The doctor was nervously pacing the room, biting his nails in a disgusting little habit. Ew. Maybe he should get a better doctor.

No. There wasn’t time for that. There wasn’t time for any of this.

“Oh, let’s just cut it out of me already!” Apep cried in frustration.

“We don’t have a surgery room!” the doctor said. “You’d risk infection or—”

“I’m not going to get an infection, I’m a god!”

“A…a god?”

“Yes! A god. A god who’s tired of this whole pregnancy business. Get this fucking thing out of me—yeow!”

Apep ended on a cry when a sudden cramp seized his belly. He froze. Was this it? Was it starting?

“What was that?” he demanded of the doctor.

“Your labor has begun!” he said with relieved excitement. “It’s only a matter of a few hours now.”

Or at least the doctor hoped. He knew better than anyone how long a labor could last. If it didn’t progress fast enough for this—this god—there was going to be trouble. He and his poor frightened nurse would be in serious danger. He didn’t doubt that in the slightest.

“Rose, put the external fetal monitor on. I want to track the baby’s heart rate.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine,” Apep said, waving them off. “It’s part god after all.”

“Well, even so…just to be safe,” the doctor urged. God help them if something went wrong with this birth or with the child. He had to take all of the precautions he could. “Ms. Odjit, really, you should let us.”

“Oh well, all right. If it’ll keep you from whining about it!” A second labor pain lanced through Apep’s belly. That one was a bit stronger. Hmm. He wondered just how painful this business was going to be. Surely not that bad, otherwise humans wouldn’t be doing it over and over again, polluting the earth with their inferior progeny. Now his progeny…his progeny was going to be great. Superior. By far. It was almost worth all this waiting for him to make an appearance.

The nurse put the monitor around his belly and immediately the machine registered the baby’s heartbeat.

“It’s a good, strong beat,” the doctor said.

“Of course it is. I told yeoooowww!”

Okay, now that one was particularly uncomfortable. He was a god. This shouldn’t hurt so much. It was this inferior human body he’d been resurrected into. It must be broken. It was bad enough there were two other souls clamoring around inside his head, the one called Odjit and the body’s original soul before the Bodywalker had taken possession of it, but now a broken body on top of it? It was really too much.

Well, at least he had his worshippers to help him. Actually, the Templars were Odjit’s worshippers, but that was just semantics. Once they realized how glorious a god he was, then they would truly be followers of Apep.

If only they would take this thing out of him.

Another pain came and he was encouraged. This would be over in another hour or two. Then he could go about his business of conquering these little people. After he got rid of the Nightwalkers. They were the only thing that could stand in the way of his total domination. Of course, they didn’t know that. If they did…well…But they didn’t. They didn’t even know the others existed, thanks to his ingenious curse. Of course, he might have to dispel that curse if he was going to use the Wraiths to help him destroy the other Nightwalker races. But dispelling the curse was just as dangerous as leaving it be. All they had to do was get in the same room together and…

Well, that wasn’t likely to happen now was it? No sense even thinking about it.

Instead, he was forced to focus on the pain that was creeping up on him in increasing intensity.

Yes, this should be over any time now. And once he had his son by his side, he would be unstoppable.

—

Viève refused to hide in Kamen’s rooms, although he was very reluctant to have her go out amongst the others. They called a gathering of all the Nightwalkers presently on the property, just as they did every night, and introduced the Phoenixes around using the human mediators. Kamen then spoke about his next plan of action.

“Kat,” he said to Ahnvil’s wife, “I will need you to make contact with Grey.”

Grey was the most powerful Djynn in the United States. No one knew exactly where he was located, but he always seemed to come around when he was needed most. But this, Kamen feared, was going to take a bit of coaxing.

“I can do that,” Kat said readily. “He gave me the means to contact him any time. He taught me how. Djynn 101.” She was proud of her accomplishments as a Djynn, especially since she hadn’t even known she was one until a few months ago.

“Good, because the Empress of the Mysticals is in his care and if we are going to get their cooperation, we’re going to have to go through her,” Kamen said.

“All right. Let me try while we’re all here.”

Kat stood up and walked to the center of the room. She sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes. She went quiet and seemed to focus for a minute. After a while she began to frown.

“I know I’m doing it right. But he’s not answering.”

“Grey doesn’t seem the type to be summoned,” Kamen noted.

“But he’s always answered me before. I kinda thought he liked our lessons. But maybe he’s grown bored of me. You know how capricious Djynn can be.”

“I am well aware,” Kamen said. “Can you try SingSing? Maybe she knows how to get to Grey.”

“Oh great. SingSing is just as hard to contact. But I’ll try.”

Kat closed her eyes and did her best to focus on calling SingSing. Grey had said it was just a matter of envisioning the Djynn she wanted to contact and calling out a hello. “Oh, SingSing…where are you?” she called out.

“I’m right heeeereee! Tada!”

With a snap, a diminutive little woman appeared practically nose to nose with Kat. Startled, Kat jerked back.

“Hey, Kitty Kat, what’s shakin’?” SingSing asked.

“SingSing, we need your help locating Grey,” Kat said.

“What? No hello? No how are you? Just straight to business?” SingSing frowned.

“No no,” Kat said quickly. “Of course, you are right. That was terribly rude of me. Hello, SingSing. How are you?”