Revenge's Web (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter)

by R. B. Fivecoat

  “Sorry, I was just saying what everyone was thinking.”

  Yuric lifted an eyebrow. “Indeed?”

  “Kieran, just how big is this place?” Ren asked checking her ammo again for the tenth time since the giant spider ambush.

  “Actually, I don’t really know. I think it is as big as the city above, and it goes down a number of levels. According to Julie the stairs on the other side of this . . . room, will lead us down to the reactor level. So really we’re almost there. I’ll take point.”

  With a deep breath I started walking briskly across the platform. The others fanned out behind me. I was almost halfway across when I heard the clicking noises. That can’t be good. I stopped and scanned around with the glasses. Out of the shadows above us the giant scorpion fell. It landed twenty yards in front of me snapping its oversized four-foot-long claws and whipping its tail about.

  “This is the most fucked up nightmare I’ve ever had!” Ren screamed.

  Can’t disagree with her there.

  I raised my guns and fired. Each round exploded against the exoskeleton of the giant bug.

  Nothing. Not even a dent. But I think I pissed it off a little.

  With a hiss it charged. I dropped my guns to the expanded metal decking and drew a revolver. The heavy gun BOOMED as I fired. This time my aim was better. Scorpion parts flew everywhere with the explosion. Yuric was right, there wasn’t even enough for a squeegee when the dust cleared.

  Three other mammoth scorpions fell to block our path. One by one I detonated them with the revolvers. It took me five shots to stop the three of them. Good, and bad. Good, that I was getting to be a better shot with the heavy cannons . . . bad, that I only had three shots left then. I gathered my dropped Walther’s and waited gun in hand for a full minute before sprinting to the exit. The others followed me.

  As soon as we entered the service tunnel Ren spoke up, “Giant mutant sharks, sea monsters from the deep, mammoth killer spiders, monster scorpions, what next colossal mutant snakes?”

  “Good question. We haven’t seen the snakes yet. And I’m sure there are other monsters around.”

  Ren grabbed my shoulder yanking me around to stare in her face as she shook me by my sweater. “Mutant snakes!?! SNAKES!?! Snakes like those other monsters?!” Tears started flowing from her tired eyes. She was beginning to hyperventilate as the shock settled in.

  “Relax.” Yuric pulled his voice trick again on Ren this time.

  That’s one trick I hope he can teach me someday. As long as I don’t have to become a member of the undead that is.

  Chapter 26

  Ren screamed a bloodcurdling cry. We’d found her snakes. They were waiting for us on the reactor level. The attack came too quick at first. All I saw were the legs of the last vampire kicking away as they slid down the throat of the giant black snake. It struck from the shadows and swallowed the vamp whole. Yuric screamed at me to shoot it.

  I lifted the cannon and fired a round from the massive revolver. The upper half of the snake exploded in a red cloud. Ren screamed again. She sure has a set of lungs on her. I rushed to her side to see two more giant snakes slithering up to investigate the ruckus. The nice thing about the snakes was the size of the target. Each one had a head larger than my entire body. Even I could hit that. Twice more I fired the great cannon. After the noise, all that was left of their heads was the cloud of blood.

  We were now down to just Yuric, Derrick, Ash, Ren, Sorrow, and myself. What happened to my army?

  “I hope that was the last of them.”

  “Why do you say that Child? You do not fear snakes as you do spiders,” Yuric pointed out as he stood beside me calming Ren down yet again.

  “It’s not that. It’s . . . well, I’m out of ammo.” I shrugged my shoulders.

  Ash broke out laughing. “This reminds me of a survival horror video game my little brother loves to play. Now would be the time you would backtrack to your saferoom and get your extra ammo from your inventory chest. Then you can return and face the next bad guy in the game.”

  “If this is a game, someone please press the pause button!” Ren begged.

  * * *

  It was slow going crawling over the remains of the giant snakes that blocked the way. Their bodies were thicker than any of us were tall. The smell–along with the freaky factor–was becoming overwhelming.

  I’m not sure if the snakes smelled worse alive or dead.

  “I need a vacation, and something to scrub away the last few hours of my life,” Ren mumbled under her breath as she slid down the monster’s corpse.

  “Personally I would kill for a beer.” That from Derrick.

  Yuric stepped up beside me. “I am not sure my Child, but there may be many more challenges ahead. Perhaps we should take a moment to catch our breath. We have already been through quite an ordeal. None of us will be any help if we collapse from exhaustion or thirst.”

  “You’re right.” I sat down with my back against the dead snake. We were protected on three sides there. It was as good of place to rest as any we’d come across since the Colony. My timing was bad, but I couldn’t keep myself from confronting him anymore. “Yuric?”

  He turned to me after helping Sorrow move a chunk of snake out of the way to give them a place to sit. “Yes Child?”

  “The other day, you used that voice trick of yours on me didn’t you? To make me like Cassie?”

  He took a thoughtful deep breath and centered himself right at me. “Yes. You would not have accepted her otherwise. I did it to benefit you both.”

  “Fine. I get that. I don’t like that you did it, but I sorta understand why you did it. But my question now is, these feelings I have for her. . . are they mine, or something else you put in me?”

  His smile turned warm and friendly. “If there are any feelings in your heart for the girl, then they are your own. I only vamped you to accept her into your life, not to love her like a sister. That was all your own doing Child.”

  So I really do love her like my little sister. Please hang on, I’m on my way Cassie. I’m coming to save you!

  Everyone looked exhausted. I opened my belt-pack and handed out a little to everyone. “The lavender cubes are food. The pill things are painkillers and stimulants, and the gel is concentrated water. Only use a drop or two.”

  Everyone accepted except Sorrow and Yuric. “Thank you child, but unless you have a pouch of concentrated blood on you, then your rations are of no use to me.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. If I’m going to be teaming up with vamps often I suppose I should start carrying something for them as well. Or, at least get them their own stuff. How disturbing is it that I’m actually planning on carrying equipment for helping vampires when I’ve spent most of my time killing them?

  “Here, just don’t take too much.” Ash said nonchalantly, holding out her wrist to Yuric as she nibbled her ration cube in tiny bites. We all just stared at her. “Don’t look at me like that. We need everyone at top form. Including the vampires. A little blood loss won’t affect me much.”

  I really hadn’t thought of that. Could I afford to spare a little blood that way? Uh, no! Any blood loss of mine is bad. But if she wants to bleed, more power to her.

  Yuric actually licked his lips as he stared at her wrist. “This is quite a gift you offer Den Mother of the House of Lesser Cats. I humbly accept.” With that he held her wrist still and edged it to his mouth.

  His fangs grazed the skin a second before he bit into her. Blood dripped down her arm a little before he began to suck. His lips locked on her wrist as if he were drinking the last water in the desert and didn’t want to spill a drop. The sucking noises were disturbingly loud. Ren turned green at the site. I couldn’t blame her. Ash never even flinched.

  Yuric’s eyes flew open. They were glowing bloody orbs in his head. He was drunk with power from the feeding. It looked like he was fighting against himself as he pulled away. “No more! Else I will drink you dry. Oh my, the mixture of
lycanthrope blood and those stimulants, it is quite a euphoric experience.”

  “How could you let him do that?!” Ren asked Ash not bothering to hide the disgust in her voice.

  “My boyfriend is a werebat. He enjoys a little blood from time to time. It’s become a normal practice for me.”

  Riiiight?!?! Well each to their own I suppose.

  Ash held out her wrist to Sorrow. The puncture wounds were already sealed up without a trace. Sorrow glanced at the wrist then at Ash’s face in revulsion.

  “Thanks, but I’ll pass. You’re not my type,” she said glancing at Derrick.

  A look of absolute horror passed over his face. “What?! Oh no! Sorry I don’t donate blood, in any way.”

  “That wasn’t the fluid I was after,” Sorrow purred with a glint in her eye.

  It took me a second to catch on to what she meant.

  “Derrick, she feeds on sex,” I explained.

  His face went from horror to curious then fell to something like defeat.

  “He’s married. You can’t fuck him,” Ash interrupted.

  Derrick shrugged his shoulders and stared at his feet. Sorrow turned to glare at Yuric.

  “We both know I am immune to your charms. You cannot feed from me without them.”

  “AAARRRRGGGHHH!!! This is so unfair! No one decent ever wants to share their lust!” she screamed, ruffling her feathered wings in disgust.

  Well shit.

  “What do I need to do?” I asked her carefully as I stood.

  “Kieran you can’t. What about Vicki?” Ren was on her feet holding me back.

  “Ren, I am thinking about Vicki, and Cassie, and Emmy, everyone. Lives are on the line here. I think that Vicki would forgive me a little sex play if it ends up saving her life. It’s a small price to pay.”

  “I’m not a lesbian,” Sorrow added in a rebellious tone.

  “Neither am I really . . . I mean I am in a way but that–” I slammed my mouth shut fast enough that I bit my tongue, literally. “Look, I react to your vamp, or spell, or what the hell ever it is. You can feed from me, we both know it. Feed on me so you’ll be up to fighting whatever is ahead of us and let’s get moving.”

  Sorrow looked away in thought a moment. Finally she turned back and lifted her hand to me. “Come!” That voice held more power and lust in it than anything I had ever heard from her lips. My entire body became alive instantly as if I’d been having hours of great foreplay.

  I brushed past Ren and fell into Sorrow’s arms. She leaned her head in to mine and kissed me. With the touch of her lips, my body erupted in an endless orgasm. I writhed in her hands so much that she ended up lowering me to the ground, her wings spread above us like a blanket. Her hands were placed beside my shoulders on the floor as she held her body above mine as we kissed. It was only a kiss, and I needed to feel her touch, since she didn’t touch me I moved to touch her. I caressed her breasts through her top and she moaned into me. I slid the bikini top off her breasts freeing them to the room without a thought of our audience. My hands clasped them and kneaded the flesh.

  “Not-working-not-enough-lust-to-feed.”

  She needed more? I’ll give her more.

  I dropped my hands from her breasts and slid under her. She stared down at me as I lifted my head to take her nipple in my mouth. A gasp tore itself from her lips as I sucked. My hands ripped my belt and jeans open, giving my hand room to slip down into my underwear. I was drenched. My other hand flew up to Sorrow. It traced the edge of her bikini bottom for a second before slipping inside. Unlike me, she wasn’t ready yet. I pulled my hands back and switched them. The wetness from my own body covered the hand that I used on her then. I rubbed us both as she slowly started to buck against my hand. She bent her head down at an odd angle and kissed me again while the orgasms in me continued.

  “More!” her voice commanded.

  I rubbed harder and began to penetrate her as I switched which nipple I suckled on. She suddenly began moaning, then the moans softened as she began rocking back and forth. My body mirrored hers. A deep male voice moaned above me. Opening my eyes I glanced up to the vision of Derrick. He was kneeling at my head, pants open, with himself spilt out over his open jeans. Sorrow rocked back and forth as she took him deeper in her mouth with each stroke.

  I thought he wouldn’t let her feed from him? Isn’t my lust enough for her? Shouldn’t this bother me that I’m underneath a guy getting off? Is it because of Sorrow that I’m not disgusted, or am I just becoming a woman in my mind as well now? Why in the hell am I thinking at all?

  Finally he shook with a deep groan. His body contracted sending waves of more intense pleasure through my body because of my touching Sorrow at the same time he did. She rose up on her knees, with white fluid on her lips and a look of satisfaction on her face. A single drop of that fluid fell from her lips as she licked them clean. The drop hit my cheek. I screamed in overwhelming pleasure, as if that tiny single drop was the key element that had been keeping me from reaching my peak earlier.

  Through my screams Sorrow bent back down and kissed me again. The taste of Derrick’s juices filled my mouth as her tongue explored me. Then she pulled back and licked the drop from my cheek. She reached between us and pulled my hand away from her sex. After she licked that hand clean, she pulled out the other hand from my own pants and began to lick it. Once my hands were cleaned from their tasks, Sorrow pushed herself away from me.

  No longer touching her, the pleasure faded rapidly. It was like falling back into my head again. One moment I was under her pleasure spell, the next I was very aware of the position I’d been in. My face and neck burned under the blushing of my body. No one said a word as I hastily buttoned my jeans closed. They were soaked clear through. It looked like I never made it to a bathroom and had pissed my pants. Then the embarrassment hit again, worse than it ever had in my entire life.

  I just got off, with two others, including a guy, in front of an audience!?! A guy!?! That means the drop on my face, and the flavor in her mouth when she kissed me was–!

  My entire body flushed at the thought of tasting something I had sworn in my heterosexual male life I never would. The others never commented as I suddenly had the dry heaves. I tried to vomit, but my body wouldn’t allow it. I found myself pouring hydro on my fingers and using it to scrape my mouth clean of the taste.

  “What’s wrong?” Ren asked Sorrow suddenly.

  I turned to look and my embarrassment faded. Sorrow sat on the floor with her wings folded around herself like a curtain. Between the feathers I saw her hugging her legs to her still bare chest as she cried. I glanced at the others. They all sat there with the same looks of concern on their faces.

  Am I missing something? Wasn’t I the one that got violated here?

  “What’s the matter?” I questioned the room as a whole.

  “I only feed on the willing. Never on someone that doesn’t want it. It was nothing but rape.” Sorrow spoke softly through her tears.

  “Uh? I offered remember? I was willing.”

  Well, willing up to the point of having Derrick’s juices in my mouth anyway. Eeewww!!!

  “HE WASN’T!!!” she barked as she pointed an accusing finger at Derrick, her tear-stained eyes flying open between the masses of running mascara to expose the glowing bloody orbs they had become since she fed.

  “Someone please explain this to me.”

  I glared at Yuric as he spoke. “Young master Derrick was restraining himself from joining you, until Sorrow ordered him to her.”

  Rape? She raped him? Was that what everyone thinks happened? I looked at Derrick. He looked concerned, and not for the crying woman on the floor.

  “You didn’t want to?” I asked him.

  “I’m happily married. Never once thought about cheating on my wife, ever. But when she called me, I couldn’t stop myself.”

  Dammit! So much for my own problems. This is way beyond anything I can deal with right now.

  “We can k
eep this between us, I mean no one has to know, right?” I tried to smooth things over.

  “I’ll know,” Sorrow sniffed.

  “As will I.” Derrick looked like he was about to be sick.

  Alright, how do we deal with this mess?

  “Now is not the time for regrets. Accept and move on,” Yuric pulled his voice trick on us again.

  Sorrow suddenly stopped crying. Derrick nodded and looked like his cocky self again. As for me, I instantly felt fine. It didn’t bother me anymore that I’d basically had a three-way with an audience and had gotten splashed in the process. Well now, this just makes my day complete. I remember every moment of it, and I know I should be upset still, but I’m not.

  “Are we supposed to thank you for that?” I asked Yuric.

  “No. All I did was allow you to accept the problem. You will each still have to deal with it on your own. It will take time, time we do not have at the moment.”

  He was right. With a sigh I dug out a few more painkillers and stared at them a second before popping them in my mouth.

  “Aren’t you afraid of an overdose?” Ren gaped at me.

  “Actually I’m not sure how many you can take before you OD. But remember Targ? I swore I would never get into a situation like that again. An extra painkiller would’ve made a world of difference then.”

  We sat in silence for another minute then gathered up without a word and pushed on. None of us would ever forget what had happened.

  I wonder if we can forgive though? Each other as well as ourselves.

  * * *

  The hallway we were in ended in an open room that branched out three ways. One way to each sub-reactor. We made it! Sub-reactor B was on the right. I walked straight for the door before Ash stopped me in mid-stride.

  “Something big is coming.” She pointed into the darkness down the center of the room.

  We stood ready. It only took a second before Ren started screaming again. The giant cobra stuck its head out of the shadows. Then fanned out its hood as it raised up.