Read Online Unwrapped: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 3) by J.A. Cipriano - Free Book Online
Authors: J.A. Cipriano
Tags: Fantasy
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“It’s been tried before.”
“How long does it delay the destroyer for?” I asked, trying to decide whether or not I would kill a totally normal person to stop a monster from rising. I wasn’t sure.
Instead of responding, Khufu shrugged and placed his hand on the statue of Anubis’s snout and pressed downward, pushing the teeth together. The door began to shake, creaking like a badly oiled spring as the ground beneath our feet rumbled. I’d been so lost in thought I hadn’t even realized we had walked up to the door.
Purple light burst from the statue. Its eyes, the size of fist-sized amethysts, threw fractured light across the room. Khufu backed up to where I stood and watched, eyes shielded with one hand. Crackling webs of light splintered out along the surface of the stone, glowing brighter by the second, and after only a moment, I was forced to cover my eyes and look away to keep from going blind. Even still, spots danced across my vision.
A sharp crack echoed out across the cavern, splintering my hearing into a sharp, jagged ringing. Without thinking, I spun toward the statue to see the door gone. Anubis stood in its place, his body covered from head to toe in gilded armor. He held an impossibly decorated spear the color of obsidian in his right hand. His eyes narrowed, and the weight of his gaze would have made me cringe away if I hadn’t felt the destroyer’s gaze a moment before. Compared to that, this was nothing.
“What do you want?” he asked, glaring at me. “Bast isn’t available at the moment.”
My cheeks burned as I looked up at him, my mouth hanging open as I tried to get my sluggish brain to form a coherent thought better than my, what big teeth you have .
“We’re not here to see your feline companion,” Khufu said, stepping past me and blocking me from view as much as he could with his massive, linebacker-sized body. “We’re here to help you find Osiris, oh great god of the dead.”
“How do you mean to find Osiris, when even I have not been able to do so?” Anubis asked, taking an ominous step forward as literal flames danced in his eyes.
I fought the urge to say, “see, told you so,” to Khufu because I’d asked him the exact same thing earlier. I doubted Anubis would take it well if the pharaoh told him the reason he hadn’t found Osiris was because he’d been too busy and hadn’t tried hard enough. No one tended to like it when they were told they just didn’t want something bad enough. After all, for every breakout success there were fifty more people who worked just as hard if not harder and never succeeded. Life was sort of sucky that way.
“You make an excellent point,” Khufu said, sauntering forward, one hand inching toward his khopesh as he flailed in front of himself with his other hand. I’d caught the movement toward his weapon, but judging from the look on the god’s face, he hadn’t noticed. I wasn’t sure what Khufu had planned, but I was reasonably sure both Anubis and I wouldn’t like it. “But you’re missing something important.”
“What’s that?” Anubis asked, before Khufu rammed his khopesh through Anubis’s jugular in one quick motion and wrenched the blade sideways. The Egyptian god’s head fell to the sand as his body collapsed to its knees. Only there was no blood. None at all. I’d seen gods get disemboweled before, hell, I’d seen them get beheaded and there was always blood. Always.
Instead, black smoke spewed from the wound, filling the corridor in the space of a second with choking, noxious gas. The cloud solidified in the air above us, forming into a monstrous face that stared down at us with glowing purple eyes.
“How dare you!” the cloud screamed, and the sound was like a thousand flies having their wings torn off simultaneously.
“Indeed,” Khufu said, but before he could do anything else, the face slammed into his chest like a comet, flinging him backward as it burrowed inside him. He hit the ground hard
“How long does it delay the destroyer for?” I asked, trying to decide whether or not I would kill a totally normal person to stop a monster from rising. I wasn’t sure.
Instead of responding, Khufu shrugged and placed his hand on the statue of Anubis’s snout and pressed downward, pushing the teeth together. The door began to shake, creaking like a badly oiled spring as the ground beneath our feet rumbled. I’d been so lost in thought I hadn’t even realized we had walked up to the door.
Purple light burst from the statue. Its eyes, the size of fist-sized amethysts, threw fractured light across the room. Khufu backed up to where I stood and watched, eyes shielded with one hand. Crackling webs of light splintered out along the surface of the stone, glowing brighter by the second, and after only a moment, I was forced to cover my eyes and look away to keep from going blind. Even still, spots danced across my vision.
A sharp crack echoed out across the cavern, splintering my hearing into a sharp, jagged ringing. Without thinking, I spun toward the statue to see the door gone. Anubis stood in its place, his body covered from head to toe in gilded armor. He held an impossibly decorated spear the color of obsidian in his right hand. His eyes narrowed, and the weight of his gaze would have made me cringe away if I hadn’t felt the destroyer’s gaze a moment before. Compared to that, this was nothing.
“What do you want?” he asked, glaring at me. “Bast isn’t available at the moment.”
My cheeks burned as I looked up at him, my mouth hanging open as I tried to get my sluggish brain to form a coherent thought better than my, what big teeth you have .
“We’re not here to see your feline companion,” Khufu said, stepping past me and blocking me from view as much as he could with his massive, linebacker-sized body. “We’re here to help you find Osiris, oh great god of the dead.”
“How do you mean to find Osiris, when even I have not been able to do so?” Anubis asked, taking an ominous step forward as literal flames danced in his eyes.
I fought the urge to say, “see, told you so,” to Khufu because I’d asked him the exact same thing earlier. I doubted Anubis would take it well if the pharaoh told him the reason he hadn’t found Osiris was because he’d been too busy and hadn’t tried hard enough. No one tended to like it when they were told they just didn’t want something bad enough. After all, for every breakout success there were fifty more people who worked just as hard if not harder and never succeeded. Life was sort of sucky that way.
“You make an excellent point,” Khufu said, sauntering forward, one hand inching toward his khopesh as he flailed in front of himself with his other hand. I’d caught the movement toward his weapon, but judging from the look on the god’s face, he hadn’t noticed. I wasn’t sure what Khufu had planned, but I was reasonably sure both Anubis and I wouldn’t like it. “But you’re missing something important.”
“What’s that?” Anubis asked, before Khufu rammed his khopesh through Anubis’s jugular in one quick motion and wrenched the blade sideways. The Egyptian god’s head fell to the sand as his body collapsed to its knees. Only there was no blood. None at all. I’d seen gods get disemboweled before, hell, I’d seen them get beheaded and there was always blood. Always.
Instead, black smoke spewed from the wound, filling the corridor in the space of a second with choking, noxious gas. The cloud solidified in the air above us, forming into a monstrous face that stared down at us with glowing purple eyes.
“How dare you!” the cloud screamed, and the sound was like a thousand flies having their wings torn off simultaneously.
“Indeed,” Khufu said, but before he could do anything else, the face slammed into his chest like a comet, flinging him backward as it burrowed inside him. He hit the ground hard
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