Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  Its head was like a crocodile. Its body was huge, like a hippopotamus, but covered in golden fur like a lion. A mane fell around its head as it lay there, panting.

  “Ammit,” Sekhmet said, moving past me and kneeling next to the beast. “Why are you here?”

  “To see if he is worthy,” the beast replied. Its body shuddered as Sekhmet turned eyes of cold fury upon me. “He may pass.”

  “Fool,” she spoke, and the word hit me in the chest, driving me to my knees. Her shadow rose up behind her like a huge towering lioness, and I was afraid. My muscles tensed, braced for her attack. I was ready for her, ready to fight, to claw, to rip…

  She reached out, touching my nose lightly with her finger. “Return.”

  I fell, the world spinning around me like a great sucking void. I hit the ground, my face smacking into the stone as she turned and laid one hand upon the fallen creature. Its chest shuddered again as the world went black.

  Chapter 21

  Khufu was carrying me across his shoulders when I awoke. I had no idea where I was, or how long I’d been unconscious. The last thing I remembered was Sekhmet touching me.

  “Put me down,” I wheezed, but it was hard because my throat was dry. I licked my lips as Khufu swiveled his big head toward me.

  Without saying a word, he dropped me. I hit the ground hard and pain rocketed through my limbs. I lay there, unable to do more than breathe as Aziza turned and stared at me, an odd expression on her face. Ahead of her, Sekhmet had stopped, but she hadn’t deigned to so much as turn around and look at me.

  “What’d you do that for?” I asked, slowly getting to my feet.

  “Why did I put you down like you asked me to do?” Khufu raised an eyebrow at me. “Would you rather I didn’t comply with your orders?” He shrugged. “Got it, next time I’ll ignore you completely. Done and done.”

  He made a washing motion with his hands before spinning on his heel and striding past Aziza. When he reached Sekhmet, he touched her arm lightly before moving past her. Still, the goddess did not move, remaining so still that it was like she’d become a statue.

  “Okay…” I said, not quite sure why everyone was so angry at me. Hadn’t I saved everyone from the skeleton hands and defeated the monster in the tunnel? “What’s going on?”

  “You almost killed Ammit,” Aziza said, still staring at me. Her voice was like mouse whispers. soft and scurrying over the distance between us.

  “Was that the thing in the tunnel?” I asked, walking up to her. She shied away, taking a step backward before catching herself and holding her ground.

  “Yes.” She followed up the word by nodding at me.

  “So?” I asked. “Wasn’t he a bad guy?”

  “I never can tell exactly how much you know about our culture, Thes. Do you even know who Ammit is?” She suppressed a smile so that her lips were a thin line with the very edges turned up.

  “I’ll take no for one hundred,” I replied, smiling at her.

  “I’m going to guess that just means you don’t.” She sighed and rubbed her face with one hand. “Ammit is divine justice given form. Think about that for a second. You almost killed the embodiment of the gods’ retribution.”

  “Um… okay?” I swallowed. “That’s bad why?”

  “Because you shouldn’t have been able to do it,” Sekhmet said, though she still hadn’t bothered to look at me. “That thing you became, that form… it reminds me of someone I knew long ago.” She shook her head minutely. “Thes, you should not be able to go toe to toe with a being like Ammit. He should have judged you and found you wanting. Not the other way around.”

  “Uh… why? Khufu dropped you pretty easily, and you’re a god.” Aziza stepped out of the way as I spoke, presumably so she wouldn’t be between me and the warrior goddess. It was probably a wise decision. I wouldn’t want to be between Sekhmet and her prey.

  “It isn’t even close to the same,” Sekhmet replied, and as she stared at me, I had to try very hard not to find a place to scurry into and hide. “I was not always a god. I was once mortal like you. I was one of the Menhit, a caste of warriors given power in accordance to the creatures we were created to fight.” She whipped out her hand and a glowing bow appeared in it. Flame licked across its surface so that it looked like it was hewn from fire. “This was my weapon, Nesert. In your tongue it means ‘the flame,’ and from it, I rained down arrows of sun fire upon my enemies. Long ago, it was inhabited by Hathor herself.”

  She turned and faced me, the bow still clasped in her hand as she stepped up to me and looked into my face. “I was mortal once and became a deity thanks to Ra. My power is an extension of his now. It is entirely different from Ammit. Ammit is a primordial force, Thes. Killing him like killing good or cold or love. It shouldn’t be able to be done.” That’s when I realized her lips were trembling and gooseflesh had risen on her arms.

  “And it scares you that I almost did it.” I nodded once. “But does it scare you more because it was me or because it nearly happened.” I stopped, shaking my head. “That’s not what I meant. What I meant was if Khufu or Aziza had done it, would you be this scared?”

  “Thes, what you’re not understanding is that they couldn’t have done it. Only you could do it, and I do not understand how.” She swallowed, and I had the urge to pull her against me, to hug her until she felt better, and I didn’t really know why. I wasn’t exactly the comforting type, and she was the god of war. Wanting to comfort her was silly, right?

  “After you hurt Ammit, Sekhmet and I were able to heal him, and just to experiment, Khufu struck him with his full might in the same spot,” Aziza said, her voice quiet, like she was trying very hard not to be intrusive.

  “My weapon shattered into dust, and the reverberation damn near broke my arm,” Khufu called over his shoulder. “And not only did you nearly rip him in half with your bare hand, but you healed the wound he gave you like it was nothing.”

  “Whatever you are, Thes, it’s strong. You need to keep it in check,” Aziza said and this time fear threaded into her words. “You can’t let it have control.”

  “It’s not that, you fools,” Sekhmet cried, and her voice smashed into the walls around us and filled the huge hallway until it was nearly bursting. “You do not understand how the world, how the Menhit operate. See, we’re strong, but we’re only strong in proportion to our threats. The universe strives for balance. Monsters get strong so the Menhit get stronger, it goes on endlessly. So, Thes, think about something. Think about what Menhit you have been around that was so strong the forces of balance would propel you to such power that you could hurt a creature like Ammit.” She swallowed, waving away that thought as though it was nothing. “Then think about what is so powerful, it requires a Menhit that powerful to stop it.”

  She reached out and touched me lightly, the very tips of her fingers brushing along my arm. No sooner had she done so, she jerked her hand back like she’d been bitten. Her eyes opened wide, and her mouth sort of fell open. “No…”

  She backed away from me, tripped and fell on her butt. “He can’t be back…”

  She stared at me, not moving as Aziza and Khufu came toward us warily. They looked from the suddenly incoherent Sekhmet to me and back again in a strange sort of swivel that made a bad feeling settle in my stomach. If what she was telling me was true, had my wolf finally been able to communicate with me because I’d met a really powerful Menhit. Only… only I only knew one.

  Lillim.

  Was Lillim really that powerful? Was she so powerful that Sekhmet would be scared of her? She was strong, yeah, but this strong… no… So did I know someone else? Was there another of them that I knew, another who was this strong?

  “Sekhmet, what’s wrong?” I asked, swallowing back the fear rising inside me. Menhit were created to kill things like me. They were the boogeymen to werewolves, as well as everyone else, so who was the universe was boosting me up to fight? And… and was I supposed to stop him? Was I the natural c
ounter balance to…

  “He Who Cannot Be Named has returned in your time, Thes.” Sekhmet’s voice was barely a whisper. “How could he be back?” She stood, the movement jerky and sudden. She grabbed me by the shirt with both hands and pulled me down so she was peering directly into my face.

  Her eyes were filled with fear, no, far worse than that, they were filled with hysteria. “It took the combined might of the Menhit to stop him last time. And even then, it was only because the gods stepped in to help. I fought him, not as a Menhit, but as a deity. I was nearly at my full strength, and I was but a fly before him.”

  She swallowed and looked away. “And somehow he is back, and as he comes into contact with creatures, they turn into you! He is even stronger than I remember.”

  She flopped down on the ground and began sobbing. It was the most disconcerting thing I’d ever seen. Imagine standing before one of the most powerful, one of the most feared Egyptian deities, and she gets so scared she starts crying, actually crying. Let’s just say it was not a huge boost of confidence.

  “Sekhmet, we don’t have time for this now,” Khufu urged, kneeling down next to her. “We need to find the staff before—”

  “It doesn’t matter. In fact, it might be better if we let Apep rise to destroy the world, maybe, maybe he could stop him… only… only I doubt it.” She shook her head and held up her hand. “I’m okay. It was just… it was only a few hundred years ago that he last rose, and the memory of my fallen comrades is still strong.” She stood, getting to her feet and turning away so she wasn’t facing any of us. “I will not shirk my duties.” She swallowed and stared into my eyes. “When you return to your time, you must stop He Who Cannot Be Named. There is no other way.”

  Chapter 22

  What do you even say to something like that? The Egyptian God of War told me that a guy so powerful he made mincemeat of the gods, was alive in my time, and what’s worse, I had to stop him. How was I supposed to do that?

  It was a question I had been wrestling with since Sekhmet had told me, how long ago? I wasn’t sure exactly because we were wandering through some kind of maze. It vaguely reminded me of one I’d been trapped in before, but instead of being filled with blue stone walls, this one was made of solid gold and inlaid with gemstones the size of my fist.

  Where the Egyptians had gotten so much gold? Why, if they had so much gold, did they consider it valuable? Of course, I guess it was entirely possible that it wasn’t actually valuable and was simply what they had lying around. That was a sobering thought.

  Still, Khufu didn’t exactly seem worried by the maze even though it was filled with statues of gods that loomed overhead like watchful guardians just waiting for the opportunity to come alive and squish us. In fact, he didn’t even seem to pay attention to where he was going. It was sort of infuriating.

  “I got this one too,” Khufu called cheerily as we approached a fork in the road. He glanced right for a second, then left and rubbed his chin. “Hmm… Eenie, meenie…” He pointed his finger from path to path. “Nah… let’s just go right, that seems right, right?”

  He smirked at me, and it made me want to smack him across his stupid face. “How’s that sound, Thes?” He shrugged. “Unless you disagree and want to go left. Left could be right, right?”

  “I’m going to kill you where you stand, mummy,” Sekhmet replied, fixing him with the same glare she probably used to make small mammals burst into flames. “We’ve been walking for over an hour and between your antics and his brooding,” she cocked a thumb at me, “I’m not sure how much more I can take.”

  “Well, you can always leave,” Khufu replied as he sauntered down the right fork, twirling his hand over his shoulder. “You weren’t even invited. You’re more like the cart trailing on the end of our camel. You know, to carry the goods while we lead.”

  Sekhmet turned a shade of purple that reminded me of a crayon I’d had as a kid. Fury purple. It had come with a coloring book of action heroes so all the colors had names like ‘Fistful of Justice Red’ and ‘Envious of My Power Green.’

  I wasn’t quite sure why Khufu was actively antagonizing Sekhmet, but he’d been doing it for nearly the entire journey through the maze. I shrugged and glanced at Aziza, but she wasn’t looking at me. Ever since Sekhmet had told us about He Who Cannot Be Named, Aziza hadn’t so much as said a peep. It was a little weird. It was like she was worried, but I wasn’t quite sure why. It wasn’t like she had to go to my time and fight him, right? I sighed. Maybe she was worried about him coming to her time and killing everyone?

  Admittedly, I hadn’t been much of a conversationalist, myself. I was still trying to figure out who it was. The problem was, I couldn’t think of a single person who seemed strong enough. That meant one of two things. Either He Who Could Not Be Named was hiding his power or Sekhmet was crazy. And sadly, I was pretty sure she wasn’t crazy… at least not in the ‘I’m going to make up a story about a super-strong bad guy in your time who is going to kill you’ way. Still, part of me sort of hoped she would turn around, punch me in the arm, and yell “Gotcha!” So far, she hadn’t.

  “Hey, Aziza.” I glanced at her. “Penny for your thoughts?”

  She didn’t even look at me. She just kept staring at her feet as she plodded forward. I looked from her to Sekhmet and Khufu, but neither of them seemed to be paying attention to me. Ignored, party of me.

  “Zeez!” I said a bit louder, and this time she looked up at me, face drawn into thought. She blinked a couple times at me.

  “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Did you want something, Thes?” she asked, voice sort of empty and far off, like she wasn’t really paying attention to me.

  “Yeah, I was wondering what you were thinking about,” I replied, throwing my best smile at her. Admittedly, it was the same one I used on girls walking their dogs at the park. I didn’t exactly have a huge repertoire of smiles.

  She stared at me, her unblinking amethyst eyes making me want to look away and let her go back to ignoring me. When I did not do so, she huffed out a short little breath.

  “Things,” she said and pointedly stared off into space.

  “What kind of things?” I asked, moving closer to her so I wouldn’t have to shout at her for her to pay attention to me.

  “Things that aren’t your business.” This time she glared at me, rather deliberately, I’ll add. It was only a slight improvement.

  “Why is that?” I pried, reaching out toward her for some reason, but when I realized what I was doing, I stopped. Why had I been about to touch her?

  “Because I don’t want to talk about it with you.” Her eyes swiveled to Sekhmet, then to Khufu. “Or them.”

  “So you’re just going to keep walking and ignoring me? I mean, I know why I’ve been lost in thought. Sekhmet says some guy is alive who is going to break the world, and I’m supposed to fight him? That’s if I get back home alive, which near as I can tell, isn’t exactly a guarantee.”

  Aziza looked at me for a long time, and my breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t explain it exactly, but it almost seemed like she was studying me. And it wasn’t the studying me like I was a little strange. It was more the ‘how can a creature like you actually exist’ kind of staring.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” she asked me, voice so quiet that I was sure I was the only one who could hear it.

  “Um… evidently not,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure why. Have you ever noticed that when someone whispers to you, you naturally whisper back? Weird, right?

  “I’m scared, Thes.” There was an undercurrent of something in her voice, a little twang that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. She was scared, sure, but it was more than that.

  “I’m scared too, Zeez.” As soon as the words left my mouth, she turned away and stared at the damn wall again. It was filled with a mural that depicted peasants being thrown into a vat of boiling liquid. I wish I could say this was a particularly abnormal wall, but sadly, it wasn’t. I
wasn’t quite sure who had thought it would be a smart idea to decorate the walls of an endless maze with scenes of torture.

  Then again, maybe that was to make it scarier? If it was, well, it was working. Every time I caught sight of a wall, a little chill scampered down my spine, and my heart raced just a touch faster. It had gotten so that I mostly just stared at the back of Khufu’s bald head. Only he had this mole that was really annoying for some reason.

  “It’s not the same, Thes,” Aziza growled at the wall because she wasn’t even looking at me. “I’m scared for you.” She shook her head. “I’m scared of what will happen to you. I’m scared you’re going to go through all this.” She waved her hands, indicating the maze. “And when you get home, some jackass is just going to smoosh you like a beetle.” She exhaled through her teeth. “It makes everything seem so pointless.”

  “Seems like you have a lot of faith in me,” I murmured mostly to myself. She was right after all, but there was still a chance I could win, right? I mean if this unnamed guy was so strong, I wasn’t going to be fighting him by myself, right? Surely the Dioscuri would step in? And Sekhmet had said that last time gods had helped. I wasn’t going to be going at him mano a mano, right?

  “I have plenty of faith in you, Thes. It isn’t that…” She shook her head. “Look, you’re a sweet guy. I don’t want you to become something horrible. I don’t want you to lose your humanity to stop him.”

  “So the options are dying or losing my humanity?” I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “What about the option where I chew bubblegum and kick ass?”

  She looked at me strangely. “I’m not sure what bubblegum is, Thes. Is it helpful?”

  “Doesn’t matter.” I smirked. “I’m all out of it.”

  “Showtime!” Khufu yelled, glancing back over his shoulder. He was grinning so wide that it almost made me ignore the giant door glaring at me. It resembled a sad kabuki mask, and near as I could tell, it was carved from a solid piece of stone that made me think of granite. Just looking at it gave me the willies.