Soul Reborn (Key to the Cursed Book 1) (8 page)

Lilly ripped away
the plastic covering of the steering column to reveal the ignition wiring. The
revens hit with such force the van rocked up on two wheels and threatened to
tip them over. Forced to drop the wires, she placed her hands out to stop from
being thrown across the seat.

“Damn it.” She quickly
grabbed the two wires and struck them together. “Start. Come on, baby.”

The choke of the
engine spewed black smoke out the back tailpipe. Unable to open the locked
doors, the revens pounded on the glass. She pulled the gearshift into drive and
slammed her foot on the gas. The driver’s side window burst sending glass
flying across her and the front seat.

“Fuck, me.” She arched
back, slammed her head into the head rest and narrowly dodged a reven launching
itself through her window. Without the slightest hesitation, she slammed the
butt of her blade into its face. In the side mirror, she saw the body roll onto
the sidewalk only to get up and resume its pursuit.

The van lurched
forward plowing down the revens and bouncing over the dead bodies pulled under
the vehicle. She yanked the steering wheel sharp to the right and turned onto Fifth
Avenue. The entrance to the Empire State Building flashed briefly in her
peripheral vision.

She flipped out her
phone and called in the airstrike to the old abandoned church. The assault helo
shook the van as it rocketed overhead. The blast wave blew out the back windows
of the van showering small fractures of glass through the entire vehicle.

Lilly looked over
her shoulder. “Where?”

Kamen moved to
passenger seat and directed her to a sewer entrance. She slammed on the brakes,
and jumped into the back of the van. Asar’s black skin turned a sickly grey
color. The acid from her stomach crawled up the back of her throat.

“What’s wrong with
him?”

His own wounds
already healed, Kamen lifted Asar over his shoulder and pushed past Lilly. “He
needs anti-venom.”

“Anti-venom?” Following
with her blade in hand, she looked at the ashy color of Kamen’s skin. He seemed
far less affected by the poison. “What about you?”

He simply answered
her with a hard malicious glare. It took several more minutes to find the
makeshift dwelling Asar had established. Lilly followed down the dark tunnel a
few steps behind Kamen. She couldn’t tell if Asar was alive or dead. There was
no movement, not even a twitch.

Kamen motioned with
his head, directing her into another chamber. He gently laid Asar down onto mattress
in the dingy cramped space.

“Take care of him. Now!”

Lilly slowly
approached the god. His large body consumed the small double mattress tucked in
the corner. She unclipped her weapons belt and put it up against the wall. Her
eyes focused on a gaping wound on his side. Leaning forward, she inhaled. The
scent of the venom burned her nostrils.

The anti-venom
pulsed through her veins, a protective chemical balance during the conversion
to a Nehebkau. With a small knife from her discarded belt, she sliced open her
palm. She clenched and unclenched her hand to start the flow of blood.

“Hold him still,” she
directed Kamen. With Kamen’s enormous body holding Asar in position, she dripped
the blood into the opening. Small puffs of smoke drifted out of the wound. Asar
came alive, growling and thrashing under Kamen’s grip.

“Hold him tight. It’s
going to get a lot worse.” She milked her arm to increase the blood until it
was a continual stream. Once blood filled the bowl of the cut, she pressed her
hand directly over the wound.

Asar roared and
arched up off the bed as the wound began to cauterize shut. Kamen strained
against his strength, while she pressed as hard as she could. Dark smoke
drifted out from under palm and around her fingers.

Hearing his screams
of agony, her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, pushing more
of the anti-venom into his system. Once the last of the black smoke cleared,
she withdrew her hands. Only then did he stop struggling, and became eerily
still. The wound edges were fused, but the skin badly burned in the perfect
shape of white hand print. Fluid filled blisters covered the once black skin in
an angry collage.

She sat back on her
rear with a big thump and leaned against the hard biting wall. The evening’s
events had left her too emotionally and physically drained to fuel her anger
with the deity who had put them all at significant risk.

Although she was in no
condition to fight out of habit she pulled her weapons belt across her lap. The
cold stone felt soothing against her sore body. Closing her eyes, Lilly invited
the darkness of sleep to overtake her.

Asar loomed over the
sleeping huntress.

By saving his life,
Lilly had done more for him than anyone else in his entire existence. A human,
no less. He touched the silvery white scar on his side, the only evidence that
remained of his knife wound.

Why had she
returned to the church?

The methodical rise
and fall of her chest was hypnotic. He dared to crouch beside her and brush
back her tangle of hair. Her head rolled in the direction of his palm. With her
face cupped in his hand, he brushed the pad of his thumb across the pink glow
of her perfect cheekbone. Her skin blanched white at his cold touch.

He lifted her effortlessly
and placed her gently on the bed. Her long, luscious body stretched out to its
full length. Her taut sleek abdomen sunk to expose her prominent hip bones. Shifting
in her sleep, she moaned softly.

“You are
beautiful,” Asar whispered, continuing to touch her hair, the only part of her
that did not burn him.

“What do you plan
on doing with her?” Kamen said, entering the room.

“She will return
with me, once our mission is complete.”

“Willingly?”

“Since when does it
matter?”

Asar scowled. The thought
of her not wanting to be with him bothered him greatly. It should not. He was a
god, and she, his servant. It was the way of their world.

Kamen sat and
leaned on the back legs of the chair. “These women are not our usual…
preference
.
There is nothing subservient about them. In fact, they are extremely abrasive,
especially her sister, Kit. They may be more trouble than their worth.”

“Are not they all?”
Asar growled at the memory of the goddess’ sharp nails against his skin. The
thought replaced quickly by the memory of Lilly’s hungry kiss and hands on his
body. The taste of her was the most excruciatingly erotic sensation he had ever
experienced. His cock throbbed as he imagined her naked under him.

Kamen put his arm
behind his head. “At least this one seems a little more trustworthy than the
others.”

Asar rubbed his jaw.
The question was
why
? “Did the sisters make it back?”

“Yeah, they are
tucked safely behind the fortress.”

“Any sign of the
goddess or the gate key?”

“No, the church was
leveled. The Nehebkau are cleaning up as we speak.”

Asar ran an
agitated hand through his hair. “It was there, damn it. I could feel it!”

Kamen dropped the
chair back on four legs, nodded toward Lilly, and headed out of the room.

Asar turned around
and found her sitting up in bed, seemingly confused that she was no longer on
the floor. The glint of surprise in her glowing green eyes told him she had not
expected him to be standing after such a severe injury. Instead of getting out
of bed, she lay back down and curled on her side with her hands tucked neatly under
her cheek. Her unexpected vulnerability drew him in close to the bed.

Lilly cleared her throat
and looked up at him. “You are better?” Her eyes scanned his torso.

“Yes.” Despite the
injury, he returned to his previous state. Empty and soulless.

She sighed deeply,
and remained in the fetal position.

He interrupted the
silence. “I will be leaving for a period of time. Kamen will stay behind to
watch after your sisters.”

She simply nodded
and curled up into a tighter ball on the bed.

Hesitating at the
door, he looked over his shoulder at the huntress. “Would you like to come with
me?”

Her eyebrows shot
up. Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she asked, “Where are you
going?”

He did not answer
her, but exited the small room.

Asar cursed at himself.
Stupid. You are falling into your old habits.
Worse, a heaviness insufflated
his stomach when she did not follow. Angry with himself, he stalked toward the
exit, but stopped when he heard the metal door open wider behind him. Lilly peeked
around the door with her weapons belt in hand. Her other hand attempted to
smooth back her tangle of hair.

“You will not need
those,” he said, gesturing to her weapons. Hesitation and fear flickered in her
eyes. Taking a deep breath, Lilly placed the belt up against the wall and
walked forward behind him. She gave it one last glance before stepping out the
door.

He moved down the sewer
tunnel. Her heat remained very close behind. He tried to be nonchalant in his observation
of her, but the huntress nervously glanced around the environment, no doubt
insecure without brandishing a weapon.

The place he was
taking her had no revens. In fact, no humans either. He was taking her to his
home, and only gods lived in the Underworld.

On some level he
wanted to impress her, showing her exactly how important he was to her world. But
that was only half of it. He wanted to touch her without pain and soak in her
emotions. Maybe, just maybe, he could make her smile. She had suffered
something tragic to be carrying the weight he saw in her eyes. He wanted to
give her a little break from her reality. Show her life of servitude with him
would not be unpleasant.

He stopped and held
out his hand. Chewing on her lip, she took it.

* * *

The wave of
dizziness ripped through her. At least she didn’t throw up. She closed her eyes
to the blinding light stinging her sensitive eyes. Warm hands steady her. Afraid
for fear of what she might see, she kept her eyes closed.

“Lilly,” Asar said
low and clear.

She found his black
eyes staring at her inquisitively. She inhaled sharply when she saw his handsome
face. His once black skin was now infused with a rich olive color, topped with thick
black, shoulder length hair. The tattoos of the ancient hieroglyphics on his forearms
stood out with clarity.

Embarrassed by her
reaction, she twisted in a circle focusing on the large stone palace. It
overlooked a long serpentine river that wrapped around the entire landmass and slithered
off in the distance.

“Aaru,” Lilly
whispered.

Surprise registered
in his eyes.

Taking a few steps
away toward the wall, she watched the water flow off into the distance. “I use
to have dreams when I was a little girl that looked just like this. My dad
always told me they were dreams of Aaru.” She looked over her shoulder. “Am I
dreaming?”

“You are not
dreaming. This is my home.” He watched her a few moments in the uncomfortable
silence between them. “I have business to attend to, but I would like you to be
comfortable. Follow me.”

She followed behind
like a lost puppy in the paradise island of the Underworld. Looking down at her
scuffed leather clothes, she felt sorely out of place. She refocused on Asar. His
now pale skin could be seen through his black linen pants. Apparently gods didn’t
wear underwear. The thought of how he might look from the front made her blush.
Her eyes followed his tight flanks up into a V-shaped musculature leveled off with
broad, bulky shoulders.

She bumped into him
when he stopped abruptly at a door flanked on either side by servants. These at
least looked human. No red eyes or decaying skin. He spoke to them in an
ancient language and they quickly went to work drawing individual baths. A thin
white curtain hung from the ceiling, separating the room.

She started to back
away from the servants surrounding her. One female pushed her forward and
started to unlace her leather vest and pants.

“Hey, I can undress
myself, thank you.” Ignoring her protests, another servant pulled at the
tangles in her hair. “Asar!”

He disappeared behind
the white curtain. She desperately tried to hold onto her clothes, but after a
few moments, not a stitch remained. Resigning herself to the fact she had no
choice, she stepped into the warm bath.

After completing his
business, Asar went in search of his huntress. Having given her full rein of
the island, he found her in the most unexpected place—at the water’s edge with
her bare feet in the sand. Her golden hair, smoothed by his servants into a
beautiful silk, glistened in the sun. Curled strands cascaded down her
shoulders. If he could freeze time, it would be this moment. No one would guess
she was not a goddess.

He approached slowly.
The dress she wore had white panels that fell over each shoulder and attached at
the waist, which left the entire length of her snake marked spine exposed. With
a similar style in the front, the white linen covered her breasts and little
else. A thick, flat gold necklace held the dress in place.

She smiled, apparently
lost in the sensation of the sun and sand, and when she turned toward him, he
could see the shape of her full breast from the side. To his surprise her smile
brightened when she met his gaze.

His chest tightened.
The first smile he had seen on her angelic face.

She walked toward
him with a slight bounce of her unbridled breasts. The energy of life and
happiness flowed across his skin like a warm breeze. The sweet taste filled his
mouth and his chest became heavy with the weight of emotion pouring from her
soul. His hunger disappeared in an instant.

“It’s absolutely
beautiful here.” Her cheeks were flushed from the sun’s rays. She broke eye
contact with him and fidgeted with her dress in the front.

Overcome by the
emotions he absorbed from the beautiful huntress, Asar brushed the hair back
from her face and rested his fingers on the side of her cheek. Her gaze shifted
to meet his. His hand slipped around the nape of her neck and pulled her soft
curves against his body.

Her heart thudded
against his chest. Everything about her was perfect. Too perfect. It had to be
a trick. Anything that felt this good had consequences. He had broken many
rules bringing her here. But she was his, damn it. He wanted relief from the
darkness that had consumed him over the last five years. He deserved that much.
Did he not?

He leaned in to
kiss her trembling lips. He waited so long to feel this sensation of desire
again, but his lips stopped a fraction from hers. The last woman he shared his
bed with betrayed him. His mind locked in a struggling to resolve his
conflicted feelings.

Kiss her,
already,
the beast inside him snarled
.

She made the
decision for him by gently pressing her soft lips against his and then pulled
away. He tightened his brow, confused and hesitant. Her eyes softened slightly
before she leaned in to kiss him again, enticing him to react.

A sudden surge of
outside energy raced through his body, hitting him like a freight train. He
could not stop himself from seizing her with his lips, taking her sweet, loving
taste inside him. A desperate need raged in his chest. His tongue thrust into
her mouth, demanding more. He growled low in his chest when she sucked his tongue
deeper into her mouth and caressed it with her own.

Her confident hands
caressed the outside of his shirt, contracting the muscles under her fingertips.
Tiny electric shocks coursed across his skin and deep into his tissues. His
head wavered under the deluge of sensation.

He yanked back,
severing his connection with her. “What are you doing to me?” he asked gruffly.

“I don’t know. I’m
sorry,” Lilly gasped and pulled out of his grasp.

He seized her again.
“It cannot be like this,” he grumbled in her ear. “Not here.” She deserved
better than to be groped on the beach.

He shifted the
energy in his body to transport her back to his sleeping quarters. No sooner
were his feet on the floor did he seal her mouth with his own, drawing the
breath of life from her lungs. He picked her up and carried her to the large
golden bed, which lay open and waiting. His beastly desire consumed him. This
beautiful woman was his for the taking. He had always taken what he wanted, but
he feared making the same mistakes of his past. The emptiness of that mistake anchored
in the pit of his chest. He did not want to lose sight of that vengeance, and
Lilly would be a serious distraction from his objective.

He had acted on
impulse on the beach. The flood of emotion that swept over him when she kissed
him was unexpectedly shocking and filled the void in his chest, nothing more. He
should have let her go when she tried to pull away, but part of him feared
losing her completely.

Why did he care? He
would technically own her when this was all over.

Somehow, her
feelings for him mattered.

Distracted by his
own internal struggles, he did not feel her movement until she knelt before him
on the bed, her golden hair encircling her head like a crown, and those
beautiful green eyes level with his own. After unlacing the ties on his tunic,
her warm hands slipped under the cloth onto his chest. With palms pressed to his
skin, she slowly pushed his tunic up over his shoulders until it fell to the
ground.

Lilly raised her
hands up around her neck and unclasped the necklace holding her dress. He followed
the white panels lowering until her supple breasts were revealed.

The remaining air
deserted his lungs. Lilly’s slow seduction would kill whatever resolve he may
have had.

She leaned closer,
and her taut nipples rubbed gently against his chest. She brushed her lips
against his, and whispered, “Asar.”

As if his name from
her lips held the password to his confinement, he seized her with renewed urgency,
and pulled her mouth into his, demanding the taste of her he so strongly
desired.

One of the sweetest
things ever to stimulate his tongue.

His hands slid up
the length of her curvaceous torso. He greedily cupped her breasts and rubbed her
nipples between his fingers. She exhaled a high pitched moan. Her hands
immediately went to his waist. The fabric gave way as she pushed it over his hips
and thighs.

He kissed down the
length of her neck to her breasts, enveloped one of the pink buds into his
mouth, and rolled his tongue over the taut peak. His cock hardened at the sound
of her moan and the desperate grasp of her hands. Her arousal spurred him
further.

His entire body
contracted when her warm hand wrapped around the length of his cock. He growled
under the onslaught of pleasure with each caress. He rose up and seized her
mouth again and pressed himself into her hand.

“Lilly.” Asar pulled
away to look into her emerald eyes. “If we go further, you will be mine, and
will carry my mark. No other man will be allowed to touch you. I will not allow
it.”

“Make me yours,” she
said softly, then kissed his lips.

The hollow of his chest
burned suddenly with her words. Her eyes shown clear and true. Despite his fear
of being hurt again, he kissed her beautiful pink lips until she gasped for
breath. Her body trembled with his every touch, until finally he slipped his
fingers into the cleft beneath her soft blonde curls.

She moved her knees
apart with his gentle coaxing and rubbed lightly against his fingers. Her eyes
closed.

 “Look at me,” Asar
demanded, wanting to see the pleasure build in her eyes.

His fingers rubbed
in slow circles, slipping down through her folds just outside her entrance.

 “Asar, please.”

“My sweet Lilly.” He
rubbed her swollen clitoris with his thumb while drawing her nipple into his
mouth, and slipped his fingers inside her warmth.

With an explosion
of heat and contraction, Lilly screamed. Her body thrashed and tightened down
upon his fingers.

He guided her back
onto the bed and pressed his large body against hers. She wrapped her legs up
and around his hips, bringing the tip of his cock into the heat of her orgasm.
His body throbbed.

“You will be mine,”
he said, and slid himself into her warm channel. She wrapped him in a blanket
of pure ecstasy. With each thrust he probed deeper and deeper. Tiny spasms
heralded the call of another orgasm. In rhythmical waves, she arched her back
pushing him deeper inside. Asar groaned at the pleasure of it, almost losing
himself in her screams.

Asar, being a god
and no stranger to women, thought he knew pleasure, but what he was experiencing
defied comprehension. Every part of his body quaked with ripples of pleasures following
each thrust. More importantly, he wanted to make her happy, pleasure her beyond
her dreams. He gripped her hips for leverage, and plunged deeper into her. Her gasps
of sexual bliss wracked his body to the point he could no longer withhold his
release.

He should have
pulled out, letting his semen spill outside of her, but he could not bear to separate
himself from her. There was nothing alive inside of him, yet with her, the
energy of life pulsed inside the chasm of his absent heart. If he came inside
her, her soul would be marked by him, but he would also be marked by her.

If he had a soul,
that is.

“Come with me.” He looked
into her beautiful face covered in fine sweat — a product of their love making.
She did not need much encouragement. Asar grunted long and low as the tightness
constricted him. He pushed against the pressure. Her entire body trembled
before her face knit up in ecstasy. He roared and released the force of his
orgasm and exploded deep within her. The contractions pulled from his scrotum
to the tip of his penis. With each spasm his semen ejected in a heated stream
inside of her. She gasped and arched her back off the mattress. Even after the
last of drop had been expelled, he could not stop himself from thrusting until
the sensation was excruciating. Asar’s arms and shoulders shook violently. He collapsed
onto her with all of his weight.

Asar kissed her
face. Lilly panted heavily against his neck frozen in an eternal contraction of
pleasure. He could almost see his dark power bloom as his seed raced through
her body. He stroked her cheek, watching her body be marked by him—a very
intense experience, especially for a human. Fear flickered across her eyes. The
change would deeply alter her physical and spiritual being.

“Shh... You are
okay,” he spoke softly, forcing her into a hypnotic state.

He rolled to the
side and pulled her into his chest. Not wanting her to see the emotional
torture on his face, he pushed her trance into a deeper state of sleep.

“What have you done
to me?” he whispered against her skin.

* * *

Lilly jolted awake
and in a state of complete disorientation. She rolled onto her back and found
herself very much alone. A soft white canopy of linen draped across the ceiling
above the enormous, gold four-poster bed. Multiple torches cast a yellowish
orange glow across an expanse of neutral sandstone. She pulled one of the silk
sheets around her naked body and sat up.

The rush of
memories flowed over her body like a warm wave all the way to her toes. With her
eyes closed, she could pretend his hands still caressed her body. A strange
energy pulsed through her cells, making her intrinsically aware of every beat
of her heart and breath of her lungs.

You will carry
my mark.

She gasped,
remembering Asar’s words, and jumped from the bed. The sound of her bare feet
hitting the stone floor echoed through the large room. She halted in front of
one of the large mirrors. Over her heart rested a mark identical to the
pectoral pendants that hung around his neck. She touched the black hieroglyphics
imbedded deep in the layers of her skin, branded all the way to her soul.

She never acted so
impulsively before, but something about him unraveled her senses. Kit’s words
kept echoing in her head.
Live it up now, it may be your last.
If this
was her last, she’d die a very happy and satisfied woman. Her dry spell was
over, and what a way to end it—making love to the God of the Underworld.

Her stomach dropped.
She’d sold her soul—a sacrifice she would make again in order to stop the
spread of the revens—but what about her sisters?

The loss weighed on
her conscience like an iron yoke. She only hoped Asar would let her continue to
hunt the goddess. She would correct her mistake with her life, if necessary.

Only then would her
sisters truly be safe.