Immortal Dynasty (22 page)

“What does Inanna have to do with the prophecy?”

“As her handmaiden, I knew all about her true nature. How evil she was and how she had everyone fooled, especially the humans. She and that war goddess daughter of hers. They are the destroyers in the prophecy.”

“Where are they now?”

“I don’t know where Inanna is, but her daughter is dead. In the wrong hands, the power of the amulet could resurrect them. That is what the prophecy means. If I possess the amulet, the power will be mine to protect.”

The irony of that nearly blew his mind. He bit his lip to keep from smirking at her. It would be more enlightening to allow her to play out her little charade.

“How do I know I can trust you after I bring you the amulet?” He moved purposefully toward the tall mirror. “Show me my grandfather again…please.”

A new image of Papa Shadi shimmered in the mirror. This time he looked comfortable in a bed with many pillows under him.

“I’m sorry that my interest in your grandfather sounds so selfish. But it’s for the best interests of everyone, and possibly the world. Wouldn’t you like to be the savior of the world, Darius?”

He’d been so focused on the image in the mirror that he’d not been paying attention elsewhere. The fire was roaring with renewed vigor, and the Queen of the Nile was sauntering in his direction. Lust blazed openly in her eyes.

“I showed you mine.” Her lips parted invitingly as her hands rubbed up his arms. She leaned her whole body against his. “Now, you show me yours.”

Darius held his tongue and tried to think of a way out of this room. He had nothing to subdue her with, and he’d be damned before doing…that.

Fortunately, he’d needed nothing at all to distract Lilith, because a war-like shriek echoed from down the hall.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Shaila struggled to free herself from Therion’s grip. Her futile attempts only seemed to inflame his lustful fury. Therion gripped her by the throat, lifting up until her toes barely held on to the floor. She managed to pull a small hiss of air through her nose.

“Now, woman. I will not be sidetracked from taking a good look at you.” He ripped the mask off of her face. She suffered a thorough inspection of her face. His black eyes darted across all of her features. She was ready to spit fire at him.

He laughed, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. “You look so familiar, like you really could have stepped out of my dreams.”

“Let. Me. Go.” Shaila enunciated each word slowly, her voice strained by his grip on her throat, but she knew he heard her.

“Make me.” His eyes blazed with the thrill of a challenge, but he lowered her solidly onto her feet. “Fight me. Fight me with all your strength. Kick. Hit. Whatever you’ve got.” He smiled wickedly. “But then, my little hellcat, it will be my turn.”

“You disgust me, Therion. Son of Lilith.” Shaila spit in his face, still being careful to hide her fangs inside. He laughed again. Then, he smacked her across her cheek. Not only did it sting, but it pushed one of her fangs into her lower lip. A trickle of blood slid from the corner of her mouth.

His pupils dilated with excitement. He leaned in and licked the dark red droplets away. She shivered with revulsion. She had to get away before she betrayed herself, which would ruin Darius’ opportunity to help her save Nefertiti’s child.

Well, if he wanted a fight, she would give it to him. But first, she needed to get over her disgust and let him in a bit. Shaila forced a moan from her lips as she lifted one leg to rub up and down his thigh. She couldn’t bring herself to kiss him on the mouth, but skirted around it with little nibbles. His beard scratched her lips. His costume armor cut into her ribs, but she ignored it.

Slowly, Therion took the bait, sliding his hand down to her thigh, but she stopped him before he reached her hidden dagger. Instead, she lifted his hand to her chest. With one free arm and one free leg, Shaila had all she needed to get the upper hand. In one quick motion, she swept his feet from under him and pinned his face down into the floor.

Whipping out her dagger from its sheath, she pierced him between the shoulder blades, letting him know she was in charge now.

“My little lioness has incredible speed and power. Mmm. That’s wonderful.” It was his turn to catch her unawares. He kicked out, tipping her sideways. The dagger slipped from her grasp momentarily.

She quickly recovered her grip on it, but with her attention shifted, Therion was up and in a fighting stance. He gave her no time. He launched at her with a kick to her head. She blocked with her forearm and swung the dagger with the other.

It slipped swiftly under his breastplate and cut a swath across his stomach. A trail of dark blood oozed through his costume.

“Bitch!” He spit at her.

“We are even.” Shaila touched the back of her hand to the corner of her mouth.

Therion grabbed a pillow from the chair and threw it at her. As she blocked it, he had followed the pillow’s path and was right there with a punch. Shaila had enough time to move slightly, but the blow grazed her temple and spun her off balance.

As he shoved her backwards, she felt the wall slam into her back. He used his weight to push her hard into the wall. Before he could readjust his stance, she bit into his neck and landed a quick punch to his bloodied stomach.

He shrieked with pain. She cringed from the very unmanly sound. Before he could gather his senses and run her down again, she managed to duck around a chair.

“You are the ass of a jack!” Shaila shouted at him. Someone came crashing through the door behind her.

The mask!
She couldn’t let anyone else see her. She spotted it on the floor beside the fake fireplace.

“Mother!” Therion growled angrily, obviously displeased at having his mother interfere.

Shaila stayed behind the chair and willed the mask back onto her face. Strong hands gripped her shoulders, and she whipped around to strike.

“No, it’s me.”

Shaila fought the urge to throw her arms around Darius, but she hoped her eyes showed how grateful she was for his timing.

“Therion!” Lilith looked disgusted, her eyes darting from her son to her guest. “How dare you do this? What part of your body do you think with?”

“She’s mine. You will not spoil this one, so don’t you dare touch her.”

The argument between mother and son seemed to swell from deep within them, like a fight that had been a long time in the making. Completely engrossed in their fury, they did not seem aware that Darius and Shaila slipped quietly from the room.

* * *

Darius chuckled softly as they quietly made their way down the long dark hallway.

“What are you laughing at?”

“You’re right. He is a jackass.” He gave her a lopsided smile.

Bessie paced frantically as they dashed around the last corner. Her eyes brightened with anxious excitement.

Opening the door, Darius flipped on the lights. Startled, the gray doorman stood up from a chair next to the bed. The demon barely had time to flicker his forked tongue before a small knife sliced deeply into its forehead. Darius smiled for the first time that night. “I’ve been dying to do that.”

As the demon disintegrated on the floor, Darius ran to the bed and scooped up his grandfather’s unconscious body. Shaila retrieved his knife from the floor and raced out of the room behind him.

Bessie darted quickly down the staircase to the gallery level. A small group of party guests lingered in nearby rooms.
 
A set of large clay pots prevented guests from entering the darkened gallery rooms at the far end of the house.

As they followed the cat, Darius nodded toward the empty platform. “That is where you stood for many years, Shaila.”

Shaila smirked at the idea that she had been there all that time, right under Lilith’s nose.

Darius shifted his hips, adjusting to the extra weight he carried. “Hurry, we don’t have much time. Her hidden room should be behind this wall. How do we open it?”

Bessie paced nervously at the foot of the staircase. Her ears pinned back and her tail flicked back and forth in jerky movements.
I don’t know.

Shaila would move the universe if it could help her find the infant. Squaring her shoulders, she concentrated on the wall. Sending a pulse of energy toward it, she sighed with relief as it cracked open slightly in the middle. Pulling in a huge breath, she pushed two energy pulses at the door until it slid open.

Stepping into the room brought back intense emotions and vivid memory. It was the tomb in which she had spent an eternity guarding the hiding place of Nefertiti’s son. The walls still showed the prophecy in bright colors. The limestone felt cool to the touch.

But only one thing really interested her. The sarcophagus carved with her name on it. Reverently, she lifted the lid and slid it over to the side.

“Oh Goddess.” White hot pain zinged through her chest and pricked the backs of her eyes. A large tear blurred her vision briefly, before slipping down her cheek. Two mummies lay inside of it in eternal rest. The adult woman was the wet nurse chosen to wean the child after his rebirth. She still cradled the infant, but both were black as soot. Shaila reached toward one of the woman’s tiny blackened toes. She had barely touched it when it shattered into a cloud of charred dust.

Now, her failure was complete. Her hopes shattered into gray ashes. But her sorrow quickly turned to anger. Her fangs slid out as she roared out her despair. “How dare she? How dare she keep these poor souls like trophies?”

“Shaila, she doesn’t have their souls, only their bodies. Their souls are free in the Afterlife.”

He was wrong. Their souls weren’t free. Without their bodies to return to, they were trapped forever in the thin veil between life and death.

Sister, she is coming!
Bessie warned from the gallery door, crouched in the shadows.

The witch was near. They didn’t have time to dwell on anything else. “Lilith is coming.” Shaila sent another energy pulse to slide the door shut, trapping them inside. They could hear muffled sounds of footsteps on the other side of the wall. “We have to get out of here, Darius. I am too weak to fight her now.”

She was also scared and riddled with guilt. Two feelings a warrior should never admit to.

“Okay then. Time for our backup plan. Pull out your phone and push that green button like I showed you.”

“I will not leave you. I will stand with you.”

“Get out of here, Shaila. Press the damn button.”

They could hear Lilith and Therion yelling and beating on the door. Shaila’s spell would not hold the door closed for long.

She pressed the button. “Oh Goddess, hurry up!” The phone rang a second time with no response.

The wall began to rumble sideways.

On the third ring, Marcus answered. Shaila wrapped her arms around Darius and his grandfather, and used the last of her energy to move all three of them through the satellite signal. She screamed from the effort. The movement through the signal seemed to go on endlessly. At first, it was a cold darkness. Then, colorless vibrations and excruciating sounds attacked her senses, nearly caving in her conscious mind. Feeling the soft velvet seat of the limousine underneath her, she finally allowed the darkness to consume her.

* * *

“She was right. You
are
a jackass.” Lilith stood proud, regally staring her son down. She realized that Darius and his woman were no longer in the room, but she could still feel them present in the building. “I know you hate Darius, but to rape his date in my home is unthinkably stupid.”

“Mother.” The word dripped from his lips like a poison. “She is destined to be my wife. She’s the one from my dreams. I feel her in my blood.”

Lilith sighed and approached her son, tsking at the bloodied mess of his shirt. She slowly removed his chest plate and unbuttoned his shirt. Like so many times before, she slid her palm across his wounds, healing him back to unmarred perfection. She admired the firmness of his muscles and smiled with maternal pride. The smile died from her lips.

“Of course you can feel her in your blood.” Lilith held back the shoulder cloth of his costume and glared into his dark eyes. “She bit you.”

“Yes,” he chuckled with the delicious memory. “She did bite me. That vicious little lioness, she wants me.”

“She doesn’t want you, you fool. You have two puncture wounds, which means she’s one of us.”

“You mean she’s one of you.”

“Therion, you are Anunnaki too.”

“Until my powers are returned to me, I am no more than a human, weak and imperfect.”

“Stop saying that.” Several recently-replaced wall lamps exploded with her temper. “You are my son, and the son of Apophis. You are the heir to the Underworld! We are destined to rule side by side. To be loved by all.”

Therion advanced on his mother, his eyes black with venom. “You will not touch her, Mother Dearest. You have made every woman in my life strangely disappear or suddenly become sterile.”

“They were not worthy of you. None of them.” She shivered as a cold finger of dread wriggled up her spine.

Therion backed away. “I have let you control my entire life. I didn’t mind it before, but I mind it now.”

“But Therion, darling.” She reached for him, but he swung his arm away. “I think it’s not a coincidence that she showed up here tonight, and with Darius Alexander. We cannot escape the idea that she could ruin all that we’ve worked for.”

“All that you have worked for. She will not destroy me. She is my soul mate, my choice.”

“Therion.” Memories of her first conversation with Darius haunted her. She refused to accept Darius’ prediction that Therion would not long stay under her control.

His pent-up frustrations exploded. “No. This is not a Greek tragedy, and I am not going to marry my mother.”

“Therion, if you do not stay away from her,” Lilith’s voice dripped with venom, “then I will kill her.”

“I thought you were forbidden to kill your own kind.”

“The Great Dragon Queen isn’t here keeping tabs anymore, now is she? She left this planet thousands of years ago, leaving us here to fend for ourselves.”