Page 3 of Black Widow's Bite

“Not a chanceShades, I will give you one last warning. Do not touch me. Trust me, it’s not worth it.” My skin prickled uncomfortably, thinking about the two men in the alley. I wonder if I’d see either of them in the news later this week, dead from a self-inflicted injury.

“What exactly did you do to that guy in the alley?” Wyatt asked me abruptly, like he could hear what I’d been thinking, and my eyes widened. Had he been watching the whole time as those men attacked me? “He touched your arm and then just stopped. Why?” he was leaning forward now, clearly interested. I didn’t need him interested. I needed him to leave it the fuck alone.

“I told him I had a gun.” I lied, poorly it seems, because he just brushed it off with a shake of his head.

“No, because the other guy kept coming, the one you didn’t touch. What happens when people touch you?” Wyatt pressed, leaning closer. He was like a bloodhound who’d caught a scent, and I was the cornered fox.

Why was he so insistent on this? Most people just wrote off the weird shit that happens around me as unrelated accidents. Aside from the rumours in school, no one had ever put together the connection, so why had he? I didn’t like to be cornered,especially by some douchebag wearing sunglasses in a dark basement.

“Try it and find out.” I snarled at him. He cocked an eyebrow at me, and his arm shot out, hand hovering above my calf, just above my bruised ankle. I swiped out a hand of my own and knocked his stupid glasses off his stupid face. They landed on the couch, and we both looked at them before looking back at each other. Wyatt’s eyes were black, not dark brown, but pitch black. He had no iris that I could see. It looked as if it was just a pupil sitting in the centre of the whites of his eyes. As I stared, his pupils grew, spreading out until both eyes were completely black. The world tipped, and I felt myself falling into the blackness.

Chapter 4

Wyatt

Ihad tried to do the right thing, and nevertheless, I’d managed to royally fuck it up. I shouldn’t have brought her inside in the first place, but I had this nagging feeling in my gut that there was something weird about her. Addison was not the high society chick I thought she was when I’d first seen her. Sure, she dressed the part, but I recognized a scrapper when I saw one. She was just hiding behind a mask of normalcy. I expected her to get a bit cagey when I tried to touch her leg, I was a stranger after all. I hadn’t expected her to slap my glasses off, though, so we were both caught off guard when her consciousness tumbled headfirst into mine.

Some of the weirdness in my life I could control, with a bit of effort. I didn’t go around kidnapping people’s minds very often, so I was a bit rusty at this whole thing. I closed my eyes and sank down into myself, following Addison into the part of my mind that seemed to exist solely as a holding cell for anyone who decided to make eye contact with me.

“Addison, can you hear me?” I asked. I got back a lot of noise and emotions, mostly rage, and I winced. “Look, you’re the one who knocked my glasses off. I didn’t do this on purpose. Can we just talk for a minute, please?” If she was listening, she’d be able to hear the truth in my voice and feel the sincerity in my words. I waited until the storm of anger subsided and took that as a yes. “As you can see, I’ve clearly got something a little freakyhappening in my life. All I want to know is, what happens when someone touches you?”

I braced myself as a deluge of memories crashed over me, pummelling me with images of people screaming, a kid missing chunks of hair, and a house burning down. Loneliness, fury and fear mixed together, threatening to drown me. That was enough of an answer for me.

However it worked, I pushed her mind out of my mental holding cell, shoving it back out where it belonged. I averted my eyes, using my hand to shield them from Addison while I groped for my glasses on the couch. I heard her gasp as she came back into herself, and I braced for the explosion.

“What the fuck did you just do to me?!” Addison yelled, putting her hands to her face as if reassuring herself that it was still there. I gave a small shrug, running my hand through my hair, and she looked like she would happily bite off my ear and spit it back in my face. “Don’t you dare shrug! What was that?!”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” I held up my hands defensively. “Just like how you don’t know why you make people crazy.” I grabbed her abandoned water bottle off the table and finished what was left inside, feeling more than a little drained after that experience.

Addison was speechless for a moment, gaping at me with a look of murder in her eyes. “You can’t just- I don’t know who you are- how fucking dare you-” I couldn’t help but smile as she struggled to find the right thing to yell at me. Her hair was coming undone from her bun, creating a halo of darkness around her face.

I got up and walked to the makeshift bar we had set up in the corner and grabbed a half-empty bottle of vodka off the counter. I opened it and took a swig straight from the bottle, enjoying the burn as it coated the back of my throat. Walking back over to the couch, I held the bottle out to her, which stopped her mid-rant.After a moment’s hesitation, she snatched it out of my hand and took a large swig of her own.

“So, do you want me to fix your ankle, or what?” I asked, reaching for the bottle back. Addison stared at me incredulously and took another swig before passing it to me.

“Are you out of your fuckingmind?” she demanded. “Of course you are. And I am too. Jesus, I should’ve never followed the damn cat.” she groaned, dropping her head in her hands. Okay, I wasn’t sure how the cat factored into things, but she’d clearly had a long day, so I didn’t comment on it.

“Bear with me here, what’s the worst-case scenario? I go crazy and jump off the roof?” I shrugged again. “That’s a regular Tuesday evening. Either way, you get to leave.” I handed her back the bottle, and she took another drink. I waited, hand poised at the ready.

“Fuck it, whatever. I tried to warn you.” Addison sighed, throwing up her hands in defeat and slouching down in the chair. Well, this should be fun. Gently, I placed my hand above her ankle, just brushing against the swelling. We both held our breath, waiting for something to happen.

At first, all I noticed was a distinct humming sensation running from her leg up through my hand, like I was grounded but touching a live wire. The lights in the room seemed to brighten, and I felt warmth flood my body like I was standing out in the sun. So far, so... weird, I guess. I focused my attention on the swelling and tugged at it with my mind. Slowly, along with humming, I could feel the pain and the inflammation creep into my hands and up through my arms. I shivered as the pain finally settled into my own ankle. I noticed that the humming had gotten more potent, and I let go of her leg to sever the connection. The feeling was sharp and abrupt through my entire body, a horrible emptiness that left me both numb and raw atthe same time. It felt similar to the crash after a high. My skin itched with the need to touch her again.

“Jesus,” I muttered, sitting back on the couch. Addison had been studying her ankle, which was significantly less swollen now. She took one look at my face and handed me the vodka.

“So?” Addison asked tentatively. “You’re the first person I can ask about this. You can’t hold out on me now, Shades.” I smiled wanly, taking a small drink. While I was settling myself, she stood, testing her ankle. When it held her weight, I thought for a split second that she would make a break for the door, and the thought made me desperately sad. Instead, to my relief, she just sat back down, waiting for my answer.

“I don’t think you’re driving people crazy, like breaking their minds or anything,” I told her finally, the vodka starting to bring the warmth back into my limbs. “I think it’s more like... you’re a drug. When they can’t have more of you, they can’t handle the withdrawal.” I let that sink in as I took another drink, and she gestured for the bottle back. Handing it to her, our fingers brushed, sending a shock of intoxicating warmth through my body again. I resisted the urge to grab her hand as she pulled away, and the feeling faded, leaving me aching once more.

Addison took a long drink, shaking her head sadly. “It makes sense, I guess,” she murmured. “It would explain why the longer I touch someone, the worse it seems to get.” She sank back into the chair. “This whole time I just hoped I was crazy.”

“You’ll fit right in with my friends,” I told her quietly, noticing Austin slipping into the room. “We’re all mad here.”

Chapter 5

Addison

Ididn’t know if I could handle much more weirdness today. I had never told anyone about my unusual problem before, and honestly, I had planned on taking it to my grave. But I guess who better to talk to about it than a guy with scary black eyes who can read my mind? We were like a two-person support group for freaks.

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