Seti's Heart (9 page)

Most interestingly, the sarcophagus had proven impossible to open. Crowbars snapped when applied under the lid. Chisels, no matter how hard they were hammered, could not move the lid a hairsbreadth. True to the myth of Seti, no man could open the tomb until the curse was lifted.

Could the rest be true as well? Would Seti awake in just another half century, fully restored after five thousand years? He would if Ethan’s translations of the hieroglyphics and his dating of the tomb, were accurate.

It was a bet that the small group of anthropologists was willing to take. For fifty years they’d kept their discovery a secret from the rest of the world. Perry used his position as a curator with the National Museum of Natural History in New York to secret the sarcophagus away. It had remained hidden in the basement of the Museum for a half a century, untouched and unviewed by anyone but himself.

Three of the team, Petrovski, Roman, and Hill, had left Egypt to pursue careers in academia, all three becoming full professors at prestigious universities. They’d lived comfortable lives, retiring within ten years of each other. Now all three lived in retirement communities in Florida, golfing and basking in the warm sun, waiting for their chance at immortality.

Ethan – the least scrupulous of all of them, had transformed himself from an anthropologist into a grave robber. He’d pillaged site after site, stealing Egyptian artifacts and selling them on the black market. Over the years, he’d parlayed his wealth into a fortune.

All the while Perry had continued to slave away in the bowels of the Museum, as poor as a church mouse, the ever faithful watchdog.

He hadn’t cared. When Seti awoke and they had drained the secret of immortality from his veins, wealth would mean little. Perry would be a god.

Now the one slim straw Perry had been grasping at was gone, and all because of Ethan’s egotistical claim that his data had been foolproof.

Perry ground his teeth as impotent rage washed over him in great waves. Damn Logan Ashton! If he hadn’t been forced by Administration to take Logan on as an assistant, then Seti would have awoken to find Perry waiting for him, not that snot-nosed graduate student. Perhaps Perry might have been able to garner the secret of everlasting life from Seti before Ethan and the others were even aware that Seti had returned! Perry would have had the entire world at his feet and Ethan’s wealth in his pocket.
 

Now he’d be lucky if he survived long enough to see Seti recaptured, to witness what the miracle of his rejuvenation had wrought. Perry’s health was on a serious decline. His heart had been irreparably damaged by the treatment for his liver disease. The doctors had given him a month or so to live.

Pain clawed at Perry’s chest as his anger grew. He removed a prescription bottle from his coat pocket, emptying a small white tablet onto his palm. Placing it under his tongue, he forced himself to relax and let the nitroglycerin work.

Perry slid the bottom drawer of his desk open, taking out a legal pad and an envelope.

It was only a matter of time before Seti would be found, and Logan with him. Unfortunately, Perry now realized that Ethan only needed Seti, and no one else.

Not even Perry.

He’d been a fool to believe that Ethan would allow him to share in whatever miracle Seti’s blood had to offer. If his physical ailments didn’t kill him, he could be certain that Ethan would.

Removing his pen from his breast pocket, Dr. Lincoln Perry began the last letter he would ever write.

***

Ethan hung up the phone, swiveling in his chair to look out of the window of his penthouse office at the city that sprawled at his feet.

He’d spent years trafficking on the black market at great personal peril, using his gains to set up bank accounts in Switzerland, offshore in the Bahamas, and a few fat ones right here in the States under dummy corporations. His plan was much simpler than his convoluted bank accounts. As soon as Seti was revived, he was going to drain him of every last ounce of his blood, dissect him under a microscope, and do anything and everything in his considerable power to isolate whatever it was that made Seti immortal. And then Ethan was going to use his findings to cheat death forever.

Of course, the other four members of his group thought the same thing, but Ethan knew that they could never be trusted to keep secret their findings. He planned on killing them all once they were no longer needed.

As a matter of fact, with only a month to go until D-Day, he’d already sent a couple of men down to Florida to see that Petrovski, Roman, and Hill didn’t live long enough to collect their next social security checks.

He’d thought to allow Perry to live a while longer. Ethan needed him to keep watch over Seti’s sarcophagus, but had decided that the moment the lid cracked open, Perry would be as dead as any of the fossils in the Museum.

Now, all of Ethan’s carefully laid plans were at risk because of some idiotic, meddling graduate student who’d managed somehow to wake Seti and had spirited him away from the Museum.

Damn it! Well, one thing was for certain. He didn’t need Perry anymore.

He picked up the phone and placed two brief calls. One to a man who owed Ethan a favor or two - a man with tissue-thin morals and a very big gun.

The other call was to a private detective agency that Ethan had dealt with on numerous occasions. Discreet and trustworthy, willing to bend the law when necessary, he put them on the trail of Logan Ashton and his new friend, Seti.

 
Chapter Seven

“If you’re selling Girl Scout cookies or want to recruit me for the neighborhood watch program, be warned that I have a very short temper and a very big Louisville Slugger.”

“Jason! It’s Logan! Buzz us in!” Logan said, when Jason’s sleepy, irritated voice sounded on the apartment building’s intercom.

“Since when is there more than one of you?”

“Just press the freakin’ buzzer, Jase!” Logan said, even as memories of their first meeting replayed themselves in his head and heart.

Jason had been Logan’s college roommate, and the first to suspect Logan’s proclivities. At the time Logan had been out to himself but to no one else. Jason helped him feel comfortable in his own skin, shown him that Logan needed no one’s approval.

He remembered what happened moments after outing himself to Jason. One minute Logan had been laying on his bed trying futilely to memorize the human reproductive system, worrying about how his confession was going to change his relationship with his roommate, and the next he’d been flat on his back receiving his first ever blow job from a man. He returned the favor, hesitantly, unsure of himself, but quickly growing more confident. From that day on Logan was firmly, unabashedly out.
 

Jason was his best friend, as close as any brother could be, and it only seemed natural that he was the one Logan turned to when he found himself needing a safe haven.

But even so, Jason could be a little annoying. Like now.

As soon as he heard the grating, buzzing sound, Logan pushed open the dark green front door of Jason’s apartment building. Having seen its last best day sometime in the late sixties, the building was in sore need of more than a simple facelift. It needed a complete body overhaul, as evidenced by the cracked and water-spotted walls and the sagging bellies that decorated the ceiling of the stairwell.

Dim yellow lights flickered, casting the stairs with ochre shadows as Logan led Seti up the five flights to Jason’s apartment. There was an elevator in the building, but Logan didn’t trust it enough to ever use it. It wasn’t much more than a glorified dumb waiter, creaking and groaning as it jerked itself up and down the elevator shaft. In Logan’s opinion, it was much safer to take the stairs and chance a heart attack than risk plummeting to his death in that sardine can that masqueraded as an elevator.

Apartment 509 was halfway down the hall on the left. Logan pounded on the door, impatient to get himself and Seti inside and out of sight. “Jason! C’mon, open up!” he yelled, banging so hard that he rattled the door on its hinges.

“Patience is not your personal virtue, is it?” Jason grumbled when Logan pushed past him the instant he unlocked the door, dragging Seti in along after him. “Who’s he?”

“A friend. Look, Jase, I’m in trouble.”

“He got you pregnant? You slut.”

“Will you just shut up and listen?” Logan snarled as Jason chuckled and locked the door. “This is serious.”

“Okay, okay,” Jason said, putting up both hands as if afraid Logan was going to take a swing at him. Truthfully, Logan was so wound up at the moment that it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. “What’s wrong?”

“I…well, it’s a long story,” Logan replied. “Suffice it to say that I no longer work at the Museum. As a matter of fact, I’m sort of on the run.”

“Logan, what did you do?” Jason asked, his voice growing quiet. His eyes shifted from Logan to Seti and back again. “It has to do with him, doesn’t it?” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Yeah, it does. This is Seti, and he’s…well, he’s a lot older than he looks.”

“What’s his age got to do with anything? C’mon, Logan. You’re starting to scare me. Spill.”

“Okay, but you won’t believe me. The truth is that he’s a five thousand year old mummy, and I’m in trouble for stealing him from the Museum.”

Jason snorted, rolling his eyes. “Ri-ight. Okay, I don’t know what fossilized shit you’ve been smoking down in the Dungeon, but I want some, and shame on you for not sharing.”

“Jason, I’m serious. I’m not high. I-”

“Must you defend yourself to this gnat?” Seti asked, standing tall next to Logan, scowling down at Jason. “He is annoying.” Logan didn’t know if he wanted to agree with Seti, or kick him in the shins for being so damned arrogant.

“Jason is the one with a place for us to hide, Seti. You need to get off your high horse and be grateful that he even let us in the door,” Logan admonished. He put his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, bud. Really. He’s a little rough around the edges.”

“Rough? His edges could cut diamonds,” Jason frowned, looking up at Seti. “Listen, big guy, I’ve been friends with Logan since-”

“Friends. Do you mean that you are lovers?” Seti asked, his scowl deepening until his sleek black brows met, his eyes narrowing. Logan could almost hear Seti’s muscles clenching. Although why Seti was suddenly fixated on Logan’s love life was beyond him. He probably thought of Logan as his slave and was having proprietary issues.

“No, we aren’t,” Logan answered for Jason. “Seti, what’s wrong with you? We’re just friends, and anyway, that’s none of your damn business!”

“Why do you want to know?” Jason countered. “Are you two-”

“No!” Logan repeated, feeling his cheeks blush furiously. The sooner he steered the conversation away from that particular subject, the better off he’d be. He turned to Jason. “Where are Chris and Leo?”

“Interviews. So who is he, really?” Jason asked, still frowning at Seti, who glared back, bristling.

“I am Seti, King of the Children of Set,” Seti answered pompously. “What of this Chris and Leo? Are they your lovers?”

“No, Seti, we’re not now and we never were anything more than friends! Will you please concentrate on the real problem?” Logan growled. “Us. Fugitives. Remember?”

“The Children of Set? What’s that? A cult?” Jason asked. He and Seti were eyeing each other like two dogs about to fight over a bone, making Logan exceedingly uncomfortable.

“Look, could we all please sit down?” Logan asked, desperate to get some space between Jason and Seti before one of them attacked the other. He knew without a doubt, after having witnessed the maelstrom in the bar, which the victor would be and he didn’t want to see Jason hurt. Not only was Seti twice Jason’s size, he had powers that Logan couldn’t explain. “I’ve had a really shitty day and I need a good, stiff drink.”