nurse, right? Trained to save lives?”

  The fear in her eyes faded, replaced by confidence. “Yes.”

  “This is the same thing. You’ll be saving two lives. Just keep that in mind.”

  She drew her tiny body up under my hand and gave a nod. She took two steps back and closed her eyes. Sandy looked at her, then followed suit. Mist curled around them from their feet, all the way to the top of their heads, covering them completely. As it blew away, two birds stood in their place, easily six feet tall. Their feathers were black and gold, and their beaks were wicked long with tiny teeth inside the edge of them.

  “Your wings don’t look metallic, but the info said you can throw your feathers like daggers, so be careful,” I said.

  They bobbed their heads and clacked their beaks in unison.

  Without a word they launched into the air, their wings giving off a vibration that trembled over my skin, calling to my snake. Calling on me to shift. I clenched my hands, digging my nails into my palms.

  “Are you okay?” Dahlia put a hand on my shoulder and I shook her off.

  “Just go. Get them out.” I breathed the words out, knowing I didn’t have much longer before the shift took me whether I wanted it to or not. From the corner of my eye I saw Remo and Dahlia leap into the air and grab hold of Sandy’s and Beth’s claws.

  The four of them swept upward, silent as they climbed high into the dark night. From the shadows of the building, twenty-five of Remo’s vampires ran toward the stadium, grinning like demons in the dark of the night.

  I ran with them, the curl of the winter air on my skin cooling the need to shift. Movement helped keep it under control, apparently; would have been nice if Ernie had told me that.

  The vamps stopped at the first door. Max was in the lead and he held up his hand, beckoning me forward. He pointed at a contraption woven around the handles.

  “The doors are locked and linked to a trigger to explode if they’re tampered with.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Used to be on the bomb squad. This is serious stuff; it’ll take out the support walls and crush anyone in the tunnels as they try to leave.”

  We wouldn’t even be able to get the humans out then.

  I looked up at the side of the stadium. “Can you climb?”

  He chuckled. “Of course. Can you?”

  “Anything you can do, I can do better,” I said.

  With a grin he crouched, muscles bunching before he jumped, and the rest of the vampires followed his lead.

  Just like that, it was a race with all of us leaping for handholds. A strange sense of nostalgia rolled over me, like we were kids on
a playground. Maybe a rather large, deadly playground, but still the feeling was there. Like I’d shed all the rules and demands of being an adult, wife, or good girl.

  I climbed as though I’d been doing it all my life: finding hand- and footholds with ease, leaping to the side where I had to, swinging off one hand even.

  I couldn’t stop grinning. My brother’s life was in jeopardy, and for that matter so was mine. But I’d never felt so alive. Like I was finally a part of something that was important.

  “I think she likes this.” Max spoke over my head, but I didn’t care.

  He was right.

  Another few seconds and we were at the top of the stadium, hanging on by our fingertips. They all looked to me like I knew what was supposed to happen next. I wished I’d watched more of the action movies Roger liked so much.

  “Pull up slow, stay on your bellies,” I whispered.

  They did as I asked, and I did the same. From our bellies, there wasn’t much to see. I looked up to the sky, but there was no sign of Beth or Sandy. Then again, their dark feathers weren’t going to show up well in the night.

  “Stay here.” I eased into a crouch, climbing over the cement barrier in front of us while still keeping as low as possible. The stadium opened up in front of me, the green grass churned to mud by a thousand pairs of hooves. Three-quarters of the stadium was full of humans, the hum and warble of their voices rising through the air at a low drone. In front of me, the stadium section was bare, without a single human sitting in the stands.

  Jensen hadn’t been exaggerating about the Bull Boys. There were easily a thousand of them. Some stood out, though, larger than their buddies. Bull Boys on steroids. At the center of the stadium was a huge platform with two stakes standing in the middle of it, a man tied to each. Tad was on the left, and Jensen on the right.

  Ernie floated between them and Achilles paced the front of the platform, a microphone in one hand and a sword in the other. His voice echoed up to me perfectly. “Where is she?”

  “She’ll come. I’m sure of it,” Ernie said. “But you’d better be careful, Achilles. She’s stronger than we all thought she was going to be.”

  “Pah. Merlin handpicked her.”

  Handpicked . . .

  “I mean, he even convinced her brother to infect her! And now they’re both going to die.” Achilles strutted across the platform, his hands spread out to the sides. He did a slow spin and brought the mic back to his mouth. “Am I not a hero? Have I ever failed in killing a monster? This Drakaina will be no different.”

  The humans clapped, but the sound died out almost as soon as it started. He was losing their attention.

  They were used to monster-truck rallies, baseball games, and huge concerts. Not a man wearing a skirt talking to them about a monster they couldn’t see.

  I slid back to where the vamps waited. “Spread out close to the mud. If the bird girls can get Remo and Dahlia in and out, we may not even need you. Can any of you defuse the bomb on the doors?” I should have thought to ask that before.

  Max nodded. “I can. I think.”

  “Do it. Otherwise when the fighting starts and the humans try to get out, there’s going to be a real mess.”

  He nodded and slid back down the side of the stadium. I slipped back over the cement, keeping low but still watching Achilles. I spared a glance for the night sky. A flicker of bright wings caught my eye for a split second before they appeared, dropping from the sky in a breathtaking dive. Remo and Dahlia clung to their claws, legs swept straight back with the speed at which the four of them fell.

  Achilles looked up, some instinct preserving him as the first feathers shot forward on a flick of one of the girls’ wings. He dove to the side, right off the stadium and into the mud. The feathers rat-a-tat-tatted into the wooden platform like a machine gun.

  “Stymphalian birds! They were just turned!” Ernie yelled. Remo and Dahlia dropped from the birds and ran to the two men at the stakes. Their movements were too fast to follow, but the ropes dropping were enough to know they were getting the job done.

  The crowd went wild, cheering, and the Jumbotron came to life, projecting exactly what was happening in minute, horrifying detail.

  Tad slumped into Dahlia’s arms and Jensen into Remo’s. I couldn’t take my eyes from the scene as Achilles stood up, a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. With a roar he leapt to the stage and rushed them.

  There was no way they’d make it away from him carrying the two men.

  “No!” I screamed, and bolted down the stairs.

  Achilles spun, saw me, and grinned. “There you are, Drakaina.”

  The crowd oohed, like they’d been prepped for me too.

  I was halfway down, the people around me twisting in their seats. “I’m the one you want.”

  “I want all the monsters dead, fool. I care not what breed of evil they are, only that they end their lives on the tip of my sword.” He whipped his sword hand around, the blade shining in the stadium lights, as it swept toward the one closest to him.

  The crowd began to chant his name. “Achilles, Achilles, Achilles.” He held up his hands, asking for more.

  Tad’s eyes lifted to mine as Achilles drove the blade through my brother’s stomach and out his back. The crowd gasped, Achilles’s name stilling on their lips as the moment stretched. I could not believe what I was seeing. It wasn’t possible that Tad was run through.

  “Alena. Run. Get away.” His words were not loud, but I knew him. I knew his heart and how he would have fought for me. That even now, he would try to protect me.

  “Tad!” I screamed his name, and the crowd nearby turned away from my grief-stricken cry. The cameras zoomed in closer on me, and I saw the smoke begin to curl around me.

  The uncoiling of my snake ripped through me and carried with it a second scream that arched from my throat and into the night air, the stadium acoustics throwing it high and wide. Around me, the vamps slapped their hands over their ears and fell to the ground. The humans closest to me scrambled away, leaving a large swath of stadium below me wide open.

  The mist wrapped up around me with the speed of a lighting strike, and in a split second I rose in the stadium, my coils moving me toward Achilles at top speed.

  Ernie spun. “Alena! Don’t let the rage take you, it’s what he wants!”

  I whipped my head toward him, hissing and flicking venom from my fangs. Ernie was not my friend, I knew that much. Just his being at Achilles’s side was enough for me to consider him an enemy.

  Behind me, the crowd cried out in fear, some of them calling on Achilles to save them from the monster. From me.

  Achilles grinned, and the Bull Boys around him raised their weapons, roaring their challenge.

  “Boys. Let’s get her.” He pointed his sword at me and I swung my tail forward, slamming it through the first row of Bull Boys as if they were bowling pins. I moved into the open space, swinging my head, biting through flesh and leather armor as if it were nothing. Screams rent the air, pulsing through my blood.

  He’d killed Tad.

  I’d failed my brother.

  “Rope her!”

  The first rope settled over my neck, strangling me. A hiss erupted out of me, and I snapped my mouth at the Bull Boys who held the end of the rope. But another woven rope settled over my mouth and clamped it shut. I whipped my tail forward again and tucked my head down into my coils, writhing for all I was worth. Mud and blood flung through the air as my multicolored scales glittered and flexed.

  “She’s wounded! Aim for it!”

  Wounded? I wasn’t wounded, what were they talking about?

  “Alena, you idiot, you cut yourself?” Ernie screamed over the din. Was he on my side or not?

  I couldn’t answer him, even if my mouth weren’t clamped shut. More ropes settled over me, pinning me to the ground despite my writhing. I looked for Tad, but he was gone, as were Jensen and the three girls.

  Remo had stayed.

  An
d my heart did a funny little thump as I watched him battle with Achilles, the crowd cheering once more. The two men were well matched, but Remo was bigger. Faster.

  But Achilles was a hero, and I was beginning to understand that there was no beating a hero. That wasn’t how the world worked.

  The monsters didn’t take first place. Not ever.

  A sharp pain ripped up through my side, and the Bull Boys bellowed with nothing short of triumph. I twisted my head to see a spear sticking out of my side about ten feet down from my head. The wound I’d given myself to save Dahlia. They pushed the spear in farther and I groaned with pain. Laughing, they twisted the weapon like they were making meringue out of my innards, whipping it around faster and faster.

  Ernie fluttered down to me, his face splattered with mud and several of his feathers bent. “Listen, you can still beat him. You have to. Do you understand?”

  I tore my eyes from the men to look at Ernie. The Bull Boys tightened the ropes around my neck and I gasped for breath, the world darkening for a split second. Maybe that would be better. At least I wouldn’t feel what they did to me if I was unconscious.

  “You can’t kill her, that’s Achilles’s job,” Ernie barked. The stranglehold lessened, as did the pain in my side as they yanked the spear out.

  Ernie was back to me, whispering, “Shift down, out of snake form, and take this.” He held out a tiny arrow. “Use it on Achilles and no one has to die.”

  Except that Tad already had. I jerked my head to the side, managing to dislodge several of the bulls that held me, and smashed my head into Ernie. I sent him tumbling head over butt into the mud, where he lay on his back, not moving, but I still heard him. “Ahh, I thought I was wrong about you, Lena. I thought you would show them a different kind of monster.”

  His words stung, hitting home as no threat of violence could have. The anger left me in a rush, and I let the snake’s desire to protect itself and its territory slide away from me. The mist wrapped around my form once more, and I fell to the mud, the snake gone, along with all my clothes.

  The men, and a few women, in the crowd whistled and catcalled, a cacophony of noise I did my best to block out.