Pre Edit Count – 2,001 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Comes and Goes (In Waves) by Greg Laswell

Previously:

“We need some book, and go back to where it all started.” Then their eyes connect as they both say the name at the same time, “Hamunaptra.”

Now:

The following morning, they disembarked the plane. Within an hour, Rick and Bella make it to his home in the suburbs of London. Bella is shocked with all the stuff in the house as she follows him through the house, frowning as she looks up and sees an unusual object in an unlikely place. “Is there really a sword-“

Rick is moving quickly through the home, answering her as he strides to the pantry. “In the rafters? Yep. You never know when you might need one up there.” He heads to a part of what looks like the rest of the wall until he presses on it to reveal a keypad.

She laughs behind her hand. “Really?” She can’t help but think of how Bond like it all is. But the fact of the sword in the rafters being a likely source for a weapon tickles her funny bone.

He looks behind him at her as he quickly keys in the code to allow him into the basement. “You would be surprised. I was attacked here by mummies once. And not having weapons handy made it a point to me to always be prepared.”

When the door pops open, he holds it open, as Hermes descends before her. On their way here, Rick has deduced that the wolf is the guardian of Bella. He grins as she descends before him as he thinks how much she needs one with the chances she takes. Vampires, of all the types of Supernatural that are out there, she finds the one that has nothing to do with the tales? Well, it does seem she has an affinity for the undead, and they for her. Suits her if what he thinks is true with the conversations they had on the way here. He just shakes his head slightly as he thinks how fitting it is if Imhotep is for her.

Bella is soon down the stairs looking confused at the empty book holder before her. Is it supposed to be where the book is? Rick stops behind her, informing her, “Test number one.” He watches her, and though he believes she has been the one he has been waiting on to take the damn book, he cannot let go of the need to protect the world. It is what he is; protector of mankind according to the tales, and all that jazz. All he wanted was a life for his family, especially Evie. This is his best chance to right a wrong.

She glances behind her at him then looks at the holder before her and the rest of the room. There is nothing in the room; in fact, she realizes that there are no lights, nothing. Looking down, Bella notices Hermes’ paw prints in the dust. Seeing them, she follows them exactly, her feet actually overlaying his paw prints. After starting the journey, only then does she see that the path she is on is a lone sliver of rock dropping away on either side.

Her eyebrows rise at the shocking fact of there being an optical illusion of there being no path in the basement of the house she is in; it is only the book holder in an empty room. Shaking off the thought, Bella follows the trail left behind by her faithful companion. She notices that as she passes the book holder, which is on its own pillar of rock rising out of the depths below and formed into the pedestal then passes a corner, that the pillar is what makes the start of the path hidden completely. She never looks back; never hesitating as she follows the trail of paw prints, trusting her wolf to lead her through safely. He leads her through some tight passages, but sure enough, she exits into a room that seems to be wavering in a dream-like way in front of her. She blinks instinctively in an attempt to clear her eyes. Only then does it all solidify, and a whispering sound starts in her mind.

Walking forward per the words that the whispering words in her head have hinted at in her mind, Bella reaches out into the air. She grasps a heavy weight, and pulls it towards her. All of a sudden, as though she is pulling something through a veil, an object appears before her in the form of a book. The whispering does not stop after the book is brought forth. Balancing the book in her arm, she reaches out to the right of the area from where she had retrieved the book to grab another object. This appears as though it is not being pulled, but appears in her hand as though it was there the whole time. It reveals a scarab-like object, the thing springing open in sharp triangular pieces as it fully appears in her hand.

Bella looks at the heavy book in her arms, then back at the object in her other hand. Seeing the imprint of the same design as the object, she juggles the objects slightly; the book somehow becomes lighter for this maneuver and only then is she able to put them together. A flash travels over the book, the scarab blending in with the rest of the book.

“Hmm. Never seen it do that.” Watching her warily from the spot where the path comes in the room, Rick wonders what it means.

She looks over her shoulder at Rick. “What?”

He nods towards the book. “You are holding the Book of the Dead. The scarab has long been a way to keep people away from the book. It went missing when I put the book down here. Where you pulled the scarab out from was a dead spot. The book reacted to the area, as though it was a repelling magnet. Evie and I never figured out why that specific spot reacted to the book, but we figured the book was safe down here.  The scarab had disappeared one day while we were in Egypt. Evie never allowed it near the book again. So for it to appear all the way here…” Rick just shakes his head in confusion.   He tells her the rest of the story. “In addition, no matter who broke into the house, many died before they reached here. And then were gone.” He shrugs.

Thinking back to all the times he had seen others with the book, Rick nods to her as he informs her, “But the book never glowed, not even in his hands. I suspect you are the true owner of the book. I hope that means that now it is yours, and only you will be able to read it. Which is great in my mind. Too many people have tried to use that book to only be killed, or to have those that are mine almost killed.”

Then he stands back, holding his hand out. “Shall we leave here? I am not ashamed to say it; this place has always given me the heebee-jeebies.”

Bella cannot help but laugh as she walks past him. “And how old are you?” The book is lighter in her hands, feeling nothing more than paper, not the stone and metal she feels under her touch.

Following behind her, Rick answers her flatly, “Old enough to be your grandfather. Let’s get moving; now that the book is in your hands, I won’t doubt that all of creation will be after us. They always seem to know when that thing is moving somehow.” Sliding by her, he starts to grab weapons as they make their way up.

She laughs as she follows him, and when they are back inside the house proper, he looks back at her. “I think you will want some cooler clothing, but we will wait until we are in Egypt.” He leads her towards the house entrance… then stops as someone pounds on his door.

“That’s not good.”

Feeling like she is getting lost in events again, Bella looks up at him. “What?”

Staring at the door, remembering this is how it always starts, Rick absentmindedly answers her. “Someone at the door when we just got the book. Umm… Hide. See if you can make the thing hide itself, and keep your wolf by your side.”

He pushes her in the study, wincing as he remembers all the stuff in there that is probably going to be ruined. He listens until the sounds of her moving are gone, then grabs a gun from the umbrella stand. He stuffs it in the back of his pants, then grabs even more weapons and puts them on him as he heads to the door. The only difference is that these are ‘normal’ unlike the ones downstairs. He tries to keep the appropriate weapons in their place. He really needed that sword back then.

Bringing his focus back to the here and now, Rick opens the door seeing a huge man with red eyes. He shakes his head. “Why? Why can’t I be wrong once?”

The guy looks at him oddly, but attempts to do this the easy way by asking, “Is there an Isabella Swan here?”

Rick looks up at him with his face looking at the guy like he is an idiot. “Really? Why the hell would you even associate that name with me? Can we try a better line?”

Blinking, the giant of a man looks puzzled. “You don’t know her?”

Rick cannot believe this guy, while hoping it may just be this easy, tells him, “No.” He goes to shut the door, but the man puts his arm in front of the door closing.

“But we saw her coming in this house.”

Rolling his eyes, Rick sighs. Nope, it won’t be that easy. “Oh that woman? She is a descendant of mine. I found her and am helping her out. Now please leave. I need to settle her in.”

Knowing this isn’t going to work, as nothing seems to do when he is in these situations, he looks up and mutters, “You know you can help us out some. Just a little bit you know.”

The vampire in front of him stares at him then his nostrils flare. He looks even more puzzled as he mutters, “I saw her come in, but now her scent is gone.”

Rick raises his eyebrows, asking, “What?”

The guys looks down at him, and tells him, obviously confused. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. I must have made a mistake.” With that he heads down the stair way, his thick coat pulled up and his cap low on his head.

Rick, confused at his stroke of luck, looks up and says hesitantly, “Thank you?”

In the library, Bella scrunches in the small spot she found after Hermes herded her to this area. She mutters to the wolf, “You know, if I need to move, I won’t be able to.”

The wolf huffs and stands there, ears perked to hear anything. Bella looks down at the huge book, and she groans. “Try to get it smaller? This thing is made out of metal!” She doesn’t care that it already has made its weight almost nothing for her; there is only so much Bella’s mind can handle.

With nothing else to do, Bella opens the book, blinking rapidly as a flare of light comes from the book. The words dance in front of her. When the young woman puts her hand on the page trying to make it settle, instead of feeling the carvings, it feels as if the information is flowing into her brain as an ancient magical form of Braille. Her eyes widen as knowledge floods her brain, and as she can feel her body changing. As for what is changing, that is unknown, but there is something happening.

After what feels like a few seconds to her, she hears Rick’s voice coming as though from a long hallway. “C’mon Bella. We’ve got to get moving, and I can’t do anything with your guard wolf not letting me close.”

She blinks and looks up at Rick. She imparts to him, “This is mine.”

He nods as he holds his hand out for her to take, then pulls her out of the chair. “I figured that out lady. Now can you hide the thing?”

She nods as the information to do exactly that floods her mind. Taking the book, Bella concentrates, distantly hearing herself mumbling something that her mind is telling her is not English, but she stubbornly ignores it. Suddenly the book shrinks into the scarab-looking thing that opened the book. She then looks up at him, her eyebrow lifted as if asking if that will work.

Rick has his mouth open, having heard her speak ancient Egyptian better than his wife ever had. But he cannot deny the fact that she had done what he asked. “Don’t lose it.”

She replies to him in a dazed voice, “I can’t. It’s part of me. “

Realizing she is not all here, Rick grabs her ignoring the wolf. “Good, now let’s go. One of your vampires was here. The bad kind. You know, the red-eyed ones?”

Bella is quickly catching up, but she is still lost because of the information downloaded to her brain. She lets him pull her out a side door she had never seen, and he has her in a Bugatti with himself in the other seat, and Hermes in her lap, somehow changing to the smaller wolf form he sometimes appears to her as.

He mutters, “I’ll never get the dog smell out.” And just quirks an eyebrow at the wolf when he huffs.

He soon is taking off, trying to get to the airfield Rick had requested the plane move to. It is a lesser known one. In fact it is really a private airfield – his own- but he hates to use it. Jonathan had wanted it and so it was installed. Alex had used it when he learned to fly, but Rick really hates the newer planes. Not that he liked the old ones after his ride when he met Imhotep the first time.

Reminding himself that he needs to stay in the here and now, Rick looks at his rearview window and sighs. “I just got this car. Can’t they wait for it to be at least a week old until they wreck it?”

Bella cannot help but laugh at the sound of exasperation in his voice. She tries to hide behind Hermes, as she can see the wolf laughing at him also.

He glimpses at them as he turns a corner at a high rate of speed, explaining to them both, “This is only the 3^rd time I drove it, and both of the first two times were learning how to drive it. Now we are being followed, and I suspect it is the vampires again. I hate to ask it, but since they are the undead, and under the providence of that book, can you do anything?” Anything would be better than having to try to explain to Alex what happened to the car.

She quickly scans through her mind over what she has learned as the scarab suddenly glows in front of her. It has changed itself to the size of a charm on a necklace, hiding itself on a chain around her neck. Now glowing and levitated to her eye level, they both can hear the drifting of pages, with Bella glowing with it.

Rick stares at her, and he bangs the steering wheel when she is locked in the trance-like state again. “Dammit!” Not the time for her to be lost in the damn thing, but then, it was not like she really had time to look over the book.

He reaches down beside him for the shotgun he had placed there when he got in. Looking at the wolf, he raises an eyebrow. “Can you do anything?”

Hermes huffs, then looks back at Bella then him. Rick informs him, “Yeah, yeah; protect her. Got it. Now can you do anything?”

The wolf rolls its eyes, fading out from her lap. Then Rick realizes the outside of the car is black, and he realizes what is happening. “Holy Shit!” The wolf had appeared outside the car in a large enough form to completely hide the vehicle, and still growing.

He soon is driving as fast as he can, quickly reaching the airfield. He is lifting Bella out of her seat when Hermes trots up. He looks at the wolf. “Is the book with her?” He had looked for it briefly, trying to see where it is, or the scarab. Not wanting to leave the hell-cursed items behind to cause more havoc.

The dog barks once, his tail wagging, then leads them to the airplane. Rick sighs. “Now I am listening to a wolf. Give me some Yetti’s any day.” He carries her to the plane, telling them to take off. He settles her on one of the couches, and then sits down.

He looks off thinking, wishing his wife was here.  “I sure hope you can fulfill your promises to her Imhotep.”

Final count, 2,912 words.

Fairfarren