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I called to the wolf within, felt the haze of energy sweep across my body.
But I couldn't force my paws forward. The concrete seemed to be attached to my feet, holding me down, holding me still.
Then I heard it.
The scrabble of tiny feet against concrete.
The spiders had found a way into the stairwell. It was either the jump or the spiders, and I'd had more than enough spiders for one day.
I sucked in a breath, then ran across the roof as fast as four legs would carry me. Not thinking, not looking, just running.
My leap was long and high, and it was terrifying to feel the wind batter my body, to see nothing but a long drop underneath me. My stomach rose and fear clenched my gut, my lungs, and breathing was suddenly impossible.
Then my claws hit concrete, and I was sliding to safety. I changed shape back to human form, but for several seconds couldn't move, couldn't do anything but sweat and shake and gasp for air.
But the thought that the spiders might somehow be able spray themselves across the gap got me moving. I rose and looked around for Misha. He was halfway across the gutted expanse, heading for the stairs.
"Misha, wait."
He stopped. I caught up with him. The smell of sweat and blood and fear tainted the air, and when his gaze met mine, true terror lurked in the silver depths. My stomach plummeted. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
"I feel like shit," he croaked.
"That's because you look like shit." I wrapped an arm around his waist, half-supporting him as I hurried forward. "My car is across the road. You'll be fine once I get you to hospital."
He coughed and moisture spurted from his mouth. Moisture that was bloody. God, he had internal injuries. "Hang on, Misha," I muttered, almost dragging him as I half-ran for the stairs. "Just hang on."
"You were right," he said, his voice so soft it was barely audible over the sound of our steps. "He figured a way into my foxhole."
"But he didn't kill us, and that's a plus."
"I'm not so sure about that." He stumbled as he said it, bringing us both down.
I grunted as the shock of the fall reverberated from my knees to brain. Misha rolled onto his back, his face contorted and his hands clutching at his stomach. "God," he said, voice a harsh rasp of suffering. "It feels like I'm being eaten inside out - " He stopped as a cough racked him, and bits of blood and water and what looked like specks of flesh gushed from his mouth.
And I remembered that creature on his face. Remembered thinking it was half the size it had originally looked.
Horror filled me, boiling through my body until it felt like my stomach was going to leap up into my throat.
Misha was being eaten from the inside out. When that spider creature had leapt onto his face, it hadn't only eaten his flesh. It had also poured part of itself into his body and somewhere inside re-formed to continue its bloody task.
His hand caught mine, dragging it to his mutilated lips, pressing a kiss I couldn't really feel against my fingertips. "End it, Riley. If you feel anything at - " He stopped again, and this time the rush of water that accompanied the cough was thicker. I shuddered, the bitter taste of bile heavy in my throat, the urge to run battling with the urge to scream and rage against the wiles of fate.
"End it, Riley," he pleaded. "Please."
I closed my eyes for the briefest of moments, then took a deep breath and said, "Tell me who your boss is, Misha. Please, just give me that."
"I can't."
"Not even a hint?"
"Not even... Not dead." He coughed, bringing up more flesh and blood. "Please. Stop."
I leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss against his battered lips.
"May you find what you're looking for in your next life, Misha."
He raised a hand to my cheek, cupping it gently, his skin like ice against mine and his eyes gentle. I'd been wrong before. A lab-born creature could feel love. It was there, right now, in his eyes.
