Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 110

"Suly's down! Cecilia's been captured, and--" Eulalie caught a flicker of movement in one of the side monitors. The door of the greenhouse was shoved open and Zel came racing out, her features bloody and her face frantic. She was followed by several centaurs, all of them holding weapons. Immediately, those wielding bows launched arrows at nearby attackers.

Zel screamed so loud that her voice was picked up by multiple microphones.

"CALLISTO! CALLISTO!" Zel took another deep breath and turned her head. "GRACE!"

Eulalie felt the world drop out from beneath her. She stared hard into the monitors, her fingers trembling just above the keys.

"They've taken the children," she said, the words tumbling free from numb lips. "Lethal force authorized."

For several seconds, nobody spoke. The comms were silent as everybody processed this information. There was an eerie burst of static, followed by a single sentence.

"Play time's over," said Jenny.

Out in the front yard, the Jabberwock lifted its head free of the garden, roots stretching and dirt falling free as it launched itself at the command center. The windows on the second floor opened and a collection of dolls levitated outward like drones, all of them moving toward the mercenaries with arms outstretched as if they wanted hugs.

Down below, the front door opened and Yuki ran out with Dana right behind her, the zombie carrying a backpack. They were followed by Sofia, who sprinted madly toward the street with none other than Tink on her back.

"Where are they?" asked Yuki, her voice somehow calm. "Do you see them on the screen?"

"I, um..."

Eulalie looked back and forth between the monitors. The Jabberwock had crawled across the top of the command center to crash into the first transport vehicle parked behind it. The massive homunculus was busy tearing the roof off to look inside. Cerberus had pinned down a group of mages by the house using dual streams of fire that had slowly come together. The hell hound now blew flames so hot that the ground glassed over with ash, consuming the magic wielders and leaving nothing behind. Amymone's tree actively snatched up mercenaries, the vines forming into nooses that strangled them.

And then there was Naia. The nymph made an appearance, but the camera had trouble focusing on her. Her eyes glowed with golden light as she pointed at the men near her fountain. With a curled finger, she ripped all the water from their bodies, leaving desiccated corpses behind.

"I...I...I..." Eulalie looked at the greenhouse monitor. How had they gotten to the centaurs? It didn't make sense, even if they had gotten in, it would have taken them a while to get down to the village and...

"FUCK!" The Arachne rewound the footage back to the earlier assault. Somebody had gone into the greenhouse during the first attack, a man that didn't show up again when they had retreated. She scrolled forward through the footage, moving back and forth in an attempt to figure out what had happened next. It wasn't until the fifth viewing of the current assault that she spotted an older woman in the center of the SoS as they neared the greenhouse. When she drew close, she simply vanished from sight, likely an invisibility spell of some kind.

Illusions, by nature, weren't malevolent. Much like the protective shields cast by the mages, it wouldn't have triggered the home's defenses. The earlier assault had been a feint, an attempt to learn more about the enemy, or so Eulalie had thought. In truth, it had been one, massive decoy in order to get a single person in position to take the children.

"I'm coming out," she said, stepping out of her web hammock.

"Don't." Yuki's voice was the epitome of frost. "We need your eyes right now. Figure out where they went."

Eulalie bit back a harsh retort and scrolled through the footage yet again.

Out in the yard, the Jabberwock was now dispatching the mortars, tossing the men who manned them into the air and swallowing them whole. Yuki and Dana were near the command center now, but then parted ways. Dana took off her backpack and threw it into the command center while Yuki headed for the street. The people up on the roof opened fire on both of them, but Abella slipped free from her hiding spot and let out a blast of heartfire. The men undid their safety ropes and fled from the flames, and the heat melted Cecilia's net. The banshee charged forward and shoved two men off the roof before vanishing from sight.

The front door opened again, and Asterion emerged. He broke into a sprint as one of the transport vehicles tried to pull away. The vehicle was steering around the Jabberwock's tail when the minotaur leapt onto the hood. With a howl, Asterion slammed his ax through the windshield.

"Where are they? Where are they?" Eulalie kept going through the footage, trying to find some evidence of invisible passage. Then she slapped her forehead in frustration when she remembered the thermal cameras. She changed the filters on the footage and saw them this time. The witch approached the greenhouse and waited a few seconds before another figure emerged with a small figure slung over one shoulder. Behind them, Callisto was pulled out, his neck and waist on a leash. Invisible to the human eye, the four of them bypassed the yard completely and moved to the stone wall that surrounded the property. Dark shadows emerged from the woman that lifted the four of them over and away.

"Shit, shit!" Eulalie scrambled through her other cameras, hoping to figure out where they had gone. On the main bank of monitors, several mercenaries noticed the ominous dolls that chased their compatriots. These men immediately switched to their pistols and joined the fray, opening fire on the toys. Fiery white rounds that blazed with rainbow light emerged from the barrels of their guns, which in turn tore some of the dolls apart.

At the entrance to the property, the lions blazed to life. Surrounded in hot, golden flames, they charged into the ranks of the SoS and tore through them like tissue paper. The remaining members of the Order were in a full panic now, some of them using attack spells of their own. The lions danced around the yard, targeting hostile magic users and anyone who shot at them. Several people sprinted madly for safety, their resolve finally broken.

"Eulalie." Dana's voice had a tense edge to it. "The command center is down. The kids aren't in here."

"They went over the wall on the south side of the greenhouse," Eulalie replied as she pulled up some different feeds. She had installed a few cameras around the neighborhood and scrolled through the footage in the hopes of spotting them. A dark van pulled out of the driveway of the next-door neighbor's house. The witch and a man in sunglasses were in the front seat. "They left the property already."

"Good." Jenny sounded like she was speaking through a tube filled with razor blades. Eulalie looked at the monitor and saw that the doll was hovering in the front yard, held in place by shadowy legs. Anyone who came within twenty feet of her had their heads rapidly spun 180 degrees. "We don't have to be careful anymore."

Men and women were flash frozen along the front yard as Yuki dashed between them, the kitsune already headed for the street. Cerberus howled and sent a blaze of fire out that consumed a group of men who opened fire on Yuki. Eulalie's fingers danced along her keyboard as she opened up all of the nearby traffic cameras.

"C'mon, c'mon," she muttered, then winced at the crack of a sniper rifle in her ear. It was followed immediately by a few more. On the main screens, several different people dropped dead on the yard. "Who is doing that?" she asked.

"Tink is," replied Sofia. "She's got the goggles on. Other snipers are down, by the way."

In the background of the comms, Eulalie could make out the sound of someone sniffling. The sound briefly halted right before another shot was fired.

"Kill them all," whispered Tink through the headset. "Tink kill everyone. Burn whole world down!" The rifle fired again and a mage by the front of the house dropped.

"Leave some alive," said Dana. "We need to know where they took the kids and the people in the command center won't be talking. Eulalie, any leads?"

"Not yet, I..." Eulalie stared helplessly at the cameras. She was able to monitor the van as it left the city, but it had vanished from sight before making the highway. The Arachne opened a city map and tried to guess where they may have gone, then groaned when she realized that there was a good chance they had been taken to the same place Cyrus had.

"I need someone to go get Uncle Foot," she said. "Don't tell him what happened yet. Bring him directly to me."

"Any reason?" asked Dana.

"Because I need him to follow my plan instead of storming off in a rage." The Arachne had no gods to pray to. For just a moment, Eulalie kind of wished they did. "If you just tell him the kids are missing, he's gonna rip someone's head off."

"I'm on it," Reggie's voice crackled. "I'll bring him right to you at the Library."

"Thank you, Reggie." Eulalie stared at the last image of the van, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. She took a deep breath, then another one. Closing her eyes, all she could see was her sister's face.

"The Arachne are characterized by cold logic in the face of adversity," she whispered, her fingers pressing into the desk so hard that the wood splintered. The words were from an old Order report she had found. "They have no emotional attachments, other than the desire to feed and then breed."

Her hearts were racing as she opened her eyes and took another calming breath. "I am a variant," she said, staring hard at the screen. "I have emotional attachments and lack the desire to breed. But I'm smart. Everyone always says how smart I am." She looked down at the slivers piled up beneath her nails. Maybe if she was a true Arachne, this would be easier."Focus on the solution, not the emotions. I need to be cold, colder than ice."

Trembling, she pulled up Cyrus' last known location. It had taken him over an hour to get there, which meant there was still time. She needed to put together a team, someone to intercept the van if possible. Turning her microphone back on, she spoke.

"I need Yuki, Death, and Dana. Has anyone contacted Mike?"

There was silence for several seconds before Dana spoke. "I just let him know," she said. "We need to get him home, right now."

"I'm already on it," said Eulalie as she sent Mike an address along with a door code. The rats had already let her know that the portal to Paradise had collapsed in on itself. Ever the meticulous planner, Eulalie had rented an AirBNB just down the road from Paradise as a backup and would have the rats start chewing a portal there now. Taking a deep breath, she sat back in her chair and stared at the monitors. Now it was time for the worst part of all.

Waiting.

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Why, yes. The ending of this chapter is a meta commentary.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! If you're on pins and needles for the next one, don't forget to check my bio for release dates. Also, please leave some stars on your way out, they super help me out and the government hasn't started taxing me for them...yet.🤫

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~Annabelle Hawthorne