Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“We’re here.”

Frowning under the sweaty burqa, I gazed at the desolate landscape. “If by ‘here’ you mean the middle of nowhere, then I’d agree,” I said, halting my camel with a tug on the reins.

We’d passed a few small villages in the middle of the night, passed a few tourist attractions, and traveled deeper into the desert. At least I assumed it was the desert, because there was sand and cliffs and rocks. The Nile glittered behind us, my only hint that we were still along the river. Somewhere. We could be on the outskirts of Cairo still, and I wouldn’t have any clue.

Zane dismounted from his camel. “The tomb’s just a few hundred yards ahead. You might want to walk your camel in, since the footing’s a bit slippery.”

I slid off the side of my beast and fell into a heap on the ground. “Can I take off the burqa now? I’m dying of heat under here.” The veil was plastered to my forehead.

“That should be fine,” Zane said, stroking the nose of his camel to soothe the creature.

I yanked the baby-blue fabric over my head and wadded it into a ball, sighing with relief as the night wind touched my skin. I closed my eyes and tilted my face to the breeze. “That feels wonderful.” I cracked an eye and looked over at Zane. “Speaking of, it’s over eighty degrees out here and you’re still wearing the trench coat. What gives?”

He ignored me, leading his camel up the trail. “You wanted to see the tomb, right? It’s this way.”

I made a face at him. “Fine, fine. I’m coming.” Taking the camel’s reins in hand, I followed Zane up the sandy path-if you could call it that-between a pair of large dunes. There were no trees, no archaeological ruins, nothing to mark this spot of land as different from the rest of the desert, but Zane seemed to know where he was going.

On the other side of the dunes I saw a tall cliff wall of sandstone and granite in the distance. “Is her tomb in there?” I called.

Zane just turned and grinned at me. “Wait and see.”

A million or so sand-filled steps later, we stood at the base of the cliff. It didn’t look like a tomb. It didn’t look like anything, in fact, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Zane handed me the reins to his camel. “Be a good girl and find someplace to tether these, would you?”

Before I could retort, huge yellow camel-teeth snapped at my hair. I jerked away. “It’s amazing you’ve managed to last this long without some woman killing you, Zane.”

“Like you, Princess, I’m already dead.” He walked toward the rocky tumble at the foot of the cliff, scanning the ground for something.

I peered after him despite myself. Sucks really seemed to have the short end of the stick in the Afterlife; vamps had perfect night vision. Zane searched the tumble of rocks for a few minutes, taking his time. When it was obvious that we wouldn’t be making progress for a while, I went off in search of a hitching post.

The soil at the base of the cliff was covered with stones worn down from the cliff face long ago. It made walking treacherous, and I stubbed my toes a few times in my sandals, cussing the whole time. When I spotted an outcropping that looked slender enough to tie a rope around, I hurried over and secured the beasts.

As I returned to Zane, I heard a soft slither on sand, then a sibilant hiss.

I froze, hardly daring to turn my head, and saw a big cobra leering at me in the darkness, its tongue flicking, less than twelve inches from my bare leg and foot. I remained as still as possible, my hands twitching against my sides. Could I draw one of my guns without having the snake attack? Would the bullets even work on a snake?

Zane’s hand brushed my arm and I smothered a yelp. “Are you done playing around out here?” he said. “The tomb’s this way, and I only have until dawn.”

I pointed a trembling finger at the snake, which rose taller to knee height. “S-s-snake.”

He sniffed dismissively. “You’re afraid of that?” He squatted in front of the snake, stared at it, then stood. He took me by the elbow and steered me away from the snake, which remained frozen in place. “You’re an immortal, Princess. It won’t kill you.”

My gaze remained glued to the immobile snake. “It’d hurt like hell though.” The creature still did nothing-no tongue flicking, no biting, nothing. “What did you do to it?”

He grinned down at me like a mischievous little boy. “Charmed it. I’m an expert at charming, wouldn’t you say?”

Blood throbbed through me in a heady rush, and my knees went weak. I understood how the poor snake felt. Forcing myself to pry his fingers from my heated skin, I moved away. “You’re not as charming as you’d like to think.”

“No?” He slid his hands around my waist. “That sounds like a challenge to me.”

“Give it your best shot,” I scoffed. “I’m sweaty and I smell like camel. If you want to try to seduce me now, bring it.” Two could play his little game.

His hands slid upward, stroking my ticklish sides through my damp T-shirt. “Even with your hair plastered to your head, you’re still achingly beautiful, Jackie.” The light, feathery touches sent a flush of heat through me that had nothing to do with the temperature outside. “I like seeing you sweaty,” he whispered, pulling me closer until I was pressed against his jacket, my nipples brushing the leather and visible through my shirt. “I’d love to spend all night tasting your flesh. Licking you everywhere. Making you sweaty with need.”

Oh. My.

Like the cobra, I was entranced by the seductive words, helpless to pull away.

“Do you know where I’d kiss you first?” His fingertip slid to my mouth and parted my lips, seeking entrance to the hot well of my mouth. I took the tip of it between my lips and bit gently at it, entranced by the suggestion. “Not here,” he said softly, his reddening eyes locked onto my blue ones. “That’s where a conventional man would give his woman her first kiss. I’d want to give her something she remembers. Forever.”

His fingers brushed up the front of my chest to my breast. The backs of his fingers slid over the fabric there, gently teasing the aching peak into taut hardness. “I’d kiss her here,” Zane said, his mouth moving lower to follow his hand. “The skin is sensitive here, and sweet, like the most delicious of desserts.” His dark eyes stared up at me, waiting for me to tell him no, to protest or push away. But I didn’t.

His lips closed over my nipple, and he kissed me gently. Despite the fabric that separated my flesh from his mouth, I felt burned to my core. A low, aching gasp caught in my throat.

Zane moved across my chest to my other, neglected breast. “My second kiss would be here,” he said, teasing the second peak with the barest hint of tongue.

I thought I’d burst into a spontaneous orgasm right there. Heat throbbed between my legs, and my pulse pounded so loud I could barely hear his soft words. Zane slid lower down my body, until he was kneeling on the ground. His mouth hovered near the apex of my pelvis, scant inches away from the flesh that yearned for the same treatment.

“And the third kiss?” I asked, my breath catching in my throat.

He looked up at me, that delicious smile curving his beautiful mouth. “The third kiss, she has to ask for.”

I stumbled backward, breathing hard. “I’d, uh, like to see the tomb now.”

“Your wish is my command, Princess.” His mocking tease grated on my frayed nerves, but he got to his feet and dusted off his coat like nothing had happened between us.

I wanted to weep at the unfairness of it. “I just want to get this done so I can go back to the hotel and take a shower.” A nice cold one.

Zane just laughed and took my hand. “This way, then.”

Zane’s lighter sparked, then flickered into a small thread of flame, illuminating the darkness around us. I sucked in my breath at the unnerving sight of his sharp features lit up in shadow. “Here we are.”

“Light something bigger, would you?” I rubbed my arms and stared around me at the dark hole that was Nitocris’s tomb. I clamped my jaw when it threatened to chatter; Zane would have totally made fun of me.

I’d settle for him wrapping his arms around me and chasing the fear out of me with a nice, steamy bout of sex. But a girl has standards to uphold … Damn Itch. I hated it and the way it messed with my mind.

The tomb was damn spooky. I wasn’t scared by much; I didn’t scream in horror movies, and I wasn’t even afraid to skydive. But this? This small, dusty tomb in the middle of the stifling desert? This hole of choking darkness, the heart of evil as I knew it?

Yeah, the tomb scared the hell out of me.

Outside, Zane had pointed out a small, square passage in the rock wall, the edges surrounded by archaic symbols of scarabs and ankhs that I recognized as Egyptian. He’d gestured for me to crawl down inside and I had, not knowing that the descent would be a hundred feet into the earth in a small, cramped passage where I couldn’t even stand upright, leading into total darkness.

I definitely hadn’t thought that one through.

I sneezed as dust tickled my nose, and rubbed my hand against my face, imagining spiders and creepy-crawlies hovering in the darkness. Ahead of me, the lighter flame spread as he held it against a rag-wrapped torch. To my vast relief, the darkness retreated a bit as he held the torch out to me. “Here you go, Princess.”

I took the outstretched torch, relieved. “Thanks for the light. It’s a bit creepy in here.”

Zane laughed at the expression on my face. “I can’t imagine why. The tomb of the most ancient and evil of all vampires? Not nearly as scary as Remy at a shoe sale.”

I gave him a wry smile and held the torch up to get a better look around. The walls were smooth, the room narrow enough to be well-lit by my torch but long enough that the far end lurked in shadows. The ceiling was low, with lotus columns between the carved-out floor and the ton of rock above our heads.

The tomb was empty save for some rat droppings in the corner and a few heaps of scattered, rotted fabric. Like every other Old Kingdom tomb, it had been ransacked millennia ago.

“It’s odd,” I said, stepping forward and staring around me. “Most funerary dwellings in the Old Kingdom were either pyramids or mastabas. Your queen doesn’t seem like the type to want to be hidden away in the middle of nowhere in a cliff-face tomb.” I shot him a questioning look.

Ever easygoing, Zane shrugged carelessly, his arms crossed in a stance of boredom. “Nitocris decided to end her mortal reign with a bit of a bang. Killing all of your closest advisors and then destroying your mortal form doesn’t exactly earn you legions of followers. She had a few priests who were devoted enough to entomb her here.”

I continued my hesitant exploration of the room. A large blocky shape-a sarcophagus, I assumed-dominated the shadowy far end, and I decided to leave exploring that for later, concentrating on the wall paintings instead. “They must have liked her a lot if they came to decorate the place ahead of time.”

“They didn’t. Most of the tomb paintings were done after Nitocris was entombed and had risen again.”

The hairs on my neck prickled. Spooky. I stared at the large figure painted on the column in front of me. It was your typical Egyptian tomb mural, a woman in a sideways pose, her hands upraised. Closer inspection revealed a black cloak flowing down the woman’s back. Her upraised hands were covered in red, which I assumed was blood. “That’s odd.” I pointed at the woman’s cloak. “I’ve never seen that in all the archaeology texts I’ve studied.”

“There’s a lot down here you won’t see in books, Princess. Now finish your exploring so we can leave already.” His tone was curt.

I turned in surprise and looked at him. “Don’t tell me this place gives you the willies, too?” It made me feel a bit better to know I wasn’t the only one freaked out.

“Not exactly,” he said dryly. “More along the line of bad memories.”

“Do I want to ask?”

“Probably not.” He leaned against one of the beautifully painted pillars and gave me a lazy look. “So find what you need and let’s leave.”

I gave him a one-finger salute and moved to the next series of pictures. More Egyptian scenes of the Afterlife, sprinkled with some rather disturbing elements. I turned away from a depiction of Nitocris holding aloft the severed head of an enemy and looked back at Zane. “I’m not going to find anything here, am I?”

“Depends on what you’re looking for.”

“Thanks for the cryptic answer. You know exactly what I’m looking for: clues to where this damn halo might be.”

He shrugged his shoulders and lit up a cigarette. “Don’t ask me. I’m just here to enjoy the scenery and to make sure that you pass our lovely prize over to the queen.” His eyes rested on my breasts, outlined by the sweaty black T-shirt that clung to me. “Nice scenery, by the way.”

“Fuck off. When I’m interested, you’ll know.” I turned away from him so he couldn’t see the hardening of my nipples. Oh God, was I interested. One more of those sexy, full-lipped smiles, and I’d be lost. Be strong, I reminded myself. Be strong for Noah.

If I didn’t have sex for another day, would I spontaneously combust? It was starting to feel that way; I was way overdue.

My torch sputtered and flickered, reminding me that I didn’t have time to study the paintings at my leisure. I fumbled for the disposable camera hidden in my pocket, clicking the flash on and holding it up to the walls.

Snap.

A bright flare of light illuminated the tomb, momentarily blinding me. Spots swimming in front of my eyes, I moved to the next section of wall and took another picture.

Zane hissed in distress. “Woman, are you trying to blind me?”

He was shielding his eyes with the thick sleeve of his jacket, a scowl on his pale face. Perversely, I moved to the other side of the tomb, taking several photos without really paying attention to what I was capturing. “Quit being such a baby, vampire. As much as I love to spend time in your company, I’m taking pictures so we can get out of here quickly.”

Snap, snap, snap. I flitted around the tomb, taking photos with haste. Just when I was reaching the end of the film, I heard a moaning gurgle from behind me. Irritated that Zane was trying to make me feel guilty, I shoved the camera back in my pocket. “Would you cut it out? That’s really getting on my nerves.”

Zane grabbed me by the arm, causing me to drop my torch, and began dragging me away from the mural I had just taken a picture of. “That wasn’t me,” he murmured in my ear. “And we need to leave. Now.”

A chill shivered down my spine and I froze up. “If that wasn’t you-”

The moan sounded again, filling the tomb. “What is that?” I whispered, clutching Zane’s upper arm. My other hand fumbled for one of the guns, then paused. Which one should I use? The wrong one would be useless and might get us killed-or worse.

A shuffling noise came from the far end of the tomb. Red eyes blinked into the darkness, then focused on me.

Zane cursed, and he tensed under my hand. “I should have guessed.”

“Guessed what?” I slid behind him, peeking out from around his shoulder.

His sigh sounded more exasperated than anything else. “That she’d have one incubating down here.”

“One what?” It couldn’t be the answer that popped into my mind. Surely not. Surely we weren’t that unlucky.

A hiss in the darkness, and the creature took a few steps forward into the light cast by the torch that now flickered on the ground.

It was a man or a Serim. Once. Red, unholy eyes glared into the thick blackness, and the sound of sniffing filled the silence. Then his eyes focused on me. “Blood,” the man growled, his mouth opening to reveal an enormous set of white fangs.

Yikes!

I slid a shaking hand under my shirt, reaching for the vamp derringer. Before I could whip the gun out of its holster, Zane was stepping forward, arms spread wide in a protective gesture as he blocked me from the creature’s view. “That one belongs to me, friend,” Zane said, his voice taking on an urbane, smooth quality that I was learning to recognize as his “charmer” voice. “You’ll have to look elsewhere for your first meal.”

First meal? My mind flashed back to Zane’s previous comment about incubating, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The red-eyed monster was a newly made vampire, and he was hungry as hell and looking to me for dinner.

I slid the derringer into my hand and cocked it. The click echoed in the silence, but neither vampire turned to look at me. They were locked in a showdown, circling each other like a fanged version of West Side Story.

Zane’s eyes flared red and he bared his fangs. “She is mine,” he repeated.

At that moment, the torch sputtered and went out, leaving me in darkness save for the red eyes that reminded me that I was alone in a tomb with two vampires, one of which was very, very hungry.

The stupid Itch was aroused by the fact that the two men were fighting over me, and my body throbbed with a mixture of fear and excitement. Would Zane win? What would happen if he didn’t?

I backed up against the wall, gun clutched in my hand as I waited.

One set of red eyes leapt at the other, then there was a terrible orgy of sounds as the two vampires launched into an epic fight in the dark. Snarling, hissing, and the sound of flesh tearing filled the air. I cringed with each new sound, wondering if Zane was winning, or if I’d have to run for my life. The hot tang of blood filled me with fear, and I clutched the gun with shaking fingers, hoping I wouldn’t have to shoot.

After a few tense minutes there was a cry of pain and the sound of fabric tearing, and the next thing I knew, rough hands were grabbing me by the arms.

It was now or never-I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger.