They left in the morning.

Chapter Two

Inferno

Flying from New York to Cairo was a always a bit surreal, Mimi Force knew, sitting in her first-class seat and shaking the ice in her cocktail glass. For hours now they had been flying over endless desert - soft golden dunes of sand that went for miles - when suddenly an entire city rose from the dust, sprawling out in all directions, as immense and infinite as the nothing that had preceded it. The capital of Egypt was a golden brown sprawl of towering buildings jockeying for space; standing shoulder to shoulder, they looked as if they were stacked on top of one another like children's blocks, cut through by the green borders of the Nile.

Seeing the city gave Mimi a burst of hope in her heart.

This was it. This time, she was going to get Kingsley back. She missed him more than ever, and she clung to a fierce bright hope that she would see his smile again, and feel the warmth of his embrace. His brave, selfless act during the Silver Blood attack at her disastrous bonding had saved the Coven, but it had consigned his soul to the seventh circle of the underworld.

She shuddered to think how he was faring. Hell was not for the weak, and while she knew Kingsley was strong and would endure, she did not want him trapped down there for one moment longer.

The Coven needed his courage and wits. Kingsley martin had been their bravest and most effective Venator, but Mimi needed him more. She would never forget the way he had looked at her before he disappeared, with so much love and sadness; with the kind of love she had never experienced with Jack. She was certain her twin had never felt that way about her in all their time together. With Kingsley, Mimi had had a glimpse of what real love was like, but it had been snatched away so quickly she hadn't fully grasped its reality. How she had mocked and teased him - how much time they had wasted - why hadn't she gone with him to Paris like he'd asked before the bonding?

No matter. She had come all the way to Egypt to save him, and she felt euphoric at the possibility of their reunion.

Although, her ebullient mood threatened to fade with the many irritations that came with international travel. At customs she was told she didn't have the proper visa, and by the time she was waved through passport control and had collected her luggage, the driver sent by the hotel had picked up another guest. Mimi was left to fight the crowds to find a cab.

Once she had managed to hail one, she ended up arguing with the driver about the fare all the way to the hotel. He'd quoted a preposterous sum, and if nothing else, Mimi was not born yesterday. When they finally arrived at the mena House Oberoi, Mimi got out, tossed her cash through the window, and simply walked away. When she told the hotel clerk what happened, the fool inquired why she had not used the hotel's driver.

Mimi was tempted to snarl and throw something, but she remembered she was supposed to be eighteen now. She was Regent of the Coven, and it would not do to stomp around the place like a spoiled teenager.

Exhausted from the trip, she had fallen straight to bed, only to be awoken by the housekeeper, who'd arrived to turn down the bed and fluff the pillows. The maid was lucky she had brought chocolates.

But now it was a new morning, a dazzling new day, and with the view of the pyramids glinting in the sun, Mimi prepared for the most important day of her life.

The witch would not lie to me, Mimi thought as she brushed her hair until it shone like spun gold. "Helda made an exception once, and since then the Orpheus Amendment has stood. The same rules apply." Ingrid Beauchamp, the mousy librarian from North Hampton, New York, who could see the future, had told her, albeit reluctantly and only after humiliating groveling on Mimi's part, that there was indeed a way to release a soul from beyond the seventh circle of the underworld. It was why Mimi had allowed herself to be dragged to the eyesore of the Hamptons last week to consult with Ingrid in the first place. The witch might have disliked her, might have thought the arrogant young vampire was nothing but an annoyance, but she would not have lied to her. The witches followed a set of rules older even than the Code of the Vampires. Mimi was sure of that as she sat in her warm bed for just another minute longer.

The past seven months had not been easy, and Mimi had barely held it together. The death of the Nephilim had done little to assuage the growing fear and instability in the Coven; the Elders were about to revolt; talk of dissolution and hiding underground was gaining more ground every day; but the Lennox brothers' betrayal grated hardest of all. Instead of securing her traitorous brother, as she had ordered them to do, they had disappeared into the ether, with only a lame excuse for their resignation - something about hunting down more of the demon-born Nephilim hidden around the world, with the Venators from Shanghai - a noble enough cause, surely. But orders were orders, and insubordination was cause for an ar-rest warrant. Not that Mimi had any more Venators to send after them. The few that were left were too busy protecting the rest of the Coven. News from the outposts was grim: vampires were being slaughtered in every corner of the world - a fire in London during a Conclave meeting, more young ones found drained in Buenos Aires - the Silver Blood menace, far from being extinguished, had only grown.

The Dark Prince remained trapped behind the Gates of Hell, but it seemed to make little difference, as the Covens, mired in fear and infighting, were in danger of self-destructing on their own. Lucifer had struck at the heart of the Blue Bloods when he'd sent his nemesis, the archangel Michael, to the white darkness that had claimed Mimi's own true love. As for Gabrielle, supposedly Allegra had woken up and left the hospital, but her current whereabouts were unknown.

Overwhelmed and overworked, Mimi had decided that she could not lead the vampires alone. She wanted him back.

She had nothing to live for otherwise, and only Kingsley martin - of the cocky grin and sexy drawl - could help her rebuild the Covens and create a true haven for the vampires, now that her cowardly twin had abdicated his duty in order to be with his half-human whore. If Mimi believed the rumors, Jack had actually made that creature of Abomination his bride. His freaking bondmate.

Not that Mimi felt any ounce of love for Jack anymore, but it was still humiliating to hear that he had gone through with it. Broken their bond and cast his lot with that freak.

First Gabrielle had broken her bond to wed her human familiar, now Abbadon was doing the same.... What was next? Did nothing matter anymore? What about the Code of the Vampires? Should they just toss that into the Black Fire as well?

Were they to live like indulgent Red Bloods now, who made and broke their vows without a shred of thought or guilt? Perhaps they should just give up, forsake civilization and the old ways, and live like barbarians.

On Oliver's advice, Mimi had gone to Egypt in December to make her first attempt at breaking Kingsley out of Hell, secure that when she returned to New York, Jack would be in chains. But the Venators stationed in Italy had reported that Jack had slipped away from them in Florence, and they had no idea where he'd gone. Mimi was surprised, as she had believed deep down that Jack would return to face his crime on his own honor. He was no coward, and she was sure that, at the very least, he would respect the Code and defend himself at a blood trial. Obviously, she was wrong. Perhaps she did not know him as well as she thought. Perhaps his new bride had made him soft - encouraged the delusion that he might live a life of peace without any consequences for his actions.

It didn't help that Mimi's first trip to Egypt had been a bust, and she had returned empty-handed. Her mother had convinced her to go back to school, so in may she had graduated from Duchesne - accepted her crown of white flowers and stood in the tiled courtyard in her tea-length white dress, gloves, and satin shoes, like she had in other lifetimes. It was a farce, just like all of the Committee events - the old Blue Bloods clinging to their social calendar and their seasonal rituals as their world fell to pieces. Mimi never felt older in her life than she had that day. "The future is before you," the graduation speaker had told the assembly. "You are full of promise and have the ability to change the world." Blah, blah, blah. What a bunch of bull. The future was over. There was no future without the Coven, without the Code, without Kingsley.

Before leaving for Cairo again, Mimi had given instruc-tions to the remaining conclave to contact her should something incredibly stupid or terrible happen to them while she was away. They could not disband the Coven, as she had taken the keys to the Repository with her, which unlocked the cycle files contained in the House of Records, along with the remaining sacred materials. The cowards could go underground, sure, but they would leave knowing they had little hope of returning in a new cycle; and not everyone was strong enough to live as an Enmortal.

Mimi walked onto her expansive balcony to get a closer view of the three pyramids of Giza, grand and intimidating in the near distance. She had wanted to stay as close to them as possible. On a clear day, one could see the Giza pyramids from many points in the city; they appeared as looming triangular shadows just beyond the skyline. But here the pyramids were so close she felt as if she could almost reach out and touch them with her hand, and she felt closer to Kingsley by just looking at them. It wouldn't be long now.

She yawned, feeling fatigued from her arrival the day before, still sluggish with jet lag, when the phone buzzed. She hit the speaker.

"Breakfast on the terrace?" asked her Conduit, Oliver Hazard-Perry. "I saw they have t'aamiyyas today."

"Mmm. I like those fried little cakes." Mimi smiled.

When Mimi walked to the buffet, she found Oliver sitting at the table in front of the gardens facing the pyramids. He was wearing a linen safari jacket, a straw fedora, and desert boots.

He stood when he saw her and pulled out a chair for her. The hotel restaurant was crowded with affluent adventure-seeking tourists - Americans spreading fül, stewed chickpeas (a

"breakfast chickpea" Mimi thought, amused), on crisp pita bread; English families consulting maps; groups of Germans laughing boisterously at pictures taken on their digital camer-as. A general hum of self-satisfied smugness pervaded the ritzy hotel atmosphere. Mimi had learned that it didn't matter what country she was in, all five-star hotel buffets were the same, with offerings of expensive cold cuts and delicate pastries along with the custom-omelet stand and a selection of

"native" foods, catering to the same preening sector of the international bourgeoisie. She had traveled all over the world and yet could never escape the denizens of the Upper East Side - from mount Kilimanjaro to the Arctic Circle, the privileged tribe could be found beached on the shores of the mal-pes or scuba-ping in Palau. The world was flat, all right, and best traversed in Jack Rogers flip-flops.

"Don't you look like you just stepped out of an Agatha Christie novel," she told Oliver, placing her napkin on her lap and nodding to the waiter to pour her a cup of their strong black coffee.

"Planning my death on the Nile already?" Oliver asked with a smile.

"Not yet," she growled.

"Because I'd like to get a bite to eat first, if that's all right with you." He nodded toward the sumptuous buffet. "Shall we?"

They filled their plates and made their way back to their table. Mimi cast a skeptical eye at Oliver's plate, which towered precariously with stacks of eggs, strawberries, waffles, toast, pita, cheese, croissants, and bagels. Boys were such food-shoveling machines, but maybe he had the right idea. Who knew when they would be able to get another meal?

She tried to eat but could only pick at the tasty little morsels on her plate, as she had butterflies in her stomach and had lost her appetite. No matter: before she left New York she had visited her current familiar and had "blood-loaded" for her trip, like a marathon runner filling up on carbohydrates the night before the race.

"Pity we're not staying long," Oliver said, taking a hearty bite from a flaky biscuit. "I heard that at night there's some sort of laser light show at the pyramids. The concierge says it's narrated by the Sphinx. Which begs the question, if the Sphinx could talk, what would it say?"

"Amazing what Red Bloods will do to something so sacred. Is there no limit?" Mimi asked.

"It could be worse. There could be a Sting concert, like last time," Oliver reminded her.

Now, that was truly a disaster, Mimi thought. When they had arrived in Cairo the first time, the area around the pyramids had been chaos - not only unbearably hot, trying to push through the crowds so they could get to the entrance, but all the while Sting was up there belting out those run-of-the-mill saggy middle-aged yoga melodies. She shuddered at the memory. Rock stars should not age. They should die before they turn thirty, or disappear into their chateaus in mustique, returning only with doorstop-size tomes full of their heroin-fueled misadventures.

"You could stay," Mimi offered, before she could change her mind. "I can go down alone, like before." She could find another way to fulfill the exchange, she thought. He didn't have to do this. Oliver was a bit of a prig, a bit of a stiff, but he was sweet and thoughtful, and it had been his idea to visit the white witch; and thanks to him, Mimi now knew exactly what she needed to get Kingsley out of the underworld.