The black-haired mermaid flopped around on the sand, much like a fish on the deck of a boat. I would have loved to watch her slowly suffocate to death for what she had done to Josh, but I forced my focus onto the battle. From where I stood, thigh deep in sea water, I saw one mermaid floating face down in the water, lifeless.
Nik was battling another mermaid, trying his best to get his hands onto her neck so that he could snap her neck. Emma was slowly dragging a mermaid out of the water by the fin, the sharp ridges of the fin cutting into Emma’s hands. Josh had a mermaid by the neck, draining her of blood. From where I stood, I couldn’t see Thomas. The last mermaid was zipping around the battle field, using her fin to slice the vampires, hoping to cause them enough pain to get them to release their grip on her sisters.
I lunged back into the waters, hoping to draw her attention away from the others. It worked a little too well. Before I had made it more than a few strokes into the deeper waters, I felt her fin slice my other thigh. I settled myself in the waters, waiting for her to come round again.
Evidently this mermaid was little smarter than the others. She dove down deep and prepared to go between my legs. But I’m no dummy… usually. Just as she neared me, I dropped down toward the ocean floor, sinking like a rock. She tried to veer away, but I managed to grab her by the hair. I climbed back to my feet, dragging her up to the surface with me. By the time I began to work my way to the shore, Emma had finished with her sea-woman and was racing to me. She grabbed the mermaid by the arm and helped me. A moment later Nik appeared at our side and grabbed her other arm.
As we got her up onto the shore, Thomas and Josh joined us, their own enemies floating in the water.
“Ashley, get dressed,” Emma ordered as they continued to drag the last mermaid up into the sands.
I released her hair, rain to the mannequin, and quickly shifted the clothes to my own body. I felt rather ridiculous in the fancy get up, but was happy just to have my special bits covered.
“Let’s get out of here,” suggested Nik.
I grabbed the scarf off the mannequin and followed the others, leaving the mermaids to die or return to the ocean. We raced to city at break-neck vampire speed, stopping on the very edge of it. I quickly wrapped the headscarf around my damp hair. The wind of our speed had dried us most of the way, but I felt a little chaffing in awkward places. No doubt, as a vampire, it would be healed before we found a cab.
I glanced at Emma, who was watching Nik. Boy did we have a lot to talk about!
Three hours later we were at the airport. Sadly, those hours were all the sun needed to make it impossible for us to fly out. Ironically, the trip from Syria to Egypt was too short to risk leaving with the sun so close to rising. Had it been longer, we could have flown out and landed by the time it set, but that was not the case. It meant yet another day cooped up in the airport.
Emma and I kept trying to find a way to excuse ourselves from the men, but each time we tried, one of them would randomly decide to join us.
If only vampires needed to pee, I thought when Thomas joined us in one of the shops.
Finally, Emma and I gave up and collapsed at the table we had chosen for our day-time campsite. After so many sleepless days, I was exhausted enough to sleep leaning my head on the table.
I woke to a nudge in the shoulder and looked up to see Nik standing over me.
“Time to leave.”
“Oh, thank goodness!”
I climbed to my feet and saw that Emma, Josh, and Thomas were already sauntering toward the terminal. Emma glanced over her shoulder as she slipped her hand into the crook of Thomas’ arm. She threw me a grin, and I glanced up to look at Nik’s glowering face. The old vampire might have thought he was in love with me, but it was becoming all the more obvious that he still cared for Emma.
All five of us reached the terminal and were quickly ushered onto the plane.
“I can finally change!” I said as I moved to the overhead compartment where my two bags were packed.
“I don’t know, I think that look kinda works for you,” said Josh.
I glanced at him, worried the Sedgrave-spell was taking a stronger hold on him. He winked at me, a dirty smirk playing on his lips.
“You look beautiful,” said Nik, who had switched his glower to Josh.
“Perfection itself,” agreed Josh, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
I tried to hide my smile, thoroughly happy that Josh still didn’t seem too affected by my borrowed charisma. I grabbed a bag and went into the postage-stamp-size bathroom to change.
Chapter Twelve
Late the next night, we landed in Cairo. I stared up at the glass ceiling, wondering why everyone thought airports needed loads of glass. It sure was making traveling difficult for us vampires, though I doubted they were thinking of vampires when they designed it.
We raced through the lines at the car rental office and zoomed toward Giza, once again hoping to accomplish our task and return to the plane before the sun rose. I had limited expectations, and these concerns were heightened by the glass walls and ceilings of the airport. If we weren’t able to actually get into the plane for the daylight hours, the Cairo travelers would get the show of their life.
Thankfully, I convinced Nik to allow us to bring one bag with a change of clothing for each of us, just in case his intention of returning to the airport didn’t exactly come to fruition. Josh carried the little backpack as he tumbled out of the over-stuffed car in the small underground carpark.
In a group, we emerged from the automated garage onto the darkened streets. The monuments had closed a few hours ago and the tourists had moved on to evening activities. We followed Nik to the edge of the city and stopped to stare.
So I have to confess, the great monuments of Egypt have never been anywhere near my bucket list. They just didn’t seem that interesting.
Now let me say: I was totally wrong. I mean seriously, have you seen these things?
Everything on the Giza Plateau is enormous. You know the saying, “Everything is bigger in Texas”? No! “Everything is bigger in Giza”!
“What now?” Emma asked as she too stared at the monuments.
“We sneak passed the guards and don’t get caught.”
“And if we get caught?” I asked, my brain already seeing a possible dilemma.
“We kill them,” replied Nik.
“Um… no.”
“I’m gonna have to agree with Ashley,” said Josh.
“We have to get the mask. Without it we can’t get Ashley unlinked from Sedgrave.”
“Yeah,” I growled. “I know the facts. But a fact you left out is that my life is not more valuable than theirs.”
Nik turned on me, glowering down at me with a passion that caused his nostrils to flair and his eyes to dilate. He grabbed my shoulder and squeezed until I winced.
“You will always be more important than anyone else… everyone else.”
I felt tears prick my eyes as the pain in my arm increased. “Nik, you’re hurting me.”
He continued to glare at me. “Are we in agreement?”
I scowled back at him, unwilling, despite the pain, to tell him he was right when he was so very wrong.
“Let her go,” ordered Josh, his hand grasping Nik’s wrist. “We will do everything to keep Ashley safe.”
Nik turned his glower on Josh, the wheels turning slowly in his mind. I realized that Josh’s statement was not the same as “we’ll kill anyone in our way.” Eventually, Nik nodded and released my arm. I immediately began to massage the bruised flesh. Any harder and Nik would have broken the bone.
Emma scooted up to my side, slid her arm around my shoulders, and pulled me a few steps away from Nik. The old vampire rubbed his forehead as though he was having trouble concentrating. Meanwhile, Josh unslung his backpack and pulled out a few flashlights.
“Let’s split up,” Josh suggested, his eyes conveying something to Emma that I didn’t understand. “Emma, how about you a
nd Ashley distract the guards. Humans will be no match for you two while Nik, Thomas, and I sneak in and get the mask. Chances are we’ll encounter some sort of mystical guard, like the other items. This way Ashley will be out of harm’s way.”
I wanted to argue out of principle, but when I glanced up at Josh, I saw the word “please” in his gaze. I turned to look at Nik and saw him nod once in agreement with Josh’s plan.
“Sounds good,” I said.
If nothing else, Josh’s plan would keep the humans out of Nik’s path of destruction.
“When we have the mask, we’ll send up the flare. Then everyone meet back at the car. Agreed?” asked Josh.
We all nodded before trundling off. I glanced back at the men over my shoulder. Nik was staring at us as though he was about to chase after us and stuff me in the backpack. Josh winked at me before nudging Nik. Meanwhile, Emma and I sped up.
“What was that about?” I asked as we approached the plateau.
“I think Sedgrave’s affect is increasing, and Nik is particularly susceptible.”
“Why Nik?”
“Hard to say,” replied Emma. “Could be anything. Now, let’s distract some guards.”
I rolled my eyes but followed Emma willingly enough. We snuck into the complex of monolithic structures and began wandering around, neither of us really sure how to actually distract the guards. We quickly spotted the enormous semi-truck used to store the traveling display, surrounded by guards. A short distance away, we located two four wheelers, obviously used by the security guards to travel around the enormous complex.
“I’ll take one, and lure some guards away. Once the remaining guards settle down a little, take the other and lure some more away. We’ll meet behind the Sphinx.”
“Return of the Jedi, eh?” I asked, thinking of the Ewoks getting the stormtroopers to chase them on the speeder bike.
Emma looked at me like I was insane before rolling her eyes and sneaking toward the nearest four-wheeler. A second later she raced away.
“Hey!” shouted one guard.
“Get back…”
“Go after her,” ordered a third guard.
From where I stood in the shadows, I watched four guards run after Emma. She worked to keep the vehicle just slow enough that the egotistical men thought they might catch her. She stuttered and jerked over gear shifts, though I had a feeling the mistakes were purposeful. Knowing me and my experience with four-wheelers—which was none—my gear changes would be just as bad.
When the guards had settled back down to watch the night pass away, I ran to the second vehicle, climbed aboard, and stared at the controls. For some reason, I had thought driving a four-wheeler would be a bit like riding a tricycle. It wasn’t. In fact, a four-wheeler is as different from a tricycle as a burrito is from a refrigerator.
“Hey!”
“Another one!”
“Stop!”
I glanced over my shoulder, realizing I had already been noticed.
“Dammit,” I grumbled as I flopped off the vehicle and took off at a run.
It was difficult to balance running faster than the guards but not so fast as to appear supernatural. I weaved around the different pyramids, having a great deal of fun in what appeared to be a cemetery. The guards slowed down, evidently rather superstitious. Of course, this meant I had to slow down too.
From within the row upon row of stone mastaba tombs, I could hear Emma racing around on the four-wheeler, calling to those chasing her. With the aid of my vampire speed, I began messing with my pursuers. I raced fast enough to split the guards up. I would run like a human, getting one or two guards to chase me in one direction before disappearing around the backside of a tomb. Then I would race back to the other guards and get them running in the other direction.
In fact, I was having so much fun playing with the guards that I forgot about our plans to meet behind the Sphinx.
The guards were beginning to work together again when I remembered that I was supposed to meet Emma. I reappeared to the men, gave them a “yoo-hoo,” and raced northward, away from the Sphinx. I was just nearing the giant sculpture when I noticed that the sky was beginning to turn gray.
Had I really been playing with my new friends for that long? I wondered.
I scurried around the Sphinx’s back side and looked around, finding no sign of Emma.
“Emma,” I hissed.
“In here,” came a voice from the Sphinx’s ass.
I looked a little more closely at the stone and noticed a small hole near the ground. I dropped to my stomach and slid through the gap.
“Are the men okay?” I asked as Emma turned on her flashlight and led me deeper into the tunnel.
“I don’t know.”
“We’ve got to go look for them!”
“Not unless you want to become part of the sands of time. The sun will rise quickly here. Nik miscalculated.”
“Can we call them?” I asked as we descended a steep set of worn stone steps.
“I don’t know about your cell service, but my coverage doesn’t include twenty feet beneath a stone monolith.”
“Okay, good point,” I grumbled.
We climbed deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels until we felt certain no sunlight would penetrate it.
“Well,” I began as we settled against the stone walls of a rather large chamber. “This is way better than our last hideout.”
“Agreed,” said Emma as she ran her beam of light around the room.
The light fell on a stone box marked with detailed hieroglyphics, with two less ornate boxes flanking it.
“That’s not what I think it is,” I said.
“I’m afraid so.”
“If something rises from the dead, I’m gonna kill you.”
“I’ll help,” she offered, giving a little shudder of disgust.
“Pretty ridiculous for two vampires to be afraid of something that’s dead.”
“I may be a vampire,” she began, flicking the flashlight off to save the battery, “but I’m still a girl.”
“Speaking of girl…” I said, trailing off. I wanted to talk to her mostly because I didn’t want to think about our dark surroundings.
“Yeeeessss?”
“Um… do you think there’s any way Josh could be for real?”
“You’re the one who’s kissed him. Didn’t he seem corporeal to you?”
I rolled my eyes, knowing she couldn’t see me. “You know what I mean.”
Emma sighed, evidently reticent to share her opinion. “It’s always complicated when a love spell or potion is involved, but if you want my opinion, which may be worse than useless, I think he really loves you. He doesn’t act like a person under a love spell. He’s not ogling you, or thinking you look beautiful when you’re covered in guts. I think it’s real. But when a warlock as powerful as Sedgrave is involved, you never know.”
We sat in silence for a long moment as I thought about what she had said.
“Why did you do it, Emma?” I asked, the words taking me as much by surprise as they did her.
I heard her turn to look at me in the pitch-black darkness.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Why did you sacrifice me?”
Emma let out a gusty sigh before rubbing her hands against her designer jeans, as though her hands had started to sweat. “You know why,” she finally replied.
“Why did you sacrifice me?” I repeated.
“Ashely, when you’ve been confined to the night for two hundred and ninety years, you’ll do anything to find the freedom of the day.”
I didn’t respond. Emma’s voice sounded so mournful, so regretful, that I knew she felt remorse for her actions. I also knew, given the same chance, she would do it all over again. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever be that desperate to see the sun again. I had only been a vampire for four months and already I longed for the warmth and joy of the sunlight on my face. W
hat would three centuries feel like?
All the sudden, all my half-realized anger slipped away. I thought I had gotten over Emma’s involvement in the torture laid upon me, but I suddenly realized that was a lie I had told myself to make friendly with her. Now, though, it was true. I finally harbored no resentment toward her.
Before I could tell her that I no longer hated her, I heard a faint clank.
“Did you hear something?” I asked a second later.
“I don’t think so.”
We waited a few seconds more, each of us holding our breath, before we heard a distinct thump. Emma scrambled to turn the flashlight back on. Her hands were shaking so badly, she dropped the flashlight. I felt it thump against my hip and snatched it. Though my hands were shaking too, I managed to get the light on and began scanning the room.
At first, the large room appeared to be exactly the same—one sarcophagus, two vampires, four stone walls—but the more I looked around the more I felt something was off.
“Umm… Emma…”
“Yeah?”
“Where did the hieroglyphics go?”
“What?... Oh shit!”
Chapter Thirteen
I flashed the light around the room again, catching glimpses of someone, or something. Emma and I scrambled to our feet, still trying to figure out what we were seeing. Slowly, numerous forms came into focus. We were surrounded by well-muscled men, garbed in linen and jewels. I think we might have swooned if it hadn’t been for the fact the men didn’t have human heads. Instead, the head of an animal rested upon their shoulders, the most humorous being the head of an elephant, its trunk hanging down to the man’s knees.
“I don’t remember that Egyptian god,” I said trying to break the tension.
Emma looked at the elephant-man before turning to stare at me. My eyes widened as a change began. At first I couldn’t tell what was happening, but I quickly realized the features of the animal heads were shifting, mutating.
The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy Page 59