Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy #2)(42)

I blinked several times. “I’m never going to be okay with . . . killing.”

“I would worry if you were.” She touched a hand to my cheek and smiled. “You are too compassionate by far, but you are also one badass monster when you want to be. You are a hot mess of contradictions, my friend. Like a bacon-and-chocolate dessert.” She winked to soften her words.

I couldn’t help the smile that slowly curved my lips or the laugh that followed. “Yeah, that I would agree with.”

I was a hot mess, all right. We headed to the kitchen, and she held the flask out over the sink and unscrewed the cap. The scent of licorice flowed into the room, so strong it burned the inside of my nose. I backed up until I was at the far side of the room. “It smells like fennel,” I said.

“Isn’t that an herb or something?”

“Yeah, I use it sometimes in my baking.” I coughed into my arm. “Cap it up, I can hardly breathe.”

She screwed the lid on and leaned as if to open the window, then stopped and pulled back. “Right, forgot you already permanently opened it.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t understand how fennel could burn me so badly.”

She shrugged. “Maybe it’s just the base for something else? Like a carrier?”

I tugged at my bottom lip with my teeth, thinking. “I’d ask Ernie, but . . . I don’t want to take him from Tad right now.”

“What about that skinny flier? Hermes?” she asked.

My eyes widened. “Good idea. HERMES!” I hollered his name and she flinched. The two sets of heartbeats upstairs fluttered and beat faster as Beth and Sandy woke up.

That was good; I wanted to talk to them anyway, see how things had gone with Theseus. To make things right with them both, to tell them that I was just trying to protect them.

They thumped down the stairs in tandem and entered the kitchen side by side.

Sandy’s dark hair was all mussed up and she cracked a big yawn. “What time is it?”

Beth frowned up at the clock, irritation clear on her face. “Too damn early. What is all the yelling about?” That was not her usual tone or style. What if the arrow and Theseus’s claim on her were still there?

“I need Hermes’s help,” I said. “I’ve got something here, and I’m not sure what it is exactly.”

Beth raised one blond eyebrow. “Well, that’s not a shock. There doesn’t seem to be much you do know about.”

Sandy sucked in a sharp breath, and Dahlia let out a growl. I shook my head and decided to go the safe route. “Beth, I know you were upset with me, but I was trying to protect you—”

“Tim broke it off with me. Said you were the reason why, that he can’t stop thinking about you,” she snapped.

“I didn’t and wouldn’t—”

“He said your beauty took his breath away.” Her eyes filled with tears. “He said you looked at him, and he knew you were the one for him. You texted him. I saw the text.”

My jaw dropped. What the hell was he up to? “I never looked at him like that, Beth, and I’ve been far too busy to text anyone. He’s lying to you! You have to believe me that I’m not interested in Theseus—Tim—like that.”

“HE ISN’T THESEUS!” Her scream coincided with Hermes winging through the window. If one could skid to a stop in the air, he did. I glanced at him; his eyes were wide and his mouth hung open.

“Did you call for me?” he managed.

Beth screamed, the sound crawling over my body like tiny daggers, and for just a second I thought she was going to shift. Sandy put a hand on her. “Beth, calm down. This isn’t Alena’s fault. Tim is just one of those assholes who uses one girl to get to another.”

“It is her fault!” she cried as she spun and ran from the room. I stood there, staring at the place she’d been, my heart breaking at the thought of losing my friend. Of losing Beth to a man who would kill her as soon as kiss her.

Sandy shook her head, glanced at me, and shrugged. “I’ll try to talk to her.”

“Thanks,” I said softly. “I didn’t text him; he’s playing a game.”

“I know.” She frowned, turned, and left the room. I blew a big breath out that fluttered my lips.

“Holy snickerdoodles.”

Hermes cleared his throat. “You have a message you want me to take?”

Crap. Of course, that was his job, not educating me on snake oils. “Um. Yes. But first could you take a look at something?”

His eyebrows shot up. “I don’t know much. I’m just a messenger.”

“But you must have learned lots when you take messages. I only need to know if this is fennel.” I pointed at the flask Dahlia held up. He spun around, his wings barely moving.

“It’s a flask,” he stated. I rolled my eyes.

“Dahlia, crack it open for him.”

She spun the lid and held it up for him. He peered in and nodded. “Yup, that’s fennel. Pure and distilled, by the looks of it.”

I frowned. “Any idea why it might burn me?”

“Oh, that’s easy.” He paused. “But why aren’t you asking Ernie?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” I mimicked him. “I don’t trust him not to go running to Hera.”