by Nicole Thorn
Once we finished, Juniper took to glaring at us like we offended her. I patted her head, and she didn’t like that either. I almost thought she would try and hit me.
My phone started ringing, but I had too much fun playing with Juniper to get it right away. It took Kizzy flicking me and pulling my phone out to get me to realize Jasmine called.
“Hello, peaches,” I said with a smile. “Do you need ideas for your wooing?”
“SPIDER WEBS AND WEREWOLVES!” she yelled into the phone. “Werewolves!”
I blinked and so did the girls with me. “Um . . . what’s that, baby?”
“Werewolf,” she said again. “This dude turned into a wolf, and Jasper and I are locked in a store because freaking spider webs are trapping us.”
Werewolves were . . . not great to be up against. First off, they always seemed huge. Second, you didn’t know what you got with each one. In some cases, they had no control over their wolf when in animal form. For others, they acted pretty much like a big wolf with a person brain. It depended entirely on the human half, and had nothing to do with if they had been born or made. Of course, they could work to gain more control. Some just got luckier than others.
I didn’t know what to think of these wolves. They obviously worked for Arachne, so that honestly didn’t tell me much. There needed to be an alpha to guide them, and a less controlled wolf would listen. Arachne only needed that one to be on her side and in control, she would have a little army of them.
I would have to tell Artemis that she had a little wolf problem, and to send some of her Hunters along to take care of it. I thought of werewolves as people, and some of them were good. That didn’t matter to the gods, and normally it would to me. But now werewolves threatened my family, and that was enough to make me want them gone. They normally lived near the woods so that they could run when they shifted, so this seemed a little high north for them.
“Stay calm,” I said, moving to my sword. I picked it up, and I saw my sister leave the room, no doubt to get her bow. “Are you or Jasper hurt?”
“No,” Jasmine told me. “We’re fine, but there’s a clerk here too. She passed out, but no one is hurt. You’re walking into a trap here, I hope you know that.”
“Obviously, love. But we’ve got two demigods with weapons. We’ll be fine.”
Kizzy walked back with her bow and arrows in tow, and her expression looked hard as she spoke into the speakerphone. “Jasper?”
“I’m here,” he said.
She breathed out in relief. “I’m gonna come get you, sweetheart. Do me a favor and don’t try and be a hero, or do something dumb. Not that I don’t trust you . . . but I kind of don’t trust you.”
I heard him sigh. “I’ll stay put. I promise.”
“Good,” Kizzy said harshly. “I love you. Be safe.”
We all said our goodbyes, and the three of us started rushing to my car. We loaded it up, and I sped down the road.
“I don’t know if a bite can turn a demigod,” I said to the girls. “But for you, Juniper, it would change you or kill you. I don’t know what happens to a seer that’s been bitten, but I doubt the gods would let you go on. So, I need you to stay in the car.”
She exhaled from her nose in the backseat. “Are you sure you’ll be able to take on werewolves? I know that they’re huge. Their teeth . . . ” she trailed off.
Yeah, I knew that too. If one stood beside me, typically it would come up to my middle. A really desperate person could mistake them for massive dogs, but in reality, they didn’t look like a dog. They looked like monsters, for the most part.
“You’ll need to get in the front seat,” Kizzy said. “If something goes really, really wrong, you’ll need to leave and get help for Jasper and Jasmine. Eros is a couple doors down. He’ll help.”
“What?” Juniper almost squeaked. “What is Eros doing here?”
“Selling a house,” I said casually. “It’s not important. He’s my brother and he’ll help save you guys. I promise.”
Juniper nodded. “I’ll get him. Just try not to die.”
Obviously.
We approached the store that Jasmine said she and Jasper had been locked in, and I couldn’t imagine Jasmine actually staying conscious if she knew what surrounded her. I didn’t know what about spiders did it for her, but I didn’t have to. I knew that even a cobweb could give her nightmares, so I hoped I could get her out of this without her seeing the extent.
It looked like a ghost town, but for the one car in the parking lot, and the bike next to it. I assumed it belonged to the clerk. I saw no wolves, no people, and no signs of life. What I did see was horrifying to say the least.
“Oh god,” Kizzy groaned.
The small building had been wrapped up in webs so thick that I couldn’t see inside, and I wouldn’t be able to until I cut through it with my sword. It made the shop look pure white and cocooned in this trap. My girlfriend was trapped and helpless, and I had to go save her.
“Stay in the car,” I reminded Juniper. “Keep it running and if you need it, there’s a dagger under the driver’s seat.”
She nodded. “Good luck. Don’t let my siblings die.”
Kizzy and I got out of the car, and she threw her quiver over her shoulder. She pulled out an arrow and readied it for a blow, the moment a wolf poked its head out.
“Do you hear anything?” I asked quietly.
“No,” she whispered back. “They wouldn’t have left. They’re just hiding.”
Strong animals with a human brain sounded horrible to fight against. I’ve never had the displeasure of running into a werewolf, but Ares told me that he’d lost more than a few good fighters to them over the years. Demigods included. It would take a lot to kill Kizzy and I, but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near impossible. Teeth could rip out our throats, claws could gut us, and paws could swipe and break our necks.
“What about Arachne?” Kizzy said. “Do you think she’s here to watch this go down?”
I shook my head. “I think she’s got more important things to do than watch a couple annoying demigods die. Don’t you think? It seems like we’re not worth doing the killing herself.”
She rolled her eyes. “At least the furies were nice enough to give us the time of day.”
When it stayed silent, I pulled my phone from my pocket to let Jasmine know that we had arrived, and to see if she knew anything more about what surrounded her. While I waited for a response, I studied the land around us.
The silence told me so much, and I viewed the world as if I became one of the Hunters. I watched the trees for movements, and I listened for anything. Hearts, breathing, claws on concrete. Something needed to tell me where they hid.
Terror coursed through me. Every day, I lived in fear that something would take Jasmine away from me. I didn’t want her leaving the house alone because it could’ve been dangerous, but I guess even with her brother, it hadn’t been safe. If she took even Kizzy with her, they would still have gotten attacked in all likelihood, and I would be on my own against three werewolves. I would probably have died.
No matter what I did, Jasmine would be in danger. She was so human, and that meant she would be opened to all the bad things in this world. All I wanted was for her to live a long and healthy life. How unfair would it be if I lost her now, and like this? Because of my connections to the gods? She was a seer, but she and her siblings had never been in danger until I showed up. At least not from anyone but her bastard of a father. I couldn’t have saved her from that at all. I still crossed my fingers that he would kill himself soon.
The sky appeared to be darkening as we stood out there, the clouds rolling in and covering blue with light grey. I couldn’t even tell if it would rain, or if the sky just didn’t want to be kind that day. I didn’t want to believe in bad omens.
My phone buzzed and I had to look away to answer it. “Jasmine said that the wolf she saw was at the back door when he shifted. No one’s tried breaking in yet. They’re w
aiting for us.”
Kizzy sighed and pointed her arrow at the sky. “My boyfriend is in trouble. I’m not gonna play stealth hunter today.”
She let the arrow fly, and it soared past the building trapped with webs. It seemed like it would go absolutely nowhere, when all of the sudden, it took a sharp turn to the left and shot downward. A howl of agony rang out into the air, and Kizzy readied another arrow, looking excited for the fight to come. Honestly, I felt the same way.
It started with a wolf stalking out from behind the building. He looked massive and brown, and his hateful eyes locked on my little sister. His gray pal came out with the same look. And the final wolf, black and with an arrow in his leg, stalked out to meet his pack.
Even injured, the black wolf looked ready for a fight. Three against two didn’t look so good for us, but Kizzy and I survived plenty in the past. I mean . . . two against one with the furies . . . I still had hope for us.
“If I told you to run,” I whispered to Kizzy, leaning sideways to her, “would you?”
She scoffed. “Fuck no. You take the injured one and the brown one. I have the gray one. Unless you want me to take on two.”
“No, I have the sword. Just go on my count. Three . . . ” The wolves began stalking again, eyes on us. “Two . . . ” The brown one reached his paw forward, and he snarled at me. “One!”
Kizzy and I ran in opposite directions, and the wolves seemed thrown for a few moments. I knew what we would have to do; kill them. They weren’t human, but they were closer than we’d gotten so far. At least as close as Kizzy’s gotten. I murdered two people when I had been a kid, so this would only add to that number.
When I started backing up, I saw that I did have two wolves on me, but the injured one followed Kizzy, looking for revenge. I caught sight of it backing her into a corner. I couldn’t get to her, but trusted she could stay alive. In fact, Kizzy ripped her arrow out of the wolf before I had to look back at my attackers.
“Nice doggies,” I said with a smile. “If you all wanna run away now, I won’t kill you.”
They both snarled at me, and I held my sword steady. Looked like I wouldn’t get out of this one.
I started running past the building, hoping to tire out the wolves before I started trying to swing my sword at them. I didn’t have a damn clue how to go about doing it, so I’d wing it.
I fought off the chimeras by hacking like a crazy person, and I supposed that would work here as well. I needed to get the wolves separated from each other so that I could fight without the other attacking me. Not a problem . . .
I heard the howl of a wolf in the distance as another arrow landed, and I couldn’t remember how many Kizzy had left. She used them sparingly, but this was an emergency.
The gray wolf gained on me, so I decided that the running wouldn’t work. I reached the edge of the trees, and made it look like I would hide. It was easy to trick the wolf and swing around a tree, getting behind him. With a slash of my sword, I took off the tip of his tail.
“Oh,” I gasped, and backed away as he howled. “I’m gonna fucking die . . . ”
The wolf snarled at me, and launched in my direction. I dodged easily, and the wolf seemed uncoordinated, probably because of the bleeding. I got one more swing in before his little buddy caught up. I slashed across the gray wolf’s side, but not deep enough to end him.
“KIZ!” I shouted into the void, backing up from danger. “YOU OKAY?!”
“GREAT!” she called back, and I heard the sound of something breaking. I turned to see her through the trees, a wolf arm in her hands after she snapped it. It bit at her, but she shoved the body back. He fell with his weight on the damaged paw, and whimpered. Kizzy ended him quickly with an arrow between the eyes.
I guess my sister kicked more ass than I did.
When the tailless wolf launched at me again, I swung my weapon in his direction. I caught him on his massive hind leg, and blood poured from the wound in an instant. I couldn’t seem to hit the brown wolf, because he moved too damn fast. He had to be the alpha. His eyes looked too aware.
My sister started charging for us, drawing an arrow I knew didn’t carry any magic in it. She would need better aim than she had before. When she shot the arrow, I had busied myself by swinging at the gray wolf that just wouldn’t die. He bled all over, yet he still stood tall.
The brown wolf whimpered while I attacked the gray one. He snapped his teeth at me, and I barely got my arm out to hold him back. The wolf bit at me again, but he didn’t have a chance of his teeth sinking into my skin. I didn’t want to catch werewolf at the moment. Maybe if I got really old and bored, but I had enough on my plate.
In his efforts to bite me, the gray wolf gave me an opportunity to end him. I gripped my sword, and I stuck it in his torso. I watched his eyes go wide in pain as he whimpered pathetically. It happened quickly, and I felt glad for that when I dropped his body to the ground.
I killed someone. Someone who had been mostly human. Another person lay dead at my hand, and I wore his blood on my clothes to prove it. I didn’t want to think about it.
That left the brown wolf, who had an arrow in his side. He already started running away, leaving blood in his wake. Kizzy drew an arrow and took aim at him, but I put my hand on her arm.
“What?” she asked.
I shook my head. “He’s hurt and running. He doesn’t need to die today.”
Kizzy watched me with concern, but she lowered her weapon. “Are you okay?”
She knew already, but I answered by looking at the body I left in my wake. Blood pooled around him, painting his light fur red. I stared at empty eyes locked on the sky. His life ended, and I did that. I took him from people that loved him.
But the werewolf would have taken someone that loved me if he had the chance. He would have killed my sister, and he would have killed her boyfriend, and my girlfriend. This man only came here because he had been willing to do bad things for someone. He deserved this.
That little sliver of satisfaction rose up in me, telling me I did the right thing. He would have hurt Jasmine, and I wanted to hurt things that threatened my people. Like Jasmine’s father this morning, it felt good to do this. Good, and disgusting at the same time. It felt easier to focus on the sick joy I got when I killed him than the slippery feeling in my stomach at the thought of what Jasmine would think of me. She insisted that she loved me, but I didn’t want to risk finding out what would make that end.
“We need to go get them,” I said, ignoring Kizzy’s question. She gave me a look, but knew better than to poke at me. She was too used to fragile men in her life.
Kizzy followed me until we broke through the trees, and back to the front of the store. We couldn’t leave those bodies there for long. Some human would find them, and that would start a whole new mess we couldn’t deal with. The gods would probably blame us if they had to clean up a mess, because they loved blaming others for things. No god knew how to do anything else.
I would see Jasmine soon. I needed to get it together and shake off this darkness I felt clawing at me. Yes, I killed a person, but it I had to do it. She would understand that this hadn’t been in cold blood. She wouldn’t see me as a monster, and that was the most important thing to me.
We reached the web covered doors of the shop, and found one way in. The webs felt too strong to pull them down, and the seers already tried that. But I had something that they didn’t have.
A magic fucking sword.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
No Rest for the Scared Shitless
Jasmine
“You’re gonna break the webs apart with your sword?” I called through the mess of sticky stuff that I didn’t want to touch. I knew that Arachne had to have made them, so there probably weren’t thousands of spiders crawling through the webs . . . but why take chances? I would already have nightmares for the rest of my life about this day. Just webs everywhere.
“Yes,” Zander said. “As soon as I know that you and Ja
sper aren’t standing next to the door.” His voice sounded quiet, the webs acting as a muffler, but I could understand him just fine. He would cut through webs. With his sword.
“Are you shirtless?” I asked.
“No,” Zander said.
“You should really be shirtless for this, for reasons,” I called back. Mmm. Sword. I liked the sword. I’d like the sword all the more if he did things with it while I could watch all those pretty muscles at work. Rippling. Moving. I’d do literally anything to him that he wanted of me if I could see him shirtless.
I heard definite amusement in his voice when he called back through the webs, “Are you clear of the door?”
Jasper grabbed me from behind, pulling me away from the webs. “Yes,” he grumbled. When I looked at him, I realized that I had said that shirtless comment in front of him. I offered a small smile, but I didn’t think I amused Jasper. Hardly my fault that my boyfriend looked so good with a sword.
The tip of which suddenly slammed through the webs. I blinked at it. We had tried so hard to get through them with just our bodies, like they had been normal webs. It hadn’t worked, since most of them felt more like wires. You wouldn’t know that with how the sword sliced straight through. More like a butter knife through noodles.
It looked like some of the webs shrank away from the sword. Like sentient beings afraid of the sharp pointy thing. I needed to round out this day with that. The thought that webs could think. I would never walk through another web. I’d die first. Lay down and die.
My boyfriend made quick work of the webs, until a passage formed to the outside world, into this one. Zander stepped through, not seeming to care that doing so could get him covered in thousands of spiders we didn’t see. Ugh . . . Spiders. It was true what they said. There was only so much fear one could take before that emotion shut down, because otherwise, I would have been rocking in the corner.
