Web Master (#8 Shifter Squad)

by J. C. Diem

  “Well, something weird happened a few minutes ago,” Reece said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up on the news.”

  “Does it have anything to do with every dog in the city suddenly howling all at the same time?” Mark asked dryly.

  “You heard them?”

  “Of course. There has to be twenty dogs in this hotel alone. When they started making a racket, I thought we were under attack by the Cerberus golem.”

  “Sorry,” Reece said contritely. “I should have called you straight away.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Mark’s tone was curious rather than accusatory. He knew there had to be a reason for our lapse.

  “They started howling because of our wolves. They almost ascended and we don’t know why. We’re still a little shaken up by it.”

  “I think you should return to the hotel now.”

  “I thought you needed peace and quiet,” Reece said wryly.

  “I’d rather have peace of mind. I’ll see you all shortly.” Mark hung up and Reece stood then offered his hand to me. My legs were less shaky now, but I appreciated his support. He waved to the others and they gave up their game. “Mark just called,” he informed them when they jogged over to us. “He heard the dogs go nuts and he wants us back at the hotel.”

  We hadn’t been gone for very long, but they didn’t protest at being called back so soon. We all knew it was safer to stay out of sight for a while. We’d just come very close to transforming in front of dozens of humans. Not even the Mind Sweepers would have been able to contain the knowledge of what we were if that had happened in front of so many witnesses.

  We made our way back to the hotel and I stepped into the restroom long enough to wash my hands. I hadn’t touched the poop, but I felt the need to be clean anyway.

  Kala followed me in and washed her hands as well. She made a face when she saw her reflection. “Why didn’t you tell me I look like a raccoon?” Mascara was smeared around her eyes from laughing until she’d cried.

  “Because it’s funny,” I said with a shrug.

  Seeing my point, she grinned rather than losing her temper. She cleaned her face then took mascara out of her pocket and coated her lashes again. I didn’t know why I was surprised that she carried emergency mascara around with her. She might not want to admit it, but she was far more girly than I was.

  We joined Reece and Flynn in the lobby and took the stairs up to the second floor. Mark put his tablet down when we filed into the sitting room. “What happened?” His concern came through loud and clear. He examined us all, searching for signs that we’d been injured.

  “We’re not sure,” Kala replied. She described feeling power coming off Reece and me and then the dogs all howling at once.

  “Can you explain the surge of power?” he asked us.

  We both shook our heads. “It hit us out of nowhere,” Reece said. “We were just waiting for Zeus to finish doing his business then a strange feeling of being linked to all of the dogs in the park came over us.”

  Flynn had a theory. “Maybe it happened because you’re both alpha wolves and there were so many dogs gathered in one place.”

  “They knew what we were straight away,” Reece agreed.

  “It wasn’t just the dogs that sensed us,” I said uneasily. “Werewolves felt us as well. They could tell that we’re different from them.”

  “You felt other shifters?” Mark asked in astonishment. “How is that even possible? The full moon is still over two weeks away.”

  “Because we’re not just wolves anymore,” Reece said bleakly. “We’re also vampires. The mixture seems to have enhanced our powers somehow.”

  “The dogs would have followed us anywhere,” I told Mark. “The shifters were reluctant, but I think they would have joined us if we’d wanted them to.”

  “How many werewolves did you sense?”

  “I think it was all of them,” I replied.

  “All of the werewolves in Virginia?”

  “No,” Reece replied. “All of the ones in the US. There are more than we’d realized.”

  “How many?” Mark asked.

  “Several thousand.”

  Mark turned thoughtful and his brow furrowed. Knowing that he needed time to think, we went quiet. Even Kala managed not to fidget too much while he puzzled this over. She reached out, picked up a cookie then winced when it crunched loudly as she bit into it. “Sorry,” she said around the cookie when Mark’s eye slid over to her. A few crumbs fell to the floor as she spoke. Zeus was there to clean up the mess almost before it hit the carpet. “Do you want me to leave?”

  “No,” he smiled, snapping out of his silence. “I don’t think any amount of quiet time will help me figure this one out.”

  “Fate has to be behind it,” Flynn said. “Lexi has to fight some kind of battle against evil. Maybe werewolves are going to be her soldiers.”

  The thought of using our kin to fight golems and zombies didn’t fill me with joy. Shifters were fearsome, but not even they could face stone monsters without suffering injuries or death. I didn’t want to decimate our numbers if there was some other way to fight the coming battles.

  “Did you get very far with your research?” Flynn asked.

  Mark nodded and picked up his tablet again. “I skimmed through the data and noticed something interesting.” Kala and Flynn squeezed onto the couch on either side of him. Reece and I moved around behind them and looked over their shoulders.

  Mark pulled up a map of the United States that had red dots scattered all over the place. He pointed at six dots that were clustered together. Five of them formed a circle with the sixth one roughly in the middle. Each one was spaced a hundred or so miles apart. It wasn’t obvious that they were connected. Only when they were seen on a map did their locations come to our notice.

  “Where are those facilities?” Reece asked. All we could tell was that they were somewhere to the northwest.

  “Idaho,” Mark replied.

  Kala’s tone was incredulous. “Idaho? Why would they build so many facilities there? Nothing ever happens in Idaho.”

  “Maybe that’s why they chose it,” Flynn pointed out. “No one would ever think to look in a place that many people find boring.”

  “That’s a good point, Agent Bailey,” Mark said. Flynn ducked his head bashfully at the praise. Mark generally only used our rank when he was annoyed or impressed with us. Usually, it was from annoyance.

  “Suck up,” Kala sulked and flounced back to her own seat.

  “So, I take it we’re heading to Idaho?” Reece asked.

  Finally, we had something to investigate and we could now begin our hunt. Right on cue, Mark’s phone rang.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Seventeen

  Reaching inside his jacket, Mark pulled out his cell phone. Reece and I returned to our seats as he answered it. “This is Agent Steel.”

  “Mark,” a woman whispered. “It’s Opal. Something strange just happened that I thought you’d want to know about. A town has been attacked by something awful.”

  “Was it overrun by snakes, feral dogs or something else?” he asked.

  “Something else. Something far worse,” she said in an ominous tone.

  “What was it this time?”

  “Spiders,” she said in a hoarse whisper. Her chair squeaked from the force of her shudders.

  “What?” he said in a strangled voice. His face went pale and sweat gathered on his upper lip. Flynn put a hand on his shoulder in concern.

  “Spiders,” she repeated. “They swarmed over the whole town, biting nearly everyone to death. Only a few people managed to escape. It only happened a few minutes ago. We don’t have confirmation of how many people have died so far. We’ve dispatched some officers from the closest city to quarantine the town.”

  “Where did this occur?” he asked. His voice sounded squeezed, as if he was having trouble breathing. His heart was beating far faster than normal.

  “Gavenport, in
Florida.” She waited for his response and none came. “At least you’ll be somewhere warm during this mission,” she said lamely. “I’ve sent you everything we have so far. I have to go.” With that, she hung up.

  “Why?” Mark said weakly as Flynn took his cell phone out of his hand and tucked it back inside his jacket for him. He was clearly unable to do it himself. “Why does it have to be spiders?”

  Sensing his distress, Zeus went to him and leaned against his legs. He whined softly and Mark absently put his hand on the Rottweiler’s head.

  “I take it Mark has arachnophobia?” I whispered to the others.

  “In the worst kind of way,” Kala whispered back without a trace of amusement. “I was five years old the first time I had to kill a spider for him. It was only a small one, but I thought he was going to faint at the sight of it.”

  “You can sit this one out and let us handle it, boss,” Flynn offered. “You can oversee our mission from our closest base.”

  For a few moments, Mark was torn between his fear and duty. Duty won, of course. “No,” he said and shook his head. “This could be a ploy concocted by EERI to separate us.”

  “They know about your fear of spiders?” I asked in surprise.

  “I’m certain they know everything about us,” he said bleakly. “They’ve had a mole inside our organization for at least the past fifty years,” he reminded me. “We can assume that whoever was controlling the ghost and the zombie has passed on everything they’ve learned to their boss. Whoever it was that was speaking through the zombie before she was teleported away confirmed that they work for EERI. It is clear that whoever is controlling her is our prime target.”

  “You know what we’re dealing with this time?” Flynn said solemnly.

  “What?” Kala’s tone was wary.

  “A web master.”

  “Is that some kind of geeky internet reference?” she complained.

  Mark agreed with Flynn. “It fits, in a horrible way. Someone has been sitting in their gigantic web, tugging on the strands and making us dance to their tune. They can raise and control golems and they have power over the undead. I’m beginning to suspect that this person might even run EERI itself.” His expression was brooding and morose. I’d never seen him so discouraged before. We hadn’t even seen any spiders yet and he was already rattled. I didn’t have any phobias and had never suffered paralyzing fear like that, but I still felt for him.

  “So, we’re off to Florida instead of Idaho then?” Kala asked.

  Mark sighed, rubbed his face with both hands then nodded reluctantly. “I’ll arrange for the jet to pick us up.”

  That’s a shame, Reece thought to me. It looks like we’re not going to get a chance to use that king sized bed after all. I shared his regret. I’d had plans for that bed and they were going to have to be put on hold.

  “The jet will meet us in two hours,” Mark said sourly when he hung up. It would take us that long to reach the airstrip. He’d been hoping for a longer reprieve and he wasn’t going to get it. “Grab your gear and meet me in the lobby in five minutes.”

  No one made a smart ass remark this time. Not even Kala was cruel enough to torment him when he was soon going to be facing his worst fear. Instead, she went to his side and slid her arm through his. “We won’t let the spiders get you, boss.”

  He sent her a strained, yet grateful smile. “I know you won’t, Kala.”

  “We’ll stomp those suckers to mush,” Flynn added and clapped Mark on the back.

  Mark’s smile changed into something close to a grimace. “I have a different idea of how to deal with them, but thank you for the support.”

  We left the sitting room and headed to our rooms to grab our gear. This time, Reece and I didn’t allow ourselves to become distracted. We didn’t have to waste time packing and snatched up our backpacks from the closet. We took the stairs to the lobby and found Mark already waiting for us. It was almost spooky how quickly he could organize himself.

  Kala and Flynn arrived moments later. Kala exaggeratedly looked me over, searching for evidence that Reece and I had been making out again. “I’m proud of you two kids,” she said and stepped between us to sling her arms over our shoulders. “You can control your hormones when you have to.” Reece rolled his eyes, but refrained from pointing out that she had the least ability to control her sex drive out of everyone in our group.

  The receptionist gave us a strange look when we handed our key cards back to him. “Leaving so soon?” he asked.

  “Unfortunately, something has come up and we need to leave immediately,” Mark replied.

  “Well, I hope you enjoyed your stay,” the clerk said to our backs as we were leaving.

  “We sure did,” Kala said under her breath. “Especially the part where Flynn picked up Zeus’ poop.” Flynn sent her a glare that triggered another laughing fit. A valet brought our SUV around and we clambered inside.

  “Did something happen at the park that I’m not aware of?” Mark asked when he settled into the front passenger seat.

  Flynn crossed his arms and glowered out through the window as Kala relayed the scene. Mark’s lips trembled, then he broke into a rare snigger. I was glad he was still able to laugh considering what we were about to investigate in Florida.

  Zeus put his head over the seat and rested it on Flynn’s shoulder. He looked at him soulfully then humbly licked his cheek. “He thinks you’re mad at him,” I said.

  Huffing out a sigh, Flynn gave my guardian a pat. “I’m not angry at you, fleabag. Kala is the one who annoys me.”

  “Me?” she said in exaggerated surprise. “What did I do?”

  They started squabbling, but I knew they weren’t really angry with each other. Bit by bit, Mark started to calm down. His anxiety was palpable to us all. They were doing their best to diffuse it by distracting him.

  “Do we have enough snacks to tide us over?” Reece asked over the noise going on in the back. I felt a bit like the sensible middle child who had to learn to deal with constant sibling rivalry.

  Mark checked the glove box and shook his head. “We’ll need to make a stop along the way.”

  Reece pulled up next to a convenience store and Mark went in alone. The moment he was gone, Kala and Flynn quit arguing. “Poor guy,” Kala said with feeling. “This mission is really going to test him.”

  “Do you know why he has arachnophobia?” I asked.

  Reece shook his head. “I’m not sure what triggered his fear. He’s never spoken about it. I think he’s embarrassed that he has a weakness.”

  “Everyone has weaknesses,” Flynn argued. “Even us.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Kala said archly. “I’m pretty close to perfect.” I stared at her incredulously until she broke into a grin. “I’m just kidding. I know I’m hot, but I have flaws.”

  We very carefully didn’t say anything. Her largest flaw was her complete lack of modesty. Then there was her atrocious cooking abilities.

  Her food could be used as a weapon of mass destruction, Reece thought.

  Maybe we could get her to cook another turkey, I responded. The smell alone would probably level an entire army. We shared a mental chuckle, carefully keeping the conversation private. Kala was still touchy about her substandard culinary skills.

  Mark returned after a few minutes with a bag full of goodies. Kala reached out and he already had a chocolate bar ready for her. Flynn took one as well, but Reece and I declined. We’d wait until we were on the jet before we’d eat again.

  I waited for Reece to resume our journey before I asked Mark a question. “Do you mind if I ask what happened to make you so afraid of spiders?”

  He grimaced in apparent embarrassment then shrugged. “I might as well tell you.” His gaze went distant as he recounted the story. “My parents loved to travel. They always chose exotic places that weren’t considered to be mainstream. They were both accountants and were bored with their jobs. I guess they wanted to feel like explorers when they
went on vacation.” He smiled a little in remembrance, but it faded almost immediately.

  “I was six when we visited South America. A guide took us to a rain forest and I became separated from them. I remember walking along a path with trees towering over me. I could hear my parents shouting for me, but I was too small to see over the shrubs. I started crying and I couldn’t see where I was going. I tripped over and came face to face with the biggest spider that I’ve ever seen. I must have startled it because it leaped on my face and bit me just behind my ear.”

  He shivered at the memory and rubbed the spot behind his left ear where he’d been bitten so long ago. “I shrieked loudly enough for my parents and their guide to pinpoint my location,” he continued. “The guide led us out of the forest and took me to a doctor. The bite hurt, but the venom wasn’t that bad. It was a bit like being stung by a bee. I had a painful lump for a few days. The lump faded, but the memory has stayed with me.”

  “What sort of spider was it?” Kala asked. Her eyes were wide as she felt his fear.

  “It was a tarantula. It happened a long time ago, but I’d estimate that its body was the size of my hand,” he said. He held his palm up to show her.

  “You mean the size of your hand when you were a kid?” Flynn said.

  “No, I mean it was the size of my hand now,” Mark corrected him. “It was so big that its legs wrapped completely around my head. I felt its soft, hairy body on my cheek.” He shuddered and Reece put a hand on his arm in silent support.

  “Ugh!” Kala shuddered as well and wrapped her arms around herself. “I totally get why you have arachnophobia now. I would have been freaked out, too.” Knowing her, she’d probably have laughed at it then pounded it to death with her shoe even at six years old.

  “Are there really spiders that big?” I asked.

  Mark nodded. “I did an internet search a few years ago out of morbid curiosity. It was the largest of the tarantula species. They’re called Goliath bird-eaters, although they mostly eat insects, frogs, toads, rodents, lizards and small snakes.” Flynn gave him an incredulous look at that. “They can grow to be a foot in diameter and their fangs are an inch long.” His face had gone pale again dredging up that memory. I almost wished I hadn’t asked him to recount his story if it still affected him this strongly.