Free Soul Reborn (Key to the Cursed Book 1) by Jean Murray Page A

of her blade into its face. In the side mirror, she saw the body roll onto
the sidewalk only to get up and resume its pursuit.
    The van lurched
forward plowing down the revens and bouncing over the dead bodies pulled under
the vehicle. She yanked the steering wheel sharp to the right and turned onto Fifth
Avenue. The entrance to the Empire State Building flashed briefly in her
peripheral vision.
    She flipped out her
phone and called in the airstrike to the old abandoned church. The assault helo
shook the van as it rocketed overhead. The blast wave blew out the back windows
of the van showering small fractures of glass through the entire vehicle.
    Lilly looked over
her shoulder. “Where?”
    Kamen moved to
passenger seat and directed her to a sewer entrance. She slammed on the brakes,
and jumped into the back of the van. Asar’s black skin turned a sickly grey
color. The acid from her stomach crawled up the back of her throat.
    “What’s wrong with
him?”
    His own wounds
already healed, Kamen lifted Asar over his shoulder and pushed past Lilly. “He
needs anti-venom.”
    “Anti-venom?” Following
with her blade in hand, she looked at the ashy color of Kamen’s skin. He seemed
far less affected by the poison. “What about you?”
    He simply answered
her with a hard malicious glare. It took several more minutes to find the
makeshift dwelling Asar had established. Lilly followed down the dark tunnel a
few steps behind Kamen. She couldn’t tell if Asar was alive or dead. There was
no movement, not even a twitch.
    Kamen motioned with
his head, directing her into another chamber. He gently laid Asar down onto mattress
in the dingy cramped space.
    “Take care of him. Now!”
    Lilly slowly
approached the god. His large body consumed the small double mattress tucked in
the corner. She unclipped her weapons belt and put it up against the wall. Her
eyes focused on a gaping wound on his side. Leaning forward, she inhaled. The
scent of the venom burned her nostrils.
    The anti-venom
pulsed through her veins, a protective chemical balance during the conversion
to a Nehebkau. With a small knife from her discarded belt, she sliced open her
palm. She clenched and unclenched her hand to start the flow of blood.
    “Hold him still,” she
directed Kamen. With Kamen’s enormous body holding Asar in position, she dripped
the blood into the opening. Small puffs of smoke drifted out of the wound. Asar
came alive, growling and thrashing under Kamen’s grip.
    “Hold him tight. It’s
going to get a lot worse.” She milked her arm to increase the blood until it
was a continual stream. Once blood filled the bowl of the cut, she pressed her
hand directly over the wound.
    Asar roared and
arched up off the bed as the wound began to cauterize shut. Kamen strained
against his strength, while she pressed as hard as she could. Dark smoke
drifted out from under palm and around her fingers.
    Hearing his screams
of agony, her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, pushing more
of the anti-venom into his system. Once the last of the black smoke cleared,
she withdrew her hands. Only then did he stop struggling, and became eerily
still. The wound edges were fused, but the skin badly burned in the perfect
shape of white hand print. Fluid filled blisters covered the once black skin in
an angry collage.
    She sat back on her
rear with a big thump and leaned against the hard biting wall. The evening’s
events had left her too emotionally and physically drained to fuel her anger
with the deity who had put them all at significant risk.
    Although she was in no
condition to fight out of habit she pulled her weapons belt across her lap. The
cold stone felt soothing against her sore body. Closing her eyes, Lilly invited
the darkness of sleep to overtake her.

CHAPTER twelve
    Asar loomed over the
sleeping huntress.
    By saving his life,
Lilly had done more for him than anyone else in his entire existence. A human,
no less. He touched the silvery