by Keri Arthur
He scanned the trees ahead, listening intently. Above the noise they were making came the sound of trickling water. He angled that way, and they quickly came out in a clearing.
“We’ll take a breather here,” he said, squatting near the stream.
She dropped down beside him, her shoulder brushing his and sending a flash of desire to his groin. He had a sudden feeling he would always want her, moon or no moon.
But that surely wasn’t love.
And it certainly wasn’t what he’d felt for Jacinta.
The thought made him frown. Why, after all these years of certainty, was he questioning what he’d felt for her? He scooped up some water, rinsing his mouth before drinking. He swept his gaze around the clearing again, then glanced skyward. “We’re only about ten minutes away.”
“Yes.”
She cupped some water in her hands, sucking at it almost greedily. There were shadows under her eyes, tiredness even in the way she held her mouth, and guilt swirled through him. He looked away, wishing, and not for the first time in his life, that he’d been born human rather than wolf. Maybe then she wouldn’t have shadows under her eyes, and he could be free to love her.
“Have you got a cell phone on you?”
His voice was curt, and she frowned as she reached into her pocket.
“Why?” she asked, offering him the phone.
“To call my brother. He’ll want to be there when we hand over the kids.”
She nodded. He dialed Luke’s number and quickly told his brother what was going on. While he couldn’t yet give Luke a location to meet them, he did give him Mark’s number, knowing his partner would pass the information on regardless of what Benton might say.
He hung up, then offered the phone back to Kat, but she didn’t react. Water dribbled down her chin as she stared ahead. Her eyes were distant and unfocused.
“The soul-sucker hungers.” Her voice was as remote as her gaze. “She’s chosen her next victim—a widower who lives near the beach.”
He swore softly, and she blinked. Wariness filled her green eyes again as she looked at him. “We have a choice.”
“We have no choice,” he ground out. “It’s the lives of two little girls weighed against that of an old man.”
“We could split up.”
“You can’t fight that thing alone, and you certainly can’t send your grandmother to fight it alone. And I might not be able to handle what waits in the cavern.”
“I agree.” She studied him for a minute, then rose. “Let’s go.”
He rose with her, but grabbed her arm and pulled her into his embrace.
“What are you doing?” Her question came out as little more than a breathy whisper that stirred through his soul.
“This.” He captured her lips with his own. Kissed her long and passionately. When he finally pulled away, they were both breathing as hard as they had walking up that damn mountain.
She studied him, her lips kiss-swollen, nipples straining against the softness of her sweater. But all she said was, “Why?”
He entwined his fingers through hers. “In case I don’t get a chance to do it again later,” he said, and led her toward the cavern and the things that waited.
KAT PULLED ETHAN TO A HALT BEFORE HE COULD ENTER THE tunnel and tugged the backpack free of his shoulders.
“Take these,” she whispered, handing him some stakes. “Remember that they work against shape-shifters as well as vampires, so be careful with them.”
“I don’t suppose you packed my gun in there, did you?”
His warm breath skated across her skin, and a tremor of desire ran through her. “No,” she replied. “Sorry, I didn’t even think about it.”
He grunted. “I wish you had. I’d much rather have it in my hands than a few damn stakes.” But his gaze settled on her breasts, and she had a feeling that given the choice, he’d much rather have her in his hands.
She flicked a finger across his nose. When he looked up, she said, “Concentrate.”
He didn’t smile. Didn’t do anything but watch her with those hungry eyes of his.
She licked her lips and regretted it the minute his gaze dropped to her mouth. “I’ve also got some sleep bombs in here, and hopefully we’ll be able to use those.” She handed him a mask. “Don’t take it off until we get back out of the cavern, because these sleep bombs affect zombies and shifters.”
He put it on, pushing it down until it was around his neck. His hand closed around hers, so warm and strong and safe somehow. Her gaze met his, and what she saw went far beyond just caring. But it was a lie, she thought, and she looked away.
His fingers touched her chin, gently drawing her gaze to his again, then he leaned forward and brushed the sweetest of kisses across her lips.
“Be careful in there,” he whispered. “I’ll lead until we get to the cave where the girls are.”
She nodded and swallowed the anguish that rose in her throat. How could he have committed his heart and his soul to Jacinta and be so caring, so gentle, so damn loving, toward her? It didn’t make any sense.
She followed him into the cavern, and the darkness quickly swallowed them. A hush descended. The deeper they walked, the cooler the air got. Up ahead, water fell, a rush of sound that had her suddenly wanting to go to the bathroom. Or maybe the growing knot of fear in her stomach was the reason behind that.
The sound of footsteps came from beyond the rush of water. Someone was moving around. Ethan slowed. Warm light danced ahead, but it was oddly distorted, as if viewed through a moving curtain. She blinked and realized she was seeing the light of a torch through a waterfall.
He glanced at her and held up two fingers, then pointed to the left and the right. She untangled her fingers from his and edged forward until the spray of the water danced a chill across her skin.
She knelt and swung the pack off her back. Two zombies stood guard rather than two shifters, and she couldn’t help feeling relieved. In the long run, zombies were a far easier foe.
She took out two sleep bombs and tossed them left and right. There was a hiss of sound, and rust-colored smoke began to curl through the cavern. She put on her mask and motioned Ethan to do the same.
Rising, she stepped back from the water. Ethan’s arms slithered around her waist, and he pulled her back against the hard length of him. She frowned and glanced up. The mask hid his mouth, but his smile was there to be seen in his eyes. He was still in control. She relaxed a little and pressed back against him, letting the heat of his body chase the chill from her spine. It felt so good, just standing here with him. So right. She closed her eyes and thrust the thought from her mind. And wondered if she’d even see him again once his niece was safe and sound.
The minutes crawled by. The smoke dissipated, and she pushed her mask down past her chin. “Are there any other entrances to this cavern?”
“There’s a tunnel on the opposite side to this, and there’s a door hidden by magic to the right.” His breath brushed past her ear and sent a flurry of warmth across her senses.
“I’ll deal with that first. You keep a watch on the tunnels.”
She tried to move away, but his arms held her tight. She looked up, and her breath caught in her throat. Not just at the hunger in his eyes, but at the emotion so evident in his face. And while she might have called it love, she was just as certain he wouldn’t.
He ran a warm finger down her cheek. “Would you like to see me again after this is all over?”
His touch was making her ache, but it was an ache she had to ignore. “Ethan, this is neither the time nor the place.”
“A simple yes or no.”
It wasn’t that simple. Not anymore. “What do you feel for me?” she ground out, pulling her arm from his grip. “Because I’m not interested in being just someone you play with whenever the moon makes you horny.”
He didn’t say anything to that, and maybe it was just as well. She ducked through the water, the iciness snatching the heat of hi
s touch from her body, then followed the curve of the cavern wall around to the right.
Energy began to tingle across her skin and she stopped. She dug the stones out of the backpack, then raised a hand, using the flow of energy across her fingertips to define the boundaries of the soul-sucker’s hidden entrance. Once she’d determined that, she set out her stones, softly murmuring the spell that would activate her own wall and stop whatever evil might lie beyond the mara’s wall from entering. The soul-sucker would undoubtedly know how to break the spell, but as long as she didn’t return before they’d gotten the kids out of there, it wouldn’t matter.
She placed the last stone on the ground. Power surged across her senses—a clean, warm touch that told her the spell had worked. She turned and headed across the cavern.
The two girls were lying inside a small cave. Both were naked. Both looked distressed and cold. Anger surged through her. The mara definitely had to be stopped. It was bad enough destroying the lives of grown men, but taking the future of someone so young, someone who’d barely even had time to stretch and grow …
“Dead men are heading this way.” Ethan’s voice was little more than a whisper she heard deep inside.
She raised a hand, feeling the flow of energy, trying to discern what spell the mara had used.
“Hurry,” he continued. “Because there are more than one of them.”
Hurry was the one thing she couldn’t do. She could hurt the girls if she dismantled this spell the wrong way. Light played across her fingers, a fire-fall of energy that whispered secrets to her mind. It was a simple containment spell, one very similar to what Kat had used across the cavern. She glanced at the stones, seeking the one she had to remove first, then began murmuring the words that would dismantle the energy wall.
“They’re almost here,” he warned her.
She swept away the first stone and continued murmuring the spell. The wall shimmered as she swept away the second. From behind her came the noise of flesh smacking against flesh. She swept away the third stone, effectively creating a doorway in the wall. She finished the spell and swung around to see Ethan in midair, diving feetfirst at the pack of zombies fighting to get into the cavern. He hit the first two hard, forcing them back into those behind. The dead toppled like bowling pins, creating a barrier of flesh that briefly stopped those behind from entering.
“Mask,” she said, putting on her own as she tossed a sleep bomb into the writhing pack of zombies.
The dead men at the back scrambled over those still fighting to find their feet. Ethan rose and swung a booted foot, knocking two more back. He didn’t look like he was trying to kill them, and of that she was glad. Right now they didn’t need to alert the mara to their presence.
She grabbed another bomb and tossed it deeper into the tunnel. As rust-colored smoke swirled, she dropped the pack on the ground and ran at the two zombies trying to get behind Ethan. She reached for kinetic energy and flung one back into the smoke. She slid to a stop and smacked the other across the back of the head. The zombie roared and swung around, clenched fists flying. She ducked, swept a leg around his, and knocked him onto his ass. Then she picked him up kinetically and tossed him back into the smoke as well, toppling more zombies in the process.
Dead men were beginning to drop like flies near the cavern entrance, making it harder for those behind to scrabble past. She grabbed another sleep bomb from the pack and lobbed it deeper, just in case there were more zombies waiting in the tunnel.
“You go get the two girls,” she said, putting the pack back on. “Make sure you enter and leave through the gap in the stones.”
He nodded and headed for the small cave holding the girls. She reached for kinetic energy again and began to stack the sleeping zombies, creating a wall of flesh that was as tall as she was and at least two arms’ widths deep. If there were any more of the dead down in that tunnel, the wall would at least hamper their progress for a while. Though she had to hope there weren’t too many more. There were at least fifteen piled in front of her. How many more could the mara have raised in this area without someone noticing something odd was going on?
She half turned to go help Ethan, then stopped. Noise whispered down the tunnel. Nails, clicking against stone.
A werewolf was headed their way.
But how? This smoke was just as effective on shifters as on the dead. Unless the wolf had realized what was going on quickly enough and grabbed something to use as a mask.
“Something else is coming,” she warned Ethan, hurrying across to the small cave.
He’d taken off his sweater and put it over one of the girls. Then he carefully scooped both of the girls up. Neither of them moved or showed any sort of reaction, meaning that, like the other children, they’d been drugged. “Let’s get out of here.”
“You go. I’ll deal with the shifter coming down the tunnel.” She knew if she told him it was a werewolf, he’d refuse to leave her. Especially after her near escape with the last one.
His expression was grim. “I don’t think that’s a good—”
She touched a hand to his lips, stopping his words. “The most important thing right now is getting the girls to safety. I won’t be far behind, I promise you.”
He kissed her fingertips, then nodded. “You’d better not be, or I’m coming back after you.”
His words did weird things to the rhythm of her heart. God, it would be so easy to believe he truly loved her. Except for that moonlit ceremony. Except for the fact that he’d promised himself to a woman she wasn’t, even if it was only in his mind.
She followed him as far as the waterfall and dropped the backpack on the ground. There were a couple of sleep bombs left, and the holy water, but neither was much use against a werewolf.
She ripped free one of the stakes she’d taped to the leg of her jeans, tossing it lightly in her hand as she walked back to the cavern’s center.
The radiating heat of the werewolf’s aura hit her long before she ever saw him. Ethan might have had the moon heat under some control, but in this wolf, the fever raged free. His hunger was a force that seemed to suck the air from the room, leaving her breathless, hot, and very afraid.
Because it wasn’t just lust she sensed. This one hungered for violence as well as sex. Another of the bitten, she thought, and as mad as a rattlesnake. Maybe that was why the mara chose them as guards—they were fast, powerful, and more important, didn’t care who or what they killed.
For an instant she thought about retreating, but she had to give Ethan as much time as possible to get those kids free.
And it was only one werewolf. She could cope with that, surely. She’d certainly dealt with far worse in her time with the Circle.
Yet as much as she kept repeating that statement in her mind, it didn’t seem to help the fear churning her stomach.
A blur of brown hair leaped over the sleeping bodies of the zombies. She clenched her fingers around the stake as the wolf came to a halt and shifted shape. As a man, he was big. Bigger even than Ethan. And like the wolf that had attacked her in the restaurant, he was all rippling muscles and golden skin.
He was also naked. And hard with wanting.
His gaze slid down her body, and she felt like a prize turkey at Christmastime—all fattened up and ready for the plucking. The wolf’s gaze finally rose to hers again, and all she could see was madness. The heat of his aura blasted her skin with his desire, but beyond her breathlessness, she had very little physical reaction. It was as if she’d somehow become immune to this wolf’s fever.
“I smell wolf on you.” He ripped off the mask he was wearing, revealing a mouth that was thin and cruel. “I shall enjoy erasing that scent.”
Bile rose in her throat. Ethan had all the time he was going to get, because she wasn’t about to stand here and play with this madman. She lifted her hand and hit the wolf kinetically, smashing him back against the wall. As he slithered down the rock, she flung the stake at him. At the last moment he saw it and dod
ged. The white ash stabbed through his side rather than his heart. Deadly, but not immediately so.
His rage washed over her, a force so great it knocked her back several steps. With the stake lodged in his body he couldn’t shapeshift, but he didn’t even appear to try as he picked himself up and rushed at her.
She dodged and hit him kinetically again. Pain slithered through her brain, and she knew she’d have to watch it. She’d need her kinetic skills to cope with the mara, and she couldn’t afford to overexert herself right now.
The wolf hit the wall with a grunt, bounced to the ground, and relaunched himself at her. She ducked away but wasn’t fast enough. His fingers hooked around the bottom of her sweater and jerked her to a stop. He laughed—a harsh, cruel sound that made her stomach churn.
She swore, twisted around, and raised her arms, pulling herself out of the sweater. She ripped the second stake free, holding it in front of her like a knife. It was doubtful he even noticed it as his gaze slid down her naked torso. The heat of his need boiled around her, sucking away the air and burning her lungs.
He sprang again, but before he reached her there was a blur of fur and fury that hit him broadside and thrust him away from her.
Anger and relief surged in equal portions.
Ethan.
He hit the ground in human form and rose, standing between her and the other wolf. He had one hand behind his back and was flexing his fingers, as if grasping for something. She kinetically slipped the stake into his hand.
“No one touches what is mine,” he growled, and launched himself at the stranger.
The other wolf might have been bigger and more powerful, but he didn’t have a chance against Ethan, even if he hadn’t already been stabbed with white ash. Ethan was fast and furious, and he gave no mercy. Within minutes, the other wolf was dead at his feet.
