Arachne nodded. “Apart from summoners, most are heavily against demons. People like the nun from last night will attempt to banish or eliminate us on sight.”
“There is a solution, I hope anyway.” Eva stood up and moved to a closet. She rummaged around for a minute before pulling out a cage designed for small animals.
With a frown, Arachne sighed. She slumped her shoulders the way humans did when resigned to doing something they objected to. It was obvious where her new master was going with this.
“Don’t get too upset. Hopefully the cage is just for the trip there.” Eva returned to the bed, patting Arachne on her thigh. She perked up at the touch. “I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunity for you to stretch your legs.
“Speaking of stretching legs. There will be no attacking anyone while we are there. Not unless I am in immediate danger of grievous bodily harm.”
Arachne opened her mouth to argue. One of those glares snapped it shut again.
“I mean it,” Eva said. “Unless someone is trying to kill me, I will banish you. You’re the one who wanted to go, you are the one who forced the contract. You are going to follow my rules.”
Arachne just nodded.
“Good.” Eva stood up and started removing her clothes, tossing them into a basket of more clothes. “I’m going to take a shower and get some sleep. We’ve got a long day tomorrow.” She paused, half way to the shower room. “There are a few other rooms up here, some have beds in them. You’re free to pick one you like.”
With a grimace, Arachne said, “they looked dusty when I peeked in earlier. But,” she ran her fingers down her shiny carapace, “I just got cleaned…” Could I sleep with you? Could I sleep in here? “Do you have any work that needs getting done? I don’t sleep much anyway.”
“I’d say you could pack for me, but I don’t even know what I’m bringing yet.” She gave a soft smile and walked to her closet. She pulled out a few thick blankets and laid them out next to her own bed. “Here, try to get some sleep. We’ll deal with packing in the morning.” With that she disappeared into the adjacent room.
Arachne waited until she heard water running, and then laid down on Eva’s bed. She just sat with a smile on her face, breathing in the scent of her new master.
She should have switched masters years ago.
The sound of running water stopped. Arachne reluctantly moved from Eva’s bed to the blankets on the floor. It wasn’t very comfortable, but still a step up from the dusty bench in the lobby.
Soon enough, the door to the shower room opened. Eva walked out and slinked straight to her bed. She dove under her covers, whispering “good night Arachne.”
The words shocked Arachne. Devon, when he forgot to banish her, just ignored her. She smiled. “Good night, Eva,” Arachne responded.
Arachne lay on her blankets. Her sharp teeth bared full in a grin. She listened as her Eva’s breaths shallowed to slow, calm breaths.
Arachne sat up, propping herself higher with a few spare appendages. Her eight eyes watched her sleeping master, a smile frozen on her face.
One year. Arachne had one year to encourage Eva to keep her around after their contract ended.
Her smile grew wider as a plan began to form.
Chapter 006
Eva stretched, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes. The sky outside her window had the blue tint of pre-dawn morning. Eva smiled, glad she got up at a more reasonable time than the day before.
She swung her legs out of bed and almost stepped on the sleeping Arachne. Her lithe weight would probably not even be noticed by the demon, and if it was, it sure wouldn’t hurt her. Still, Eva carefully stepped over Arachne.
After hopping in and out of the shower, Eva found Arachne had moved to sitting on the edge of her bed. “I’ll be going to school in a few minutes,” she said while finding a fresh shirt to wear. “It is only a half day, so afterwards I think I’ll stop by the vet’s office. I’ll stop back here and we can go to master’s place.”
“Take me with you.”
Eva froze with a skirt half on. “I can’t do that. People will–”
“As a spider,” Arachne said, her voice completely serious. “It will be an experiment to see how people react to me hanging around you.”
“That’s…” Eva didn’t expect the spider-woman to be hanging around her all that much. Arachne apparently had other ideas. She hadn’t really thought about it, but Eva supposed she couldn’t leave her locked up in her dorm room the entire time. That would lead to worse things; a bored Arachne with cabin fever could only lead to despair. “Maybe to the vet’s office.”
“I’ll hide,” the demon said. “In your clothes or your bag, somewhere. No one will even know I’m there. Then you don’t have to come back here.”
“Arachne…” Eva sat next to her on the bed, taking one of her hands in her own. “I’m sorry I disappeared yesterday. I promise it won’t happen again. I’ll be back before noon and we’ll head to the vet’s office.”
The spider-woman didn’t frown, or nod, or react much at all besides staring her eight eyes into Eva’s two.
Eva sighed. There is no way this is going to end well. “You’ll hide.” Arachne nodded. “You won’t be seen by anyone.” Another nod. “You won’t harm anyone.” Arachne hesitated. Eva sighed and said, “unless they’re about to kill me.” Arachne gave a reluctant nod.
Eva stared into the smooth red facets that passed for Arachne’s eyes. None of her typical flippant or jovial attitude shown through.
With a feeling that she had done so too often in the last few days, Eva sighed again. “Alright,” she said.
Arachne catapulted Eva into a hug with far more limbs than normal. “You won’t regret it,” Arachne whispered in her ear.
Too late, Eva thought.
Flesh squelched as Arachne began retracting her limbs. Carapace folded in on itself as the spider-woman shrank and lost the woman part of her title.
Eva watched on in morbid fascination. It wasn’t the first time Eva had seen her transform, but it was always a bit disturbing. It was one thing to watch a car sized abdomen and legs deflate into a human body, it was another thing to watch a human body crush itself into a spider.
The tarantula in front of her kept Arachne’s trademark black shine. That was about all that stayed the same. Her body was made of two thick orbs, the front of which had eight red eyes and two large fangs. Both orbs together were about as long as Eva’s forearm, though a bit thicker.
Eight legs spread out of her body, each very reminisce of her human form’s fingers. Where her fingers were already far longer than human fingers, her legs were nearly half again the length of her body. Like her fingers, they were each jointed in six spots along the leg.
Using those legs, Arachne scaled Eva’s arm. She reached Eva’s shoulder. Eva expected her to settle in, but the spider kept climbing.
She nestled herself on the crown of Eva’s head, her large fangs just barely hanging into Eva’s vision. Some of her legs gripped Eva’s head. Not hard enough to hurt, just enough to not fall off. Other legs touched against her shoulders to further support the spider.
Eva stiffened. While she was weaker as a spider than her human or great-spider forms, Eva held no doubt that Arachne’s limbs could easily pop her skull like a baseball bat to a watermelon.
How is that any different from normal. The spider-woman was abnormally fond of hugs and other physical contact. Any of those times could have seen Eva shred to ribbons. But, Eva thought, it is different from normal. This time we are contracted to each other, rather than her to Devon.