My Stepmom Is A Vampire & Her Entire Bloodline Wants To Breed Me

Chapter 202: Spider Net

Diane blinked slowly. The last thing she remembered was stepping through the door Mark Latros had ordered her to enter, followed by monsters pouring in without end. She had thought she would die there.

But she hadn’t.

What came after was a nightmare. Fragments of memories surfaced, things that felt like they belonged to the distant past, yet they were distorted, blurred at the edges, as if someone had stirred them carelessly and left them unfinished.

She swallowed and turned toward him. "What actually happened, Seamus?"

Seamus looked the same as ever. His emerald eyes were calm and steady, his expression gentle as he let out a quiet sigh.

When he pulled her into another embrace, his arms felt firm and reassuring as his hand rubbed slow circles against her back.

"You were surrounded by monsters," he said softly. "I think you fainted. I’m just glad you’re fine."

He loosened his hold but did not step away. "We need to leave this place as soon as possible. It isn’t safe here, and we can’t defeat whatever is controlling it."

Warmth spread through Diane’s chest, unexpected and fragile. For a moment, it felt as if nothing between them had ever broken.

Seamus had avoided her touch for so long after that incident, and now he was holding her as if none of it mattered.

’Has he finally forgiven me?’

For a fleeting second, Diane thought that being trapped inside the Red Zone was not so unbearable after all.

Then she felt it. Something subtle, almost imperceptible. Seamus was different, she couldn’t explain it but there was something lacking from him.

"Let’s move," he said suddenly, stepping away as his tone sharpened. "We need to find Maria. This place keeps changing. If we hesitate, we’ll lose her."

Disappointment flickered through her, quiet but persistent. She had wanted that moment to last longer, even knowing it never would.

Still, she followed him as they moved through the shifting corridors.

"Seamus," she said, keeping her voice low, "I met Mark Latros. He seems to be the one controlling this place."

He nodded without slowing. "I met him too. He offered me a deal."

Her eyes widened. "You too?"

"Yes," he replied evenly. "I refused."

That made sense. Latros had always been strange. Diane had attended the centennial gathering of the Seven Great Covenants once before, and most of its members had been suffocatingly arrogant.

Only Nycteris and Cinera had felt different, likely because of their lower standing. Even then, she had never truly connected with any of them.

The patriarch of Latros had been cold and distant, his dark hair falling to his shoulders, crimson eyes sharp enough to make her avert her gaze.

The twins beneath him had been worse. One hid fanatic devotion behind honeyed words, while the other seemed delightfully unhinged.

But Mark Latros had never been there.

"I think he’s new," Diane murmured.

Seamus glanced back at her briefly. "New?"

"I’ve never seen him before," she said.

She fell silent after that. Age mattered among vampires. Those of Latros and Bjorne were far older than her or her mother, and that age came with power and experience she could not ignore.

"We can defeat him, Seamus," she said after a moment. "Running won’t stop them. If we leave this alone, they’ll only grow stronger."

He stopped abruptly and raised a hand, signaling her to stay back. Diane went silent at once and stepped closer, peering past his shoulder.

The hallway ahead was filled with thick layers of spider webbing, cocoon after cocoon suspended in the air. Human bodies hung inside them, motionless and wrapped so tightly they barely resembled people anymore.

Seamus approached the nearest cocoon and carefully sliced it open with his bone dagger. A pale face appeared beneath the torn silk, eyes half-lidded and unfocused. It was already too late.

"Maria is here," Diane whispered urgently.

"We can still save her. Vampires don’t die easily from suffocation, but we have to avoid using fire."

Seamus nodded. "We’ll open them slowly, one by one. If the spider notices us, we stop immediately."

They moved together in careful synchronization, slicing open the cocoons just enough to see the faces inside, then moving on when they knew it wasn’t her. Each step was careful.

They could fight the giant spiders if they had to. That wasn’t the problem.

The real fear was what would happen if they made a single reckless move and Maria paid the price for it.

The moment the last cocoon on the end of the corridor was opened and discarded as another lifeless body, the entire corridor shuddered.

The webs trembled first, vibrating like stretched nerves, then the sound came. A deep scraping noise echoed from above, followed by the slow creak of something massive shifting its weight.

CRASH!

The ceiling was destroyed as only darkness could be seen from above. Dust fell from the ceiling, strands of web peeled loose, and Diane’s breath caught as multiple red eyes flickered open in the darkness.

The giant spider descended.

Its body was grotesquely large, limbs unfolding one by one as it crawled down the wall, each movement heavy enough to shake the floor beneath their feet. Its fangs dripped with thick venom, sizzling softly where it hit the stone.

Seamus reacted immediately. "I’ll find Maria," he said sharply. "You hold it here."

Diane turned without hesitation. "I’ll stop it."

There was no time to argue. The spider shrieked, a sound sharp enough to stab into her skull, and lunged forward.

Seamus vanished down the corridor, weaving between the hanging webs, while Diane stepped into the open space and drew her scythe fully into her grip.

Her arms burned the moment she swung, muscles screaming from exhaustion she had been ignoring for far too long.

She met the spider head-on, blade carving through its forelimb as black blood splattered across the wall.

The creature reeled back, screeching, then retaliated with terrifying speed.

Diane dodged, barely. The impact cracked the floor where she had stood a heartbeat earlier.

She twisted, slashing again, this time tearing open its abdomen. More blood spilled, thick and reeking, and the spider staggered but did not fall.

Why isn’t this enough?

Her chest heaved as she backed away, sweat rolling down her spine. Every strike felt heavier than the last, her body lagging just behind her intent. A familiar, poisonous thought crept into her mind.

’If I had evolved, If I were stronger. This would be easy.’

She clenched her jaw and forced the thought down, hurling herself forward again as the spider reared up.

She sliced through one of its eyes, earning another shriek, but its remaining limbs crashed toward her in a flurry of strikes.

Pain exploded along her side as something clipped her, sending her skidding across the floor.

Diane pushed herself up, breath ragged, vision blurring at the edges. Her scythe felt heavier than iron now, her limbs trembling.

’Move. You can’t stop now.’ She thought as she could feel her feet holding on by the spider net tightly, making it feel like being glued to the floor.

"Shit!" She exclaimed, trying to let go.

Then a sudden wave of fire surged through the corridor, roaring outward from deeper within the complex. Webs ignited instantly, flames racing across the strands with unnatural speed.

The spider screamed again, thrashing wildly as its body caught fire, but Diane’s blood ran cold.

Maria.

"She’s still inside one of the rooms!" Diane shouted, panic tearing free from her chest as she staggered to her feet.

"SEAMUS! WHERE ARE YOU?!"