Anubis Nights (23 page)

He wanted to scream, but instead he found his lips meeting hers again. He was a passenger in his own body, and Edward was the driver.

Brand tried to scream, but no sound issued forth save his voice under Edward’s control saying, “I finally have you back in my arms, my love, and I shall never let you go.”

RAYNA NOBLE

Three days after the meeting at the Thoth Hermes Temple, Rayna met Lincoln in front of a clothing store. She stared through the window at the brand-new—but vintage to her—dresses. Some were plain and some were elegant, but she missed blue jeans and sports bras more than anything.

Lincoln approached her. “Walk with me,” he said, glancing around.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hopefully nothing,” he said.

“You weren’t at the office Saturday,” she said, rushing to keep up as he moved along the short block and turned right onto a long street.

Lincoln pressed himself to the wall and chanced a glance around the building back the way they’d come. “You can’t resist my charms, eh?”

“What charms? Are we being followed?” Rayna asked.

“This way,” he said and moved to an open doorway. Inside, the foyer of the building had two staircases: one that went to the upper floors and one that descended into the basement. There were no lights on the lower level. Lincoln moved down the stairs into the darkness.

Rayna followed him. “What—?”

“Shh!”

Lincoln pulled her down the stairs into the shadows and watched through the open doorway as a young man stopped in front of the door. He looked around but then looked at someone out of Rayna’s field of vision in the distance. He shrugged and held his hands out to his sides with palms turned to the sky. A moment later, he pointed into the doorway, nodded, and entered the building. He glanced down the stairs briefly then upstairs.

Rayna heard footsteps on the level above them.

She saw the man move to the stairs and heard a woman gasp.

“Oh! You scared me,” she said.

“Sorry,” the man said. “Did you see a man and woman come up the stairs?”

“No, but I just left my apartment a moment ago. Just going to the market to get some tea.”

The woman exited the building. Rayna saw that she was elderly and squat. She turned left and moved down the street.

The man remained on the stairs, unmoving, for what seemed an eternity.

“Damn,” he said. He jumped down to the landing and glanced once more down the stairs into the darkness.

Rayna was afraid he would come down the stairs, but he shook his head and left the building, turning right and moving down the block.

“That guy has been following me since Saturday morning. I spotted him instantly, but I think that was his intent.”

“Why would he be following you?”

“I think he was at that temple.”

“How would you know with the masks and robes?”

“Because Thaddeus is dead.”

“What?”

“Police found him in an alley with his throat cut. What did you say to the guy in red?”

“Nothing. I mean, I asked about Winslow, and I turned him down when he wanted to bed me.”

“He had plenty of women there to sleep with. You’re a doll but there were a dozen like you in that house for the taking, and believe me, they were definitely being taken.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I went back.”

“How could you have found the place?”

“I followed Thaddeus after we dropped you off.”

Rayna frowned.

“Shh!” Lincoln said and hunched lower in the shadows.

Outside the building, the man returned to view. He kept shaking his head. Again he entered the building. He glanced down the stairs, squinted, then sighed and moved upstairs.

“We need to go now,” Lincoln whispered. “There has to be another guy off to the right, so we’ll go back the way we came.”

They crept up the stairs. Rayna could hear the man tromping up several flights of stairs above them.

“Now,” Lincoln said.

They rushed out of the building, turned left to take the short block back toward the clothing store, and ran right into Mr. Carlton J. Penick.

“Why, Miss Noble,” he said, aiming a pistol at her. “How wonderful to see you again.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

JONATHAN SHADE

The boat drifted along the Nile at little more than walking speed. The oarsmen were along for the ride, but they weren’t helping with the speed, so I assumed they were there to help us get back. Hani the messenger looked bored. Ankhesenamun wanted him to reinforce what she’d told the Hittite king in her letter. Hani kept to himself, though he did spend some time speaking with Khattusa-zita.

There was no wind, so we didn’t bother to hoist the sail.

“What do you think?” I asked Kelly. “Three or four days to get to the delta assuming we travel at night too? Twice that if we stop and make camp?”

“We’ll be stopping,” Kelly said.

Khattusa-zita approached us. “May I join you?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said, thankful for the distraction. I needed to keep my mind occupied.

“I am impressed with your Egyptian,” Khattusa-zita said. “Will you require a translator when we reach Hattusa, or do you speak Nesite?”

“I would greatly appreciate a translator,” I said, thinking it would give me an advantage. Kelly glanced at me and nodded her approval.

“King Suppiluliumas will be delighted by this turn of events. To marry one of his sons to an Egyptian queen will bring peace for the first time since before Akhenaten.”

“I’ve heard that the king is a great warrior,” I said because all kings like to be thought of as great warriors.

“Indeed he is. He took the Arzawan territory all the way to Hapalla. He crushed the Mitanni kingdom, and by now he should be back from his siege of Carchemish, where the last of the Mitanni tried to hold out. His greatness will be the subject of songs for the ages.”

I’d never heard of any of the places Khattusa-zita mentioned, but he seemed to think they were important, so I said, “Impressive.”

Khattusa-zita nodded. “I look forward to being your translator. You will be a friend to the Hittites and Egyptians, and I shall be proud to call you friend as well.”

Okay, I thought. I wasn’t sure what brought that on since Hani was going to do all the talking, so I just nodded and agreed with him. When he got up and moved back to the bow, I turned to Kelly. “Did you get any of that?”

“You know next to nothing about history,” she said.

“I don’t know much about the present. Our present. You know what I mean. I’m an Ugly American.”

“Well, you’re not that ugly,” Kelly said.

“So can you enlighten me about any of that with your historical expertise?”

“Right,” she said. “Like I know anything about the Hittites.”

I smiled. “I know they were in the Bible. Does that count?”

Kelly laughed and it felt great to hear her let loose a bit. “Khattusa-zita knows Ankhesenamun asked us to go on this journey. That means we must be important. As such, he’s looking to be friends with us so he will gain stature as well.”

“If you say so.”

“I just wish we could buy a Guide Book to Hattusa.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Amazon delivers to ancient Egypt. So here we are, a couple of Ugly Americans going to another country where we know absolutely nothing,” I said. “What could go wrong?”

“I wish you wouldn’t invite troubles that way.”

***

We made camp along the bank in the middle of nowhere. Several oarsmen stood guard, but near as I could tell, the only danger was from scorpions, snakes, and crocodiles.

“It will get very cold tonight,” Khattusa-zita said. “We have extra linen blankets, but body heat will be a good thing too.”

He wandered off to help build a small fire.

After a dinner of fish with some flavorful spices and beer, Kelly and I wrapped ourselves in linens and huddled close for warmth.

The temperature plummeted but Kelly and the linens kept me reasonably warm. The temperature didn’t bother Kelly, of course, so she rested on top of me.

With her head on my chest and her arms around me, I felt safe. I told myself that if it hadn’t been freezing, I might have been more bold, but I knew better because I didn’t deserve to be with her. Still, I used the excuse of being cold to hold her tightly. She didn’t seem to mind, but then again, she was sworn to protect me, and my enemy that night was the temperature.

Spending such an extended period of time with her without training or any real danger was more pleasant than I expected. I mean sure, she’s always been attractive, but she’s also a magically engineered assassin. And holding her every night and seeing her all day every day, I found a new appreciation for her as a woman. I had to keep reminding myself I was with Rayna. I loved Rayna. But Rayna wasn’t here, and the more time I spent with Kelly, the less I thought about wanting to be with Rayna and the more I thought about wanting to be with Kelly. It was more than a little confusing, but there you go.

I wanted to tell her she looked lovely, but all I could say was, “Good night.”

“Night,” she said.

So much for romance.

***

A few days later, we skirted around an island in the Nile, and Khattusa-zita said, “Get up. We can see the pyramids in the distance.”

Hani frowned. “I have seen the pyramids many times.”

The rest of us moved to the center of the boat and stared at the majesty of the pyramids as we moved past Giza. Hani might have been unimpressed, but to everyone else, they were amazing to behold even from a distance of five miles. They didn’t look like they do in modern times. I stared in awe because they were covered by tightly fitting casing stones polished to shine like mirrors.

We passed them in the early afternoon, so the sun reflected off them so brightly, they could probably have been seen from the surface of the moon. I marveled at the view, stunned by their beauty.

As it was still early, Hani insisted it wasn’t a good place to camp. That was a shame because I would have loved to have hiked over to them to see them up close. I felt like I was with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Vacation, stopping to see the Grand Canyon. Take a quick look and say, “Nice. Let’s go.” I felt ripped off. How can you go to Egypt and not go up to the pyramids? Especially in ancient Egypt. We could have approached them nearly a thousand years before Herodotus.

Oh well. Maybe on the return trip.

***

Night.

The day had been hot, and now the night was growing cold. My belly was full of fish when I stretched out on the ground with Kelly and we wrapped ourselves with blankets. We were in the Nile delta now, and the land was green and marshy.

“I have something I have to tell you,” I said to Kelly as I put my arms around her.

She looked at me expectantly. “I’m listening.”

I gave her my most serious expression. “I’m really sick of eating fish every damn day.”

She made a suction noise, pulling her tongue away from the roof of her mouth. “You’re a dork,” she said.

“It gets old. I like some variety.”

She rolled her eyes.

I figured I’d switch subjects. “How are you feeling now?”

“Better,” she said. “Physically, that is.”

“Something wrong psychologically?”

“Yes. You need to talk to me.”

“We’re talking.”

“Promise you won’t dodge the question?”

“What question?”

“What happened between you and Sharon?”

I sighed. “Do we have to go there?”

“I’ve given you space, Jonathan. And I’d keep giving you that space, but I know it’s important.”

“It’s history. Well, future history.”

“It affects our future.”

“Because we have no way home.”

Kelly nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that all day, and I think it has something to do with whatever happened between you two.”

I nodded. “It does. She betrayed us.”

Kelly looked confused.

“When we faced Persephone on the bridge,” I said. “Sharon was supposed to show up to help.”

“You killed Persephone. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen you do. You had zero hesitation. It was almost like you set it up that way intentionally. I was impressed. Best use of katars ever.”

“Yeah.”

“There’s something you aren’t telling me.”

I looked into her eyes, and I felt tears well up in my own. I swallowed hard and sat up. Kelly sat up too and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“What happened?” she asked. Her voice was gentle, and her eyes held a sympathy I knew I didn’t deserve.

I turned away from her. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It can’t be that bad. We won.”

I shook my head.

“Talk to me,” she said.

“Let it go,” I said.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Please,” I said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She squeezed my shoulder. “You need to talk about it. You’ve been hiding from it for too long, and I need to know what happened.”

“Kelly, I can’t.”

“Talk to me. It’s important.”

I spun to face her and pushed her hand away from me. “You died. Okay?”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s something I see every night when I’m trying to go to sleep. It’s something that haunts my dreams. I wake up in sweats some nights and can’t catch my breath. It’s something I never want to see again, but I see it every single night.”

I got up and looked down at her. She didn’t say anything. It’s like she knew I needed time to get it out, and I knew she was right and that I had to tell her. I’d held it in for so long.

“Persephone killed you. She snapped her fingers and . . .” I looked away. “She killed Darla and Brand too. Your blood was all over me. I couldn’t save you.”

Kelly rose and put her arms around me. “But you did save me. I’m here now. I’m not a figment of your imagination.”

I looked in her eyes then shifted my gaze to the ground. “I grieved for you, Kelly. Sharon never showed up. I counted on her, and she never showed up. And my stupid faith in her got you killed.”