Dark Sins and Desert Sands (18 page)

He thought of Layla. Her calming presence and the coolness of her fingers on his fevered skin. He started to count his breaths, imagining the scent of her hair, the silken feel of her skin. He should never have left her. She’d trusted him with the whole truth; she’d trusted him when no one else would, and he’d abandoned her. The only blessing in all this was that she wasn’t here to see him caged like a beast.

“Are you wondering what justice there is in the world?” Seth asked. “None, if I can help it. But you shouldn’t be so offended, Ray. You don’t care much about justice, do you? I wonder—does Layla know? Did you tell her you were an innocent man?”

“I am!” Ray roared.

“You’re only innocent of what the government ac
cused you.” Seth chuckled. “We both know what you’re really guilty of.”

Ray thrashed in the headgate, tasting the blood in his nostrils.

“That’s right, Rayhan. Let go of the parts of you that are human. Give yourself to me.”

Ray had never known why his brother committed suicide. He’d never thought it mattered. He’d always believed that nothing—no misery—could justify leaving behind two little kids. He’d thought his brother was a coward, but maybe he’d just been in so much pain that suicide was the only way to make it stop. Now Ray was starting to think that death might be his only escape, too.

In more glorious times, no one would have ever interrupted Seth. Pharaoh would have sent priests to entreat with him in the desert. Lesser mortals would have whispered a prayer or made an offering. Blood would be spilled in his name. But such was the miserable, modern state of the world that Seth suffered the indignity of this silly little electronic box in his pocket. As irritating as it was to have his cell phone ring like a summons from Ra, Seth actually smiled at the name on the display.

ISABEL FLORES.

She would be thinking better of the wager they’d made, but he had no plans of releasing her from it. He had the minotaur, soon he’d have his sphinx, and then he’d have Isabel, too.
Xochiquetzal
. He wondered if, like the petals of a rose, she would smell more sweetly when bruised.

Leaving the minotaur locked in the headgate, Seth
walked to the hallway and answered the phone on the fifth ring, a smile of smug satisfaction upon his lips. “It’s too late to back out of our bargain, my little jungle flower.”

“Qué lástima,”
Isabel replied. “This is a shame for you, because I’ve already won. I found Layla.”

Seth actually laughed. It wasn’t possible that a little goddess like her—of no importance to anyone—could have bested him. “If you think to distract me with a lie—”

“She’s right here,” Isabel said. “Do you need to hear her voice to know I’m telling the truth?”

The anger started in Seth’s belly, mixing with other emotions, deeper and darker by far. “How did you find her? I want to know!”

“That hardly matters,” Isabel said. “I’m going to put you on speakerphone now so that Layla can hear the words as you release her.”

“Never!” Seth’s shout reverberated throughout the corridor.

“Have you fallen so low, then?” Isabel asked. “I
thought
you were a great god of Egypt. Has the Scorpion King turned into a lowly government contractor in truth? After all, only mortals think they have the freedom to break an oath.”

Outside, thunder began to shake the sky over the nation’s capital, drawn there by Seth’s rage. He couldn’t deny the truth of Isabel’s words. He was bound by oath. Kings and pharaohs had called upon him to swear witness to their pacts. History had been carved from promises in his name. He would have to let Layla go. This time for good. The realization sank to the hollow pit of his stomach.

He’d never wanted Layla as much as he did now—when he must let her go. Two years ago, it’d given him immense satisfaction to rob her of the knowledge of her immortality and leave her wandering the world, wounded and incomplete. But now he wanted her back. She
belonged
to him. That he’d so cavalierly bargained with her for the young and foreign goddess filled him with regret.

“Layla?” he finally said into the phone.

She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. He knew her by the sound of her breath alone, and why shouldn’t he? Every breath she took was one that he’d given her.

Layla couldn’t speak. Hearing her god’s voice again filled her with paralyzing dread. She’d been afraid of Seth before she even remembered who he was. Now she quaked where she stood.

“Layla,” Seth said again, his voice controlled and calm, as if he were talking to a child. “I must release you.”

He sounded almost as if he were sorry. He paused for her response, but none was forthcoming. Words froze in her throat. After thousands of years, Seth was finally going to release her. She’d be free. It was what she wanted more than anything, so why did it frighten her so much?

Seth seemed to sense her fears. “Even after I release you, you don’t have to serve
Xochiquetzal
. You can come back to me of your own free will. If you don’t, you’ll be as lost without me as you’ve felt for the past two years.”

Seth
was
the only family Layla had ever known. He’d created her. Did she even know who she was
without him? She’d been so desperate to run from Seth before, but now she was confused. Isabel must have noticed it, too, because she put a reassuring hand upon Layla’s arm.

“I’ve captured my minotaur,” Seth continued. “So he won’t be a distraction any longer. I’ll have the time to focus my attention on you, as you used to beg me to do. You’ll be punished, of course, but I’ll forgive you. It’ll be better between us this time.”

Sudden tears scalded Layla’s cheeks.
Seth had Ray
. The knowledge of it burned like acid. There was no greater injustice she could think of than Ray having taken her place as Seth’s minion. His mortal life would be made shorter every time he used his powers. That the rest of his life should be spent as a leashed monster was the most unbearable thing Layla could imagine.

She couldn’t let it happen.

Live without me,

You’ll be queasy.

Give me to others,

They’ll sleep easy.

S
queezing the little phone in his hand, Seth was certain that Layla would ask his forgiveness. She’d beg him to let her return to him. She might even promise never to challenge his authority again. Seth savored the tremor he heard in her breath. “Do you have something to say to me, Layla?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Let him go.”

It took Seth a moment to even guess at who she might mean. “The
minotaur?
He’s mine. I created him, Layla.” Seth pulled open his tie, irritated at the way modern clothing restrained and constricted him. In the
desert he’d worn nothing but a loincloth, and nothing to smother his rage. “Just like I created you.”

“It’s not the same,” Layla replied. “You made me from nothing but Ray had a life before you. He has family. He has dreams and ambitions. He has values that run counter to everything you stand for, and you won’t break him.”

“Then I’ll kill him.” It would be disappointing to have gone to so much effort to create a minotaur only to have to put him down, but Seth wouldn’t shy away from it if need be.

“Why don’t you just let him go? Give him what he needs to clear his name and live a normal life.”

Ah
. So she had feelings for the man. Seth’s earlier tenderness for Layla started to melt away, and he felt his heart harden. He’d suspected the little trollop had debased herself with the minotaur. Now he was sure that Ray had plowed fields that belonged to him… Seth would make him pay for that.

“I have my memories,” Layla was saying. “If you don’t let him go, know that I have evidence of Scorpion Group’s illegal activities. How you torture prisoners, how you take them to foreign countries to get around the law….”

“So what?” Seth barked. “Do you think the government doesn’t know?”

“I’m sure a media outlet might be interested.”

“Do you really think I care so much about this little corporation? There’s no jail that could hold me and no riches I couldn’t claim as my own if I wanted them. If you destroy Scorpion Group, I’ll start a new company somewhere else. And all the while, I’ll have the minotaur at my side.”

She was breaking, Seth thought, and then she did. “If you let Ray go, I’ll come back to you.”

It stoked the last flicker of affection he had for his creation. Perhaps he hadn’t lost Layla after all, but he couldn’t allow her to hear the relief in his voice. “You’ll return to me anyway, Layla. I’ll live for eternity and so will you. No one knows you as I do. I know your thoughts before you think them. I know your nature. Time will erode everything in your life, including this mortal man whose freedom you’re bargaining for. In the last sands of time there will only be you and me.”

“No,” Layla said. “Because if you don’t let him go, I’ll get pregnant.”

Blasphemy!
That she’d threaten to take the breath of life that he’d given to her, and give it to a child… Unthinkable. He’d given her immortality. She had no right to cast it away. “What nonsense is this? Have you posed yourself a guilty riddle? Have you sent so many to take their own lives that now you wish to embrace suicide?”

“It’s not suicide,” she said, her tone withering. “Yes, I’ll grow old. I’ll return to the sands from whence I came, but at least I’ll have a child to love. A life that I created. And you won’t be able to do a thing to stop it. I’ll take the first man on the street that will have me and bear him a child.”

“Is that how you chose Dr. Jaffe as a lover?” he asked, infuriated. “I made sure he paid the ultimate price for laying his unworthy hands on something that belonged to me. I strung him up in his tiny closet and watched him gasp his last. I brought my mouth close to his face, telling him that he was going to die for your
sake, then inhaled his final breath. Is that what you want me to do to all the men who touch you?”

Layla gave a choked sob and it startled him. When had she learned to cry? For that matter, when had she learned to threaten him as if he weren’t her lord and master? This was all Isabel’s fault, and he ached to make the young goddess pay.

“All you have to do is release Ray and I’ll come back to you, Seth. I’ll say goodbye to him and then I’ll stay forever by your side. I’ll serve you—”

“As you were created to do,” Seth reminded her.

“I’ll remember my place,” Layla said, a defeated whisper that was like a siren song to him.

Could he part with the minotaur? Why not? Made of rage and vengeance, the creature would either return to him eventually or burn out the candle of his life with his powers. It was a hollow bargain Layla was proposing and Seth felt as if he couldn’t lose either way. “You’ll have this one thing your way, Layla,” he said. “Then nothing ever again.”

After she hung up the phone, Layla stared at the ground as if she couldn’t believe that it hadn’t actually swept out from beneath her feet. Isabel shook her head from side to side, one hand on Layla’s. “Oh,
mija
. I give you your freedom, and this is what you do with it?”

“You told me to love who I wanted and make people happy,” Layla said, letting Isabel wrap her in a hug. “This is the only way that I can do it.”

The last thing Ray remembered was being in the headgate. Now he was…where? Ray blinked several
times before the words on the sign by the door made any sense to him.
Gallery Place—Chinatown
. He blinked again. Was he in the D.C. Metro system? Had Seth seriously just let him go?

Ray knew all about how guards sometimes invited prisoners to escape so that they could shoot them dead, but this seemed like a bad place for that kind of setup, unless the war god wanted lots of witnesses. Ray quickly patted himself down for weapons, drugs, or suspicious gadgets that could be confused with detonators. If he was being set up, they hadn’t planted anything on him.

At least not yet.

He decided that Seth’s men were less likely to gun him down in a crowd, so Ray pushed through the door. That’s when he saw
her
on the platform and staggered toward her two steps at a time. “Layla…?” He said her name like a question, as if she were some kind of mirage. He couldn’t think of any other way that she could be here with him, but then she wrapped her arms around him and he knew she was real. He winced at the pain in his beaten ribs, but didn’t care. It was worth it just to touch her again. To hold her again. “Layla, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Flashing lights on the platform announced the train for the Red Line.

“We have to get out of here,” she said, grabbing his hand.

Layla pulled Ray into an empty car at the end of the metro train, and nearly sobbed with relief when the doors slid shut.

Just as she’d hoped, the metro car was apparently
spacious enough not to trigger his claustrophobia, or maybe he was too dazed to notice the metal doors close tight. Though the bruises on his face told of beatings she’d rather not imagine, she could see that he was relatively unharmed. She took a grateful breath, laying her head on his shoulder, trying to memorize the outline of him with her hands. She wanted to remember always what he felt like, what he smelled like. Everything.

Confusion swirled in his dark eyes. “Layla, what the hell is going on?”

She’d meant to explain things to him calmly. Coolly. In a professional, detached tone. She’d even practiced it. But when the moment came to tell him, her lower lip quivered and she had to fight to get the words over the lump in her throat. “Seth is setting you free as a gift to me.”

Ray reared back, his brow furrowing as he held her at arm’s length. “Layla—”

“I’m going back to Seth. I belong to him.”

Ray’s bloodshot eyes narrowed. “The hell you do!”

She’d feared he’d never let her trade her freedom for his, and now she could see she’d been right. That’s why she had to lie. “I have my memories back. Now my feelings for him are coming back, too. I told you before that I loved him.”

Ray’s features twisted with incredulous anger. “He betrayed every feeling you ever had for him and he scares the shit out of you!”

All these years she’d never been able to cry, and now she couldn’t seem to stop. Tears welled in her eyes as she said, “I guess love is complicated.”

“No,” Ray said. “Love is
simple
. Like what we have between you and me.”

He was wrong. There was nothing simple about her feelings for him. Her love for Ray was deep and complex and tortured. She had to lie to him for his own sake, but it was agony to do it. “We don’t have anything between us, Ray. I belong to Seth.”

“Stop saying that,” Ray growled, grabbing her by the arms so hard it made her teeth rattle. “I know how it must have felt when I left you by the side of the road, but I swore I’d find you later and I meant it.”

“It’s too late, Ray.” She didn’t know how something could hurt so badly without killing her, but it wouldn’t. Nothing would ever kill her. Ray would die, but she’d be without him forever. Living every day with a hole in herself deeper than the one in which her memories had been buried. “I just wanted to see you this one last time to say goodbye.”

She saw the air leave his lungs as if he’d been punched in the gut. “Do you think I’m stupid? I’m not letting you go back to him for my sake.”

“I’m not doing this for you,” Layla said as the world outside the train windows passed by in a blur. “I’m doing it for me. You’re just a mortal man. Seth is a god. He’s an immortal like me. We’ll be together long after you’re dead.”

“He doesn’t love you, damn it!” She tried to pry his fingers off her arms, but Ray held on and shook her. “He doesn’t love you and I do.”

“But I don’t love
you,
Ray.” She took a deep breath over the crushing weight of the lie. “At least, not in the way you want me to.”

“You’re lying,” Ray said. “You’re lying to yourself or you’re lying to me or both. You don’t want Seth. You want me.”

Then he kissed her. The kiss was as tender as his grip was firm. This one was so different. It was as if he’d never kissed her before. A kiss filled with longing, his rough lips seared to hers as he breathed her in. His kiss was as salty as the ocean, as salty as the tears that welled in her eyes, as salty as the perspiration that beaded on the back of her neck with desperate want. She lifted her hands to push him away, but those traitorous arms wrapped around his neck instead. The train was pulling into a nearly empty station. She heard the rushing sound start to slow. When those doors opened, she’d leave him. Until then, for just this moment, she’d let him kiss her. “You love
me,
” Ray whispered against her mouth, his breath warm on her cheeks. “I’m not letting you go.”

The flashing lights of the station flickered and she steeled herself for this moment. The train screeched to a stop, its wheels sounding like a high-pitched keening wail. She’d chosen the subway system because of Ray’s nature. The metro tunnels were a twisted warren, but they were spacious and wide. Hopefully, they wouldn’t trigger his anxiety. Yes, it’d been a good plan as long as she could disentangle herself from his arms and leave him now.

The doors slid open and Layla felt the wall of warmer air buffet her as a few passengers jostled toward them. Ray caught the eye of a man about to step into the train, pulling away from Layla only long enough to growl, “Find another car, buddy.”

The man staggered back, pushing several other passengers as he did so.

“Stop it,” she whispered as he used his power to
force passengers to step back, leaving the car empty but for them. She should leave him here and now, but Ray held her fast by the wrist, and when she looked up at him in surprise he caught her in the snare of his gaze. She should’ve known better than to look Ray in the eye because now he’d captured her, using all the force of his control.

“Stay with me,” Ray said, compelling her with his powers. A distinctive tone signaled that that the train doors were about to close and Layla couldn’t move. She saw Ray grimace with the effort, but he was pushing through the pain, pinning her in place. She couldn’t move her arms, couldn’t move her legs, couldn’t take a single step.

“Let me go, Ray. You’re only hurting yourself. You’re going to kill yourself.”

He all but gnashed his teeth. “I don’t care. Stay with me.”

She couldn’t stay with him. Going back to the god who created her was the only way to make up for everything she’d done. It was the only way to give Ray back what was left of his life. “Ray—” Whatever explanation she was going to give was drowned out by the sound of the car doors sliding shut.

She told herself she’d just get off at the next stop. Eventually, Ray would have to let her go. He was weakening; she could feel it as he closed his eyes to kiss her. The break in eye contact was dizzying. It released her from his control, like someone abruptly let go of a leash she’d been pulling against. She staggered and he grabbed her under the arms before she fell, his hand at her waist, his lips murmuring soft words against her neck that she couldn’t hear. Then he captured her lips
again and kissed her so passionately that she thought her lips might bruise.

He pulled her into a seat with him as the train churned beneath them. His lips parted from hers only long enough to say, “I was a goddamned fool to leave you before. It won’t happen again.”

His hands were like liquid fire on her body. She burned everywhere he touched. His hand slid beneath her shirt to caress her belly and her blood turned to lava. Before she knew it, her knees went to either side of his hips. She straddled him, holding herself upright by grabbing the metal rail behind his head. She felt unleashed, untamed, uncivilized. So this was lust in all its splendor. This was what it was like to be controlled by instinct and cravings of the flesh. To be pushed by desire beyond reason.

It wasn’t only lust. She loved him and he loved her. She could see it in his eyes just before his lips drifted across her collarbone. He tasted her skin, the salt, the sweat of her, as his big hands cupped her breasts and her nipples pulled taut beneath her shirt. There was no hiding her reaction to him, and she could tell that he was just as excited. Kneeling over him as she was, she could feel him hard between her legs. Her skin was so hot. Her brow, her cheeks, her belly, her thighs. They all burned. There was nothing she could do to find relief against her fevered need but rub against him.