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Her stomach began to churn. Ahead something stirred as if agitated, followed by a sloshing sound. She stopped, not liking the feel of this. Not wanting to discover the horror she sensed lay ahead.
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 sacs attached to each of their stomachs.
Kat’s stomach finally rebelled, and she staggered to the side and vomited. Gwen handed her the water canteen, then moved farther into the cavern. “They look like caterpillars,” Gwen said, her voice a mix of horror and fascination. “But they have human faces.”
Kat rinsed out her mouth and spat the water out. “I don’t want to know.”
“These men aren’t in any pain. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
Taking a deep breath, Kat looked up. Her stomach stirred but stayed down. Her grandmother was right. They looked damn near orgasmic. She took another swig of water, then capped the canteen and slung it over her shoulders. “If this thing is similar in makeup to a vampire, then maybe it has the same sort of sexual aura that a vampire has when it feeds on humans.”
“Probably.” Gwen shifted. “Wonder what it needed the kids for, though.”
“Does it really matter at this point?” She let her gaze roam across the men. There were five men hanging feetfirst from the ceiling, but only two had the sacs attached. The other three looked asleep—and were dreaming of sex, if their expressions were anything to go by.
Two children dead, and two larvae created—though the mara had obviously intended to create five offspring.
“Well, of course it did. It’s not like this mara is the only one—” Gwen paused, then swore violently. The trepidation crawling across Kat’s skin sharpened. If her grandmother was swearing that strongly, something was seriously wrong. “What?”
“Their faces. Look at their damn faces.”
She did. And saw what her grandmother had seen. These things were the image of the two dead children.
“That’s what’s she’s using the souls for,” Kat whispered, sickened to the core. “She’s somehow transferring them into her offspring.”
“Yes, and I suspect that’s how a mara gets its human form.”
“Meaning if we kill these things, we’re killing the two kids all over again?”
“No.” Gwen’s gaze was hard as it met Kat’s. “The mara devoured their souls. They are dead, both in this lifetime and future ones. What we see here are grotesque echoes of what they were.”
“Then how—” Kat hesitated, glancing quickly behind her. Though she heard no sound and couldn’t feel the approach of anything evil, she had a vague suspicion they were no longer alone under the mountain.
She backed toward Gwen, knuckles white with the force of her grip on the knife as she watched the cavern’s entrance. “How do we get rid of these larvae?”
Gwen hesitated. “We’re going to have to stake them, then burn their carcasses with the holy water.”
Kat’s stomach was on the move again. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to swallow that extra water. “What about the men those things are feeding on?”
“They’re mostly shifters. Staking should kill both host and parasite.”
Interesting, given that the kids the mara had stolen were also shifters of one kind or another. Maybe she could infuse her young with the echoes of only those who were not human.
Awareness crawled across her skin, sharper than before. She gripped the stake tighter. “Then we’d better hurry, because I’ve got a bad feeling the soul-sucker is headed our way.”
“If she isn’t, she soon will be.” Gwen’s voice was grim. “I’ll handle this. You keep track of the mara.”
Kat stepped out from under the human chandeliers, stopping close to one of the sickly fires. Heat caressed her legs, but it was more magic than actual warmth. Yet it had a different feel than the magic that throbbed all around them.
There was a grunt of effort from her grandmother, followed quickly by a high-pitched, inhuman scream. The cavern seemed to shudder as if in pain, then fury rent the air. Kat pulled a small jar of holy water free from her belt and waited.
