And I would do anything to save my brother, even if it meant I would d.a.m.n what was left of my soul to h.e.l.l.

"Where would he go, Yaya? You know Achilles, don't you?"

She sighed. "I know of him. I'm old, but not that old, you cheeky girl. Achilles is prideful, like all the heroes. He will want to make an example and a spectacle of you. The bigger the better."

I clutched her hand. "That doesn't really give me an idea of where he might be."

"Somewhere with a TV feed," Yaya said. "He'll want as many people as possible to see how wonderful he is."

My mind raced with the possibilities. Or lack thereof. "How do I . . . kill him?" The words were hard to say, and she tightened her hand on mine.

"Your fangs will be the best bet. Unless he's got a satyr right with him, there is no one who could heal him." She patted my hand. "You can do this, Alena. You are stronger than you realize. In every way. Only someone with the heart of a lion could be turned into a Drakaina; the change is not something easily done."

"How do you know that?"

"Merlin came to visit me earlier. He said there was no one in the world who could have been turned into the Drakaina besides you." She frowned. "Then he spouted off some nonsense that the only way our world was going to survive was if the monsters came back. Then again, he is a magician and they are always full of riddles."

From the other side of the room came a shuffling footstep. "You two better shut up or I'll page the nurses!"

I glared at the silhouette against the curtain and snapped, "They won't like you bothering them right now. They're watching p.o.r.n."

Yaya's roommate gasped, and I heard a distant buzzer go off. "I'd better go." I bent and kissed her forehead.

She clutched at my hand. "One last thing. Forgive your mother. She has a reason for being the way she is, even if she isn't ready to tell you yet."

I gave her a quick nod. "I'm trying."

Without another word I slipped between the curtains and out into the hall. The nurses were headed my way. The only hope I had was to distract them. "The old man, he's trying to jump out the window!"

One ran toward the room; the other moved to the desk and pointed at me. "Don't you go anywhere, I'm calling security."

I held my hands up. "Of course not."

As soon as she looked down, I ran for the hall, hit the door I'd broken, and was in the stairwell. In seconds I was on the main floor, running across the open entranceway and out the doors. Steven the receptionist waved frantically at me.

"Call me!" I yelled over my shoulder.

"Okay, but wait, I don't have your number!"

I paused, unable to help myself. I gave him Roger's. "Don't take no for an answer from him when he tells you I'm not there."

"Okay!"

Laughing to myself, I hurried to my car as the first flickering light of the police car came into view. I slid into my seat and slumped down. From the backseat Ernie peered forward. "You think they won't notice the car with the silver paw prints they've seen at two crime scenes already?"

I groaned and slumped farther into my chair, the fake leather squeaking like cellophane being rubbed together. A tap on the window brought my head up. Officer Jensen peered down at me.

I rolled down the window. "Hi, Officer."

"Alena Budrene. How am I not surprised?"

I batted my eyes up at him. Because that was about all I knew when it came to flirting to get my way. "What do you mean?"

"Don't try to act innocent."

Carefully, I reached toward the keys in the ignition. "Officer, I'd love to stay and chat, really. You're cute and nice, and wearing a uniform, which every girl loves, but I have things to do."

His eyes narrowed. "Remo is looking for you."

"Good for him." I turned the key and the car revved. "So unless I'm under arrest, which I've done nothing to warrant, I'm leaving."

Ernie snickered from the backseat. "I knew you had a spine under that good-girl exterior."

Officer Jensen stepped back. "I'm going to keep watching you."

I pulled away, waving out the window. "Enjoy the view."

With nowhere to go, I headed once more for my bakery.

"You going to make me something else?"

I put a hand to my forehead. "No. I'm going to see if I can figure out where the heck Achilles has taken my brother."

Easier said than done.

The bakery had a huge whiteboard, for jotting down notes and new recipe ideas. I wiped it clean and grabbed a marker. Making a quick list, I noted all the TV stations I could. And there were a lot.

"But a TV station, that doesn't make sense. There's no room to fight," Ernie pointed out. I ground my teeth in frustration, feeling Tad's life slip further away from me.

"What do you suggest, then?"

A sudden rap of knuckles on the door behind us spun me around. I grabbed for the closest thing to me, which ended up being a wooden spoon.

"That won't work all that well," Ernie said.

I didn't look at him. "I think it might work on a vampire."

"Ooohh, killed with a wooden spoon? A vampire would never live that down." He snickered at his own joke.

"Who is it?" I raised the spoon above my head.

A high-pitched voice that warbled like a bird came through the door. "Hermes. I have a message for the Drakaina."

I looked at Ernie. He nodded. "He's safe enough. Hermes is a neutral party, he has to be in order to deliver messages."

I walked to the door and flung it open. Hermes floated in the air, just like Ernie on the same kind of fluffy cream-colored wings. But that was where the resemblance ended. Hermes had bright-white hair that stuck out behind his head in a perfect swoosh, the windblown look resembling a certain brand of shoes rather well. His eyes were blue, and he was at least twice Ernie's height. But where Ernie was a bit on the chubby side, Hermes was whip thin, and he had more clothes on. A white T-s.h.i.+rt and shorts along with a pair of Nike Air runners. Maybe the resemblance to the hair was on purpose. My lips twitched despite the situation.

"I'm the Drakaina." The words echoed in the room, and a curl of pleasure coiled in my middle. Almost as if the Drakaina part of me were sentient and knew that what I'd said had more meaning than just the words. That slowly I had begun accepting what I'd become.

Hermes pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to me. "From Achilles. You want something sent back, I can wait."

I opened the paper and shook my head. "Ernie, I can't read this. It's all Greek to me."

"Ha-ha."

"No, really." I held the paper up so he could see the Greek words. Ernie flew over to me and read the paper, his eyes skimming it quickly.

"Not surprising, and it solves the problem of trying to find him. He's challenging you to a fight. And he's even given you his location."

"Where?"

"CenturyLink Field."

The football stadium? "Wait, the original one or the new one in Bellingham?"

Hermes bobbed his head. "Bellingham."

After the original field in the south of Seattle had burned down in the Supe Riots, they'd built a new one closer to the border, just north of Bellingham. The size of the field, the number of cameras they had there-it would be perfect for what he wanted. It looked as if Yaya was right again.

I swallowed hard. "Does he say anything about Tad?"

"Nope. And that's not good. I hope . . ." His eyes darted to Hermes, who gave a quick shake of his head.

"Sorry, I don't know. I just grabbed the message and have been checking all the places the Drakaina has been spotted the last two days." Hermes scratched the back of his neck and wove from side to side in the air as if he couldn't remain still. "You sure you don't have a message I can take back?"

Ernie took the paper from me and grabbed a pen from my desk. He scratched something in Greek across the backside of the paper. "Here, take this."

Hermes s.n.a.t.c.hed the message and was gone in a literal flash of light. The air sucked around us, drawing me toward the door. I shut it. "What did you say to Achilles?"

"That you would meet him. But only if your brother remained unharmed."

I let out a soft breath. "Will he do that?"

The look on Ernie's face did not ease my worry. Something between a frown and a twist of his lips. "Achilles is a warrior. They can be unpredictable because they don't always think but instead just rush in with their weapons out and their s.h.i.+elds up."

I looked at the clock. We were supposed to meet Zeus in fifteen minutes. It would take us at least that long to get to the club. I itched to go by the stadium and see if I could at least see Tad and make sure he was okay. But even I knew that was silly. No doubt they'd be inside the stadium, not standing outside like a bunch of scalpers at a Backstreet Boys concert. And it was too far to get to Bellingham and back to Charlie's Club in the fifteen minutes.

"Don't worry, you'll figure this out. Everything will be okay in the end. That's how these things work, you know." Ernie flew to my left, so we were eye to eye.

I snorted softly. "Have you read any Greek mythology lately? A happily-ever-after is about the furthest thing from a guarantee. The good guys don't always win. The world isn't always saved. People die, Ernie. I can't lose Tad again. I lost him once; I can't go through that again. Besides, if you'll recall, I'm the monster. Not the good guy. I'm supposed to lose."

He flew around to the pa.s.senger side of the car. With his free hand he touched his left earlobe and poofed, for lack of a better word. I blinked at where he'd been only a second before.

Movement inside the car caught my eyes. Ernie waved at me from the pa.s.senger seat. Well, that explained that. I slid into the driver's side and buckled up.

We headed into the city, and it wasn't long before I noticed the same vehicle behind us. "I think I have a tail."

"Well you have a tail, that's for sure. I don't." Ernie shuffled his b.u.t.t deeper into the leather seat.

"No." I hurried us through a yellow stoplight. "I mean we have someone following us."

Ernie spun around and leaned over the back of his seat. "You mean the cop car?"

"Yeah."

"Could just be going our way."

I frowned. "I'm starting to believe there is no such thing as coincidence. What do you want to bet it's Officer Jensen?"

"He is kinda cute. Has that exotic mocha skin and dark eyes." Ernie grinned over at me. "I could shoot him with one of my arrows. Make him fall for you."

"I think not." Though I did agree Officer Jensen was a handsome man, he worked for the mob boss who was also a vampire, who'd recently kissed me in a way that made every other man look dull and boring.

Not a mark in Officer Jensen's favor. "I keep telling you. I'm married. I can't even think like that until the divorce is final."

"Which of course is never going to happen since the courts will treat you as if you are dead," Ernie said.

I glanced at him. "I may not have the paperwork started yet, but it is going to happen. You can bet your chubby b.u.t.t on that."

"Except that the human world, where your marriage was performed, considers you a nonent.i.ty. If they gave you a divorce, that would be admitting you have rights. That would set off a ripple effect that would go through the entire world. There is no way anyone is going to let that happen. Certainly not a human judge."

My jaw dropped, and I inadvertently took my foot off the gas pedal. The car coasted to a stop in the middle of the road, and it wasn't until the police cruiser pulled up behind me and flicked its lights on that I shook myself out of the paralysis that grabbed me.

I steered the car over to the side of the road. Behind me, the officer got out of the car. Mocha skin, dark eyes indeed. Officer Jensen approached my window. I rolled it down and forced a smile up at him.

"Officer, we have to stop meeting like this."

"I have a report that this car was stolen from a Barbie Bollinger." He looked down at his notepad and then up at me. "I want to see the license and registration. Now."

"Hey, I thought we were developing a friends.h.i.+p. You know: your boss likes me so you have to be nice." Oh dear, did I really just say that out loud?

Officer Jensen's face went a careful, neutral blank. "License and registration."

I didn't have my license with me. I leaned forward and dug around in the glove compartment. I locked eyes with Ernie and whispered, "I don't have all the paperwork."

He shrugged. "You don't need it. Make him forget. You're a d.a.m.n siren. Use what you've got, girlfriend."

Use it. Like I'd come with an instruction manual as to being a Super Duper. Well, maybe I had, but I'd left it with Merlin. Dang it all. Then again, it had worked on Steven the receptionist. Kinda.

I drew in a breath and sat back up. I smiled up at Officer Jensen. "I don't need a license."

He frowned at me. "Yes. You do."

"You're going to let me go and stop following me," I whispered. He leaned forward.

"If you don't produce a license and registration in the next ten seconds, I'm going to haul you down to the station."

"Ernie, it's not working!" I yelped as Officer Jensen opened the door and pointed at me.