Touch of the Fire God [Scions of the Ankh 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (16 page)

“How will it be done?” she managed to ask around the terrified lump in her throat.

Thoth replied, “I have concocted a serum that will achieve the necessary requirements with the least amount of trauma possible. Your medical books have specific criteria on what is considered death, so I have followed and covered all the parameters. As soon as you are clinically dead, Anubis will forbid your human soul from crossing. He will call forth the soul that sleeps within you, and I will bind them together.”

“It sounds truly painless. Thank you, Thoth,” she whispered. “If I could just have a moment?” She pleaded with her eyes. She needed but a moment. They all hesitated. Then in their way, they were gone.

She hung the dress over the back of a chair and looked slowly around. Peeling the T-shirt off and folding it neatly, she set it on the seat of the chair. Just as painstakingly, she removed her jeans and stood naked for a moment as she folded them neatly and set them atop the shirt.

She was consenting to death. Her death. She was allowing herself to be put to death. What if they were wrong? What if Seth did indeed get tired of pursuing her? Ralabos would kill him eventually—did she have to do this?

But she knew better; Ralabos would never ask this of her if it wasn’t necessary. He truly believed Seth would not stop. Seth had not acted alone in the rebellion, and there would be others who would come after Ralabos through her if she stayed human.

And so she donned the dress with tears in her eyes. Who would miss her if things did not go as planned?

Dr. Michaels? No, she was merely an acquaintance with whom she had had lunch a few times, and though she liked the woman, she had never really opened up to her. She was used to being a loner.

The only person she thought she had in the world had turned out not to truly exist. This brought her full circle to Ralabos. Who was he to her exactly? Did she even love him? So many things had happened in the last week, she didn’t know her head from her foot. How could she know what she felt about a man she had known for a little less than a week?

Then why was she going through with it? Simply because she didn’t want him to experience the pain of her death again. She didn’t want to be his weak link. And most certainly she didn’t want to die violently at the hands of a psycho, superhuman murderer.

Through the slight disturbance of the air, she knew all three had returned. She turned to them and nodded, too choked up to say anything. Hathor gently took her hand and led her to a dais ornately decorated and dressed with satin sheets.

Candles surrounding the platform burned of different colors, and Thoth seemed to be chanting to himself. Anubis’ eyes took on the look of black tornadoes as he prepared for his role.

Rene’s heart seemed to come out of her chest. Hathor helped her lie full-length on the bed. “Eat this,” she said in a silken voice no doubt designed to help alleviate her fear.

“What is it?” Rene eyed the item that looked strangely like a rose petal.

“It will help you relax, and eventually it will help you fall into a deep sleep. Thoth will inject you with the serum after it takes effect.”

As Rene put the object in her mouth, it instantly melted like it had never been there at all, only leaving a sweet taste in its wake.

Hathor brushed her cheek. “Close your eyes, love. This will all go very quickly. I will be here when you are reborn, old friend.”

Rene felt her heartbeat slow to a normal tempo. She felt weightless and free. Thoth’s chanting seemed to be coming from far away.

Her eyelids felt too heavy too lift. She felt a small prick and a cool liquid entering her veins. She paid no heed, as she felt so very tired.

Soon she heard Anubis’ strong voice begin to chant as well. She felt safe and comforted, and she realized she couldn’t wait for this to be over, for she wanted to see Ralabos. She wanted to laugh with him, argue with him, forever. She loved him. In her relaxed state, this final admission did not shock her.

However, she realized before her world went black that she had not told Ralabos that she loved him, that she wanted to be with him forever.

Soon it seemed as if she was awake, without the benefit of being conscious. Rene observed every occupant in the room looking down at her on the dais. The candles flickered suddenly as if the flames themselves had caught a drift of wind from her freed soul.

She looked down upon them, and even in the form she was in, she sensed the intensity of work and concentration in the room. Hathor held her hand and slowly lifted her head and looked Rene straight in the eyes, or at least it appeared that she did.

Hathor, however, closed her eyes yet again and lowered her face, chanting softly.

Rene experienced a freedom she had never known, and the feeling seemed to pull her away toward a place that seemed to promise peace. Rene did not resist. She went with the tugging desire. A type of elation began to fill her as she felt her soul traveling out of the room.

Then her essence bumped against something solid—totally unyielding. She pushed against it, and still it seemed to gently block her from going any further. Rene drifted backward, trying to discern what it was that would not let her pass. Anubis.

Surprised, Rene looked down to see that Anubis was no longer where he had been standing; somehow he was on her plane, unsubstantial, but wielding power.

“I am sorry, little one. You cannot pass.”
His face was set in a grim line as he blocked her exit.

“It is my right. It calls to me.”

“It is but the comforting song of death. I know it well, but you must resist it.”

“I cannot.”

“He fights for you. He has waited for you for centuries.”

“Ralabos.”

“Can you not feel his anger at Seth? How can you not feel the intensity of his love, Selkis?”

“I am not Selkis. I am Rene.”

“You are both.”
Anubis responded with a certainty. Anubis seemed to pointing downward.

Rene followed his cue and looked down to see her body, still as stone. Thoth’s chants seemed to get louder and faster. Hathor joined him.

“Watch and understand what we have been trying to impart to you.”

Anubis’ voice seemed to drown out as Rene watched in fascination.

A bright, light blue glow began to pulse from her body on the bed. It became brighter and brighter as it took form and rose from her body. The light form came directly to Rene and hovered right in front of her.

She was beautiful, almost a direct replica of Rene. She extended her arms to Rene in an invitation to join her.

“You are me. I am you. I have resided in you since the day you were formed. I have watched and waited to be released for longer than you know, child. Do not be afraid. I know you far better than you know yourself. We are two souls, yet the same. Embrace me and be reborn.”

“I will lose myself. There will be no more of Rene if I do that.”

“Quite the contrary, you and I will blend to become the woman he has always loved and the woman he has fallen in love with. We are the same.”

“No, he has loved you, Selkis. It is you he wants, not me. I am but a vessel.”

“You really don’t understand, do you, child? You are me. I am you. You are but the human version of me. For my race is nothing but energy, and energy can be divided; yet all parts are made up of the same components. I ask of you, Ralabos asks of you, only to bring all parts together to make us strong again.”

Rene paused as she thought it over. Ralabos did feel familiar to her, even from the first moment he had entered her dreams. He made her feel right with the world.

What she felt physically for Ralabos, she had never felt for anyone else. What she felt for him emotionally, she had never felt for anyone else.

And then there was the thought of leaving him forever, something she had not considered as the song of death beckoned her. Something painful went through her at the thought of not being with him ever again. Suddenly death’s song was not so tempting.

“Will I disappear altogether?”

The other spirit laughed softly before she answered.

“No, child. Our memories will blend, our souls will blend, and we will be the person we once were.”

Selkis held her arms out once again, and this time Rene went willingly. Selkis enveloped her very soul, her spirit. There was warmth all around her and a sense of great power. This is what it felt like to be one of them, of their race.

The knowledge and wisdom in Selkis was vast. Her love for Ralabos deep and without bottom. Rene knew if she looked past her fear that she loved Ralabos just as much.

Rene felt their memories entwine like a braided rope, continuous and finely woven. Their secrets combined. Each one’s desires melded into a reflection of the other’s. Slowly, they traveled toward the body on the dais, their body. Their souls merged until there was only one.

There was no more Rene; there was no more Selkis, for they were one woman now.

As she settled into the body, she thought to herself,
I wonder if I will need a new name, for I am not just Rene or Selkis. But that can be pondered later. For now I need to see my Ralabos and tell him how much I love him.

Ralabos did not even try to get his anger in control. The sooner he disposed of Seth the better. His mind was riddled with the fact that Rene did not seem to want him forever as he wanted her.

She was hesitant about undergoing the change, and he supposed, on some level, he could not fault her for her hesitation. There was a part of him, however, that was hurt.

He had thought his connection with Selkis would somehow extend to the human version of herself. But it had not. Rene cared for him, but she did not love him. Not as Selkis had.

He had truly lost her that night so long ago, and it had taken him many centuries to realize this.

Regardless of how much time had passed, Seth had to die, if for no other reason than for killing her the first time. Kill Seth he would, for a part of Selkis was still alive, and he did not want Seth killing that part of her as well. She deserved a life.

Ralabos, however, knew that the moment he killed Seth, he would seek his own end.

It was nice this past week; he had fallen in love with the human Rene, just as he had Selkis when he first laid eyes on her so very long ago. But his love for her was not enough; she did not want him with the same fervor.

As he streaked through the mansion and out of its doors, he sent out sensors for Seth. Another explosion rocked dangerously close to the mansion wall, so close that bits of debris fluttered to the ground.

He prayed to Osiris that somehow Thoth, Hathor, and Anubis would finish the ceremony as soon as possible so that Rene would be totally out of harm’s way. Seth’s way.

He did not want Seth somehow to be able to hurt Rene before he could find him and dispose of him.

As he streaked in a clear mass out of the mansion, he began to read the information his sensors relayed. Seth was very near and incorporeal. That would make it slightly harder to zero in on his exact location. Difficult, but certainly not impossible.

A violent blast of air streaked past at an unimaginable speed. Enough speed to cause much destruction, it was the cause of the explosions. The blast caught its mark as one of the statues adorning the walkway of the house exploded from the impact.

Ralabos’ anger grew in proportion to the blast. Seth had to die. Seth needed to die, and this time there were no humans around to tie his hands.

“You are getting slow, old man,” Seth’s voice sneered. “I was not even aiming for you, and yet I almost caught you broadside.”

“I understand that luck is a large belief on this planet. Perhaps you have gotten more than your share,” Ralabos replied, tracking the heat signature Seth gave off.

“I think not. You have slumbered long. Perhaps you are not the once all-powerful Ralabos, sole scion of Osiris and Isis.”

Irritated at the prospect of exchanging words when he would rather be dealing death, Ralabos immediately pinpointed the unsubstantial mass that was Seth and sent a blast of heat right to it.

Seth screamed as the blast wounded him. Immediately he took mass form, his hair wild, his side bleeding heavily as he stared daggers at Ralabos.

“Touchẻ, but this is all the blood I plan on spilling this morning.”

Ralabos had no interest in verbal banter. Immediately he sent a second heat dart to Seth. This time, however, Seth was gone before it reached him.

Ralabos let the heat build in him and slowly surface. It pulsed out of him and enveloped him. Such heat would kill a human in seconds. The atmosphere around Ralabos began to waiver as the heat poured out of him.

“Do you think I twiddled my thumbs while you slept?” Seth laughed. His voice sounded disembodied; he had become insubstantial again. A violent wind kicked up, making the heat disburse. Ralabos felt the heat begin to subside and reverse back into him.

“What is this?” Ralabos asked in surprise as the temperature began to lower against his will. He put more force into it, but seconds later he began to cool off. The sound of Seth’s cackling began to infuriate him.