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replied.
    “Twenty-five.”
    “And you call me young?”
    His shoulder moved. He stretched his free arm toward her. “Take my hand,” he commanded.
    “Why?”
    This time, he did smile. Her heart reacted with a stutter. He immediately sobered as if he’d guessed her reaction. And then he stepped closer, making what had been a very large hotel room feel small and cramped. It didn’t appear he’d be difficult to seduce. Geena’s throat tightened unhelpfully at the thought. Then it went dry, making it difficult to swallow. For some reason, physiology specified that right now she needed to swallow.
    A lot.
    She did, but it was more of a gulp. His eyes intensified, going to a green-gold glow. It resembled the scarab at the center of King Tutankhamen’s breastplate. The one made from vitrified glass...from a meteorite hit. A distinct buzzing resounded through her ears as she gazed at him. Enrapt. She almost missed his next step, coming closer still. Something rattled as if jostled by a careless hand. Something in another section of the room fell with a distinct crash. And—
    Did the ground just move?
    Geena yanked her gaze away. This was getting out of hand. She was imagining things. Envisioning worse. His eyes hadn’t changed. The pressure sensation wasn’t real. The ground hadn’t shifted. Nothing had fallen.
    “I will not harm you, Geena -nefer. ”
    Did he just add beautiful to her name? Using ancient Egyptian? No . Unlikely. Improbable. She must have heard wrong. Geena sucked in a breath. She had to keep to her goal: escape. For that, she had to stay mentally alert. Focused. She moved her gaze back to his and watched the depths of his eyes grow brighter. The buzzing got even louder as she stared.
    “You have my word.”
    “That is not...what your statue says.”
    “You speak of the curse?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do not let it concern you. It does not pertain to you.”
    “No?”
    He grinned, flashing a span of white teeth. Without one fang in sight. Not even a little spike. Her mind registered it. For some reason that made her need to swallow again. It scraped her parched throat.
    “Come. Take my hand.”
    “Why?”
    “I have something to show you.”
    “Like what?”
    “The tomb.”
    “The tomb...where they got the ushabti ?”
    “Yes.”
    Shivers rippled through her, originating in her spine somewhere, and branching out from there. She was alternately cold. Then hot.
    “It has remained undisturbed for almost four thousand years.”
    “Where?”
    “It isn’t far.”
    “How far?”
    “Buhen.”
    Her eyebrows lifted fractionally. That was even weirder. She should be looking up at him with complete surprise. “Buhen was an ancient Egyptian fortress. Now sunk far beneath the waters of Lake Nubia.”
    “I know.”
    “And, if it did still exist, it’s far south. Beyond Kom Ombo .”
    “I know that, as well.”
    “Even if you could get a plane to take us there, it will take hours.”
    He shook his head. And looked away. At something over her head. That granted her a reprieve from whatever spell he’d been casting.
    Oh no. No. Geena. You did not just think that.
    She licked her lips. “Um. I have to admit, Sokar, you have my interest. Really. But...it’s late. Perhaps we could make a date? Meet at the lobby in the morning? Make a day trip out of it?”
    “You are forgetting something.”
    “What?”
    “I rarely go into the sunlight. It is...unpleasant.”
    Uh oh. That weakness was right in the vampire spectrum. But ‘unpleasant’ was a far cry from ‘deadly’. “Just unpleasant?” she asked.
    “You are a stubborn woman. Willful. Argumentative.”
    His words helped with the weird anomalies taking place about her. The pressure eased. The buzzing in each ear muted. Geena blinked a couple of times before answering.
    “Really? I thought I was being fairly amenable. Or don’t you realize you’re the stalker here?”
    “Stalker. I do not understand your use of the word.”
    “You are in my