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Chapter 2

"Oh god," I said, and immediately backed away Unfortunately, I couldn’t retreat far, because Azriel was right behind ht as well have backed into a concrete wall "She could have ot him I hate spiders"

"Whatever was responsible for this death was soht trace of amusement in his voice

I scowled up at him "You think?"

He obviously didn’t catch the sarcasm, because he added, "Either that, or this was the work of a multitude of spiders, and the pristine nature of this house precludes that possibility"

A h ht I rubbedhad died lounging comfortably on the well-padded leather sofa that wrapped around the corner of the rooh his shirt was undone to his belly button, and his tie and shoes lay on the floor near the coffee table His feet were crossed at the ankles, and there was a dreamy, relaxed expression frozen on the remains of his face He’d obviously died totally unaware that anything untoas happening

The web that encased him was anchored to the floor near his feet, then spun up his legs and along the entire length of his torso, enclosing his arms and his body in a fine, transparent filament Two tears on either side of his belly button indicated the puncture site and, if the size of those wounds was anything to go by, ere dealing with a dahsense of horror, then stopped near his feet and flared h the scents That odd, alien aro fro air It was as if the scent of the creature had so heavily perfuone

I hesitated, then tentatively prodded the silvery casing with a stiffened finger It wasn’t sticky as I’d expected, and felt a little like plastic--almost as if it had hardened in the air I leaned a little closer to inspect the wounds Other than a slight discoloring around the edges of the punctures, there was little blood, but the wounds thes were at least as thick asto take et rid of this da breath, then said, "What do you know about spiderlike spirits or demons?"

"I believe there is a spirit known as the Jorõgu about them" Azriel moved around the coffee table, then stopped opposite ’s reh the air, sharp and almost bitter in the stillness It died just as quickly, and his gaze met mine "There is no brain left in this body, so I cannot read whathad been sucked away" My gaze rose to Wolfgang’s face, which was free of the transparent net "Is there any way you can find out le the a reliable source of information when it coht de I’d probably have to rely on earthbound resources Perhaps the Brindle witches could help I frowned "Why hasn’t his body collapsed in on itself?"

"I cannot say I am not an expert on spirits, let alone spiders"

"And when it co thelanced at one and, so far, we’d discovered nothing Hunter hadn’t already known I looked around the roo that ju overly helpful

I spotted his jacket flung over one of the kitchen chairs and walked over to pick it up His keys were in the left front pocket, and his wallet was in one of the inside ones Opening the latter revealed his driver’s license, several platinum credit cards, and at least five hundred dollars in cash Robbery obviously wasn’t a ht when related to spiders or spirits, but perhaps not if ere dealing with so, I put his wallet back and went through the rest of his pockets The only other thing to be found was a business card for some place called Dark Soul I flicked it over, but the back was e blood whore club I’d had h of them lately to last a lifetime I placed the card back where I’d found it, then did a search of the rest of the house As I expected, I found absolutely nothing

This was useless--and I told Hunter as much when I went outside to call her back

"I do not care what you think in regards to the viability of this task," she snapped The vid-screen had been turned off at her end, and I couldn’t help but be a little thankful for that I had the distinct impression her expression would not have been pleasant "I merely want your impressions of the kill"

I couldn’t see the point of that, either, given my impressions were unlikely to be any different from hers, but I took a deep breath and said, "He was killed by so that appears to have spiderlike tendencies There’s a musky scent in the air that is not dissimilar to the musk of shifters, but if it is a shifter, then it’s one I’ve not come across before" My voice was as sharp as hers, which probably wasn’t wise given all the shit I’d said earlier, but then, she was on the other end of the phone rather than in person, so she could hardly s that hinted at who or what else ht have been here, but Azriel said there are spider spirits known as Jorõgu with one of those I did find a business card for someplace called Dark Soul"

"That is--was--one of his favorite ht"

"Why was he carrying one of their business cards if he went there regularly?"

"I don’t know"