Read Area 51: Nosferatu-8 for Free Online

rattling the chains that held the belt at his waist.
    Donnchadh pulled out a three-foot-long piece of black metal. "Tonight. After the Ceremony of the Solstice. You can follow the Gods who oversee it from the ceremony to

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    their hidden places along the Roads." She pulled the metal rod out of her belt and placed the tip inside one of the links of chain that bound him. She raised an eyebrow. "Do you want your freedom?"
    Nosferatu looked across the way at Nekhbet. Even if this woman lied, even if this was a trap, he didn't care. If he could simply hold Nekhbet in his arms after more than a hundred years of yearning, it would be worth it. "Yes."
    Donnchadh twisted the rod and the link slowly gave, then popped open. She went to work on the other chains and within five minutes Nosferatu was free. He removed the straps around his arms and a red light flickered on the console but he ignored it. Grabbing the lid, he pulled himself out of the tube.
    When his feet reached the ground, he took a tentative step and his legs buckled, tumbling him to the floor. Donnchadh was already at work on Nekhbet's chains as Nosferatu struggled to his feet. The tube had worked his muscles, but his body was so unused to moving that he had to put a hand against the wall to steady himself Driven by a force stronger than gravity he took a step. And then another. By this time, Nekhbet was free and the woman was helping her out of the tube. Nosferatu staggered across to Nekhbet and took her in his arms.
    With the touch of her flesh against his, Nosferatu was transported from the stone chamber that had been his prison for centuries. He wrapped his arms tight around her slight frame as if their flesh and bones and blood would meld together and they would become one.
    "Are you tired?" Nekhbet whispered.
    "Not anymore."
    "You are weak, though."
    Nosferatu blinked as she offered her neck to him, the blood pulsing in the vein, the short tip of the shunt draw-

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    ing him in. He knew he needed the energy, but from Nekhbet?
    Her voice was a seductive whisper. "Take as they take, my love. You are the Eldest and must lead. You need the strength. I am younger. I can afford to give it to you. I want to give it to you. It will make us one as nothing else can.
    And you must lead us."
    He couldn't stop. His lips curled around the shunt, the one-way valve opening at the touch of moist flesh on the outside. The first taste of blood was electrifying, a charge throughout his body that brought every nerve screaming alive as it coursed through his veins. Decades of exhaustion faded. Her blood, with its alien component, was so much more than the human blood he was fed each month.
    The strange woman's voice was an irritating buzz, trying to bring Nosferatu back to reality. "The ceremony has started above. You do not have much time to free the others and be ready."
    Nosferatu did not let go of Nekhbet. Minutes of touch could not compare to the centuries of longing from across the prison chamber. And the blood, the power he felt pouring into his body from Nekhbet, the pleasure. Is this what he gave to the Gods? He could almost understand why they kept him there. He forced his eyes open. He could see her neck so close, the skin white, the beat of the artery so slow now, her eyes closed. Startled, he released his lips and stepped back.
    Nekhbet staggered and would have fallen, but he caught her.
    "I am sorry," he whispered. "I took too much."
    Nekhbet shook her head, slowly opening her eyes, but the dark pupils had difficulty focusing. "It is all right. You need the strength."
    "If you do not act now, you will die," Donnchadh pressed.

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    Nekhbet let go first, running a hand across Nosferatu's face. "My love, we must do as she says. It is our only chance. We must free the others."
    Reluctantly, Nosferatu let go of Nekhbet. He followed Donnchadh out into the corridor, where her partner had already opened the door to the next cell.
    "And who are you?" Nosferatu asked him.
    The