52
Alex Volk stared in horror through the laboratory window.
Her latest potion was hissing and bubbling over the edge of the pot, steaming around the burner.
Once the liquid boiled, the heat needed to be reduced and the mixture would be left to simmer on low heat for about fifteen minutes.
But Alex was so mesmerised by the soldiers and the activities outside that she neglected her potion.
She was scared to death. And excited. She had never seen so many humans gathered in one place!
Her eyes widened. The automatic rifles in their hands made her uneasy. Viktor despised weapons. Where was he now? He must be back in the basement, rummaging through corpses again.
A thought struck her that made her stomach churn.
Could this be happening because of her? Because of the stolen golden plaque from the Temple of the Dead Immortals?
Because of the missing mummy? But if so, why were humans involved?
Surely, the Tribunal or the Beduin tribe wouldn’t have joined hands with the humans only to find a mummy?
With a trembling hand, Alex pulled out her phone from the pocket of her white lab coat and dialled Grigor.
The prolonged ringing suggested that her twin was likely under the skirt of yet another girlfriend.
But Alex rarely called him! Grigor should have guessed that if she was calling, it was something urgent. Like a human invasion!
She tried calling Viktor, but as she’d expected, his phone was out of range. There was no signal in the basement. Still, she reattempted his number, peering out the window. She got a single beep, followed by a dial tone, indicating she had lost the signal!
Her hand dropped to her side when she spotted Viktor kneeling at a soldier’s feet. He wasn’t answering because he was out of range – but because he’d been captured!
Fear snaked through her body, tightening around her throat.
Alex had never been truly scared because nothing truly frightening had ever happened to her.
The closest she’d ever come to real fear had been when the Beduin tribe had taken her.
But even then, Viktor had been by her side, and Alex had known that as long as he was there, nothing could affect her.
She moved away from the window and leaned on the edge of the lab bench. She gripped the counter with both hands. Her heart pounded like a hammer in her chest, but her mind was working overtime.
Alex wasn’t a coward. She might not have unlocked her lycanthrope form, but she would not tuck her tail like a frightened puppy, either. Viktor had saved her many times before, and today, she was saving him. At any cost.
The boiling burner caught her attention. She turned it off and began to devise a plan. After deliberating for a few minutes, she still didn’t have any idea how to stand up against two hundred armed soldiers. She would have prayed, but she didn’t even know which god to pray to for help…
Her ears caught a clicking sound. The door to the laboratory opened, and a stranger walked in, moving for all intents and purposes as though he was taking a casual stroll through his own home.
He wore no military clothing – only jeans, sneakers, and a dark blue T-shirt – and had no weapons, yet Alex’s eyes still widened.
The man closed the door behind him and fixed his amber eyes on Alex, who pressed her back against the lab bench, wondering if she knew him from somewhere.
And what was he doing in her laboratory? Well, technically, the lab belonged to Viktor, but he hadn’t been here for a while.
She continued to shrink into her white lab coat as the man inched closer. He was as tall as Viktor, if not taller. He had a lean but toned body, sinewy muscles bulging from the sleeves of his T-shirt, with prominent veins beneath his skin.
He stopped in front of her. “Hello, Alex.”
Alex jumped back, bumping into the lab bench.
His voice was pleasant, matching the rest of him – especially the strong jawline and high cheekbones that shaped his oval face.
Pale skin contrasted with short, dark hair, hinting that he hadn’t seen the sun in years.
Though his equally dark eyebrows lent him a serious, focused look, a playful glimmer shone in his amber eyes.
A small smile tugged at his lips. “Alex Volk, I expected you to be tougher.”
She blinked. “Tougher?”
“Braver. Forgive me, I’ve been trying to learn modern speech over the past few weeks, but I’m not sure I’ve quite grasped it.”
Alex relaxed slightly. Whoever this man was, he didn’t sound threatening. Her instincts weren’t warning her to be cautious around him. “Who are you?”
He frowned. “Are you really asking?”
“Yes, really .”
“I expected you to recognise me, given how much time we spent together.”
“ We have spent time together?”
“Well, I wasn’t quite as handsome back then…”
Alex grabbed the knife she’d used to remove the stems from the plants for her potion. Raising the blade, she shouted, “Enough games! You have three seconds to explain who you are, or I’ll use your guts for my next potion.”
He laughed. “That’s the spirit I was hoping for!”
The knife flew from Alex’s hand, embedding itself in the opposite wall. Her breath caught in her throat. What had just happened?!
The man’s expression became serious. “They call me the Horned God. You and your friends abducted me from the Temple of the Dead Immortals, where I had been imprisoned for centuries. Fate always knows what it’s doing, doesn’t it?”
“You!” Alex squinted. “You’re the Horned God? No, no. That’s not possible. The mummy was supposed to be sacrificed to the Horned God, and even if you were that mummy, there’s no way you could be… the Horned God!”
“One of you was going to be killed and sacrificed. To me. They offer me living and dead flesh as a tribute to the two states between which I exist. And as a way to keep me between these two states. But because the sacrifice was interrupted”—he shrugged—“I awoke.”
Alex regained her composure. “Let’s say I believe you. Where have you been all this time?”
“Around the Hospital. Roaming. Learning the modern language and customs.”
“You…” Her eyes drifted down to his clothes. “Are those Viktor’s clothes?!”
The man spread his arms wide. “Well, I had to wear something…”
“How did you escape from the basement where I kept you?”
“Easily. I waited for you to stop reading to me and fall asleep. Then I got up and walked out.”
“How did you know where to go to avoid being caught on the cameras?”
“I see light waves. The range of the cameras.”
“Oh.” If he was indeed a god, as he claimed, it made sense that he could see more than an ordinary creature. “So, you’re a god…” Alex’s forehead wrinkled from the mental process torturing her brain. She was a scientist. She dealt with facts. Scientific facts.
“I’m practically a demigod.”
“Okay…” Alex stepped away from the lab bench and began to pace, still deep in thought.
“I’ll accept that you’re not an ordinary creature given your dangerous demonstration with the knife and you not smelling like anything familiar.
But how will you prove that you’re indeed the lost mummy from the temple? ”
The man crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow.
“By recounting the stories you told me while you guarded me? About Viktor, who ‘prevents you from growing up’? About the vampire who ‘lives three doors down from yours but doesn’t pay you any attention’?
Or how about what you imagine doing with him… ”
Her cheeks flushed. “Okay, I get it! You’re him!” Deciding there was no better conversational partner than a long-deceased mummy had been even more foolish than stealing the slab from the temple. “What do you want from me?”
“To help me retrieve something that’s mine.”
“And what’s that?”
“A ring…”