I paused, unable to help myself. I gave him Roger’s. “Don’t take no for an answer from him when he tells you I’m not there.”

“Okay!”

Laughing to myself, I hurried to my car as the first flickering light of the police car came into view. I slid into my seat and slumped down. From the backseat Ernie peered forward. “You think they won’t notice the car with the silver paw prints they’ve seen at two crime scenes already?”

I groaned and slumped farther into my chair, the fake leather squeaking like cellophane being rubbed together. A tap on the window brought my head up. Officer Jensen peered down at me.

I rolled down the window. “Hi, Officer.”

“Alena Budrene. How am I not surprised?”

I batted my eyes up at him. Because that was about all I knew when it came to flirting to get my way. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t try to act innocent.”

Carefully, I reached toward the keys in the ignition. “Officer, I’d love to stay and chat, really. You’re cute and nice, and wearing a uniform, which every girl loves, but I have things to do.”

His eyes narrowed. “Remo is looking for you.”

“Good for him.” I turned the key and the car revved. “So unless I’m under arrest, which I’ve done nothing to warrant, I’m leaving.”

Ernie snickered from the backseat. “I knew you had a spine under that good-girl exterior.”

Officer Jensen stepped back. “I’m going to keep watching you.”

I pulled away, waving out the window. “Enjoy the view.”

With nowhere to go, I headed once more for my bakery.

“You going to make me something else?”

I put a hand to my forehead. “No. I’m going to see if I can figure out where the heck Achilles has taken my brother.”

Easier said than done.

The bakery had a huge whiteboard, for jotting down notes and new recipe ideas. I wiped it clean and grabbed a marker. Making a quick list, I noted all the TV stations I could. And there were a lot.

“But a TV station, that doesn’t make sense. There’s no room to fight,” Ernie pointed out. I ground my teeth in frustration, feeling Tad’s life slip further away from me.

“What do you suggest, then?”

A sudden rap of knuckles on the door behind us spun me around. I grabbed for the closest thing to me, which ended up being a wooden spoon.

“That won’t work all that well,” Ernie said.

I didn’t look at him. “I think it might work on a vampire.”

“Ooohh, killed with a wooden spoon? A vampire would never live that down.” He snickered at his own joke.

“Who is it?” I raised the spoon above my head.

A high-pitched voice that warbled like a bird came through the door. “Hermes. I have a message for the Drakaina.”

I looked at Ernie. He nodded. “He’s safe enough. Hermes is a neutral party, he has to be in order to deliver messages.”

I walked to the door and flung it open. Hermes floated in the air, just like Ernie on the same kind of fluffy cream-colored wings. But that was where the resemblance ended. Hermes had bright-white hair that stuck out behind his head in a perfect swoosh, the windblown look resembling a certain brand of shoes rather well. His eyes were blue, and he was at least twice Ernie’s height. But where Ernie was a bit on the chubby side, Hermes was whip thin, and he had more clothes on. A white T-shirt and shorts along with a pair of Nike Air runners. Maybe the resemblance to the hair was on purpose. My lips twitched despite the situation.

“I’m the Drakaina.” The words echoed in the room, and a curl of pleasure coiled in my middle. Almost as if the Drakaina part of me were sentient and knew that what I’d said had more meaning than just the words. That slowly I had begun accepting what I’d become.

Hermes pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to me. “From Achilles. You want something sent back, I can wait.”

I opened the paper and shook my head. “Ernie, I can’t read this. It’s all Greek to me.”

“Ha-ha.”

“No, really.” I held the paper up so he could see the Greek words. Ernie flew over to me and read the paper, his eyes skimming it quickly.

“Not surprising, and it solves the problem of trying to find him. He’s challenging you to a fight. And he’s even given you his location.”

“Where?”

“CenturyLink Field.”

The football stadium? “Wait, the original one or the new one in Bellingham?”

Hermes bobbed his head. “Bellingham.”

After the original field in the south of Seattle had burned down in the Supe Riots, they’d built a new one closer to the border, just north of Bellingham. The size of the field, the number of cameras they had there—it would be perfect for what he wanted. It looked as if Yaya was right again.

I swallowed hard. “Does he say anything about Tad?”

“Nope. And that’s not good. I hope . . .” His eyes darted to Hermes, who gave a quick shake of his head.

“Sorry, I don’t know. I just grabbed the message and have been checking all the places the Drakaina has been spotted the last two days.” Hermes scratched the back of his neck and wove from side to side in the air as if he couldn’t remain still. “You sure you don’t have a message I can take back?”

Ernie took the paper from me and grabbed a pen from my desk. He scratched something in Greek across the backside of the paper. “Here, take this.”