Larger Font   Reset Font Size   Smaller Font  

The Pharaoh's Kiss (Reincarnation Romance Chronicles Book 3), Page 4

Dana Michelle Burnett


  My breath caught as his lips touched me, kissing my thighs as his hands slid down to part my legs. I felt his fingers at my opening, teasing me softly.

  Yes...Yes...

  My fingers curled in his long hair, the nails dragging across his scalp.

  “My queen...” he mumbled against my sex. “My love...”

  My legs quivered as he tasted me before rising to his feet once more. He looked down at me with Alex’s face and eyes.

  “Alex?” The me in the dream whispered, “How can it be you?”

  He didn’t answer. He was pulling my leg up and wrapping it about his waist. In one swift movement, he was inside of me and I awoke.

  I bolted upright in the bed and gasped for air. Alex sat up and stroked my back.

  “Are you okay?” He asked sleepily.

  “It was you,” I explained. “In my dream... It was you.”

  Alex kissed my shoulder softly, “What was the dream?”

  “It’s going to sound crazy,” I said rubbing my hands over my face.

  “Come on,” he whispered as he smoothed my hair back. “Tell me about it.”

  I took a deep breath, “I was in an Egyptian palace, taking a bath.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  “I was getting ready to go to my new husband...The Pharaoh.”

  “The Pharaoh?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Tutankhamun, but it wasn’t Tutankhamun.”

  “Who was it?” Alex asked.

  “It was you,” I said quickly. “You were Tutankhamun.”

  “And you were Ankhesenamun?”

  “I guess,” I twisted my hands together and sighed, “Am I losing my mind?”

  He took me into his arms, “No of course not.”

  I snuggled against his skin, “I have no memory of myself at all, and then I have these dreams that make no sense.”

  “This isn’t the first one?”

  I shook my head, “No, I had one last night too, but you weren’t in it.”

  He kissed my forehead softly, “I’m sorry.”

  I let him kiss me and ease me back down onto the bed. I rested my head on his chest and listened to the sound of his heart beating.

  Alex stroked my back, “Perhaps there is another way for you to get answers.”

  “I’m willing to try anything.”

  “Okay,” he said as he stroked my hair. “Now try to get some sleep.”

  Chapter Eight

  We walked the halls of the Luxor International Hospital. I clung to Alex’s hand as he seemed to know where he was going as we maneuvered through the busy halls. The doctors and nurses walked past us with barely a passing glance, but I eyed them all suspiciously.

  “Why are we here?” I asked.

  Alex took my hand and squeezed it tight, “We’re going to see a friend of mine.”

  “Another friend?”

  He smiled, “yeah, another friend. We went to college together.”

  “Back in America?” I asked as I dodged a nurse pushing a patient on a gurney.

  “Yes,” he said as he too backed up against the wall to let them pass.

  “Then won’t he just commit me?” I asked nervously.

  “No,” Alex said as he brought my hand up to his lips so he could kiss it. “He promised to keep all of this a secret.”

  I wanted to resist, but a quick touch of his lips on my skin weakened any resolve I had left. All I could do was follow along as he opened the door marked employees only, and pull me inside.

  A long, white, hall stretched out before us. I wanted to shrink back, but Alex pulled me along, past closed doors to the very end of the hall.

  There waiting, squatted a short, dark-haired man, with two day stubble clouding his pasty face. The man stood as we approached and pulled the earphones from his ears. I heard the final notes of whatever he was listening to before he shut off the sound.

  “So this is the famous Jane Doe?” He asked in a clipped British accent.

  Alex nodded, “Yeah, I’ve been calling her Senna.”

  “Of course you have,” this doctor – intern person said.

  His response didn’t seem to faze Alex at all. He simply laughed, “Senna this is, Dr. David Pearson, one of my oldest friends here in Egypt.”

  “I’m your only friend here.”

  “Almost,” Alex said with a smile. “No one else would put up with me as much as he has.”

  “Who says I put up with you?” He teased and continued looking me up and down, “You can call me David. So what’s your story?”

  “She showed up in the Valley,” Alex explained. “She has no idea what her name is or anything else.”

  David stepped up to me and took a small penlight from the pocket of his white coat and shined it into my eyes and then felt along the bruise on my head. “Can she not speak?”

  “I can speak,” I said as he did his quick examination

  “Good, we don’t have to worry about that then,” he said with the first genuine smile toward me. “She has a mild hematoma... Maybe a concussion. Do you remember hitting your head?”

  I shook my head, “No. I remember walking and my head hurt, but nothing before that.”

  David frowned, “Okay, let’s start with some tests.”

  Immediately I felt the fingers of panic moving up my spine. I looked over to Alex with eyes so wide they ached.

  Alex squeezed my hand, “It’s okay, I’ll be right there with you.”

  Even though I was still unsure, he seemed so sincere, I nodded. “Okay.”

  David clapped his hands together, “Let’s start with an x-ray.”

  Alex frowned, “Why an x-ray? Do you think she has a fracture? You said it was just a mild hematoma.”

  “She really needs an MRI, but we have to check for metal in her body first.”

  David motioned for us to follow him, leading us down a series of halls to radiology. He ushered us in the first room to the right. Switching a light on, he handed me a gown from a stack on the shelf and pointed to the screen.

  “You can change back there,” he said with a nod as he began setting things up.

  I let go Alex’s hand and stepped behind the white screen. I got undressed, wondering what the x-ray would show and how if I had ever broken any bones or metal in my body, Alex and David would know about it before I did.

  Slowly, I stepped out from behind the screen. David ordered me up on the table.

  “Just lie on your back with your arms at your side,” he said as he walked into the glass room over to the side were Alex stood waiting.

  I watched as he handed Alex a heavy blue vest and then pulled on one of his own.

  “All right Senna,” he said loudly. “I need you to take a deep breath and hold it.”

  I did as he asked, trying to I still as possible even though I felt chilled and exposed.

  “Okay,” he said loudly. “Give me a minute to make sure I got it.”

  I turned my head and looked at Alex. He smiled at me from the glass room. I tried to smile back, but all I could think about was how badly I wanted answers while still being afraid of what those answers might be.

  “Okay,” David said. “I got it.”

  Alex stepped out of the glass room and helped me set up on the table. He kissed my forehead and I wished I could just stop everything and freeze that moment.

  David cleared his throat as he came closer, “Okay, there’s no metal. So let’s get that MRI.”

  I gathered up my things and followed him out of that room and into another just a bit further down the hall. This room was more stark with the huge machine in the very center. David guided me over to it and told me to lie down on the thin bench.

  I tried not to panic as he fitted the cage of sorts around my head. He pushed a button and I slid headfirst into the capsule.

  “I know it’s tight,” David said. “Just try to be still.”

  I heard them both leave the room and then David’s voice echoed in a mechanical way thr
ough the machine.

  “Okay, we’re going to start now.”

  I heard some shuffling and then a few loud clicks on the line. I closed my eyes and tried to remain as still as possible. Suddenly through all the noise, I could hear David talking again, but this time it was to Alex, not me.

  “So what is it between you and this girl?” He asked

  “I don’t know,” Alex was muffled voice replied. “She’s just this lost person, but now and then I get this glimpse into who she really is and she is amazing.”

  “What do you think I’m going to find with all these tests?” David asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “So why did you drag me into this?”

  “Because of last night,” Alex said solemnly. “She had a dream that sort of freaked me out.”

  “What was it?”

  I heard Alex sighed. It was a heavy, almost defeated sound.

  “She dreamed she was Ankhesenamun,” he said. “And I was Tutankhamun. I know it doesn’t seem like a big thing, but it really got me.”

  David fell silent and all I could hear were the clicks and bangs of the machine. Finally, I heard Alex his voice cut through the noise.

  “What is it?” He asked.

  David cleared his throat, “Did I ever tell you why I chose to go in college in America?”

  “No,” Alex said. “I just thought it was something you wanted to do.”

  “I did,” David said. “But it was because I had to get away.”

  “Why?”

  “Julie... She was the love of my life.”

  “What happened to her?” Alex asked.

  “She died,” David said. “She was in a car accident and died. I couldn’t take it so I left.”

  “I had no idea. I’m sorry.”

  “When I graduated, I came here instead of going back to England, thinking it would be easier.”

  “Why was that?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, until about three months ago. Just outside of this hospital, I see this little girl, maybe five or six years old. If she didn’t look anything like Julie in anyway, she didn’t sound like Julie, but there was something there that screamed to me that I was looking at Julie.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes,” David said. “And when she looked at me, there wasn’t doubt in my mind.”

  “David, you’re scaring me.”

  “I’m not saying I was attracted to her,” David said. “But I couldn’t explain it. It was very real... Maybe what Senna saw was just as real.”

  “It seemed very real to her.”

  I heard the machine shut off and moments later the door to the room opened. I jumped slightly when I began to slide out of the machine. The first thing I saw was Alex smiling down at me.

  “Hey,” he said as he helped David remove the cage around my head.

  The two of them took my shoulders and helped me sit up.

  “So?” I asked nervously.

  “Well,” David said. “Looks like you have a mild concussion. That could be what caused your memory loss.”

  “Am I going to be okay?” I asked.

  “In time,” David said. “You may get your memory back. Since there isn’t an obvious medical cause for the loss, you could just wait and see if it comes back on its own, or you might try hypnosis.”

  Alex moved closer, “hypnosis?”

  David nodded, “I’ve read studies where under hypnosis you may remember your name or some other detail about who you are.”

  I reached out and took Alex’s hand, “Okay, how do we do that?”

  Chapter Nine

  “Just lay back and listen to the sound of my voice,” David said as he took a seat on a small wheeled stool and pulled himself up to the table where I lay.

  Alex looked around the room, examining the yellow tiled floor and walls. The far wall held rows of drawers with metal doors, for some reason he paled.

  “What is this place?” He asked. “Won’t we get caught?”

  “It’s the morgue. Don’t worry, they’ll be quiet,” David said with a shrug toward the wall. “Now come on, I haven’t done this since my intro to Psych class. Senna, just lay back, relax, and listen to my voice.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to relax as I lay on the gurney in the center of the room.

  “I want you to imagine yourself in a stream...”

  “A stream?” Alex mumbled.

  David sighed, “Do you want me to do this or not?”

  “Sorry,” Alex said.

  “Let’s go back,” David said, turning his attention back to me. “You feel yourself relaxing, going back, you see yourself arriving at the hospital, but you’re going back further. Can you see it?”

  “Yes,” I said even though I wasn’t sure.

  I took a few deep breaths and then I could feel myself sliding. I saw myself standing in the long haul, and everything, all my memories rushing past.

  “You’re going back,” David said. “Back to that day in the Valley of the Kings. What do you see?”

  “I see a poster.”

  “What is it a poster of?”

  “The mask,” I mumbled. “The gold mask.”

  “What mask?”

  I could feel the hot sun overhead as I looked up at the poster, letting the golden mask of the Pharaoh come into focus.

  “The burial mask of Tutankhamun,” I said. “It’s on the poster.”

  “Okay,” David said. “Now go back before that, back before your journey to the Valley, back before you saw the poster. What do you see?”

  There was a pull, sending me down into the darkness. I didn’t hear his voice anymore. I no longer felt the cold, metal table under my back. I was far away from him and Alex.

  Suddenly, I saw a beautiful room of smooth stone with history carved on its walls. A deep part of me said that this was the palace at Thebes and that same part knew that we had abandoned the city of Akhetaten.

  “I will not start my reign in the dust of my father’s failure,” Tutankhamun had said.

  How did I know that?

  I came into some other me, another version of me. I sat on the floor at the foot of the throne. I could see the carved legs of the golden lions that made up the chair all the way down to the clawed feet. I felt Tutankhamun’s hand on my hair. It was such a simple gesture, but I could feel the emotion behind it.

  A man, angry and gesturing wildly stood before us. His robes were simple, but fine, flaring out at he paced back and forth. He glared at the Tutankhamun and I with open hostility

  “You cannot change the gods of the dynasty,” he said. “The priests will not stand for it.”

  I rested my head on the Pharaoh’s leg, feeling the warmth of his body. I watched this man, knowing he was an advisor to my husband, as he had been to Akhenaten. My husband seemed to trust him as someone older and wiser, but I watched him as one would watch a snake.

  “You forget Ay,” Tutankhamun said calmly. “I am Pharaoh.”

  “Of course, my Pharaoh, but there will be unrest,” the man threatened.

  Tutankhamun stroked my cheek, his voice turning soft, “Ay, it is of no consequence to the people. It was my father that changed the gods, I am simply correcting his error.”

  “His error?”

  “Yes,” he said more forcefully. “I will hear no more of it. See that it is done.”

  “Yes, your majesty, if that is what you wish.”

  “It is,” Tutankhamun said. “Now leave us.”

  I watched Ay’s eyes fall on me, a flicker of lust in their darkness before he bowed and left us, ordering everyone near to follow him.

  Once he was gone, I crawled up into Tutankhamun’s lap. He took me into his arms and cradled me there so that I could rest my head on his shoulder.

  “I do not trust Ay,” I said, nuzzling his neck.

  “He is stubborn,” Tutankhamun said as he stroked my leg through my gown. “But he is wise. He will help us make Egypt powerful once more. Together, you and I wil
l create a dynasty that will be known throughout the ages.”

  “Then why change the gods? If Ay thinks the change is a mistake, is it wise to go against him?”

  “I am Pharaoh,” Tutankhamun said as he kissed the base of my throat and brought his hand up to caress my breast, “I want nothing of my father’s reign to last after what he did to my mother and what he tried to do to you.”

  “But don’t you understand?” I said softly, throwing my head back as he freed one of my breasts from my gown. “None of that matters now.”

  “It does to me,” he said as he kissed my flesh. “We will make Egypt great again, you and I together and every deed of my father will be forgotten. That will be our victory over him.”

  He eased me off his lap and up into his arms. He stood, turned, and placed me down upon the throne. He knelt down before me, pushing my gown up to my hips, and pushing my legs apart.

  “Together, you and I will create the kingdom of Tutankhamun,” he said as he pulled me to the edge of the chair. “And our sons will rule for all eternity.”

  He kissed me then, running his tongue over mine. I moaned, feeling his excitement through his robes and my body responded. I wanted him. I needed him inside of me, giving me sons, and making his predictions come true.

  His hand came up to tangle in my hair and lean me back against the throne, the other sought out my moist folds. I griped the golden winged serpents that made the arms of the chair as he drew my wetness out.

  “Ankhesenamun...” He said as if whispering a prayer, “My Ankhesenamun...”

  I felt him between my legs, his manhood escaping from his robes. He was at my opening, straining to enter me, stretching me as he pushed inside.

  I arched my back as he took me, driving him deeper. Words fell from my lips with each thrust, but I was no longer aware of what they were.

  Chapter Ten

  Suddenly, there was a loud clap and I was pulled back into the here and now. My eyes darted around the room, looking for anything familiar. Where was the throne? Where was the history on the walls?

  David cleared his throat, “Does anyone else think it’s hot in here?”