CHAPTER 52

When she ate the last of Mike's semen, she had one final vision. It was her daughter, standing inside of a large building filled with books. She was an adult now, and she was standing on the ceiling with her hair hanging below her and a book in her hand. The Arachne looked up and their eyes locked. Startled, Velvet's daughter dropped her book.

The book fell almost twenty feet before the Arachne reached out with glowing fingers to summon it back to her.

"What is this?" She was back in the forest now, and she knelt down to examine the shot glasses, hoping for just a little more juice. This new Arachne had been using magic! Was such a thing even possible?

She had to know more, to see her offspring again. Was this how her mother had experienced it? Had she seen her daughters so perfectly in her mind's eye?

What, then, of the others she had seen? For decades, they had spoken about how it would be up to Velvet and Eulalie to decide whether the Arachne went extinct. She was aware that her mother had willingly smashed hundreds of her own eggs to ensure children able to resist the instinct to hunt humans for food. Would she have to do the same?

Her belly churned as she stumbled around the side of the house. She felt drunk, a sensation she tried to avoid at all costs. Alcohol never mixed well with her spider biology, and she felt more sick than relaxed. Only it wasn't booze that had her all messed up.

It was him. She could smell his scent, sense his presence through the walls of the building. Standing outside her father's bedroom window, she could see Mike in bed, his face buried in a pillow. The door had been closed and it was dark inside. If she opened the window, she could get inside.

Something shifted at the foot of the bed. She shook her head in surprise, wondering how she could have missed the three-tailed fox curled up at the foot of the bed. She had no idea that Yuki could change shapes like that, though she had wondered. Wouldn't it be nice if she could become human and walk among them as an equal rather than an abomination?

She was panting, and her heart hurt. Tears formed in her eyes as she watched him shift beneath the blankets. Something inside of her had snapped in the last couple of days, and her entire world now swirled around this man that had walked into her life.

Her mother had warned her multiple times about the drive to mate. It would be an overwhelming urge that would eat her away from the inside as she lost control. However, it wasn't only Mike that she was fixated on, but the girl from her vision. This unborn child could be her father's legacy, and she refused to let that die.

If she bit Yuki while she was a fox, would it be enough to knock her out? Maybe she could mate with him, then run away after. If Quetzalli and Bigfoot didn't catch on...

Uncle Foot. He would know, and he would come looking for her. Eulalie could be made to understand, but her uncle never would.

She let go of the window and ran. It didn't matter where she went, she just needed distance. The air was cold, and she held her jacket tight against her body as she sprinted through the woods. The long branches of the pines hungrily grabbed for her flesh, but she twisted through the gaps in their foliage with ease.

When she was almost a mile from the house, the trees in front of her exploded as Abella dropped through them from above. The gargoyle's face was twisted up in anger as she opened her wings wide, blocking Velvet's path.

Velvet came to a stop, her feet sliding in the snow.

"I saw what you did," Abella said. She held up an empty shot glass accusingly. "Tell me why I shouldn't crush you."

Instead of answering, Velvet bared her fangs and bull-rushed the gargoyle. Abella looked surprised, but held her ground. When they collided, the two of them crashed through the trees and tumbled down a hill.

"Leave me alone!" Velvet didn't bother striking Abella. There was nothing her fists could do against her stony hide. Instead, she twisted around the gargoyle and pinned her wings together with a pair of her legs while covering Abella's eyes. Abella stumbled around, her swishing tail pounding through the nearby bushes. Once the gargoyle was off balance, Velvet swung forward and down, executing a throw that tossed Abella into a nearby tree.

On impact, the snow in its branches fell, burying Abella. Velvet scrambled to get away, but the gargoyle burst free and tackled her from behind. Stony fingers closed around Velvet's neck and squeezed.

"You were ready to fuck him, weren't you?" Abella's breath was hot against Velvet's ear. "And when you were done, you were going to eat him!"

Velvet pulled out her sword. In its collapsed state, she drove it down into Abella's thigh. Sparks flew when the sword slid across stony flesh, and Abella howled in pain. Velvet twisted around to put the blade between them.

"I was not going to eat him!" she yelled, the blade held to Abella's throat. "Please, just let me go!"

"No!" Abella's eyes flicked to the blade. The magical blade was capable of injuring her, and she was wary of it.

"If you think you can choke me out before I use this on you, you're sorely mistaken." Velvet's whole body was tingling now, fire burning in her limbs.

"I'm not worried about a little scratch." As if to emphasize her point, Abella tilted her face to reveal the large crack that went over her eye. It glittered in the moonlight, as if filled with dark crystals.