Keri Arthur - Circle of Desire

"No." Luke raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "Just curious." Now was not the time to question his brother. Not when the ambulances would soon be leaving.

Luke half turned away, then stopped. "You were seventeen when you met Jacinta. Neither of us was as wise or as worldly as we thought we were, and she knew a good catch when she saw it."

Arguments he'd heard before. Arguments he was only just beginning to understand. "Go be with Janie."

Luke glanced toward the ambulance, then met Ethan's gaze again. "You spent six moons with Jacinta, yet you were never tempted to perform that ceremony with her.

You might have loved her, Ethan, but you weren't in love with her. Not in the way the moon demands."

"I think I'm beginning to realize that."

"About time."

"Always was a slow learner." He pushed his brother toward the waiting ambulances. "Go see her before the ambulance leaves. We can talk later."

"With your lady in tow, I hope."

"Yes," he said. Hoped.

Mark approached as Luke walked away. "What's happened to our two psychics?"

"They're going after the thing behind all this."

Mark stopped and thrust his hands into his jacket pocket.

"You do know Benton wants this woman caught and behind bars."

"You and I know that no jail will ever hold this thing."

"Maybe." Mark studied him for a moment, expression giving little away. "We found a fingerprint match for that dead guy you had me check out at the morgue."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Apparently he died 25 years ago. The coroner's report suggests he died much the same way as that old man we found at the farmhouse in Rogue River."

So it wasn't just any old dead the soul sucker was raising, but her ex-lovers. The poor bastards weren't even allowed peace in death. "She's been killing a lot longer than that, my friend."

"That won't matter to Benton."

"I don't care if it matters to Benton. The only thing I care about is stopping the killing."

Mark nodded and glanced over his shoulder. "Benton's headed this way. If you have any intention of going back to help those ladies, I'd leave now."

By the time he got there, over an hour would have passed. Anything could have happened. "Thanks partner."

As the captain made his way past the ambulances and toward Ethan, he quickly climbed into his car. He caught a glimpse of Benton's familiar red face.

"Goddamn it Morgan, get your ass back here!"

Ethan closed the door on Benton's shout, thrust the car into gear and sped away. And prayed to the moon that he got there before the change hit him.

Prayed that he had something — someone — to go back to.

Kat thrust the last of her weapons into the specially designed tool belt around her waist then tossed the empty backpack on top of her grandmother's. Gwen stood in front of the concealed entrance, murmuring softly as she undid the soul sucker's magic. Kat cast another look around the cavern. So far, it had been almost too easy.

The zombies she'd stacked on top of each other still slept and would continue to do so for another four or five hours, thanks to the extra sleep bombs they'd released.

She'd tossed a couple more down the tunnel, just in case, but Gwen had been certain nothing else waited down there.

But something did wait behind the stone wall in front of them.

She couldn't tell what it was. It wasn't the soul sucker, but it had the same sense of evil. Gwen waved her hand and stepped back. The stone shimmered briefly then faded away, revealing the darkness of another tunnel.

Kat flicked on her flashlight. Whoever — whatever — was down there in that darkness had to know they were near, so she couldn't see the point in feeling their way through the ink any longer.

"The air stinks," Gwen commented.

Stink wasn't a strong enough word. It smelled as if a hundred dead men were disintegrating down there. "I'll go first."

Kat edged into the tunnel. The floor sloped downward, heading deep into the heart of the mountain, and the darkness was so intense it felt like a living thing. Slime hung from the ceiling in long tendrils that brushed wet fingers across the top of her head as she moved forward, and in the distance it seemed to glow luminously. She swept the flashlight's beam up and down the walls, wondering why the air was becoming more and more humid when the rocks were so wet and cold.

Water dripped somewhere ahead, a steady rhythm that almost sounded like a heartbeat. Though she could still feel the evil, there was no sound of movement, no sense of anything else. Only that steady beat.

They walked on, their footsteps echoing across the stillness. The beam of her flashlight was almost moon bright against the darkness, but it didn't seem to penetrate more than a few feet ahead. The smell of meat long gone rancid got stronger, clogging her throat, invading her pores, until it felt like every breath was poison, and she was certain she'd throw up.

"Put on your mask," Gwen advised. "It helps a little."

She did, and it did. "Any idea what that smell is?"

"No. It's not zombie, that's for sure."

Any zombie that smelled this bad would be losing pieces of itself as it walked. "What about that beating noise?"

"I don't know."

Kat brushed aside a long green tendril. They were beginning to curtain the path, slapping and clawing at her clothes like live things. A soft thrum began to accompany the heartbeat dripping, and magic swirled through the heat, dancing like fireflies across her skin. Sweat dripped down her face and back, its cause not just the furnace conditions but fear.

"I suspect we're getting close to the soul sucker's hatching ground," Gwen murmured. "Be careful."

If she was any more careful she'd be standing still. "Did you ever find out how exactly this thing breeds?"

"No. The text Seline found turned out to be a false hope.

All it really did was reinforce the belief that what kills a vampire will kill a soul sucker."

" If we can get it in human form."

"If," Gwen agreed.

The slope began to ease off, until they were walking on level ground. Kat slowed further. Light glowed up ahead, but it wasn't the greenish fire of the surrounding slime, more a sickly red luminescence.

Her stomach began to churn. Ahead something stirred as if agitated, followed by a sloshing sound. She stopped, not liking the feel of what lay ahead. Not wanting to discover the horror she sensed she'd discover.

But standing here shaking was achieving nothing. She grabbed a silver knife from her belt and edged forward.

This close to that odd red glow, the mossy tendrils had become dry and harsh, so that it felt like she was forcing her way through a forest of dead fingers.

She pushed through the last veil and stopped. The cavern before them was small and round. Fire burned in several stone circles, and it was their sickly radiance that warmed the room. The thrumming she'd sensed earlier was stronger here and seemed to ebb and flow in time to the dancing flames. That odd sounding heartbeat had two echoes, and the noise set her teeth on edge. Magic flowed around her, through her, and the sparks skipping across her skin were almost painful.

The floor was sand rather than stone, and spotted with wide black globs she sensed were old blood. But from what? Heart suddenly in her mouth, she looked up.

And discovered not only the reason for the smell, but the way the soul sucker bred.

Men hung from the ceiling. They weren't zombies simply because they were still alive — and being eaten from the outside in by the creatures in the silky white sacks attached to each of their stomachs.

Kat's stomach finally rebelled. She staggered to the side and vomited. Gwen handed her the water canteen then moved further into the cavern. "They look like caterpillars," Gwen said, her voice a mix of horror and fascination. "But they have human faces."