The moment stretched, I felt it pull at me like taffy being strung out, holding together far longer than it should: Yaya falling, her eyes rolled back, her body hitting the floor with a distant thud.

A strange sensation rolled through me, a feeling of not being able to control myself. An anger so hot and wild I knew it would burn me up if I didn’t let it out gripped me. I flung my head back, opened my mouth, and screamed. The sound echoed through the store, a cry that slid from the upper octaves down lower until it was nothing but a low rumbling hiss that echoed from my chest.

“Oh, they’ve done it now,” Ernie said, his voice from somewhere to my left. “Alena. You’re going to shift.”

“Don’t fight it. It will only take longer and hurt if you don’t let it happen,” Zeus chimed in.

Don’t fight what? I fell to my knees, my eyes locked on the Bull Boys as they dropped into identical crouches, inching their way to me, their weapons weaving from side to side. A roll of smoke swirled up around me, blocking them from view. I tried to stand, to move forward. I had to stop them. I had to save Yaya.

What if she was already dead? A blow to the jaw and a fall . . . they were enough to kill someone her age. The thoughts pounded through me as I struggled to move, and again Ernie yelled out to me.

“Stop fighting it!”

Only, I wasn’t fighting whatever was happening. Or at least, I didn’t think I was. I tried to take another step and stopped as my body rippled forward. I blinked and the scene around me shifted. The smoke cleared and nothing was as it had been. My head was in the rafters, and the Bull Boys far below backed away from me. My body was a beautiful mixture of multicolored scales: purples and pale greens with a flicker of silver here and there.

Beautiful was not a trait I would have ever attributed to a snake, certainly not a snake that filled up the interior of a box store. But even I had to admit the scales were something else, a rainbow that caught my eye, mesmerizing me for a split second.

“Cut her tail off, boys, we’ll have roast snake for dinner!” One of the Bull Boys laughed. “She don’t even know what she can do. Too damn new! Achilles won’t even have to deal with her.”

They laughed with him and ran forward, weapons raised. Two of them swung down at a section of my coils. I braced myself for the impact. They were right; I didn’t know what to do.

The weapons bounced off, as if they used plastic toy swords and I was made of steel.

I opened my mouth to yell at them, but all that came out was another rumbling hiss, and in it I felt my strength for the first time. Saw the fear in their eyes and knew it was because of me. Because of what they knew I could do to them, even if I was still learning the depth of my own ability.

Think of it like learning a new technique in the kitchen, girl. You can do this.

Maybe being a monster wasn’t so bad after all; at least not when it came to protecting my family.

I flicked my tail forward, slamming it into the stacks on one side of my enemies. Sweeping the merchandise at them, I cleared the section of everything but the floor and a few bolts. I bunched my muscles and slid across the floor, scales catching the light, flickering it around like a living prism.

The three remaining Bull Boys ran from my yaya. I snaked my head toward them, mouth open and fangs bared. So fast . . . I had no idea how fast I really was until two of them filled my mouth. I bit down, driving a fang through each of them.

Ernie flew by my head. “You don’t have to kill them. You can make them your minions with your siren abilities. It’s your choice.”

I rolled my eyes to him and he flew back a few feet. That would have been nice to know about ten seconds previous. “Damn, girl, you’ve got the beauty and the beast all rolled into one package. Don’t get pissy with me, girlfriend. I’m trying to help.”

The boys in my mouth writhed and I shook my head, flinging them across the store. One hit the plus-sized women’s clothing, and the other hit the stacks of toilet paper. I didn’t want them to be my minions.

I dropped my head and sniffed at Yaya. Her heartbeat echoed across my skin along with the buzz of the lights. I swept my head back up to the roof and did a swift arc with it, taking out the lights closest to us. The buzzing eased a little and I dropped my head again. Yaya didn’t move and I looked up at Ernie. I wanted to ask him questions, but couldn’t.

Apparently being a giant snake had its disadvantages. As the adrenaline faded, the smoke rose up around me again, and my body sloughed off the snake form like a dead skin that faded away until I stood there, buck naked, in front of my yaya.

“Beauty indeed,” Ernie murmured, and I glared at him.

“I heard that.”

“Sorry, but you’ve got an ass that won’t quit and legs—”

“Shut up, Ernie.”

I ran forward and crouched beside my grandmother, taking her hands in mine, pressing them to my chest. “Yaya, talk to me, please.”

“I’m alive, though I’m going to have a headache the size of Zeus’s ego.” Her eyes flickered open and I smiled.

“Can you stand?”

Her eyes flicked over me. “You shifted?”

I nodded and gave her a somewhat wobbly smile. “Yeah, it wasn’t so bad. I killed someone. That was worse.”

“Ah, my girl. I’m sorry.” She sat up slowly and cupped my chin with one hand. I burst into tears and bowed my head, pressing my face against her shoulder.

“I am a bad person. That’s why I’m a monster, that’s why Merlin made me this creature. It’s a reflection of who I really am.” At least that was what I tried to say; it was hard to actually tell through the sobbing hiccups what the words were.