Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy #2)(9)

“I don’t know that I can take a rocket launcher!” I spit out. “I’m not a fighter, Officer Jensen, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Oh, we’re way beyond formalities. First name is Ben.” He peeked around the hall. “Okay, you’re up.”

He pulled me hard, and slingshot me around the corner. I squawked as I hit the ground, tumbled once, and ended up flat on my back, my skirt bunched even higher on my thighs. I rolled to my belly and found myself staring at a pair of boots that buckled all the way up to the knees. I slowly lifted myself and my eyes at the same time.

“What have we here?” A deep rumble purred. “Let me guess, this is the new girl, the one we’ve all been hearing about.”

I stared up into a pair of dark eyes partially hidden under a shock of hair almost as dark as my own raven locks. He was all muscle without an ounce of fat on him. His quads looked like they were trying to burst out of his pants like an overfilled muffin tin.

“I doubt anyone has been talking about me,” I said.

“Oh, the green eyes give you away. That and the exquisite beauty. Remo always did have exceptional taste.” He tipped his chin to one side and gave me a sly smile that bared a single fang to me. Without warning, his hands were at the back of my head and he’d pulled me to him for a hard, demanding kiss.

The shock wore off in under a second, and I slammed my hands into his chest as I braced my legs. The blow threw him back at least ten feet. A low murmur rolled, and I looked around. A dozen vampires, by my count, and none were on Remo’s side, if Jensen was right. I stood up and straightened my clothes.

“Remo, are you okay?” I called out.

“Not my best moment.” He groaned, and the enemy vampires smiled as they parted so I could see him. He was trussed up between three vampires, and blood poured from wounds all over his chest and neck. Bite marks. They were draining him.

And that was all it took to wake the snake in me up. To be fair, it wasn’t really a snake, but a Drakaina, but that’s semantics. That side of me was easily riled when it came to blood and wounds on those I cared for.

No matter what I might say to Remo, I did care for him. More than I even wanted to admit to myself.

“I’m ssssorry,” I said, the s drawn out as I prepared to shift. The vampires tipped their heads as a unit, like nothing more than a group of meerkats wondering what was going on.

“Did she just apologize to me?” The one who’d kissed me stood and raised an eyebrow at me. Something about him tugged at my memories. Like I’d seen him before. But I knew I hadn’t.

“No, I’m apologizing to all of you.” I didn’t smile, just breathed in and loosed the tight coils of snake inside of me. Like unlatching a springform pan, it was just that easy to open myself up to the monster I was now.

Shifting from woman to giant snake was fast and painless. Smoke curled around my body, obscuring my vision for a split second before it cleared and I stared down at the vampires, who took a united step back, their eyes widening like children who’d finally seen the bogeyman, and he was as terrifying as their imagination had whispered in the dark.

I knew what they saw. My scales were purple, blue, and silver, glittering and beautiful, even though they were attached to me. A snake over a hundred feet long with a girth of over six feet and a pair of fangs that were anything but subtle. Raised up, I was easily two stories tall. I know all this because Tad had decided we needed exact measurements.

My head brushed against the ceiling, and I opened my mouth, fangs dropping low as I hissed at the gathered vampires. Maybe I could just scare them away, make them run.

“Shoot her.” The vamp in the front snapped his fingers. “Cooked snake for dinner, boys and girls.”

So much for making them just go away. I flicked my tail forward and slammed it through the first row of vampires. The blow sent them through the drywall and then pinned them up against the concrete wall of the courthouse hard enough that the concrete cracked. I dropped them and swept my tail back, catching a few more and clearing them off Remo. He lifted his head, his eyes locking on mine, then flicking behind me.

“Duck.”

There was nowhere for me to go, nowhere to hide. There was a loud click that drew my eyes to the vampire who stood in the corner of the hallway, a rocket launcher on his shoulder. A puff of flame and smoke erupted from the launcher.

I flattened myself to the ground, and the rocket cleared me by mere inches. The projectile exploded against the wall behind me, and the entire courthouse shuddered and groaned. The humans screamed, filling the air with their panic-stricken cries.

Slithering forward, I opened my mouth, intent on snapping my fangs over the leader, piercing him through. I didn’t want to kill him, but he was trying to kill us. I had to stop him if I could. His eyes were on mine, unafraid.

“I can see why Remo keeps you around. You are a useful tool, aren’t you?”

I hissed, and venom flicked with the explosion of air, splattering at his feet, where it ate away at the tile. He took several steps back, and I shot forward again.

With my attention on him, I didn’t see the rocket launcher go off again. I heard it, though, and rolled, taking the impact on my upper belly.

I braced myself for pain and heat, for the explosion of flesh and blood.

The projectile blasted into me with a shimmering burst of fire and shrapnel, bounced off my scales, and fell to the floor. I rolled on top of it, effectively putting out the flames.