Page 3 of Dead Heat

The leaves stopped rustling as the air grew still. Shadows seeped from the crossroads, blanketing the clearing in darkness.

“You might want to get that sword ready,” Paulie said, as he climbed the tree.

I shushed him. “No commentary from the Greek chorus.”

“I’m Italian,” Paulie shot back.

I held my breath as a thick grey mist rolled across the clearing. The serpents and scarabs moved aside to create a path for their leader. A large serpentine silhouette sliced through the haze. A shiver ran through me as the serpent-devil’s dark eyes fixed on me.

Apep. Egyptian god of darkness and ruler of their underworld.

I left my weapons untouched. If I was lucky, Apep would recognize me as one of their own—not as Egyptian, of course, but as another deity of the dead.

“Greetings, Apep.” I bowed my head. “Or would you rather I call you Apophis?”

“Are those the only two you know?” The words sounded as though they were being scraped off his tongue.

“Yes,” I lied, not wanting him to perceive me as a threat. To destroy him, one needed to curse him byallhis names.

“In that case, Apep will do.” His forked tongue tasted the air. “There is a child of darkness in you.” Apep’s beady eyes surveyed the area. “Yet I sense order and control here.”

I laughed. “You should swing by on a Saturday night.”

The god’s face remained stoic. “We have tried our best to maintain order, but we’ve lost control, which is an ironic complaint given my own penchant for unruliness.”

“Sounds like they need somebody like you, Lorelei,” Paulie said.

Except they had somebody like me. Their own guardian of the Duat. “Where’s Anubis?”

“Gone. Without him to protect our dead, chaos has erupted.”

“Why come here?”

“His trail leads to this realm,” Apep said. “We tried another entry point, but it was unavailable to us.”

“Another crossroads?”

“I know nothing of it, only that the evidence suggests Anubis passed through that doorway, never to return.”

That didn’t sound ominous, nope. Not at all.

“I thought it was impossible to seal off a crossroads,” Paulie said.

I thought so, too, unless, of course, Anubis didn’t pass through a crossroads, but a makeshift gateway that belonged to the most powerful organization in the human world.

“You might want to seek out The Corporation,” I told him. “They’re an organization in this realm that’s been known to keep a god or two against their will.”

Apep’s eyes gleamed with pure hatred. “How is such a thing even possible? We aregods.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Pops had said those words to me more times than I could count.

“Then I will find this Corporation and demand the return of Anubis,” he seethed.

“There’s a chance Anubis left of his own accord.” Other gods had opted for a change in scenery; it was possible Anubis also decided to take a break from the Duat.

“Nonsense,” Apep rasped. “He is our guardian. He would never leave his post unattended without good reason.”

It seemed unwise to argue with a giant serpent-devil. “Then I would go home and develop a plan first. If your underworld is already in chaos, your prolonged absence will make the situation even worse.” And those consequences could spill over into other realms like ours.

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