Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Hello again,” said a familiar voice behind me. “I hope you don’t mind me calling a little timeout on this play.”

  I whirled to see the guy who had given me the book of Thoth so long ago. The guy who I was pretty sure might actually be Thoth himself. He wasn’t wearing his armor anymore. Instead, he was wrapped in a black toga-like thing that fell around his ankles. He pushed a pair of gold wire-rimmed glasses up his nose and stared at me, his eyes huge and bug-eyed.

  “I don’t mind, Thoth.” As I said the words, a smile crinkled his face, and he nodded almost imperceptibly. “Please share your wisdom.”

  “Okay,” he replied, touching my forehead with one huge palm.

  There was a flash of light across my brow and blinding white light filled my vision for a split second. Then I was standing next to Thoth a few feet away, only I could see myself at the feet of Sekhmet. It was weird, like being trapped in a live-action replay of the moment before. That was when I noticed Khufu sneaking up behind the goddess.

  “Outcome one,” Thoth said to me, waving one hand. “It has a fifty-nine percent probability of occurring.”

  Khufu leapt forward, his huge spear raised over his head to strike at Sekhmet, but as he descended, the goddess whirled, swinging the million-ton statue around like a baseball bat. It slammed into Khufu, reducing him to a splotchy cloud as the statue passed through the air at what seemed like the speed of sound.

  A sonic boom echoed across the land as she turned, and with an almost casual flick of her wrists, dropped the statue to the ground. It struck with a splat that threw up a cloud of crimson sand. She smirked and turned to leave.

  “But what about the staff?” I heard myself say. “We won’t be able to find it without him. Please, you have to help us.”

  “I don’t care,” Sekhmet replied with a shrug of her shoulders. “The staff is not my problem.” As she spoke the words, thunder crackled across the sky, so loud and foreboding, it hurt my ears and made me cringe. “Consider yourself lucky I don’t kill you for helping him, Thes.”

  The scene paused, and Thoth looked at me. “If Khufu dies, you won’t recover the staff. That I can promise you.” The old god shook his head. “Unfortunately, you need the staff to awaken Ra. If you don’t, things will fall out of balance.”

  “So Khufu is telling the truth?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the ancient god of wisdom.

  “Mostly,” Thoth replied. “You must find a way to save him from Sekhmet.”

  “You said there was another way,” I asked, and even as I spoke, the scene in front of me rewound until it was back to the point where Thoth had pulled me out of time. I’ll admit, it was a little weird to watch myself.

  “There is this possibility, too. It has about a thirty-seven percent chance of success,” Thoth said as the scene restarted. “It’s worse.”

  Khufu didn’t leap this time. Instead, he reared back and flung his spear with all of his super-mummy strength. The weapon stabbed into Sekhmet’s arm as she turned toward him. She lost her grip on the statue. The sphinx fell, landing hard on top of her with a hideous sounding crunch.

  “Silly goddess, you think you can defeat me?” Khufu asked as he sauntered, actually sauntered, up to me and held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before she recovers.”

  “Well, that seems less bad,” I mumbled as Aziza and vision me got to their feet and followed him off into the distance. “Won’t Sekhmet just heal the damage?”

  “Yes,” he replied, and the scene shifted so that I was watching Khufu, Aziza, and I stand before a man so old looking that he had to have been a million years old.

  “Look, Imhotep, we need the staff to awaken Ra,” Khufu was saying, though frustration was lacing his words. “I don’t know how else to explain what you already know to be true.”

  “Firstly, I’m not helping you, and secondly, mwa ha ha ha!” he said before pulling on a golden lever that resembled a cobra’s head to his left. The floor vanished, and I watched as the vision-me fell, along with Khufu and Aziza. A horrible sound that reminded me of the time I’d been at the butcher while he tenderized meat filled my ears as I rushed over, anxious to see what happened.

  I stared down into the pit and barely resisted the urge to vomit. The sight of my body impaled on a host of spikes filled my vision. My heart leapt into my throat, and I fell to my knees as my own lifeless eyes stared back at me. I swallowed. In this version of the future I died…

  “But why?” I murmured as Imhotep’s form melted away to reveal Sekhmet standing there with a satisfied grin on her face. She cast one glance into the pit and then liquid fire filled the pit, reducing everything inside to ash.

  “As you can see, option B fails as well.” Thoth shrugged as the scene froze in place. “That’s why you need to go with a third choice, which unfortunately, has only a three percent chance of success.”

  I swallowed, unable to tear my eyes from the sight of my own broken body. “And what is option three?”

  “Not option one or two,” Thoth said, waving his hand at me, and as he did, everything vanished in a haze of bright light. “Do something else. Be better. Get Sekhmet to help you.”

  I was back in my body on the ground, looking up at Sekhmet. She stood over me, brandishing the huge sphinx statue like a baseball bat. Before anyone could do anything, I leapt to my feet.

  “Stop!” I shouted, diving past her to intercept Khufu. I hit him square in the stomach with my shoulder before he could even think about attacking. We slammed into the sand, and I was on my feet a second later, not waiting to see how he reacted as I whirled to face Sekhmet.

  She took a step forward, her face drawn into a mask of fury and hatred. “Move, wolf,” she said, and the words were hard, yet strangely brittle. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will. You won’t like it.”

  “No,” I replied, holding my palms out in front of myself. “We need him to stop Apep from rising. I know you want revenge, but just listen to me.” I swallowed and took a leap of faith. “We need you too, Sekhmet. Thoth told me to find a different path, and the only way I can see to do that is at your side.”

  She was about to say something, but instead cocked her head to the side. “Why do you say that, Thes?” she asked after what felt like an eternity.

  “You are one of the greatest warriors in Ra’s court. Only you are strong enough to wield his staff and beat back the demon, Apep. Without you to help us fight, it won’t matter if we succeed in getting ahold of the staff.” I threw my hands up in front of myself and dropped to the ground so that my face was touching the sand. “Please help us One Before Whom Evil Trembles. Make it tremble before you once more.”

  I didn’t look up until a loud crash filled my ears. The statue was lying in pieces a few yards away, as though the goddess had tossed it casually to the side. The sight of it laying there scared the hell out of me. It was a clear reminder of just how outclassed I was… especially without my wolf.

  Sekhmet knelt down in front of me and took my chin in her hands. “I will spare Khufu this one time, and I will accompany you to the staff’s location, wolf.” She licked her lips. “But I will require something from you in return.”

  “Anything,” I said, swallowing back my sudden fear. What if she wanted my life? What if she wanted something worse? Something I couldn’t give? Or was it something else entirely? She had the same look in her eyes, I remembered seeing on a certain goddess’s face earlier in this adventure…

  “Good. I shall remember you promised me anything,” she replied, releasing me as she stepped past me. Behind me, Khufu was just getting to his feet, and the goddess seized him by the throat and hoisted him into the air. “If you try something I even mildly dislike, I will throw you into the sun.” She smiled at him, and it made me tremble even though it wasn’t directed at me. “Do you understand, pharaoh?”

  Chapter 18

  It wasn’t long before our motley crew arrived at Imhotep’s tomb. The pyramid would have seemed huge if
I hadn’t seen Giza. Even partially constructed, Giza was big enough to have fit this place in its bathroom. Why had Khufu built such a ginormous pyramid? Was it to outdo Imhotep? I thought about asking, but decided against it.

  The north face of the pyramid looked like it had been carved from one giant block. Hieroglyphics every color of the rainbow littered its surface, and while I wasn’t sure what they said, Aziza’s eyes widened in horror as she scanned them.

  While that concerned me, I was more worried about the two forty-foot tall statues of Anubis that stood guard on either side of the door. Their hands were clasped around the hilt of some weapon that disappeared behind their respective backs. What if they came to life and tried to kill us? Sure, we had Sekhmet with us, but there was no guarantee she would help us if bad things started to go down. It was entirely possible she’d laugh and then float off into the sky.

  I sighed and shook my head. Somehow, we had to get inside and convince Imhotep to hand over the staff, and while that didn’t sound hard, I was pretty sure it was going to be just this side of impossible. At least we seemed to have Sekhmet on our side now. Small victories, I guess.

  “So how do we get in?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure we should. Those hieroglyphics strongly imply that it would be a really bad idea to venture inside,” Aziza said reluctantly.

  “No, that’s just what the sign on your panties says,” Khufu replied, stepping past her and pressing one of his huge hands against the wall. She stared at him, mouth opening and closing as her eyes flickered between surprise and rage. “You need to read them straight down, like this.” Khufu trailed his fingers vertically down the hieroglyphics. As he did so, they lit up, glowing like opals cast into the sunlight.

  When he’d reached the last one, the stone shuddered, and the screeching of crows filled the air. Color exploded outward from the pyramid, throwing Khufu off his feet and sending him skidding backward in the sand like a giant pharaoh-shaped comet.

  Beside us, the huge statues quaked, and their massive stone heads turned toward us. They opened their mouths, revealing rows of huge teeth that glittered like shards of broken glass. Their hands whipped out, pulling huge curved sabers free from their stone backs and brandishing them at us.

  “Stand down, brother,” Sekhmet said, holding one hand out in front of her. Fire licked across her skin, turning the sand beneath her feet into molten glass. “I do not want to have to destroy your statues.”

  “Anubis has no place here.” A voice that struck me like the emptiness of the void rippled out across the sand. In that moment, I felt nothing. It was like every ounce of my being had been reduced to a swirling mist of atoms.

  Sekhmet’s fire died out, squashed under a blanket of darkness that fell over the land, dousing the earth in chaos. Her eyes went wide as she swallowed, taking a step backward and stumbling. She fell on her butt, mouth agape. “No… no it can’t be…”

  “What is it?” I cried, shaking myself into action as one giant stone foot tried to flatten me. I hit the ground in a roll, trying to call upon my wolf, only it wasn’t responding. “Goddammit, Khufu! I need my wolf!”

  I scrambled to my feet as the statue lumbered toward me. Behind it, I could see its twin focused on Aziza. I don’t know how, but it was sprinting behind her as she ran, its long legs tearing up the distance between them so that it was like watching an ant try to outrun a world-class sprinter.

  Aziza turned, one hand splayed out in front of her. Purple energy wafted off of her in tendrils, reminding me of a particularly colorful sea anemone. A blast of lavender energy exploded from her hand and struck the statue full in the face. Its head cracked, splintering down the center. It wobbled, taking a couple steps backward. Its arms flew out to help it regain its balance, but despite its face having been reduced to rubble, the automation seemed otherwise unconcerned.

  She bit her lip, fear flashing across her features as the huge stone Anubis steadied itself and took a step toward her, weapon raised high above its head so that its surface glinted in the fading sunlight.

  My own statue struck so fast that I barely dodged. Its huge fist plowed into the ground beside me, burying itself up to the elbow in the sandy earth. This was not good. I needed my wolf to have any kind of chance…

  “Khufu! Did you hear me?” I cried, darting between the things legs as it struggled to free itself.

  The short answer was no. He was still lying on the sand, only it was obvious from the slackness of his body that he was unconscious. Great. Just great.

  The Anubis statue ripped its hand free with a sound that reminded me of a landslide. It spun, one huge foot barely missing me as I threw myself to the side. Its swirling black eyes widened very slightly as it stared at me. I scrambled to my feet as it reached out with one huge hand and grabbed me.

  Its stony grip tightened around me, not hard enough to break anything, but not loose enough for me to escape either. It hoisted me up until I was staring directly into one of its huge eyes. It reminded me of the center of a tornado… you know if that tornado was made of tar and trying to suck you into a black hole.

  “You,” it said, and the profound emptiness of its voice struck me like a blow. My body went slack, collapsing under the pressure of that one word. The statue cocked its head at me, thinking. “I know you.”

  I tried to respond, tried to remember how to talk, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t. My lips were fused together, my voice lost to me. Admittedly, I was partially surprised I could still breathe because every part of me felt hollow, like a clamshell sucked free of meat.

  The image of a huge cobra loomed up over me in in my mind’s eye. Its huge head fanned out black as pitch and as wide as a skyscraper. Enormous eyes of spinning black lava fixed on me, freezing me in place beneath their baleful gaze. If I thought I couldn’t speak before, this… this was so much more. If before I was an mouse before an elephant, now I was a bacterium beneath the toenails of another bacterium. I was so small and insignificant that I might as well not exist.

  “You know me?” the creature asked, huge serpentine lips opening and closing to reveal rows of bloody teeth the size of tanker trucks. “I can smell myself upon you. Explain to me why I did not kill you before?”

  I couldn’t talk. How could I answer? I tried… tried to pry my mouth open, to make my jaws work, but all I managed to do was squeak. It was a pitiful little sound that made my heart sink and my confidence fall into my shoes.

  The snake reared back, and I suddenly realized I was not where I was before. Stretching out before me was an infinity of perfect white. It was so disconcerting that I could scarcely breathe. I was in the void. In nothingness. The only thing here was me and the snake. Its huge black tail wrapped around me, holding me in place so that I couldn’t move. Its skin was like oil, glistening and wet.

  The sound of my blood rushing in my ears was all that I heard as it regarded me carefully, nostrils flaring outward. My very essence began to float toward the snake, flowing out toward it like particles of black shadow.

  “You’re from the future,” the snake said, a sly grin settling over it as it shook its head. “I’m so smart that sometimes I amaze myself.”

  “Why is that?” I said, only I wasn’t sure it was me moving my lips. It was something else, something deep within me. It was a voice I did not own.

  “Because the mark upon your flesh, faint as it is, carries a message from the future, of a time beyond time. Of a time after time.” The snake released me. I fell down through nothingness. It lunged toward me, mouth opening like, well, a striking serpent, but always staying far enough away that it never caught me. I was pretty sure it was on purpose.

  “It says that I am a hero. That chaos gets its due. It tells a story I hardly believe is possible.” The snake caught me, its serpentine tongue wrapping around me. It arrested my fall so suddenly that my head snapped backward and little stars shot across my vision for a second. “It tells me that I will bring order to chaos.” It narrowed its eye
s at me until they were slits of boiling fire. “I am chaos, and I will bring order. Tell me how, tell me why.”

  I was rendered completely insubstantial. A mist that broke into a cloud of nothingness and scattered across the world. In that moment, I saw the universe make and unmake itself. Saw life spawn on a million earths, saw it die away just as quickly. I saw eons elapse in the space of a second and saw a second stretch out into infinity, moving so slow that each moment was a lifetime of time.

  Time.

  Time bent sideways, breaking, spilling its contents out across the endless space of nothingness.

  Time snapped back into place like a rubber band. In that moment, I knew everything and anything. I saw how my story could end, saw it splinter outward among possibilities so numerous that no number could truly do it justice. In that moment, I understood infinity, and that felt too small, too limited, too wanting.

  The huge snake loomed in front of me, its tongue warm and slimy on my flesh. I stared into its eyes, meeting its magma-hot gaze. “Apep,” I commanded, and the world around me shuddered. Cracks the color of warm honey appeared in the endless white void. “Release me.”

  And he did.

  Chapter 19

  I was standing in the sand outside of the pyramid. A pile of rubble that was vaguely reminiscent of the Anubis statue was strewn out in front of me. I squinted, shielding my eyes from the glare of the sun overhead as I surveyed the scene. Khufu was still on the ground, only he was starting to stir, just the barest movement that let me know it’d be a few minutes until consciousness fully grasped him in its fist.

  Sekhmet was on her knees in the sand, eyes blank and uncomprehending. It reminded me of that thousand mile stare I’d seen on some wolves following major battles. Shock and trauma frozen just below the surface. Her hands lay slack at her sides, her fire long since extinguished.

  Like the statue that had attacked me, Aziza’s was strewn across the ground in pieces, only they were bigger and more recognizable than mine had been. It sort of resembled a huge dismembered corpse sans blood and gore.