Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy #2)(68)

“Then it is time to eat and sleep while you can. You barely survived dealing with Achilles. You need everything you can get on your side.”

I followed her back into the kitchen and sat down. I ate everything she put in front of me, not really tasting it. My mind went around and around like a possessed stand mixer.

Everything I’d learned about Theseus didn’t come up to much. He was smart and liked games. He’d stolen my friends and now my brother from me. He was more than just a dumb jock hero like Achilles; he was a demigod who was manipulating the game at every turn. I stood, went to the door that led to the basement, and headed down on the off chance I was wrong. “Dahlia?”

I stopped at the door to her bedroom. I knocked once and peeked in. There was nobody in the bed. Was she with Tad, protecting him? Or had Theseus somehow taken her and convinced her I was horrible too? A pit in the bottom of my belly opened up and threatened to suck me under.

I climbed back up the stairs and went straight to the phone hanging on the wall by the back door. Remo’s number stood out on the single sheet beside it that was pinned to the wall. I dialed and waited.

A sleepy sigh echoed through the line. “Dahlia, I am literally crawling into bed. What do you want?”

“It’s not Dahlia,” I said. “I . . . just needed to hear your voice. Is Dahlia there with you?”

He sucked in a breath I knew he didn’t really need. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Not really. Theseus, he’s convinced Tad I’m not myself, and he’s turned him against me. And I think . . . maybe he’s got Dahlia.”

He grunted. “Stay where you are.” And hung up on me. Stay where I was? I glanced at the window. There were maybe five minutes before the sun was up, not long enough for him to get from his compound in the valley all the way back into town. What was he thinking?

The front door opened, and a gust of wind brought me cinnamon and honey a split second before Remo strode into the kitchen. Fully clothed, unlike the other men I’d dealt with earlier in the night, much to my horrified disappointment.

I stuttered, “What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast? Is Dahlia okay?”

He grabbed my arm, nodded to Yaya, and all but dragged me toward the door that led to the basement. “I don’t have much time. Flora, you’ll watch things?”

“Of course. I’ve still got my lighting rod,” she said as she pointed at her purse. As if it would have fit in there. Then again, maybe it was a shrinking and growing lightning rod. Another time, I would have had a giggle fit about that.

I followed him, casting a single glance back at my yaya. She smiled and waved at me with a wooden spoon. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

This from the woman who had slept with Zeus. Good grief. I flushed as we hurried down the stairs, the sun all but kissing at our heels.

In the basement, Remo pulled me toward the door across from Dahlia’s, the second bedroom set up for vampires. I’d not been down in the basement much; I’d been too busy dealing with everything to truly do a walk-through of the house. The door shut behind me, and we were plunged into semidarkness. There was a click, and two side lamps next to an oversized bed flicked on. Remo wrapped his arms around me from behind, his mouth against my shoulder as he spoke. “What happened?”

For a moment, I let myself just breathe. Just . . . exist with someone holding me, someone I trusted. Remo waited without pressuring me to hurry up and spit it out. No demands to get on with whatever I had to say.

I drew a breath and pulled away from him so I could turn and look him in the face. “More of the same. Only this time Tad took off, and I don’t know where Dahlia is. Could Theseus use Santos to put people in thrall?”

Remo’s face was a careful blank. “Yes, it is possible. But why would he do that if Theseus pulled Beth under on his own?”

I rubbed my face, realizing how much he’d missed out on. “He didn’t. He used one of Ernie’s arrows to manipulate her. I just . . . Tad wouldn’t turn on me. Not like this.” A tear slid down my cheek, and I swiped it away with a burst of anger. “He said this was my fault, that I deliberately poisoned our family.”

Remo’s mouth twitched. “They are all fine, aren’t they?”

I nodded. “Yes, they are. But that isn’t the point. He is right that I made them sick, even if I didn’t mean to.”

“Don’t fall for this, Alena.” He reached out and touched my face with one hand, tracing my jaw. “The doubt will chew you up and bring you to your knees. This is what Theseus wants. To make you believe you are something you aren’t. To make you believe you are evil and not worthy of living.”

I leaned my head against him. “Remo.”

He laughed when I didn’t say anything but his name. “Alena.”

I wasn’t laughing, though. I had to know where we stood, because the more I was around him, the more I felt things I knew were dangerous. Even telling Smithy that I was with Remo . . . that was the truth. It was how I felt. But if Remo didn’t feel the same way, I didn’t want to make the same mistake I’d made with Roger.

And the whole cross-species taboo . . . was that real, or was it something we could fight? Or was this just a friendship with a few benefits on the side?

“Tell me that you aren’t using me, that everyone else is wrong and I’m not a fool for feeling things for you. I know vampires aren’t monogamous. I get it, but I can’t let my heart go again. Not if this is just a game to you. Not if we’re just going to be pulled apart by rules that I don’t give two figs about.” Even though I hated saying it, I made myself lift my eyes to his. His were closed, and my heart thumped hard against my chest. “Just say it. Please be honest with me; as my friend I would hope you could do that much.” Honey puffs, my heart had never seemed so loud in my ears.