“What are you doing?” I repeated as I drew closer.

She smiled up at me. “Doing what we can. This disease . . . we’ve all got it. It’s just a matter of time.”

A chill swept through me as I took in the pallor of her skin, the dullness in her eyes. “No! How?”

“It’s . . . on a rampage, it seems. Drakaina . . . you said you would be the guardian of this city.” Her eyes filled with tears. “That you would protect us all.”

I struggled to breathe. “Yes. I did.”

“Can you stop this virus? It isn’t natural, is it?”

Hercules’s words echoed in my head. Two days before he would come looking for me. Maybe that would be enough time to stop the virus? The options were few, but I knew I had to try. She was right; I’d claimed to be the city’s guardian, and it was time to live up to it in more ways than just playing Godzilla games with the Hydra and Hercules. “Stay here. I will . . . I will stop this.”

The words slipped out of me as I turned and ran down the street toward house number thirteen. I burst through the door to find my friends waiting for me. All of their faces were turned to me, surprise written all over them.

I drew a big breath. “New plan. Hercules and the Hydra will wait. I have to stop the Aegrus virus.”

CHAPTER 12

My group of friends and family stared at me with collective eyebrows lifted and lips clamped shut.

“Well, don’t all jump up at once and tell me I can do it.” I laughed, but the sound was bitter like dark chocolate, even to my ears.

I looked around, shocked to see Yaya for more than one reason. “I thought you were going to the vampire council, Yaya?”

“I did. And they sent me away. Though I believe they are preoccupied with all those who are dying of the virus right now.” She shook her head, looking younger than ever. If another ten years were taken from her, she’d be closing in on my age bracket. I frowned, thinking of all the possibilities again when it came to her motivation. The one I liked the least being that she had somehow been involved in all the things that had happened to me. No, I wasn’t going there.

She took my hands in hers and stared up at me. “Alena, you are not a doctor, you’re not a warlock, and as much as I want to tell you that you can stop the virus, I’m not going to lie to you.” Her blue eyes were intent, without a single flicker of deceit in them. Yet the Drakaina in me whispered a single word.

Lies.

Yaya had lied to me for most of my life. I shot a look to Tad, and he nodded, urging me on. I held myself tight, coiled as if I were about to strike.

“Really? You’ve not had a problem lying to us in the past.” I bit the words at her, and she dropped my hands.

“Yes, and as I’ve pointed out, that was to protect you.”

“So why would this be any different?” I took a step back. The words spilled out of me in a torrent. “Yaya, of all the people in my life, you helped me find my feet at Vanilla and Honey. You told me I was worth the time and effort, you supported me in my sham of a marriage. Why would you stop supporting me now?”

She closed her eyes. “Because none of those things truly took you from me. None of them could kill you. This could, Alena. I’ve lost my daughter, do you think I want to lose my granddaughter too?”

I put a hand over my face and struggled through the tears. “But so many people are dying, Yaya. And letting them die won’t bring Mom back.” I took my hand away and stared at her. “I can’t . . . I can’t turn my back on them. This time . . . this time I really have to do this on my own, I think.”

Sandy approached, her dark eyes searching my face. “You aren’t the only monster here, Alena. You don’t have to do this on your own.”

They didn’t understand, none of them truly did. Well, maybe one of them did. Remo’s eyes met mine; those flickering violet colors made them look like cut gems. He gave me a small smile, and in it I found the backup I needed. Even now, he understood me better than anyone else did.

I swallowed hard. “Yaya, where does the virus originate? Is it Hera’s doing?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know.”

Lies. Again, I could almost taste them on the air.

“Really? You know I can tell you are lying, Flora.” I used her given name for the first time, and she sucked in a sharp breath. I shook my head. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

Her eyes slowly closed, but not before I saw the hurt in them. I refused to be upset by her pain. Not today, not in that moment when she still wouldn’t tell me the truth.

Trying to protect me was one thing, but not allowing me to make my own choices based on actual fact was entirely different.

My jaw ticked, and I paced into the kitchen. “I’m going to do some baking. Sandy, you want to work on a new-to-you recipe?” In other words, I needed to think.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” she said.

Sandy hurried in with me, and I directed her to get the ingredients I would need to make a cake I’d not put together in a long time. Not since before my father’s parents had passed. They’d spent some of their earlier years in the South Pacific and had come back with a chocolate cake recipe that was to die for. But whenever I made it I thought of them and all the things they were missing out on in our lives, which made me avoid it . . .

“No eggs?” Sandy asked as she stood by the fridge.

“No eggs, no milk,” I said. “Just grab the sifter; we need to run the dry ingredients through four times to get everything smooth.”