Chapter 4: SWAT team not invited

[moonshadows]

Venom

They are at the door.

Eddie stood up and rubbed his hands on his jeans. “I guess I better let them in, then.”

I will let you do the talking.

“Probably a good idea,” he muttered.

Just then, there was an aggressive knock at the door. When Eddie peered through the peephole, however, the hallway was empty. He opened the door, and immediately three armed toughs in nondescript black clothes muscled their way in, followed by someone Venom recognized.

That is Drake’s chief thug, xie informed Eddie as said thug strolled in and closed the door behind him.

“Hey, Eddie,” the chief thug said casually. “I’m gonna need Mr. Drake’s property back.”

A bubble of wild laughter rose in Eddie’s chest. Maybe it was bleeding over from Venom’s growing excitement; maybe it was the purest form of fatalistic humor in the face of almost-certain death, or perhaps just an ironic warning.

Either way, what came out of his mouth was, “Over my dead body.”

Two of the subordinate thugs immediately drew their firearms and took aim on Eddie’s torso, and he had his hands in the air a heartbeat later.

What are you doing? Venom asked, xir mental voice holding a distinctly disbelieving tone.

“I’m putting my hands up,” Eddie answered nervously.

Why would you do that?

“Because it is a very sensible thing to do,” came the whimpered reply, soaked in the understanding that hands in the air meant ‘don’t shoot’ and Eddie was very, very afraid that they would shoot.

The chief thug was giving them a strange look, somewhere between tolerantly amused and warily skeptical. “Eddie?”

Venom formed a very toothy mental grin. I will take care of this.

“Eddie,” repeated the chief thug in a firmer voice, “where’s the bug?”

Just as he gave the order to ‘take him down’, Venom lashed out with a tendril that was an extension of Eddie’s arm, tossing one goon out the window. The other wrapped around the second goon and flung him into the ceiling, only to whip him to the floor hard enough that something cracked wetly. Before the last two men could react, xie reached out and grabbed both of them with tendrils. The chief thug got slammed into his subordinate and released, but the third goon…

The tendrils reached through his eye sockets, and Venom hissed in delight as xie sucked the delicious filling out of his crunchy, crunchy head.

The chief thug rushed Eddie, but Venom caught him by the throat.

“I’m so sorry about your friends,” Eddie said in a voice that couldn’t decide if it was terrified or giddy.

Then Venom hurled him into a wall.

For a moment, it looked like they were victorious, but in the next breath two more goons burst in and Venom had to act fast to keep xir host from being perforated by bullets. The table was sacrificed as a disarming distraction, and Venom gleefully formed an oversized fist to crush the throat of one before tossing the other onto the stirring body of his superior.

Outstanding, xie purred as xie relinquished control, mentally salivating at the thought of the feast xie would have. Now, let’s bite all their heads off and pile them up in the corner.

Eddie whimpered again. “Why would we do that?”

What kind of silly question was that? Pile of bodies, pile of heads. Really, wasn’t it obvious? What else did you do with the bodies of your defeated foes?

Thudding footsteps suggested xie would not have time to feast, however, and Eddie was growing nervous about the physical safety of his belongings. While the symbiote slammed the first of the reinforcements against the door across the hall, Eddie dashed for the stairs-

Not that way.

-only to skid on the floor and dash away from the armed thugs on the stairs. As he helplessly repeated the word ‘no’ in frantic protest, Venom threw his body through the window at the end of the hall and lashed out to catch the balcony of a neighboring building, swinging xir panicking host to safety. Then they were dashing through that building, knowing they were being followed but hoping they were at least confusing their trail.

When they burst out of an exit opening onto an alley, Eddie’s heart leaped. His motorcycle, his beloved motorcycle, was waiting for him and the goons were not. Venom sat back as xir host mounted the bike in a fluid, confident motion and peeled out into the darkened streets. He may not be good at running and dodging and fighting, he thought, but this – riding his motorcycle as though he and the speeding machine were one – this, he was good at, and it made his heart sing, the terror spinning itself into more familiar excitement.

It wasn’t long before they were being followed – no, chased – by a black SUV.

You drive, Venom commanded, turning xir attention to xir own senses and not the human’s. I will keep us safe.

“I sure hope you’re right,” Eddie whimpered, achingly aware that he wasn’t wearing his helmet and if they crashed, his brains would wind up painted all over the road.

Faster now, they zipped through traffic, weaving between slower-moving vehicles as small, flying machines chased them. Venom lashed some out of the air and others slammed into obstacles. Xie wasn’t sure what they were for, but Eddie seemed to think they were monitoring devices so xie kept knocking them off-course when they got close enough. Eddie was doing a remarkable job keeping them moving at exhilarating speeds, weaving gracefully in and out of lanes, and finally they’d destroyed the last of the little flying machines. The SUV had long since lost their trail.

Then another two screamed around a corner, just as they passed into an emptier section of the city.

“Oh, yeah!” shouted Eddie. “We got more friends! Awesome!”

It was not awesome, his mind was shrieking. He was, in fact, terrified. But he was conveniently bleeding a map of the city streets for Venom to peruse, and the symbiote coated his hands to partially control their direction. One sharp left later, they were speeding up a steep hill and Eddie was screaming because they were going much faster than was wise, with the way the hill was at the top-

The bike left the road. They left the bike. Venom reached out with more tendrils to pull them back together and steady them as they landed again.

Sorry.

Eddie just whimpered.

Then they were racing for their goal: a dead end with a railing and another street beneath it.

“That is a dead end!” Eddie shouted, just to make sure his passenger had gotten the point.

Venom purred. Not for us.

Tendrils launched the bike over the railing; the SUVs chasing them crashed through it. Venom’s excitement infected Eddie for a second time, making him grin as they once again sped through traffic with only one of the vehicles following them. Then they were rushing toward a line of cars rudely blocking the intersection, but Venom ensured that they squeezed through a gap.

The SUV didn’t even slow down, and Eddie didn’t turn to see what was happening as metal screeched and glass shattered behind him.

The two SUVs they’d thought they’d lost converged on the bike, and Venom was hard-pressed to keep xir squishy host from getting pressed as they got too close.

“I am going to die!”

You are not going to die!

The human wanted to believe that, he really did. Exerting xirself greatly, Venom broke the windows of the SUVs and forced them to drive off at opposing angles, crashing into cars parked on either side of the street. They were free-

Another black SUV lunged out of a side-street and the motorcycle crashed into it, hurling Eddie into the air with visions of his brains splattered all over the street. Venom curled around xir host desperately, absorbing most of the brutal impact as they hit and bounced and rolled, but there was still some structural damage.

While Eddie lay on the road groaning and Venom tried to mend what had been broken, the chief thug stepped out of the SUV. “I got him,” he announced into a hand-held device.

“Bring him home,” said a voice from inside the device.

Drake.

The thug knelt down. “You have been a serious pain in the ass for me, Eddie,” he hissed.

“Don’t look at me,” Eddie panted. “It was all him. I’m just along for the ride.”

Venom wrapped a tendril around the thug’s neck again, but this time, xie went deeper and sucked some of the sweetness out of a couple internal organs as xie put xir host’s legs back together. Then xie enveloped xir host completely, something that warned xir they needed to end this very quickly and separate before they wound up completely bonded.

The thug was struggling.

“Eyes, lungs, pancreas,” Venom growled, pulling words for organs out of the memories of Skirth talking about xir dying hosts. “So many snacks, so little time.”

But before xie could begin to feast, there was a detonation from behind xir and something slammed into xir back. One of the subordinate thugs had actually fired on xir and xir precious, fragile host! Venom tossed the chief thug aside and lunged, biting the goon’s crunchy, delicious head off and devouring it.

A shout of “S-F-P-D, don’t move!” was, according to Eddie, a peacekeeper and an innocent. Not food, especially not with how revolted the human was at feeling Venom eat xir crunchy treat.

Xie ran.

They were close to a bridge; Venom made straight for it and leaped into the dark water – only to lash out with tendrils and quickly pull xirself and xir shivering host up into the dark under-structure of the bridge.

The ‘police’ had the entire area surrounded quickly, with lights and sirens and a great deal of chatter as bystanders gathered and traffic snarled.

Now what? Eddie asked silently.

Venom huffed. I was hoping you would have an idea.

 

Anne

I won’t be any help to you, Dan had insisted while she was on the phone with Dr. Skirth. So she’d dropped him off at the hospital for his shift and immediately turned around to pick up her pizzas…and her new friend.

Having Venom recognize Skirth by name was…interesting…but this whole day had been weird and Anne suspected that she was as calm about it as she was mostly because Venom saw the whole symbiote/host thing as completely normal. And actually, having memories left in her head was turning out to be useful. On her own, she wouldn’t trust Skirth – not after Drake used her like that – but Venom…Venom did, or at least, he trusted Skirth to be on his side rather than Drake’s, and that was a fascinating thing to learn.

She wondered how Skirth would react to hearing about everything that had happened that day.

There was a parking space free in front of the pizza place, which was a blessing. Anne snatched it up and jumped out, the bell above the door ringing as she walked inside. “Pickup for Weying,” she announced as an employee hurried to the cash register, and a nervous-looking woman with dark hair fell in beside her. Anne paid, the man handed over two pizzas, and the woman she assumed was Dr. Skirth accepted them. They walked out to the car in silence, Anne opening the passenger door for her guest before climbing back into the driver’s seat, and then she spoke.

“Dr. Skirth, I presume?” she asked as she pulled back out into traffic.

“Call me Dora, please,” the other woman answered.

Anne nodded. “Alright, and call me Anne. If you’re hungry, help yourself to whatever the second pizza is. I’m heading to Eddie’s apartment now,” she said as the other woman immediately dug into the top pizza box. “Venom said he’d keep Eddie safe, but…”

Dora swallowed her bite of supreme pizza. “Venom?”

“A-zero-one. The black symbiote, the one that escaped.”

“It has a name?”

“And a preference for male pronouns,” Anne clarified. “We…sort of already had that discussion.”

“It-” Dora shook her head. “He can talk? Was it through a host body?”

The memory of that rumbling, growling voice distracted her for a moment, and she almost missed her turn. “He did speak through my body, and Eddie’s, but he can also communicate directly with his host.”

Hurriedly, her passenger swallowed another bite of pizza. “Your body? You were a host?”

“It’s been a weird day,” Anne answered dryly. “Let’s find Eddie and then we can all catch up.”

Dora shook her head. “Yes, of course. If the sy- if Venom is using him as a host, he’s in great danger.”

“Because Drake-”

“Because the symbiotes eat living tissue,” the scientist corrected firmly as they stopped at a red light. “They need to ingest mitochondria to survive. And if they can’t get that from the host’s diet…” She turned to give Anne a solemn look. “…then they get it from the host.”

The light turned green. As Anne accelerated, she thought, Well, that explains the sushi.

“So what are you saying? Venom’s eating Eddie from the inside out?”

“Carlton Drake ordered human trials. In every case, the host’s organs deteriorated as the symbiote ate them to survive. Venom was the most kind about it, delaying death rather than killing his hosts immediately like the other two did, and withdrawing before the host died. Not that it mattered,” she added bitterly. “Drake had the rejected subjects killed to autopsy them for why they had been rejected. Maybe it’s foolish of me to apply human motivations to the actions of a literally alien being, but I want to believe that Venom was showing mercy.”

Anne took a deep breath and signaled for the next turn. “Well, he chose to go with Eddie to his apartment because Eddie saved his life getting him away from Drake, and he said he wanted to return the favor.”

Dora was staring. “That’s…that’s morality. Honor, debt-exchange, gratitude – this is amazing. But still, if Eddie’s been his host this long…”

“He hasn’t,” Anne said sharply, unsure if she was defending Venom or warding off the possibility that he might have hurt Eddie. “I have, since about seven-thirty this morning when I got a craving for sushi. Quarter of noon, I had half a dozen raw oysters. And then,” she added with a note of repressed hysteria and disbelief, “I ate a live lobster.”

Again, Dora was staring, and she shook her head. “You’re right. It has been a weird day.”

 

There were police keeping everyone away from Eddie’s apartment. Shots had been fired, lots of shots, and there were at least three corpses – but none of them were Eddie. One of the officers told Anne that they couldn’t tell her more; there was a high-speed chase going on elsewhere, and several accidents as a result.

Then a new report came in, a slightly-hysterical officer insisting that a giant black monster had bit someone’s head off and then fled the scene to dive into the bay. Helpfully, he announced the location where this had happened.

Anne and Dora retreated to the car and drove off.

By the time they got to the bridge, of course, the place was a crime scene swarming with police and POLICE LINE – DO NOT CROSS tape setting up a perimeter. Dora stayed in the car, partially to guard it and partially because she was still eating, while Anne went to see what information she could get.

Nothing, it turned out, because the crowd was too thick for her to even get through. She stood at the edge, feeling tears prick at her eyes and hating it, hating this, because here she was, trying desperately to find her estranged ex-fiancé and the alien symbiote who had promised to protect him but who might actually be eating his organs and she had zero proof that either of them were actually here, this was just the last place they’d been sighted. And what if Venom hadn’t been able to protect Eddie? What if he was laying in a ditch somewhere, bleeding to death, and Venom had run off with someone else? What if she never saw Eddie again, what if-

“Annie?”

The sound of her name in Eddie’s voice, Eddie’s I know I fucked up but please don’t be angry voice, broke into the spiral of her terrified thoughts and she whirled, arms wrapped crushingly tight around him before his appearance even registered. She wanted to greet him, to express relief that he wasn’t dead, but she was crying into his…dripping wet hoodie…and she didn’t care, she honestly didn’t give a single fuck about what she might be doing to her clothes. Eddie was alive, he was okay, he was hugging her desperately back and Venom had made good on his promise to protect him.

“We have to get you out of those wet clothes,” she said unsteadily as Venom shifted under her skin and the sobbing eased. “I have an emergency blanket in the back, and we brought pizza.”

We? You do not mean Dan.

“Wait a second. I thought Dan had to work,” Eddie was saying, making no move to let go of her until she let go of him first. “Who texted me back?”

Reluctantly, Anne unwrapped her arms from around Eddie’s chest and swiped at her eyes, resolving to leaving a glowing review for the case that had protected Eddie’s phone after a dip in the bay. “Who did you text?”

“You, to let you know we were under the bridge and didn’t know how to get back because of all the cops…but someone texted me back saying you were already here on the edge of the crowd and…hey, did I hear you say pizza? Because I am starved.”

Shakily, Anne laughed. “Get in the car and tell Dora to give you the other pizza. I’ll get the blanket.”

Dora? Who is- ahhh, Skirth. Yes, good, I am looking forward to speaking with her.

Yeah, well, she’s pretty focused on the idea that you were snacking on Eddie’s organs, Anne replied as she led Eddie to the car and wrapped him up in the wool blanket she kept for emergencies. And if you have… She let the sentence trail off silently, trusting that the symbiote would feel the depths of her emotions.

I did snack on organs during our adventure, Venom replied, but they were not his.

Okay then.

One last adjustment to make sure Eddie was swaddled and buckled in and able to stuff pizza into his mouth without help, and Anne gave in to the temptation to take his face in her hands and kiss his forehead before forcing herself to let go and climb back into the driver’s seat.

“To the hospital?” Dora asked pointedly, and Anne didn’t care enough to argue.

“Sure,” she sighed, all her worry draining away now that Eddie was safe in the back seat. “To the hospital.”

 

Eddie’s motorcycle was more fun.

Anne rolled her eyes, “Eddie’s motorcycle wouldn’t carry us all.”

Dora looked over at her. “Is…he…?”

“Talking to me? Yeah.” She looked in the rear-view mirror. “Eddie? You okay back there?”

He gave her a stricken look. “Shit, my bike. We left it – the police are gonna trace it back to me.”

“The police are going to report it stolen and you’re going to file an insurance claim,” Anne told him firmly. “You were with us all night. Someone shot up your apartment. And you left your helmet; the bike was clearly stolen and the thief crashed it, but you had nothing to do with any of that.”

That is not what happened.

“Sometimes it’s not what happened,” she retorted. “It’s what you can prove.”

From the back seat, Eddie muttered, “You’re scary, Annie. That’s hot.”

Your pulse quickened. You enjoy his attentions. Why are you with Dan and not him?

Anne’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “I’m not discussing that right now. Go digging through my memories and we’ll talk about it later.”

Deal.

“You’re being remarkably calm about this,” Dora said curiously. “I mean – you’re hosting an actual, real-live alien and you’re experiencing symbiosis! Aren’t you even a little excited?”

“I had eight trays of supermarket deli sushi for breakfast and ate a live lobster,” she retorted dryly. “I think I skipped straight from confusion to acceptance.”

That is a side effect of the bonding process. Venom sounded…slightly guilty? Once the process is complete, you will feel mild withdrawal symptoms if I am not inside you.

“Apparently that’s part of the process,” she told Dora. “A side effect of the bond. And here I thought it was a side effect of dating Eddie,” she added with a smile for the rear-view mirror.

Eddie wasn’t looking at her.

Maybe it was just the long day he’d had, the fact that he’d been chased down and probably nearly died multiple times, the dunk in the bay, or food coma from having stuffed half a pizza into his belly, but justified distraction or not, the fact that he wasn’t looking at her sent her adrenaline spiking because she knew, she just knew, something was wrong.

He was prepared to die for you, although he was terrified of the possibility. I told him that you would be crushed by his death.

Venom was right, but that brought up the whole tangle that was her relationship with Eddie. Why are you trying so hard to fix us up? Anne thought furiously.

It is as I told him: bonding with a compatible host means I live vicariously through you. I will taste with your mouth, feel with your skin, and share your emotions. If you are unhappy, then so am I.

Suddenly, she realized that life for a symbiote was depressingly empty without a host. There was nothing in Venom’s body that would produce physical sensations outside of pain, and his sensory perceptions were devoid of color. He was like the ghost of a baby who’d died before it could really live, doomed to an eternity of sharing other people’s lives, and he was already emotionally invested in her…

…and Eddie.

Is that because I love him?

Venom squirmed guiltily before he responded. Not entirely. He came to Drake’s facility seeking a vanished friend, only to witness her death as I transferred from her to him. That was the first act of compassion I had witnessed from your species. I sought out another compatible host so that I would not burden him with a lifetime of being bonded to his friend’s killer. He has…a great capacity for selflessness.  The symbiote seemed humbled by that.

Anne found herself smiling fondly, an expression she hadn’t worn for six months. Yeah, he’ll give someone his last twenty and realize after the fact that he needed the money for himself. Drives me crazy trying to get him to take care of himself, but yeah – he has a big heart and I wouldn’t change that about him for anything.

In silence, they drove the rest of the way to the hospital.

 

There was no way for them to sneak Eddie into the hospital, not and be able to run him through the tests Dora wanted, so they went with brazen audacity and said that he’d been at the Life Foundation when an incident occurred and Dr. Skirth needed to use the hospital’s equipment to check him out because theirs had been…damaged…in the incident. Anne invoked Dan’s authority to run the tests, and the girl behind the check-in counter decided she wasn’t being paid enough to keep them out.

“Alright,” she said as she typed into her computer. “I’ll just need Mr. Brock’s insurance card.”

Eddie, still wrapped in the blanket and looking miserable, started to stammer out that he didn’t have it, but Anne held up one hand and he went silent.

“Right here,” she told the girl, fishing the appropriate card out of her wallet and handing it over.

“You…” Eddie didn’t finish the question, but the look he gave her was someone without hope begging for an explanation, and it made her heart ache.

“I always keep a copy of your insurance card on me,” she answered quietly, unable to meet his eyes. “Just in case. Especially after the time that hobo stabbed you and stole your wallet.”

“You kept me on your insurance?” he asked in a rusty voice.

The words were like a dagger to the chest. Did he really think…? Well, she hadn’t ever actually explained, had she? Guilt kept her eyes down as she nodded because this was on her, this was her fault, she’d done this to him by just assuming he knew what she was thinking.

“Why?” It was barely a whisper.

All the things she couldn’t say swarmed up. She swallowed them back down and forced herself to look at him, the man she’d hurt so badly that he had to ask why she’d kept him on her insurance.

“Why wouldn’t I?” she countered quietly.

Eddie looked away.

They were taken in rather quickly, Eddie ushered away to change into a hospital gown while Anne left Dora to conduct the tests and ran his clothes under the hand dryer in the bathroom until they were dry. He was transferred to a private room to wait for the results, and seeing him in the hospital bed really drove home how thin and tired and just exhausted he looked. Venom echoed her concern silently, but she couldn’t tell whose guilt she was feeling. She sat beside the bed and took his hand, rubbing her thumb over the backs of his fingers, and he gave her a wan little smile as he squeezed her hand. It was the sort of smile she expected to see in a movie, when the love interest or important family member is dying and trying to convince the protagonist to go on without them, and she absolutely did not like seeing it on Eddie’s scruffy, too-thin face.

While Dora got absorbed by whatever she was checking on her phone, Eddie dozed off and left Anne alone with her guilt…and her passenger.

I have looked through your memories, he said in as subdued a rumble as she’d heard from him yet. Drake threatened you, and to save yourself, you separated yourself from him.

If you’re going to chew me out for doing it, you’re too late, she snapped back.

No. I can see that this decision hurt you almost as much as it hurt him. But surely, when we kill Drake, his threat will be lifted and you can-

Can what, get back together? she thought bitterly. I’m in a relationship with Dan. I can’t just toss him to the side, and I don’t want to. I like living with him, I like the relationship we’ve built.

But it does not make you happy.

It makes me…content.

But not happy. Eddie makes you happy.

I can’t live with him again, she thought with a mental shudder, hurling months and years of domestic frustration at the symbiote: Eddie insisting on doing his share of chores but never doing them, Anne nagging him repeatedly before just doing them herself. It would have been less stressful for her to just do them in the first place, but he insisted and she let him and it was just a whole spiral of stress in their relationship.

Venom went silent, gnawing at the paradox of wanting desperately to be with the man who drove her crazy but made her happy and, at the same time, not wanting to give up the clean, organized relationship with the man who was so understanding and supportive. They functioned like two halves of a well-oiled machine, her and Dan, and after the frustration trying and failing to get into sync with Eddie, it was grounding and refreshing. But at the same time, she missed the warm chaos, the dizzy affection, the very liveliness that was having Eddie Brock in her life.

How could she choose between them? How could she look at either of them and turn away?

Take them both, Venom suggested.

Humans don’t do that, she snapped. We’re a monogamous species.

But you have been with two mates.

Not at the same time!

You care for both of them. It is a cultural taboo to not take two mates at once, not a biological one.

Even if I could change the culture to allow me to have both of them, I don’t know if Eddie even wants me back, much less if it means sharing me.

A nurse poked her head in to announce that Dr. Lewis would be in momentarily with Mr. Brock’s test results.

“Do you think I could…get my clothes back?” Eddie asked tiredly when the nurse vanished again.

Guiltily, Anne dropped his hand and fumbled for them. “Of course. Here – there’s a bathroom, you can change- do you need help getting there?”

Studiously not looking at her, he took the clothes and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “No…no. I’ll be fine. Thanks.”

In silent anguish, she watched him shuffle into the bathroom and then stared at the door until it opened again, hastily averting her eyes before they locked with Eddie’s.

“Venom,” Dora asked suddenly, not raising her eyes from her phone, “the yellow symbiote – what happened?”

Venom stirred, and Anne mentally backed away. “Phage grew desperate and tried to escape,” he said shortly.

“So Phage was the yellow one, and the blue one…?”

“Toxin.”

Dora looked up and pinned Anne/Venom with a remarkably accusing look. “And who was it that escaped in the crash?”

“What crash?” asked Dan, closing the door behind him.

“That was Riot,” Venom said slowly. Anne could feel that this was a subject he was uncomfortable with, but not why.

Dora nodded. “Riot. I see. And when were you going to mention that your friend was loose on a six-month killing spree in Malaysia?”

“Riot is NOT my friend!” Anne’s hands were clenched with Venom’s wrath, and she had the distinct impression her face had changed briefly, something Dora’s startled expression confirmed. “Riot is a bully who enjoys hurting others.”

Eddie raised one hand tentatively. “Yeah, uh. About that – you seemed to be enjoying yourself fighting off Drake’s goons, so…you wanna clarify that position?”

“Riot leads a faction who believe that war and destruction is the purpose of our race,” growled the symbiote. “They see us as being superior, and all other races as no more than food and tools. I am looked down on because I have not forgotten that we are meant to be partners with our hosts, not masters who have enslaved them. Riot will no doubt seek us out to see why we have not begun a reign of death and destruction, and berate us for not breaking free of our imprisonment. Yes, I enjoy combat. Were I of Riot’s ilk,” he added pointedly, “I would have devoured Eddie and left his corpse behind while I transferred to the next human I saw. Instead, I sought a compatible host because I intend to live here instead of just laying waste to everything around me!”

And yet, Anne thought, there was a thread of guilt behind Venom’s words. Guilt and…fear?

Dora was holding her hands up. “Okay, okay. Dr. …Lewis?”

“Dan, please.” He stepped forward to offer her a hand, and they shook.

“Dora Skirth. You have Eddie’s test results?”

“Yes,” Dan said, all business except for the little frown line between his eyebrows that showed Anne he was worried. Very worried. “I don’t know what happened to Eddie at the Life Foundation, but you were right to bring him in. Every test we ran, every major organ and muscle group except the brain, shows signs of widespread cellular damage and a mitochondrial decrease of ten to thirty-five percent. I-”

“Do not listen to him!” Venom blurted, panicking silently behind Anne’s eyes. “I can fix it!”

“…I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dan finished with a curious but wary look in her direction.

“I have,” Dora said in a hard voice. “In every homeless person Drake shoved at a symbiote, seeking a compatible host. You should test Anne, she-”

“I have not harmed her!”

“No, but you snacked on me, didn’t you?” Eddie asked.

The look he directed at her – not at her, at Venom – was a mix of resignation and betrayal, and the symbiote quivered with anguished guilt. “I was starving. I took only the minimum, and carefully. I had no desire to hurt you-”

“But you did it anyway.” The words held an edge of anger, but Anne knew he was hurt, badly hurt, and either he was going to lash out verbally or retreat to work through his emotions alone. “I guess when you promised you’d keep me safe, you meant from everything but you.”

Inside her own head, Anne flinched and Venom cringed. Eddie was brushing past Dan, reaching for the door, and Venom-

“No!” she shouted, wresting control back and using her own anger to ward off the symbiote’s impulse to reach out with a tendril and hold the door shut. “Let him go! Let Eddie leave,” she repeated, fists clenched and chest heaving with the internal struggle. “He needs space to think. You’ll only make it worse if you stop him.”

It had been one of their first fights as a couple – Anne had thought he was storming away, throwing a fit like a child, but he just needed to sort out how he felt and he’d come back when he was ready to talk. Venom retreated, chastised that his host had reacted so strongly, and she focused on the world outside of her head in time to see Eddie meet her eyes and nod slightly.

“Thanks, Annie,” he said softly, and then the door was swinging shut behind him.

Dora was looking at her in awe. “Did you just…yell him down?”

“It’s a lot more effective from the inside,” she said, sitting back down and massaging her temples.

Dan laid Eddie’s folder on the bed and sat on one corner. “I feel like I’m missing a part of the story.”

Anne made a you-go-first gesture at Dora.

“I snuck Eddie into the lab early this morning,” she started primly. “Turned off the security system so he could take pictures without getting caught. I can only assume he tried to break his friend Maria out, but she’d been Venom’s host for a week and he was…maybe not starving but very, very hungry. They don’t starve the way we do. Their mass decreases, and I assume at some point they lose higher thought processes if it decreases too much. We discovered Maria’s corpse outside her observation chamber. Eddie was nowhere to be found, thankfully, and there had been so much widespread destruction that it looked like Venom had broken himself out.”

“You’re right on both counts,” Anne told her. “Venom was extremely hungry and if his mass drops too much, he’ll revert to a feral state. Eddie said he woke up on the fire escape of the courthouse. I was there early dropping some papers off, and I assume-”

You are correct.

“-okay, Venom confirmed that’s when he left Eddie and went into me instead. Eddie woke up feeling horrible and when he read Dora’s texts, assumed the escaped symbiote was in him because he was missing time and hurt all over and had weird food cravings.” She prodded him, but he refused to speak for himself and she sighed. “Venom took control of Eddie’s body and…snacked…on him before using him to escape. But he was telling the truth, he did take only the bare minimum and he did his best to not damage Eddie’s body because he wanted Eddie to survive the experience, and he feels pretty terrible about having used Eddie like that.”

“So it was mercy,” murmured Dora.

Dan raised his hand. “I just have one question. Venom?”

The symbiote squirmed, and Anne sighed again. “He’s listening.”

“You said you could fix it. Were you telling the truth?”

At Anne’s prodding, Venom reluctantly took control. “I can fix it. It will require heavy feeding beforehand, but I can replace what was taken.”

“I want to have him under medical supervision for that,” Dan said in a tone that brooked no argument. “Make sure his cells can withstand being punctured a second time.”

“Agreed,” Venom said in a subdued growl. “I truly do not wish to harm him further.”

“Good. Once Eddie cools down…?” Dan raised his eyebrows, silently asking if that’s what would happen, and Anne nodded. “Once Eddie cools down, we can discuss treatment with him.”

Dora cleared her throat. “While we’re waiting…have there been any bodies found in the airport?”

“Now that you mention it, there was one body found in a women’s bathroom…” Dan trailed off. “Oh. Oh, no. You think…”

“Riot.”

A chill ran down Anne’s spine, and she wasn’t sure if it was hers or Venom’s.

“-check the body for cellular damage,” Dan was saying. “Be back in a few.”

The door closed behind him.

“You killed Toxin,” Anne blurted to Dora. “How did you do it?”

The scientist blinked. “Sound. I salvaged part of the security system after I figured out the alarm siren had killed Phage. Don’t tell me you want to track down and kill Riot.”

“Drake has another rocket, right?. Riot will want to bring back a load of his brutal lackeys.”

“And Drake wants Venom back very badly. He’d welcome another symbiote with open arms.” Her eyes widened. “Where’s Eddie?”

“Give me a second and I’ll find out,” Anne said, reaching for her phone. “Eddie hates hospitals. I wouldn’t put it past him to have left.”

It only took a few seconds for her to get ‘find my iPhone’ up and track Eddie’s. He was…

That’s bad.

“What is it?” Dora asked warily.

Anne swallowed a whimper. “He’s moving away from the hospital very quickly, and he’s heading…”

“Oh, no.”

“…towards the Life Foundation.”

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