Anubis

by Erik Schubach

  She looked down at me and said, “Hello there. Looks like you could use a hand.” I waved like a dweeb.

  Then I was blinking in dumbfounded shock when she grunted as he tried to push down on her, and she started tapping her foot, out of time as she started singing... badly... Girls Just Want to Have Fun. What the flipping heck? Her voice seemed to echo in a reverberating and ethereal tone... out of tune. And the storm just stopped.

  Just how strong was this woman? And just how bad of a singer was she? But she had somehow stopped the storm. Was she a siren, like the other woman?

  She grunted once more as this Jack person bellowed again and whipped its scorpion stinger down at her. I dove and caught it, and we both slid back a little in the sand as I started at the dripping stinger just inches from my face as she called out, “A little help here?”

  The voice of another woman beside us had the creature hesitating. “Dad? Dear god, what did Lazarus do to you?”

  The man-thing backed up a step, pulling its arms and tail free from our grasps as he asked in a voice filled with pain and shame, “Cameron?”

  I looked between him and the newcomer. A girl our age who was holding, of all things, a baseball bat. Who brought a bat to a supernatural fight? I could taste her life, and she was on the tasty side of wicked, and I could tell she strived to do the right thing. My jackal told me that this was the type of person we could easily be friends with. Her name... her name felt to be in an infinite loop for some reason.

  Multiple other women and younger teen girls were all around us, some looking to be a cross between human and raven or crow. Some were in combat fatigues like Stephanie, one with purple hair. I was about to ask as the monstrous man started backing away from this Cameron woman, when, with the flutter of wings, an honest to goodness angel landed with her wings sweeping wide, looking like something sent from heaven itself. Then her wings dropped to wrap protectively around a shorter woman who stood beside the ones in fatigues.

  Stephanie called out as she turned human and drew a sidearm to aim at the creature, “Bout time, Angel, I was beginning to think maybe that wasn't you up there.”

  The winged woman blinked at her then her eyes went wide. “Oh my god, Stephanie? Is that you?”

  “In the flesh, darlin'.”

  The purple haired warrior asked, “Lieutenant, you're... human again? How did you get to Egypt before us? And why aren't you dead? We saw you go over that cliff at the Crucible.”

  Our snake-y lady chuckled at her. “Glad to see you too, Captain.”

  They shared a smirk at each other, then we all advanced toward the creature who looked... ashamed, as he stared wide-eyed at this Cameron person. Just when I was wondering if we had a chance at capturing him, he choked out, “I'm sorry baby, he'll come for you if I don't go to him.” Then he turned and started running. I thought we were fast in our own hybrid forms, but he was easily half again faster as he ran off in the direction of the sea.

  And we all just stood there, staring at his back as he receded into the distance before I turned to the woman who I suspected was a siren as I retook my human form. I coughed into my hand and looked at the blood, then said as my girl rushed to my side, face creased in concern, “Umm... thank you, for the assist. Uhh, who are you again?”

  Epilogue

  Two days later, as we sat at the railing on Marina's boat, the Kraken, I went through everything that happened that night at Camp Alpha while Olivia sat behind me, playing with my hair and kissing the back of my neck. Delightful shivers went down my back.

  She had healed the others of the injuries they had suffered in the battle. Steph was in bad shape, but you never would have known it. She was as I noted before, the definition of badassery. I hadn't known how many broken bones she had or how many bullets she had taken until then.

  We opted for me to heal my ribs on my own since whenever my falcon-butt girl pulled out her ankh, it felt as if a dagger was being twisted in my head. I was fine the next day, still a bit sore, but it would pass.

  After introductions were made, I kept looking at the two women and the rugged longshoreman looking man who were the Fates from all the fables of many cultures. The Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. The emo looking punk teen dressed in black grunge style, with hair dyed a dark pink, was more confusing to me as the Crone, than the man who was the Mother. How was that foul-mouthed, edgy young girl the Crone of legends? She was younger than the Maiden and Mother standing before us.

  I would have said the newcomers had just been messing with me, but when I tried to feel their essence, I almost passed out from the overwhelming feedback and power as they burned bright in my mind like some sort of primal force.

  It was explained to me that they were in borrowed bodies, that they didn't normally reside in the mortal realm. The loom of life had been destroyed by the Titans, who refused to believe that their time on this Earth was coming to an end. That shadow being was the last Titan. He has lost so much of himself in that desperate attempt to deny his fate.

  Atropos gave us a smug smirk at that as she played with a pair of purple scissors which had a cartoon skull adoring them, “It's a bitch, but we all gotta go when it's our time.” She snipped the air with the scissors as she grinned at us. Why did her doing that scare the hell out of me?

  Marina, as it turns out, is Leucosia's daughter. Her father was the last of the merfolk. But the blind mechanic, Max, who was always working on systems on the ship, warned me, “Don't call her a mermaid if you value your life.”

  JackAya in my head was grinning a doggy grin, “A mermaid?” I wondered, if she was that strong away from the water, how much stronger was she in it?

  Marina had sworn me to never tell the others of her singing to stop the sandstorm. I started to joke, “That was sing...”

  “Stow it, woman!”

  Ok. Someone who could catch the incoming blows from the giant abomination Lazarus had made of Jack Tourvell, was not someone it would be smart to argue with. “Yes, ma'am.”

  She had smiled and winked at me, the patted my cheek. “Good girl,” as she headed up to the pilot house of the ship to get us moving through the Suez Canal.

  The Raven Maids I found fascinating. They vibrated in my mind with a harmonic resonance to my own power so much so that I saw them as kindred beings. They brought the souls of the dead to their final destination, just as I wielded the keys to the underworld. They were so similar to our falcon ladies that I wondered if they all had a similar origin. I mean, Horus and Ra had to have come from somewhere, right?

  I was almost jealous of Angel, the way Olivia and Neith seemed to drool over her. But I realized it was her true wings they lusted for. She was the only one of the many bird woman gathered, who could actually fly, and I could see that longing in the ladies' eyes as they coveted those amazing wings. I swear my girl almost had an orgasm on the spot when Angelina snapped her wings full and dove into the air, flying off with massive flaps of those wings.

  Angel was the hardest to comprehend. Her girl, Mouse, who apparently could commune with ghosts, told me that Angel was a lesser Djinn... a genie. She had accidentally gotten her wings when she made an errant wish.

  The three wish thing we have heard of in fables and fairytales wasn't entirely accurate. Someone cursed to be a lesser Djinn for their greed and pursuit of power can make ten wishes for themselves. But once the tenth wish is granted, they are enslaved to the very next person around them to make a wish. Once they have granted three wishes to their new master, their life is forfeit, and their soul is imprisoned inside a gem in the cave of the greater Djinn.

  Angel's bloodline was cursed beyond that. They were all destined to beget a daughter before their tenth wish, and the curse would be handed down to their child. Xerxes has been using each generation of her family for centuries to stay young, since a wish can't grant immortality. But Angel's mother had broken the cycle for one generation by using her last wish to hide Angel from him. Then the woma
n committed suicide before Xerxes could make a wish.

  The other Sentinels were human. But the one who stood out, and kind of scared the hell out of me, was Hailey Frost. The woman Angel introduced to me as her bartender. She was more dangerous than most of the Sentinels, and she had no powers, just her natural instinctive fighting prowess.

  We watched from the upper catwalk of the bay that contained a moon pool for scuba diving, as Hailey sparred with Andreya, a police officer from the Seattle area, and Stephanie in full cobra manifestation. She was able to keep up with both of them, and even use Steph's superior strength against her. She used some padded metal batons instead of real weapons, and some of her moves bordered on the preternatural. The woman was knee deep in wicked, she has done some questionable things in her life, but her moral core burned bright in my vision. And I could also see what Stephanie meant when she shared that Captain Frost was at the top of the human evolutionary curve, which is why Xerxes had a passing interest in her.

  This was evidenced when the woman somehow dodged under a sweep of Stephanie's tail, and hooked it in her arm, and used the momentum to sling herself toward an advancing Andreya, heaving. She had used their combined momentum to actually hip toss a seven-foot cobra woman at the advancing officer. The two went down in a tumble of limbs, cussing, and hissing as Hailey rolled to her feet, the batons at the throats of both women. “Bang, bang. You're dead.”

  Holy shit.

  I have to admit, it was kind of sexy, the smirk on the purple haired woman's face as she offered hands to them to help them up. If I didn't have Olivia, the lethal bartender would have had my motor purring about then. I wouldn't have cared that she was probably ten or twelve years older than me.

  A hissing giggle had me turning to see Kissa had been watching the whole thing, dangling her feet over the catwalk. Then she slithered down to the lower deck to our Lieutenant and said hopefully, “I can kisss it and make it better.” Steph looked so helpless and embarrassed as the other Snake-Maiden dragged her away from the match.

  Later that night, I found that my suspicions about her protests were correct, when I was sneaking out of Olivia's cabin, in just one of my girl's tees to get some water between umm... sessions. I froze as I was shutting the hatch behind me when a satisfied looking Stephanie came sneaking out of Kissa's cabin next door, tucking her shirt back into her pants.

  Steph gave me a, 'busted,' grin... complete with fangs. I would have burst into rainbows and unicorns for her if the venom dripping from the fangs didn't look like a warning. I really needed to figure out how to partially manifest like that.

  These women had shared that Angel had flown ahead, and arrived two days before the Kraken docked in Port Said at the mouth of the Suez Canal. She had been keeping them updated on their sat phones when she followed the strange stories of unnatural deaths. Then she had been following Olivia and me after she saw the raid at our camp. The others got to us as fast as they could. Angel thought they might arrive too late.

  Once our two groups shared our stories, we found we had a common goal. Though most of our objectives had been completed, retrieving the lodestones and destroying the Genesis Chamber. Xerxes still got away, and could just rebuild. Doing unspeakable acts and threatening innocents everywhere.

  I had shared that it would probably not be anytime soon, as I had put a round through Xerxes shoulder. Angel had shaken her head at that and shared, “He's survived worse. Though a wish can't grant him immortality, one has made him extremely resilient when dealing with injuries.”

  That brought us to now, as we sailed around Saudi Arabia, toward the Gulf of Oman and Iran. What was once called Persia by westerners. When I shared what Xerxes had said about excavating a cave system, it had made Angel blanch and stagger. She had whispered to all of us, “I know where he is going. And we can't let him get into that cave.” She looked terrified.

  After she calmed herself down, by wrapping Mouse in her wings, she said, “He's going to reawaken the Greater Djinn. If that happens, all of mankind is in peril.”

  Olivia and Neith made calls to their employers, informing them that they were taking extended leaves of absence. That a personal matter had come up and they would keep them informed.

  My call... it was a little harder after I got my passport back from the authorities once they marked the case as unsolved since they couldn't seem to locate anyone from Lazarus. Albert was immensely relieved to hear that I was alright. I really should have called him sooner. He thought the worst and I felt terrible about that.

  I felt I was disappointing him when I said that all the commotion and the attempt to kidnap me at the excavation had rattled me and that I was going to head back home to the States and would contact him when things settled down a bit. The Professor was such a kind and understanding man, and I felt bad for leaving him in a lurch, but the truth was the one thing I couldn't give him, the one thing he wouldn't believe.

  I looked out over the water then stood, my girl hugging me from behind as I placed my hat on my head to lean into the warm breeze of our passing, humming a certain theme song. This was going to be the adventure of a lifetime.

  “You are such a dweeb, love.”

  “Zip it, bird-butt.”

  The End

  Novels by Erik Schubach

  --------------------------------------------

  Books in the Techromancy Scrolls series...

  Adept

  Soras

  Masquerade

  Westlands

  Avalon

  New Cali (2019)

  Books in the Urban Fairytales series...

  Red Hood: The Hunt

  Snow: The White Crow

  Ella: Cinders and Ash

  Rose: Briar's Thorn

  Let Down Your Hair

  Hair of Gold: Just Right

  The Hood of Locksley

  Beauty In the Beast

  No Place Like Home

  Shadow Of The Hook

  Books in the New Sentinels series...

  Djinn: Cursed

  Raven Maid: Out of the Darkness

  Fate: No Strings Attached

  Open Seas: Just Add Water

  Ghost-ish: Lazarus

  Anubis: Death's Mistress

  Sentinels: Reckoning (2020)

  Books in the Drakon series...

  Awakening

  Dragonfall

  Books in the Valkyrie Chronicles series...

  Return of the Asgard

  Bloodlines

  Folkvangr

  Seventy Two Hours

  Titans

  Books in the Tales From Olympus series...

  Gods Reunited

  Alfheim (2019)

  Books in the Bridge series...

  Trolls

  Traitor

  Unbroken

  Books in the Fracture series...

  Divergence

  Novellas by Erik Schubach

  ---------------------------------------------

  The Hollow

  Novellas in the Paranormals series...

  Fleas

  This Sucks

  Jinx (2019)

  Novellas in the Fixit Adventures...

  Fixit

  Glitch

  Vashon

  Descent

  Sedition (2019)

  Novellas in the Emily Monroe Is Not The Chosen One series...

  Night Shift

  Unchosen

  Rechosen (2019)

  Short Stories by Erik Schubach

  (These short stories span many different genres)

  ---------------------------------------------------------

  A Little Favor

  Lost in the Woods

  MUB

  Mirror Mirror On The Wall

  Oops!

  Rift Jumpers: Faster Than Light

  Scythe

  Snack Run

  Something Pretty

  Summer Break (
2019)

  Romance Novels by Erik Schubach

  ------------------------------------------------------------

  Books in the Music of the Soul universe...

  (All books are standalone and can be read in any order)

  Music of the Soul

  A Deafening Whisper

  Dating Game

  Karaoke Queen

  Silent Bob

  Five Feet or Less

  Broken Song

  Syncopated Rhythm

  Progeny

  Girl Next Door

  Lightning Strikes Twice

  June

  Dead Shot

  Music of the Soul Shorts...

  (All short stories are standalone and can be read in any order)

  Misadventures of Victoria Davenport: Operation Matchmaker

  Wallflower

  Accidental Date

  Holiday Morsels

  What Happened In Vegas?

  Books in the London Harmony series...

  (All books are standalone and can be read in any order)

  Water Gypsy

  Feel the Beat

  Roctoberfest

  Small Fry

  Doghouse

  Minuette

  Squid Hugs

  The Pike

  Flotilla

  Books in the Pike series...

  (All books are standalone and can be read in any order)

  Ships In The Night

  Right To Remain Silent

  Evermore

  New Beginnings

  Books in the Flotilla series...

  (All books are standalone and can be read in any order)

  Making Waves

  Keeping Time

  The Temp

  Paying the Toll

  Books in the Unleashed series...

  Case of the Collie Flour

  Case of the Hot Dog

  Case of the Gold Retriever

  Case of the Great Danish