10.
When we were back in Nekhen everyone was rather quiet, including me. None of us really wanted to be there anymore—I kind of just wanted to go back to America. Simon gave in and announced he would no longer be joining us and I asked Jack if he wanted to get on with his holiday some where else as well. He said he wasn’t going anywhere now, not just before ‘the shit hit the fan’. Hugh looked at me and shrugged his shoulders, “I’m not going anywhere either. I’m with you until the end.”
I thanked him and then Max said he knew where Wosret was buried. Jack commented that Max quite frequently said that.
Max, trying not to get annoyed, retorted, “Well this time, I really do.”
This gave us all hope that maybe it wouldn’t take too much longer to get the situation figured out.
We went to our old camp and found our things were all still where we stashed them. We spent about half an hour setting up again and then headed off. “I want to go and check on Nekhbet’s body,” I said. “I just think we should.”
So that’s where we went first. I was leading the way but I was rather slow because I was quite badly sunburnt and sore. I put some aloe vera gel on my body but it wasn’t helping my discomfort much. When we got there and I opened the trap door I could see straight away that the body was no longer there.
“Oh no,” Hugh said. “Someone must have found it and taken it somewhere…”
“What if no one touched it?” Max asked.
“Well it’s not like it could have gotten up and moved on its own,” Jack snorted but then he saw our solemn faces and asked incredulously, “It couldn’t could it?”
I laughed nervously; my body was suddenly covered in goosebumps. “No, of course it couldn’t…” Everything certainly was getting very frightening. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Good idea,” Jack grabbed my arm and we were out first—the Parkers were the biggest scaredy-cats.
Max closed the door after us. “It couldn’t have been those two girls that saw you find this place, could it?” he asked.
“No, I don’t think they would have been any hurry to get back here,” Jack answered for me—him and I were on the same page right now.
Max, after scratching his head for a moment said, “No, I have to believe that we’ll find it again. I really do—I can’t believe we’ve come all this damn way just to have it disappear right from under our goddamn noses.” I could tell he was getting wound up again. He tended to use the words ‘damn’ and ‘goddamn’ a lot when he was wound up.
“Take us to where you saw Wosret get buried,” I said. “That’s the best we can do right now.”
It took us forever to walk to the death place of all the ‘criminals’ of ancient El Kab. Nearly three hours. I was so tired I could hardly believe it. When Max said, “We’re here,” I nearly died of happiness. I collapsed instead, right onto the sand. My legs were aching.
“You okay?” Hugh asked.
“I will be, can’t I wait here and you guys go look?” I was rubbing my calves and knee’s and thighs—trying to soothe them. How could they not be tired too? I was on the verge of getting some severe cramp.
“You don’t want to see?” Max asked.
“I can’t move I’m afraid,” I answered, looking up at him. “Seriously—give me a yell if you find anything. I’ll wait right here.”
They were reluctant but we’d come so far and there was no point in holding back now. They disappeared into a stone entrance that had warnings in Egyptian written all over the walls. They said things like, “They who wake those who rest in here will bring plagues upon the planet like no other before.” It made me shiver just thinking about it.
I don’t know if it was just me being a woss or not, but when they were gone the wind seemed to pick up and the sky got darker, it was now a stormy grey ominous colour. I started to get cold and wrapped my arms around my chest, trying to create body warmth. “Get a grip, Liz,” I mumbled to myself. “Don’t lose it now.”
About half an hour passed and then I heard a yell from behind me. “Liz, babe!” Max appeared a few minutes later. “They’re both here, you won’t believe it.”
“What?” I was falling asleep at the time. He tugged me to my feet and I was so wobbly I nearly fell over. “How can that be?”
“I don’t know how it can be but it’s true,” he had his hands on my sides. “You okay? You’re kind of pale.”
“I’ll be fine. How far away are they?”
“Not too far, come on,” he tugged me along. I was as slow as a turtle.
When we got there I was so shocked to see Nekhbet sitting with her hand on the tomb that held Wosret I nearly fell over again. She wasn’t moving and she was still skeletal and rotting but the hollow holes that should have held eyes seemed to be watching us. Jack and Hugh were leaning against the wall that was as far away from the corpses as they could get.
“Isn’t it just the most disturbing thing you’ve ever seen?” Jack asked quietly. He was holding his chin in one of his hands; the other arm was cross against his chest.
I didn’t answer him, just circled the tomb and Nekhbet cautiously. “Now what?” I asked after a long time. “I can’t bring myself to touch them.”
Max put his hand on my lower back. “I can’t either.”
“How’d you find the tomb?”
“Fuck.” That came from Jack. “By the look of it we didn’t need to find it—Nekh-bla, whatcha call her—found it for us!”
“Calm down,” Hugh said but his voice was softer then usual. We all were a bit shaken by the sight in front of us.
Max still had his hand on my back. “What are we going to do?” he asked softly.
“I don’t know,” I shook my head. “God Max I just want to go home. I’m so sick of all of this.”
“I know the feeling, trust me.”
“Together?” I asked. “We’ll open the tomb?”
“Alright.”
We both stepped up and read the inscription on the top. It had the usual warnings and so on. I realized that my hands were shaking and I had to take a moment to calm myself—taking large breaths.
“Be brave Liz,” Max was looking at me concernedly. “We can do it.” He reached over and clasped my hand for a moment and then let go.
Hugh came and helped but Jack stayed where he was. Hugh was the one to move Nekhbet’s hand off the tomb and then we all took one big heave to pull the god-awful heavy lid off. It slid to the ground and I half expected fireworks and explosions to come bursting out just like in some corny movie.
Wosret was lying there, staring up at us just as adamantly Nekhbet was. It was my turn to curse now, under my breath of course. We spent quite a while just staring at them and then I gallantly stepped up and reached for Nekhbet.
“What are you doing?” Hugh asked.
“We have to do something, we can move them or—” As soon as my hand touched Nekhbet’s chin I felt this immense suction feeling, as if my soul was being ripped out from my bones. I cried out and started to fall back, only to be caught by my brother on the way down. I could hear them talking to me but it seemed so far away, they were frantic, but I couldn’t move, it was as if I was paralyzed. I couldn’t even move my eyes that were seeing everything through black and white…
~*~
As soon as Liz was down I was going for her but a movement from somewhere else caught my eye. It was Nekhbet, getting up on her own two feet. I instantly knew what she had done, she had tricked us into giving her back her own will—her own body.
Liz was pretty much unconscious except that her eyes were open and staring at us frantically and helplessly. I wanted to go to her and help but Nekhbet came after me—it was obvious why. I backed up several steps in shock because her skin, eyes, lips, everything all formed from thin air and covered her body. It had taken maybe a minute and then a carbon-copy of Liz stood before me. However there was something in her eyes that was definitely not my Liz.
In Egyptian she spoke to me, “Zan, now…Zan…”
There was no way in hell I wanted to go anywhere near Wosret’s body but something inside of me was controlling me, something I had absolutely no power over. They were so much stronger then me, so much more equipped to use there strength and power…
Before I knew it my feet were moving by themselves towards the tomb and I was helpless to stop them, helpless to do anything. Nekhbet smirked at me and with as much anger and hate as I could summon I said, “Fuck you.”
~*~
The spell I was under started to wear off after a few minutes. I couldn’t see what was going on because I couldn’t turn my head or anything but I knew it wasn’t good. Hugh and Jack were shaking me and trying to help me and then suddenly Hugh jumped up and I couldn’t see him anymore. I could see someone else as she stepped up in front of me, Nekhbet. I wanted to roar I was so angry and it was in that moment I knew she had placed me in this helpless state on purpose.
In her hands she held a black dagger that she lifted and would have lowered into my stomach had Jack not kicked her hands with all his might and send the blade flying backwards. It was while I saw him struggling to keep her on the ground that I felt tingling in my feet and then hands—it took a long time but slowly I could move my fingers and toes and next my eyes and lips. I cried out loudly, “Jack!” My arms came next and finally my legs and torso. I leapt to my feet to examine the situation and it was worse then I thought. Not only was Nekhbet apparently alive but so was Wosret who was fighting to get past Hugh to Max who was in much the same state I had just been in.
I didn’t know who to help first until I saw Hugh get thrown across the room by Wosret. He went after Max but I leapt in his way with my fists clenched. He stopped briefly, studying me, seeing his Nekhbet and then picked me up by my neck and moved me out of the way. I can’t explain the pain of his strong fingers digging into my skin. When my body hit the ground, with one hand on my neck, I dived at him again even though I was no match for his strength. He pushed me off easily and went for his dagger but the one thing I could do, was get to it faster and kick it across the sand.
Wosret dived on me, crushing me painfully to the ground and grabbing my neck. In Egyptian he screamed at me while he strangled me. “You will die along side him as I did her!” Despite the situation I managed to think, it wasn’t my fault. He seemed to be taking out their deaths out on us, that was hardly fair.
I couldn’t breathe and I was coughing and trying to kick him away but he was strong and well built—just like Max. I tried to call out, “Jack, Hu-Hu-gh!” but my voice wouldn’t work. He shook me harder, slamming my head back and forth into the sand and holding my neck tighter with his two hands.
Suddenly he screamed out and his grip lessened. I saw Max behind him with a large piece of sharp wood in his hand, the only problem was it wasn’t covered in blood even though it had just been in Wosret’s back. I knew it hadn’t hurt Wosret enough so Max kicked Wosret hard in the stomach and then came for me, pulling me to my feet. There was no time for him to ask if I was okay, even though I knew he wanted to.
Jack had not managed to control Nekhbet but with Hugh they had held her down and Max threw the wood at them. Hugh stabbed it down into Nekhbet’s stomach and then Jack cried, “Run, the fuck away!”
He must have seen my confusion as to what to do now. We all ran like hell out of the chamber and Hugh slammed shut a stone sliding door behind us. We ran like made for a long time, out of the temple and across the sand, putting as much distance between us and them. My head was dizzy and throbbing from being whacked on the ground several times and my throat was burning with red hot fury but I tried to keep up with them all as best as I could.
We stopped eventually, no one could run anymore. No matter how much our fright had boosted our strength, it couldn’t last forever. I fell to the ground with my back against half of a stone pillar and held my neck in my hands. It was a lot of effort to catch my breath…
Max was kneeling in front of me instantly. “Let me look, are you okay?” He touched my lip and it stung, I hadn’t even realized it had split open. Then he touched my eyebrow where apparently another cut was. “Your neck is purple,” I could tell how worried he was. “God, you must hurt…”
I couldn’t talk, I croaked.
“I can heal it,” he said.
My eyes widened in shock. “Wh—what?” I knew he never used his powers, he hated even to talk of them.
Before I could do anything he put both his hands on my bruised neck and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. It took a little while but I felt a soothing sensation cover me and my throat stopped throbbing. Then he fell away onto his back and breathed out loudly.
“Max?” I was at his side. “Max, what…I mean, are you…? Talk to me would you?”
He looked up at me. “I’m fine, I want to heal your cuts but I don’t have the strength. Haven’t used my powers in what seems like forever. They need to charge so to speak.”
I hugged him and her sat up and held me just as tightly. Jack and Hugh were near by us, looking at their own wounds. Jack had been badly beaten up by Nekhbet, his nose was bleeding. “Are you okay?” I asked without letting go of Max.
“Hmm,” Jack put his neck back and held the bridge of his nose to stop the blood. “I wiff fe.”
“They are so strong,” I commented. “I can’t believe it.”
“They’re had a long time to rest up,” Hugh said. “We haven’t killed them, it will take a lot more then a lousy stab wound to destroy them.”
Max finally let go of me, not that I minded his tight grip. He leaned against the pillar I had been up against, I suspected he was feeling every bit drowsy and out of it as I was. “It’s clear what their intentions are,” he spoke.
No one said anything; we all knew what he meant. They wouldn’t stop before Max and I were dead.
“Why exactly do they hate us so much?” I finally asked. “Max, they were so set on killing us. Other then because of us coming after them, what other reason is there to want to?”
“I don’t know,” Max said. “It was clearly their plan.”
“You can say that again,” Jack grumbled.
Hugh was the first to get up. “We can’t stay here, it’s not safe.”
Jack asked, “Where, exactly, is safe?”
“No idea,” Hugh said. “But we have to go somewhere. They’ll be looking for us.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi! You can't even imagine how hard that was to write, I'm not much for using my imagination and that's stretched my mind so much I have a head ache lol. Hope I did okay, I'm so used to writing reality! Thanks for your patience and fb everyone... You are all so wonderful,
~nicola :eggface:
(Nekhbet) The White Goddess [M/L POV] AU ADULT [COMPLETE]
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators
11.
I hadn’t realized my mistake until Liz said to me, “Max, you used your powers in front of my brother.”
A felt the colour drain from my face. “Has he said anything?”
“No,” she shrugged. “I don’t know if he even saw but I don’t know if we’re that lucky.”
“Oh, no,” I groaned. “I can’t deal with this right now; I’m already preoccupied with two crazy immortal mummies set on killing us. Funny that.”
“Max, don’t worry. Everything will work out.” We were sitting on the ground with our backs against a ruined temple entrance. We didn’t want Nekhbet and Wosret coming up behind us when we didn’t expect it. Our camp was moved, we didn’t know if they knew about where we were positioned. “Do you feel the difference inside of you?” Liz started to rub her temples. “I can feel that she isn’t inside of me anymore.”
“Me too,” I said tiredly. “It’s an odd feeling. Like a part of me has been taken away—I don’t like it much.”
“Hmm,” she mumbled. “It will start to fade eventually, don’t you think?”
I was so tired and not thinking that I said, “I hope so,” without realizing she needed reassuring words from me. I saw her face soon after and then added, “Liz, I’m pretty sure it will. I’m pretty sure everything will be fine.”
She put her head on my shoulder and I could tell she was trying so hard to be strong and brave. It wasn’t easy to be constantly on the look out for someone looking to kill you. I knew because I couldn’t for anything feel relaxed. I kept moving my legs or hands or fingers or anything…
“I was thinking about why they could be after us,” Liz said. I put my arm around her shoulders and stroked her shoulder. “Maybe they can’t stay alive without us dead. They are replicas of us, we were born but they weren’t in this life. Maybe they need our bodies; maybe they can only last so long with those ones of theirs. How could their souls be enough to create flesh and blood?” she had that look in her eyes again, that research-mode one. That one I found so damn endearing. “You know how I told you their innards were placed apart in jars so they couldn’t find them—well it would be a lot easier to kill us then to go searching for them. I don’t know if this makes any sense…”
“I’m sure it does,” I said. “But I’m so tired I can’t comprehend anything.”
“Why don’t you sleep and I’ll stay awake?” she asked. “Hugh and Simon are still awake—barely—but I’ll be fine.”
There was no way that was an option. I told her that and she didn’t argue any further about it. “So,” I said after a little while. “What are you going to do with all this new found ancient Egyptian knowledge when we get back to America?”
“You mean, if we get back?”
“No I mean when we get back.” There was no way this whole thing would be the end of my life. Or hers. I had plans to spend the rest of my life lying in a bed that she shared.
She swallowed and then answered my question, “I’m going to write a book.”
“How much truth will you put in it?” I asked.
“As much as possible.” I didn’t need to ask if she would say anything about my alien origins, I knew she wouldn’t. She was joking when she said, “Do you know how good it would be for my career if I gave proof there were alien life forms on this planet and how they got here?”
I said, “I imagine you’d be internationally famous.”
“Or laughed at?” she asked. “Hmm, I’m sure I’ll get a hefty pay package from Val for this whole thing.”
“Hmm, I’ve probably been replaced at work.” I wouldn’t be surprised; I’d been gone so long.
“Well if you go bankrupt you can live with me and my huge pay out,” she smiled and it was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Eventually, long after that smile had drifted away, she said, “You know just normal life is a lot to think about sometimes.”
I knew what she meant. This extra burden would make us older faster. “Like not having coffee before work and lasting the day?” I joked.
“Ooh, that’s a good one,” she said and suddenly the smile was back. How could we both be smiling after a day as action packed as today? That was love. “Or, hmm…let me think…You’re mother overcrowding your life and trying to make every decision for you?”
“I have no idea what that is like,” I said, “but I’m sure it’s annoying. What about something as small but bothersome as deciding what to have for dinner?”
She chuckled. “You’re one of those people that can never decide?”
“Afraid so,” I smiled and then I was reminded of something, “If I had a pretty wife who could cook, I would never leave the house except to go to work so I could keep her. The rest of the time I would spend having sex and eating, and I would be deliriously happy.’” Liz laughed loudly. “I read that in a book called ‘Backroads’, I think that relates to a lot of men.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” she said.
“I’ve also read that it’s not presumptuous to adopt something that had been well told by someone else.”
She smiled. “You’re right. But it can also be seen as plagiarism.”
“Yeah. But I’m no writer so there’s no problem there.” I noticed that Hugh and Simon, despite their promises to keep watch, had fallen asleep. It made me yawn—I wished so much that I could join them.
Liz sighed loudly, obviously having noticed they’d fallen asleep also. “We can’t just sit here all night,” she said.
“I know.” I yawned again. “But what do you suppose we do? Go looking for them? We wouldn’t know how to kill them anyway.”
“What if the only way to kill them is to kill ourselves?” she asked quietly.
I hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t think that’s an option.” I’m sure I was yawning every twenty seconds by now.
“I hope it’s not,” she uttered. “I’m sure there’s a way, I just can’t think—I am too exhausted.” I could see her eye lids drooping and realized I must look much the same.
“Well how did they die in their past life? By stabbing themselves?” I asked.
“You don’t think that the only way to kill them is to get them to stab themselves again do you?” she shuddered. “That’s impossible.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “I was thinking more a long the lines of the same weapon. I wonder what happened to that dagger anyway.”
Liz was nearly asleep but when she finally registered what I had said a couple of minutes later she was wide awake, “The dagger! Oh my God Max you’re a genius!”
“What? What did I say?” I was suddenly made wide awake by her.
“Think back! What did they try and kill us with earlier?”
“Wosret tried to strangle you, he tried to kill you with his hands,” I said, not understanding.
“No, Nekhbet came after me with a dagger. You mustn’t have noticed. Jack kicked it out of her hands but it never occurred to me to think where she may have got it from. You don’t suppose it’s the same one do you?”
“How could they still have that in their possession?” I asked. “Surely the Egyptians wouldn’t have mummified them with it.”
I could see she was thinking fervently now. “Well Nekhbet had somehow got herself to Wosret’s tomb. What means to say she wasn’t able to get herself to the weapon, if she’d known where to look?”
“Hmm…but that doesn’t make sense,” I told her. “The dagger would have been disposed of after they’d died so how would they know where to look?” My brain was hurting because I was so tired. However, I must have had just enough left in me because I suddenly came up with a solution. “Oh…what if…?”
“What?” she asked intrigued.
“You know how it’s quite common when you die for your limbs freeze, so to speak? Is it called Death grip?” I saw her come to gradual understanding. “There’s been instances when people have died holding something and their clasp is so tight no one could pry things from their hands.”
Her mouth fell open.
“Because Wosret had stabbed himself, what if they hadn’t been able to tear the dagger from his hands so he’d been buried with it?”
She was amazed by my discovery.
”Although,” I suddenly said. “They knew there was the possibility of Nekhbet and Wosret coming back to get revenge so leaving them with a weapon would prove them to be rather thick.”
“They might not have had a choice,” Liz replied.
“Surely they’d just cut his hand off?” I asked, debating with myself. We were both silent for a long time and then she said, “Max…”
I was up on my feet in a second. I’d heard the noise too—footsteps. I turned my back on Liz for just a moment and scanned the ground for anything suspicious. It was very dark but the moon provided a lot of light in the depth of the desert. I heard footsteps behind me and I spun around, finding Liz standing with her arms crossed over her chest. She was looking at me and there was something in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before—something that frightened me a little.
“What? Did you see anything?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Oh.”
Suddenly she walked towards me and put her hand on my arm. “Let’s go somewhere,” she said.
I was puzzled. “What? We can’t, Hugh and Jack—”
“They’ll be fine,” she grinned. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
“What could you possibly have to show me?” I grumbled. “Liz, this isn’t a good time.”
She pouted. “Please, come?”
I went with her, not because I wanted to but because I thought something funny was going on. She took me to a secluded place where she started taking off her blouse.
“Liz!” I hissed. “This is not the time to be—”
It occurred to me then that this wasn’t Liz. Her movements and her smile, though they were similar, there was something off about them. She started to kiss my neck and run her hands up and down my back so I played along, not letting her realize I’d figured the situation out. I was panicking as to where Liz was and worried that Wosret had her when I heard a yelp behind me. I grabbed Nekhbet and pushed her away, she had a dagger in her hands that hadn’t been there before.
She fell to the sand and howled at me but I was already running after the figure of Wosret going in the other direction. “Liz!” I cried, chasing after them. Before I knew it, I was lifting my hand and urging a surge of power to come pouring out. A wave of strength knocked Wosret over and I was there, helping Liz up instantly. “Quick—go,” I instructed.
“No, I—” she paused when she saw Nekhbet come up behind me. “No!” she dived into her and they both tumbled to the floor in fury. Nekhbet had the dagger above her neck and Liz held her wrist, trying to force it away. “Max!” she managed to get out. “RUN!”
I hadn’t realized Wosret was up and after me. He chased me down a looming passage, screaming out something in Egyptian that I couldn’t work out because I was too focused on getting away. We were both throwing power balls of alien energy at each other and finally we both got hit at the same time and yelped as we were thrown back. My strength was no match to his—I flew harder and further. He was up first and after me so I fought the human way, punching him directly in the face.
“FUCK!” he screamed in pain. I noted that no blood came pouring from his nose, like it probably should have. We scrambled along the sandy floor, nearly banging into the stone walls. He managed to get me once in the stomach and then lifted a hand to use his powers—hoping to finish the job—when something happened that sent a ripple through the air.
It felt like the whole world was quickly sucked into a vacuum and then spat back out. I looked around me and was horrified to learn that we’d some how been thrown back in time to 2997 BC. I was wearing armour on my chest that matched Wosret’s and we were surrounded by ancient Egyptian furniture. He seemed momentarily fazed too, but not long enough for me to have the advantage. He was trying to kill me again straight away.
I used all my strength to heave him off and I used my precious two seconds space to search for a weapon. The walls were adorned with them so I had one in my possession quickly. Seconds later we heard a high pitched screech as Liz and Nekhbet came running down the passage, Liz was in front and Nekhbet soon after with her dagger held high in the air aimed at her opponent. I didn’t have time to worry, I was thrown into a sword fight that I hadn’t realized I was capable off. He moved left and tried to slice my torso but I quickly retorted with a jab of my three spiked dagger.
Where I’d gotten these skills from, I had absolutely no idea. Our battle was long and harsh because we were perfect rivals. Liz and Nekhbet joined us in the room and fought just as roughly. I could see that Nekhbet was trying to swap weapons so I intervened skilfully, sliding between the two and grabbing the important dagger. “No!” Nekhbet cried and came after me. I didn’t want to leave Liz alone with Wosret so I refused to let Nekhbet get in my way. I grabbed her fiercely by the arm and—inwardly cringing at the thought of hurting a girl—threw her roughly against the wall.
“Max!” Liz cried.
I threw her the dagger and kicked Wosret just as roughly in the stomach. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liz hesitate and then plunge the dagger deep in Nekhbet chest, right in-between the breasts.
“NO!” Wosret screamed loudly and went after her but I fought to keep him off. I earned a stab in the shoulder for my trouble and cried out in agony.
“Oh Max,” Liz was there in an instant, wanting to tend to my wound but I pushed her out of the way. I couldn’t let anything happen to her or I’d never live with myself. Wosret ran to Nekhbet’s side, she didn’t appear to be moving or even alive. He cupped her cheeks. “Eva, Eva please…”
Her eyes fluttered and she stared at him for one brief moment before she was out of it again.
“What do you want from us?” I screamed at Wosret in Egyptian.
“LIFE!” he screamed back and came charging towards me. “I have waited five thousand years and you will pay.”
~*~
I didn’t know what to do. I could see that Max was weakening; the fatigue and his wounds were definitely taken their toll on him. I heard Nekhbet, who appeared to be dead, suddenly let out a loud cry as her soul whooshed out of her. I saw a black shadow creep up the wall behind her, lean forward and screech again then…pop, into thin air. The body then disintegrated before my eyes, becoming a small black pile of sand on the floor.
I picked up the blade that I’d killed her with up off the floor and I tried to get close enough to Wosret but they were fighting furiously. I kept getting in the way of flying limbs. “Zan?” I asked, testing the name out. I wanted to see how he would react. “Zan.”
His eyes darkened for a moment and he glared at me in hatred. I took that moment to slide the dagger across the ground to Max who caught it and leapt on Wosret who was now coming towards me. He grabbed my neck and stared deeply into my eyes. “How could you?” he asked and then threw Max off him so roughly that he passed out briefly. When he came to Wosret cried at him, “If I shall be alone, so will you.”
With one swift movement, he kneed me in the stomach with all his strength and slammed my head back against the stone wall. He hurt me so badly that black spots appeared in my vision and blood started to drop steadily from my nose. He whacked my head again, just as hard, and I was out of it.
~*~
Hope you like it everyone! Thank you so much!!!
I hadn’t realized my mistake until Liz said to me, “Max, you used your powers in front of my brother.”
A felt the colour drain from my face. “Has he said anything?”
“No,” she shrugged. “I don’t know if he even saw but I don’t know if we’re that lucky.”
“Oh, no,” I groaned. “I can’t deal with this right now; I’m already preoccupied with two crazy immortal mummies set on killing us. Funny that.”
“Max, don’t worry. Everything will work out.” We were sitting on the ground with our backs against a ruined temple entrance. We didn’t want Nekhbet and Wosret coming up behind us when we didn’t expect it. Our camp was moved, we didn’t know if they knew about where we were positioned. “Do you feel the difference inside of you?” Liz started to rub her temples. “I can feel that she isn’t inside of me anymore.”
“Me too,” I said tiredly. “It’s an odd feeling. Like a part of me has been taken away—I don’t like it much.”
“Hmm,” she mumbled. “It will start to fade eventually, don’t you think?”
I was so tired and not thinking that I said, “I hope so,” without realizing she needed reassuring words from me. I saw her face soon after and then added, “Liz, I’m pretty sure it will. I’m pretty sure everything will be fine.”
She put her head on my shoulder and I could tell she was trying so hard to be strong and brave. It wasn’t easy to be constantly on the look out for someone looking to kill you. I knew because I couldn’t for anything feel relaxed. I kept moving my legs or hands or fingers or anything…
“I was thinking about why they could be after us,” Liz said. I put my arm around her shoulders and stroked her shoulder. “Maybe they can’t stay alive without us dead. They are replicas of us, we were born but they weren’t in this life. Maybe they need our bodies; maybe they can only last so long with those ones of theirs. How could their souls be enough to create flesh and blood?” she had that look in her eyes again, that research-mode one. That one I found so damn endearing. “You know how I told you their innards were placed apart in jars so they couldn’t find them—well it would be a lot easier to kill us then to go searching for them. I don’t know if this makes any sense…”
“I’m sure it does,” I said. “But I’m so tired I can’t comprehend anything.”
“Why don’t you sleep and I’ll stay awake?” she asked. “Hugh and Simon are still awake—barely—but I’ll be fine.”
There was no way that was an option. I told her that and she didn’t argue any further about it. “So,” I said after a little while. “What are you going to do with all this new found ancient Egyptian knowledge when we get back to America?”
“You mean, if we get back?”
“No I mean when we get back.” There was no way this whole thing would be the end of my life. Or hers. I had plans to spend the rest of my life lying in a bed that she shared.
She swallowed and then answered my question, “I’m going to write a book.”
“How much truth will you put in it?” I asked.
“As much as possible.” I didn’t need to ask if she would say anything about my alien origins, I knew she wouldn’t. She was joking when she said, “Do you know how good it would be for my career if I gave proof there were alien life forms on this planet and how they got here?”
I said, “I imagine you’d be internationally famous.”
“Or laughed at?” she asked. “Hmm, I’m sure I’ll get a hefty pay package from Val for this whole thing.”
“Hmm, I’ve probably been replaced at work.” I wouldn’t be surprised; I’d been gone so long.
“Well if you go bankrupt you can live with me and my huge pay out,” she smiled and it was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Eventually, long after that smile had drifted away, she said, “You know just normal life is a lot to think about sometimes.”
I knew what she meant. This extra burden would make us older faster. “Like not having coffee before work and lasting the day?” I joked.
“Ooh, that’s a good one,” she said and suddenly the smile was back. How could we both be smiling after a day as action packed as today? That was love. “Or, hmm…let me think…You’re mother overcrowding your life and trying to make every decision for you?”
“I have no idea what that is like,” I said, “but I’m sure it’s annoying. What about something as small but bothersome as deciding what to have for dinner?”
She chuckled. “You’re one of those people that can never decide?”
“Afraid so,” I smiled and then I was reminded of something, “If I had a pretty wife who could cook, I would never leave the house except to go to work so I could keep her. The rest of the time I would spend having sex and eating, and I would be deliriously happy.’” Liz laughed loudly. “I read that in a book called ‘Backroads’, I think that relates to a lot of men.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” she said.
“I’ve also read that it’s not presumptuous to adopt something that had been well told by someone else.”
She smiled. “You’re right. But it can also be seen as plagiarism.”
“Yeah. But I’m no writer so there’s no problem there.” I noticed that Hugh and Simon, despite their promises to keep watch, had fallen asleep. It made me yawn—I wished so much that I could join them.
Liz sighed loudly, obviously having noticed they’d fallen asleep also. “We can’t just sit here all night,” she said.
“I know.” I yawned again. “But what do you suppose we do? Go looking for them? We wouldn’t know how to kill them anyway.”
“What if the only way to kill them is to kill ourselves?” she asked quietly.
I hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t think that’s an option.” I’m sure I was yawning every twenty seconds by now.
“I hope it’s not,” she uttered. “I’m sure there’s a way, I just can’t think—I am too exhausted.” I could see her eye lids drooping and realized I must look much the same.
“Well how did they die in their past life? By stabbing themselves?” I asked.
“You don’t think that the only way to kill them is to get them to stab themselves again do you?” she shuddered. “That’s impossible.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “I was thinking more a long the lines of the same weapon. I wonder what happened to that dagger anyway.”
Liz was nearly asleep but when she finally registered what I had said a couple of minutes later she was wide awake, “The dagger! Oh my God Max you’re a genius!”
“What? What did I say?” I was suddenly made wide awake by her.
“Think back! What did they try and kill us with earlier?”
“Wosret tried to strangle you, he tried to kill you with his hands,” I said, not understanding.
“No, Nekhbet came after me with a dagger. You mustn’t have noticed. Jack kicked it out of her hands but it never occurred to me to think where she may have got it from. You don’t suppose it’s the same one do you?”
“How could they still have that in their possession?” I asked. “Surely the Egyptians wouldn’t have mummified them with it.”
I could see she was thinking fervently now. “Well Nekhbet had somehow got herself to Wosret’s tomb. What means to say she wasn’t able to get herself to the weapon, if she’d known where to look?”
“Hmm…but that doesn’t make sense,” I told her. “The dagger would have been disposed of after they’d died so how would they know where to look?” My brain was hurting because I was so tired. However, I must have had just enough left in me because I suddenly came up with a solution. “Oh…what if…?”
“What?” she asked intrigued.
“You know how it’s quite common when you die for your limbs freeze, so to speak? Is it called Death grip?” I saw her come to gradual understanding. “There’s been instances when people have died holding something and their clasp is so tight no one could pry things from their hands.”
Her mouth fell open.
“Because Wosret had stabbed himself, what if they hadn’t been able to tear the dagger from his hands so he’d been buried with it?”
She was amazed by my discovery.
”Although,” I suddenly said. “They knew there was the possibility of Nekhbet and Wosret coming back to get revenge so leaving them with a weapon would prove them to be rather thick.”
“They might not have had a choice,” Liz replied.
“Surely they’d just cut his hand off?” I asked, debating with myself. We were both silent for a long time and then she said, “Max…”
I was up on my feet in a second. I’d heard the noise too—footsteps. I turned my back on Liz for just a moment and scanned the ground for anything suspicious. It was very dark but the moon provided a lot of light in the depth of the desert. I heard footsteps behind me and I spun around, finding Liz standing with her arms crossed over her chest. She was looking at me and there was something in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before—something that frightened me a little.
“What? Did you see anything?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Oh.”
Suddenly she walked towards me and put her hand on my arm. “Let’s go somewhere,” she said.
I was puzzled. “What? We can’t, Hugh and Jack—”
“They’ll be fine,” she grinned. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
“What could you possibly have to show me?” I grumbled. “Liz, this isn’t a good time.”
She pouted. “Please, come?”
I went with her, not because I wanted to but because I thought something funny was going on. She took me to a secluded place where she started taking off her blouse.
“Liz!” I hissed. “This is not the time to be—”
It occurred to me then that this wasn’t Liz. Her movements and her smile, though they were similar, there was something off about them. She started to kiss my neck and run her hands up and down my back so I played along, not letting her realize I’d figured the situation out. I was panicking as to where Liz was and worried that Wosret had her when I heard a yelp behind me. I grabbed Nekhbet and pushed her away, she had a dagger in her hands that hadn’t been there before.
She fell to the sand and howled at me but I was already running after the figure of Wosret going in the other direction. “Liz!” I cried, chasing after them. Before I knew it, I was lifting my hand and urging a surge of power to come pouring out. A wave of strength knocked Wosret over and I was there, helping Liz up instantly. “Quick—go,” I instructed.
“No, I—” she paused when she saw Nekhbet come up behind me. “No!” she dived into her and they both tumbled to the floor in fury. Nekhbet had the dagger above her neck and Liz held her wrist, trying to force it away. “Max!” she managed to get out. “RUN!”
I hadn’t realized Wosret was up and after me. He chased me down a looming passage, screaming out something in Egyptian that I couldn’t work out because I was too focused on getting away. We were both throwing power balls of alien energy at each other and finally we both got hit at the same time and yelped as we were thrown back. My strength was no match to his—I flew harder and further. He was up first and after me so I fought the human way, punching him directly in the face.
“FUCK!” he screamed in pain. I noted that no blood came pouring from his nose, like it probably should have. We scrambled along the sandy floor, nearly banging into the stone walls. He managed to get me once in the stomach and then lifted a hand to use his powers—hoping to finish the job—when something happened that sent a ripple through the air.
It felt like the whole world was quickly sucked into a vacuum and then spat back out. I looked around me and was horrified to learn that we’d some how been thrown back in time to 2997 BC. I was wearing armour on my chest that matched Wosret’s and we were surrounded by ancient Egyptian furniture. He seemed momentarily fazed too, but not long enough for me to have the advantage. He was trying to kill me again straight away.
I used all my strength to heave him off and I used my precious two seconds space to search for a weapon. The walls were adorned with them so I had one in my possession quickly. Seconds later we heard a high pitched screech as Liz and Nekhbet came running down the passage, Liz was in front and Nekhbet soon after with her dagger held high in the air aimed at her opponent. I didn’t have time to worry, I was thrown into a sword fight that I hadn’t realized I was capable off. He moved left and tried to slice my torso but I quickly retorted with a jab of my three spiked dagger.
Where I’d gotten these skills from, I had absolutely no idea. Our battle was long and harsh because we were perfect rivals. Liz and Nekhbet joined us in the room and fought just as roughly. I could see that Nekhbet was trying to swap weapons so I intervened skilfully, sliding between the two and grabbing the important dagger. “No!” Nekhbet cried and came after me. I didn’t want to leave Liz alone with Wosret so I refused to let Nekhbet get in my way. I grabbed her fiercely by the arm and—inwardly cringing at the thought of hurting a girl—threw her roughly against the wall.
“Max!” Liz cried.
I threw her the dagger and kicked Wosret just as roughly in the stomach. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liz hesitate and then plunge the dagger deep in Nekhbet chest, right in-between the breasts.
“NO!” Wosret screamed loudly and went after her but I fought to keep him off. I earned a stab in the shoulder for my trouble and cried out in agony.
“Oh Max,” Liz was there in an instant, wanting to tend to my wound but I pushed her out of the way. I couldn’t let anything happen to her or I’d never live with myself. Wosret ran to Nekhbet’s side, she didn’t appear to be moving or even alive. He cupped her cheeks. “Eva, Eva please…”
Her eyes fluttered and she stared at him for one brief moment before she was out of it again.
“What do you want from us?” I screamed at Wosret in Egyptian.
“LIFE!” he screamed back and came charging towards me. “I have waited five thousand years and you will pay.”
~*~
I didn’t know what to do. I could see that Max was weakening; the fatigue and his wounds were definitely taken their toll on him. I heard Nekhbet, who appeared to be dead, suddenly let out a loud cry as her soul whooshed out of her. I saw a black shadow creep up the wall behind her, lean forward and screech again then…pop, into thin air. The body then disintegrated before my eyes, becoming a small black pile of sand on the floor.
I picked up the blade that I’d killed her with up off the floor and I tried to get close enough to Wosret but they were fighting furiously. I kept getting in the way of flying limbs. “Zan?” I asked, testing the name out. I wanted to see how he would react. “Zan.”
His eyes darkened for a moment and he glared at me in hatred. I took that moment to slide the dagger across the ground to Max who caught it and leapt on Wosret who was now coming towards me. He grabbed my neck and stared deeply into my eyes. “How could you?” he asked and then threw Max off him so roughly that he passed out briefly. When he came to Wosret cried at him, “If I shall be alone, so will you.”
With one swift movement, he kneed me in the stomach with all his strength and slammed my head back against the stone wall. He hurt me so badly that black spots appeared in my vision and blood started to drop steadily from my nose. He whacked my head again, just as hard, and I was out of it.
~*~
Hope you like it everyone! Thank you so much!!!
100% Pure New Zealand Beef
Here you go, I couldn't leave you hanging out much longer could I? Lol! Hope you like, only a few parts to go....
12.
I was too weak to stand up but I had to stop the bastard from killing Liz. I lifted my hand, focused all my strength into my palm and then released it, aiming directly at him. He bucked forward, releasing Liz and she fell to the floor motionless. “Liz,” I groaned, crawling along the sand to her. “Come on love, open your eyes…”
Wosret, though weakened by my blow, was not dead. He came after me, knocking me away from Liz but something happened causing my vision to crackle like a broken television set. I glanced at Wosret and saw he was experiencing the same thing. Suddenly we were burped back into present day so again we had no weapons except for the dagger that each of us wanted to get our hands on.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liz lift her head and groan as she came back to and I let out a breath of relief. It took her a moment to register and then she stuck her foot out and tripped Wosret over so he went down face first. I dived for him, damaging the rest of my body in the fall and stabbed the dagger as harshly into his back as I could. I rolled off him afterwards, hitting the sand with a thud.
I watched him curse at me and cry out in defeat. I think he gave up so quietly because he just saw no point in going on now that there was no Nekhbet. The same thing soon happened with his body as what had happened to his partmer and it was just Liz and I once again, alone and spewing our pain out all over the sand. I had to somehow find the strength to save her but I didn’t know if I could—I’d used my powers more then I ever had today and I was wounded gravely.
Crawling along the sand, I managed to reach her but she was out of it. “Liz,” I moaned. “Liz. It’s going to be alright.” I put my hands on her head and focused, scanning for damage. I managed to heal the wounds on her scalp and the damage at the crane of her neck. Her brain was bruised, one more hit and she would have been dead. When I was done I fell away absolutely exhausted. In fact, I was so shattered that I was dizzy and my vision was blurred.
Somehow I had to get her back to our tent to lie her down so Hugh and Simon could look after her, somehow…
I ended up fall asleep for about two hours and when I woke up, Liz was sleeping on the sand beside me in the same position I’d left her. I tried to shake her gently, urging her to open her eyes. “Liz…”
She stirred and sleepily asked, “Where are we? What’s going on?”
“We need to get back to our tent. Shhh…it’s alright,” I kissed her forehead when she groaned loudly. “I’ll help you...” After I’d managed to get up onto my feet I realized my left arm was broken. It ached horribly and I couldn’t move it well. I used my right arm to help her and she leaned heavily against my side as we walked down the stark black passage towards the only light we could see. The moon was a glorious sight and we would have enjoyed it, had we been able to keep our eyes open.
“My stomach and back are on fire,” Liz whispered brokenly when I lay her down on our sleeping-bag bed.
“I didn’t check them,” I answered, looking down at her. “Your ribs might be broken…”
We heard footsteps and suddenly Jack was standing with his head through the tent flaps. “What’s going on? Have you seen them?”
We both groaned loudly.
“So you did?” he asked, shocked.
”It’s over,” Liz told him and then shooed him away. “You have nothing to worry about.”
He wanted to ask more, but seeing that we were exhausted, he left and I fell down on the blankets beside Liz. I couldn’t bring myself to get under the covers so I just lay there.
I woke up when the suns rays leaked through the roof of the tent. I was in so much pain I could barely roll over and I had a headache that felt like if I did so much as think my brain would rip in half.
Suddenly I heard Liz ask, “How are you feeling?” Followed by her fingers stroking my arm soothingly.
“Not so good,” I admitted.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked.
“Everywhere,” I groaned. I lifted my arm and put my hand on my head, wondering if I could heal myself. I had been surprised last night by my abilities considering the length of time I’d gone without using them. Liz was silent as she watched me and I had to block her out to concentrate. I managed to travel throughout myself and fix my broken arm and many other things. When I came back into reality, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep once again.
This time when I woke up it was to Liz’s quiet sobs.
~*~
“Are you okay? Does something hurt?”
Max startled me when he woke up. I moved my hands off my face and said tearfully, “It does hurt my— ribs.”
“Let me help,” he said. I knew he needed food first to give him some strength back but when I suggested it he refused to leave me in pain. He opened the connection easily and I heard him pant loudly as he fixed what was wrong within me. We lay silently together afterwards, me with my tears pouring down my cheeks. I sniffled.
“Why are you crying?” he asked simply.
“All they wanted was to be together Max. If not in that life time, then in this one,” I told him. “We killed them. We’re responsible for that.”
“They weren’t alive,” he said back quietly. “And if we hadn’t killed them, they would have killed us.”
I let out a broken gasp and he hugged me roughly against his chest. “I just can’t help but think—”
“I know,” he said. “But it’s not our fault that fate dealt them an unfair hand. All we can do is use up the life we were given.”
I lay there in his embrace thinking about everything we’d just been through and for what? It seemed like such a waste of time. Nekhbet and Wosret had fought relentlessly to have another chance and they hadn’t been given one. I kept thinking that, until eventually Max explained that we were their second chance. I still thought the whole thing was damn confusing.
He left me alone for a while and I heard him talking to Hugh and Jack about what happened. They went to retrieve the dagger from the chamber we left it in, and for a moment it was perfectly silent. All that could be heard was the quite shift of sand as the wind brushed it around. I closed my eyes and thought about going home finally and going through the motions, trying to forget about this. I was certain that Max would go to Italy before heading back to America since it was just across the Mediterranean. This made me cringe, I had promised him I’d go to, but at the moment that was the last thing I wanted to do. I was in no state to be meeting his mother.
There were still things I needed to piece together about the whole mystery of Nekhbet and Wosret before I would be able to write a decent book on it. I had those photos of the wall paintings on the two of them and many more of the temples and ruins. I could write about the aggression and war the two cities of El Kab and there was the possibility of mentioning Kom El Ahmar’s change of leadership but I couldn’t talk about the fact that it was by an alien race from a far off planet.
I just couldn’t believe it was finally time to leave! It felt bizarre but incredible. I was smiling to myself when I heard the guys return so I got up and went and sat in the shade with them while we ate the remainder of our food. Hugh had many questions that I allowed Max to answer, Jack put his arm around me when he head I’d been knocked unconscious. He was amazed by our recovery; we’d only been sleeping in the tent for a day and a half.
Max and I looked at each other and I said, “We’re just lucky I guess.” It was a good thing he didn’t know just how hurt we’d been.
For the rest of the day I wondered around, talking with Hugh and getting all the information I’d need for the book. I needed to get straight back into researcher mode because my boss would be getting anxious. I’d have to call her when I got to Cairo.
Max and I went to Wosret’s tomb and took pictures of the engravings on the lid. We would have liked to have gotten a few of Nekhbet’s too but it was so deeply inside the lake that it would take a crane to get it out. Instead we used a film on the chamber beneath it and her old bedroom. I’d taken pictures of Wosret’s when we had been in Kom El Ahmar, and I was so relieved for that!
I kept searching my brain, not willing to forget something I might need. I took plenty of pictures around the general area of Nekhen and some standing by the side of the lake—to get a few of the other city. I’d used up the several films I’d had in my pack by the end of the day.
For some reason, the conclusion—or should I say deaths?—of Nekhbet and Wosret seemed rushed compared to the build up of their story. It had taken us over a month to get to this point, only to have it all be finished in a night and half a day. Max agreed with me, he felt like something else was waiting to happen. We still had that absence in ourselves where Wosret and Nekhbet had been but it was fading with the hours.
We left El Kab the next morning for the city. We all looked back at it for a distance—I would be happy if I never went back there again but realized I might have to. My heart was aching for the couple and nothing anyone said would change that. They were destined for injustice in a time when their love would not or could not be accepted by the Egyptians and to me that was devastating.
None of us spoke much throughout the journey, especially Max and I. We had a lot on our minds, I suppose. It was a sad time saying goodbye to Hugh. His daughter was so glad to finally have him be home for good and I even cried when I hugged him. “I’m sorry you missed out on the action.”
He laughed. “I got to be there for the after and before, that’s enough for me.”
“Really?” I raised my eyebrows. “Well we filled you in anyway.”
“Yes. Quite the story and of course it’s been a pleasure Miss Parker. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from you again?”
“Yes! I’ll need your help with the book I write about this whole ordeal,” I told him. “You’ll get a phone call in a couple of weeks so don’t forget anything.”
“Forget this?” he laughed again. “I don’t think so. It was a pleasure to be a part of this journey of discovery you two have been on.”
Max hugged him quickly too. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“As I said, it was a pleasure.”
It was when we were on the train heading back to Cairo Max and I finally started to discuss things. It was me who started it by saying, “What now?”
He rubbed his forehead. “I’ll ring my mom and let her know we’re coming when we get to a hotel.”
“Max…” I swallowed. How could I tell him that I didn’t want to go? “Do you have to go straight to Italy?”
He studied me for a long moment. “You don’t have to come; I understand your want to get home.” I could tell he was hurt. “But…it’s just…my mom would so love to meet you. What about for one day? Just stay for one day and then you can leave and I’ll stay for the wedding.”
How could I deny him that when he had such a look of longing on his face? “Alright, if you really want me to.”
“Thank you. Are you feeling alright?” he asked.
“Considering the circumstances, I’m feeling a lot better then I should,” I told him. “I just want to go home.”
“Me too.” He reached over and clasped my hand in his. “Liz, I don’t think I’ve had a chance to tell you in a while—but I love you. Seeing you close to death back there…I couldn’t stand it. It was like my life was ripped out from underneath me.”
My heart soared and I’m sure he could see it in my face. “Really?”
“I don’t know how I ever existed with out you,” he added. “Somehow we managed to get through this and I will be thankful for that for the rest of my life.”
I was a wee bit emotional and I had to wipe a tear from my eye. “I love you too.”
He smiled and held my hand tighter. “Let’s just say this was a big adventure and in a way we’re lucky.”
I let out a little laugh. “Sure, if you say so.”
We were in Cairo for two days—much too long in my opinion. Every time I closed my eyes I was haunted by Nekhbet and Wosret. Were we absolutely sure they were gone? Max kept assuring me they were, the dust they turned into was surely proof of that?
Jack decided to go back and stay with mom and dad for a while, so he got to leave after one day in Cairo. I went to the airport to say goodbye and promised him we’d talk when I got home. Max mailed the dagger back to the states because there was no way we’d be allowed it on the plane and there was no way we were leaving it behind.
For the last day in Cairo Max and I went for a walk in the morning and bought a few souvenirs—no body would forgive me if I came home empty handed, especially Jane!
We had breakfast together in a rowdy café and then went back to our room until our flight. We made all the phone calls we needed and I worked on my lap top for a while.
“What are you doing?” Max asked curiously, crawling onto the bed beside me.
“Just making a few notes to send to Val,” I answered and then I caught the look in his eyes. He reached out and closed my lap top before pouncing on me and pinning my limbs to the bed. I laughed. “What do you think you’re doing?”
He pulled off my glasses. “I was to make love to you,” he said. “My little researcher. Do you know how much that turns me on?”
“What? My profession?” I laughed.
“Everything about you,” and then he covered my mouth with his.
~*~
The flight was short from Cairo to Italy was short—that may have been because I slept the whole way, I wasn’t sure. Liz was quiet and I took that to mean she was nervous; I quietly assured her that my mother would be nothing but kind to her—even if she didn’t like her.
“Oh jee, thanks,” she groaned and put her head in her hands.
“I’m kidding! She’ll love you,” I smiled and then added, “Just like I do.”
We had to take a smaller plane to my mother’s home town and that flight was even shorter. It was the taxi ride to my mothers that seemed to take the longest. Liz held my hand the whole time, clenching it until I swore she nearly broke my fingers. “Calm down,” I kept telling her. “I love that you’re so worried about this, but it really is unnecessary.”
“Whatever,” she grumbled.
I could tell she loved my mother’s house when she saw it. This place was new to me as well because mom had moved since the last time I was here. We walked up the short pathway to the front door, us both holding our suitcases. I held the heaviest. The door was an old, dark wood and the porch was dark green. The rest of the house was cream.
Mom, the drama queen that she was, had been waiting and came flying out the doors at high speed. “Marco! Oh you’re finally here!” I was thrown into a tight hug and was nearly winded.
She spoke in Italian so I knew Liz had absolutely no idea what she was saying. Mom knew English but hated to speak it, I asked her politely to not be rude. “You must be Liz,” she said. “It’s so nice to meet someone my son thinks so fondly of.”
“Thank you,” Liz replied. “The same for you.”
“Come in, I’ve made a large dinner for you. Guess who’s here? Isabella. Liz have you meet Isabella?”
She glanced at me nervously. “No, I haven’t.”
“Oh well that’s fantastic! Now you can, she’s wanted to meet you as much as I have.”
On the way in Liz asked why my mom called my Marco. “She likes that name better then Max, Dad picked Max. She sometimes calls me Marco instead—I’ve told her not to but she’s been doing it since I was a kid. It’s completely different from my normal name but what can I tell you?”
“Oh…kay,” Liz smiled. “You sound sexy talking Italian you know.”
A blush covered both of our faces. “Thank you,” I said.
~*~
Everyone have a very happy Easter!!!! lots of love,
Nicola
12.
I was too weak to stand up but I had to stop the bastard from killing Liz. I lifted my hand, focused all my strength into my palm and then released it, aiming directly at him. He bucked forward, releasing Liz and she fell to the floor motionless. “Liz,” I groaned, crawling along the sand to her. “Come on love, open your eyes…”
Wosret, though weakened by my blow, was not dead. He came after me, knocking me away from Liz but something happened causing my vision to crackle like a broken television set. I glanced at Wosret and saw he was experiencing the same thing. Suddenly we were burped back into present day so again we had no weapons except for the dagger that each of us wanted to get our hands on.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liz lift her head and groan as she came back to and I let out a breath of relief. It took her a moment to register and then she stuck her foot out and tripped Wosret over so he went down face first. I dived for him, damaging the rest of my body in the fall and stabbed the dagger as harshly into his back as I could. I rolled off him afterwards, hitting the sand with a thud.
I watched him curse at me and cry out in defeat. I think he gave up so quietly because he just saw no point in going on now that there was no Nekhbet. The same thing soon happened with his body as what had happened to his partmer and it was just Liz and I once again, alone and spewing our pain out all over the sand. I had to somehow find the strength to save her but I didn’t know if I could—I’d used my powers more then I ever had today and I was wounded gravely.
Crawling along the sand, I managed to reach her but she was out of it. “Liz,” I moaned. “Liz. It’s going to be alright.” I put my hands on her head and focused, scanning for damage. I managed to heal the wounds on her scalp and the damage at the crane of her neck. Her brain was bruised, one more hit and she would have been dead. When I was done I fell away absolutely exhausted. In fact, I was so shattered that I was dizzy and my vision was blurred.
Somehow I had to get her back to our tent to lie her down so Hugh and Simon could look after her, somehow…
I ended up fall asleep for about two hours and when I woke up, Liz was sleeping on the sand beside me in the same position I’d left her. I tried to shake her gently, urging her to open her eyes. “Liz…”
She stirred and sleepily asked, “Where are we? What’s going on?”
“We need to get back to our tent. Shhh…it’s alright,” I kissed her forehead when she groaned loudly. “I’ll help you...” After I’d managed to get up onto my feet I realized my left arm was broken. It ached horribly and I couldn’t move it well. I used my right arm to help her and she leaned heavily against my side as we walked down the stark black passage towards the only light we could see. The moon was a glorious sight and we would have enjoyed it, had we been able to keep our eyes open.
“My stomach and back are on fire,” Liz whispered brokenly when I lay her down on our sleeping-bag bed.
“I didn’t check them,” I answered, looking down at her. “Your ribs might be broken…”
We heard footsteps and suddenly Jack was standing with his head through the tent flaps. “What’s going on? Have you seen them?”
We both groaned loudly.
“So you did?” he asked, shocked.
”It’s over,” Liz told him and then shooed him away. “You have nothing to worry about.”
He wanted to ask more, but seeing that we were exhausted, he left and I fell down on the blankets beside Liz. I couldn’t bring myself to get under the covers so I just lay there.
I woke up when the suns rays leaked through the roof of the tent. I was in so much pain I could barely roll over and I had a headache that felt like if I did so much as think my brain would rip in half.
Suddenly I heard Liz ask, “How are you feeling?” Followed by her fingers stroking my arm soothingly.
“Not so good,” I admitted.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked.
“Everywhere,” I groaned. I lifted my arm and put my hand on my head, wondering if I could heal myself. I had been surprised last night by my abilities considering the length of time I’d gone without using them. Liz was silent as she watched me and I had to block her out to concentrate. I managed to travel throughout myself and fix my broken arm and many other things. When I came back into reality, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep once again.
This time when I woke up it was to Liz’s quiet sobs.
~*~
“Are you okay? Does something hurt?”
Max startled me when he woke up. I moved my hands off my face and said tearfully, “It does hurt my— ribs.”
“Let me help,” he said. I knew he needed food first to give him some strength back but when I suggested it he refused to leave me in pain. He opened the connection easily and I heard him pant loudly as he fixed what was wrong within me. We lay silently together afterwards, me with my tears pouring down my cheeks. I sniffled.
“Why are you crying?” he asked simply.
“All they wanted was to be together Max. If not in that life time, then in this one,” I told him. “We killed them. We’re responsible for that.”
“They weren’t alive,” he said back quietly. “And if we hadn’t killed them, they would have killed us.”
I let out a broken gasp and he hugged me roughly against his chest. “I just can’t help but think—”
“I know,” he said. “But it’s not our fault that fate dealt them an unfair hand. All we can do is use up the life we were given.”
I lay there in his embrace thinking about everything we’d just been through and for what? It seemed like such a waste of time. Nekhbet and Wosret had fought relentlessly to have another chance and they hadn’t been given one. I kept thinking that, until eventually Max explained that we were their second chance. I still thought the whole thing was damn confusing.
He left me alone for a while and I heard him talking to Hugh and Jack about what happened. They went to retrieve the dagger from the chamber we left it in, and for a moment it was perfectly silent. All that could be heard was the quite shift of sand as the wind brushed it around. I closed my eyes and thought about going home finally and going through the motions, trying to forget about this. I was certain that Max would go to Italy before heading back to America since it was just across the Mediterranean. This made me cringe, I had promised him I’d go to, but at the moment that was the last thing I wanted to do. I was in no state to be meeting his mother.
There were still things I needed to piece together about the whole mystery of Nekhbet and Wosret before I would be able to write a decent book on it. I had those photos of the wall paintings on the two of them and many more of the temples and ruins. I could write about the aggression and war the two cities of El Kab and there was the possibility of mentioning Kom El Ahmar’s change of leadership but I couldn’t talk about the fact that it was by an alien race from a far off planet.
I just couldn’t believe it was finally time to leave! It felt bizarre but incredible. I was smiling to myself when I heard the guys return so I got up and went and sat in the shade with them while we ate the remainder of our food. Hugh had many questions that I allowed Max to answer, Jack put his arm around me when he head I’d been knocked unconscious. He was amazed by our recovery; we’d only been sleeping in the tent for a day and a half.
Max and I looked at each other and I said, “We’re just lucky I guess.” It was a good thing he didn’t know just how hurt we’d been.
For the rest of the day I wondered around, talking with Hugh and getting all the information I’d need for the book. I needed to get straight back into researcher mode because my boss would be getting anxious. I’d have to call her when I got to Cairo.
Max and I went to Wosret’s tomb and took pictures of the engravings on the lid. We would have liked to have gotten a few of Nekhbet’s too but it was so deeply inside the lake that it would take a crane to get it out. Instead we used a film on the chamber beneath it and her old bedroom. I’d taken pictures of Wosret’s when we had been in Kom El Ahmar, and I was so relieved for that!
I kept searching my brain, not willing to forget something I might need. I took plenty of pictures around the general area of Nekhen and some standing by the side of the lake—to get a few of the other city. I’d used up the several films I’d had in my pack by the end of the day.
For some reason, the conclusion—or should I say deaths?—of Nekhbet and Wosret seemed rushed compared to the build up of their story. It had taken us over a month to get to this point, only to have it all be finished in a night and half a day. Max agreed with me, he felt like something else was waiting to happen. We still had that absence in ourselves where Wosret and Nekhbet had been but it was fading with the hours.
We left El Kab the next morning for the city. We all looked back at it for a distance—I would be happy if I never went back there again but realized I might have to. My heart was aching for the couple and nothing anyone said would change that. They were destined for injustice in a time when their love would not or could not be accepted by the Egyptians and to me that was devastating.
None of us spoke much throughout the journey, especially Max and I. We had a lot on our minds, I suppose. It was a sad time saying goodbye to Hugh. His daughter was so glad to finally have him be home for good and I even cried when I hugged him. “I’m sorry you missed out on the action.”
He laughed. “I got to be there for the after and before, that’s enough for me.”
“Really?” I raised my eyebrows. “Well we filled you in anyway.”
“Yes. Quite the story and of course it’s been a pleasure Miss Parker. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from you again?”
“Yes! I’ll need your help with the book I write about this whole ordeal,” I told him. “You’ll get a phone call in a couple of weeks so don’t forget anything.”
“Forget this?” he laughed again. “I don’t think so. It was a pleasure to be a part of this journey of discovery you two have been on.”
Max hugged him quickly too. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“As I said, it was a pleasure.”
It was when we were on the train heading back to Cairo Max and I finally started to discuss things. It was me who started it by saying, “What now?”
He rubbed his forehead. “I’ll ring my mom and let her know we’re coming when we get to a hotel.”
“Max…” I swallowed. How could I tell him that I didn’t want to go? “Do you have to go straight to Italy?”
He studied me for a long moment. “You don’t have to come; I understand your want to get home.” I could tell he was hurt. “But…it’s just…my mom would so love to meet you. What about for one day? Just stay for one day and then you can leave and I’ll stay for the wedding.”
How could I deny him that when he had such a look of longing on his face? “Alright, if you really want me to.”
“Thank you. Are you feeling alright?” he asked.
“Considering the circumstances, I’m feeling a lot better then I should,” I told him. “I just want to go home.”
“Me too.” He reached over and clasped my hand in his. “Liz, I don’t think I’ve had a chance to tell you in a while—but I love you. Seeing you close to death back there…I couldn’t stand it. It was like my life was ripped out from underneath me.”
My heart soared and I’m sure he could see it in my face. “Really?”
“I don’t know how I ever existed with out you,” he added. “Somehow we managed to get through this and I will be thankful for that for the rest of my life.”
I was a wee bit emotional and I had to wipe a tear from my eye. “I love you too.”
He smiled and held my hand tighter. “Let’s just say this was a big adventure and in a way we’re lucky.”
I let out a little laugh. “Sure, if you say so.”
We were in Cairo for two days—much too long in my opinion. Every time I closed my eyes I was haunted by Nekhbet and Wosret. Were we absolutely sure they were gone? Max kept assuring me they were, the dust they turned into was surely proof of that?
Jack decided to go back and stay with mom and dad for a while, so he got to leave after one day in Cairo. I went to the airport to say goodbye and promised him we’d talk when I got home. Max mailed the dagger back to the states because there was no way we’d be allowed it on the plane and there was no way we were leaving it behind.
For the last day in Cairo Max and I went for a walk in the morning and bought a few souvenirs—no body would forgive me if I came home empty handed, especially Jane!
We had breakfast together in a rowdy café and then went back to our room until our flight. We made all the phone calls we needed and I worked on my lap top for a while.
“What are you doing?” Max asked curiously, crawling onto the bed beside me.
“Just making a few notes to send to Val,” I answered and then I caught the look in his eyes. He reached out and closed my lap top before pouncing on me and pinning my limbs to the bed. I laughed. “What do you think you’re doing?”
He pulled off my glasses. “I was to make love to you,” he said. “My little researcher. Do you know how much that turns me on?”
“What? My profession?” I laughed.
“Everything about you,” and then he covered my mouth with his.
~*~
The flight was short from Cairo to Italy was short—that may have been because I slept the whole way, I wasn’t sure. Liz was quiet and I took that to mean she was nervous; I quietly assured her that my mother would be nothing but kind to her—even if she didn’t like her.
“Oh jee, thanks,” she groaned and put her head in her hands.
“I’m kidding! She’ll love you,” I smiled and then added, “Just like I do.”
We had to take a smaller plane to my mother’s home town and that flight was even shorter. It was the taxi ride to my mothers that seemed to take the longest. Liz held my hand the whole time, clenching it until I swore she nearly broke my fingers. “Calm down,” I kept telling her. “I love that you’re so worried about this, but it really is unnecessary.”
“Whatever,” she grumbled.
I could tell she loved my mother’s house when she saw it. This place was new to me as well because mom had moved since the last time I was here. We walked up the short pathway to the front door, us both holding our suitcases. I held the heaviest. The door was an old, dark wood and the porch was dark green. The rest of the house was cream.
Mom, the drama queen that she was, had been waiting and came flying out the doors at high speed. “Marco! Oh you’re finally here!” I was thrown into a tight hug and was nearly winded.
She spoke in Italian so I knew Liz had absolutely no idea what she was saying. Mom knew English but hated to speak it, I asked her politely to not be rude. “You must be Liz,” she said. “It’s so nice to meet someone my son thinks so fondly of.”
“Thank you,” Liz replied. “The same for you.”
“Come in, I’ve made a large dinner for you. Guess who’s here? Isabella. Liz have you meet Isabella?”
She glanced at me nervously. “No, I haven’t.”
“Oh well that’s fantastic! Now you can, she’s wanted to meet you as much as I have.”
On the way in Liz asked why my mom called my Marco. “She likes that name better then Max, Dad picked Max. She sometimes calls me Marco instead—I’ve told her not to but she’s been doing it since I was a kid. It’s completely different from my normal name but what can I tell you?”
“Oh…kay,” Liz smiled. “You sound sexy talking Italian you know.”
A blush covered both of our faces. “Thank you,” I said.
~*~
Everyone have a very happy Easter!!!! lots of love,
Nicola
100% Pure New Zealand Beef
13.
I woke up in the night to Nekhbet looming over me with the dagger in her hands. She let out a harsh growl and then thrust it downwards, stabbing it directly into my heart and drew it beak, thrusting it downwards again.
“NO!” I screamed and sat up in bed checking my chest frantically.
Max shifted beside me and slowly woke up. I thanked God that he didn’t remain asleep; I was so scared I was trembling. “Liz?” he asked groggily, “What is it?”
I held my face in my hands and panted loudly. “Nothing, it must have been a dream.”
He switched on the bedside lamp and rubbed his eyes. “What happened? Was it Nekhbet again?”
“Yes. You were right I think, I just… I sub-consciously can’t believe she’s gone.” I pulled my hands away and looked at him. “I just want to go home Max.”
“You’re leaving tomorrow,” he said. “At lunch time.”
“I know I just feel like I have to get as far away from Egypt and El Kab as I can.”
He nodded. “I understand.” After studying me silently for an instant he asked, “Are you okay?” and wrapped his arms around me.
“Yeah…I will be in a moment,” I answered.
We lay down together and I felt him press his lips to my cheek. “I’m going to miss you when you leave tomorrow.”
“I’ll miss you too,” I replied. “I’m so sorry I can’t stay for the wedding.”
“I really understand, I promise.”
Tonight once we’d come inside from getting dropped off by the cab, I’d met Isabelle and everyone sat down for a rowdy Italian dinner. Max’s mother’s fiancée was there too and he seemed like a good guy. The food was so good and afterwards I was sure my belly would rip open from being so full.
When Max and I had retired to our room for the night, he’d asked me what I thought of them all. I replied that it was hard to tell because they hadn’t spoken much English unless they were talking directly to me. He apologized and explained that he’d told them not to be rude several times but they were so used to talking Italian together that it was probably accidental.
We lay there in the dark in silence and then I said, “Argh, I just can’t get her out of my head. I know I’m just being paranoid…”
“You need a distraction,” he purred and then I gasped when he flipped me over and reached for my cotton shorts. “I think I know exactly what kind of distraction too…”
I laughed. “Max! What’s gotten into you…?”
“No, I think the question is…” he kissed my neck, “what’s gotten into you?”
I moaned…“Max!”
~*~
“Oooh, I get to walk out onto the runway and climb the stairs to the plane! I always love doing that; it makes me feel famous or something because that’s what you always see the stars doing.”
I glanced at her sitting on the plastic air port chair and saw that she really was ecstatic to be on her way home.
“I’m going to do my queen wave when I get to the door,” she added.
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Sometimes you have such childhood delight in things—it’s so unexpected.”
“Like towards what you did to me last night?” she purred and winked at me.
“No, not quite like that.” Letting out a sigh, I soon admitted, “I wish I was going home now too. There are so many things I miss about my normal life.”
She rested her head on my shoulder and reached out to hold my hands in hers. “Like what?”
“Like…Murphy for one,” I said. “I miss my stupid old dog.”
“Can I pick him up from Michael and Maria’s and look after him until you get home?” she asked.
“Of course, if you like.”
The speaker phone announced that it was time to board the plane. We waited as long as possible, watching everyone else go first and then we finally stood up. “Hmm…I suppose this is it,” she mumbled. “I’ll ring you when I get there.”
I hugged and kissed her. “Okay, have a safe flight.”
“I will.” She smiled and backed towards the door. “I love you.”
“I love you to.”
“Make sure you watch for my wave…”
“Of course.”
When she was walking towards the plane outside I suddenly felt like I didn’t want her to leave me. It was completely irrational because I would be seeing her in two weeks but I wanted her to know how much I’d miss her and how much a part of my life she had become. After not leaving my side for nearly two months I couldn’t beer to think of her not there.
I ran out the doors onto the runway just as she was climbing the steps to the plane. “LIZ!” I called. “LIZ!”
She turned around, completely surprised, and her hair whipped across her face.
Then at the top of my lungs I exclaimed, “When you get back I want to marry you!”
The biggest smile broke out on her face—I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so happy. Her whole face glowed and my heart leapt because she was so beautiful.
Then, because it was the only answer she could give so I would know, she nodded furiously and mouthed ‘OF COURSE’.
A loud puff of air escaped my mouth and I nearly started crying. She’d said yes. Liz Parker was going to marry me. When she reached the top of the stairs she put on her black sunglasses and lifted her hand, doing her queen wave while smiling even more brightly.
~*~
Home. Jane was there to greet me when I got there. She’d dusted my room and made the bed with clean sheets and even, because she wanted it to be special, put a little chocolate on my pillow. Above the door she’d written ‘WELCOME HOME LIZZIE!’ with glitter pens.
“I was going to attempt and make you a huge dinner,” she said, “But we both know it would have ended disastrous so I’ll just take you out instead.”
“Okay,” I smiled. “That’s actually precisely what I need. But after I have a shower and settle in, give me an hour or so?”
“Of course,” she replied and then hugged me again. “Oh, I’m just so glad you’re home! You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
“You’re so brown!” she cried. “You look like an Egyptian goddess!”
I considered the irony in her words and a smile broke out on my face. “One hour,” I reminded her. “Then I’ll be ready.”
“Okay, I’ll just ring and confirm our reservation. We’re going to Aqua.”
“Aqua?” I asked, “Ooh fancy—we’ll I suppose we have a lot to celebrate.”
“Is there something else you aren’t telling me?”
“Just wait!” I laughed.
As I was closing the bathroom door she yelled, “Oh just one more thing! You’re mom rung like one hundred times!”
After I’d showered, shaved my legs and completely pampered myself, I picked out my nicest dress and curled my hair. After so long of wearing it up in a pony tale it was nice to feel it on my back, it had grown a little longer since I’d left.
Eventually I rung mom’s house, I did it grudgingly, but I knew if Jack was putting up with her it was the least I could do. She blabbered on forever and only let dad say a quick hello. Jack told me he’d be round to see me tomorrow.
“Liz! Let’s get going doll!” Jane cried.
“I have to go,” I told mom. “I’ll see you later.”
When we were at dinner and I told Jane that Max wanted to marry me she went absolutely ballistic. In the good way. “You two move fast don’t you?!”
“Oh…how long have we been together…?” I suddenly realized it felt much longer then it really was. “I suppose you’re right but there’s no point in waiting longer—waiting for what?”
“Waiting for what indeed,” Jane said and then clinked her wine glass against mine. “Congratulations, you so deserve happiness.”
The next morning Jack came with me to pick up Murphy from Michael and Maria’s. Maria made us sit on the couch for nearly two hours talking about the whole thing and what happened. She was almost as much as a breathful as Jane. We had coffee and cake while we were there and Murphy even came in from the garden and climbed onto the couch next to me—as if he knew I was taking him home.
Michael tried to entertain Jack a little so he wouldn’t be bored and I found that very helpful. They went and watched sport. Typical.
“So when does Max get back?” Maria asked. “Soon I hope?”
“He said he shouldn’t be there more then two weeks.”
“That’s good. Is he as brown as you? You’re glowing Liz, seriously, you look absolutely gorgeous. You’ve never ever looked better. Egypt certainly agrees with you.” My mom said the same thing when she saw me and then so did Val, the next day.
It didn’t take long for me to be quickly thrown back into my American life, even though a few things were different. I barely had time to think except for late at night when I was alone. That was when I rung Max and we filled each other in on what we were doing. While he was going to tux fittings and entertaining relatives, I was working with Val on my book, going to lunch with my mom and looking after his dog.
We’d been apart one week when he called to say that Zan and Ava were ‘alien’ names and that he suspected Wosret had given them each one—sort of like pet names. Of course, I wanted to know how and he explained that when he’d told his mother about our escapades in Egypt she’d said that she had a great, great, great grandmother whose name was Eva. She also knew that somewhere along the line there was a Zan. Those names had been taken from a metal book that had been destroyed hundreds of years before. The rest was just his own conclusion because in the flashes we’d seen of their lives, no one had called them by those names. It made perfect sense, why wouldn’t Zan try and hold onto something from his planet that he’d clearly missed?
Later that night when I’d finished talking to him I thought about his alien family. Since his origins started in Ancient Egypt and, in fact, Kom El Ahmar, I’d love to have known what his relatives roles were in that society. I wondered if Wosret would have picked a family of people he’d known back then to be reincarnated as. I didn’t think there was any way of tracing back that far especially since Max’s mother’s mother had died giving birth—there for severing any helpful knowledge.
Even though Max and I spoke regularly on the phone, we didn’t talk about what he’d said at the airport the day I left. Even though it was on the tip of our tongues. That waited until he got home one week and a half later.
I made him a large dinner in his apartment but Murphy kept getting up and trying to lie down on my feet so I nearly tripped many times.
“This is beautiful,” Max said when he tasted my cooking. I’d been to pick him up at the airport while the meal was in the oven. “How did you know this is exactly what I needed?”
“I’m magic,” I replied, a huge grin seeping across my lips. I loved him so much and I couldn’t keep my hands off him. While he was eating I kept getting up and getting things from the fridge, even if he didn’t need them, and then on my way back to my seat I’d pause and kiss his cheek or touch his shoulders. He found my devotion very amusing and I think…very pleasing.
Murphy seemed ecstatic to have his owner home. So much that when we went to sit on the couch together he stole my spot and I was made to sit away from him. The dog put his head on Max’s lap and growled any time when tried to move him. “Have you ever considered giving him away?” I asked sarcastically. “This isn’t the first time he’s kept me from you.”
Max laughed loudly and reached out to clasp my hand in his. “I’m definitely starting to consider it now. Tell me how your day was. How’s the book coming along?”
“It’s not,” I groaned and wanted so much touch him! “I just can’t seem to start it.”
“Maybe I can help you,” he had much the same look of longing in his eyes that I did. Finally, after waiting so long for him to bring it up, he said, “Liz…what I said in the airport. I mean it, I want to—”
My heart pounded roughly in my chest. “I meant what I said to. Of course Max, of course I want to marry you.”
There was no way Murphy was going to get in our way then! We both counted to three and lifted him. After he was on the floor and growling angrily at us, I leapt into his arms and we kissed passionately. “You don’t mind that we’ve only been together for—?”
I didn’t let him finish, just kissed him furiously again. “Of course not! I love you so much Max and I’ll never love anyone the same way ever.”
His love was very obvious in his eyes and in his hands that were touching my back. “Let’s go to my room,” he said.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
~*~
Only one part to go guys. Hope you liked it, let me know what you think!
I woke up in the night to Nekhbet looming over me with the dagger in her hands. She let out a harsh growl and then thrust it downwards, stabbing it directly into my heart and drew it beak, thrusting it downwards again.
“NO!” I screamed and sat up in bed checking my chest frantically.
Max shifted beside me and slowly woke up. I thanked God that he didn’t remain asleep; I was so scared I was trembling. “Liz?” he asked groggily, “What is it?”
I held my face in my hands and panted loudly. “Nothing, it must have been a dream.”
He switched on the bedside lamp and rubbed his eyes. “What happened? Was it Nekhbet again?”
“Yes. You were right I think, I just… I sub-consciously can’t believe she’s gone.” I pulled my hands away and looked at him. “I just want to go home Max.”
“You’re leaving tomorrow,” he said. “At lunch time.”
“I know I just feel like I have to get as far away from Egypt and El Kab as I can.”
He nodded. “I understand.” After studying me silently for an instant he asked, “Are you okay?” and wrapped his arms around me.
“Yeah…I will be in a moment,” I answered.
We lay down together and I felt him press his lips to my cheek. “I’m going to miss you when you leave tomorrow.”
“I’ll miss you too,” I replied. “I’m so sorry I can’t stay for the wedding.”
“I really understand, I promise.”
Tonight once we’d come inside from getting dropped off by the cab, I’d met Isabelle and everyone sat down for a rowdy Italian dinner. Max’s mother’s fiancée was there too and he seemed like a good guy. The food was so good and afterwards I was sure my belly would rip open from being so full.
When Max and I had retired to our room for the night, he’d asked me what I thought of them all. I replied that it was hard to tell because they hadn’t spoken much English unless they were talking directly to me. He apologized and explained that he’d told them not to be rude several times but they were so used to talking Italian together that it was probably accidental.
We lay there in the dark in silence and then I said, “Argh, I just can’t get her out of my head. I know I’m just being paranoid…”
“You need a distraction,” he purred and then I gasped when he flipped me over and reached for my cotton shorts. “I think I know exactly what kind of distraction too…”
I laughed. “Max! What’s gotten into you…?”
“No, I think the question is…” he kissed my neck, “what’s gotten into you?”
I moaned…“Max!”
~*~
“Oooh, I get to walk out onto the runway and climb the stairs to the plane! I always love doing that; it makes me feel famous or something because that’s what you always see the stars doing.”
I glanced at her sitting on the plastic air port chair and saw that she really was ecstatic to be on her way home.
“I’m going to do my queen wave when I get to the door,” she added.
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Sometimes you have such childhood delight in things—it’s so unexpected.”
“Like towards what you did to me last night?” she purred and winked at me.
“No, not quite like that.” Letting out a sigh, I soon admitted, “I wish I was going home now too. There are so many things I miss about my normal life.”
She rested her head on my shoulder and reached out to hold my hands in hers. “Like what?”
“Like…Murphy for one,” I said. “I miss my stupid old dog.”
“Can I pick him up from Michael and Maria’s and look after him until you get home?” she asked.
“Of course, if you like.”
The speaker phone announced that it was time to board the plane. We waited as long as possible, watching everyone else go first and then we finally stood up. “Hmm…I suppose this is it,” she mumbled. “I’ll ring you when I get there.”
I hugged and kissed her. “Okay, have a safe flight.”
“I will.” She smiled and backed towards the door. “I love you.”
“I love you to.”
“Make sure you watch for my wave…”
“Of course.”
When she was walking towards the plane outside I suddenly felt like I didn’t want her to leave me. It was completely irrational because I would be seeing her in two weeks but I wanted her to know how much I’d miss her and how much a part of my life she had become. After not leaving my side for nearly two months I couldn’t beer to think of her not there.
I ran out the doors onto the runway just as she was climbing the steps to the plane. “LIZ!” I called. “LIZ!”
She turned around, completely surprised, and her hair whipped across her face.
Then at the top of my lungs I exclaimed, “When you get back I want to marry you!”
The biggest smile broke out on her face—I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so happy. Her whole face glowed and my heart leapt because she was so beautiful.
Then, because it was the only answer she could give so I would know, she nodded furiously and mouthed ‘OF COURSE’.
A loud puff of air escaped my mouth and I nearly started crying. She’d said yes. Liz Parker was going to marry me. When she reached the top of the stairs she put on her black sunglasses and lifted her hand, doing her queen wave while smiling even more brightly.
~*~
Home. Jane was there to greet me when I got there. She’d dusted my room and made the bed with clean sheets and even, because she wanted it to be special, put a little chocolate on my pillow. Above the door she’d written ‘WELCOME HOME LIZZIE!’ with glitter pens.
“I was going to attempt and make you a huge dinner,” she said, “But we both know it would have ended disastrous so I’ll just take you out instead.”
“Okay,” I smiled. “That’s actually precisely what I need. But after I have a shower and settle in, give me an hour or so?”
“Of course,” she replied and then hugged me again. “Oh, I’m just so glad you’re home! You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
“You’re so brown!” she cried. “You look like an Egyptian goddess!”
I considered the irony in her words and a smile broke out on my face. “One hour,” I reminded her. “Then I’ll be ready.”
“Okay, I’ll just ring and confirm our reservation. We’re going to Aqua.”
“Aqua?” I asked, “Ooh fancy—we’ll I suppose we have a lot to celebrate.”
“Is there something else you aren’t telling me?”
“Just wait!” I laughed.
As I was closing the bathroom door she yelled, “Oh just one more thing! You’re mom rung like one hundred times!”
After I’d showered, shaved my legs and completely pampered myself, I picked out my nicest dress and curled my hair. After so long of wearing it up in a pony tale it was nice to feel it on my back, it had grown a little longer since I’d left.
Eventually I rung mom’s house, I did it grudgingly, but I knew if Jack was putting up with her it was the least I could do. She blabbered on forever and only let dad say a quick hello. Jack told me he’d be round to see me tomorrow.
“Liz! Let’s get going doll!” Jane cried.
“I have to go,” I told mom. “I’ll see you later.”
When we were at dinner and I told Jane that Max wanted to marry me she went absolutely ballistic. In the good way. “You two move fast don’t you?!”
“Oh…how long have we been together…?” I suddenly realized it felt much longer then it really was. “I suppose you’re right but there’s no point in waiting longer—waiting for what?”
“Waiting for what indeed,” Jane said and then clinked her wine glass against mine. “Congratulations, you so deserve happiness.”
The next morning Jack came with me to pick up Murphy from Michael and Maria’s. Maria made us sit on the couch for nearly two hours talking about the whole thing and what happened. She was almost as much as a breathful as Jane. We had coffee and cake while we were there and Murphy even came in from the garden and climbed onto the couch next to me—as if he knew I was taking him home.
Michael tried to entertain Jack a little so he wouldn’t be bored and I found that very helpful. They went and watched sport. Typical.
“So when does Max get back?” Maria asked. “Soon I hope?”
“He said he shouldn’t be there more then two weeks.”
“That’s good. Is he as brown as you? You’re glowing Liz, seriously, you look absolutely gorgeous. You’ve never ever looked better. Egypt certainly agrees with you.” My mom said the same thing when she saw me and then so did Val, the next day.
It didn’t take long for me to be quickly thrown back into my American life, even though a few things were different. I barely had time to think except for late at night when I was alone. That was when I rung Max and we filled each other in on what we were doing. While he was going to tux fittings and entertaining relatives, I was working with Val on my book, going to lunch with my mom and looking after his dog.
We’d been apart one week when he called to say that Zan and Ava were ‘alien’ names and that he suspected Wosret had given them each one—sort of like pet names. Of course, I wanted to know how and he explained that when he’d told his mother about our escapades in Egypt she’d said that she had a great, great, great grandmother whose name was Eva. She also knew that somewhere along the line there was a Zan. Those names had been taken from a metal book that had been destroyed hundreds of years before. The rest was just his own conclusion because in the flashes we’d seen of their lives, no one had called them by those names. It made perfect sense, why wouldn’t Zan try and hold onto something from his planet that he’d clearly missed?
Later that night when I’d finished talking to him I thought about his alien family. Since his origins started in Ancient Egypt and, in fact, Kom El Ahmar, I’d love to have known what his relatives roles were in that society. I wondered if Wosret would have picked a family of people he’d known back then to be reincarnated as. I didn’t think there was any way of tracing back that far especially since Max’s mother’s mother had died giving birth—there for severing any helpful knowledge.
Even though Max and I spoke regularly on the phone, we didn’t talk about what he’d said at the airport the day I left. Even though it was on the tip of our tongues. That waited until he got home one week and a half later.
I made him a large dinner in his apartment but Murphy kept getting up and trying to lie down on my feet so I nearly tripped many times.
“This is beautiful,” Max said when he tasted my cooking. I’d been to pick him up at the airport while the meal was in the oven. “How did you know this is exactly what I needed?”
“I’m magic,” I replied, a huge grin seeping across my lips. I loved him so much and I couldn’t keep my hands off him. While he was eating I kept getting up and getting things from the fridge, even if he didn’t need them, and then on my way back to my seat I’d pause and kiss his cheek or touch his shoulders. He found my devotion very amusing and I think…very pleasing.
Murphy seemed ecstatic to have his owner home. So much that when we went to sit on the couch together he stole my spot and I was made to sit away from him. The dog put his head on Max’s lap and growled any time when tried to move him. “Have you ever considered giving him away?” I asked sarcastically. “This isn’t the first time he’s kept me from you.”
Max laughed loudly and reached out to clasp my hand in his. “I’m definitely starting to consider it now. Tell me how your day was. How’s the book coming along?”
“It’s not,” I groaned and wanted so much touch him! “I just can’t seem to start it.”
“Maybe I can help you,” he had much the same look of longing in his eyes that I did. Finally, after waiting so long for him to bring it up, he said, “Liz…what I said in the airport. I mean it, I want to—”
My heart pounded roughly in my chest. “I meant what I said to. Of course Max, of course I want to marry you.”
There was no way Murphy was going to get in our way then! We both counted to three and lifted him. After he was on the floor and growling angrily at us, I leapt into his arms and we kissed passionately. “You don’t mind that we’ve only been together for—?”
I didn’t let him finish, just kissed him furiously again. “Of course not! I love you so much Max and I’ll never love anyone the same way ever.”
His love was very obvious in his eyes and in his hands that were touching my back. “Let’s go to my room,” he said.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
~*~
Only one part to go guys. Hope you liked it, let me know what you think!
100% Pure New Zealand Beef
Conclusion…
On the night of Liz’s book opening I was running a little late. I parked my car outside and hurried up the street, hoping with all my heart that she wouldn’t be angry. It had been thirteen months since we had been married and I still hated to displease her because if she is unhappy, I am unhappy.
The event was being held in the large conference room of the Masonic Hotel because Val and the publishers had picked it out two weeks before. There were only about forty-five people attending but I was incredibly proud of what Liz had managed to accomplish with the little amount of support she had.
Inside I took off my coat and looked around for her but because she was so short I had trouble. For a moment I briefly wondered who some of the people crowding around were before I made my way through them in search of someone familiar. Luckily Val found me and said teasingly, “You decided to show up.”
With a groan I replied, “I know I’m late, I was held up by traffic. Have you seen my astonishing wife around?”
She nodded knowingly. “Yeah, she’s over here, I’ll show you.”
When we found her in amongst everyone, she was in a deep conversation with a group of people who had many questions about the book. She smiled when she saw me and I kissed her cheek and apologized hastily.
“Where were you?”
I replied simply, “I was late leaving and then I got caught in traffic.” I wouldn’t tell her where I was late leaving and what I was doing to cause me to be tardy. That would be a surprise for later.
“This is Professor Justin Wilson and he was just asking me how we came across the story of Nekhbet and Wosret,” she explained. “Professor this is my husband Max.”
We shook hands and smiled politely. “Yes,” he said. “I was curious because it’s such an unusual thing to come across unless you’re looking for it and last I heard you weren’t simply traipsing about willy-nilly in El Kab.” He chuckled quietly and sipped his wine.
“You won’t believe it Justin but Liz is just the luckiest girl!” Val interrupted. “It just fell right into her lap! A man from a town near by El Kab faxed the beginning of the information to her to see if she was interested in researching it! He’d picked up her name while on line because of something else he’d seen of hers that he’d found intriguing.”
In actual fact we came up with that story as a cover up. We were in reality convinced that Wosret and Nekhbet had somehow sent the information but as to how, we were uncertain. The main question that plagued us was about the fax that had arrived while we were in Egypt—the one that Jane had received. If Nekhbet and Wosret were apart of us, how had they found a machine to sent off more of the story?
In the end we finally came to the conclusion that perhaps we had been fully possessed on an occasion we weren’t aware of and they had somehow managed to get the message sent.
“So is this man who got in touch with you here?” The Professor asked.
“His names Hugh,” Liz replied. “And no he’s not; he’s visiting family in France and couldn’t make it. I dedicated the book to him; really it had been him who stumbled across the history of the two cities when he was digging around one day, all I did was help him finish what he’d started.”
“You’re being modest,” I said. “You did a lot more then that.”
When Professor Wilson started talking again I put my hand on her back and let my eyes wander around the room, examining the set up. I had to hand it to the publishers, they’d found a very nice location and I was very impressed by the flow of everything.
However, a grimace crossed my face when I spotted Jack standing in the corner talking quietly to Jane. Not so long ago they had dated for nearly three months but were now broken up. For a split second I began wondering what they were talking about what Liz said something to me and I realized the Professor and Val were gone.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked.
She smiled. “I said, what do you think?”
I let out a soft ‘oh’ and leaned in for another quick kiss. “I think everything looks great, including you.” She really did too because she had on this cream coloured pant suit and heals. Also her hair was up loosely and curled.
Her hand brushed my cheek. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” My eyes wandered to her empty wine glass and I asked if she would like another one.
“No, I’m alright,” she answered. “I’ve had two already. You should go grab one though, it’s quite nice.”
“Alright, stay exactly where you are.”
When I got back her mother was standing with her and she said a quick hello. Liz hadn’t wanted to invite her in the beginning but she knew there was no way of avoiding it. Supportively, I put my spare hand on her back again and she shot me a quick smile to show she was thankful.
“So Lizzie who are all of these people?”
“Well some of them are authors…colleagues, some work at the museum…” Liz trailed off. “Professors too…actually I don’t completely know. Who cares? They’re here for me.”
I laughed. “That’s right. I’m so proud of you.”
“So am I,” Nancy reached out and took her daughter’s hand in hers quickly. “Now, I hate to pester but I will not forgive myself if I do not ask.” Of course we’d both though it was enough now we were married so she would get off Liz’s back about everything but she’d just found something else to hassle her about. “How long until I have a grandchild? I don’t think it’s too much to ask. It has been forever since you got married. What is the hold up?”
Liz groaned and rolled her eyes. “Actually, Max and I have decided we don’t want children.”
All the air in the room got sucked into Nancy. “Oh you ARE kidding! I’ve never heard such nonsense! No children! How positively horrible! Max do tell me she’s lying.”
“Nancy I think that whether we have children or not is our decision and we’re content with being alone right now,” I always stood up for Liz against Nancy. After all those years of putting up with her by herself I was glad to help her out. “Anyway, I’m sure Jack will have children.”
Nancy began huffing and puffing. “No he won’t! He won’t even stay in the same country for more then a year!”
“Mom please,” Liz begged. “Don’t ruin a pleasant evening.”
She shook her head and pressed her knuckles to her mouth to keep from continuing. “Fine, alright. But don’t expect this to be the last I talk about it.”
Under my breath I mumbled, “Of course not.”
Liz pinched my arm and soon we went towards the front of the room so could sign some of the books. The narrative wasn’t large, only ninety pages or so but still very good—I’d been the first to read it. It was dedicated to Hugh because we saw him as a great friend for helping us through the whole ordeal and in the acknowledgements there was me. I’d never had my name in a book before and I thought it was cool to be apart of it.
After the two years it took to finally finish the thing in November she’d announced its conclusion. Much to her disappointment, during its production she had had to travel back to Egypt once to get further information and I hadn’t been able to go with her. While she was there she met up with Hugh once more and they worked on it together.
At first she had worried about not having enough evidence to back up the theory of the rulers and wars between Nekhen and Kom El Ahmar but in the end the photographs had made it possible to name where the tombs and chambers could be found.
She drew maps of how to find them and explained where they were located by what was written in the ancient drawings. That’s where most of the information had come from and without that she wouldn’t have anything to back up her work.
“Hello Max.”
I looked away from Liz for moment and found Jack standing in front of me. “Hey, what have you been up to?”
I could have been mistaken but I’m sure I saw a scowl cross his face. “Just concluding some unfinished business. Did Liz tell you that I’m planning to leave again on a trip? Even though mom tried her hardest to persuade me not to. She thinks that it’s about time I settled down and got a job but I explained that I am still a free spirit, destined to wander…”
I grinned. “Yes but it would take a lot more then a simple explanation to sway you’re mothers opinion.”
He groaned. “Boy do I know that. And you married into it.”
“Hmm…so where are you off to?”
“My next destination is Canada, followed by Mexico.”
I nodded and thought: I so want to travel. I’m in my thirties, I should be able to. “At least you’re staying closer to home this time, right?”
“Yeah I suppose so. I’m going to go get another drink; you want me to get you another one?”
“Yah, sure. Thanks.”
When he was gone I thought more thoroughly about where I would travel if I could. I imagine it would be Europe first because everyone goes there and everyone always says it’s wonderful. I’d start in England or perhaps even Ireland and then travel East across to France and Germany. I’d also go to Spain and Greece…
“Where are you?”
Liz waved her hand in front of my face. “I’m sorry?”
A chuckle escaped her. “You’re somewhere else tonight. What are you thinking about?”
“Discovering the world,” I replied and then wrapped my arms around her waist. “What I want to do.”
A funny look shone in her eyes and then disappeared. “Oh, alright. Maybe it’s about time we did something about that? We’ll talk about it when we get home, eh?”
“Okay.”
~*~
It was around midnight when finally did get home and I found my candle lit surprise very pleasing. Max had some wine resting in ice and poured me a glass while we sat in front of the fire. We ate the chocolates the he’d bought me as a part of the congratulations and my other gift of a gold bracelet pleased me very much too.
“Here’s to the conclusion of a great thesis,” he said and we clinked our glasses.
I snuggled close into his embrace and said, “And…to starting a new chapter in our lives.”
After I’d kissed him he asked, “What do you mean?”
“Let’s do it Max,” I breathed out passionately. “Let’s travel like we’ve always talked about. When we got back here from Egypt and you lost your job we couldn’t go because I had to write this but now we have nothing stopping us. We could backpack…”
He paused breathing. “What about the house? Can we afford it now…?”
We’d bought this two bedroom place just before we’d gotten married and everyone who came here always told us it was it was very cultured. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what they meant but it probably had something to do with the Egyptian décor. We had a lot of printed canvases on the walls that I’d bought while my second trip to Cairo. Of course, we also had other knickknacks and the infamous dagger sat in a case on the mantel…
“I think we can. You know we’ve been saving up for something and though we never said it, you know it’s for this,” I also knew I didn’t need to convince him. He wanted to do this as much as I did. “Come on…”
A smile crossed his face. “You really want to?”
“Of course!” I exclaimed. “We just have to decide where we want to start and take it from there.”
“Okay,” he said happily. “I suppose so. Hey we could visit Hugh while he’s in France.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I thought of that. So would you want to start in Europe? Because I would, in Spain…” I tremor cursed through me. “Oh this is so exciting!”
He chuckled and wrapped his arm tighter around me. “I know. Let’s leave as soon as possible.
“Okay and you know another great place to go would be? Hawaii…oh and of course we’ll have go to New Zealand.”
“Alright Liz, wherever you want.”
At first Nekhbet had been scared of Wosret’s differences to her but eventually she learned to love them. She knew that no one would ever be like him and that no one could ever replace him.
With her head resting on his chest on evening she said, “Zan, what are we going to do? Its horrible meeting like this…”
His fingers touched her cheeks and chin. “Its better then not meeting at all.”
“Hmm…but do you think there is a future for us somehow? In some place that we can be together freely and not worry about being caught?” her lips grazed his finger tips and she kissed them softly, her eyes drifting closed. “Sometimes I’m terrified it will end badly for us.”
“Sometimes I wonder why you think so negatively,” he mumbled. “Eva, love, I’d kill every man on this planet to be with you but it probably wouldn’t help. For some unknown reason the Gods are against us. But isn’t it better to know we had these moments then to not have them at all? I could have stayed on my planet and then we never would have met…”
She shifted and propped herself up so she could look into his handsome face. “We could run away somewhere and no one would find us.”
His face was sympathetic. “Eva…”
“I know it’s idealistic but it’s hard to resist thinking it. Tell me you’ve never considered it.”
He kissed the end of her nose. “I’ve thought about it Eva. Of course I have.”
She sighed and lay back down again, wrapping her bronze limbs around his. “My parents have never wanted me to be happy. If they did they would never keep me from choosing you. If they weren’t in the way I could leave with you.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Like you said,” she uttered. “I’d kill anyone to be with you Zan.”
He sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know if that’s the best solution.”
Tears were in her eyes when she began raining kisses over his shoulders and chest. “Tell me something to make me feel better Zan, make my hurt go away…”
His fingers clutched her head to him. “This isn’t just words Eva, one day, perhaps not in this life, we will live a happily together. We’ll make love every day and I’ll wake up next to you, we’ll do nothing but worship and love each other for the rest of our existence.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
~*~
Well there it is guys, the end. It's been an...interesting ride. I hope you enjoyed it and of course, thank you so much for sticking around this long. I hope I covered all the lose ends, I think I did!
Anyway, love you all and hope to see you again on something new and better!
~nicola
On the night of Liz’s book opening I was running a little late. I parked my car outside and hurried up the street, hoping with all my heart that she wouldn’t be angry. It had been thirteen months since we had been married and I still hated to displease her because if she is unhappy, I am unhappy.
The event was being held in the large conference room of the Masonic Hotel because Val and the publishers had picked it out two weeks before. There were only about forty-five people attending but I was incredibly proud of what Liz had managed to accomplish with the little amount of support she had.
Inside I took off my coat and looked around for her but because she was so short I had trouble. For a moment I briefly wondered who some of the people crowding around were before I made my way through them in search of someone familiar. Luckily Val found me and said teasingly, “You decided to show up.”
With a groan I replied, “I know I’m late, I was held up by traffic. Have you seen my astonishing wife around?”
She nodded knowingly. “Yeah, she’s over here, I’ll show you.”
When we found her in amongst everyone, she was in a deep conversation with a group of people who had many questions about the book. She smiled when she saw me and I kissed her cheek and apologized hastily.
“Where were you?”
I replied simply, “I was late leaving and then I got caught in traffic.” I wouldn’t tell her where I was late leaving and what I was doing to cause me to be tardy. That would be a surprise for later.
“This is Professor Justin Wilson and he was just asking me how we came across the story of Nekhbet and Wosret,” she explained. “Professor this is my husband Max.”
We shook hands and smiled politely. “Yes,” he said. “I was curious because it’s such an unusual thing to come across unless you’re looking for it and last I heard you weren’t simply traipsing about willy-nilly in El Kab.” He chuckled quietly and sipped his wine.
“You won’t believe it Justin but Liz is just the luckiest girl!” Val interrupted. “It just fell right into her lap! A man from a town near by El Kab faxed the beginning of the information to her to see if she was interested in researching it! He’d picked up her name while on line because of something else he’d seen of hers that he’d found intriguing.”
In actual fact we came up with that story as a cover up. We were in reality convinced that Wosret and Nekhbet had somehow sent the information but as to how, we were uncertain. The main question that plagued us was about the fax that had arrived while we were in Egypt—the one that Jane had received. If Nekhbet and Wosret were apart of us, how had they found a machine to sent off more of the story?
In the end we finally came to the conclusion that perhaps we had been fully possessed on an occasion we weren’t aware of and they had somehow managed to get the message sent.
“So is this man who got in touch with you here?” The Professor asked.
“His names Hugh,” Liz replied. “And no he’s not; he’s visiting family in France and couldn’t make it. I dedicated the book to him; really it had been him who stumbled across the history of the two cities when he was digging around one day, all I did was help him finish what he’d started.”
“You’re being modest,” I said. “You did a lot more then that.”
When Professor Wilson started talking again I put my hand on her back and let my eyes wander around the room, examining the set up. I had to hand it to the publishers, they’d found a very nice location and I was very impressed by the flow of everything.
However, a grimace crossed my face when I spotted Jack standing in the corner talking quietly to Jane. Not so long ago they had dated for nearly three months but were now broken up. For a split second I began wondering what they were talking about what Liz said something to me and I realized the Professor and Val were gone.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked.
She smiled. “I said, what do you think?”
I let out a soft ‘oh’ and leaned in for another quick kiss. “I think everything looks great, including you.” She really did too because she had on this cream coloured pant suit and heals. Also her hair was up loosely and curled.
Her hand brushed my cheek. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” My eyes wandered to her empty wine glass and I asked if she would like another one.
“No, I’m alright,” she answered. “I’ve had two already. You should go grab one though, it’s quite nice.”
“Alright, stay exactly where you are.”
When I got back her mother was standing with her and she said a quick hello. Liz hadn’t wanted to invite her in the beginning but she knew there was no way of avoiding it. Supportively, I put my spare hand on her back again and she shot me a quick smile to show she was thankful.
“So Lizzie who are all of these people?”
“Well some of them are authors…colleagues, some work at the museum…” Liz trailed off. “Professors too…actually I don’t completely know. Who cares? They’re here for me.”
I laughed. “That’s right. I’m so proud of you.”
“So am I,” Nancy reached out and took her daughter’s hand in hers quickly. “Now, I hate to pester but I will not forgive myself if I do not ask.” Of course we’d both though it was enough now we were married so she would get off Liz’s back about everything but she’d just found something else to hassle her about. “How long until I have a grandchild? I don’t think it’s too much to ask. It has been forever since you got married. What is the hold up?”
Liz groaned and rolled her eyes. “Actually, Max and I have decided we don’t want children.”
All the air in the room got sucked into Nancy. “Oh you ARE kidding! I’ve never heard such nonsense! No children! How positively horrible! Max do tell me she’s lying.”
“Nancy I think that whether we have children or not is our decision and we’re content with being alone right now,” I always stood up for Liz against Nancy. After all those years of putting up with her by herself I was glad to help her out. “Anyway, I’m sure Jack will have children.”
Nancy began huffing and puffing. “No he won’t! He won’t even stay in the same country for more then a year!”
“Mom please,” Liz begged. “Don’t ruin a pleasant evening.”
She shook her head and pressed her knuckles to her mouth to keep from continuing. “Fine, alright. But don’t expect this to be the last I talk about it.”
Under my breath I mumbled, “Of course not.”
Liz pinched my arm and soon we went towards the front of the room so could sign some of the books. The narrative wasn’t large, only ninety pages or so but still very good—I’d been the first to read it. It was dedicated to Hugh because we saw him as a great friend for helping us through the whole ordeal and in the acknowledgements there was me. I’d never had my name in a book before and I thought it was cool to be apart of it.
After the two years it took to finally finish the thing in November she’d announced its conclusion. Much to her disappointment, during its production she had had to travel back to Egypt once to get further information and I hadn’t been able to go with her. While she was there she met up with Hugh once more and they worked on it together.
At first she had worried about not having enough evidence to back up the theory of the rulers and wars between Nekhen and Kom El Ahmar but in the end the photographs had made it possible to name where the tombs and chambers could be found.
She drew maps of how to find them and explained where they were located by what was written in the ancient drawings. That’s where most of the information had come from and without that she wouldn’t have anything to back up her work.
“Hello Max.”
I looked away from Liz for moment and found Jack standing in front of me. “Hey, what have you been up to?”
I could have been mistaken but I’m sure I saw a scowl cross his face. “Just concluding some unfinished business. Did Liz tell you that I’m planning to leave again on a trip? Even though mom tried her hardest to persuade me not to. She thinks that it’s about time I settled down and got a job but I explained that I am still a free spirit, destined to wander…”
I grinned. “Yes but it would take a lot more then a simple explanation to sway you’re mothers opinion.”
He groaned. “Boy do I know that. And you married into it.”
“Hmm…so where are you off to?”
“My next destination is Canada, followed by Mexico.”
I nodded and thought: I so want to travel. I’m in my thirties, I should be able to. “At least you’re staying closer to home this time, right?”
“Yeah I suppose so. I’m going to go get another drink; you want me to get you another one?”
“Yah, sure. Thanks.”
When he was gone I thought more thoroughly about where I would travel if I could. I imagine it would be Europe first because everyone goes there and everyone always says it’s wonderful. I’d start in England or perhaps even Ireland and then travel East across to France and Germany. I’d also go to Spain and Greece…
“Where are you?”
Liz waved her hand in front of my face. “I’m sorry?”
A chuckle escaped her. “You’re somewhere else tonight. What are you thinking about?”
“Discovering the world,” I replied and then wrapped my arms around her waist. “What I want to do.”
A funny look shone in her eyes and then disappeared. “Oh, alright. Maybe it’s about time we did something about that? We’ll talk about it when we get home, eh?”
“Okay.”
~*~
It was around midnight when finally did get home and I found my candle lit surprise very pleasing. Max had some wine resting in ice and poured me a glass while we sat in front of the fire. We ate the chocolates the he’d bought me as a part of the congratulations and my other gift of a gold bracelet pleased me very much too.
“Here’s to the conclusion of a great thesis,” he said and we clinked our glasses.
I snuggled close into his embrace and said, “And…to starting a new chapter in our lives.”
After I’d kissed him he asked, “What do you mean?”
“Let’s do it Max,” I breathed out passionately. “Let’s travel like we’ve always talked about. When we got back here from Egypt and you lost your job we couldn’t go because I had to write this but now we have nothing stopping us. We could backpack…”
He paused breathing. “What about the house? Can we afford it now…?”
We’d bought this two bedroom place just before we’d gotten married and everyone who came here always told us it was it was very cultured. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what they meant but it probably had something to do with the Egyptian décor. We had a lot of printed canvases on the walls that I’d bought while my second trip to Cairo. Of course, we also had other knickknacks and the infamous dagger sat in a case on the mantel…
“I think we can. You know we’ve been saving up for something and though we never said it, you know it’s for this,” I also knew I didn’t need to convince him. He wanted to do this as much as I did. “Come on…”
A smile crossed his face. “You really want to?”
“Of course!” I exclaimed. “We just have to decide where we want to start and take it from there.”
“Okay,” he said happily. “I suppose so. Hey we could visit Hugh while he’s in France.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I thought of that. So would you want to start in Europe? Because I would, in Spain…” I tremor cursed through me. “Oh this is so exciting!”
He chuckled and wrapped his arm tighter around me. “I know. Let’s leave as soon as possible.
“Okay and you know another great place to go would be? Hawaii…oh and of course we’ll have go to New Zealand.”
“Alright Liz, wherever you want.”
At first Nekhbet had been scared of Wosret’s differences to her but eventually she learned to love them. She knew that no one would ever be like him and that no one could ever replace him.
With her head resting on his chest on evening she said, “Zan, what are we going to do? Its horrible meeting like this…”
His fingers touched her cheeks and chin. “Its better then not meeting at all.”
“Hmm…but do you think there is a future for us somehow? In some place that we can be together freely and not worry about being caught?” her lips grazed his finger tips and she kissed them softly, her eyes drifting closed. “Sometimes I’m terrified it will end badly for us.”
“Sometimes I wonder why you think so negatively,” he mumbled. “Eva, love, I’d kill every man on this planet to be with you but it probably wouldn’t help. For some unknown reason the Gods are against us. But isn’t it better to know we had these moments then to not have them at all? I could have stayed on my planet and then we never would have met…”
She shifted and propped herself up so she could look into his handsome face. “We could run away somewhere and no one would find us.”
His face was sympathetic. “Eva…”
“I know it’s idealistic but it’s hard to resist thinking it. Tell me you’ve never considered it.”
He kissed the end of her nose. “I’ve thought about it Eva. Of course I have.”
She sighed and lay back down again, wrapping her bronze limbs around his. “My parents have never wanted me to be happy. If they did they would never keep me from choosing you. If they weren’t in the way I could leave with you.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Like you said,” she uttered. “I’d kill anyone to be with you Zan.”
He sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know if that’s the best solution.”
Tears were in her eyes when she began raining kisses over his shoulders and chest. “Tell me something to make me feel better Zan, make my hurt go away…”
His fingers clutched her head to him. “This isn’t just words Eva, one day, perhaps not in this life, we will live a happily together. We’ll make love every day and I’ll wake up next to you, we’ll do nothing but worship and love each other for the rest of our existence.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
~*~
Well there it is guys, the end. It's been an...interesting ride. I hope you enjoyed it and of course, thank you so much for sticking around this long. I hope I covered all the lose ends, I think I did!
Anyway, love you all and hope to see you again on something new and better!
~nicola
100% Pure New Zealand Beef