Standing alone at the end of the alley was what could only be described as a nun. She wore a pure white version of the traditional nun’s habit and had a large silver cross dangling from her neck. Her eyes were aglow with white fire and her hands outstretched, sending what appeared to be bolts of lightning down the alley.
Eva withdrew demon’s blood from one vial, forming a golf-ball that seemed to absorb all light. With a flick of her wrist, Eva launched the ball at the nun’s face.
A faint blue light flickered before the nun just as the ball hit. Cracks spread out over the light. The nun ceased her attacks for an instant while her shield regenerated. The moment the cracks mended, the shield disappeared and she renewed her attacks tenfold.
Eva poured the second vial of demon blood into a sphere and dug the fingers of both hands into it. She pulled and twisted. Strands of blood stretched around a small circle in the air forming intricate designs as they moved. Once finished, Eva pulled back her right arm and punched it into the pattern as hard as she could.
A car sized fist fell through the air, directly on top of the nun’s head. The nun stumbled as her blue shield flickered once again. The shield cracked, sending ethereal shards flying around the alley. All too quickly the nun set about repairing her shield.
Out of handy blood, Eva cast her awareness about. Her master still sat, scribbling away on the wall. Arachne, on the other hand, simply stood within Eva’s blood shield. She looked thoughtful and all too pleased with herself for having contributed nothing to the fight.
“Arachne! Do you mind helping out a bit!”
The spider woman shrugged. “I was contracted for the smash and grab. You smashed, he grabbed. This,” she waved her needly fingers about the air, “is past that.”
“I thought we were family, sisters or whatever.”
Arachne shrugged again and pointed at herself. “Still a demon.”
Another spell crashed into Eva’s blood shield. She pulled out the last vial of her own blood and added it to the rapidly shrinking shield orb. “I’ll banish you,” she threatened.
“Aww,” Arachne ran her sharp finger down Eva’s cheek, just lightly enough to avoid cutting, “but then you’ll be out of easy access to help.”
“I can’t say I’d notice much of a difference at this point.”
“Contract with me.” Her flighty nature vanished, replaced by an aura of utmost seriousness.
“What? I can’t–”
“You’re going to your fancy school, right? Take me with you.” She held up a finger to Eva’s lips, stymieing her objections. “One year binding. You’ll have someone to protect you and I don’t have to go back to Hell. Win-win,” she said with a smile.
“That’s–”
“Or you can hesitate, your master killed and your shield whittled down until you’ve got nothing between you and the nun but me. I’d probably still protect you, just because I like you, but wouldn’t it be so much easier to just contract now and not have to worry about such fragile words as ‘probably’?”
Eva glared at the demon. Past her, Devon was still pinned down behind the dumpster. Lightning bolt after lightning bolt struck it. It wouldn’t be long before the bolts melted their way through or the nun changed tactics.
As a bolt of lightning slammed into her shield, Eva shouted “Alright.”
The moment the first syllable left her mouth, Arachne grasped the back of Eva’s neck, pulling her close. The demon’s long tongue thrust down her throat as lips touched chitin. It wriggled for a moment before Eva felt the spider woman’s sharp teeth bite down. The oily demon blood ran down the long tongue and dripped down Eva’s throat. Eva felt a small scrape on her own lip and a familiar copper-oil taste on her tongue.
Arachne held on until another bolt whittled down Eva’s shield a notch. She pulled back and licked what passed for her lips. “Now we are talking.”
Eva contracted with demons in the past. It wasn’t her favorite thing, preferring powerful blood magics and simple runes. Yet most of them ended up being nothing more than an exchange of words laced with magic for the binding aspect. A blood contract was something special. A blood contract like that…
Another bolt against her shield shock Eva out of her stupor. She quickly drew her dagger and cut a long slit in her arm, adding fresh black-red blood to her blood shield.
“Are all your contracts like that?” Eva asked.
The sharp toothed grin was her only response as the spider-woman was already changing, growing and sprouting extra legs to support her additional mass. “Prepare some spells. Go for quantity over quality. Distractions. I’m sure I could survive a lightning bolt or few, but I’d rather not have to, if possible.”
Eva nodded. She touched her dagger to the fresh cut on her wrist and drew several marble sized beads of her black-red blood. She looked back to Arachne when twenty of them hovered in the air in front of her.
Arachne had grown to nearly three times her original size. She contorted her upper body around her round abdomen and folded her legs beneath her to keep as much of her as possible within the shield.
“Ready,” Eva shouted. She sent five of her blood marbles arching towards the nun. They spread out and approached from different directions, hopefully the nun would be distracted with repairing her shield or just plain unable to block all of them.
Arachne leapt after the marbles, crossing the distance with amazing speed for her size.
Eva paid her little mind. She launched a second volley without waiting to see the effects of the first. And the third. By the fourth volley launched, Arachne reached the nun. Eva began drawing out a much larger droplet of blood.
Arachne struck. Her front two legs as well as her human arms and their sharp fingers all lanced towards the nun at frightening speed.
The nun didn’t even flinch. A light blue bubble materialized around her, just inches from her skin.
“Demon. Sathanus, subcategory: Asmodeus. Designation: Jorogumo. Response: Banish.”
Arachne continued pressing against the nun’s shield, adding another two pointed legs to the process. “Jorogumo?” She laughed. “Don’t compare me to those fleas.”
The nun frowned and began mumbling to herself.
“Not going to happen.” Arachne laughed again. She withdrew all her limbs and slammed them into the nun’s shield.
Fractures appeared around the shield and the nun flinched. Now looking panicked, she began chanting faster and louder.
As Arachne pulled back for another strike, Eva attacked. A baseball sized orb of dark blood launched itself straight at the nun.
The nun’s shields shattered at the blood’s impact and Arachne’s limbs continued to their target unimpeded. Four legs pierced the nun’s torso until they poked out the back, dripping with viscera. Still the nun continued to chant, strained and weak though it was.
Arachne launched a hand into her throat, ripping and pulling flesh. Her chanting gave way to gurgles. Blood spilled down her front. It stood out to Eva against the bleak surroundings.
“Try to banish me with no vocal chords. I dare you.”
The nun’s only response was to slump forward. She fell to her knees as Arachne withdrew her limbs. The spider-demon launched one last leg at the fallen nun, piercing her spinal cord.
She turned with a grin, melting back to her human form as she walked.
Eva snapped her fingers and the blood shield vanished along with the blood on the ground. She set the blood on her arm to healing the gash as she made her way to her master.
He stopped marking the wall, instead turning his attentions to a partially healed leg. “She dead?” At Eva’s nod, Devon began healing his leg in earnest. “Damn sisters, bet she just wanted the boon for herself.”
Devon continued to prattle but Eva stopped paying attention. She studied the large, nearly complete summoning circle her master had been drawing. When she turned back to him, the look in her eyes brought his whining to a halt.