Mortal Seductions

by Allyson James

  Leon cut in. “Could y’all save the walk down memory lane for another time? We need to figure out what to do.”

  “Find the pendant,” Demitri said. “That must be the key.”

  “Where should we start looking?” Leon asked.

  Demitri sank to the sofa with a sigh, stretching his arm behind Val’s back. “Hell if I know.”

  “Well, I’m not giving up,” Leon said. “If I have to go through every tomb out in that desert, I will. Remy might want to sift through it an inch at a time, but I don’t care what it takes to find that pendant. Why don’t you help with your Apollo sun magic?”

  Demitri gave him a weary look. “It’s not that simple. Nor is it a divining tool.”

  “Don’t overwhelm me with your enthusiasm. Anyone would think you two had given up.”

  “Not quite,” Demitri said.

  “It’s the gods, Leon,” Val said, her voice tired. “They do what they want, and we can’t stop them. They made me for a purpose, and when I broke away from that purpose, they sent Demitri to stop me and Aphrodite to destroy me.”

  Demitri closed his eyes, painful memories pushing their way into his head. “You’d gone insane. They had to stop you.”

  “But I’m not insane now. I haven’t killed anyone since I met you, Demitri. Or hadn’t you noticed?”

  Demitri opened his eyes and looked sideways at her. “I did notice that, yes. But I stopped you that one time in Athens.”

  “I had no intention of killing the man. I wanted to frighten him, to make him go back to his wife where he belonged. I was finished with that, ready to pay, though I didn’t know it at the time.”

  “And now?” Leon asked her.

  “I want to get on with my life. But I’m a creature of the gods, and they don’t want me to have a normal life. A vengeance demon who punishes unfaithful men? Untidy in the world of today, isn’t it?”

  Leon’s mouth turned down, and his eyes took on the look of pain that he had too often. “But car bombs that kill children are fine,” he muttered.

  “The gods can’t control that anymore,” Val said. “But they can rid the world of me and feel like they’re doing something.”

  “I’ll talk to them,” Leon said. “Testify for you.”

  Val gave a sharp laugh. “Give up, Leon. We do it their way, find the pendant or whatever and see what happens. Who knows? We might succeed.”

  “Your confidence overwhelms me, chere.”

  “Poor Leon. He’s so young.”

  “Yeah, and since my life has been short so far, I’d like to make it last a little longer.”

  “Then we’ll search for the pendant,” Demitri said.

  “Good.”

  Val leaned her head against Demitri’s shoulder. “In the meantime, we should find some way to keep ourselves occupied.”

  Demitri’s heart beat faster, and he exchanged a look with Leon. Leon’s eyes sparkled, and Demitri let the warmth of sex run through his body.

  “Come here,” he said to Leon. “I have some interesting things in mind.”

  HOURS later, Leon woke blearily when his cell phone rang. “Hey,” he answered.

  “Leon.” Remy’s voice was strong. “You know that faience necklace that we found on the dig? The one that disappeared? Turns out Felicia doesn’t have it, so I think a real thief took it.”

  Leon rubbed his eyes. “It didn’t disappear, Remy. I’m sorry, I should have told you. Demitri borrowed it for a little while. I’ll make sure you get it back.”

  “He did? Well, never mind. It’s good to know it’s safe at least. Anyway, I think I found out where it came from.”

  “Yeah?” Leon sat up. Beside him, Val and Demitri slumbered, Demitri’s strong arm across Val’s abdomen. “Where?”

  “In the new tomb. I was poking around and—”

  “You went back out there tonight? Remy, man, when do you sleep?”

  “I’ll sleep when I get back to the States. I was picking through the rubble at the entrance, and I found more faience beads, very much like what came off that necklace. So close it might be from the same necklace, but I won’t know that until I see the whole thing again.”

  “You think the necklace was from that place?”

  “Maybe. What I think is it’s stuff that thieves dropped or threw away as they scrambled through the hole you found in the fill. I bet that was the remnants of a thieves’ tunnel that they tried to fill in. Robbers after gold and silver wouldn’t be interested in ceramic beads.”

  “Thanks for telling me. Maybe I can go out there in the morning with my friends and look around.”

  “You mean you don’t want to come tonight?” Remy’s tone was incredulous.

  Leon did, but he didn’t want to take Val out there on a false hope. Just because Remy found a few beads didn’t mean this was the answer.

  “I found something else,” Remy continued. “It looks like part of a pendant, maybe a match to what was on the necklace.”

  “You’re kidding. Bring it back with you. I’ll meet you at your dig house.”

  “I can’t do that. I can’t take anything from this place until it’s mapped and photographed and properly excavated. That won’t happen until next season.”

  “Remy . . .”

  “I’ve already broken enough rules coming out here again. I can’t move so much as one piece of rock without recording it.”

  Leon swore to himself. “Fine. Let me come out there, then.” The pendant might not be the one that matched theirs, but it didn’t hurt to look. “How long you plan to be there?”

  “As long as it takes. I’ll need to be back at the dig by dawn.”

  Dawn was four hours away. “Hang on. I’ll be right there, little brother.” He punched off his phone.

  Demitri proved hard to wake. The big man mumbled in his sleep and finally cracked open one eye. Leon hastily whispered what he wanted to do. No need to come or wake Val, he said. He’d dash out to Remy’s tomb and back before Val missed him.

  Demitri frowned at Leon but nodded. The necklace was tucked into a silk bag in his suitcase. Leon glanced into the pouch, then slid the pendant, pouch and all, into the pocket of his jacket.

  It wasn’t far from hotel to dig house, so Leon walked. He didn’t know how he’d get out to Remy’s find, but when he reached the dig house he found a Jeep parked in front with the keys in it. Since Remy was in charge of these vehicles, and he’d told Leon to meet him, Leon didn’t feel odd climbing in, starting the thing, and driving off.

  He’d memorized the way. Felicia’s markers were stark under the starlit sky, and the moon, just past full, still sailed brightly overhead.

  Leon saw a new Jeep trail that led to the outcropping and found his brother and another Jeep at the end of it. He parked a few yards away, to avoid disturbing a speck of dirt his brother thought important, and walked to him.

  “Leon,” Remy said, his face washed out with moonlight. “That was quick.”

  “I’ve learned how to be quick.”

  Leon walked around Remy’s Jeep and saw that his brother had shoveled the opening wider. Remy’s clothes were all dirty and misbuttoned—Leon guessed he’d widened the opening then morphed into something that could fit down there.

  “What happened to not touching anything until the proper excavation?”

  Remy looked away. “I couldn’t stop myself. I had to know. I can fix it so no one can tell later.”

  “You were always good at getting away with shit. So show me this pendant.”

  “It’s down here.”

  Remy stripped off and shrank down to the form of a large bobcat. Leon followed suit. The bobcat was the smallest shape any of the brothers could assume, and even then Leon looked like a bobcat that was born large and worked out. He lifted the pouch with the necklace between his teeth and followed Remy down into the hole he’d climbed out of earlier this evening.

  The dust and stale air down there confused his sense of smell. Then again, he’d taken the form
of a snake last time, and snakes processed smells differently. In any case, something had changed, and he couldn’t put his finger on what.

  The hole was much wider, showing that Remy had been working hard. Remy put his bobcat paws on the fill and wriggled his way into the hole. Leon felt a momentary twinge of fear as he followed, the memory of being stuck in here too fresh.

  But the hole was now big enough that Remy and Leon could crawl through it without disturbing the packed rubble. At the bottom of the long shaft, Remy returned to his human form and picked up the big flashlights he’d left down here.

  “This place is fantastic,” he said, eagerly shining the light around the walls. “Intact paintings—they haven’t been seen since the place was sealed. Doors in three of the walls, only one blocked up. Look at this.”

  Remy showed Leon what he hadn’t been able to see in the dark, a rectangular doorway only half piled with rubble, a dark hole above it. “That room’s even better. Want to see?”

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” Leon said. “I need to look at the pendant, then we both need to get back.”

  “Oh, come on, Leon, it won’t take that long. Let me show you.”

  Remy scrambled over the fill, not minding the rocks on his naked body. Leon sighed and followed. This had better be good.

  They emerged into a larger room, and Leon beamed over the walls with the flashlight he’d grabbed from Remy’s supplies. The walls were beautiful, painted in blue, red, and green. Gold glittered in the sudden light.

  “They used real gold in their paints,” Remy said. “And electrum, a mixture of silver and gold. I’m betting the thieves couldn’t figure out how to get it off the walls, or else there was so much other treasure down here they didn’t bother. You can see marks in the dust where stuff was piled.”

  Leon studied the empty room and the long rectangular stone box in the middle. “Is that where the mummy is?”

  “It’s a sarcophagus. Possibly one of many, because this is pretty close to the surface. A later burial, maybe. The mummy might still be here, but I’m not disturbing that to look.” He lifted something from the floor. “Anyway, this is the pendant I found. Did you bring the rest of the necklace?”

  Leon opened the pouch and carefully fished the broken pendant from it.

  Remy held the other half up to it. “Looks like they match.”

  They did. Perfectly. The jagged edge of one lined up with the jagged edge of the other.

  Leon took an excited breath. “Can I borrow this, Remy? I promise I’ll bring it back when I’m done with it. In fact, you’ll have the whole necklace to do what you want with it. I need this now, all right?”

  “I told you, I can’t disturb the site.”

  “Looks like you’ve disturbed it plenty. You must be more hyped about this place than you let on.”

  “It’s my find. Mine. I’ll do what I want with it.”

  Leon stared at him. “You feeling all right? Lack of air getting to you?”

  “No. Who did you tell you were coming out here?”

  “Just Demitri.”

  “Demitri. Ah, yes, my son.”

  Remy’s voice changed, becoming deeper and fuller. A bright light filled the tomb, washing out the flashlight’s beams. The light grew, as though the sun had started to rise inside the tomb.

  Remy vanished. A man rose in his place, tall and muscular and beautiful. The perfection of the man’s face was nearly blinding, his dark eyes burning like black holes in the brightness.

  “What the fuck?”

  “You wish to help the demon Valenarian, mortal man. I wish her to die. I’m a god. I win.”

  The necklace and pendant grew white-hot. Leon dropped them, the pendant’s design burned now into his palm.

  “You will stay here, human male, until I am finished.”

  “Fuck you. What did you do to Remy?”

  “To the man whose form you trusted? Nothing. He is fast asleep in the house far away, dreaming troubled dreams of the woman he loves.”

  “Who the hell are you? And why are you trying to kill Val? She’s been on the straight and narrow for thousands of years. Forgive and forget already.”

  “You have been alive merely thirty-two of those years. You cannot know.”

  “I know Val.”

  The god scoffed. “You have lain with Valenarian. Not the same thing. She will kill you in the end.”

  Leon thought of how Val’s eyes moved from midnight dark to palest blue, from wicked glint to concerned caring. She was both women, and both women loved Demitri. Leon wasn’t sure what Val thought of him, but her love for Demetri had been steadfast for thousands of years.

  “You’re the one who doesn’t know Val.”

  The light flared, then started to fade. “Do not try to thwart the will of the gods. You will be safe here.”

  “Hey,” Leon called as the light vanished. “I don’t have any food down here.”

  “Then you’d better hope I kill her quickly.” The voice faded with the light and then was gone, and Leon was left in absolute darkness.

  19

  DEMITRI woke as the sun touched the window. Val was cuddled up to his left side, but Leon had gone. Demitri rolled out of bed, careful to not wake Val, then showered and strolled out to the living room of their suite.

  Leon wasn’t there, either. Unalarmed, Demitri lifted the phone and ordered breakfast, then went back into the bedroom. He sat down on the bed and lifted Val’s dark curls from her face.

  “Wake up, sleepy.”

  Val blinked, then she stretched and smiled. “Hello, lover.” She laced her arm around his waist. “Where’s Leon?”

  “I don’t know.” Demitri had the vague recollection of a dream—Leon standing over him, asking him something—but the vision faded as he reached for it. “He probably headed to the dig to check on his brother.”

  “He’ll want to know what happened between Remy and Felicia. So do I.” She yawned. “I like this. Waking up in a nest warmed my two lovers. I wish we could have this always.”

  “We will,” Demitri said firmly. “We’ll solve this puzzle, prove it to Aphrodite, and keep you with us.”

  She looked downcast. “You’re too certain. She doesn’t want that.”

  “I am certain. Now, get up. Breakfast will be here soon.”

  Demitri kissed her warm lips then left her to shower and dress. He let in the room service waiter and set up breakfast on the table, opening the newspapers from Cairo and London. News was much the same as always—war, death, rising prices, unemployment. Human newspapers often depressed him. There were good things going on in the world, too, pockets of humanity helping one another for no reward other than good feeling, but the newspapers didn’t seem to be interested.

  Val wandered out of the back and sat down at the table. She picked at her food, her gaze straying to the sunny window.

  “I had a bad dream.”

  Demitri set aside the newspaper. It must have been the night for weird dreams. “What happened in it?”

  “Nothing coherent. Just darkness. Heavy darkness. It scared me.”

  “It was just a dream.”

  “I don’t dream like humans do. I relive memories, good or bad. This was different.”

  She looked pale and withdrawn. Demitri reached over and took her hand, startled to find it ice cold. “What’s the matter, baby?”

  “Nothing. Did Leon say where he was going?”

  “Not to me.” Again, the dream of Leon speaking to him teased him, but Demitri couldn’t focus on it. “I woke up, and he was gone.”

  “We should find him.”

  Demitri nodded. “I think you’re right.”

  They left the hotel and walked the short way to the dig, where they discovered Remy roaming around, supervising. Felicia glanced at them and away, her face strained.

  “Leon didn’t come here this morning,” Remy said when they asked. “I haven’t seen him since he left with you last night.”

  “Maybe
he went back to Luxor,” Val suggested.

  “Without telling us?”

  “That’s not unusual for Leon,” Remy said. “He sometimes disappears on his own, when he wants to think. It’s been worse since he came back from Afghanistan.”

  “Do you think he’d go out to your tomb again?” Demitri asked him.

  Remy looked blank. “I don’t know what for. Anyway, all the Jeeps are accounted for, none missing. He wouldn’t just go out there without supplies or without telling me. I’m sure of it.”

  He didn’t look unduly worried. He seemed distracted by his work this morning and soon left them on their own.

  “I’ll be happier when I know where he is,” Val said as they returned to the house.

  “We’ll go across to Luxor. He might be looking for the pendant in the souvenir shops.”

  Val hesitated. “You don’t think he’s gone home, do you? Aphrodite made it pretty clear that he’d die if he tried to help me and failed. He might have decided it was time to cut and run.”

  “It might not save him if he does.”

  “I know.” Val rested her head on Demitri’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Demitri. I dragged you into this; I dragged Leon into this. You don’t deserve to be punished for my sins.”

  Demitri splayed his hand through her hair, loving the feel and scent of it. “I’ll do anything to save you, Val. I don’t care what happens to me.”

  “Do you care what happens to Leon?”

  Demitri looked into her dark blue eyes. “Yes. Very much.”

  “Then we need to find him.”

  “I agree.”

  Demitri pulled her close, kissed her lips. They continued to the hotel, where they climbed into a taxi and had it take them to the ferry.

  “FUCK,” Leon repeated.

  He had scrambled back through the half-filled doorway to the antechamber, using his flashlight to locate the canteens of water Remy had carted down here. Correction, the canteens Apollo—or whoever the hell the man had been—had carted down here.

  The water was there, but the large hole in the rubble was gone. Leon’s flashlight showed a solid wall of limestone chips, completely blocking his way out.