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Rik hissed and grabbed my arm, locking his thick fingers around a faint tickle on the inside of my wrist. :It’s going for your blood.:
The dead scarab wasn’t in my palm any longer. Heart thudding heavily, I peeled back one of his fingers on my forearm. I’d used my nail to puncture my wrist before I stepped outside, though I hadn’t allowed the blood to drip free of my body. If it’d crawled inside that small hole…
My stomach heaved. Power surged through me, a liquid wall of raging fire and lighting to expel the creature before it could dig deeper into my veins. I didn’t feel it crawling through my body, or any dip in my reserves.
Rik lifted another finger cautiously, revealing the red glitter of the scarab’s wing embedded in my flesh. Like the serpent, before I’d deployed it against Ra, it looked like a beautiful jewel against my skin. A glowing, bright tattoo of exquisite detail in ruby red, emerald, and black. Wings outstretched over its head, it framed the small puncture hole where my blood glowed. A red disc it carried like the sun.
Like Isis’ crown.
Rik’s fingers softened, though he remained at the highest alert. Giant slabs of rock moved beneath his broad, massive shoulders. His thighs like massive obelisks. His hands powerful enough to crush marble and granite into dust. Yet if I sank my fangs into him…
I licked my torn lip and chin, gathering up the drool mixed with my blood. I’d find hot blood waiting beneath that stone.
Now to see if hot blood pooled inside the sphinx.
:Even cobra fangs shatter against stone.: Leviathan dropped to the ground beside us. The dragon’s eyes burned with emerald fire. Hunger, yes, drawn by my blood, but also jealousy.
I was his secret hoard. The thing he craved above all. Even his freedom. Not allowing him to drink as much as he wanted from me, whenever he wanted, had stirred dragon ire burning like acid through his veins.
I didn’t dare risk letting him feed until I had this sphinx taken care of, but I also loathed denying any of them. Ignoring his bared teeth and smoke pluming from his nostrils, I reached up and pulled his head down closer so I could press a bloody kiss to his snout. :My fangs penetrated your scales, so I think I’ll be just fine, my dragon. But I might need your help in holding them still until I’ve had my fill.:
He snarled, black smoke curling around me in a thick cloud, his tongue snaking out to swipe along my chin and mouth. Cleaning every drop. :I’ll fucking bite it in half for you, my queen.:
13
SHARA
I stared up at the sphinx’s stone exterior, letting ideas pop and flow in my mind. I still didn’t have a sense of life or personality from the statue, so in that regard, Leviathan might be right. There wasn’t anything here for me to feed on.
Yet.
The statue was big enough the rock troll and hell horse were both able to stand in its shadow with me. My mighty dragon draped himself over the sphinx’s lion haunches, his jaws poised to sink into the ram’s neck where it joined the lion body. The scarab buried in my wrist made me hesitate. I didn’t want all of them to surge back up out of the sphinx and attack us.
But I didn’t feel any threat from the scarab. In fact, its iconography resonated with me. It felt… right. Like it was meant to be a part of me.
The shadows lengthened as the sun began to set over the giant statue’s shoulder. Leviathan’s neck arched, lifting his head for a moment to shade my eyes against the setting sun. :At least it’ll be dark if this motherfucker’s as feisty as I was once freed.:
My cheeks burned at the thought of Winston or someone on Frank’s team watching the equivalent of a bloody garden party orgy on the lawn. To be safe, I touched Gina’s and Frank’s bonds. :I’m getting ready to do some queen shit in the grove. Please let Winston know.:
I gave G a gentle nudge with my will, asking him to step closer to the sphinx. “I need to touch him.”
Blowing out another deep breath making his sides rock beneath my calves, he stepped closer to the giant statue between its outstretched front paws. Using Rik for balance, I carefully stood up on G’s broad back, swaying slightly as he sidled his hindquarters closer to the sphinx.
“Great One, Isis, please let this work,” I whispered out loud, reaching up to smear some of my blood on the sphinx’s snout.
It didn’t move but the smell of lion intensified, feral and raw musk. My other furry Bloods’ hackles rose on low snarls. My blood glistened wetly on the rock, almost black in the shadow. Then it was gone, soaked into the stone. I could feel it flowing through the statue in a hot rush of electricity, charging it up.
Bringing it to life.
I smelled its blood, calling to me as surely as a wolf will howl to the full moon. Though the sphinx still didn’t move. No breath, no heartbeat. Just the pooling blood deep inside as if I’d turned a faucet on in the bathroom to fill up the gigantic tub.
Urgency pulsed through me. Sand swirled around G’s hooves, draining away back into the ground. Disappearing back to wherever the sphinx had come from like an hourglass. Time was running out. The sun was setting. When it was dark…
Closing my eyes, I silently prayed, Goddess, don’t let the sun set on this Blood. I need them. Please.
Then I stretched up to my tiptoes, carefully balancing on G’s back, and sank my fangs into the sphinx’s shoulder.
My brutal fangs cut through the exterior stone like a hot knife through butter. I tasted blood, but it didn’t immediately spurt and surge into my mouth. Not like a living, breathing Blood. Of course. If the sphinx didn’t have a heartbeat, there wasn’t anything to pump the blood to me. I was going to have to work for it.
