by Неизвестный
Egyptian Shifters 1
Turquoise Eye of Horus
Codie had her trip to Egypt all planned out, but her plans soon fall apart when she gets lost in the Eastern Desert during a sand storm. Lost and alone, she unintentionally calls out to the Egyptian god, Horus, whose eye she wears around her neck as a pendant.
Horus comes to Codie in her dreams, the only place he can come to her as a man without drawing his uncle's spiteful attention. Unable to watch Codie suffer during her waking hours, Horus takes his falcon form and goes to Codie in the mortal realm to watch over her until a rescue party comes.
As Codie's plight worsens, Horus confronts Seth, who has trapped Codie out in the desert to draw Horus out. With their feud as old as time, Horus knows he must defeat Seth if he is to save the mortal woman he wants as his mate.
Sensuality Rating: SIZZLING
Genre: Shape-shifter
Length: 12,500 words
TURQUOISE EYE OF HORUS
Egyptian Shifters 1
Marisa Chenery
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
TURQUOISE EYE OF HORUS
Copyright © 2009 by Marisa Chenery
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-277-0
First E-book Publication: January 2009
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
DEDICATION
To my family.
TURQUOISE EYE OF HORUS
Egyptian Shifters 1
MARISA CHENERY
Copyright © 2009
Chapter 1
Codie Marks was hopelessly lost. Just thinking about it sent a shiver of unease running down her spine. Being lost in Egypt’s Wadi el Gemal National Park, in the Eastern Desert, could not in any way be considered an ideal situation for a lone Canadian woman to be in.
She had planned this trip for months. She had scrimped and saved every extra penny she made as a secretary to pay for this vacation. It had seemed as if she’d thought of everything when she had mapped out her trip to Wadi el Gemal. She decided to spend one week at the national park’s Eco-lodge, a tented camp set up in the heart of the park. She would go on guided tours through the desert, and maybe see some of the many sooty falcons that lived there. Getting lost in the middle of a desert had not been on her list of things to do while in Egypt.
Hefting her backpack higher up on her shoulders, Codie turned in a circle hoping to find some sign of the tour she had been with. A freak sand storm had blown up suddenly, causing her to become separated from the rest of the group. But Codie saw only sandy desert as far as the eye could see. She knew she was in trouble. “This is so not good.” Feeling herself starting to panic, she reached up and wrapped her hand around the pendant she wore on her neck.
The pendant had been a gift from her grandmother when she turned thirteen. The pendant was a golden Eye of Horus. The eye in the center of it held a large turquoise—her birth stone. Codie never took it off. From the moment she had first put it on she’d felt that as long as she wore it, she would be protected. When she had done some research to find out what the Eye of Horus meant, Codie had not been surprised to learn the ancient Egyptians used it to protect against evil.
With a tight grip on her pendant, Codie felt some of her panic recede. She forced herself to keep her breathing even. “Calm down, Codie.” Hyperventilating would not make her situation any better. She knew the tour guide would eventually notice her missing. When he did, a search party would be sent out for her. She couldn’t have wandered that far into the desert. At least she hoped she hadn’t.
Codie took stock of her situation. She had been wandering on her own for at least an hour before she’d finally admitted she was lost. She found herself out in the open with the sun beating down on her, but at night she knew the temperature would drop, becoming quite cold. There could be a slim chance she wouldn’t be rescued before night fell. If that happened, Codie didn’t want to be stuck out in the open without any kind of shelter. She did have a sleeping bag with her backpack, but she didn’t have a tent. She needed to find some kind of vegetation big enough to shade her from the sun’s rays during the day, and offer her some kind of shelter at night. That left her only one option—she would have to start looking for such a place.
She knew she would be doing what all the experts said not to do when you got lost, but she didn’t think she had any other option. Rubbing her thumb across the surface of the turquoise, Codie pulled her baseball cap lower on her forehead and started walking.
The day grew hotter. Thankfully she’d had the foresight to don a light-weight long-sleeved shirt and pants. Having natural auburn hair, she had the fair skin to go along with it. She would have already been burnt to a crisp if she had been in a tank top and shorts. As it stood now, she could feel her face slowly getting sunburned.
After another hour of walking, Codie found what she had been looking for. About sixty feet in front of her stood some kind of tall, shrubby tree that she had no name for. No other vegetation grew around the tree. It would have to do. She couldn’t keep wandering around the desert. She already felt thirsty. Luckily she had put two large bottles of water in her backpack that morning before she had set out on the tour. If she rationed herself wisely, she should have enough water to last her for a day or so.
Once in the shade of the shrubby tree, Codie took off her backpack and took out one of the water bottles. She drank the water sparingly. Deciding to set up her ‘camp’, she untied her sleeping bag from her pack and placed it under the tree. She scanned the area, surprised to find a fair amount of deadwood littered on the ground. Having known how cold the desert got at night, Codie had made sure to bring a lighter with her even though she didn’t smoke. With that and the deadwood, she’d be able to have a fire that night.
Collecting a pile of wood, Codie arranged it near her sleeping bag. With her ‘camp’ arranged, she could do nothing else but sit and wait.
The remaining hours of the day slowly ticked by. Whenever she felt herself starting to panic, Codie reached for her Eye of Horus pendant. With the turquoise nestled in the palm of her hand, she sent out a silent prayer that someone would find her. When night
started to descend, she even sent out a prayer to the Egyptian god, Horus.
Just before it grew completely dark, Codie managed to start a small fire. Knowing she would have to wake up every few hours to add more wood to the fire, she crawled into her sleeping bag. The stress of the day had finally taken its toll. Codie’s eyes started to flutter shut. Before sleep claimed her, she reached up to stroke the turquoise hanging around her neck. But as tired as she felt, she almost didn’t notice the heat that radiated off the blue stone and seeped into her fingertips. Gripping the pendant in her hand, she drifted off to sleep.
* * * *
It had to be a dream. Codie stared around the luxurious room she found herself in. The walls had been painted in jewel tones with Egyptian hieroglyphs carved into the stone. Off to one side, a huge bed sat on top of a platform with sheer drapes surrounding it. A couple of smoking braziers gave off the scent of the incense that had been thrown onto the hot coals. Moving farther into the room, Codie let her gaze skip over the mound of brightly colored pillows thrown on the floor near one of the braziers. Not until she looked at the very back of the room did she draw up short. There sat a large throne-like chair placed upon a raised dais. And sitting on the chair sat a man quietly watching her.
When he stood and slowly walked toward her, Codie could only stand there and stare. He was like no other man she had ever encountered before. He looked as if he had stepped out of one of the ancient Egyptian pictures painted on the walls. He wore only a white linen kilt, which left most of his body bared. He was so muscular Codie could see the muscles bunching under his bronzed skin as he walked. Unable to look away, she dragged her eyes across the wide expanse of his chest and down to his well defined abs. Codie’s mouth went dry. She always found herself to be attracted to muscular men, the bigger the muscles the more she wanted the man. Just looking at his half naked body caused her knees to go weak, and she hadn’t even had a good look at his face yet.
Pulling her eyes back up his body, Codie looked up at his face as he came to stand in front of her. Her breath caught in her lungs. He had a face to match his body. Swallowing hard, she let her eyes skim over the hard planes and angles of his face. Taking him all in, she noted his shoulder length straight black hair and dark brown eyes. His firm lips were formed in a half smile. And he appeared to be tall, well over six feet, which was something else she liked in a man. Being five foot ten, she rarely found herself in the position of having to look up at a man, as she had to do with this one.
Codie licked her dry lips. His eyes drifted down to her mouth and stayed there. “Hi.” When her voice broke, she cleared her throat and tried again. “Hi.”
“Hello.” He spoke in heavily accented English. Dragging his gaze up to her eyes, he asked, “You have need of me?”
Oh, she needed him all right. She’d be more than happy to have him in her bed taking care of her needs, all night long. He chuckled, almost as if he had read her thoughts. Codie tried to pull her mind out of the gutter, but she couldn’t completely manage it with that gorgeous male body in front of her. Her fingers itched to touch every inch of him, including what he had under his kilt. When he chuckled again, she forced herself to speak.
“I’m not sure. I know this is a dream, and that I’ve made this all up in my head.”
“Yes, this is a dream. You called me to you.”
“I did? I don’t even know who you are.” Without thinking about it, Codie reached up to touch her pendant. His eyes followed her movement.
“Yes, you did.” Brushing her fingers aside, he lifted the pendant away from her skin. “You wear my eye. You used the pendant to call me.”
“You’re Horus? The Egyptian god, Horus?” Now she knew for sure this all had to be a figment of her imagination. Her subconscious had created this other place to help her cope with the extreme situation she found herself in.
“I am. And you are?”
“Codie. My name is Codie.”
“It has been many years since a mortal has called out to me, intentionally or unintentionally.”
“It has?” Codie’s heart raced as he took another step closer to her. There was barely an inch between their bodies now. For a dream, her mind had done a pretty good job of imagining what Horus would look like. It only seemed right that an Egyptian god would have a perfect face and body.
“Since you have called out for me, I assume there is an urgent need for my assistance.” Horus looked her suggestively up and down.
Codie’s insides turned to jelly. She knew exactly what he referred to—sex. That a man of his caliber could be interested her in that way did a lot for her ego. Normally, in real life, guys like Horus wouldn’t give her the time of day. Her looks could only be called average, like most things about her. The only thing that made her stand out was her height.
She usually didn’t jump into the sack with a man she had met minutes before, but this was her dream and being such, she could do whatever she wanted with no reprisals. And right now, she found herself to be more than willing to have Horus take her to bed.
With more daring than the Codie in the real world would have had, she closed the remaining distance between them until the toes of her hiking boots touched his sandaled feet and placed a hand on his hard chest. “There is one need I think you’re more than capable of satisfying.”
Horus placed his large hand on top of her hand. “More than capable.” Leaning forward, he gently brushed her lips with his.
Letting her eyes drift close, Codie sighed when his lips returned to take full possession of her mouth. His firm lips moved over hers gently at first. His lips became more demanding only when she returned his kiss.
When his tongue licked along the seam of her mouth, Codie parted her lips for him. His tongue dueled with hers before he sucked her tongue into his mouth. Codie moaned. At the sound, Horus released her hand and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her up against his hard body. The hard length of his cock pressed against her belly. Clutching at his shoulders, she pressed even closer as an ache began to build between her legs. Her pussy grew wet in anticipation of what was to come.
Horus left her mouth and trailed his lips along her jaw, down to the side of her neck. He licked and kissed his way farther down to the hollow of her throat. Holding her tight against him, he bent her slightly over his arm, giving himself better access to her breasts. He tongued her nipples through the material of her shirt. Her nipples pebbled beneath his tongue, and her breasts grew heavy. A gasp escaped her lips when Horus took a nipple between his teeth and gently tugged.
Even though Horus had fanned the flames of her desire ever higher, a sudden chill swept through Codie’s body. Pulling Horus back up to her mouth, she pressed closer to him so their bodies touched from chest to thigh. The heat of his body soaked into hers, but it did nothing to stop her body from shivering with cold. Codie moaned, but not with desire. She felt too cold. Her body began to shiver uncontrollably.
Sensing something had to be wrong, Horus pulled away to look down at her. “What is the matter?’
“Cold. So very cold.”
Even as she said the words, Codie felt herself slipping away from this dream world. Knowing she was going to wake up alone, lost in the desert, Codie let the fear she felt show in her eyes. Horus’ brows drew together in concern. Desperately wanting to stay with him, she tried to keep her hold on him, but her fingers lost their solidity. With a whimper of anguish, the room fell away leaving nothing but darkness surrounding her.
Chapter 2
Her body wracked with chills, Codie woke with a start. The harsh reality of being lost and alone crashed in on her. Being held in Horus’ warm arms one minute, even if it had been a dream, and then thrust back to her present circumstances, made what she had to endure that much worse.
Sitting up in her sleeping bag, Codie clenched her jaw so her teeth wouldn’t chatter from the cold. “Well, crap,” she said out loud to herself. She peered over at the small fire she had started before lying do
wn to sleep. Only a few coals remained. Codie dragged herself out of her sleeping bag, and with fingers stiff from the cold, clumsily pushed some small twigs she had gathered earlier into the hot embers. Gently, she blew on them, forcing the twigs to ignite. Once flames greedily licked at them, she placed some larger pieces of wood onto the fire.
Now that she had the fire going again, she held her hands over its welcoming heat. She looked up at the sky. From the lightening of the sky she knew it had to be almost dawn. Somehow she had managed to survive her first night out in the desert.
Daring to sit as close as she could to the fire, Codie pulled a water bottle out of her backpack. She drained what remained from the day before. That left her with only one bottle of water. If a search party didn’t find her today, Codie knew she would be in dire straits. Without water, her chances of survival would be next to nil.
* * * *
Horus let his arms drop back down to his sides now that he no longer held Codie in them. Her vanishing meant she had left her dreams and had returned to the mortal realm, much to his disappointment. His cock throbbed beneath the kilt he wore. Never before had a mortal woman aroused him so quickly, or so strongly.
Focusing intently inside himself, he searched the mortal realm for Codie. Something had to wrong. She may not have known what she had done when she had called out to him for help, but her doing so had not been done on a mere whim. The fear he had seen in her eyes before she had vanished had been all too real.
That she wore his turquoise eye around her neck made it easier to find her. He homed in on the stone, getting a clear picture of Codie inside his head. His body stiffened as he took in her surroundings. Connected to her through the stone, he could feel the fear she wouldn’t allow to take hold of her. Touching her mind, Horus knew she was lost out in the desert, alone, with no food and a minimal amount of water. That she hadn’t allowed herself to panic spoke volumes of her inner strength.
He wanted to go to her, but he knew he couldn’t. If he appeared to her in the mortal realm, it would only draw the unwanted attention of his uncle. Seth and he had become enemies the day his uncle had killed and dismembered his father, Osiris. To this day they remained enemies, having fought a number of battles over the centuries. If Horus showed any sign of interest in Codie, in any way, Seth would try to use her against him.
