by S. A. Price
Alyx laughed. “The idea of you hatching outta a giant spotted egg...” She laughed harder. “Oh, wow.”
“Guess one of these days I’ll have to ask,” Eli said, laughing with her. “Although I doubt my dad even remembers. I mean, he’s older than both Canibores and Cetus. Though he didn’t fall from Heaven. That’s another thing I enjoy about being on the human realm, human’s idea of the devil. I mean they have Hell pretty spot on, but Lucifer?” She snorted. “Not even close. Although the show that came out a few years ago based on the comic, that was as close to accurate as they came.”
“Your dad hot like that?” she teased. “’Cause...oof. Speaking of coming from an egg, If I never met Lady Candessa, Scur’s mother, I would have thought he came from an egg.” She winked.
“Dad is totally a good looking guy, but it’s his sock collection that really gets the women in Hell all a flutter.” Eli laughed again then looked over her shoulder at where the guys were walking behind them, with enough room to let them have a conversation without overhearing. “Speaking of Scur and the rest of them, you got dirt on them? Being the only female in a guard full of guys, a girl needs to have some ammunition.”
Dirt? Alyx laughed. “What do you wanna know? I’m sure I have crazy shit on them. But if you’re asking if any of them like to dress up in my lingerie and wear my heels, I don’t think so.”
“Good, ‘cause I don’t want the competition in that area.” Eli winked at her. “Let say I want to play a good practical joke on them, which happens to be my third favorite hobby behind torture and dancing. Can you think of anything that will get them to scream like a twelve-year-old girl at a boy band concert?”
“Have Tripp come over in his spider costume, jump out of the shadows. Can’t promise him he won’t leave without a severe limp but it would be hilarious. Especially Abaxley. He hates spiders.” She thought about it. “Speaking of my faeblin, he gets manicures.” She grinned. “Which is appreciated, no jagged dirty nails sliding inside me, you know? Not sure that’s dirty or just good grooming.”
“I can work with the spiders.” Eli’s grin grew and looked a tad bit evil. “I’m very familiar with Tripp and that damn spider costume. He tried to get me once, but turned in a room before I reached him and Riven was behind me. Let’s just say he did more than just limp after that. Living with those guys was seriously entertaining.”
“They are all seriously insane. I don’t know how Mea does it. Living with Scur when it was just me and him, Bonnie and Clyde kinda shit. Thank god Khalid finally pinged. Because I was close to a Born Bad montage and a prison sentence.” She grinned. “Now, Khalid, he’s got a thing for skincare. Seriously, you wouldn’t think the Commander of the Hunt liked face masks and cleansers but that facial hair he has? So fucking soft...” She shivered remembering the last time he was between her thighs. “So, he can keep his routine.”
“Big bad commander all about the pampering? Interesting.” Those full lips pursed again. “I think I have an idea for him. Gonna have to make a call first.” She looked over her shoulder again. “Now, from what I’ve heard over the last two days, Scur doesn’t like moths, or any flying insect. There is so much I can do with that, it’s not even funny.” Eli walked a little closer until their arms brushed and she lowered her voice. “So, gotta ask since you brought up Khalid’s beard...Scur’s give you a rash or does he actually take care of it?”
“A little of both?” She grinned. “It’s super soft anyway, but I think Khalid has instituted all facial hair will be conditioned and oiled so I’m more comfortable.” She winked. “And since I’m keeping it Brazilian...well...” She laughed. “So, they won’t ever know if the carpet matches the drapes.”
Eli laughed. “A girl needs to have her secrets. I also remember very fondly exactly what you’re like down there and plan on taking a return visit as soon as possible.”
She blushed. This with Eli was uncomplicated, and she liked that. She liked that the woman was fun, and she liked that the woman liked her. Yes, she’d had female lovers often, but they weren’t people she could be friends with. Even Pristina, long-term, would never be the kinda close she and Eli already were. “Feeling is mutual. You are just yum.” She winked.
“True.” Eli laughed. Before Alyx could say anything, she found herself being picked up off her feet and then the only view she had was the sand-covered ground and the back of Scur’s legs.
“We all decided the two of you whispering and laughing is dangerous for all of us,” her berserker said.
“Goddamn right,” she said. “Put me down or I’ll take a chunk outta your ass.” She wiggled.
“She’s got that look in her eye, Scur...” Abaxley said.
“And that look is downright sexy,” Scur said, tapping her ass before setting her down on her feet. “I love when kitten shows her claws. I love it even more when she scratches with them.”
“You do like to live dangerously, don’t you, berserker?” Eli asked.
“Don’t know how to live any other way.” He wrapped his arm around Alyx’s shoulder.
“He makes full use of his asshole status,” she said and pinched him.
They climbed the next dune, getting a lay of the land, and Abaxley came up close behind her. “Still north, right?”
“Yep.” She felt the tug again, at her navel. “To that carved anomaly.” She looked to her captain. “If it’s safe, we can rest for a bit, yeah?”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on what’s around us as we’ve been walking,” Khalid said as they came to a stop. “I didn’t pick up on anything we need to worry about. No moving sand, no giant worms coming out of it either.”
“I made him watch Beetlejuice the other day,” Scur said.
“We should have watched Dune,” Alyx said. “Quite apropos, no?”
“I’m not calling him Mau’dib,” Bax said, pointing at Scur. “But if we do encounter sandworms, be they black and white or giant spice-loving freaks, someone better know how to ride it.”
“If Geena Davis could do it in a wedding dress, I think we got this.”
“Riding a giant sand worm sounds like fun to me,” Eli said with a shrug.
“You wanna stop here, Alyx?” Khalid said, shielding his eyes as he looked up at the sun. “We’re probably about a half hour away from the stones Hendrix mentioned. Since we don’t know what we’ll find there, thinking your idea to stop for a bit before is a good one.”
She nodded. “Might as well. Fifteen minutes,” she said, the tug in the center of her insistent, but not overly so. They could stop and rest.
“Ugh, I am not a fan of sand,” Abaxley said.
“I don’t think anyone is.” She cocked her head and saw glinting to the right of them, small, like a diamond. She walked over and noticed there were pieces of what looked like glass, no larger than small rock. “Desert glass?”
Abaxley came up next to her. “Looks like it. It would be cool to find some fulgurite.”
“You found something shiny in the middle of the desert, didn’t you?” Scur said with a laugh and shake of his head. “Only you.”
She bent and picked up a few pieces that were decently sized. “I’ll have Caspera make me something cool.” She shot Scur the finger.
He snapped his teeth at her as he laid down a blanket and sat down. “I thought Cas worked with metals.”
“Cas can make anything out of anything,” Khalid said of his fellow huntsman. “Seriously, it’s amazing to watch. He can enchant metals, though.”
“I’m going to need to start a notebook on who everyone is. Who’s Caspera?” Eli asked, taking a seat next to Scur.
“Caspera is first and foremost Senara’s captain. But before that he was the main smithy at the Front for a long time. He is also Yuri’s older brother,” Alyx said and plopped down with Scur.
“Ah,” Eli said. “I haven’t met Senara yet, or Candiria. Well, no more than when I saw them at your party. First time I’d seen Queen Verity, too. I’ve only hung out wit
h Nymea and Prince Aziz. Kaelyn took a couple pints of blood from me. Damn woman talked me into it somehow. Still not sure how she managed it.”
“You probably gave in so she’d stop talking,” Khalid said. “Never knew a female who could talk so much.”
“Ria,” Scur said. “And she can talk faster.”
“Ria is a joy,” Alyx said and swatted Scur’s leg. “An absolute joy. Eli, we will spend some time after we do this at High Court, considering my brother is one of the queen’s guard and well...don’t tell him but I like seeing him. Even if he hates Scur. Or maybe it’s because of it.”
“Hey,” Scur said, pinching her side, “I never said she wasn’t a joy, I said she talked a lot. You cannot tell me I’m wrong. She’s a nutball, but a nutball I happen to love. She’s family.”
Eli laughed and looked around Scur at her. “He was the one next to Verity at dinner, right? You two have the same eyes. I’d like to get to know him and I really want to know why he hates Scur.”
“’Cause brothers don’t tend to like men like him with their sisters,” Khalid said.
“He likes me, he just doesn’t want to admit it. He needs to keep the overprotective big brother front.”
“Yet he’s fine with Khalid, Bax, and now Eli with me, knowing full well they are diddling his sister.” She leaned in and kissed him. “He just knows you’re the guy mothers warn their daughters about and you got me first.”
“Damn straight I did.” Scur flashed her a grin and scooped her up and onto his lap. “But he’s right about me being the guy mothers warn their daughters about. Every girl who wasn’t you definitely got their heart broken. You’re the only one I ever wanted to keep.”
“Arrogant and sweet all at the same time,” Eli said. “Impressive.”
“He has every right to be,” she said and kissed him, rubbing her nose on his. “He’s an asshole, but he’s my asshole.”
“That I am, vixen.”
“All right, boys and girls, couple more minutes than we start up again,” Khalid said, his eyes still surveying their surroundings. “All this quiet is making me itchy.”
“Probably just the sand in your pants,” Eli said.
Alyx nodded and pointed at Eli, agreeing.
“Baby,” Bax said and handed her the canteen.
She took a sip, the cool water a balm on her tongue. She swallowed and then handed the canteen back to Bax. “Thank you, love.”
“I don’t have sand in my pants,” Khalid said with a droll look. “I’ve been in one battle after another since I could walk, quiet is unsettling.”
“I get that,” Eli said. “When I first left Hell it was weird not hearing a constant background of screaming.”
Alyx chuckled. “So weird to hear that.” She stood and smiled at her girlfriend. “Let’s get walking, yeah? I’m getting that urgency again.”
“I definitely had the strangest upbringing of the lot,” Eli said and got up. “And from what I’ve heard about this lot, that’s saying something.”
Scur folded the blanket back up and stuck it in his pack. “Pretty sure mine was the most normal. That should scare all of you. All right, minx, I’m all about following your lead ‘cause those pants are doing great things for your ass.”
“Sweet talker,” she said and grinned. “Considering my history, my upbringing was pretty normal with the Altemis.”
They started walking again, Alyx and Khalid in the front this time, with the coyote on her left for a spell, before he would scout ahead, and them come back. She felt the tug harder. “We need to pick up the pace.” She placed her hand on her stomach. “The pull is strong.”
Khalid nodded. “I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I can almost feel your anxiousness, kinda like how I know when you’re looking for me.”
“Sounds to me she’s challenging us for a race,” Scur said.
“Ain’t no one here want to be running in sand until it’s a no other choice kinda thing,” Eli piped in.
“Agreed, let’s just pick up the pace a bit.”
Abaxley, with reins on the camel, kept up with the four, the coyote already a quarter mile ahead of them, stopped at another dune top. They met him not long after, and then followed him to another, the pulse getting stronger in her stomach. “We need to get there...” She looked up. “Something is coming. Can you feel it?”
Winds started to blow, not hard but enough to make an impression. She watched the sky darken. Something was indeed coming. And the urgency to get to the dwelling was literally causing her teeth to chatter. “I don’t know what we are going to walk into,” she said, her words almost lost on a gust of wind.”
“There,” Abaxley said. “Just ahead.”
“Think it’s about time for that run!” Alyx screamed into the growing storm.
8
Scur tried not to think about the last time he needed to run through a growing sand storm. That day hadn’t ended up well for a lot of the soldiers he fought next to, but he wasn’t too worried about that outcome happening again, not with those who were running beside him. If he had the choice to pick any group to fight beside, his answer would always be Alyx and his fellow guards, even Eli. He might not know the chick well yet, but from the moment Alyx accepted her, they’d all felt the connection.
“The stone structure isn’t too much farther,” Khalid called out, having taken the lead. They all picked up their pace, which wasn’t easy. Running in sand was worse than running in snow. The winds were also picking up, making seeing anything that much harder. Plus, who the hell wanted sand in their eyes?
“I see it,” Eli said then coughed. “Nothing like a mouth full of sand.”
“Might want to stop talking then,” he said and grunted when she smacked his arm. Yeah, he deserved it, but he’d deserved every smack, punch, and slap women have given him over the years. Alyx had been his end game since the first time he’d seen her when they were just teens, every woman he’d met between then and now were nothing more than a warm body, and he wouldn’t apologize for it.
Finally, they reached the structure and were able to suck in a much needed breath without the Sahara Desert getting lodged in their throats. “We all here and accounted for?” he asked.
The camel sneezed and then spit.
“That felt wrong,” Bax said and looked them over. “Where is the coyote?”
“Here,” Alyx said, turning to show the animal sitting at her feet. “Urgency has died down.” She looked to Khalid.
“Yeah, but that was damn weird. Can’t say I’ve ever felt anything like it and pretty sure I was only feeling an echo of what you were.”
“Is that normal?” Eli asked, looking between Alyx and Khalid.
Damn good question. Scur couldn’t remember any captain being that synced to their princess. Possibly Nymea and Ryker, but they shared a blood bond. A ‘til death do they both part blood bond. “Not that I know of,” he said. “Nihar would probably know.”
“Khalid in sync with my emotions is the least of our problems right now,” Alyx said and walked to the wall. She ran her hand along the rock face. “Insane. It’s smooth, like a fucking laser cut it.”
“Inscriptions?” Bax asked and followed her over.
“Not here but...” She turned. “Someone needs to get pictures of that.” She pointed to a large mural, tall, lithe figures standing in a stone circle, a small circle in the middle of them. There was a sun and what looked like the moon. And a doorway.
Pulling out his sat phone, thanking the gods he had the damn thing zipped in one of his side pockets, he snapped a few pics. “Send it over to Hendrix and hope Nihar isn’t in a research coma?”
“Do it,” Khalid said, stepping up to Alyx’s other side, studying the pictures. Scur sent the pictures and started counting in his head to see how long it would take the scourge to call back.
“Will he be able to get through with that shit raging outside?” Bax asked.
“Fuck if I know,” Scur said. “Since the little
shit isn’t picking up, I’m thinking not.”
“Do you think those pictures are significant to what we’re doing now?” Eli asked. “I mean we’re pretty much stuck here and whatever it is that’s happening with that sand storm, it seems it wanted us to end up right here.”
“And for what reason?” Alyx agreed. “We should probably see what else is here, eh?”
He looked around the space, assessing. They had run through a small crack in rock, though how they had made it through was anyone’s guess, considering looking back toward it he could barely see the entrance. The crack had opened to a large milled space, smooth floors and walls, with sections still there, all created at sharp, perfect ninety-degree angles. All the center rock was set in stark relief, the carvings from floor to ceiling. Beyond where they stood the space was larger, with two other large rocks flanking and the space going further past.
“This is interesting...” Alyx said. “Check this one out, Scur.” She pointed to the mural she was standing in front of. “Does that look like angels? Giants?”
“Giant angels?” Scur said, moving over to where she pointed. Okay, yeah, he could see where she was going with that, they did look like both, something Scur didn’t know was even possible. “I’m going to assume some type of giant ‘cause I’ve never seen an angel and don’t believe in that shit. Although, could be a scourge.”
“Scourge wings are like bats. These clearly have feathers.” She turned. “Those are scourge.” She pointed to another figure. “That’s an angel.”
“And the giants are real,” Bax said as he came up behind her. “What are we looking at?”
“I don’t know.” She walked around to the next side and they followed, treated to another carving of what looked like cernunnos and gryphons. “Okay, gryphons are part of the Light Court,” she said. “Cernunnos are still part of the Hunt.”
“And I never said giants weren’t real,” Scur said with a roll of his eyes. It was something he was used to. Most of his life he was looked at as a dumb guy who liked to fight. He wouldn’t argue the fight part, but there was more in his head than rocks. “Angels, I’m not sold on them. Never seen one, don’t know anyone who has.” He turned to look at Eli and she held up her hands.