Precise oaths, p.6
Precise Oaths, page 6
He believed her to be the killer.
And he would be the next victim to die screaming silently.
She touched his cheek. “If I must kill you, it will be quick and clean. Not like that.”
The wolf’s lips twisted in an ironic grin, but he still glowed with fear. “Thanks, I guess.”
She’d failed to reassure him. She didn’t know how to communicate that she didn’t want to kill someone whose inner face shone with love and courage, even if he was the same kind of beast-kin that killed her family. He had not killed them, and she was not going to judge this man by the actions of his kin.
With all her eyes open, the shining soul she saw washed away the memory of ugly death. “You are…beautiful.”
“Um…oookay.” His mind stumbled in confusion at what seemed to him like a complete non sequitur. He jumped through possible motivations for her comment. She glimpsed images in his mind of serial killers who developed twisted sexual fascination with their victims.
Liliana sighed in frustration. When she planned this trap, the spider-kin believed she would have to kill the red wolf. He knew what Liliana was. If she let him go, she would never be safe again in Fayetteville, or probably anywhere in North Carolina.
But she didn’t want to kill him.
Liliana rubbed her arms to ease the chill. Now what would she do?
Killing the brave wolf-kin just because he was inconvenient was not an option. She was ashamed of herself for having thought that way.
There was only one choice. She would have to give up her comfortable home, leave her clients, and begin a new life somewhere else. Perhaps she could tolerate living with a circus again for a time, especially if she could settle in one place, perform in front of holovid cameras instead of staring eyes.
The freedom of flying on the high trapeze and dancing in the sky held only by silken sashes was something she missed. And the cats. Liliana’s father and brothers were lion-kin, and her second mother was jaguar-kin, so big cats were like extended family. When her father died, her second mother, Ixchel, carried on the animal tamer act with Liliana’s brothers, Jason and Petros. Liliana had often snuck into the cages at night to sleep beside the true lions when nightmares plagued her. The huge, lazy cats always seemed to recognize her as family, cuddling with the strange little spider girl and guarding her sleep as if she were one of their cubs.
Circus life wasn’t all bad. Being around big cats again would be like visiting old friends.
She tapped her chin. What should she do with the red wolf? He still believed her to be a killer, so she couldn’t let him go until she was far away and safe.
“Are you going to let me go?” the wolf-kin asked, hopefully, as she stood lost in thought.
“I like tigers,” Liliana said.
“Huh?”
She had made a mental jump and left him behind. Again. Their last few exchanges could not accurately be called communicating. The more eyes she had open, the more pieces of her mind operated at once and the less her mind worked like a human mind, or like the minds of most Others.
She closed her second and fourth eyes to help focus her mind, isolating herself with him in the tiny island of white light.
“Tigers are beautiful and deadly.” She reached up to push a lock of the fierce wolf’s bright red hair away from his pretty blue eyes. “I have a tiger in a trap.” She ran her fingernails along the side of his scalp as if he were a pet, hoping it would calm his fear. “I do not wish to harm this tiger, but if I let it free, it will eat me.”
“I’m not like that.” She saw a shading of hurt in him, as if she insulted him by being afraid of him, but the sickly green of his fear faded a bit. Knowing she feared him seemed to make her less scary.
“Celtic wolves killed my parents, most of my brothers and sisters and their children. You are the terror of my childhood.” She petted his hair again, because she liked how it felt and because it seemed to calm him.
He ducked his head a little in shame. “I know what Celtic wolves have done, historically, but I’m not them. I’m no mercenary. I’m not even a soldier.” His jaw muscles tightened, and he lifted his chin, stubborn pride streaking white-blue through his aura. “I refuse to kill anyone just because someone orders it. That’s why I never enlisted, even though both my parents were soldiers. If being different was enough reason to kill someone, then someone should have killed me a long time ago.”
Liliana tugged on the silken lines around the wolf’s throat to loosen where they cut into his skin. It was hard not to like this wolf. “You believe I’m the widow spider who ate soldiers, so you will kill me.”
“You’re the only spider-kin I know of in Fayetteville or anywhere around Fort Liberty,” he pointed out. He had sensible reasons for his belief. He offered them to her as both explanation and to give her a chance to refute them.
“Spider-kin are rare. I do not believe there are any other seers on this continent.” She carefully did not mention her surviving sister and niece in Europe. Better if no red wolf ever knew of their existence. “I only know of one widow spider in North Carolina, but just because I only know of one does not mean there aren’t many more. Widow spiders like to nest near each other in groups.”
Perhaps Lady Daphne, the widow spider, could explain to the wolf that Liliana could not possibly be the murderer. If he became convinced Liliana was not a killer, he wouldn’t hunt her. She also didn’t want this orphan wolf to think badly of her.
The wolf’s mind considered the possibility he had the wrong spider. “Where can I find this widow spider?”
“Lady Daphne is not your killer either. She lives in Raleigh, which is more than an hour away by car and twenty minutes by bullet train. She only has sex with other women, so she cannot be pregnant.” Liliana was not particularly fond of Lady Daphne, but she would not knowingly betray anyone but a bitter enemy to a hunting red wolf. “If you give me your word you will not kill her, I will tell you where she is.”
“I give you my word I won’t kill her, unless I must to keep her from killing me or someone else,” the red wolf swore carefully.
Liliana smiled. Precise oaths like that were the kind sworn by people who kept their word. She told him where in Raleigh to find Lady Daphne’s hotel and night club. It was called The Mirror. Raleigh was far enough away from Fayetteville, she doubted Lady Daphne knew anything useful about the soldiers’ murders. At least she could confirm the nature of widow spiders, and how they differed from spider seers.
“Is there anything you can tell me that might help me find the real killer?” he asked her.
She could see he still didn’t trust her, but he had seen her eyes, all of them. He believed she could see what he could not and was willing to give her a chance to convince him.
She chuckled at the thought she saw form in his head. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere in any case.
“Pregnant widow spiders kill only males. You said the widow spider has killed two men?” Liliana asked.
“Six soldiers went missing. Four bodies have turned up so far, and we suspect the others are dead as well, but we haven’t found them yet. We could only locate witnesses or evidence for two of the murders, and they both involved a woman who looked like you.”
“They were all Others, yes? No Normals?”
“Yeah. That was weird. There’s at least a hundred Normal soldiers for every Other. Private Simmons was raccoon-kin. Corporal Araus was crow-kin. The other two we found were Fae of both courts, a seelie sand-djinn and an unseelie pine goblin. So the killings are unlikely to be politically motivated. I don’t know about the two soldiers we haven’t found yet. I can’t test every soldier on the base for divergent biology, but they all reported to Colonel Bennet.”
In his mind, Liliana saw the colonel with the scarred face talking to Peter Teague. “Do whatever is necessary. I won’t lose any more of my team.” The tall Sidhe looked upset and very angry.
“If the widow spider has killed so few men, then more must die,” Liliana told Pete, her mind still lingering on the image of the intriguing Fae colonel. “They will all be Others. If she does not consume one Other male each week until she gives birth, her unborn children will begin to die. If she does not feed for too long, then the widow spider herself will die.”
She saw his heart that had begun to soften toward her now harden to sharp edges with the wolf’s determination to stop her before she could murder another innocent soldier.
Liliana sighed in frustration. The more information she gave him, the more Peter Teague believed she was the murderer he sought.
“Why are you so certain I am the killer?” she asked him. He might refuse to answer, but from five decades of coaching clients in the right questions, she knew it never hurt to ask what she really wanted to know.
He shrugged as best he could with his arms bound awkwardly under her web. “I only have your word for the whole widow spider thing. You’re the only spider-kin I’ve ever met or heard of. You match the general appearance of the killer and know intimate details about the killer’s MO. The victims were wrapped in webbing like this, and you’re carrying around the murder weapon in your mouth.”
“Oh!” Liliana put her hand over her mouth. Her fangs. He believed she was the killer because of her webbing and her fangs. “But my venom is not poisonous!”
“Sure,” the wolf said. He didn’t believe her.
If she freed this tiger, he would still hunt her down and eat her. She had to convince him she was not the murderer he sought, or no matter where she went, she would spend the next thirty years waking up screaming from nightmares of him coming to get her.
“People seek out spider seers for two things: our sight and our venom.”
“You lost me again.”
“I am sorry.” She pulled on her sleeves, wishing she had chosen a warmer top to wear. “I do not speak in riddles intentionally.” Perhaps if she were better at communication, she would be able to convince him with words. Everything she said just seemed to be making things worse.
The only way is to show him.
He was beautiful, both on the surface and beneath. To share venom with him would be a pleasant thing. Once the idea occurred to her, Liliana found she wanted it.
A cold breeze stirred the branches of the pine trees, making her shiver harder. She hugged herself tight and hesitated.
To share venom with someone unwilling was not an honorable act.
To kill him when a less drastic way of convincing him of her innocence existed would be even more dishonorable.
I should choose the lesser evil.
She smiled wide, showing him her fangs. The nightmare was at her mercy. Fear haunted his pretty pale blue eyes. Instead of trying to soothe it, she let herself enjoy the thrill of power it gave her. Her nightmare feared her.
She placed her hand on his chest, over his rapidly beating heart. His throat was tempting to bite, where the pulse raced, but she might puncture a vein that way. Muscle was safer.
“Uh, I thought we were just talking here.” The wolf’s eyes widened as she stepped closer.
She felt his powerful muscles bunch and tighten under her hand, but the bonds would hold, even against a Celtic wolf’s strength. Liliana had been afraid when she bound him. She’d tied him with enough silk to hold a troll.
“I must show you I am not the killer.”
The wolf swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing. “How’re you going to do that exactly?”
“I will show you the difference between a bite from a widow spider and the bite of a spider seer.”
His voice went up in pitch. “You’re going to bite me?” He struggled frantically against her webbing, but it didn’t budge.
She smiled with triumph over a hundred years of night terrors. This particular nightmare would never disturb her sleep again.
But this brave man was not a bad dream or a paid killer. She stroked his face. “The venom of a spider seer frees the inhibitions and the mind. It soothes and heals the body. It is a thing normally shared with one who is loved. It will not harm you.”
“How about I just take your word for that? You don’t have to…”
Liliana shook her head. “That is a lie. You only fear my bite because you still believe it will kill you.”
“Well, yeah.” He chuckled nervously and licked his lips. “Like you said, horrible way to die.”
Liliana pushed the synth-leather of his jacket and some of her webbing to one side and cut the neck of his T-shirt open with her arm blade, baring part of his shoulder. Warm smooth skin soothed her cold hands.
“Can’t we, um, talk about this?” Peter Teague squeaked.
Nothing she said would quell his belief that her fangs were deadly murder weapons.
The warm fog of his rapid breaths brushed her cheek as he struggled frantically, even trying to bite her. She stood on tiptoe to reach the thick muscle of his shoulder.
“I do not wish to kill you, nor let you kill me, so...” She bit him.
Chapter 7
Spider Bite
The wolf-kin hissed through his teeth at the sting of Liliana’s fangs piercing his flesh.
She inhaled his scent: faint traces of formaldehyde mixed with damp canine fur and soap. She had not shared venom in many years and never with a man so fierce. The spider-kin strained to the tips of her cold toes to lick the trickle of blood from the two small puncture wounds on his shoulder muscle. The coppery, salty taste made her shudder.
He groaned, and she felt the vibration under her tongue. She looked up at his face with all her eyes, smiling at the confused euphoria there. “See, red wolf. You are not dying.”
“If I am, then I’m going to die happy.” He chuckled. Then he blinked and shook his head as if trying to clear it. “If you bottled that, you could make a fortune.”
“Spider seer venom is worth many thousands of dollars per ounce, but I prefer to make my living in other ways and save my venom for those I choose.” Warmth flushed her cold cheeks. “Venom is meant to be shared with a lover, but you already have a lover. I’m sorry it was necessary to bite you, but you wouldn’t believe my words.” She reached up to stroke the pale eyebrow of the wolf and searched his fuzzy, floating mind and heart. “Do you still believe I am the killer you seek?”
The wolf grinned and touched his forehead to hers where she stood on tiptoe. “I get it. You’re a lover, not a fighter.”
Liliana stiffened and pulled back at the insult. “I just defeated a Celtic wolf in single combat.”
He laughed gently like a teasing friend. “It’s just an expression. You’re pure class.”
Liliana did not keep up well with current slang, but she was fairly certain that was a compliment. The image of her as a killer faded away in his mind. Even under the fog of her venom, Peter Teague understood that her bite could not have killed anyone.
He was still a Celtic wolf though, a hunter of Others. He knew what she was and where to find her. If the Fae colonel who controlled him realized the implications of her abilities, he would want her dead. Simply by existing, spider seers threatened anyone in power who needed to keep secrets. That was why people kept putting bounties on their heads.
Red wolves had killed spider seers far too many times in the past.
In Peter Teague’s heart was an overwhelming instinct to protect, especially children, and most especially any man or woman he cared for. It gave her an idea. “Kiss me, and I will free you,” she said.
If he kissed her, he would have more of a connection to her. He would be less likely to hunt her. And surprisingly, considering he’d just tried to kill her, she wanted him to kiss her.
The wolf was strong and fierce and beautiful. She only had four years to find a mate before she reached maturity, and the decision was taken away from her by biology. She hadn’t thought about her approaching maturity in some time. It snuck up on her.
The wolf hesitated, pale brows pulled together as if he were trying to remember something. It took a strong will to resist the suggestibility of her venom. The red wolf must find her truly repulsive.
Normals found her eyes terrifying, and even most Others found them unnerving. People who saw her with all her eyes open rarely thought of kissing. Screaming and running away was the usual response.
Liliana looked into the wolf to see what held him back, expecting a horrific view of herself. Instead, she saw the wolf’s beloved with the gentle smile. Thoughts of him held the wolf back from Liliana. She saw him put a ring in a drawer under his socks. He was just waiting for the right moment to ask his chosen mate to be his for life. He didn’t want to kiss someone else and betray his beloved.
His heart was completely given. Even with her venom in his veins, and an attraction to her, he thought only of his boyfriend.
Liliana’s own heart warmed at his loyalty to his beloved. It also saddened her, both because she desired him and because her fourth eyes showed that “No” would be the answer when Peter Teague finally got up the nerve to ask. “Your beloved will have a lifetime of kisses from you if he will but say yes. He can spare a single one for me.”
The red wolf grinned at her, wide and mischievous. Dazzling. “Okay, one kiss then.”
He pressed closed lips against hers, enthusiastic and sweet.
She closed all but the eyes looking into his heart and mind as she sank into the warmth of the brotherly kiss.
In his mind, she saw herself now. He thought she was scary and cute at the same time. Her eyes fascinated him, like exotic jewels embedded in her face. To him, her second eyes looked like polished metallic-jade cabochons in her temples; her third eyes were tiny black pearls. Her fourth eyes looked like opals to him, with their ever-changing swirling surface of pale purple, green, and blue in translucent orbs set above her brows as if in a circlet.
His inner image of her flushed her cheeks warm as much as the sweet kiss. Her eyes did not disturb him. He liked them.
Envy of his golden-haired lover stabbed at Liliana.
With a sigh, she stepped back from him. Any connection she could forge with a single brotherly kiss had been made.
