Sweet Venom

“Careful there,” he says in a charmingly—I mean, annoyingly—teasing way. His hands come up to steady me, wrapping around my upper arms. “Look both ways before crossing the cafeteria.”

The two spots where his hands hold me burn with a warmth I’m not used to. I don’t get much human contact. Monster contact, hell yeah. I’ve had enough monster contact in the last four years to fill a century. But actual direct contact with a human being? Not so much.

Ursula’s less the touchy-feely type and more the this-is-how-you-handle-nunchucks-so-you-don’t-knock-yourself-unconscious type. Maternal and cuddly she is not.

So it’s no wonder that I kind of want to lean into Nick and get even more contact. I want more of that warm feeling that’s spreading from my arms up to my shoulders and down through the rest of my body.

“I—”

Maybe it’s the way his eyes soften as I start to speak. Or the way his head tilts a little to the side. Or the way his hands tighten a tiny bit. Whatever sets me off, in an instant I jump back out of his grasp, shaking my head to lose the spell his touch put on me.

I hear Ursula’s voice in my head, reminding me that I’m a huntress. I have responsibilities that the human world cannot even begin to comprehend. I can’t afford moments of weakness.

And right then, with Nick’s hands on my arms, I felt a whole world of weakness.

With some distance between us, my thoughts clear.

Nick has no trouble reading the scowl on my face. “Whoa,” he says, throwing both hands up in surrender. “Just trying to keep you off the floor.”

“Look,” I say, stepping forward into his personal space, jabbing a finger to his chest for emphasis. “I don’t do friends.”

I give him a quick shove, with more strength than I should but not enough to send him flying across the room. The more space I put between us, the less effect he has on me. I’d put a continent between us if I could.

As I storm out of the cafeteria, I hear him shout, “You think we’re friends? That’s a start.”

Stupid boy. Can’t take a hint. Can’t take a megaphone blast to the ear, either. I made it completely clear that I want nothing to do with him.

Which doesn’t explain why, when I slip into my seat in fourth period, I’m fighting a grin at our parting exchange.

Chapter 5

Grace

“Right click on the download link. Choose Save As,” Miss Mota says, “and save the file to your desktop.”

The trial version of Web Code Wizard is downloading to my station in the computer lab before she finishes her instructions. I’m excited that our first unit is on web programming. Most of my coding experience is with software, not internet design. This will be a fun chance to play around with something new, even if I have to go at the slower pace of my less geekified classmates. I can find ways to fill my time.

While Miss Mota helps a boy who has somehow gotten into a never-ending cycle of pop-up ads, I create a hot key to clear the desktop in a single keystroke—in case Miss Mota comes by to check on my progress—and then open a new browser window.

Since last night I’ve been trying hard not to think about what happened in the dim sum restaurant. When Thane and I got home, I took a steaming shower to wash away the stink, then collapsed into bed. This morning I missed my alarm and had to rush to get ready in time. Every time the thought popped into my mind, I slammed the mental door in its face. Until now, my brain’s been pretty good at blocking out the memory, but while I’m waiting for my classmates to catch up . . . it’s starting to wander.

The image of that creature walking into the restaurant burns in my mind. The nausea returns.

I need a shiny new distraction.

I have every intention of finding a bad-thought-erasing game to play. Or maybe a tech-obsessed gadget blog to read. Instead, my subconscious takes over and I find myself typing man and bull into the search engine box at the top of the screen.

Anxiety washes over me. My palms start to sweat and my heart shudders as I wait for the results to appear.

I almost close out the browser, not ready to face whatever answers show up in this list.

“No,” I whisper to myself. “I have to face this sometime. If I’m going crazy, it’s better to find out now.”

I reluctantly scan the screen. The results are all about some comic-book character, so I refine my search to say man with the head of a bull.

The first link is a Wikipedia article about the Minotaur.

As the article loads, an image shows up on the right side of the screen. It’s an ancient Greek statue of a man’s body with the head of a bull. His arms and horns are kind of broken off, showing the wear and tear of the statue’s age, but it’s still crystal clear what the sculptor was trying to convey.

“No way,” I mutter.

It looks exactly like the creature I saw in the dim sum place last night.

There are a few differences, of course. In real life, the bull head was much bigger and much more slobbery. And way scarier.

A quick scan down the page refreshes my junior high mythology lessons. Minotaur, a hideous, murderous monster that King Minos plopped in the middle of his crazy labyrinth so it would eat anyone who ventured inside. All the details match up to my imaginary creature sighting.

“This can’t be.”

“Everything going all right, Grace?” Miss Mota asks.

Without thinking, I quickly punch the hot key. My browser—along with the Minotaur article—disappears. I restore the download window, and then spin around.