Heart of the Gods (44 page)

There was a downside of course, primarily that if he died, he’d become like she was and then she wouldn’t be able to feed from him and he wouldn’t be able to drink from her. Something neither of them wanted. And, if he stopped drinking from her for any length of time, the effects would reverse themselves slowly, until he could reach her again.

It didn’t matter. All that mattered was Raissa.

He loved looking at her like this, these few moments when she surrendered completely to him, let him render her helpless. It wouldn’t take long for her to recover but for this brief moment in time she was utterly strengthless and absolutely at his mercy. He didn’t intend to give her much time to recover…he wanted to have her trembling again…quivering with pleasure.

Now though she was draped limply across the bed, her gorgeous hair sprayed around her in a rippling golden halo, too weak to move. Color blossomed beneath her skin, flushed through her body as he played with her. Her eyelids fluttered over the blue eyes he loved so much, her pretty mouth curved in a smile as he brushed his mouth over her skin.

Limp, sweetly drained, Raissa’s body still hummed, tightened and heated again as Ky’s mouth tormented her deliciously. He sipped lightly at her nipple. Slid down her body. Dipped his tongue into her navel, brushed kisses down the length of her. His hands gently parted her thighs. He brushed his mouth over the most sensitive parts of her, his lips teased her, the prickle of his beard scraped over sensitive skin.

She brushed a hand over his thick, dark, wavy hair, ran her fingers through it before she slid her hands across the tawny skin of his strong shoulders, the muscles of his arms.

His mouth touched delicate tissue and she tightened, moaned softly.

“I’ve been talking to some people about a new dig,” Ky said, brushing his lips over her.

“Hmmm,” she said, jolting a little as he tasted her, lightly. “I was going to ask you how your meeting went.”

“How do you feel about Peru?”

“Peru…”

“South America,” he said, licked at her lightly, “jungles and mountains, you ignorant wench.”

Moaning softly, her head tossing as pleasure moved through her, she turned the globe mentally in her head.

“Too many new countries,” she grumbled with amusement, trembling a little. “Wench, am I?”

“Hmmm,” he said, sucking lightly.

Raissa’s back arched as sensation poured through her. “The man in the lobby...?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Inca’s?”

“Very good,” he said and suckled harder.

She could very much like getting the right answers to his questions.

A cry built in her throat.

“So,” he said, “can we go? There are tales about a secret temple hidden in the jungle. Two expeditions got lost, a third never returned. There are no villages in the area, people are afraid…”

Laughing as he teased her, she said, “Oh, I don’t know…”

“It might be dangerous,” he said.

“Hmmm,” she said. “More dangerous than Djinn.?”

“According to the Mayan calendar the apocalypse is coming,” Ky said. “Some say the end times will come after.”

“Can’t have that. I waited three thousand years for you. A few years isn’t enough time.” Her voice was unsteady. “Wait, I thought we were talking about the Inca?”

He smiled. “We were. Same part of the world, sort of.”

Closing his mouth over her, he savored her as the cry built in her throat.

“Okay,” she gasped, “I guess we can go.”

Her back arched as pleasure shot through her.

Ky listened to her cries of ecstasy with satisfaction as she quivered.

“You know, you could have just asked,” she said, contentedly, as he curled an arm around her.

“Where would be the fun in that?” he asked, wrapping both arms around her as he rolled onto his back so she was stretched out over him.

He tugged the sheet up over them both.

Sleepily, contented, she opened her eyes and looked toward the door.

Raissa frowned.

Three muscular men stood there, all in what Raissa took to be native dress not too unlike the clothing some men had worn in ancient Egypt, a simple loincloth, except the patterns of the weave and material were different. All had skin as dark if not darker than Ky’s own tawny coloring―if perhaps there seemed a little more red in theirs than in his―and their hair was straight where his was thick and wavy.

All were armed with long iron knives and blowguns.

Which they raised to their lips.

“Ky?” she said, frowning. “We have company.”

He glanced toward the door to see the three men there.

All three had lifted the blowguns to their mouths and were prepared to blow.

Raissa gestured, calling up a burst of wind to catch the darts and sent them flying elsewhere even as Ky wrapped an arm around her and rolled, tumbling them both to the floor on the opposite side of the bed.

Both scrambled to stay low and disentangle themselves from the sheets and blankets. Another gesture from Raissa and they were both clothed, somewhat, Ky in his favorite pair of sweat shorts―Raissa liked them on him―and Raissa in one of the short dresses she’d worn in Egypt.

She conjured her swords as he pulled his gun hastily from the bedside table―after the attack in his room that night months before, he’d taken additional precautions.

Their visitors hadn’t waited for the formalities, one leaped over the bed in a somersault.

Ky rolled and shot that one in mid-air, three quick shots perfectly placed as Raissa rose to intercept the second as he came at them around the end of the bed, a sharp ringing sounding as she intercepted his iron sword.

The iron in that could very well do her harm. She wasn’t completely immortal and certainly not impervious to pain.

Astonishingly, or perhaps not so much, the one that Ky shot didn’t even blink, though the shots did knock him off course. He bounced off the ceiling but fell to his feet when he did fall. The sword flashed and Ky sucked in his stomach to evade it. His training took hold. He gave a push to the flat of the blade as it passed with his hand…

“Raissa,” Ky called in warning, spinning into a kick that snapped against his opponents head.

She glanced toward him as she parried the second, turned away the blade of third.

Perfectly timed and powered by Raissa’s gift from Sekhmet, the first visitor staggered into the third as Raissa spun out of the way.

It was obvious from the pattern of bullets on his chest―eerily familiar―that Ky had gotten him.

Raissa backed toward Ky as one of the three gestured.

She felt magic rise.

Bullets had no effect, obviously. The first had been staggered by Ky’s kick but it was obvious he wasn’t down as he turned to face them again.

Throwing out her hands, Raissa conjured fire.

It flashed toward them.

The magician’s eyes widened and all three suddenly disappeared.

“Where the hell did they come from?” Ky demanded, heading for the door. “More importantly, where did they go to?”

Raissa shook her head. “I don’t know. They were just there.”

There was no sign the doors had been forced. Ky glanced back at Raissa.

“Those were Incans,” Ky said.

Alarmed, Raissa tilted her head and said, wide-eyed, “Ancient Incans?”

A sudden chill went over him. “Carter. Andrew Carter…the man who asked me to join the expedition.”

He ran for the door.

Raissa was only a step behind him. “Is he here in the hotel…?”

“A floor down.”

He could only hope they weren’t too late or that Andrew Carter hadn’t had any unexpected visitors first.

“Raissa?’ he asked.

“This will definitely get the attention of security,” she said, grinning a little.

He grinned back, despite his concern. “True.”

A clap of her hands and they were both dressed more appropriately for visiting a possible new colleague―Ky in slacks and a shirt, Raissa in a sundress―as the elevator doors opened.

Andrew Carter wasn’t in a suite, just a room. Down the hall.

Knocking sharply, Ky called, “Andrew, are you there? It’s Ky Farrar…”

Both of them heard the sharp sound of wood, of furniture breaking,

For a moment Ky considered kicking the door down but this was an old and very respectable hotel by Egyptian standards, those were solid doors…not however, state of the art. He patted his pockets and smiled. Pulling a credit card from his wallet, he slid it swiftly in the door to jimmy it.

The door popped open.

Andrew definitely had visitors but he was doing surprisingly well with the silver room tray and an umbrella as a sword but that wouldn’t last much longer. He was outnumbered and tiring.

“Get back,” he shouted, seeing them in the doorway.

With a look to Raissa, Ky went high and she went low. He tackled one of the Incans as Raissa dove, coming up in a crouch, and swept the feet out from another.

Ky grappled with the invader. He was astonishingly strong and Ky had the added punch of Raissa’s enriched blood.

They collided with the wall, giving Andrew a chance to defend himself against a single opponent, however overpowered.

The leg sweep had caught Raissa’s man by surprise but he was also agile and quick. He rolled to his feet.

So was she, which was definitely a shock to her opponent as they faced each other. He swung at her and she ducked, coming up quickly enough to give him a hard shove, the force of it hard enough to send him reeling across the room.

While Andrew was occupied with the other, Raissa focused and sent a bolt of fire flashing across the room.

It splashed against the man’s chest.

Abruptly, he disappeared.

A flash of weakness went through her.

She was a little underpowered at the moment, she thought, remembering Ky’s mouth on her.

The warm rush of love and the jolt of lust at the memory momentarily offset the weakness.

Turning, she watched in satisfaction and pleasure as Ky clipped the one with a solid punch and then spun to deliver a kick the Andrew Carter’s adversary that sent the man flying.

Watching Ky fight was such a pleasure. He was good at it, quick, smooth and effective.

Raissa drew fire.

Abruptly, both men disappeared.

“Bloody hell,” Andrew said, staggering back against the wall. “What the hell was that?”

Ky shook his head as confused as Andrew.

“I wonder,” he said, softly, “Who doesn’t want us going to Peru?”

Andrew stared around in bewilderment. What he’d just seen was impossible.

“We can call it off,” Ky said, softly.

Looking at the tall, spare blonde man, Raissa shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Already, they could see him stiffening his spine, or his upper lip, depending on which applied. He looked at both of them worriedly, though.

It had been a chancy thing for Andrew to get an archaeologist of the reputation of Dr. Ky Farrar to agree to this expedition. He had a reputation as being more of an Egyptologist but after the discovery of the Fort and the Tomb of the Djinn, he was the name in archaeology today.

Just the person Andrew needed to get the funding for this project.

Now though?

“I can understand why you might hesitate, Mrs. Farrar,” he said, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. “But it really is an important expedition. We could discover things about that part of the world we’ve never known before. It would probably require Ky to be gone for quite some time…”

In his experience wives didn’t appreciate that sort of thing very much at all.

Shaking his head, Ky said, “I told you, Andrew, Raissa and I are a team.”

“But she may not want to be away from home for so long,” Andrew said.

Again, in his experience―his own wife home in London―most women didn’t.

With a smile, Raissa said, “After so long in one place, I long to see the world, Mr. Carter.”

He couldn’t know how long that had been.

“And I might be of help. I’m working on my Masters degree in Anthropology and I helped Ky on his last expedition…”

Her azure blue eyes went to the man Andrew knew as Professor Farrar.

The man had been damn lucky in his choice of wife.

Raising a hand, Ky cupped her cheek. “We go nowhere without each other, I looked for her for too long.”

He smiled.

His dark eyes looked into Raissa’s, she looked back.

“So,” Ky asked. “I take it we’re going?”

Smiling, Raissa nodded. “I think so.”

“Excellent. Well then,” Andrew said, pleased, shaking off the strangeness and fear, refusing even to think about it. “How about I buy you both dinner and we’ll celebrate…”

“We’ll meet you downstairs in what? Fifteen, Raissa?” Ky said.

Nodding, she said, “Hmmm, fifteen minutes sounds good. That should be enough time. I’m very hungry.”

The look she shot to Ky sent heat shooting through him.

He cleared his throat. “We’ll meet you down there…”

“Brilliant,” Andrew said, looking around.

He had a little straightening up to do. Clothes to change.

Ky and Raissa walked out to the elevator hand in hand.

“Just how hungry are you?” he asked, his body tightening in anticipation.

Her smile was absolutely wicked as the elevator doors opened.

“Two can play in elevators,” she said, taking him by the front of his shirt and driving him inside. Her eyes glinted. “And you’re a bit fired up.”

Lust pooled, low and deep.

“It’s only one floor,” he groaned.

Red sparks danced in her eyes as the elevator doors closed and she rose on her toes to breathe him in, her mouth brushing lightly over his throat. A jolt of heat went through him as she tasted him on the air.

Her hand reached out, slapped the button for the basement and then for their floor as her warm lips moved over him, her body pressed up hard against his, her hands sliding over him. One slipped into his hair, the other, touched…teased… Her tongue flicked out to taste his skin.

“Not anymore,” she whispered, her breath hot against him.

Ky’s throat went tight, need, desire, anticipation.

Lightly, she lapped at him, honing the suspense. She drew in the air between her sharpening, lengthening teeth so that it ran cool over his skin between her mouth and his pulse, bringing the taste of him with it.