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A second scream followed. The air around her burned, and the tremor was more noticeable this time. Evil was an express train bearing down on them.
“Gran, I don’t think we’re in a real cave,” Kat said, raising the jar and getting ready to throw.
“No, we’re not,” Gwen responded. “The mara has changed the structure of the mountain to make this cave. It exists only through magic.”
The ground pitched, rolling like an animal in pain. Kat rode the waves and tried not to think about the force of hate and rage and desperation headed their way. Tried not to think about the fact that they still weren’t exactly certain how to kill this thing.
Smoke roiled into the room as Gwen flung holy water at the first of the soul-sucker’s offspring. Kat flicked the top off the jar and hurled the water at the angry, turbulent smoke, keeping it back and away from her grandmother. The air screamed, and the vibrations under their feet became more erratic.
Gwen flung a second vial of water. The smell of burning flesh joined the cauldron of smells, and Kat’s stomach began to heave as violently as the floor. The smoke twisted and writhed, as if it, too, was being burned by the water finishing its offspring. With another scream, it arrowed its way toward Gwen. Kat hit it kinetically, forcing it back again. She grabbed a stake and dove forward, slashing at the soul-sucker with the white ash.
Only to find the stake gripped in a fist of iron as the mara found form. Black eyes gleamed malevolently at her as the soul-sucker snarled, revealing teeth as pointed as any vampire’s. Kat didn’t give the bitch a chance to bite. She thrust her back kinetically, ripped free another stake, wrapped it in energy, and flung it hard. The soul-sucker dodged, but not fast enough. The stake buried itself deep into her thigh—not a deadly wound, but one that pinned the mara to human form.
But a human form that had a vampire’s speed.
With another scream, the soul-sucker blurred, arrowing straight at Gwen.
“Look out!” Kat ripped another jar of holy water free, but the earth rolled and heaved underneath her, and she staggered sideways. She swore, battling to keep her balance as she tossed the water. Most of it soaked Gwen as she rolled out from under the soul-sucker’s grasp.
Wood flashed, and her grandmother screamed. Fear hit Kat like a punch to the gut, and for an instant she couldn’t even breathe. All she could see was the blood flowing freely past the stake that pinned her grandmother’s arm to her side. Kat screamed a denial, grabbed another stake, and launched herself at the mara.
It swung and raised a hand. Energy bit through the air, but Kat hit it with her own, holding the surge in place as she rolled under the flashing flow of power and stabbed upward with the white ash.
Flesh and bone briefly impeded the white ash’s progress. Kat swore and thrust it through kinetically. A shocked look crossed the mara’s face, then the flow of energy died, and so did the soul-sucker.
An explosion rent the air, and the floor’s thrashing became even more violent. With a sob, Kat scrambled toward her grandmother, barely able to see through the tears coursing down her cheeks. The wound in Gwen’s side was bad, blood flowing freely, but the stake had also shattered bone as it had gone through her grandmother’s arm. They wouldn’t be flying out of here—that was for sure. Ripping out the stake, she grabbed a bandage from her belt and thrust it hard against the wound in Gwen’s side.
“Gran?” she sobbed, touching her grandmother’s face, then feeling her neck for a pulse.
Gwen’s eyes opened, the green depths hazy with pain. “Those little pigstickers sure do hurt when they bite into your flesh, don’t they?” She reached up, gently patting Kat’s cheek. “Don’t worry, Kitty-cat. I’ll live to give those kids of yours hell.”
Relief surged along with more tears. “Kid,” she said, helping Gwen into a sitting position. Kat grabbed the last of the bandages and quickly dressed the wound on her grandmother’s arm.
“Nope.” Gwen’s voice was little more than a wheeze. “I did a scrying. It’s twins. Runs in his family, apparently.”
Dust and bits of blackened flesh began to rain on them. Kat glanced up and saw a huge fissure snake across the ceiling. “This place is coming apart.”
Gwen nodded. “The mara’s magic created it and sustained it. Now that she’s dead, there’s nothing to hold it together.”
“Then we’d better get the hell out of here.”
“Best idea I’ve heard yet.”
Gwen pressed her hand against the bandage as Kat slipped her arm under her grandmother’s shoulders. They staggered forward, but any sort of speed was impossible against the pitching floor. It felt like they were wading through a sea of earth. The dust raining down became stone, and Kat swore as chunks got bigger and bigger, forcing them to duck and weave.
Her fear stung the air, and every breath was a rasp that tore at her throat. She was shaking as badly as her grandmother by the time they reached the tunnel. The moss slapped and swayed against them, wrapping around their arms and legs like dried snakes, impeding their progress even further.
They were never going to make it out of here. Not at this speed. There was only one thing she could do … She took a deep breath, then kinetically lifted her grandmother and ran like hell back up the slope.
Behind them, the vibrations erupted, and a deep, rumbling roar that sounded like a wave of water headed their way. Hot air punched her, pushing her forward at knot speed
. She battled to keep upright, battled to keep her grandmother wrapped in kinetic energy and moving far ahead of the immediate danger. But there were madmen in her head, pressing white-hot needles into her brain, and her vision was blurring with pain.
It couldn’t be helped. This was the only way she was going to get both of them out of there alive. Dirt and stone began to dance around her feet, racing her up the tunnel. The roar behind her was getting closer, and the floor cracked and heaved so that it felt like she was climbing unstable steps.
With a clap as sharp as thunder, the roof split and fell. She screamed, flinging up her arms to protect her head as dirt and rock rained down. Stones hit her back with bruising force and she crashed to her knees, tearing her jeans and skinning her knees against the jagged flooring. The madmen in her head were going crazy, and it felt as if her brain were about to tear apart. Her kinetic skills slithered away, and from up ahead came a distant grunt as Gwen hit the ground. Kat hugged her body, rocking back and forth, fighting to breathe and unable to move, yet knowing she had to if she and her grandmother were to survive.
The roar behind her was so close she could feel its approach rumbling across her skin. Waves of moist earth were lapping at her feet, getting thicker and deeper with every rapid breath she took.
