Chapter 21

Old Wounds

Moody and Reuben flew low and fast over the forest. They spied a clearing just before the moon hid behind the clouds. Silently they alit on the ground and dismounted. Moody immediately cast a Confundus Charm and secured the area while Reuben stood still in the middle of the clearing. Reuben balanced the two Weasley wands loosely in his open palm and waved his own wand over them, chanting as he did so.

After giving the area one more sweep, Moody was confident that it was safe to speak. "Which way do we go now?"

Reuben opened his eyes and stopped chanting. "I've lost the trail. Do you have anything?"

Moody shook his head. "There are no humans in the general vicinity, apart from us."

"My Location Charm has obviously exhausted the energy from the psychic impressions left from the owners of these wands."

"In other words, it's a dead end." Moody tossed his broom and paced about, running his fingers through his hair while he curled his lip in thought. "We could try triangulation."

Reuben smiled in understanding. "That'll only work if they're within range." He tossed one of the wands to Moody. "And if they're still alive."

Moody caught the wand and walked to the opposite end of the camp. "Don't be so dramatic." He knelt and placed the wand on the ground in front of him.

"I got a lock," Reuben said after a few seconds. "What about you?"

"Not yet."

"Hurry."

"I know." Moody struggled against the buzz brought on by the Firewhisky, cursing himself for his lack of focus. He emptied his mind and fixed his gaze upon the wand in front of him. Eventually, it rose a few inches from the ground, pointed to the northwest and settled back to earth. He sighed in relief. "Got it." And he arose to join Reuben in the center of the camp at the spot equidistant from the wands.

Reuben, noting the position of the wands, said, "Now, how does that Law of Sines equation go?"

"After all this time you're still thinking like a Muggle?" Moody held his wand overhead. At his command a beam of light lay before them, using the Weasley wands as vertices to reference a location to the north. With brooms in hand, they followed the lighted trail that was visible only to themselves.

Were it not for a well cast Silencing Spell, negotiating the dense brush with any degree of stealth would have been impossible. A branch grazed the side of Moody's face, and he rubbed his cheek, reminded of the spot where Holly had struck him earlier that night. He came to realize that it had been itching all this time. His buzz was definitely starting to wear off, but he resisted the urge to dip into his hip flask.

A snort from his partner alerted Moody that his reverie did not go unnoticed. "Something amuses you, Reuben?"

"No. I was just wondering what was up with you and that girl back at the club?"

"Nothing. She was just a bit of temporary companionship."

"It didn't look that way from where I stood."

"Which is exactly the reason why I'm starting to prefer the company of Muggle women. They're far simpler creatures to deal with than witches. Er—I'm sure your mother was an exception."

"No doubt." If Reuben was irritated by the comment, he didn't show it.

They stopped when they heard voices in the dark. They drew their wands and crouched back-to-back. It was quiet for several seconds before they heard the voices again, but this time they sounded more like whimpers. The light from their Lumos Spells revealed two women huddled together, sheltered in the shallow curvature of a boulder. They were dirty and their clothes were tattered, but they seemed well-off otherwise.

Keeping his gaze on the women, Reuben laid down his broom and elbowed Moody. "I thought you detected no humans in the vicinity?"

"I didn't. Then again, this place is rife with interference from dark magic."

Reuben lowered his wand and ventured closer to get a better look. "They look like the two women who were captured shortly before the Weasley brothers." He reached out and offered a hand to one of the women, saying to her, "Are you two all right, Miss?"

The woman with blonde hair jerked away. "Leave us alone!"

The woman with dark hair clung to her companion. They retreated with their backs against the boulder. "We'll do anything you ask, just don't hurt us!"

Reuben lowered his wand but kept his hand proffered. "It's all right. We're not going to hurt you."

The blonde wiped the tears from her face and regarded Reuben. "You're not… one of them, are you?"

Reuben smiled encouragingly. "No. We're M.L.E." He showed them his badge. Moody approached and did the same.

Relieved, the blonde leapt into Reuben's arms. "We're saved!" she cried into his shoulder.

The brunette likewise ran to Moody and clung to him. "You came for us?"

"Well, not exactly," Moody said. He tentatively placed his hands on her back to comfort her. "We were on the trail of two young boys who were taken shortly after you. Have you seen them?"

The blonde shook her head; tears welled in her eyes. "There are no other survivors. It's just us. They did unspeakable things to us! We barely managed to escape with our lives and have been wandering the forest ever since—left all alone to fend for ourselves—"

"With nothing to protect us from the cold... except what's left of our itty-bitty clothes and our shared body heat," the brunette added. "It was horrible!"

"Well, we're going to get you two out of here." Moody stroked the brunette's hair to calm her. "But first we have to be sure there are no more survivors."

"No, you can't go back there!" the brunette pleaded.

The blonde clung even tighter to Reuben. "Don't leave us, I beg you!"

"It's okay. We're not going to leave you," Reuben soothed. "We'll get you home."

"You can't imagine how frightening it was." She buried her head back into Reuben's chest and again wrapped her arms around his waist. "Just hold us… for a little while." She relaxed in his arms. Her embrace softened and she caressed her hands up and down his back. "Thank you."

Reuben cleared his throat nervously. "It's quite all right. It's our jobs."

"We feel so safe with you." Moody flinched when the brunette started to undo the buttons on the top of his shirt and slowly work her way down to his belt buckle.

Looks like it's going to be one of those missions, brother. Reuben's voice echoed through the magic-slug lodged in Moody's ear.

Moody looked over to see his partner was getting a similar treatment as the blonde nipped tenderly at Reuben's lips. Aye. This definitely rounds out my top ten fantasy list— top five, if you were absent.

Fair enough, but there's only one problem.

Leave it to you to see the 'half empty' glass, Reuben—"Bloody!" Moody yelped at the touch of her cold hands. He looked down to regard the top of the brunette's busy head and found it difficult to maintain his balance.

Sorry, Alastor, but you have to admit that luck like this never happens to sods like us.

Moody sighed. You know, mate, I hate it when you're right…

"Expelliarmus!"

The women were flung violently from them. They bounced of the giant rock, and their bodies contorted like rag dolls when they hit the ground. There they remained: still as the air, as still as death. Moody and Reuben stayed their ground with wands at the ready. Their bodies tensed when the women's eerie echoes of sniggers and cackles broke the silence.

The blonde was the first to move. Her head shot straight up to scan the area with eyes like onyx. Her back arched as the joints in her limbs popped backwards; her fore members grew long and spindly. Her attractive face split down the middle, where two mandibles uncurled and then snapped together loudly.

The brunette underwent a similar transformation. Her abdomen began to swell to monstrous proportions. Propping herself up on her haunches, she rubbed her thin claws together hungrily. Her two sets of breasts, with their scabbed-over, blackened centers, stared back at the astonished young wizards like two pairs of dead eyes.

Saliva dripped from the brunette's maw, primed by the magical appetizer she had just sampled at Moody's expense. Her voice screeched as she forced her words through a throat no longer conducive to human speech. "These wizards are strong, sister."

"Yes-s-s," the blonde hissed in excitement. "Not like the others."

"They will keep us strong for a long time."

Two jets of goo shot from each the spider-women's bellies. Moody instinctively blocked with his broom, but it became ensnared in webbing and was pulled from his grasp. Reuben's fire-shield burned the rest of the webbing away. The two Aurors formed up and shot back. With ferocious agility the sisters took to the air, dodging the wizards' hexes as they leapt from tree to tree. All the while, they shrunk the perimeter with their webbing. They retreated to the shadows; their laughter taunted the Aurors.

Reuben shot blindly at random whispers in the dark. Hitting nothing, he chuckled nervously. "You know, I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but the idea of two sets of tits on a woman is more fetching in concept than in practice."

"And to think you let that thing kiss you?"

"You're one to talk, Alastor: another second and your pants would've been around your ankles." He eyed a leaf trailing slowly to the left.

When the she-devils leapt, Reuben managed to catch them in a vortex of wind while Moody summoned the boulder and flung it with deadly accuracy.

The sisters pushed against each other to separate in mid-air, joined by a tether of webbing that caught the boulder as if flew by. Upon landing, they dug in and the giant rock was hurled back toward the wizards like a slingshot. Moody and Reuben Disapparated out of harm's way only to be descended upon by blonde's waiting clutches when they reappeared. Before they could react, her silk web ensnared them both. She jumped, jerking her prey into the air so hard that they dropped their wands. Moody and Reuben swung about, helpless, as she strung them up on a branch high above the earth. The brunette watched below, chirping with glee.

"This is embarrassing," Reuben said.

Moody looked down at their wands far below. The thick spider-silk cut into his skin like piano wire, yet he tried desperately to work his left arm. At the same time, he noticed that Reuben's broom was twitching unnoticed on the ground. Do you think you can summon your broom?

Can't you see I'm trying?

The blonde tauntingly plucked the string of webbing that suspended them. It made for a chilling hum in the air: a chord in the key of death.

On the ground far below, the brunette paced about impatiently, her prey out of reach. "Don't be greedy, sister. You must share."

"Very well," the blonde chirped through her mandibles. "Do you want the pretty one, or the gamy one?"

At that, the two Aurors looked to each other, saying in unison, "Did you hear what she called you?"

The moon came out from behind the clouds as the blonde descended slowly from her perch, dangling gracefully from a nigh invisible strand of silk. Her pinchers made a loud clicking sound—or was it cruel laughter?

Moody continued to wiggle his left arm; slowly he was able to work his backup wand out of its sleeve-compartment to the base of his wrist. He was only going to have one shot at this.

The blonde spun them back and forth, alternating between the two men at a loss to decide which was to be her food.

Moody cupped his palm to catch the hilt of his Beech-wood wand and slowly worked it between his fingers, taking care not to drop it. He waited until he could see his reflection in her dark compound-eyes. "NOW!"

Reuben's broom launched skyward. It darted about uncontrollably but made for an excellent distraction nonetheless. With a flick of his wrist, Moody burned through the silk, and they were free. As they started to fall, he came about and aimed; from this range, he couldn't miss.

"Diffindo!"

From Moody's perspective it seemed like the three of them were falling in slow motion. However, he knew he had only seconds before hitting the ground. He managed to catch himself and Reuben by arresting their momentum, and he levitated the both of them to safety. With another flick of his wand, the Aurors were fully rearmed.

The blonde was not so lucky. She lay on the ground at her sister's feet, looking up at her spider-abdomen still suspended on its line high above, swaying in the calm night breeze. Her sister held her hand while she struggled to breathe even as her innards oozed from her severed thorax. The look left on her face when her chest stilled was one of shock.

The monster glared with bloodthirsty abandon at the wizards that bore down on her. Outgunned and outnumbered, she took in a deep breath and screamed. Her cry was ear-splitting agony for the humans. The wizards covered their ears to no avail; even the Silencio Spell was no match for her cacophonous wrath. The magic-slugs writhed in their keepers' ears and slid out to die.

The screeching stopped. She crouched on her haunches and sprung skyward, landing on a nearby treetop. She cursed the wizards in a foreign tongue before bounding off into the night.

When silence returned to the scene, Reuben massaged his ringing ears. Half deaf, he said loudly, "You think she was miffed?"

"A tad," Moody replied with a smirk. He scraped the remnants of the slug from his cheek and wiped his hands clean on the side of his trousers. "Those succubusses were strong. They had to have fed recently."

"They often take the form of their last meal. Which means the girls they doppleganged are most likely dead."

"But it also means the boys could still be alive."

Reuben snorted. "Leave it to you to see the glass as half full."

"We'll never catch her on foot." Moody paced about looking for his broom.

"We don't have to."

"How do you mean?"

"Didn't pay much attention in advanced tracking class, did you?" Reuben stood over the blonde's remains. He waved his wand over her forehead and her eyes popped open, a reflex that gave them both a start. Reuben cleared his throat and continued working his magic. "Psychic residue between a killer and his victim can keep them linked for some time even after death."

"Thus, serving as a point-to-point conduit for Apparition," Moody said, finishing Reuben's thought, a task he found difficult between the ringing in his ears and the Firewhisky pummeling his head. "Just pray we don't run into more succubuses."

"That's the second time you've said that word, 'succubuses'."

"What of it?"

The Location Charm complete, Reuben knelt down next to the corpse with his wand in a defensive position. "I dunno, I was always partial to the rendering 'succubae', myself."

"Oh, really?" Moody said annoyed. He assumed a similar position along his partner's flank. "Shall I tell you what I'm partial to at the moment?"

"It wouldn't be that homely witch in accounting with the lazy eye and eczema, would it?"

"She has eczema?"

BAM!

The Aurors Apparated, along with the blonde's remains, into a musty, dark cavern, the walls of which were coated with cobweb-covered pods. Moody walked up to one of them and scratched it open with his fingers. He covered his nose with his hand upon seeing the dried husk of an unidentifiable victim. There wasn't time to search them all by hand. Fortunately, they didn't have to.

"Homenum Revelio"

They tracked the spell to the last pod left in the clutch. They worked quickly to rip it open and found one of the Weasley brothers still dressed in his school robes. His lips were blue, and his skin was clammy to the touch, but he was alive. Reuben put two fingers on the boy's neck.

Moody continued to cover Reuben while he fed the boy water from their provisions. "How is he?"

"Bad. Completely used up, he is."

Moody noticed that the pod next to the boy had been freshly ripped. There was no occupant inside. "She took the other boy."

After they stabilized the youth behind a Protection Charm, they cast another locator spell and continued on. Moody took point while Reuben covered their rear. The stench worsened the farther they ventured into the cave. When they arrived at the main chamber, the dim light of their wands was insufficient to provide proper reconnaissance.

"Lumos Maxima!"

Moody gasped at the sight of the intricate web that spanned the breadth of the cavern in the center of which lay a pulsating egg sac. They waded through the floor, littered with desiccated bones, fecal matter and other refuse. The sound of their shuffling brought the succubus out of hiding. She scurried out from behind one of the large stalactites and perched herself between the intruders and her unborn babies. She held the missing Weasley boy in her spiky grasp. Her pincers were plunged into his neck, supping the youth's sweet life's blood.

Moody grabbed Reuben's wand arm before he could fire. "No. She's tied into his life force. Any harm she sustains will be transferred the boy."

"He's dead anyway if we don't do something now!" Reuben lowered his wand. He grimaced when Moody cast aside his Purpleheart wand and started to disrobe. "What kind of hair-brained idea is rattling around inside that oxygen-deprived brain of yours this time?"

"I'm going to offer her a tastier alternative," Moody replied, kicking off his kecks.

"Are you insane? Once she latches onto you, she'll suck you dry—and not in the good way."

He smiled and tossed Reuben his hat. "That's why I'm counting on you to save my arse."

"Wait. Let me do it. Your Exploding Curse is better than mine."

"And your aim is better than mine. It has to be me."

Reuben started to protest, but when he saw Moody's determination, he sighed. "See you on the other side, brother." He withdrew to take cover in a narrow crevasse.

Moody stepped out slowly into the clear, wielding nothing but his boxers and his backup wand. He knew the succubus wasn't stupid, but he also knew what a tempting target the young pink flesh of a wizard in his prime posed. "Is that any way to tease and run?"

The succubus eyed him warily and tightened her grip on her helpless prey. However, she couldn't help but hiss hungrily when she smelled his essence.

All he had to do was give her the proper incentive, so he threw his wand to the far side of the cavern. "It's bad manners for a girl not to finish what she started."

She withdrew her pincers and moaned. She spotted Reuben from one of her eight eyes and threw the boy toward one of the stalactites. Reuben broke cover just as she dove for Moody, but there was no time to save both. She cackled when Reuben cursed, knowing that he would try to save the boy.

Moody saw her coming and braced himself. The succubus flew into him and they rolled on the ground. She pinned him down with her weight and thrust one of her spikes into his shoulder. Moody screamed and jammed his free arm into her neck just in time to keep her pincers at bay. Her abdomen bobbed up and down, coating his lower body with her pungent goo which hardened into a sticky shell. The coarse skin on her four breasts chafed as they mashed against his chest. The saliva that dripped from the end of her mandibles stung when it touched his skin. He wanted to fight, but he was spent. He considered casting a wandless Exploding Curse; it would kill him as well, but that was better than the alternative. Moody closed his eyes and started to chant, but a familiar voice gave him pause.

"Allie."

Moody opened his eyes and froze when he saw her face. "Dru?" No. You're not Dru.

"It is me, Allie." He remembered those gray, soulful eyes. He never thought that he would ever stare into them again. "Why don't you love me anymore?"

"I-I've never stopped loving you, pet."

"Then come to me, my love." She inched in closer as he gave in. Her lips parted, baring her fangs. "We'll be together... forever—"

"Confringo!"

The last thing Moody saw before he slipped into unconsciousness was Druella's pretty head bursting into paste.