Vampire Sheikh (21 page)

He nodded, and her shoulders notched down a fraction, trusting him. She climbed on top of his sarcophagus and lay back on its smooth, cool surface. Her sisters did the same on the two flanking altars.

Then Nephtys turned her back to the crowd and began the sacred ritual chant over them, the words of which she alone knew. It took forever it seemed. Or perhaps it was just Seth's impatience that made it seem so. The priestess chanted, the
shemsu
sang and Seth's heart raced.

And then, at last, it was over.

His wife and her sisters sat up, blinking. Again, Josslyn's gaze sought his. She smiled, and he felt an overwhelming rush of love spill through him. Her love and his, mingled together as one, coursed through both their bodies. And their souls.

“I love you,” she mouthed.

His eyes swam with happiness. And he whispered back, “I love you, too.”

I
t was nearly sunrise.

Isobelle Haliday lifted her face to the warm glow emanating from the eastern horizon, and smiled. Contentment wrapped itself around her body like a beautiful hand-stitched quilt.

It was good to be alive. So very good.

She slid from her mount, a spirited palomino mare, her soft-booted feet touching the hard ground of the Egyptian
gebel.
She felt an instant connection with the earth below, as old as time and solid as the love she held for her three beloved daughters.

In the indigo sky above, an elegant black hawk soared in circles, and on her shoulder a dragonfly had alighted, cheerfully iridescent in the gathering dawn, the flutter of its wings as quick as the blink of an eye.

Isobelle laughed merrily when the dragonfly took off and buzzed around the mare's nose, making it shake
its head and sneeze. Some things would never change. Thank God! She still couldn't believe she had missed twenty years of her precious daughters' lives. She aimed to make up for every last minute.

“Now, now, you two,” she admonished, but the words were filled with affection and laughter. Laughter that burst out loud when the hawk dropped from the sky, did an awkward pirouette and transformed into her middle daughter, Gemma…who promptly landed on her butt on the ground.

“Ow!” Gemma cried with a chagrined frown.

“The landing could use some work,” her oldest, Josslyn, said drily from behind them, straightening her gown after her more dignified shift.

“Just you wait,” Gemma returned, climbing to her feet and brushing herself off. “It's only the first day. Pretty soon I'll be eating bugs like you for breakfast.”

Isobelle wrinkled her nose. “I most certainly hope not!” She, Josslyn and Gemma turned to the mare and waited expectantly.

It shook its head, its golden mane flying.

“Come on, Jelly Bean,” Joss said with a grin. “No chickening out. You gotta do it sometime. Better in front of those who love you.”

After a moment, the horse reared up hesitantly, and with a shimmer of darkness, transformed into Gillian.

Who promptly also landed on the ground. “Crap,” she muttered.

But nothing could dampen their infectious grins and joyous group hug the four women shared as they came together on the top of the steep cliffs.

“Hurry, the sun is rising!” Isobelle exclaimed.

It was such a special day. The first day of her daugh
ters' immortal lives. And the first full day she had been reunited with her children since coming out of her long mental slumber. A good day, indeed.

It was time they gave thanks for the many blessings the Universe had granted them. Second chances were so rare.

“We're doing this old school,” she announced, and pulled an icy bottle of champagne from the shoulder bag she'd carried from Khepesh. She opened it with a pop to a chorus of cheers and excited clapping from the girls.

The frothy liquid poured out onto the dry ground and disappeared into it as though the spirits of the earth were lapping it up. Which, she figured they were. How else could you explain the fantastical, wonderful things that had befallen her beloved family here in this mystical place?

Her girls—all amazing women now—laughed as they passed the bottle around between them, each taking a bubbly drink from it in turn. When it came to Isobelle, her eyes filled with tears.

She raised the bottle. “To my beautiful, beautiful daughters,” she said, her heart swelling with the immense love only a mother could feel. To think she had nearly lost the chance to know them! “May all your days be filled with untold happiness and an abundance of love. I love you so very much.”

She swallowed the effervescent champagne past the enormous lump in her throat.

“Oh, Mom,” Josslyn said, her voice choked with emotion. “It's so good to have you back with us. You have no idea how much you were missed.”

“Oh,” Isobelle said, her tears brimming over along with her heart. “I think I do.”

With their arms around each other and their faces wet with tears of joy, they all turned to face the rising sun.

The start of a new day.

The start of a new world.

A new beginning for all of them.

And when the darkness came at sunset, the nighttime would embrace them, too, along with the husbands they loved, and their lives would be complete. Just as the Universe intended.

From the western edge of the
gebel
came the swift crunch of approaching footsteps.

Speak of the devil. “They're here,” Isobelle said with a broad smile.

How lucky they were to have such faithful and true partners to share the joys and sorrows of life! To nurture and care for them and protect them from all harm, come what may.

The four handsome men crested the rise, their long black robes flying in the wind behind them like wings of fate—Trevor, Rhys, Shahin and Seth.

“Our men,” Josslyn said, happiness overflowing in her voice, and lifted her arms to embrace her husband.

“Yes,” Isobelle said. Their big new family for all to share and love, forever after.

Isobelle gazed up at the man who had proven so true of heart, and whom she so adored, then at the husbands of her beloved daughters, and her heart rejoiced.

And she knew, at last, they'd found home.