She did the last thing I would have imagined then. Instead of pressing the attack, she looked around, then inclined her head to me, and retreated back into the night, in the opposite direction the riders had run.
I heard my Anubis telling me, “A caged animal. Set free. Justice done.” I swallowed, knowing she was right. I had seen it in the poor woman's eyes.
Swaying on my feet, I saw that everyone was safe, and the man who had been mauled was unconscious but breathing. The world grew around me, telling me I was losing my Anubis aspect as my eyesight started dimming. The last thing I saw before the darkness of the night and unconsciousness claimed me, was a beautiful, feathered woman with golden eyes, catching me and whisking me away in her arms at breakneck speed.
Oh good... Olivia was there. At least I got to see her one last time before I died.
Chapter 8 – Snakes
The next thing I knew, I was waking up in pain, blurting, “Son of a yellow-breasted bunny!” It felt like someone had a red hot poker pressed into my belly.
I heard the clank of something being dropped into a metal tray, as my eyes focused on Olivia who was returning to her torture of me.
“Yellow-breasted... you, Aya, are one delightfully strange woman.”
She seemed to stab me again, and I hissed in pain, then there was another clank.
I was sitting up in some sort of dusty structure, and I looked down to see a metal pan with blood and about five smashed bullets in it. She held what looked like some sort of multitool with pliers on one end as she said, “Its not that bad, you big baby. They're barely a quarter inch deep.”
A quarter inch deep? So... I wasn't as torn up by the bullets as I felt? I wasn't going to die? “Hey, be nice. I've been shot here.”
She looked up at me and cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, thirteen times. Why did you hesitate, that's why you look like a macabre pincushion right now. It was almost point blank, so they punctured your outer skin. You're just lucky they weren't armor piercing, or they would have done real damage.”
I hissed again. Clank. “This isn't real damage?”
She chuckled and said, “Stop squirming, this was a lot easier when you were unconscious. And no, this is superficial, I just need to get these out before your skin heals over, the wounds have already partially closed, so I have to dig them out.”
“Ow!” Clank.
“In our manifested form, our skin and dense muscle mass are as good as body armor. And we can heal in minutes if we can maintain our forms, but as you couldn't, it'll be a couple hours. The heavy bruising will take a day or two to heal.”
I glanced around, it looked like some sort of old outpost. But the windows had long since been broken out and there was sand and dust everywhere on the floor. The door to the outside hung off its top hinge, and the place looked like someone had ransacked it long ago. There was even Arabic graffiti painted on the walls. “Where are we?”
She looked around. “It was an old weather station. We're about a mile from the excavation. I had to move you before they got organized at the camp and got some lights to see what had happened. They'd have too many questions if they saw you healing.”
I realized it was dark outside, my night vision wasn't working, and I didn't know how I made it work the first time. The only illumination inside was her cellphone that she had aiming at what likely was the hamburger which was my belly and chest.
I gritted my teeth as she lowered her head, squinted one eye and dug in just below my skin to pull another spent round out. Clank.
I tried to stop the tears of pain, knowing this was necessary. I muttered under my breath, “Lord I'm such a wimp.”
She hesitated and looked up at me and barked out her odd single peal of laughter which I was getting to love about her. “A wimp? You just took a whole magazine from an automatic rifle and made that wanker about piss his pants when you didn't go down. And...” She smirked at me as she brushed her hair back over her shoulder, asking with an incredulous tone, “...did you just reenact the market scene from Indiana Jones with that, umm, minotaur thing?”
I shrugged and felt my cheeks burn. She already knows I'm a hopeless geek, why should it surprise her that I was thinking just that when I shot? She laughed again, her eyes twinkling in mirth as she caught me in her gaze. “You did! I thought I had seen everything in this world, but I've never seen anything like the most graceful of predators, a Jackal Maiden, pull a gun on someone.”
“Ow!” Clank. “You were distracting me! And don't knock it, it worked didn't it?”
She folded up her multi-tool and slipped it into her pocket as she slid up next to me, our noses almost touching as she agreed. “Yes, it did. That doesn't mean it wasn't an odd sight to see.” She gave me a quick peck on the lips. “Now we need to get you a new shirt before we get back to the camp. I can hear them searching for us from here. Your bloodied shirt would have them asking too many questions that we can't answer.”
I looked down starting, “I need a doctor, I'm...” I trailed off actually seeing the last hole in my skin sort of sliding together to make a puckered and angry looking scar. My chest was covered in them and had sickly brown and yellow bruises everywhere.
She winked. “I'm a doctor. And you won't have anything but bruises in an hour or so. You'll ache for a day or two.”
I smirked at her. “You're not that kind of doctor, lady.” Was I flirting and bantering after I had just killed some people and injured others?
I looked up and froze, which got her spinning toward the door. There was a horned viper curled up in the doorway, its head raised a little as its tongue flicked out to taste the air, its eyes on me. Like it was studying me. I swallowed, horned vipers were quite venomous, but like the scorpions and the scarabs, it just seemed to be watching me, like it was waiting for me to do something.
Olivia started to manifest, and we were both on our feet in an instant when arms reached through the door and gently picked up the snake, which coiled around one arm as a shadow filled the doorway, a woman's voice hissing out like a reptile, “Sshe likess you. A kindred ssoul.”
I glanced at Olivia, and she was fully manifested now, her eyes wide as she took a fighting stance while the shadowy woman looked to kiss the nose of the python before setting it back on the ground and it slithered out into the night.
“Oh pleasse, ssettle down gorgeouss, I'm not here to hurt you.” Then she tossed something at me, and I caught it by reflex. “Usse thiss. That Lazaruss prick issn't ussing it anymore.”
I blinked... it was a camouflage uniform top. I looked up and asked as I tried to figure out how to see in the dark again. She was all shadows, and Olivia was so tense, her eyes wide like she saw a threat she was ready to attack at any moment.
I heard in my head, “You are so lame, here let me.” I mentally stuck my tongue out at my inner jackal as the world flared to life around me and I gasped. If I hadn't been standing against a wall, I would have backpedaled a few feet when I saw who was standing in the doorway, looking oddly amused that I had that reaction.
She was a woman with a deformed parody of a scaled snake's head, staring at me with reptilian eyes. A forked tongue snicked out between two very long fangs to taste the air as her lipless scaled mouth smiled. A long tail swished behind her in an almost mesmerizing manner. And... she was stark naked. I looked up at the top of the door frame.
She chuckled out to me. “Pleasse, no need to be basshful, we're all girlss here.”
Wait. I blurted, “You were the one who helped us in the camp, aren't you?” That flash of scales, it had to have been her. Then I looked at the heavy shirt in my hand and narrowed my eyes. “What, umm, happened to the fake raider you dragged off?”
She winked at us. Well, I think it was a wink because, like Olivia, she had two eyelids. “A girl needss a ssnack every once in a while.”
My eyes widened. She had... eaten him? I shuddered then chanced a glance down then back to any place but her naked ha
lf snake body. She blurted out a hissing laugh and said, “Looking for ssome ssort of bulge in my belly? I don't know what happenss to them ass I sswallow them, consstricting and crusshing their boness, but it ssates my hunger. I don't fully undersstand what that fucking Lazaruss did to me.”
She cocked her head at Olivia and sighed, “Sserioussly, beautiful. You'd be dead already if I wanted it. I jusst need information. The Lazaruss basse iss desserted. I need to find Xerxess, and get him to undo thiss.” She motioned her hand down along her form. “Before I kill the bloody fuck out of the basstard.”
She hesitated as we just stared at her. “Oh, where are my mannerss? Sstephanie, Lieutenant Sstephanie Grier.” She moved forward without moving her legs, I realized they were an inch off the sand, and her tail was slithering and propelling her forward.
I was on guard but got the impression of my jackal watching uninterestedly, yawning and closing her eyes before laying down in the shadow of my mind. She didn't see this deformed woman as a threat, at least not at the moment.
I took a step toward her, Doc reaching a feathered arm out to stop me as I offered a hand tentatively. “Professor Aya Bane.”
The snake woman looked me up and down, cocked her head at my hand, then shook it almost daintily like she were afraid she'd harm me. I added, “And this is Doctor Olivia Nazari.”
They sized each other up, Olivia in her Falcon form a head taller than Stephanie, then with eyes narrowed on both sides of me, they shook with what I could see were very firm grips and I covered my eyes, “Oh lord, please tell me you two are done measuring dicks.” Then I pointed at Olivia. “Bad bird.”
She chuckled out in amusement as she seemed to deflate, and then she was just the woman I was seriously crushing on, whom my jackal had claimed as ours. She was as bad as Rafa and wasn't apologetic about it one bit.
I tried not to stare at Stephanie. She had implied that the Lazarus Group had somehow done this to her. Made her into something vaguely resembling our half animal; what did Olivia call us? Vassals? Resembling us vassals.
The Doc beat me to it and said, “Not that we trust you, but my Falcon says you taste like some sort of twisted version of us. How is that possible? Are you one of Apophis' Snake Maidens? There should only be one per generation. Lazarus somehow locked you in between your change?”
The woman cocked her head at a completely unnatural angle, almost like it was detached from her spine, but I realized her spine was just much more flexible than a normal human's. Her eyes were narrowed, but on her face, I couldn't tell if it were a scowl or confusion. Her tongue snicked out toward me, and it was all I could do not to scurry back. It's just normal reptile behavior, Aya, she's tasting the air around us.
She relaxed a moment and said quietly, “I don't know what you are talking about. I volunteered becausse they ssaid the processs would make me a better ssoldier to defend the people of my country. Had I know it would ressult in thiss and then bassic sslavery ass ssome ssort of attack beasst for them, I never would have.”
She looked back out the door into the night and continued, “Thosse other women who took down the Crucible had chassed that Xerxess basstard here, hiss sscent iss faint, but he iss here in Egypt. The Lazaruss basse hass been desserted. But he wantss you now. Sso I have been watching. When I catch him, he will undo thiss, and then he'll be eating hiss own asss when I tear hiss head off and jam it up there.”
I would have chuckled at that if I hadn't thought she was completely serious about it. She scared me more than a little. The voice in my head chastised, “Do not be afraid, I, we are here. She tastes of kin.” Get back, you silly dog.
To clarify I prompted, “So you're not like us? Why do our animal aspects seem to recognize you? How did Lazarus do this to you?”
She shook her head in frustration. “I wass put out for the procedure. But Commander Xerxess hass been collecting what otherss are calling objectss of power from every ancient religion. They are ssomehow ussing them to make enhanced ssoldierss, but ssomething issn't right and we all turn out like... thiss.”
She indicated herself, and I could hear her own self-loathing in her tone. “But then he found a girl in New York, who had ssomehow become what he wass looking for in an accident. I realized that he wass never looking to build better ssoldierss for defensse of the nation, he'ss looking for ssome ssort of immortality.”
Stephanie sneered, and it looked particularly menacing because one of her three-inch fangs glistened, dripping what smelled like venom. “That girl, Cameron... sshe and her friendss freed me. They took the fight sstraight to the Crucible, and Xerxess ran. I knew he wass coming here, but he'ss evassive. I'll find him though, and I will be whole.”
She sounded almost in awe of this Cameron girl and her friends. I found myself smiling as I realize she admired them. It made sense. She sounded like she was a soldier for all the right reasons, to protect people, just to realize she had somehow found herself on the wrong side. These other women were doing what she found she could not. They were doing her job for her.
The snake woman cocked her head, and her tongue snicked out again as she double blinked at me, then looked over to Olivia. “Sshe'ss fully healed now. Iss thiss what you can do?”
Doc crouched in front of me and lifted my ruined shirt to look at my stomach and chest. I squirmed back from her touch as she moved her fingers along my now unmarked but bruised skin. “Hey! I'm ticklish.”
She smirked up at me and cocked an eyebrow playfully as she said with mischief dripping from her words, “Oh reaaally. I'll have to explore that later.”
Stephany hissed and rolled not only her eyes but her head as she moaned, “Oh, jusst get a room you two. I could ssmell all the pheromoness you were clouding the ruinss with from the camp.”
Before I realized what I was doing, I grinned and shoved the snake woman's shoulder then froze. “Sorry.” I moved my hand back. She did a hissy chuckle and shoved me back like I weighed nothing. I realized as I was pressed against Olivia, that this woman was easily as strong as I was in my Anubis form. That made her twice as dangerous in my mind.
She sighed and said, “They are talking about ssearch teamss for you two back at your camp, and have already called the authoritiess. A helicopter iss coming to airlift out the man who wass mauled. Get out of that sshirt and back to them. I'll be watching.”
Olivia nodded like she knew, and realized that duh, she probably could hear the voices on the wind too. I tried to listen and got frustrated that I couldn't amplify the sound myself, I'd have to figure this out. Instead, I reluctantly asked my amused feeling Anubis, “Can you please?”
Then I could hear everything. Insects and reptiles moving in the desert and in the air, some sort of four-legged predator padding along, and the men back at camp. They sounded organized and concerned now.
I looked at the shirt which had belonged to the Lazarus man that Steph had... well, eaten. Then started to slip off my jacket and shirt but stopped when both the women stood side by side watching me in interest. I muttered, “Ok you two pervs, turn around, I'm not giving a free show here.”
They both smiled and turned around, then the snake lady said impishly... can a snake woman be impish? “A sshame.”
Olivia agreed. “I know, right?”
I sighed as I got re-dressed. Just great, they were bonding. Over my terminal bashfulness. The jerks were as bad as men.
Once I was in the oversize camo shirt, I slung my jacket over my shoulder, pulled my hat down to hide my eyes and marched past them as they chuckled at my behavior. Grr. “You two coming?” I asked?
The lieutenant said as the Doc hustled to catch up with me, “No... I... can't, not like thiss. They'll only ssee the monsster I've become. But I'll be closse. Xerxess wantss you, sso he'll sslip up ssoon.”
Then Olivia surprised me when she said, “Once this fake raid business is sorted, there's someone I'd like to introduce you to, Miss Grier. They may be able to help since your energy
tastes like their bloodline. Which I don't understand since their lodestones are well hidden.”
Steph was silent, but she didn't say no either. As I trudged toward the camp, I wondered who the Doc was going to introduce her to. We made good time, and I was feeling stronger with each step. Finally, the camp came into view. It was lit by a campfire, some lanterns, and each man now had a flashlight as they were gathering in groups while they spoke about a search grid.
Rafa was first to see us, and he came running over, “Aya! Doctor Nazari! Praise Allah.” Then he was yelling back to the others, “They're over here! They're safe!” A cheer went up in camp, and I looked around in confusion. None of the fake raiders' bodies were there, and I saw no signs of the attack. Had Lazarus somehow cleaned the scene?
I didn't get a chance to ask before Albert was crushing me in a hug as he uttered, “Aya, thank god.”
Chapter 9 – Healing
It was almost morning by the time the authorities had finished with us. They offered to drive Olivia back into Cairo, but she said she'd catch a ride in with me. We just needed to catch a couple hours of sleep.
Three men left camp, not wanting to continue working on the excavation after this, and one man, the one mauled by the... the hybrids, was airlifted to a medical facility and was listed in critical condition. This was a huge setback for Albert's work unless he could get an extension on the permits.
After I was completely sure that the Professor and even Rafa, the smart ass, were ok, Olivia looped an arm in mine and pointed at the small tent. “Very chivalrous of them to give you your own tent.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her and said, “It was Professor Harmon's, he moved into the big tents when I arrived. What was it he said? 'It just won't do to have you in with all the men.'”
She grinned and said suggestively, “Yes, it just won't do.”
I swallowed and looked down which got her saying, “You really are adorable when you're bashful Aya.” I couldn't tell if she was teasing or if she meant it. I was still a little amazed that she seemed interested in me.
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