Eternally Bound: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (41 page)

Mahpiya’s chuckle sounded behind her ear and Chrys bit her lip to keep from answering in kind. It was childishly funny, but hell, she’d take what she could get right now.

The car slowed to a stop, then took off again. Chrys sat up with a jolt.

What the hell? Or rather where the hell?

Unlike the more traditional old-styled neighborhoods of Alexandria, this place was a bustling, brightly lit, tourist-filled metropolis. Street vendors pushed their carts along. Couples strolled the boulevard holding hands, some shopping, others having coffee or tea in one of the many outdoor shops. Wow, a soaring statue of Ramses III sat atop a pedestal that seemed to rise up out of nowhere and was lit from underneath by small spotlights. The walls of shops and apartments were covered with colorful paintings and mosaics.

The foliage-lined, wide sidewalks were full of life, both old and young. But the streets? Holy shit, it was worse than driving in New York!

Chrys almost wished she’d stayed asleep. There wasn’t a stoplight to be seen, and even when someone was crossing the six lanes of traffic, none of the drivers slowed. Only honked loudly and continued right on through what should have been crosswalks.

Just when she thought they’d splatter someone all over the pavement, they turned off the main road, left the more populated streets and headed into a quieter neighborhood.

Hmm. No hustle or bustle here. Instead, all was eerily quiet, almost tomblike.

Their car pulled over and parked near a low arch cut into a high wall. Eden and the skanky female hopped out of the car. Left in the backseat alone, panic pushed at the edges of Chrys’ mind when the two goons approached the still-open rear door. Adonei sent soft reassurance through the bond.

*
Rest easy, Chrysalyn. Your mate will arrive shortly
.*

The typical quiet calm that encompassed her in times of danger was under siege by an almost unreasonable fear. Fear of never seeing Rahn again. Fear of never resting her back against his chest as he held her, surrounding her with his strength and warmth.

And that pissed her off.

Chrys twisted and pulled against the still-tight bonds. Searing pain sizzled through the nerve endings of her wrists and hands, clear down to the fingertips. Damn, that hurt.

‘How long before Rahn gets here?’

*
An hour perhaps
.*

‘Good,’ Chrys growled along the link. ‘Then I have an hour to get free and kick some Eden ass.’

Mahpiya padded forward in Chrys’ head and sat down beside Adonei. *
Your mate does not doubt your ability to win against your captor, but he would rather you do something more important
.*

‘Like?’ she snapped.

*
Like getting this Eden person to talk
.*

Understanding lit through her. Determination to assist her mate and take Eden down pushed every other thought from her mind. Chrys gritted her teeth and forced herself not to pull away from the man reaching into the car. He hauled her out of the vehicle, down the street and through the arch into bleak nothingness.

Chapter Sixteen

‘Adonei, please assist me.’

The tawny head of the regal lion nodded in acknowledgement of her request. Agitated and beyond ready for action, Adonei growled, *
Take what I offer, my charge
.*

A burst of raw power pumped into Chrys’ body, blitzed through her blood and burst through each muscle fiber. Her senses flared alive. The outline of the tombs and dimly lit narrow pathways, when met with the infusion of the lion’s enhanced sight, appeared sharper, more defined. Crystal clear was the stern jawline of thug number one as he jerked her along and the wide back of thug number two walking ahead of them. The putrid stench of rotting garbage and raw sewage forced her gag reflex to tighten her throat. Taking shallow breaths, Chrys parted her lips to breathe through her mouth. Bad move. She could practically taste the muck on her tongue.

Overflowing with the strength of the mightiest hunters, Chrys snapped the bindings around her wrist with a simple flick, careful to keep her hands in a bound position. The garment they’d tossed over her earlier while hustling her out of the bazaar hid her freedom.

Vermin scurried out from underfoot as their party ducked through an entrance and into a small dwelling. The escorting bad guy gave her a shove. Pretending to stumble, she fell into a chair in the center of a shadow-shrouded room. A light clicked on and Chrys froze.

They were in a fucking tomb. Literally.

“Eden, where the hell are we?” Chrys demanded.

The thugs and thugette disappeared through an exit across the room, leaving her and Eden alone.

Sitting stiffly, back ramrod straight, Chrys demanded answers as Eden circled her like a buzzard waiting for the fresh meat to drop. Moments ticked by and she wondered if he would answer at all. Finally, the man spoke in a quiet, emotionless flat tone. So flat it brought to mind a vivid image of some poor soulless automated robot, unfeeling, uncaring as it floated in the blackness of space toward nothingness.

A single finger trailed over her shoulders and across the back of her neck as he moved around and around her still body.

“We are in Qarafa.” At her blank stare, he continued. “What Westerners would call The City of the Dead.”

“The who?”

“The City of the Dead,” he repeated in a disconcerting flat-sounding timbre. “This place was an important burial ground hundreds of years ago, now the poor gather here. Thousands of them. Just think, among soaring minarets, mosques, elaborate tombs of sultans and their families, live ordinary men and women. In fact, a lovely widow lives in a tomb room just a few doors down with her children.”

“But, but how?” Chrys stammered. Not from nervousness—she was too angry for that—but from the simple inability to fathom anyone living in a place like this.

“We have not so much thought of cemeteries as a place of the dead, but rather a place where life begins,” Eden replied. “The new tenants have adapted where the families of the dead used to come to spend time with their departed loved ones. Now the grave markers serve as desks and shelves, while strings hung between gravestones are used to dry laundry. As for the light, they’ve brought in the electricity by wires over the roofs coming from the nearby mosque. Pity, really.”

Well, the name certainly fit the place. The City of the Dead—northern Cairo’s four-mile-long walled necropolis that now housed thousands of families and countless small businesses. In this day and age? Amazing.

But it didn’t explain why the hell he’d brought her here. Not to mention he seemed too refined to have a “room” in this place for any virtuous purpose.

“But why…?”

“She thought I was wrong, you know. But I wasn’t, it was her. She’d made the mistake, stupid bitch.”

Okay, the words insane and crackpot came to mind. Chrys bit her tongue and let the man rant.

“Even pharaohs make mistakes. Sometimes deadly ones. But it really doesn’t matter. With you at my side, I have no need of another pharaoh or harem mistress. The tarot was connected to the Rahn asshole after all.”

Then Eden threw back his head and laughed as if the funniest joke in all of creation had just been told. Oookay? When the cackling ceased, Chrys took a slow breath, forced her words to emerge meek and humble.

“What tarot, Eden? I’d really like to understand.”

Hmm. That seemed to please the walking nut job.

With a smile, he stopped circling and stopped in front of her. From his left breast pocket, he removed a beautiful card covered with gold, black and lapis blue Egyptian symbols and hieroglyphs.

“It was the Empress. This card represents the Empress, see? I always selected different, and sometimes unusual, suits of cards, but she always explained them to me. But after I saw you for the first time aboard ship, I kept selecting this same card over and over. And always upside down. Stupid pharaoh had me believing it was because you were losing interest in the Rahn asshole.”

The bottom of Chrys’ stomach danced with unease. Now this was getting freaky. Right, as if Eden weren’t already in that category. She held her thoughts to herself, demanded her fists to remain still. Giving away the fact that her hands were no longer tied would probably make the man stop talking.

And that simply wouldn’t do. Her mate wanted a confession and, damn it, she was going to get him one.

“But you weren’t losing interest in him,” Eden rounded on her with a snarl. “You had no interest in me. But that will change, I promise you. I still don’t understand why he didn’t die.” Eden’s head tilted just a hair to the right, his expression one of genuine bewilderment.

“Die?” Chrys uttered in shock, and this time was no act.

“Yes, die, damn it all. He was supposed to die. I know I cut him in the right spot. But you came and did something to him. What did you do to him? All I wanted to do was stomp his brains out when I came into your apartment and saw you covered with his blood. You were moving toward the phone to call for help while that damned Rahn moaned like a foaling cow on the bathroom floor.”

Chrys fought for calm, begging her spirit guides to send her a large dose and fast. Adonei’s power still pulsed through her body and she fought to keep her temper under control, fought to keep the fierce force of the lion leashed.

But the more he talked, the more she wanted to rip his head off.

*
Keep calm, Chrysalyn. He baits you
,* Mahpiya crooned. *
This must be finished before your mate arrives
.* Then she flashed a quick glimpse of Rahn and a whole host of mean-looking men with him. And they were close.

Eden was pacing again, his words distant and far away, as if he were trying to work something out in his head. “I just don’t understand. I cut all the other specimens in the exact same spot, and they all died within minutes. Perhaps it was because Rahn is more muscular, larger than the females I gutted? Or maybe I missed the spot all together.”

“What specimens, Eden?”

“The women. I know you know about the women, Chrysalyn. My pharaoh hand-picked them all, one in each port of call. All strong, independent, capable. None of them needed to be led, but none were willing to follow. Too eager to step on the back of a male. Not like you, Chrysalyn. You are strong, yet understand the need to walk beside a man as an equal. Not afraid to be a real woman loved by a man. There is no desire to trample on him. On me.”

Boy, did he have that last part wrong! She’d trample him, all right. Son of a bitch. The bastard was behind it all—the attacks at each port, the attack on Rahn and now, her abduction. By appearing to be helpful, he’d diverted suspicion away from himself. And since the spirit guides had never liked him, Chrys had simply gotten used to them going ballistic whenever the man was in the room.

And Eden had almost succeeded in adding Rahn to his list of victims. While her man had lain prone on that bathroom floor, bleeding to death. Spiritual law dictated that spirit guides be called or summoned onto this plane. Their assistance had to be requested. Something Rahn couldn’t have done while unconscious.

Bad guy or not, without Eden’s help that night, Rahn could very well be hanging around in the spirit realm with Mahpiya and Adonei.

And this idiot, perplexed and angry because Rahn hadn’t kicked it that night, now confessed everything. She had all they needed to bring this asylum candidate to justice.

Just then, Eden moved in close enough for her to hear the air move in and out of his lungs. Then the man began moving down a different, more bizarre path. With a gentle touch, a single finger lovingly traced a path along Chrys’ jawbone.

“Chrysalyn, I am pleased with you. You will be my queen forever, and bear me strong sons.”

His eyes were alight with love and determination. Shit, the man was serious. How could someone so handsome, articulate and educated turn out to be such a nut job?

A slithering crawl eased along her skin when Eden’s hand came in contact with her shroud-covered breast.

Waiting for Rahn dropped off the list of options.

* * * * *

Adonei broadcast everything going on in that damned room right into Rahn’s head as he and his backup waited outside the tomb room door. The second he saw that Eden bastard put his hands on Chrys, it was all he could do not to rush in and just start shooting. Except gunfire was a last resort for all of them. It was illegal to live in this place, but it was packed with people. Every empty tomb sheltered a person or a family, all very much alive. They couldn’t risk having shots sound here. The Egyptian government might turn a bit of a blind eye to the people squatting here, but gunfire was something they would definitely investigate. And fast.

*
There are three armed humans in the back room
,* Adonei warned.

‘Any other way in?’

*
There is no other entrance to this dwelling
.*

‘Well, we can’t go in with guns blazing. Not with Chrys in the line of fire between us and them. Tell her to duck ‘n cover. Right fucking now.’

The lion’s presence winked out and Rahn called out to his guide. Mahpiya immediately responded, pouring supernatural strength and ability into his mind and body until it overflowed every nerve, every cell. Seconds later, he kicked in the door and rushed the room along with all six of Eden’s brothers.

Eden snatched his hand away from Chrys’ breast as if he’d been well and truly caught…which he was. The flash of recognition that lit his dark eyes was quickly replaced with a hard look, full of resentment and crazed determination.

Time slowed to a crawl. Chrys hit the floor and covered her head at the exact moment Rahn stormed in. Two big rugby-looking, rough-hewn European trees and a dark-haired woman flew in from the other side of the room and threw themselves into the fray.

Infused with the strength of the lion, an unarmed Rahn took evasive action and was across the room before the obviously inexperienced bad guy wannabe could get a shot off. But when he did fire, it echoed around the tomb with a deafening boom. Eden’s brothers took down the other two and headed for Eden.