by Sandy James
“And did they?” Richard asked.
“The fox, convinced the scorpion is sincere, lets the scorpion hop on and begins to swim across the river. Before they get all the way across, the scorpion stings him. When the fox asks why he’d do that when the scorpion will drown now too, the scorpion tells him that he couldn’t help himself. He is, after all, a scorpion.”
Gina nodded.
Smoothing the pink velvet of her skirt, Helen chuckled. “So I am the scorpion, then?”
Gina gave her another curt nod.
“I don’t wish to allow the lioness to end humanity. If I’m truly the scorpion, as you believe, I swear I will not sting my fox until we have both crossed the river safely.”
Richard’s resigned sigh almost knocked Gina from his lap. “I know you’re angry, but we need her, Gina. Don’t you see? She may be a scorpion, but the Amazons alone can’t defeat Sekhmet. Ra was barely able to stop her last time, and he’s her father—the most powerful Egyptian Ancient. Do you see him anywhere around here trying to help? I don’t think she can ever be killed. Only another Ancient can stop her.”
It galled her to no end that he might be right. And she sure as shit didn’t want to hear another word from Helen.
Gina closed her eyes, wanting to slip back into the darkness where there was no pain, no betrayal. No Sekhmet. No Richard. No Helen.
Just Zach.
God, she was tired. So fucking tired.
Before she would allow herself to give in to the stabbing pain and fatigue that threatened to swallow her whole, there was one more thing—one very important thing—she needed to know.
“Zach?”
“He’s fine. You killed one of my brothers. Artair got the other. Zach and the Sentinels got out of there.”
“Sure?”
“I’m sure, but you don’t belong with Zach.” Richard’s voice had turned cold enough to freeze Honolulu.
Breathing was agony, but she couldn’t let it go. “Must—protect—him.”
Richard’s whole body stiffened. “When this is over, he’ll be safe. Ix Chel can wipe his memory and send his genius ass back to San Francisco.” He rubbed his chin on the top of her head again. “I love you, honey. You belong with me. I understand your world.”
“No.”
“I want to marry you—just like Artair married Rebecca and Johann married Megan. You need someone who deals with magicks. I understand who you are, what you are, and I want to be with you the rest of our lives.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. Had Richard made such a declaration before she met Zach, she might have given it some serious consideration, if for no other reason than to protect his feelings. But not now. Not after Zach. Not with the fate of the world still undecided. She was getting back to protect Zach, no matter what she had to do. She didn’t love Richard. Shit, right now what she wanted to do was give him a sound thrashing.
“No,” she said again.
Richard rubbed his cheek against her temple, acting like they were a couple of lovers enjoying a tender snuggle. If she only had some strength, she’d set him straight.
“Zach will have to leave soon. He won’t be able to stay with you at Avalon. Everything I’m doing is for the best.”
Well, there he had her. No matter what she wanted, Zach would have to go back to his world.
But her love refused to listen to logic. “Don’t—care.”
Helen’s grating chuckle made Gina’s head pound more. “Ah, Richard. Why do you open your heart up to an Amazon? Why do you lay your pride at her feet?”
“Stay out of this, Helen,” Richard hissed. “It’s none of your business.”
“You’re wrong. From the moment you came to me, everything about this is my business. She’s a distraction. Sekhmet doesn’t know we have her. Let me take her to her sisters so you can put your mind back on business.”
Gina was fast losing the battle to stay awake. She needed to hear what they had to say. She needed to know what their plans were. And, damn, she needed to breathe.
“I’ll take her,” Richard insisted.
“No, you can’t. You must return to the mansion soon or Sekhmet will grow suspicious. We can’t risk that. Not now. Not with everything we still need to do. She needs to be placated.”
Richard squeezed Gina tighter, making what breathing she could do more difficult. “You’ll make sure she gets back to Rebecca? To her sisters?”
Before Gina gave in to the darkness, she heard Helen’s assurances that the Amazons would be reunited.
The last thought she had was a vision of a shiny black scorpion slithering across some desert sands.
Chapter Nineteen
“We wait for the women,” Artair insisted.
Zach paced ten steps down the mess hall’s aisle, turned and marched ten steps back. He’d been doing so for what seemed like hours as he tried to convince the Sentinels to go after Gina.
“Zach, you’ve gotta calm down,” Johann said. He’d been working at his laptop from the moment they’d returned. “I still can’t find her.”
“I thought you said you could track her,” Zach said. He hated the panic in his voice.
“Magicks are blocking her GPS. We’re just going to have to wait for her sisters. They might be able to sense her.”
His stomach had turned into a churning mass as he thought about Gina. She’d looked as still as death, her complexion waxy and pale. Every moment that slipped away meant he could lose her. “We need to get going. Now.”
“Nay,” a loud, masculine voice scolded. “I have another solution.”
Freyjr sauntered toward them, followed by a taller man with exotically dark skin. The new guy’s face was so pinched, his nose so large and hooked he appeared almost birdlike. He wore a white silk tunic belted at the waist with an embroidered red sash. Thick gold wristbands adorned each arm, and a large amulet in the shape of an Egyptian hieroglyphic eye hung from a heavy gold chain circling his throat. Long black hair brushed each shoulder. Small braids with gold beads lay against his cheeks.
“I bring you assistance in your quest,” Freyjr said. At least he wasn’t in a pretentious three-piece suit this time, just a silk shirt and linen trousers.
“We don’t need your help,” Johann said.
“Aye.” Artair scowled. “Your assistance always causes us too much trouble.”
Zach didn’t care about the bad blood between the Sentinels and Freyjr. If the god had come to help rescue Gina, he’d listen to whatever he had to say.
Freyjr glared at the Sentinels. “Such ingratitude. And after I went to the trouble to bring Ra to you so you can bring his daughter to heel.”
“Ra? Are you fucking kidding?” Johann had clenched his hands at his sides. “He’s the one who turned Sekhmet loose to begin with.”
“’Ware, Sentinel.” Freyjr laid a restraining hand on Ra’s shoulder after the god took a threatening step toward Johann. “He comes to help you, although he will be hurting his daughter in the process.”
Zach had to blink a couple of times while he absorbed what was happening.
He was looking at Ra. He was really looking at Ra. According to the Egyptians, Ra put the sun in the sky and ruled over the underworld. He was one of the most powerful gods in Egyptian mythology.
Mythology?
No. This was a living, breathing being.
Artair and Johann exchanged a worried glance.
Zach, on the other hand, was more than willing to find out what this new Ancient could do to help Gina. “Ra? Sir?”
The god leveled a stare at Zach that sent a quick shiver of worry racing through him. Eyes so dark they appeared black stared back at him, intense with wisdom and power that demanded respect.
“You are the inventor?” Ra’s deep voice echoed through the hall. Damn if he didn’t sound like James Earl Jones. “The one my daughter sought?”
Zach nodded. “I’m the inventor. I want to help stop Sekhmet. She’s got my—” His what? His girlfriend? His love
r?
Gina had become so much more than that. She was his other half, the spark of energy that made his heart beat. She was his soul mate. “If you can help us get Gina back, I’ll help any way you ask.”
“Nay.” Artair put himself between Zach and the gods. “Don’t promise an Ancient that kind of fealty. We can rescue Gina without his help.”
Ra turned his gaze to Artair. “His promise might be tempting, but it does little to change his destiny.”
“Destiny?” Zach asked as he stepped from behind Artair.
“You mean the lad’s destiny?” Artair knit his brows and frowned so intensely, warning flags were flying left and right. Yet the concern could be pushed aside if it meant rescuing Gina.
Ra nodded.
Zach’s stomach churned some more.
“Destiny is a fickle thing,” Artair said in a dismissive tone. “It cannae always be trusted.”
“I have come to prevent my daughter from doing that for which she was created,” Ra said. “She cannot be permitted to fulfill her role as the Destructor. She must be stopped. This time, I cannot do so.” The god breathed a sigh that sounded far too human. “I could not bear to hurt her again. She only does that which she was fashioned to do. It is all she knows and all she desires.”
“Yeah, she tries to kill everyone,” Johann said with a disgusted grunt. “You trapped her last time. What’s so different this time?”
Lifting his hooked nose, Ra rose to his full, impressive height. The air around him crackled with energy. “You shall not talk to me with such insolence, Sentinel. One day you will be nothing more than dust under my feet.”
“Answer the question.”
“Aye,” Artair echoed. “Tell us why you can’t stop her now.”
Freyjr shook his head at Johann and Artair and clucked his tongue. “You ingrates. Ra is one of the most powerful of our kind, and yet you spit upon his gift.”
Zach didn’t give a shit if Ra was going to live to be a million years old. All he could think of was going after Gina. Who knew what Sekhmet might be doing to her as they sat around wasting time deciding what should be done to stop her? “Gift? What gift? Will it help us get Gina back? She needs me.”
Artair put a steadying hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Gina is an Amazon, lad. You insult her, you insult her sisters and you insult her Sentinels. You must grow accustomed to her fighting and learn to swallow your apprehension. She doesn’t need you losing your head and consorting with the likes of Freyjr every time she faces danger. I love Becca, but I let her do her job.”
Johann’s frown was every bit as stern. “I love Megan, and I worry about her whenever she’s facing an enemy. But I don’t treat her like some frail, puny kid. Gina’s an Amazon. A damn good one too. The earlier you learn to respect that, the easier all this will be.”
While Zach took some heart in hearing that the Sentinels thought he was going to be in Gina’s life a long time, he couldn’t stop fretting over what might be happening to her as they sat around chatting.
Yes, they offered what was probably good advice, but Zach didn’t want to heed it. “I want to hear about the gift.”
“Make no foolish choices,” Artair cautioned. “Lest you regret them once the whole story is told.”
“Stop talking in riddles. I won’t make foolish choices. I just want to know what we can do to get Gina back and stop Sekhmet.”
Artair arched an eyebrow. “No matter the cost?”
“No matter the cost.”
“Well, then it’s settled,” Freyjr said, nodding at Zach. “He will be the one to bind Sekhmet.”
“Bind? What do you mean bind?” Zach asked.
“A prophet has foretold that my daughter may not die,” Ra explained. “Yet her power may be bound—held tightly so that she may no longer wield it over the Earth.”
“What makes you think I’d know how to bind her power?”
“Why not one of the Sentinels?” Johann asked. “We deal with magicks all the time. Artair or I would be able to handle what needs to be done to stop her.”
“Better yet,” Artair added. “Why not have an Amazon bind Sekhmet?”
Freyjr shook his head. “They would not be allowed to have such a power.”
Zach’s always churning curiosity reached a fever pitch. “Why not? What’s so different about me?”
“You are a mortal,” Ra replied.
“So?”
“The binding power cannot go to one who is magical.”
“I don’t understand.” With Ra’s obsidian eyes fixed on him, it took all Zach had not to avert his gaze. The longer the god stared, the more it seemed like a test of Zach’s will, and he’d be damned if he’d be found lacking.
“The other Ancients would never allow it,” Freyjr replied. “’Twould give already strong creatures the ability to thwart them.”
“Aye.” Artair’s stare now hit Zach as well. “An Amazon would be able to stop an Ancient in her tracks.”
Johann joined the stare down, and Zach wondered when Freyjr would enter the intimidation session. He was grinning like a simpleton, probably enjoying Zach’s discomfort.
Fuck that.
Zach found his voice. “But Sentinels are magical.” At least that was what he thought.
“Nay,” Artair replied. “We have some protection from the patron goddesses, but we are nae magical.” He shifted his gaze to Ra. “I will bind Sekhmet.”
The words weren’t out of his mouth before Ra shook his head. “It must be a mortal, not one who has sworn fealty to an Ancient as you have Rhiannon.” His gaze never left Zach.
“Then, I’ll do it,” Zach said, hoping his voice didn’t quiver.
Artair placed himself in front of Zach again. “Nay. We must discuss this with the Amazons first.”
Freyjr scoffed. “The great MacKay must ask his woman? How far the mighty laird has fallen—from leader of fearsome clan MacKay to lapdog of the Earth Amazon.”
Most men would have let their macho pride get the better of them, especially if their egos felt smashed by being married to a woman with as much power as an Amazon. But not Artair.
He grinned at Freyjr’s insult. “I chose the best for my bride.”
Freyjr targeted Johann next. “Must your woman give you permission to make all decisions as well, Johann Herrmann? Does she carry your manhood in her pocket?”
Johann’s face flushed red, but the Sentinel held his tongue.
Freyjr frowned, probably let down because no one rose to his bait. When his gaze turned toward Zach, a smile curved his lips. “And you, inventor? Are you a eunuch as well?”
Zach decided to put his trust in the people Gina trusted. “I’m not a eunuch.”
Freyjr grinned.
Zach wiped it right off his face when he added, “But I’m smart enough to talk to the Amazons first.”
The god scowled. “What shall you do if your lover dies at Sekhmet’s hand? What if her blood has already been spilled and her life slips away as you sit here waiting and doing nothing? ’Twould be hard to ask anything of a corpse.”
Artair’s restraining hand held Zach’s shoulder. “Nay, lad. Don’t feed him your anger.”
Easier said than done.
He took a few deep breaths.
“Have you told him his fate, Sentinel?” Freyjr asked. “Have you told the inventor what will happen to him once this trouble has passed? Have you told him of what my sister and her compatriots will do to that intelligent brain of his?”
“What does he mean, Artair?” Zach asked.
He’d never thought further than defeating Sekhmet and making sure the world didn’t blow up in a flurry of nuclear explosions. The future had been no longer than the next day. Now a cold chill ran the length of his spine.
Artair looked him in the eye. “He means you shall have to go back to your life. To make that transition easier, one of the goddesses might have to erase some of your memories.”
“My memories?”
“O
f the Amazons. Of Avalon. ’Twould not be safe for you to go back to the world with such knowledge. It would not only make you a target, but it would put the women in danger.”
“You’re not erasing my memories,” Zach declared. “What about Gina? You’d make me forget her?”
“Lad, you cannot believe that you and Gina could stay close. She lives in a different world—one that can’t be a part of yours. ’Twould place you both in danger.”
“She’s an Amazon,” Johann said. “She can live to be several hundred years old. You just can’t be with her, Zach. End of story.”
Like hell he couldn’t. “Aren’t there magicks that could make me live as long as an Amazon?”
Both Sentinels shook their heads.
“’Tis not natural to extend a life with magicks without a price. Johann and I paid with our fealty to Rhiannon,” Artair said. “But the cost has been high.”
“Trust me on this,” Johann added. “You don’t want to go that route. I can never see my family again, and they don’t know I ever existed.”
Freyjr flipped his wrist in blatant dismissal. “So easy for men who are already immortal to dissuade you. They deny you what they enjoy. Hardly seems fair, does it?”
Zach was finally getting some answers, but he sure didn’t like what he was hearing. “Sentinels are immortal?”
“Aye,” Freyjr replied.
That provided an obvious solution. “Then I can become a Sentinel. I can teach the women tae kwon do. They’re good fighters, but I’ll make them better.”
“Nay,” Artair replied. “There should only be one.”
Zach couldn’t help but shift his gaze between Artair and Johann. “Funny, I count two.”
“That’s just...a glitch,” Johann said. “Artair was supposed to be giving up his duties. Things changed.”
“Seems to me you found a way around it. You two get to be with Rebecca and Megan although they’re Amazons. Why can’t I find a way to be with Gina?”