Drachne

Drachne released him, and collapsed onto the ground, hoping that Elan could control his own man. That had been harder than she expected it to be.

Her abdomen had deflated, almost all the energy from pigging out in her room had been spent. She needed to wait for more to digest before she'd be feeling up to spinning a decent web.

She wished she could rub at her eyes, the goggles beginning to irritate her face. She took a deep breath and pushed upright again, before scampering across the garden without being noticed.

Over the wall and beneath the carriage before anyone could begin to notice her. She could feel the presence of two inside.

She popped open the maintenance trapdoor and jumped upwards into the space. One of her hands catching the wrist of the elf as the body guard tried to stab at her.

She roughly shoved him back into his seat, closing the door with one of her feet. She clicked her fangs at him, before sitting down beside Lord Elan, who seemed to be the more dangerous of the pair.

He hadn't been even slightly surprised at her appearance.

"Lower the shades." Elan instructed his servant, and leaned into the seat, "And let the driver know that we are ready to depart."

With that the lord turned to her, and smiled gently, "The shades are for you. I don't know if it applies to yourself, having been raised in the temple, but many of your kind find full daylight to be... Harsh. On skin and eyes."

She pulled off her goggles, and removed her hair band so that it fell in front of her face and concealed it. She gave a deep sigh, and nodded, "It applies. I believe I was born as a Funnel Widow. If that means anything to m'lord."

"Gods above." Elan cursed, shivering, "Among the arachne... You are the most venomous, and most dangerous, race. Few dare to hunt within the forest of a Funnel Widow."

"Forest?" She couldn't help herself, exposing her ignorance.

He nodded, "Yes. Generally speaking, an arachne will claim a territory within a forest as their own. The women spin webs and make a home. The men hunt for them, bringing them offerings... As the women are the stronger. However, a Funnel Widow claims the entire forest. Their scent markings drive away the lesser arachne."

Scent markings. Drachne had read about being able to make pheromones, to communicate, but she didn't actually have a clue how she was supposed to do that.

"If the entire forest is owned, then how are the arachne so rare?" She asked, knowing that supposedly she would lay hundreds of eggs. Not something she actually believed.

Elan winced and spoke regretfully, "I killed the last male arachne known in the entire empire of the Golden Mountain, some eighteen years ago. They are considered extinct, within elven borders."

She felt a strong impulse to unhinge her jaw and bite off his head.

"Though, where we are going, we may well find signs of other arachne. Your species has a talent for survival, and are quite happy to exist in isolation." Elan continued, "In the deep places. Forests, the underground caverns. We wouldn't know, if they kept to themselves."

Drachne nodded, "That was one of the considerations for my joining this investigation, was it not? Tell me what we know. What you expect of me."

"We are headed to a barrow, an ancient burial ground." Elan told her, "There, you and I will attempt to piece together the story of what happened. Which draug rose, in which order, and left. Hopefully, this will reveal traces of a visitor who was not draug."

She shook her head, "I am an assassin, not a hunter."

"You can see into the magical spectrum, but I cannot." Elan stated, "You will see what I cannot. Your eyes are what will be most useful in our task, m'lady."

She chuckled softly, "I am no madame or lady."

"I must confess to a little disappointment at you saying so. I doubt the temple would ever allow me to purchase you, and relations with an arachne are always fraught with danger, but it is a temptation." Elan said with a small smile.

Both her hearts skipped a beat.

She clicked her fangs in irritation, "If I may be frank, m'lord, you confuse the hell out of me. Your manservant there, is sitting there trying not to shit himself. Unable to look at me, at all. Whilst you look me in the eye."

"You are beautiful." Elan stated simply.

Drachne growled at him, leaning towards him and clicking her fangs right by his throat. Threatening to end him as she shoved the other elf back into his seat with a kick to the crotch.

Elan's face didn't change. His heartrate did accelerate, but it wasn't the beat of fear. He was looking directly into her eyes, roving over each of them as he released the musty scent she only knew from targets who had slept with someone right before she struck.

This strange elf actually did seem to be... Attracted... To her.

She leaned back, cocking her head, "Why...? How? I look like a beast. A monster. I actually look like what you shitheads call exotics. I am an abomination."

"No, you are beautiful." Elan replied lightly, and waved a hand, "Reet... You might want to join the driver. You clearly will get hurt if you attempt to interfere with our guest, again."

The elf gratefully touched a hand to his head, "M'lord."

She watched in amusement as he climbed out of the moving carriage before the door closed. She always wanted to laugh when she saw anyone climbing with so much effort where she could basically just walk.

"I did not send him away, just for his own safety." Elan whispered, "And this, he knows."

She flicked all her eyes to the elf's face, "What did you insinuate?"

"That I wished to attempt to seduce you, Drachne."

Her eyes widened and she coughed nervously, "Ah... What?"

"You are beautiful. I have but a short time with you, but would like to use that time to convince you to occasionally sneak out of the temple to dalliances with myself." Elan replied.

Drachne ran through all sorts of scenarios in her head. Most of them ended with one or the other of them dead. She knew it was technically possible that she could mate with him.

She didn't actually know how it would work. Hadn't been taught how to lose her virginity, by the temple.

She also knew that he was being forward, even for an elf. That what he was offering to her was sex, but it didn't appear to be a romance. Not what she'd daydreamed about.

Yet... Yet he could actually look at her, and see her.

"Would you dare to kiss me?" She demanded.

He frowned, "I'm afraid that is quite the dangerous proposition. Your venom is lethal. If you were to scratch my cheek, then neither of us would get what we seek."

Drachne had never thought about that. In all her fantasies, she had pictured someone lying her on her back and kissing her. She could control the venom to a certain extent, but she couldn't prevent it.

Her fangs leaked any time she got excited, so she figured that it would happen if she was sexually excited, as well.

She took a risk. "The temple taught me about sex, m'lord. About elves and orks. Succubi and taurans. They did not teach me about the arachne."

"Understandably." Elan nodded, "The males die. Either during, or shortly afterwards. Once they impregnate their partners, they die. Relations with an arachne are fraught with danger."

She clicked her fangs in irritation, "I will not endanger my mission, no matter the temptation you have now placed before me."

"The mission is a farce." Elan replied, "I already know what happened. Princess Astadia crossed the border, and the moment that happened, the draug awoke. The Godkiller is to blame."

"What?"

Elan smiled at her, "I knew of your existence. You cannot hide every gossamer weave. You cannot leave your fang marks on so many lords, without one recognising them. I arranged for this, so that I could meet you."

"You wished to fuck an arachne so badly, you manipulated the empress?" Drachne said in disgust.

He shook his head, "Of course, not. I spent the last six months stalking your nocturnal activities, first. If sex was all I sought, I could very likely have found a way to trap you."

Her stomach turned as she realised the possibility. She hadn't noticed anyone following her at night, but if he had, then he very well could have managed to trap her.

Elan smiled at her charmingly, "One should not waste beauty, by forcing themselves upon it. Doing such destroys the very beauty you wish to preserve. I would not trap you, or fight you, by choice."

Drachne looked down at herself and back up at him, "You keep calling me beautiful. Tell me what the fuck is so beautiful about me?"

"Your white skin, so delicate. Each of your many scars a highlight to your complexion." Elan began without hesitation, and she realised he was holding himself back from touching her. "Your tempting carapace. Making me want to slowly pull it open, to touch your womanly charms beneath it. Your deep black eyes, that seem to see all."

She stared at him, "Holy fuck, you mean it."

"I do. I would not have sought you out, otherwise." He smiled at her, "May I dare to kiss your cheek, m'lady? Though it is both presumptuous and unfair as you cannot return it, and it lacks all propriety?"

Drachne felt a strong pulse begin at the end of her abdomen and race all the way up and through her body. Leaving her face flushed and her fangs dripping.

"You better have an idea of how to have sex with an arachne." She growled at him.

He leaned in, gently brushing his lips against her cheek. As he did, the same violent pulse made her shiver and shake, again. "All in good time, my dear."

"No." She growled, all four hands grabbing his shoulders, "Now. I want you, now. Take my virginity. I need this. I want this. I... This is your fucking fault for seeing me."

She could feel her abdomen pulsing with her hearts, making her feel like the ugly thing was trying to show itself off. Her carapace around her chest was beginning to ease its usual death-like grip on her breasts.

She found herself lying backwards instinctively, her abdomen curving up between her legs to reveal that her vulva was located on it, rather than directly on her crotch.

The narrow slit was as black and shiny as the rest of her abdomen, and featured two small indentures alongside it. Which she guessed were handholds or something for a male arachne.

She clicked her fangs frantically when Elan hesitated, "I don't need any foreplay, m'lord. I assure you, I am very wet right now."

"Oh, it wasn't that. I can see that." He smiled arrogantly, "I hesitate because it isn't uncommon for women of your species to bite when they... Reach climax. The males generally die."

She rolled her eyes and spun a small web, and shoved it over her mouth. She raised an eyebrow at him, demanding the he give to her what the temple had always tried to deny her.

What she thought that no elf would ever give her, nor most of the other races.

He was the first man who could look her in the eye.

Elan chuckled at her, "That... Is truly adorable. You are a unique beauty, Drachne."

She pointed aggressively at both his pants, and her pulsing little slit. She didn't care about anything right now, apart from feeling him enter her.

The lord removed his pants with little ceremony. He was already moving towards erectness, and a grasp of two of her hands, whilst she leaned up on the others, rapidly had that situation solved.

She might not be able to use her mouth like most others, might not even have a full education, but she was still a temple-trained brat. She knew how to make someone ready.

She leaned back slowly as she continued to work at his member, until she could lift up her others arms and pull him down towards her.

She gasped the moment she felt him touching her, even though she was the one guiding his dick towards her tiny little slit. A slit that opened up at the touch, almost flowering open to reveal her pinkness.

Drachne rubbed him against her entrance, coating him, before determinedly pushing him down and into herself. Hoping that she was at least similar to other women, inside.

"Holy fuck!" Elan cried out instantly, "Oh, wow. Oh fuck. Wow. That is... Remarkable."

Drachne had forgotten how to breathe.

It hurt, it definitely hurt. A sharp stabbing pain telling her that she was not nearly big enough for the thing currently filling her out... But it was filling her right up.

Beyond the pain, it felt nothing like anything she had ever felt before. Forbidden, thrilling. Like she'd suddenly turned into an addict, craving more.

Her carapace sprang open. All seven of her limbs wrapped around him, flattening him down and against her chest. She moaned weakly behind her silk mask, and desperately tried to thrust herself against him.

"Hold on, hold on." Elan gasped, "Gods damn it! Give me a second to get used to it... Shit, girl. Oh, you're driving me nuts. It... It feels like you trying to eat me."

She froze up, letting out a negatory grunt.

He shook his head, "Sorry. Not thinking. Gods. Even when you're not... You are..."

Her black eyes flickered in confusion.

"Your... Parts... M'lady... Are... Rolling. They're massaging and moving, and they haven't stopped. Pulling at me, trying to pull... Fuck... Me, deeper." He managed between moans.

She could help but give a proud little smile at that. Other women had to make an effort to do the milking motion that could drive a man batty. Apparently that came natural, to her.

She didn't even feel herself doing it.

Drachne gave a small jerk of her hips, begging him to get over it and fuck her. To make her feel a piece of what he was feeling right at this moment.

"Gods, you are... Insanity." He gasped at the movement, "I..."

She recognised the signs and felt both a burst of frustration, and a burst of something warm, deep inside her. She swelled, and kept swelling, until she felt fit to burst.

"Fuck! Drachne!" Elan yelled out.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, as she realised that his orgasm had still managed to trigger her own. She felt her jaw spring open, ripping off her mask and her entire body curled in around him.

"Oh, shit. Shit." He groaned, still spilling his seed into her. Unaware of what was happening.

She wanted to scream in horror as her fangs plunged down into the side of his neck.

"Wha-" He tried to cry out.

Her body shuddered and cramped, clinging to him as the waves of her orgasm thrust through her. Making her cry out in excitement involuntarily, moaning desperately into him, despite being fang-deep.

"D-dra..." He gasped.

Her carapace locked around him, holding him tight in against her. His solid chest against her soft breasts. Her arms and legs dragging him against her.

"D-dra..."

All the while, her fangs filled him full of her venom.

Elan jerked for a moment, letting out a horrifying sound from his chest. A sound she recognised far too well. The dying death rattle of one of her victims.

Her body finally uncoiled, and she found herself launching up and into a corner of the carriage as hot tears began to roll down her face. Looking down at the only man ever willing to touch her... Dying.

There wasn't a single thing she could do about it.

"Oh, shit. Fuck." Drachne cursed as she suddenly realised that it was so very much worse than just her killing a lover.

She could kill the other witnesses, burn the carriage, and bury the whole thing, and all she would be doing is buying some time. They would assume she was to blame for Elan's death, whether or not he was found.

The biggest problem of which, was that this was a mission that had two fangs that had already bitten her.

The first of which, was that it had happened by royal ascent.

She had just killed an empress-appointed lord, who was acting under the orders of the palace. Killing a lord, at the best of times, was an extremely high risk thing.

She might be experienced in ending the lives of lords, and ladies, but in those cases she could go back to the temple and into hiding. She was protected there, but she not this time.

The temple would not protect her from the palace itself.

The second fucked up fang, was that Elan had manipulated the palace. He might be dead, but he had known why the draug were awakening, and now couldn't tell anyone.

Drachne might not be a patriot, but she wasn't too stupid to see what a delay in being able to deal with an undead army was going to cause.

That was a scourge of an infection that couldn't afford to sweep the land.

Things would be out of balance, and so plagues, famine and nightmares would sweep outwards. Whipping the populace up into a frenzy, and making the rule of law... Unstable.

The army couldn't both attempt to maintain order, and deal with a spreading undead infection. Every village left unprotected would simply become a source to expand the threat.

All of this, because she couldn't control the urge to bite when she had sex for the first, and very last, time.

If the temple had only explained why they wouldn't teach her about sex. If they had only taught her what happens when an arachne tries to fuck...

She let out a pained sob.

She was every bit the beast, the monster, that everyone thought she was. She deserved to be hunted down, and destroyed like a rabid beast, because it was clear she couldn't coexist with society.

No wonder all the other arachne chose a territory in a forest.

She blinked, and wiped at her tears.

That's what she needed to do.

Buy herself some time by killing off the witnesses, burning and burying the carriage somewhere less circumspect, and then make herself some kind of... Monster's lair.

She already preferred sleeping in her web. It couldn't be that bad, sleeping in the wild.

---

"Can I get a refill?" A glum looking figure raised their mug in the rundown tavern.

There were exactly three other people in the entirety of the building, but getting the barkeep's attention was beginning to become difficult, thanks to the other two.

They appeared at first glance to be friends, drinking buddies. However things had spiralled since then, and they were now lost in the very angry throes of debate.

A debate which seemed to revolve around the finer details as to whether or not the alimaid really existed.

Both drunk men seemed to be in agreement that the exotic did, in fact, exist. However, they diverged as to the reasons that they did. They were close to coming to blows over it.

Suleos just wanted to enjoy a quiet drink in this shithole of a town and be left to go his own way.

Unfortunately, to get the first, it was looking like he would have to approach the bar. And if he did that, at least one of those two morons would demand he weigh in on the debate, and then his night was guaranteed to be all but quiet.

A small golden bell was tied to Suleos' wrist, currently hidden inside his cloak. It marked him out as both an exotic, and one that had paid or been granted full citizenship in the empire.

In his own case, he wasn't just a citizen. His services rendered to the crown had meant he'd even been granted ownership of a plot of land.

Granted, it was scarred by dark and fucked up magic, meaning that you'd have to be beyond stupid to live or grow anything there, but it meant he was a titleholder.

Beyond rare, for an exotic.

Which was also an apt description for the kind of exotic that he was. A kind that, unfortunately, cannot lie or deceive.

"Drink?" He tried again, causing the bartender to simply roll their eyes at him.

"Nah, ya see, the alimaid's like called that 'cause they're all wimin. Ya see? They gotsa be magic. Da kind that gives ya the heeby-geebies. Which means ya instinctively know that they're real. Ya lizard brain knows." The first made their semi-coherent argument.

Suleos stood up tiredly, and flicked a coin in the air. Partly to catch the bartender's attention, and partly to cover the sound of his bell.