Precise oaths, p.14
Precise Oaths, page 14
Kristen looked up from her hands and shook her head. “It’s too late. You’ll die now, no matter what. The poison is incurable.”
Fear poured off Pete like acid-green fog. He couldn’t suppress a shudder. “That’s not true?” he rasped.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Liliana had been taught stealth by a lion-kin and a jaguar-kin. She grew up with big cats as her playmates and her brothers. Her ballet slippers whispered soundlessly across the concrete floor.
Pete’s eyes glanced up at her for a moment as she got within striking range of the pregnant widow spider.
Kristen was too immersed in her misery and guilt to notice the lapse.
Liliana flicked her right wrist. The razor-sharp, curved arm blade slid silently from her arm and locked at a right angle. She struck swiftly, focusing the force of the blow through her entire body to give it power.
Kristen’s head came off and rolled across the damp concrete floor, the word “sorry” still forming on her lips.
“So am I, little sister,” Liliana said softly. The cut was clean. The young widow spider’s death was quick. It was the only mercy Liliana could give her. She blinked a few times to clear tears. None of this had been Kristen’s fault, but the killing couldn’t be allowed to continue. Especially not if Kristen continuing to live meant Pete had to die. “I am so very sorry.”
Liliana pushed the kneeling body to the side, away from Pete. Blood spurted and pooled, steaming in the damp chill of the basement and ruining the pretty blue dress.
Pete’s pale eyes widened in shock. A few drops of the young woman’s blood dotted his cheek. “Lilly.” Pete’s voice rasped, and he grimaced in pain.
“Don’t speak. Widow spider venom destroys vocal cords first.” Liliana dropped to a knee and reached a hand to his face to wipe away the blood.
He flinched, eyes showing white all around. Her third eyes told her green terror still flooded him. He did not see rescue when he looked at her. He saw a different threat, come to add some additional torture to his already guaranteed slow, painful death.
Her swift, silent murder of the pregnant widow spider horrified him, even knowing Kristen had been killing him slowly.
“You told me Daphne was…the right kind of…” Pete’s sentence was lost in a wet coughing fit. He spat blood at the end of it. Liliana’s third eyes saw an image in his mind of what he meant. Pete thought she had deliberately sent him into a nest of widow spiders seeking prey.
“I didn’t know Lady Daphne was a danger to you, or I would never have sent you to her for information,” Liliana said. “This is all my fault, and I am very sorry, but it was not intentional.”
She reached her hand to his face again.
He nodded slightly and let her fingertips brush the blood off his cheek. She had no reason to lie to him when he was already dying from poison. She could see Pete took comfort from her touch. She watched his aura as a strange sort of peace overcame the glowing green. Fear still filled him, but it was lessened. She had accomplished that much. But she could do more.
“Kristen was wrong. You do not have to die tonight.” Liliana had bitten him against his will the first time. Her other choice had been to kill him. She had chosen for him, which was not honorable, but he had not fully understood the situation. Now he could choose for himself whether to accept her venom or die, with full knowledge of both options. This was honorable. “My venom can counteract widow spider venom.”
Pete looked at her for a long moment, hope blooming in his heart like a pink flower, but he was confused. He opened his mouth to question her reasons for offering to help him, then he closed it without saying anything and nodded. It didn’t matter why. He would take any chance to avoid this awful death.
Liliana hesitated. She owed him full knowledge of one important aspect of her venom’s magic before he made the choice. “Each time I share venom with you, our fates will become more closely intertwined.”
He coughed, spat more blood, and quirked up one side of his lips in a crooked half-grin showing bloody teeth. “I’ve seen the alternative,” he said. “Bite me.”
Liliana knelt beside him and put her arms around his wide shoulders.
Pete leaned into her. His muscular body trembled in her arms. His face still showed no signs of distress, but his body and his aura betrayed his fear and pain.
The sticky widow spider silk felt odd under her hands, familiar and yet not quite right, like an old favorite tune played slightly off-key.
His throat was the only part of Pete exposed.
“This will hurt,” Liliana apologized. She could not bite a safer spot, and she didn’t dare take the time to bite him like she would a lover, to minimize pain.
Rather than speak, Pete leaned his head to the side and pushed his throat toward her mouth.
Liliana bit carefully in the long strip of muscle that ran from Pete’s collarbone up the side of his neck to just under his ear, avoiding the big veins. Her needle-sharp fangs made pinpricks just above the gaping wounds the widow spider’s lion-sized fangs had left.
His damp skin smelled of fear sweat and the sickly sweet acidic rot of widow spider venom, but under that was formaldehyde and steel and a hint of wet fur: Pete’s scent. Liliana made sure he got a full dose of venom, then tasting the harsh acid in his sweat, bit a little harder to push more.
Pete grunted hoarsely next to her ear. A pained sound, but nothing like the agonized scream she heard earlier when Kristen bit him.
She hugged him as the venom’s euphoria burned warm and sunny yellow through him, washing away all pain and fear.
He rested his forehead on her shoulder as his breathing slowed and the trembling eased.
Liliana held him close and rocked him like a sick child.
After a few steady, deep breaths, the tension in Pete’s shoulders drained away. “Thanks, Lilly,” he whispered. “I keep misunderstanding you.” He snuggled more comfortably into her arms. “I can’t believe I tried to kill you last night,” he said with the unfiltered honesty of her venom. His voice was still raspy, but it no longer held the wet gurgle of blood.
“I can’t believe I nearly got you killed tonight.”
“Let’sh not do that anymore.” Her venom’s influence slurred his speech slightly.
“Agreed.” Liliana hugged him hard. For a man she had known only two days, this red wolf had become precious to her.
“Could you cut me loosh now?” he asked.
Liliana laughed and felt the relief in it, but they were deep in enemy territory. One wrong step would still end both their lives. Even if they stepped as carefully as her eyes could guide them, they had a strong chance of both dying tonight. “No.”
“Um…” Pete pulled back and looked at her. “Why not?” She could see him struggle to make sense through the fog of both her venom and lingering sedative.
“Sergeant Giovanni is sleeping in an office upstairs in the back of the restaurant.”
“Soooo…”
“If I cut you free, you will want to go and save her, and you are stronger than I am. I will not be able to stop you.”
His lips thinned into a stubborn line. “I’m not leaving Zoe.”
Liliana nodded. “I could not save you until after you were bitten. I was here, hiding, but I had to wait or we both would have died.”
A deep crease of confusion dug its way between his pale brows.
“I’m sorry I’m not explaining this very well.” The euphoric fog of her venom probably did not help Pete make sense of her nonlinear thoughts. “I wanted to save you before, but the widow spiders would have killed me, and you would still be dying now.”
“Wait, I think I’ve got this,” Pete said with the overly serious air of the very intoxicated. “You’re saying we have to wait until the right moment to save Zoe or we’ll die trying?”
Liliana nodded.
“And you won’t cut me out of these nasty webs because you don’t think I’ll wait?”
Hoping Pete wouldn’t be angry with her, Liliana nodded again.
Pete smiled bright enough to light up the dingy basement. “I speak Lilly!”
She smiled at his T-shirt collar. “Your ability to understand me does seem to be improving.”
“Go ahead and cut me loose then,” Pete said.
“No.”
Pete rolled his eyes and swayed a bit to the side.
Before he could fall over, Liliana caught him. She had given him a lot of venom.
“C’mon, Lilly,” he wheedled. “I’ll wait. I promise. This cocoon thing is sooo disgusting.”
Liliana considered. “If you try to save Sergeant Giovanni too soon, then we will certainly die. So will she.”
“I got it. I got it. I’ll follow your lead and only go after Zoe when you tell me.”
“You will do exactly what I tell you to do when I tell you and no sooner,” she ordered.
“Aye aye, Cap’n Lilly,” Pete said with a grin. “I’d salute, but…” He made a partial shrugging motion under the webbing.
Still, Liliana hesitated. Her venom made people very honest and very suggestible, but when the venom wore off, Pete would do what he willed, and she could not stop the powerful wolf-kin.
“I’m beginning to think this turns you on or something,” Pete commented cheerfully. “Every time we meet, I get tied up.”
Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and she frowned. She realized she did rather like having the red wolf within her power. “I did not bind you this time. The widow spiders did.”
“So, get me out of this?” Pete gave her deliberately big puppy eyes. “Pleeeease?”
Liliana sighed. She didn’t think she could tolerate three hours of intoxicated begging, and he had given his word. “All right.”
She extended one of her arm blades.
“That is pure class,” Pete commented as she carefully slid the razor-sharp blade under the edge of the silk by his throat. The wolf-kin held completely still. His breathing did not speed up nor did he flinch, even when the flat of a blade sharp enough for him to shave with slid along his skin.
Wondering if he was hiding fear behind a mask again, Liliana looked into him. She was surprised to find there was no fear inside him to hide.
With raised eyebrows and a tilted head, Liliana looked a question at him, her blade against the thin skin of his throat.
“If you wanted me dead, Lilly, I’d already be dead twice over. I trust you.” Her venom rendered him incapable of lying. His complete trust was truth, even though only minutes ago he’d feared her. In risking her life to save his, she gained far more than she expected.
Liliana blinked all four currently open eyes. His trust made her feel odd. No one had ever placed so much trust in her. She liked the sensation, but it disturbed her as well. What if she didn’t deserve to be trusted? What if she failed and he died?
Her arm blades’ primary evolved purpose was cutting spider silk, so the razor edge parted multiple layers of webbing with ease.
She managed not to cut Pete’s skin in the process, but his flimsy synth-leather jacket got shredded, and his T-shirt and jeans got a few slices here and there.
“Careful of the boots,” he commented when she got to his ankles. “Magnum High-Techs cost a fortune. They’re real cow leather.”
Liliana accepted the caution and took extra care not to damage the shiny black combat boots. The tip of her blade caught one of the laces though. “I’m sorry,” she said as Pete kicked the last of the sticky strands of the cocoon hard away.
He giggled, a bit too high-pitched to be simple amusement.
Liliana didn’t think she said anything funny.
“You saved my life, got me out of that nasty crap, and you’re apologizing for cutting my shoelace.” He chuckled a little more, shuddered, and swallowed, the smile leaving his face abruptly. He cleared his raspy throat. “I feel like I gargled hot shrapnel.”
He dug a handcuff key out of a hidden pocket in his boot and freed his hands. “Zoe’s cuffs are stronger than normal. Even I can’t break them, but she always has me keep spare keys in case she loses hers.” Once completely free, he sat cross-legged and ran his hand through his thick red hair. His hand trembled slightly, as the last image she hoped she’d ever see of his close brush with a painful death flashed in his mind.
“My venom will help you heal, but it will take time.” Liliana cut the seam at the bottom of her skirt and tore off the black strip of cloth that made the ruffle. She pushed it gently against the swollen, puffy holes on the side of his throat. The punctures she made were small and neat with just a trickle of blood that would quickly stop. The widow spider’s punctures were wide and still sluggishly oozed thick blood and greenish neutralized venom.
“I heal fast.” He waved her concern away. “How long do we have to wait before we can go after Zoe?”
Liliana licked her lips and looked down at his boots. “You should leave now, so you can get home safely.” If she could get him out, then at least one life would be saved.
She remembered seeing a pack of wolfhounds tearing him apart a few months in the future. It horrified her to think of him dying that way, but of all possible deaths, the widow spider’s bite was the only one Pete genuinely feared. She did not want the brave wolf to face this enemy again when he had so nearly died in terror and agony. If he must die, she had seen enough of his soul to know he would choose to die fighting, saving the life of an innocent.
She winced as she realized that, thanks to her, he wouldn’t live that long even if he made it out of this building tonight. Meeting her had really not done the wolf-kin any favors.
Pete blinked, fighting his way through venom fog and the urge to obey without question. “We come back later for Zoe?”
“I will get Sergeant Giovanni,” Liliana said.
Pete shook his head, struggling against her venom’s influence. “I thought you said we could get her free together if we waited until the right time?”
Liliana sighed. She let Pete hold the wad of cloth against his neck and sat back on her heels. “I told you if you tried to save her too soon, we would certainly both die, and so would she.” She ran her fingers along the frayed hem of her skirt. It could probably be saved if she rehemmed it shorter, or added a different ruffle. “I did not say we would not die if we waited. You should go home now, so the widow spiders won’t kill you.”
“And you? And Zoe?”
“I might be able to save her and survive.” It was truth, barely. Without the red wolf to fight beside her, the visions of Liliana leaving the building with Sergeant Giovanni were flickery and faint, barely within the realm of the possible. The visions of them both dead in various ways were overwhelmingly more solid. She continued to study Pete’s boots. If he relaced it, he could still tie the one she had cut. The laces were long.
“You don’t sound very sure.” Pete put his finger under her chin and brought her face up. The pupils of his eyes were still wide and black from her venom and the other drugs in his system, but his brows were furrowed with concentration. It took a very strong will to fight the venom’s suggestibility. “If I help, do you have a better chance?”
Liliana had never wished harder that she was capable of lying. “If you help me to save Sergeant Giovanni, there is a better chance she and I will survive, but the most likely outcome still is we will all three die. One widow spider is a deadly adversary. A nest of them will be virtually impossible to defeat, and I have seen no path for us to save Sergeant Giovanni without fighting at least one of them, probably more. Go, and at least you will not die tonight.”
Pete smiled gently at her, and his soul colors shifted to an affectionate pink. “If you had stayed home, you wouldn’t be in any danger at all.”
“But you and Sergeant Giovanni would have certainly died,” Liliana objected. “I could not stay home safe and let that happen if I could help.”
Pete gave her a slow, lopsided grin and spread his hands in a shrug.
“Oh.”
He would not leave, not even with her venom and his own fear motivating him.
“Okay then,” Liliana said. “We will have to wait three hours. I think many of the women who work here are widow spiders. When the night club and the restaurant close, most of them will leave. Lady Daphne and two other widow spiders will stay to kill Sergeant Giovanni and dispose of her body. Then they will come down here to get Kristen, believing she will be done feeding on you.”
Pete shuddered and looked at the headless body lying in its pool of blood. The deep, confused furrow between his brows appeared again. “Uh, I know I’m high as a kite, but I’d swear that body moved a little, just now.”
Liliana nodded. “Her unborn babies still live. They will eat their way out of her body eventually.”
His already pale face went even more white. His freckles stood out like coal dust in snow. “What kind of babies eat their way out of their dead mother’s stomach?”
“Widow spiders. They begin as hundreds of tiny babies inside their mother. The strongest eat the weaker ones when food inside their mother is scarce. The better fed they were, the more of them would have survived until she gave birth. That is why she had to kill male Others and feed on them, even though she did not want to, so her babies would not eat each other. If she did not feed on male Others at all while they grew, they would eat her too.”
If anything, Pete looked worse, like he might throw up. “So a bunch of tiny, cute little babies are chewing their way out of their mother’s body right now?” Pete rubbed his arms as if they were cold.
Liliana shook her head. “They are in spider form. Widow spider babies must be taught human form when they are a few years old. They generally learn demi-spider form in adolescence. With their mother dead, only three or four of the strongest will survive. They will emerge from her body starving and hunt small animals for food and spend their lives as giant spiders. They will have no one to teach them how to be people.” She felt sad for the abandoned babies. There had been no other choice but to kill their mother to protect Pete and prevent a dozen other deaths, but she still felt sad for them.
