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Chapter fourteen
TORY
Imusthaveslept for a while, because when I opened my eyes again, Jack and Zayn were nowhere to be seen, and Wesley was sitting against the opposite wall with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. I lay cradled against West’s chest. He’d turned me sideways rather than astride him, and he had both arms around me. One hand toyed lazily with a lock of my hair. Embarrassment flooded through me again as I remembered that incredible orgasm I’d had with the other three guys watching, as if doing that with West wasn’t cringey enough. I must have shifted or something, because he looked down at me.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.
“I’m fine, good. Yes,” I chirped a little too brightly as I untangled myself from his hold and got unsteadily to my feet. He followed suit, straightening his clothes as he stood. I could see dried blood on his shirt collar, and I raised my hand to my neck, running my fingers gently over my skin. I froze and repeated the action.
West smiled. “You won’t find anything. One of our abilities is that we heal quickly. The stronger we are, the quicker we heal.”
“Oh,” I murmured, dropping my hand. He held up the wrist I’d fed from, and the skin was smooth. “Well, that’s good.” My voice was still a little husky, but to be honest, as physically good as his and Jack’s blood had made me feel, the whole vampire goddess thing was a lot to process in one day.
“Davenport and Zayn have gone to scout ahead and find us a way out,” West informed me. “Now that you’re awake, we’ll follow behind them.” He nudged Wesley with his foot. The younger man groaned and got slowly to his feet.
“Awake and responsive as ever, Sebastian,” West teased.
Wesley glared at him and ran his hands through his hair, mussing it up. “Some of us didn’t get the energy boost that others have,” he pointed out, and I immediately felt guilty.
“I’m sorry, Wes, do you want to—”
“No, he doesn’t,” West cut me off. “You’re just awakening now, and you’ve already fed me. I don’t want you to push your body too hard when you are nowhere near full strength. He can cope. It’s only a few miles to the exit.”
“Oh yeah, and with the hatay chasing us the whole way, no doubt,” Wesley muttered, but he smiled at me.
“Who’s Sebastian?” I asked.
“I am,” Wesley replied. “Or at least I was in our last lifetime. It takes a while to get the hang of all the names.”
“So we all reincarnate over and over again?” I enquired, trying to get a handle on this.
“Yes, although if we die before you do, we aren’t reborn until our lives will cross with yours. West is the exception. As high priest, he always gets reborn first so he can find us and call us all together for when you awaken. He can also awaken us himself, but it isn’t a pleasant experience.” He glared at West again.
West shrugged. “You physically brought her to Bubastis, what was I supposed to do? Leave you here defenceless to get eaten by hatay?”
“Whoa, back up,” I said, stepping between them. “Eaten by the hatay? What?”
“Hatay are spiritual demons. They devour supernaturals as their food source, body and soul. If you get eaten by hatay, it’s the end. No reincarnation, no eternity in the underworld. You just cease to exist.” West pulled out his guns and began to check them over.
The fear that had been crushed by the whole blood drinking thing was back with a vengeance, and I gripped the edge of the table. “Have you ever seen it happen?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered, but he didn’t elaborate, concentrating on the silver metal in his hand.
I went to ask when, but Wesley laid his hand on my arm and shook his head. I stopped, mentally filing it away for later.
Movement at the doorway had West suddenly tensing and raising his guns, but he relaxed as Jack and Zayn stepped into the room. I smiled at Zayn. He didn’t seem shy, but he was sort of in the background. I didn’t even know who he was, but he seemed as devoted to protecting me as the others.
“We tracked back to the tomb, but they don’t seem to have gotten through. Your grenade must have caved in the whole tunnel on the other side,” Jack said. He stood beside me, and I felt his fingers slide into mine and give them a slight squeeze in reassurance. I didn’t squeeze back, but I didn’t pull away either.
“We went up a couple of miles in the other direction. Some of the older exits are blocked, but I think we can get out through the old well, if we make it that far,” Zayn stated, his tone grim.
“Hatay?” West asked.
Zayn nodded. “A lot. More than before. They seem to be flooding in from somewhere. There is definitely something drawing them here.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Wesley murmured. “The hatay don’t hang around ancient sites waiting for ancient goddesses to show up once every eighty years or so. They hunt them around the world. So why are there so many here?”
“Unless they knew she was coming,” Zayn mused. The men all looked at him, and he shrugged his shoulders. “Makes sense when you think about it. Someone knew she was coming here, and they sent out a summons. If they caught her just as she was taking it back, it would ensure she never gained power.”
