by M. D. Massey
She smiled shyly. “Trust fund. Give me a minute to change, alright?”
“Sure, no problem.”
She glided off down a hall, disappearing into what I assumed was the bedroom. “Make yourself at home,” she said, her voice echoing through the more or less open spaces overhead.
“Don’t mind if I do,” I whispered, reaching into my bag for my markers.
I chose colors that roughly matched the floor and paint as I quickly laid containment wards at the front door and windows. If things went as I expected they might, my plan was to ensure that Mei didn’t escape before I forced her to reveal where she was keeping Derp. I hope I’m right about her, I thought. Otherwise, I’m going to have a hard time explaining this.
Once done, I did my best to look casual as I admired her music and movie collections. She had a ton of rare anime, including Cardcaptor Sakura, When They Cry, and Vampire Princess Miyu.
Well, that fits, I guess.
Mei emerged from her bedroom a few minutes later wearing a gray, off-the-shoulder midriff sweatshirt over a pink sports bra, ankle socks, and a pair of sleep shorts that barely covered the curve of her ass.
If that’s not a come fuck me outfit, I don’t know what is—sheesh.
She grabbed a plastic case off the shelf next to me, then popped a disc into her player and plopped down on the couch, pulling a stuffed animal into her lap. She patted the cushion next to her. “Come, sit with me.”
Said the spider to the fly.
I sat. The movie began, and as Takeru Satoh began dispatching his enemies on the TV screen, I began to feel a little… strange. It was nothing much at first—just the slightest increase in temperature and heart rate. It wasn’t until I felt a bulge growing in my pants, along with a growing haze in my mind, that I realized what was happening.
Next I knew, I was flat on my back on the couch, with Mei crawling slowly on top of me. I felt nearly paralyzed—not from fear or poison, but with passion. To be blunt, I was hornier than a two-dicked billy goat in a room full of nannies. Although I wanted Mei so, so desperately, I found myself torn between my baser desires and a compulsion to please her—thus, the reason for my torpor.
The room spun and everything looked really funky, almost as if I was in a psychedelic state. Colors shifted and melded before my eyes as Mei hovered over me, grinding her pelvis into my hips and pinning my arms to the couch. Helpless to fight against whatever power she was using on me, I felt both pleasure and terror all at once.
“What is this? What are you doing to me?”
She made a clicking noise with her mouth, and for a moment I could have sworn she had four eyes and six arms, instead of just two. “Human scientists would call it pheromones,” she whispered. “I call it the magic of nature. I’ve been subtly exerting my influence over you since we arrived. And when I choose to unleash my magic fully, no man can resist—not even a druid, it seems.”
I’d broken out in a sweat, my hands clammy and my groin throbbing with desire. I wanted Mei like I’d never desired a woman before, yet a voice still screamed from the back of my mind, urging me to fight back and escape. My lust for her was beyond bearable, and my survival instincts urged me to flee at the same time—yet I had neither the will nor the strength to act on either impulse.
Finally, desire won out.
“Bed me or kill me, but make this end,” I said through clenched teeth.
Mei smiled, revealing an extra pair of needle-like fangs that dripped with venom. “Perhaps I’ll do both,” she whispered. “But my master wants something from you, and I’m told it must be given willingly. So, for now, I’ll keep you alive and in agony. How does that sound?”
“Like… hell…” I replied.
“Just sit back and enjoy it,” Mei replied with a wicked laugh. “It’ll all be over… eventually.”
Fifteen
Mei had just started to unbutton my pants when I heard a crash and boom nearby. Then, I heard a woman’s voice with a slight Castilian accent ranting in Spanish and English at the entrance to Mei’s apartment. I missed a lot of the Spanish, but the English part was clear as day.
“Fucking hell, Colin—first you cheat on me with your ex, and now you’re making me save you from being raped by a were-spider? You’re such an asshole.”
“Bells?” I mumbled. “How’d you know I was here?”
“Por supuesto, seguí el rastro de mierda, cabrón,” Bells answered in a rather annoyed tone. “Deja de joder a mi novio, maldita!” she yelled, presumably at Mei. Or so I hoped. When Bells started cussing in Spanish, things were going to get ugly.
I heard the distinct pop-shikt sound of suppressed gunfire, five shots in rapid succession. Mei sprouted a few holes in her chest, but to little effect. I watched in stunned silence as she grew two extra sets of chitinous, insectoid arms, while her face morphed into something that would give Venom and Carnage nightmares. Then she did a vertical leap and clung to the ceiling upside down, skittering backward toward her bedroom.
“Well, that was a fucking joke,” Bells swore as she walked into view, shoulders set and wearing a scowl that could peel paint. Clearly, she was not amused at the situation. “Leave it to you to find the one ’thrope species that isn’t harmed by silver,” she said, shooting me an annoyed glance as she vaulted the couch.
“Um, it’s good to see you too,” I said in a dreamy, delirious voice while still making an attempt to imitate Hemi’s manner of speaking.
“Ugh! Would you please drop that ridiculous accent? It’s not like you’re fooling anyone with it.” Belladonna dodged a glob of venom as she dropped the magazine from her Desert Eagle .357 Magnum, swapping it for another from her belt carrier. “Let’s see how you like this, bitch.”
Blam-blam-blam! The report of her weapon was much louder now that she was firing it right in front of me. Whether due to the noise or because Mei was retreating down the hall—still clinging to the ceiling like Regan from The Exorcist, no less—my head began to clear. For some reason, however, I still couldn’t move.
“Oh my God, I’m paralyzed!” I shouted.
Bells yelled over her shoulder at me as she swapped out another mag. “Quit whining, you big baby. She wrapped you up in spider silk, is all. Look.”
I glanced down, and for the first time I realized that I was wrapped up in a cocoon of webbing, just like Bilbo Baggins in Mirkwood. All except my pelvic area, that was.
“Well, this is embarrassing,” I declared.
Belladonna fired several times, pausing only to holler over her shoulder at me. “You think?”
Deciding that I was not happy being trussed up, I cast a flame cantrip that ate through the spider’s webs, freeing my arm. From there, it was a simple matter of repeating the process to free my other arm and my legs. I was still covered in sticky spider silk, but at least I was free—and not being raped by a were-spider, so that was a plus.
Bells was now farther down the hall, hiding behind a china hutch while she switched out her ammo again. “Okay, third time’s the charm,” she said as she released the slide to chamber a round.
When she fired her gun this time, the rounds burned a bright red trail through the air after they left the muzzle. Apparently she hit her target, because the gunshots were answered with an inhuman wail of pain and anger, followed by the sound of breaking glass.
I stumbled after Belladonna as she took off down the hall and out of sight. It was slow going, since I had to stop every few steps to pull long strands of spider web off me that were impeding my movements. When I finally rounded the corner, Bells was leaning out a huge plate glass window that had been broken outward.
“Me cago en todo lo que se menea!” she swore. “Fucking whore-spider got away.”
“‘Whore-spider’? That’s a little harsh, even for you,” I joked, hoping to bring her temper down a few notches.
Bells turned on me, fuming. “She’s a fucking jorōgumo, Colin—it literally means ‘whore spider.’ If you’d recognized what she was
before you came to her lair, you might have thought to cast a ward to keep her from putting you under with her pheromones. Seriously, don’t they teach you anything in druid school?”
“First off,” I said, plucking a long strand of spider silk from my hair, “I don’t go to ‘druid school.’ And second, I had her right where I wanted her, at least until you came barging in.”
“Right where you wanted her?” Belladonna clucked. “And just where was that, tonto?”
“Honestly, I’ve always thought of myself as more of a Lone Ranger type, to be honest—” I stopped myself mid-sentence, because the look Bells was giving me said I’d better stay on track. “Ahem. As I was saying, I was trying to trap Mei in her apartment. I even warded the windows and doors so she couldn’t leave—”
“All except for the one she jumped out, right?” Bells said as she rolled her eyes.
“Please, don’t bother me with the details of my botched plans,” I said, hoping a little self-deprecating humor might ease the tension between us. It didn’t, and if anything, Belladonna’s glare hit quasar-level intensity. I sighed and threw my hands up in the air. “Seriously, Bells, I needed to capture her so I could question her, not chase her away.”
My borderline ex-girlfriend let out a frustrated growl. She drew her hand back to punch the wall, until she noticed a black and white picture of Mei nearby. Bells shot a few holes in it, then holstered her pistol and got right up in my face.
“Colin, no seas gillipollas! That coño was going to rape you, so she could have a bunch of little were-spiders running around. That’s what they do—they look for healthy young men to mate with, then they inject them with venom and suck their innards out. I swear, sometimes you are such a fucking idiot.”
“I had a plan!” I countered, my anger rising as the effect of Mei’s pheromones fully faded.
“What, like you had a plan to hide your ex-girlfriend from me after she pulled a Lazarus? Shit, Colin—how stupid do you think I am? I watched you with this jorōgumo chick all night long. You knew you were playing with fire, and yet you still went to her fucking apartment with her! Admit it, cabrón, you’re not acting like yourself—and it’s because of that fucking alter-ego of yours. The more you shift, the more of an asshole you become.”
“What? That has nothing to do with anything!” I screamed, putting my fist through the wall. “The thing with Jesse, that was because I couldn’t tell anyone—at least not until I figured out how to tell Finnegas. And besides, she’s turned a little cuckoo since she came back from the grave, so in a way I was protecting you from her.”
“You have a thing for crazy women, it seems.” Belladonna spoke in a calmer, lower voice, although it wasn’t because she was intimidated. She did it to get my attention. It was a trick teachers and parents played sometimes, when a kid was throwing a fit.
I tsked and scowled. “You’d know, wouldn’t you?”
That did it.
“You’re such a dick!” she growled as she pushed me aside and stormed toward the exit. As she was leaving the apartment, she yelled a final goodbye. “The next time you get your stupid ass in a bind, don’t expect me to bail you out!”
“I won’t!” I hollered after her.
Sirens were already crying in the distance when Belladonna stormed out of Mei’s apartment. The last thing I wanted was another run-in with the cops—being tasered once in my lifetime was enough—so I quickly rifled through her bedroom and bathroom for something that might help me locate her later.
As I was tossing her dresser drawers, I noticed one felt heavier than the others. I tapped the sides and bottom, locating a hollow space. A further examination revealed a false bottom, and inside were neat stacks of gold coins, each with eight cups in a circle stamped on both sides.
Circle coins. Son of a bitch.
The sirens were getting closer, so I completed my search, grabbing a few of Mei’s personal things. Those items included her hairbrush and some clothes from her hamper, which just happened to be a pair of panties and other assorted lingerie. If I got caught, I was going to look like the world’s perviest panty bandit, but I needed something with her human DNA on it if I was going to track her down.
Chances were good she spent most of her time in her human form, and if I just used the spider silk that was still clinging to me, I wouldn’t be able to find her unless she shifted. Besides, I wasn’t about to attempt a tracking spell myself. I just wasn’t very good at that sort of magic. Nope, I intended to recruit a specialist for that, and I wanted to make sure I gave them everything they needed to succeed.
I decided to avoid the elevators, figuring the police would have them covered, and headed for the stairs instead. Halfway to the ground level, I heard the sound of a police radio several floors below me. Shit.
Doing my best ninja imitation, I headed back up the stairs, all the way to the top floor. Once there, I picked the lock to the roof access door and entered that stairwell, securing the door behind me. My plan was to wait there until the cops left, but soon I heard two people conversing on the other side.
“Sir, I need you to open this door for me,” an authoritative female voice ordered.
“Yeah, give me a second,” a male voice replied.
I heard keys jangling and knew I was about to have a very bad day, so I cast a quick locking ward on the door. It wouldn’t keep them out long, but it’d hold for the minute or so I needed to escape. I headed up the stairs, as silently as possible, and exited onto the roof.
The rooftop was pretty much what you’d expect—just a lot of asphalt and tar, some HVAC units, and a few lawn chairs and cheap outdoor tables scattered here and there. I ran a circuit around the roof, looking for a way down—a set of fire stairs, a drain pipe I could shimmy down, anything—but I came up empty-handed. However, two stories below there was another, lower rooftop, and across the alley from there it looked like I could jump to an adjacent building.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any stairs or even an access ladder from this side of the building to the other roof. So, I swung out over the ledge and hung off it, falling a good ten feet to the surface below. When I hit I dropped and rolled, managing to take the fall without injury.
“Hey, you! Stop right there!” a female voice yelled from above.
I didn’t bother looking up, but instead covered my face with my arms as I ran to the building’s edge. I almost did a running leap, but as I got closer to the edge I slowed down. It was a lot farther between the buildings than it looked from above.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “Looks like it’s time to shift.”
I yanked off my boots and tossed them in my Bag, and then I partially transformed. As my skeleton shifted and my muscles swelled, I heard the cop yelling at me from above.
“Stop, or I’ll shoot!”
My transformation was complete within seconds, and as I looked back at the threat above me, I felt the urge to climb back up there and snap the cop’s neck.
Actually, that won’t even be necessary. All I’ll have to do is leap up, grab the cop, and pull her over. If I yank hard enough, she’ll break her neck on the way down, and it’ll look like an accident. Then I can get away clean.
I turned and growled at the cop, ready to spring into action. She was in clear view above me, pointing her duty weapon at me. I knew a bullet wouldn’t kill me, not in this form. It’d hurt, but I could heal so long as I stayed shifted. I took three long strides, covering the distance between us and scrambling up the wall in the blink of an eye.
The cop fired at me, winging me on the shoulder and missing me entirely with two more shots. I didn’t find that at all surprising—law enforcement shooting statistics indicated cops only hit what they were firing at about once in every eight rounds. Before she could snap off a fourth round, I’d bounded up the wall and was hanging onto the roof’s edge beneath her. I batted away her weapon, sending it flying where it clattered off an HVAC unit below. Then, I grabbed her by the front of her bullet-proof vest, pullin
g her toward me until she was leaning over the side.
I’d have tossed her off, except that something made me pause before I sent her to her death. I hadn’t really noticed before, but now that we were face-to-face, she reminded me of someone. The officer was maybe thirty years old, with lightly-freckled skin and dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. I noticed bright-blue irises framing dime-sized pupils, shining with tears as they stood out against the whites of her eyes.
As her features sunk in, something niggled the back of my mind. Jesse. She reminds me of the girl I once knew. And she was terrified. Her eyes were wide, her skin blanched, and her mouth was open as if to scream, but only a high-pitched squeak escaped. To her, I must have seemed a monster come to life.
Because I am.
I came to my senses and shook off the violent urges my Hyde-side had brought out in me. A strong shove sent the cop away, and she stumbled safely onto the roof above, out of my line of sight.
Disgusted with myself and what I was becoming, I dropped to the roof below with a thud, landing on all fours like a silverback gorilla. Then, I bounded off into the darkening night.
In an alley blocks away from Mei’s place, I shifted back into my human form and changed clothes. Then, I hung out in the back of an all-night cafe, sipping black coffee while I bided my time. After midnight, I circled back around to Mei’s apartment building to retrieve my car, then I headed back to the junkyard, exhausted and more than a little distressed by my actions earlier. Bells was right; I simply wasn’t myself lately.
Point one: I’d pretty much walked into that unwilling interlude with Mei.
Point two: I was becoming more and more violent and volatile every time I shifted, even in my half-human state.
Point three: I was about to lose my girlfriend, and I was bothered a lot less by it than expected.
Of all the changes in my behavior, that was perhaps the oddest. Belladonna had stuck by me through thick and thin, she’d been loyal to a fault, and she was the best thing that had happened to me since Jesse passed on. I loved Bells—or, rather, I had felt a deep and abiding love for her until recently. If anything, I should have been fighting to keep us together, but instead I felt a certain disinterest about it all.
