Reading Online Novel

Lion's Dangerous(Kings of the Jungle #1)(64)



"Look at me," he commanded. The harsh words sliced through her fear and drew her gaze up to his eyes, which burned like a beacon. "There's nothing on you. You're hurting yourself. Do you understand? Nothing on you."

Breath hitching, she whispered, "How do you know? They were almost too small to see. Babies."

His mouth tightened. Jude spoke to someone behind her. "Cavin?"

"Gathering a hunt. He's waiting for a report from us. We need to go in," Ares said.

When had he arrived? Looking over her shoulder, she saw the large, dark man wasn't alone. Alexa stood at his elbow, still smelling like the salon. She was staring at Lily's blackened hand, but straightened like a marionette on a string and lifted her gaze to Ares when he said her name.

"Take Lily next door and clean her up," Ares instructed. "Open every faucet and keep the water running until one of us comes for you."

"Go with her." Jude gave her wrist a squeeze and then released her.

Reluctantly, she left the scene. Once she and Alexa were behind a locked door, Jude and Ares vanished into the dark shop. Nobody had bothered to flip the lights Katt had turned off, which was a blessing. She'd heard someone mutter something about spider webs and knew there was nothing inside that she wanted to see. 





18





Thick, sticky hanks of web hung from the light fixtures and high shelves. Ares grabbed an unaffected display carousel, shook the merchandise to the floor, and used the fixture like a honey dipper to gather the spider's leavings.

Ares thrust the makeshift wand at an avian shifter who was peering at the gossamer weave between the register and a stocked shelf. "Get this to the Jungle. Don't touch the web and don't give it to anybody but Cavin."

The female recoiled from the web she was examining. "You think it's tainted?"

"I don't want to be the one to find out. Do you?"

She shook her head and gingerly took the fixture, keeping her hand well out of range. Ares didn't wait to watch or correct her handling. While he forged ahead, creating a clean path, Jude examined the store.

Rope-like strands of web as thick as his thumb crossed back and forth and around, enshrouding furniture and stock. It hung from the ceiling like a poacher's net and created a tripwire across the floor. His gut clenched. Spiders as a species didn't affect him the way they did most humans, engendering fear that could keep a person from walking into a room barefoot-could keep a person from walking at all. This, though. The drop nets overhead were hunters' tools and they roused an ancestral instinct for survival. Claws pricked through the callused tips of his fingers. His muscles coiled, ready to fight.

As he stared at an entombed bust wearing a sweater, his blood ran cold. "He was wrapping her up."

Ares nodded tightly. "This is a big fucking problem. If the web's residue is poisonous, it gets even bigger."

He and Ares were steps away from the bathroom, where a wall of avian shifters blocked the door and the room from view. They spoke in low voices punctuated by a staccato clicking sound. Jude could make out every word but nothing stood out through the echo of Lily's haunted voice in his mind.

They were almost too small to see. Babies.

He hissed through his teeth. "Fuck me. The web isn't the problem. Everybody out!"

The command didn't come soon enough. Inside the bathroom, someone let out a high, inhuman shriek. Chaos erupted as, with a shrill call of pain, a fist-sized bird careened through the doorway, its wingtips brushing the heads of the men directly in its path.

Taller than the petite, fragile-boned avians, Jude and Ares both dropped to a crouch. The bird just cleared them before crashing into one of the webs. It cried out, struggling against the imprisoning net. The bird's brethren stood paralyzed. Snarling, Jude willed his claws to full length and stood. He sliced through the thick strands with two slashes just as the bird's struggles ceased. It fell to the floor, dead, wrapped in web thicker than its legs.

The small body landed with a dull thud, its final landing punctuated by the hitched breath of someone behind him. Jude turned to regard the four remaining shifters. With the evidence of their mortality laying on the floor like so much trash, their fragility was more pronounced than ever. Avians were among the most delicate of the shifter species'. They paid for their ability to fly with a breakability the larger breeds couldn't imagine.

It was almost human.

One of the diminished flock, a male, stepped forward and bent to scoop the fallen bird in his hands, careless of any poison that might exist in the web. With the stony expression of a mourning mate, he carried his burden from the store on stiff legs.

"Go," Jude said roughly, gesturing with his clawed hand that the rest of them should follow their brother.