Lord of the Desert--a full-length contemporary paranormal romance
Page 18
While unhurried days come and go,
Let us turn to each other in quiet affection,
Walk in peace to the edge of old age.
—Song inscribed on an Earthen Vessel
Thankfully, by the time Rhys concluded the ritual act, his immortal peers were deep into lascivious celebration. Gillian had fainted, overcome by the drowning erotic power she’d been deluged with at the end. And possibly by shock. No doubt, she hadn’t been expecting the fangs.
Even though his own body still buzzed dangerously from the experience, craving release, he could not delay their departure. He leaped from the altar, scooped her into his arms, and wove quickly through the crush of revelers, back through the temple to Seth’s dressing room.
He adjusted her body in his arms to close the door behind them, and her eyelashes fluttered open. She gazed up at him, her expressive green eyes still glazed with a lingering haze of pleasure.
“Rhys?” she asked, her voice uncertain.
“Shhh. We need to be quiet,” he said, glancing around to make sure they were alone. “Unless you wish Seth to awaken and find us. I assure you, he won’t be in a very good mood when he does.”
“So...” she whispered hoarsely. Her fingers went to the wound on her neck and her gaze to his mouth. Her face had drained of color. “You’re a vampire?”
He could feel the warm stickiness of the blood that had spilled from his lips and down his chin. Her blood. And his own, which he had gathered in the vial and used to make the bite appear more realistic.
The fangs were gone, but the taste of her lingered on his tongue. The air charged between them, and he looked down at her, still hot and needy. She had found release. He hadn’t.
But this wasn’t the time. They must move quickly.
“No.” He set her onto a divan, pulled off his mask and crown and tossed them aside. “I’m a shapeshifter. You know that.”
“You had fangs,” she said, meeting his eyes accusingly.
He probably should have warned her about that part.
“An illusion spell. I wasn’t sure if it would work,” he said, and cast a hurried look behind the dressing screen in the corner to make sure Seth hadn’t stirred. He was still sprawled on the floor where he’d collapsed after drinking the drugged wine Rhys had sneaked in and left earlier.
I’m sorry, my friend. You gave me no choice.
Gillian had sat up and was peering at the wounds on her neck in a hand mirror. “You’re saying these aren’t real?”
“The fangs were illusion, but the effect they had was not. Come. We must hurry.”
He found the hidden lever and opened the low door to the other secret passage she had discovered on the map. He’d been exploring the tunnels for the past two days, pretending to be resigned to his confinement to his rooms, while he was in reality plotting and gathering the supplies they would need for their journey.
“We’re covered in blood,” she said, rising to follow him. “We’ll scare anyone who sees us.”
“I have water to wash and a change of clothes hidden in the old tomb,” he told her.
She took his hand as he was about to usher her into the darkness of the narrow passage. “Are you sure, Rhys?”
He sensed the deeper meaning behind the question, and felt the connection between them even more strongly. He wanted this woman. Wanted her in every way a man could want a woman. He wanted to love her and make love to her, cherish her, and grow old with her. He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers. “Never more sure of anything in my life.”
Then he led his woman down into the yawning, black portal toward an uncertain fate.
In the ancient tomb of Seth-Aziz where they’d first met, they cleaned up and he helped her into the masculine head-to-toe Bedouin garb he had chosen as her disguise. That’s when Gillian suddenly noticed the slight change in the inscription that covered the wall of the tomb. In the scene of Seth-Aziz worshipping Set-Sutekh along with his shemsu, another figure now kneeled next to Lord Rhys Kilpatrick. A woman. A blonde. And the name inscribed next to it was Gillian’s own.
She stared at it, startled. “I suppose they’ll chisel us out now,” she said at length. Surprised at the sting of regret she felt.
“Perhaps,” he said, and kissed her. “Their loss.”
“Will you shift?” she asked, smiling.
He smiled back and kissed her again. “Yes. So I can be between your thighs as we ride the wind.”
“Where will we go?” she asked as they stepped out into the pale light of the breaking dawn.
He looked toward the east, to the ribbon of silver-green water, the river that gave this land life. Beyond, the golden disc of the sun broke through above the ragged tear of the horizon, piercing its rays into the peaceful darkness, stabbing out the stars with its bright light, waking the valley to its day of toil and strife.
He turned away and looked toward the north.
“Petru,” she said, following his gaze.
She had done her homework, it seemed. He glanced at her and shook his head. “No. It’s where they’ll expect us to go.”
“It’s where you can remain immortal.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he said. “I want to grow old with you.”
“You said it wouldn’t be a betrayal to join Haru-Re. You said you could work for the good of Khepesh, even in the camp of the enemy.”
“That was before I had you with me,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I’d like to see my mother again,” she said quietly.
He took her in his arms and held her close. And realized he must do this for her, so she could have peace in her heart. He kissed her hair. “Very well. Petru it is, then.”
She tilted up her face and gazed at him with her beautiful green eyes. There was so much love in them, it humbled him. He would do anything for her. Anything in the world to keep that adoring look in her eyes.
“It’ll be fine,” she said. “You’ll see.”
“You’re not afraid?” he asked.
“No.” She rested her cheek against his chest. “I know I’ll be safe with you.”
“You will,” he vowed. “And you’ll be mine for ever. We’ll find the spell to make it so, I promise you. Because I intend to keep you for at least that long.”
“And I’ll cherish every minute we have together. Oh, Rhys, I’m so happy.”
“I love you,” he said, and kissed her smiling lips.
“I love you, too,” she said, and his heart swelled.
He shifted to al Fahl and she climbed on his back, and together they rode off into the desert, the ghost stallion and his mortal mate.
And their love would last until the end of time.
Epilogue
I’d stop her passage,
hold her for questioning,
then sit to enjoy the range of her voice
as she raged like a fury on and on.
—Papyrus Harris 500
Nephtys swept into Seth’s dressing room, grabbing a goblet of wine from a table by the door as she passed by.
“Sweet Isis, that was some performance, my brother,” she announced, somewhat surprised, but with no small amount of gratification. “I told you your intended would come around. Merciful Min, she was practically—”
She halted in midsentence when she realized no one was listening. “Seth?” she asked. Her puzzled query was answered with a pained moan from...the floor behind the dressing screen.
“Hadu!” She set down the wine and rushed to his side. “By the stars of Nut, what happened to you? Are you hurt?”
He groaned as he struggled to sit up. “Only my pride. And my head,” he amended, pressing his fingers into his temples and massaging them. “I swear to Sekhmet, if I ever catch that accursed Englishman, I’ll...”
“Shall I call the guards?” she asked anxiously when his words trailed off into another moan.
“No. Just Shahin. No one else.”
She stuck her head out the door and called for the s
heikh to be brought.
“What do you mean, catch the Englishman?” she persisted. “I thought Kilpatrick was confined to his rooms.”
That’s when she noticed that her brother was wearing only his linen undergarments. “Oh, dear,” she said with a prickle of foreboding.
“What the hell happened here?” The sheikh stole the words from her lips when he strode in and saw her expression, along with Seth’s state.
“The ceremony,” Seth said, allowing Shahin to help him to his divan. “It wasn’t me. It was Rhys.”
Nephtys’s eyes widened. “Well! That explains Lady Gillian’s sudden turnaround in affections. But how on earth did he manage to overpower you?”
“His Sufi knockout herb,” Shahin guessed, and Seth nodded.
“I should have anticipated the move,” he said. “But I was frankly expecting him to take her during the ceremony, not before it.”
Nephtys blinked at him. “You were expecting to be attacked?” she asked incredulously. “And did nothing about it?”
“He didn’t attack me. He drugged me. And carried out the ritual to perfection, I gather.”
Shahin scowled. “Down to the bite. They were quite convincing, he and the woman. His powers are far greater than any of us guessed. He will be a danger to Khepesh now.” This last Shahin said with profound regret in his voice. He started for the door. “I’ll have the gates sealed.”
“Too late. They are long gone by now. They found the ancient hidden passages.”
Shahin’s eyes narrowed. “Then I’ll mount a search. He won’t dare go to his estate. And he won’t have gotten far in the desert carrying the woman.”
“No.” Seth got to his feet, and Nephtys hurried to offer her supporting arm. “No search. Let them go.”
“You can’t mean that, hadu! What they have done is unforgivable. Both should rightly be put to death.”
“Which is exactly why we must let them escape.”
She exchanged a look of dismay with Shahin, who just looked pensive. “Does this Sufi herb muddle one’s judgment after rendering one unconscious?” she asked him in alarm.
Shahin turned a thoughtful gaze to Seth. “Not to my knowledge.”
“Seth!” she exclaimed, wanting to knock the sense back into the man that the herb had knocked out. “You know they’ll head straight for Petru. Right into the welcoming arms of our enemy!”
She gasped in dismay as she remembered her vision. The one where Rhys Kilpatrick was doing just that, being greeted by a smug and smiling Haru-Re.
The vision was coming true!
“With any luck,” Seth murmured, bringing her back to the present with a jolt.
She froze, her mouth dropping open in shock. “Hadu, what are you saying?” she whispered.
A forbidding smile played with the corners of Shahin’s mouth. “What he’s saying, my lady, is that he planned this.”
She searched her brother’s face and found the terrible truth written there. Her blood chilled at the immense danger he had deliberately put them all in. “Does he know?” she asked hoarsely. “Kilpatrick. Did you plan it with him? Or are you just hoping he’s as loyal as you want to believe?”
Seth put his arm around her shoulder and gave her an affectionate kiss on the cheek. “You tell me, my sister. Look into your scrying bowl and tell me if I’ve misjudged the honor of my friend.”
She did not want to let it drop, but she could tell he was weary and his head was hurting. “By the gods, you are impossible,” she said with a mixture of love, exasperation, and profound worry. “This cannot end well.”
“Only the future will tell.”
“And what of the Lady Gillian?” she asked sadly. “She was to be your greatest love. The wise consort all of Khepesh would look up to in years to come. You’ve let her slip through your fingers.”
Her brother sighed. “Sometimes the best way to win a woman over is to let her follow where her heart leads her. If she is truly meant to be mine, her heart will bring her back to me.”
Nephtys was about to protest his ridiculously faulty reasoning, but Shahin strode toward the door, reminding her of his presence. “In the meantime,” he said, ever the practical one, “you will need another sacrifice as soon as possible. I shall go and try to find someone appropriate.”
“Be discreet,” Nephtys told him. “Seek her aboveground. We don’t want it known the ceremony was a fake.”
Seth raised a hand. “Wait.”
Shahin halted, hand on the door. “You have a preference, my lord?”
“Perhaps.” Seth narrowed his eyes. “Do you still have that note Miss Haliday wrote to her sisters?”
The sheikh patted his robes. “Still right here, as you ordered.”
“Well,” the high priest of Khepesh said with a slow, calculating smile. “I think it’s time to deliver it, don’t you?”
The End
THANK YOU!
I hope you had fun reading about Rhys and Gillian’s whirlwind Egyptian adventures while falling in love! LORD OF THE DESERT is book 1 of the IMMORTAL SHEIKHS trilogy. I hope you’ll continue the Khepesh saga with books 2 and 3, SHADOW OF THE SHEIKH and VAMPIRE SHEIKH.
If you have a moment, please help others enjoy this book. Review it! Help others choose what to read—tell them why you loved this book! If you do write a review, drop me an email at NinaBruhns@aol.com and include a link to it, and if you like, request that I put you on my list of beta readers. You’ll receive an invitation to review my next book ahead of the crowd. ☺
Want to know when my next book comes out? Visit www.NinaBruhns.com and sign up for my New Releases email list, and I’ll let you know when each new book is published.
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Available in German...
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For details and excerpts please visit www.NinaBruhns.com
Sign up for Nina’s New Releases email list, and she’ll let you know when each new book is published.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times and USA Today Best Selling author Nina Bruhns pens adventurous romantic thrillers that contain a unique blend of interesting characters and settings, twisty suspense, and sizzling romance. To date, she has published 40 award-winning novels:
3-time Daphne du Maurier Award overall winner
National Readers Choice Award winner
3-time RITA Award nominee
4-time RT BookReviews Reviewers Choice Award
#1 Amazon Bestseller in Romantic Suspense, Police Procedurals, Anthologies, and Movers & Shakers
Top 30 Amazon Most Popular Romance Authors
Top 50 Amazon Bestseller in Thrillers, Romance, Action & Adventure, Mystery, Contemporary Romance, Thriller & Suspense, Detective, Anthologies, and Women's Fiction
Amazon Germany Top 10 in Krimis & Thriller and Polizeiromane
Amazon Japan Top 100 in Police Procedurals and Romantic Suspense
Amazon UK #1 Bestselling author in Anthologies & Collections
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