Web Master (#8 Shifter Squad)

by J. C. Diem

  Flynn frowned in confusion. “What are you saying, exactly?”

  “Your cells aren’t dying.” Dr. Wright took a shaky breath then let it out. “I think you all now have regenerative powers.”

  “We already did,” Kala pointed out. “Shifters can heal just about any wound.” Her arm was as good as new even after it had been half torn off. The marks that had been made from the silver mesh had faded within an hour rather than after several. I’d been worried that we’d all be permanently scarred, but our flesh was strangely unblemished.

  “This goes far beyond what is normal even for your kind,” Jerry replied. “Besides, Mark isn’t a shifter. He’s just a normal human. Or he was. His blood is as fresh as yours.” We all turned to Mark to see he was looking slightly ill. “Have you noticed anything different about yourself, Mark?”

  He was silent for a few moments before he answered. “Well, I’m pretty sure I died last night, but then I came back to life again. Plus, I was shot in the side, but my wound healed within seconds.”

  Our shocked silence only lasted for a few moments before we all started talking at once. My dad held up a hand and his authority was enough to invoke instant silence. “I thought I heard your neck break when that demon sent you flying,” he said with far more calm than the rest of us were feeling.

  “Demon? What demon?” Jerry said in a squeaky tone.

  “He was lying there with his eyes open and glazed,” I recalled. “When he sat up a couple of minutes later, I thought I’d just imagined seeing him die.”

  “It wasn’t your imagination,” Mark said dryly. He turned his attention back to his friend on the other end of the line. “Thank you for confirming what I’d suspected, Jerry. Make sure you destroy those samples, if you can. If you can’t, then I suggest you drop them into a river or possibly in the ocean.”

  “Do I even want to know what’s going on?” Dr. Wright asked. His excitement had been replaced with anxiety.

  “No, you really don’t,” Mark replied honestly. “I must warn you that danger is coming and it could end with mankind’s destruction. I suggest you find somewhere safe and hunker down until it’s over.”

  “That is a very good suggestion, my friend. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take your advice. As a doctor, I have a duty to mankind. I can no more abandon them than you can.”

  “Take care, Jerry,” my father said. “If we survive this, I’ll take you out for a beer.”

  “I’ll take you up on that, Philip.” Jerry hung up and we all turned to Mark.

  “Spill it, boss,” Kala said. “What’s going on? Why has our blood changed? How did you come back from the dead?”

  She glanced at me and I held my hands up. “I had nothing to do with it.” If he hadn’t come back, I’d have tried to help him the same way I had with Zeus. Fortunately, my intervention hadn’t been necessary. Resurrecting my dog had been pushing the boundaries of what I was willing to do. Doing that to a human was unthinkable.

  “I think I now understand what Laurylayne’s blessing was,” Mark said.

  Reece guessed it before the rest of us did. “She gave us immortality?”

  Mark nodded. “So it would seem. When the demon broke my neck, my vision went black. A few seconds later, my sight cleared and I was standing in a grassy field. I saw a hill and climbed to the top. It ended in a cliff with an ocean far below. I turned in a circle and a woman was suddenly standing beside me. She wore a black cloak with a hood. Her face was hidden in shadows that seemed to move.”

  He’d described the exact same dream that I’d had. “It was Fate,” I said softly.

  He nodded in agreement. “She told me that you now have all of the skills you need to save humanity. Almost losing Zeus was the last trial. It’s now up to you to utilize those skills.”

  “We don’t even know what we’re facing yet or who our enemy is!” I said in frustration. I’d already known that Fate had been involved in Zeus’ death. She’d been the one whispering instructions to me, telling me how to save him.

  “She showed me what was coming,” he said. “A door appeared, standing in thin air over the cliff. I saw cities all over the US. They were being attacked by stone golems and the animals and other creatures that they command. The Web Master is using nature itself to destroy humanity, but I saw worse things than that.”

  “Zombies?” I asked, already knowing the answer. Apart from the animals and other creatures, it was a mirror for what Thomas had seen during the play the puppeteer had put on. It seemed I was no longer barred from talking about it. Fate had released me from that restriction, but I didn’t think she’d been the one to place it on me in the first place.

  “Hordes of them,” he said grimly. “There were more of those black skinned demons as well. I caught a glimpse of something else just before she sent me back. I’m afraid it could be the doom of us all.”

  “What did you see?” Kala asked. She huddled against me and I took her hand in mine.

  “I’m not sure, but it had horns and towered over the golems. The door closed before I could see it clearly. Then I woke up back in my own body.” His brief description tickled my memory, but I couldn’t quite grasp it.

  “So, are all five of us immortal?” Kala asked. Mark nodded. I couldn’t tell what she was feeling at first. Then a huge smile split her face. “You mean I’m going to stay young and hot forever?”

  “Has she always been this modest?” my father asked Mark as she crowed in delight.

  Mark’s reply was sour. “Always.”

  “You love me,” she said then leapt to her feet and plonked herself down on Mark’s lap. She smacked a kiss on his forehead then gave him a fierce hug. He huffed out a long-suffering sigh, but he didn’t deny her claim.

  She might be happy that we would apparently live forever, but I was filled with sorrow. My dad saw my expression and smiled sadly. “Don’t worry about me, sweetheart. I don’t want to live forever. I’m hoping I’ll be able to join your mother when my time on this world is over.”

  I was pretty sure my mother had gone to hell, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. The fact that hell was real was only just starting to sink in. I’d seen the flames for myself and had seen one of its minions claw its way out.

  The Web Master had to be responsible for raising the minor demon. The thought of hundreds or possibly thousands of inky skinned, red eyed things running amok chilled me. We’d only faced one so far and it hadn’t been easy to kill. How much energy would it take to raise enough ghosts to stop an entire army of imps? I might have the skills I needed now, but I didn’t have enough power to take on thousands of hell spawn.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “Do you have a plan?” Reece asked Mark. Our boss had no doubt lain sleepless, mulling over everything that had happened to us.

  “Not really,” Mark admitted. “The only thing I’m certain of is that we can’t face this crisis alone. Our best bet would be to try to convince the Board that we’re not the real threat.”

  We’d filled my dad in on everything that he’d missed on our way to the safe house. Now fully up to speed, he agreed with Mark. “Even if you are immortal now, you won’t be able to take on these enemies without help.”

  “What help are a bunch of human PIA agents going to be?” Kala said then shot a look at my dad. “No offense, Major Levine. You’re a force to be reckoned with, but most humans are pretty lame.” A hint of hero worship shone from her eyes. She was understandably impressed after seeing him gun down so many enemies without sustaining any severe injuries. He was sporting a few scrapes and bruises, but that was all.

  He smiled briefly. “No offense taken, Agent Walker.” I was biased, but most humans paled in comparison to my dad.

  Mark looked at me speculatively. “Just how far can you travel using your death magic?”

  “I have no idea. I haven’t really had a chance to experiment with it yet.” I’d only just figured out that I could use the under
ground zombie highway at all.

  “Do you think you could take us all directly to the PIA headquarters?”

  Realizing what he intended, I nodded thoughtfully. “I can try, but I’ll need to eat first and replenish my energy.” Even after a few hours of sleep, I was still exhausted.

  “I’m not going anywhere until I have coffee,” Kala said. She leaped to her feet and loped over to the kitchen.

  “Coffee?” Sabine said hopefully. “I haven’t had coffee in twenty years.”

  “Twenty years?” Kala said in profound horror. “You poor thing. There’s no way I could have survived that long without it. It’s almost as bad as going without sex.” She switched on the coffee maker and gathered enough mugs for everyone.

  My father raised his eyebrows at that. “She’s a feline,” I explained. “They’re all sex fiends.”

  “Ah.” He wisely kept any further comments to himself. I followed Kala into the kitchen and made a tray of sandwiches for anyone who was hungry. We returned to the lounge together and placed our trays on the coffee table.

  Mark snuck frequent glances at Sabine during our meal. Aware of his regard, she waited until we’d finished eating before turning to him. “Is there something you wanted, Agent Steel?”

  “Call me Mark,” he offered and she smiled in appreciation of his informality. “Very little is known about your species and I was wondering if I could ask you some questions.”

  She shrugged one shoulder delicately. “There is little I can tell you about our origins. How we came to be is lost in time. As you are probably aware, we are always female. We mate with human men to procreate. Flynn is the first male of our kind to ever exist.”

  “I’m not exactly your kind,” he said. “I was injected with a shifter virus when I was a child. We think they mixed your DNA with the virus.”

  “He’s the only wereconstrictor that we know of,” Kala told her. “You should see him when he shifts. He’s pretty awesome.” Flynn smiled modestly at her praise.

  Sabine took one of the mugs gratefully and inhaled the scent of coffee deeply. If her addiction to caffeine was as strong as ours, then she’d fit right in to our group. “I wish I could see you in your altered form,” she said to Flynn wistfully.

  “The full moon is still a week away,” he said apologetically. “I’m afraid that when I turn I might try to kill you.”

  “No,” she said. “We are alike. You will not harm me.”

  Mark was looking at Reece and me with a strange expression. “What are you thinking?” Reece asked. He knew that look. Mark was plotting something.

  “You and Lexi are able to shift at will now.”

  “Lexi can,” Reece replied. “I still need rage to force me to turn.”

  “You can control Kala and Flynn and stop them from attacking humans,” Mark continued. “I’m wondering if your link will allow you to force them to turn before the moon is full.”

  It was something that I’d never contemplated before and I was intrigued with the idea. So was Flynn. “I’m willing to be your guinea pig,” he offered.

  I shared a look with Reece and he nodded. It made sense for us to learn the extent of our abilities. “Okay,” I said. “We can try it.”

  While Flynn stripped down to his shorts, we shifted the furniture aside to give him room to transform. Sabine saw the faint scars on his back and crossed to him. He went still when she touched them lightly. “Who did this to you?” she asked in an anguished voice.

  “EERI scientists,” he replied. “They cut me with a silver knife when I was a toddler. They wanted to see if I’d be able to heal the scars when I shifted for the first time.”

  “People who can do such a thing to a defenseless child do not deserve to live,” she said. Her strange eyes had turned flat in anger. “We must annihilate them all.” We had no idea what she was capable of yet, but I was suddenly glad she was on our side.

  “We will,” Kala told her. “We’ll tear them a new…” she trailed off at Mark’s frown. “You get the idea.” Sabine nodded in full understanding. She was on board with our plan already.

  Flynn stood in the center of the space that we’d cleared and looked at me expectantly. Reece and I joined hands and we both slid into our friend’s mind. We searched for his inner snake and found him coiled up. He was slumbering, waiting for the moon to reach ascendency. I gently and carefully prodded him awake. Regarding us both through Flynn’s eyes, he bowed his head, acknowledging our status as alphas. What do you want of me? His voice sounded like Flynn, but it was sibilant.

  We need you to transform, I replied.

  It is not time yet. To do so would be unnatural.

  We wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t of great importance, Reece told him. Danger is coming and we need every ally we can find.

  The constrictor rummaged through Flynn’s thoughts, verifying that what we said was true. I see that great evil will soon be coming to this world, he said at last. I will do as you ask.

  We withdrew from his mind as his body began to transform. Flynn’s face contorted as his bones broke down and were reshaped. His body lengthened and his torso and arms became larger and more muscular. His head changed shape and his eyes changed to match Sabine’s. In seconds, the man we knew was gone and a giant snake had taken his place.

  His hood flared and his forked tongue came out to taste the air. Swiveling his head, he took us all in and went still when he saw Sabine. Smiling, she walked over to him. He offered her his hand and she took it. Her clothes disappeared by some strange magic. Her legs melded together and she transformed much like he had. Naked from the waist up, she had the long tail of a snake and the torso and head of a woman. Her scales were dark green on her back and lighter green on her front. Compared to him, she looked small, but her tail was lengthy enough to be able to wrap around a human and crush them to death.

  Flynn pulled her against his chest and wrapped his tail around them both protectively. He’d thought he was destined to be alone. Now he’d found a mate who he could spend eternity with. Or however long lamia lived.

  “They make a cute couple, for a pair of reptiles,” Kala observed. She was trying hard to suppress her emotions at seeing her adoptive brother finally happy. Zeus trotted noiselessly over to them both. He sniffed their scaly skin then did the doggy equivalent of a shrug. He’d seen Flynn transform before and sensed that neither of them were a threat to us.

  Satisfied that the experiment had worked, the constrictor withdrew and Flynn transformed back into his human form. Sabine did as well. Her clothes magically reappeared, but Flynn was buck naked. He left us long enough to get dressed.

  Mark and my father were smiling as if they knew something the rest of us didn’t, which wouldn’t really surprise me. They shared a look that spoke volumes, but kept their thoughts to themselves. At times like this, I wished I could read their minds.

  “We should try to travel to our headquarters now,” Mark said. “Are you ready?” He directed the question at me.

  “As I’ll ever be,” I replied. We shifted the furniture back to where it belonged then left the house and entered the yard.

  Armed with assault rifles, handguns and spare ammunition, we crowded into a tight circle. Kala’s heartbeat increased when my dad’s hand came to rest on her shoulder. I frowned at her and she gave me a sheepish shrug. Her crush on him was getting out of hand.

  When everyone was touching, I concentrated on PIA headquarters. We sank into the ground and a moment later popped up on the other side of the country. I’d chosen a spot near where Viktor D’Ath had left me the creepy doll. The guards tended to stay near the outer edges of the grounds rather than patrolling the center. As I’d hoped, we arrived without being spotted.

  Kala had kept her mouth shut this time. She took a moment to catch her balance then shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”

  “It’s disorienting,” Flynn agreed. He’d once been half sucked into the ground by a ghoul during one of our missi
ons. He would have suffocated if I hadn’t pulled him out.

  Moving as silently as possible, we made our way to the edge of the woods. The open expanse of lawn stood between us and the garage. The garage would hide us from view of the main building once we reached it. Then we’d have to cross more open ground to reach the mansion.

  Mark took his tablet out of his pocket. He would use it to hack his way past their electronic security. Checking to make sure no one was in sight, he motioned for us to follow him.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  We crossed to the garage at a fast jog and reached it without incident. Pressed against the wall in a line, we waited for Mark to work his magic on the camera above the side door. The red light winked out and we closed the rest of the distance to the house. Anyone could be watching us from the windows without us knowing about it, but no alarm was raised. The wards were more of a concern. The moment we stepped inside, whoever was controlling them would know that we’d returned.

  Typing a command on his tablet, the door unlocked and Mark was the first to enter. My shoulders hunched when we stepped through the shimmering ward. I expected an alarm to go off, but nothing happened. I glanced at the cameras to see they were still working. It was a mystery why we hadn’t instantly been surrounded by the men and women who were guarding the inside of the building.

  We were halfway down the ornate corridor towards the Boardroom when a door opened and Ava stepped out. Instead of being surprised to see us, she put a finger to her lips and beckoned for us to enter the room. Somehow, she’d known we were there and she seemed to be on our side. Maybe the person who had erected the wards was an ally as well.

  We stepped inside her office. The desk was antique and landscapes hung on three of the walls. The wall opposite from the door was lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves. A lot of the books were written in foreign languages. The ones with English titles ranged from scientific journals to murder mysteries. Clearly, she had eclectic tastes.