"Egg sacs." Disbelief roughened his voice. He looked up at the dark hulk of eight-legged beast suspended above him, and then back to the stuff gluing his fingers together. "Son of a bitch." He shouted for Cavin and Ares.
Ares answered with a question, which Jude ignored. His hands spread into claw-tipped mitts and he sprang from the cable to catch the shrouded ladder. His claws tore through the weave as he scaled higher and higher, eyes on the enormous arachnid. The thing was the size of a damn buffalo, its multi-lensed eyes blank and staring above long, curved fangs. Jude's own jaw shifted and cracked as the lion peeled its lips back and let loose its own vicious teeth, preparing to bring down the monster should it strike first.
The thing didn't stir, though, didn't so much as twitch an eye as he climbed closer and closer. "Don't attack it up there," Cavin ordered from below. "Cut through that shit that's holding it up and get back."
Jude ignored the directive. This thing had threatened his woman, his queen. Right of destruction belonged to him. He'd cut the beast down and ride it to the bottom, then take it apart one hairy leg at a time. Another twist, two more rungs of the ladder-web covered him from claw to elbow as he slid between two long, jointed legs to get in position above the black mother.
The security door loomed at his back, the camera lens so close he could see himself in it, but it wasn't the camera that held his attention. Inches below, so close he could smell the dust of decay, a grayish, deflated sac lay attached to the spider's exoskeleton. The eggs were long gone, released into the world to do their work.
With a roar, he slashed his claws through the ropey web that supported the creature. Three strikes weakened the web enough that it could no longer support its creator's weight, and with an arc of thread, the spider tore from its perch and fell.
Either Ares or Cavin shouted. Jude didn't hear words past the fury coursing through his blood, thunderous and deafening. A tiny red light blinked on the camera, proof the thing still worked. The spider had been sentient enough, human enough to recognize the device, reasoning and logical-thinking enough to build a haven just behind the camera's field. How long had the creature lurked there, spinning its web, hatching plans and eggs?
How many of its spawn had crept, too small for the naked eye, past the door's hinges, right past the weak spot in the seal?
Stabbing at the keypad with his claws, he released the lock and forced his way onto the roof.
The urban ghost town spread out around the Jungle, dark and quiet but for the sounds of swift destruction at the bottom of the elevator shaft. A river divided the former industrial district from the rest of the city. Most nights, the noise of traffic penetrated as a dull hum but tonight, either the world beyond stood still, or some unseen power had blessed him. He could hear everything. Could see everything.
A fat, full moon hung low in the sky, its light so bright, it penetrated the ever present haze of pollution in order to illuminate the streets below. Stalking to the edge of the roof, he scraped web from his arms and flung it to the concrete at his feet. Cavin and Ares joined him.
"It's spawn are out there," Jude snarled. "I gave them a safe breeding ground, the time to mature."
"We're hunters." Cavin's voice was steel.
Jude shook his head but it was Ares who gave voice to Jude's thoughts.
"We were made for bigger prey. These things are for the work of birds and stray cats. We're too far from the alleys and gutters, but too grounded to fly the world chasing them down. Humans call in exterminators for a reason."
They had access to an exterminator, but Jude and Ares had witnessed firsthand the destructive force of dragon's fire. Maybe Cavin had seen it in his lifetime, too, because he didn't raise it as an option.
Jude leaned forward and braced his hands on the wall. All three of them faced the heavy moon with its nimbus of thick pollution, emissions and waste produced by the businesses of living and working in the dense, crowded city. Clouds shifted around the orb, giving it the appearance of a pulsing, living thing.
He'd planned to claim Lily tonight by the light of that moon.
Rubbing the heel of his hand over his heart, Jude said, "I feel the energy every time I'm here. It comes to me, filling my lion's hungry belly, but I always knew I wasn't taking all the energy." He shot a sidelong look at Ares and Cavin. "The two of you weren't taking it all, either. Maybe some goes back to the shifters who are letting it all out but I don't think so. I think that energy is alive, and I think it brought something else to life."