skeptical about that.
“I’m just enticingly persuasive and you’re a closet submissive?” He flashed a white smile at me and I automatically moved closer to him. His gaze dropped and I noticed that being under his arm gave him a perfect view down the front of my shirt.
“Ugh. How did you become such a creep?” I skittered away.
He laughed. “Millennia of practice, my dear.”
The flight itself was nice and relaxing. As soon as we sat down I put on headphones and ignored Zane, who sat next to me. First class was a definite improvement. Here you had room to stretch out and get comfortable, and I did just that, flipping open Carrie’s thesis and starting to read.
Seven hours and one layover later, it was 5:00 a.m., and we were waiting for the plane to take off for the final leg of our trip to Cairo. I’d read every page of Carrie Brown’s thesis from cover to cover, but there was nothing there, except for a brief mention of Nitocris as a “legendary” figure in history. Frustrated and cranky, I shoved the notebook into the seat back pocket and ripped my headphones off. I needed coffee. Lots and lots of coffee, and an idea of what to do next.
Depression crept into my mind, and I thought of Noah, trapped with the vampire queen and her minions. He’d made a noble sacrifice for me.
Zane looked over and gave me a sleepy look. “Hey there. Decided to talk to me again?” The hint of a smile curved his mouth, and I found myself fascinated anew by his lips.
He looked breathtaking in the early-morning light. Maybe I was just tired of bickering with him, or maybe it was the heavy-lidded look he was casting my way. There was no ulterior motive in his gaze, just an almost sweet smile that made me want to curl up in his lap with his arms around me. My irritation at him ebbed away, replaced by the returning warmth of attraction. I knew Zane was bad for me, but I didn’t care.
“I was just trying to get some coffee from the flight attendant,” I explained, tucking a lock of now-flat hair behind my ear.
“I doubt they’ll be serving much until the plane takes off,” he said, his sleepy eyes focused on me.
“True,” I admitted, glancing around the small cabin. This last flight was about nine hours long, and I wasn’t looking forward to being stuck in my seat for the entire time. The plane was nearly full. An occasional straggler wandered in, and judging from their speed (or lack thereof), we still had a few minutes before the doors were shut. I glanced over at Remy’s seat.
Empty.
I frowned until I realized Stan’s seat was empty as well, and my eyes immediately went to the first-class bathroom. A man in a dark jacket knocked on the door, frowning. If Remy was doing what I suspected, he was in for a wait.
A low moan came from the bathroom, and the waiting man’s face showed horrified surprise. I lifted the thesis higher to cover my burning cheeks. My mind pictured what they were doing inside that tiny room and I felt an answering throb inside my body.
Zane’s lazy chuckle reached my ears. “Doesn’t look like he’ll be getting into the bathroom anytime soon.”
I shot a quick glance over. He was stretched out with his long legs under the seat in front of him. His long, heavy coat trailed onto the floor, and I frowned. “Aren’t you hot in that thing?”
He winked at me. “Do you think so?”
I sighed. “Not like that, you idiot. Aren’t you uncomfortable? You haven’t taken it off the whole time, and it’s going to be a hundred degrees in Egypt.”
He yawned, settling farther into his seat and closing his eyes. “I have my reasons.”
“And what would those be?”
One eye cracked open. “A killer sense of style?”
Eye roll. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I know.” He waved a hand at the rumpled thesis. “So, did you find anything useful in there?”
“Nothing,” I said, sounding as miserable as I felt. “If this water-death-trap existed, nobody knows where it is except Nitocris herself, and she didn’t feel like telling anyone.”
“The water chamber was destroyed so that it wouldn’t be used again,” Zane said, closing his eyes. “You won’t find it.”
Huh? “What do you mean, I won’t find it?” I reached over and raised one of his eyelids. “Repeat that?”
He chuckled and pushed my hand away, closing his eyes again. “I said, it was destroyed a long time ago.”
“So why are we going to Egypt?” My voice raised a decibel or three.
Zane shrugged. “I thought you might want to see her tomb. I can take you there if you like. That’s why she sent me with you, after all.”
Unbelievable. “You let me go on a wild-goose chase for the past day for nothing,” I sputtered, “and you could have told me all along what I needed to know.” Hurt, I turned my eyes to the window on my left, arms crossed over my chest. I wasn’t talking to him again until he apologized.
Silence. A moment passed, then a soft snore punctuated the silence. How could he sleep at a time like this?
The flight attendant shut the plane doors, and we soon began to pull away from the jetway. As the angle of my window changed, sunlight blasted into my eyes, and I pulled the shade down.
The sun …
I looked over at Zane’s sleeping form with horror. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that he hibernated in the daytime. He didn’t seem disturbed by the sunlight streaming in through the windows. His face was slack with sleep, his lips hinting at a leftover smile. I poked him tentatively. Nothing. He might as well have been dead.
The flight attendant stopped by our row. “Your husband will need to put his seat up for take-off.”
I thought fast. There was no way I could raise that seat with two hundred pounds of conked-out vampire in it. “He’s um, narcoleptic,” I said. “The doctor says it’s best to leave him undisturbed if he has one of his spells.” I tried to look pained. “I hope this isn’t a problem?”
She gave me a sympathetic smile. “I’ll talk to the captain, but I don’t think it will be.”
Whew. One crisis averted.
Remy slid into a seat across the aisle, Stan dutifully following. Her lipstick was all over his face, and she had a cat-licked-the-cream smile on her lips, her eyes bleached silver.
“You have no shame, do you,” I said.
“None whatsoever,” she replied, wiping the corners of her mouth with a manicured fingertip. “Doesn’t do a lick of good in this line of work.”
I sighed and picked up the in-flight magazine. It was going to be a damn long trip.
Fourteen hours later, after three more explanations about my husband’s narcolepsy, two runs with mishandled luggage, and a taxicab to the hotel, I was more than ready to call it a day. The sun was setting across the Nile as we pulled up to the hotel.
With the help of a few eager bellhops, I dumped Zane into his room across the hall. I tipped the men generously so no one would ask too many questions, then escaped to my room.
Hotel sweet hotel. The room was clean and spacious, with a king-sized bed and a window A/C unit that I cranked up to full blast. The balcony overlooked a crowded, dirty street full of tourists and locals, and white linen curtains swayed in the twilight breeze. Pretty swank. There was a full bath and shower, and a closet to hang my things, so I unpacked and tried to relax for a few hours.
My thoughts kept turning back to Noah, and I thought my heart would shatter. I wasn’t in love with him, but he was the only person who made me feel safe in this new, crazy life, and he was in the clutches of the enemy a thousand miles away. And it was my fault.
Which lasted for all of five minutes, until I saw what Remy had packed for me. I pulled out a stiletto and
