He knew. No matter how much the fever raged in his blood, he would never lie with the mara. No matter what form she took. "Are we going or not?"
"As soon as I change into jeans." She disappeared into their cabin and did that, then grabbed her coat from off the sofa and went over to kiss her grandmother's cheek. "Be careful. Use the warding stones until we get back."
"It doesn't know about me yet. Its attention is still caught by you two." Gwen's gaze ran past Kat and met Ethan's. "Concentrate out there or it could be fatal."
"The wolf doesn't rule me yet," he said grimly and walked out the door.
* * * *
Kat took a candy bar out of her pocket and unwrapped it. The wind was almost unbearably cold, and the smell of rain touched the air. The bright light of the moon had long ago been blanketed by the heavy layer of clouds, and the night seemed unnaturally dark. But lightning flashed in the distance, an indicator of the storm she could feel approaching.
She bit down on the candy and wished she had something more substantial to eat. Chocolate might be one of the five essential food groups, but right now she could have done with something a whole lot more warming. Like a good thick stew. Or even a meatloaf.
As she munched, she studied the house that sat in the small clearing below. It was a big, old ramshackle building that had seen recent renovations and was absolutely beautiful. What wasn't so beautiful were the two Dobermans who roamed the confines of the main house's fenced yard — a fact they'd found out the hard way when they'd first tried to get near the house. Both she and Ethan had barely gotten back over the fence in time, and the ruckus the dogs had raised had brought out the weapon-bearing house owner.
But dogs certainly wouldn't stop the mara, which meant they had to stop it before it got anywhere near the house and the dogs.
She moved her gaze on, studying the line of trees to her right. Ethan was in there somewhere, padding through shadows as restlessly as the dogs in the yard. He'd barely said two words all night, and she'd long ago decided she was going to have a long talk with her grandmother when they got back. Gwen didn't usually interfere in her relationships, be they casual or not, so to do so now meant Ethan must have said something or done something that had raised her protective hackles. Even so, Kat had a feeling that any interference from her grandmother could prove deadly to any hopes she had of a relationship with him.
She frowned at the thought. He'd made it clear from the beginning he didn't want any relationship beyond sex, so why did she keep thinking of them in terms of something more permanent?
She didn't know. All she knew was that she liked him. A lot. And while they were dyn**ite together sexually, it was more than that. There was an empathy between them. Just beginning but there nonetheless. She'd never felt anything like that before, and she had a feeling it could be a whole lot deeper, a whole lot stronger, if only he'd let it.
And that was the problem. He was never going to let it be anything more —
because of the woman who'd stolen his heart long ago.
The chocolate lost its taste, and she shoved the half-finished candy bar back into her jacket pocket. Rising, she brushed the dirt from her jeans then headed through the trees. Lightning flashed, closer than before, caressing the air with electricity. Underneath her jacket, the hairs along her arms rose on end, then the aroma of evil hit her so strongly it snatched her breath and left her gasping.
She pulled a white ash stake from her jeans pocket and ducked behind the nearest tree. The wind was coming from the right, blowing the sounds of heavy footsteps towards her. Zombies. At least five of them, if those steps were anything to go by. She crouched down and studied the barely visible sweep of trees. Ethan was down there, moving away from the sounds. Obviously, the wind was snatching away the scent of death long before it reached his nose. She couldn't call to him, couldn't warn him, and in some respects, didn't want to. If the soul sucker had snatched Janie as a means of keeping a leash on Ethan, it meant she considered him a major threat. If the mara knew he was here, she might go after him rather than the kid. And while they were here to save the child, she wasn't about to risk his life to do so. Because if Gran and she failed, he might be Janie's only hope.
The heavy steps drew closer. She closed her eyes for a minute, gathering strength, then rose and stepped from the cover of the tree.
The dead stopped, surprise flitting across their decaying features. The mara was in the lead, her gown as flimsy as smoke and revealing more of the woman than Kat ever wanted to see. Obviously, it wasn't only the child the soul sucker hunted tonight.
"Sorry, folks," Kat said, raising the stake. "But kid and soul are off the menu for tonight."
The mara screamed, a sound that sliced through the night. Her form began to melt into air as the zombies crowded forward. Kat hit them with a wide beam of kinetic energy, thrusting them on their bony backsides as she ran at the soul sucker.
Smoke condensed and began to slither away. Kat slashed it, and the soul sucker screamed in pain. She raised the stake to strike again, but was hit from behind and thrust face first into the ground.
She grunted, battling for breath and spitting out dirt as bony knees pressed into her back. The zombie chuckled, his breath washing dead things past her cheek. Bile rose. She swallowed heavily and hit him kinetically. Before she could rise, something else grabbed her and dragged her upright. Kinetic energy surged again but a second before she released it, she realized the smell had changed, had become the scent of freshly cut wood combined with the tang of earthy spices. Ethan, not one of the zombies.
"Go," he said, his face grim as he pushed her toward the house. "Stop the mara."
She didn't argue, just ran hell-bent for leather down the path toward the house. The dogs were barking furiously, and the owner was out, gun in hand, but yelling at the dogs to shut up.
She skirted the fence line and climbed into the yard on the opposite side of the house. The mara was at the window and beginning to seep inside. Kat lunged forward, slashing the smoke with the stake. The soul sucker screamed, and blood as black as the night sprayed across the glass.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kat saw movement. She spun and raised the stake, then saw it was the dogs not a zombie. She hit them kinetically, tossing them across the picket fence. It wouldn't stop them long, but her only other option was hurting them, and she wasn't about to do that.
The mara had seeped through the window. Kat swore and hit it kinetically, but drew the glass backward rather than pushing it forward and spraying the room. Inside, a child began screaming — a terror-filled sound that was quickly cut off.
Because the soul sucker had her.
"Don't you be moving, little lady." The harsh warning was overridden by the sound of a rifle being cocked.
Kat swore again and hit the man kinetically, thrusting him onto his ass. The gun went off, the shot blasting the house dangerously close to her head. Wood splintered, tearing past her cheeks. She dove through the window, hit the carpet and rolled to her feet in one smooth movement.