Caress The Dark God [Scions of the Ankh 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (11 page)

“I think you’re afraid you won’t be able to keep your hands off me. And with you and I naked, well, it would be so easy to take advantage of me.” Tessa looked at him incredulously before she burst into laughter. “Are you suggesting I don’t tempt you?”

Tessa did exactly what he thought she’d do. She unwound the sheet, giving him a succulent eyeful of her body. The sheet pooled around her feet. “Let’s see who gives in first. Now, which way to the beach?”

Anubis grinned, loving her spunk. He pointed towards the back of the house, and as he followed her he couldn’t help but observe the exaggerated sway of her hips as she walked. She was going to play dirty, that was obvious. The minx even had the gall to throw her long hair over one shoulder seductively, as if she was just checking to see if he followed.

As soon as they hit the beach, Tessa ran full speed ahead into the river. For a split second he thought she would try to swim to the other side, unable to resist the seductive song of death. But she appeared oblivious to it as she dove under and came back up. He followed suit quickly until he was at her side. They swam close to one another, and even dove underwater at the same time. She swam into his arms and pressed her lips against his as they broke the surface together.

He continued to kiss her as they treaded water, loving how slick her body felt. Her long legs wrapped around him and it seemed as if his cock honed in on her core instinctively. He entered her in one stroke, and her legs tightened about him. Anubis cupped her bottom as he swam to shallow water until his feet were firmly on the ground. There he stood, holding her tightly as he pumped in and out of her slowly. Her soft lips traveled to his ear and traced the shell of his ear with her tongue. Her arms were tight around his neck as their passion increased. She bit him, hard, on his shoulder and he slammed into her harder.

Anubis began to walk them towards the beach, each step he took sending him deeper into her. Her mouth found his again and she kissed him with complete abandon. He’d never had a woman kiss him so hungrily — and that’s when realization sank in. Anubis would give her not only what she wanted, but also what she so desperately needed. He sank to his knees on the beach, and leaned over until she was on her back. Harder he thrust into her, feeling the energy he called upon build. She unwrapped her legs from around him and spread them wide, giving him better access.

Her small moans became louder, her hands clawed at his back as she raised her hips to meet his. Anubis couldn’t put into words how good she felt. Her chasm was gripping him, sliding him in further, taking him to heights of pleasure he had never known with a woman. His mating with her was more than just physical and it made it all the more arousing. “More.” She demanded gruffly, her hands gripping his backside and urging him deeper. The loss of his control was almost an audible snap.

He felt like a wild animal as he mated with Tessa. His cock was so hard, it demanded a release. He could hear his own grunts as their mating became almost violent.

“Yes!” she screamed as her hip thrusts became stronger quicker, more demanding. The pressure of energy coupled with his need to release his seed was overwhelming. Tessa’s thrusts stopped for a scant second before her body shook and she cried out. Her body convulsed as her orgasm stole over her. Her nails dug into his back as she gripped him, her body milking him in strong waves.

Anubis roared as he expended the energy and his seed inside of her. It seemed as if long founts of semen spurted inside of her and he was powerless while in its grip. He couldn’t remember an orgasm so strong that it made him lose all sense of equilibrium. The river water thrashed just as violently as it reacted to his power, splashing over their hot bodies and instantly cooling them off. Tessa didn’t seem to notice.

As his orgasm subsided, he watched her more closely. Her eyes were transfixed on the sky above, without exactly focusing on anything. Anubis’s suspicions were proven, as the water subsided almost as quickly as it had churned wildly. Her body shook every now and then. Eventually her eyes focused on him and she smiled. “That was wonderful.”

Anubis pulled out of her and lay on his side as his fingers made small circles on her belly. He said nothing, the thought that assailed him both comforting and shocking.

“Are you all right?” Her voice bit into his thoughts. He looked down at her. Tessa, the beautiful doctor who spent her life helping others. That was the Tessa of the past. This Tessa was not only a doctor, she was a hybrid. A hybrid that needed to feed off the life force of another to survive.

He let the darkness comfort him as the earth healed him. He burrowed deeper as pain lanced through his body. He had been caught unaware. Never had he run into such power before. Teremun had underestimated his enemy. As precious energy flowed through him, he knew it would not be enough to take nourishment from the earth. He needed more. He required the type of energy only a life force could give. His father had only briefly told him of the others. Obviously there was more he had to learn.

Teremun sat up in the darkness of the cavern and contemplated. He certainly couldn’t run the risk of confronting his new enemy. He was too weak. He had to find a simple source of food, one that wouldn’t require much energy to gather. He couldn’t risk the dark man following his trail. He needed a food source that wouldn’t cause attention.

Teremun wouldn’t be able to share his energy with
him
, this time. Once fully rejuvenated, he would be able to gather more souls and finally complete the transformation. It was only a matter of days before his power would be unrivaled.

He stood in the cavern, determined to do whatever was necessary to finish his mission. Shame had washed over him when he had to cower as the other being searched for him. Lucky for Teremun, his life signs had been so weak he couldn’t be detected. It took every ounce of his power to break out of the funnel that had imprisoned him. He would not be so helpless again. He needed to learn more about his foe, find his weakness. If memory served him, the man had been angry that he had killed the human female. Perhaps his enemy had a weakness for humans. Teremun smiled. If that were true, it was a good thing, for in his own way Teremun had a weakness for humans as well. He simply couldn’t resist feeding off them. As he strode out of the cave, Teremun got a good idea of just where he could go for an easy meal.

* * * *

Thoth rubbed his head in frustration. Books were piled high around the room, with various ones left open for quick reference. Something was staring him right in the face, and yet the answer eluded him. Hathor glided into the room with a drink in one hand. “Here, I thought this might help.” She handed him the small snifter of brandy and idly looked into the books. “Anything so far?”

Thoth sighed before he tipped the glass and let the entire contents burn its way down his throat. “I don’t know, love. I should know this. I’ve read the reports of the attacks. I’ve even seen pictures of the tags left right above the heart. But it doesn’t make sense. The cult lead I pursued turned up one interesting fact. Its founding members had died the same way as the people are dying here.”

“You will figure this out. There is nothing that stumps you for long.” She walked to another book, peering at it with little interest.

“It would help if Anubis—” As soon as Thoth began speaking, Hathor’s head snapped up.

“No! For the first time in his life Anubis has a chance at happiness.”

“I know that, love, but this is very important.”

Hathor came over to her husband and caressed his cheek. “Think about it, Thoth. He is the only one of us who has never had a mate. For his entire life he has lived life alone with nothing but bedmates. I know this is important, but so is he. He has helped the humans enough in the past that he should be able to pass on this. You can handle this. We can handle this. And let us not forget, husband, we have other friends who can aid us. We must stop this dependency we have on Anubis to always do our dirty work.”

“Anubis is a good man, but he is a Dark One. I suppose over time we have depended on him to do the work none of us had the stomach for. But you are right, we can do this.” Thoth sighed. “I know Apep is linked to this, but I don’t know how.”

Hathor smiled as she brushed lightly past her husband, still browsing through the books with little more than passing interest. “As for Anubis, that is his nature, dear.” Hathor flipped through pages as she continued. “Just like it is in a woman’s nature to nurture.” She moved to the next book. “You will not bother him with this until he is ready, right, dear?” Hathor waited for an answer, and when she received none she looked up in curiosity.

Thoth looked at her with a mixture of horror and understanding. “Are you all right, husband?” Worry clouded her voice, but Thoth rushed past her to stop at one book, which he flipped furiously through. “What is it?” Hathor rushed to his side. “You don’t think …”

“It fits.” Thoth nearly whispered to himself, as the serpent symbol of Apep glared up from the faded pages.

“But he’s been banished. Imprisoned in a realm just outside of Creation. He has no power here.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” Thoth retrieved his laptop and went to the web page he and Anubis had been viewing days earlier. It had been right there in front of him and he hadn’t seen it. “This woman was a founding member of the cult, and she is dead as well.”

“And?”

“I remember reading the reports. Apparently she had given birth not too long before she had died. They never found the child.”

“You’re going to have to explain this to me.” Hathor sat down in a nearby chair. “You believe Apep has something to do with the killings, yet you also believe he is still imprisoned. What has this woman to do with anything?”

“I suspected during the time that the veils between worlds thinned, something managed to either get in or out of Earth’s realm. I believe Apep managed to father a child with a human woman, probably given to him as a gift during the time the veils between realms thinned.”

Hathor looked shocked. “He would only need a very small window of opportunity to send his essence through. A young, fertile human woman could easily become a host. The babe could grow at an exponential rate! Oh, Thoth, this is terrible!”

“What Anubis and Tessa ran into the yesterday was indeed a hybrid. Anubis said it fed off humans by using their souls as energy.”

“But what would be the point, husband? Apep was not exactly a man dedicated to family. Why would he choose to procreate? That is not in his nature.”

“No, it is not in his nature. But it is in the nature of everything living to survive.” He looked at his wife apologetically. “He is probably using this thing as a gateway, a conduit to somehow break through. I am sorry, wife, but I must have Anubis’s help on this. He is one of the very few powerful ones, as is Ralabos. It will take all of our strength combined to stop this thing. There is no telling what he can do, or even what Apep’s plans are.”

“Thoth, we can’t do that to him. He needs one more day. Can we give him that?”

The possibilities of what this creature was capable of were endless. There was no telling exactly what it could do or what his true purpose was. It was even possible that Apep shared a mind link with his offspring. They could be implementing the destruction of mankind from across the realms with deadly accuracy. The more Thoth thought about the possibilities, the more worried he became. The sooner they took care of the situation the better. Too many humans had died already. And if his guess were right, more would die before this was over.

“Hathor, I don’t know if we can spare him. However, I will call upon Ralabos first and buy our dark friend more time with his new mate.”

As Thoth concentrated on trying to touch the mind of Ralabos, he hoped they had enough power between them to keep Apep at bay. The last battle with the powerful Apep had ended in many deaths. They had barely defeated him long enough to imprison him. And now he had a progeny who could, with time, have the power Apep needed to break free from his prison.

* * * *

Teremun walked slowly down the dirty streets. This was the less affluent part of town. The part of town most people avoided if they didn’t live here. As night fell he became more relaxed, since he blended in with the shadows so well. He felt weak and every step he took required too much of what precious energy he had left. His body was racked with pain, but it was bearable. He traveled deeper into the slums, depending on his sight instead of his preternatural senses to find a human. His tongue lanced through the air, hoping to catch a whiff of prey.

Then he found it. He followed the scent until his eyes picked out the victim. There, huddled next to a large waste receptacle, a human was hunched over searching the ground. At the sound of his footsteps the man squinted up at him in the dimness.

“Do you have any spare change? I could really use a meal.” The man’s gruff voice echoed in the alley. Teremun came closer, flinching at the scent of the unwashed human. But this human would do. Who would miss a creature such as this?

Teremun stopped in front of him and knelt down. A smile split his face at the thought he was finally going to be replenished. At the very least it was a start. His eyes flashed into green diamond slits as he stared at the man. “I could really use a meal as well.”