“Ah.” Eva glanced back at the Egyptian exhibit.
Her master crossed his arms, careful to keep the bag well away from his body, and gave her that look.
“There was a ritual dagger,” she said, “it would have been irresponsible to leave such a dangerous object lying around.”
“We’ll talk later.” He started moving down the hall. “Lets find a window. Preferably one that doesn’t have cops hanging around it.”
Eva nodded, though he couldn’t see with his back turned, and followed behind him. “Arachne?”
Devon gave a half shrug. “Probably climbed to the roof. At least, it wasn’t tearing the police to shreds when I saw them. It’ll find us after we get out.”
“Speaking of talking,” Eva said with a hint of trepidation, “I met someone today.”
A grunt was all she got in return.
“A Zoe Baxter. Know her?”
“No.” He paused at a window. “That rooftop across the street, close enough for you to step to?”
Eva had barely glanced out the window when her master vanished from her side. He reappeared on the rooftop and gave a small wave. Eva stepped out after him, appearing at his side. “And if it had been too far?” she whispered.
“I’m sure a master burglar such as yourself could have found a hundred alternate escape routes.”
“Uh huh,” Eva turned back to the museum.
Arachne, in her full spider form, sat atop the roof. She scanned the ground, looking torn between wanting to pounce on the humans or remain hidden behind the roof’s ledge.
Eva cast a small light spell, small enough to be mistaken for a firefly, and waved it back and forth. It didn’t take long for Arachne to notice. The spider-woman folded her arms in what looked like a pout, though it was difficult to tell at a distance.
Arachne’s bulbous abdomen slowly absorbed back into her human torso, along with six of her eight legs. Her remaining two legs shifted to a more proper place for a human, and thickened to their usual size. Eva had never bothered to ask how all that mass fit into the spider-woman’s rather lithe body. She assumed she would get a stupid answer like ‘magic’ and it wasn’t even the strangest shape-shifting the woman could do.
After backing up a few steps, Arachne full on sprinted to the edge of the roof. She leapt just as she reached the edge.
Eva waited with bated breath for the cries of the police in the street below. None came. Of course, Eva thought, people never look up.
The landing Arachne made did make noise and that noise drew attention. Before the police could even finish saying “what was that noise,” Eva’s master stepped to another rooftop.
Eva turned to follow when Arachne grabbed her shoulder. She spun her around and scooped her up in one smooth motion. Before any protests could be made, the spider-woman leapt after Devon.
Not again, thought Eva.
Biting down her screams and her protests, Eva held onto the black chitinous shoulders of the spider-woman for dear life. She pinched her eyes shut at some point, but it didn’t stop the feeling of her stomach dropping out with every leap. Eventually, Arachne stopped her jumps and slowly walked up to Devon, still holding a little girl with her eyes squeezed shut.
“So,” Arachne said, “everything go alright?”
Eva peeked her eyes open to find herself staring at the sharp, interlocking teeth of the spider-woman’s grin.
“Oh quite,” Devon said. He lifted the bag containing the phylactery in show. “I followed Eva’s plan to the letter. Eva, on the other hand, felt there was some merit to the smashing part of my plan.”
Arachne’s grin widened, showing off far too many teeth. “Good for you. Smashing is the best part of any plan. Well, aside from maiming, eviscerating, and dismembering.”
“Yes, yes, very funny you two.” Eva squirmed in the spider-woman’s claws but the grip was too tight to wiggle her way out. At least her long and sharp fingers were in the air rather than tearing into her clothes and skin. “We got in, completed our objective, and got out with some extra goodies. No harm done.”
“Indeed,” her master said with a slight glare.
“Speaking of indeeds,” Eva said, ceasing her wriggling and resigning herself to her fate in the spider-woman’s claws, “I was talking about a Zoe Baxter.”
“Still don’t know her.”
“She teaches magical theory at a school called Brakket Magical Academy and invited me to attend her academy on some sort of scholarship.”
Arachne’s grin shrank by several inches. “You’re leaving for some school?”
“I told her I would think about it.” Eva shrugged, or tried to. Arachne’s grip tightened leaving little room. “So here I am. Thinking, with you two.”
Arachne gave a light smile at that. Devon merely looked thoughtful. “I can’t say it is a surprise,” he said, “you’re at the age. How she found you is more worrying.”
“I don’t think she knew about you, if that is your concern.”
“That’s reassuring.” He brought up his hand as if to stroke his goatee when the bag rustled. He quickly pulled his arm away and set the bag on the ground. “I don’t have a problem with it. It might do you good to learn some magic from proper teachers. As long as you can get away for a few days every month or two for your treatment.”
“Ah, about that,” Eva said with a small frown, “she asked about me not using a focus. When I answered that I had never used one, she immediately asked if I was fully human.”
Devon waved her off. “You’ll never need to use a focus, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to get one. At the very least it will keep other people from asking that question.”
Eva nodded. “I’ll contact her tomorrow then.”
“Lets get this phylactery taken care of.” Devon grabbed the bag and stepped off the roof into the alley below.
Arachne didn’t move.
Eva glanced up to find a slight frown on her face and four sets of eyes staring off into the distance. Wriggling her arm loose as much as she could, Eva patted the spider-woman just above her breasts. “It’s alright, I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to see each other.”
With a smile that was only half there, Arachne set Eva down and leapt off the roof. Eva sighed and stepped down to her master’s side before the demon could even land.
The spider-woman landed on Eva, tackling her to the side, just as an ear-splitting crack tore down the alley.
Chapter 004
A second crack tore through the alley, bringing with it a blinding light. Eva heard her master cry out in pain.
The demon who tackled her quickly tore herself free and moved between the attacks and Eva. She almost charged forward, but something caused her to hesitate.
Eva, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate for a second. She whipped out two vials of her blood. The first was poured in a small circle, setting the radius and center point. The second vial was used to form a golf-ball sized globule hovering over the blood ring. Eva snapped her fingers.
A black-red sphere formed over the two women just as an attack hammered into the shield. The globule shrank noticeably and shrank again as another attack hit.
Confident that the shield would hold for at least a few more attacks, Eva uncorked her vials of demon blood and surveyed the alley.
A large pool of blood trailed to where her master sat against a building’s wall behind a large metal bin. She couldn’t see the pool in the darkness, but she knew it was there. Blood always stood out to her.
The trail ended at a fresh wound on her master’s leg. With another flash of lightning, Eva noted that Devon had chalk out and was inscribing something on the wall.
Eva ignored him, figuring he could take care of himself if he wasn’t dead, and turned her attention to their attacker.