by Nina Bruhns
Inwardly he cursed Nephtys. She knew damn well he had no power to grant either Gemma’s or Gillian’s freedom. They had both willingly joined the per netjer, and only death or banishment freed them from that obligation.
So it wasn’t difficult to discern what Nephtys had in mind with this little scheme of hers. She’d sent the Haliday woman straight into his arms, into his bed, as a gift, all done up in a dirty striped ribbon, in hopes that she would somehow make up for her sister Gillian’s colossal failings in that regard.
“Joss, you don’t have to—” Gemma began.
With a swift thought, he strangled her words.
“In exchange for…?” he prodded Josslyn. He wanted to hear it spoken aloud. He wanted to roll it around in his mind and savor it before he spit it out. And he didn’t want the sister’s infernal interference.
“In exchange for…” Josslyn reluctantly said, “allowing you to use me…to ease your need.”
For a long moment there again was absolute silence around the gate.
Gemma glared daggers at him. The shemsu held their collective breath. Josslyn was no doubt praying he would refuse her. And he, well, he was carefully weighing his options.
If she was offering herself to him of her own free will, to use her as he saw fit…well, that put a different spin on things than him having to pursue her, to talk her into submitting to the blood sacrifice…or anything else he might desire of her.
Not that he wanted anything more to do with the woman after slaking his voracious need for sustenance. At least not in the way Nephtys had envisioned.
However…
Spurred on by the prospect of feeding, the blood lust pounded through his flesh like a thousand marching feet. Adrenaline had brought him this far in their battle of wills, but it was now taking all his powers to keep from giving away the state of his ebbing strength to his people. The smell of her blood was driving him mad with hunger, driving his temper to the breaking point. And his ungovernable cock was not helping matters. It had grown instantly hard at the thought of having Josslyn Haliday at its complete mercy, offered up to him at her own suggestion.
The fact was, he could make any bargain he wished, because he held all the power. Because she believed he possessed what she wanted, and she had no idea that it was indeed she who possessed what he so desperately needed.
He made the logical decision.
He leveled a gaze at Shahin. “Get your woman and hold her,” he ordered. His captain of the guard obeyed, pulling Gemma from Josslyn’s embrace and banding his arm around her. Although, to be sure, it looked more like an embrace than any kind of compulsion, and she didn’t put up too much of a fight. It helped that Gemma had actually come to trust Seth over the past weeks since their intimate encounter.
Though that was probably about to change radically.
“Are you willing to do that?” Seth asked Josslyn. “To submit yourself to me? To become the vessel of my sacrifice?”
The color drained from her face. Her eyes grew wide as saucers. “Wait. Sacrifice? What kind of sacrifice?”
And didn’t that just figure? “Nephtys didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Seth’s lips curved in a humorless smile, showing her the tips of his long, lethal fangs.
“My dear, I am vampire. And my need? It can only be slaked with your blood.”
Chapter 6
Vampire!
The word screeched through Joss’s entire body, striking a cacophony of fear within her. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be.
“Are you kidding me?” she managed to croak.
Twenty-four hours ago she would have rolled her eyes in incredulity at Seth-Aziz’s outrageous assertion. But at the moment, she was acutely aware that no one else around her was laughing. Not even Gemma. Not that Gemma would laugh. In her work as an ethnographer, Gemma was forever being spooked by the tales of ancient gods, vampires, and shape-shifters told to her by the local village women. Like their flower-child mother, Gemma believed in such things.
Joss didn’t.
At least she hadn’t until last night, when she’d almost been bitten in the neck by that horrible man Ray, who’d suddenly seemed to grow fangs. And then, just now, when the man embracing Gemma had shifted from a hawk into a human being right before her eyes. All while Joss’s body was being held mutely in place by some horrific power that she couldn’t begin to understand.
It was tough not to believe even the impossible when presented with compelling evidence like that.
My God, she’d landed smack in the middle of the twilight zone!
“I assure you,” Seth-Aziz said, his dark, sexy eyes watching her like he wanted to devour her whole, “I do not kid.”
Great. So he was actually asking her if she’d let him drink her blood. And heaven help her, those fangs did not look like the fake kind attached by some expensive cosmetic dentist.
A spill of something tangible in the air brushed over her like soft, warm fur, raising the fine hairs all over her body. Ever since she’d first approached the huge silver gate, she’d felt the thick, powerful aura of some indefinable, otherworldly energy enveloping her, like last night, only a thousand times stronger.
His aura?
Deep down, she was suddenly, terrifyingly convinced he was the real thing. An honest-to-God vampire.
Lord, was she losing her mind?
Had she and her sisters stumbled into something very, very evil and scary that would mean the end of them all?
She thought suddenly of her vanished mother, and wondered in horror if she had stumbled onto the same cult of unnatural beings? Was that why she’d disappeared all those years ago, so close to this very spot?
Oh. Mygod.
In growing desperation, Joss licked her lips and glanced to Gemma for help. Oddly, her sister didn’t look terrified in the least. She seemed more angry at Seth-Aziz, that he wouldn’t let her speak, and kept giving him furious looks. When Joss finally caught her attention, she just shook her head and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”
No help at all.
Joss glanced back at Seth-Aziz, who continued to regard her with those disconcertingly dark and mysterious bedroom eyes.
They were irresistibly hypnotic, seeming to draw her down, down, down, into their black depths, luring her in with an erotic promise of God knew what. Tempting her to give in to his dark blood bargain.
Tempting was the word, all right. Though not classically GQ handsome, Seth-Aziz was far more attractive and alluring than any man had a right to be—tall of build, dark of hair, broad of shoulder. There were surely worse things she could imagine than to be bitten on the neck—or anywhere else for that matter—by this man.
Wait.
No.
What was she thinking?
And yet, what choice did she have?
“If I agree to this…exchange,” she said, shaking off the unwanted sexual stirrings and banding her arms across her midriff, doing her best to ignore that weird energy swirling about her, “do you swear you’ll let my sisters go at once?”
Seth-Aziz tipped his head in an off-kilter nod. Another brush of dark, brooding power tingled over her skin. “If they wish to leave Khepesh, I promise I will not stop them.”
“Or your guards, or anyone else? They’ll be free to go at any time?”
He lifted his hands, palms up. “Agreed.”
She suddenly realized her fingers had strayed to her neck, touching the place she imagined he’d put his lips when he bit her. His gaze had followed the movement, watching her like a predator watches his prey.
Her face heated and she forced her hand down again. She tried to recall the many Egyptian vampire stories Gemma had repeated to her and Gillian over drinks on the verandah, tales of wicked shape-shifters going from village to village in the dead of night, stealing away young women to service a powerful vampire demigod with their blood and their bodies.
She glanced nervously at the shape-shifter Shahin
. Jesus. To think those stories could be true, that it may even have happened to her own sisters! And was about to happen to her…
Seth was watching her expectantly through lowered lids.
“Will it hurt?” she blurted out, a shudder going down her spine like a washboard.
He smiled knowingly, showing off those glistening white fangs again. “On the contrary,” he said, his voice a velvet rumble. “It will be quite pleasurable for you. For both of us.”
She shivered as a lick of heat curled through her center and touched the pearl of her need. And recalled that according to the stories, a vampire’s bite induced a sexual gratification unlike any other a woman could ever experience.
“And after…after you finish, you’ll let me go?” she asked, fighting off an avalanche of apprehension. This was a really, really bad idea. Lord, what if she liked it?
His smile grew sultry. As if he could read her thoughts, he said, “After being with me, I assure you, you will not want to leave Khepesh.”
Oh, God.
She was pretty sure her face was beet-red by now, though why she should be affected by his false flattery, she had no clue. She looked like a filthy beggar dressed in this old rag, and it was crystal clear that until her mention of a bargain, he’d had absolutely no interest in or attraction to her as a woman. He was too powerful, too good-looking, not to get this reaction from females all the time. He was just humoring her to get to her blood.
“Let’s say I do want to leave,” she pressed, swallowing down the insanity running through her head.
Instead of answering, he reached out and tugged off her scarf. Her hair fell in clumps around her shoulders. It had been hot under the cloth and she reached up convulsively to run an embarrassed hand through the sweaty mess. Which was stupid, because she didn’t care how she looked to him.
His gaze moved over her like a Realtor assessing the potential value of an overgrown, run-down, fixer-upper. Which made her cheeks flame even more.
He said, “You will be free to join your sisters, if that is your wish.”
Behind her, she heard a commotion, and she turned to see Gemma wrestling to get free of Shahin, who still held her in his grasp. Towering and muscular in his human form, Shahin wasn’t about to let her go. But Gemma didn’t appear frightened of him. She still looked mad as a hornet, glancing between Joss and Seth-Aziz. Still unable to make a sound.
Joss turned back to him, suddenly even more nervous. “I don’t know what you’ve done to my sister’s voice, but I want to speak with her before I agree to any of this.”
Seth-Aziz didn’t even consider her request. He shook his head immediately. “No.”
An avalanche of foreboding tumbled through her. “Why not? What are you afraid she’ll tell me? Are you lying about something?”
His eyebrows drew together. “What possible motivation would I have to lie?” he returned. “Indeed, why would I bother to bargain with you at all if I didn’t mean to keep my word?”
He glanced pointedly at the armed guards standing at the ready, scimitars in hand. They’d taken her prisoner once, barely lifting a finger. They could grab her again, was the implication, and he could easily force himself on her if that was what he wanted to do.
Still. He hadn’t denied her accusation.
Something wasn’t right. She could feel it in the electric brush of tension arcing between them. In the increased roil of the weird, supernatural energy that permeated every molecule of this place.
She glanced covertly around, searching for the camel that Gemma had ridden in on, praying Seth wouldn’t sic those guards on her before she and Gemma could reach it. But it must have wandered off, around the first bend in the tunnel. They’d just have to make a run for it.
“Okay,” she said, “In that case, you can forget the whole thing.”
She did an about-face and started to stride away, back toward Gemma, the tunnel and the camel. She’d just grab her sister and they’d—
“Stop,” Seth-Aziz ground out. “Do not—”
But just then Gemma broke free of Shahin and ran up to her. Joss grabbed her hand and started to sprint for the tunnel and freedom. To her confusion, instead of going along, Gemma pulled her firmly to a skidding stop. She shook her head and grasped Joss’s upper arms in firm fingers. “No,” she clearly mouthed.
“What the hell, Gem?” Josslyn cried in dismay. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
Again Gemma shook her head and glanced in appeal at Seth-Aziz. Glowering fiercely, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. Gemma looked back at her and sighed. She pulled Joss into a tight hug and kissed her cheek. Joss could feel the conviction in her gestures, the intense desire of her sister to reassure her. Then she mouthed “Go back” and turned her around so she was again facing Seth-Aziz, and gave her a little shove.
Joss balked. She couldn’t believe this was happening! Did her sister want her to become the…the next human sacrifice of a vampire?
Apparently she did. From behind, Gemma once again put her arms around Joss and gave her another hug. Then she let go and gave her an even firmer push toward Seth-Aziz.
Her meaning couldn’t be clearer. Go to him. Submit to him. Do whatever he asks of you.
Seth-Aziz’s expression betrayed nothing. It had gone from glowering to carefully blank as he stood splay-legged with his arms crossed imperiously over his chest, as though he owned the entire universe and they were just visitors.
Joss swallowed heavily. She trusted her sisters more than she trusted anyone else on earth. She did. And if Gemma said she must do this, to free her and Gillian, then she must. Joss was the oldest, the responsible one. The one the other two looked up to. Depended on. It was up to her alone to keep the family together. And she would do it. So they could once again be just that—a family.
She thought of their mother and father and how much it had hurt to lose them. She couldn’t lose her sisters, too.
She just couldn’t.
No matter the sacrifice.
So she straightened her shoulders and took a deep, shaking breath and began to walk back toward the gate.
To the vampire lord, Seth-Aziz.
And toward a terrifying, unknown fate.
Chapter 7
The sun cast a warm, pink glow over the temple garden as Nephtys sat by the sacred Pool of Re-Horakhti, gazing into its still waters hoping to catch a glimpse of something, anything, that brought a sign from Seth-Aziz or Khepesh or even Josslyn Haliday.
She hadn’t had a vision all week. Not since arriving in Petru. She dearly missed the Eye of Horus, her favorite scrying bowl. It had been left behind in her rooms when Haru-Re had sprung his sinister trap and spirited her away from Khepesh.
She ground her jaw as, instead of a glimpse of the future, a scene appeared from the recent past—the worst day of her life.
“Bring the Haliday woman to Petru!” Haru-Re had ordered his minions as Nephtys looked on in despair.
“No!” she’d protested. “What do you want?”
“You know my price,” he’d told her, his eyes glittering with imminent conquest.
She’d known only too well what his price would be. Nephtys herself. Her freedom in exchange for Josslyn Haliday.
But she had paid it willingly. The mortal woman’s union with Seth may be the last hope for the survival of Khepesh. She didn’t know how, but she knew their fates were somehow linked. But more important, Nephtys had wanted to safeguard her brother’s happiness. She would rather die a slow death herself than deprive him of the future he deserved.
So she had given herself over to Haru-Re. To become the consort of the enemy, bound to him forever.
There had been a short time after her capitulation that Ray had changed and seemed to turn almost…kind. And happy, of all things. She had thought against all odds that the goodness deep within him had shown itself at last. That she’d been right about him. But then he’d become angry again when she’d insisted they wait to wed. And the result had
been his visit to Josslyn last night. It infuriated her!
She thrust her hand agitatedly into the pool, churning the still waters into a whirlpool, shattering the unwanted vision and the vexing memory. Jerking away, she glowered up at the disc of the sun, traveling along its golden path across the sky, just as it had yesterday and the day before and a trillion days before that. Doomed to repeat the same journey forever.
Just as she seemed to be.
She couldn’t believe after all this time she was right back where she’d started.
The bastard had won, after all.
She took a deep, calming breath.
No. Not necessarily. There may yet be a way to achieve her desired revenge and come out on top. But only if she executed her plan very, very carefully…
And to do that, she needed to know if her first move had succeeded.
Once again, she endeavored to empty her mind and gazed down into the waters of the pool, seeking a different vision. One that would be more productive. But it was impossible to focus. Irritating thoughts of Haru-Re kept invading her mind, ruining her hard-won serenity.
She should just give up and wait until her agitation waned. But she didn’t know how much time she had. Ray probably wouldn’t be gone much longer, and she’d already incurred his wrath this morning by slipping out to find Josslyn. She’d made the excuse of going for a ride, which in the end he may or may not have believed. She didn’t want to push her luck.
He was currently out chasing down some unfortunate shabti who’d had the questionable judgment to run away from Petru during the night.
Poor thing. Nephtys didn’t like the creature’s chances once Ray caught up with her. He didn’t tolerate deserters. The woman would feel his anger, for certain. Nephtys just hoped she herself didn’t bear the brunt of his displeasure when he returned. After their run-in last night, and again this morning, his patience with her was on a very short fuse.
“Well?” a breathless voice asked, hurrying up to her.
It was Gillian Haliday, a hopeful expression on her face. Nephtys put aside her frustrations and smiled in greeting. She’d grown quite fond of the young woman in the short time they’d spent together, here and before they’d both been forced to leave Khepesh.
