Chapter 19 #2
Behind me, Rune didn’t shift. Instead, I felt her focus sharpen along the bond.
She set Cthulhu’s carrier gently down, opened the top, and lifted the spider onto her palm.
“You’re going to love this,” she whispered to him, her voice soft and delighted in a way that would’ve made my skin crawl had she not been my mate.
Instead, if I had been in my regular form, she would’ve made me hard.
I fucking loved her.
Cthulhu tilted his head and blinked at her. Then, without hesitation, he sank his fangs into her finger.
Her lips parted on a soft inhale. Euphoria flooded our bond, bright and dizzying, her venom-rich blood roaring with the new venom overlaying it.
My heart lurched, but I felt it the same way I did every other time she took in a toxin. It slid through her system before it was neutralized by whatever the Fates had done to protect her.
She was fine, which meant I could focus.
I lunged at another human, knocking him off his feet, tail whipping out to slam two more into the pavement. One tried to stab at my side with some kind of weapon I didn’t recognize, but I knocked him away.
In my periphery, Rune became a blur.
She moved through the humans with spy-trained grace, flipping over one’s back and hooking a foot behind another’s knee to bring him down. She pressed Cthulhu to exposed skin, necks, wrists, and cheeks.
The spider struck, fast and eager to spread his venom to the humans.
The results were immediate.
Wherever he bit, roots erupted.
They burst from the humans’ ears, nostrils, eye sockets, mouths, twisting in bark-like tendrils that shoved flesh aside as they grew, wood spreading under their skin, and hollowing them out from the inside. Their screams cut off as their throats filled. Limbs went rigid before turning wooden.
In seconds, they were no longer human bodies; they were grotesque, tree-like statues in tactical gear.
One particular human rushed Rune with a syringe in hand, clearly aiming for her arm.
She spun away and slapped her fingers against his exposed wrist. She excreted Cthulhu’s venom.
The human grew roots and hollowed out just like when Cthulhu bit.
So, my mate wasn’t just immune to a fae creature’s venom, she could wield it, too.
She crouched beside him and pressed Cthulhu gently to his chest.
The spider crawled off her to the corpse.
I finished off the last of the attackers with a brutal smash of my body and scanned the area for more threats.
The helicopter wasn’t fleeing. It hovered, rotors thundering, clearly waiting for an extraction that wasn’t going to happen.
Cthulhu scuttled up the bark-like neck and disappeared into the hollow mouth of the human’s corpse, vanishing inside with a strange, pleased chirping sound that made the scales at the back of my neck rise.
Rune squealed in delight. “Good job, Cthulhu!”
A portal of green-tinged magic opened a few feet away, and Drecken stepped through with Jesper at his side.
“What happened?” Jesper demanded, just as Drecken pulled Rune into his arms, checking her over with quick, scanning eyes and magic bursts that seemed to check her for any injury.
“Attacked by humans,” I said, shifting back to my humanoid form without thinking about my current lack of clothing.
Jesper followed my gaze to the helicopter. He straightened. “I’ll file a report later. Drecken, deal with the cleanup. Rune, Zuko, get information from that one.” He jerked his chin toward a paralyzed human that Rune had apparently left alive.
Jesper shifted mid-stride, dragon scales rippling along his skin as his form expanded. A moment later, a massive green dragon launched itself into the air toward the helicopter.
I glanced down, realizing I was naked. “Shit.”
Rune rolled her eyes and tugged a pair of shorts from her bag, tossing them at my face. “I really don’t want people seeing your dick. It has my name on it. It’s mine.”
I smirked but stepped into the shorts. “Possessive. I like it.”
I bent to retrieve Cthulhu’s carrier. He was still inside his new favorite corpse, so I tapped the human’s chest and tried coaxing him out.
He did not respond.
Rune reached out and lifted the rooted body’s chin. “Cthulhu, come here.”
The spider popped out of the wooden mouth, trotted delicately down the bark-like chest, and hopped into the habitat without fuss.
I rolled my eyes. “Great. I think you trained my spider.”
Her smile was smug. “His name is Cthulhu.”
I snorted, unable to help it. “Beautiful.”
Drecken let out a low chuckle. “I have to admit, I’m not surprised.” With a casual snap of his fingers, all the dead humans around us dissolved into nothing. Flesh and bark crumbled into fine ash that the wind whisked away.
Only the paralyzed one remained, still lying on the ground with wide, terrified eyes.
“The one that’s still alive,” Drecken said, nodding toward him. “I’ll take you to the Supernatural Council’s dungeons so you can interrogate him.”
“Aw, you’re the best,” Rune purred.
He winked, and his magic surged in a blinding flash before we dissipated into a portal that opened up under us, then we were deposited into the dungeons below HQ.
The human was already chained to a chair when the flash cleared, Drecken’s magical efficiency on full display.
“I’m going to dissect him next,” Drecken announced.
I rolled my eyes but nodded.
Rune frowned slightly. “I promised Cthulhu he could have his body. So, he needs to kill him while he’s alive.”
Drecken huffed but gave an indulgent nod.
“Fine, viperling. I’ll go back to the human I was dissecting before.
” He paused, then corrected himself. “No—my potion. I was making a potion. Have fun, you two.” He bent, kissed Rune’s lips in a quick peck, then stepped backward into a portal that opened under his heels, dropping him out of the room.
The human stared at us, sweating, still mostly paralyzed, eyes wild with fear.
I adjusted the bandage over my eyes, hating the way it tugged against my skin and limited my vision. I could see, but it wasn’t perfect. I set Cthulhu’s enclosure carefully onto the stone table beside me and pulled my torture kit out.
I never went anywhere without it.
The leather case unrolled with a satisfying snap, neat rows of my tools gleaming in the fae light. I slid Cthulhu’s enchanted habitat into the empty spot that had once belonged to Victor’s case. The spider scuttled around inside once, then settled contentedly on the bone again.
Cthulhu liked the enchanted habitat, but I planned to get one with one of his kills stashed inside for comfort with spatial magic.
“Why were you there?” I asked the human, stepping in front of him. “Why attack in the Apex Capital?”
He made a strangled noise as Rune’s paralysis venom coursed through his veins.
Rune sighed and walked over, pressing two fingers to his temple. “I’ll dose him with some anti-venom. It’s just not as fun when they can’t move.”
“So, you can use anti-venom?” I raised a brow.
She held an index finger to her lips and shushed me.
The man jerked as she moved back, then slumped, breath coming quicker now. His fingers twitched, and finally, he was able to glare at us.
“I’m not telling you anything,” he spat.
I tilted my head, studying him. “Do you need motivation? Normally, I play a game for this kind of thing. I roll my dice, see which method we try first.” I rolled up my sleeve to show him my torture tattoos.
“But honestly?” I flicked my gaze to Cthulhu’s enclosure.
“My new spider needs training, and what better way than on someone who tried to hurt my mate?”
Rune handed me the habitat with an amused grin.
I brought it close to the man’s face.
“This man,” I told Cthulhu, “tried to hurt Rune. Our pretty little green-haired basilisk almost got hurt.”
Cthulhu lifted his front legs, as if perking up. I opened the enclosure and let him crawl onto my hand.
He moved with smooth, eerie precision along my fingers, and he didn’t bite.
My heart pounded in my chest as I let him.
I usually always carried anti-venom with new venomous creatures, but I hadn’t stocked up on any for fae spiders.
Hopefully, he liked Rune enough not to hurt her mate.
“Did you know,” Rune chimed cheerfully, stepping to the other side of the chair, “that as soon as Cthulhu bites you, he’ll hollow you out from the inside? Roots will grow from your mouth, your ears, your nose, and all your fun little places.” She giggled. “He’ll turn you into a tree-shaped home!”
The human started trembling.
“Hold on,” I said, voice going softer as Cthulhu moved off me and started up the man’s arm. “C’mon, Cthulhu, not yet. Come back to me, buddy.”
The spider actually paused. Then, at my coaxing tone, he turned and scuttled back toward my wrist.
Rune’s eyes sparkled. “He listens to you. That’s adorable.”
“He listens to you, too.” I leaned closer to our captive. “Last chance, human. Why were you there? Why her?”
His mouth trembled. “We—we were supposed to collect DNA from the basilisk with the venom p-power,” he stuttered. “That’s all I know. They were orders from higher up. Collect a sample and bring it back. Don’t die. That’s it.”
I smiled, tilting my head. “See? That wasn’t so hard. Now, where is the Human Resistance Network located now?”
“I’m not supposed to say!”
“I recognize you, you know,” Rune told him, and a chill zipped down my spine. Even Cthulhu paused. “You came into my room when the humans took me and pumped me full of tourmalyke. Surely you know where they’re hiding. If you don’t tell us…”
He flinched as Cthulhu jumped from me and scampered over his cheek, resting beside his eye. “In the north of the Human Territory! The facility is underground! Fuck! Coordinates are 24° N and 153° E!”
“He’s not lying.” I turned my head slightly, listening to the beat of his heart before lifting my bandage. “Are you lying?”
“N-N-no, of course not!”
“Cthulhu, go ahead.” I let my bandage fall back over my eyes.
I didn’t care if I wasn’t supposed to use my power. I had to make sure without a doubt that fucker wasn’t lying. I wasn’t risking the entire mission for an academy policy.
He screamed as soon as Cthulhu’s fangs sank into his flesh.
The reaction was almost immediate, and it made me wonder if using anti-venom after a bite would even work for his venom.
The human’s back arched against the chair, his tendons straining from his neck.
Roots swelled under the skin around the bite, pushing the flesh from beneath.
The bark-like tendrils tore through in an instant, bursting from the wound.
Then, from his ears, nostrils, tear ducts, up his throat, and forcing his jaw open in a shriek.
He thrashed for a few seconds before going still as the transformation overtook him. His skin darkened into wood, veins becoming fine grooves as his hair merged into the bark.
Cthulhu chirped, delighted, and crawled up his chin, disappearing into his open mouth to nest.
Rune’s eyes were fascinated. “You know, maybe you shouldn’t hold Cthulhu anymore. That looks painful.”
I groaned and dragged a hand down my face. “Better yet, you shouldn’t have let him bite you on a whim.”
“I didn’t let him.” She laughed softly. “I just didn’t stop him.”
I reached for her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against me. She melted into me easily, her hand sliding up to the back of my neck, fingers threading into my hair just above the bandage.
Tipping her chin up with my free hand, I kissed her.
The tension from the fight with the humans, the interrogation, and the weight of the last few months all bled out of me the second her mouth met mine. She tasted like sweet and spicy venom. Her lips parted, and I deepened the kiss, angling her head so I could kiss her properly.
She rose on her toes, pressing closer, her body fitting against mine. Her hand tightened hard in my hair, sending a ripple of pleasure down my spine.
I slid my palm up her back, beneath the cardigan and camisole, fingertips brushing her bare skin, feeling the tremble of her laugh against my chest.
Our bond thrummed, feeding me her amusement, her arousal, and her bone-deep affection. I let it soak into my soul, calming me after the adrenaline spike of everything that had just happened.
I broke the kiss slowly, resting my forehead against hers, our noses brushing and breaths mingling in the cool dungeon air.
“Pretty little poison.” My thumb traced the edge of her jaw. “You’re going to be the death of me one day.”
“You’re going to be just fine.” She smiled, eyes half-lidded. “You’re stuck with me.”
“I always want to be,” I told her.
Reluctantly, we pulled apart enough for her to step over to the tree-like corpse.
“Cthulhu,” she called softly.
The spider emerged from the hollow mouth again, scuttling down the bark face onto her hand with obvious contentment. She deposited him back into his habitat and closed the enchanted lid with a soft snap.
“Come on, toxin.” She slipped her hand back into mine. “Let’s go tell my mom that we have the location of those horrible fucking humans.”
I glanced once more at the rooted husk in the chair as I rolled up my kit and placed it in my bag.
Victor had been a great torture buddy, but Cthulhu seemed to ease into his position a lot better than I had expected.
I squeezed her hand and followed her out of the dungeon, my new spider secured, my mate at my side, and the lingering knowledge burning in my mind that the humans were still coming for her, and now, they were getting bolder.