Blackhearted Betrayal (14 page)

“I don’t think that’s an
if
so much as a foregone conclusion.”

“You don’t seem overly concerned. Is it because we have Nemeses—a Nemesis—on our side?”

“That—” I acknowledged, “—plus I know good and well thanks to Scott that this temple numbers, at most, six priests and ten acolytes. Even without a Nemesis, we’re more than a match for them. Besides, I really don’t think it will come to that. They’ll try and stall us while getting a message to the Big Guy, but I have no intention of being stalled.”

“And what if the
Big Guy
is already waiting in the portal room?”

I let a fierce grin twist my lips. “Then I’ll have no
problem kicking his ass, Nemesis-style. There’s a reason the Triad itself appoints Nemeses.” I would be able to tap into their power on a limited basis when facing my quarry. Otherwise, mere demigoddesses would never be able to drag in unwilling—and unkillable—deities to face justice.

She fell silent, and I focused on our descent down two flights of candlelit stairs, electric candles in a nod to modern technology and standards of cleanliness. That many wax candles dripping onto the stone stairway would have made the temple’s liability insurance skyrocket. The stairs spilled out into another hallway, this one lined with several doors and leading farther than its aboveground counterpart. The priests stopped halfway down the hall in front of a plain oak door. Not the one I would have guessed to mark the portal to hell when compared to some of the more ornate doors along the corridor, but that was undoubtedly the point. Tweedledee and Dum reacted to something said (or unsaid) by their superior and slipped through the doorway while he allowed the door to click shut. Khenti-Manu turned to us—or specifically, once I caught up, to me.

“The others have gone to turn on the lights.”

Yeah right, and I really
was
a Kindly One.

My companions readied themselves for a good ole-fashioned brawl without obviously doing so; I just knew most of them way too well not to notice. Fury eyes glowed an even brighter green; Mac’s eyes took on a distinct gleam of their own; Charlie flexed impressive biceps when he clenched his fists; and even Sahana seemed to brace herself. Khenti-Manu appeared oblivious, but he hadn’t seemed a complete moron up to this
point, so I didn’t count on it. He knew we were expecting a fight and was trying that whole stalling tactic.

I shouldered my way past the others—surprised to see Durra keep pace as if she actually cared for my safety—and placed my hand not so subtly upon the door. “Most of us can see just fine in the dark if needs must.”

Another solitary bead of sweat bubbled up, this one on his forehead. He picked up on the
hint
and pushed the door open without protest.

Tweedledee and Dum stood on the far side of a subterranean room nothing like the polished entrance or hallways we had passed through.
This
chamber had been roughly hewn out of solid rock, with only a poured-concrete floor to indicate man’s touch. Esoteric symbols—including the one for Anubis along with the Egyptian ankh—had been etched onto the floor with gold paint: actual twenty-four-karat gold, I was willing to bet. Mr. Jackal-Faced seemed to go in for flash and dazzle worse than any glitter-happy eight-year-old. To give Khenti-Manu bonus points for honesty, a bank of electric switches
did
rest along the wall where his subordinates were standing. On the other hand, the room’s distinct lack of furniture, summoning circle, or—most importantly—anything resembling a potential portal detracted from his integrity score.

“Where’s the portal?”

He motioned to a tapestry featuring Anubis in all his canine-headed glory just past the other priests. “This is merely the antechamber.”

Ah, the tapestry apparently hid another doorway, leading deeper into the earth itself. Oh joy, Anubis enjoyed catering to stereotypes as much as he did the
shock-and-awe routine. Where else would one find a portal to hell than inside an actual cave?

Khenti-Manu cleared his throat. “I’ll have to ask your—associates to wait here while you two”—he waved to Durra and me—“inspect the portal.”

Well, never let it be said he didn’t have balls of steel. “You can ask that, Excellency, but I fear we cannot oblige the request. We will
all
be passing through that portal. Tonight.”

The sharp scent of perspiration caught my attention, and I noticed several damp areas peppering his robe. Ah, so those two drops of sweat had been the only
visible
signs of his burgeoning fear. He started to blubber some sort of argument, but I strode toward the tapestry, followed closely by everyone else.

“When I said
tonight
, what I meant was
now
. Your Excellency.”

None of the three Anubians were foolish enough to interfere when I yanked aside the tapestry-turned-curtain and stepped into the narrow tunnel revealed.
Shit!
While not technically claustrophobic—Furies simply couldn’t afford to be—small, subterranean enclosed spaces and I did not particularly get along. For that moment, however, I pulled up my big-girl pants and stalked along the rocky corridor as if it didn’t bother me in the least. Reaching the far side and stepping into a huge dank cave, I discovered something that
did
bother me very much. The sight of my lover, Scott, Mac’s wife Elliana, and several other Murphy Shadowhounds standing between us and the oversized mirror marking a portal on the opposite side of the cavern, full-out bodyguard style. Proving yet again that Anubis was more than willing to play dirty.

MY BREATH CAUGHT AT THE UNEXPECTED
image of familiar shoulder-length red hair, golden eyes, and deeply burnished skin covered by black cargo pants, a matching T-shirt, and combat boots. Weapons covered every spare inch of his mercenary getup: short but deadly swords sheathed at his waist, knives in various leg and arm straps, crossbow (now
that
was new) hanging from his back. I was willing to bet the accompanying arrows were spell-worked silver—just about the only thing capable of killing Furies—and could guess whose idea
they
had been.

Scott appeared every bit as shocked to see me step into the portal room as I was to find him guarding it. Had any doubts remained that Anubis knew I was gunning for him, they would have shriveled up and died. He knew, all right, knew and was prepared to hit me where it hurt. Like he thought it would stop me.
It won’t, right?
my guilty conscience questioned. Of
course
it wouldn’t …Scott would just step aside once I explained, and everything would be all hunky-dory.

Cause life
so
often worked out that way.

He looked like he wanted to rush over to me, but his sense of duty made him maintain his post despite the obvious emotional turmoil waging inside. “Riss, what are
you
doing here?”

I took the opportunity to peruse the room’s occupants quickly but didn’t see any signs of Sean, who I’d started to think might have been the one responsible for hiring the Shadowhounds to do Anubis’s dirty work. It wouldn’t have been a big shock if I’d learned he’d been working for the Big Guy this whole time rather than being held
hostage by brainwashed Sidhe. I was getting used to being stabbed in the back when least expected.

My gaze settled back on Scott, and I shook my head the way he’d done to me the other night in front of Serise. He took my hint and fell silent.

My allies crowded behind me, and I stepped forward, stopping just in front of the black pentagram etched onto the smooth granite floor, smoothed using copious amounts of magic since no natural weathering could account for its perfect flatness. Scott, Elliana, and a half dozen of their relatives, along with the remaining Anubian priests and most of their acolytes, fanned out between the pentagram and quiescent portal, which wouldn’t remain so for long if I had my way.

Khenti-Manu and his shadows stepped around us, stopped at the far edge of the pentagram, and turned to face me. Tweedledumb and Dumber wore stupid little smirks while
His Excellency
still sweated like a pig. Guess we now knew
which
Anubian priest had hired them for their latest bodyguard assignment.

“What the f—um,
what
is going on here, Excellency?”

He licked his lips—probably to clear any lingering hint of perspiration—and raised a placating hand. “Please, Kindly One, we do not want this to come to blows, but we are prepared to defend our Lord’s territory. To the death, if need be.”

Easy enough to make that sacrifice when one’s personal deity was a Death Lord. “You say you do not
want
bloodshed, and yet you have the
audacity
to hire my lover and sister-in-law to stand between me and my duty?”

The priest flinched as violently as Scott and the Shadowhounds—who had by now clearly recognized
Mac and me. Ah, I was willing to bet Anubis hadn’t shared
that
information with his Underbelly spokesman. Typical.

“Please, Kindly One, we’re merely acting upon our orders—”

“Orders that you very well
know
violate every single precept laid down by arcane as well as divine law.
No
arcane is to stand between a Fury and her gods-Mandated quarry. And yet you stand here ready to flout that very law?”

Scott’s eyes took on an anguished glow, and he opened his mouth to speak, but
His Excellency
beat him to the proverbial punch. “We flout no laws, Kindly One. The portal truly is malfunctioning.” Helped along, no doubt, by the excessive amounts of magic these damned Anubians had channeled at their lord’s command for this very purpose. It looked like Mr. Jackal-Faced had planned for every eventuality when he took an educated guess—or was told by spies—that I would be chosen as one of the Nemeses to bring him down. Oh wait, I was willing to bet he
hadn’t
counted on my employing the unexpected ace up my sleeve—Sahana.

Since pretense now seemed pointless—and I wanted every bit of authority I could muster—I shed mortal form the way Amphisbaena discarded unwanted skin, blinking from blue-eyed blonde to black-clad Nemesis, complete with ebon-scaled serpents and charcoal-colored wings. Durra sensed my shift just quickly enough to step out of wing-clobbering range. My transformation to Nemesis seemed to blindside His Excellency and company, along with Scott, making me wonder what the hell kind of game Anubis was play—

That’s it! He wants this whole debacle to delay me,
wants me to waste time negotiating and working things out so he can block us from his realm.
He really
should
have learned not to count on my being so boringly predictable. I mean,
really
, what kind of Fury did he think I was?

I stopped wasting time and turned to Sahana rather than the priests, who would have
seemed
the only ones capable of opening the portal for us. “Sahi, would you mind terribly?”

Her sudden feline smile made me proud. “Not at all, Nemesis.”

That title was
so
much better than empty euphemisms.

The Anubians shared confused looks while I motioned to my companions, who steadily advanced until the three priests stepped off the pentagram entirely, only to merge into the still-reeling line of priests and Shadowhounds. Scott was the only one with courage enough to step toward where I took my place blocking our adversaries from Sahana, who now stood at the northern point of the pentagram. “Riss, please, what’s going on?”

It took every ounce of willpower not to melt at his bewildered, pleading voice.
Gods-damned Anubis!
“Anubian Warhound, do you hold loyal to the Sisterhood of Furies and the Triad of immortals?”

He flinched as if physically struck. “Ris—” Then, realizing the seriousness of the situation, stiffened his stance and steeled his expression. “Of course I do, Tisi—Nemesis.”

“Blasphemy!” Tweedledum screeched. “We True Believers owe allegiance to Lord Anubis alone!”

Elliana
accidentally
planted an elbow into the priest’s jiggling midsection. “Oops.”

I kept my voice ice-cold. “Do you really, Warhound? Even if that means going
against
your personal deity’s orders? The Triad believes he has committed treason against them—and so do I.” My heart wanted to shatter into tiny pieces at the way he looked at me when I used that tone and those words. Necessary evil, but heart-piercing all the same, especially considering there were no guarantees he’d forgive me later.