He didn’t look away, and I couldn’t hold his gaze. Yaya ranted at the ambulance attendants as they wheeled her away on a gurney. I waved at her, glad she would be looked after and kept out of harm’s way. Whether she wanted to be or not.

Zeus and I stood to one side, away from the officers as they tagged and bagged the remaining Bull Boys. That is, the ones that had been killed. By me.

Nausea swam up through my guts, threatening to spill out of my mouth.

“Go get yourself some clothes. No charge.” Zeus shoved me toward the other end of the store. Which in effect turned me away from the body bags.

“I want to know where my brother is. Who has him?” I whispered my questions, knowing the police would want the info if they knew Tad was missing. And knowing they couldn’t help even if they did know.

“Tonight. At Charlie’s Club,” he whispered back, giving me another gentle shove.

I took a step, stopped, and turned back. Yaya had a rod that made lightning. I looked over the area where she’d been lying. No rod of lightning. Ernie flashed his wings, getting my attention. “It’s with her. Kinda like you, it’s compact in its less deadly form.”

I frowned up at him. “Don’t talk to me, you little jerk. You lied about what was going on. Zeus didn’t need my help. He doesn’t owe me anything now.”

“But he’s going to help you anyway. Besides, when you get information that there’s a lightning-and-thunder show going on inside a Blue Box Store where Zeus works, it logically stands that it’s Zeus. Not one of his priestesses. And really, would you have left your yaya here to fight on her own?”

I shook my head. “No, of course not. I’m sorry, I just . . . everything has happened so fast.”

My feet slapped on the cheap tile as I hurried across the store. Thinking at all about what had happened only made me want to either throw up or burst into tears. Time for not thinking. Don’t think about Tad missing; don’t think about the dead Bull Boys. Don’t think about turning into a giant snake again.

I focused on trying to find clothes, underwear, and shoes that fit.

“Here, try these.” Ernie tossed something at me. A pair of leggings that glittered with snake scales in black and green, edged in gold.

I glared at him. “Funny.”

“Well, you’re going to a club later. It’s not like they’ve got clubbing clothes here, and you want to fit in as much as possible.”

Dang it, he had a point. I grabbed some underwear and the leggings he’d tossed at me.

“No, no. You need a thong for those leggings. Otherwise your panty line shows, and that would be a crime against your nature. Friends don’t let friends be frumpy.” Ernie threw a piece of string at me. String. I held it up on one finger. Make that three pieces of string. “This. Is not underwear.”

“It is when you wear tight pants, honey butt.”

I pulled the thong on under the blanket, grimacing as the thin strap slid up between my cheeks. “Who the heck thought this was a good idea?”

“A man. Same as the pants. Only a man would want a woman to be fully dressed and yet still be as close to naked as possible.” Ernie fluttered around the racks of clothes.

“You’re probably right.” I pulled on the leggings and had to admit that both the thong and the tight pants were pretty comfy, if rather revealing. Ernie tossed me a tank top in plain white.

“Kinda cold for this time of year, don’t you think?” I held it out from me.

“You been cold at all since you’ve been turned?”

“No.”

“You run hot, like the rest of the shifters in our world. Which is weird because you’re a snake and not a hot-blooded animal in nature. But something about the way Drakainas are put together makes them burn. Maybe the venom in their system?” He tipped his head and slowly nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably it.”

“So cold won’t bother me?”

“Nope. Neither will extreme heat.”

I dug through a bin of bras and found one in my size. Making sure my back was to Ernie, I dropped the blanket and put the bra on, slipping the tank top over my head quickly.

“Shoes next,” Ernie called, and I followed his voice. A small part of me knew what he was up to. And I was grateful. Maybe he wasn’t a jerk.

A distraction was what I needed to get me through the next little bit, so I could break down elsewhere, after this mess was dealt with. Like after we found Tad. After I convinced Achilles I was harmless. I snorted to myself. That was going to be like selling ice to an Eskimo. Harmless? After I killed three of his Bull Boys?

Ernie fluttered by a rack of high heels. “What do you think? More height?”

I ran a hand over the black glittering heels that had to be at least four inches high. My mother would have had a complete breakdown. While they weren’t as nice as the ones from Merlin’s, they were certainly nicer than anything I had in my closet at home.

An image of Barbie going through my clothes and throwing them out while shouting “Brown church mouse!” made me grit my teeth.

“Easy, Lena, your skin is showing again. It’ll get easier each time now that you’ve shifted once. So watch your emotions,” Ernie said.

I pulled the shoes down and jammed my feet into them. I didn’t even wobble as I strode out of the store. No, I didn’t stumble or wobble until I got back to the car and slid into the seat.

I leaned forward and burst into tears. I’d killed at least one Bull Boy, probably more than that with the venom from my fangs, depending on if they survived. I wanted to believe they were alive. I’d lied. Kissed a man when I was technically still married. Worse than all of that, because of me and what I was, Tad had been taken.