Circle of Desire (Damask Circle 3)

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 projected 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 hot and humid when the rocks were so 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. The strings of slime 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 lead. 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.