Immortal Dynasty (31 page)
Therion had failed, but that wasn’t what incensed Apophis. He’d been expecting his son to find a way to screw it up. It wasn’t the boy’s fault that he had a lot of his mother’s blood in him.
A few hundred years in the Underworld will toughen up the boy.
What infuriated him most was the sudden blast of pure light that had assailed his mind. Shaila a’k’Hemet was now the Great Dragon Queen. That meant her mother was dead.
His eyes became obsidian orbs, so black was his rage. His beautiful Inanna had been taken from him forever. He raged at Destiny for denying him the right to make her his mate.
Fury, however, quickly dissolved into deep malevolent laughter. The prophecy had begun, and once started it would continue until the great gathering. The
Age of Awakening
would soon arrive, and with it would come his freedom.
Hell on earth. Sinister laughter boomed across the Underworld.
# # #
Lynda Haviland
shares her immortal world with her husband, two kids, an aging bearded dragon and a parrot who loves pizza. She will read anything about ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses, and she is constantly planning her next trip to Egypt.
Immortal Dynasty
is the first novel in her debut series, Age of Awakening.
Visit her anytime online at
http://www.ImmortalDiva.com
.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Kolczynski
A sample scene from the next installment in the Age of Awakening series…
Immortal Dominion
By
Lynda Haviland
Seth blinked a few times, adjusting his eyes to the pitch darkness of the cave. Something had jarred him out of the deep sleep of hibernation. The oracle in the pool pulsed with excitement. Its light blue glow illuminated the cave. He would have ignored its unusual display, but he spied a small pile of sand on the floor. The pile seemed to grow as more sand trickled down from the airshaft in the ceiling.
After a ritual stretch of each limb, he circled twice on his pallet and settled in to rejoin his slumber. Drawing in a deep breath, he inhaled the unmistakable scent of blood. He snuffed the air more deeply. Human blood. His senses thirsted for more information.
He didn’t have time to think any more about it. A low hum reached his ears, quickly followed by a loud clatter that drew closer by the second. His skin flinched with each irritating bang.
Then, more sand tumbled onto the pile, followed by a metal box with a spinning blade. On impact with the floor, the machine smashed apart. He tucked his head under a wing to muffle the explosive sound, which was amplified by the granite walls. Ropes still dangled from the hole until a large mass of fabric landed on the floor with a strange thump. The smell of fresh human blood flooded his nose.
He tried to force the scent out of his nostrils in a huff, blowing a trail of white fire upward. Too late. His lungs were so filled with the smell that he could taste it. He shook his head and gave in. He uncoiled his long body and crawled over to investigate.
He resented the intrusion into his peace, but deeper instincts compelled him to investigate the human’s condition. He nuzzled along the body and felt the curves of a female. His whiskers followed trickles of blood down the side of her face to the floor. He watched her aura fade as her life force ebbed with each shallow breath.
Heedless of good sense, he drew his tongue across the warm pool. Her blood tasted so sweet and tingled all the way down his parched throat. Hunger rumbled loudly in his stomach. Luckily for the woman, he did not eat humans.
But death seemed certain for her without medical attention. Quickly, he shifted to his human form. A blue glow emanated from his palms and illuminated her body. Calling upon an ancient skill, he assessed the damage inside of her.
Slamming into the granite floor of the cave had left a large crack along the back of her skull. He sensed swelling and tension in her brain, a fatal combination. Her internal injuries seemed to be equally traumatic. Three ribs had speared into both of her lungs. Collapsed, they had no way to drain the fluids. She would drown slowly in her own blood.
As if in response to his assessment, her body stilled at the end of one last gurgle.
Quickly, he willed his fangs to descend from their sheaths. Finding a vein in her forearm, he bit down as gently as he could. His fangs slid easily through her skin and injected a toxin, which would temporarily paralyze her and give him time to heal her. If she started to move too soon, she could do more damage or hinder his efforts.
Even in the ebony darkness, he moved unerringly to a crevice in the wall behind his pallet. Removing his sword, he brushed away dust and sand from its blade. He held it horizontally over the dying woman and whispered a spell. It had been too long since he’d spoken the language of his kind, yet it flowed easily from his lips.
The sword glowed with pure white energy as he summoned the healing powers from within the diamond in its hilt. Slowly, Seth’s mind moved through the woman’s body, mending fractures, repairing lungs, and resealing ripped skin.
As the glow from the sword faded, he set it aside. Leaning over her face, he pressed his lips against hers and blew. Her chest rose as air refilled her lungs. He waited patiently until finally she coughed and drew in a long breath all on her own.
He returned his sword to the crevice and collapsed on his pallet. The effort to heal another had drained his energies.
New sounds travelled down through the hole. Human men gathered far above on the surface. Humans occasionally grew curious enough about what was underneath the Sphinx that they would dig tunnels and pits in search of treasure. Seth had tapped into one of those old tunnels to allow some fresh air to find its way down to the low-lying cavern.
Grimacing at the unconscious woman on the floor, he cursed his luck that more than just air had wound its way down into his solitude.
He listened as the men argued about where the fugitive had landed. Could they mean the woman? He evaluated her features: small, petite, blonde. Definitely foreign.
Fortunately, no more sounds came from above. The men likely backed away in search of her in other areas. It wouldn’t be long before someone decided to descend into the hole, but he hoped he had time for now. He needed rest and time for his energies to replenish enough for him to close up the airshaft.
The distinct clack of teeth drew his attention back to the woman. Fever. Her body racked with it. She needed warmth in this damp place. In this empty cavern, he would be the only source of that.
Resigned, he moved to lay his own body next to hers and willed his temperature to rise. Instinctively, her body rolled toward the source of heat. His skin flinched at the cool touch of her palm on his stomach and the warmth of her breath on his chest. How long had it really been since he’d felt the touch of a woman?
Memories of another woman and another time flicked through his mind. Memories that he’d purposely buried thousands of years ago. Teased by fantasy and flesh, parts of his body thrummed to life. Instead of enjoying the sensation, it irritated him.
Soon, his muscles shivered from the effort to control his body heat and his lunatic erection. But the woman still shuddered feverishly. Stretching his limbs, he shifted back to his beastly form and curled his body in a circle around hers. At least in this form, he could warm her unconscious body while it fought through the chills…without doing anything stupid.
He stayed wrapped around her through the many hours until he felt her body still. The fever had finally broken.
Slowly, he backed off into the shadows to wait for her to awaken. Circling his pallet twice, he settled in a good spot. Sleep eluded him. Too many thoughts needed attention.
When could he take her back up to the surface? Through the airshaft, he heard the activity of tourists. He couldn’t take her back up that way until nightfall.
He shouldn’t have licked her blood. He remembered the sweet taste of it and how it tingled on his tongue. He prayed the Rage would not return. Exile was supposed to ensure that it didn’t happen again. He growled his frustration.
Why did he save her? He’d successfully avoided humans for a long time. Then, when one practically landed in his lap, he even used old magic to save her. He’d lapped up her blood and tasted her life force. He’d healed her. What had possessed him to do this? And now what the hell was he going to do with her when she woke up?