by CoraLee June
He grabbed me roughly by the arms. “I don’t give a fuck about the other hybrids,” he growled, his face so full of fury that my voice cut out. “You are my mate. I already left you behind in danger once. I was not going to fail you again. So go ahead and be fucking pissed, Motley. I don’t give a shit. That place was minutes from falling apart.”
My eyes widened. “The others?”
“I got them out,” he said through gritted teeth. “But it was close. Too fucking close.”
I let out a shaky breath, but it seemed Risk wasn’t done. “Don’t ask me to do that ever again,” he ordered, his tone low and chilling. “I won’t fucking put you last, and I won’t let you be in danger.”
Defiance warred in me, but Crow cut in. “Little Spider, he’s right,” he said gently. “You’re our mate. Our priority is always going to be keeping you safe.”
“It would go against the bond otherwise,” Tomb added.
My anger deflated out of me at their words, and my eyes softened. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I was just trying to do the right thing.”
Risk sighed and tugged me forward to press his forehead against mine. “I was fucking terrified that I’d try to transport back and it would be gone. That you would be gone.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again, realizing that his own anger stemmed from fear of losing me. It stunned me how intensely he worried for me—how connected we were.
Risk placed a short, heated kiss against my lips before pulling away again. “Good. Because I finally found it,” he said.
“Found what?”
He looked me steadily in the eye. “The one thing I’m not willing to risk.”
Chapter 28
“Again,” the trainer spat at me.
Since my spider’s murderous spree, the trainers had been doubling down on me, using even more aggression in an attempt to get my demon to manifest again. But no matter what they did, she stayed happily burrowed inside, while I gritted my teeth and took whatever they threw at me. I was biding my time.
Half of the hybrids were in the training room with me, while the other half were either in the cafeteria or locked up in their cells, waiting for our signal.
We were all just waiting, casually going through the motions of Spector’s demands while watching and waiting anxiously. Risk found out that the ritual was going down tonight. He was gone, trying to find info on where the ritual was going to be held, while also trying to find out where Stiles was.
I was worried that something had happened to my brother—on a personal level and a strategic one. We needed the entire supernatural community to see what Spector was doing. We wanted to broadcast the madness to the masses. And even though Stiles and I had never really had a relationship before, things had changed between us. I still thought he was an entitled ass, but he was trying to do the right thing, so we were allies in this.
When a blast of freezing water whizzed by my head, I lazily shot my webs out at the trainer who’d tossed it at me. But I wasn’t really putting any effort in my moves. I wanted to conserve energy. We were all just waiting on the signal—waiting for battle, and I had to be ready.
We were heavily guarded today. They wanted to protect their investments, no doubt, and had been steadily bringing in more and more reinforcements as the day went on.
“You’re not even trying,” the trainer snapped at me.
Since Oz’s death, Dave had taken over my training. The water elemental was just as insane as his predecessor and twice as careless. I didn’t know if he had a death wish or if he genuinely didn’t fear me—though he should.
He was testing my boundaries, trying to crack open my mind and entice my demon out. But my spider was resilient, refusing to surface until the time was right. Dave could fucking try whatever he wanted. I wasn’t going to break. When he whipped water at my feet to make me fall on my ass, I took it. When he shot frozen bits of it at my face to cut into my skin, I put up the thin webs to block most of them. He came at me again and again and again, and I took it all without a word. It was pissing him off.
He looked me up and down and stalked closer, his eyes hungry with seedy intent. Nearby, I saw Tomb bristle at the way Dave assessed me. They’d kept Tomb and Crow separated from me, but I tossed my mate a brief look, letting him know I had it under control. Tomb wouldn’t be much help if he was in the tank during our attack. Besides, I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t fear much of anything these days. By taking my aunt from me, they didn’t bring me to heel like they’d hoped. If anything, they strengthened my resolve.
Dave began circling me like a predator. “Belvini wants your spider to come out. He wants to show it to the military, perhaps sell your services to the highest bidder. There’s a bonus awarded to the trainer that can make it happen,” he told me, scratching at the bushy blond beard at his chin.
That news had me curling my hands into fists, but I kept my face impassive. “Oh, yeah? How predictable,” I said in a bored tone.
“You won’t be such a cocky bitch when you get sold off like cattle. I heard the people looking to buy you want to use you for all kinds of things,” he said with a lascivious sneer.
Somewhere flying above me, I heard a crow make a displeased noise.
“You know what I did to my last trainer that pissed me off, right?” I asked pointedly. “If I were you, I’d back the fuck up and keep shooting your pathetic little rain drops at me as we train.”
His fair face mottled with anger.
“If you had any sense of self preservation, you wouldn’t taunt me or my spider.”
The other hybrids had stopped training to watch. We were already anxious as we waited for a signal—any signal—from Risk. And that apprehension was making us all a bit jumpy. But for once in my life, I felt like my peers had my back. Instead of looking at me like they were glad it was me and not them, or watching me be bullied and want to join in, they looked pissed on my behalf. A sense of loyalty washed over me.
We were in this together.
“Your spider broke out when your aunt died, right?” Dave callously asked, like we were discussing the weather over breakfast, or stock patterns in the human world. Not like Spector had taken my beating heart out of my chest and stomped on it. “I heard it was a brutal murder. Took her head off with their bare hands. Must have been a lot of blood.”
I lifted my hand up and inspected my fist, trying my best to keep my emotions under control, even though my spider was itching to play, itching to torment. “I’d be happy to demonstrate it on you,” I said in a falsely polite voice. Cheryl had been filing her nails in the corner all morning, but I saw her walking closer to me out of my peripheral. I gave a subtle shake of my head, warning her away. I could handle this.
“That won’t be necessary,” he began. “I watched the footage. Over and over and over,” Dave replied while stalking closer to me. My spider rose even further to the surface, making my hourglass mark burn with vengeance. “So maybe we just need to kill someone you care about, hmm? Your mates are indestructible, but I’m sure we could find someone else. Or maybe torturing your mates is enough?” He was still circling me, still stalking in that predatory way all Spector idiots did. “You were already on edge when Oz did it. I bet a few more minutes of torturing them, and you would have gone full spider.”
The guards that lined the walls were chuckling amongst themselves, as if the idea of burning people alive was amusing to them.
Soon. Soon they’d all pay.
My eyes flickered to the door once more. Where was Risk? Where was Stiles?
“I can see her, you know,” Dave whispered in my ear. He was too close now. His chest was touching my arm, his body flush against mine. His whiskey breath coated my skin with its fumes. “I can see your demon wants to come out to play. She’s just itching to feed from me,” he said suggestively low, and when I felt his erection grind into my hip, my fangs grew and I envisioned ripping out his throat.
“I wouldn’t feed from you if you were the last
cock on the planet,” I gritted before spitting on the floor to accentuate my point.
Dave didn’t seem fussed by my comment; he simply tipped his head back and chuckled, making the other guards laugh too. Once his amusement tapered off, his green eyes bore into mine, an intimidating stare down that made me want to shove my thumbs into his eye sockets and make those leering organs bleed.
“I can’t wait to break you. You know what happens to spiders in my training room, Black Widow?” he asked while grabbing my wrist and spinning me around, crashing me to his chest. His greasy lips found purchase on the ridge of my ear. “They get squished under my boot.”
I felt frozen with anger, ready to snap, but then the training room door opened.
Stiles.
My breath puffed out in relief, and my focus was redirected. Stiles gave me a single nod.
My eyes found Dave again, and I let out a slow grin. “You know what happens to flies that pester the spider, Dave?” I asked while taking a step back. “They get eaten.”
I whipped a web out and wrapped it around his throat before the last syllable even left my lips. My spider wanted to draw out his death, punish him for his words, but I knew we didn’t have time. I squeezed swiftly, removing his head in one simple move that had blood splattering across my cheeks, and his head rolling on the hard tile.
Everyone was spurred into action. Guards lifted their weapons. “Now!” I screamed.
All of the vampires flashed our fellow hybrids into the center of the room. Johnny was there first, holding up his hands and creating his sensory bubble for us to stay in. I flashed inside of it with the others, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the other elemental hybrids like we planned. Gunshots were ringing out, and alarms were going off, but we ignored it all. As one, we started making a shield of webs, rocks, vines, ice, and fire. It might not be enough to keep all the bullets from hitting us, but it would help buy us time. Johnny’s hands shook as the bubble built up around us slowly, dropping down over our heads in an iridescent dome.
In another blink, Cheryl flashed over, standing right outside our line. “How much longer?” she yelled, ducking down in a squat as another barrage of bullets came our way.
“Sixty seconds,” Johnny shouted back, shaking from exertion as he struggled to drop the bubble around us completely.
We were running out of time. Our layers of defense were being littered with bullets, and then waves of offensive power were being thrown at us, trying to break down the circular wall we’d surrounded ourselves in. But the guards were strong, and more reinforcements were coming.
“Johnny!” I shouted, feeling as my webs were blasted apart and smoke erupted in the air.
“Almost...there…” Sweat dripped down his face as he struggled to complete it. It was to our torsos now, covering all hundred or so of us.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, I silently pleaded.
Cheryl screamed when a ball of ice tore through our wall, hitting her squarely in the arm like a massive frozen bullet.
“Fuck.”
We couldn’t let her get hurt. I rushed forward, my body passing through the dropping bubble, and I hauled her to her feet, holding up her weight. I sent webs to wrap around her wound and staunch the bleeding.
Our walls were breaking down. The elemental hybrids couldn’t keep up with the onslaught, and my webs were frantically trying to shield Cheryl.
“Now, Johnny!” I screamed. We were surrounded. I could see hundreds of Spector guards on the other side. Tomb was fighting them off, his gargoyle form blasting through them, but he was going to be overtaken. Hundreds of crows were attacking too, but elementals were holding them at bay.
Johnny let out a frustrated scream, and then finally, the bubble dropped, encasing the others.
“Now, Cheryl!”
She opened her mouth and let it all out. Screeching like a nineties cover band, she shook the room with her rattling song. Her siren call blasted the room with wails and vibrato, making the guards drop like flies. But I couldn’t even enjoy the victory, because my own ears burned from the assault. Blood dripped down my neck, and I quickly spun webs to shove them in my ears, lightly blocking the sound.
I forced a hole in part of my web wall and staggered over to Tomb and Crow. They were both writhing on the floor, crying out in agony alongside the Spector guards. I created the same ear plugs for both of them, but it was no use. The screeches were too much. I was getting weak too. My head felt like it was going to explode, like a baseball bat striking glass until it shattered.
We just had to outlast the guards for a minute. Just one more minute.
One by one, the guards stopped moving. One by one, power petered out. Tomb’s stone body turned to flesh. Crow’s birds dropped from the air, landing on the concrete with a crack. It was a never-ending torturous song, but I didn’t want Cheryl to stop until the room was dead.
My sanity split in half.
My spider shriveled up and begged for relief.
My mates flickered in and out of awareness until finally they died.
At least they wouldn’t suffer anymore.
Seconds felt like an eternity. I couldn’t die, not yet.
Breaking, cracking, shattering, blistering.
Agony. Pure agony.
My mind was a severed jumble of thoughts. Short hisses of reality and fizzing neurons shriveling up and expanding into more budding torment.
Then finally, Cheryl stopped, relieving me from the devastating pain in my skull.
“That was fun, can I sing again?” Cheryl’s voice broke out as she walked over to me.
I was still reverberating with pain, my eyes filled with bloodied tears that echoed her torture. With a moan, I crawled over to my mates to check them over. Cold bodies greeted me, but I stared at the marks on their necks, waiting for them to reanimate.
“Come on, guys,” I pleaded.
Crow’s finger twitched. Tomb let out a muffled groan. Their lungs expanded with a gasp, and I finally allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Fucking hell, Cheryl,” Crow said while rolling over on his stomach and curling up. “Your voice was like a hacksaw to my brain.”
“I know, right? I’m a pretty powerful demon, huh?” she preened while brushing her hands together with a satisfied smirk.
We looked around the room, searching for even the slightest movement. I stared at the broad chests of some of the Spector guards. I sniffed the rancid blood in the air, breathed in the tantric smell of death.
No one survived.
So how the hell did I?
The black bubble Johnny erected popped, and out spilled the other hybrids. Some of them were trembling, some of them were injured from the fight. “We did it!” one of them yelled while fist pumping the air. Others cheered, but I knew this was just one battle in the war.
“Uh, I did it. You all just took a cozy break in Johnny’s black hole,” Cheryl scoffed.
Crow snickered inappropriately. “You familiar with Johnny’s black hole?” he muttered with a smirk. I elbowed him lightly, and he gave me a contrite shrug.
Cheryl went on, totally oblivious. “Also, do any of you assholes have a healing power? My arm is killing me.”
“Are you okay, baby?” Stiles asked while hurrying toward her. He had been in Johnny’s bubble during the singing. My brother inspected her arm for a moment, noting the webs I’d wrapped tightly around her to stop the bleeding. “I hate that you got hurt.”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “But a kiss would make it better.”
Her eyelashes fluttered flirtatiously as he wrapped her up in a warm hug. Stiles whispered, “You did amazing,” before kissing her passionately on the lips. She squealed against him for a moment, and when they pulled apart, she stared at him in wonder.
“The whole world got to hear your performance,” Stiles said with a sly smile.
“What do you mean?” I asked as Crow and Tomb got up to stand by my side.
“I was finally able to hac
k their security feeds. Every supe in America just watched what happened. The ritual feeds are being leaked, too. Soon everyone will know what’s happening here.”
Excited, I wrapped my brother in a hug. “You did it.”
A crackle from the speakers overhead drew our attention away from the short-lived celebration. It was a fuzzy sound that lacked depth. A dead, monotoned song suddenly cut through their cheers, chilling me to the bone.
Belvini.
His voice was in taunting amusement as he spoke in echoing sing-song over the speakers.
The itsy bitsy spider
Went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and
Washed the spider out.
“It’s a beautiful day for an exorcism, don’t you think, Black Widow?” he finished.
Goosebumps littered my arms at his chilling voice. Foreboding crashed over me. “Where’s Risk?” He should’ve been here by now.
Tomb and Crow shook their heads, their worried expressions matching my own.
“What’s that?” the shifter Tara asked from behind me. She lifted her nose and sniffed, and that’s when I saw the orange smoke filtering through the air vents. I snapped my eyes to the door, wincing when the emergency locks closed us in. We’d anticipated this, but we were hoping to be out of here before Belvini realized what had happened.
Some of the hybrids started tossing powers at the door, but it was no use.
“Shit,” I hissed. “Don’t breathe it!” I shouted at everyone. “It’s gonna knock us out!”
Looks of panic rippled over the hybrids.
“I can get them out of here,” Stiles said, coming up to my side.
“How?” Everyone was holding their hands or arms over their faces, trying to block out the poison filtering in.
Stiles wriggled his hands. “My demon feeds off electricity. If I don’t control it, I can electrocute people with a single touch,” he said, and my mind flashed back to the Thibault ritual, when he’d sent Crow’s birds to the floor in lifeless heaps. “Maybe it’s not too impressive to my father, but I’ve also learned how to manipulate the signals,” he said with grim satisfaction.
