Sweet Venom (6 page)

Their blank faces nod, and I hurry on to do the same to the handful of groups scattered around the courtyard.

As I move to the last, a gaggle of giggling girls in the far corner, my heart begins to race, not out of fear but out of anticipation. This is going to be a good fight.

Not that I'm thrilled about the sudden change of rules, but monster hunting has become pretty routine lately. Sniff, find, fight, bite. Go home and take a shower. Repeat.

This fight should present a welcome challenge.

Everything will be fine as long as I follow the two carved-in-stone commandments of monster fighting.

First rule, never let them bite the right wrist, or the superhealing powers of the blood in that artery will give them a period of enhanced abilities and invincibility. The last thing I need is a monster that can't be sent home. The left wrist is fine, because blood from that artery is deadly. But because humans are so often annoying bystanders, it's best to keep that one protected too. Hence the Kevlar wrist cuffs.

Second rule, go for the pulse point. It's different on every monster, but there is always a critical vein, one that feeds directly to the heart—or hearts—and assures an instantaneous trip back to their murky abyss. Other blood vessels work too. Eventually. But who knows what might happen to me or the innocent humans involved in the time my monster-transporting venom takes to make its way to the pumper. One stab in the key vein and the fight is over in a heartbeat. Literally.

I've put in my time studying the binders full of monster files Ursula has in the loft library, to memorize the target on every creature I might encounter. But I can't remember everything. And they must be reproducing like bunnies in their realm, creating hybrids and mutant freaks no one has ever seen before, because there are always new, unknown and unidentified monsters showing up. Keeps the job interesting, anyway.

Before tonight, since it's only ever been one monster at a time, knowing the pulse point never seemed imperative. Now, as I turn to face the pair, I kinda wish I remembered where to chomp down.

“No!” I shout as I watch the serpent thing bite down on the blond girl's neck.

No time for strategy. In a flying leap, I launch myself onto the serpent thing's back. It releases the girl with a shove, sending her to the ground. Twisting to get a look at its un-welcome passenger, the serpent thing unwittingly gives me a choice opportunity to introduce it to my fangs.

Reaching my head around what I can only guess is its neck region, I aim my bite right below its jaw. Before I can sink my fangs, the two girls formerly known as dinner start screaming. Arms clamped around the serpent's writhing body, I struggle to make eye contact with the girls, hoping to quiet their attention-drawing screams before the unhypnotized masses inside catch wind of the trouble out here.

Even if they did, though, all they would see is me hanging on the back of some beefy slimeball, not some feathery snake.

I focus on the monster prey, trying to get the girls out of harm's way. Not an easy task while clamped onto a giant snake that's trying to violently dislodge me from its body. I hold on with a death grip and keep my eyes trained on the screaming girls, waiting for one to look at me directly.

Finally, one of them throws her wide-eyed gaze at me. Score one for eye contact. Before she can look away, I say, “Run! These guys were about to assault you. Get out of here!”

She screams louder. “They tried to assault me!”

The other girl looks totally confused, like her friend has gone instantly insane. Kind of true. But the hypnotized girl grabs her by the arm and drags her out of the courtyard at full speed.

By now, monster number two has realized what's going on and has circled the picnic table vacated by the fleeing girls. It tries to grab me off the serpent's back, but the serpent is moving too wildly for the griffin to grab hold. Besides, lions' paws aren't exactly dexterous. Still, it has poisonous claws I'd rather avoid.

The griffin clamps both paws around one of my ankles, yanking hard to pull me off the snake's back. I manage a fierce kick to its beak with my other foot, sending it reeling back. It doesn't lose its grip on my ankle.

“Come on,” I mutter, wondering if maybe I should have let one or two of the human guys help me out.

No, of course not. They'd end up getting hurt or killed, and I'd have to do a lot of hypno cleanup. And since the hypno power isn't permanent, eventually there would be questions.

Telling myself to stay on track, I ignore the lion-bird behind me and try again for the serpent's feathered flesh. If I can get one of them gone, I'll be able to focus on the other. As I'm about to bite down, the griffin snatches my other ankle and tries to twist me around. My spine feels like it's going to snap from the torque.

“Hey!” Nick shouts, running back into the courtyard. “Let her go!”

I should send him away too. Normally I would. But I'm feeling at a bit of a disadvantage—my training has never covered how to face two attackers, because we never thought I'd need to know. If Nick wants to save me from this pair of goons, then maybe I should let him. Can't save the world from beasties if I become monster food tonight.

“Get the one off my feet!” I shout. If Nick can keep himself from being eaten for five seconds, I can get rid of snake thing and then take out the griffin before things get really out of control.

In a flash, Nick is across the courtyard and landing a solid punch in the vulnerable spot between the griffin's eyes. Pretty good aim for someone who can't see the monster's true face. Stunned, the griffin lets me go. I take the opportunity to bite the snake's neck. It disappears out from under me, flashing back to the prison realm where it belongs, and I fall to the ground, barely getting my feet under me to land in a crouch.

Guess I got that pulse point right.

I don't understand all the details about the process. Ursula's tried to explain it to me, but there's too much magic and physiology involved for it to make any sense. All I really know is that something in my venom is a
GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL
card for monsterkind. Don't really need to know the details, do I? I'm fine with calling it a mystery of mythology, so long as they go away for a good long while. Too bad there are always more to replace them.

With the serpent creature gone, I turn to help Nick.

He's actually holding his own pretty well for a guy fighting an eagle-headed lion. The griffin is pinned beneath him, roaring and lashing out with four paws full of skin-slicing, poison-tipped, razor-sharp claws.

How on earth am I going to explain this crazy fight away? Especially since Nick appears to be the one and only human immune to my hypno magic.

“A little help!” he calls.

No time to worry about the aftermath at the moment. The griffin gets some leverage and flips over, reversing their positions so that Nick is pinned to the ground. The giant beak is heading for Nick's beautiful face. Nick is holding it off—barely—but his arms are beginning to shake. He's weakening.

No wonder. He's battling a superpowerful mythical creature.

I push off and leap onto the creature's back, trying to remember the illustration that shows a griffin's most vulnerable spot. I know I've studied this one—it's a classic. Distracted away from Nick's face, the eagle head whips around and tries to peck me off its back.

Why can't I picture the drawing?

In a flash, Ursula's diagram of the griffin pops into my mind. I see a bright red circle around the beast's right rear thigh. Bingo! Target acquired.

In a feat of acrobatic wonder, I spin around on the lion's back, wrap my arms around its waist, and lunge my head down to sink my teeth into the muscular spot just above the bend in its leg.

The griffin has just enough time to scratch its beak across the back of my neck before vanishing into the dark.

“Ooof!”
I land, half on Nick, half on the concrete, with a thud that knocks the wind out of me.

This was the hardest fight I've had since . . . well, ever. Even my very first—a giant turtle that was attacking tourists down at the maritime park—was a piece of seaweed-wrapped cake compared to this.

With the adrenaline flooding my bloodstream, I can't feel any of the aches and pains I know will be there in the morning. But not even a morphine drip could kill the searing pain burning across the back of my neck.

“You okay?” Nick asks.

He doesn't even sound out of breath.

I roll off him. “Bastard scratched me.”

“Gretchen,” he asks, “are you—”

“I need to go.”

I can't stick around to answer Nick's questions because, well, there aren't any good answers, are there? Besides, thanks to the griffin's last-ditch effort, some nasty monster venom is now making its way through my circulatory system. Wait too long before treating it and I'm in for several days of excruciating pain—which I know from an up-close-and-personal experience with a cynolycus.

The clock is ticking.

Without waiting for Nick to say or ask or do anything, I jump to my feet and run from the courtyard. As I shove my way through the crowd inside, I wonder how on earth I'm going to explain the fight and the disappearing guys to Nick come Monday at school. I've never dealt with a hypno-immune human before, didn't even know they existed. And I know he's not the kind of guy to let this go without explanation.

Hopefully Ursula will be back before I have to face him again. She'll have some suggestions.

I'm halfway through the main club room when I'm hit with the smell of burning sulfur. Another monster? Not just any monster, either. Sulfur means a fire-breather.

“You have
got
to be kidding me,” I mutter.

That makes three in one night. What is this, the freakin' monsterpocalypse?

Thankfully, I don't have to look far to spot the lizard with a spiked tail and smoke curling out of its nostrils. It's dancing by itself in the middle of the room. Even if they disguise their true appearance, some beasties are less than welcome in a crowd. Bad body odor is bad body odor, no matter the species. I kind of empathize with its loneliness.

“Poor thing.”

Still, it has to go.

I step up behind the lizard, ignoring the throbbing pain in my neck, and grab it by the wrist. It whirls around to face me, sending its spiked tail whipping through the crowd.

Most people don't react, since all they see is a kind of homely woman in bondage-worthy stilettos and a floral sundress. But as I force its wrist to my mouth, I see the girl behind the creature leap out of the way of the swinging tail.

As I stab my fangs into the creature's wrist—not the pulse point, apparently, because the lizard doesn't go anywhere—the girl turns around.

With a gasp, I drop the creature's wrist. Standing there, in the middle of a dance floor surrounded by dozens of ordinary teens, is a girl who looks exactly like me. I mean
exactly
like me. And, I realize as we blink at each other, she saw the lizard's tail.

Just then, a stab of pain sears across my neck.
Tick tock, tick tock.

Without stopping to think, I step forward, grab the girl by the waist, and fling her over my shoulder. I don't wait for anyone to notice or even for the lizard to disappear. It will. I race for the front door, knowing that eventually my venom will reach the creature's heart and send it home. Right at this moment my two bigger concerns are the monster juice making its way toward
my
heart and the Gretchen lookalike hanging limp as I run out of the club.

M
aybe I should have screamed, or kicked my legs, or struggled to keep from getting shoved into the black Mustang. On any other day I probably would have. Maybe this is another manifestation of my insanity, letting some random girl kidnap me from a nightclub without saying a word. But the truth is, I'm curious. I'm totally freaked about the girl who looks like me and the monster she bit on the wrist. Because she obviously saw the fire-breathing lizard too, which leaves limited explanations.

Either she's another figment of my imagination—though the bruise on my left hip suggests otherwise—or we're both equally insane—what are the odds of that?—or . . . the monsters are real.

I know which option I'm rooting for.

As she jams the car into gear and squeals out into the street, I study her profile. It's like looking at a photograph of myself. We are virtually identical; the only differences I can see are cosmetic. Her long dark-blond hair is woven back in a tight French braid. Her face is clear of makeup and there are no earrings in her unpierced lobes. And her jaw is set in a rigid clench, with tension that follows the lines of her throat, around to the back of her neck where—

“You're hurt,” I blurt.

She flicks me an annoyed glance. “I know.”

“You need to go to a hospital.”

She shifts gears, speeding through a yellow light.

“No hospital can fix this.”

I nod, somehow instinctively understanding what she means. A monster caused that wound. It couldn't have been the lizard I saw right before she hauled me over her shoulder, because I'd have seen if it had been able to attack her. So it must have been one of the other two.

“Was it the eagle-headed lion?” I ask as we crest a hill and spend a couple of seconds airborne before slamming back onto the street. “Or the feathered snake thing?”

“The griffin and the
Ophis pterotus
.” Her knuckles turn white on the steering wheel. “You saw those too?”

A silent cheer erupts in my brain.

“Actually, I—” As weird as it feels to say out loud, it's an amazing relief to know I'm not going insane. Or, at least if I am, this girl is going with me. “Yes. And I saw another one last night. At a dim sum parlor.”

She snorts. “The minotaur.”

“Ew, right?” I shove away a mental image of the drooling bull's head. My attempt at shared grossness gets no response, so I admit, “I thought I was losing my mind.”

The girl swerves the car along some winding street and guns it as we pass the lower slope of a big green park. “Unfor-tunately,” she says, turning at an old Spanish-style gatehouse, “the monsters are all too real.”

I have a second when I wonder if maybe I still am going crazy. I mean, maybe I'm imagining this identical twin I never knew I had. This identical twin I always wished I had—what little girl doesn't? She could be as much a mental trick as the monsters. An expression of an adopted girl's wishful thinking.

But then she cuts the wheel hard to the left, sending me slamming against the passenger door, and races toward the end wall of what looks like a giant warehouse building. No way am I making up the throbbing in my shoulder. Or the fact that we're barreling toward a completely solid wall.

“Watch out!” I scream.

Before I can finish my warning, a hidden garage door glides up in the middle of the wall, and the Mustang flies into the building. She slams on the brakes, sending the car squealing across the concrete. I scream again, convinced we're going to skid into the corrugated metal interior wall.

We don't.

The car screeches to a halt with a good ten feet between us and the wall. Heart racing and breathing heavy, I stare wide-eyed at my double.

She doesn't say a word, just yanks the parking break, shuts off the car, and climbs out. I've barely unbuckled my seatbelt with shaking hands when I see her march across the empty space and climb a set of metal spiral stairs in the far corner. As I manage to pull myself out of the car, my legs wiggly as wet noodles, I see her disappearing from the balcony through a rusty metal door.

“Quite the welcome,” I whisper.

Not knowing what else to do, I follow her.

My foot is on the first step when my cell phone rings. I pull it out of my jeans pocket and check the screen.

Thane.

Oh shoot, I totally forgot about him and Milo. Meeting a long-lost twin tends to have that affect, I suppose. I need to come up with a believable explanation—emphasis on the believable bit—for my disappearance. I am so not good at coming up with cover stories, which is probably one of the reasons I've never snuck out of the house. I'd have no way to talk myself out of trouble if I got caught.

If I don't answer his call, though, things will only get worse. He would call Mom and Dad, and they would probably call the police, the fire department, and every hospital in the Bay Area. And that's
if
he didn't see me get hauled out of the club over another girl's shoulder. Who knows what he saw or what he thinks happened.

Since he's waited this long to call, I hope that means he thinks I got lost on the way to bathroom or something.

With a deep breath, I punch the answer button. “Hey,” I say, trying to sound un–freaked out. “What's up?”

“Are you ready to go?”

Whew. He must not have seen me carried away like a sack of apples.

“Am I ready to go?” I ask to buy time.

“It's not a trick question.”

Cover story, Grace. Come on, you're a smart girl. You can do this. “Um, I—er, ran into a new friend.”

“New friend?”

“From school.” For the first time, I'm really thankful Thane and I are not at the same school. Otherwise he'd know I haven't met a single person I could call a friend. “Yeah, she lives nearby and invited me over to watch movies.”

“You left?”

The heavy silence after his question tells me he's angry. Rightfully so, since I bailed without telling him and can't exactly share the real reason.

“Sorry,” I say, glancing up at the rusty door. I don't have time to deal with Thane right now. Not when I have a mysterious, monster-fighting twin upstairs who has answers to my burning questions. “I should have told you first.”

“Grace—”

“Look, I gotta go,” I said, partly because I don't want to risk answering any more questions, but also because my curiosity is killing me. I need to know what's up with the monsters and why no one else can see them and who the lookalike girl is and a million other things. Thane will be waiting at home. I can only find my answers upstairs. “I'll call home to let them know what's up.”

I hang up before he can argue.

I allow myself a few seconds of rest against the railing before gathering the courage to call Mom. Before gathering the courage to
lie
to Mom. In the end, the call isn't as stressful as I feared. I give her the story about running into a friend and going over to watch movies. After assuring her that my friend's parents would bring me home before midnight, she lets me go without an interrogation. She's probably thrilled to think I've made a friend.

“Little does she know,” I whisper, pocketing my phone and following my double up the stairs.

As I push open the squeaky door, I'm shocked to step into an entirely modern space. All the surfaces are gleaming black and white, polished metal, and shiny glass. The complete opposite of the dull beige exterior and the rusty metal garage area.

“Wow,” I can't help but say to the expansive room.

It's such a huge, open space. I sweep my gaze around the room, taking everything in. Directly in front of the door is what looks like a living room, with black leather sofas and armchairs around a metal-and-glass coffee table. Along the right wall is a trio of doors, maybe bedrooms and a bathroom, on either side of a flat panel TV the size of my bed. Across the living room is a glassed-in space lined with full bookshelves and with a giant conference table surrounded by chairs in the center and a computer workstation along one wall.

To my left is another door next to a black granite and stainless-steel kitchen and an equally sleek dining room.

Despite all the slick and shiny covering every surface, the thing that enthralls me is the far wall. Floor-to-ceiling windows, with sliding glass doors and a balcony beyond. Both the dining room and the library have unobstructed, picture-perfect views.

I make my way past the kitchen toward the balcony. I slide open the doors and step out into the chill air. The view of the Bay and the houses, boats, and other lights twinkling all around is breathtaking. I'm so caught up by the sights before me that I don't hear my double walk up behind me.

“What's your name?” she demands.

My heart jump-starts and I whirl around with a gasp, clutching my palm to my chest. “Omigosh, you scared me.”

She lifts her brows.

She's pulled off the long-sleeved black tee she was wearing at the club and is now in a black tank top. One leg of her cargo pants is rolled up to the knee, and her ankle is wrapped in white gauze. She's dabbing at the back of her neck with a cotton pad soaked in a blue liquid that smells like mouthwash.

“Grace,” I say, leaning back against the railing. “My name is Grace.”

“Grace what?”

“Whitfield,” I answer. “What's your name?”

She turns away, walking back inside. I follow her through the living room and into a brightly lit bathroom, a little annoyed that she ignored my question. Twisted around with her back to the mirror, she's trying to secure a second gauze bandage to the back of her neck.

“Here,” I offer. “Let me help.”

She gives me a skeptical look but doesn't argue when I brush her hand aside and hold the bandage to her wound. As I tear off a piece of first aid tape, she mumbles, “Gretchen.”

“Gretchen?” I echo, securing a second piece of tape.

“Sharpe,” she says, almost reluctantly.

I release the bandage, and it seems like it's going to stay in place. I step back and around to face Gretchen. With a smile, I say, “All patched up.”

She mutters a quiet “Thanks,” and then turns to put away the first aid supplies.

I would offer to help, but I have a feeling she's not interested.

“So, Gretchen,” I say instead. “Wanna tell me what's going on?”

She closes up the first aid box, slides it under the sink, and then leans back against the counter. It's hard not to squirm as she scrutinizes me with eyes the same silvery gray as my own.

“That depends,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. “How much do you know?”

I laugh. A big giant guffaw just bursts out, I can't help it. It's a slightly hysterical reaction to an extremely ridiculous question. “How much do I know?” I ask, still laughing. “I know that yesterday I started seeing monsters from Greek mythology come to life, and you look like my twin.”

She looks at me, like she's waiting for me to say more. When I don't, she asks, “That's all?”

“To the syllable.”

“And before yesterday you never saw a monster?” She uncrosses her arms and tucks her hands into the back pockets of her black cargo pants.

“Not once.”

“What happened yesterday?” she asks.

“I told you,” I say, getting a little frustrated that she's doing all of the asking and none of the answering. “I saw the minotaur in the dim sum parlor. And then I—”

“No, before that.” She shifts her weight to the other foot. “What was different about yesterday? What's changed in your life recently?”

Well, there's only been one really big change.

“We moved to San Francisco,” I say, using up the last of my patience. “Yesterday was my first day at the new school.”

“That explains it,” Gretchen says, as if now everything should be clear. “Monsters don't get far from the city.”

Without another word she walks out of the bathroom, leaving me standing there like an idiot, facing my own reflection. That explains it? That doesn't explain
anything
.

“Grrr,”
I growl at the mirror.

I let myself get kidnapped by a stranger and then lied to my family about it. I at least deserve some answers in exchange. Obviously, she's not going to give them to me. I have to go after them.

I stomp out of the bathroom.

“Look,” I say, finding her in the kitchen. “I want to know what's going on. You obviously know a lot more than I do.”

“It would be hard not to,” Gretchen says, pulling an energy drink out of the giant silver fridge. “Want one?”

“No. I want answers.”

“Fine,” she says with a sigh. She pulls the tab on the energy drink and throws back half the can before continuing. “Here's what I know. I'm a descendant of the Gorgon Medusa, and—”

“Medusa?” I gasp. I don't have to think hard to remember that character from mythology. “The snake-haired monster who turned people to stone with her eyes?”

“Same one.” She finishes off her energy drink and tosses the can into a recycling bin. “That's not the real story, though.”

She acts like that's the end of it, like that's all the info I'm going to get. I jab my hands onto my hips and give her my best scowl.

Finally, she sighs and says, “Medusa was a guardian, not a monster. Along with her two immortal sisters, she kept monsters from terrorizing the human world.”

My arms drop.
The human world
. The earth tilts a little beneath my feet. Why do I feel like, from this moment on, that's going to have a slightly different meaning?

“And the eyes-to-stone thing?” I force the question out around my shock.

“Pure myth.” Gretchen starts to rub her neck and then winces with pain. “Her eyes had the power to hypnotize—temporarily. Totally harmless.”