Anubis Nights (15 page)

Late that night, Ankhesenamun returned to her residence. Kelly and I moved into the bedroom, and I felt myself getting a bit nervous. I wasn’t comfortable sharing the bed with her because it confused my emotions.

“How are you feeling?” Kelly asked.

“Like I got hit by a Mack truck.”

“I can give you a massage.”

“We should get some sleep,” I said.

“You don’t want a massage? You’ll be stiff and sore tomorrow.”

“I’ll be stiff and sore regardless. Sleep sounds really good.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Um. No.”

“Okay, while I’m feeling much better on the health front, I have to admit that I’m exhausted,” she said.

“Me too.”

She grinned at me. “You’re nervous.”

“No, I’m not.”

She laughed. “We’re just going to sleep.”

“Of course.”

“So why are you nervous?”

“I’m not nervous.”

She sat on the bed and removed her boots. She rose and peeled her shirt off.

I tried to look elsewhere, but I’m a guy, and if a woman is exposing her breasts, I’m going to look. Sorry, we’re just wired that way. She removed her pants and her panties to stand nude before me.

“Um. You’re not going to wear anything to bed?” I asked.

“Neither are you.”

“What?”

“We need to wash our clothes and hang them to dry before we go to sleep, so strip.”

She carried her dirty clothes into the bathroom. I couldn’t help staring at her ass as she left the room. I told myself to stop staring, and I did stop as soon as she was out of sight. I took a deep breath then let it out.

I’m with Rayna,
I thought.
I’m with Rayna. I’m with Rayna.
It was like a mantra.

“Here goes nothing,” I said and stripped down. I put my keys, wallet, gun, and change on one of the adobe ledges then carried my clothes into the bathroom, covering myself as best I could with the handful of laundry.

“Over here,” Kelly said. She had a basin full of water with some kind of lathery substance in it. She worked her clothes over, rinsed them, and hung them over a small brazier. “This should give off enough heat to dry them overnight.”

I washed my clothes as best I could. She came over to help, and I tried to avert my eyes. She kept a grin on her face the entire time.

“Do I amuse you?” I asked.

“You’re trying so hard not to stare. We’re supposed to be husband and wife, and on top of that, nudity is not a big deal here.”

“It is to me.”

“Get over it. Let me see your shoulder.”

I turned so she could get a better look at the scrapes on my shoulder and arm.

“That’s not too bad, but you didn’t do a very good job cleaning it earlier.”

“I couldn’t reach.”

“You could have called me in to help.”

“I didn’t think of it.”

She took a sheet of linen, wet it down, and used it to clean my wounds.

Any injuries she might have sustained had already healed. She didn’t look to be running a fever anymore, so that was good.

“Looks like your hip and ass got a bit scraped up too,” she said.

“Are you staring at my ass?” I asked.

“A little,” she said. “Want me to clean the scrapes?”

“I can get it.”

She laughed. “Fine. You finish up here. I’ll go get the bed warm. Watch your step when you come in, though. I saw a scorpion earlier.”

“Great.”

She walked off and I watched her go, of course. I sighed, wrung out my clothes, and hung them next to Kelly’s. I cleaned the rest of my scrapes as best I could then looked for something to delay going back to the other room, but I was being stupid. If Rayna were here with me, I’d be in that bed already.

When you see someone one way, it can be difficult to change that view. And I wasn’t on the market.

There was no way Kelly was interested in me that way, though, so I needed to just get over it.

I walked back into the bedroom, scanning the floor for scorpions. I kept my hands strategically placed to cover myself.

When I climbed into bed, Kelly cuddled up to me and used my chest as a pillow. It felt better than it should have to hold her. Fortunately she went to sleep quickly. It took me a lot longer, but eventually I drifted off, and my dreams were of making love with her. I woke up thinking it was real, and I felt guilty, as if I’d cheated on Rayna. But it was just a dream, and Kelly was still sleeping with her head on my chest.

I didn’t know if I was relieved or disappointed.

BRAND EASTON

Night settled over the countryside, and Brand sat in his compartment, staring out the window at the darkness. He’d dined with Priscilla and Edward at lunch, but as they were joined by a man whose name Brand couldn’t recall, they didn’t get a chance to talk about much beyond the weather. Esther pretended Brand couldn’t see Edward, and while she gave the other ghost a few dirty looks, they were mostly well behaved. Priscilla wasn’t at dinner when Brand returned to the dining car. He missed having someone to talk to as it helped pass the time. There were too many people in the car, so he couldn’t talk to Esther without seeming as if he belonged in an asylum.

Back in their compartment, Esther struck up a conversation. “Do you miss Kelly?” she asked.

“Of course, but I’ve been missing her for a while.” Brand shook his head. “We broke up more than a month ago.”

“And you didn’t tell anyone? Not even me?”

“Especially not you. You’d tell everyone!”

“I would not. I would just tell Jonathan and Rayna.”

“My point exactly.”

“Why would you care if they know?”

“Jonathan just got back to being himself again, and I didn’t want to upset the balance. I’d have told him soon, but I didn’t want him worrying about Kelly when he was just starting a relationship with Rayna.”

“Worrying about Kelly? Why would he worry?”

“Have you noticed anything off about her lately?” Brand asked.

Esther frowned. “She seems more irritable.”

Brand laughed. “Maybe. Seriously, haven’t you been paying attention to anything for the past few months?”

“I’ve noticed that Jonathan and Rayna were all mushy mushy.”

“Esther, you do realize that Jonathan can never actually be with you, right? I mean, you’re dead and he’s alive.”

“We were in love.”

“What are you talking about?”

“For me it’s the past, but for him it’s the future. Well, it was the future.”

“Okay, you’d better explain yourself.”

“No. I really shouldn’t. What did I miss with Kelly?”

“She hasn’t fully recovered from the destroyer attack.”

“But the wizards—”

“Were wrong. Tell me what you were saying about the future.”

Esther crossed her arms. “I don’t want to talk about it. I hope she’s all right, though.”

“Kelly?”

Esther nodded. “Is she hurting?”

“She doesn’t feel pain. She’s just limited. But not to worry. Even with her limitations, she’s still amazing. I just hope she can heal enough by the time we face Winslow here . . . or in the twenties. Hey, you were living in New York in the twenties, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe we’ll meet the flesh-and-blood version of you.”

“I shouldn’t say anything about that.”

Brand leaned forward as realization dawned on him. “Hold on, you remember what happened, or in our case, what will happen then. That’s what you don’t want to talk about.”

“It’s already different.”

“How so?”

“Rayna wasn’t there. Then again, for all I know, maybe she was, but she died before Jonathan and Kelly got there. They talked about losing people a lot. Jonathan was with Naomi, but she was killed, and well, everything is different.”

“What about me?” Brand asked.

“I shouldn’t say anything more.”

“Esther? You have to tell me. Was I there or not?”

She shook her head.

Brand stared at the floor. “So I don’t make it.”

“I don’t know. Things are different this time, so I’m wondering if my presence affected things. For us, Naomi is already dead.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe you never hooked up with Kelly. You were with Ravenwood, so maybe they killed you and saved Naomi and that’s why Jonathan was with her when they arrived in my time. Or maybe you never signed on with Ravenwood. I don’t know but you weren’t with them and they never mentioned you that I recall. And when I met Jonathan and Kelly, they didn’t know me.” Esther covered her face with her hands and turned away. “What if things are different because of me?”

“I’m not following you.”

“Jonathan and I were lovers,” she said. “We met in December 1926. Winslow killed Kelly in the summer of 1927, and Jonathan didn’t want to go home. He stayed with me for two years before Sharon came to get him.”

“I thought Sharon couldn’t go to a time where she existed.”

“She came to New York, not to the Underworld. I don’t know if that matters, but they are separate dimensions.”

“So she lied.”

“I don’t know. It was a long time ago. I just . . .” Esther stared at the floor. “I should have kept my mouth shut.”

“No, I’m glad you talked to me. If things are different, it means anything can happen. If Winslow killed Kelly in the summer of 1927, that means we have to stop him before that.”

“I hope so. If things stay close to the way they were, Jonathan and Kelly will be joining us here soon. Though, I wasn’t here last time. I do remember Jonathan telling me that he had no problems with the first two aspects of Winslow. They found him and killed him quickly both in ancient times and here in the old west. Jonathan was always so sure of himself. He was proud of the fact that Winslow never even got to speak a word before Jonathan killed him. We won’t have to wait long, but I just hope things go the right way. When they get here, I’ll try to stay out of the way.”

“No. If I wasn’t here last time, I need to know everything you know so we can get as close to what happened as we can. Time can sort the details, of course, but the big things like when Winslow dies are going to matter.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“That’s all any of us can do.”

RAYNA NOBLE

“I have to admit, I didn’t expect that,” Lincoln said as they left Bellevue.

“I did,” Rayna said.

They walked along the street toward the Pinkerton office. “I’ll check Winslow’s last known address, and talk to his associates. You should go back to your hotel. I’ll be in touch as soon as I have anything.”

“I’d like to accompany you if that’s all right.”

Lincoln stroked his mustache. “Whatever for?”

Rayna put a hand on his arm and stopped walking. As soon as he gave her his undivided attention, she said, “Because this could get even stranger.”

“Stranger than a corpse getting up and walking out of a morgue?”

She nodded.

“Well, my curiosity is definitely piqued,” he said. “I’d like to know how they missed his pulse and his breathing when they checked him in.”

Rayna smiled. “What makes you think he was alive when they brought him in?”

“Because dead people don’t get up and walk.”

“All right, but I want you to at least consider the possibility that he was really dead.”

“You trying to tell me that Jesus Christ came down here to pull a ‘Lazarus, come forth’ routine?”

“No.”

“Good because I don’t buy into that kind of horseshit. Pardon my French.”

“When all possible scenarios have been exhausted, look to the impossible.”

“Trust me. We haven’t exhausted the possibilities just yet. You go get some rest, do some shopping, or whatever you dames do, and I’ll start investigating.”

“I’m going with you, Mr. Parker. I have valuable information that relates to this case.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that Winslow was a member of The Golden Dawn.”

“What’s that?”

“An occult secret society.”

“Can’t be too secret if you know about it.”

“I’m just saying that we’ll want to look into any occult groups.”

He sighed. “And here I thought this was gonna be an easy case.”

“I’m coming along.”

“So you keep saying. Jeez. You dames get the right to vote, and you think you run the damn country.”

“We should be,” Rayna said.

He laughed. Then he started walking again.

Rayna shook her head and followed him. She knew things were different in the twenties, but she didn’t appreciate his condescending tone.

“You don’t like women?” Rayna asked when she caught up with him.

“On the contrary. I love women. I just think they should know their place.”

Rayna fumed. “There will come a time when women have the same rights as men, can perform the same jobs as men, and maybe even become president.”

“A dame president?” Lincoln laughed again, harder. “Lady, I’ll make you a bet. This country will elect a Negro for president before a woman.”

Rayna couldn’t believe this guy. She was insulted on several fronts. She didn’t like the term Negro. She didn’t like his attitude toward women. And she hated the fact that she would lose that bet. She glared at him and mouthed a few swear words but finally turned away from him and shook her head.

He laughed again. “Aw, did I upset you? Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it. Just understand that detective work is for men. You can come along, but if things get dangerous, I’ll handle it.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

JONATHAN SHADE

The next morning, I woke up first. I disentangled myself from Kelly, but when I got out of bed, my right knee buckled, and I had to catch myself. I grimaced with the pain. My shoulder burned too, but the knee was by far the worst. I rose again, trying to step gingerly to see how much weight it could take. The knee was a bit swollen, but it didn’t look all that bad.

Kelly sat up.

“Nice view,” she said.

“Very funny.” I moved back to the bed and sat down, rubbing my knee.

“I was being serious. Is your knee jacked up?”

I nodded.

“Let me see.”