Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1) (6 page)

“We have done nothing with her, but that shouldn’t concern you,” the leader said, running one hand over his bald head.

“I disagree,” I said, fighting to stay calm as my hands clenched into fists. I consciously unclenched them. “I think you should return her and get the hell out of here before I kill you all.”

They laughed, actually laughed. Well, everyone except Setne who I could hear moving slowly away from me. Maybe he could see things starting to writhe beneath my skin.

“Are you laughing at me?” I roared, lunging forward as the wolf took over. The smell of forest and earth filled me up. The darkness of the cave faded away in an instant, everything snapping into surreal focus as we landed on top of the center goon, our feet planting into his chest and knocking him to the floor with a loud, wet crunch.

His friends spun, but they were slow. So very slow. We drove our heel downward as hard as we could on the man’s amulet. It shattered beneath us. Crimson light exploded from his chest as the man thrashed and writhed. We were already moving, muscles and senses working in perfect harmony. We dodged a spear thrust and grabbed hold of the shaft.

We whirled, using our weight to tear the weapon from the thug’s grip and drive it through the chest of another. The point of the weapon pierced his dragon-shaped pendant. A scream like a raging inferno filled our ears as we released the spear and flexed our claws. Something slashed through our thigh as we threw ourselves backward. It hurt like a thousand rusty fishhooks tearing out our flesh for a split second before it was pushed down and away.

We landed hard on our back and rolled to our feet without stopping to take a breath. Our hands clenched and unclenched as the remaining four guys stared at us in amazement and shock, two golden sarcophagi gleaming next to them.

We snarled, words more animal than not. “Where is Aziza?”

Without saying a word, they dove back into the water, grabbed hold of the bloody crocodilian corpses, and vanished beneath its surface in a flurry of bloody foam. We were already moving, crossing the distance to the river’s edge in a single bound that threw up a spray of muddy water.

“Don’t,” Setne said, one hand on our shoulder. How had he gotten to us so quickly? He squeezed, but not hard. “They don’t have her, anyway.”

We swallowed, barely resisting the urge to tear off his arm as we sucked in a deep breath. “What?”

“I said they don’t have your friend. She was pulled into the tomb.” He pointed to a spot below where the horrible smelling torch had been. “There’s a button there that releases a trap door. You must have hit it by accident.”

My rage died away, forcing the wolf into the back of my mind as panic overwhelmed me. “W-what?” I cried, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. “How do I get her back?”

“Go inside and get her.” He looked at me stony faced. “It is the only way.”

“Why are you giving me that look?” I asked as the wolf retreated back into its cave. Now that the fighting was done, it wasn’t interested.

“No reason,” he replied. “But be careful. The spirit of Neferkaptah lives within. He guards the book of Thoth. Even if you opt to leave it there, he will still come after you for entering his tomb. You do not want that.”

An icy chill hopped down my back like a frozen cricket as I stared at the statue. I sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I need the book and Aziza so I guess I’m going down there.” I tried to smile, but I didn’t think it worked. “Would you be a sport and hit the button for me?”

Setne sighed and looked at the ground for a long time before nodding once. He moved over to the spot and stared at me with sorrow-filled eyes. “Good luck,” he said and pressed the button.

It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. My body was rendered completely insubstantial, and as I tried to cry out, I was sucked downward through the sand.

Chapter 8

I hit the spongy earth with a plop. There had been a point where I worried that I would remain in a gaseous state for a prolonged period of time, and I was extremely glad my time spent as vapor had been limited.

I patted myself down to make sure nothing was missing. Nothing was, but I did know one thing for certain. I would not like being a ghost. That was for sure. There was something about not being able to scratch an itch on your nose that bugged me… a lot.

I got to my feet and looked around, wiping my greasy hands on my tunic. I wasn’t sure what I expected, exactly, but what I saw was a little off. For one thing, all of the walls were shifting from neon purple to blue to green and back again in an endless swirl of changing color. Shapes that reminded me of electric jelly fish writhed within the walls, floating about on currents that couldn’t exist within stone. The ground beneath my feet was made of the same substance, and looking down gave me the weirdest sense of vertigo I’d ever had.

The ground beneath my sandaled feet was surprisingly similar to a trampoline. I bounced with every step. I couldn’t help it. As I glanced around, looking for somewhere to go, a smirk crossed my face. Instead of having a billion doors or tunnels, there was only one exit. A big rectangle was cut into the floor a few meters in front of me. Lightning zipped through the floor around it as I approached, each footstep sending green sparks flickering outward.

Stairs led downward into a tunnel I couldn’t see the end of. I took a deep breath and began making my way down into the depths of the jellyfish-filled hole. It wasn’t long before I reached the bottom because the stair’s trampoline-like consistency made it easy to take them two and three at a time. I wasn’t sure how far down I’d gone when I reached the bottom, but since the entrance I’d taken was just a faint spot against the background of color far above, I was guessing it was at least a couple dozen flights.

A lone door stood in front of me, glittering like polished ivory. Its handle resembled a giant batwing carved from solid jade. It glimmered as I reached out to take it. I pulled the huge door open, and when nothing zapped me into dust, I let loose a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

“I am the loud noise in the dark, making you shriek in surprise,” a voice like a tattered sheet whipping in the wind whispered in my ear. I spun toward it, heart pounding and pulse racing. There was nothing behind me but iridescent jellyfish swimming through the stairs.

“I am the tree scratching on stones, making you hide beneath your sheets.” The words tickled along my flesh, standing my hair on edge. I turned back around, but again there was nothing there.

“Hello? Is someone there?” I asked in my toughest voice, the one I used when my football team was down by six and had the ball on the three yard line. It wasn’t a perfect fit, I’ll be honest, but it was better than shrieking like a little girl.

“I am the one there when no one’s around,” the wind whistled in my ear, the like rustling leaves on a windswept evening.

My thoughts filled the spaces around me with all sorts of horrible monsters, but this time, I didn’t look around. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened my eyes, the door in front of me was very slightly ajar and cool green mist drifted in through the crack, rising up toward me like an amorphous cloud.

“I am the poison gas that fills your lungs,” the voice said, reptilian and squealing as the door swung open. Pungent gas that smelled like rotten eggs rushed out toward me. My feet hit the bottom step as I backed up. I stumbled, my hands flailing for purchase on the slick, gelatinous stone. I hit the ground with a bounce that sent me lurching forward into the cloud.

It stung me like I’d just walked into a steam line, which yes, I’ve actually done before. It was a werewolf thing. Don’t ask.

The beast inside me howled in pain, threatening to burst outward as my skin blazed with green-black fire. I clamped my eyes shut, willing myself to move forward through the caustic mist, one burning hand stretched out. I stumbled, flopping forward on my hands and knees as the urge to lie down and die filled every ounce of my being.

The wolf inside me wasn’t having it. It pushed me onward, crawling along my flesh and shoving down the pain. My body shuddered forward, one painful movement at a time.

“I am the breath that’s stolen from your lungs, leaving you to drown and thrash.”

“Shut up!” I cried, the beast snarling through my words. I summoned everything in me, reaching so deep inside that I could actually taste the wind whipping through the forest after a hard rain. I got myself to my feet, and the spongy floor recoiled beneath me, throwing me stumbling through the doorway. I fell, hitting the ground beyond the caustic doorway with a bounce and rolled a little bit like a broken mannequin.

I lay there on the floor staring at the multi-hued ceiling as jellyfish flitted back and forth, oblivious to my pain. My skin felt ragged and raw, but as I looked around, I realized I didn’t hurt anymore. Behind me, the cloud of gas stood there, unmoving. Was it just a barrier?

I shook away the thought so I wouldn’t jinx it and got to my feet. A raised dais with a huge white-marble chair upon it filled the center of the tiny room. Sitting upon that throne was a man. He was clad in golden armor that covered his shoulders and waist but left his well-muscled midsection bare. A huge golden crown sat upon his head that made me think of a golden top hat.

“Was it you telling me all those things?” I asked, glaring at the figure who regarded me like someone would regard an interesting bug.

His regal face contorted into a thin smile. “No,” he said, pointing behind me at the cloud. “That would be Neferkaptah.”

“Oh?” I asked as the wolf inside me perked its ears up. Something about this guy did not sit well with my inner wolf. The wolf stirred, looking around and sniffing the air.

“Indeed,” he replied, crossing one leg over his knee and leaning back in his chair.

“He’s really not as scary as I thought he’d be,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the cloud. “He’s more like the rock in my shoe.”

“Even a rock in one’s shoe can cause paralysis.” At the sound of his ancient voice, the wolf inside me took a tentative step backward, retreating down inside me, tail between its legs. “So why have you come here, Thes Mercer?” He waved his hand, blue eyes staring off into the distance like he was watching something play out in front of him. “Never mind, I already know. I just didn’t realize I already knew.”

“Okay, cool,” I said, but it wasn’t really cool because with every movement, every word, he made me more and more uneasy. Even my wolf was afraid, and it was never afraid. That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all. If my wolf was afraid, it’d be more difficult for him to help me if something happened.

“Calm yourself, Thes. I will not harm you.” He stood, stepping off of his dais and holding his hand out to me. “I promise.”

I was going to ask him to prove it, but what was the point? If he wanted to kill me, I was pretty sure he could do it, and even if he couldn’t, what good would questioning him do? Besides, in my admittedly limited adventuring experience, most things just told you to trust them or shove off anyway.

“What, not going to ask me why you should trust me?” He raised an amused eyebrow at me. “No, of course not. The great Thes Mercer would never do that.”

“How do you know my name?” I asked just before he ran one slender finger along my cheek. His icy touch made my knees shake.

“I know everything.” His lips curled into a smile as he reached behind himself and pulled what looked like a golden dictionary from behind his back, only I was pretty sure it wasn’t actually a dictionary. “I just don’t always know that I know everything until I do.”

“Is that it? The book of Thoth?” I swallowed, my eyes going wide. It couldn’t be this easy... right?

“Yes. I’m not really much of a writer. Never got my ten thousand hours in.” He shrugged at me. “But I’m going to give you this because I already know how this story ends.” He shoved the book into my hands, and the moment I touched it, power washed over me like dew over a spring morning.

A picture of a sand dune was etched into the cover. The details were so fine I could make out each and every grain of sand. The book was lighter than I expected, weighing less than a comic book, but as I tried to thumb through it, I found I couldn’t open the cover.

“Why won’t it open?” I asked, but as I looked up from the book in my hand, the guy was gone. Aziza stood in his place, a curious look on her face, her sword clasped loosely in her left hand.

“Zeez!” I cried, and as I reached out to wrap her in an impromptu hug, she drove her khopesh through my belly and sliced outward, spilling my entrails across the gelatinous stone. I collapsed forward on my knees, my hands holding my insides as they spilled out of me in a rush of crimson goo and thicker bits.

I had half a thought to try and stuff them back in, but when I tried, Aziza kneed me hard in the face. My nose broke in a spray of blood as I toppled backward onto the ground like a limp fish. The book of Thoth slipped from my grip and hit the ground with a thunk. Without even looking at me, Aziza reached down and picked up the book. Its cover was slick with my blood as she tucked it against her chest.

“Why?” I wheezed, trying desperately to make sense of what had just happened. Had she just betrayed me? Was I going to die? What about Connor?

“So you got it, I’m surprised,” Aziza sneered, but it wasn’t quite her voice. Maybe it was the blood loss, or the fact that my inside bits were on the outside, but I could have sworn she sounded different.

She began to walk off then, not even bothering to glance back in my direction. She stepped through the green mist like it was nothing and disappeared from view. Evidently, it did not bother her.

I tried to call upon my wolf, but I couldn’t find him. I could tell he was there, buried deep down inside me, but as my hands fell limply to my sides, I got the feeling that, for whatever reason, he was too scared to do more than watch me die. I tried to suck in a breath and concentrate, but as everything got hazy, and black spots filled my vision, it was all I could do to keep from falling unconscious. I failed.