Legacy: Book Two of the Chronicles of the Nubian Underworld (20 page)

His eyes widened. Leave it to a punk like him to fear the punishment of his Mistress more than the pain of divorce. “Scarlett, we can work something out; i can’t be in trouble again. The punishment would be too great.”

“you know what? That information made my decision that much easier to make.” I watched him squirm while I let the decision roll around in my head a few times. He was lucky I had more love for my sis than I had contempt for watching him suffer. “you have until after her collaring ceremony to let her know what’s going on. i would say before, but i don’t want anything fucking up my sis’s collaring, not even your bitch ass.”

Ice put his head in his hands, his shoulders slumping like he’d
been through the fight of his life. “Look, i didn’t want things to go down like this; you have to believe me.”

“Well, you have a fucked-up way of expressing your sorrow.” I reverted to the scene of the two of them in my head, shaking my head at the mixed emotions I felt. My Goddess would have loved to direct the scene between them, and if tiger got his way earlier, I would have taken great pleasure in watching him on all fours, taking the dick as well, if not better, than any women he’d been with before he married sajira. “The clock is ticking, bitch. Figure out how you’re going to tell her, or it won’t be pleasant.”

TWENTY-TWO
RAMESSES

No nerves. This is a routine trip, nothing more.

That’s what I repeated to myself.

As much as I wanted to say I wouldn’t be nervous, or not let every single detail get to me or throw me off balance, the fact remained: I had every reason to be nervous.

I was in the midst of leading a contingent of the majority of the members of
Neb’net Maa’kheru,
including Amenhotep, around the grounds of NEBU, rattling off all of the changes made to the compound. Neferterri stayed in the main building with sajira and shamise to oversee the NEBU slaves as they prepared dinner upon our return from the tour.

My mentor smiled at seeing all of the changes up close and personal, and while it made me smile on the outside to know he was pleased with the upgrades and changes, it wasn’t the reason why my nerves were on edge.

Seti had not arrived to NEBU yet.

My emotions were conflicted. Before nadia took me back to the airport, Seti made sure to inform me he would be in Atlanta in time for the meeting of the members to tour the facility. In fact, one of the service slaves had confirmed the limousine had been sent to pick up his entourage from Hartsfield-Jackson. It was my sole purpose for allowing the advanced viewing. Otherwise, it would have only been Dominic, Amenhotep and me set to tour.

I had a feeling Seti was testing my patience for a reason, especially when he had prior knowledge his brother would be in attendance.

I’ll be damned if I was going to be disrespected in my own backyard.

I watched Amenhotep’s facial expressions and the different range of emotions that gave me everything I needed to know concerning whether I had done well or not. His eyes met mine, and a knowing wink from Him was confirmation that all the stressing I had put myself through while getting everything put together was well worth the effort.

I didn’t feel so burdened anymore. It was almost like the monkey was finally off my back, even though I was the one who put it there.

“It seems You have done quite well with the design and construction of the grounds, Ramesses,” Master Menes remarked as we stepped out of the touring cart and began to make our way into the main building. “I am quite looking forward to seeing how things will work out at the future compounds.”

“Yes, I agree with Menes,” Osiris chimed in, strolling beside me as we reached the stairs to the front entrance. “I am pleased I agreed to begin construction in the Vegas area. I believe the California contingent would be very excited to see this as well. I am hoping You have done a visual markup of the grounds so we can take this to some of the more influential community members and wow them as You have wowed us here today.”

“Yes, Sir, I have had that done, both aerial and on the grounds, Osiris.” I caught one of the NEBU slaves trying to get my attention. I dismissed her for the moment, concentrating on Seti’s absence instead. “I had hoped I would have shown Your brother the grounds also, but it seems He has been delayed to some degree.”

I had a strange feeling I should have excused myself from the
group when the NEBU slave risked breaking protocol to warn me about something. But that no longer mattered as a small contingent approached us, and upon seeing slave nadia leading the contingent, I almost wished I had allowed the breach of protocol.

Seti had emerged, looking perturbed like he had been waiting an extraordinarily long time for the group to return so he could give everyone an earful, specifically me.

“Ramesses, may I ask why You took the group on a tour of the grounds without including Me?” He stared me down as he spoke. The moment he stepped into my personal space, my guard was heightened. “Surely You of all people should know better than to leave a member of the Order in the lurch.”

Amenhotep replied to Seti before I could interject. “You made it a point to keep the rest of the members waiting, Seti. Unless I missed My guess, we were all scheduled to meet at three p.m. sharp so Ramesses could begin the tour,” He made mention as He looked at His watch. “We did not begin the tour until nearly three-thirty, and You had not left word, nor did You instruct any of Your slaves to do so, which leads the rest of the members to believe Your lack of punctuality was a deliberate act. Do You not have the other members’ cell phone numbers?”

Seti tried to dismiss Amenhotep’s reply, which infuriated me. His eyes never left mine when he said, “Amenhotep, I do not remember asking You the question that I posed to Ramesses. I believe He can speak for Himself.”

In my mind I yelled a plethora of profanities, but I needed to keep my emotions in check, especially around Seti. There were too many in attendance, and the last thing I needed was to have an incident happen to get back to the blog boards and get blown out of proportion. It was only a matter of time before he tried to
say something else to enrage me, and the attack would be warranted.

Thankfully, Osiris began his assault before I could get started.

“Seti, what exactly is the issue, besides Your ability to try and place the spotlight on You?” Osiris asked of his brother, equally irritated at his dispassionate demeanor. “If You are insistent upon continuing this longstanding grudge between You and Me, then the least You can do is leave the rest of the members out of it and conduct Yourself with the decorum expectant of a member of
Neb’net Maa’kheru.”

“You are the last person to educate Me on decorum,
brother.”
Seti looked nearly insulted Osiris would even speak to him in any tone at all. “You were the one to break decorum and protocol when You deliberately took Your current slave from Me.”

“You seem to want to distort the facts of the matter from that time,
brother.”
Osiris bellowed loud enough to snap everyone’s attention in our direction. “Do You really insist on putting things out there while thinking You were in the right?”

“I was in the right!” Seti yelled.

Osiris didn’t want to bring this issue out in the open, not exactly in this manner, and certainly not in front of the current slaves at Seti’s feet, witnessing the standoff between blood. I shook my head, realizing I was privy to the information that was about to become public record in my compound.

“Since You insist, so be it. Do You recall when You broke Your House protocol, at My insistence You do not for Your own benefit, that led to Your former, slave leticia, to request and secure release from Your control?” Osiris inquired while the audience had his attention. He swept his eyes across the faces around him, much like a prosecutor looking to sway the jury with his argument.

That question nearly stopped Seti dead in his tracks. From the history I remembered during the conversations with both Amenhotep and Osiris, the former slave leticia was now the current slave keket. The confused look on Seti’s face gave his brother the upper hand, and without a rebuttal worth speaking, he left the door wide open to have the rest of that history dropped at the feet of everyone within earshot, regardless of station.

Osiris kept up his onslaught. “I see from Your expression that You do remember. I also recall putting My own status within the Society at risk because according to the bylaws, the actions You caused would have led to Your censure and removal from the Society. I kept You from being removed, under the promise that neither of us would speak of it,
ever
, until You forced Me to do so now.”

keket stood close to her Master, finding a spot on his upper back.

“You still had no right to accept leticia as one of Your own!”
Seti had become irate by that point, as the memories flooded back to him like a raging tsunami.
“she had no business even being with You; You were My brother, dammit!”

“All right, that’s enough!”
I had to put a stop to this now before any more damage would be done. “I may not be a member of the Society, but I can no longer stand idly by and allow this feud to continue.”

“Ramesses, this is none of Your—” Seti tried to back me off, but saw a look in my eyes that let him know that I would not be denied, not this time.

“Oh, but I believe it is
MY
affair now, Master Seti,” I retorted. “You see, Sir, the bylaws of this and the other compounds clearly stipulate any discourse is to be arbitrated by the Head of Council of the compound the discourse or dispute occurs in. Now, while You are Head of Council at
Thebes,
and Osiris is Head of Council at
Deshret,
I am the Head of Council here at NEBU. When any Head of Council is at a visiting compound, they must yield to the host Head of Council, which means You
will
yield, or be removed not only from the grounds, but from Your position as Head of Council at
Thebes
also. My question to You, Master Seti: do You yield?”

The line was drawn in the sand.

Seti’s anger was evident on his face, and his anger was matched by the determination in my face and the perseverance to ensure time stopped and nothing else would be done until this issue was resolved.

He stared into my eyes once again, in search of something that no longer existed. My stare into his eyes posed a rhetorical question: do you really want things to end like this?

To say the group was so quiet you could only hear the rustle of the wind in the trees would be an understatement. Despite the way I looked, the urge to back down reared its ugly head. This was high-stakes poker, and the last one who blinked had the advantage. I cut a quick glance at Amenhotep, who simply nodded in response to my silent plea of whether or not I had crossed the line to restore order.

Neferterri, sajira and shamise had been told by the NEBU slaves something was wrong and saw the tail end of the exchange between Seti and Osiris and my interruption of the two of them. I saw them out of the corner of my eye and slowly raised a hand to stop them from interfering. This was something I needed to do, and any outside influences would ruin the momentum I’d built.

It might have looked like a pissing contest, and to a degree, it probably was. But this was how Alpha males, no, Dominant males, took care of business, without the added escalation to violence, although if it had to go there, then it had to go there. Honor and
respect were earned, not given, and I was going to earn mine from Seti, even if I had to resort to dropping him like a ton of bricks to get it.

Finally, Seti spoke. “Lord Ramesses, I will yield as stipulated by the bylaws of NEBU. I apologize for causing this scene to occur, and I would like to offer the ability to speak with My brother, with You as arbiter, to bring this feud to an end once and for all. The Society is bigger than the two of us, and we’ve strayed from that ideal.”

“I will concede to this meeting also, Lord Ramesses.” Osiris put a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to diffuse the situation and restore a sense of calm to what was a successful group outing. “This has been a long time coming, but the egos and stubbornness of two old fools would not allow it. I believe things will finally be at peace after all these years.”

“Very good, then, gentlemen, I believe we can accommodate this immediately.” I finally found the words to say, although I really felt I should never have stepped out of place. I knew I would deal with those actions when Amenhotep and I spoke in private. “I believe that settles things.”

The NEBU slave, still in her kneeling position during the entire exchange, kissed the back of my palm, alerting me to her presence. Upon looking down and acknowledging her to speak, she stated, “m’Lord, dinner is prepared. When You and Your party are ready, we would be at Your disposal to serve dinner.”

“Very good, My dear.” I dismissed her to join the others in the kitchen to prepare to serve dinner, turning my attention back to the group. “Now, I invite You all to move to the dining room, please, so the slaves may serve dinner.”