Revenge's Web (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter)

by R. B. Fivecoat

  It looked like someone had taken three octopi and glued their heads together back to back. Three jagged mouths opened between six eyes that surrounded the beast from all sides. Each mouth competed for a bite as the creature brought a werecat in. I realized with relief that the cat was unconscious and not breathing. The thought that he had already drown actually made me feel better, because then he didn’t have to be alive to watch himself get pulled into those jaws. The teeth slammed down taking the head along with one arm and shoulder. Then the body was swung around to have another set of jaws take another chunk from it.

  I twisted my head around looking for the others. The vamp was silently screaming to himself wrapped in another tentacle just out of reach. Beyond him I caught a glimpse of the other werecat. He had shifted sometime. His body was covered in a rich golden fur with a shaggy mane surrounding his neck and shoulders. Werelion? Then I realized that there was a steady stream of thick blood pouring out of his slack jaw to mix in the swirling waters. He was already dead as well.

  I was yanked forward again throwing off my focus. The waters swirled around as the beast moved me from one set of eyes to another, like each one had to see me and make its own decision about whether or not I was edible. I threw everything I had into my shields, trying to loosen the grip around me. Each time I tried to push through, the grip switched and I lost my focus again.

  I’m gonna die as fish food!?!

  “SILIS!!! NO!!!” a merman screamed with that bubbly stereo voice they had underwater.

  Suddenly my vision was blurred by a streak of gold and blue. Silis darted back and forth between me and the eyes of the Kraken. She was faster than the creature could track. Tentacles reached out in the water long after she had already moved on. It was distracted enough that it slacked the grip around me. I took advantage and flexed my shields out like dozens of razor blades pointed in all directions. My shields sliced through the tentacle as it dropped me. The Kraken roared through the water as it reared up and away in pain.

  Silis swam by grabbing my arm. She yanked me away from the beast and towards the exit. I turned to look back and saw the vampire. His body was split in half, part still in the grip of the beast, the other falling to the chamber floor. He’d been squeezed in two. The Kraken began beating against the walls as it continued to roar in pain.

  As soon as I was pulled through the exit, Silis allowed me to swim for myself. She led me through the vents as we raced to join the others.

  I will never own a fish tank ever again in my life.

  * * *

  The Merfolk Colony was built like an underwater castle. A palace of coral and shells. The variety of colors made the entire scene that much more breathtaking, which was a problem for Ash. She gasped at the beauty of it all, sucking a fair amount of water into her lungs. It took three mermen to keep her from drowning as she coughed the water back up.

  After that bit of excitement we were given a small tour of their world. They had a market, farms, and even a theater that played modern human movies on a giant waterproof TV. They were just like ordinary people – just with gills, and fins, and of course tails. No one regardless of age, sex, or body type wore any clothing at all. They did however have a number of different hairstyles and seashell ornaments in their hair.

  The merfolk were overly helpful in tending to wounds as they guided us through the Colony. It took a bit of explaining to each of their medics that I was alright. But, that was nothing compared to the number of offers to breathe from them I had to turn down.

  Is it like some sort of honor to breathe for someone else? I’ll have to ask about that later.

  Finally we emerged in a moon-pool inside a submerged pressurized room. The room held a plethora of diving equipment, and towels. The merfolk helped us up out of the water. Then one by one, they would sit on the edge of the pool out of the water. With a horrible RIPPING noise the tails would split apart. Then, by the time they stood up, the split tail turned into human legs. Once on land the merfolk were just like humans. Very athletically well built, extremely naked humans. More than one of the mermen seemed happy that they had helped us, very happy.

  Or are they erect like that all the time? What am I thinking? Why am I even looking?!

  I blushed again and hid my face in a towel. When I’d lost my focus against the Kraken my shields had stopped, and I got soaked. I hadn’t stopped yet to use my psionic shower to dry myself. Another towel suddenly started drying my hair. Looking behind me I saw a fully naked Silis smiling at me as she dried my hair. The tail had been replaced with long gangly teenage-like legs, and the fins on her arms were simply gone without a trace. Suddenly I realized that I’d grabbed her arm and was inspecting it. I let go of her arm as if it had burned me as soon as I came to my senses.

  “I don’t mind,” she said as she held out her arm for me again.

  I took it gently, and ran my fingers over the edge of her forearm where the fins had been before. All that was there now was skin. Young, flawless, and hairless skin.

  “No arm hair?”

  “No. We only have hair on our heads and faces for the boys. No other hair on the body anywhere else.”

  As soon as she said it I looked. I hadn’t looked earlier. There she stood, naked and hairless. I glanced at the other merfolk. Like she said, facial and head hair with nothing else. Seeing a full grown man walking around with a hairless erection was a new experience for me. I turned back to Silis with a question on my face.

  She giggled, “We only come above land for a few reasons. One of those of course is to have sex with humans. To be above land and in the presence of humans we find attractive is like an aphrodisiac we can’t deny. They all want to have sex with you, and the others. If you want anyone they will be more than happy to oblige. Even me.”

  “You? But you’re so young?”

  She laughed, “I’m twenty-three, I’ve been having sex with men and women for years now.”

  “What?!”

  “We age differently than humans, about half as slow. But we follow the same age laws as the surface. You’re supposed to be eighteen before you start having sex. Not that it stops anyone, but it is a general rule. If you want to have any of them you can, we’re all bisexual. And don’t worry about offending anyone by turning us down. We’ll just go have sex without you when you leave. Any of the merfolk that leave the water are willing to have sex. If they don’t want sex they stay in the water, just like my brother there. He’s married with two kids and another on the way, so he doesn’t play with humans anymore.”

  She pointed at the pool, and there with just his bearded head out of the water was the merman that she had called brother earlier.

  “Silis, what was the big deal back in the Colony about everyone wanting to breathe for me?”

  “Oh that. It’s a power trip. Humans dominate the planet above the water. Merfolk dominate the seas. We love it when you come below and we have to breathe for you.”

  “Oh, um, did I insult anyone by breathing on my own?”

  “Not at all. Especially since you didn’t have technology to breathe with. The lady with wings insulted a few since she preferred to breathe with her siphon breather. But no one will really hold it against her. It’s just an ego thing.”

  “So you’re honestly over eighteen?”

  “Yep. Ask anyone. If I wasn’t over eighteen I would’ve been in school instead of out playing in the tanks.”

  “The first time we met you seemed afraid that Nikolai might tell your mother you were in the coral room. If you’re over eighteen, why’s it an issue?”

  “You’ve never met my mother. Besides, we’re a small colony in an enclosed space. It isn’t like we can just swim to another colony in the ocean if we want to get away from our families. We’re kinda stuck together, y’know? But we all like it here, and no one really wants to go live anywhere else.”

  “We should keep moving,” Sorrow declared as she stood up and out of reach of the merfolk, then spread her wings and flapped
them a few times showering the room with water again.

  “Our angel of lust is correct. Each second wasted takes us further from our goal,” Yuric said as he stood and made his way for the door.

  “Be sure to close the inner door before you open the outer one. This room is under pressure, if both doors are opened at once the water will all rush out of the Colony and down the halls. Once outside the doors, the access tunnels you need are to your left about fifty meters down the hall. Take the third door you come to. It will drop you closest to the sub-reactor level. And please come back to visit again. I would love to spend more time with you.” Silis leaned in and kissed me. This time it was a real kiss.

  The kiss of life and the kiss of love, both from a mermaid. This is one weird day.

  Chapter 25

  Still dripping wet, we ran down one hall after another, being guided again by Julie on my glasses. Surprisingly, we made it down two full levels before we met the first resistance after leaving the water. A number of vampires and werewolves spilled out into the corridor in front of us screaming for blood.

  I dropped to a knee as I ran, my clothes sliding on the polished floor. Then I raised the assault gun and pulled the trigger. The barrels spun rapidly and the bullets flew out in a rain of explosive silver. Each round detonated on impact. It took a second for the shock to wear off enough for me to let up on the trigger.

  The hall beyond was destroyed. Rubble and blood coated the stretch before us. Nothing moved, not even a twitch.

  “That is quite an effective use of the ammo I gave you child. Albeit a might overbearing,” Yuric said behind me.

  “This gun is too cool!” Did I just say that out loud?

  We continued on, confronting more of Jacob’s followers at every turn. It was easy to keep the vamps and shifters at bay with the assault rifles. I replaced the ammo canister with the last spare just before turning a corner and stepping into a giant spiderweb. I twisted to try and get away from the web, and ended up tangling myself in it worse.

  EEEWW!!! GROSS!!! Someone get me out of this!

  “What in the hell made that?!” Ash asked staring down the hall behind me.

  I squirmed my neck around to look over my shoulder. The entire hall was covered in webbing. A white tunnel just like at the slaughterhouse. The damn thing has already covered the halls in webbing? My body started to shake uncontrollably as my skin crawled with the memories of the arachnataur. I screamed and began to claw my way out of the web I was caught in, only to end up tangling myself worse.

  “Shit! Help her out before she loses it!” Ren screamed as she started to pull webbing off me.

  Ash used the blades to cut the webs as Ren and Yuric pulled me out. Even once freed, I fell to the ground shaking and screaming from the panic-attack. Yuric placed his hand on my forehead.

  “Child you must be calm,” he said with that power in his voice.

  I was instantly calm. The shaking and screaming stopped. If he ever needed a new job he could always be a therapist. He patted my shoulder and helped me stand. No one commented on me freaking out. That’s happening a lot since I got this body. I really need a new job.

  “Thanks,” I said taking a step forward. I stopped instantly as soon as I saw the walls moving through the corner of my eye. Something was alive behind the tunnel of webs. My skin crawled again forcing a noticeable cringe to spasm down my spine. “Hold up a sec.”

  Everyone froze. I switched vision modes on my glasses. The walls flared to life with thermal images of thousands of spiders each bigger then my hands.

  Fear overtook me again. I screamed.

  Screamed and threw out my shields, smashing the walls and everything crawling on them. I pushed my shields down the corridor until the walls and ceiling gave way under the pressure. With another push the hall widened to almost double its size.

  Everyone stared at me until someone pointed. Blood and thicker things oozed through the webbing where the spiders had been smashed under my shields. Instantly I felt like I needed a shower.

  A boiling hot shower with a steel-wool pad scrubbing!

  Without a word we pushed on. Each of us running through the seeping web tunnel. On the other side I stopped and shook again.

  I am not enjoying myself, just in case anyone cares.

  Earlier we decided to avoid the other elevators just in case. Of course having an elevator car drop out from under you will change your view of them. As soon as we found the stairwell we went down to the floor Julie said that we had to cross over to yet another stairwell. A glance at my watch showed Cassie’s location was still several floors below us. I gently edged the door open to a set of hallways thick with webs.

  What is it with all the spiders? Why couldn’t we have to fight something like giant teddy bears, or menacing butterflies, or something?

  The lights were flicking on and off casting an eerie glow through the forest of silk.

  It’s like a set up in a horror movie. The poor young heros must push on through the frightening, poorly lit, well beyond creepy, monster filled rooms, only to be picked off one by one. All we need is some spooky theme music to complete the mood.

  “After we get out of this I’m going to throw out every horror movie I own,” Ren commented quietly after a glance down the new hall before us.

  “I’m just looking forward to a scalding hot shower,” Sorrow looked over my shoulder at the halls beyond, being careful not to touch anyone.

  “Personally, I am going to stock up on bug spray.” That from Yuric.

  We all laughed.

  A master vampire with a sense of humor. Scary.

  Following Julie’s directions, we headed out. The first two hallways we crawled down were thankfully empty of anything but the webs. But something was very alive in the next hallway before us around the corner. The thermal vision was bright red with the shape of a spider the size of a car as I peered around the corner. Great, one of the big ones now. It was gnawing on a pile of bodies on the floor.

  “Big fucking spider halfway down the hall,” I announced to the group behind me.

  “When you say big, just how big are you talking about?” a vampire asked with a shaky voice.

  “Car.”

  “Car?”

  “Yeah, car. Or, maybe small truck.”

  “You’re fucking kidding right? A spider as big as a truck?”

  “Yep. And, it’s in our way.”

  “Are you going to kill it?”

  “That’s the idea.”

  I stuck my head around the corner again switching vision modes. “Well hello you striped motherfucker!” The spider tearing into the body was none other than the yellow and black one that had tried to eat me the first time I visited the Bestiary.

  “I take it you know this ‘big fucking spider’ then Child?” Yuric was looking over my shoulder down the hall.

  “Oh yeah. We’ve got history. I’ve gotta score to settle with this one.”

  No one said a word as I stepped around the corner. The monster noticed me immediately. It turned from its meal and crouched down staring at me with those lifeless eyes. The way it acted was like that of something much more intelligent than a spider. Now that is unnerving if anything ever was. The spider started to shake. Just like it shook the leaves in its cage back then. It shook and raised up and down. It reminded me of a cat getting ready to pounce.

  Enough already.

  I started running towards it, assault rifle ready, screaming at the top of my lungs. As soon as I took three steps it lunged at me. Fangs snapping and legs spread. What a nice big target. The wall of horror was closing in on me quickly, and this time there was no bulletproof glass to stop it. I pulled the trigger. The gun spun to life. Dozens of rounds slammed into the beast. Each one exploding to the size of a basketball. Small chunks of spider splattered the walls. I emptied the assault rifle into it. Then I dropped it and drew the Walther’s and emptied a clip each into the remains. Only then was I satisfied it wasn’t going to get back up agai
n.

  I ran back to tell the others of my great accomplishment.

  Only when I turned the corner did I notice the fighting. There were three different giant spiders fighting amongst the others. The ceiling had a gaping hole in it.

  They ambushed us!?! Dropping in from above. The damn things were smart enough to plan an ambush? Spiders aren’t that fucking smart, are they?

  The fight was too chaotic to get a clean shot, and I didn’t want to shoot anyone by accident. I switched out my guns for my black sword as I waded into the fight. My shields separated it into a blade in each hand by the time I was within striking distance of the first beast. Ren was underneath it, using her rifle to keep its dripping fangs off her. I took a backspin, swiping the legs away from her first, then cleaving it in two with the other blade. With that one down I prepared to attack the next.

  Only I didn’t have to. The others were now dead as well. We took a second to regroup. Our group was now short two more werecats and another vampire.

  I never even knew what any of their names were. I need to start making people wear nametags when we go to the next slaughterfest. That way I at least know who died.

  * * *

  Down the next stairwell we went. No one said a word. Not even a bad joke. Even when pushing down the several flights of stairs, no one spoke. When we reached the bottom of the stairs we prepared for the worse and pushed through into the next floor on our journey. It was some sort of refinery.

  What in the hell all is down here?

  “This heat is killing me,” a vamp commented.

  Everyone was sweating. Well, everyone but me. I was shielding so hard that not even the heat was making it through. It took us a while to navigate down the mazes of catwalks between the miles of pipes until we came to an open area the size of a large parking lot. We all froze on one side staring at the other edge of the room.

  “This would be a good place for an ambush,” Derrick whispered.

  “Christ! Thank you for jinxing us Derrick,” Ash hissed back at him.