With that said, the girl turned and used her false blink down the street. The ‘associate’ remained–glaring if Zoe had to guess–for a moment longer before she sprinted down the street. She jumped straight to a rooftop that Eva blinked to and they were gone.
“You shouldn’t have let them go.”
“I don’t think we had much choice. I have no doubts that the thing next to her was not human. I do have doubts over how much we could have hurt it before it killed us.”
Wayne just grunted. “Come on,” he said, “night’s far from over.”
Zoe followed after him. She kept alert for any movement, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
A mysterious nonhuman associate. A weapon that she kept hidden even when she suspected an attack. A cure for zombie infection.
As long as she did end up not becoming a zombie. She seemed very confident about it, if exhausted.
Zoe let herself smile for the first time that night.
Wayne really had missed out when he let her slip by. Zoe just hoped the trouble Eva caused would be worth it in the end.
— — —
Eva stepped to another rooftop and paused, catching her breath. Arachne caught up a moment later.
Leaning into the spider, Eva sighed. The amount of blood she used drawing the ritual circle wound up taking more out of her than she thought. Combined with slaughtering a town infested with zombies and Eva felt ready to drop.
“You need to take a rest,” Arachne said. “They can finish cleaning the streets.”
Eva picked herself off of Arachne. “No. We’re going to find them.”
“You can barely stand. You may be half demon, but you aren’t a full one yet. You will die if you keep this up.”
“I will be fine. I’ll just avoid using blood magic for a while. I need to practice regular magic anyway.”
Arachne did not look convinced as she slid her mask to the side.
“And I’ll be relying on you,” Eva added.
“As much as I like to hear you say that, I’d rather you head in for the night. If you really want me to, I’ll continue scourging this town of the infected.”
Eva smiled at her concern. It was nice. Touching to have the woman care about her so. “Good thing we decided to get you that full mask. I’d rather have Zoe Baxter thinking of you as just a spooky associate than a demon.”
Arachne side and slid the mask back over her face. “I’m not going to talk you out of this, am I?”
“Try again a few zombies later. I might be more tired then.”
“I didn’t know you cared about the humans in this place enough to strain yourself so.”
Eva frowned at that and gave it a long thought before responding. “I suppose I don’t. Not humans in general anyway. These necromancers hurt my friends and are making a mess of the town I currently call home.” She paused, looking over Arachne for any cues. She found none.
“If I was the one hurt,” Eva continued, “you’d have brought the entire town to rubble until you found the culprit. So don’t say I’m going overboard over a couple of ‘measly humans.’ They’re my friends right now, just like you are. I’d do the same for you.”
Arachne smiled at that. Even with the mask in place, Eva could tell. The twitching of her hair tendrils and the slight tilt of her head gave it away.
How she had gotten to know Arachne so well over the last few months felt odd. Like a twisting in her stomach. She wasn’t sure if it was a good twisting or a bad twisting, but being friends with Arachne had been beneficial, if nothing else. The real twist in her stomach was that she actually meant it when she said they were friends.
Devon always warned her away from even speaking with demons outside of orders and definitely disapproved of being friendly. He definitely disapproved of Arachne’s interest in Eva. Once she started taking interest, Devon sought to keep them apart save for her treatments and a select few jobs.
Eva never saw the harm in it.
Even Ylva, who could kill someone merely by brushing her hand over them, had been very polite to a frightened Eva. She even left a gift. Sure, Eva had apparently given her some great boon, but there was no contract for the gift. Eva foolishly gave the phylactery to the demon. She could have just left and gotten a free boon.
After the experiment ended, what would her master do? Keep her around for observations, surely. Start treating her like one of the demons he summoned? Not if Eva had a choice in the matter.
Eva sighed again and realized Arachne hadn’t said anything. The spider-woman had gone very still. “Something the matter?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to head back?”
“I’m sure. Why?”
Arachne hesitated just a moment before responding. “There’s a group of zombies in the street below. I can hear them.”
Eva went silent to listen. Her hearing wasn’t as good as the spider-woman’s. Still, she could hear faint moaning when she concentrated.
“If you promise to stay here, I’ll go finish them and be back in less than a minute.”
Eva shook her head. “Like I said, I could use practice with regular magic.”
Arachne slumped her shoulders. “Alright,” she said, “but let me carry you down. We don’t want you leaving half yourself behind again.”
“That happened once,” Eva said as the spider woman lifted her into her arms. “I was brand new and panicked at the time.”
“And this time you are very exhausted.” Arachne stepped off the edge of the building. She absorbed all the shock of the landing and set Eva down in one smooth motion.
Eva whipped her arm out and launched a fireball towards the zombies. It came out less as the basketball she envisioned and more as a ping-pong ball. Eva sighed as it sailed right past the group of zombies and dissipated harmlessly against the asphalt.
It did manage get their attention. Unfortunately, their attention went to where the fireball dispersed–in the opposite direction.
Eva shared a glance with Arachne. Despite the mask, she felt the demon was very desperately trying to hold in laughter.
Eva shook her head and concentrated. She pictured a boulder of flame and rock being catapulted against a castle wall. With that image in mind, Eva lobbed another fireball.
The ball slammed into the shoulder of one of the zombies. If the golf ball sized orb did more than singe the flesh, Eva couldn’t tell in the dim light of the street lamps.
Eva sighed. At least the fireball was bigger this time, maybe. If I squinted. “Maybe I’m actually not a fire mage,” she said to Arachne.
The zombie she struck turned around and started shambling towards her. Eva wasn’t worried. They were slow and uncoordinated. The only real danger was them sneaking up and with Arachne at her side, Eva doubted that was possible.
Arachne stuck nearby rather than jumping into the fray. It had been several groups of zombies since she decided sticking by Eva’s side was more important than wanton slaughter. Heartwarming in a way, and here it gave Eva a chance to practice.
She tossed another few fireballs without doing much damage. The other zombies had been attracted by the light. Eva just calmly walked backwards with Arachne at her side.
Zoe Baxter had used a gust of wind to completely remove a zombie’s head. Eva tried the same thing. Sneezing might have done more.
“You’re just not cut out for ‘proper’ magics.”
Eva was sure there was laughter in the demon’s voice. “It is my second month of schooling. I’m sure I’ll get better.”
“May I?” Arachne asked with a gesture towards the approaching zombies.
Eva just nodded her head and stopped walking backwards.
Arachne took a look around before calmly walking forwards and decapitating each one with a swipe of her hands. She did so quickly and without needless gore as she had done with some of the earlier groups. Arachne walked back to Eva’s side.
With the zombies dead, Eva slumped her shoulders and sighed. Maybe her lack of ability was exhaustion. No, not maybe. Definitely.