Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy #2)(58)

I’d blown it. I bent and scooped up the metallic feather. Gold and silver, it glittered even in the dim light. “You’re an idiot.” I wasn’t 100 percent sure if I was talking to Beth or myself.

Probably both.

Nothing to do now but move on and hope I could get some answers out of Zeus.





CHAPTER 16


Yaya drove us in the direction of Zeus’s place. Olympic Drive in the Highlands . . . if Smithy was being straight with us. “Are you sure this is where Zeus lives?” she asked.

I clutched at the container of vomit-inducing cupcakes. “It’s where Hephaestus, I mean, Smithy, said he was.”

“And he was helping you, why again?” There was a sly tone to her voice that I waved at with one hand, like batting away steam from a pot.

“Yaya, don’t go there. The last thing I need is some ex–Greek god deciding to take an interest in me. I mean, look at where that’s getting me with Hera. Look at where it got you when you messed around with Zeus. A curse, of all things! I have enough issues as it is.”

“You mean like pissing off the rival vampire gang?” Ernie asked.

“That.” I nodded.

“And not killing Theseus when you had the chance,” Yaya pointed out.

I closed my eyes. “That.”

“Ooh, and somehow getting on Aphrodite’s bad side? Though that probably ties to Hephaestus, to be fair,” Ernie added.

I groaned. “That.”

“Anything else you want to tell me about?” Yaya glanced sideways at me, her puffy white hair barely peeking above the steering wheel.

“Keep your eyes on the road,” I said. “You make me nervous as it is without looking away.”

She snorted and waved a hand at me in a mocking imitation. “I’ve been driving longer than you’ve been alive.”

“That doesn’t exactly comfort me,” I grumbled as I leaned back in my seat, the light-blue pleather creaking under me. Ernie shook his head.

“How does one little monster get into so much trouble?”

“Lucky, I guess. And I’m hardly little. Have you seen the size of my snake?” I mumbled.

They burst out laughing, and I shook my head as heat rushed through my face. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Still funny.” Ernie chuckled. “Peeeenis humor always is.”

“Ernie!” I burst out laughing, giggling uncontrollably.

Yaya reached over and tapped a hand on my leg. “Pay attention. Trouble, our family bloodlines are nothing but trouble. Started long before you, Lena Bean, so don’t feel bad. If it weren’t drawn to you, it would be drawn to Tad. Not that he seems to be staying out of trouble either. Does he really think things will end well dating a vampire?”

I crumpled in my seat thinking of Remo. Not that we were dating, not at all. But still, she had a point.

“You don’t think Dahlia is nice?”

“Not that,” Yaya said. “But they aren’t known for being monogamous. It’s not in their nature any more than being able to stand in the sun is. They are geared to flit between partners in order to satisfy their hunger.”

The thought of Remo drinking from different women every night made every part of my body tense. No, it was not my place to judge him. I closed my eyes, but all I could see was Remo with someone who resembled Barbie. As if she would be solely responsible for taking all the men from my life.

“Yaya, what if I can’t get this divorce?” I asked softly.

She stared straight ahead through the first rung of the steering wheel. She really needed a phone book or something to sit on.

“I guess you have a choice, then. Either you accept you are no longer attached to Roger and go on with your life. Or believe you are still married and wait for him to die before you move on with your life.”

I gaped at her. “Wait for him to die?”

“Well, you could always speed that up. Give him a cupcake with a little more venom in it.” She winked at me.

“Yaya!” I couldn’t help the laughter that spilled out of me, any more than I could help the shock at Yaya semi-planning Roger’s murder. The whole thing was ridiculous. Yet a small, wicked part of me thought maybe it wasn’t a bad idea.

“Just a thought.” She winked across at me again, then glared into the rearview mirror. “What is it with these idiots and their high beams? Do they not know it’s rude to have them on when driving behind someone?”

Traffic was light on the highway with the late hour, so the high beams she spoke of shot through the back window loud and clear as they caught up to us, a little too reminiscent of my previous night for my liking.

The truck attached to the lights roared up behind us and honked its horn as the driver flicked on a second pair of lights attached to its roof as well.

“Oh . . . I got a bad feeling about this,” Ernie said.

I twisted around in my seat, and my heart seized up like melted caramel over a block of ice. I recognized the grill on the truck all too well, and the splatter of branches and trees leftover from Dahlia and me running it into said trees.

Which also mean the driver had come to house number thirteen looking for me.

“Asshole,” Yaya muttered. “Alena, tell me this isn’t more of your trouble coming our way?”