Vampire Sheikh by Nina Bruhns Read Free Book Online

being. Good and bad did not reside in the absence or presence of light. Good and bad resided in the behavior of human beings, in the thoughts and actions of mortals and immortals, regardless of the god they served.
    No, rather, Seth had questioned his choice to serve at all.
    At the time of his youth, following in his father’s footsteps to become a priest in the powerful per netjer, or temple, of Set-Sutekh the ruling deity of much of Upper Egypt under the early pharaohs, it had felt more like his destiny than choice. Especially when Seth had subsequently been anointed as High Priest of the per netjer . Admittedly, as a young man he’d been blinded by the awesome magic of immortality when it had been offered to him and his followers…even given the high personal price he must pay. Becoming a vampire had seemed a small sacrifice to gain such immense preternatural powers.
    The early days had been rough. Learning to control the unnatural cravings, and master the power, so neither controlled nor mastered him, had not been easy. Other high priests had not fared so well in matters of conscience, the natural greed and cruelty of many of the immortal vampires coming out in ways that ended up toppling pharaohs from the throne, and plunging the entire country into many centuries of chaos and hardship.
    But Set-Sutekh was the God of Chaos, so his per netjer , with Seth as its leader, thrived and gained more and more power and influence from one end of the Nile to the other. It wasn’t until Seth truly opened his eyes and saw what the constant war and strife was doing to the mortals, the common people of Egypt, that he started to question what was happening. And his role in it.
    He’d retreated to his underground palace and contemplated putting an end to it all. How could you go on living with such misery all around, and know yourself to be one of the primary causes? In his deepest depression, he’d written a long poem about a conversation between a man weary of life, and his soul, or ba, entreating it to just let him die. Ultimately, his ba had won his personal de bate, and Seth had not taken his life. He had, however, resolved to withdraw forever from the affairs of mortals, and to stop the deadly strife between his per netjer and all the others.
    It had worked, too. In every case except one.
    Petru.
    Haru-Re still insisted on seizing control of all the mortal realm for his god, Re-Horakhti. Ray would notrest until Seth and Khepesh were conquered, relegated to the anonymous sands of time, as he had all the other thousands of temples of the ancient gods of Egypt.
    The final battle was coming. And it was coming soon.
    Lately, worry and unease had kept Seth awake for most days, as well as nights. Today he awoke even earlier than usual, and with a pounding headache.
    The hunger was also growing worse every passing day, bringing with it a multitude of physical miseries along with the psychological ones.
    â€œMy lord Seth-Aziz!”
    Seth gave a silent groan. Or perhaps it was just the pounding on his chamber door that echoed painfully through his skull. Did the bad news never cease?
    He slid from his bed, grasping the edge of the mattress with his fingers to steady the dizziness. “Come!” he called, reaching for his robe when the lightheadedness passed. The grogginess was getting harder to shake off.
    The entry door to his suite glided open. “Sorry to disturb you, my lord. But you are needed at the Great Western Gate.”
    Immediately, alarm shot through Seth. The Great Western Gate was the main entrance to Khepesh, placed at the end of a deep, meandering underground tunnel that led down from a hidden magical portal in the cliffs of the Western Desert. “What’s happened? Is it Haru-Re?”
    Had the last salvo in their endless war for supremacy finally begun, now that the enemy possessed the finalweapon needed for victory? Had Nephtys given in to the bastard…?
    â€œNo, my