A carpet of corpses surrounded Ecco and me, some of them still writhing in their death throes, some of the disembodied heads snapping open and closed, but none of them a threat anymore.

  I waited for several seconds just to make sure, but if there were snakes that were left alive, there were none on the attack.

  I breathed deeply, straightened, and held out my hand for Ecco to grasp.

  “Come,” I said. “The others will be waiting.”

  But even as the leopard girl clasped my hand in her own translucent one, she demurred.

  “The way is no longer open,” she said.

  I turned to her, noting the differences more clearly than before. The shape of her face, the angle of her eyes. Even the tilt of her head was wrong. Or at least, it was missing. Still, I didn’t even question that it was Ecco.

  Who else could it possibly have been?

  “Can you open another route?” I asked.

  Ecco ran her tongue over her lips in a gesture I had never seen her use before.

  “I don’t have the power. I am too drained,” she said. “But if you were to recharge me, then I could.”

  And that was all it took.

  I shed my clothes quickly enough, and Ecco’s clothing disappeared, too. Snakes were everywhere, so to me, the floor wasn’t really an option. Ecco, however, jumped onto me like a wild thing and wrapped her legs around my waist. She kissed me more hungrily than she had ever before, and it was like her tongue was bent on seeking dominance over my mouth.

  So I went with it. Grabbing her butt, I pushed her back against the cavern wall and then entered her. I slid in easily and began thrusting. At first, I was afraid of scraping her back against the stone, but Ecco didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, she began to groan as I increased my pace.

  Then, she surprised me again by dropping her legs and placing her feet on the floor. Grabbing my hair, she turned and shoved me against the wall in a move that forced the breath out of my lungs.

  And I admit, it ignited a fierce passion in me. So she wanted it rough. I could do that.

  I hooked one of her legs over my arm, spreading her wide so that I could enter her again. She began humping me, and I met her thrust for thrust. Ecco still had a fistful of my hair and didn’t let go as our passion increased.

  Soon, she sank to the snake-filled floor, dragging me with her. And, in a swift move, climbed on top to straddle my hips.

  She took complete control then, riding me as if I was a galloping horse, so I grabbed her hips and held on, feeling my own pleasure rapidly increase.

  With a grunt, I came, and the sensation was more intense than I’d expected. Ecco screamed, and the walls of her pussy clenched around my dick while she continued to ride me. She grabbed my hands on her hips as if she was afraid I was going to let go, and then she shuddered with an intensity that almost made her fall off. Throwing her head back, she let out a long wail and laughed.

  48

  I felt that familiar sense of power, of joining, and knew that once again, my chi gift was doing its job, filling Ecco with ecstasy and power at the same time. I could tell she was reveling in it, that she was absorbing all I could give her. She still had her face pointing toward the ceiling, her mouth open in a wide smile. I knew that this boost in chi would give her the strength she needed to remain solid, with no hint of fading away for some time.

  She pitched forward, her breasts smashing against my chest, her body still shuddering with the chi transfer.

  Except that, for some reason, it was different. The connection I’d had with Ecco had always been easy and clear. I knew who she was and trusted her implicitly. I knew she would do what she could to fight for my safety, and that of the others, even at the expense of her own.

  She was, at her core, a genuinely good person, regardless of whether she had been born human, or began life as a manifestation of the cavern itself.

  And yet, at the height of my passion, just as I gave her my all once again, it seemed that Ecco had become someone else completely. She sat up on top of me, her expression a mix of bliss and triumph, and there was none of the usual wonder and genuine joy she had exhibited before.

  She was gleeful. Triumphant. And in a way I couldn’t understand, vengeful.

  It was like she had succeeded in a hidden goal, like she had just won a prize at my expense. And, at the same time, as my body shuddered and thrust beneath her and she gripped my shoulder with more strength and cruelty than I could have expected, I caught a glimpse into her soul.

  I knew at once that this wasn’t the Ecco I had known before. The soul of the woman riding me, surrounded by the corpses of snakes, was septic and malign.

  There was the scent of death upon her, of torture and hate, and at first I could not understand it. How had Ecco, the dreamy, wistful woman, kept something like this hidden from view? Was it even possible?

  And what did it mean if it was?

  The mad woman on top of me was laughing out loud, but she hadn’t stopped what she was doing. She continued to grind against me like it was her mission, as if she planned to milk me of all the chi that she could.

  It was all I could do to hold on, to weather the storm of her passion and malice, and to wonder what might happen at the end.

  As the last of my own passion began to fade, the apparition on top of me—far more substantial than she had been before—gripped me even harder and bore down yet again. Her face became a snarl of delight, fury, and hate. And her eyes changed from their normal, now shaping into those of a snake, painted gold.

  “I’m not done with you yet!” she snarled as she drove herself against me again and again, slamming her hips against mine with venom as opposed to pleasure. “I want it all!” she said, and at least a part of me knew what she meant. She wanted to see how much of my chi she could take, wanted to become as strong as she could, and to hell with me or anything else.

  Part of me was appalled. The part of me that knew this wasn’t right. That somehow Ecco was not her usual self. And yet, my body responded. Somehow, this woman above me, the leopard girl whose ears were shrinking, and whose skin and tail had already vanished, was able to keep me invigorated long past the point where I should have been.

  And more. The violence and determination with which she rode me brought me almost close to climax again.

  I couldn’t believe it. It seemed that Ecco would get her way regardless of what I might think of the deal. It seemed she would try to drain even more of my chi, regardless of what cost there might be to me.

  I knew I could sustain it for a second time. But what if she kept going for a third time? Or a fourth? Would she drain me completely, leaving me no more than a husk, my chi exhausted, and my life forfeit?

  As I drew closer and closer to my point of no return for the second time, I started to believe that she would do precisely that.

  And part of me wanted her to.

  I gritted my teeth and held on, simultaneously loving every moment of this wicked connection and hating Ecco for it, too.

  Ecco, who had seemed the soul of kindness and comfort. Ecco, who had been gentleness incarnate. Ecco, who was now riding me like a demon, the triumph and hate clear on her face.

  It was madness. It was like pain and pleasure combined, and I was lost to it. It was like I was under a spell, and I might never have escaped if someone hadn’t shouted at me from the other side of the cavern.

  “Rogan Ward!”

  It was like a slap across the face, and I couldn’t help but flinch toward the speaker. Suddenly, I knew what had happened.

  I had been conned.

  Ecco—the real Ecco—stood not far away in her beautiful fox girl form, staring at me with a look of sheer horror on her face.

  “Sister of mine, get away from him!” this new Ecco demanded. “Get away from him now!”

  The woman on top of me sneered. “Or what?” she demanded, and ground against me some more.

  But now, I knew the truth. I knew that the woman on top of me wasn’t the Ecco I knew. This was Ecco’s sister, the malignant essence behind all the attacks, the menacing being that controlled the caverns themselves.

  All at once, any lingering passion I had shattered like glass against a rock, and with a convulsive effort, I heaved the woman off me and threw her aside. As quickly as I could, I regained my feet with my swords—which I’d never discarded—at the ready.

  I stood there in the cave, naked, a sheen of sweat covering my body, facing off against the woman I had taken for Ecco.

  Ecco’s sister, who was as naked as me, was apparently unconcerned by my swords. She stood there and laughed, and in the blink of an eye, she changed from being an echo of Ecco into something far more sinister.

  She grew taller, longer, her body taking on a sinister, reptilian cast. Her skin changed color, and where before she had legs, now they joined together and lengthened, developing scales as they went.

  In moments, I was facing a creature whom I would never have confused for Ecco at all. I was facing a snake woman, the top half of her as human as ever, the lower half that of a huge, undulating, reptilian creature.

  All through her change, she continued to laugh, and I hesitated for a fraction too long.

  “Rogan!” the real Ecco said from her place beyond the snake corpses. “She intends to kill you and your companions! She intends to use the essential parts of your being as building blocks. She intends to make more of the creatures you fought in the Wastes!”

  It was the spur that I needed. As fast as I could, I launched myself at the monstrous creature before me. But as fast as I was, Ecco’s sister was faster. She turned and threw herself away from the edge of my blade, at the same time flicking me with the very end of her tail.

  It was like being hit with a whip, and I felt a large welt appear on my chest where she had struck. But I didn’t hesitate anymore. I had given this creature a large dose of chi, and I didn’t know what she might do with it.

  “Sister, you are exactly correct,” the snake woman said. “That is my purpose. And one such as this, with such chi as he possesses, can only be useful. I sense within him and those he travels with great power. The perfect being I have long sought may be hidden within.”

  The snake woman continued to move as she spoke, never staying in one place for long, evading my attacks with apparent ease. She was faster than anything I had faced before, and likely stronger, and I didn’t want to think about what she could now that I had given her my chi.

  Nevertheless, I maintained my pursuit, whirling about, slashing at her reptilian form with my blades. Ecco moved as well, keeping as far from her sister as she could. It was like a game of tag in a limited space, and the consequences were deadly.

  “Rogan,” Ecco’s sister said as she slithered away from my attacks. “Why all this hostility? When we were so close only a moment ago?”

  “Don’t remind me,” I snarled, and tried a different attack, to no avail.

  “Do you think you can win?” the snake woman asked. “I have been watching. I know what you’re capable of. And I know your limitations.”

  With that, she flicked her tail once again, and before I knew it, I was hurtling through the air to crash against bare, jagged rock. Without my clothes, I felt the impact very clearly, and cursed as I bounced back to my feet.

  It seemed that Ecco’s sister was tired of playing defense, and had chosen another option. She crossed toward me within moments, and loomed above me, balanced on her reptilian tail. She looked as if she was going to pounce, and I took the opportunity to launch myself at her with my blades in advance.

  But then she was gone, swaying backward out of my reach in a way that no human being could do.

  “Your chi power is great,” Ecco’s sister said. “Time and time again, it kept you alive when my servants should have seen you come to an end. Even with sister shepherding you and those others away from my better traps.”

  I launched myself on the attack once again, but this time watched for her tail, stepping up and over before it connected, and slashing out with my blade.

  The blade cut through scaled flesh, and she hissed in pain and fury. But even then, she showed how quick she truly was, slashing back at me with her injured tail, and sending me tumbling again.

  “You dare?” the snake woman demanded. “You dare to even think to damage me? After having watched my sister so closely to see how she manifests, so I could learn to do it myself?”

  In her anger, the snake woman didn’t try to crush me in her reptilian coils, but she clenched her fist instead, calling for stalactites and stalagmites from the ceiling and the floor of the cave.

  They grew at an incredible rate, and only my own speed and dexterity save me. I employed the defined steps not in attack, but to escape.

  It was the snake woman’s turn to curse. She’d turned to check on her wound, and even from where I was, I could see the blood running over her scales. “You will pay for that,” she said, and called down more and more stalactites, as thick as my wrist and as sharp as a knife.

  I channeled my chi into my blades, honing the edges as much as I could, and launched myself into a helicopter attack, cutting through the stalactites as they formed.

  Once again, Ecco’s sister led me on a merry chase, but the game had now changed. I cut my way through sharpened weapons of rock as I hurled myself after the snake woman, littering the floor with broken pieces of rock as I went. But there was no limit to how many she could conjure, or what shape or size they were. And while she seemed to favor stalactites for some reason, it was the stalagmites that were more dangerous.

  At any time, one could appear beneath my feet, piercing me and causing me serious damage. All I could do to avoid it was lighten my steps so that if it should happen, the stalagmite would simply raise me aloft.

  But the one that finally caught me was lower, intended to snag like a root and send me sprawling.

  It worked.

  I landed hard, face first in a clump of bioluminescent plants, my belly grazed by the rock. As fast as I could, I bounced back up to my feet, but even then, I wasn’t quick enough. The floor where I’d fallen had become like needles, dozens of them all at once raising to spear me.

  I moved as quickly as the Divine Steps would let me, desperate to get out of the way, and I almost succeeded. But two of the lightning fast stalagmites pierced my skin. One of them opened a gash on my calf, and the other scored me at my hip. I grunted at the pain, swore out loud, and continued the game.

  Ecco’s sister was laughing. “How long do you think you will last?” she demanded as she used a moment of distraction to smack me with her tail again. Once more, I landed heavily, but this time, quite by chance, I came to rest next to Ecco. The fox girl had gathered up my clothes, and as soon as I regained my feet once again, snarling and cursing, she sprang into action.

  “I can do this all day,” I said to the snake woman, and prepared to turn my words into action. But Ecco was quicker, and smarter. She’d opened up a gap in the wall, and tugged me toward it.

  “Come on!” she said. “We will fight her another way. She has all the advantages here.”

  I knew she was right, and with one last look at the scowling face of my foe, I followed Ecco into the breach.

  She sealed it behind us, but if I thought we were safe, Ecco’s next words told a different story. “Hurry! Our only chance is if we can stay ahead of her!”

  49

  It was just like the battle with the giant worm monster. Ecco had saved me in the same way, by opening a tunnel that hadn’t existed before between two different parts of the cave system. At the same time, this was decidedly not the same as back then.

  The worm creature had been enormous. Implacable. A mindless thing with one purpose only, and that was to eat. Carving off chunks of its flesh had done little, as had burning it with fire.

  Given sufficient time and space, perhaps I could have killed it. Perhaps I could have chopped it apart one piece at a time, and incinerated each bit with my chi. If I had done that, then at the very least, I would have made the monster smaller.

  But this cave-dwelling creature? This frightening snake-like abomination?

  It was Ecco’s own sister, at once weaker and less troublesome than the worm thing, and at the same time infinitely more dangerous.

  Escaping to another part of the cave system had worked well enough with the worm. But Ecco’s sister controlled the cave itself. She could change things as she saw fit. Which meant that even though Ecco sealed off the tunnel she had created as soon as we passed through, the snake woman was still a significant threat.

  “She is stronger than me,” Ecco admitted, her voice sounding far more focused and decisive than it had before. “Our only chance is to run!”

  So saying, Ecco, still holding onto my arm, hurried through the caves more quickly than I would have believed. She still had my clothing gathered in her arms, and I ran beside her, naked as I was born, feeling every sharp piece of rock beneath my feet.

  The small pains weren’t the only I things I was feeling. I felt abused as well, that Ecco’s sister had tricked me like that, to drain me of chi, to use it as her own. I felt weak and largely exhausted.

  But most of all, I felt furious.

  Ecco’s sister had been the power behind our ongoing troubles since we had entered the caves. In fact, more than that, she was the power behind Vesh D’Agon and the revenants he commanded. And maybe even this mysterious queen, the power behind Vesh D’Agon, whom I had yet to meet.

  All by itself, this would have been enough to make me despise her, to put her in that category of mortal enemy, and for me to wish her a swift and brutal end.

  But for her then to pretend to be Ecco, to use me as she had, to steal all my chi for herself?

  Those were the actions of a being without conscience.

  I shook myself free of Ecco’s grasp and planted my feet.

 

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