“Explain yourself,” Osiris demanded finally. He stood, but Sobahn didn’t loosen his grip on her throat.
“Call off your dog.”
“Let her go, Sobahn, she can’t hide anywhere I won’t find her, and she knows it. Girls, get back and stay behind Sobahn,” Osiris demanded.
We arranged ourselves according to Osiris’ demands. Jackie and I huddled close to the door, ready to escape if necessary. Her hand was badly burned and tears streamed down her face. I knew I could help her, I looked into her eyes, trying to convey that I meant well as I brought her burned had to my mouth. I let my fangs drip, the venom in them would work as a painkiller to the wound. I licked the blackened skin and she made a gagging noise.
“That’s disgusting, do you see what your precious daughter has become?” Isis chittered from where Osiris had sat her. Osiris ignored the remark. He stood in front of Isis, hands on hips.
Sobahn remained in jackal form, standing guard in front of us. He did glance back, cocked his head briefly, then looked back at Isis.
I was quickly done working the venom into Jackie’s skin, she smiled slightly. “Thanks.”
I nodded and grabbed her good hand, holding her close. We were sisters and we were in this together. I wasn’t about to lose the family I had just found, the family that actually accepted who and what I was. The family that would keep me from becoming what Isis was.
“Now talk, what do you know of Princess Zobeth?” Osiris demanded.
“You can’t feel her or find her can you? She didn’t turn up in the underworld after Demetrius had his way with her.” Her words dripped with delight and it made my stomach hurt thinking of the terror my mother must have endured.
“This is true,” Osiris gritted out. I had wondered why he’d saved me from the underworld but not her. Had she not died? But then why was she gone?
“I took her from his cave, I sealed her away,” she laughed maniacally. “It was not in your underworld and it was not somewhere you can search now with any of your most powerful gifts,” she spat the words at him and sneered.
“She’s alive?” He demanded, unfazed by her obvious hatred.
“Very much. I wanted her to know how much her child suffered. I wanted her to feel how much her betrayal of me had cost those she loved!”
“She didn’t betray you; I did!” Osiris hissed. “Why would you torture her and not me?”
“Oh I think I’ve tortured you as well,” she said with a feral grin. “The not knowing, the never being able to lay her soul to rest in your precious underworld.”
I could see Osiris stiffen at her words, she was right, he’d suffered dearly. “What did you do?” he demanded quietly.
Isis’ face became blank of all expression and she sat up straighter as if she were looking out at a room full of servants and she their proper queen. “Locked her up, she’s alive, in the dark with only my voice to keep her company.”
Jackie and I shared a fearful look. My mother would be insane even if we did find her, which didn’t seem likely.
Isis was laughing again, her composure broken and the swift changes were making my head spin. I wanted more than anything to go over there and punch her in the face. I wouldn’t stop until I saw bone and tasted blood. Sobahn growled as if he were agreeing with my thoughts.
“Where could that possibly be?” I whispered. Terrance had told me he’d seen her bloody body, mangled by the vampire, but I hadn’t seen it, neither had Falcon. Could Isis be telling the truth now? But she was obviously nuts, she could very likely refuse to ever reveal this secret. Maybe that was her plan, she was going to die not telling us so we would forever wonder.
“If you aren’t going to tell us where she is, we might as well kill you,” Osiris said darkly, stepping toward her. He suddenly had a knife in his hand and I wondered where it had come from, had he had it this whole time, why hadn’t he used it already?
Isis’ eyes widened at the site of the gold knife. “If you kill me, she’ll die, her life is tied to mine, we are one and the same,” she said quickly.
Osiris froze, dropping his arm that held the knife. “You didn’t.”
“Oh I did! I delighted in the knowledge that every time you denied me your body, she was being denied as well. I took pleasure in other’s bodies, knowing they touched her too. Your precious Zobeth has been violated in every way, by so many.” Isis’ eyes narrowed on Osiris and her grin was absolute evil.
“Someone tell me what is going on,” I yelled.
“Zobeth is sharing Isis’ body. Locked in her mind, unable to escape, but she may know what’s going on around her,” Osiris whispered. “If I kill Isis, Zobeth is lost forever and I would have killed her.”
Isis’s eyes met mine and I saw something there, something so deep and angry I wanted to puke. It was as if she was trying to invade my soul with her eyes, infect me with putrid hate. I could feel how much she hated me, hated Zobeth. Even Osiris, who she claimed to love so much, she was treating with hatred. Maybe she had at one time loved him truthfully, now it was pure hate for what she thought he’d taken from her. There was nothing left in her that wasn’t ruled by her desire for revenge, and she knew she’d just won. Her game was complete.
She moved fast then as we all stood in shock, she jumped up, grabbed the knife that Osiris still held and drove it deep into her own chest.
“No,” I screamed, leaping forward at the same time Osiris cried out and pulled the knife from her body. It was too late, her eyes closed and the power I had felt in her presence dissipated. She was gone, she’d sacrificed herself in the name of revenge, and she’d taken my mother with her. Tears erupted from my eyes and I didn’t care how stupid I might look crying over the body of my enemy. I looked at Osiris, pleading. “You have to bring her back, you have to fix this!”
“I can’t, the knife kills absolutely, it doesn’t take its souls to the underworld. Isis is… just gone and Zobeth has already died once. The second time, you don’t go to the underworld. They are both… gone.” His voice was steady, but I could see the turmoil in his eyes, knew he was feeling things deeply.
“Bullshit! My mother never died. She was taken from Demetrius’ cave, she never entered the underworld did she? That means you can bring her back,” I snapped desperately.
Osiris sat back and thought, then turned to Sobahn who had shifted back to human and crouched naked nearby. “Call Anubis, tell him to search the new souls for Zobeth.” He turned back to me. “I will find her but, she may not be… okay.”
“I-don’t-care,” I gritted out. I wanted her back, I wanted what Isis and Terrance had taken from me.
I welcomed death, anything was better than what I had endured. Living in the darkness of Isis’ mind and body was excruciating. Enduring everything that she did to herself, everything she allowed to be done to her. It was degrading and disgusting, I hated it, hated her, and hated Osiris for ever walking into my life.
I smiled as the cold knife slid into our chest and instantly stopped our hearts. She dissipated into the ether, she became the stars and moon, she was nothing and she was everything. I slid through space and time and felt the warmth of welcome like I was coming home. I was going to join my ancestors, and I was going to be able to control my arms, legs, feet, and eyes again. I would be able to move my mouth and neck. I would be me again! My tongue flitted around my mouth and I was surprised to find my sharp canines, oh yes, she’d let me almost die with vampire blood in my system. Right before she’d plucked my life force out of my dying body and inserted it into herself, I had turned fully now.
I was floating to my eternity as a vampire, never having ever had the chance to live life as one. I started to hear voices and knew I must be getting close. I opened my eyes and found myself lying on a stone, looking up into the jackal head of Anubis. I smiled and reached up to touch his human chest. He smiled at me in a canine way. It was great to be able to feel something for myself. To control where I looked and listened.
“Welcome home, Princess Zobeth. I hear you’ve had a bit of a time lately.” I was shocked by the human words coming out of his jackal mouth.
“Yes, it’s been an interesting journey. I saw your son recently.”
“Sobahn, yes, he is quite in love with your daughter I hear.”
“Looked like love to me.” I was happy that my daughter had found her soulmate, she was no longer alone.
“He says that Osiris is coming for you and I must wait, I cannot take you to the underworld just yet.”
I frowned, I wanted rest, nothing more than to just float on into eternity and rest. I deserved it after what I’d been through. “Why can’t he let me go?” I wondered aloud, not expecting an answer.
“Because you are my everything. My heart and soul, my reason for living, and I will not lose you again.”
I sat up so fast my head spun. Osiris was standing before me. I felt tears run down my cheeks. He was so beautiful; I could hardly stand looking at him. My heart ached with the reassurance of his words, and my body cried out to touch and be touched, to know love again. There had been no love in anything Isis had done. A thousand years of pain and hate is all I’d felt.
He moved toward me slowly, and I wanted to yell at him to hurry, he was being cautious, and I didn’t understand why. I frowned at him, and he stopped. “What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Do you hate me?”
Incredulous, I let my mouth gape open. “Hate you? How could I hate you?”
“If I had never insisted on meeting you if I’d—”
I held up a hand to stop him, his words perfectly matched the thoughts I’d been having before he’d arrived but seeing his face had erased all doubt. “Love is everything, love is worth all the torture in the world. I have waited over a thousand years to hold my soulmate again, don’t make me wait any longer.”
He moved quickly then, picking me up and suddenly we weren’t in the dark chamber awaiting judgment for the underworld anymore. We were in a bedchamber, somewhere warm and dark. I was in my body, I didn’t know how and it didn’t matter. He laid me gently on the bed and began to kiss every inch of me as he removed my clothing. It was the clothing I had worn when I’d died. It was still covered in my blood. He was powerful, resurrecting my body from wherever it had rotted for the last thousand years to join my soul. This was my soulmate, this powerful demon who ruled over death and defied any who would harm those he cared for. I feared nothing when I was with him, nothing except his absence.
When he’d kissed his way back up to my face I was panting with needs. Some I understood and recognized and some I didn’t, but my fangs sharpened and ached, and I thought I knew what the unfamiliar need was. I just hoped he could handle it.
I grabbed his face and smiled, his eyes widened only slightly at the unfamiliar sight of my fangs, then he smiled back and tipped his head to the side, offering me what I wanted almost as much as I wanted to feel his body moving in mine. My fangs entered his neck as he entered me and the pleasure was something I could never have thought to experience in my eternal existence. It was all consuming, it was fire, and it was filling every cell in my body.
I broke from his neck in time to cry out my release, my body began to tremble as he answered my cry with his own, then collapsed against me. “That was worth a thousand year wait.”
“Fuck yes,” he groaned, and I could tell he was already halfway to ready again. I grinned up at him. “What? We have a lot of missed time to make up for,” he laughed, kissing me again.
“What’s taking them so long!” I couldn’t stop pacing. Sobahn and Jackie had brought me back to my condo and I’d tried to rest, but it had been impossible. Osiris was supposed to collect my mother and bring her back to me. It was nearly sunset and he hadn’t arrived. When he’d rushed out of Terrance’s house, the earth had opened, swallowed him, then closed back up. I’d assumed it wouldn’t take long to get to the underworld and back. But the sun had just been about to rise at that point and here we were, sun about to set and no Osiris, no Zobeth, and no one had any answers.
“Why don’t you let me help you relax,” Sobahn offered, for like the hundredth time. I gave him the same hiss answer I’d given the first time.
“If you try to distract me with sex, I will bite your fucking head off.”
He laughed, as usual. “I was actually going to offer you some blood this time, perhaps you wouldn’t be so on edge if you weren’t hungry.”
I looked at him with narrowed eyes and my fangs descended of their own accord. I had certainly fantasized about sticking them deep into his smooth neck. “What if I accidently kill you because you’re being super annoying.”
He lowered his lids and relaxed completely in the chair he was lounging in. “Just try it honey, I am no weak human male. I could break you like a twig.”
I crouched, “It’s a deal,” I said, and leapt at him. I wrapped my legs around his waist and wiggled my ass on his lap while I bit deep into his waiting neck. He groaned and his hands grabbed my waist pulling me closer. I drew deep, his blood was sweet and musky, so perfectly him. As the blood filled me, my body started to react to his nearness. Pleasure rumbled in my chest and my body started to move against him.
“Oh love, I think this is better than I imagined,” he whispered as he started working at the buckle on my pants.
I pulled my head back, licking the wounds to help them heal. “Fuck,” I whispered, my head spinning. “Now take me to the bed.”
“No time,” he growled and dropped me onto the floor. He had our pants down in a flash and then he was there, taking me body and soul. It was more than I could have imagined it would be. I’d had plenty of sex, lots of good sex even, but this, this was soul bending sex. The kind you didn’t recover from, you only craved more and were perfectly ruined for anyone else for the rest of your life.
When we lay satisfied in my bed, I let a couple tears fall. It was full dark now and I could no longer be distracted by his delicious body.
He propped himself on his elbow and stared down at me with a frown. “Did I hurt you?”
I tried to smile reassuringly. He’d been a little rough a couple times, but nothing I couldn’t handle. The blood under my fingernails told me I’d given as good as I’d gotten, so it was a fair battle. “I think you broke something deep.” I said then laughed at his confused look.
He lifted the sheet and laid a hand between my legs gently. “Will it heal?”
“Not there, here.” I brought is hand to my chest and smiled. “I have kept this thing under so many bricks and locks. You’ve shattered the last ones, damn-it you better not plan on leaving any time soon Sobahn. I would have to hunt you down and kill anyone who thought to get in my way.” I realized I might sound a little like Isis and frowned. “You’re mine, but you started it by claiming me first.”
“Whoa there, Princess. I know demons love deep, but don’t think you can own me!”
I reared up and was ready to jump off the bed and probably stalk over to his place and start breaking shit just for good measure. How dare he!
He caught my waist and slammed me back down. I was seething, I had just opened up my soul to him, and he wanted space! His smile irritated me deeply. I slapped him, hard, but he didn’t stop smiling. “What the hell is wrong with you,” I hissed.
“I wouldn’t let you leave me alone if you wanted to. You belong to me, my soulmate, my love, my wife one day. I want your body, your mind, and your soul. Do you hear me, little love?”
I was still mad, that was a dirty trick. “I don’t like to be owned, but we might be able to negotiate a partnership of some kind.”
He laughed and started moving against me again. Soon I was willing to agree to any terms he wanted to offer if he would just give me what I needed to ease the ache he’d created.
Three days later there was a knock at my door and I was smiling like an idiot because Sobahn and I hadn’t hardly left the bedroom in all that time. It was life perfected when love was all you needed. I had assumed it was the food I had ordered for Sobahn. He needed to eat to keep up his strength, and as long as he did that, I could get all I needed from him. No biting the delivery boy today.
When I opened the door I froze, this was no delivery boy. This was my mother and father. Osiris stood there looking proud in his jeans and leather jacket. Beside him stood Zobeth, just as beautiful as I had remembered. Except for her vampire turned blue eyes and black hair, she was exactly what I knew as a child and her smile was so full of love I was instantly in tears and in her arms.
“I can’t believe you’re here!”
“We tried to call, but no one was answering.” Osiris looked at Sobahn and laughed. “I see you two have found each other.”
My face flamed, embarrassed as hell. “Yeah, I guess we are kind of dating.”
“Dating! More like planning a wedding,” Sobahn scoffed.
I ushered my mother into the room and knew I was beaming like an idiot. I had a mother, a father, and a fiancé. I had a half sister who was crazy about me, and a half brother who… well I was pretty sure he didn’t hate me, though I hadn’t seen him since he went off to cross the veil and claim his right from the King.
So much death, so much near death, but here I was with love, so much love.