“No, it’s okay. It wasn’t your fault,” I said, hating the way her eyes filled with tears and how her frail body began to shake.
“I don’t know where I am!” she cried, digging her hands through her scalp and tugging on her hair.
“Aunt Mar—”
My words were cut off when the solid metal door suddenly banged open, and three guards stormed inside. My aunt tried to flash toward me, but one of the guards was a vamp too, and he overtook her in a second. Holding her arms behind her back, he made her face forward, the other two guards flanking her.
“Let her go!” I demanded, trying to escape the binds, but the relics just burned deeper inside of me, making me scream.
Belvini strolled in, along with a scientist trailing after him, and he took in the scene with mock surprise. “Oh, dear. What seems to have happened here?”
“You son of a bitch! Let her go!” I screamed at him, letting all the hate I felt for him show on my face.
He tsked and shook his head, placing his hands in his pockets like he was meandering around a museum and taking in the sights.
“The vampire bit the hybrid, President Belvini,” one of the guards reported.
I glanced down at the puncture mark oozing blood and then glared at them. “It’s not her fault,” I insisted. “You fucking set her up. You knew all of those blood bag scents would put her into overdrive, and then you wounded me and left me in here to set her off with my blood.”
“Motley, I’m s-so sorry.” My aunt’s crumpled face and sagging body nearly undid me.
“It’s not your fault,” I repeated. “Do you hear me? It’s not.”
“You know the punishment for harming one of Spector’s hybrids,” Belvini said, nodding to the guards.
“Yes, sir.”
“What—”
I didn’t get to finish my sentence. I didn’t even get to breathe.
The vampire at my aunt’s back dropped her arms, making her stagger forward, and then his hands were around her neck.
My eyes widened. A word tried to form on my tongue.
But he twisted. He snapped. And then he tore her head right off her body and tossed it on the floor.
And the word died.
Right there, landing with the weight of my only real family, I became incoherent, my soul ripped out. My eyes latched onto her severed head, the look of shock frozen on her face forever. Blood pooled beneath her jagged neck.
And I split.
A scream that was not from this world tore from my chest and detonated through the air. Agony. It was agony I felt. The wounds on my body were nothing. I didn’t feel the burns of the relics or the bump on my temple or the puncture in my arm. I felt the all-consuming torment of my aunt’s death in an unbearable explosion.
I was cleaved right out of my own self. Too destroyed, too hurt, too full of violent rage to exist as Motley.
My spider extended. Like skeletal tree limbs stretching out and taking over the tree. She surged out in a shock of energy, breaking the bindings in one fell swoop and letting them fall to the ground like they were nothing. Not even the amulet could contain her.
Black light poured out of my body, lifting me off the ground as my guttural screams of rage continued to rip out of my throat. My spider pushed and pushed and pushed, her body taking over my own.
The guards looked on in horror. Belvini backed up as black appendages pushed from my form. My sight sharpened. Scents intensified. My body cracked and twisted, grew and spread, that black light continuing to pour out of me like my unequivocal anguish.
Spider legs ruptured from my blackened skin. Fangs as big as rifles punched from my mouth. And then I was standing ten feet tall in the crowded room, my colossal body thirsty for revenge.
“Back up!” one of the guards screamed while aiming a gun at me.
Silly prey.
Venom spewed from my lips, dousing him in eternal flames that hissed with black sparks. I watched for a moment, enjoying the way his limbs flailed and his body dissolved into a bubbling pile of carnage.
Once the guard was gone and his screams had been silenced, I swung my gaze on Collector, observing him through eyes that weren’t my own and senses that expanded past the abilities of my vampire. I saw him for the evil he was. I saw the consuming energy of his nature and the selfish desires of his soul.
He was nothing. A weak demon hiding behind the things he collected.
Collector backed away slowly and tried to make it out the door, but I lunged for his feeble body. He wouldn’t be getting away. He was trapped in my web. I released silken ropes at his heels, latching onto him with a simple flick. Swooping him up, I dangled him over the concrete, enjoying the sight of his body jerking at my demand.
Fight, little fly.
Run away, little fly.
Die, die, die, little fly.
He burned away my webs with hellfire and went crashing to the ground below, landing on his back with a wheeze. I watched in amusement as he scrambled to his feet, rushing toward the steel door to get away from me.
You can try, little fly.
Run as you might, little fly.
You will die, little fly.
My demon had taken over my entire being, lashing out with more venom and webs, tangling her attackers in strands of poetic justice.
I moved to shoot out more webs when the sound of a gun went off, echoing around the room. Sharp pain hit my chest and bloomed with bloody betrayal throughout my body. I staggered before I could straighten up on all eight legs, towering over my prey. It hurt, but it was a dull sort of
