His voice resounded in her ears, whispering through the channels of her consciousness until she found herself relaxing, gazing steadily back at him with a numb resignation.
Was dying easier when death was brought by someone beautiful?
“This bite isn’t for you,” he told her next, and his lips curled in a secret smile. “I told you the strongest spells require sacrifice.” He looked away, concentrating his gaze on the cat. “And there is no stronger sacrifice than blood.”
With that, he lifted his arm to his mouth and sank his fangs into his wrist.
Addie jumped where she was, affected by the site as if he’d actually done it to her instead. But still, he held her tight. And when he retracted his long teeth from his wrist and the blood began to flow, he held his injured arm out and allowed the life-giving red to drip to the ground.
The cat remained where it was, watching in silence. But its tail twitched, and its gold eyes lightened to a glowing yellow. They cast a light into the corridor that grew brighter and brighter, until Addie was raising her free arm to shield her eyes.
She felt a shift in the sand beneath her feet, as if a tide were pulling it out. Nero’s hold on her hand tightened further. And then the ground rumbled, and Addie dropped her arm in time to see the corridor up ahead change.
The cat was gone. In its place, the ground opened up, and a stairwell formed from the stone. It led down into unknown darknesses. The rumbling stopped. The sand was gone. Everything looked new… and at the same time, as ancient as time itself.
Nero released her hand and stepped forward, gesturing to the stairwell. “We’re here,” he said, turning his glowing gaze on her. “After you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
A white cat was sitting on the sarcophagus.
That same white cat that had made itself abundantly available of late was seated tall and proud, tail wrapped around its paws, atop the ancient and powerfully warded sarcophagus that held the sleeping goddess, Amunet.
The room was excruciatingly simple for a room that held something as sought-after as the former queen. It was four walls, rising overhead to a single point that indicated the room had been built in the shape of a pyramid.
The bricks were yellow sand, branded with hieroglyphs depicting scenes from the Book of the Dead. Four torches graced the same walls. Moments after the party arrived, the torches erupted into flame one after another, until all four were blazing bright.
Soon the room was well lit. The fire crackled, and shadows danced along the walls.
The cat’s blue eyes glinted, reflecting the light of the torches on the walls – and the ones Nicholas and his companions had brought with them. According to Dannai, technology would not work for long in the Duat. There were several reasons. For one, most modern technology required an internet connection – the Duat was not big on the internet. It was as far off the grid as you could possibly go. The other reason was that batteries had fittingly short lives in the Land of the Dead.
So they’d armed themselves with torches and lighters before casting the spell, not knowing what to expect when they arrived on the other side.
Now they lowered them, and Imani spoke a word of power. The fires in the hand-held torches flickered and died, leaving only the wall sconces blazing. They would reignite at a moment’s notice with another spoken word, so everyone held on to them and looked around.
Nicholas rolled his sleeve back down over the wound he’d carved in his left forearm. The blood had been a necessary component to getting past the guardians of the gates to the Duat. It could have come from any one of them. But his need was greatest – so he’d insisted the blood come from him.
Dannai Caige was the flesh and blood daughter of the woman in the sarcophagus. She was part werewolf, part witch – part goddess. As such, her spell and his powerful blood had been strong enough to not only bring the lot of them into the Land of the Dead, but to take them directly to Amunet’s chamber.
Now Dannai eyed the cat sitting on top of the sarcophagus and bit her lip. She drew close to D’Angelo, but being a Nightmare, Nicholas easily heard what she whispered. “Is that… I mean, do you think that’s….” Her voice trailed off.
Dannai was nervous. In a manner of speaking, both of her mothers might be there in the room with them at that moment: The goddess Amunet, sleeping and warded – and the high witch Lalura Chantelle, resting on top of her in the form of a cat.
For what it was worth, Nicholas would bet the farm that the cat was Chantelle. They had the same aura. It was something Nightmares were good at – sensing the inside of a being, regardless of outward appearances. There was definitely far more to the feline than met the eye. To say nothing of how the cat seemed to be around in times of need.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” said D’Angelo, but his gaze said something different. It was more warm and familiar than wary when he looked at the cat. No doubt, he was recalling the incident with the chess pieces in his mansion’s study. The cat had given him a warning. And it had done so in a very Lalura Chantelle-like manner.
The Vampire King took a step toward the sarcophagus, but stopped short of approaching fully. He waited a moment, then tilted his head to the side. His gaze narrowed.
Nicholas sensed a change in him at once. It was adrenaline. D’Angelo was suddenly alarmed about something.
“The last time you appeared in my company,” he told the cat, “you came to warn me.”
D’Angelo’s words sank into the shadows in the corner of the room and seemed to echo. Then a portion of the wall to the right of him phased out.
Nicholas did a double-take. One by one, the others in the room noticed the shift as well. One moment, a six-by-six section of brick was solid, real and new. The next, it was wavering to reveal bricks crumbling and ancient, their hieroglyphs worn and unidentifiable. The shift moved back and forth for several seconds before solidifying again into the new yellow bricks of the pyramid-shaped room.
No one spoke. But they glanced at one another – and then at the cat. The cat stood up, and jumped off the sarcophagus. The party scrambled to get out of its way as it moved into the shadows and the torch above it flickered. They watched the torch go out. Smoke trailed up toward the point of the pyramid.
A corner of the room phased out, revealing a crumbled wall just as before. A second torch began to flicker. It, too, went out.
“What the hell is going on?” asked Jesse Graves.
“Someone’s coming,” said Dannai. Her eyes darted from corner to corner, and Nicholas realized the white cat had disappeared. “The balance of living and dead is being tipped. This many people are not meant to cross the barrier. Not alive, anyway.”
The corner came back into focus, just before a section of ground began to phase out. Jesse Graves grabbed Imani Zareb and pulled her back out of the way as the sand shifted, disappearing and reappearing as the room became even newer, then non-existent, then old, and finally settled back into the present.
“Everyone get ready,” said Nicholas.
“Nero is approaching,” warned Minnaea. Nick nodded at her.
The future Nightmare Queen would be with him.
Another section of wall, this one encompassing the point at the tip of the pyramid, began to shift. However, rather than swing back and forth between time frames, the shift spread down the sides of the walls. The sand beneath their feet shook. The air in the room grew colder.
“This place is going to toss us all out on our asses,” said Dannai. She moved toward the closest wall and reached out to touch it. It gave little resistance before giving beneath her hand as if the clay of the brick were still wet. She quickly turned to Nicholas. “There are too many of us. If it gets bad enough, we could even break the fabric of the Duat, tearing down its walls. You will have to grab the queen immediately and hang on tight. I don’t know how much longer we’re going to be here together, and to be honest I can only hope the Duat sends us back to the same time and place we came -”
&nb
sp; There was a gasp on the other side of the room, and suddenly Lily Kane’s form was wavering. “Sorry guys, I’m being thrown out!” she cried out just before Malcolm Cole shot forward and wrapped his arms around her. Wherever they were headed, they were going together. The magic of the room swallowed them in a shroud of darkness and a blast of wind, and then that darkness shrunk until there was nothing left but a pinpoint of black.
The pinpoint went out like a light on a vintage television, and all was quiet. For several long seconds no one moved and no one said anything. But the room remained solid, a beast temporarily satisfied.
And then one entire section of wall began to crumble inward, its bricks reforming until a long, slim stairwell rose in an ever-narrowing passage to somewhere unknown. The last two torches went out.
Nick, Andros, Minnaea, Jesse and Roman glanced at each other. They were the ones who could see in the dark. Imani Zareb whispered a magic word. Nothing happened, so Nicholas assumed it was a short spell allowing her to see in the dark as well.
Roman nodded to Nicholas. The vampire sensed the same thing Nicholas did. Or maybe it was that he could scent their living, flowing blood drawing nearer. To Nick, it was a dichotomy of impressions that confirmed for him that two specific people were approaching. He sensed a vibration in the air that was composed of both anticipation and unease. Adelaide – and Nero.
They were here.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Addie hesitated at the top of the stairs, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Her phone was there. She fingered it nervously, wondering if Rodney would be able to find her if she called him. And wondering if the government would find her first. And… wondering if she was even on the planet to find.
She hesitated a bit too long, obviously, because Nero stepped behind her and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You can take the steps yourself or I can drag you down them. The former will probably be less painful than the latter.”
Adelaide leaned away from him, going cold inside. How had this happened? How had things turned so terrifying so quickly?
This bite isn’t for you… Nero’s words echoed in her head. What had he meant by them? She suffered mounting unrest as she began to descend the long stone staircase. Had he meant that bite in particular, as in… some other bite might be for her? Or had he just been trying to put her at ease in general?
It was dark down below, and all was still. The air was cool and smelled like it had been undisturbed for centuries. The sounds of her footfalls were muffled by the thick walls on either side. She moved reluctantly, slowly lowering one foot after the other. She knew that the moment she reached the bottom, all bets were off. He’d said he needed her. He hadn’t said why or how. And there was something else he’d said: The strongest spells require sacrifice.
Yeah. That one didn’t sit well with her at all.
“How am I going to help you wake this woman up?” she asked, trying to buy time – and trying to get answers. Her voice was shaking, and hearing it aloud made her even more nervous. It made it all the more real.
“Oh, I think you already know, Adelaide.”
Addie’s eyes shut tight. A chill went through her. She reached her hands out to either side in an attempt to steady herself on the stairs. But her right hand passed right through the wall. She gasped and turned in time to see a square foot section of the wall waver as if it were water. In the reflections of the water, the wall was more worn, positively ancient. And then suddenly, it was solid again.
Behind her, Nero placed his hand quietly on the space that had shifted. Then he looked down the stairs, past Addie. She watched his gaze narrow and his green eyes glow.
“Continue,” he commanded softly.
“Are you going to kill me?” she heard herself ask. Her voice sounded far away.
Nero’s gaze moved from the darkness below to her. His expression was stony – except for the very slight curve to the corners of his lips. “We’re on a tight schedule,” he said. “Let’s not waste any more time.”
A small woman, a teenager, a normal man, maybe. Maybe I could fight them off without weapons, she thought. But this guy is hell and gone from normal. She knew if she fought, she would lose. But would it buy her more time? Time until what? she asked herself. No one knew she was here. Wherever the hell “here” was.
Nero sighed impatiently, but also in a resigned manner. Probably because she still had yet to move another inch down the stairwell. “I am not going to kill you, Adelaide. Is that what you need to hear? Does that make you feel better?”
Addie swallowed. She almost choked, her throat was so dry. Not really, she thought. Funny how a person could say something meant to be reassuring and only sound condescending instead.
“No?” he asked, as if he’d read her mind. “Then let me assure you. At the moment, the form you see before you is composed of two souls, not one. Two men.” He smiled, raising his right hand. “One man desperately wants his queen back.” He raised his other hand as if they were balances on a scale. “The other? Desperately wants someone else’s queen. And you, my dear, are that latter queen.” He lowered his hands and tilted his head a little as his gaze skirted over her face, her neck, and lower. “Killing you would defeat any number of purposes, not to mention fail to keep one end of a very important bargain. So again,” he said, moving down onto the single step that stood between them.
He towered over her, tall, indestructible, confusing as hell. “I am not going to kill you, Adelaide Lane.” His tone lowered, becoming intimate. “Far from it.”
The silence stretched. The moments of the clock went tick… tick…
And then Nero gestured to the darkness behind her once more. “Now please. We haven’t much time.”
I will survive this, she thought now. He isn’t going to kill me. She concentrated on that, because she really didn’t want to consider what he was going to do with her. She turned around and continued down the steps, being extra careful with each one since she could not depend on the walls to catch her or assist her balance. Something wonky was going on with them – the entire situation was wonky.
As she drew near the bottom, the stairwell became narrower, and if they hadn’t already been descending single-file, they would have had to now. Finally she reached the last stair and stepped down onto the sandy threshold. Nero followed after.
It was very dark. Vague shapes were all she could make out in the black. She was pretty sure there were walls over there… and some kind of box or something in the middle of the room. But she really had no –
The shadows moved. It was so fast, by the time she registered what she was seeing, there were strong hands on her, and she was being lifted. She cried out in surprise, but the dark was suddenly filled with the sounds of chaos, and her own voice was drowned beneath them.
As quickly as the chaos had begun, a light appeared around Addie. The strong arms that had her around the waist pulled her in close and held her tight. The light surrounded the two of them, for a brief moment highlighting the man with her.
It was Nicholas.
“NOOO!” A massive bellow of rage filled the burial room and sent painful chills across Addie’s skin. The ground beneath her feet shook.
“Your Majesty, watch out!” came another cry. Addie thought she recognized the voice of Minnaea, Nicholas’s preceptor. The man holding her turned sharply. He jerked a little, and she caught the sound of fleshy impact and a grunt of pain, followed by the zap-flash of what she could only imagine to be some kind of science fiction weapon – or magic.
Then she was falling.
She tried to scream. But it was just like the one time she’d ridden The Tower of Terror in Disney World. No sound came out. Her stomach was in her throat, and her teeth were clenched together, and there was nothing but cold, hard fear lodged in the space behind her eyes.
She fell – and fell – and then she slowed. She slowed so much, it felt as if the air were holding her aloft. “I’ve got you,” someone whispere
d in her ear.
She landed, but the impact was cushioned. For the briefest moment, there was a solid surface against her, before it evaporated and swirled, and it was like falling into a vat of dry ice mist. There was no pain, no death. She was floating in a cool, black bath of swirling fog. It rose and curled around her in wispy tentacles as her descent inexorably slowed. She was reminded of that scene in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, where Sarah jumps from the stairs and begins to slowly fall. The world floats by her – until her shoe touches down.
As did Addie’s. She felt the hard support of stone beneath one boot, and then the other. The mist around her continued to swirl for a few seconds before coalescing. She watched it draw together and re-form. The eyes were visible first, red pinpoints of blazing light. They grew and changed color, darkening into purple and then into gray until they finally swirled just like the mist, silver and shiny as mercury. She recognized those eyes.
In the next few moments, Nicholas’s entire form re-emerged, becoming solid and real once more.
Addie was at a complete loss for words over what had happened. Or so she thought. “You changed clothes,” she said.
Nicholas smiled. It was disarming, and slightly frightening. A truly dangerous smile. “I’m touched you noticed,” he said. Then he stepped to the side and turned, gesturing to the world beyond them.
They stood on a black rock overlooking a vast valley of lights. Some of the lights were turning; they were carousels and an enormous Ferris wheel. The faint notes of distant music climbed the cliffside to tease her eardrums. Laughter was carried to her on the wind. The air smelled of salt, cotton candy, caramel popcorn, and the sea. The lights stretched far into the distance, a carpet of rainbow colors and magic that manifested in an amusement park more grand than anything Adelaide could ever have imagined.
“This is the one place in any dimension where I know we will be safe from the Challenger,” said Nicholas. “Welcome to my childhood stomping grounds… The Carnival of Night.”