Touch of the Fire God [Scions of the Ankh 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (8 page)

After, she slid down onto his lap like the puddle of nothing useful that she was. Parts of her still clenched and unclenched as small aftershocks echoed through her body.

The night air blew the scent of jasmine all around them. Their breathing was labored, but slowly returned to normal as they sat holding one another in total silence.

Until, that is, she became coherent enough to notice his still-hardened cock, which was nestled against her ass. “Let me.”

“No, zenj’a.” He stopped her. “This will be as far as we go this night. I cannot guarantee control if you were to take me in your mouth.”

“But ...” she started again. It was unfair; he had to be going crazy.

“I will be fine,” he assured her. He had taken her far enough this night.

“No, you do not get to control everything.” She wrapped her hand around his cock and pumped slowly.

“Zenj’a,” he moaned as her initially-shy fingers became bolder. She cupped him and stroked him simultaneously. His cock was so hot and hard, unnaturally so, but she loved it and briefly wondered how it would feel to have it inside of her. She pumped faster, imagining him driving into her.

Ralabos picked up her thoughts and was lost in her fantasy. She had insisted. She was just as attentive a lover as he remembered; always she liked to see him come.

“I want to see you come,” she said softly, having never experienced this at any time of her life.

At the time, Ralabos could only groan a reply.

Sometime later, however, he managed to rasp out to her, “I’m coming, zenj’a!”

She scrambled off of his lap, still pumping his cock profusely, and when the first jet of cum spurted into the air, Rene bent down and wrapped her lips around the head of his cock and sucked, causing Ralabos insurmountable pleasure as he came into her mouth and down her throat.

She swallowed greedily, her first taste of cum, of him, and she loved it. She licked him, when at last it ceased, and lapped up the first wave that had landed on his flat belly and muscled thigh.

She licked one last time before she looked up into his eyes. “I’ve never done that before,” she said, somewhat shyly, somewhat proudly.

“Thank you,” he answered, stroking her hair and pulling her close. “You are amazing.”

Rene basked in the praise, then said, “We should go before we’re seen.”

She got up and adjusted her clothing—what was left of it, anyhow. She had not seen him get dressed, but somehow Ralabos’ clothes were all in place when she glanced at him. He took a step closer to her as she finally gave up trying to button button-less pants.

“When morning comes, do not hide from me.”

“I won’t,” she promised, meeting his gaze.

Just then Jonathan came into view, walking rather rapidly. Ralabos sensed his urgency, though he hid it well from Rene.

“I need to speak with Jonathan. Will you join me tomorrow at the sunrise meal?”

“Yeah, sure.” She smiled and began to walk away, but Ralabos pulled her to him and thoroughly kissed her before he let her walk away.

Jonathan greeted Rene and apologized again for his unexpected absence and promised to make it up to her. Rene assured him it was fine and excused herself, certain that Jonathan knew exactly what she and Ralabos had been doing. But that knowledge didn’t bother her as much as she had thought it would.

“You two seem to be reacquainting yourselves and not a moment too soon,” Thoth let out as soon as Rene was out of earshot.

“What troubles you?” Ralabos asked, half of his attention on the receding view of Rene’s ass.

“Seth,” came the single name. “He’s back.”

With that Ralabos looked sharply at Thoth. Anger immediately began to cloud his features.

“That means only one thing.” Ralabos began to pace.

“He comes for Rene,” Thoth said slowly. “He also must have set a spell to alert him when we found her. All day I have been trying to locate him without giving away our position. I was not successful.

“We have to convert her, Ralabos, or all of this time, all of this waiting, would have been for nothing.”

“It has not been for nothing!” Ralabos spat. “Just to see her, feel her, has been worth the time.”

“You know what I mean, old friend. He has broken the banishment, and he comes for revenge—again. If he gets to her this time, we cannot save her.”

“I know this!” Ralabos barked. “But she is not ready.”

“You must make her ready, or we cannot help her.”

“How long before he discovers our whereabouts?”

“Less than a week. I feel his probing, and my spells cannot withstand it for long.”

“I will do what needs to be done,” Ralabos declared. “I will give her death before he comes.”

“Let us hope, my friend, let us hope.”

Rene leaned heavily against her bedroom door and tried for the fourth time to take a calming breath.

Now that the throes of passion were receding, her common sense and intellect were returning. She screamed inside her head at the foolishness of her actions with a man she barely knew. Yet her body rewarded her with such a pleasant, satisfied feeling that she wasn’t nearly as hard on herself as she should have been.

Was her reaction to him all physical? When he had a moment of sadness, did she not want to soothe him? Still, her mind screamed that she didn't know him in the traditional sense. How could she possibly face him tomorrow?

“
When morning comes, do not hide from me
.” Rene had to admit to herself that right now that was definitely plan A.

She began to perambulate the length of the room. This was definitely the most shocking and wildest thing she had ever done in her structured life. Something about him—something called to her. She felt as if she knew this delectable stranger, and yet she had never set eyes on him before this trip.

Okay, that was an outright lie; she had seen him, constantly, in her dreams. Were her dreams premonitions?

Didn’t seem likely. He seemed to hint that she knew him. She stopped and shook her head. These perusings were going to keep her up all night.

Her eyes fell to the book she had left on the bed. Now that was another strange occurrence. She approached it slowly, as if it was a dangerous animal, sat gingerly on the bed, then cautiously reached out and touched it.

Surely a little reading before bed would help calm her and redirect her thoughts away from tonight’s rather raunchy behavior.

An hour later, much more comfortable and deeply ensconced in the book, Rene found her eyes drooping severely.
Just one more page,
she thought sleepily ...

* * * *

“What is happening?” Hathor said, her voice needled with worry.

“Seth has stolen the Blood of Osiris,” Anubis answered gravely. He was dressed in an Egyptian kilt. The gold band encircling his head showcased what appeared to be a jackal. “There is no telling what he will do.”

“I will find him,” a deep, baritone voice answered. His presence had silently filtered into the room from what seemed like thin air. “We cannot let Seth win this war.”

The woman came to him, resting her hand against his bronzed chest and looking deep into his gray eyes. “I will help you, Ralabos. Your side is where I belong.”

“No, I will not risk you,” he replied. “Please do not argue with me on this.” His tone of voice was firm, commanding, but his eyes belied a gentle concern.

“I am a being with power in my own right, Ralabos,” the woman replied, angrily shoving against his chest. “I owe these people my protection as well.”

Hathor pleaded to the one the Earth people worshipped as the sun god. “Ralabos, Seth has amassed some powerful ones on his side. Sekhmet, Nepthys, and Apep, to name but a few. We need all the help we can get.”

“What you say is true,” Ralabos acknowledged, “but I will not.”

“Sentimentality,” a voice interrupted. The bearer of the voice oozed malice, but his presence could not yet be pinpointed. “This is what I feared. We are gods and should be treated as such. Sentimentality has no place among gods.”

“We are not gods,” Ralabos implored. “The strong should not enslave the weak. We are travelers, Seth; our path was to explore other planets and people and to help them evolve to their greatest potential, just as our people have. You took an oath to Osiris and Isis, our king and queen, the creators of our race.

“Now you allow greed and a false sense of supremacy to blind you to all that you once held with honor.”

As Ralabos’ anger began to pulse, the temperature in the room grew steadily, and the occupants began to worry. “Show yourself to me, traitor, so that we may end this.”

His statement was met with Seth’s harsh, disembodied laughter.

“I am no fool, Ralabos, I know I could never defeat you, for you are a direct heir from the king and queen, and only their power rivals yours.

“I have learned much from our teacher, the god of wisdom and writing,” Seth mused darkly. “What one cannot defeat, one must find a way around.”

Thoth stepped forward and interjected, “Then listen to Ralabos now, Seth.” As he did so, he glanced warily around, waiting for Seth to appear. “End this before life is lost. We do not need to present ourselves as gods any longer. Leave these people.”

“We deserve this!” Seth answered angrily. “I have given much to these primitive people. Surely a little adulation is due to me.”

“You call them to sacrifice in your honor. Your way will cause them to depend upon us for everything. That is not helping. It is enslaving. It is crippling.”

As Thoth continued to speak, Hathor began to make her way across to the cluster of her comrades.

“Much restraint is called for with great power, Seth, and you are showing none. You have been corrupted by greed and a false sense of godhood. We cannot leave these people to your insanity.”

The room fell silent, as Seth did not answer right away. The woman at Ralabos’ side felt a creeping along her skin. Everyone in the room went still as they waited to see if Thoth’s words would have an effect on the renegade.

“Then I cannot leave you with your people.” Seth appeared, and before anyone realized what he was doing, he pulled back and drew on his bow; the arrow struck forth like a viper.

Hathor gasped as she realized the bow was aimed at her, but before she could feel its bite, Ralabos’ woman jumped in front, taking the arrow between her own shoulder blades.

“Nooo!” Ralabos roared and he fired a deadly, sizzling bolt toward Seth. It glanced against the madman before he disappeared.

His rage supplanted by concern, Ralabos went to the side of his beloved, whom Thoth was tending gingerly.

“He has mixed a poison, Ralabos. The blood of Osiris with the venom of a serpent.”

Ralabos took the form of his wife from his comrade and wept openly.

Thoth bowed. “I am in debt to you. She has saved my beloved Hathor.”

The woman in Ralabos’ arms began to quake in pain as the poison coursed through her once-immortal body.

“She is dying,” Ralabos said, his words broken, carrying the weight of the knowledge that he would be without her for the rest of his immortal life.

“I will not let her spirit cross over,” the male with the Egyptian kilt declared. He was Anubis, the one the mortals referred to as the god of the dead.

“You must bind her soul, Thoth. Do it now, for her soul begs to cross over, and I can only deny this so long.”

Surrounded by total silence, Thoth chanted and Ralabos held the form of his wife, kissing her delicately and whispering in her ear. “You must not leave me,” he said softly to her. “You must find your way back to me. No matter how long it takes, I will wait for you.”

“It is done,” Thoth declared. “When her soul passes from this body, it shall reside in that of a newborn human. I have no way of knowing when, or which body, but I can find her soul, Ralabos. We have but to wait.”

“Until she dies ...” Ralabos finished.

“Yes, it is crude, but once I find her soul again, her human form has to die to release her soul. Then she will know you, my friend. You will have your beloved back.”

“We owe you much,” Hathor declared, staring down at the woman who had saved her life. “Seth has found a way to kill us with the very thing that gave us life.”

“Yes, my sweet, that is true. He has used Osiris’s blood and mixed it with a bringer of death among humans and made it a poison for us as well. But I will find a way to counter this,” Thoth declared determinedly.

“She has to but die again to be with me?” Ralabos asked, quietly watching the life drain from his loved one. He stroked her hair lovingly, trying to give her as much comfort as he was able. He felt the pain traveling through her body. It magnified his rage at Seth all the more.

“She must die here in this very place as a human to be reborn to what she once was,” Anubis warned. “But Ralabos, she must do it in consensus. If her human form cannot accept this, her soul has no choice but to cross over. I cannot change this. Even the god of the dead is bound by rules.”