Evolution (Demon's Grail Book 2) Read online

  Still, the worst it'll do is leave a scar, and a scar might serve as a good reminder of the mistake I made tonight. As long as I'm not directly bitten and venom doesn't reach my heart, I'll be fine.

  Hearing a loud roaring sound from the spider, I watch as it lumbers toward Absalom. He lashes out with his sword, trying to keep it at bay, and I take the chance to rush the creature from behind, ducking between its legs and hacking wildly at the underside of its abdomen. This time my blade sinks deep, slicing through flesh and bringing blood cascading down. The spider backs up slightly, but I fight the instinct to run and instead I keep slashing at the main part of its body until one of its legs reaches under and flicks my waist, knocking me down.

  A moment later, another leg slams into me from the side, sending me crashing into a nearby rock with such force that I'm barely able to keep hold of my sword.

  I turn, ready to defend myself again, but the spider is already lumbering past me, heading straight for the spot where Jonathan and Ash are hiding.

  “Run!” I scream, scrambling to my feet as Absalom and I both charge at the beast. We take a side each, trying desperately to hack at its legs, and for a moment I'm lost in the melee as I'm spun around and slammed into another rock. All I can see are spider legs swinging at me, and I feel several heavy impacts against my chest and shoulders.

  Finally I duck down, desperately trying to get some breathing space.

  I try to get up, but the spider slashes at me with the tip of another leg, slicing across my chest and digging deep into my left breast until it crunches through a section of my ribcage. I let out a cry of pain, momentarily impaled on the leg as it swings around, dragging me through the dirt in the process. The whole world seems to be spinning, but suddenly I manage to slip from the leg and land hard on the ground, winded by the impact and cracking my skull against the rocks.

  Despite the pain in my chest, I turn and stagger to my feet. My vision is a little blurred, but I can just about make out Absalom trying to force the spider back as it attacks Jonathan and Ash. I stumble forward, tripping and landing hard on my knees. For a few seconds I feel as if I won't be able to get back up at all, but finally I force myself to my feet. I can hear the spider still screaming, maybe with pain or maybe just with the pleasure of an anticipated victory, and a moment later I hear another cry, as if someone is hurt.

  “Abby!” Absalom shouts.

  Still not quite able to see properly, I rush toward the vast, blurry sight of the spider. Somehow I'm able to duck past its legs again, and as I look up at the glistening, moist underside of its body, I realize I only have one chance to kill the damn thing.

  Reaching up, I press my left hand deep into the spider's abdomen, pushing my fingers into the wound until I'm able to haul myself up and start slashing at its underside. I try to push all thoughts from my mind and focus on unleashing pure, unbridled fury. During training I always held back, but not this time.

  The creature's screaming intensifies and it starts to sway violently, but I manage to hold on as I slash frantically at the softest parts of its body. I can't see what I'm doing, not properly, but I can feel its blood flowing down onto me, soaking through my clothes and spraying into my mouth. I close my eyes and keep stabbing my sword deep into the creature's body, and although I expect to be swatted away at any moment, I realize finally that the spider seems to be struggling, as if it can no longer coordinate its legs properly.

  Reaching up, I drive my sword straight through the thick flesh and meat and then I twist the blade, and a moment later the spider lurches to one side before falling, collapsing on top of me and pinning me down with its vast, bleeding mass.

  Too exhausted to get free, I nevertheless manage to keep gouging at the creature with my sword, even as blood flows all around me. I can feel a few twitches from its body still, but I can't stop, not until I'm certain that it's dead. I try to turn, to get a better angle, but the weight is overpowering and all I can do is stay right where I am, soaked in warm blood as I hear the spider's scream starting to become more pained. Blood is pouring from its body and into my mouth, and the creature's vast bulk is crushing me down into the dirt with enough force to start crushing my chest. I never realized how heavy these goddamn spiders are...

  And then suddenly the beast's scream comes to a gurgling, spluttering halt.

  I wait, with my sword still dug deep into the spider's body. Although I can feel some twitches still, most likely from the legs as they continue to lash out, I'm starting to think there might just be a chance that we've brought the damn thing down.

  I made a mistake, but I fixed it.

  A moment later, I feel something moving deep in the spider's body. I brace myself, terrified that some new threat might emerge, but suddenly whole chunks of flesh are scooped away from above me and I realize that Absalom has chosen to dig down to reach me rather than trying to roll the corpse away. Reaching up to him, I grab his shoulders as he pulls me out, and we emerge in the broken, mashed center of the spider's body, bathed in moonlight as a few of the thick black legs continue to twitch around us.

  “You're hurt,” Absalom hisses, desperately running his hands over my blood-soaked body to check for more injuries. “How much of this blood is yours and how much is the spider's?”

  “Is it dead?” I stammer, turning and watching as the last of the legs falls still. I remember from fighting Keller that the legs can sometimes remain dangerous even after the spider itself is dead, but the entire corpse now seems almost peaceful, bathed in moonlight and with blood soaking the ground.

  “It's dead alright,” Absalom says after a moment, sounding a little breathless. “It's a miracle, but... We got it down.”

  Stumbling forward, I clamber over the spider's head and drop down onto the ground. For a moment, I find myself staring straight into the beast's huge face, with eight large, round black eyes staring back at me. There's hair, too, matted and bloody, while venom continues to drip from the large fangs that now rest impotently against the ground. Too shocked to move, too horrified to even think, all I can manage is to look into the creature's eyes, and finally I'm disgusted to realize that part of me actually finds this thing beautiful.

  Holding my sword up, I drive the blade straight through a couple of the eyes, hoping to cut into the spider's brain. If there's even a flicker of consciousness left in there, I want it to see my face as it dies.

  “If it hadn't already been injured,” Absalom says after a moment as he climbs down to join me, “we'd never have stood a chance.”

  “I don't care,” I mutter, twisting the sword before pulling it out. Dark fluid flows from the creature's damaged eyes. I'm still a little breathless and it's definitely going to take time for my injuries to heal, but pure adrenalin is pulsing through my body and I honestly don't know that I've ever felt so alive. “One less spider in the world is a good thing.” I turn to Absalom, and I can't help smiling. “I did it. I fixed the mistake I made.”

  He stares at me, but I can tell that he's impressed.

  “You didn't think I could do it, did you?” I ask.

  “You were lucky.”

  “Or maybe I'm good at this.”

  My whole body is trembling with fear and shock as I turn and step over one of the legs. There's immense pain in my shoulder, but I know the wound will heal in time, while the venom on my neck shouldn't cause too much damage in the long-term. Glancing around, I look for some sign of Jonathan and Ash, but for a moment I can't see them anywhere. I turn, trying not to panic, before spotting a figure slumped on the ground, and another figure – or part of one – a little further along.

  “Jonathan?” I call out, hurrying around the spider's corpse until I reach my brother and find, to my relief, that he's alive, leaning over Ash. “Are you okay? What -”

  Stopping suddenly, I realize that there are tears in his eyes. When I look down at Ash, I'm struck by her calm expression, and a moment later I see what's wrong: she's been cut in half, straight across the waist, and
her intestines have spilled out in a bloody mess across the rocky ground.

  Jonathan

  One summer's day many years ago, before this nightmare began and before I even knew that Abby and the vampires existed, back when I lived in the suburbs, I saw a girl get run over by a truck. And when I say run over, that's exactly what I mean. She fell off her bike right into the path of the wheels, and it drove right over her.

  I heard her bones crunch.

  I heard the desperate squeal of the brakes as the truck came to a halt.

  And I swear I heard an almighty whooshing sound. Whatever that was, I've always felt it was all the air being forced out of her lungs as her chest was flattened.

  I was only seven years old, and I recognized the girl from school, where she was one year below me. I didn't run to help, I didn't do anything at all; I just stood and watched as the truck driver climbed out and went to look, and as a couple of people from nearby gardens ran over. It took a long time before an ambulance showed up, and I remember the way everyone was panicking and crying out while the girl simply lay there, her face slowly turning red.

  And she looked at me.

  As she died, she looked across the street and we made eye contact. I didn't know what to do, so I just watched her, and I swear I saw the moment when the life faded from her eyes. I told my adoptive parents about it all later, and they said I should try to put it out of my mind. I kept replaying the girl's expression in my mind, however, trying to find some hint of meaning in her placid demeanor. No luck, though. I saw the face of death, and I never understood its meaning.

  That was the first and only time I ever saw someone die. Until today.

  ***

  “I tried to pull her out of the way,” I stammer, holding Ash's hand tight and squeezing to let her know that I'm still here. “I almost saved her. I was so close, but one of the legs swung at us and... It cut her in half.”

  Staring down at Ash's face, I realize that her eyes are fixed on me. A moment later she blinks, and she squeezes my hand in return. There's no panic in her expression, no suggestion that she's about to scream; instead, she seems strangely calm, as if she's either accepted her fate or she doesn't know what's happened. She has that same calm stare that I remember from the girl who was hit by the truck all those years ago.

  “Save her,” I say suddenly, turning to Abby and then to Absalom. “Do something!”

  I wait for one of them to spring into action, but there's shock on their faces and for the first time they seem genuinely helpless. Almost like me, when I was seven years old and watching the girl die near my childhood house.

  “Save her!” I shout, before feeling Ash squeezing my hand again. When I look down, I realize that there's a faint smile on her lips. “They're going to save you,” I tell her, hoping against hope that I'm right. “They're vampires, they can do things to help. I mean, they have to, it's what they do, they bring people back.”

  “Jonathan,” Absalom says quietly, as if he doesn't want Ash to hear, “it's not as simple as that.”

  “Do something!” I hiss at him.

  “We can't!”

  “Then what's the point of you?” I shout. “Can't you save one life? Right here and now, can't you help?”

  I wait for a reply, but I can see the helplessness in his eyes. When I turn to Abby I see the same, along with something else.

  Guilt.

  Feeling something wet against my knee, I realize that the pool of blood beneath Ash's torso has spread even further. I glance down at her guts, glistening in the moonlight after they sloughed out from her body, and then I look over and see her hips and legs several feet away, where they landed after the spider's leg sliced through her. That moment of violence was over in a fraction of a second, but it caused so much damage.

  Suddenly I hear a faint whispering sound, and when I turn back to Ash I realize that she's trying to say something.

  “You'll be fine,” I tell her, leaning closer, “I promise...”

  “Four...” she gasps, as if she can barely get the words out. “Four... one... one... Maple Crescent Drive... David and Rose Watson...”

  “Who?” I ask. “I don't understand what you're trying to say.”

  “Tell them...” She pauses for a moment, and I can feel her faint breath on the side of my face as I lean closer. “Tell them I would have found a way back...”

  Turning to her, I realize there are tears in her eyes. She squeezes my hand tighter and I watch as the shadows seem to deepen slightly across her face. Her head tilts a little to one side, she lets out a sigh, and her grip on my hand weakens until I'm just holding her gently.

  She's gone.

  “Her parents,” Absalom says after a moment.

  I turn to him.

  “She must have been talking about her parents,” he continues. “David and Rose Watson? I suppose she meant she was always hoping to get home.”

  “But she didn't,” I whisper, looking down at her dead eyes. Her cold hand is still in mine, and I don't want to let go, not yet. Finally, however, I set her hand against her chest and let it rest there, before turning to Abby and seeing the horror in her eyes. I know she's my sister, I know she's a good person deep down, but right now I want to hurt her, and the only way I can do that is with words. “This is your fault,” I tell her. “You know that, right? Are you happy now?”

  She stares down at Ash's corpse for a moment, before meeting my gaze.

  “You made her stay,” I continue, feeling a sense of cold rage burning through my chest, rising higher and higher as if it's trying to find a way out. “She was going to run, and you made me hold onto her because you were worried she was a spy.”

  She opens her mouth to say something, but there are tears in her eyes and it's clear that she knows she can't make a difference.

  “She was a human,” Absalom says after a moment. “It's a miracle she lasted more than five minutes in a place like this. In a way, her death was inevitable.”

  “But it was your fault,” I tell Abby, getting to my feet and stepping toward her. My whole body is trembling with rage now, and it's getting harder to hold back from grabbing her throat. I swear to God, until this moment I never knew what it was like to be truly angry. “If you'd trusted her and let her go, she'd still be alive. Or if you hadn't caught the spider's attention and made it notice her, none of this would have happened in the first place.”

  “Jonathan -” she stammers.

  “If you hadn't been an idiot,” I shout, “she'd still be alive!”

  “Jonathan, please -”

  “Are you happy?” I shout again, stepping closer. “Did you get what you want out of this?”

  She opens her mouth again, but her bottom lip is trembling and her eyes are still fixed on Ash's body.

  “Let me guess,” I continue, unable to hide my anger a moment longer, “you thought you could prove yourself by taking on a spider and killing it. You thought there'd be some glory in it for you, you wanted to show the rest of us that you can be tough, that Abby Hart actually matters in this world.” Stepping closer, I wait for her to look at me, and finally I put a hand on her chin and tilt her face until our eyes meet. “She was just a kid. She was just a scared girl, lost in a deadly place far from home, and somehow she managed to survive until...” I pause, wanting to make her suffer, desperate to make her feel true pain. “Until she met you,” I add after a moment. “She's dead because of you.”

  I wait for a reply, but she simply stares at me, as if she's too shocked to say a word.

  “I know,” she whispers finally.

  “You said once before that people always die around you,” I continue. “You acted like it wasn't your fault, like it was out of your control. I told you not to think like that, I tried to give you sympathy, but now I'm starting to realize you were right. Ash was looking after herself just fine until she ran into us!”

  “I know,” she says again, with tears in her eyes.

  “Still,” I add, “it doesn't matt
er, does it? I'm sure you'll have forgotten her name soon enough!”

  She shakes her head.

  “Do you remember them all?” I ask. “Do you remember the names of everyone you've killed? Of everyone who has died because of you?”

  As she continues to stare at Ash's body, the tears seem to have left Abby's eyes now. I guess she's already getting over her sense of shock. It must be so easy for her.

  “This isn't the right time to start arguing,” Absalom says firmly, clearly keen to make me calm down. “Jonathan, what happened to this girl was tragic but standing around blaming one another won't help. We need to get moving, there'll be more spiders along soon and I really don't think we should chance our luck a second time.”

  “You know I'm right,” I tell Abby, before taking a step back and looking down at Ash's body. “We have to bury her before we leave.”

  “There's no time for stupid rituals,” Absalom replies.

  “Then you two go on ahead and I'll catch up,” I tell him, “because there's no way we can leave her corpse out here like this for wild animals to pick apart. She's a long way from home, but at least we can do the decent thing.”

  “It's just a body,” he continues, sounding frustrated. “Her soul is long gone. Why do humans have to get so hung up on mortal remains?”

  “I'm not human,” I point out, before glancing at Abby. “Apparently.”

  “No,” Absalom replies with a sigh, “but you've spent far too long around them and evidently you've picked up some bad habits. It's going to take a while to undo all of that, but for now -”

  “I'm not leaving her like this,” I say firmly, spotting some loose rocks nearby on the ground. “We're covering her body and marking her death.” I turn to Abby, but she still seems to shocked or ashamed to say or do anything. “She wasn't just some kid who can be tossed aside and forgotten, even if some of us would prefer that.”