"You started it. And do I look like a monster to you?" I c.o.c.ked a hip and put a hand on it, feeling for the first time the power that came with a body and face that could stop traffic.

His eyes traveled down my body, then back up to my face. "You hide behind beauty. It's the way of your kind, to seduce and destroy. But I will not fall for your evil."

Yaya moved to the center of the room. "This home is under my protection; would you forfeit your right to Zeus's guidance?"

The men s.h.i.+fted, leather skirts creaking and sandaled feet shuffling on the floor.

"This is not a shrine of Zeus. Besides, we do not answer to him." Blond Boy turned his back to Tad and me in order to face Yaya.

She drew herself up to her full five-foot-nothing height. "I am a priestess of the G.o.d of thunder and one of his favored women. So what are you going to do about that . . . Achilles?"

CHAPTER 8.

"Achilles?" I spit the name out, my tongue flicking along the s a little too long. He spun, his sword raised to my face.

"Do not speak my name, serpent."

I mock-frowned at him while a distant part of me freaked out. A man was pointing a sword at me, and I wasn't afraid. Shouldn't I be terrified? Quivering with fear? Achilles was the one who took down Troy, the one who defeated Hector. Achilles was the greatest hero of Homer's Iliad. And he was standing in front of me, threatening to kill me. He was a hero of heroes. Yet I felt nothing but a slight irritation.

Maybe my mom was right, maybe there was something wrong with me. Maybe I had no soul and therefore could no longer feel true fear- He pulled his arm back and whipped it forward, the sword catching the light. I leapt sideways into the coffee table, stumbled, tripped, and fell to my hands and knees while my heart did triple time. So much for not being afraid.

The soldiers laughed and Achilles grinned down at me. "I will be merciful, for your beauty softens my hand. Be still, and I will take your head, ending your suffering."

"What? Why?"

"You are the serpent I am to face. You are the first of the five monsters reborn to the earth. The first of five who must be destroyed so our queen can rise again."

"Oh, well, that clears up nothing." I pushed to my feet. "Sorry, it's been a long day, and I don't know why you want to hurt me, because I don't even know what I am. My mother won't hug me, and you're standing here with your sword sticking at my face."

Yaya snickered. "His other sword would be better, I think. He's quite good in bed from what I hear."

"Yaya!" Tad choked on her name, and I struggled to keep a straight face. Achilles, on the other hand, didn't seem to have a sense of humor.

"It matters not to me which sword I stick you with"-he moved around the side table-"or what you think you are, only that you are the first to die."

He raised his sword again and I stood there, staring at him. Because surely this wasn't happening.

My dad shoved Achilles from behind, throwing him toward me but also forcing him to deal with the coffee table between us, which he fell flat on, cracking the gla.s.s top, falling with the shards to the floor.

"Lena Bean, run!"

The other soldiers had a different idea. I took a step to the right and one grabbed my arm, yanking me toward him. I dug my heels into the carpet and jerked backward, fear making me pull with all I had.

He flew through the air, over my head, his eyes as wide as Mom's fine china dinner plates.

Tad pushed one of the other soldiers down, creating a tiny pocket for me to slip through. He grabbed my hand and we ran through the house, through the kitchen, and out the sliding gla.s.s door. The yard was soggy with rainwater and we were in bare feet. The mud and gra.s.s squished through my toes, but it wasn't cold. Not like it should have been.

All thoughts of cold feet flew from my head as the gla.s.s doors behind us shattered, and Achilles and his men poured out into the backyard. I backed up, already knowing we were screwed.

The fence completely circled the yard, was eight feet high, and had no gate, which was a long-standing argument between my parents. Dad wanted a gate; Mom said it would only encourage thieves to sneak in through the back.

Right at the moment, I was wis.h.i.+ng we'd given the thieves an in.

"Boost me!" Tad ran to the fence and I followed. I cupped my hands and he put his foot in. I boosted him up. A little too hard. He flew fifteen feet into the air, his body twisting as he fell on the other side of the fence.

"You have no one to save you now, monster." Achilles approached, swinging his sword in a lazy circle.

"That's what you think," Yaya said from behind him. He spun as the arc of the frying pan flew straight and true. The cast iron smashed into Achilles's head. He dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap.

"Ooh-eee. Did you see his eyes roll back?" Yaya waved the pan at the soldier closest to her. The soldier seemed less than impressed as he pulled his sword arm back and held up his s.h.i.+eld. As if going to do battle with a true foe.

Yaya was going to get us both killed.

But I was a Super Duper now. There had to be perks to being one of the monsters. Most were stronger and faster than humans, and if flinty-eyed Smithy was any indication, I should be able to outmaneuver these soldiers. Time to see if there was any truth in that. I ran toward Yaya, scooped her up with one arm, and bolted for the house before I questioned if what I was doing was even possible. All in the matter of barely two heartbeats.

"The gla.s.s, Lena!" Yaya shouted, and I leapt. We soared over the broken gla.s.s of the table, and I landed in a crouch well inside the kitchen, Yaya still tucked tight under one arm like an oversized, mouthy football.

"Mom, Dad. I gotta go. Don't tell Roger I'm alive," I yelled as I ran through the house, still clutching my yaya. "I want to surprise him."

Yaya cackled with laughter as we raced through the front door and out onto the steps. Yaya's baby-blue 1981 Granada waited for us, Tad at the wheel.

"Thanks, Yaya." I kissed her on the cheek and put her down.

"I'm coming with you, Lena Bean." She swatted me on the b.u.m, and I scooted down the steps ahead of her. She made her way down the steps, all but dancing. I slipped into the backseat, leaving her the front. She got in and tapped on the dash. "Go, boy. Before that meathead wakes up."

We drove away at a good clip, all three of us quiet for a moment before the silence was broken.

All three of us tried to talk at once, a mash-up of questions and explanations. "Stop, both of you." Yaya held up her hands.

I closed my mouth. Yaya looked over the bench seat at me. "We need to figure out what Merlin did to you. Your brother is a naga. It's the only form that was allowed. Merlin is dabbling in things he shouldn't again."

I frowned. "You're talking about him like he's the Merlin and not just some wannabe who decided it was good name."

Yaya stared hard at me. "How do you know he isn't? The world is a much bigger place than you and your brother were ever shown. You were kept blind to the supernatural, more so because of our family history than anything else. That is the only reason I allowed your mother to go crazy with the Firstamentalists. It was a way to keep you all safe from . . . things I thought you'd never need to know."

Tad turned onto the main highway, sped up, and merged into traffic while the Granada's engine protested. "Yaya. You aren't really a priestess of Zeus . . . are you?"

"Of course I am. Why do you think I don't give two h.o.r.n.y figs if I went to church with your parents or not? I went to keep your mother happy, and I only took her at all because I needed to look like I'd renounced my vows. That's all. I don't actually think that c.r.a.p they dole out about supernaturals being the devil is right. Or even reasonable. You know, some of my best friends back in the day were supernaturals."

I reached up and gripped the back of the bench seat, the pleather creaking under my fingers. "Yaya. Why did you make us go to church, then? Is it because of Uncle Owen?"

"Because I was trying to keep you safe." Her eyes filled with tears. "When I lost Owen, all I could think about was keeping the rest of you away from danger. I couldn't bear the thought of losing any of you. One thing about the Firsts, they are safe." She shook her head, her gray curls bouncing. "I tried, but your bloodlines are too strong. I told your mother your father would be trouble if she married him, but she didn't listen to me. And now look. You two are both supernaturals just like-" Her teeth clicked shut and I shot a look at Tad. I had a feeling my eyes were probably as wide as his.

"Just like who, Yaya?" Tad asked.

"Never you mind. Don't matter. I have to pick some things up from the Blue Box Store. The one on Forty-Ninth Avenue and Homer." She leaned back in her seat, pulled her headphones from her pocket, and slipped them on. "Now let me sleep. I've had too much excitement and need to calm my heart before we get to Blue Box. The new one, not the c.r.a.ppy ones outside town."

The steady thump of techno music pulsed out of the earbuds, loud enough that I could easily hear it. Worse, the music crawled over my skin, the vibration as intense to my body as to my ears. I s.h.i.+vered and rubbed at my arms.

"Cold?"

"No, don't you feel that?" I pointed at Yaya.

Tad shook his head, frowning at me in the rearview mirror. "Feel what?"

"The vibration of the ba.s.s, the music. It's the same as when the Supe Squad came up behind us in the big rig. I could feel the pulse of the engine on my skin."

"Weird. You definitely aren't a naga. I couldn't have thrown you over the fence like you did to me. And I don't feel vibrations on my skin-ever."

"What kind of Super Duper does?" I asked, my voice quiet even though I didn't need to be. It wasn't like Yaya was going to hear me.

"I don't know, sis. But whatever you are, there's no doubt about it. You've stirred up a hornets' nest just by existing."

"That's a comforting thought," I muttered.

"I know, right?" He laughed softly, but the sound faded. "I am sorry, Lena. I didn't want this to happen to you. None of it."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't be sorry. Things happen for a reason, right? Maybe you and I are meant to be like this." The words were the kind of plat.i.tudes I'd heard my whole life, but they'd always applied to other people. People who had bad things happen to them.

But not me.

The words didn't feel as deep or comforting coming out of my mouth this time.

"You really believe that?"

I opened my mouth to say yes. Shut it, and tried again. "Maybe."

He laughed again. "Who do you think Yaya was comparing us to? She was going to say we were supernaturals just like . . . and then nothing."

I put my chin on the back of the bench seat and stared out the winds.h.i.+eld. "We don't know anyone who was a supernatural. At least no one Mom and Dad talked about."

"Grandma and Grandpa on Dad's side. They were strange," Tad said. I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Grandpa was an illiterate mill worker, and Grandma never lived anywhere farther than three miles from where she was born. Weird, yes. Supes? No way."

"What about Aunt Betty, on Mom's side?"

I snorted. "The lady with the affliction of terrible hats? Bad taste is just bad taste, Tad. You're stretching here."

"I want to know who she was going to compare us to. How else are we going to figure it out?"

"How about asking her?" I leaned away from the front and stared at the material ceiling of the car. I reached up and touched a hole that was almost the same size as the hole in my sheet back at the hospital. From one death trap to another. The thoughts rolled around in my head and I couldn't stop them. Two days ago, I'd been in the hospital dying just for existing.

Now I was facing some sort of death sentence just for existing. My lot wasn't improving as much as I'd hoped when I'd told Merlin to turn me.

"We're here, Yaya." Tad reached over and touched her on the shoulder. "We're here. Do you want to wait in the car and I can get whatever you want, or do you want to come in?"

"I want you to stop saying want," she grumbled, then slipped off her earbuds. Had she heard everything we'd been talking about? Call me a cynic but I was betting yes. "I'm not telling you who you're like now either. Not my place. Not my story."

Bingo.

How in h-e-double-hockey-sticks had she heard us over that heavy ba.s.s, though?

The three of us got out of the car and headed across the parking lot, weaving between cars to make the straightest route possible. The doors slid open. We stepped into the box store, the artificial lights buzzing high above us. My skin itched with the sound, and I wanted to scratch at every inch of me.

I settled for clamping my hands under my arms and then strode forward with Yaya.

"Yaya, what are we doing here exactly?"

"I need to talk to someone. Well, you need to talk to him too." She grabbed a stock boy and twisted him around to her. "Where's the manager?"

"Ah, I don't know." He tried to pry her off, his eyes flicking to Tad and me as if we would be on his side.

"I'd tell her, she bites when she's angry," Tad said. I laughed, falling into old patterns. No matter how ridiculous, we backed each other up. Even if it was an outright lie.

"You remember that time she bit the postman, barking at him like a dog and grabbing his ankle?" I smiled and shook my head as if remembering.

Tad grinned. "He had something like thirty st.i.tches on top of a teta.n.u.s shot."

Yaya gave a sharp nod. "And I'll do it again if I need to. Go all the way up the leg to where the meat is soft and easy to bite off."

The stock boy paled. "Manager is in receiving, I think."

Yaya let go of him and patted his blue vest. "Good boy." With that, she spun and strode farther into the store. Tad looked at me, shrugged, and fell into step behind her.

People hustled through the store, pus.h.i.+ng carts, pus.h.i.+ng children, pus.h.i.+ng items on the shelves. A woman shouldered between Tad and me and shoved me backward. She was maybe in her fifties with thick gla.s.ses and teeth that looked like she'd deliberately painted them black. That was the only explanation I could come up with for the dark shade several of them were.

"Move," she snapped, and I did, mostly because I didn't want to send her flying through the air like I'd done to my brother earlier.

The top of her head barely came to my chin and smelled heavily of body odor, with a faint undercurrent of moldy bread. I shuddered, wrinkled up my nose, and hurried to catch up to Tad and Yaya.

She was filling him in on something. "So you see, your father knew you were okay all along. He was the one who paid for you to be turned, but you knew that, Alena didn't. We were trying to keep her safe from persecution from the Firstamentalists. If they knew her brother was a Supe, she'd have an even harder time. Your mother never knew either, and that was the plan. But when Alena got sick, we didn't want you two to be separated again. So we made sure Merlin would turn Alena into a naga too."

"Why a naga?" I asked as we cut through the plastic tub aisle.

"The naga is a creature of Eastern mythology. We thought that was perhaps the best chance for you both." Her words softened and she shook her head. "But it looks like Merlin has decided on other things. Things that are going to cause no end of trouble."

"Do you know what I am?" I asked, hoping she had the answer.

"I think so. But I know someone who can tell for sure, just by looking at you. He can see through glamours and guises. Part of his old job."

We pa.s.sed through the sporting goods and were working our way toward the car section, if the rotating tires above the aisle were any indication. A strong odor of rubber and oil crossed my nose, confirming our current location. In front of us was a tall man with big arms, a blue vest, and a perfect square-cut jaw I could see in profile as he followed at a distance behind a man who had obviously not ever had a mirror in his life. That was the only explanation for what I saw in front of me.