Heart of the Gods

by Valerie Douglas

  Ecstasy blinded her as the taste of him filled her, as his ecstasy rushed into her. She trembled wildly as her own pleasure overwhelmed her. Her mouth was locked on him, drawing on him, feasting, her body jolted as ecstasy blinded her, as she took him into her, the taste and feel of him glorious, astonishing.

  She shuddered in sheer bliss.

  “Ky,” she whispered as he collapsed over her and she enfolded him in her arms.

  Drawing her against him, Ky said, “I love you, Raissa.”

  “And I you,” she said.

  In the sky above them, the first light of dawn was breaking.

  For a moment Raissa simply clung to him, feeling him still inside her. Holding onto him and feeling the same longing in the arms wrapped tightly around her.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  The best plans were the simplest ones as all battle plans turned to smoke at the first sign of the enemy, whose plans had little to do with yours. Both sides could only estimate and guess what the other side would most likely do.

  Ky scanned the area above and around the tunnel to the glade in the gray predawn light.

  They could try to hold it, to bottle Zimmer’s men up in the entrance. With limited supplies, though they couldn’t take the chance Zimmer would decide to settle in and wait them out. Or discover the opening in the roof. With helicopters and military rifles it would be like shooting ducks in a barrel. It was easier to let them get inside and take them here in the glen.

  Keep it simple, he reminded himself.

  “Ryan,” he asked, “I want you and Komi inside the entrance to the tomb. Keep anyone out that isn’t us…” Which was about as simple as it got. “If the shooting gets too hot, get inside and take cover behind the statue of Isis and stay there.”

  For a moment, Ryan just looked at him.

  Ky looked back, having a pretty good guess what he was thinking.

  “Yes, I’m keeping you safe, if I can. Neither of you signed up for this. You’ve been the best grad student I ever had and you’ve got a job once you graduate, if we live to talk about it. So, live to talk about it. Keep them off of us if you can, keep them out of the Tomb if you can but survive to tell the tale. Both of you. If you can’t, remember what Raissa said, take cover behind the statue of Isis.”

  He looked at Tareq, knowing the other man’s skills, his background.

  Tareq grinned, lifted an eyebrow.

  With a grim chuckle, Ky smiled back.

  “You know what to do, find a vantage point near the entryway to the Tomb,” Ky said, “Keep an eye out for snipers and keep them off us if you can. Good luck, my friend.”

  Clapping him on the shoulder, Tareq said, “You too, my friend Ky.”

  His eyes went to Raissa. With a smile, he made her a deep obeisance.

  “And to the Guardian of the Tomb,” he said.

  “Stay alive, Tareq,” she said. “If you’re cornered, shoot the stele and unleash Irisi, throw your gun away and take cover.”

  For a moment he only looked at her, then he stepped close and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

  “I pray it isn’t necessary. Good luck to you, my friend.”

  Then he turned and trotted away, scanning the inner wall of the glade for a good vantage with a clear line of retreat.

  Heart aching, acutely aware of where his lips had touched her skin, Raissa watched him go.

  So, for a moment did Ky. Then he took a breath, turned to Hassan.

  “Hassan,” Ky said. “I need your best marksmen watching for snipers above us and on the rock face. Your people are best against the Djinn inside, under cover, supporting Ryan and Komi. If the Djinn get out, we’ll need people who know how to fight them. The rest out here will try to keep Zimmer’s people from getting in. Have those people take cover where they can. Retreat if the firing gets too close, we’ll need you inside. Make your shots count.”

  With the numbers against them…

  They needed to reduce them.

  He and Raissa would play commando and watch each other’s back. Not simply to keep close but because it was what they were best at. They and the lions.

  “Just try not shoot us. If they reach the Tomb…”

  Hassan nodded, his eyes knowing, touching his forehead in salute to Ky, before his eyes went to Raissa in question.

  For her, there was none.

  “If there is a chance the Tomb might be opened,” she said, “and I can seal it off to the outside world, I will. As much as I love and care for many of you and I will do all I can to keep you alive, I will seal it to keep the Djinn in. I must. Not a single one can escape into the world.”

  Every eye looked at her.

  Ky could see what it cost her to say it, she couldn’t look at him but he could see the pain and the truth of it in her eyes.

  How many times in the past had he made similar decisions, in similar circumstances, knowing the lives of people he cared about were at risk? It was why he’d returned to the study of archaeology as soon as he was able. He’d watched too many good people die over land that had been fought over since Irisi’s time.

  Ky caught a lock of Raissa’s hair in his fingers, tugged lightly.

  Raissa’s gaze met his, saw the look in them, the understanding there. She should have known. Closing her eyes in relief, she let out a sigh, straightened.

  “All right,” Ky said. “If we can, we stop them here. If not we’ll stop them inside. Now though? Now comes the worst part. We get into position and wait.”

  There were a few strained chuckles.

  With a nod, Ryan and Komi faded back toward the tunnel to the Tomb itself, some of Hassan’s people with them.

  Ky hated putting good people on the sidelines but he’d never fought Djinn and he suspected the learning curve was steep. It was clear they weren’t much fond of it either but they understood the necessity.

  The others fanned out and took positions.

  With a gesture, Raissa sent the lions to hunt, too, to take cover in the high grass somewhat near the entrance. All except Nebi who stayed at their heels.

  The lions would give them their first warning of trouble arriving, if they chose to come in quietly.

  She and Ky found cover, her swords sheathed at her back, Ky armed with both the rifle and the knife he’d taken. It was the knife Ky intended to use most.

  Nebi settled at their feet.

  The light increased. It also made deep concealing shadows.

  Zimmer, or more likely the canny Kamenwati, wisely wasn’t risking his people in poor light where their enemy knew the ground, he’d waited until there was plenty of light available.

  For the longest time it seemed, nothing happened.

  An explosion rocked the garden, an unseen grenade tossed through from the outer tunnel and then two smoke grenades followed. Men poured into the glade, the defenders opened fire even as they fanned out through the concealing smoke and faded into the grass and shadows.

  It was sobering and humbling for Raissa to realize the old thief had been right. She couldn’t have stood alone against this onslaught.

  A coughing roar and a scream told them the fate of one of them. Even the best armor still left vulnerable targets for teeth and claws. Lions liked to cripple their quarry first with a swipe at the hamstrings before going for the throat.

  Automatic weapons opened up, a quick pop, pop, pop as Hassan’s men found targets.

  With a nod, Raissa and Ky moved out, keeping to the shadows, Nebi moving low at their heels.

  They both were alert to enemy snipers on the ridge above them or the rock face around the entrance.

  With a glance at Ky Raissa unchained Sekhmet’s gift and used the hunger, the scent and sense of body heat aid her.

  It was a little startling for him to watch as she shifted to become predator, his hackles rose instinctively. Most of the changes were subtle, her canine teeth lengthened, her face seemed to thin. And her eyes went from blue to a deep blood red.

  She looked at him, almos
t warily.

  With her golden hair, and the light loose dress she wore, she blended nearly invisibly into the grass. Except for those eyes.

  Reaching out with a small smile, Ky touched her cheek lightly. Her eyes closed and her breath shuddered in her chest. She brushed her face against his hand, gratefully.

  “Be careful,” he said.

  She looked at him wryly.

  “I think that’s my line,” she said.

  Then she was gone, moving fast and low through the tall grasses as she scented prey.

  She popped up, briefly, spun, her sword flashed in the sunlight to cut through armor and flesh. The man went down, spurting blood as Ky took the wing man with a quick snap of his hands as the man focused on Raissa. She was the stalking horse, the judas goat, lure to the unwary.

  Both of them faded back into the shadows, moving quickly, quietly, listening, watching.

  They followed the sound of the gunfire but also watching the grass around them and the shadows.

  A movement caught Ky’s eye as they stalked around the edge of the glade. With a gesture he signaled Raissa to circle. She nodded.

  Two more went down, a third to Nebi as the lion rushed nearly silently past them to take them.

  Five out of fifty and some to Hassan’s men…

  Something warned her, alerted her, Raissa’s senses screamed.

  There was no scent. She searched for warmth.

  She couldn’t see Ky.

  It had been a trap, somehow she knew it, those last three had been a trap. She and Ky were separated…

  Where was he…?

  She saw the sniper stand, his ghillie suit concealing him among the tall grasses and she leaped for him even as he opened fire. She followed the line of his sights and found Ky in them. Bullets flew, struck. She almost could feel Ky’s body jolt with the impact even as she took the shooter down. His partner spun toward her, startled, and Nebi came out of the tall grass, snarling with fury…and he found he had a far closer problem.

  Her swords took the shooter’s head and then she spun, sheathing her swords to run to Ky.

  Something, instinct… whatever… It hadn’t mattered. Ky had seen the man in the ghillie suit rise out of the grass too late. He felt the impact of the bullets…as Raissa had that night in the Museum, in the Hall of Statues, three quick hard blows to his chest, the big sure target of his torso when there was no vest. They drove him backward, he felt his knees buckle.

  Zimmer had sent out hunter teams for them. For him and Raissa. Not that it mattered now.

  An inarticulate cry sent the birds in the trees into flight.

  Raissa…

  Suddenly she was there, bent over him, her blue eyes wild, frantic…

  “Ky,” she whispered, horrified. “Nebi, guard!”

  There was blood on him. Raissa was appalled. An astonishing amount of blood.

  Curling her arms around him, she held him carefully, poured healing magic into him as she scrambled to get him under cover, but there was so much blood and healing wasn’t working fast enough.

  Looking up at her, Ky cupped her cheek, startled at how weak he was suddenly, felt the cold creep into him. The knowledge that he was dying and the pain hit him at the same time and he clenched his teeth against them.

  He didn’t want to die, not yet, not now. He fought it.

  Already his vision was darkening, though…

  Raissa poured more healing into him, cupped his face in her hand. His life was slipping away from her.

  There was a hole in his chest, another below his ribs… She was losing him.

  “Ky,” she said, desperately, “remember when you asked if biting you would change you? There is a way to save you but it will change you…if you die. If you truly die. There are ways to keep the change from happening if that’s what you want.”

  The sounds of battle continued around them. She could almost hear Hassan’s people fighting and falling, the battle drawing close to the entrance to the tomb. It had been a suicide mission from the start and they’d known that, but still… It pained her to sacrifice a life, any life.

  And Tareq?

  She was frantic, desperate, torn between her duty and the man she loved.

  “I can do that, I can do that for you when the time comes,” she stammered, “but if you do this, you’ll be stronger, faster, you’ll be like me…and you’ll live, virtually forever.”

  She wanted to beg him to accept what she offered but she couldn’t. It had to be his choice. His decision.

  It had to be of his free will.

  “You won’t age,” she said. “Ky…”

  Don’t leave me alone, not again… But she couldn’t say it… She couldn’t, shouldn’t try to influence his decision.

  It was there in her eyes anyway, the grief, the fear of loss, the loss of him. Ky saw it anyway.

  A single bright tear spilled down her cheek. It fell warmly on his mouth, tasted of salt, he saw her brilliant eyes, and the tears.

  He loved her and he didn’t want to die, not yet. He had too much yet to do.

  To live when he felt himself surely dying?

  He nodded.

  Reaching into his pocket, quickly, Raissa fished out his pocketknife, pulled out the blade.

  She shifted, became Sekhmet’s priestess again. Her eyes were like fire, flickering from blue to red, burning hot.

  In shock, he watched her brace herself and then she cut her own slender throat, right above the vein. Blood spurted.

  “Drink,” she said, “or we both die…”

  She hadn’t told him that part.

  Stunned, weakness slipping through him, for a second Ky could only stare.

  It was hardly the worst thing he’d drunk.

  Drink, she’d said, or we both die.

  Somehow he found the strength, his hand locked around her neck as he clamped his mouth over the wound in her throat. The rich coppery taste of her blood, her life, filled him. It was rich, salty. To his surprise there was an effervescence to it, as if it bubbled with her energy.

  She tasted incredible.

  The pleasure of it struck him like a blow.

  Ky groaned as her life force gushed into him. Involuntarily he swallowed and the taste, the life, the energy and the power of her, poured into him, coursed through him, burst into his veins. She was delicious, intoxicating…

  Suddenly he was starving, he needed more, much more.

  Instinctively, his arms banded around her so she couldn’t escape, one arm around her waist, the other locked in her hair. His mouth pressed hard against her throat, drinking her in great greedy gulps, he drowned himself in her. The pain faded as he felt her body jolt against his with each deep swallow, each pull on the wound in her throat. She moaned, softly.

  Pleasure hammered through her as he drank, he could taste it.

  Her ecstasy poured into him, deliriously. The pain was gone, his wounds healed, the weakness was gone, energy and strength burst through him…rushed…filled him. It felt as if his blood sparkled in his veins.

  It was more pleasure than Raissa had ever known. Now she understood why those others hadn’t fought her. She was blind to everything except his firm mouth drawing on her, sucking, suckling. She moaned with the pleasure of each hard draw, with the feel of his mouth feeding on her filling with her, shuddered gloriously as his pleasure exploded through her. A delicious languor stole over her, her body twitching with each swallow with a pleasure so intense it was nearly sexual.

  With a sigh, she surrendered to it.

  Feeling her go limp in his arms, still he drank, until he was sated.

  Stunned, Ky drew his mouth away from her, looked down at her in shock and horror as he realized what he had done and how thoroughly.

  Her eyelids fluttered weakly…and then color came back to her face in a rush, flooding through her.

  She gasped.

  “Raissa,” he said.

  Her blue eyes a little hazed, Raissa looked up at him, blinked…her tong
ue ran lightly over her lips, blinking again a little dazedly as she looked up at him.

  “Let’s do that again,” she said, in a slightly hoarse whisper, “some other time. That was astonishing. Just keep in mind I’m not quite as big as you.”

  He laughed, with relief. “You’re on.”

  She smiled and then she made a face.

  “I’m afraid I’ll have to break my promise though,” she said, looking at him apologetically. “I can’t just take it back.”

  “Given the circumstances,” he said, eyeing her narrowly, “I’ll allow it this time. So long as he doesn’t enjoy it too much. And it is the enemy.”

  His mouth twitched, teasingly.

  With a grin and soft laugh, she said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

  She was weaker but that still left her with an edge over Zimmer’s men.

  Ky kept his head turned away as she disappeared into the grasses and Nebi growled, following.

  After a moment, so did Ky.

  There was a brief rustle in the grass ahead of him.

  Only a glimpse and then Raissa was pulling a man back into the shadows before reappearing moments later.

  He looked at her.

  It felt a little strange to want to be sure she’d fed enough.

  A little abashed, she looked at him.

  “I took enough,” she said. “I did.”

  Then she gave him an impish look. “But I’ll probably be hungry later.”

  “Good,” he said, and smiled.

  All around them he could hear the sound of gunfire. It astonished him to realize they’d likely been out of action for only a few frantic minutes.

  So much could change in that time.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  From the tunnel to the outer world came another explosion as a new set of weapons opened up in their private little war. More men burst out, moving fast and low, keeping one of their number secure in the center, picking their targets as they went.

  It rapidly became obvious they’d been watching as target after target fell.

  Ky looked at Raissa.

  The last team had finally entered the game.