Free Vampire Sheikh by Nina Bruhns

here!”
    Again Gemma shook her head and glanced in appeal at Seth-Aziz. Glowering fiercely, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. Gemma looked back at her and sighed. She pulled Joss into a tight hug and kissed her cheek. Joss could feel the conviction in her gestures, the intense desire of her sister to reassure her. Then she mouthed “Go back” and turned her around so she was again facing Seth-Aziz, and gave her a little shove.
    Joss balked. She couldn’t believe this was happening! Did her sister want her to become the…the next human sacrifice of a vampire?
    Apparently she did. From behind, Gemma once again put her arms around Joss and gave her another hug. Then she let go and gave her an even firmer push toward Seth-Aziz.
    Her meaning couldn’t be clearer. Go to him. Submit to him. Do whatever he asks of you.
    Seth-Aziz’s expression betrayed nothing. It had gone from glowering to carefully blank as he stood splay-legged with his arms crossed imperiously over his chest, as though he owned the entire universe and they were just visitors.
    Joss swallowed heavily. She trusted her sisters more than she trusted anyone else on earth. She did. And if Gemma said she must do this, to free her and Gillian, then she must. Joss was the oldest, the responsible one. The one the other two looked up to. Depended on. It was up to her alone to keep the family together. And she would do it. So they could once again be just that—a family.
    She thought of their mother and father and how much it had hurt to lose them. She couldn’t lose her sisters, too.
    She just couldn’t.
    No matter the sacrifice.
    So she straightened her shoulders and took a deep, shaking breath and began to walk back toward the gate.
    To the vampire lord, Seth-Aziz.
    And toward a terrifying, unknown fate.

Chapter 7
    T he sun cast a warm, pink glow over the temple garden as Nephtys sat by the sacred Pool of Re-Horakhti, gazing into its still waters hoping to catch a glimpse of something, anything, that brought a sign from Seth-Aziz or Khepesh or even Josslyn Haliday.
    She hadn’t had a vision all week. Not since arriving in Petru. She dearly missed the Eye of Horus, her favorite scrying bowl. It had been left behind in her rooms when Haru-Re had sprung his sinister trap and spirited her away from Khepesh.
    She ground her jaw as, instead of a glimpse of the future, a scene appeared from the recent past—the worst day of her life.
    â€œBring the Haliday woman to Petru!” Haru-Re had ordered his minions as Nephtys looked on in despair.
    â€œNo!” she’d protested. “What do you want?”
    â€œYou know my price,” he’d told her, his eyes glittering with imminent conquest.
    She’d known only too well what his price would be. Nephtys herself. Her freedom in exchange for Josslyn Haliday.
    But she had paid it willingly. The mortal woman’s union with Seth may be the last hope for the survival of Khepesh. She didn’t know how, but she knew their fates were somehow linked. But more important, Nephtys had wanted to safeguard her brother’s happiness. She would rather die a slow death herself than deprive him of the future he deserved.
    So she had given herself over to Haru-Re. To become the consort of the enemy, bound to him forever.
    There had been a short time after her capitulation that Ray had changed and seemed to turn almost…kind. And happy, of all things. She had thought against all odds that the goodness deep within him had shown itself at last. That she’d been right about him. But then he’d become angry again when she’d insisted they wait to wed. And the result had been his visit to Josslyn last night. It infuriated her!
    She thrust her hand agitatedly into the pool, churning the still waters into a whirlpool, shattering the unwanted vision and the vexing memory. Jerking away, she glowered up at the disc of the sun, traveling along its golden path