“You know what I think.” Amenhotep folded his arms across his wide chest.
Ardeth did. He would not allow the woman to be destroyed.
“How can we hasten her change?” he asked Kahma. “Would mixing my blood again with hers accomplish this?”
“Perhaps. Yet there is another way. A more pleasurable way of sharing your essence with her and stimulating her blood.”
Ardeth grinned. He was beginning to like the idea of a mate more and more.
“You must take her often, Ardeth,” Kahma explained. “The more you take her, the faster her transformation will be completed.”
Their master’s gaze turned to Amenhotep. “Your brother can help you.”
Share her with Amenhotep? He’d shared women with his twin often in life. Over the years, they’d ventured into Cairo from time to time to enjoy human women, sometimes together, sometimes not. They didn’t go often because of the risk to the women if they mingled their cursed fluids with theirs. Deformed children could be born to the women. They would slowly go mad because of Set’s curse tainting their blood.
Such was the case of his Alexis. The faster her transformation took place, the better for her. While he liked Kahma’s suggestion on how best to do that, the thought of sharing her with his twin concerned him a little. To speed up her change, he could accept it. The thought of them both pushing her to unimaginable heights of pleasure did excite him.
The thought of Amenhotep having access to her for all eternity, he didn’t like. “The transformation will happen quickly. I would welcome your help brother, but only until she turns.”
Amenhotep threw him a lopsided grin. “Possessive already?”
Ardeth was not going to answer that. “Will you help or not?”
His twin stared at him, his expression serious now. Then he nodded.
“Do you know where we can find her?” Kahma asked. “We must hurry if we are to reach her before Set’s minions do.”
Ardeth nodded. He knew just where she was.
“Let us leave now,” Kahma commanded, and they headed in the direction of Cairo.
Chapter 5
Exhaustion had Alex dozing in the warm bath until what sounded like a woman’s scream startled her awake. Grabbing a towel from the shining bronze bar by the tub, she scrambled out of the tub and covered herself quickly. It sounded like it was coming from her room. When the second shriek -- most definitely coming from her room -- ripped through the quiet of her hotel room, her heart began to slam in her chest.
She recognized that sound.
Oh, hell the creatures from the cave couldn’t be here, could they?
As fast as her feet could carry her, Alex dashed out of the bathroom and was thrust back into the nightmare she’d survived one year ago. The faceless creatures from the cave in their black tattered robes were breaking through the windows of her room. Shattering glass combined with their bloodcurdling screams to fill her with fear as they fought to get into the room.
Alex screamed and ran for the door, colliding with one of Hunter Storme’s men who yanked her out into the hallway and dashed into the room with one of his peers right behind him. When Alex heard the screams of the two large muscular men, she began running blindly down the hall of the hotel, clutching her towel to her body. She threw open the door to the stairwell, running down the stairs at a speed that would have alarmed her if she weren’t so frightened.
Finally she made it out into the lobby where people were dashing out the front door to see what the commotion was about. Several people turned to stare at her, a woman wearing only a towel. Somehow she made it through the crowd and out onto the sidewalk.
It was dark now but not so dark that Alex couldn’t see the black shapes climbing out the window of her room. Oh, my God! They were climbing down the wall like spiders. They were here for her! She had to get out of there.
Turning to run she collided with a hard, solid form. Her free hand met with a solid, male chest. She glanced up, hoping to see Hunter Storme.
It was Ardeth! His arms wrapped around her as his dark eyes locked with hers. He was warm, real.
Reality clashed with the strange things in her mind and dreams. Now everything became surreal to her.
“This is how you dress on the streets of Cairo?”
“No!” Damn him! “I’m kind of busy running for my life right now.”
“That is why I am here, fair one. You will come with me.”
Alex swallowed hard. As apprehensive as she was about this man and what had happened between them earlier, she was willing to take her chances with him against those black things that were scaling down the outer hotel walls toward the ground.
“How will you get us out of here?” she asked.
“We will fly.”
His hand came up to cover her eyes and then there was nothing but darkness.
* * *
Alex awoke in bed. For a moment, she hoped that it was all a dream and she was back in her apartment or even in bed in her hotel room. Yet she wasn’t in either place. She found herself in a simple room with sheer, white curtains covering the two, tall, slender windows. The same curtains draped around the four poster bed where she lay.
“How do you feel?”
The sound of Ardeth’s voice blew her theory that this was just a dream or that she’d eaten some bad mushrooms somewhere. He was here. She didn’t know where she was.
Great.
Slowly propping herself up on the bed, she spotted Ardeth, sitting in a chair on the other side of the filmy bed hangings. He was nude from the waist up, the swarthy skin of his upper body glistening in the light of the lamp on the table by the bed. His eyes reflected that fire, watching her as she shifted under the lightweight comforter that covered her. She was nude beneath.
Of course she was. She’d only been wearing a towel when she ran into him outside of the hotel. That’s when she remembered those creatures from the cave coming into her hotel room and the cries of Hunter Storme’s men.
“Where are they?”
“Close by.”
Alex didn’t like the matter-of-fact way he’d said that. “Will they find us?”
“Likely. They will not return this night, but I assure you, they will return tomorrow.”
Her heart’s pace quickened. They would return for her. “What will happen to me? They want to kill me, don’t they?”
And poor Hunter. He’s going to be so worried when he can’t find me.
She heard him take a deep breath, the sound a quiet echo in the room. He rose from the chair with slow, careful movements, pulling back the sheer hangings of the bed and sitting on the edge of the mattress. His close proximity sent pulses of excitement racing through her body.
“Alexis, there is much to talk about,” he began. “It will require you to open your mind to that which is unknown to you.”
“Yeah, well, after those things breaking into my hotel room, I’m willing to go on a little faith here.”
Ardeth’s mouth curved up into a smile but it didn’t reach his eyes. “What do you remember about your captivity in the cave?”
“Those things are after me, and you want to talk about how we’re bound to each other again?”
He chuckled at that, a deep, pleasant sound that warmed her insides. “While that is an important part in all of this, Alexis, I am trying to tell you what you need to know. What do you remember about that night?”
No one had ever really asked her what had happened to her. Her body began to tremble as she sat up. “They hurt me.”
Instead of telling her he knew that or trying to get her to move on with her tale, he nodded and remained silent.
“They wanted me to read the carvings on two very old pieces of stone. I think. I don’t know for sure. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. But them pushing my face at the stones over and over was a pretty good indication.”
“You are clever, fair one.”
Okay, she was beginning to like his little nick
name for her.
“Reading from those stones is exactly what they wished for you to do. If you had completed the inscription, they would have used you to fulfill an ancient curse. That is why they seek you now, and they will never stop hunting you. That is still their intention.”
“How would they use me to fulfill their curse? What curse?”
“If they can make you complete the inscription, your fate would be too horrible to describe.”
Fair enough. “What’s the curse?”
“The creatures are the minions of Set, murderer of the great king Osiris.”
What? “Come again?”
“Osiris lived many centuries ago and a finer king --”
“I know who Osiris is. He was an Egyptian god.”
Ardeth’s brow lowered. “Modern man so easily dismisses my king as so much myth and legend but I assure you, he is as real as you and I.”
Did he just say my king?
“Set murdered him and stole his body from our queen, dismembering it. Our queen used all of her powers to restore him as best she could and then conceived a child with him. That child was Horus who would go on to avenge his father. We helped her to hide his body. This time in a location that Set would never find on his own.”
“We?” Okay, now he was weirding her out. “What do you mean we? You talk about all of it as if you were there and it really happened. There is no real evidence that Osiris, Isis, Horus, or Set actually existed or were anything more than the other gods the ancient Egyptians worshipped like Ra --”
“Alexis, do you believe the creatures in the cave are real?”
How could she not? They’d beaten and cut the shit out of her that night.
Alexis nodded.
When Ardeth lifted her hand and pressed it to his heart, she could feel the strong steady beat against her palm. “Do you believe that I’m real?”
“Yes.”
“Then listen to my tale and believe. Osiris was my king. I served him in life and I protect him now along with the others who have been cursed as I have been. I have walked these lands for thousands of years, Alexis, always watching the dark riders who hurt you. They are the minions of Set and they will never rest until their master’s curse -- the inscription on those stones -- is fulfilled.”
Alexis’ mind was spinning. What he was expecting her to believe was impossible. She knew the legend of Osiris, his death at the hands of his brother Set and the conception of Horus. It was pretty basic stuff. But the rest of it? That this man had actually known them and that they were in fact real? Ardeth was how old?
And there was nothing that she’d ever read about a curse involving Set.
“But what’s the curse? I don’t understand.”
“Before his death, Set ordered his men to find the body of Osiris. The stones carry instructions of how to resurrect Set and bring him back into this world. Once resurrected, he would be an unstoppable evil who would not rest until he conquered every land. Once reborn to this world, he would come after us, the seven Scorpion Warriors who served his brother and his queen.”
An ancient Egyptian god returning to conquer the world in this day and age? Was he nuts? Seven Scorpion Warriors? She’d never read anything about that either.
Aside from all that, his story didn’t make sense.
“If he’s unstoppable, where does that leave you?”
“Dead.”
“Wait. If you guys wouldn’t be able to stop him, why are you still here after all of these years? Didn’t your king -- or I guess it would’ve been your queen since he was killed -- think that through?”
And do you realize how crazy it is that we’re even having this conversation?
His face was a mask of calm resignation. “It was not our king or queen who cursed us. It was Set himself. He cursed each of us, turning us into creatures of darkness and denying us natural death.”
“Creatures of darkness, huh? Like them?”
“We are as immortal as they are, but that is where any similarity ends.”
“He’d never find the tomb of his brother if you were dead and gone, right? That’s why he didn’t want you guys to die.”
Ardeth nodded.
“Once he killed you and figured out where the tomb was, then what?”
“I would like to think we could endure his cruelty without sacrificing our king. If we would fail, he would summon Osiris from the underworld, take control of his armies and use them to destroy the world.”
Alex shook her head. “Do you know how crazy that sounds? Resurrecting Set? Summoning the armies of the underworld? I mean, you really believe this?”
“With my entire being.”
“Why? What proof do you have?”
“Proof that you have seen with your own eyes, Alexis. You believe the creatures are real. You believe that I am real. Why would it not be possible for Set to return or for him to unleash the armies of the underworld?”
“How do I know you and those things have been around for thousands of years? Can you prove that one?”
“No.”
“No. And what, if anything, does this all have to do with me? The man who left me at the hospital that night told me never to return. I should have listened to him. Those things never followed me back home to the States. If I leave now, I’ll be safe again, right?”
Another deep sigh, regret flashing in his black eyes. “You can no longer leave.”
Ardeth moved closer to her on the bed and she inched away. Her anxiety level was growing by leaps and bounds now.
“What do you mean I can’t leave? Of course I can. I just need to get back to Cairo, get on an airplane, and I’m gone.”
“Have you not noticed the changes in your body, Alexis? Are you not stronger, faster than you have ever been? Able to do things that are seemingly impossible?”
Oh, my God! The suitcase she’d been able to hurl through the air flashed in her head. And what about the way she’d literally flown down the stairs at the hotel?
“Alexis, when my blood mixed with yours, you were tainted. The cursed blood that runs through my veins now flows through yours and it has been growing since that day. Dormant until now. The curse dictates that we cannot cross the borders of this land as it existed in the days of Osiris and Set. We can never leave.”
She should have listened to her gut. She should never have returned to Egypt. What the hell had she been thinking? What if he was right?
“I should have listened to that man. I shouldn’t have returned.” Alex felt tears sting the backs of her eyes. Regardless of what was really going on, she was frustrated and confused. Things were spiraling out of control. “I’ve really fucked myself coming back here, haven’t I?”
Ardeth reached out to take her in his arms and she let him, his warm strength closing around her and making her feel safer than she’d felt in a year. The tears came then and there was nothing she could do to stop them. She hung on to him and he let her cry, his hands smoothing over her back gently.
“I hope you can believe that I did not intend to curse you, Alexis.”
Swiping at her tears with her hand, she pulled back to realize her bare breasts were pressed against his warm skin. Her nipples were diamond hard points of excitement, even as upset as she was.
“If I can’t leave, what happens to me, Ardeth? Can you stop them? The minions?”
He brushed a kiss against her forehead. “In time, the curse will protect you. Only a mortal can be used to fulfill Set’s curse. You are becoming less human and more like me with each passing day.”
Oh, that made her feel better. “And what are you?”
“I will show you, I promise.”
As his mouth came down gently over hers, it was apparent he didn’t mean to show her now. Hauling her back against him until her breasts were crushed against the muscular wall of his chest, Ardeth’s tongue traced the seam of her lips before darting inside.
He devastated her with that kiss. Even as her mind scrambled to take in the in
credible story he’d just told her, her body stormed to life in a wicked way. Her pussy heated and her thighs clenched together against the torrent of pure, carnal sensation that was taking her over.
The time to talk had passed.
Chapter 6
Ardeth pulled away, his predatory gaze devouring her. The desire in his eyes brought a rush of heat and wetness to her pussy that made her flesh tingle in awareness.
The sudden surge of lust that enveloped her was incredible. The way his dark gaze swept over her made her feel sensual, beautiful -- truly desirable in a way that she’d never felt before.
Her hand slid up the smooth wall of his chest and he trembled slightly beneath her fingers. His jaw was clenched tightly and his nostrils flared as he breathed in her scent. Ardeth shifted enough to push down the black pants he wore. His cock surged forward when he shoved them past his hips.
Now that he was really here with her, the deep awareness she felt was nearly overwhelming. She’d never felt such raw lust and desire in her entire life. Was that part of the curse he spoke of? That she would want and crave him this powerfully?
What, you believe in ancient Egyptian curses now?
When he lifted a hand to touch her breast, she moaned. How could she not want him, with or without the curse?
His fingers traced circles around the nipple until it drew up into an almost painful point. Ardeth leaned over to draw the flesh into his mouth, nipping at her with his teeth. She collapsed against him, a wanton disciple to his mouth and hands.
Ardeth lowered her onto the bed and gently turned her until her legs hung loosely over the edge. Kneeling before her, he buried his face between her thighs. Alex could smell her own intimate scent as he nipped at the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh, pressing her legs open with his hands. He cupped her ass, raising her lower body to his mouth. Alex screamed as he began to feast on her, laving her aching cunt with his tongue. He lapped at the flow of her juices and teased the hard bead of her clit, suckling it until she thought she’d lose what sanity she had left.
Egyptian Lover 3: Ardeth & Amenhotep Page 4
