Soul Reborn (Key to the Cursed Book 1)

by Jean Murray

  This thing was highly intelligent and powerful. It had no fear of her, even as she held the weapon against his chest. It definitely was testing her, but would it be so foolish to put its life at risk? Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it couldn’t be destroyed by usual means. If this was any indication of the things to come, the huntresses were in a shitload of trouble.

  She skidded to a stop in the loose gravel in front the fortress’ entrance. With a flick of her heel, she rested the bike on its kick stand.

  The fortress’ large iron gates loomed ahead with sentries on either side and two gunners on the roof. Daylight hours were relatively safe, but her employer took no risks. Built like a maximum security prison, a large impenetrable fence defended the entire circumference of the compound.

  Not to keep the prisoners in, but to keep the undead out.

  Lilly removed her helmet and nodded to the sentry and security camera. A large hydraulic motor engaged and pulled the massive door to the right.

  She jogged up the steps to the barracks. Black Eyed Peas blasted from one of the rooms several corridors away. Lilly took long, urgent strides to her second-in-command’s quarters. Without bothering to knock, she went straight to the stereo system in her sister’s room and turned it off.

  Kit whirled around in her chair. “Hey!”

  “We have a problem.” Lilly paced back and forth, ignoring her sister’s scowl. She rubbed her arms to relieve the residual chill.

  “No kidding.” Kit crossed her long legs wrapped in thigh high, black leather boots. “It’s been five years and you are just figuring that out. I killed over twelve revens last night by myself. Little bastards just kept coming.”

  Lilly shot a look at her sister. Kit’s sarcasm had long since lost its bite to the point Lilly simply ignored it. “Jesus, Kit. How many times have I told you not to go out alone? The cullings are going to become more dangerous. From now on, no one will go out alone. A minimum of two hunters at all times.” Lilly paused and folded her arms across her chest. “And yes, you will be with me, little sister.”

  Kit rolled her eyes.

  “Dad would haunt me the rest of my life if anything happened to you. You are my responsibility. You will just have to deal.”

  “Fine.” Her sister scowled again and sulked back in her chair. “Like he would care anyway,” Kit mumbled under her breath.

  Lilly glared at her sister. Kit was twenty-five years old, but could act ten years younger if the moment suited her. Especially, when it came to dealing with their father. Her sister’s resentment hadn’t changed in the least— if anything, it had worsened over the last five years. It was an argument they had a thousand times, but she refused to engage her.

  She had bigger things on her mind right now.

  Still rubbing her arms, Lilly broke off their staring contest and resumed pacing. Not even a calm cleansing breath rid her of the sensations the dark reven had left deep in her abdomen and against her skin.

  “What has you in such a hissy?”

  “We have a new enemy.” Lilly’s heart drummed in her chest, remembering how close it was, and what feeling it had elicited deep within her core. Just the thought of it flushed her insides with warmth. “I’ve never seen a reven like this before.”

  “Great, now they’re mutating?”

  “I don’t know. Its skin was black as tar, but the color shifted with the ambient changes in temperature. It was only then that I could see the outline of tattoos on its forearms, some type of symbols. It doesn’t make any sense. Revens don’t have any higher brain function, but this one spoke to me. Its speech was heavily accented, one I didn’t recognize.”

  “No, fucking way!” Kit jumped out of her chair, her long black hair fanning out in all directions. “The bastard talked to you? You must have been hallucinating.” She paced, just as Lilly was. “Are you absolutely sure it spoke?”

  Lilly instinctively drew her arms in tight around her. “It did more than that. It tried to kiss me.”

  Kit gasped. “What?”

  Astonishment, then anger flashed across her sister’s face. Lilly readied herself for the backlash.

  “You let a reven get that close to you—are you crazy?” Kit clamped her hands on her hips. “And you fucking lecture me.”

  Lilly sighed and sat in the closest chair. “You’re right. It’s not that I wasn’t armed, but it didn’t seem to care. And that is what’s concerning me.”

  “You’re sure it was a reven? Maybe it was something else?”

  “I don’t know what else it could be.” Lilly leaned forward and put her elbows on her leather covered knees. “It was dead. No heartbeat, no breathing, no scent. And it was colder than hell.”

  She shivered. It was also gorgeous in every sense of the word, with broad muscular shoulders and chest, and those black eyes that were riveted on her. Her heart raced and a renewed flush of warmth cascaded through her body.

  Shit. She needed to get laid, apparently.

  “There’s no doubt it was powerful. The stupid thing didn’t even flinch when I put my blade into its chest,” Lilly said, biting at the edge of her fingernail.

  “What did it want from you?”

  “I didn’t stick around to find out. I sensed three more in the tunnel.” One larger than the first but with glowing orange eyes. The huntress had become the hunted. She stood up to adjust her sword and weapons belt. “I’ll warn the others. In the meantime, where’s Kendra? Is she back yet?”

  “No. She’ll be at that stupid museum until dark. You think after all that’s happened, she’d at least keep track of the damn time.” Kit crossed her arms over her chest. “I had to escort her back to the fortress again yesterday because she didn’t show up before nightfall. And you think I’m the one at risk.”

  Lilly smiled. Their youngest sister, Kendra, was like the absent minded professor. Smartest girl in the world, but no common sense. Apparently a PhD didn’t have a disqualifier for being oblivious, so Kit looked after Kendra, and Lilly looked out for all of them. It had been that way since they were born, and more so now that their father was dead and they had no mother to speak of.

  “I’ll go check on her. I need to see if she can identify the symbols tattooed on the reven’s body. Maybe it will give us a clue as to what exactly it is and where it came from.”

  After an hour and a half debriefing with her boss, Lilly finally changed her clothes to go over to the museum. She still had the cold sensation crawling against her skin and needed to burn off the edge. Despite being utterly exhausted, she decided to walk and get a little vitamin D in the process. With her night time occupation, she rarely saw the sun. These were sleep and recovery hours for the Nehebkau.

  In more appropriate civilian attire of jeans and t-shirt, Lilly weaved her way through the busy New York City streets. With her ball cap pulled tight and low over her shades, she scanned the crowd.

  Most civilians in the city didn’t make eye contact, just scurried to their next destination. There was limited amount of daylight now that summer had come to an end and the days were getting shorter and shorter—not good for a city experiencing reven outbreaks. The sirens would sound off an hour before twilight. Any civilians unable to make it to safety had to report to a shelter with steel shutters, and remain there until morning. Quite an undertaking for a city of this size.

  Not everyone made it.

  Within a few blocks of Fifth and Eighty-First Street Lilly felt the fine hairs stand up on the back of her neck. Even in this large crowd she knew she was being followed. Purposefully slowing her pace, she stopped at one of the stores that had a window display. Behind her shades, she could easily track the flow of pedestrians in the reflection of the glass, looking for the one who stopped or hesitated.

  The civilians moved like a bubbling river.

  Lilly shook her head. Her paranoia had gotten the best of her, and rightly so, considering the encounter with the dark reven. She glanced briefly again at the crowd before jogging the rest of the way down t
he street and up the steps of the museum.

  Perpetually holed up in a dungeon full of artifacts, Kendra was the Egyptian antiquities specialist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She walked in her father’s footsteps with a love for archeology and had completed her doctorate at the age of twenty-two. The smell of dusty old books choked Lilly’s fine senses as she approached her little sister’s office.

  The room under the stairs had the same amount of space as a walk-in closet. At six-feet–tall, Lilly had to duck to make it through the unusually small door. The desk was covered with stacks of books so high she didn’t see Kendra sitting behind them.

  “Kendra?”

  She couldn’t help but laugh when her sister’s head popped up, barely clearing the height of the stacks.

  “Is it dusk already?” Kendra asked, bouncing around the edge of her desk.

  Lilly looked down in amusement at her barely five foot three sibling. Kendra’s long, auburn hair was pulled back in a sloppy ponytail in a miserable attempt to keep the curls contained. Hair stuck out everywhere.

  “It’s ten in the morning.”

  Kendra frowned. “Oh. I can never tell. As you can see, no windows.” She looked around with a perplexed look on her face.

  “I need your help.”

  “Oh?” Kendra’s eyes widened. Lilly rarely asked for help.

  She slipped Kendra the sketches she’d drawn of the reven’s tattoos. “Think you might recognize these symbols?”

  Taking the paper from Lilly, Kendra squealed with delight. “Where did you find these?” She didn’t even wait for an answer. Mumbling to herself in a string of phrases Lilly couldn’t even begin to comprehend, her sister disappeared behind the stack of books again.

  She waited while Kendra buried her head in several disheveled texts, her head bobbing back and forth from the drawings to her reference materials. She scribbled down notes. When Kendra pulled out a book at least four inches thick, Lilly knew it was time to go. She walked out of the tiny office without saying goodbye. Kendra wouldn’t notice her absence for several hours.

  CHAPTER three

  “Ready to be bait?” Lilly asked, tightening down her black leather vest that came just above her navel.

  “Why is it me that always has to act like the stupid female in distress?” Kit asked, shoving a stick of gum into her mouth.

  “Because, I’m in charge.” Lilly walked over in her vest and pink panties to grab her pants. She pulled the smooth leather up over her hips and then turned to her sister. “Plus, I’m stronger than you. We need to take out as many of these bastards as we can.”

  Lilly tossed Kit a file with the latest intel. “Viper scouts detected a nest of revens just outside the city limits. An estimated twenty, maybe twenty-five. We will travel in the open to that location, set up, and then spring the trap. Viper team will be a few short clicks away if we run into any trouble.”

  “Twenty-five to two? I like those odds,” Kit said. She blew a bubble, then sucked it back in her mouth with a pop.

  “I thought you might. See, tagging along with your big sister won’t be so bad, now will it?” Lilly adjusted her sister’s weapons belt. “Pull your hair back so it doesn’t obstruct your view,” she said, tucking Kit’s silky black hair behind her ear. Although she teased Kit about being the bait, she didn’t like the idea of her being down in the cistern by herself.

  “Yes, mother.”

  Two hours later, twilight fell upon the city. The perfect time to hunt revens. Lilly narrowed her eyes and scanned the old water treatment plant. Her adrenaline kicked into gear, activating her fight response. Her entire body on alert. She shifted her weapons. Her pre-game ritual. With the chill from last night’s encounter finally shaken off, her body ignited with heat.

  It had happened the same way each hunt since her conversion. Like fire in her veins it raced through every cell of her body, starting at her spine and then wrapping around her torso and into her extremities. Her skin flushed red with the rush of warmth.

  Ironically, this same heat drew the prey in front of her closer, like a fly to a dead body. Its reddish eyes and pale skin flashed in the moonlight as it honed in on her position.

  Her eyes dilated in response, brightening the darkened landscape. She could taste the acidic air of the city on her tongue.

  Short sword already drawn, she sprinted to the prey. Each muscle contracted in a symphony of fluid motion as she moved toward the target. There was no need to draw the hunt out. Kill and move on. “Kit, eyes on target. How are you doing?”

  A brief crackle of static transmitted over the ear piece, then Kit answered, “I’ll be joining you shortly with about fifteen flesh eaters in tow.”

  “Roger. I’ll be there in two mikes.” Lilly launched herself into the air over the railing and swung the blade down in one quick motion. The reven’s head rolled across the cement, eyes blinking, not comprehending it had been separated from its body. She landed and roundhouse kicked the remaining standing body in the chest. It slammed onto its back with arms clawing the air. She nailed her boot heel into its chest to hold it still, then thrust the tip of her spear into its chest cavity to carve up the motionless heart. Only then did the eyes close on the decapitated head.

  “N-ka-n-imAh,” Lilly whispered in ancient Egyptian. Her father’s translation echoed in her head. An offering for the ka of the revered. “May your soul find paradise in your rebirth.”

  She leapt back up on the ledge and moved into position. Perched above the cistern opening, Lilly pulled the pin on the flash charge and waited for her sister.

  An unfamiliar coldness crept into her extremities and down her spine. Startled by the sudden temperature change, she held onto the flash charge a little longer than she had wanted. A few of the revens escaped out the opening after Kit.

  Lilly raised her hand to protect her eyes from the bright ignition of fire incinerating the undead revens. A multitude of hollow screams emanated out of the tunnel. Flaming bodies staggered out of the opening, along with the putrid smell of decayed, burning flesh.

  She leapt down and decapitated three charred revens mid-air, and struck the fourth in the chest. Kit killed one, and finished off another.

  Lilly waited at the opening with her weapon drawn, but no more revens charged out of the smoky darkness. The reassurance did little to relieve the goose bumps that covered her arms and neck.

  “What the hell?” Lilly muttered and scanned for the source among the dark shadows cast by the various levels of concrete. Her concern about the chill abruptly ceased when revens rushed out of adjacent openings. “Kit!”

  Her sister had her back to the swarm. Without hesitation, Lilly launched herself between her sister and the overwhelming horde of hungry revens. “Twenty-five, my ass,” she yelled, as Kit joined her. “We need to double back. Now!”

  Kit nodded, too occupied to form the words in her mouth. Despite her sister’s cocky attitude, Lilly knew Kit’s limitations had been reached. She and her sister both pulled pins on their grenades, and threw them into the undulating crowd of rotten flesh and teeth. The revens disregarded the egg shaped charges and pushed forward, climbing over each other to get to their next meal.

  Lilly had just reached the first landing when the first charge ignited followed by the second. The spray of blood and flesh hit her back. A few steps ahead of her, Kit retreated up the levels of concrete to create distance between them and the revens. By this time, the undead filled the entire bowl of the aqueduct.

  Her sister leapt up, well out of reach of the revens before she stopped. “Holy, shit. We’ll need a damn airstrike for this,” Kit said, as she holstered her blades in favor of more grenades.

  Lilly walked the six inch wide ledge of concrete. The revens clawed at the grey cement trying to scale the wall. Blood and skin spattered the concrete, like a freakish finger painting. Kit chucked a few more flash charges into the surging crowd below.

  Lilly dialed the emergency line on her phone and sent their GPS coordin
ates. The phone vibrated indicating the message had been received, and the fifteen minute countdown lit up the phone display.

  She grabbed her sister’s arm. “Save them. Viper team is in route. Let’s seal up the outer rim so the bastards can’t escape. They’ll be dropping an aerial assault in fifteen minutes so we need to work quickly.”

  Kit nodded and headed in the other direction.

  Lilly moved along the concrete tight rope and placed charges along the walls that had exits. With the last brick of C4, she leaned over to place the charge, careful to distribute her weight evenly. Unexpectedly, she shivered and lost her balance on the wall. Her heart rocketed in her chest. The thought of falling into a cauldron of flesh eating undead was not her idea of going out with a bang.

  CHAPTER four

  Asar watched the kills with fervent arousal, almost if he was doing the killing himself. His body hardened with voyeuristic delight. Outnumbered over a thousand to two, the huntresses held their ground.

  “Do you still think her skill adequate, brother?” he asked Kamen.

  Kamen’s gaze locked on the black haired female. “I stand corrected. I wonder if they taste as sweet as they look?”

  “Probably.” Asar turned back toward the blonde huntress, remembering the sweetness on his tongue. “But sometimes, beauty is something to behold instead of consumed.” His golden beauty approached and then suddenly faltered on the narrow wall. Kamen’s strong grasp clamped down on his arm.

  “Where do you think you are going?”

  Asar glared at his brother while shaking off his grasp. “I am not going anywhere.”

  Kamen retracted his arm slowly. “You were going to intervene. We are only here to observe.”

  Forcefully, Asar locked every muscle in a painful contraction to deny his body’s impulse to rescue his huntress. In his distant mind, a thought commanded him to help her, but that just could not be. Sympathy was an emotion of the soul, something he lacked. Anger welled in his gut. “What I choose to do is my privilege, and I do not need you to question it.”