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The huge spider paced in front of them, back and forth, looking for the best opening to kill them without taking any more damage. The lost limb didn’t slow her down, but she emitted a pained whine periodically.
It didn’t matter. All Lady Daphne really had to do was wait for blood loss to weaken them. Well, that was true in Liliana’s case. Pete’s worst wound was still mostly sealed with the spear of spider claw. Liliana had managed to slow the bleeding from her shoulder with the wad of silk stuffed in the hole, but it still oozed and ran down her arm.
Liliana didn’t need her fourth eyes to tell her they were likely to die without even striking another effective blow.
“It was an honor to fight at your side,” Liliana said softly.
Pete put a clawed hand covered in blood and ichor companionably on her back. It spanned all the space from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. “Same here,” he growled.
Lady Daphne seemed to lose patience in that moment and came for them, fangs dripping with acidic venom, front three legs up high, ready to stab.
Liliana braced herself to meet her death with courage.
Her father and mothers would have been proud of her today.
The BRRRRRAATTTT of a rapid-fire machine pistol halted the giant spider. Bullets sprayed Lady Daphne in the face.
A tortured metallic shriek rang out as three of her eight green-faceted eyes exploded in gouts of sickly yellowish ichor.
Liliana looked behind her. Muzzle flashes exploded with each shot, lighting the rooftop battleground like rapid, red-shaded lightning strikes. They also lit brilliant fuchsia and violet dragonfly wings with a miniature woman in a leather jacket suspended in the air between them. Siobhan’s cute pixie face was set in a grim line. Her whole body leaned into the weapon, and her wings beat frantically to fight the kickback.
As the giant spider staggered back, screeching in agony, the tiny Fae landed beside Pete and Liliana.
“Close your eyes and plug your ears!” Siobhan clicked something on her machine pistol and pumped it like a tiny shotgun.
Liliana and Pete did as they were ordered after a confused look at each other and a shrug from the red wolf’s hairy shoulders.
Siobhan pulled the trigger. A boom rang out with a recoil that knocked the little Fae onto her butt on the tile.
Through her tightly closed eyelids, Liliana’s human eyes were still nearly blinded by the flash, and she was partially deafened by the explosion despite her fingers in her ears.
The ear-splitting screech Lady Daphne emitted didn’t help.
“Go for her belly!” Siobhan shouted directly in their ringing ears, then took to the air again. “Nudd said widow spiders have no armor on the underside of the abdomen.”
Liliana felt stupid. She had read The Lord of the Rings. She should have known that.
With their tiny, well-armed ally on their side, and the new knowledge of the enemy’s weakness, this might no longer be a hopeless battle. Pete and Liliana looked at each other for half a second. Pete nodded, and she knew exactly what he would do next without bothering to look into his mind.
The red wolf rolled in a somersault forward and to the left, favoring his injured right leg.
At the same moment, Liliana did the same thing to the right, favoring her injured left shoulder.
They bypassed Lady Daphne’s many legs on either side while Siobhan distracted the spider by spraying the part of her carapace that passed for her face with more bullets.
The widow spider lifted her abdomen and leaned forward on her front three legs so she could pull silk from her spinneret to throw at the flying wood sprite. It was the one position that exposed her vulnerability. While the armored shell was solid under the spider’s front body section, the underside of the big round abdomen had only leathery skin. It had to move and flex so the spider could breathe.
Liliana ducked under and stabbed deep through that leathery skin, then sliced with her arm blade along one side of the spider’s belly. Pete sunk the claws of both hands into spider flesh and ripped the spider open with brute force on the other side.
The stench of sewer and something cloyingly acidic like vomit hit the back of Liliana’s throat and made her gag. Lady Daphne’s guts spilled on the tile with a generous helping of slimy ichor and the viscous pearly white liquid that becomes silk when exposed to air.
Lady Daphne’s shrieks reached a deafening crescendo. She leaped away from them while Liliana’s blade was still buried in her body, ripping the deep gash open even wider and nearly yanking Liliana’s arm out of its socket. Entrails dragged behind the giant spider and tangled in her legs as her limbs scrambled nonsensically in every direction.
Liliana could no longer move fast enough to get out of the way when one of those giant spider legs flailed in her direction. It knocked her across the balcony into the iron railing with no more control of her body than a rag doll flung by a child. The back of her head slammed into an iron support.
Chapter 16
Sick Day
