Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1) (17 page)

“Sekhmet, we don’t have time for this now,” Khufu urged, kneeling down next to her. “We need to find the staff before—”

“It doesn’t matter. In fact, it might be better if we let Apep rise to destroy the world, maybe, maybe he could stop him… only… only I doubt it.” She shook her head and held up her hand. “I’m okay. It was just… it was only a few hundred years ago that he last rose, and the memory of my fallen comrades is still strong.” She stood, getting to her feet and turning away so she wasn’t facing any of us. “I will not shirk my duties.” She swallowed and stared into my eyes. “When you return to your time, you
must
stop He Who Cannot Be Named. There is no other way.”

Chapter 22

What do you even say to something like that? The Egyptian God of War told me that a guy so powerful he made mincemeat of the gods, was alive in my time, and what’s worse, I had to stop him. How was I supposed to do that?

It was a question I had been wrestling with since Sekhmet had told me, how long ago? I wasn’t sure exactly because we were wandering through some kind of maze. It vaguely reminded me of one I’d been trapped in before, but instead of being filled with blue stone walls, this one was made of solid gold and inlaid with gemstones the size of my fist.

Where the Egyptians had gotten so much gold? Why, if they had so much gold, did they consider it valuable? Of course, I guess it was entirely possible that it wasn’t actually valuable and was simply what they had lying around. That was a sobering thought.

Still, Khufu didn’t exactly seem worried by the maze even though it was filled with statues of gods that loomed overhead like watchful guardians just waiting for the opportunity to come alive and squish us. In fact, he didn’t even seem to pay attention to where he was going. It was sort of infuriating.

“I got this one too,” Khufu called cheerily as we approached a fork in the road. He glanced right for a second, then left and rubbed his chin. “Hmm… Eenie, meenie…” He pointed his finger from path to path. “Nah… let’s just go right, that seems right, right?”

He smirked at me, and it made me want to smack him across his stupid face. “How’s that sound, Thes?” He shrugged. “Unless you disagree and want to go left. Left could be right, right?”

“I’m going to kill you where you stand, mummy,” Sekhmet replied, fixing him with the same glare she probably used to make small mammals burst into flames. “We’ve been walking for over an hour and between your antics and his brooding,” she cocked a thumb at me, “I’m not sure how much more I can take.”

“Well, you can always leave,” Khufu replied as he sauntered down the right fork, twirling his hand over his shoulder. “You weren’t even invited. You’re more like the cart trailing on the end of our camel. You know, to carry the goods while we lead.”

Sekhmet turned a shade of purple that reminded me of a crayon I’d had as a kid. Fury purple. It had come with a coloring book of action heroes so all the colors had names like ‘Fistful of Justice Red’ and ‘Envious of My Power Green.’

I wasn’t quite sure why Khufu was actively antagonizing Sekhmet, but he’d been doing it for nearly the entire journey through the maze. I shrugged and glanced at Aziza, but she wasn’t looking at me. Ever since Sekhmet had told us about He Who Cannot Be Named, Aziza hadn’t so much as said a peep. It was a little weird. It was like she was worried, but I wasn’t quite sure why. It wasn’t like she had to go to my time and fight him, right? I sighed. Maybe she was worried about him coming to her time and killing everyone?

Admittedly, I hadn’t been much of a conversationalist, myself. I was still trying to figure out who it was. The problem was, I couldn’t think of a single person who seemed strong enough. That meant one of two things. Either He Who Could Not Be Named was hiding his power or Sekhmet was crazy. And sadly, I was pretty sure she wasn’t crazy… at least not in the ‘I’m going to make up a story about a super-strong bad guy in your time who is going to kill you’ way. Still, part of me sort of hoped she would turn around, punch me in the arm, and yell “Gotcha!” So far, she hadn’t.

“Hey, Aziza.” I glanced at her. “Penny for your thoughts?”

She didn’t even look at me. She just kept staring at her feet as she plodded forward. I looked from her to Sekhmet and Khufu, but neither of them seemed to be paying attention to me. Ignored, party of me.

“Zeez!” I said a bit louder, and this time she looked up at me, face drawn into thought. She blinked a couple times at me.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Did you want something, Thes?” she asked, voice sort of empty and far off, like she wasn’t really paying attention to me.

“Yeah, I was wondering what you were thinking about,” I replied, throwing my best smile at her. Admittedly, it was the same one I used on girls walking their dogs at the park. I didn’t exactly have a huge repertoire of smiles.

She stared at me, her unblinking amethyst eyes making me want to look away and let her go back to ignoring me. When I did not do so, she huffed out a short little breath.

“Things,” she said and pointedly stared off into space.

“What kind of things?” I asked, moving closer to her so I wouldn’t have to shout at her for her to pay attention to me.

“Things that aren’t your business.” This time she glared at me, rather deliberately, I’ll add. It was only a slight improvement.

“Why is that?” I pried, reaching out toward her for some reason, but when I realized what I was doing, I stopped. Why had I been about to touch her?

“Because I don’t want to talk about it with you.” Her eyes swiveled to Sekhmet, then to Khufu. “Or them.”

“So you’re just going to keep walking and ignoring me? I mean, I know why I’ve been lost in thought. Sekhmet says some guy is alive who is going to break the world, and I’m supposed to fight him? That’s if I get back home alive, which near as I can tell, isn’t exactly a guarantee.”

Aziza looked at me for a long time, and my breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t explain it exactly, but it almost seemed like she was studying me. And it wasn’t the studying me like I was a little strange. It was more the ‘how can a creature like you actually exist’ kind of staring.

“You don’t get it, do you?” she asked me, voice so quiet that I was sure I was the only one who could hear it.

“Um… evidently not,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure why. Have you ever noticed that when someone whispers to you, you naturally whisper back? Weird, right?

“I’m scared, Thes.” There was an undercurrent of something in her voice, a little twang that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. She was scared, sure, but it was more than that.

“I’m scared too, Zeez.” As soon as the words left my mouth, she turned away and stared at the damn wall again. It was filled with a mural that depicted peasants being thrown into a vat of boiling liquid. I wish I could say this was a particularly abnormal wall, but sadly, it wasn’t. I wasn’t quite sure who had thought it would be a smart idea to decorate the walls of an endless maze with scenes of torture.

Then again, maybe that was to make it scarier? If it was, well, it was working. Every time I caught sight of a wall, a little chill scampered down my spine, and my heart raced just a touch faster. It had gotten so that I mostly just stared at the back of Khufu’s bald head. Only he had this mole that was really annoying for some reason.

“It’s not the same, Thes,” Aziza growled at the wall because she wasn’t even looking at me. “I’m scared for you.” She shook her head. “I’m scared of what will happen to you. I’m scared you’re going to go through all this.” She waved her hands, indicating the maze. “And when you get home, some jackass is just going to smoosh you like a beetle.” She exhaled through her teeth. “It makes everything seem so pointless.”

“Seems like you have a lot of faith in me,” I murmured mostly to myself. She was right after all, but there was still a chance I could win, right? I mean if this unnamed guy was so strong, I wasn’t going to be fighting him by myself, right? Surely the Dioscuri would step in? And Sekhmet had said that last time gods had helped. I wasn’t going to be going at him mano a mano, right?

“I have plenty of faith in you, Thes. It isn’t that…” She shook her head. “Look, you’re a sweet guy. I don’t want you to become something horrible. I don’t want you to lose your humanity to stop
him
.”

“So the options are dying or losing my humanity?” I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “What about the option where I chew bubblegum and kick ass?”

She looked at me strangely. “I’m not sure what bubblegum is, Thes. Is it helpful?”

“Doesn’t matter.” I smirked. “I’m all out of it.”

“Showtime!” Khufu yelled, glancing back over his shoulder. He was grinning so wide that it almost made me ignore the giant door glaring at me. It resembled a sad kabuki mask, and near as I could tell, it was carved from a solid piece of stone that made me think of granite. Just looking at it gave me the willies.

Its eyes stared at me like a giant black vortex of suck, and the color around it faded into a dull monochrome that reminded me of a washed-out photograph. Was it absorbing color? No… that was impossible, right?

I shook myself, tearing my eyes from the door’s baleful gaze and forcing myself to look at Khufu’s stupid face. He nodded at me, making a sort of “uh-huh” noise.

“See, I told you I knew exactly where I was going,” he called, voice unnecessarily loud.

“So that’s where the staff is? Behind that door?” I asked.

“Wouldn’t count on it,” Aziza mumbled, but I was pretty sure I was the only one who heard her.

“Well, no, I mean maybe, but probably not.” Khufu shrugged. “Who’s to say in this crazy mixed up sort of world?”

“So what
is
behind the door?” I said as Sekhmet walked up to the door and placed her palm against its surface. She winced once, gooseflesh rising on her arms.

“It’s cold,” she intoned. “Colder than I’d expect.”

“Behind that door is the winter gate,” Khufu replied. “It’s also the only way out of this damn maze.”

“The winter gate?” I asked. “Like with snow?”

“No snow,” Khufu said, turning around so I was looking at the back of his stupid head. “Just a giant serpent made of ice. No biggie. This is Egypt, we don’t even like ice enough to have a god for it, eh?” He elbowed Sekhmet in the side, just barely brushing her with the tip of his elbow.

She scowled at him. “Why is there an ice serpent in there?”

“Because.” The word echoed from the door, the lips actually twisting to for the words. “Because.” The mouth opened and a huge glacial tongue fell out and hit the ground. It rolled forward like an icy red carpet, mist trailing off of it in a freezing cloud of vapor.

Within the darkness of the mouth, two glittering ice-blue eyes as big as cows were visible. Then the lights went out. It was lame.

Chapter 23

Sekhmet smiled and flames the color of the sun leapt from her body. A torrent of light and heat exploded from her outstretched hand, sizzling in the crackling air and slamming into the maw like a blowtorch set on sunder.

The eyes within the door went out in a flash of steam. The granite mouth cracked, splitting down the middle before falling to the floor and shattering like too-brittle ceramics.

She moved forward, and each step actually melted the stone beneath her feet so that it was like watching a trail of molten footsteps. She passed through the doorway and turned, a peculiar smile upon her face. “Feh, ice.” She shook her head. “This is Egypt, where the sky blazes with the heat of the noontime sun all day long, and the desert bakes the moisture from the earth.”

A blast of winter erupted from the door behind her, smashing full into her back, but even as it did so, a cloud of super-heated steam rippled off of her, hammering into the stone around her with such force the room actually shook.

Sekhmet glanced over her shoulder, still smiling as a giant white hand the size of a small bus grabbed hold of her. Its flesh bubbled and steamed as it jerked her into the darkness. There was a flare of orange light within, like the last dying gasp of a star. An icy blast of fog exploded from within the doorway, shrouding our room in ice and making the puddles of stone harden into misshapen globules.

I moved toward the entrance as frost spread outward along the ground. The stone cracked beneath my feet, fracturing under the combined weight of my steps and the cold. “What the hell was that?” I cried, barely resisting the urge to plunge in after her. “And what did it do with Sekhmet?”

“Oh, that?” Khufu asked, wiggling his frosty eyebrows at me. “That would be
Frost
. I don’t know if you have heard of him before, but he is the
first
ice dragon, an actual spawn of Wyrm himself.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, shoving him aside and peering into the darkness. Only… only I didn’t see anything. A breath of winter smacked me in the face, chilling me to the core of my being and freezing my blood in my veins.

“A long,
long
time ago, the
first
dragon was birthed by the darkness, his horrible presence thrust upon the world. He was basically evil incarnate, and like all despots, he wanted to rule not just the darkness, but all things,” Aziza said, her voice strained and high-pitched. “That was impossible because the gods ruled over the elements, and well, pretty much everything else. So he met with each of the seasons, and birthed children to rule the different elements and crush the gods. Then he met with life and death and had more. This continued until his children turned on him, and with the help of the gods, destroyed him.”

“So you mean to tell me that the frost dragon in there was birthed to be a god killer?” I asked as a chill settled in the pit of my stomach.

“Well, in so many words, yes.” Khufu nodded. “It’s why I wanted Sekhmet along. Now we need to hurry past him before she, you know, buys the farm and the dragon decides it wants to eat us too.”

“We can’t leave her alone with him. He could kill her. We have to help her,” I cried, and called on my wolf, but it was buried deep within me, huddled up on itself trying to keep warm. It looked at me with pleading eyes, begging me not to pull it into the unyielding winter. It would come, but it didn’t want to. Which was crazy, right?