“No. But I don’t want you flipping out and shifting in here. You might bend my wings. Worse, you could wreck your bakery, and that would mean no pastries for me. Which would totally suck rotten eggs.”

I put both hands on the door and stared hard at the officer. “Ernie, why would I shift? I don’t want to be a giant snake. I’m never going to shift into one.”

The very thought made my skin crawl, and that only made me shudder more. Who in their right mind would want to be a snake so big it could swallow a horse whole? No. That wasn’t—

“You won’t have a choice. If you’re threatened or scared bad enough, you’ll shift.”

“I don’t want to!”

“Sorry, but you will. It’s not a matter of if, but when.” He fluttered his wings and did a slow circle.

“You like saying that, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “It’s a good saying. Not if. When. That’s life. Not if you die. When. Not if you fall in love. When. Not if you get your heart broken. When.”

“Not if you turn into a giant venomous snake the size of a two-story house,” I whispered.

He nodded. “You got it now. So what’s it going to be, beautiful? Door number one? Or door number two?”

Paralyzed by indecision, I stood there in my bakery and bowed my head. “Achilles is going to keep coming after me, isn’t he?”

Ernie didn’t answer right away. He floated over to the cash register and lowered himself to it. “He’s only been woken up to kill you. I think.”

I put a hand to my eyes to cover the prickle of tears. The stainless steel rolling pin in my hand seemed a silly thing now, useless against a hero who had a sword and knew how to use it. I dropped it to the floor with a clatter. “Maybe I can sneak by the officer in the front.”

I flicked the lock and stepped out of my bakery, leaving behind the comforting smells of dough, yeast, and flour. Moving quickly, I strode down the street, putting the bakery and the officer behind me. “Ernie, can you see if he’s following us?”

“Yup, he’s doing a U-turn.”

“Donkey balls,” I bit out, and hurried my stride.

“I don’t think speed-walking is going to get you out of this. Go. I’ll catch up with you later if I can,” Ernie said as he flew above my head and off to the side.

I broke into a run. The buildings whipped by in a steady blur, and behind me the police car’s siren rent the air, shattering the false silence. I took a hard right down an alley and kept moving as fast as I could. I leapt dumpsters and sleeping homeless people, climbed two fences, and took three more turns before I let myself slow down. The siren had been turned off, or I had outrun it. I wasn’t sure which, and really it didn’t matter except that I’d bought myself some time.

My hand brushed against the old brick building and I leaned into it. Just what was I going to do now? I had a hero who wanted to kill me. How was I going to stop that from happening?

I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud until someone answered me.

“I can help you, Alena.”

I spun around with a gasp. Behind me stood Remo, the vampire mob boss. He leaned against the building, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips. The tip burned bright as he drew a breath, the color flickering over the metal fangs in his chin. Violet eyes stared hard at me, as though trying to see through me. I glared at him, hating the way I felt around him. Equal parts intrigued and scared, irritated and amused. Even I knew that was a dangerous combination for a recipe.

“I don’t want your help. And you shouldn’t sneak up on people, it might be bad for your health.”

He smiled around the edge of his cigarette. “Threatening me right off the bat? That’s amusing.”

I didn’t like that he used the word I’d been thinking about him. “Go away. I’m not on your turf.”

“It’s all my turf, Alena. Now, are you sure you don’t want my help? I think you’re going to need it. Rumor is you pissed off some mighty powerful people. I would think you would like an equally powerful . . . friend.” He pushed off the building and walked toward me. Each step he took reminded me of something, the same as when I’d first met him. Like a tiger sliding through the jungle, seen and then not as its stripes blended into the foliage. That same slinking, muscled walk in a man his size was, to say the least, unnerving.

“You move like a cat,” I said, the words escaping my filter before I could stop them.

His eyebrows shot up along with one side of his mouth. “Pardon?”

I couldn’t help the blush that heated up my face, unable to take my eyes from his lips. “Never mind. I don’t want to be your friend. Besides, we aren’t allowed to interact. You being a vampire and me being . . . not a vampire.”

He smiled and flicked the cigarette behind him. “I want to be your friend, Alena. You’re a powerful Supe. Beautiful. Deadly. Confident. Everything I want in a friend.”

I blinked and he was standing right in front of me, our eyes locked as though our gazes had tangled. My earlier assumption was right; he was a good five inches taller than me, which left me craning my head to look up at him. I took in a deep breath, and his scent coursed over my tongue.

Cinnamon and a hint of honey, as if he’d dipped his tongue in a jar of it. My fangs slowly dropped, and I slapped my hands over my mouth. “Sorry.”

He grinned, a slow lifting of his lips. “Did your fangs lower on their own?”