Val wanted to withdraw into herself and weep until she had no more tears. She suddenly hated Aphrodite, who sat there nibbling grapes while Val’s world was crumbling around her.
Aphrodite rose, smiling. “I’m glad I could clear things up, dear. Before you are finished here, of course, your shifter’s brother needs to pair up with the washed-out Felicia. You can also pair Demitri and your shifter. Two couples to live happily ever after. That should console you.”
Val got to her feet, folding her arms over her chest. “Match-maker to the end?” she asked in a dry voice.
“Of course. I wish you good luck.”
Someone knocked on the door. Val glanced at it just as Aphrodite began to fade.
The knock sounded again, a muffled voice saying something about room service. Val cursed, grabbed her clothes, and tugged them on as she went to the door. Aphrodite’s light had faded all the way as Val opened the door a crack.
“Oh no,” she groaned. “Not another one.”
An Egyptian waiter stood outside the door holding a tray covered with silver dishes, a bewildered expression on his face.
“Come in,” Val said, throwing open the door and gesturing toward the table. “But I warn you, I’ve had it up to here with gods today, so be careful what you say.”
The man glided into the room and set the tray on the table. “Compliments of Mr. Karim, the owner of this hotel. He is a friend to Mr. Demitri, yes?”
“Yes. I know it’s you, Bes. Stop pretending.”
The man straightened up, letting his godlike aura shine through his disguise. He looked completely different from the carpet shop owner in Cairo and the man who’d showed them the erotic paintings in the west valley, but his brown eyes were the same.
“I came to tell you that not all gods are against you, Valenarian. I want to help you, like I helped the friends of Demitri—Nikolaus and Andreas and their ladies.”
“How can you?” Val asked. “If you were eavesdropping, you heard what she said. I have to be healed, or they’ll die. But to save them, I’ll have to leave them.”
“Perhaps.” Bes tried to look wise, but he only looked worried. “I will help you, child of Egypt. Not all the gods of old Egypt are gone.”
Val softened. She didn’t believe for a minute that Bes, the small god who protected the home from scorpions and snakes, could prevail over Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, but it was nice to know he cared. “Thank you. Is this really from the kitchen? Come to think of it, I’m famished. But I warn you, if you brought any grapes, I’ll throw them out the window.”
WHEN Demitri woke, he found Val curled beside him, head cradled on her bent arm. He had no doubt that Valenarian had receded—Val’s hair was soft and straight, her breathing peaceful and even.
Demitri got carefully out of bed so as not to disturb her. He showered and shaved, then redressed and went out to the front room.
The remains of a meal lay on the table, with a bowl of tabbouleh still carefully covered and a wrapped flatbread next to it. He smiled at Val’s thoughtfulness. After he ate, he pulled out his cell phone and called Leon.
A sleepy answer came to him. “Hello?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Are you at the hotel over there?”
“No, I’m camping out at the dig house. Hang on.” There was a long pause, and just when Demitri thought he’d lost the connection, Leon came back on. “I’m outside where I can talk. No one’s up yet.”
“Watch out for snakes.”
“It’s too cold for snakes.” Leon’s voice held amusement. “Way too cold for scorpions, too, so don’t bother trying to scare me.”
“But the snakes might want to curl up in bed next to your nice, warm body.”
“Thank you, I got all the snake stories from Remy already. Plus I grew up with water moccasins and coral snakes. Do you want to hear what I found out, or what?”
“Sorry. Go ahead.”
“I talked to the Egyptian guy, Habib, who also has a key to the storage building. He says the key hasn’t left his key ring, which is always in his pocket. He looked amazed when I suggested borrowing it. He says it’s in his trust and he lends it to no one. He lets people in and out of the storage room, but he watches them closely, according to several other people I asked about him.”
“Habib might be the thief himself.”
“I don’t think so. If he was, I’d think he’d try to claim someone stole his key. He told me pretty blatantly that people on the American team were careless with their keys, but not him. He’s also very big on keeping Egyptian artifacts in Egypt, like Remy told us. He gave me a fifteen-minute lecture on the subject. So unless he’s a terrific actor, I don’t think he’s the guy.”
Demitri digested all this. “You know we might run out of time to investigate. If I have to choose between saving Val and helping your brother, you know I have to choose Val.”
“I know. I’m trying my damndest to do both.”
Demitri explained in a low voice that he’d taken the pendant necklace from Remy’s storage room. Leon wasn’t happy, but he understood.
“Have you found any clues to the whereabouts of the pendant’s other half?” Demitri asked him.
“No. Felicia says she’s trying to figure out how it got into their tomb—she thinks it was brought from another tomb by robbers several thousand years ago. If we can figure out where it came from in the first place, we might find the other piece.”
“It took archaeologists almost a hundred years of searching to find the tomb of Tutankhamun.”
“Thanks, Demitri, that’s real encouraging.”
“Sorry. I’m . . .”
“Worried. I know.”
“Scared,” Demitri said. “I’m not ashamed to admit it. I love her. I’ll do anything to keep her alive.”
“I hear you. I might not have known her as long as you have, but I want to help her, too. For many reasons.” Leon paused. “How is she?”
Demitri knew what he meant. “Sleeping. She’s fine.”
Leon knew what Demitri meant as well. “You might as well stay there for the night. I want to watch here anyway, see if I can catch someone in the act.”
“I hope so. Good luck.”
Another pause, then Leon went on slowly, “About what I said to you before . . .”
Demitri smiled into the phone. “About wanting to suck my fucking huge cock?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you changed your mind?”
“No. I don’t know why I wanted to say that. I’ve never said stuff like that to a guy.”
“So you keep telling me.”
“I always chased hot ladies. Hell, I think all ladies are beautiful. Tits and ass, that’s what I dream about.”
“That hasn’t changed. I see how you look at Val.”
“And why doesn’t that bug you? If you love her so much, why are you letting me touch her? She screwed me the night she met me, and you watched.”
Demitri leaned his elbows on the table, picturing Leon on the other end of the phone. The night air would ruffle his short hair, and he’d frown, green eyes troubled as he asked Demitri questions difficult for both of them.
“I don’t know,” Demitri said. “It seemed right, somehow. I was more worried about her hurting you than anything else.”
“Why should you care about a Cajun boy out on his own?”
“Maybe because you had such a sweet, tight body?” Demitri said, his blood heating. “And a cock my hands wanted to reach for?”
Leon’s voice went low, as though he fought the words he needed to say. “You have a great ass. I want to fuck your ass every time I see it.”
“I could arrange that.”
“I want to stick my tongue down your throat,” Leon said. “Then I want to bend you over and fuck you until you scream.”
Demitri gripped the phone tighter. “And then what?”
“I’ll fuck you until I come in your beautiful ass. Then I’ll have you turn around, and I’ll
suck your cock until you come, too.”
Demitri slid one hand to his trousers, where his hardness pressed the zipper. He massaged himself, the tingle feeling good.
“What do you want to do to me?” Leon asked. “Tell me. I can take it.”
Demitri didn’t have to think for long. “I want you to lie down on a bed. I want to pull up your shirt and tongue your nipples. You’ll like that. Then I want to lick down to your crotch and use my mouth to make you hard. We’ll be face-to-face so I can come up and kiss you anytime I want.”
He let himself dissolve into the fantasy, Leon lying bare on a bed, Demitri over him, licking, kissing, suckling. Leon with his hand tucked behind his head, smiling his rare smile as he watched Demitri work on him. Val would be there, too, nibbling her finger as she watched, eyes shining.
“Then what?” Leon said, his voice raw. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging.”
“I’ll spread your legs and ease my cock inside you. I’ll lift your hips so I can go in deep, and I’ll watch your face while you take me.”
“Sounds good.”
“You’ve never been taken by a man. It will be a slow process. I’ll have to get you ready, play with you a lot, start with my fingers, use lots of lube. But eventually, you’ll take my cock.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“Before that I might warm you up with my tongue. You’ll climb over me, and you can suck my cock while I lie back and stick my tongue in your ass.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Think about it. My tongue all wet and strong, probing you.”
“Fuck.” The word was low, strained.
“What’s the matter?” Demitri asked him. “You must have talked about tongue sex before.”
“Not with a man.”
“We’ll have Val with us. She’ll watch me playing with you, and she’ll slide her hand into her pussy, showing us how wet we’re making her. She’ll likely want to stroke your cock while I’m licking your ass.”
“Damn it, I think I’m going to come right now.”
Demitri chuckled. “Enjoy yourself,” he said, then he started to close the phone.
“You asshole—” Leon’s voice cut off as the phone snapped shut.
Demitri chuckled again, then broke off with a soft groan. Leon wasn’t the only one who’d gotten worked up at their exchange. Demitri tossed the phone aside, unfastened his trousers, and caught his own aching cock in his hand.
ON the other side of the phone, Leon hung up, swearing. He walked swiftly down the path toward the excavation site, letting the night air cool his hot skin. His cock throbbed, but he didn’t want to open up and yank himself out here in the open.
His swearing gave way to laughter. He threw his head back, looking up at the sky blazing with stars. Back home, he didn’t always see such a full sky. Haze, humidity, clouds, or light pollution obscured the stars, but in the deserts they were thick.
Leon laughed again. He’d just had phone sex with a man, and he’d liked it. He’d felt good and giddy and as excited as he’d been with his first girl at fifteen. He’d spilled his seed pretty fast with her, and it was all he could do not to spill it now.
When Leon met up with Demitri again, when they had time alone . . . Damn, what they’d do.
The sound of rock clicking on rock brought Leon swiftly out of his thoughts. He stepped silently into deeper shadow, standing so still he might be a shadow himself.
A small figure in an Egyptian galabiya darted along the path toward the dig house, his movements silent and furtive. Leon blessed the thief for striking, a good distraction to get rid of his pesky hard-on.
He let the thief get most of the way to the storage room before he moved from the shadow and silently followed.
I won’t let her take me back, Valenarian snapped.
Val had spent all morning having an argument inside her own head. It unnerved her that she couldn’t control the voice, and outwardly she was very quiet as she and Demitri once again wandered the streets of Luxor, waiting for someone to offer them stolen antiquities.
I can’t let Demitri and Leon die, Valerie returned.
They won’t die. I’ll take them somewhere she’ll never find them.
Where? Val asked herself tartly. She’s a goddess, daughter and sister of gods who want me dead. They can go anywhere, be anywhere. We can’t hide from gods.
No? Gods are too powerful to be smart. We can deceive them. They are trapped in their ancient thoughts, unaware of how the world has changed. There are places beyond their ken, where they’ve never been heard of.
Oh, sure. We can live on a glacier or in the depths of a South American rain forest. Sounds like paradise. I’m sure Leon and Demitri will rush to join us.
Not quite, Valenarian said. There are primal forces in the world more ancient than they are. I will guide those forces, and we will be free together.
By primal, you mean demon. I left all that behind. I won’t embrace it again.
You might have tried to leave it, my weak-willed friend, but the demon hasn’t left you. I am not going back to a life of obedience and celibacy. I’m sick of prayer and meditation while I’m dying for a good fuck.
Go away. Please. I can’t afford to be distracted by you.
Valenarian laughed, even while her voice faded. You can take the girl out of the demon . . .
She was gone. Demitri looked at her, eyes narrowing in concern. Val tried to give him a reassuring smile, but Demitri watched her carefully as they crossed a street and entered yet another souvenir shop.
“I drew a blank,” Leon said at the dig house. “Sorry, Remy.”
After breakfast, once the team had headed to the site, Remy met Leon alone. Even Felicia had taken off, apologetically saying she needed to finish tracing a frieze in the tomb before it became too exposed.
“Whoever it was didn’t try to get into the lab,” Leon told his brother. “He walked around the compound then headed back into the hills. I lost him in the dark.”
“It’s all right.” Remy looked downcast, but Leon’s little brother always tried to make everyone feel better. “Could be he had nothing to do with it.”
“Anything missing today?”
“Nope.” Remy led the way down through the lab and into the storage room. “I took stock last night before I turned in, and everything’s still here.”
“Weird that they don’t go for the computers if they’re looking for money.”
Remy shrugged. “Whoever it is has targeted his buyers and knows we’ll be more likely to cover up the theft than go to the police. Which I’ll have to do if we come up with nothing. Then I’ll have to come up with a reason we didn’t go to the police in the first place.”
“Remy.” Leon put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, man. I’m doing my best. We’ll catch him. Or her.”
Remy gave him a startled look. “Her?”
“It might have been a woman I saw last night. I could only see someone in a galabiya, a light-colored smudge in the dark. A woman could put on one of those and run through the night, and I wouldn’t know the difference at a distance. Galabiyas are pretty shapeless.”
“Most of the women here are foreign. Not Egyptian I mean, except for a couple of specialists from Cairo. I can’t believe they’d steal anything. They’ve worked far too hard for their jobs to jeopardize them.”
Leon studied his younger brother, his worried look and furrowed brow, the tension in his shoulders. “How long has it been since you had a run?”
Remy glanced furtively around them, but the room was as empty of people as when they came in. “You mean shifted?”
“Yeah. What’d you think I meant?”
“Not much opportunity, is there?”
“You can’t deny the shift, little brother. We have to release the energy. Just like when you haven’t had sex in a while, you go a little nuts.” Leon peered at Remy again. “How long has it been for that?”
Remy laughed. “Too long. Ever
yone lives on top of each other in a dig house. No privacy. And if anything goes on, everyone knows about it. It’s worse than living in a small town.”
“Aw damn, and here I thought you’d gotten away from all that.”
“Archaeology is a small world, and gossip is everyone’s favorite hobby. Besides, there isn’t much opportunity for sex when we’re all exhausted and covered with dirt.”
His voice was light, but Leon saw the tiredness in his eyes. The worry of the thefts on top of being team leader for the first time was draining him.
“What about Felicia?” Leon asked.
“Felicia?” Remy looked at Leon in genuine surprise. “I like her, but she’s only got one thing on her mind. Conservation of tomb decorations, especially those pertaining to magic. If she’s not copying and tracing pictures and friezes, she’s not happy. I don’t even think she knows she and I are different genders.”
Leon wondered how Remy could be so blind, but he decided to leave the matchmaking to Val. “Tonight, come out with me, and we’ll go for a run,” he said. “We’ll keep watch on the storage unit, and who knows? Maybe as wild cats, we’ll sniff out the thief.”
13
WHEN Demitri and Val returned to the hotel in Luxor for lunch, Demitri’s friend Karim gave him a sealed envelope. “A well-dressed German asked the manager to make sure you got this,” he said. “I thought I’d deliver it myself.”
Demitri thanked him. Karim looked curious but would never pry, a trait that made him easy to be friends with. Demitri found a note, in German, asking to meet him inside the Old Winter Palace Hotel. Alone.
“Might be our thief,” he said, showing the note to Val.
Val raised her brows. “A far cry from an archaeology student wishing to make extra money.”
“This man might be the fence, who can lead us to the thief. I should meet him.” He hesitated.
“I’ll be fine. I planned to take Felicia shopping, anyway. She called me and said she had a free afternoon today. She’s going to meet me here.”
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