Sweet Sleep (The Children of Ankh Book 1)

by Kim Cormack

  Kevin kissed her on the cheek and said, “I will meet you in class. I have to go to the bathroom.”

  “Wait a second,” she said. She strolled over and wrapped her arms around him. She kissed him square on the lips in public. They both heard the hushed thoughts of at least ten people as they passed them in the hall, I knew it. Kayn couldn’t help but smile as he ran down the hall away from her. He had told her she wasn’t alone and then taken off. It was kind of cute and definitely the comic relief that she needed.

  She was standing by her locker attempting to pick a posse of immortals out of a crowd. It was a little funny. Why did she have a feeling that this was going to be a complete and total gong show? Kayn observed the herds of students as they surged down the hall. Not an out of place Zena warrior princess looking girl in the bunch. She calmly walked to her first class. Maybe she wouldn’t recognize them. Maybe they would be normal looking people and sneak right past her radar. She sat in her first class and bent over to pull out her books; fumbling with her zipper she noticed a pair of shoes by her bag.

  “Mind if I sit next to you?” the shoes asked in an extremely familiar, silky tone oozing raw sexuality.

  Kayn looked up, her eyes following the curve of jeans tight on muscular thighs. His shirt was on. Oh, thank God, she thought. It was her half-naked bedroom visitor. The fully clothed version of Frost was not any less intoxicating.

  “Hi, stranger, remember me?” Frost whispered with a dimpled smile as he leaned over and zipped up her bag. “You should be careful. If you leave the zipper undone, something could fall out. You might lose something important.”

  Kayn’s hands froze in place. He brushed by them, barely touching her, but she still felt that same electrical jolt. Everything he said sounded naughty. Kayn’s throat was so dry that she could barely manage to swallow. Inconspicuous my ass, she thought, sitting up in her seat willing her hormones to chill themselves out. Talk about sending in the big guns, Kayn thought as she looked at his large, defined, tanned arms straining against his shirt. She had to stifle a giggle. How could she not laugh aloud? She gazed around the room. Even the teacher’s cheeks were flaming red from the raw sensual heat that he was giving off. Great, Kayn thought, Every female within a ten-mile radius was totally side-tracked. How in the hell was Frost passing for a guy in high school. He looked like he was at least in his middle twenties.

  She heard his thoughts, “Who is going to call me out, Frog sticker girl? Certainly none of these ladies are.”

  She regained her composure as Lily scooted into the room, “So sorry I’m late.” She plopped down into her seat. The teacher hadn’t even taken attendance. The teacher was flustered and confused.

  Kayn heard Lily’s voice in her head, Tone it down, Frost.

  All right, I’ll behave, he answered once again without speaking.

  They didn’t need to speak aloud to each other. This was all really happening. Kayn’s mind skipped through the moments in her life where she had been afraid of something, and almost every time her mother or father had been there to save her, to reassure her, make her understand that there was nothing to be afraid of. Now her family, with the exception of her brother, was dead, violently murdered by a human monster on a normal afternoon. The monster didn’t even come for them at night as she’d imagined a monster would do when she was very small. Those were the childhood rules; you only ever had to be afraid of monsters in the dark. Now that Kayn was grown up she understood that anybody could be a monster on the inside. Hiding in plain sight would be the easiest thing to do. She looked around her classroom wondering, if she would really know a monster if she saw it.

  Kayn felt amped up and frankly a little bit aroused from the proximity of the sexy supernatural pool boy seated directly in front of her. Kayn looked for Kevin. She would direct her mind towards thoughts of him instead of the hot steamy ones about Frost. Kevin hadn’t come back from the bathroom. She looked around the room feeling a little worried. Kayn looked at his empty seat as anxiety crept into her chest. The door opened and in walked Kevin looking unkempt and extremely exhausted. What had he been up to?

  “Glad to see you could find the time to join us today, Mr. Smith,” the teacher piped up.

  “Sorry, running behind this morning,” Kevin mumbled, hauling his books out of his bag. He looked around the room and saw Frost and Lily, and threw a welcoming smile in their direction.

  Kayn couldn’t help but feel like he was being strangely casual with their appearance here today. It was almost as if he had known they would be here. Then the realization hit Kayn that he probably had known. This was going to take some getting used to. She looked down at her paper and pretended to pay attention to today’s lesson. The bell rang at the end of the period. Everyone hopped up and exited the classroom in a rush except for a pack of girls lingering in the doorway obviously waiting to greet Frost.

  “It just sucks to be me,” he sighed with an arrogant swagger as he walked toward his mesmerized, fawning harem.

  Lily walked up to Kayn and asked, “Have you met the others yet? Did anyone come and introduce themselves?”

  “Besides you two I haven’t even seen anyone that I don’t already know,” Kayn said. “Shouldn’t Romeo turn down his mojo just a bit, if he is trying to fly under the radar?”

  “I’ll mention it to him again. He’s just having a little first day of school fun with the ladies. He gets all pissy when I mess with his ability to sleep his way through the phone book. Don’t even get me started on his naughty behavior when we travel overseas. It’s just who Frost is. We just try to ignore it,” Lily said casually. They waited for Kevin at the doorway watching as Frost walked away with his giggling flock of teenage girls.

  Kevin walked up, “Hey, ladies.” He leaned in to give Kayn a kiss square on the lips. This made her smile. He kissed her right in front of Lily.

  “We better find Lexy. I have an idea of where she might be,” Lily openly scowled. They walked toward the office and sure enough, an extremely tall, beautiful redhead wearing the most inappropriate outfit ever created, sat slumped on the bench outside the principal’s office.

  “Seriously, you’re in trouble already? Well, thank you for at least playing nice with the principal and sitting here,” Lily teased as they approached.

  Lexy grinned and with a thick sultry southern accent replied, “She openly mocked my boots. You know how much I love these boots.”

  Kayn looked down Lexy’s mile-long legs, then at her outfit. Short shorts and fire engine red cowboy boots … wow, way to be inconspicuous, she thought. She definitely could have picked these three out of a crowd in about two minutes flat.

  “What did you do? Did you forget the whole conversation that we had about lying low and blending in?” Lily scolded.

  It wasn’t until Lily let down her cool demeanor and got a little upset that her own touch of an accent peeked through and it made both Kevin and Kayn smile. They had not missed that slip up. She’d obviously been trying to hide her accent, but why? Kayn wondered.

  After Lexy’s short visit with an extremely understanding male principal, they went to find their one missing clan member. Lexy had almost knocked a girl out by slamming her head into a locker for sarcastically saying nice boots. She didn’t even get a detention. They walked down the hall together, Kevin, Kayn and Lily dressed as normal teenagers and Lexy like she was walking the streets downtown getting paid for it. The skateboarders walked by with an extremely hot new member. He grinned at them, waving at the others as he passed by.

  Lily smiled and said, “And that would be Grey; he is an acquired taste. I guess we will see him after school. We have it worked out, so at least one of us is in every one of your classes, Kayn. You do not even go to the bathroom alone from this moment forward,” Lily firmly stated.

  “Okay,” Kayn replied. She rushed into the next class which she had with just Lexy.

  A teacher walked over to Lexy immediately and said, “For future reference, short shorts are only
allowed at school if you are wearing tights underneath them, dear.”

  “I’m sorry. They ripped so I took them off. I was embarrassed. It won’t happen again, I promise,” Lexy explained with her intriguing accent as she crossed her legs seductively.

  Kayn noticed the entire classroom of boys ogling Lexy. Where are my voodoo powers? Kayn thought, almost feeling like pouting until she realized that standing out was probably not the best gift for her to have right now. Her ability to blend into the background may in fact be a good thing.

  School ended that day with the shrill ringing of the last bell. Kayn was intrigued by the four people sent to be her detail. Kevin was waiting outside of Kayn’s classroom for her. He grabbed her bag and grinned as he chucked it over his shoulder. They walked out to his car and passed Jesse and his group of friends at the front door. She waved at him and walked past the group. Kayn was lost in thought as they crossed the street and reached Kevin’s car. He pinned her against the door and gave her a very passionate public kiss.

  “Wow, what was that for?” Kayn stammered, breathless.

  She could see Jesse standing there trying not to watch. She knew what was going on. Kevin had been jealous about her little conversation with Jesse. He was staking a public claim.

  “Just for being you,” Kevin said smiling.

  Kayn called bullshit silently in her mind and let Kevin have his moment.

  He opened the car door gallantly then added, “Madame, your chariot awaits.” Kayn hopped in the front seat and they heard the back door open; three of the four squeezed into the back seat. They hadn’t even seen them approaching the car.

  “Okay, chariot, onward home. It’s training time, kids,” Lily stated.

  Lexy sweetly said, “We kind of have to get started, you two; there’s a lot to learn.”

  “Where are we off to then?” Kevin murmured with an aggravated sigh.

  “Oh, you two are going to love this because this is the fun part. Let’s go to our house,” Lexy chuckled and there was an undertone of excitement coming from the back seat.

  “This is going to be awesome,” Frost stated grinning from the back seat. He added, “Am I making you uncomfortable, sweetheart? May I add, wow, because you are some seriously identical twins?”

  He was flirting with an empty space on the back seat. Kayn deduced that her deceased twin sister, Chloe, must be sitting there.

  “Totally identical,” Lily stated adding, “How’s the afterlife? Did I sit on you?”

  “Not at all, and I’m stuck right here with all of you. I can’t seem to get out of the car now,” Her sister’s voice said, “but by all means make yourselves comfortable.”

  Kayn turned around towards the sound of her sister’s voice, “Hi Chloe, I wish I could still see you too.”

  “The process has begun; you’re in Clan Ankh, and you are marked. You two need to combine and very soon before something happens. You’re not strong enough alone. Chloe, wouldn’t you rather be in the front seat, a solid person, rather than having some dude you don’t know sitting on you in the backseat being nothing but an inconsequential ghost?” Frost said.

  Chloe winked and sparred, “It’s not like I’ve never been in the back seat before.”

  Frost chuckled, “You would be the naughty half. It is certainly a pleasure to meet you.”

  Kayn rolled her eyes. She looked toward the area where they were speaking and said, “I have already agreed to this. There isn’t really a choice to be made here. It’s done.”

  Chloe looked at Kevin in the rearview mirror and said, “I tried to join with her. A few times and it only worked for a few minutes. I tried again today, but I seem to be blocked from even attempting to join with her now.”

  Kayn spoke to her sister’s voice, “If I am stopping you from joining with me somehow, I have no idea how I’m doing it.” They got out of the car and walked toward the house, everyone entering except for Chloe who sat outside and said, “Hey, what about me?”

  Kayn turned back and said, “Can she come inside with us?”

  “Sorry, love, no ghosts allowed,” Lexy said sweetly.

  Frost stuck his head back out the door and teased, “But you’re welcome to hang with me anytime, you sexy little vixen, once you jump inside of your sister.”

  “That sounds so very wrong,” Kayn laughed.

  She couldn't help but smile because her twin sister was dead and she had a boy flirting shamelessly with her. In another time and place this Frost guy would have been her sister’s fantasy man. He would have been perfect for Chloe. He definitely would have given her a run for her money.

  The house had a unique décor. There was glass shelving across the walls with thousands of tiny hand painted soldiers. The sofa was still covered in plastic. It was a peculiar thing for a middle aged man to leave there. No television set in the living room. It was a very sterile looking environment.

  Lily walked up to Kayn and said, “If I were to hazard a guess, your sister has some unfinished business. That’s why you haven’t joined yet.”

  Kayn replied, “How could she not have unfinished business? She died at seventeen.” She followed the rest down to the basement where the other two, Lexy and skater boy, Grey, stood waiting.

  “What took you guys so long?” Grey said holding out his hand to Kayn and then to Kevin with a friendly smile.

  Kevin said, “Nice to see you again, Grey.” They both shook his hand politely.

  Kayn questioned, “You two have already met?”

  Kevin winked and said, “Just a little conversation a while back about restraining orders and stuff.”

  Grey grabbed something out of his pocket. He chucked a pink stone on the ground and another tomb appeared. First as a hologram, and then it solidified. It was incredibly cool.

  Kevin and Kayn stared at the ominous looking stone, coffin-like chambers lined up across the basement.

  “Do you like video games kids?” Grey chuckled with a thick Aussie accent and a giant comical grin.

  Chapter 20

  Training Games

  They stood before the stone tombs laid out in a precise line. It was all very reminiscent of Egyptian tombs from an old movie. They seemed ominous stretched out across the room. Lexy put her hand on the symbol on the top of the first tomb. This symbol was on the top of them all.

  Kayn and Kevin looked at each other, recognizing it immediately as the symbol of Ankh that they all wore branded into their own flesh. Kayn could tell that he was nervous. She knew what Kevin was thinking. He was wondering how far he would be asked to stray from the safety of his spiritual ignorance today. Her best friend was also not a fan of confined spaces.

  Lexy’s hand touched the symbol on the top of the first tomb. She twisted the symbol to the side and all of the tombs shifted open in unison. The grinding of stone on stone—such a unique sound that Kayn knew instinctively that this moment would change her life irreversibly. They were about to do something to which only ancient civilizations had been privy. Her body seemed to be drawn by some kind of almost magnetic pull toward a tomb in the middle of the line. Kayn walked to the tomb as if her feet and legs were somehow operating on their own. She stood before it, her brows knit in confusion as to how she had come to stand there.

  “What are we doing?” Kayn asked with a strange mix of excitement and paralyzing fear. Her pulse raced with adrenaline and she was full of excitement for what was to come. The others climbed into their tombs. She followed them and climbed into the tomb in front of her. Kayn lay down and smiled. Running her hands along the pink shiny stone walls, she lay willingly in a stone tomb with the others. Who would’ve thought it? She knew Kevin was not getting into one of these tombs willingly.

  Lily sat straight up in her tomb, glanced at Kevin, and gave her eyes a giant roll in his direction as she lay down again and said, “Get in the Rose Quartz chambers, Kevin.”

  Kevin said, “I’ll pass. I’ll stay here and make sure Kayn gets back out of that tomb in time for dinner.
Listen, I think that I have been pretty awesome with all of this crazy stuff, but a giant pink coffin may be where I draw the line on my crazy today.”

  “It’s okay Kevin. Trust me, if anyone understands how you’re feeling, it’s me. You can stay here with me,” Lexy said. Her southern accent appeared to sooth his underlying panic.

  “Kayn, are you sure about this?” Kevin said.

  From her perspective, this would have been quite the sight—four beautiful specimens of humanity lying in pink stone lined tombs. They weren’t really specimens of humanity at all, were they? They were something more. Kayn found her mind flipping through frames of Aztec ruins and pyramids. She had flashes of lives not her own. “I’m sure this is what I am supposed to be doing. It feels right,” Kayn said with blind resolve from within her tomb. She knew it must seem crazy to Kevin. He had always been extremely claustrophobic. He would never venture to blindly climb inside of a tomb without knowing why. Kayn knew she wasn’t in any real danger inside of the tomb. She felt safe.

  “Hey, chuck me that iPod, beautiful,” Grey hollered at Lexy.

  She smiled, grabbed it off of the work bench, and threw it in his tomb.

  He chuckled, “Everything is way more fun with a little theme music. Close us up, Lex.”

  Kayn’s heart began to race, thumping with ferocious excitement against her chest as the lids all slowly closed in unison.

  She heard Frost’s calm, yet somehow still sultry voice say, “Hold onto your pantyhose, muffin.”

  “Help me, Kevin, you should learn how to do this part,” Lexy said as she pushed the tombs together.

  As each tomb touched the next one, they began to glow with a bright, luminescent light. Kevin had to shut his eyes to help push the next one forward. When the last tomb locked, it pulsated a few times then exploded with blinding light. A burst of energy threw them both to the hard concrete basement floor.

  Kayn heard Grey’s rock music in the distance as she felt as though they were moving sideways, click, click, and click. All of a sudden it felt as though they were falling inside their tombs. She could hear Grey cat calling and hooting. Her stomach twisted and turned as she shut her eyes to the blinding light and the sensation of being shot up into the air. Kayn’s eyes squeezed shut. She started to laugh and squeal in excitement as she pressed her hands against the sides of the tomb. The mixture of Grey’s heavy metal playing and her stomach churning with vomit inducing motion reminded her of being on a carnival ride.