Mortal Seductions

by Allyson James

  Demitri agreed without argument to accompany Remy and Leon back to the dig house. Val said nothing, but she walked demurely next to Demitri, Demitri’s hand tight on her arm.

  The demure act was just that—an act. Once she’d gotten over her initial dismay that she couldn’t make Valerie return, Valenarian had turned into a sexual fiend. It had taken them a long time to sate her, then clean up and dress to come to the dig.

  Val looked over at Leon and smiled a red-lipped smile. He remembered her on her hands and knees under him not an hour ago, while he drove his cock into her wet pussy. Demitri had gotten behind Leon, his long cock rubbing between Leon’s legs. That had been intense.

  The four proceeded to the storage room, and Remy began checking the shelves. Felicia joined them, stifling her yawns as she marked off items on the clipboard.

  Val chewed on the earpiece of her sunglasses, watching Felicia. “You seem tired today, sweetie. Did you two finally screw?”

  Felicia jerked around, her face flooding with color. Remy looked up in astonishment.

  “Val,” Demitri said in a warning tone.

  “Here’s gratitude for you,” Val went on. “I did my best to make her beautiful, and she’s back looking like a withered stalk. He’s not going to beg for you like that, darling. You need to listen to Val when she gives you advice.”

  Felicia looked as though she was torn between throwing the clipboard at Val or bursting into tears. Remy, always clueless about women, raised his brows at Felicia.

  “What is she talking about?”

  “I don’t know,” Felicia stammered.

  Val rolled her eyes. Remy looked down at the clipboard in Felicia’s hands. “What’s next?”

  Felicia managed to babble out the next item. Demitri followed Val as she wandered the shelves, but the demigod was smart enough not to say anything to her.

  Remy and Felicia continued down the collection, and by the time they’d finished, Felicia had regained her composure. “Nothing missing,” she said. “Nothing new, anyway.”

  Remy set the clipboard aside. “If you are wondering why we’re so tired, it’s because we went back out last night to where I thought I found the tomb. It took some searching, but we found it again.” His grin was wide.

  Felicia slanted him an alarmed look, but Remy held up his hand. “I trust my brother completely, and he’ll vouch for his friends. I’m going back out tonight, and I’d be glad of your help.”

  “What about catching your thief?” Leon asked.

  “Perhaps your friends could stand watch?”

  “I’d rather see the tomb,” Val said. She picked up Remy’s clipboard and idly flipped through the pages. “I might be able to tell you whose tomb it was.”

  Remy looked surprised. “Are you an archaeologist? Or a historian?”

  Val smiled at him. “I know things. Many things. Like who Hatshepsut’s lover really was.”

  “Senenmut,” Felicia said as she arranged something on a shelf.

  “Do you really think that a woman who made herself king of Egypt would bestow her body on a mere man?” Val scoffed. “Hatshepsut was quite wild, especially in her younger years. Senenmut was a good and loyal friend, and kept up the pretense so she could enjoy herself.”

  “The jury is still out on that relationship,” Remy said absently. “Not my period anyway. I wonder if the tomb I found is Roman.”

  “I shouldn’t think so.” Val turned the last pages on the clipboard and set it down. “More likely Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Dynasty.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I told you, I know things.”

  “I wouldn’t mind if you had a look at it,” Remy said. “I don’t want to tell anyone about it until I’m sure though. All right?”

  Val touched her lips. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  “It’s a long way out there,” Remy said, glancing at Leon. “I only found it again because I . . .” He cleared his throat. “I used the same method I did when you and I were out earlier last night.”

  “They know,” Leon said. He glanced at Felicia who had her arms tightly folded across her chest.

  Remy nodded. “She knows, too. I showed her.”

  “Ah. So now she’s in on the family secret.”

  “You turn into a lion, too?” Felicia asked Leon.

  Val seated herself on the tabletop and crossed her ankles. “Leon can turn into any animal—lion or tiger or bear.”

  “Oh, my,” Remy murmured.

  “This morning he was a—what was that, Leon? I’ve never seen a bear like that before.”

  “A grizzly.”

  “Grizzly,” Val repeated. “Very large and frightening. Demitri can only turn into a tiger.” She smiled at him and tugged on one of her tight curls. “A very sexy tiger.”

  “I thought you were just a lion,” Felicia said. “A were-lion. Like you were bitten by a lion and now have to change into one.”

  Remy burst out laughing, and Leon couldn’t help a chuckle. “We’re shifters,” Remy explained. “Not were-anything. We have a talent to take on the shape of any animal, but we have to come into contact with it first, and touch it. When did you meet a grizzly, Leon?”

  “Camping in the Rockies a few years ago.”

  “And you touched it?” Felicia looked awestruck.

  “Carefully.”

  “Can everyone in your family do it?” Felicia asked.

  “All four of us brothers can,” Remy explained. “We have two other brothers, Thomas and Jean Marc. They’re shifters, too. We get it from our father—our mother doesn’t have the gift.” He laughed a little. “You can imagine what the poor woman put up with when we were little.”

  “We’re still making it up to her,” Leon said.

  “The talent runs in our father’s line,” Remy went on. “He wasn’t sure where it came from, but there were Native Americans in our neck of the woods, long, long ago, who had the magic to turn into animals. Some call them witches or skinwalkers, but skinwalkers are evil mages, and these weren’t like that. They learned the spirit of the animal, according to my grandfather, and could then take its shape. When the French came to Louisiana territory, and the Duprees settled in Fontaine, a Dupree married a Native American woman who had the gift, and we ended up with it.”

  “That’s why we need to touch an animal before we can take its shape,” Leon finished. He was surprised Remy was willing to give so much information to Felicia, but she listened with interest. Val was looking at the clipboard again, but Leon could tell she listened, too. “We have to learn the animal’s spirit, its essence. Then our magic lets us become like it.”

  “And Demitri?” Felicia asked. “He’s one of these shifters, too?”

  Demitri shook his head. “I’m a different creature altogether.”

  “I’m certainly getting an education,” Felicia said faintly.

  “I don’t change into anything,” Val said. “Except a demon.” She smiled broadly at Felicia, and Felicia smiled back, not an ounce of belief in her expression.

  “If Val goes to the tomb tonight, I will accompany her,” Demitri rumbled. “You’ll have to find someone else to watch the storage room.”

  Remy chewed the inside of his cheek. “Felicia?”

  Felicia looked disappointed, but she nodded. “I know there’s no one else you can trust without admitting there’s been thefts. But I want every detail of what you find, do you hear me?”

  “Of course,” Remy said. “I’ll photograph what I can and make a map. Don’t worry. You’ll be in on everything.”

  Val handed the clipboard to Felicia. “You’ll need this.”

  Felicia accepted it without a word. She sent Remy another glance, this one smoldering, but Remy’s back was turned.

  “Tell me honestly,” Val said. “You two did screw last night, didn’t you?”

  Remy turned around, and this time he blushed as much as Felicia. “No. But I kissed her.”

  Val let out a sigh as she
hopped to her feet. “Frigging finally. You two really need to think about more than old tombs.”

  She swept her scarf around her neck and slid on her sunglasses as she stepped out into the blinding sun. Demitri followed on her heels, the big man as enigmatic as ever. Leon came close behind.

  “I wish you’d stay here,” Remy said to Val, as he followed them out. “I don’t like to think what would happen if the thief comes with only Felicia to guard the place.”

  “Oh, she’ll be all right,” Val said, walking away from him. “We’re not dealing with a dangerous criminal.”

  “How do you know?” Leon asked.

  Val turned and smiled sweetly at all three of them. “Because I know who did it.”

  “Who?” Demitri demanded.

  “I’ll tell you all about it tonight,” she said, winking one dark blue eye. “We’ll set a trap for the thief, with cute little Felicia as bait.”

  17

  REMY drove them out into the desert in his Jeep. Val sat in the back, beside Demitri, who kept his strong arm around her. She laid her head back and let the night air stream over her face, feeling protected.

  The illusion of protection was false, she knew. Demitri was trying to protect the world from Val, not the other way around. She knew that, in the long run, he wouldn’t be able to save her. That thought lay heavy on her heart. Sweet Valerie had vanished into the recesses of Valenarian’s psyche, holed up in whatever place Aphrodite had first found her.

  Val had all of Valerie’s memories—the tedium of day-to-day life in Aphrodite’s temple, the relief when she was sent out to bring a couple together. If she’d had any gumption, Valenarian thought bitterly, Valerie would have simply refused to return from one of these assignments. Aphrodite might have killed her for disobeying, but wouldn’t that have been better than her non-life inside the temple?

  Valenarian was never going back to that. She lay her head on Demitri’s shoulder as the miles rolled by, wishing that all those years ago she could have been what he wanted. He would have protected her if she’d suppressed her crazed need for vengeance and death. Aphrodite had managed to crush that out of her at least, but too late. Valenarian was still paying for sins committed three thousand years ago, and if the gods had their way, Demitri and Leon would pay for them, too.

  The Jeep stopped at the end of a track that petered into nothingness. A bright orange piece of cloth moved on the rock-strewn ground ahead of them.

  “On foot from here,” Remy said. “I’ve driven us farther than I did last night, but it’s still about a three-mile hike.”

  Demitri handed Val out of the Jeep like he would a royal princess from her coach, but his expression was far from admiring. He hadn’t spoken much at all since they’d left the dig house.

  “Don’t worry about me, Remy,” Val said. “I am in quite good shape, and I’m certain Demitri will carry me if I falter.”

  Demitri slanted her a silent look. Remy gave her an uncertain smile but unloaded water bottles and backpacks from the Jeep. He didn’t give any to Val to carry, which she found amusing. He’d have readily handed over a load to Felicia. Felicia was definitely the woman for Remy.

  Val ran her hand up Leon’s well-muscled arm as he shouldered a large canteen. “If I get tired, Leon can always turn into a camel.”

  Leon’s eyes glinted. “I only turn into carnivores, sweetheart.”

  Val chuckled, rose up on tiptoe, and kissed his cheek. She resumed her hold of Demitri’s arm and smiled at Remy, who watched in confusion.

  “Lead us on, Remy,” she said.

  Remy gave Leon another uncertain glance, but lifted his backpack and trudged away over the rocks.

  Nothing grew in this desert. The Nile Valley could be green with farmer’s fields and groves of trees, but where the life-giving waters were absent, the land was stark and dead. Val knew that oases bloomed farther to the west, where groundwater bubbled up from deep in the earth, and crops and palm trees once more ruled. But here in between, the ground was devoid of all life.

  Val had always thought the Egyptian desert beautiful. The mountains cut sharply into the blue sky, and the sun dazzled overhead, the god Ra sailing it from horizon to horizon. This was her land, where she’d been spawned in a strange union between Heka and a half-demon, half-human woman. Val had been created as an enforcer, to ensure that philandering husbands were punished.

  Made for a purpose, Val thought as she trudged across the desert with Demitri at her side. No thought for Val’s own happiness. No thought for the fact that her tiny bit of human blood made her long for the things that humans did—love, warmth, happiness, family. She’d been an instrument of the gods, forgotten and abandoned when the old gods retreated. The Greco-Roman pantheon had all but swallowed the Egyptian gods, and they’d had no use for Val.

  When the Copts came, they’d pushed out the pagan gods as well, erasing their names and turning the temples into monasteries. The powerful Greek pantheon found itself rendered powerless and retreated to Olympus, conceding defeat.

  Recently, humans had begun studying the old gods again, not necessarily worshiping them, but remembering them and learning them anew. Life had stirred again among the pantheons, the gods never quite forgotten.

  Remy finally said, “Here,” and Leon set down his burdens with a grunt.

  “It looks different during the day. What did you find?”

  Remy crouched by a narrow slit between the ground and the wall of the outcropping. Limestone chips had flaked off here, a pile of them strewn on the desert floor. Remy pointed his flashlight into the hole, but the beam didn’t penetrate very far.

  “I think there’s a step there. Lots of fill, of course. But I’m pretty sure this is a tomb, man-made.”

  Val sat on her heels and peered into the darkness. “That’s it?”

  “It might not look like much to you,” Remy said patiently, an edge of excitement to his voice. “But when we remove the fill, who knows what we’ll find?”

  “Treasure?” Leon asked.

  “It’s not likely to be an intact tomb, not like Tutankhamun’s. Most of the tombs were robbed long ago. But there might be wall paintings or reliefs, the sarcophagus, a mummy, writings.” His eyes grew brighter as he warmed to his subject. “Another clue to the puzzle of ancient civilization. We don’t know everything there is to know—we can’t possibly. But if I could get a grant to excavate, to do a conservation project, way out here where no tourists come . . .”

  Leon grinned. “Calm down, bro.”

  “Sorry. Let me take some photographs and then we’ll go.”

  He sounded wistful. He wanted to know more about it, Val could tell. He was torn between the caution of his training and the natural excitement that had led him to this profession in the first place.

  Val peered inside as Leon flashed his light around, but she saw nothing but rubble. She was pretty sure she knew what this place was: a secret tomb of one of the kings, placed out here because he knew the official tomb would be robbed very quickly. The mummy pulled out of the tomb in the Valley of the Kings would be a substitute, while the real pharaoh slept away undisturbed. Well, undisturbed until now.

  “Why don’t you shift into a worm or something and have a look?” Val asked Remy. “You’re dying to know what’s in there.”

  “Shifting doesn’t work like that,” Leon said. “You can’t be something smaller than you really are—all your mass has to go somewhere.”

  “Maybe not a worm,” Remy said, looking pointedly at Leon. “How about a snake?”

  Leon grimaced. “I haven’t done that in a long time.”

  “You can turn into a snake?” Val asked. “Mmm, think of those possibilities.” Demitri, who’d watched in silence, scowled at her. She smiled serenely back at him.

  “I still might be too big,” Leon said.

  “What kind of snake do you turn into?” Val asked him. “A cobra?”

  “Python.”

  “When did you touch a python?” she
asked. “Exploring a jungle?”

  “Petting zoo when I was a kid.”

  “No one would touch the snake but Leon,” Remy said. “So he learned its essence.” He peered into the hole again. “You might fit. But I won’t force you.”

  Leon sighed and started unlacing his boots. “Anything for you, little brother.”

  Val felt a twinge of concern. “Be careful.”

  Leon brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek, gave Demitri a warning look, and continued to take off his clothes. Demitri slid his arm around Val’s waist and pulled her against his warm body as Leon stood up, naked. Remy looked back and forth between the three of them, extremely puzzled.

  LEON slid neatly through the slit and dropped a few feet to a hard surface. His snake eyes didn’t see well in the dark, but he could feel things with his body. What he landed on was too even and sharp to be natural—definitely man-made and probably stairs.

  It was cool down here, and his blood began to slow. Much better than up there in the heat and the open. He could curl up and take a long nap.

  Leon forced his mind awake. The trouble with reptiles was that they liked two things, eating and sleeping. Mammals did, too, but the mammalian mind was a little sharper, a little more curious about things beyond food and rest. The snake couldn’t care less what was down in this hole, only that it was a nice, dark place that might hold beetles and rats worth swallowing.

  Leon made his long body uncurl and slide across the small area. Not much here except a pile of rubble blocking the stairs. He roamed across it then came to an indentation. Pressing the rubble aside with his head, he found a hole just wide enough for his body.

  The snake wanted to go deeper into darkness, and Leon let it. Remy would want to know what was down there.

  Gravity and Leon’s sinuous body allowed him to slide down a long tube in the rubble, going down, down, down. At the bottom, Leon suddenly popped through another hole and fell several feet, to land with a splat on a stone floor.