Blood Lines

question would serve to fill the time. "Your Vicki Nelson was chosen by my lord. To use an analogy you might understand, he occasionally orders a specific meal rather than taking what's offered on the buffet. As the gods may not directly interfere except in the lives of those sworn to their service, I prepare the meal for him, placing the chosen one in a situation of optimum hopelessness and despair. That she happened to be the mortal you cared for was pure coincidence, I assure you. Did you go to a great deal of trouble getting her out of jail?"
    'Not really. " Henry stopped at the edge of the platform, at the point where the ambient power surrounding the wizard-priest brushed against him, throbbing in time with the single heartbeat of the chorus. "She'd nearly gotten herself out when I arrived."
    'Almost a pity that she came along with you tonight." The Nightwalker's ka flared and Tawfik nearly lost himself in desire. "You didn't think I was unaware of your companions, did you? I'll have to kill her, of course."
    'You'll have to kill me first."
    Tawfik laughed, but Henry's expression didn't alter and his ka burned high and steady. Slowly, he realized that the statement, as unbelievable as it was, came from those guarded, innermost regions of the ka and that the younger immortal had meant exactly what he'd said. Shock and confusion destroyed his control of the binding spell. Ebony brows drew down to meet in a painfully tight vee. "You would lay down your immortal life for her? For one whose entire existence should mean no more to you than a moment's nourishment?"
    'Yes."
    'That's insane!" With the binding spell in tatters, Tawfik saw his options slip from his grasp. From the time the two mortals had entered the tower, their deaths had been woven into the ceremony of sanctification. The woman had to die. Her death was promised to Akhekh. But in order for the woman to die, he must kill the Nightwalker as well. If he killed the Nightwalker, all the power of that glorious ka would be lost.
    No! I will not lose his ka! It is mine!
    Henry had no idea what caused Tawfik to scowl so, but the wizard-priest certainly looked distracted. He pushed against the power barrier. It pushed back.
    I could take the ka. Take it now. Use the power generated by the first two-thirds of the spell of sanctification. Use the power bled from the acolytes. Pay the price…
    But would there be a price? Surely the devouring of an immortal life, would give him power equal to Akhekh's.
    Perhaps greater.
    The chant began to rise in volume. The time had come to begin the third and final part of the spell of sanctification.
    He had no time to create another binding spell. He had no intention of losing the Nightwalker's magnificent, glorious ka.
    Decision made between one heartbeat and the next, Tawfik wrapped his will around the accumulated power and threw all of it into the spell of acquisition. This would be rape, not the seduction he had initially planned, but the end result would be the same.
    The sun flared white-gold behind Henry's eyes and he felt himself begin to burn. He could feel the strength that fed the flames, feel his edges consumed, feel… something familiar.
    Hunger. He could feel Tawfik's Hunger.
    Then he felt Tawfik's hands cup his face, lifting his head so their eyes met. Ebony eyes with no bottom to stop his fall.
    The heartbeat of the acolytes roared in his ears. No. Not the acolytes. Not the heartbeat he had heard since he gained the top of the tower. Another heartbeat, a little faster than human norm, sound carried through the contact of skin against skin. Tawfik's heartbeat. Driving Tawfik's blood. For all his stolen centuries of life, Tawfik's scent was mortal.
    Had been mortal that night in the park. Was mortal now.
    Henry set his own Hunger free, loosing the leash of restraint survival in a civilized world forced it to wear.

    Steel fingers clamped down on Tawfik's shoulders and he cried out, forcing focus past the ecstasy to find the threat. He recognized the Hunter snarling out at him from the face between his hands.
    'Nightwalker," he whispered, suddenly realizing what he held, what the legends meant when they were not legends any longer. During the time it took him to say the name, he felt the ka he sought to devour pull almost clear of the spell and just for that instant he slid beneath the surface of hazel eyes gone agate hard.
    The grip on his shoulders tightened. The bone began to give. Desperately, Tawfik sucked