Crescent Moon (12 page)

Something in his pinched expression caught Juste’s interest. “You didn’t
think they should be moved?”

“There was no need. The sheik’s vault is huge, his security staff well
trained. We could have studied them there. The vault’s very well equipped. We
took the first X-rays with his machine. Now, the most significant find in a
decade may be lost forever.”

“Why was the find so important?”

Dr. Felton’s eyebrows drew together. “I don’t know that it was. Not for sure.
But the inscription on the female’s chest was intriguing.”

“Because her companion in the tomb might have been one of the scorpion
kings?”

“Yes, King Selk.”

Khepri’s breath hissed between her teeth. “His name should not be
spoken.”

Dr. Felton’s gaze swung toward her and his eyes narrowed. “Are you with
the police?”

“No.”

Juste cleared his throat. The professor didn’t recognize her, neither did
his assistants by their quick dismissal of Khepri. Another dead end. “You’ll be
here until the exhibit opens?”

Dr. Felton’s gaze flicked from Khepri’s frowning face back to Juste’s
carefully neutral expression. “We’re helping with set up and display, to make
sure the flow of antiquities from one dynasty to the next makes sense.”

“Dr. Dorman couldn’t have done the work on his own?”

“I’m sure he could, but we’re more familiar with the sheik’s catalog—and
the sheik offered to pay our expenses.”

Juste flipped his notebook closed. “So you’ll be in town for a while.”

“We’ll be finished setting up tonight.” At the lift of Juste’s brow, the
professor gave a tense smile. “Yes, there was a bit of a last-minute rush to
finish. Tomorrow night’s the gala. We’ll head back to the university after
that.”

“Gala?”

“Friends of the museum—contributors—will get a private viewing of the antiquities
before they’re open to the public next week.”

Juste’s belly tightened. Not something anyone had mentioned before. He
wondered why. “I think that’s all for now.”

The three stood and shuffled out of the room.

Juste turned toward Mikey. “Did Dorman ever mention some big party to
you?”

“Nope. Do you think he was makin’ sure we wouldn’t put a damper on his
evenin’?”

“Or makin’ sure his cash cows don’t know there’s been trouble.” Juste
grunted, then leveled a steady stare on Haddara, who wasn’t saying anything.
The man had known about the event, but had kept quiet as well. “I feel kinda
hurt we weren’t invited,” Juste said, keeping his tone dead even.

Haddara shrugged. “Tickets sold out a month ago.”

Mikey flashed a grin. “Want me to sweet-talk his secretary into givin’ us
a couple tickets?”

“Make it three.” Juste stood and waited while Khepri pushed up from her
seat. “Where we goin’ now?” he asked her, ignoring Mikey’s raised eyebrows.

Khepri blew out a breath, then aimed a pointed glance his way. “I’d like
to see the beast in the canal. See whether he is Sobek or a diversion.”

Juste stared at her expression, at the stubborn tilt of her chin. She
expected him to balk. Or to ask what they hell she was talking about. He
resisted both knee-jerk reactions. Instead, he indicated toward the door,
“After you.”

With Justin and Mr. Haddara accompanying her out of the museum, Khepri
felt a little flustered. One was willing to follow her blindly. The other was
either humoring her or waiting for her to betray him.

Of a certainty, Justin didn’t believe for a second that Sobek might be
real, and he probably even doubted a crocodile was loose in his city. From that
internal library of facts and language she seemed able to access at will, she knew
crocodiles were close kin, but recognizably different, from the alligators
native to this region.

At the entrance of the building, the thin man who appeared to be in
charge of the museum stood to the side of the double glass doors. His mouth was
a disapproving straight line as his gaze flitted from the Egyptian, to her, and
then rested on Justin. “Have you found out anything?”

“Our investigation is ongoin’, Dr. Dorman,” Juste said easily. “I can’t
discuss it with you.”

Dr. Dorman’s bottom lip protruded. “It’s my museum.”

“And you haven’t yet been crossed off the list of suspects.”

The curator drew himself up, his expression souring even more as his
glance shot from Juste to Mr. Haddara. “I’m relieved you don’t hold the same
suspicions for my colleague.”

By his snide tone, Khepri knew he was furious.

“Unless we have more questions, we’ll see you tomorrow night,” Juste
murmured and pushed through the door, standing to the side to hold it open as
she, then Mr. Haddara, exited.

As she passed Dr. Dorman, he blinked, apparently shocked they planned to
be at the gala.

“So you are determined to attend the soiree? It’s costume,” Mr. Haddara
said, a smile easing across his face.

“Ah shit,” Justin muttered.

“Our Khepri will need something special to wear.”

Juste’s cheeks billowed around an expelled breath.

She suppressed a grin, catching Mr. Haddara’s equally amused look. Things
were getting more complicated by the minute for the detective. “As I have no
clue what one wears to a gala, nor what one really is, I will defer to your
greater wisdom.”

“I’ll call Denise,” he said with a groan.

Once inside Justin’s car, and with Mr. Haddara perched on his seat behind
her, she waited patiently as Justin called Denise before starting the car with
a firm crank of the keys.

“We don’t really know if that gator’s in City Park,” Juste muttered.
“Sure you wanna head there?”

“Don’t you think it odd he did something so clearly meant to garner
attention?” she asked, glancing sideways at Justin.

His hands tightened on the steering mechanism. “You say that as though
something with a pea-sized brain has a strategy. It’s a gator, Khepri. Nothin’
more. It saw an easy meal.”

She sat back, serene in the knowledge Justin was wrong. The phrase “dead
wrong” flitted through her mind, and she began to worry.

The drive to the park didn’t take long. They crossed a bridge, drove
under an arched iron gate, and were suddenly surrounded by shorn lawns and
trees with mossy growths hanging from their limbs. There were more cars and
larger vehicles parked along the road inside the park, and armed men in
uniforms patrolled the edges of ponds and a canal.

Justin stopped the vehicle and gave her a sharp glare. “You stick close
to me and don’t go near the water.”

She liked how his voice grew gruff when he gave her that order. Almost
the same tone he’d used when he’d given her orders the night before, only then,
he’d been instructing her how to touch him, where to put her mouth …

Maybe something of her thoughts showed on her face, or maybe he’d just
caught her gaze darting to his mouth, but his eyes narrowed.

Juste was right. Now was certainly not the time to reminisce. She shook
away the memories and opened her door, stepping out onto hot pavement and
breathing air that, again, was so filled with moisture she felt as though she
was suffocating.

“I have difficulty too with the humidity,” Mr. Haddara said, striding up
beside her.

Offering him a small smile, she turned her attention to her surroundings.
At the far side of one body of water was an arched bridge, only large enough
for foot traffic, but it was raised, and she needed to be higher to see more of
the park.

Justin let her lead the way, his heavy tread a comforting sound behind
her. At the center of the stone bridge, she stopped and turned in a slow circle,
searching for a sign. On a second turn, she noted white geese and black swans
swimming quickly to the bank, their wings lifting as their feet touched ground.
The last, a black swan, issued a harsh honk, and suddenly something large and
dark lunged from the deep, jaws gaping to swallow the bird whole.

Shouts sounded. Squawks—not from ducks or geese or swans—erupted from
devices clipped to collars and carried in tight fists.

Justin pushed her behind him and stared down into the water. “There.” He
gestured toward a shadow in the water to a man in a brown uniform with a weapon
already pointing toward the water.

The sounds around her grew to a noisy crescendo and then suddenly
quieted, all noise muffled. A signal she understood. The air around her pressed
closer. Her heartbeat tripped then raced, and she backed slowly away from
Justin and Mr. Haddara, who both peered into the green, murky depths. She
walked down the bridge and turned to stand beside the water.

While she moved, following some internal prod, she wasn’t happy to be
standing so near the water after what she had seen. Crocodiles weren’t
scorpions, and she had never overcome her fear of the ancient creatures, having
watched too many animals, and one small girl, taken by a crocodile bursting
from the deep. Closing her eyes, she calmed herself. She’d seen what the
creature had done, how large it was, but Amun would protect her. 

A splash sounded in front of her, and she blinked open her eyes. Terror
hitching her breath, her heart galloping. The creature crawled quickly onto the
bank, most of its body and massive tail still in the water.

She was aware of movement from the bridge, of Justin’s face, tight with
urgency, as he leapt over the side to the bank. “Do not harm him,” she
whispered.

The creature darted forward, head twisting, exposing the rows of jagged
teeth in its gaping jaws and clamping them painfully around her midriff.  Then, just as quickly, it withdrew backward
to the murky depths, taking her.

As though she was living a nightmare, time slowed and sounds, filtered by
water and dulled by the rushing sound inside her head, were unintelligible.
Beneath the surface, muted sounds of splashing surrounded her. She opened her
eyes, saw Justin dive into the water, but the creature was faster, swimming
away, his body elegantly weaving away from her rescuers.

She held her breath as long as she could, but then reached around to
pound at his body.
Sobek! Sobek! You are
killing me!

From one moment to the next, she stood on dry ground, her clothing
perfectly dry—standing with bare toes sinking into warm sand and clothed in her
thin linen
kalasiris
. Quiet surrounded her. The air
was thin, dry. She
glanced upward and felt a moment’s relief there were stars shining above her,
but quickly realized the small pinpricks of light weren’t stars at all. The
lights were moving, swirling—small phosphorescent creatures clinging to the
ceiling of a dark, high-ceilinged cavern. Another glance, and she recognized
the hollowed bones of the windswept cavern she’d died inside.

“No,” she cried out, the sound a broken sob. “Not here.”

Footsteps crunched in sand and pebbles, and she turned slowly as a figure
stepped out of the darkest shadows, its face revealed by the swelling swirls of
light above her.

He was huge, bare except for the gossamer-thin
shendyt
riding the notches of his hips and
trailing down to mid-thigh, revealing powerfully muscled thighs and calves.
Even in the shadowy light she could see the green tinge to his skin, and before
she tilted her head to glance into his face, she knew who he was.

His features were elongated
from nose to mouth, more of a curved snout, and lightly scaled like slick
crocodile hide. His large eyes were rounded, the pupils black vertical slits
surrounded by glowing gold.

She dropped to her knees. “My
Lord Sobek,” she whispered.

“You remember me?” he asked,
his voice a hissing, grating sound.

A sound she accepted as
normal. Instinctively, she held no fear of him. A memory surfaced—of her
sinking into a raging river and Sobek catching her in his jaws to lay her on
the rocky banks before turning to do battle with another creature in the water.

She shook her head. “You were
with me … in the
Duat
.”

“I pulled you from Ammit’s
grasp.” He stepped closer, his body tensing and his rounded snout sniffing at
her.

Recalling from her readings
his highly sexualized nature, Khepri drew back. The stories of his eating
voraciously while he mated with equal fervor made her shiver. “You wanted my
attention.”

His mouth separated,
stretching backward in a toothy smile. “I wasn’t terribly subtle, was I?”

“If you wanted the whole of
New Orleans to know they had a god in their midst, you couldn’t have been more
explicit.” Her eyes widened instantly when she realized she’d just scolded a
god.

Instead of biting off her
head, he laughed. “I have missed you.”

“And I barely remember you.
Why is that?”

“To protect you … and us.
You may not remember, but you know us, don’t you? You know we are around you.”

She nodded. “I feel Amun’s
presence.”

Sobek’s head canted. “He gave
you a gift. How do you like it?”

His raspy roar was nearly a
purr, and she frowned. The last thing she could discuss with this lecherous god
was her denouement. “Only Amun has a right to know.”

“Always so loyal. Are you now
torn between your master and your protector?”

Without blinking, she held his
gaze. “I know what I must do. Why my murder was necessary. I won’t waver from
my quest.”

“Ammit has left the
Duat
.”

Khepri froze at his blunt
statement. The memory of the abject fear she’d felt moments before Sobek had
hauled her from the subterranean river in the
Duat
was enough to tell her that every story she’d read about The
Devourer of Hearts couldn’t begin to touch on her true evil. Sobek had come to
warn her, but he was god. When it came down to a battle, would he side with
humans, or would he fold inward and protect one of his own? That wasn’t a
question she felt she could ask; instead, she let her gaze slide away. “Will
she be eating women on river banks?”

A snort gusted. “She will
likely be hiding among the humans. She prefers toying with her food to an
honest, forthright conquest. I will be near—should you require my help.”

Again his voice had deepened,
his intention clear. If she wanted him, he’d gladly partner with her sexually.
“You no longer see me as Amun’s wife.”

“He has loosened his hold.
Allowed you a lover. You are no longer forbidden.”

“I have a lover.”

He sniffed. “A human. I am so
much more.”

While mild horror spilled like
cool water down her spine, a stir of curiosity curled inside her belly, too.
She shook her head. She really didn’t need the distraction he would provide. “I
am quite satisfied.”

“For the moment.”

“For the moment,” she said,
giving him a slight nod, wanting to mollify his pride. She needed allies, not
gods with their noses out of joint. “What of Amun? Will he be near?”

“You don’t remember him at
all, do?”

“No.”

Rich, warm chuckles echoed in
the cavern. “You remember me, and not him. I’ll have to tell him. He’s been
pining for your company.”

“Pining?”

“You interest him. So clever
and strong. So human, and yet so open. A warrior’s ruthlessness with a child’s
wonder.”

She shook her head. “I don’t
know what you’re talking about.”

His hands fisted on his hips.
A deep sigh soughed, blowing warmly across her forehead. “Be vigilant. That is
his message. Know that Ammit may already be among you.”

“How will I fight her? How
will I know the nameless one who called her?”

“Use your powers, Amun’s wife.
You will see.”

Khepri snorted. “And you had
to murder a woman to deliver that message?”

“No, I was hungry.” His mouth
widened again. “We must go.”

“Wait. Is this place the
Duat
?”

“No. It is the place you
awoke. The place you waited until Amun retrieved you.”

She glanced one more time
around the cavern, at the swirling lights above, heard the mournful whistle of
the wind, felt the dry air parching her skin. “Will I be here again?” she
asked, hoping with all her might she’d never see it again.

“Only if it is Amun’s will.”

For the first time, her
husband’s name froze her in fear.

In the blink of an eye, Sobek
fell forward, his body transforming into the crocodile. She raised her arms and
held her breath, knowing what was coming. Again, she was in the water. His jaw
eased open, and she swam upward, breaking the surface.

“Khepri! Jesus!” Justin
shouted.

He was behind her. She turned
as best she could to give him a wan smile.

Justin was soaked to the skin,
his shirt sticking to his large frame. He waded deeper into the water.

“Don’t detective,” a man in
uniform cried out. “The croc.”

But Justin ignored him,
striding toward her, and then swimming closer. Not a strong swimmer, she
paddled with her hands, bobbing to keep her head above the surface.

A strong arm wrapped around
the front of her chest, drawing her onto her back, and then powerful surges
moved her toward the bank.