“Look, I know you’re concerned about your girlfriend’s purity and what not,” Khufu replied, ignoring my comment about Connor as he spun around to face me. He kept walking… backward. Evidently he wasn’t worried about something coming down the hallway and, oh I don’t know, rending him limb from limb. “But Sekhmet is an Egyptian war deity. She’s probably fine.”
I rubbed my temples with one hand as I shook my head. “My point is you supposedly know where Imhotep is located and instead of doing something productive like rescuing Sekhmet and getting me home, we’re doing what has amounted to nothing.”
“I really wish you’d stop bringing up the whole Sekhmet thing.” Khufu shook his head as he eyed me carefully. “I’m starting to think you don’t enjoy my company, or is it something else?” He raised his eyebrow in the super annoying way he did. “Is it because I don’t look like a nineteen-year-old swimsuit model with enormous breasts?”
My cheeks burned as I stared at him, willing myself to not take the bait. If there was one thing I’d learned over the last few weeks, it was that Khufu resorted to name calling and teasing in order to get out of talking about things he didn’t want to talk about. Well, this time, I was getting a good answer from him because I needed to get home to save Connor, and honestly, I didn’t want to leave until we saved Sekhmet. I wasn’t exactly sure what Imhotep was doing with the goddess, but deep down, I was pretty certain it wasn’t all puppies and chocolate bars.
I reached out, grabbing Khufu by the collar with one hand and hauling him forward so I could look down into his face. It was fairly easy to do because I was over a foot taller than him. Ah, the joys of being six and a half feet tall.
“No, that’s not why. And if you don’t explain your plan right now, I’m going to eat you.” I smiled, letting my canines show. “Are we clear?”
Khufu huffed out a breath that let me know two things. One, he hadn’t brushed his teeth in, well, ever, and two, he wasn’t even slightly afraid of me eating him.
“You won’t eat me. I’m too tough.” He crossed his arms over his chest which was altogether ridiculous because I had him hauled up on his tippy toes.
“Do I look like the purple people eater to you?” I asked, letting him go and smirking as he stumbled.
“I don’t know what that is,” he replied, brushing himself off before turning and making his way down the hallway. “Here’s the problem, Thes. Apep is strong. See, when we empowered Ra with the staff, it also increased Apep’s power by an equal measure. There’s that whole balance thing. Remember?”
“Are you seriously telling me that by empowering Ra to stop Apep, we made Apep stronger too?” I asked, following him as he turned down a corridor. Torches burned along the jade walls, making monstrous emerald shadows leap across the floor.
“Basically.” He reached out and grabbed one of the torches, pulling it from the sconce on the wall and using it to light his path. “And because Ra is trapped in who knows where, Apep gets to walk around with all that extra juice because the universe thinks everything is in balance. He pretty much played us for fools.”
“I still don’t see why that means we can’t find Sekhmet,” I replied as he put his hand on the wall and traced one stubby finger against a carved picture of a man with a red-headed dog face.
“You wouldn’t,” Khufu said, pulling his hand away as the wall began to glow with crimson light. “But you’re about to find out.” He turned, smirking at me as the wall behind him crumbled to the ground in a cloud of scarlet dust. “Because Imhotep’s hideout is right through there.”
“What’s the catch?” I stared at him for a long time, trying to decide whether or not I should be happy Khufu had finally decided to go after her. Something about his sudden change in motives was a little unnerving to say the least. “You’ve been going out of your way to ignore Sekhmet’s plight, so what’s the deal?”
“The catch?” he replied as a monstrous roar from the room within shook the corridor and my resolve. A smile curled across his lips. “That would be the catch.”
Get All Wrapped Up here!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1) Page 18