“Alena, I am trying. I don’t want to lose your friendship. But I don’t want to get killed either. Can you understand the position I’m in?” His voice was about as dejected as I’d ever heard it. I lifted my head and wiped my eyes. His brow was wrinkled, and he wrung his hands over and over. I didn’t want to lose another friend. I sniffed once and held an arm out to him. He flew into me and grabbed me around the neck.
I hugged him, patted him lightly on the back. “I don’t understand, Ernie, but at the same time, I’ve seen Hera; I wouldn’t want to go up against her for anything in the world.”
He hiccuped a sob, surprising me. I pushed him back gently. “Why are you crying?”
The words spilled out in a tear-soaked rush. “You’re too damn nice, Alena. You shouldn’t forgive me, even though I want you to. You should probably never talk to me again, because there will probably be a time when I have to work for her or get my wings removed.”
I blew a raspberry with my lips. “I’m not that nice. Remember Achilles?”
Ernie shook his head. “You were protecting your brother and Remo. Theseus”—he grimaced and then leaned in closer to me, his voice dropping to a whisper—“he won’t make that same mistake. He knows you won’t fight for yourself. He won’t attack your people until after you’re dead.”
I sat back and opened my mouth, ready to ask a question when a knock on the front door grabbed my attention.
I looked at Ernie. “Are you expecting company?”
He shook his head. “No. Zeus has gone underground; he’s the only one who might show up from my end of things. I left him a message, but his answering machine said he was going out of town. No one has seen him since that night at the club.”
Zeus. Another issue I had a feeling I’d have to face at some point. I stood and walked to the door, taking a deep breath as I drew close. The sweet scent of vampire musk, licorice, and blood whispered across the air.
“Remo,” I breathed his name and jerked the door open even as I realized I’d made a mistake. Remo didn’t smell like other vampires. He smelled of cinnamon and honey. Not blood and licorice.
Santos grinned at me, flashing his fangs fully, something I knew from Dahlia was a sign of aggression. Like a baboon flashing its teeth right before it attacked. I slammed the door shut and threw the dead bolt.
“Alena, behind you!” Ernie shouted the warning and I spun, dropping into a crouch with instincts I didn’t know I had. A weapon of some sort blurred as it shot over my head.
“Well, well, so she has a feathered friend too? Roast chicken along with the snake tonight, boys!” The vampire right in front of me grinned up at Ernie. Which took his attention completely off me. They seemed to be coming in from all sides: the kitchen, the front door, and there was even a pair sliding down the banister.
“You leave him alone!” I shot forward with both feet and kicked him in the shins. He screeched and slammed to the floor on his belly, a gust of air shooting out of him.
The door behind me burst inward, and I scrambled away from the flying splinters. Really, it was more the vampire I was trying to get away from.
“Oh, you aren’t going anywhere, little snake girl,” Santos crooned. “I’ve got something special for you.” He laughed, and I did not laugh with him.
I rolled onto my back and scooted away. Which sent me right into another set of legs. I looked up, way up, at a mountain of a vampire, one that easily topped seven feet. He had shaggy, long red hair and a full bright-orange beard.
“Viking?” I couldn’t seem to help the one-word question.
He roared down at me, fangs exposed and spit flying. He spread his legs as he lifted a huge ax over his head, no doubt to chop me in half. I scooted between his legs and shot a fist upward as I passed his family jewels. The crunch under my fist brought an instant groan from all the vampires in the room.
“Alena, get the hell out of here, they’ve got a snake catcher!” Ernie screeched.
A snake catcher? What in all that was holy was that?
There was no time to discuss just what a snake catcher was, but I found out anyway.
I made it into the kitchen and pushed to my feet when a thin metal wire flipped over my foot and wrapped in tight to my jeans, cinching shut like a noose around my ankle.
A sizzle crackled through the air, and I stared at Santos on the other end of the noose. The long wire was attached to a five-foot-long steel rod. Like a dog catcher’s favorite tool. It had to be what Ernie meant. I tugged hard with my leg, and the pole was ripped out of Santos’s hands.
“Idiot, you think you can outmuscle me?” I snapped at him. Though I was terrified, I wasn’t going to let him know it. I wanted them to believe me dangerous, even if I struggled with the concept.
“I can smell your fear, Alena. And I like how it tastes,” he purred.
Poop on it, so much for my bravado.
I backed up farther as I wiggled my foot in a vain effort to get the noose off, but it was stuck tight to my jeans as if it had magnetic properties of some sort. I kept my eyes up, reached the kitchen sink, and groped behind me. I came up with a frying pan in one hand and a large cookie sheet in the other.
The vampires circled in tighter, laughing. “Look out, boys, she’s going to brain us with her kitchen wares!”
“Five against one, that’s not very fair,” I said.
“Oh, it isn’t five against one.” Santos grinned. “I have a crew outside too, just in case you manage to slip”—he made a snake-wiggling motion with one hand—“through our fingers.”
Another sizzle crackled in the air, and the smell of burning material tickled my nose. Heat suddenly erupted on my leg where the noose had hooked in tight.
I screamed as I went down, writhing with an intense burning pain, not unlike an oil burn I’d had when I’d made my first attempt at deep-frying apple fritters. Only this was a thousand times worse. I couldn’t think past it, couldn’t make myself care that I was surrounded by enemies.
“See, I told you that potion would work,” Santos crowed, but I barely registered his words; I had to get the noose off. I scrabbled at my leg, but every time I touched the noose, my fingers burned, scalding.
“Grab the handle,” Santos instructed, “and I’ll get on top of her.”
This was going down faster than a stack of pans off the top shelf. I had to do something now, or I was going to end up in more trouble than I’d been in so far in my new world.
And that was saying a fair bit.
CHAPTER 6
With my teeth gritted tight, I reached for the noose as one of the vampires reached for the long handle. I grabbed the metal wire, crying out with the pain in my hands that mimicked the unreal pain in my leg, and loosened it just enough to slide my foot out.
I jerked away from the noose as though it were a snake. Scratch that, as though it were a snake catcher. I pushed myself to my feet and climbed onto the kitchen counter.
“What, you can fly too?” Santos laughed up at me, his dark eyes filled with anything but humor. “My, my, Remo is going to be upset when he sees the damage on you.”