Did she say something about being his daughter?
Red rage and black despair clouded my vision as the bastard tossed her to the ground like a discarded toy he was done playing with. My crows descended on her body, their cries of sorrow filling the room with vociferous mourning. Hundreds of them gathered around her still form, like a grim veil draped around her, their black heads bowing down in respect.
My eyes fucking burned with grief as I fell to my knees. We didn’t save her. We failed her.
I didn’t even feel it as I started punching the hard stone floor. Again and again my knuckles connected, until blood was splattering and bone was showing through. I heard Tomb’s bellow of rage before he dropped beside me, merged in our grief.
The guards surrounded us, but we didn’t move because we had no reason to fight. We were done. Without her, nothing mattered.
“Wait...I...”
I looked over at the unfamiliar voice and saw the woman—Glenda Wind—stumbling forward to Trant. “I feel ssssss—I ffffeeeel straaaaa—strange,” she stuttered. Her skin was grey, her eyes white with shock and pulsing power.
“Mrs. Wind?” Trant and the guards reached for her, but she folded over and started vomiting. Everyone backed up, including her husband who’d been trying to tug her back toward the exit.
“What’s happening to her?” Councilman Wind demanded.
“I...” Trant shook his head, at a loss.
The woman continued to retch until she was making horrible choking sounds.
“She’s suffocating on it!” Her husband rushed forward, trying to smack her on the back to dislodge whatever it was, but she just kept choking, her hands clawing at her throat and her eyes wide with terror.
She fell to her hands and knees, more vomit spilling from her lips. But I realized that it wasn’t just vomit coming out. It was black light.
“Tomb,” I murmured, my mouth dropping open as I watched.
I had no idea if he heard me or not. I was too engrossed in the scene unfolding. I watched the prim woman suddenly open her mouth wide in a gaping, soundless scream. Blue veins strained against her skin. Dark smoke pooled from her terrified eyes, and her hair unraveled from the tight bun on her head. Her body vibrated and shook. The vision of her was so fucking creepy that it brought chills to my arms.
And then the black light from her mouth exploded. Her jaw broke open, hanging down with dangling tendons and muscles. Her body was thrown backwards by an invisible force, and then I was staring at a writhing black mass of light and shadows that slowly stepped out of her and expanded into Black Widow.
“Holy shit.”
Just like when I’d seen her before, I was in awe of her. Eight long legs, massive fangs, cunning eyes and a sleek body. She was deadly. Wicked. Frightening. Beautiful.
And she was fucking pissed.
She moved with such grace I could do nothing but watch in awe. A blast of dark, fiery power shot out from each of her limbs, taking everyone in the room down. If I hadn’t already been on my knees, I would’ve been face down on the ground, my teeth digging into the hard floors. Smoke filled my vision, but I kept my eyes open, watching the tragically beautiful way she rained hell down on Spector. And then webs descended from her spitting mouth.
A hundred Spector guards were obliterated with venom and webs, left trussed up and dying as they hung from the ceiling like corpses of stalactites.
“Fuck,” I breathed, looking around at the destruction around us. Limp bodies surrounded us. The room had gone completely silent from the sudden rush of death. Seconds. That was all it had taken for her to kill them all.
I looked back just as she encased Trant in a full body cocoon of webs, wrapping him up with tight vines of silk until you couldn’t see an inch of his skin. She suffocated him with her webs, and then she ate the fucker whole.
I heard bones cracking and gurgled screams of pain right before all noise cut off and she swallowed him down with gnashing fangs and venomous intent. His screams turned silent, and his body was gone in an instant.
Tomb whistled beside me. “Damn.”
Her head turned toward us, and my heart sped up as inklings of fear washed over me. I had no idea if she still felt the mate bond, but I hoped to fuck she did, because I really didn’t want to be eaten alive or be wrapped in poisonous webs like these sorry fuckers.
But she simply walked over to us, brushing a fuzzy leg against Tomb and I almost affectionately.
“Is she purring?” Tomb whispered.
I nodded with a hard swallow. “Yep. I’m pretty sure.”
He frowned, watching her. “What’s she doing now?”
“I don’t know…” I watched as she walked over to Motley. My crows parted with mournful squawks to let her by. Then she stood over her, and the spider stared down, a keening noise leaving her raspy throat.
“She’s gone,” Tomb said quietly. His voice was broken and full of raw emotion, but the spider just hissed in reply.
She’s gone. That phrase made me crumble. She’s gone. She’s gone. She’s gone. I watched the spider jerk, and I frowned. Then she jerked again. And again. And again.
“Wait. She’s...shrinking,” I murmured.
Within moments, Black Widow’s body narrowed and compressed until she was so small that I’d be able to carry her in the palm of my hand.
“Is she…” Tomb’s breathless words cut off.
The black spider crawled up Motley’s arm and chest, webs spreading over her as she passed. Her ribs, her chest, collarbone, jaw, cheek. And then the spider crawled into Motley’s mouth and disappeared with a flare of black light.
“Holy fuck.”
Tomb and I were back on our feet in an instant, running past the flapping crows as we skidded to her side. Motley was pale, with a nasty burn on her leg and scrapes all over her arms.
