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Liliana nodded acknowledgment. “I am sorry for the loss of your nest sister.” Kristen and Stella were probably not blood kin, but all the widow spiders in a single nest were considered family.
“Kristen was a good kid, but she was never much of a fighter.” Stella’s face showed a bitter sadness that let Liliana see the centuries-old soul beneath the widow spider’s young face. “The world is rarely kind to innocents.”
“That is an unfortunate truth,” Liliana agreed.
Stella disappeared through the door into the foyer with the stairs and the elevators.
Liliana’s arm blades suddenly felt heavy as she breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they would survive this night after all.
Chapter 15
Widow Spiders
Pete rushed past Liliana into the kitchen. With two clawed fingers on her throat, he checked Sergeant Giovanni’s pulse. His huge, furry shoulders sagged with relief. She slept peacefully, unaware of her danger.
The wolf-kin lifted his human friend easily in his arms. He turned and headed for the door.
Liliana shook her head. “No, hide her in the pantry. She will be safer.”
Tall, pointed ears laid back against Pete’s skull. “We need to get her out of here.” His voice was an octave deeper than usual, and gruffer. He sounded as if the widow spider venom had damaged his vocal cords again and he was speaking from the bottom of a well.
Liliana shook her head and stood in the kitchen doorway, blocking his path.
His mind flooded with angry orange, with streaks of clear, light blue protectiveness, like lightning at sunset.
“We are not out of danger, Pete. It will be harder to fight while carrying Sergeant Giovanni.”
Pete growled and held the sergeant’s body closer.
The spider-kin placed a hand on the soft red fur covering his hard bicep and forced herself to look up for a moment to meet his eyes. “If we win, we can come back for her. If we die, she may still survive if the widow spiders do not find her.”
He turned around with a begrudging growl and stomped to the pantry at the back of the kitchen, carrying the unconscious sergeant.
Liliana was amazed again at how the red wolf kept his word to follow her lead, even to the point of acting counter to his own strongest instincts. “Why do you keep trusting me?”
After he laid Sergeant Giovanni gently on the floor next to shelves full of canned food, and stacked bags of flour and dried beans in front of her, Pete growled, “You saved my life and kept Zoe from getting chopped into Zoe steaks.” He took a deep breath, and his voice lost some of its gruffness. He pushed stray strands of the soldier’s long brown hair away from her face with a careful claw. Then he stood, rolled his broad hairy shoulders, and his ears slowly came up.
With her third eyes, Liliana watched the last of his orange anger fade away. He winked a large pale blue eye at her. “Trusting you seems to be the smart way to go.”
Warm cheeks and a twist in her chest happened at the same time, confusing her. His complete trust in her felt good, but it made that awful feeling that she would fail him that much harsher. “Lady Daphne will be here very soon,” Liliana said and walked out of the kitchen.
Pete joined her a moment later. “So what’s the plan, boss?”
“I will try again to negotiate a peaceful resolution, spider to spider.”
“Do you really think that’ll work twice?”
“I do not wish to kill if there is any chance at all.” Liliana shrugged. “Besides, if we must fight, we will most likely lose. Widow spiders are very formidable.”
“They don’t seem that dangerous to me now that I’m not drugged and helpless, but I didn’t expect going up against you would end with me tied to a tree either. So I’ll take your word for it.” He grinned at her with a whole lot of teeth.
Liliana found his fierce, canine smile as dazzling as the human version. She stood there and blinked for a few seconds before she remembered where they were. She shook her head to clear it. “If Stella leaves, and Margaret does not deviate from the path she followed when I looked earlier, then we will have about fifteen minutes alone with Lady Daphne before Margaret arrives. We must use those minutes to convince Lady Daphne to withdraw.”
“If we kill her as soon as she comes in, we’ll have surprise on our side.”
Liliana winced. She did not wish to shed the blood of another spider if there was any possibility of a peaceful resolution. Her heart ached for the young girl she already killed, and there had been no other option then. “Hide in the men’s room. We will not lose the element of surprise entirely if she believes I am alone.”
Pete put a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Lilly, they tried to kill Zoe and me. They’ve killed a half dozen soldiers. Our chances are better if we kill them quickly.”
