A blanket settled over my shoulders, and Yaya wrapped her arms around me. “Pull yourself together, Lena. The night is not over yet.”

I lifted my head and wiped my nose. “It’s not?”

“They took Tad.”

My heart sank. “I was hoping he’d made it out. Or left before this mess started.”

“No. We tried to talk Zeus into spilling the beans, and then I decided to get some groceries. You know how it is, once you start shopping you keep adding things, and before I knew it, hours had passed.”

Zeus cleared his throat and we both looked up at him. To be fair I looked, and Yaya glared.

“You fool. You think you can escape your responsibilities by hiding here?”

“I’m not hiding. And your granddaughter is not my responsibility, Flora,” he said, but there was hesitation in his words. As if even he didn’t really believe them.

Yaya snorted. “Please. That’s the least of my concerns. Hera is up to something, and you know it!” She pointed a bony finger at him.

Zeus shook his head. “We’ve been separated for years. If she’d give me the damn divorce, I’d do it in the heartbeat of a hummingbird. But you know her; she’s a jealous bitch. You didn’t get that family curse for nothing.”

Shock zipped through me. “What family curse?”

Yaya’s mouth pinched to a thin line, and she wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“What curse?” I repeated.

Zeus looked over our heads as if searching for an answer from the heavens. “Tonight, at Charlie’s Club. I’ll tell you what I can there. If you still want to hear it. Seeing as you did save my kingdom from complete destruction.”

I rolled my eyes, forgetting I sat there naked as the day I was born. Until the police came rushing down the aisle, Officer Jensen in the lead. His dark-brown eyes widened when he saw me sitting there, and I wiggled my fingers at him.

“Hello again, Officer.”

“How am I not surprised?” he said under his breath.

The cops called in the EMTs for Yaya, but she waved them off. “I’m fine, stop touching me, you grabby perverts.” This to the ambulance attendant trying to get a stethoscope on her.

I put a hand on her arm while still clutching the blanket tight. “Maybe you should go with them, Yaya. Call Mom and Dad and tell them . . .” I didn’t know what she’d tell them. Or what good it would do. Not like Mom was going to let Dad help us again. Another burst of anger at my parents and fear for Tad snapped through me. A hand locked onto my shoulder, pressing me into the ground. I stared up at Zeus. His blue eyes held mine. “Not here. Not now.”

What was he talking about? He gestured with his head and I looked to my feet, where the scales I’d seen in my full snake form wrapped up my leg. Nothing else, just scales. I stared at them, unable to look away.

There was no more denying that I wasn’t going to be able to live as a human, no more believing things could go back to the way they were. I was a Super Duper. And not just any Super Duper, but one of literal and most epic proportions.

Officer Jensen was the one who questioned me about the incident. I listened in to Zeus’s account from thirty feet away. Obviously the police had no idea he was a supernatural, or they wouldn’t be taking his statement at all. Nor did they consider me a supernatural, or they wouldn’t be taking mine.

Zeus was explaining that the Bull Boys were disgruntled employees, and they’d trashed the place and beaten each other up, and then the remainder of them had left. I echoed his words to Jensen.

“And the accounts of a giant snake? People from the doors swore they saw a giant snake head touch the ceiling at one point. You didn’t see that? How could you miss it?” Officer Jensen held his pen over his notepad as his brown eyes narrowed. As if he knew I was the one to blame for that particular section of testimony.

Oh dear, this was going to be hard to explain. “Did anyone get a picture of this supposed giant snake?” I did my best to put some sarcasm into my words, but I wasn’t very well practiced.

“No, there were no pictures, unfortunately. Apparently it all happened too fast.”

Relief swept through me.

I shrugged and let a bit of the blanket slip down my shoulder, baring the pale skin. His eyes slid away from me, and the expression in them softened. “Ma’am. The giant snake.”

Here I was, about to break another rule that had been drummed into me since I was a child. Thou shalt not lie. “I would think if there was anything like that, Officer Jensen, we would see it. Wouldn’t we? It’s not like a giant snake can just disappear into thin air.”

I took a breath; the blanket slipped a little farther so the tops of my breasts peeked out. Just skin, no nipple, but it seemed to do the trick.

“Of course not,” he said, agreeing with me far too easily. Even though I was grateful for it, I wondered if it had to do with who his boss was. If again, Remo was somehow trying to make it so I owed him something.

He jotted something on his paper and turned away. Pausing, he looked back. “The boss. You’ve got him riled up, and he’s not a guy to rile up easy. Try not to get on his bad side, will you?”

I frowned. “Not my fault he’s got sex on the brain and I don’t.”

Officer Jensen’s mouth dropped open. “Sex? Why would you say that? He wants you on his side, not in his bed.”

Oh dear, what had I stepped into this time? “Nothing. Never mind. I’m not interested in his offer. That’s what I meant.”