Chapter Text
It was like a calm had settled over his mind.
One moment he was yelling at Jenny, demanding to know why she was suddenly trying to tell him he was delusional after having just told him she thought they’d angered the gods in finding her long lost Egyptian princess, one moment he was telling her the mummy was real…and the next…
It was like he couldn’t even remember why he was so desperate for her to believe him. It was like he just…didn’t want to be around her any longer, he wanted to go. Yes, yes that was it. He wanted to walk away from her, but he wouldn’t be able to if she thought he was insane or upset.
“Nick?” Jenny’s voice called out, echoing in his mind. “What is it?”
“I um…” He shook his head, taking a breath and letting it out with a little tired laugh. “I think you’re right. I...this is all in my head.”
Mummies? Curses? Gods? It sounded ridiculous, it really did, and he had to laugh at himself for getting so worked up over it.
“Can't we just find the box, look inside, and when I see a 3,000 years old prune in there, no more curse.”
“You don’t need a sarcophagus, you need a doctor,” Jenny argued as he stepped past her. "I know someone. A specialist in London...
Nick paused, turning to face her, about to taunt her into joining him, a spiteful part of him wanting her to come with him as a niggling sensation in his mind told him she’d be proven wrong, wanted to cut down her arrogance.
But instead, he just nodded along. “I think you might be right,” he admitted. “I just…it’s been a hell of a day, Jenny. I just want to just get some sleep. Maybe if I can just rest, I’ll feel better about all this.”
Jenny nodded, seeming pleased. “I’ll go with you.”
“No,” he waved her off. “No I’m just gonna go to the nearest hotel and sleep. I’ll call you in the morning and we can talk about your doctor friend. Ok?”
Jenny didn’t seem pleased with it, but nodded anyway. “CALL me,” she insisted.
“Ok.”
He turned and started walking away, breaking into a run the second he was out of her eyesight to duck down the closest alleyway, bracing his back against it as he sank down behind a rubbish bin. He could hear it, her footsteps following his path, the woman clearly intending to follow him as he peeked up above the bin to see her pass the alley, not seeing him there.
He sank back down, rubbing his head as his heart slowed, trying to make sense of it all.
He’d wanted Jenny to come with him to check on the mummy, so why had he lied to her? The second he’d turned to “go to the hotel” he knew he wouldn’t. He was going to find that corpse if it was the last thing he did…so why had he sent Jenny on a wild goose chase?
He’d wanted her to go with him, hadn’t he? He’d wanted her to see the mummy was alive and real. But he’d lied to her, made her think he was staying where he was, made her wander around looking for him in places he wouldn’t be.
Why?
He tried to think back to what had possessed him to do it.
He’d felt that eerie calm settle over him, felt an intense desire to look upon the mummy that had nearly overruled everything he’d been feeling. And then it was like two parts of him were at war. One part wanted to drag Jenny along, force her to admit she was wrong. And another part…
Yes, that was why he’d sent her away.
Another part didn’t want her to see.
Another part of him didn’t want to…to share.
Share what though? Share the discovery? Share the treasure likely hidden in the sarcophagus? Share…share the mummy?
He didn’t know what it was but a part of him wanted to go there alone. It didn’t want Jenny around or anywhere near him. It just…it wanted to go. It wanted to find the mummy…
He nodded to himself and pushed himself up, so that’s what he’d do. Jenny would likely just antagonize him the entire way. It was better he go it alone. That way, if he was wrong, he wouldn’t have to hear her say she was right or that she’d told him so. And if he WAS right?
He didn’t know but he felt in his heart he wanted to be right more than anything…
And with that thought in mind he pushed off the wall and started walking down the alley, heading for the crash site.
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Nick hadn’t even realized he wasn’t at the crash site till he’d stopped at the edge of a field and had to climb under a fence, a spotlight shining in the distance right into his eyes and shaking him from his drifting thoughts. He gasped, looking around as he tried to work out where he was and WHY he was there.
He knew where the crash site was, he’d seen it on the television, and he could see the helicopters in the distance searching it…
So why was he a hundred meters away from it?
He frowned as he looked at the building ahead of him on the other side of the field. It was a monastery or a church of some sort. An abbey? Was that what the news had called it?
The more he thought about it, the less important it seemed what it was called or what it is. It only mattered that he was in the right place.
Yes, he was in the right place, he could feel it.
A rational part of his mind told him that it was just logic. The plane had been crashing and things were falling out of it so it stood to reason to search things away from the main crash site.
…another part of his mind whispered that wasn’t the reason he felt drawn here at all.
He shook that thought off and began to head for the church, stepping carefully through the ruins around the edge of it and looking around. He could feel his heart rate picking up, a sense of anticipation filling him the longer he looked around.
He turned suddenly when he heard a creaking noise and blinked at the sight of the heavy church doors opening, a figure shrouded in the darkness of the night standing there. Despite how dark it was, he could make out a faint glow around them, linen cloth in strands wrapped around a feminine body, black hair draped over a shoulder and a pale white face.
The figure reached out to him, lifting its hand in a beckoning, offering motion, staring at him just over its palm…
And with a flash of the search lights in his face, his vision whited out and suddenly he was back in Egypt, standing in the desert on a clear, bright day…
And there was the princess before him, her enchanting eyes locked on his, her hand reaching out to him, begging for him to take it, to accept it, accept her.
His breath left him as he felt his feet move towards her, his eyes never leaving her alluring ones. His heart was pounding by the time he reached her, lifting his own hand to gently touch hers. He drew in a deep breath at the feel of her hand, warm and soft and REAL in his own.
He could feel electricity travel up his arm from where her hand joined in his, spreading through is body with the most delicious heat he’d ever felt. It was like every part of him, parts he didn’t even know existed, were reaching out to her, wanting to be closer to her, craving more of her tempting touch.
She smiled at him, a smirk really, that nearly brought him to his knees to see on her face, her eyes sparkling with a pleased light. She was happy with him and he felt elation fill him, felt himself smile in return at her as she began to move backwards, tugging him lightly to follow her across the sands.
She turned between one step and another, facing forward to lead him on and a part of his heart cracked to no longer be able to see her captivating eyes.
As though feeling his longing, she turned to look at him over her shoulder, her entire countenance bleeding seduction, her gaze drawing him in like a moth to a flame he never wanted to extinguish.
He hadn’t even realized they were not alone in the desert till she stopped moving and he realized she had been leading him towards a bed of stark white, the frame made of gold, with high posts and a white billowing canopy around it.
She tugged him closer, taking his other hand and turning him without breaking her gaze from him till the backs of his legs were pressed against the bed’s side.
“Setepa'i,” she whispered, leaning up to press a sensual kiss to his lips, distracting him enough to nudge him just a little more, guiding him to sit on the bed’s edge.
She pulled away a moment later, just as he began to press his lips more firmly to hers, to gaze into his eyes, drawing him in. She began to lean in more, her hands moving to either side of him, lifting onto a knee to join him on the bed, making him crawl backwards to lie in the center of it with her following, neither of them looking away.
Nick nearly let out a groan when she moved a leg onto his other side, settling onto his waist and leaning over him. He gazed up at her, a small, entranced smile on his face at the beautiful, enchanting woman resting over him, seeming so…pleased and content with him.
She leaned in, whispering something against his cheek, he didn’t understand what it was she was saying…but the language and the way she spoke was so beautiful he didn’t care. She could be reciting the digits of pi and he would think it was the most glorious rendition known to man.
She pulled away and the only thing that kept him from trying to pull her back closer to him was the fact he could see her now. She reached out, touching his cheeks in a feather light touch, trailing them down his neck to his shirt…
And ripping it open.
He felt his blood start to boil and sing from the action, felt himself stirring as well from the way she was gazing at his body like it was something to be worshiped. God, he wanted to worship her and he would, right now he felt like he would do anything to stay there with her like this.
She leaned in, her hand coming up to the top of one of the bed’s frame while the other explored his body, to take hold of something he didn’t even see nor care to look at, his eyes were fixed on her.
She paused a moment, looking at him with the barest hint of surprise before her gaze drifted down to where his hands had come to rest on her thighs, bent beside his chest, he was lightly caressing them. He didn’t stop even when she stared at them, instead began to smirk when he saw her lips quirk up.
He’d pleased her…and that felt…he couldn’t describe the sense of euphoria he felt at that knowledge.
“Setepa'i,” she murmured, her voice soft in its surprise but taunting and tempting in its pleasure, her free hand drifting up from his chest to touch his cheek.
He felt something trail his chest and looked down to see she was holding an ancient looking dagger in her other hand, was lightly brushing the tip down his chest.
The smallest fraction of his mind told him he should be terrified, he should be fighting to get free, because a dagger that close to him would never be a good thing and he was probably about to get stabbed.
The majority of his mind couldn’t care less.
He felt like he would gladly die a thousand deaths at her hand if it would make her happy.
And so he felt himself smile in contentment, his gaze lazily drifting back up to her own, taking an endless amount of satisfaction in how she seemed intrigued by his reaction.
He wanted to see more of that, he wanted to see her eyes sparkling with emotion only HE could give her and one of his hands drifted off of her thigh to curl around hers as it held the dagger, guiding it towards his heart in a silent acceptance of her desire.
She let out a breathy sound at that, one that came across to him as entirely too erotic for him to continue to lie on that bed that much longer. Images were swarming his mind at that sound, imagining the ways he could get her to make it again. He saw images of rising up, of pressing his lips to hers, of surprising her with his initiation, of grabbing her around the waist and twisting them so she was pressed into the bed with him over her, covering her body with his…
He forced himself to focus, forced the thoughts to cut off there but he felt like she knew where his mind had gone. His body was already reacting, his heart racing, his breathing coming fast, his pupils likely blown wide.
She grinned down at him, lifting her hand from his cheek to the dagger, allowing his hand to fall away now that two of hers were enclosed around it. She muttered more words in the enthralling language and lifted herself up, gaining height and power as she raised the dagger up…
And brought it plunging down at his heart.
He didn’t even flinch…even as the dagger failed to pierce his skin, seeming to stop just a hair’s breath away from him, as though some force were preventing it from touching him.
She let out such a sorrowful, heartbroken breath at that that Nick felt his own heart shatter at the look in her eyes.
She lifted the dagger closer to her, tilting it this way and that till she noticed there was a hollow part on the end of it.
Something in Nick’s mind flashed to the thought of a stone, there should be a stone there.
And there wasn’t now.
And Ahmanet looked so upset about it, like she was a failure…
He quickly reached up, covering her hands with both of his and shifted himself to sit up as well.
She looked up at him, her eyes devastated…only to see him gazing at her with such a pleading look that it seemed to take HER breath away this time. She reached out with one hand to touch his face and he leaned into it, a hand coming up to press her hand more firmly to his skin.
"Tell me," he nearly begged of her, imploring her to let him know what he could do to help her, to ease her pain.
She tilted her head to the side, gazing at him before she smiled almost coyly, as though she needed to tempt him into doing what she wanted. “My Chosen…” her voice whispered in his mind, and he heard two sets of it, he heard the words in English, but he heard her speak in her native tongue at the same time. “My love.”
His eyes fell closed at that, something inside him seeming to slot into place at the intonation. "Yes..." he breathed, long and drawn out, shivers racing through him at the claim she laid on him, feeling everything inside him want to submit.
She smirked, pleased. "What will you do for me, my Chosen?" she lightly stroked his cheek with her thumb. "What will you give me, my Love?"
"Anything," he found himself responding before he was even conscious of it. He spoke with such a promise in his voice, as though he were making the most sacred of vows to her. "Everything."
“I need the stone,” she continued, stroking his cheek till he looked at her. “Find it,” she implored. “Bring it to me.”
He felt himself nodding, a determination filling him, a desperation and a need to see her will done above anything else. "I will."
“Then,” she leaned in, pleased with his response. “We shall be together. Forever.”
Nothing had ever sounded that appealing to him. Nothing had ever sounded more tempting. Nothing had ever sounded so right.
Yes, together. They would be together. Forever. He and his princess.
He would do it. He would find the stone and bring it to her or he would die trying. Because she wanted it, he would find it, he would do anything she wanted.
He would burn the world to the ground and build her a kingdom with his bare hands if he had to.
Anything to please her.
“My Chosen…” was her breathy response, as though she could see into his mind and read his thoughts.
And if she could? That was all the better. He wanted her to know. He wanted her to see the depth of his devotion to her, the lengths he would go to see her pleased, the desire he…the desire he felt for her.
He inhaled deeply at that, seeing the smallest hint of tears in her eyes, tears of joy and satisfaction and triumph and desire…her soul was bared to him to see and it was beautiful.
He felt like something had hooked itself into his heart, his mind, and his very soul and was tethered to her and it felt…glorious.
SHE made him feel like that.
And it was his honor to make her feel that in return.
He gave her a small smile as he leaned in, pressing his lips to hers in a move that seemed to surprise her but one she wholly returned. He would have gladly spent the rest of his life kissing her, but he was mortal yet and had to pull away when the need to breathe became too much. She seemed disappointed that their embrace was cut off, which made him smirk smugly to know he had as much an effect on her as she had over him.
And what a powerful effect it was.
He couldn’t look away from her if he tried, not when she was smiling at him, and he never wanted to.
She reached out with her other hand, it coming to rest on his neck in a tender touch…
When she suddenly cried out in pain and was jerked backwards away from him.
He gasped, the bright desert shattering around him in such a disorienting suddenness that he scrambled back and fell off of an alter in the middle of the decrepit church. He nearly screamed when he felt a pain stab through his chest and a burning sensation spread out from his neck and struggled to get his bearings enough. He felt light headed and woozy, the room spinning as he felt a weakness take hold of him.
He scrambled to try and stand, but only managed to get to his knees in time to see Ahmanet, wrapped in her mummification bandages, her skin pale white, her hair covered in cobwebs, being yanked back by a number of ropes attached to what looked like grappling hooks sticking out of her chest, darts with small pompoms stuck in her neck.
She was crying out in agonized pain, struggling to escape her bonds as men in black with guns swarmed into the church, rushing to subdue her.
He tried to reach out for her, but stumbled forward, the combination of the pain radiating through him and the jarring sensation of being pulled out of such a powerful vision weakening him. He looked up, blinking blearily as a man approached him.
“Who…who are you?” he managed to get out.
But the man just fired his weapon at him, a dart sticking into his neck as he fell backwards, the tranquilizer acting fast.
The last thing he saw before the world went dark was Ahmanet being crowded by the men, heavy chains in their arms, and him being powerless to defend her…