Read Online The Phantom King (The Kings) by Heather Killough-Walden - Free Book Online

itself from her abdomen, and she sensed his departure.
    “ Let’s get you to the hospita l,” Lucas said, his own deep voice tight with what must have been anxious anticipation as he gave the car gas and they left the garage behind. They couldn’t transport into the hospital for fear that nurses, doctors and other patients would see them, plus again, Danny didn’t want to chance too much magic at the moment. Driving was their only option.
    She kept her eyes shut and prayed that the pain relief Jason had bestowed upon her would hold up a little longer. St. Joseph hospital’s urgent care center was twenty miles away. Barring any traffic mishaps , they should make it there inside of twenty minutes.
    The sudden sound of sirens forced Danny’s eyes open. She leaned over and peered in the right rear-view mirror.
    “We have an escort,” Lucas said, picking up speed as a cop car sped past them to take its place in front and lead the way.
    Danny frowned. “Is that –”
    “Kane,” Lucas told her. “ Lily had a vision that this would be your day , but she didn’t want us to say anything to you, just in case,” he told her. “She and Daniel came up yesterday .”
    Danny smiled a small, grateful smile. Lily Kane was a seer, a werewolf, and a good friend of Dannai’s. Daniel Kane , Lily’s gorgeous alpha werewolf husband, was the police chief of Baton Rouge and probably had very little to no jurisdi ction here in California. B ut their tiny convoy was composed of werewolves and warlocks , and jurisdiction was probably the least of their worries. Whatever came along, they could handle. The important thing was to get through traffic and get Danny to the delivery room as soon as supernaturally possible .
    Daniel Kane’s expert driving and police sirens managed to pull it off in record time .

Chapter Six
    The hospital hall was bustling with a quiet yet buzzing sort of medical busy-ness. Ramses , who had once been known as Amon , moved with slow deliberation, his long stride beating out a steady pace , his deep, dark eyes absorbing every characteristic of the building that housed and cared for the sick, dying, and convalescing.
    It had been a very long time since he’d walked the hallways of Earth’s abodes. In his absence , the planet had grown arms of metal that reached to the heavens as if trying with all of their might to pluck the sun and moon from their thrones. It had also developed oozing sores that reluctantly coughed up metal and stone for the humans that ran rampant across its surface. Its forests were nearly gone, its oceans had become sewage, and the sun tore through holes in the sky , burning unprotected skin to a crisp.
    Much had changed.
    People still attempted to care for one another , placing their own short-term well-beings above anyone or anything else’s. This hospital and its endless passageways, humming intercoms, and bitter tang of antiseptic was evidence enough of that. But the battle for well-being was no longer one of self-defense , which had always been natural to Ramses and hence admirable . Now it was a war that humanity had waged on everything around it. And humanity was winning.
    Everything was different. Ramses was no longer so certain about what was right and what was wrong. Thousands of years ago, the supernatural world had preyed upon humanity, using them for food and taking them as slaves. Humans had run screaming from vampires, werewolves, dragons and their ilk. Ramses, then known as Amon, the god of go ds, had taken physical form so that he might help protect those who worshiped him. As a god, he was an idol of imagination, without substance or function. He was an energy that was fed and thus grew, but could give nothing back. When he became solid, this energy amassed, pooling into a well of power the likes of which no human had ever seen.
    Amon became Ramses, using his physical avatar to protect the humans who had created him against the creatures who would see those humans dead or