The bitch plays hero while I watch from the shadows, my body humming with delicious rage. Parker's got some guy pinned to the rooftop, ski mask, black clothes, amateur hour all around. My other half ripples beneath my skin, eager to taste her blood.
"Patience," I whisper, feeling the symbiote's disappointment pulse through our shared consciousness.
Three months since we bonded. Three months of hunting, watching, learning everything about Piper Parker. Three months of plotting how to destroy the woman who ruined my career and abandoned my other half when it needed her most.
"Who is that man?" The voice in my head is curious, alien yet familiar, its words sliding through my thoughts like oil on water.
"I don't know," I murmur, eyes narrowing as I study the scene. "But he can teleport."
I'd watched him appear out of thin air moments before Parker swooped in. One second empty roof, next second, poof, there he was, collapsing like he'd run a marathon.
"Spider-Woman is acting strangely."
The symbiote's right. Parker's body language has shifted. The way she's leaning over him, the slight tilt of her head, it's predatory, almost sexual.
"Something about him is affecting her," I whisper, fascination mingling with my hatred.
I press deeper into the shadows as Parker suddenly springs away from the man, her movements jerky, uncoordinated, so unlike her usual fluid grace. Even from this distance, I can see the dark patch between her thighs. My lips curl into a smile. Little Miss Perfect is getting wet over some random teleporting freak.
"We should take him."
The symbiote's hunger pulses through me, sharp and demanding. It's not wrong. If this guy has some kind of power over Parker, he could be useful.
"No," I reply firmly, tamping down the symbiote's hunger. "He's nobody. Probably just some random mutant who doesn't know what he's doing."
The alien presence ripples with disappointment beneath my skin, tendrils of black coiling around my organs in a sulky embrace.
"Can we eat him then?" it purrs, the question vibrating through my bones with predatory anticipation.
I roll my eyes, crouching lower on my perch as I watch Parker swing away into the night. The teleporter tries and fails to get on his feet.
"I told you," I mutter under my breath, "we're going to eat Spider-Woman and that's it. She's the only one who matters."
My other half hums in reluctant agreement, settling back into the spaces between my muscles and sinews. It understands priorities, even if it doesn't like them. The constant hunger is something we both struggle with, me to control it, the symbiote to satisfy it.
I watch as the masked figure finally manages to stand, wobbling slightly before making his way to the roof access door. Something about him nags at me, the way Parker responded to him was... unusual. But I can't afford distractions. Not when I'm so close to finally getting my revenge.
"We should at least follow him," the symbiote suggests, its voice a silky whisper in my mind. "Learn more."
"I don't know," I mutter, dismissing the idea with a shake of my head. "He's probably just a dead end. Some college kid playing superhero."
My other's disappointment pulses through our shared nervous system, a cold slithering sensation that makes my skin prickle with goosebumps.
"Then we watch the spider again?" it asks, voice tinged with a predatory eagerness that resonates with my own hatred.
I feel my lips curl into a smile as I straighten up from my crouch, muscles coiling with power beneath my skin. "Yes. Let's see where the little arachnid scurries off to tonight."
The symbiote purrs with satisfaction, spreading across my skin like liquid midnight until we are one perfect killing machine. The transformation still sends a thrill of pleasure-pain through me as my consciousness expands, merges with something ancient and hungry.
We leap from our perch, the night air rushing past as we swing between buildings, following the faint psychic trace the symbiote can sense of its former host. Parker may have rejected my other, but some connection remains, enough for us to hunt her.
Enough for us to end her. But only when the time is right.