Read Online Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1) by J.A. Cipriano - Free Book Online
Authors: J.A. Cipriano
Tags: Fantasy
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worked. The words had barely left me when my left toes caught the top of the step. I stumbled, falling forward again. This time when I reached out, my hands flew outward, stopping me from braining myself on the stairs.
“Very well. Move forward, I will lend you my power to heal yourself. I will guide you, but we must hurry!”
“Got it,” I murmured to myself.
I pushed to my feet, surprised that I could move my body. Not wasting another second, I started sprinting up the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. I know it sounds weird, but I didn’t feel any pain. I knew that my gut should have hurt, that the pain should have been stifling, but it just wasn’t. Instead, a strange numbing cold filled my body. Even when my muscles began to burn, the pain of it faded away until my body felt like one giant leaden ball.
I could still operate, still function just fine. My sense of touch hadn’t gone away, but I felt no pain, nothing at all. Even my wolf couldn’t do this. I’d gotten ripped open dozens of times while in wolf form, and it always hurt, always burned. This was so different, I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it.
We reached the top step a moment later. I looked around, trying to figure out where to go. Like last time, there were no obvious exit to the room, but Aziza wasn’t there. So where had she gone?
I was about to ask, when the world around me spun. I careened upward toward the ceiling with green mist trailing after me like an emerald comet tail. I threw my hands out in front of me to shield my face just as I slammed into the ceiling. It was like hitting really warm jelly. I plunged upward, holding my breath. When my lungs were about to explode, I sucked in a breath that tasted of spearmint and cotton candy.
Iridescent jellyfish swam past me in the murk, and I had the distinct feeling that they were wondering what the hell I was doing there. I shrugged, not knowing what I was doing there either. Whatever was going on was far beyond my control. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that.
I was spit out on the surface a moment later. I lay there like a flummoxed seal, my face pressed against the cool stone. The wind began to whip around me, kicking up little motes of dust, and I got the distinct impression that if I didn’t start moving, I was going to go back into lumbering zombie mode.
I got to my feet and glanced around. Off to my left, Setne was standing there, staring past me with wide eyes. Blood spattered the ground next to him, but for some reason, it didn’t seem like any of it was his. I turned my head, craning my neck so I could follow his gaze, and my breath ripped out of me.
Aziza was waist deep in the water, blood leaking from a wound on her shoulder as she wrestled with a massive crocodile. It snapped and thrashed at her, but she had one arm around its neck and was forcibly yanking back on its head like she was trying to tear it off its body. The water around her was littered with the bobbing corpses of crocodiles and glittering golden sarcophagi.
I staggered toward her, trying to count how many mummies she’d defeated in the time it had taken to get up here. Ten, twenty? Where had they all come from?
“Aziza,” I said, and my voice came out like the palest whisper. I wasn’t sure how she heard me, but she must have. Her head snapped up, eyes narrowing as she took me in. Her face went rigid as she took two steps forward and flung the massive croc at me.
I threw my arms up to block, but just before the giant reptile slammed into me, a wall of emerald mist reduced the beast to a cloud of crimson foam. It splattered across me and the ground, leaving a Thes-shaped outline on the stone behind me.
“Miss me?” I asked, taking a step forward. My hands clenched into fists, and I made an effort to relax them. Really, I wasn’t sure what to do because, as she stared at me with flat predator eyes, I knew something was wrong with her. I just didn’t know
“Very well. Move forward, I will lend you my power to heal yourself. I will guide you, but we must hurry!”
“Got it,” I murmured to myself.
I pushed to my feet, surprised that I could move my body. Not wasting another second, I started sprinting up the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. I know it sounds weird, but I didn’t feel any pain. I knew that my gut should have hurt, that the pain should have been stifling, but it just wasn’t. Instead, a strange numbing cold filled my body. Even when my muscles began to burn, the pain of it faded away until my body felt like one giant leaden ball.
I could still operate, still function just fine. My sense of touch hadn’t gone away, but I felt no pain, nothing at all. Even my wolf couldn’t do this. I’d gotten ripped open dozens of times while in wolf form, and it always hurt, always burned. This was so different, I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it.
We reached the top step a moment later. I looked around, trying to figure out where to go. Like last time, there were no obvious exit to the room, but Aziza wasn’t there. So where had she gone?
I was about to ask, when the world around me spun. I careened upward toward the ceiling with green mist trailing after me like an emerald comet tail. I threw my hands out in front of me to shield my face just as I slammed into the ceiling. It was like hitting really warm jelly. I plunged upward, holding my breath. When my lungs were about to explode, I sucked in a breath that tasted of spearmint and cotton candy.
Iridescent jellyfish swam past me in the murk, and I had the distinct feeling that they were wondering what the hell I was doing there. I shrugged, not knowing what I was doing there either. Whatever was going on was far beyond my control. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that.
I was spit out on the surface a moment later. I lay there like a flummoxed seal, my face pressed against the cool stone. The wind began to whip around me, kicking up little motes of dust, and I got the distinct impression that if I didn’t start moving, I was going to go back into lumbering zombie mode.
I got to my feet and glanced around. Off to my left, Setne was standing there, staring past me with wide eyes. Blood spattered the ground next to him, but for some reason, it didn’t seem like any of it was his. I turned my head, craning my neck so I could follow his gaze, and my breath ripped out of me.
Aziza was waist deep in the water, blood leaking from a wound on her shoulder as she wrestled with a massive crocodile. It snapped and thrashed at her, but she had one arm around its neck and was forcibly yanking back on its head like she was trying to tear it off its body. The water around her was littered with the bobbing corpses of crocodiles and glittering golden sarcophagi.
I staggered toward her, trying to count how many mummies she’d defeated in the time it had taken to get up here. Ten, twenty? Where had they all come from?
“Aziza,” I said, and my voice came out like the palest whisper. I wasn’t sure how she heard me, but she must have. Her head snapped up, eyes narrowing as she took me in. Her face went rigid as she took two steps forward and flung the massive croc at me.
I threw my arms up to block, but just before the giant reptile slammed into me, a wall of emerald mist reduced the beast to a cloud of crimson foam. It splattered across me and the ground, leaving a Thes-shaped outline on the stone behind me.
“Miss me?” I asked, taking a step forward. My hands clenched into fists, and I made an effort to relax them. Really, I wasn’t sure what to do because, as she stared at me with flat predator eyes, I knew something was wrong with her. I just didn’t know
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