12.21.12: The Vessel (The Altunai Annals) Read online

  “Either way, Victoria dies?” Shep asked. Dmitri confirmed it with a nod of his head. “Then why are you so set on finding her?”

  “As much as I hated it, Ra’s mistake could be to my advantage. You see, the bonding that happens between human and Altunai? There are two ways for it to take place. One is by a sharing of blood. Victoria uses this method to bond her proxies, to give them just enough power to serve on her behalf as elite members of the group of ninnies that follow her, The Order. However, there’s another way, a ... more intimate way.”

  “You mean sex?”

  “You put it so plainly.”

  Shep shrugged. “It is what it is.”

  Dmitri cleared his throat. “Yes, well, it was what it was. Victoria denied it, but the evidence of her powers is clear: Ra seduced her, bonded her, even though I had already done as much. The classic one night stand, only with a god. We had never attempted to double bond a Vessel before. Victoria’s abilities turned out to be far more advanced than any of the other Vessels. Hell, she’s even stronger on Earth in some ways than I would be back on Altunatus. I think once she releases the power of the amulet, her strength could be a game changer. With proper guidance and a strong ally, I think she can survive.”

  “Does she know all this?”

  “Mostly.” Dmitri sat back down across from him at the table. “She’s always known about bonding, about the Altunai, about being a conduit. What she didn’t know for the longest time was my role. I am sworn to ensure the safety of the Vessel, you see, until the isolation is over. When I told her about what would happen on the day of their return, and how I would return back to Altunatus, she accused me of using her. She refused to believe my feelings for her were true. Her unbridled rage allowed me to see the full scope of her abilities, however. It is the reason I have so much faith in her now, and the reason helping her keep those abilities in check is so critical for humanity’s survival.”

  “Blew a gasket, did she?” Shep smiled. He had been at the receiving end of a woman scorned once or twice in his life too, and knew well the danger.

  “Actually, she caused Vesuvius to erupt. I trust you’ve heard of that incident.”

  The sip of tea Shep had been taking spewed across the table. Coughing and sputtering, he grabbed a towel from the kitchen counter and began to sop up the mess.

  “What’s more,” Dmitri continued, “I am convinced that if she ever really lost control, she could do to the world what she did to thousands of Romans in Pompeii.”

  “Okay, so it sounds like she can handle herself, if it comes down to it. When exactly does this isolation end?”

  “In three days.”

  “No way.”

  “Yes, indeed,” Dmitri confirmed.

  It was one of the oldest legends of the archaeological world. Hell, the date was so well known it had even attracted a cult following. With a pang of foreboding, Shep recalled the lone loony in the Veracruz airport, the one Victoria had been quick to dismiss and explain away. Damn, she knew then, didn’t she? She knew the crazy was probably the only one in the terminal with some vague idea of the truth.

  And it explained how she could so quickly translate the modern Mayan dialect.

  “The date the Mayans said the world would end?”

  “Yes, Shep, though that bit of information was transferred to them by one particular Olmec. As far as humanity is concerned, twelve twenty-one could be the end of the world.”

  12.19.12

  Chapter 18

  Victoria tried to remove remorse from her tone. She wanted to get this out, and get on with it. “The Altunai abilities are immense, but the source of their power is the energy of their own planet. Here, they require a conduit to do anything more than feed. They need a being who has both their DNA, and the simpler genetic strings found in humans.”

  He put the meaning together very quickly. “And that’s you. It’s why you try to stay away from Dmitri, isn’t it? If you were near, he’d be even more dangerous.”

  “Amongst other, more self-serving reasons,” she confirmed. “I was engineered as a tool, bonded so I could serve their needs. It gives me many of their strengths, but I also share their greatest weakness. Like the laws of thermodynamics say, energy can be neither created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed. The energy needed to allow powers like this doesn’t grow in a field or graze in a meadow. My sustenance comes from a more refined source.”

  He nodded. “Human life force.”

  Her brow furrowed, but she soldiered on. “Over the years, I’ve learned how to take without killing, if I don’t have to. Dmitri feeds off human energy, but he doesn’t require touch like I do. Unfortunately, once he initiates the process, he’s also powerless to stop it. But let’s get back to the here and now, and how this relates to you. Did Priest ever discuss bonding?”

  Alex rubbed his chin before answering. “He mentioned once that he hoped it happened to him one day.”

  Victoria ground her teeth. A fool always desired foolish things. Part of her felt guilty for using Priest’s obvious infatuation with her to coax his loyalty, but another part of her felt his idiocy invited the deceit. “Bonding is where the Altunai, me for the purposes of this conversation,” she continued undeterred, “infects the host, you. Think of it as passing along a virus. But because the Altunai DNA within me is incomplete, its effect on you won’t be as strong. You won’t stop aging, for example, and it won’t make you immortal. Given time, you’ll become incredibly strong, insanely fast, and be able to communicate through telepathy. As to controlling the elements … I don’t know. Some of the proxies could, others couldn’t. And there’s a cost for so much evolution.”

  Alex cocked his head in suspicion. “Why do I get the feeling you’re leading up to something horrible?”

  “Because you’re wise,” she said plainly. “There’s a transition period when the virus first takes hold of the body. It’s short-lived, a day at most, usually just a few hours. While you’re under the fever, your body will crave. Crave everything: water, food, pleasure, pain. Your senses will go mad. With keen determination, you can overcome it, but there’s one thing I can guarantee.”

  He swallowed. Hard. Her tone was too ominous and her eyes too dark to expect anything less than tragedy. “Go on.”

  Victoria’s eyes studied the floor. “You’ll crave a life force, and for the virus to manifest in your body you’ll need to take one. It took me centuries to learn how to just tap off the surface of a life. We don’t have that kind of time. Alex, you’re going to have to feed, and in our current circumstances, that means killing one of the members of The Order.”

  He shuddered, the reality of what he had agreed to crashing down on him. He looked into Victoria’s compassionate gaze, to the woman who for the last three years had been a mentor, a friend, a confidant, even a mother in some ways, and he knew his answer.

  “If we screw up and everything goes south, everyone dies. I’ll deal with the guilt later, let’s just get this over with. ”

  Both relief and disappointment colored her tone. “All it takes is drinking a little bit of my blood.”

  Many were the years Victoria had spent trying to rid herself of the compassion she felt for those to whom she allotted her blood and imparted her “gifts”. Guilt was not so easily assuaged, it turned out. Proxies rarely survived long after the bonding, if they survived at all. The last held the record at seven years. Now, if Alex survived even seventy years, she would see only the torment her presence had wrought.

  Alex’s eyes flinched, and she felt the echo of the suffering he would endure. She’d not even yet willed the wound on her forearm closed before her blood whisked through his veins, forcing his DNA to adapt to the viral infection it met. Nothing to do now but ride it out. She held him, trying with her mind to suppress his body’s instincts to jerk, to figh
t, to vie. Ten minutes in, Alex’s determination had kept him in control, but she could feel his resolve starting to break. She opened her eyes and took in his face, immediately wishing she hadn’t. Gnashing teeth and clenched muscles contoured his whimper as his genetic framework twisted its composition.

  She leaned over, whispering her comfort. “It’s going to get worse. Just focus on Monique. Remember this pain will save the ones you love.”

  Alex’s eyes shot open, focusing with vehemence and determination on Victoria. She could see in his mind, see the images of Monique calling out his name in the throes of passion. His body was beginning to flex the muscle of its new gifts already as he cast out his consciousness and the mask of his true desires. In that moment, Alex looked at Victoria ... and saw Monique.

  She was on her back before she realized what had happened, Alex’s mouth covering her own as he pushed longingly against her. She didn’t love Alex Cezanne, not in that way, but too long had she suppressed her own need for intimacy. She wouldn’t deny the temptation to claim him, to mark him. It was simply in her nature, her Altunai nature, to dominate the lower species.

  Nonetheless, the human side called to her, told her if she allowed this to happen, Alex would never forgive her when he came through the fever. He loved Monique, and he’d despise her. Maybe even refuse to take on the mantle of his mission. More than that, though, Victoria would never forgive herself.

  With her hands over both of his ears, she locked her gaze with his. “Fight it, Alex. Trust your own eyes. Look at me. Who am I?”

  His hooded eyes softened. “Ma chère,” he purred in French. “Ma Monique, mon coeur.”

  He moved to kiss her again, his hand traveling up her side, enveloping her through the thin gauze of the kalasiris. Despite her determination, Victoria moaned, feeling her own resolve weakening. Let him worship you, her inner goddess cried. Take what he offers.

  She gasped, “We mustn’t.”

  His hips shifted as Alex pushed against her. The illusion in which he was trapped infiltrated her mind through their shared touch. Victoria’s visions shifted. She opened her eyes to see not Alex, but the Guardian.

  She stroked a finger over Dmitri’s cheek. “I want to believe it’s really you.”

  Victoria moved her hands downward in exploration. Alex lifted his hips, aiding her efforts. Hooking her fingers in the belt loops she found, she tugged, wanting to rend his body. Just as she opened her mouth to give him leave, another’s voice filled their ears.

  “Oh, please, don’t allow me to interrupt.”

  Both recoiled as the delusional fog lifted, leaving their minds sharpened with an aching clarity. Victoria saw Alex, Alex saw Victoria, and Priest saw them both on the edge of a ritual consummation.

  “Anton!” Victoria shouted, sitting up and catching her breath. She would feel no shame; she was not accountable to anybody, least of all Priest. Rubbing her temples with her hands, trying to maintain her air of authority, she barked at him, “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with Dmitri?”

  “I quit from his service, and just in the nick of time. Looks like your whole ‘I’m not interested in a relationship’ phase has passed.”

  His eyes shot to Alex as the acolyte worked his jeans back over his hips.

  “It’s the fever of the bonding. It got the better of us both.” Realizing, however, the closeness of the ill-advised action, Victoria added under her breath, “But thank Ra you arrived when you did.”

  Looking up, she saw devastation on Anton’s face.

  “Bonding?” he said with disbelief. “You bonded ... Alex?”

  Anton’s lips curled in disgust as Victoria heard Alex moan. The desire brought by the delusion subsiding, pain wracked him anew. Grasping his head, Alex sat down at the base of the altar, silent tears beginning to streak down his cheeks.

  Priest motioned to Alex with a wary glare. “What purpose could you possibly have for someone like him? He’s not a warrior. He’s not a scholar.”

  “He’s my friend, my student. And, unless you’re about to tell me you were able to grab the amulet while under Dmitri’s employ, he’s my best hope.”

  Anton’s eyes flashed to the floor. “Last night, I held it in my hands, but he caught me before I could make off with it.”

  In a flash, Victoria crossed the room. Her hands gripped his jacket, tugging his lapels. “He has it with him? Where are you coming from? Where is he now?” Victoria looked into Anton’s thoughts, trying to find any clues as to Dmitri’s last known surroundings that could help Alex when the fever had passed. Instead, she saw something different, something that made her own face pale. “Smyth and Gonzalez are with him. Why? I planted suggestions in Shep’s head to make his way back to Anathea’s house in Cairo. I need him in Cairo.”

  Anton shrugged. “I think Dmitri found those suggestions and removed them. It’s hard to say. Usually his motivations are so clear, so predictable. Since he encountered Shep, however, Dmitri’s been acting very ... uncharacteristically.”

  Victoria’s eyebrow slanted.

  “As I was leaving, he told me he intends to tell Smyth the truth.”

  “Wh–why?” She shook her head in disbelief. “No, it can’t be. That goes against every one of his motives for the last five thousand years. Why would he do that, so close to the end?”

  “I don’t know. When he shared his plan with me, I used it as an excuse to leave, pretending I was too insulted by his betrayal of his core mission to keep working for him.”

  Confusion consumed her even more. “He accepted that? Something about that doesn’t seem right.”

  “I’ve learned not to question serendipity.”

  Behind them, a throaty wail rent the air as Alex folded himself into a ball. “Oh, God! Make it stop.”

  “How much longer will he,” Anton’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, “suffer?”

  “Not as romantic an occasion as you thought, Priest?” Victoria couldn’t help but snicker at his naiveté getting schooled. “A few more hours, then the really hard part comes.”

  “Harder than this?” he asked.

  She nodded, her eyes closing in shame. “Harder for us both.”

  12.20.12

  Chapter 19

  There was something about the virility of Altunai DNA; it knew the very characteristics of a person to enhance. Bonding had an impressive track record when it came to transmutation.

  As she siphoned away some of Alex’s pain, Victoria recalled that she hadn’t been particularly beautiful as a human. The only credit of which she could boast was an exceptional memory. Who would have thought so simple a trait would have been so desirable to the gods? Of course, at the time, she had no knowledge of why her memory and intelligence dwarfed the others of her people. Nor would she learn for many a year.

  Nor could she forget the horror of the night Dmitri had taken her as a lover, subjecting her to the bond. She had begged to die more than once. He did what he could to comfort her, but she still winced now recalling the torment her body had undergone. She was already tall for an Olmec before he’d selected her. Yet, she grew four inches in the process, suffering through the unnatural stretch of her bones rebuilding themselves. Her skin, once the color of freshly turned ground, blanched. Her coarse hair grew silken and changed color, streaks of ashen blonde working through her chestnut locks. Strength, body, mind; all sharpened. She’d never met a mortal man who could equal her cunning or her speed.

  And her eyes. Of course there were those damned, feline-eyes. The jaguar was due its own respect; they were a magnificent creature and Victoria was proud to be compared to them by her former kinsmen. But the wrathful jaguar-god the Olmec believed her to be? Nope, that was all the result of the odd blending of genetics that was Victoria. The cat association had stuck, and when she arrived in Egypt, the people attribute
d to her the name of the Lion Goddess, Sekhmet.

  Alex hadn’t been short by any means, but to her eyes, he’d gained an inch when the growth stopped. The Altunai ran a little on the tall and slender side. Recalling her summons before their High Council once upon a time, her mind filled with the image of their prince who had taken such keen interest in her, looking at her with a mix of revulsion and pride.

  “Who was that?”

  Alex rolled over to look at her. The image of Ra had managed to seep into his consciousness.

  Reassuringly, Victoria squeezed his hand as they lay on her bed. She’d carried him there herself to allow his suffering to subside in private.

  “No one, Alex. Just a face from my past.”

  It had been some time since she’d had to be wary of her thoughts, knowing someone might be watching. The momentary image of the ancient in Victoria’s head was sure to stir Alex’s curiosity.

  “His eyes were exactly like yours. Not human.”

  “Yes, he was ... is one of them.”

  Alex’s voice was wonder-filled and confused. “Am I?”

  His tone distressed her. “Would that be bad?”

  “I don’t want to be the enemy.”