After he got rid of this thing holding him down!

He tried using his godly power to hasten the birth but found that it would not work. The child would come only when it wanted to and for some reason there was nothing he could do to change that.

It was completely unfair. Perhaps he could turn to human medical methods? They could surely induce labor. But that carried risks with it. He had to be sure the baby was fully formed. He would not give birth to a fragile, weakling child. What would the people think of him if he did that? No, he must produce a fat, healthy infant to show to the world. It would be yet another way to display his own magnificence.

“Asutept!” Apep whined. “Get me some pizza! And not that generic delivery kind! I want a good pizza…with extra cheese and pepperoni!”

“Yes, mistress, whatever you desire.”

Mistress. These fools were still laboring under the delusion that he was Odjit, the female Bodywalker in charge of the Templar clique. Well, once he was free of the burden of the child he would change all of that. For now it served him best to let them think he was this female Nightwalker. It had given him ready-made followers. The Templar sect was devoted to this woman, and so they were devoted to him. Eventually they would know the truth and it would be an easy transition. After all, they had been serving him already for the better part of a year.

Apep sat back in his bed, elevating his swollen feet. Soon, he thought. Soon everything would change. Soon he would let his power be known. His power and the power of his scion would be enough to rule the world. And there would be no one to stop him.

He would see to that.

—

After the nausea of traveling so fast wore off, Viève found herself in the damp, humid wilds of a Brazilian rain forest. The first thing that struck her was the noise. There was a cacophony of sounds: the sound of buzzing insects, the sound of a rushing river, the sound of living things swinging about in the canopy and sliding into the water. Something slithered past her feet and with a squeal she practically jumped up into Kamen’s arms. For the second time that night, she made him chuckle.

“You know you can phase and nothing can touch you, right?” he said.

“Oh. Right. I forgot.” But she didn’t want to phase as long as she could be pressed up against him like this. He felt so strong and he was so self-assured. He knew what he was doing, where he was going, and he did it all with single-minded purpose. There was something inherently attractive about that. Call her a fool for feeling that way, but she felt it just the same.

And she realized that now that she’d had a small part of him, he could not take it back from her. He could not color her experience with him, however much he might have rejected her afterward. She had felt something in those fleeting moments of their kiss and she was sure he had felt something too.

Maybe that made her a fool.

The air was hot, heavy, and sultry—the dampness settling immediately on her dry skin. But as she drew in a breath she thought she had never smelled anything so…so alive in her life. There had to be hundreds of varieties of plants just within the quick sweep of her eyes. This was nature’s landscaping and it was beautiful.

“We have company,” he said, looking up at the canopy.

There, flying between the branches of the soaring trees were flame colored birds, their red and orange feathers obvious in the darkness.

“Phoenixes?” she whispered.

“That would be my guess. But I imagine they aren’t interested in making the first move.”

Kamen cast a spell and suddenly they began to levitate off the ground. With a squeak of surprise, she wrapped herself tightly around him as they went up into the canopy, leaving the ground far below. She could have phased right then, since she was just as capable of flying in phased form as he was in this form. But, again, she didn’t want to let go of him.

The feel of him was fast becoming an addiction. And was it any wonder? He was strong and vital and everything she wasn’t. Of course she would be attracted to that.

They reached the arm of a tree and he put his hands around her waist and hoisted her up onto it. Her feet were left dangling over what felt like hundreds of feet of air.

Then he turned into the canopy and shouted out, “The Bodywalker court wishes to address the Phoenix court on a matter of extreme urgency.”

At the sound of his voice things were startled into movement all around her. There was the flutter of wings and the rustle of vines and leaves. The humming sounds of the rain forest paused briefly, but picked up again after only a few moments of quiet.

“Now what do we do?” she asked.

“We wait,” he said. “We wait for them to realize we aren’t going anywhere until we get the meeting we are looking for.”

“But that could be hours. Days even.” She swatted at a mosquito on her neck.

“This is true. If they don’t respond immediately I will see about making things more comfortable for us.”

“How will you do that?” She swatted again.

“Well, for one I can keep the insects away.” He mumbled something in a hushed tone and suddenly a green light limned her entire body, hugging her skin perfectly. It left her looking like a pale, glowing emerald, but it was keeping the insects off her. She could feel the difference immediately and when a mosquito landed, it appeared to alight a full inch away from her skin. Frustrated, it flew away.

“They won’t even know you’re here in another moment. As soon as your scent drifts away.”

“My scent?”

“You smell sweet like strawberries. That would attract anything.” His voice dropped an octave as he looked at her intensely for a long moment. She felt her heart flutter in her chest under his penetrating regard.

“Does it attract you?” she blurted out, before she could think better of it.

His mouth tightened into a grim sort of line. “More than you know,” he said, though he did not look happy about the admission.

Well, it was something at least. He was attracted to her. He simply didn’t think he had any right to be. It was a curious reaction. What was it, she wondered, that held him back so tightly? What was it that made him feel so undeserving, even of someone as insignificant as she was?

“Why…” She broke off. Perhaps it was best not to press the matter. He had not grown angry with her thus far, but it was only a matter of time. She always made everyone angry eventually. They lost patience with her or she earned their contempt in one fashion or another. She didn’t want to earn his contempt. “Do you think they’ll answer you soon?” she asked instead of asking him why he was so hard on himself or why he didn’t allow himself even the smallest of comforts or pleasures. He didn’t even allow himself the pleasure of a hobby. There had to be a reason why.