Summary of last chapter:

Tabby begins her tale of what happened to her in the lower basement level. She tells of being tied to a table, and placed in a drug induced haze that made her more uninhibited than usual. The combined effects of the danger and drugs, manifested as a feisty mouth and an almost total lack of fear.

Mike Holly comes out as the leader of the dastardly plot to reanimate mummies using human sacrifice. Akie, his accomplice, was the first of the mummies brought to life.

A strange noise was heard and Akie went to investigate.



Tabby's story continues:


Before Akie could leave, we heard the noise again, only closer this time. Akie stood back as a strange dark figure sauntered into the room, flicking an ebony tail.

I was able to move my head just enough to see a tall, hairless cat wearing a dazzling turquoise collar. Translucent black skin glowed as though with ethereal light, and her eyes flicked about searching for something in particular.

She turned her head upwards, blue eyes meeting mine with feline curiosity. A few seconds passed as everyone in the room considered our visitor, then she crouched and jumped onto the preparation table beside me, knocking the bowl Mike was mixing onto the floor.

"Get out of here." Mike bellowed, grabbing for the overturned bowl. He took a swing at the cat-like apparition, but missed. She landed with grace on the floor.

"Bast!" Akie said. "This is a good omen, Mike Holly."

"Bast?" Mike said, arching an eyebrow. "I thought you guys didn't believe in gods other than Aten."

"We believe they exist; we just don't worship them. This cat is an earthly manifestation of the fertility goddess Bast. She has come to bestow a gift on my sister. In life, Atenabend was never able to give birth to a live child."

"Wonderful," I said, "a fertility goddess--just what I don't need. However, if she wants to give me a gift, she can jump up here, chew these straps off, and eat this nasty bug."

"Are you still complaining about that bug?" Mike asked. "Give it a rest."

"Shhhh...." Akie said. "Listen to Bast."

We all looked to the floor where the over-sized cat crouched, her ears flat against her head, and her tail twitching with anger. A low growl emanated from her throat and grew into a dog-like snarl. The men stepped back.

Bask ended her vocalization with a spring into the middle of my chest, stepping on the scarab in the process. In an aura of mystery, she bent down as though to give me a kiss. I was afraid to move. It's not every day a cat goddess gets in your face.

"She's drawing the soul out of the girl." Akie gasped. "Bast has come to claim this sacrifice as her own."

Okay, enough was enough, I thought. There is a limit to how much, even a kidnap victim, can be expected to endure. I prepared to let loose a scream so loud they wouldn't need any special rites to awaken their dead mummies.

In that split second, with the scream hanging just on the precipice of my lips, I looked, again, into the eyes of the great goddess. I blinked, she blinked, and then I knew this was no goddess, but my old friend Sage. I didn't know how she'd gotten down there, or even who had shaved and dyed her, but this was the very kitty I had rescued one hot summer night outside a haunted house. She had arrived when I needed her most.

Armed with that knowledge, I decided to play along. I wasn't quite sure what a person was supposed to look like after having their soul sucked out, but I was certain they didn't know either. I held my breath and hoped those acting classes I had taken in middle school paid off. I let my body go limp and pretended I had passed out.

Sage dropped to the floor and sauntered back out of the door with another flick of her hairless tail. Her job was done. My soul was still intact, and the mixing bowl was empty of its foul contents. She bought me the extra time I so desperately needed and even squashed the scarab. I made a mental note to buy her a new catnip toy if and when I escaped.

"We cannot use her now." Mike's voice was cold and disdainful. He turned and cut the leather straps that bound me.

"Go get another girl while I remix the mineral bath water. You'll have to choose which sister you can do without on the way there. This has been a terrible waste of time. If I see that cat goddess again, I'm going to shoot her."

Mike gave me a push, and I fell heavily to the floor. It might have hurt, but at least I was alive to feel the pain. He took the mixing bowl and headed into a small room beside the table.

Akie knelt on the floor and lifted me with gentle arms. I felt he was quite strong for a guy who had been dead for over three thousand years. Combined with his handsome features, this fact was disconcerting. I wasn't sure where Akie was going with me, or even if I could keep faking a lack of soul for long, but, to my relief, he laid me gently on the floor beside his sister's sarcophagus.

"I'm glad Bast claimed you," Akie said. "I don't believe I could have watched the rest of the process performed on you."

Akie looked at me for a lingering moment, and then arose and walked towards the door. He still had to go retrieve another Daredevil Girl to take my place, but seemed to have lost the passion to do so. The appearance of what he thought was Bast changed his entire demeanor, and I wasn't the only one who noticed.

"You have thirty minutes to return," Mike said, "or I behead Atenabend, and you know what that means."

"Yes, the head and body must be intact for the rite to be performed. I know. I'll bring a girl back."

"Time is already ticking."