Darque Wants (77 page)

Relic of the Pharaoh

Book 1

Copyright © 2016

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This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

DISCLAIMER

Please don’t be stupid and kill yourself. This book is a work of FICTION. Do not try any new sexual practice that you find in this book. It is fiction and not to be confused with reality. Neither the author nor the publisher or its associates assume any responsibility for any loss, injury, death or legal consequences resulting from acting on the contents in this book. Every character in this book is over 18 years of age. The author’s opinions are not to be construed as the opinions of the publisher. The material in this book is for entertainment purposes ONLY.  Enjoy.

*****

The tap tapping of her computer keys seemed to keep time with the humdrum click of the clock on the museum wall behind her as Athene Keene put the finishing touches to e-mail she intended to dispatch that afternoon. It wasn’t that she was unhappy with her position at the Dorchester Museum. She just couldn’t imagine spending the rest of her life there. She had ambition, high hopes. She wanted to move on and up in the world, not get stuck doing the same old thing forever.

“That doesn’t look like work…” came a disapproving voice from just behind her left shoulder.

She froze for a moment, then hurriedly clicked off the screen and brought up the museum homepage in another tab, spinning her chair round with an innocent smile on her face ready to give an explanation to her boss.

“John!” The smile instantly dropped. She raised her arm and gave her now giggling co-worker a playful slap across the forearm. “That wasn’t funny!”

“It was a pretty good impression though, right?” He grinned. “Right? You have to admit it. It was pretty good.”

“It was alright,” she conceded, still pouting as she looked up at John’s fluffy blonde hair that always flopped down over his eyes.

“Mmm, give us a kiss,” he chuckled, leaning down to smooch against her lips, wrapping his arms around her waist and practically sitting down on top of her.

“John!” She chastised him again, pushing him off gently. “We’re at work, for goodness sake. Can’t you at least wait till our date?”

“Oh, but you always make me wait,” he sulked, folding his arms across his chest moodily. “You’re such a tease.”

“I’m trying to work,” she sighed, spinning her chair back round to face her computer again.

He slid his arms over the top of her shoulders and hugged her from behind. It was pretty annoying, and very difficult to continue typing. “John…” she mumbled.

“Alright,” he tutted, getting the picture. He let go and stood up properly, shoving his hands into his pockets as if he didn’t know what to do with them. “Except you’re not even doing work, you’re sending off those stupid e-mails.”

“They’re not stupid. And don’t you have work to be getting on with too? Actual work?”

“I’m just taking a break. Thought I’d come see you. Anything wrong in that?”

She hit send on the e-mail then clicked off the screen, turning instead to some cataloguing she’d been working on beforehand, and not particularly answering John’s question. It wasn’t that she was ignoring him on purpose; she simply hadn’t heard him.

“You did remember our date then, Thena?” He perched on the edge of her desk, looking sideways across at her and trying to get her attention away from the massive catalogue she was now poring over, pen poised in hand.

“Mmhmm…”

“I should give you a medal or something,” he muttered sarcastically. “I remember last time we organised an actual date, you completely forgot.”

Thena was vaguely aware that he was saying words and that they were incredibly annoying and distracting, but she wasn’t actually processing what they meant into any logical sense in her brain. She also knew from experience that the only way to actually get rid of John would be to appease him, to satisfy him, so for a moment or two, she stopped what she was doing and turned her attention entirely to him, a forced smile on her lips. He couldn’t tell the difference anyway.

“I’m quite looking forward to it,” she said, of their date.

“Yeah, so am I,” he smiled, softening. “Be nice to catch up properly. Feel like we’ve both been working non stop this past week.”

It was true. They had. The museum had just accepted a brand new Tutankhamen Exhibition and it was all hands on deck to assist with the set up and admin. They’d hardly had time to talk, let alone go on a date. It was a couple of weeks since they’d last been for dinner together, and if Thena was being honest, she hadn’t particularly missed it. It wasn’t that she didn’t see herself as the romantic type, rather that she didn’t see herself as the romantic type
with John.
Sometimes she wondered how she’d ever ended up in a relationship with him at all. It had just sort of
happened.
He’d asked her out and she hadn’t said no, and it had pretty much been that way ever since.

“We’ll go somewhere nice,” she promised, taking hold of his hand and giving it an encouraging squeeze. He was a decent enough guy. She felt bad sometimes.

He smiled broadly, her romantic gesture seemed to have done the trick. He relaxed after that, wittering on to himself about the date and the type of food he was going to choose. Boring things that were uninteresting and unimportant to Thena. She went back to her work, once again not really listening.

“Mmhmm…” She responded once or twice. “Yes….oh really…yes, I agree….”

That was when he lost his patience.

“You don’t agree at all!” He snapped.

She stopped what she was doing and looked up, putting her pen down. “I…I don’t?”

“What did I just say to you?”

Thena bit her lip guiltily, admitting through her silence that she hadn’t the foggiest.

“Exactly!” he huffed, throwing his arms up into the air dramatically. “You know what, Thena, you don’t take our relationship seriously enough.”

Here we go again, she thought to herself. It certainly wasn’t the first time he’d said that. Her eyes inadvertently gave a roll. She could barely control them, even though she knew it wasn’t exactly going to help matters.

“Do you even know when our anniversary is?”

She hesitated, her lips parted as if ready to speak, but no words came. Again, the silence said it all.

He jumped up from his perch on the edge of the desk and began to stalk off, obviously in a bad mood.

Thena quickly spun round and grabbed his arm, tugging him back. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, standing up. And she was. “You deserve much better than me.”

“Don’t be daft.”

“I know it’s coming up soon.”

“Three weeks.”

“Great. We should do something special. I’ll take you out. My treat.”

He smiled. “You sure?”

“I’m positive. I want to be a better girlfriend.”

“You’re a great girlfriend anyway. Well….most of the time.” He poked her playfully in the stomach.

She laughed and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. “Now, I really have to get back to work. And you should too. Off you go…” She placed her hands on his shoulders, slowly turned him round, and gently pushed him away.

“Alright, alright,” he grumbled, disappearing off back to his section of the museum.

Athene sighed and sat back down in her swivel chair. John was satisfied, for now, but she knew she couldn’t keep playing this game for long. Sooner or later, something was going to have to give.

Her phone beeped loudly, reminding her that she’d forgotten to turn it off, and giving yet another interruption to her cataloguing. She took it out and swiped her finger across the screen, opening up a text from her twin sister Demeter, making arrangements with her for the weekend. She stared at the words at the screen, not actually reading them. Instead, her thoughts had wandered to Deme herself and she was filled by a rush of jealousy.

Deme had such a perfect relationship with her husband Chris. They’d been married for five years and never seemed to fall out. They were so into each other. They still went on dates, held hands, cuddled in public, sent each other romantic texts and looked into each other’s eyes; things like that. Thena had just never felt that way for John. Sometimes she wondered whether there was something wrong with her; whether it was simply impossible for her to fall in love, but then she reasoned that it was just the fact that she was too busy. She didn’t have time for a love life anyway, not a proper one like Deme had. Her work was too important. That was the thing that mattered to her the most; not love. That was what she told herself again and again.

She also knew that one day she needed to tell John all this, to maybe gently break it off with him and save him certain future heartache. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t really going to work out long term, but still, she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. Perhaps she secretly liked being in a relationship. She shook her head at her own silly thoughts. No, no, that wasn’t it.

Thankfully, a knock on the door stopped her from debating with herself any longer. She put her phone down, still not having replied to or even read the message properly.

“Yeah?”

The door opened and her friendly manager popped his head round the door. “Everything alright, Athene?”

“Yes, thanks,” she smiled.

“Just wondering if you could do me a favour. We’ve got a potential new patron downstairs who’d like to have a look round the new collection. I was wondering if you could give him the old guided tour. Egypt’s your thing, isn’t it?”

“It is,” she blushed a bit and got up from her desk, pleased of the opportunity to get out of the office for a while. “Not a problem. Where is he?”

“Down in reception. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

Even if Mr Princeton hadn’t have bothered, Thena was sure she would have been able to spot the tall, dark handsome stranger who was standing at the reception desk, his slightly curly black hair shimmering in the flattering light from the museum spots above, his smart and expensive looking suit standing out a mile from everything everyone else was wearing. Thena was startled for a moment. She hadn’t expected to get such an immediate reaction from the man. It had just been a while since she’d seen someone she was actually physically attracted to.

“I’ll take it from here, Mr Princeton,” she assured her boss smoothly. She gave him a confident nod and strode over to the visitor, offering out her hand and covering her nervousness with authority. She was here to do a job, and she was the expert. “Hello, I’m Athene,” she introduced herself. “I believe you want someone to show you round?”

“Hello, Athene,” the man smiled and reached out to clasp her hand.

Thena looked into his eyes for the first time. They were unusual and unique. She couldn’t quite say whether they were blue, green or grey, or a weird but very beautiful mixture of all three. Sort of a turquoise, with specks of brown and other colours mingled in. They seemed to look right through her and she probably could have stared at them for ages had it not been too weird.

Right at that moment though, their hands met, and that was when it happened.

It was just a flash, just a split second flash, but it was enough.

Sun, sand, sea. Three pairs of sandals, different sized feet, similar but not matching in style, walking together in unison through parched, sandy earth, the sun beating down hard and hot above them. Sweaty, close air that you can almost taste on the tip of your tongue as you breathe.

She gave a jolting gasp and inadvertently jumped back away from the stranger and their handshake. It had been a good while since she’d had one of those. The visions. That was what she called them anyway.

“My God, are you alright?” The man asked, a concerned look on his face.

“Er yeah, yeah I’m fine,” she mumbled apologetically, embarrassed. “Sorry about that,” she cleared her throat and pushed on a smile.

They happened occasionally, out of nowhere, and she had no control over them. Sometimes it was when she touched someone. Other times it was just being near them that did it. Sometimes it was in dreams or when she closed her eyes. She would see things; things that she couldn’t explain. She was fairly certain they were things that had happened in the past; that had
already
happened, rather than things that were
going
to happen. She would have preferred being able to predict the future; that might actually have been useful. This, on the other hand, was just annoying.

The stranger smiled, his eyes sparkling as he did so. “No need to apologise, I understand completely,” he said mysteriously. There was something in his tone of voice, in the smirk that played upon his lips and the way he glanced her up and down searchingly. Thena felt a shiver run through her.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was, but she recognised something in him; an aura, perhaps. Was that what people called it? Whatever it was, a single thought flickered through her mind.
He’s like me.

Then she quickly dismissed it and pushed it away as he introduced himself.

“My name’s Dorian Quinn. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He was polite and charming as well as handsome, and she soon found he was easy to talk to too, as she led him through the Exhibition step by step, giving him the usual spiel as the showed him the different artefacts they had on display and some of the fascinating stories they revealed about their time period. Most of it was about Tutankhamen’s life and rule, and the Pharaohs that came before and after him; the various political intrigues, scandals, murder and excitement.

“It’s very interesting era,” he remarked, as they neared the end of the tour.

“Yeah, it really is,” she agreed. “One of my favourites in history.”

“Do you have anything specifically about the dig?” he then asked out of the blue. “You know the uh…the 1922 dig at Tutankhamen’s tomb?”