Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  I nodded and pulled out a thick file. “Everything in here is from my grandparents, stating that I am the legal heir. You can see that the deposit went not into a joint account but an account only in my name set up by my grandparents. The same for the house, which was deeded in my name shortly before I fell ill.” I paused, wishing I had similar documentation for the bakery.

  Judge Watts stared at me, a look of horror etched on his face. “My dear, what did he plan to do with all the money after he took it from you?”

  I held my hands clasped together in front of me. “Open a dog-grooming business with his girlfriend.”

  “And cats,” Roger spit out. “Dogs and cats.”

  As if that helped.

  Judge Watts’s eyebrows shot up. “And cats? You think you need all that money for grooming dogs and cats?”

  Roger, given free rein to talk, hurried to explain. “Yes, we need to have rent money, and Barbie needs to be situated right. We are going to replace her vehicle and get her proper equipment so she can be the best pet groomer that Seattle has seen.”

  I wasn’t so sure giving that much detail was going to help Roger’s case. The perfect reason to keep my mouth shut and let him ramble.

  “The grooming business is expensive to get going; we’ve been talking about it for years.”

  For years? If I didn’t know better, I’d think that maybe Roger had been in on getting me sick in the first place.

  The judge rolled his eyes. “You realize you’re being taken for a ride? It is beyond me how you landed not one but two beautiful women when you are obviously short more than a few bricks in the load you carry.”

  Behind me, Tad choked on a laugh, and I wanted to smack him. I didn’t want him to distract Judge Watts from his train of thought, a train that was headed in the direction I wanted. The last thing I needed was for him to think I had laughed, that I was being disrespectful to him.

  I was going to get a proper divorce, and I wanted to cheer. The system did work. I was going to get justice even though I was a Super Duper. Maybe this would mean something to the rest of the supernatural world, but even if it didn’t, it meant something to me. Roger wasn’t going to be rewarded for being a jerk. Sheer giddiness spooled through me like spun sugar floating in the air, and just as sweet.

  “I suspect one truly loved you, and the other is in it for the money. I’ll let you guess which one,” Judge Watts said with a pointed look at Barbie.

  Barbie raised an eyebrow at him, and tipped her chin high, but said nothing.

  “And as I see it,” he continued, “Mrs. Budrene is entitled to all of her inheritance, which, by these papers here, is hers. The house, the inheritance, and half of all joint marital assets.”

  Barbie let out a little cry, turned, and stomped from the room. “We’re done, Roger, done!”

  Well, that was that, then. I fought the smile that wanted to steal over my lips.

  Judge Watts continued to rifle through the papers, shaking his head at a rather stunned-looking Roger. “Perhaps with your next choice of woman, you’ll look for someone who isn’t in it for your money.”

  “Is the bakery half mine?” Roger asked, and I bristled. He would go for the throat.

  The judge glanced at me. “The bakery?”

  I swallowed and cleared my throat. “Vanilla and Honey is the bakery I opened. I borrowed money from my parents to do so, and I paid it back.”

  “Did Mr. Budrene work at the bakery?” Judge Watts looked at the papers.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Did he do the accounting? The business marketing? The ordering and receiving?”

  “No.”

  “Did he do anything at the bakery?’

  I shook my head. “No, he didn’t.”

  The Judge’s lips pressed to a thin line. “So he milked you for all you had while he bounced with his girlfriend behind your back?”

  The crowd tittered softly. It felt like they were laughing at me, and I struggled not to burst into tears. Or cringe. Or lash out. I looked at the floor; it was all I could do.

  “I believe so.” I made myself lift my head back up. I was not to blame for this.

  The judge nodded. “Taking the length of your marriage into consideration”—he shuffled some papers and peered at something—“you will have to buy him out of the bakery, because from what I see here, this is community property. You acquired the bakery during your marriage. And so as to be fair and equitable, as is the law of our state, I will award you each half of the business. Furthermore, it is my decision therefore to grant the divorce between Alena and Roger, equally splitting those assets that were jointly acquired, along with the debts that were also jointly acquired, and awarding Mrs. Budrene—”

  “She had the Aegrus virus,” Roger blurted out. “She didn’t look like this before, and she’s a supernatural now. Some sort of snake thing.”

  Like watching my ten-egg soufflé fall, the hopes of making the divorce official, of getting my inheritance back, slowly deflated into a puddle at my feet.

  Judge Watts snorted. “A snake thing? And do you have proof of this claim, or are you just trying to get more money from your lovely soon-to-be ex-wife?”

  Hope glittered. The judge was still on my side.

  Roger nodded, and I had no doubt that it was because he was agreeing with both things. The money and the proof.

  My heart rate ticked up a notch, and my hands grew clammy against each other as I pressed them tightly together.

  “At the stadium ten days ago, that big rumble with the supernaturals was her and some guy with a sword.” Roger held up his phone. “I got it on video.”

  The room spun around me, and I clutched at the table in sheer desperation to keep on my feet. I was going to be sick.

  The judge held out his hand. “Let me see this video.” He took the phone from the bailiff and pressed play. The noises from the phone were all too clear to my sensitive ears. I heard my own voice call out, “Achilles,” and I knew what came next.

  If Roger got the shot, the judge would see me shift from the beautiful woman he saw standing in front of him into a giant snake that towered over twenty feet tall when I rose up in an attack stance. Fangs bared, multicolored coils writhing as I swept through the stadium toward Achilles to save my brother and my friends.

  From behind me, Tad stepped closer and put his hands on my shoulders. “I know it’s too late, but for what it’s worth . . . I actually thought you had this.”

  I had no words. There was nothing to do now but wait for this to play out. Literally.

  The judge’s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. How could I argue with the truth?

  “I’m still me,” I whispered. “I’m still Alena.”

  Judge Watts shook his head and handed the phone back to the bailiff, who took it to a rather smug-looking Roger. Then the judge looked at me. Any trace of softness he’d shown me was gone. He leaned forward over his bench, his hands clenched into fists on his desk.

  “You are not Alena Budrene. You are a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and I almost handed you everything you wanted instead of to this hardworking human man.” He shook his head, heavy jowls trembling.

  Tad’s grip tightened on my shoulders, and I reached up to clasp my hands over his. He’d been right, all of my friends had been right about this. I’d been foolish enough to believe that with enough proof on my side I could make the system see I really was still me. That even if I looked different, I was still the same woman. Justice was not seen for Super Dupers the same way as it was seen for humans. I was a fool to have thought it would be different for me.

  “In light of this new evidence, insofar as I can see, there is no need for a divorce, seeing as the woman who Mr. Budrene was married to is dead—”

  A boom like thunder cut Judge Watts off midsentence. The entire courtroom froze. Eyes widened all around us, but nobody moved.

  “This is bad, sis,” Tad said.

  “Has nothing to do with us,”
I whispered back. Okay, the likelihood was high it did have something to do with me. “Just in case, get my papers, would you?”

  He nodded and gathered them all, mixing them up horribly.

  Maybe the next hero Hera had drummed up to kill me had found us? I tried to swallow and struggled to make it happen. My mouth was as dry as a two-week-old brownie with no frosting.

  I cleared my throat. Maybe I could still salvage this. “Your Honor, please, I am still alive. I am still the same woman.”

  No one looked at me; everyone’s eyes were trained on the open doors.

  A second boom was followed close on the heels by a third that shook the rafters. Plaster fell from the ceiling, and the lights swayed overhead. The crowd cried out, and Barbie was the loudest of them all as she ran back into the courtroom. One of the bailiffs slammed the doors shut behind her. As if that would keep the shaking out.

  “Oh my God, Roger. I could have died.” She leapt into his arms, knocking him to the floor.

  He let out a grunt as he stumbled and fell under her weight, but I was already looking at the threshold that led to the hallway. The tall framed wooden doors rattled as though something large had walked by. A few weeks ago, I would have said that was not possible. Now I wasn’t so sure.

  The doors burst inward and Officer Jensen fell in, his eyes searching the crowd. “Alena?”

  “I’m here.”

  “It’s Remo; he needs help.”

  There was no question. I kicked off my heels and ran toward Jensen. “What’s happening?”

  “The rival gang is making a hit on him. They set him up, knowing he would be here without backup. They must have someone here in the human courts keeping them up to date.”

  The building shook again, and I grabbed his arm to keep myself steady. “What the hey diddle fiddle are they using? Rocket launchers?”

  His eyes widened. “How did you know?”

  I groaned. “I didn’t. They sound like a rocket launcher off Tad’s Halo game.”

  Officer Jensen shook his head, took my hand, and ran down the hall. “He’s cornered, nobody can get around the rival vamps, there’s too many of them.”

  “What makes you think I can?”

  He skidded to a stop at a T intersection. “Umm, two-story snake ring a bell?”

  “I don’t know that I can take a rocket launcher!” I spit out. “I’m not a fighter, Officer Jensen, in case you’ve forgotten.”

  “Oh, we’re way beyond formalities. First name is Ben.” He peeked around the hall. “Okay, you’re up.”

  He pulled me hard, and slingshot me around the corner. I squawked as I hit the ground, tumbled once, and ended up flat on my back, my skirt bunched even higher on my thighs. I rolled to my belly and found myself staring at a pair of boots that buckled all the way up to the knees. I slowly lifted myself and my eyes at the same time.

  “What have we here?” A deep rumble purred. “Let me guess, this is the new girl, the one we’ve all been hearing about.”

  I stared up into a pair of dark eyes partially hidden under a shock of hair almost as dark as my own raven locks. He was all muscle without an ounce of fat on him. His quads looked like they were trying to burst out of his pants like an overfilled muffin tin.

  “I doubt anyone has been talking about me,” I said.

  “Oh, the green eyes give you away. That and the exquisite beauty. Remo always did have exceptional taste.” He tipped his chin to one side and gave me a sly smile that bared a single fang to me. Without warning, his hands were at the back of my head and he’d pulled me to him for a hard, demanding kiss.

  The shock wore off in under a second, and I slammed my hands into his chest as I braced my legs. The blow threw him back at least ten feet. A low murmur rolled, and I looked around. A dozen vampires, by my count, and none were on Remo’s side, if Jensen was right. I stood up and straightened my clothes.

  “Remo, are you okay?” I called out.

  “Not my best moment.” He groaned, and the enemy vampires smiled as they parted so I could see him. He was trussed up between three vampires, and blood poured from wounds all over his chest and neck. Bite marks. They were draining him.

  And that was all it took to wake the snake in me up. To be fair, it wasn’t really a snake, but a Drakaina, but that’s semantics. That side of me was easily riled when it came to blood and wounds on those I cared for.

  No matter what I might say to Remo, I did care for him. More than I even wanted to admit to myself.

  “I’m ssssorry,” I said, the s drawn out as I prepared to shift. The vampires tipped their heads as a unit, like nothing more than a group of meerkats wondering what was going on.

  “Did she just apologize to me?” The one who’d kissed me stood and raised an eyebrow at me. Something about him tugged at my memories. Like I’d seen him before. But I knew I hadn’t.

  “No, I’m apologizing to all of you.” I didn’t smile, just breathed in and loosed the tight coils of snake inside of me. Like unlatching a springform pan, it was just that easy to open myself up to the monster I was now.

  Shifting from woman to giant snake was fast and painless. Smoke curled around my body, obscuring my vision for a split second before it cleared and I stared down at the vampires, who took a united step back, their eyes widening like children who’d finally seen the bogeyman, and he was as terrifying as their imagination had whispered in the dark.

  I knew what they saw. My scales were purple, blue, and silver, glittering and beautiful, even though they were attached to me. A snake over a hundred feet long with a girth of over six feet and a pair of fangs that were anything but subtle. Raised up, I was easily two stories tall. I know all this because Tad had decided we needed exact measurements.

  My head brushed against the ceiling, and I opened my mouth, fangs dropping low as I hissed at the gathered vampires. Maybe I could just scare them away, make them run.

  “Shoot her.” The vamp in the front snapped his fingers. “Cooked snake for dinner, boys and girls.”

  So much for making them just go away. I flicked my tail forward and slammed it through the first row of vampires. The blow sent them through the drywall and then pinned them up against the concrete wall of the courthouse hard enough that the concrete cracked. I dropped them and swept my tail back, catching a few more and clearing them off Remo. He lifted his head, his eyes locking on mine, then flicking behind me.

  “Duck.”

  There was nowhere for me to go, nowhere to hide. There was a loud click that drew my eyes to the vampire who stood in the corner of the hallway, a rocket launcher on his shoulder. A puff of flame and smoke erupted from the launcher.

  I flattened myself to the ground, and the rocket cleared me by mere inches. The projectile exploded against the wall behind me, and the entire courthouse shuddered and groaned. The humans screamed, filling the air with their panic-stricken cries.

  Slithering forward, I opened my mouth, intent on snapping my fangs over the leader, piercing him through. I didn’t want to kill him, but he was trying to kill us. I had to stop him if I could. His eyes were on mine, unafraid.

  “I can see why Remo keeps you around. You are a useful tool, aren’t you?”

  I hissed, and venom flicked with the explosion of air, splattering at his feet, where it ate away at the tile. He took several steps back, and I shot forward again.

  With my attention on him, I didn’t see the rocket launcher go off again. I heard it, though, and rolled, taking the impact on my upper belly.

  I braced myself for pain and heat, for the explosion of flesh and blood.

  The projectile blasted into me with a shimmering burst of fire and shrapnel, bounced off my scales, and fell to the floor. I rolled on top of it, effectively putting out the flames.

  I didn’t feel anything more than the pressure of the impact. Dang, my scales really were something else.

  “Boss, I’m out of ammo!” the rocket-launching vampire yelled.

  The vampires pulled back
, running away down the long hall. The leader pointed at Remo. “We aren’t done.” His eyes slid to mine. “And neither are we, snake girl. I’ll skin you alive and make boots out of you before this is finished.”

  Wonderful, now I was on his list of enemies too. Seemed I was struggling to make friends in my new world, but I was excellent at making enemies.

  “Go suck a corpse, Santos.” Remo pushed himself slowly to his knees. I waited until I was sure all the vamps were gone. That the hallway was kinda safe. Someone touched my side, drawing my attention.

  Tad stared up at me, his hand pressed against me. “You can shift down, sis.”

  He was right, but I liked being this big. And kinda badass. The prideful thought rolled through me, and I immediately regretted it. Pride was just another sin to add to the list I had going against me.

  The loss of adrenaline sucked away the Drakaina form, and the smoke curled around me once more. In seconds I was back on two feet. I wrapped one arm around my chest and the other around my lower bits.

  Naked as the day I was born, mind you, but that wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

  No, it was the crowd of humans behind me that stared with horror-stricken eyes, open mouths, and the occasional whimper that bothered me. Like I hadn’t had enough of being judged in my life.

  Speaking of . . . Judge Watts stood at the front of the group, shaking his head.

  I knew that their stares had nothing to do with me being naked either. What they’d seen was beyond any other supernatural they had ever encountered before. I knew it too; when he’d made me, Merlin had told me I’d be a special snowflake. He wasn’t kidding.

  I was one of a kind.

  Judge Watts took a step, his hands fisted at his side as if he’d like to take a swing at me and was barely restraining himself. “Only because it’s the law will I reconvene our session in three days at four p.m. You will send someone in your stead. A lawyer, if you must, but anyone human will do. You will not be welcome in my courthouse, and if you step foot inside, I will have you arrested.”

  One arm wrapped around my chest, I stood there shivering. Tad took a step toward the judge, dropped my papers at his feet, and yanked his robe off over his head. “Give it up, old man.”