Kiss the Night Good-bye by Keri Arthur

Author:Keri Arthur [Arthur, Keri]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: ImaJinn Books
Published: 2011-09-29T03:44:03+00:00

Chapter Ten

Nikki could only stare, wondering if she'd stepped into some macabre version of the Twilight Zone.

A woman hung from the ceiling. She was naked. Her torso was unmarked and her skin had a bluish tint and was covered with goose bumps. She was hanging upside down, her feet tied and somehow roped to the ceiling. Her arms were free, hanging limply past her ears. Her wrists bore several small cuts, but the blood dripped rather than pulsed down the woman's fingers. Some of the cuts had scabbed over, some hadn't, indicating, perhaps, that the wounds were being monitored and opened when necessary. The woman's eyes were wide open, but unfocused, almost dreamy-looking, and barely audible moans pushed past her bloodless lips.

They weren't moans of pain, but rather pleasure.

Nikki swallowed, forcing her gaze away from the obvious bliss on the woman's pale face and studied the thing covering half of her body. It was almost slug-like in form, and it stretched from breast to groin, where its body joined with the woman's. It was moving, squirming, in what looked like ecstasy, its actions matching the woman's pleasured groans.

"What is that?” Though Nikki kept her voice soft, the words seemed to echo harshly around the cavern, again hinting it was larger than it looked.

The slug creature obviously wasn't bothered by the fact it was no longer alone. If its movements were anything to go by, the prospect of being watched seemed to excite it.

She swallowed back bile and pulled her gaze away from the bizarre sight.

"I have no idea what that is,” Michael said, voice flat and cold.

But there was something in the way he said it that made her look at him sharply. He shook his head almost imperceptibly and walked further into the cavern. She followed, trying to quell her desire to ask him what he knew. Trying to ignore the strange sounds of lust coming from above them.

The woman's blood dripped into the middle of a star etched into the cavern's hard rock floor. While the blood glistened wetly, there were deeper, older patches that suggested similar sacrifices had been performed here.

Around the star was a protecting circle of stones. These were a burnished black, just like the ones that ringed the town, but they were much smaller.

Nikki put out a hand. Energy crackled through the air, a buzz that got steadily angrier as her fingers drew close to the unseen wall that protected the star. Flickers of blue cut through the air, lightning-like wisps that lashed out at her hand. It felt foul, somehow. Depraved, even.

She clenched her fingers and dropped her hand back to her side.

Michael looked up at the woman again. “I think we've found one source of Dunleavy's energy. Whether this sacrifice feeds his demented soul, his dark gods, or the circle you say rings this town, is anyone's guess."

She nodded, keeping her gaze on the stones rather than the happenings above them. “We can't leave her here."

"She won't live, even if we do manage to get her down.

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