“I don’t expect anything. I just hope for things. Things like your time, your consideration, your touch.” This last she said on a whisper. He cupped her cheek and she turned into the caress, nuzzling him warmly.

“You may have all three whenever your heart desires it,” he said softly.

“I desire them all, especially the latter, as soon as possible.”

He smiled at her. “I will come to you as soon as I am done with Sagan.”

“Thank you,” she said with a smile.

“For what?”

“For telling Felix you would throw away the peace accord if he didn’t stop treating me the way he was. I know you wouldn’t really do that, but he didn’t and he believed you. That might make things a little better, though I won’t hold my breath.”

He frowned. “I think you should know, I was entirely serious. I would break this accord in a heartbeat if he treated you ill again. But in the end it isn’t up to me. This is a joint effort. Inclusion or exclusion of a race is something that would have to be decided by all. But, as you said, he doesn’t know that so perhaps he will take it to heart.”

Viève didn’t think that he would, his behavior afterward when Kamen wasn’t around a fair indicator, but it was the gesture that had touched her. Deeply.

“Hurry back,” she whispered to him. “I would have you naked and in my arms.”

He smiled again. This time wolfishly. “A most favorite place to be,” he said. He dipped his head and caught her mouth against his, kissing her deeply. His tongue touched hers and she sighed with pleasure. He kissed her so deeply she grew dizzy…perhaps from lack of oxygen. Definitely from the intensity of the passion that swam between them.

He separated from her mouth reluctantly, and then pushed himself away.

“Go on.” He nodded toward the bedroom door.

She smiled and went inside the room.

Chapter 19

Apep pushed with a fury. The pain meant nothing, he told himself. He was a god. The pain would pass as soon as this was over.

What did not pass, however, was the rage he felt. His curse, his beautiful curse…ruined! Destroyed! The Nightwalkers had done the one thing that should have been impossible to do: get all twelve races together, form a circle of connected hands. They couldn’t even see each other, never mind be tangible enough to clasp hands!

And that meant the Wraiths had been a part of it. After he had gone to them specifically and told them they would be fighting on his side. That they were his minions and that he had created them just for that purpose. The betrayal infuriated him even more than the broken curse did. He would have to lay waste to the ingrates as soon as he was done dealing with that puny little gathering of Nightwalkers in New Mexico. That had to be where they were. Where that traitor Kamen had gone after resurrecting Apep to this world.

He had attacked them there once before but he had been unprepared that time. This time he would not underestimate them. He would attack them in force, bringing his army to bear, starting there in his obliteration of the Nightwalker races. His original intention had been to use his Templars to destroy the first half of the Nightwalkers, the half they could see. Then he would lift the curse and set them on the second half. The tactic would have been far wiser than facing them all down at once.

But he had to start eliminating them before more of these little cells of Nightwalkers began to form, creating what might be an army of resistance against him. Not that they could win; but it was best to nip it in the bud before it got out of control. Especially since they could potentially do him the worst kind of harm. They might even be able to defeat him if they but knew the way. What if they did know the way? What would he do then?

He couldn’t worry about that now. He had to push. Get this parasite out of him. Only then could he regain his strength.

He pushed with a scream and suddenly…brilliantly…the child slipped from his body. The doctor caught the baby as Apep lay back in the bed with a flounce. He gasped for much needed breath, his body feeling the relief of no longer trying to push a huge creature out of such a tiny orifice. Ugh! How did human women stand it? And to do it more than once? They were mad!

The doctor held up the child with a grin.

“Congratulations! It’s a girl!”

“A what?” Apep cried, sitting up to take a closer look. Sure enough, his son was a girl! How did that happen? He was a celestial being and he had wanted a son—that should have made it so! A daughter? What the hell was he supposed to do with a daughter?

“Ugh!” he cried in disgust. “Take it away from me!” He snapped his fingers and two Templars hastened into the room to do just that.

“What shall we do with it, mistress?”

“Throw it out! It’s of no use to me!” Apep watched them take the child and the doctor stood up and mopped his brow.

“Surely you don’t mean…throw it out. It isn’t trash after all,” the doctor said as he fumbled around in his bag and gathered up a syringe and a vial in shaking hands. He pulled a large dose of the liquid into the syringe. Then, stumbling once over his own feet, he went to the IV and put the syringe in the port.

“Yes, I do mean throw it out! Find a dumpster and be rid of the thing.” Apep glared at the doctor. “What is that? What are you doing?”

“V-v-vitamins,” the doctor stammered. “T-to help with the healing.”

“I don’t need vitamins! I need a son! To think, I went through all of this for nothing.” Apep reached for the IV and ripped it out of his arm.

“No!” the doctor cried.

Apep narrowed his eyes on the doctor. “What kind of vitamins?” he asked.

He held out his hand and the vial the doctor had used floated out of the bag and into his palm. He read the label. Succinylcholine.

“This isn’t vitamins,” Apep said dangerously. “This is poison. You were going to poison me.”

“N-no I wasn’t!”

“You were!” Apep laughed. “I didn’t think you had it in you. And here I thought you were just a sniveling little cowardly, good for nothing human. Of course, I can’t possibly trust you, but I do admire you for having big brass hanging balls. Throw him out too!”

Apep used the power of his mind to bash the doctor against the wall, the floor, the ceiling, and then the wall again. Spots of red splattered against the surfaces, and finally Apep released the doctor and his broken body crumpled to the ground.