Nightwalker

by Jacquelyn Frank

  The Nightwalkers.

  They couldn’t allow his victory. They had a responsibility to see to it that Apep was driven back to that hell. If they didn’t succeed, the imp god would cut a swath through the earth and the human race unlike anything ever seen before.

  On top of that was the wild card. The infant that would be born to the god. Would it mature at the rate of a normal infant or would it be born fully fledged as in myths of old? It may have a Nightwalker father, but with a god as its mother anything was possible.

  They had to stop it. If they could get to Apep before he gave birth, presumably in a weakened state, then they might have a chance.

  That is presuming, he was weakened. They were making this assumption based on the fact that he hadn’t attacked them in all these months, that perhaps he was conserving his strength or protecting his weak underbelly.

  It was a sign of weakness they couldn’t ignore. It had taken too many months to gather the two factions of Nightwalkers together into one place and still they weren’t complete. But soon they would be. He would see to it that they were.

  “I’m all right,” he insisted after a moment of catching his breath. He went to push up but it was a testament to his weakened state that her delicate hands on his shoulders kept him firmly seated.

  “You will take a moment and rest,” she commanded him. Then she dropped to her knees between his feet and looked at him imploringly. “Another hour or two won’t make that much of a difference.”

  “You can’t know that,” he said. He explained his theories on why the god had not attacked them again like it had all those months ago. Then he explained just how powerful that attack had been, how Apep had swatted at them as easily as one would swat a fly. Only luck had saved them that time. They would not be so lucky again. In the next confrontation lives would be lost.

  “Here’s what I do know,” she said softly. “We’re going to do this. We’re going to get all these Nightwalkers together and convince the Wraiths it’s the only way. But we’re going to do it when you’re up to it and not a moment sooner. I won’t let you.” She set her chin stubbornly, just so he could see how serious she was.

  And for some reason it made him laugh.

  He was not a man prone to finding or expressing humor. He rarely cracked a smile. There was really nothing worth smiling about anymore. But she made him chuckle softly and it felt good. It felt so good to leave the seriousness of the situation behind for that brief collection of seconds.

  She smiled at the sound of his laugh. She looked infinitely pleased with herself. She should be, he thought. It was quite an achievement.

  “So since you have me trapped here,” he said, reaching out to touch her face along its pronounced cheekbone. “Tell me something about yourself.” Why was it, he wondered, that he couldn’t seem to keep himself from touching her. And, like the laugh, it felt good.

  “There’s nothing to tell. You already know everything about me there is to know.”

  “Tell me about the gardening,” he pressed.

  A special sort of light entered her eyes. “Oh, I love gardening,” she breathed. “Making things live, nurturing them, bringing them back from sickness, making everything look so pretty. And the food…it’s the best thing in the world to eat something you’ve grown from a little seed yourself. My favorites are the strawberries and the corn. A strawberry patch hides the berries until you push the leaves aside and find these little red gems and they’re so sweet. And corn grows so high and strong and its treasure is hidden too until you shuck it and expose it.”

  “So you like to be surprised. You know it’s going to be there, but it still surprises you to see it every time.” Kamen felt a smile twitching at his lips. She had such an innocence about her. But he wouldn’t call her naïve. The world she circulated in had been too hard on her for her to be naïve.

  “Yes. Exactly like that. What about you? What do you do that gives you pleasure?”

  “Nothing,” he said. And sadly, it was the truth. He had only one hobby: researching and practicing new spells. But that was more a calling than a hobby. “I do a lot of reading, but it’s not like gardening is for you.”

  “Why not? Aren’t there ever any surprises when you read?”

  Actually, there were. Often he would come across a little gem or come to an understanding he wasn’t expecting.

  “There are some,” he admitted.

  “And does reading give you any pleasure?”

  “It gives me satisfaction,” he said. “But I have lost the joy I used to find in it. Ever since…” Ever since he’d used a spell that had accidentally brought an imp god to their world. “It’s been a long time and I don’t expect it to change any time soon.”

  “That’s so sad,” she said softly, reaching to touch one of her pale hands to his face, her fingers caressing him along his jaw. “Maybe one day you will be able to change that.”

  “Perhaps,” he said softly. But he doubted it. He couldn’t explain to her why. He didn’t want to see the change that would come over her once she realized he was to blame for all of this.

  There was an extreme intimacy to the moment though. He was touching her face and she was touching his. He felt connected to her for that instant, grounded. For those brief moments he felt like he belonged somewhere.

  It was a feeling he wanted to hold on to for all he was worth. A feeling he had not experienced in so long. Certainly not in this lifetime. He had left the pleasures of the flesh and soul behind him in his last lifetime on this planet. Since his resurrection into this body he had known cerebral pleasure, but never physical.

  For just a moment, he wanted to change that. He didn’t know why, couldn’t explain the strange impulse interrupting his well-ordered existence, but he felt the overwhelming urge to kiss her.

  Kamen surged forward and caught her mouth with his. He entered it analytically at first, trying to decipher the urge and the feelings that came with it, but his analytical mind was slammed shut as the pure pleasure of the sensation of her lips against his overwhelmed him. Her mouth was soft, compliant. Welcoming. She let him kiss her, let him deepen the kiss as it urged him to do. She tasted of those strawberries she so loved, and smelled just as sweet. Her skin was like cream beneath his fingertips as he cradled her face in his hand. Had he been more like himself he would have stopped, pulled back, apologized for whatever it was that had come over him…but he did none of those things. Instead, he touched his tongue to her lips and begged entrance to the warmth of her mouth. She drew a breath and then released it on a sigh as she parted her lips and bade him to enter.

  Kamen drew her up tight into the sudden heat that boiled into the kiss. His tongue tangled with hers, and his heartbeat tripled in cadence. His usually smooth and refined and logical aura was decimated by a sudden need to feel her all over his body. To that end his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her in tight against him, her breasts crushed against his chest. She was still on her knees before him, his legs bracketing her body as he sat up to the edge of the couch so he could feel her against himself more thoroughly.

  He broke from the kiss, panting hard for breath as he searched her face for answers to his own behavior. All he learned was that she was beautiful and tempting and he wanted more of her.

  The desire shocked him to his core, jolting him into reality. And the reality was that he did not deserve her. He did not deserve the pleasure he was feeling with her. All he deserved was the cold, lonely existence he had known for months now.

  He pulled away from her, standing up and putting distance between them. His breathing was ragged and harsh, and his body still hummed with the feel of her against him. She had been so willing. Would she still be if she knew the truth about him?

  He didn’t fool himself about that. One day she would learn the truth, and on that day she would no longer look at him the way she was looking at him right then. With soft longing. With desire and passion.

  Kamen ran a hand over his face and turne
d his back to her. He couldn’t bear looking into those warm, forgiving eyes.

  “Kamen…did I do something wrong?” she asked. She had gotten to her feet and when he looked at her he saw honest puzzlement and distress on her face. She thought this was her fault? No. He would not have that.

  “No. It has nothing to do with you. I…I simply do not partake of these kinds of pleasures. I am sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

  “Why don’t you take part in pleasures like this?” she asked with honest curiosity. “What’s wrong with it? Is it because I am a Wraith? I would understand if it was. Wraiths are not known for their sexual attractiveness.”

  “Enough!” he barked, startling her. “I said it has nothing to do with you and I meant it. You are not the problem here.”

  “Then what is the problem?” she wanted to know.

  “It is too complex a thing to explain and we don’t have time. I am feeling better now and we should move on to our next target.”

  Viève licked her lips, the flavor of him, a hot, heady taste on her tongue, still lingered. She had not expected his kiss, but it did not follow that it was unwelcome. In fact, it was the first time anyone had touched her with such a passionate need. Wraiths were so cold and she had always wanted more from them than they were able to give. It had been a failing of her human half, she believed. Had she been fully bred she wouldn’t have wanted anything more than what she had.

  But as it stood, she had always craved more—like what she had just received from Kamen. For the first time she had felt whole and wanted. It had to be the most glorious feeling she had ever known. She hadn’t wanted it to end after so brief a knowing.

  She chased after him, even as she told herself she shouldn’t. But she had felt something more in his touch and his caress. She had felt kinship…felt someone who was seeking just as desperately as she was for a place to be wanted and accepted.

  She reached out and touched him, longing for more contact, but he jerked away from her. It was enough to quiet her longings. He said it wasn’t her, but how could it be anything else? She wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t wanted.

  She backed away from him and fought a sudden surge of tears. She shouldn’t cry. Wraiths did not cry. A full-bred Wraith didn’t even have tear ducts. But she did, and she had often fought the urge to give in to tears. The only thing that had kept her from it was the idea of facing the ridicule that would come. Ridicule for her failings and weaknesses as a half-breed.

  “Very well,” she said hoarsely. “You are right. We should go if you are up to it. There is no time to waste on trivial mistakes.”

  Kamen turned to face her. He realized then that she didn’t believe him when he said it wasn’t her fault he had pulled away. The only way he could convince her would be to tell her the truth, but…he was quickly becoming a coward as far as that was concerned. He had readily accepted the fault and blame he deserved for his actions to date, but for some reason it was different with her. He didn’t want her to look at him with the same judgmental eyes everyone else did.

  He reached for her then, curling his hands around her upper arms and drawing her in close to his body. A part of him sighed with relief at the simple contact with her warmth and softness. But he struggled to rein that in.

  “Viève…sweet little Viève…you deserve better than me,” he said softly as he looked down into her dove gray eyes.

  “That’s so funny. I was thinking the same thing…that you deserve better than me,” she said.

  “No. Do not think that. I am a man of no passion. Your passion, as divine as it is, is wasted on a man like me.”

  “For a man with no passion, you certainly acted with intense passion a little while ago.”

  “Perhaps it was your beauty that inspired it,” he said.

  She snorted out a laugh. “I highly doubt that! I am not the sort of woman who inspires great feeling in others. I am a Wraith. Wraiths have no feelings.”

  “You are a half-breed, and you very much have feelings. I have seen them for myself.”

  “Well there’s no need to throw it in my face!” she cried suddenly. Damn those tears; they were going to come anyway. Then what would he think of her?

  “Viève…” His tone softened as he cupped her face in both hands and tipped her head back. He made certain there was complete eye contact so she would know and feel his sincerity. “I do not care if you are a half-breed. You are Wraith enough to get this job done and that is all that matters. And when it comes to the rest…you are more than woman enough to satisfy even the rusted over desires of an undeserving man.” He dropped his head and gently kissed her full and inviting mouth. It was just a gesture of comfort, of reassurance, but he craved more instantly and he had to fight back that powerful hunger. He pulled away and met her eyes again. “And trust me when I say I am an undeserving man. You deserve far better than me.”

  Viève licked her lips and suddenly jumped in with both feet, risking her fragile ego. “But I don’t want better. I want you.”

  That hunger ramped up to full on craving for Kamen. He didn’t understand it, didn’t understand why it was so strong. What was it about this woman that made him feel so alive? It was a wickedly tempting sensation.

  “Believe me,” he whispered a fraction of an inch away from her mouth, “there is no one I want more than you.”

  “But then why…?”

  “It’s simply the way it must be.”

  She realized she was going to have to accept that…for now. But the feeling of inadequacy had flown away on rapid wings. He wanted her. He had said so himself. But something was making him feel like he didn’t deserve to feel good. She would have to discover what it was…why he wanted to punish himself rather than pleasure himself. If she did that then maybe…maybe there could be more than just that wildly wonderful kiss.

  “We should go,” she said softly.

  He let go of her face and reached down to take her hands in his. With a nod he frowned a little and said, “Brace yourself. The longer the streak the more unsettling it becomes.”

  “Luckily I haven’t eaten anything today,” she quipped, hoping to make him smile.

  He did not. Instead he closed his eyes and they were swept into the streak.

  Chapter 6

  Apep was heavily pregnant. He was uncomfortable, cranky, and craving pizza with an alarming intensity. He wanted this to be over with already. He had things to do, people to conquer and he couldn’t do any of that while bogged down with the weight of a baby.

  Whose idea had this been anyway? Had it been his? What kind of foolish logic had that been? This baby was sucking away half of his godly power. It was keeping him from making his presence known in the world. He needed to be at full strength if he was going to manipulate the world of man.

  And before he did that he had to destroy the only beings on earth who could potentially stop him.

  The Nightwalkers.

  True, the curse kept them from joining forces. And true, the Wraiths were on his side and that would keep them from being able to break the curse, but his reception with the Wraith Doyen had been lukewarm at best and nothing like the instant adulation he had expected. But he couldn’t demonstrate his power and all the reasons why the Wraiths should fall on their knees with adulation and fear.

  Not like this.

  Damn it all anyway, when would this thing be over with? When he had decided to procreate, to use the uterus of the Bodywalker female he had inhabited in this incarnation, he had thought it would be fun and in his best interest to create a son who would share in his power. A god and his heir. What could be more worthy of adulation?

  But now he was thinking about what it would mean to share that adulation. He didn’t want his son to get all of the attention. After all, he would only be a demi-god. His father was a powerful Night Angel it was true, but still he was little better than a human. Just like this body he now possessed.

  He would simply have to set some rules. Make certain the peo
ple understood who was more deserving of their attention. He would let his son have a little attention of his own, but in the end Apep would garner most of it. And the best way to do that was through fear. He would make them fear him and then he would make them adore him.

  After he got rid of this thing holding him down!

  He tried using his godly power to hasten the birth but found that it would not work. The child would come only when it wanted to and for some reason there was nothing he could do to change that.

  It was completely unfair. Perhaps he could turn to human medical methods? They could surely induce labor. But that carried risks with it. He had to be sure the baby was fully formed. He would not give birth to a fragile, weakling child. What would the people think of him if he did that? No, he must produce a fat, healthy infant to show to the world. It would be yet another way to display his own magnificence.

  “Asutept!” Apep whined. “Get me some pizza! And not that generic delivery kind! I want a good pizza…with extra cheese and pepperoni!”

  “Yes, mistress, whatever you desire.”

  Mistress. These fools were still laboring under the delusion that he was Odjit, the female Bodywalker in charge of the Templar clique. Well, once he was free of the burden of the child he would change all of that. For now it served him best to let them think he was this female Nightwalker. It had given him ready-made followers. The Templar sect was devoted to this woman, and so they were devoted to him. Eventually they would know the truth and it would be an easy transition. After all, they had been serving him already for the better part of a year.

  Apep sat back in his bed, elevating his swollen feet. Soon, he thought. Soon everything would change. Soon he would let his power be known. His power and the power of his scion would be enough to rule the world. And there would be no one to stop him.