Time to put on my big-girl panties and take this one head-on. “Tad, stay back.”

“Not this time, sis,” he said, a long, low hiss sliding out of him on the last s of sis. I glanced back in time to see him shift, something I’d never seen him do before.

His scales were silvery blue, and patterned so close together it was difficult to discern one color from the other. Unlike my diamond-shaped head when I was in my Drakaina form, his head was long and narrow, with elongated oval eyes that flickered red, and a long red tongue that shot out from between a mouthful of teeth. Not exactly a typical snake, then, at all. He whipped his tail around, stopping a man from going into the back of the bakery.

The Firstamentalists screamed as he rose up, hissing at them, herding them out. He darted from side to side, his speed far outmatching their attempts to dodge around him. He tipped his head and winked at me. I could almost hear him say, “I got this, sis.”

No matter that it freaked me out that he was putting himself in harm’s way; he was helping. With Tad dealing with the Firstamentalists, I turned my attention back to the vampires.

“You want a piece of me?” I said, and crooked a finger at Santos. “Then come and get me, doofus.”

He snarled and leapt forward, sailing over the broken glass and landing in a crouch within the bakery, about ten feet in front of me. “That will be your last mistake, inviting me in, snake girl.”

“I think the mistake will be yours, you bloodsucking leech.” The voice that came out of my mouth was not really mine, but I recognized it. The voice belonged to the Drakaina, the monster that was very much a part of me and yet still somehow separate. When she spoke up, my voice deepened and turned all husky and dangerous. I liked it.

Santos snarled and jumped straight at me. I held my ground, bracing my legs. He slammed into me and twisted hard to one side, taking us both to the floor. Tad shot forward, his head coming within striking distance of Santos.

“No, I will deal with this!” I wrestled with Santos on the floor, rolling across the shards of broken glass and not feeling it. My human skin was pierced, but the snakeskin under it was hard as diamonds and didn’t give an inch. There was the small matter of the wound on my neck.

His eyes shot to it. “Bleeding already?”

Fear lanced my heart. If he got his mouth on my neck and took even a drop of blood, I wasn’t so sure the outcome of the fight would be in my favor. Around us, the vampires circled and Tad kept them off me. His bite inflicted huge gaping wounds where he literally tore flesh from their bodies. Their screams shattered the night air.

I couldn’t focus on them, though. I had to keep my attention on Santos, or I wasn’t going to come out of this in one piece. I jerked to the side and rolled with the vampire, my skirt getting bunched up around my hips as we fought. He wasn’t trying to punch me, which I didn’t understand at first. He grabbed one of my hands and yanked it up over my head. Then he grabbed the other and did the same. I could have pulled away; I could feel that he wasn’t nearly as strong as I was. But I wanted—no, needed—him close, even if it brought him into proximity of my neck wound. I was going to have to be fast about this. A long, drawn-out fight with Santos was not going to end well.

“You aren’t so tough.” He breathed out, staring into my eyes, and for a moment I saw Remo in him, a sight that shook me. “You know I’m not the only vampire hunting for you now? You will never escape us. You’re going to die begging for mercy.”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying, right before I kill them,” I pointed out. He laughed and shot forward, his mouth open wide and his fangs bared. I turned so he would bite into the side of my neck that was not wounded.

Santos bit at me, and I let him. He gnawed on my neck, fighting to get through the snakeskin, something I knew was impossible, even with his deadly fangs. So while it was uncomfortable, I didn’t fight him on that. Instead, I freed one hand from his and wrapped it around his neck, holding him close, but more than that keeping him off my wounded side.

His vampires circled around us, rooting for him, but not daring to get too close with Tad stretched out in his naga form. Every time that they took a half step forward, he hissed and bared his bloodstained teeth.

So they settled for some weird version of catcalling.

“Get her, boss!”

“Drink her down!”

“Save some for us!”

I lay there while he bit at me, and thought about how much hurt the vampire on top of me had caused. Santos had helped Theseus, he’d stolen my friends from me, and he was a huge part of the reason Beth had died. I thought about how he had hurt Remo over the years, and even if I didn’t know the details, that didn’t matter. Santos had bitten off more than he could chew this time.

My fangs lowered from the roof of my mouth. There was no decision left, really, barely any thought, even. It was pure instinct to strike back and hurt him for all the pain he’d caused. I hit him hard and fast, and my fangs buried into the top of his shoulder. Two pulses of venom flowed from me into him.

I opened my mouth, and my fangs retracted. He jerked once, his eyes going to mine as he stiffened. “No, that is not possible.”

“Don’t mess with snakes,” I said. “They’ll bite when you least expect it. Especially if you come into their territory.”

His eyes rolled and he jerked, red foam bubbling out of his mouth. I pushed him off me and stood up, staring down at his body as he tried to fight the venom, but to no avail. I refused to turn away, knowing that I had done this. So I watched his muscles shrivel and his face twist up in agony before it went slack with a final death. The scent of licorice that had always been heavy on him dissipated, gone with whatever it was that animated a vampire. There were no big explosions, no grand finale to show that he was a foe worth fighting.