His fair face mottled with anger.
“If you had any sense of self preservation, you wouldn’t taunt me or my spider.”
The other hybrids had stopped training to watch. We were already anxious as we waited for a signal—any signal—from Risk. And that apprehension was making us all a bit jumpy. But for once in my life, I felt like my peers had my back. Instead of looking at me like they were glad it was me and not them, or watching me be bullied and want to join in, they looked pissed on my behalf. A sense of loyalty washed over me.
We were in this together.
“Your spider broke out when your aunt died, right?” Dave callously asked, like we were discussing the weather over breakfast, or stock patterns in the human world. Not like Spector had taken my beating heart out of my chest and stomped on it. “I heard it was a brutal murder. Took her head off with their bare hands. Must have been a lot of blood.”
I lifted my hand up and inspected my fist, trying my best to keep my emotions under control, even though my spider was itching to play, itching to torment. “I’d be happy to demonstrate it on you,” I said in a falsely polite voice. Cheryl had been filing her nails in the corner all morning, but I saw her walking closer to me out of my peripheral. I gave a subtle shake of my head, warning her away. I could handle this.
“That won’t be necessary,” he began. “I watched the footage. Over and over and over,” Dave replied while stalking closer to me. My spider rose even further to the surface, making my hourglass mark burn with vengeance. “So maybe we just need to kill someone you care about, hmm? Your mates are indestructible, but I’m sure we could find someone else. Or maybe torturing your mates is enough?” He was still circling me, still stalking in that predatory way all Spector idiots did. “You were already on edge when Oz did it. I bet a few more minutes of torturing them, and you would have gone full spider.”
The guards that lined the walls were chuckling amongst themselves, as if the idea of burning people alive was amusing to them.
Soon. Soon they’d all pay.
My eyes flickered to the door once more. Where was Risk? Where was Stiles?
“I can see her, you know,” Dave whispered in my ear. He was too close now. His chest was touching my arm, his body flush against mine. His whiskey breath coated my skin with its fumes. “I can see your demon wants to come out to play. She’s just itching to feed from me,” he said suggestively low, and when I felt his erection grind into my hip, my fangs grew and I envisioned ripping out his throat.
“I wouldn’t feed from you if you were the last cock on the planet,” I gritted before spitting on the floor to accentuate my point.
Dave didn’t seem fussed by my comment; he simply tipped his head back and chuckled, making the other guards laugh too. Once his amusement tapered off, his green eyes bore into mine, an intimidating stare down that made me want to shove my thumbs into his eye sockets and make those leering organs bleed.
“I can’t wait to break you. You know what happens to spiders in my training room, Black Widow?” he asked while grabbing my wrist and spinning me around, crashing me to his chest. His greasy lips found purchase on the ridge of my ear. “They get squished under my boot.”
I felt frozen with anger, ready to snap, but then the training room door opened.
Stiles.
My breath puffed out in relief, and my focus was redirected. Stiles gave me a single nod.
My eyes found Dave again, and I let out a slow grin. “You know what happens to flies that pester the spider, Dave?” I asked while taking a step back. “They get eaten.”
I whipped a web out and wrapped it around his throat before the last syllable even left my lips. My spider wanted to draw out his death, punish him for his words, but I knew we didn’t have time. I squeezed swiftly, removing his head in one simple move that had blood splattering across my cheeks, and his head rolling on the hard tile.
Everyone was spurred into action. Guards lifted their weapons. “Now!” I screamed.
All of the vampires flashed our fellow hybrids into the center of the room. Johnny was there first, holding up his hands and creating his sensory bubble for us to stay in. I flashed inside of it with the others, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the other elemental hybrids like we planned. Gunshots were ringing out, and alarms were going off, but we ignored it all. As one, we started making a shield of webs, rocks, vines, ice, and fire. It might not be enough to keep all the bullets from hitting us, but it would help buy us time. Johnny’s hands shook as the bubble built up around us slowly, dropping down over our heads in an iridescent dome.
In another blink, Cheryl flashed over, standing right outside our line. “How much longer?” she yelled, ducking down in a squat as another barrage of bullets came our way.
“Sixty seconds,” Johnny shouted back, shaking from exertion as he struggled to drop the bubble around us completely.
We were running out of time. Our layers of defense were being littered with bullets, and then waves of offensive power were being thrown at us, trying to break down the circular wall we’d surrounded ourselves in. But the guards were strong, and more reinforcements were coming.
“Johnny!” I shouted, feeling as my webs were blasted apart and smoke erupted in the air.
“Almost...there…” Sweat dripped down his face as he struggled to complete it. It was to our torsos now, covering all hundred or so of us.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, I silently pleaded.
Cheryl screamed when a ball of
