Conquer the Dark (21 page)

“I like potato chips,” Azrael said, laughing around his bottle. “The extra-crunchy ones.”

“Oh, you are so gonna make me kick your huge ass up on this deck.”

“I do. It’s my main guilty pleasure. Celeste gave them to me once, and I couldn’t eat just one. She told me that I couldn’t and she was right.”

Bath Kol spun around on his barstool to stare at Azrael with a wide grin. “So, when we go back home, that’s what you’re gonna tell the guys—you got turned out by Kettle chips.”

Azrael laughed hard. “That’s all I’m going to admit to.”

Bath Kol burst out laughing, spewing beer from his mouth and nose. “See, I knew you had a little rebel in ya! That’s my boy—never tell ’em more than they need to know.”

Azrael knocked his bottle against Bath Kol’s and signaled for another round. “But seriously, man, I respect what you went through for twenty-six thousand. I’ve only been here three months and I’m worried about her.”

Bath Kol landed a hand on Azrael’s shoulder. “Look, she’s not gonna last twenty-six thousand years. None of them do. That’s a fact of life on earth. If you’re lucky, since she’s Nephilim, you might get a couple hundred together before they call her home. But it’s all good. Have you told her yet how long she may live?”

“No,” Azrael said, rubbing a palm over the nape of his neck. “There’s been so much happening, so much for
her to deal with and absorb … I was trying to wait for the right time, trying to wait for—”

“Be honest. You haven’t had that conversation yet with her because it’ll open up the other very real one you’re not facing about her eventual mortality.”

Azrael nodded, took a swig from his beer, and stared at the deck floor. “More truth, brother.”

Bath Kohl sighed. “Think of it this way, man. Now that you’ve experienced being with her, can you truly say that to avoid the inevitable heartbreak that’s gonna come—and, yes, it is gonna come—that you wished you’d never found her?”

Azrael shook his head. “If I had never found her, I cannot imagine who I’d be … it’s like … I see this entire place so differently.”

“Oh, shit, you
are
in deep.”

Azrael polished off his beer and accepted the new one. “I might have messed up, too,” he said quietly when the bartender retreated.

Bath Kol set his beer down very, very slowly. “What?”

“I don’t know that to be a fact,” Azrael said, then took an extremely long swig of his beer. “But … things got out of hand and I don’t know. Her intentions are wavering, too. I could feel that on the bus when she looked out at the little ones. You know human contraception doesn’t work against our seed; it’s all about will, intention, vibrations. And—”

“All right,” Bath Kol said, gesturing with his hands and almost sloshing his beer. “First of all, we need to cross that bridge when we get to it—when we have all the facts. Second, you can do one or two things with that
information. One, you can let it make you so damned scared about this mission we’re on that you’re paralyzed, which serves no purpose. Or, because you think that’s the case, now you’re vested in this planet’s surviving. So, if you were crazy before, you ought to be fighting for this joint like you’re insane now. Feel me?”

Bath Kol leaned into him, his eyes wide. “I’m serious, man. We need your head on straight for this mission. So, what’s it gonna be? Which are you? The warrior who’s so worried about what could happen that he’s immobilized, or the one who’s insane? Tell me now, because I’ve gotta know who’s leading these troops and who’s got my six in a firefight. Which warrior, dude?”

Azrael took a slow sip from his bottle and set it down with precision. “The one who’s absolutely out of his fucking mind.”

W
hy can’t we see
this bastard!”

Asmodeus slammed his fist down on the table, splattering the blood contents of Rahab’s scrying bowl. She simply stared at the crimson fluid as it webbed across the table like a fast-moving cancer, then dipped her finger into it and calmly tasted it.

“Because he does not
want
to be seen, milord,” she said drily.

A serpent-quick backhand struck her cheek, and she smiled as Asmodeus narrowed his gaze and paced away from her.

“It could be a trap,” she said, unfazed by his violent outburst.

He spun on her. “How so?”

“You are allowing emotion to cloud your judgment.” Unafraid, she walked up to him and stood her ground. “A Sentinel was out there with a human female—the seer …
not one of the Remnant. That’s who walked over the desecrated area in Dendera, and that was the second time we picked up on their energy pattern. The first time was out on the Giza plateau, and they were all there. Now, we only feel two lesser lights? I say they have used those members of their team as bait. If we were to rush in and attack what appear to be two vulnerable members of their unit, that’s when we will be ambushed.”

He walked away from her to stare at the setting sun. “Your point has merit.”

“We should send them a lure. Since our search parties for them have proved fruitless and time is running out,
make them come to us
. We know they have to be on the water,” she said calmly. “If they were on the ground, we could track them—the two that stepped on the butchering site. But even they have vanished. There is no airport in Qena and I doubt that they have left the area so quickly. That only means one thing … they are on the water—holy water. The Nile is a death trap. So we must lure them off that treacherous channel of transportation and get them to come to us.”

Celeste sighed with contentment.
She had heard Azrael come into the room; knowing his footfalls anywhere and able to feel his aura, she didn’t even have to open her eyes. In the far recesses of her mind she heard the shower go on and then smelled fresh soap drifting on the cool, forced air. Then she felt his warmth and the bed depress behind her, and a kiss caress her shoulder as she slipped into the peaceful abyss of sleep.

Although it felt as if many hours had passed, only a few had. The late-afternoon sun was now an angry orange and painted the lush banks of the Nile in shimmering sienna.

Gently extracting herself from Azrael’s hold, she slipped from the bed and went to the sliding-glass doors to stare out at the passing landscape. Tall, robust palms and elephant grasses created a velvety green oasis between the sapphire river and the endless sand dunes beyond it. Cranes and an endless array of waterfowl took off and taxied in for landings as suspicious logs lay in wait for a misstep so they could reveal powerful jaws.

She pressed her palms to the glass and soaked in the majesty before her. A graveyard high on a hill looked as if it had been there since time immemorial. Small village fishing boats carrying the day’s haul and hardworking fishermen home added additional color and humanity to the moving landscape. Then peach- and sand-hued buildings slowly came into view, and what was once serenity ebbed into a bustling metropolis again.

The bed sounded but she didn’t turn around. Soon she heard Azrael stir and sit up, then heard him pad toward her to wrap her in his arms.

“You look like you’re trapped in this room,” he said against her hair as she leaned into his warmth.

“It’s all so wonderful and crazy at the same time … like, we are cruising down the Nile.
The Nile
. I just didn’t want to miss any of it.”

He pulled the door open and ushered her to the rail, still standing behind her and holding her around her waist. She turned her face to the sun and closed her eyes as
the breeze off the water caught in her hair. Now she could smell the water, the river of life that had never stopped flowing, that flowed from south to north. She could now hear the birds, hear the water’s gurgle and whispers. Could hear the splashes of predators and the distant babble of workingmen … and knew she was home.

“You seem different,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck.

“How can one not be transformed here?” she said quietly, leaning back against him with her eyes closed.

Reluctant warriors gathered in
the ship’s ornate lobby awaiting the lowering of the gangplank. But after a couple hours’ rest, a decent meal, plus a shower, how could one argue against pressing forward to fulfill the mission? There was no room in the equation for just not feeling like it.

Resigned, they all waited silently without complaint—or enthusiasm—as Isda haggled with a minibus tour driver at the front desk for a private bus, knowing that Isda would ultimately prevail. When the doors finally opened, everyone in their retinue took his or her time, strolling down the narrow, wobbly plank to the street toward the waiting minibus.

“It’s not far from Luxor, like a coupla miles,” Isda said to no one in particular as he sat down behind the wheel. “Listen, I know everybody has had it already with this expedition, but I don’t have to remind you what’s at stake.”

“We hear you, brother,” Azrael said, then glanced around. “I’m as guilty of emotional fatigue as anyone on
this bus. But if we’re going to find anything out there, we’ve got to pump up the energy level.”

Gaining nods from the group, he passed a fist pound over the seat to Bath Kol, and it lit, then Bath Kol sent it up the row to Gavreel, who sent it forward. When it reached Isda, he nodded.

“Now,
dat’s
whot I’m talkin’ ’bout.”

Bath Kol leaned forward, his eyes slightly glowing blue-white as he pointed at the bus floor. “When we get to this site, we’ve gotta be extremely cool—as in low-key, people. The temple complex at Karnak is the second-most-visited tourist spot here, second only to the Pyramids.” As he spoke a large grid opened out on the floor like an electrified map. “The center is huge.” As he gestured with his forefinger, sections of the map brightened. Check it out. The section that all the tourists see is the Great Temple of Amun—that’s here when you first walk in—”

“Ramses was a baaad man!” Isda said, laughing and cutting off Bath Kol and beginning to drive faster. “Forty-two wives, a hundred and sixty-five children, and was only half one of us?
And
was married to Nefertari, too? His favorite without question! Have you
seen
her? Aw, maaaan! When he brought her to me, I laughed and tol’ ’im, ‘You best be glad we’re blood,’ you know, ’cuz otherwise … whew. Dat was a son dat did me proud. You gotta take a look at his joint in Aswan. The man got up one day and said, ‘Carve a freakin’ mountain out for me and my lady—my favorite wife, yo, den—”

“Can I finish?” Bath Kol said, cocking his head to the side to stare at Isda down the aisle.

“Yeah, yeah, my bad—just some good memories been had here, too, mon.”

Bath Kol shook his head and Celeste repressed a smile. The other brothers were chuckling and shaking their heads, while the women in the group smiled hard and shared glances. Nobody wanted to ruin Isda’s mood after the pain he’d been through here. Just seeing his perspective shift from the memory of the losses to all the good times he’d obviously had in ancient Kemet made everybody feel good.

“
As
I was saying …” Bath Kol returned his focus to the glowing, iridescent lines on the bus floor. “This joint is a campus of buildings. It’s like a huge, and I do mean
huge,
open-air museum, but it’s also the largest ancient religious site in the world.”

“Then that definitely makes sense and syncs up with Aziza’s feeling that Daoud was trying to hide the tablets in a knowledge center, one that was also consecrated ground.” Azrael leaned forward more to stare at the floor, but Bath Kol held his gaze.

“Here’s the thing, brother,” Bath Kol said. “There’s gonna be tourists climbing all over the place. This campus is set up in four clusters of buildings with a sacred lake in the middle—which we can hot, just do our thing and turn it into holy water, just to be on the safe side. These four areas, or precincts, are spread out and consist of the main one that’s open—Amun’s, the unseen God’s, the one dedicated to the Source. Then there’s three that are currently closed to the general public … the Precinct of Mut—Amun’s wife or, better stated, the yin side of the energy of the Source of All That Is.”