A lie of course. Watching her scarlet face twist into panic made it all worth it. Maybe she would bring the girl back to her domain–except by the time Martina kicked the bucket, the girl would probably be far too old to be fun to mess with. She would have to settle with messing with her now.
Hooray for finding more hobbies. More things to do that weren’t obeying Martina.
“No!” The girl said. “Take it off!”
“Can’t. It’ll wear off. If you really don’t want to have some fun, just don’t talk to anyone. It works on males, females, and cats, so–”
“Cats? Why cats?”
Catherine shrugged. “Why not?”
“Look,” she said, stamping her foot. “I just want to talk with someone. Eva isn’t here and I don’t know who else I can talk to.”
Catherine rolled her eyes, making it as obvious as was demoniacally possible. “First, I’m not a counselor, kid. Unless you want help pleasuring your lover–or yourself–go talk to someone else. And even then, you mortals have the concept that demons will grant wishes in exchange for souls. That’s the fae; djinn and fairies specifically.
“Any help I give will be by experience. And I can tell you don’t want that. Go find someone else.”
“I can’t.” Her voice went quiet. Enough so that Catherine had to lean in again to catch her words. “It is about demon things.”
With a sigh, Catherine pulled out her cellphone. Fifteen minutes before the testing started. The rest of the class should be showing up soon. “Talk and I might listen, but as soon as someone else shows up, we’re done. What’s your name?”
She looked mildly offended, but nodded. “Irene. It is my friend. Jordan. He…”
War Games
Eva was absolutely certain that Arachne wasn’t actually attempting to kill her. She was only mostly certain that Genoa wasn’t trying to kill her. Whatever the case, neither of them was messing around.
Not that Eva could blame them. They all had been told in very plain words exactly what would happen to them should they fail to perform.
Putting her back to a wall, Eva took a moment to catch her breath. Pinned between the mass of insects led by Arachne and the few but elite human mages headed by Genoa, her cadre of demihumans were not faring well at all. In fact, her soldiers were being absolutely slaughtered.
“Orders, ma’am?”
Eva glanced to the
She rolled her eyes. Like the rest of her army, and the armies of Genoa and Arachne, the construct before her was just that; a construct. Built up by the theater-demon to serve as fodder for their little war. Eva had the distinct impression that she was being made the subject of a very poor joke–her army of mutant hybrids was grossly underpowered in comparison to the other two armies.
“We need to get out from between the two of them,” Eva said. “They can whittle down each other while we wait on the sidelines.”
“So, sound the order to retreat?”
“
“Understood, ma’am.” After a sloppy salute, the vampire-cat scampered off to relay her orders.
It moved just in time for the wooden wall to splinter inwards.
Eva dove to the side as one of Arachne’s little monstrosities barreled into the building.
The thing was disgusting. It ran on four legs, though the front two were mostly used for stability. Two extra arms stuck out from the carapace on its back, tipped with sharp claws. Teeth and bone spikes seemed to have been spread around the creature haphazardly. It had more teeth than three Arachne smiles.
It turned to her with all those teeth bared.
Eva snarled. Igniting her own claws with thaumaturgical fire, she closed in immediately with a step.
Landing on its back with a grunt, she gripped both of its claw capped arms and
Early on, Eva had learned that those arms were the main danger of the creatures. They could slash out and strike in the blink of an eye. Without their attacking arms, their teeth became their only real weapon.
Their teeth and their powerful legs.
The thing reared back in an attempt to dislodge its rider, knocking Eva into some of the undamaged wall.
One jagged sliver cut into her side, right near the wound left over from Sawyer’s dagger.
Eva cried out in pain. Her hands lost their grip on the creature’s arms.
Its next buck sent Eva rolling across the ground.
Pushing herself for a few extra rolls, Eva managed to scrape by without being landed on.
It still scraped her arm up with its foreclaws as it landed. Dank breath washed over Eva’s face as it let out a roar. She winced back as slimy spittle splattered over her.
