by Allie Burton
“You are no longer a member of the Society of Aten.” Disgust and anger filled the old man’s tone.
When I screwed up, Fitch slapped me or sent me to my room with an empty stomach. But this time his larger threat to kick me out of the family was similar to Jeb’s threat.
“What about my room? My things?” Xander’s voice cracked.
“The things the Society bought are for the host of King Tut’s soul.” Jeb’s ice-cold tone clipped short. “Which isn’t you.”
Xander struggled to sit up. “But…but we’re a family, you brought me up, you’re the only person in this world I know.”
Without Fitch I probably wouldn’t have survived the last few years. He wasn’t the best person, but I didn’t starve or freeze to death. He trained me to do something, even if it was illegal. If I didn’t return with the amulet, I’d be kicked out of the family. Abandoned just like Xander. So, I didn’t have a choice. I would get the amulet to Fitch if it was the last thing I did.
“I raised you to possess King Tut.” Jeb reached down and swiped the crown off Xander’s head, then turned away. “You should’ve thought of that before you let the girl claim the soul.”
Behind the fake foam tablet, I swallowed a lump the size of the ugly amulet. Because of me, because of my actions, Xander was being dumped. Like garbage.
I understood what he was going through.
The pain.
The humiliation.
I’d been there before with my parents and the foster care system. Many times. Until I joined Fitch. Sure things had changed more and more over the years, but I couldn’t forget—he’d never let me forget—he’d saved me.
A high-pitched screeching wailed. I sunk down and covered my ears. The delayed pressure alarm in the display case had finally gone off. We’d be surrounded by guards soon and the museum would be swarming with police.
My chest compressed, imagining small spaces with bars in my future.
I peeked over the tablet to see Jeb and Xander’s reaction to the alarm. They didn’t know my inside contact would delay the police, at least by a few minutes.
Fright flashed across Jeb’s face. “I have to find her before anyone else does,” he yelled over the alarm, a sense of determination in his tone.
No way was I going to let that man anywhere near me. Fitch would save me, protect me, if I could get back to him with the amulet.
“You can’t leave me here.” Xander raised a hand and then dropped it. “My body’s weak, partially paralyzed. I’ll get caught.”
“You will learn your new rightful place.” Jeb made it sound so final.
The front door to the exhibit banged closed and locked. I jerked at the deafening sound. It reminded me of what a prison door might sound like locking me up for life. Just the thought of a tiny cell had my chest clogging with claustrophobia. If I didn’t get out soon the doors would close one by one. Locking me inside. Forever, or until the cops arrived. I’d never see Tina or Doug again.
“Enjoy your stone-cold Afterlife.” Jeb ranted as he slipped out a second door right before it slammed shut.
I glanced at Xander on the ground, then at the only door still open. The only escape. The old man didn’t care about Xander, didn’t care that he was hurt or that he’d get caught. He truly had been abandoned.
I sighed. I couldn’t leave him lying on the floor. I had to at least get him out of the museum. Then, I’d dump him. Sighing again, I straightened from behind the tablet and rushed over to Xander. “Hurry. Let me help you.”
His face paled. “Don’t touch me.”
Couldn’t he accept help from a girl?
“The guards will be here any second. We have to get out.” The bleeding sympathy in my heart changed to fear. My chest strangled, holding the organ like a caged animal.
“Push that tablet you hid behind over here.”
“You knew I was hiding?” Pressing my lips together, I did as asked. Anything to get him up and moving.
The muscles in his arms bulged as he pushed against the fake tablet to get to his feet. “The weakness is fading.”
“Do you have some weird disease?” Why would a perfectly healthy guy fall to the ground and not be able to move? I hadn’t pushed him that hard.
“You have powers. I’ll explain later.” He shuffled forward with a slight limp, still looking like a Roman god, but a vulnerable one. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Duh.” Like I hadn’t been trying to do that for the last ten minutes.
“This way.” He pointed in the direction Jeb had disappeared.
Not only was the door closed and locked, but the older man had gone that way to find me. No way was I following Xander into a trap.
“I’ve got a plan and I have to stick to it.”
Not that I’d followed it since he’d burst into the museum. Fitch would be mad that I’d helped someone from outside our circle.
“Your plan was doomed from the start.” What Xander whispered didn’t make sense. “Trust me.”
“Why should I trust you? You tried to steal the amulet.” I had to remember that. I might be helping him get out, but that’s where our partnership ended.
“Isn’t that what you’re doing?” He stopped his painful-looking shuffle. His eyes flared with the intensity of the cut emeralds one of the older kids had lifted last week. “I’ve got nothing to lose.”
I had everything to lose. Everything I’d worked for would be gone. “I’m meeting my team. Don’t tell me you still trust the old man after what he did to you.”
His face reddened. “Why did you stay to help? When Jeb left, you could’ve followed.”
I didn’t plan to tell Xander about my sad trip down memory lane. “I’m going this way. You can follow, or not.”
He followed as I scurried through the museum like a mouse in a well-practiced maze. Nerves constricted my muscles making my jog awkward, and the silence between him and I was awkward-er. Life would’ve been easier if he’d gone his own way because I’d have a hard time explaining him.
Fitch and I had rehearsed the theft with a timer, knowing how many minutes I had until all the doors slammed and locked tight. I was already behind. Our paid-off guard could only neglect his duties and delay things so long. The plan had me exiting by the loading dock. Xander and I wended our way toward the small back room where the museum stored pieces and display materials.
“This exit.” I pointed toward the small door next to the big garage-like loading dock doors.
“Hey…you.”
“Olivia.” Shoot. I shouldn’t have told him my name, but I wanted to be more than a ‘hey you’ to this guy. I didn’t want to analyze why.
“Olivia.” I liked how he said my name. With a sophisticated accent, not a trashy lilt like the boys in the family. “Shouldn’t you look outside first?”
I firmed my lips and kept my pace heading straight for the door, leaving him behind. “I trust my people.” I tossed my braid around and shot him a look. The dig was deliberate.
“So did I.” His response cut my bravado in two.
My family wouldn’t ditch me. Like the Marines, we didn’t leave a man behind as long as I brought Fitch what he wanted.
Xander hadn’t moved. My insult must’ve gotten to him.
I pushed against the metal bar to open the door. Damp air hit my face. So did the stench of recently smoked cigarettes. A black SUV was parked in front of the doorway with its lights off. The shiny car looked expensive and new.
Fitch didn’t own a vehicle like that.
Something hard and pointy shoved into my back. Clicked. Like an animal about to become lunch, I tensed.
“Don’t move,” a gruff voice said from behind.
Not Fitch’s voice. Or the old creepy guy Jeb. My brain analyzed the situation while my instincts wanted to scream. “Are you a security guard? Because some old guy is in there trying to steal—”
“Shut up. I got a rifle kissing your heart.” How long had the guy been rehearsing
that corny line?
“Wh-what do you want?” My tongue tripped over the words.
“You.”
First, the security guard. Then, Jeb and Xander. Now, this guy.
It sucks to be so popular.
Chapter Three
Xander
When the door slammed closed, Xander rushed forward. He peeked through the small window and watched a man with a gun nudge Olivia. Were all girls this rash?
His stomach flipped knowing that could’ve been him. Except he would’ve been more cautious. He’d learned after living with the Society of Aten to always look before you leap. Always listen at cracks in the doors and windows. Always think ahead.
The girl stumbled forward. “You a cop?”
No way was the unidentified man a cop. Xander didn’t know any members of the police department personally, but he’d watched a lot of cop shows on television. None of them drove an expensive vehicle like the one parked by the loading dock. Watching TV helped pass the time between training and ancient history lessons. He wasn’t allowed to do much else.
The vehicle’s ignition turned on. A tall man, wearing all black, was seated in the driver’s seat. The getaway driver.
“Move it.” The gun guy pushed Olivia again.
The poor girl had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or had she? As Jeb had said, she looked about the right age. Xander’s head hurt. She had to be the right age because she’d stolen the power he’d been groomed to control for his entire life. The power that would show the world the right way. The Society of Aten way.
She didn’t know how to handle the power of King Tut. She’d spoken as if her people wouldn’t abandon her like Jeb. The man Xander had listened to and feared since he was a toddler. The man was known for hissy fits when things were handled wrong, blaming the police or the government when the organization was inspected, or smacking Xander’s fingers with a ruler when he couldn’t learn to read hieroglyphics.
A tingle threaded across his skin. Maybe he should’ve said where Olivia had been hiding, maybe then he would’ve been taken home and not left lying on the museum floor to fend for himself.
What had Jeb meant by stone cold Afterlife?
Between the taunt and his contemptuous expression, Xander had known he couldn’t give the girl’s position away. And she’d stayed to help him.
Taking a deep breath, he glanced out the small window again.
The girl moved slow and took small steps across the loading dock. She obviously didn’t want to go with these strange men. If she’d stayed with him, he could’ve told her the best way to fight. But she’d rushed ahead believing in her people. He wished he had as much faith.
In his people and the Society. Not in his beliefs.
Everything inside him firmed. He was supposed to be the hero. To teach the foolish people on earth the truth. To show them the right way to live. To stop battles and wars. To show them the true light to peace. These facts had been ingrained in him since the Society had adopted him.
Instead, he was watching the girl who’d stolen his powers to achieve those things being kidnapped.
He couldn’t stand by and watch his hard work and dreams disappear. He had to help so he could convince her of the truth and of the power. Show her the true way.
Leaning forward, he cracked the door open enough for him to slip through. He needed to act fast because his white robes would be noticed immediately. The man with the gun had his back to him, but the man in the car was watching the girl’s every move. Moving through the door, Xander tried to keep his sandals silent. He’d practiced ninja skills when sneaking up on Society conversations and he used those skills now to get close without being seen or heard. Rubbing his fingers together, he warmed the skin. He reached up and avoiding the thickness of the gun man’s thick leather jacket, he pinched his fingers together on a specific spot between the man’s neck and shoulders.
The gun man slumped to the ground and the weapon fell from his hand.
Olivia swiveled around her hands up, ready to fight.
“Touch him.” Xander knew Sebekkah maneuvers wouldn’t knock the guy out completely, but she could.
“What? What did you do to him?” Her pert little nose pointed up and her brown eyes resembled a doe he saw once in a forest. Startled and ready to run.
“Touch him. Now.” His order sounded harsh. He needed her to listen to him. There was still the guy in the car to deal with. “Now.”
Giving him a strange look, she bent down and touched the guy. The man screamed, and his body convulsed. Xander hoped he hadn’t screamed at such a high pitch when she’d touched him.
“Did I do that?” The wonder in her voice called to him.
Unless it was Tut speaking through her.
A car door slammed. The driver had gotten out of the black SUV. His face shadowed by a hat and the overhang of a tree. The man raised his arms and the security lights glinted off the black metal object in his hand.
Another gun.
Heat fired through Xander’s veins like lava, erupting in adrenaline and alarm. “Run.”
She darted down the three short steps of the loading dock and took cover behind a large metal dumpster.
Surprised she’d listened this time, he scampered behind knowing he needed to protect her and stay by her side. Peeking around the edge of the dumpster, he took a deep breath.
The first man lay shaking on the loading dock. The tall driver moved cautiously forward holding the gun out like a shield. They needed to dash now, before the tall man got closer and his aim became more true.
Tightening his muscles, Xander hoped she’d follow his command once again. “Go!”
The girl took off like a shot and he followed knowing a bullet could zing by and stop either one of them in an instant. His feet pounded across the deserted parking lot. Hers scraped as if she was out of breath. Reaching the bushes lining the blacktop, he pushed aside a scraggly limb and Olivia crawled inside. He followed landing on his knees.
The darkness exploded with blue and red slashes of light as they twirled off the approaching squad cars. The tall man ran back to his car, got in, and peeled away. Trapped in the beams of red and blue, Xander stayed still on the ground.
The girl ducked lower and scooted deeper into the bushes which became woods into Golden Gate Park. He only knew about the park from studying maps of San Francisco. The Society had believed they needed to keep him separate from others. There was the mansion on Sea Cliff Avenue and the large ranch south of the city. The only two places he’d been allowed to roam.
“You can’t leave.” Crawling on his knees to follow, he needed to get her to agree to stay with him.
She needed to be told about the powers. She needed to be trained.
“Uh, yeeeeaaah.” Her chest rose and fell, and he wondered if she felt the power of Tut inside. “Handcuffs don’t match my outfit.”
Scrunching his brow, he didn’t understand her meaning about her clothes. The dirt blended in to her all black attire while his white shendyt was dusted with dirt and grime. “I need to tell you about the power.”
She bit her lip and stared. Her eyes flashed with a strange light as if images rolled around in her head. She’d felt the power of the possession, seen the guy with the gun who’d fallen at her touch, saw him convulse on the floor. “Look. You helped me, and I helped you. We’re even.”
Her ingratitude scraped through his lungs. “I saved you from being kidnapped.”
“Well, thanks for knocking the guy out with that weird maneuver.” A bug buzzed her face and she gently swatted it away. The insect plummeted to the ground.
Because of her powers.
“It’s Sebakkah, an ancient Egyptian form of martial arts.” He’d trained daily.
“Good to know in case I ever encounter it again.” Her tone edged with an as if.
He balled his fists. Not having met any girls before, he didn’t know if this was normal or not.
Out of view of the parking lot
, he stood and straightened his garment trying to avoid the dirt. This wasn’t how he normally appeared. The Society expected him to look his best with clean clothes and perfect hair. The current attire was for the formal ceremony that was to follow after he’d inherited Tut’s soul. Now, not only were the clothes dirty but his toes were cold, and he looked out of place walking around the park in the middle of the foggy night.
Not that the opinion of peons mattered. The only one who mattered was Olivia.
“Do you have a cell phone I could use?” She stretched onto her toes as she walked, a delicate balancing act like a ballerina.
“No.” He followed her. What else could he do?
“No, you don’t have one? Or no, I can’t use it?” Her tone suggested everyone had a cell phone.
Which from what he saw on television, they did. “I don’t have one.”
“Why not?”
“I wasn’t allowed to have one.” He wasn’t allowed to have a lot of normal things. It had never bothered him because he was destined for greatness. “The Society didn’t want me in contact with anyone but them.”
“Bummerita.” Her careless tone and made up word annoyed. She didn’t understand the severity of the situation.
“I’m serious about the training.” His tone commanded as if he really was a king or pharaoh. Except he wasn’t and never would be now. He wanted to wallow in the grief, and yet a spark of something lit inside.
“From you? I don’t think so.” The girl scoffed. At him. “Right now, the only thing I need is to get far away from the museum.”
She walked faster expecting him to give up. Since the Society rejected him, he had no place to go. Following her, convincing her, was now his only goal. She didn’t understand what he’d been put through his entire life. He wasn’t one to give up easily.
An owl hooted sounding lonely. The fog infiltrated deep into the woods making it feel like they were the only two people in the world. A lightness entered his soul and he didn’t understand why. This girl had stolen his power and left him with nothing, and yet he breathed in the scent of plants and trees more easily.