Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy #2)(60)

Remo was already out of his car and had pulled the Viking out. “Sven, I warned you.”

Sven. Well at least I was close with the nationality. I shook my head and kept moving. Dahlia got out of Remo’s car and grabbed me before I could get closer.

“Don’t. He has to do this, or he’ll look weak,” she said.

“Has to do what?”

I looked past her.

The two vampires circled around one another, like two large cats hunched and prepped to leap. Leap they did, and at the same time, their bodies slammed into one another. They hit so hard and fast, their limbs were a blur of movement. They smashed into the ground, illuminated by the headlights. The humans around us drew near, as did the sounds of sirens. “Poopsicles, Remo can’t be taken in again,” I said. Maybe it was selfish. Okay, it totally was. I didn’t want to think he’d be tossed into jail when it was obvious even to a newbie like me that my fight with Theseus was coming and I was going to need all the help I could get, no matter how badly I wanted to prove I could do things on my own.

Then there was the even more pressing issue of Santos and his gang, seeing as that was more of Remo’s arena.

Dahlia nodded. “But he has to do this. Believe me, Alena. This isn’t a choice at this point.” Almost the same words as before. Remo had to fight Sven? Maybe it was a vampire thing, a show of force. I was close in my musing, but I had no idea how close.

“Remo, cops are coming. Hurry it up,” Dahlia shouted.

He grunted, or I think he grunted, and he stood up. He had Sven’s neck gripped in his left hand, and he put his right hand on top of it. Sven’s red beard covered Remo’s hands.

Sven’s eyes bugged out, and it looked like he tried to shake his head, his feet kicked out, and then his whole body jerked once, stiffened, jerked again, and then was still.

The Viking’s head rolled to one side as Remo flipped Sven’s body in the other direction.

Dahlia sucked in a sharp breath. “Shit, I didn’t think that was possible.”

Possible? The world went fuzzy, and for the first time I saw how deadly Remo truly was. He’d ripped another vampire’s head off. Without any compunction, with what looked like very little effort. The fight with Achilles came back to me, how Remo had been trying to get his hands around the hero’s neck, how Achilles kept dodging him. Remo had been trying to rip Achilles’s head off.

My stomach heaved, and I took a step back, swallowing hard, but I couldn’t take my eyes from the scene in front of me. Remo had tossed the head across the road, backlit by vehicles. He strode toward me.

I recoiled from him, taking several steps back before I could stop my feet. My heart raced, and all I could think was that this was the man I’d kissed, that I’d wanted to kiss. This man I saw when I closed my eyes to sleep at night had just removed another man’s head without so much as a “How do you do?”

No. No. That wasn’t fair. This was vampire turf wars, and they were bound to be violent and fatal.

My mind was a jumble of thoughts and emotions I couldn’t keep track of, bouncing from horror to straight-out anger. On one hand, I was grateful he’d come, that he’d stood up for me. On the other hand, it was the same thing again. Like I couldn’t take care of myself. And while things might not have been going well, I was managing. I could have handled Sven. I was sure of it.

“Alena, are you all right?” Remo took my hand and turned my arm over. My skin had been peeled back at some point, and my scales glittered through in the garish light.

I pulled away from him. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.” I turned away and strode back toward the beaten-up Granada, doing my best to banish the image of Remo yanking off Sven’s head. I had killed people, other monsters. It wasn’t fair of me to judge Remo for protecting me in the same way. “Yaya, will the car start?”

Her eyes looked past my shoulder, and I made myself keep walking. Away from him. “Yaya?”

She cleared her throat. “We’re stuck on the median.”

Without thinking, I made my way around to the other side of the car. In a flash, Remo and Dahlia were there with me. Before I could ask, they pushed the car off the median and back onto the road. I frowned, said nothing. Again. As if I couldn’t have lifted it on my own; I knew in every fiber of my being I could have.

Dahlia grabbed my arm. “Aren’t you going to thank us?”

The snake in me uncoiled, and I knew it was seconds from bursting free. “Let go of me.”

She dropped my arm as if I were a hot pan fresh out of the oven. “What is wrong with you?”

I walked away, my throat tight and the words trapped. Mostly because I didn’t want to say things that I would regret later. Words that would hurt or even destroy friendships. “Please don’t follow me” was all I managed to say.

Dahlia made a move, and from the corner of my eye I saw Remo grab her. “No, we’ve overstepped. I’ve overstepped. Let her go. She’ll get ahold of us if she needs to.”

Gratitude flowed through me, and I managed to give him a smile. I mouthed, Thank you, and he gave me a wink.

Yaya started the car, and we were once more away, headed to find Zeus whether he wanted to be found or not.

“What are you all teary eyed about?” Ernie flicked a tear from my cheek. Yaya glanced at me and nodded. She understood. Remo understood. I had to find ways to make it as a monster, to find my own path without other people trying to save me at every turn. I needed to be able to stand on my own two feet, tail, whatever. That would be the only way I’d ever truly learn to survive in my new reality.