“Fuck.”
We couldn’t let her get hurt. I rushed forward, my body passing through the dropping bubble, and I hauled her to her feet, holding up her weight. I sent webs to wrap around her wound and staunch the bleeding.
Our walls were breaking down. The elemental hybrids couldn’t keep up with the onslaught, and my webs were frantically trying to shield Cheryl.
“Now, Johnny!” I screamed. We were surrounded. I could see hundreds of Spector guards on the other side. Tomb was fighting them off, his gargoyle form blasting through them, but he was going to be overtaken. Hundreds of crows were attacking too, but elementals were holding them at bay.
Johnny let out a frustrated scream, and then finally, the bubble dropped, encasing the others.
“Now, Cheryl!”
She opened her mouth and let it all out. Screeching like a nineties cover band, she shook the room with her rattling song. Her siren call blasted the room with wails and vibrato, making the guards drop like flies. But I couldn’t even enjoy the victory, because my own ears burned from the assault. Blood dripped down my neck, and I quickly spun webs to shove them in my ears, lightly blocking the sound.
I forced a hole in part of my web wall and staggered over to Tomb and Crow. They were both writhing on the floor, crying out in agony alongside the Spector guards. I created the same ear plugs for both of them, but it was no use. The screeches were too much. I was getting weak too. My head felt like it was going to explode, like a baseball bat striking glass until it shattered.
We just had to outlast the guards for a minute. Just one more minute.
One by one, the guards stopped moving. One by one, power petered out. Tomb’s stone body turned to flesh. Crow’s birds dropped from the air, landing on the concrete with a crack. It was a never-ending torturous song, but I didn’t want Cheryl to stop until the room was dead.
My sanity split in half.
My spider shriveled up and begged for relief.
My mates flickered in and out of awareness until finally they died.
At least they wouldn’t suffer anymore.
Seconds felt like an eternity. I couldn’t die, not yet.
Breaking, cracking, shattering, blistering.
Agony. Pure agony.
My mind was a severed jumble of thoughts. Short hisses of reality and fizzing neurons shriveling up and expanding into more budding torment.
Then finally, Cheryl stopped, relieving me from the devastating pain in my skull.
“That was fun, can I sing again?” Cheryl’s voice broke out as she walked over to me.
I was still reverberating with pain, my eyes filled with bloodied tears that echoed her torture. With a moan, I crawled over to my mates to check them over. Cold bodies greeted me, but I stared at the marks on their necks, waiting for them to reanimate.
“Come on, guys,” I pleaded.
Crow’s finger twitched. Tomb let out a muffled groan. Their lungs expanded with a gasp, and I finally allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Fucking hell, Cheryl,” Crow said while rolling over on his stomach and curling up. “Your voice was like a hacksaw to my brain.”
“I know, right? I’m a pretty powerful demon, huh?” she preened while brushing her hands together with a satisfied smirk.
We looked around the room, searching for even the slightest movement. I stared at the broad chests of some of the Spector guards. I sniffed the rancid blood in the air, breathed in the tantric smell of death.
No one survived.
So how the hell did I?
The black bubble Johnny erected popped, and out spilled the other hybrids. Some of them were trembling, some of them were injured from the fight. “We did it!” one of them yelled while fist pumping the air. Others cheered, but I knew this was just one battle in the war.
“Uh, I did it. You all just took a cozy break in Johnny’s black hole,” Cheryl scoffed.
Crow snickered inappropriately. “You familiar with Johnny’s black hole?” he muttered with a smirk. I elbowed him lightly, and he gave me a contrite shrug.
Cheryl went on, totally oblivious. “Also, do any of you assholes have a healing power? My arm is killing me.”
“Are you okay, baby?” Stiles asked while hurrying toward her. He had been in Johnny’s bubble during the singing. My brother inspected her arm for a moment, noting the webs I’d wrapped tightly around her to stop the bleeding. “I hate that you got hurt.”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “But a kiss would make it better.”
Her eyelashes fluttered flirtatiously as he wrapped her up in a warm hug. Stiles whispered, “You did amazing,” before kissing her passionately on the lips. She squealed against him for a moment, and when they pulled apart, she stared at him in wonder.
“The whole world got to hear your performance,” Stiles said with a sly smile.
“What do you mean?” I asked as Crow and Tomb got up to stand by my side.
“I was finally able to hack their security feeds. Every supe in America just watched what happened. The ritual feeds are being leaked, too. Soon everyone will know what’s happening here.”
Excited, I wrapped my brother in a hug. “You did it.”
A crackle from the speakers overhead drew our attention away from the short-lived celebration. It was a fuzzy sound that lacked depth. A dead, monotoned song suddenly cut through their cheers, chilling me to the bone.
Belvini.
His voice was in taunting amusement as he spoke in echoing sing-song over the speakers.
The itsy bitsy spider
Went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and
Washed the spider out.
“It’s a beautiful day for an exorcism, don’t you think, Black Widow?” he finished.
Goosebumps littered my arms at his chilling voice. Foreboding crashed over me. “Where’s Risk?” He should’ve been here by now.
Tomb and Crow shook their heads, their worried expressions matching my own.
“What’s that?” the shifter Tara asked from behind me. She lifted her nose and sniffed, and that’s when I saw the orange
