Dahlia looked at me and frowned. “Remo doesn’t deserve you. Not by a long shot.”

“That’s what I keep telling her,” Ernie said, and I glared at him.

Jensen cleared his throat. “We all have said it at one point. Alena, you did the right thing. I shouldn’t have said what I did back there about you killing Santos. If Remo can’t take care of things, and you have to, then so be it. You have to protect yourself.”

I couldn’t even defend Remo, because Ernie and Tad were right. We needed to keep what we’d learned about Santos and his final note close to the chest. The less people who knew about what Remo was really dealing with, the better. A final plot twist thrown by Santos with his death.

With my friends helping me, we got the worst of the shattered glass dealt with and the bakery put back together. Tad and Jensen found some broken pallets out back and then used them to board up the front window.

My sponge cake was totally burnt. The smell made me wrinkle my nose and snort. I hadn’t burned something this badly in years, not since I first started baking and allowed myself to get distracted by the risqué romance novels my yaya had slipped me behind my mother’s back. I pulled the pan out of the oven with a huff and slammed it on the counter. This night could not get any worse. I opened the back door to air the room out, then went back to the pan. Charred right through. I threw the whole thing into the sink to cool off. I’d throw it out later.

Ernie sat down beside me. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to go home and sleep and start this day again,” I said, feeling the fatigue right through my bones.

“Then why don’t you? I think eliminating one of the baddest vampires around should surely mean you deserve a break and a soft bed,” he said. “I’ll go and see if I can dig up information about where Hercules is, and if there are any plans he’s got in place. Okay?”

I blinked up at him, my eyes welling a bit. “You are a good friend. Thank you.”

“Aw, shucks, ’tweren’t nothing, ma’am.” He winked, tipped an imaginary hat, and flew out the door, humming to himself what sounded like the music from The Lone Ranger. I smiled and shook my head. If nothing else, Ernie was good for that; he made me smile even when I felt like crying.

Tad and Dahlia followed me home in her little purple punch-buggy car, all the way to the Wall.

The Wall was over forty feet high and made of cement blocks; you’d think it wouldn’t be very stable. Since I’d been turned into a Super Duper, though, I’d learned a few things. The structure was held together by a powerful spell as much as by the ordinary cement blocks and rebar. The spell was supposed to repel those who wanted to cross it, from either side, turning them away before they even reached the Wall itself. Which was interesting because I’d never felt a thing. But now many of the Super Dupers I’d met in the last couple of weeks seemed hell-bent on getting out, as if the spell was no longer working.

In addition to the Wall-repellent spell, the Supernatural Division of Mounted Police implanted every Super Duper with a tracking device. It was supposed to shock them if they crossed the Wall, like a collar on a wayward mutt who should have been contained by an Invisible Fence, unless they had permission to cross. But thanks to Remo and his gang, that was no longer the case.

The first day I’d been turned into a Drakaina, I’d been snagged by the SDMP and taken to their headquarters to be implanted with a tracking chip. Tad and I had both managed to stay clear of the whole implanting business, though—thank goodness for that small mercy. While I’d been in detention, Remo and his gang had broken into the SDMP’s headquarters and destroyed whatever it was that allowed the chips to zap Super Dupers. Maybe the SDMP would get it up and running again, but they hadn’t so far.

Of course, that line of thought brought me back to Remo.

He had given up on me, not even telling me what I might face, as though I couldn’t handle the truth. As if I wouldn’t stand by him, even if just in the background, when it came to the council of vampires. He was treating me the way everyone had my whole life—as if I were more of a burden to be taken care of than a woman who could manage on her own.

Tad had done it to me.

My mother and father had done it to me.

Even Dahlia, my best friend in the whole world, had thought me incapable of dealing with all the poop that had been thrown at me.

The more I thought about it, the more the hurt and understanding faded and the anger grew. By the time we reached house number thirteen, I was well and truly peeved.

Remo was no better than everyone else who thought I was useless in a bad situation. An unfair judgment, considering I’d faced two Greek heroes and multiple monsters, all while learning how to live as a Super Duper.

All of that combined did not bode well for the vampire standing at the front door waiting for me. Max was one of Remo’s top guys. I liked him, but right at that moment, he was in a bad position to be between me and my bed. His blond hair was spiked as though he’d been running his hand through it over and over, and his blue eyes were full of concern I could see even at a distance. None of it was going to help him.

I got out of my Charger and slammed the door. Dahlia and Tad pulled in behind me. Dahlia hurried to catch up. “Alena, don’t start anything.”

I put a hand out to her. “No, you don’t!” I had no idea what I was don’t-ing, just that I wanted no interference.

Max made a move to take my hand, but I jerked away from him. “What do you want, Max?”