Reclamation (The Ravening #3)(18)
Author: Erica Stevens

Then something skittered from one side of the tunnel to the other. My breath froze; I bit my bottom lip as I lifted my pistol from my lap and adjusted my position. I was afraid if I moved too fast I would draw the attention of whatever was out there. A muted rattling noise rolled off the walls as something else skittered through the shadows. It sounded like hundreds of legs skittering over the walls but the concrete threw the noise off and caused it to echo.

Aiden’s rifle was still against the wall but he was holding two pistols before him. His breathing was faint but rapid in the close confines. I couldn’t move as another creature skittered forth. They were small ones; they had to be in order to make it into the tunnel. They would be easier to kill than the larger ones, but a horde of them would overpower us in an instant. I grabbed hold of Aiden’s arm as the hair on the nape of my neck stood up and a cold sweat broke out on my body.

Amongst the shadows there was something hidden as it watched us, and I was gripped by the certainty that it was focused on the back of my neck.

Ever so slowly I tilted my head back. I could almost hear the world grinding to a halt as I fixated on the creature perched above us. Every horror movie I’d ever seen, and there had been many, flashed through my mind; not the horror movies that had a maniacal villain or ghost, or even the ones with aliens, but the movies that contained bugs and creatures far too awful to exist in this world.

A repugnant creature with spiderlike legs and a compact black body was perched above us. Black eyes stuck a good foot off the top of its head, like a crab’s eyes, but the eyes at the end of the stalks were segmented into a hundred different pieces, like that of a flies. Even though it was dark I could see hundreds of me, staring back at me, with a dropped mouth and the cornered look of one who was about to die. Its mouth, if that’s what it could be called, was two sharp stinger looking things that jutted out from the sides of what I assumed were its cheeks. As I watched they pulsated and a drop of some milky substance appeared at the end of each stinger.

It took everything I had to force my mouth closed again. I couldn’t stand the sight of my slack jaw and bulging eyes reflecting back at me in the creature’s own beady eyes. Aiden jerked me out of the way as the thing launched itself at us with a strange hissing pop, the likes of which I’d never heard before and knew I’d never forget. I expected something to shoot out of it, webbing, acid or some other abysmal thing that would melt the skin off our bones and leave us a goopy, screaming mess on the floor. Thankfully, none of those things happened as it landed with surprisingly little noise on the tunnel floor. Those stingers seemed to pulse and throb with more eagerness as its eyes twisted on top of the stalks to face us.

I pressed closer against Aiden as the eight legged monstrosity eyed us from those awful, segmented eyeballs. I’d never seen anything like it and I’d seen some weird and grotesque things over the past couple of months. I’d seen creatures morph from humans into blood sucking monsters that could destroy the human body in an instant. I’d seen giant creatures that could demolish trees in their relentless pursuit of us. I’d seen my own boyfriend turn into something that could explain nearly every horror legend out there, but this thing had me gawking like an idiot and virtually on the edge of pissing my pants.

What was it!?

Was it simply a smaller version of the larger monsters that hunted us and drained us dry? Is this what they looked like when they were newborn or something? Or was this some new monster that was just waiting to unleash a new host of disasters upon us? Either way I didn’t want to be this close to it.

In an instant it launched at us. It didn’t hunch down, didn’t gather momentum, it simply sprang forward with the speed of a springing mouse trap. My eyes latched onto the jagged points of its mouth as drops of the milky liquid fell off of them in eager anticipation of the kill. A kill that was imminent if my immobile body had anything to do with it.

Cade’s blood had made me faster, had honed my senses and my instincts, but faced with this thing I was suddenly the awkward girl I’d been most of my life. Faced with this thing, I found my muscles useless and my body a shaking mass of nerve endings.

Thankfully, my instincts didn’t feel the same way. Seconds before that thing could smash into me, stab me with that tusk-like mouth, dig its razor-sharp legs in, tear off my face, and rip out my heart (because I knew that was what it had in mind to do), I swung my gun upward forcefully. An awful noise that reminded me of water bubbling over on a hot stove escaped the creature as my brisk thrust knocked it away. The thing bounced off the wall and staggered drunkenly on its legs before scurrying toward us once more.

"Move Bethany! Move!" Aiden shouted.

I spun and lifted my pistol up, but the thing wasn’t rushing down the floor of the tunnel toward us. It was running up the walls at a diagonal angle that was taking it back toward the ceiling. I tried to train my gun on it but it was fast, far faster than I had expected as it reached the roof. It was scurrying over our heads when I finally got a shot off.

The bullet reverberated down the tunnel as it completely missed its mark. The thing hissed again and then launched forward with a scream that I was certain was just within range of human hearing. In fact, I wasn’t even certain that Aiden had heard it until he winced against the piercing sound. I fired again and caught the thing in what I assumed was its belly. It squealed as the force of the bullet threw it back. It fell to its feet and scuttled into the gloom surrounding us.

"Run!" Aiden grabbed hold of my arm as the sounds of scuttling feet rapidly approached us.

He fired two shots behind him but I could tell by the ricochet that neither bullet hit one of them. The slap of our feet echoed over the metal and pounded around us. I didn’t recall the tunnel being this long before, but it suddenly seemed endless. The others had to have heard the shots; they had to be coming for us, but what good could they possibly do?

Abby.

The word was a moan in my head. I had to get to her, we had to save her. Abby was the best of us and there was no way I would let one of these things touch her. If it was the last thing I did, she would never know death by these creatures.

Hands snatched me up, a startled scream half tore from my throat as I was spun around and thrust to the ground. My vision blurred as I tried to get my bearings. Aiden was shoved down beside me, his eyes were just as wide and stricken as I knew mine were.

"Don’t move and stay down!"

Though we were trapped in a nightmare, a hot wash of relief filled me as Cade’s harsh words and warm breath tickled over me. His hand pressed firmly into my back for a second and then he was gone. Aiden gaped at me for a moment before gathering his arms beneath him and pushing himself up. I took hold of his hand and yanked him back down before he could shove himself to his feet.