Apep sat down in a chair and watched the doctor and the nurse scramble to leave the room. He hoped beyond hope that they tried to tell someone what was happening, but they didn’t, much to his consternation. He would have liked to kill someone right about then. Maybe he would do it anyway. He was having such a craving…
But he realized that he would best control the doctor through intimidation, not through out and out terror. If he saw one of his coworkers die he might be reduced to a babbling ball of fear, and then where would that leave Apep? Back at square one.
He was not going back to square one. He refused.
It was far past time to end this.
He had an enemy to destroy and a world to conquer.
—
Kamen had rolled to the side, his back hitting the carpet as he panted for breath. He felt starved for oxygen, and yet was replete in every other way. He ringed an arm around Viève’s shoulders and drew her close, pressing her head to his chest as he dipped down and kissed her on her crown. She was struggling for breath too, her hands gripping at him. She curled up to his side and shivered a little. He immediately teleported a blanket from the bed and let it fall over them where they lay. He should have brought her to the bed. She deserved a bed. He was about to get up and carry her into the next room when she sat up with a squeal. Panic flooded her features.
“What is it?” he asked, immediately concerned.
“We…we didn’t used a condom! I’m a Wraith female! Wraith females get pregnant every time they have sex! Every time. Without fail! Unless a condom is used. And we didn’t. Use one.”
Kamen relaxed. “Is that all? You had me worried for a minute there.”
“Is that all? Is that all? I don’t want a half-breed child! I won’t put a child through what I’ve gone through! Never!”
“Relax, little dove, I would never treat you with such lack of respect and forethought. You were protected against pregnancy.”
“I…I was?” She looked perplexed. “How?”
“If you can recall…right before I came into you I spoke a Word of magic.”
Viève wracked her memory, then realized she did remember something like that.
“I think so…” she said hesitantly.
“I was rendering myself infertile. The spell will last for twenty-four hours. You cannot get pregnant by me.”
“Really?” she was both stunned and impressed. “You can do that?”
“I can. If I couldn’t I would have made certain to use a condom. I would never have done anything to harm you. I have done enough harmful things in my life. I do not wish to compound my errors.”
She sat there a moment, pushing strands of her dove gray hair behind her ear, the bareness of her upper body attracting him. He reached out and drifted his long fingers over her shoulder.
“We’re supposed to be looking for a spell.”
He frowned. She had a point. He had allowed himself to be thoroughly distracted from what was most important. He sat up and glanced at the book of French spells she had left open on his desk before he had taken leave of his senses and lost himself in her.
But he wouldn’t have changed a thing, he thought. Not a single second of it. Perhaps that made him selfish, selfish when he didn’t deserve to be selfish, but he couldn’t force himself to regret it.
He stood up and walked naked to the desk, feeling her eyes upon him the entire way. He turned the book so he could read it and there it was, the witness spell, just as she had said.
“This is it,” he said.
“It is? That’s wonderful!” She was excited. She stood up, wrapping the cover around herself as she hurried to his side. She began to read the spell aloud, but he silenced her with fingertips to her lips.
“Careful,” he said. “This spell needs no herbal components. It only needs to be spoken. Remember, anyone can cast magic, but not everyone can handle the consequences.”
“But you do it with such ease.”
“I am a very powerful Egyptian priest who has been spellcasting through over a dozen resurrections. There is only one spellcaster more powerful than I am and she is no more.”
“All right. So what do we do now?”
“Now? Now we get dressed, for I find it hard to think when I know you are so readily naked.”
She laughed at him. “I could say the same!”
He looked down at his bare body. “Although, it might make the Phoenixes feel right at home.”
“True!” She lifted her chin and dropped the coverlet to the floor. “Let’s go!”
He got his first real look at her fully naked body and his reaction was instant and blinding. She was pale perfection, only the tips of her fair pink nipples providing color on an otherwise monochromatic theme. But her paleness suited her, like the white of a living marble statue, all alabaster curves made warm and inviting; crafted by an artist’s loving touch. All of this tempted him beyond reason. He could smell her still…only now she smelled of him and the knowledge was provocative.
He still did not know what had come over him; how he had managed to find himself with a lover after so many years of abstinence. And it wasn’t as though he had put any effort into that abstinence. It had just come to be. It had suited him well. Sex was such a messy thing.
And now he wanted to get messy. With her.
His aroused thoughts were reflected onto his body and she went prettily pink along her cheeks as she noticed.
“No,” he said, turning to face her and touching long fingers to the delicate curve of her collarbone. “None will see you like this save me.” He traced the bone to the hollow at the base of her throat and touched that vulnerable spot. “Are we agreed on that?”
“I…I don’t want anyone else to see me like this except for you,” she said.
“Then we are of like mind on this. I hope it is a sign we will be of like mind on other things as well.” His words were loaded with sensual promise, and it was not lost on her.
“And I can see you…” She reached out and fingered the tattoo on the back of his shoulder, a twisting together of snakes each devouring the tail of the other. “What is this?” she asked him.
“It is the ouroboros. It appears on the skin when a Bodywalker enters the body of a human. It can show up in a variety of places. For me, it is there.”
“It’s very pretty.”
He smiled at that. “Thank you,” he said.
Then she bent to fetch her dress from the floor. His eyes didn’t miss a single millimeter of movement. She slipped the dress on, hiding almost all of her pale prettiness from view.
“Your turn,” she said. She picked up his boxer-briefs and shyly handed them to him. He found himself resisting the urge to chuckle. What was it about her that made him feel so much lighter? Light enough to laugh even when things were so damned serious?
He took the underwear from her and put it on. He then fetched the rest of his clothes and in short order was impeccably dressed once more, as though their liaison had never happened. But it had happened and the proof of it was in the delicious way she smelled. His mark was all over her.
And it wasn’t enough, he realized immediately. Not for a day. Not for a time. He wanted her for more than he dared to hope. It could go nowhere, he deserved nothing as amazing as she was and he had no life to offer her, but he would steal her for a little while. Would keep her to himself like a treasured secret. If she would have him. She still did not understand the scope of his crimes against her and all things living. Were he a more honorable man he would tell her and be done with it, but he didn’t want the teasing light in her eyes to go away.
This was exactly the sort of selfish behavior that had gotten him into this mess in the first place. But clearly he had not learned his lesson well enough because he found he did not care. Truth would come to light in time. Until then, he would hold her to himself like a thirsting man would cradle a teaspoonful of water.
For Viève’s part, she looked at him with consternation. He lo
oked as though he had never even touched her…where she was certain there were his handprints all over her skin for all to see. She would be facing the world with the knowledge that she had been fundamentally changed in this short hour. She’d had her first lover. She could tell because of the slightly sore places she felt throughout her body. Otherwise there would be nothing but an all too brief memory to go by.
She bit her lip nervously. What did this mean for them now? These had been stolen moments away from the world, but now they were heading back into it and life would continue as before. Was this all there would be? Was this all she would have? Oh, if that were the case she wished that she had paid better attention! She had been so overwhelmed by his passion that she’d been swept up more than she’d been a true participant. Now it was over and she had only memories to go by. Not nearly enough memories. She hadn’t even really gotten the chance to touch him. Not in all the ways she wanted to.
She found herself reaching out to him, her hand touching his biceps through his shirt, feeling the play of strong muscle there. He reached out for her, ringed his arm around her waist, and dragged her up against his body. Startled, she looked up into his eyes.
“We shall discuss this some more at our next opportunity,” he said, his voice a low growl of feeling.
“You mean…” She was almost afraid to ask. “You mean you wish to do this again? Another time?”
“And another. And another. As long as you will have me.” He frowned then. “But Viève, there are things about me, about my past, that I am afraid will take you away from me eventually. Know that, even though I am too cowardly to tell you what they are, I do not mean to purposely deceive you. I simply…” She watched him swallow. “I simply need, for a moment, to be with someone who does not see me as the villain that I am. It is selfish, I know, and I fear the way this may come to make you feel, but I am hoping this moment of honesty will be enough for you to realize I would never mean to cause you any pain, and so perhaps you will be better able to bear my deception.”
“What is it you think you have done? I cannot imagine it being as bad as all that. You do not seem to be a villain to me.”
“The words of a naïve woman. But,” he said quickly before she could take offense, “I like that you are so able to see a part of me that might yet be redeemable.”
“I see a great many parts. Any man who works this hard for the benefit of his people is more than redeemable and not a villain.” She smiled at him when he shook his head. “We will agree to disagree on this matter. For now, bring your spell and let’s find the Phoenixes.”
“Very well. But remember this. I am not worthy of you. A better man would not touch you, knowing this. But I am not a better man,” he said, reaching to caress her at the line of her jaw, “for I cannot help my desire to touch you.”
Viève flushed warmly in already warm places. She reached to grasp the wrist of the hand touching her face and drew his touch away from her.
“We will never leave this room if you do not stop doing so for the moment.”
He flashed a grimace, becoming infinitely more serious—if such a thing were possible from a man as serious as he was. He picked up the book with the spell in it and using his finger as a placeholder, he carried the book in one hand and reached out to her with the other. He cupped her elbow and turned her into step by his side. He opened the door and let her pass through before him.
Chapter 10
They found the Phoenixes with Marissa and Jackson in the kitchen. Both were in clothes, after a fashion. The female was dressed in a wispy sort of cocktail dress made of chiffon and drapes of fabric that ended at mid-thigh. The male had donned a pair of loose-fitting cargo pants and nothing else. He was bare chested, the play of muscles beneath his dark skin obvious for all to see. He was not a weak man by any stretch of the imagination, and Kamen suspected he was purposely showing that fact off. He wanted others to know just how strong he was. Either that or he was simply showing off his beauty. Like a bird might do. Preening his feathers about.
The female was no less beautiful, the midnight blue of her dress contrasting with the fiery red of her hair in a most attractive manner. Viève thought she was beautiful—just as Marissa was beautiful—and she began to feel self-conscious amongst such elegant specimens of femininity. Marissa was a redhead too, though hers was a more coppery red. She was tall and classy in a black pencil skirt that hugged her curvaceous hips and a pretty emerald colored blouse.
Viève tugged on one of her dull gray locks and bit her lip. She would bet any makeup she’d applied earlier was either long gone or in need of a touch-up. She looked at Kamen from beneath her lashes. What did he think when he saw her up against such beautiful, vibrantly colored women when she was as washed out as any colorless Wraith? Marissa had blue-green eyes that virtually shone from her face. The Phoenix’s were a fair lavender color. Her eyes were a flat, unexciting gray. With women like this to choose from, she would be picked last every time.
“We’ve found the spell I need,” Kamen said to Jackson.
“Explain this spell to me,” Jackson replied, placing his coffee cup down on the kitchen counter. “I want to know what you have planned before anyone risks taking part in it.”
“It’s a simple spell really,” Kamen explained. “It allows me to take one person into the memories of another person to ‘witness’ an occurrence firsthand, as if they were there experiencing the situation themselves. I plan to take the Phoenixes into your memories,” he said, nodding to both Jackson and Marissa in turn, “of what happened the last time we faced Apep.”
“It sounds simple enough,” Jackson said hesitantly. “But what’s the catch?”
“Catch?” Kamen echoed.
“There’s always a catch to these things.”
“Not always. It’s a pretty straightforward spell. The only catch would be…I don’t know how real it will feel to the watcher. They might experience every bit of the pain you felt in that situation.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jackson said with a frown. He remembered the pain of that encounter all too well.
“I am not afraid of a little pain,” the male Phoenix scoffed.
“It wasn’t a little,” Jackson bit out.
Cordo scoffed again. “Take me into his memories,” he said. “Use your magic. I am not afraid.”
“And what of you?” Kamen asked, looking at the female Phoenix. “Marissa did not experience physical pain, but the emotional devastation was crippling.”
“I am hardly afraid of emotions,” she said with a laugh.
“You should be,” Marissa whispered softly. “I would never wish to relive that moment again if I had any choice in the matter.”
“Well, there’s your ‘catch,’ ” Kamen said. “You will relive all of your pain right along with them as they experience it in great detail.”
Marissa frowned and shuddered. “If it is what I have to do, then so be it.”
“Then let’s find somewhere comfortable to do this.”
“My rooms?” Jackson offered.
“Yes. A bed for our guests would be best and we can pull up chairs for you and Marissa. You need to be in physical contact with the vessel receiving your memory.”
They moved into Jackson and Marissa’s suite and the Phoenixes laid down on the freshly made bed, side by side. Jackson pulled up a chair to the left side of the bed where the male lay and Marissa to the right where the female lay.
“Take hands,” Kamen said, opening the book in his hands to the proper page. Jackson and Cordo clasped hands and Ceara and Marissa did likewise.
“Jackson, Marissa, take your minds back to that moment, just before Apep arrived on the grounds. Remember what you were doing.”
“I was gardening,” Marissa said.
“I was drinking a beer, sitting on the porch.”
“Good. Hold those images in your mind.” Kamen looked at Viève. “Step back a little. I don’t know how this is going to manifest.”
Viève obediently stepped away from the bed, walking backward until her back hit the wall. Then she stood and watched with rapacious curiosity.
Kamen cleared his throat and then began to recite the spell in perfect French.
Take us back to the time, make one’s memory mine, find me there, in the moment, to feel, to see, to witness all that came to pass as if it were my own.
Then Kamen reached out and touched the foot of first Cordo and then Ceara.
Cordo found himself sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of the house they were presently in. A bottle of beer hung from his fingers and he was watching the back of a man sitting not too far away from him. A friend. This man was his friend, and he was in trouble. Not immediate danger, but emotional pain, and he was wondering how he could help his friend.
Leo. His name was Leo and they had been friends since they’d been boys together. Leo was a simple human male, and he had been through a lot lately.
“Leo,” he said, making the other man turn to look at him.
They exchanged words. Angry words. Leo was in so much pain he lashed out because of it. Cordo tried to be patient, but his friend tested him.
Someone joined them on the porch, a male he knew as Ram. His presence seemed to only worsen Leo’s mood, but there was nothing he could do about that.
As they spoke he found himself looking across the yard to where Marissa was sitting in the garden, playing with a mound of soil and smiling absently to herself. She was beautiful. Breathtaking. He had known Hatshepsut, her Bodywalker, since the beginning of time it seemed, but he had only known the woman Marissa Anderson for a short while. And yet together they formed a creature of perfection he knew met his souls’ needs in every way possible. He felt replete just looking at her. He remembered their lovemaking that evening just before they had risen to begin their day. It had been long and slow and tender. She had been everything a woman should be. And yet now she played in the dirt like a child.
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