Darkness gives way to sensation, a weight on my hips, wet heat engulfing me, and something thick slithering down my throat. My eyes snap open to find Ellie straddling me, her powerful thighs clamping around my sides as she rides me with savage intensity. Her blonde hair is plastered to her forehead with sweat, and the symbiote ripples across her skin in agitated waves, extending multiple black tendrils into my mouth.
I can't speak. Can't breathe. Can't do anything but lie there as Ellie uses my body like it's her personal salvation. We're in her apartment, exposed brick walls, high ceilings, and minimalist furniture that I barely register through the haze of overwhelming sensation.
"Fuck yes," Ellie moans, her hands splayed across my chest, nails digging into my skin hard enough to draw blood. "Finally, you're breathing again."
The tendrils in my throat pump rhythmically. Each pulse sends a jolt of energy through my broken body, mending tissue, reconnecting synapses, forcing my heart to beat in a steady rhythm.
Ellie leans down, her eyes wild with a mixture of relief and unhinged desire. Her pupils are blown out again. When she kisses me, it's with bruising force, her tongue invading my mouth around the symbiote's tendrils. I taste blood, mine or hers, I can't tell.
My incubus pheromones must be flooding the room, amplified by my near-death experience and the symbiote's desperate attempt to heal me. It's affecting us both far worse than last time, turning what should be a medical procedure into something primal and overwhelming.
With a sudden surge of strength, Ellie grabs my shoulders and rolls us over in one fluid motion. Now I'm on top, staring down at her flushed face, the symbiote still rippling across her skin in waves of midnight black. The tendrils retract from my throat, allowing me to gasp for air.
"Don't just lie there," she growls, her blue eyes blazing with feral intensity. "You have to thrust. Now."
My body responds before my brain can catch up, hips driving forward of their own accord. I couldn't stop myself even if I wanted to, and Lileth help me, I don't want to. Each movement sends electric waves of pleasure-pain through my still-healing body.
"Fuck," I moan, my voice raw and unfamiliar to my own ears.
Ellie matches my sound with a guttural groan that vibrates through her chest and into mine. Her powerful legs wrap around my waist, urging me deeper, harder.
"You're in so much fucking trouble," she pants between thrusts, her hands gripping my biceps hard enough to leave bruises. "What were you thinking? Teleporting that far just to prove a point?"
Even drunk on lust, high on whatever energy my body is producing, she's mad at me. It would be comical if I weren't so close to the edge of consciousness.
"You could have died," she continues, her words punctuated by sharp gasps as I drive into her. "Your heart stopped twice. Twice!"
I try to respond, but all that comes out is another moan as the symbiote tendrils slither across my back, holding me in place, guiding my movements.
"I had to carry your bleeding, broken body across half of Manhattan," she hisses, her nails raking down my back. "Do you have any idea what that was like?"
"Sorry," I manage to gasp, though the word feels woefully inadequate.
Her eyes narrow dangerously, but then roll back as I hit a particularly sensitive spot. "Don't you ever…" she starts, then breaks off with a shuddering moan.
Her hand shoots up suddenly, wrapping around my throat. Despite being beneath me, Ellie's grip tightens with crushing force, her fingers pressing into my windpipe with terrifying precision. My breath catches, not entirely from fear.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again," she growls through clenched teeth.
The pressure increases, and a dark thrill races through me. My hips snap forward with renewed vigor, driving deeper into her as my oxygen slowly depletes. The symbiote writhes beneath her skin, extending her reach, strengthening her grip.
I thrust harder, faster, my body responding to the danger with a surge of primal need. My vision starts to blur at the edges, dark spots dancing across Ellie's face as she watches me with hungry fascination.
"Harder," I rasp, the word barely audible through her stranglehold.
The symbiote responds, tendrils wrapping around my neck, reinforcing her grip. The pressure is exquisite, dancing on the knife-edge between pleasure and oblivion. Each thrust becomes more desperate as my lungs scream for air.
Ellie's back arches beneath me, her expression transforming into something feral and beautiful. "Yes," she hisses, her inner muscles clenching around me rhythmically. "Pour it into me, Steele."
The room tilts and spins as my oxygen-starved brain fires random synapses. I'm cumming before I even realize I'm there, my entire body convulsing in violent release as I gasp desperately against the constriction. The sound that escapes me is primal, barely human.
Ellie follows immediately, her cry of pleasure echoing off the exposed brick walls. Her body shudders beneath mine, powerful thighs locking around my waist like a viser.
Just as my consciousness begins to fade completely, the pressure releases. Air rushes into my lungs in a painful gasp that sends me collapsing onto her chest, trembling and disoriented.
"Jesus Christ," I wheeze, my voice a broken rasp against her skin. "That was..."
"Shut the fuck up," she murmurs, but there's no bite to it. Her fingers thread through my hair, surprisingly gentle after such violence. "Just breathe for a minute."
"I can't believe you just…"
"Shut the fuck up, Shane," she cuts me off, her voice sharper than before. "Jesus. Just fucking breathe."
Her fingers continue stroking my hair, but there's a new tension in her touch. I obey, focusing on pulling air into my abused lungs while my heart rate gradually returns to something resembling normal. The symbiote has withdrawn most of its tendrils from my body, though I can still feel a few monitoring my vital signs like living medical equipment.
We lie there in silence for several minutes, my head rising and falling with each of Ellie's breaths. The apartment is eerily quiet except for our synchronized breathing and the distant hum of New York traffic filtering through the windows.
"So my heart stopped twice, huh?" I finally break the silence, my voice still raspy from her chokehold.
"Yeah," Ellie sighs, her fingers pausing in my hair. "And my other half had to restart it both times." There's an unusual vulnerability in her tone I haven't heard before. "The symbiote kept you alive while I got us somewhere safe."
I lift my head slightly to meet her gaze. "I told you I'd teleport far if you kept fighting."
Her blue eyes flash with renewed anger. "That wasn't a fucking challenge, Shane! Normal people don't risk their lives to break up a fight!" She shoves me off her with enough force to send me tumbling to the other side of the bed.
"Ow! Hey!" I protest, wincing as my still-tender body hits the mattress. Despite the healing, every muscle feels like it's been put through a blender. "Look, it worked, didn't it? You stopped fighting Spider-Woman."
"Because you were literally dying!" Ellie sits up, the symbiote forming a thin black tank top and shorts to cover her nakedness. "Your heart wasn't just stopping, it was tearing itself apart. There was blood coming from your eyes, Shane. Your fucking eyes!"
I let out a disgusted sound, rolling my eyes. "Yuck."
"Yuck?" Ellie's voice rises in pitch, her eyes widening with disbelief. "That's all you have to say? 'Yuck'?"
She sits up straighter, the symbiote rippling across her skin in agitated waves that match her escalating anger. "Take this fucking seriously, Shane! It's like you're just playing around with your life!"
"No," I say firmly, meeting her gaze. "I'm not playing around with my life. I'm very serious about you stopping your idiotic crusade against a hero."
Her face contorts with rage. "She's not even a fucking hero!"
"She is," I counter, pushing myself up despite my body's protests. "And you can be too, Ellie. You have these incredible powers, this connection with the symbiote. You could be doing so much good instead of wasting it on revenge."
Ellie stands abruptly, the symbiote forming proper clothes around her body, black jeans and a tank top, as she paces the hardwood floor. "Get the fuck out," she seethes, pointing toward the door. "Now."
I struggle to my feet, wincing as my still-healing muscles complain. "I like you, Ellie," I say, softer now. "I think we should date. For real."
She whirls around, her blonde hair flying with the sudden movement. "You're fucking toxic," she spits, her voice trembling with emotion. "Fucking trying to put your suicide on me. Get. The. Fuck. Out."
"I think you like me too," I say, taking a tentative step toward her. "And asking you not to kill someone isn't really toxic, you know? That's like... baseline decent human behavior."
For a moment, she just stares at me, her chest heaving with rapid breaths.
The symbiote suddenly lashes out, wrapping around my still-naked body like black lightning. Before I can react, tendrils force my arms into sleeves and my legs into pants, dressing me in what feels like seconds with the clothes i had on earlier.
"Hey!" I protest as the symbiote roughly pulls a shirt over my head. "I can dress myself…"
"Clearly you can't do anything yourself without nearly dying," Ellie snarls, stalking toward me.
Without warning, she scoops me up like I weigh nothing, one arm under my knees and the other supporting my back. The casual display of strength sends an inappropriate thrill through me despite the circumstances.
"Put me down!" I struggle against her grip, but it's like fighting iron bands.
"Gladly," she growls.
Three long strides carry us to her front door, which the symbiote opens with a tendril. With zero ceremony, she deposits me unceremoniously in the hallway outside her apartment, my ass hitting the floor hard enough to make me wince.
"When you decide to grow up and stop using suicide as a negotiation tactic, maybe we can talk," she snaps, looming in the doorway. "Until then, stay the fuck away from me."
The door slams in my face with enough force to rattle the frame, the sound echoing down the empty hallway.
This rejection stings worse than the physical pain of everything my body's been through tonight.
"You know what, Ellie?" I yell, my voice bouncing off the hallway walls. "Your ambivalence towrds me is going to be your downfall!"
I slam my palm against the door, wincing as the impact sends fresh pain shooting up my arm.
"Yeah, maybe I need to grow up," I continue, my voice cracking slightly. "But so do you! Running away from every conversation that challenges you isn't exactly mature!"
I wait for a response, a shout, the door flying open, anything, but there's only silence. After a few seconds, I hear something crash inside the apartment, like she's thrown something against the wall.
At least I got to her.
I sigh, my anger deflating as quickly as it flared up. I push myself away from the door and start limping down the hallway toward the elevator.
Once I'm out in the hallway, I pat my pockets and feel the reassuring bulge of my phone. Thank god. I pull it out, surprised to see it still has battery after everything that's happened tonight.
"Where the hell am I?" I mutter, looking around the unfamiliar hallway. The building seems upscale, exposed brick, industrial lighting fixtures, probably some converted warehouse in a gentrified neighborhood. Definitely not campus housing.
I pull up my maps app and punch in "Empire State University" to get my bearings. The little blue dot of my current location appears somewhere miles from campus. I drag myself toward the elevator.
Outside, the night air hits me like a slap to the face. It's gotten colder since I started my ill-fated run earlier.
I shiver as I continue my journey back to campus, the frigid night air biting through my thin shirt. I'd give anything for my jacket right now, but between teleporting and Ellie's symbiote-assisted medical intervention, it's probably lying in tatters somewhere.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," I mutter, rubbing my arms as I trudge forward.
The city streets are relatively empty at this hour, just the occasional late-night pedestrian giving me strange looks. I must be quite a sight, pale, disheveled, blood still crusting around my nostrils despite Ellie's cleanup efforts.
I'm about halfway back to campus when I notice the shift in atmosphere. The previously empty street now has shadows moving at its edges, figures detaching from darkened doorways. Three women emerge from an alley ahead, their predatory stances making their intentions clear before they even speak.
"Well, well," the tallest one says, her voice carrying the artificial sweetness of someone who's practiced sounding harmless. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing out here all alone?"
They fan out in a semi-circle, blocking my path. The streetlight catches on something metallic in the hand of the woman on the right, brass knuckles, probably. The leader steps closer, her eyes traveling up and down my body with undisguised hunger.
"You lost, sweetheart?" she purrs, reaching out to touch my cheek. "Dangerous neighborhood for a cute boy to be wandering around in."
I should be terrified. Three against one, me already weakened from nearly dying twice tonight. But instead, a strange calm settles over me as I recognize what's about to happen.
"Ladies," I say, unable to keep the resignation from my voice, "I'm having a really shitty night, so if we could just skip to the part where you leave me alone, that would be great."
The woman with the brass knuckles laughs. "Oh, he's got an attitude. I like that."
"Seriously," I continue, backing up a step as the leader's hand moves to my shoulder, "you really don't want to do this."
"I think we do," the third woman says, moving to block my retreat. "Empty your pockets, pretty boy, and maybe we'll just take your money."
The leader's grip tightens on my shoulder, her other hand sliding down my chest. "Or maybe we'll take something else first."
The leader's fingers dig into my shoulder, her face moving closer to mine. I can smell cheap alcohol on her breath as she invades my personal space.
A distant roar echoes through the night air, bouncing between buildings like thunder. The sound makes the hair on my arms stand up. I let out a deep, resigned sigh.
"What the hell was that?" Brass Knuckles whispers, her head whipping toward the sound.
I don't bother looking up. "That would be my extremely possessive, extremely dangerous situationship."
Before any of them can respond, a massive black shape crashes down from above, landing with enough force to crack the concrete. The women scatter like bowling pins, screaming as Venom rises to her full height, those blank white eyes gleaming in the dim streetlight.
"GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF HIM!" she roars, her monstrous jaw unhinging to reveal rows of gleaming teeth.
What follows is almost too fast to track. Venom moves like liquid darkness, lashing out in every direction. Brass Knuckles goes flying into a dumpster with a sickening clang. The leader gets picked up and slammed into the pavement hard enough to leave a small crater. The third woman tries to run, but a black tentacle wraps around her ankle, yanking her backward into Venom's waiting grasp.
In less than ten seconds, all three women are unconscious or moaning in pain on the ground. Not dead, I notice that Venom has shown remarkable restraint by her standards, but definitely regretting their life choices.
"Thanks for following me," I say, unable to keep the smug satisfaction from my voice as I brush imaginary dust from my shoulders.
Venom's massive head whips toward me, those blank eyes somehow conveying absolute fury. "FUCK YOU! I wasn't following you!"
Without another word, Venom leaps upward, powerful legs propelling her onto the side of the nearest building. She scales it with inhuman speed, disappearing over the rooftop and into the shadows of the city skyline.
I stand alone on the sidewalk, surrounded by groaning would-be assailants, my smile growing wider by the second. She was following me. She was worried about me. Hopefully she comes to her senses soon.