“Ihave the stone you want,” Khent said, pulling an old black ruby from a small pocket dimension he liked to keep close. Surrounded in his own murky energy, it would be enough of a temptation to distract Nergal from realizing the truth.
Nergal froze, indecision warring, then turned his attention to Khent.
Valentine hurried through the door that soon vanished.
Leaving Khent, an unconscious Morpheus, hundreds of demons and ghosts, and an angry god of pestilence in one hell of a face-off.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
Studying the stone,Nergal scowled. “You lie.” He moved like a vampire, with real speed.
Impressed, Khent tossed Morpheus aside and dodged a blow to his ribs, returning a kick to one of Nergal’s heads.
The lion roared and snapped at him. But Khent was already moving.
A demon rushed him, and as he dodged it, Nergal used its interference to rake claws down Khent’s side. Apparently, the god of death used any and all parts of the lion to his advantage, not just the heads.
“Well played,” Khent said as he avoided decapitation by a hairsbreadth.
Nergal grinned and licked his own blood from one battered mouth while the other growled a kind of laugh.
Khent watched as the two heads morphed into one. No longer lion but a combination of human and demon, once again his skin and long hair dark gray, his features neutral yet not.
Two large red eyes with slit pupils sat in a face that could easily belong to a vampire. Handsome to human standards, yet alien enough to keep it apart from anything mundane.
Nergal remained larger than Khent, but not too large, allowing for the continued back and forth of their small skirmish. Not really a battle, as Khent knew he couldn’t overwhelm Nergal in his own realm. But the god wasn’t going all out; Khent could tell.
Still, the invigorating combat proved satisfying. Khent moved faster, dodging demons and ghosts while keeping track of Nergal, which proved challenging. It had been a while since he’d been put through his paces, and he loved the fact death remained in reach.
“Why do you help the humans?” Nergal asked as they struck at each other once more.
Khent refuted such a horrid untruth. “I help no one but my own kin.”
“Not so.” Nergal took a blow to the face and spat out a tooth.
To no one’s surprise, a shadowy creature with eight legs and pincers sprouted from it. It scuttled away down the hall, and in the distance, someone screamed, “No.Stop.It’s eating me. Ithurts…”
The lord of the underworld ran a forked tongue over the gap in his teeth. A new tooth took its place, and Nergal spat his blood at Khent.
A good thing he’d moved, because the smidge of blood that hit the cuff of Khent’s shirt ate through it. Not quiteAlien-level, but close.
“Too slow.” Nergal rushed him.
Khent waited then released the spell he’d been crafting under his breath. A swell of power circled the god and raised him off his feet in a bubble of Khent’s death magic.
Instead of being annoyed, Nergal laughed uproariously. “Fantastic.You should be one of mine, boy. Why work for that bitch, Hecate?”
“She got to me first.” The truth, but not all of it. “Magic binds me and my new kin as one.” Khent waved away the demons drawing close, surprised they obeyed.
Being the focus of Nergal’s intensity was a huge compliment yet also unnerving. Enduring divine scrutiny, though appealing to one’s vanity, was never a good thing.
“You fascinate me, reaper.” Nergal’s eyes narrowed as he studied Khent. “You come from the Sons of Osiris. Hmm. You feel like Adjib’s get.”
“There is some relation.” Khent nodded, impressed at Nergal’s knowledge, though he shouldn’t have been. “My sire claims ties to the royal line of Hor-Den.”
“First Dynasty of Egypt.” The god looked Khent over. “It fits.”
