Her Kind of Trouble (36 page)

Funeral.
Tombstone
. Widowhood, without ever having married. Single motherhood.

Not if I could help it.

I had to lift Lex's heavy head in order to press the chalice to his lips, to pour a swallow of water between them.

"What are you doing?" protested Ken. "He could choke!"

I stroked his throat.
Swallow, my love. Swallow
.

His Adam's apple moved as he did just that.

The way of the goddess was sometimes unbearably bitter.

So was the water from her chalice.

Lex's body convulsed. Ken and I rolled him quickly onto his side as he threw up not just the briny taste from the Isis Grail, but a great deal of the poison.

"Emetics are chancy with this kind of poison," protested Ken, glaring at me. "If he aspirates it, the damage to his lungs… "

But Lex's lips were moving. I leaned closer.

"Again," he rasped. His hands pushed futilely, trying to sit himself up, so Ken and I and another man helped him, supporting him against the rock wall. Then I lifted the chalice to his mouth.

Please, Lady Isis. You saved Osiris. Please give me the ability…

I didn't sense any response, one way or the other. But after Lex drank again, he was able to weakly turn by himself. Only liquid splashed from his mouth, oily, pearlescent,
evil
.

I didn't have to lean closer to hear him, this time. "
Again
."

"Blessings from the goddess Isis," I said, offering the chalice. "Oldest of the Old. Goddess of Ten Thousand Names."

Lex held my gaze, his eyes losing their dullness by the second. "Thank you, goddess."

And he finished off the goblet's contents. But this time he didn't throw up. This time, I suspected, he wasn't trying to. Water might thin what poison remained in his body…and he
was
still poisoned.

Ken murmured something about Lex taking charcoal pills, if he could keep them down.

"That's cheating," protested Phil, unable to hide his panic. "I challenged him to a simple contest, and you people are
cheating
."

So I set the Isis Grail carefully beside Lex, then stood. The head scarf had slid from around my hair and now draped my shoulders, like a shawl, like
Isis
's brightly colored wings. I went to the table on which both Phil's cup and Lex's sat forgotten, and picked them up. I took a sip from the one Phil had been using. "Mmm," I said. "Good wine."

Then I offered him Lex's.

"Why should I?" he demanded, looking at the cup like he would a snake. "I've already taken five swallows of valerian, and unlike Lex, I'm not barfing it up."

"Drink it," said the politician.

"No."

Now several of the inner circle repeated the command. "Drink it." Like a chant. Like an even darker version of a fraternity kegger.

Phil moved to knock the cup from my hand, but I was faster. I splashed its contents into his face.

He yelled and began wiping his eyes and spitting. "You bitch!"

The knot of undecided Comitatus, who'd been hanging back from both parties, glanced at each other, then came to stand beside Lex.

Only Ahmed and the two men I'd noted earlier still stood with Phil. But they didn't look wholly happy about it.

"I believe this ritual is over," I announced, and beckoned Catrina and Rhys to come out of the tunnel and help me with Lex. Then I turned back to my lover. My king without a country. The father of my baby, if I really was pregnant. The man I meant to marry, whether I was pregnant or not.
Lex
.

Who was scowling as he realized just how weak he still was.

"Hang on," I cautioned, getting an arm around him. Rhys took him from the other side, and Ken caught him from behind—between us, we managed to lift him to his feet.

"We aren't rescuing you, your highness," I assured him, low in his ear. "We're just
helping
."

His lips quirked, but his gaze, lifting, hardened at whatever he saw. I sensed someone behind me, all size and impatience and body heat. Definitely not in a nice way.

"Maggi," said Phil, from behind me.

Slowly I turned, readjusting my stance for Lex's weight. "You're still here?"

"I need to drink from the
Isis
cup, too," he said, still wiping at his mouth where that face full of wine must have gotten on his lips. "Just in case."

The grail! I looked down, where I'd left it, and saw nothing but shadowy, bare stone.
No
!

Then I looked at Catrina.

She held up the chalice, smiling her own triumph—then turned it upside down, to show us both that it was empty. "
Quel dommage
," she murmured.
What a pity
.

"A minute," protested Lex, quietly at first. "Mag… please. I need… "

I caught Rhys's eye, and we stopped while Lex cleared his throat.

"If any of you wish to follow your true leader," he announced, with surprising command for someone half-dead, "we will reconvene outside
London
. You will know where and when.
Finis
."

That last, Latin word had the edge of ritual about it.
It is over
.

"You're not the leader of the Comitatus yet," protested Phil. If I hadn't already known what a caricature of a bad loser he was, I wouldn't have believed anybody could be so petty—or so dense.

"Maybe not," said Lex. "But I'm sure as hell the leader of
something
important."

And we left. Him and me, together. Rhys helping us. Catrina protecting the chalice, as she'd wanted to do from the start.

And seven of the Comitatus members.

As soon as we were away from Phil and his followers, into the labyrinthine passageways, Lex's weight sagged harder onto my shoulders.

"What—?" I protested.

"He passed out," said Ken, taking my place under Lex's arm. Okay, so the average man does have an advantage on me where brute strength is concerned. "Throwing up most of the poison bought him time. So will the charcoal. But he wouldn't have been showing symptoms if it weren't already in his system. We've got to get him to a hospital to minimize the damage to his internal organs."

"I'll phone for a helicopter," offered another of the Comitatus, vanishing into the shadowy passageway ahead of us and calling back, "I doubt Phil will do it."

Noises of disgust from Lex's other followers expressed their current opinion of his cousin.

"Maggi." It was Lex, drifting into consciousness again, struggling to lift his head.

"I'm right here," I assured him, catching his chin to help. "I'm not going anywhere."

His brows furrowed, "… can walk… "

"Humor us."

"Did I…dream… ?" He shook his head, trying to reorient himself as our party stumbled up the cramped, rocky incline, flashlights and halogen lanterns crisscrossing our path like a pitiful sound and light show. Without the sound.

"… you said… ?"

"Yeah, I really said that. I said I
might
be. Now rest and let us help you, okay?"

His head sank forward—but a smile pulled at his lips. Was he going to be unbearable about this?

No, I thought, a sweet warmth filling me where the beckoning had been. Just amazingly happy. And probably overprotective.

But he'd learn.

We'd reached the last level stretch of tunnel when the man who'd run ahead to call a helicopter appeared in front of us.

"We've got trouble," he said. "Someone's closed the gate out of the tunnels, and he's guarding it with about six men. They look like petty thieves, but they're armed."

Petty… ? Oh,
crap
!

The maroon Vectra. Somehow they'd found us without having to follow—tracking device indeed! And they had called for backup.

The man looked at me. "He said nobody comes out until we hand over the witch."

Hani Rachid had come for his revenge.

"They have knives," insisted the lawyer, whose name turned out to be David.

"So… " noted Lex, "…do we."

Like I'd have him trying to protect me just now?

"I'll handle it," I said.

"We… can… fight," he insisted—big words, for someone being supported by two other men. Then again, I'd seen him fight in equally bad circumstances. He seemed to be gaining strength from necessity alone.

"I know," I assured him. "
So can I
."

Hani had reapplied the protective udjat eye design, or Eye of Horus, on his cheek. As we neared the barred gate, he looked delighted to see us. Too delighted. Something about the breadth of his white grin, the roll of his eyes, and his taut posture had an air of madness to it. He wasn't a man used to losing.

He'd lost a great deal, recently.

"You!" he greeted, looking right past me. "You are Mr. Lex Stuart. At last we meet formally."

"Cut the villain crap, Rachid," said Lex, with clear disgust—and no hesitation. It was all I could do not to turn and stare at him. Where did he get these reserves of strength? "How much…will it take to get rid of you?"

I said, "
What
?"

Lower, Lex murmured, "No good… otherwise." Him, or his money?

"A true businessman," Rachid approved dramatically, and pretended to consider it. "Ten million American dollars."

"Done," said Lex.

Right. I wasn't the only person among us to do a double take. He was rich, but nobody was
that
liquid… were they?

"In cash. Right now." Hani laughed at Lex's narrowed, angry eyes. "You Westerners! You think you are better than us because you can buy whatever you wish. But you are not, and you cannot. Clearly you are so weak as I suspected. I will take the woman."

"You can't...
have
her… " As quickly as it had come. Lex's strength was fading. Probably because he was realizing what I'd already known—that he
couldn't
help.

Not this way, at least.

"She took my woman from me, because you cannot control her. I shall take her in replacement. Right here, in front of you all, I shall show her how a true man takes control."

"No… " Lex's words were weak but murderous. "You… "

I whistled sharply, interrupting both of them before this travesty could continue. Lex needed his strength to fight the poison until the helicopter got here, for pity's sake! "Hello? If you two men are through discussing my fate?"

Lex scowled—and I turned on him. "I am not yours to buy off. Even once we're married, I will never be that If you don't figure that out damned quick, we won't even get that far, and I don't want that. Do you?" He stared. "Once… ?"

"If you can learn when to let me make my own choices, we'll talk about it. I just let you drink poison, didn't I?" I turned to Hani. "If I come out, you let the others go. Right?"

"Of course."

"He's lying," muttered Lex.

"Ya think?" I turned to David. "Does your phone have reception here? Call the helicopter. And you… " Now I turned to Rhys, and pressed the hilt of my sword into his hand. "Cat's a lot better than I thought she'd be, but you I trust. When I say 'now… '"

"Let him take me instead," protested Rhys, low. "I'm the one he thinks seduced his wife."

Lex managed to lift his head enough to stare at my friend.

"He'd eat you for breakfast," I said. Now I turned to the bars and raised mv voice. "Deal. Let us out."

Hani said, "You first."

I kissed Lex tenderly and whispered, "Trust me."

His weak, solemn gaze wrung my heart. But he said nothing.

I guess he
did
want to marry me, at that.

Then I turned back to the bars. "I'm coming out."

I could tell from the way Hani's men looked at me that I might as well have worn a merry widow—or nothing—as my cargo pants and camisole top. Their eyes felt like uninvited tongues on my skin, even before they opened the lock.

Yeah, it was a gross feeling.

Worse, they grabbed me by both arms as soon as I edged past the iron gate. There in the excavation pit, in the varied illumination of lanterns and flashlights, they dragged me to their supposed leader. Their hands bit into my flesh in a way that would surely leave bruises. One of the sentries we'd left tied up was among them.

I didn't bother to struggle.
Not yet
.

"Now I will show you," warned Hani, "what happens to disobedient women. You are clearly such a slut, you may even enjoy it. But I know your man will not."