Vampires Don't Sparkle: Deathless Book 3 (11 page)

Be careful, my host. Show no resistance,
his risen counseled. Unnecessarily. Trevor knew better than to pick a fight with something much stronger and much older than he was.

“Listen, Anubis. It’s Anubis, right? I came here for one reason, and one reason only. To kill Steve,” Trevor explained, meeting the jackal’s gaze evenly. “I didn’t plan on any of this, but since I’ve been adopted into your little pantheon I plan to mind my manners. I won’t offer your wife any offense, and if I offer you any please give me a chance to apologize before you ram that axe through my chest. Remember, I’m ignorant of your ways.”

“I promise nothing,” Anubis snarled, though he seemed mollified.
 

The jackal stalked up the next corridor, eventually pausing outside the entryway to a large chamber. The chamber was roughly twice the size of the one Trevor had occupied back in Blair’s Ark, and, unlike his, had been heavily modified. Ornate rugs covered the floors, and statues of various Egyptian deities dotted the chamber. A massive four poster bed dominated one corner, and the far side of the room even contained a pool-sized bath.

A figure emerged from that bath, naked and dripping as she stepped onto the stone and picked up a towel. She made no move to use it, instead sizing up Trevor like a puzzle she was trying to solve. The woman was beautiful, no doubt about that. She had long, dark-skinned legs, and patient wide eyes. A river of black hair cascaded down her back, twisted into fine braids, each with a golden bead at the end.
 

Trevor was about to look away, largely due to Anubis’s warning, when he noticed something hanging brightly in the air above her. It was a multicolored sigil of some kind, a stylized likeness of Anubis. He wasn’t sure precisely what it signified. Marriage maybe? Trevor dropped his gaze to the stone, waiting for either Anubis or the woman to speak. He noted that the woman looked completely human, no toxic green gaze, no razored teeth. That was an interesting tidbit to file away.

“My wife,” Anubis rumbled, clicking his away across the floor until he towered over the woman. “Ra commands me to present you with this pup. He is a new god, from this strange age. She commands that you educate him in our ways. Know this, however, I have sworn to—”

“Leave off, husband,” the woman said, placing a hand on Anubis’s forearm. His jaws snapped shut, though his gaze still smoldered. “I can tell already that you have no love for the pup, and you and I will discuss the reasons later. In private. For now, please allow me to discharge the obligation Ra has given me. The pup will learn nothing with you looming over him, ready to mete out violence. Leave us.”

Anubis gave a curt nod, whirling and stalking past Trevor. He passed far closer than was strictly necessary, furry muscles gliding past Trevor’s face as if a reminder of how close to death he came.

“How are you called, newling?” the woman asked, toweling the water from her naked body.
 

“My name is Trevor. Trevor Gregg,” he amended, still trying to avert his gaze. The basic human needs for sex were supposed to be gone, but he experienced a very human lust. He hadn’t felt that way with Ra, despite the fact that the fiery-haired goddess was much more beautiful than Anput.

“I am called Anput, wife of Anubis and daughter of Osiris,” she said, giving him a wide smile. Her teeth were perfectly white, and, as he’d noted earlier, perfectly straight. Illusion, perhaps? If that was the case he should have been able to detect her shaping.

No illusion, my host. She is cousin to the deathless, but a wholly separate creature. She cannot be trusted. Your desire for her is unnatural, one of the abilities her kind possesses.

“So, you’re supposed to teach me how to fit in here?” Trevor asked, mainly to fill the silence that lingered in the wake of her statement.

“Just so,” Anput said, giving a soft nod. She reached for a sheer black shift and pulled it on, then moved to a high-backed wooden chair near a window.

Trevor moved to join her, sinking into a second chair. They sat at the edge of a balcony, which overlooked the Giza plateau. The view was breathtaking, showing Cairo in all its glory. The city was huge, possibly bigger than Los Angeles. Yet it was also empty. He could see no movement there, not a single corpse or even a bird.

“I have been tasked with teaching you to survive here, no easy feat given that you are an outsider,” Anput said, crossing one shapely leg over the other as she studied him. “To do that I must understand more of what you are. How did you come to be here?”

“By accident. I was pursing a Ka-Dun who stole an access key,” Trevor explained. He wasn’t sure how much he should reveal to Anput, but right now he didn’t have many choices. She was the only thing approaching an ally he was likely to find here. “Your husband ambushed my companions and I at the light bridge. After he kicked our collective asses, I woke up in a cell. I was presented to Ra, and then escorted here.”

“Interesting,” Anput said, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. She leaned her elbow on the arm of the chair, still studying him. “Anubis said you are of this age. Obviously you’ve had some training. Who sired you?”

“If by sired you mean trained, then I guess that would be Irakesh. Though I have no loyalty to that bald bastard,” Trevor snapped, instantly regretting the loss of control.

Anput cocked her head back and began a musical laugh. Her eyes twinkled when she stopped, and he noticed for the first time that she wore dark eyeshadow. It was so skillfully applied it could have been part of her skin.

“You are refreshingly honest, Trevor Gregg,” Anput said, her expression suddenly unreadable. “If you wish to survive in the court of the mighty Ra, that must change, and change quickly. Here, honestly is a liability. It reveals your true intentions, and such predictability will allow your enemies to engineer your death.”

“You’re implying some people aren’t my enemies,” Trevor shot back. He knew he was out of his depth. Politics weren’t his strong suit. Hell, social situations in general weren’t his strong suit. Before all this had begun, the happiest nights of his life had been spent observing the night sky at Palomar in San Diego. He was completely alone, save for the data and perhaps one or two grad students interested in that data.

“So you have a glimmer of intelligence then,” Anput replied, giving a coy smile. With anyone else Trevor might have assumed she was flirting. “Everyone here will seek to use you for one end or another, but that is not the same as being an enemy. Take me, for example. I’ve been given the task of making you presentable to the court. If I fail in this, I will lose status with Ra, and thus with the court. It is in my best interest to ensure that you are well groomed, that you have the tools needed to flourish here.”

“And in so doing you earn my gratitude. I’ll owe you a favor, right?” Trevor asked, narrowing his eyes. He already detested this game, though he thought he’d learned the first rule.

“Precisely,” Anput replied, giving him a warmer smile. “There is much to discuss, but before we begin you’ll need to quiet your mind. To do that we must first unburden it. I will permit you three questions. Choose wisely.”

Trevor felt like he’d just rubbed a lamp. Fortunately, long years of Dungeons & Dragons had prepared him for just such an occasion. The mistake people often made with questions like this was trying to learn too much. Aim lower, and you were more likely to get what you wished for.

“How can I make an ally of Anubis?” Trevor asked, giving Anput a wry smile.

Anput merely blinked for long moments, then burst into musical laughter once more. “You are a bold one, aren’t you? Anubis is not easily swayed, not even by me. If you wish to earn his patronage, you must prove yourself in battle. He respects strength, and little else. It will also benefit you if you adopt our cause, and prove your loyalty to Ra. Does that answer suffice?”

“It does,” Trevor nodded, considering her words. He needed a way to prove himself, but there was no immediate solution. One would present itself eventually, however. “For my second question, how can I convince Ra that I am useful enough to outweigh any threat I pose?”

Anput reached across the space between them, resting a cool hand on his leg. She stared up into his eyes, her own half-closed and sensuous. “I begin to believe you may survive here, Trevor Gregg. You may even thrive, if your third question is as inventive as the first two.”

Chapter 18- Conduit

Blair settled into a half-lotus at the foot of the central obelisk. Ka floated next to him, a ghostly green hologram. Its translucent form appeared stronger here in the Ark of the Redwood than it had in the Nexus. He still found its alien appearance strange, as he did its command of the English language. “What do I need to do?”

“It is simple, Ka-Dun,” Ka said, cocking its head. “Merely think of the Nexus, and envision its heart. Generate a flow of energy from the heart of this Ark to the Nexus, and the conduit will be complete.”

Blair did as asked, though he found the process strange. So much of shaping was about visualization, which made sense from a scientific standpoint. The brain generated electrical impulses based on thought, and shaping tapped into those impulses. He envisioned a river of light flowing from the massive heart of power at the base of his Ark, the river snaking through the ocean until it reached the Nexus. A moment later an enormous shudder passed through the Ark. The lights dimmed for a split second, then returned at full strength.

“It is done,” Ka said, giving a tight nod. It blinked with those too large eyes, pools of unreadable black. “This conduit will be enough to sustain the nexus until other Arks are strong enough to add their own flows.”

“Ka, can you tell me about those pulses earlier? The ones that shot into the sky? They shorted out hundreds of systems. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Blair asked, hoping the creature would both possess the knowledge and be willing to share it. The Mother had warned him to be cautious around Ka, but thus far the intelligence had been nothing but helpful.

“Accessing logs,” Ka said, its eyes going unfocused. They focused again after a moment. “I see the event you reference, Ka-Dun. The pulses were a communication generated by all Arks on the network with sufficient strength to create them. Each fired a trio of pulses designed to alert the Builders to the current climate of this world.”

“Current climate?” came a voice from behind Blair. He scrambled to his feet, abandoning the lotus.

Isis strode toward him, with Liz in tow. The diminutive goddess crossed her arms, glaring at Ka through narrowed eyes. So much distrust there.

Liz followed Isis into the chamber, looking dazed and more than a little ill. Blair caught her gaze, but she gave a slight shake of her head and looked away. Her eyes were red and puffy. What the hell had happened back on the island?

“Yes, Ka-Ken. The climate of this world is warmer than it has been in over three million years. The age you refer to as the Pleistocene has ended, and the Holocene has begun. These conditions are perfect to support the Builders, who prefer a much warmer climate than humanity can tolerate,” Ka explained, cocking its head to the other direction. “The pulse the Ka-Dun referenced was a means of alerting the Builders to this new climate, so they can begin re-colonization of this planet.”

“So this warning was generated automatically?” Blair asked.

“Unfortunately, no,” Ka said, giving a very human sigh. “The energy required to fire such a pulse is more than any Ark is capable of mustering at this time, with the exception of this one. This required an external power source to fuel the bursts in those Arks unable to produce them. Only an Ark Lord could have done this.”

“The Well,” Isis growled, taking a step closer to Ka’s translucent form. “You’re saying someone tapped into the Well to generate this pulse.”

“Just so, Ka-Ken,” Ka nodded vigorously. “Someone was able to tap into the vast reservoir of power offered by the Well. This allowed them to send a message, one that will reach the Builders in approximately four years, seven months.”

“And the Builders will return when they hear this message?” Blair asked, moving to stand next to Isis. “How long will it take them to return to earth?”

“Unknown,” Ka said, pursing its green lips. “When they departed this world, the Builders did so as pure energy, broadcast to their new home as light. This process was much like the pulse you just witnessed. During the intervening eons their technology has changed. They now use craft for transport, or at least their progeny do.”

“Progeny?” Blair asked, blinking.

“Yes. The Ka-Ken knows of their existence,” Ka said, nodding at Isis.

“I know a little,” Isis admitted, looking at Blair. “Ka claims they’ve been here for millennia. Ka, what do you know of these progeny?”

“The progeny have been orbiting this world for many centuries, possibly longer,” Ka explained, giving another cock of its head. “I do not know how long, precisely, as they did not transmit any signals until they were ready to begin exploration.”

“Exploration?” Blair asked, raising an eyebrow. He did not like the sound of that. The idea that the pyramids really
had
been built by aliens pissed him off more than a little.

“Yes, I believe they were sent as scouts by the Builders. Their mission was to measure the appropriate climatological data, and ensure that the planet was ready for their masters’ return,” Ka explained. “This process involved seizing control of the Arks, but my involvement in helping the Ka-Ken create the first mutagen has prevented this. All Arks are now occupied, so the progeny were unable to seize control.”

“Apparently that’s changed,” Liz said, finally joining the conversation. She still looked a little nauseous. “How did they send a message? And what is this Well you spoke of?” Liz addressed the last question to Isis.

“The Well is a source of enormous power,” the Mother replied, folding her arms. “The center of our planet is a molten ball, and the Well connects to the power contained there. It supplements the energy of the sun, but it is located in the heart of the underworld, and therefore is nearly impossible to reach.”