Dead Embers(16)

The rest of us jumped in back, still glamored and safe from prying eyes. Impatience gnawed at me, with annoyance fighting for space. I couldn't understand what all the cloak-and-dagger spy stuff was about. The driver put the truck in gear, and the engine churned and screeched before it settled into a regular rhythm that sounded far too much like the vehicle was about to throw up. Soon we began to slowly roll down the street. Way too slow for my taste. Come on. I can walk faster than this.

The trip felt interminable, the potholes and bumpy ride churning my stomach even worse than the Bifrost did.

When we finally halted at a checkpoint I sent a silent grateful prayer up to Odin. Somehow the prospect of falling off a cliff seemed welcome when compared to the rocking and rolling in the back of the ancient truck.

Great. Just what we needed. A carsick Valkyrie. Probably because I was meant for flight, not road travel.

Neither Mika nor Sigrun seemed to mind the ride. They sat opposite me, moving back and forth as we bounced on the untarred roads, patiently awaiting the end of our trip.

At a checkpoint, a soldier rapped out a command, and our driver rolled his window down, greeting him in Arabic. The soldier didn't answer, just stared back, irritation clearly imprinted in his dark scowl. He barked another order, both his tone and volume harsh and demanding.

Beside me Fen stiffened, bringing both his hands together, steepling them, the movement slow and deliberate. Both Warriors handed over their passports and waited while the soldier inspected the documents and scrutinized Joshua and Aimee, an unfriendly, suspicious gleam in his eyes.

I feared the man would have the audacity to ask Aimee to remove her head covering. Sigrun, on my right, tensed, and I knew exactly how she felt. Blood thundered in my ears, and I held my breath, waiting. I craned my neck to watch the soldier as he walked around the car to the passenger window. He motioned for Joshua to roll the window down, and in that moment I was glad for my friend's dark looks. Courtesy of his Indian mom, Joshua had jet-black hair and a pair of ebony eyes to match.

My heart thumped louder when the soldier shot another instruction at them. Joshua glanced back at the driver, then pushed the door open and stepped out of the car very slowly.

My heart sank. The soldier's nostrils flared, as if the truck and its occupants angered him. The look on his face didn't bode well for Joshua, or for us. I met Fen's hooded eyes, but the gathering night shadowed his expression. Only the tightness in his shoulders confirmed my fear.

Joshua was about to get arrested.





Chapter 15




The soldier squinted again at the passport, then stared up at Joshua's face. Way up. Joshua towered head and shoulders above the soldier. A desperate giggle rippled through me as I realized for the first time since my friend had been reborn into his role as einherjar, Warrior of Valhalla, how much Joshua had grown.

Joshua's jaw tightened as he stared down his interrogator. Nobody breathed. Fen still sat with his fingers pressed firmly against each other. Perhaps he was praying really hard. At last the soldier gave Joshua a nod and walked around the back of the truck. He stopped, stooped low to inspect the undercarriage, then returned the passports to the driver.

I exhaled only when the soldier stalked to the boom gate to raise the iron bar. Fen too seemed to relax, finally unsteepling his rigid fingers. The truck grunted, lurched forward, and we were on our way.

The dusty horizon darkened, promising a swift desert nightfall. Safely out of the central city limits, we traveled for a short distance deeper into the residential area that bordered the city. In the gathering darkness, the buildings loomed, stacked cheek to cheek, so close that each house seemed to either lean against or suffocate the other.

The ratchety old car grumbled to a stop beside a shadowed door whose blue paint had flaked away after years in the heat of the unforgiving Cairo sun. A house loomed over us, identical to the drab building attached to it, a thin three-story whose windows stared coldly down on us.

Sigrun let out a sigh, easing the comically pained expression she'd worn for the entire twenty-minute ride. She'd wriggled throughout the trip, and I wasn't surprised. Now she stretched and leaned toward me to whisper, "Thank Odin that horrible ride is over. Valkyries were made to fly and fight, not be packed into Midgard vehicles on long trips like this." She added, almost to herself, "Next time I am flying."

I grinned, and glanced beside me at Fen in time to catch his amused expression. We scrambled from the bed of the truck, grateful for the opportunity to stretch limbs that had taken a beating from the bumpy ride.

Joshua jumped from the cab and scanned the darkness intently. Something told me he wasn't searching for signs of danger. Knowing Joshua, he was probably hoping for a glimpse of Mika. But my Ulfr friend paid no attention to his furtive glances as she checked her weapons and stood on the sidewalk, watching the street and waiting for her commanding officer. The darkness hid my smile; Mika was all business, but I knew she couldn't hold out against Joshua's charms for too long.

The cool Cairo night seemed too still and too silent as the team gathered at the door, eyes on the street and the buildings around us.

"Mika. Aimee. Watch the street. Everyone be aware, and be silent." Fen, too, kept his eye on the shadows around us.

My heart tripped as I checked frantically for my glamor. No matter how many times I used it, I always felt as if I'd lose it when it mattered the most.

The driver came around, handed a small object to Fen, nodded curtly and returned to the vehicle. I peered over Fen's shoulder, but the night hid the object in the shadows of his palm.

He turned to fidget at the doorway. Metal scraped metal and the lock clicked.

The door creaked open into a maw of blackness. The team slipped inside like a cluster of shadows, dark and silent. We'd made it inside the old Egyptian house, shutting the door behind us. So far, so good.

My heart lurched again with the grumble and clatter from the truck as the driver revved the engine and slowly drove down the darkened street. The racket caused more than a few cringes and hasty glances from my team. Guess Fen forgot to give the driver the "silent and undetected at all times" speech.

So far we hadn't been followed or chased, or shot at, for that matter. I was beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. But despite my doubts, my heart still thumped as I waited with the others inside the deserted house.

The musty darkness hung thick with incense and unwashed bodies. Mika's eyes glowed amber, and I could just make out the sound of sniffing as she scented the building. Although the room was large and airy, its whitewashed walls suddenly seemed to close in on us. The eight people gathered in the dark were tall, muscle-bound and took up far too much space.

Great. First carsick, now claustrophobic. I was beginning to think I sucked at being a brave and strong Valkyrie.

I choked off a sigh and looked around. Though I couldn't claim to have Ulfr-sight, my eyes began to slowly adjust to the darkness and soon I was able to make out more than just the glowing eyes of our Ulfr partners. Before us, a single door sat open, revealing a dusty, silent passage. Nobody moved; we just waited for the next signal from Fen.

I watched him, hoping he'd get on with it. How long were we expected to stand around waiting?

He tilted his head, listening with what looked decidedly like a wolf's ear. I shuddered, hoping there would be no need for any of the Ulfr to transform.

My own patience ran out faster than the rest. "Fen, what—"

He glanced sharply at me, admonition clear in his amber gaze. "Silence, Valkyrie," he said, his voice low with a trace of wolf rumble. I cringed and wished I'd just shut up in the first place. He continued in such a hushed tone that I had to strain to hear him. "This is supposed to be our North African headquarters. Do you want to alert any spies who might have been following us, or watching us? Would you like to reveal the location of these headquarters to the Vanir?"

I paled, feeling very foolish. I really hadn't paid much attention at the briefing to have missed all this vital information.

"Listen. Can you hear that?" Muffled voices drifted to us from somewhere below. "I assume this building has a basement. We need to find it."

I raised an eyebrow and waited. What did we have Ulfr for, if not to sniff out hidden nooks and crannies? Sure enough, only seconds later Mika beckoned to Fen, pointing at the far wall. Half-hidden in the shadows and tucked directly behind the entrance door sat a second, almost invisible door. Painted to match the whitewashed walls, it blended so well into the wall that it wouldn't have been easy to spot even in the daylight.

Fen twisted the knob, and the door swung open, a rush of cool air rising to meet us. A stone staircase dropped down into the darkness below. Fen waited for the team to descend before shutting the thick wooden door and following us down. And he seemed to have suddenly dispensed with the need for creeping about and being silent. His heels echoed as he marched down the darkened stone stairs. The narrow steps and shadows forced those of us without wolfish night-vision to tread carefully.

My fingers trailed the cool wall as we descended. This was what it must have felt like when the first Egyptian tombs were opened. Taking steps into the cool, musty unknown darkness. I assumed Fen knew where the hell he was leading us. Of course, should we meet danger, Fen would surely go all werewolf on our attackers' asses and save us all.