Which could be a good thing if there was a houseful of them to contend with.
"You think that's where Janie and Kathy are?"
"Too easy. But the zombies have to be guarding something, so it's definitely worth a look."
She sipped her coffee for a moment, watching a small brown bird flit from tree to tree. "Has Seline come through with anything?"
Gwen nodded. "She's been able to confirm a lot of what we already know, and has found some additional information. This thing is an extremely ancient spirit and apparently very hard to kill."
"Great," Kat said sourly.
Gwen's gaze became speculative as she continued, "In many respects, it is similar to a vampire, only it feeds on souls rather than blood. It does have one interesting restriction — it can only feed while at the height of passion. But the same sort of weapons that kill a vampire can kill the mara."
"I attacked it with a stake last night, and it didn't seem to do much."
"Was it in human or spirit form?"
"Spirit."
Gwen nodded. "Apparently it can only be killed in human form. Attacking it at any other time will do little more than wound it."
No wonder it was so hard to kill. "So why is it taking these kids?"
"That's the frightening bit. Apparently, when the mara is coming near the end of its life cycle — "
"How can it be a spirit and have a life cycle?"
"All things, living or dead, die eventually, whether willingly or forced. Life never-ending is not all it's cracked up to be."
Kat raised her eyebrows. "Oh yeah? Says who?"
"Says Michael, who's the oldest vampire in the Circle. According to Seline, he was pretty close to either ending it all or stepping across the line when he met Nikki."
Kat nodded. She'd only met Michael once, but she had been more than a little overwhelmed by not only his good looks and charm, but by the dark aura of destruction that had seemed to shadow him.
"Anyway," Gwen continued, "when a mara is near the end of its cycle, it breeds. To do this, it needs to perform a magic ritual. From here on, it's purely guesswork, but we think eating the souls the youngsters is just a side benefit, and that it's the emotions of the young that is a vital part of the ritual. That would probably explain why it's not killing these kids anywhere close to its own young. All magic is dangerous, and it doesn't want to endanger its own offspring."
A chill raced across her skin and she shivered. Facing one mara was bad enough. Facing a host of them, whether youngsters or not, was not something she wanted to contemplate.
"Then it'll be dark emotions they feed on," she said. "Like horror. Terror."
"And that's probably why it's keeping these kids for a week or so before it kills them. Gives plenty of time for fear to build."
"Or plenty of time for the youngsters to siphon off those emotions before the mara ships the kids out to perform the ritual."
Gwen nodded. "Seline hasn't discovered what form the mara's youngsters take."
"My guess is we'll discover that soon enough ourselves."
"You're probably right." Gwen drank her coffee for a few minutes then said, "So, what's troubling you, kitty-kat?"
She smiled. She never could keep anything from her grandmother for very long —
not even the faintest of worries. "You remember me saying that both of us were more than able to contain our hormones long enough to take care of protection?
Well, last night we forgot."
Gwen sighed. "That's always the worry with werewolves. That aura of theirs can be overwhelming sometimes." She paused, then added with a fond smile, "That's how your uncle came into being, you know."