“Think about the bright side,” I said, and as the words left my mouth, Khufu looked like he was going to slug me.
“What bright side is there, Thes?” he growled, and the sound made my knees shake.
“If your sword is lost in the Duat along with Nephthys, no one can destroy it. That makes you invincible, right?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
He calmed just a touch as he considered my words. “I see where you’re coming from, but I don’t like it.” He looked around the endless sand dunes surrounding us. “It could be lost in the desert somewhere too and a hippo could step on it and shatter it into a million shards.”
“Hippos don’t wander the desert. Besides, it is probably in a better place than being used in battle. I don’t know about you, but Horus shattered my sword like it was made of kindling. I’m guessing by the lack of your own new khopeshes, the same thing happened to you. I can’t see a reason why you’d actually fight with yours. If it was me, I’d bury the thing in a safe and toss it into the deepest, darkest ocean imaginable.” I put my hands on my hips, waiting for an answer but none came.
Instead of sharing his reasoning with me, Khufu turned away and stared off into the distance toward the ancient pyramid of Giza. “So what’s the plan now?” he asked after a silence so long it could be measured in football fields.
“We go find Imhotep and get the staff from him?” I shrugged at his back even though he couldn’t see me. “After we find something to eat, of course.”
Khufu glanced over his shoulder at me and smirked with a wicked gleam in his eye. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wafer. He held it up so the orange crisp caught the light. “Eat this.”
“Are you seriously offering me a cracker that’s been in your pocket for how long?” I asked, eyeing it warily.
“About five thousand years, but trust me, this will be just the thing.” He stepped toward me and pressed it into my hand. The cracker was strangely heavy.
“I thought you said to never trust you?” I replied, taking it and holding it up to my nose. It smelled like the birthday cake my grandmother made with extra sprinkles and icing made from real cream cheese. It was pretty much my most favorite thing ever when it came to food, and my mouth began to water as I put the corner to my mouth and nibbled the edge.
Flavor filled my mouth, exploding within my senses so, for a moment, it wasn’t so much like eating birthday cake as it was like communing with the birthday cake gods. I stepped back, my knees wobbling as I stared at the wafer. I’d barely taken the tiniest mouse nibble and it had tasted like that.
“This is one of those few times you should trust me,” Khufu replied, a smug grin on his face.
“What is this?” I asked, holding the cracker away from me even though it was virtually the hardest thing I’d ever done.
“Ambrosia,” he replied, waving his hand dismissively. “You know, food of the gods.” He smirked. “I stole it from Hades tomb when I first got there, though I really haven’t had any use for it since I don’t need to eat.”
“You stole god food from Hades and tricked me into eating it?” I asked as the sudden vision of Hades chasing after me with a fork and knife in his hands and a napkin around his neck filled my mind’s eye.
“Hey, well, don’t think about what sort of divine retribution you’ll face if we succeed in our little adventure,” Khufu replied, sidling up to me and clapping me on the shoulder. “Just realize that one little bite just completely reenergized you.” He made a hopping motion with two fingers that sort of reminded me of a bunny rabbit though I wasn’t sure why.
I stared at the wafer in my hand as I mulled over his words. He was right of course, even if Hades cared about the stolen cracker, I’d have to survive a battle with the most powerful and evil Egyptian deity and his pocket priest to even stand a chance of facing retribution. It was a problem I could put off for now. Besides, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t hungry anymore. Just that tiny nibble had been enough to satiate me in a way I’d never felt before.
“Fine.” I smirked and pocketed the rest of the cookie for later. “But I’m going to keep this.”
“Awesome,” Khufu replied, shaking his head as the sun sank slowly below the horizon. “You do that because it’s a long ass walk from here to Imhotep’s secret lair. I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly looking forward to a trip back through a giant frog’s intestinal tract.
I stared at Khufu for a long time as my desire to re-enter Imhotep’s tomb sank along with the sun. He was right. We’d have to travel all the way back there, and what was worse, go through the belly of the beast again. While I didn’t mind seeing Peggy and the other spiders again, I had sort of hoped to, well, never see them again.
“New plan,” I said, marching toward Horus’s temple.
“Um… Thes, where are you going?” Khufu called from behind me, and oddly, I couldn’t hear him moving.
“I’m going to tell falcon-face he can teleport us to Imhotep, or else,” I snapped. “It’s the least he could do for screwing everything up.”
“And if I refuse?” Horus’s booming voice cut through me like a stiletto, and I craned my head upward to see him sitting atop the falcon statue peering at me. He wasn’t in his shifted, falcon form, and his piercing green eyes were filled with amusement. “What is the else you speak of?”
I wasn’t quite sure to do because my knees started trembling just then. Mostly, it was because the god had heard me making a snide remark about him, but there was a small part of me that knew the answer to the question he’d asked and it unnerved me.
“Go on,” Wepwawet whispered into my ears and licked his chops. “Show him.”
I nodded to the god. “You won’t like the else, so please just transport us to the priest. You’ve already won after all, what harm will it do?” I spread my hands wide in a pleading gesture.
The falcon god stared at me for a good while before leaping down. His feet hit the sand so delicately not even a single grain was displaced. He was about my height now, which was why he’d been shorter than me in my shifted form. Even still, I made a point to try not to look down at him.
“I’m half-inclined to tell you no just to see what you’ll do,” Horus replied, holding one hand out to me, palm up. “But I’m pretty sure it will just be boring.”
“So you’re going to help?” I asked and was unable to keep the shock out of my voice.
“On one condition,” he said, holding up a single finger. “You must destroy the Was-staff. For good.”
“Okay,” I answered before I could stop myself, and Horus smiled at me like I’d just walked into his trap. What was he planning?
“Very well. Take my hand.” He nodded toward Khufu. “You too, pharaoh.”
We did and the next thing I knew we were a thousand feet in the air. The three of us soared across Egypt as Horus’s huge wings beat with the force of a hurricane, and I tried very hard to imagine my happy place.
Chapter 15
As we approached Imhotep’s obsidian pyramid, an arc of scarlet energy exploded from the side, reducing over half of it to cinders in the space of a heartbeat. We jerked to a stop in midair as Horus pulled us up short, his falcon eyes wide in shock. The roar of a lioness ripped through the air, setting my nerves on edge.
Horus dropped into a sudden dive, and released our hands moments before he slammed down inside the structure like a comet of emerald fire. I, unlike the magical flying god, crashed into the stone hard enough to knock my breath from my lungs. I lay there, fingers gripping the ragged edges of the slick black stone and struggled to ignore the tweety birds flapping around my head.
Beside me, Khufu was in a similar state of shock, though by his movements, I could tell things inside his body hadn’t been broken. That was good, I guessed. He tossed me a pained smile and dropped through the hole beneath us. I watched his body disappear into the gloom just before the place lit up with emerald light.
Spots danced b
efore my eyes, and as I shielded my face with my hand, Horus burst through the stone inches from my head. His smoking body careened through the air before slamming to the ground behind me. He lay there twitching on the sand as his falcon head faded away, leaving him looking like a bloody, battered teenager with short cropped golden hair and sickly green eyes that stared off into the distance, uncomprehending.
I shut my eyes and sucked in a deep breath before dropping down into the hole below me to confront whatever had just beaten up a god in the space of a second even though I probably had no chance whatsoever. Hey, I didn’t say it was my best idea ever.
I hit the ground in wolf-man form and looked around, my eyes bringing the darkness into focus, though it didn’t matter because there wasn’t much to see. Serpentine shapes bobbed and weaved in the shadows, strangely substantial, and yet, not. A scream to my left shocked me back into motion, and I tore my eyes away from the shadows to see Imhotep lumbering toward Sekhmet. She lay bleeding and broken beside the remains of the bed. Her collar glowed like star fire. Golden sparks shot from it as her very essence disintegrated into swirling golden mist that swept through the air toward Imhotep’s outstretched hand.
She got slowly to her feet, golden god-blood dripping from her mouth and took a menacing step toward the priest. It was then I realized she was naked… sort of. Instead of wearing clothing, her body was covered with fur that, while keeping her from looking like a naked super model, did little to hide her assets from my imagination. My cheeks turned bright red as I fought the urge to look away. As I sat there dumbfounded, Imhotep blasted her in the chest with a gout of flame. Rage unlike I had ever felt welled up inside me as I looked from her to Imhotep.
“Stop!” I cried, and my voice was like a gunshot through the air. Both of them turned toward me, eyes open in shock. Imhotep’s face slowly curled into a grin that made me think he wanted me here. But why?
“Get out of here, Thes!” Sekhmet cried as Imhotep brandished the Was-staff at me. Crimson fire licked up its edges, and while I couldn’t tell you why, I knew it was about to blast me into atoms. Strangely, I didn’t care.
I leapt at him anyway as the scarlet flame slammed into me. It rippled along my body, melting away my gilded fur and charring my flesh. And. I. Didn’t. Care.
I crashed into Imhotep with all the force my huge werewolf body could muster and grabbed him around the throat. We slammed backward to the stone, and I heard things inside the old priest break. It was like music to my ears. His eyes bugged out of his head as I squeezed with all my might. Shadowy tendrils sprung to life from the darkness all around us and wrapped around me. They jerked me backward, and I hung on with everything I could, my muscles screaming in agony.
Imhotep put the tip of the Was-staff to my chest, and as it began to glow with the fury of a dying sun, I grabbed it with my left hand. An electric current shot through me, and my vision went red. Not like how it did when I got hurt or angry. No, this was like someone had put a red lens in front of my eyes.
Crimson energy burst from the staff, and I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I absorbed the blast. Imhotep’s eyes went wide as I tore the staff from his hands and sent it flying across the room. I wasn’t quite sure where it landed because I chose that moment to bury my fangs into his throat. His warm blood spilled into my mouth, and instead of tasting of death and decay like most mummies, his blood tasted of darkness and power. Imhotep wasn’t a mummy after all. He was something else.
Strength filled me as I worried at the priest’s throat, his hands struggling to push me away. Someone was pulling me away, trying to force me off the flailing priest. He was somehow still alive even though I’d torn his throat out. How could this be? How. Could. This. Be?
I lashed out with one arm and flung something off me. Khufu’s body slammed into the far wall beside Sekhmet. She was on her knees, straining to breathe as her golden essence flowed into Imhotep even faster than before. She had faded back into girl form, and as I stared upon her naked, translucent body, I realized what was going on. Sekhmet’s essence was keeping the priest alive. All the damage I did to him was being healed by Sekhmet’s life force.
If I kept trying to kill him, it would kill the goddess. I screamed, and a low keening howl tore from my throat. Imhotep’s fist lashed out, catching me on the side of the jaw and flinging me backward through the air like I’d been hit by a wrecking ball. I crashed to the ground and everything went blurry for a second.
Imhotep stood, dark eyes filled with rage and turned his back on me. He reached out with one hand, and a smoky tentacle burst from the darkness and clasped Khufu around the neck just before he could grab the Was-staff. More surged forth, wrapping around the injured pharaoh and jerking him in several directions at once. I watched in horror as Khufu’s skin split and his joints popped from their sockets.
“I know you can’t actually die, Khufu,” Imhotep snarled as I crawled to my feet. “But it never gets old watching you suffer.”
I was about to leap forward to try and stop the priest and save Khufu when something glinted in the corner of my eye. I turned toward it just as Horus slammed into the old priest, hitting him so hard, I wasn’t quite sure how he didn’t become a splotch on the ground. The god’s fist lashed out, punching a hole in Imhotep’s chest in a way that made my chest ache in remembrance.
Sekhmet let out a blood curdling scream, gore spilling from her mouth as she leapt onto Horus, catching him in the side with her shoulder. They tumbled to the ground, wrestling with each other as Imhotep fell forward onto his knees, one hand clutching the hole in his chest as Sekhmet’s essence healed the wound, reminding me of sand filling the bottom of an hourglass.
Horus pinned Sekhmet on her back, forcing her arms down on the ground beside her head. “What are you doing?” he squawked. “Why do you help Imhotep?”
“She doesn’t have a choice, you imbecile!” Khufu cried. He was still suspended by the tentacles, but they had stopped trying to tear him apart… for the moment. Was it because Imhotep’s focus was broken? If so, that gave me an idea. I lumbered to my feet, intent on distracting the priest and buying Khufu time to escape.
Horus turned his head toward the pharaoh, and as he did so, Sekhmet lunged forward, sinking her jaws into the god’s jugular. She tore it free, showering her with golden ichor as his eyes went wide and a gurgling cry died on his lips. He released her, reaching up to grip his throat as she flung him off of her like a ragdoll. He hit the ground on his back, blood seeping through his fingers as she leapt on top of him, pushing his hands away to bite down on his neck.
Her throat convulsed as she drank his lifeblood, and with every swallow, she became less translucent. The only problem was, with every gulp she took, Imhotep grew stronger. His eyes met mine and swept past me. I turned my head to see the Was-staff laying no more than three feet from me.
I lunged for it as the priest got to his feet. As my fingers closed around it, the room shook, knocking us all from our feet.
“Release me!” Set’s voice screamed in my ears, so loudly I could barely think. I gripped the staff in my hands. Scarlet magma dripped from the tip and hit the ground like acid, burning through the obsidian and filling the air with the acrid scent of melting soda bottles.
I tried to get to my feet as Imhotep’s foot smacked into my stomach. It was like being hit by a tree trunk. The staff slipped from my fingers and clattered onto the stone as I landed hard on my back. Imhotep reached down toward it, and as he did so, Sekhmet slammed into him, her body completely substantial. They tumbled across the ground away from me.
I seized the Was-staff and spun as I got to my feet, pointing the weapon at Imhotep. He flung Sekhmet away. Her body smashed into the wall, and the obsidian cracked. She fell forward to the ground not moving. Rage exploded through me, so I could barely think past wanting to tear his head from his shoulders. He took a step toward me palm up and curled his fingers a couple times.
“Give me the staff, Thes. Even you cannot con
trol the power of chaos.” Imhotep sauntered toward me, skin glowing with power.
“I don’t need to control it,” I cried, and as I said the words, a tornado the color of soot ripped into existence at the priest’s feet. “I just need to let it go!” He looked around in horror as darkness swept him up into the air. His flesh slowly dissolved into black smoke as a blood red hand reached from the gloom and pulled him into the abyss.
My gaze turned to Sekhmet as it happened, worry seizing me. Had I just killed her by unleashing the power of chaos onto Imhotep? She met my eyes, tears dripping down her cheeks and nodded, a strange smile on her face. Then she blew me a kiss. It was the last thing I saw before Horus smashed the remains of an immense bedpost into me and everything faded into inky blackness.
Chapter 16
I awoke to see Set standing in the middle of the room, his body blazing like a funeral pyre as he held Imhotep aloft by the throat. The Was-staff glinted in his other hand like it was hewn from glittering rubies and red lightning crackled along its surface. A beam of concentrated scarlet radiated from it like a searchlight. I followed it with my eyes to find Horus on the other end. He was on his stomach, struggling to break free as bands of crackling red energy held him hogtied in the center of the floor.
“You have two options, priest. Release Sekhmet, or I shall throw you into the sun.” Set smiled, his ruby lips snaking into a wolfish grin. “And before you ask. No, I don’t really care what you do, and yes, I’m probably going to devour you anyway.” His eyes glinted as a gout of flame leapt along the surface of his ebony flesh and tickled Imhotep’s long white hair. “But there’ a chance, albeit slim, I won’t consume you in your entirety. Isn’t it worth the risk? Or should I just flip a coin. Heads I eat you, tails I throw you into the sun. No chance of redemption. No slim possibility of survival. It’s just death or death.”
All Wrapped Up: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 2) Page 9