how hard he tried. Vaguely, she knew that Elliott, Lord Rutherford, had left the house, slamming the door behind him. And she was alone now, battling her nemesis, Ramses, who at another time had turned away from her; Ramses, who had hurt her. It didn't matter that she couldn't remember. It was like the name. She knew!
Through the room they struggled and into the other. She freed her right hand only long enough to scratch at him with her bone-bare fingers, before he caught her wrist again. With all her strength she fought him, seething with rage. Then she saw his hand go up. She tried to duck, but the blow caught her, and she fell back on the bed. Sobbing, she turned and pushed her face into the pillows. She could not kill him! She could not snap his neck.
'Damn you,' she roared, not in the new tongue but in the old one. ' 'Evil Ramses!'' She spat at him as she lay there, hands drawn under her breast, gazing up at him, wishing she had the strength of a cat to spring at him and slice open his eyes.
Why did he look at her like that? Why did he weep?
'Cleopatra!' he whispered.
Her vision blurred for an instant; a load of memories so vast and heavy hovered just near her, ready to wipe out the moment utterly, should she give in. Dark, awful memories, memories of suffering she never wanted to revisit again.
She sat up on the bed, looking at him, puzzling over the tender, wounded expression of his face.
Handsome man he was; beautiful. Skin like the young ones; firm, sweet mouth. And the eyes, the large, translucent blue eyes. She saw him in another place, a dark place, as she rose up out of the abyss. He'd been bending over her saying the ancient prayer in Egyptian. You are, now and for always.
'You did this to me,' she whispered. She heard the glass breaking, the boards shattering, felt those stones under her feet. Her arms had been blackened, withered!' 'You brought me here, to these 'modern times,' and when I reached out to you, you ran from me!'
Like a boy, he bit his lip; trembling, tears washing down his cheeks. Should she pity him in his suffering!
'No, I swear it,' he said in the old familiar Latin. 'Others came between us. I would never have left you.'
This was a lie. An awful lie. She had tried to rise off the couch. The poison of the snake was paralyzing her. Ramses! In panic, she'd called out; she could hear her own call. But he hadn't turned from the window. And the women around her, they pleaded with him. Ramses!
'Liar!' she hissed. 'You could have given it to me! You let me die!''
'No.' He shook his head. 'Never.'
But wait. She was confusing two different crucial events. Those women. They hadn't been there when he said the prayers. She'd been alone . . . forever and ever. 'I'd been sleeping, in a dark place. And then you came. And I felt pain again. Pain and hunger, and I knew you. I knew who you were! And I hated you!'
'Cleopatra!' He came towards her.
'No, stay back. I know what you've done! I knew it before. You Ve brought me back from the dead!' she whispered. 'That's what you've done. From the grave, you raised me. And this is the evidence of it, these wounds!' Her voice had almost dried in her throat from pure bitterness. Then she felt the scream coming; she gasped, unable to hold it off.
He grabbed her by the arms, shook her.
'Let me go!' she cried. Calm now. No scream.
For a moment, he held on to her and she allowed it; after all, fighting him was useless. But then she smiled slowly. The thing was to use her wits. To understand all this once and for all.
'Oh, but you are very handsome, aren't you?' she said. 'Were you always so beautiful? When I knew you before, we made love, didn't we?' She lifted her fingers and touched his lip. 'I like your mouth. I like the mouths of men. Women's mouths are too soft. I like the silkiness of your skin.'
Slowly she kissed him. Before it had happened; before it had been so heated that all other men had meant nothing to her. If only he had given her the freedom, the patience, she would have always renamed to him; why hadn't he understood? She had to live and breathe as the Queen of Egypt. Hmmmmm, kissing him, hot as it had been then,
'Don't stop,' she moaned.
'Is it you?' he said. Such pain in his voice. 'Is it really you?'
She smiled again. That was the horror, wasn't it? She didn't know the answer herself! She laughed. Ah, it was very funny. She threw back her head laughing, and she felt his lips on her throat.
'Yes, kiss me, take me,' she said. His mourn moved down her throat, his fingers opening her dress, his mouth closing on her nipple. 'Aaaaah!' She could scarcely stand it, the searing pleasure of it. He held her captive suddenly, his mouth clamped to her, tongue stroking the nipple, pulling on her with the ferocity of a suckling child.
Love you? I've always loved you. But how can I leave my world? How can I leave behind everything that I cherish? You speak of immortality. I can't grasp such a thing. I know only that here I am Queen, and you 're moving away from me, threatening to leave me forever. . . .
She pulled away from him. 'Please,' she begged him. Where and when had she spoken those words?
'What is it?' he said.
'I don't know ... I can't ... I see things and then they vanish!'
'There's so much I must tell you, so much to be revealed. If only you'll try to understand.'
She struggled to her feet and walked away from him. Then looking down, she ripped off the dress, tore the fabric of the skirt to its hem. Pulling it back, she pivoted and faced him.
'Yes! Cast your blue eyes on what you've done! This is what I understand!' She touched the wound in her side. 'I was a Queen. And now I am this horror. What is this that you brought back to life with your mysterious elixir! Your medicine!'
She lowered her head slowly, hands up once more to her temples. A thousand times she did it, but it didn't stop the pain inside her mind. Moaning, she rocked back and forth. Her moaning was like a singing. Did that soothe the pain? She hummed with her lips sealed, that strange soft song, 'Celeste Ai'da.'
Then she felt his hand on her shoulder. He was turning her around. Like waking it was to look up at him. Handsome Ramses.
Only slowly did she lower her eyes and see the shining vial in his hand.
'Ah!' She seized it and went to pour its contents into her cupped palm.
'No, drink it!'
She hesitated. But he had poured it into her mouth, she remembered. Yes, down her throat in the blackness.
With his left hand, he grabbed the back of her head, and with his right he lifted the vial to her lips.
'Drink it down.'
She did. Gulp after gulp and it was gone into her. The light brightened in the room around her. A great lovely vibration shook her from the roots of her hair to her toes. The tingling in her eyes was almost unbearable. She closed her eyes, and then opened them and saw him staring at her in astonishment. He whispered the word 'Blue.'
But the wounds, were they healing! She held up her fingers. The itching tingling sensation was tantalizing. The flesh was covering the bone. And her side, yes, closing.
'Oh, ye gods, thank you. Thank the gods!' she sobbed. 'I am whole, Ramses, I am whole.'
Once again his hands stroked her, sending the chills through her. She let him kiss her, let him pull off the torn clothes.'' Suckle me, hold me,' she whispered. On the tingling flesh where the wound had been he kissed her, his mouth open, his tongue licking her. As he kissed the moist hair between her legs, she pulled him upwards. 'No, into me. Fill me!' she cried. 'I am whole.'
His sex jutted against her. He lifted her and thrust her down on it; ah, yes, nothing remembered now, nothing but the flesh; she went limp in ecstasy, her head thrown back, her eyes closed.
* * *
Defeated, he dragged his left foot like a cripple, drawing ever closer to the hotel. Had he been a coward to leave? Should he have stayed, struggling to be of assistance in that war between Titans? With malice in his eyes, Ramsey had said, Go. And Ramsey had saved his life by intervening; by following him, by making a joke of his last feeble attempt to get the elixir of life. Ah, what did it matter now? He must somehow get Alex out of Egypt; get himself out of Egypt. Wake from this nightmare once and for all and completely. That was the only thing left for him
