Seducing the Jackal. Seressia Glass

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      Chapter Three

      Tia took the verbal kick in the ass for what it was, rediscovering her backbone with every word the jackal barked out. Straightening her shoulders, firming her chin, she wanted to believe as he believed, that she could reach down deep past the centuries of betrayal and hatred, and find the power that bound jackals and witches together.

      You’re out of your mind, a horrified voice inside her head said. They’re jackals. Jackals! You can’t help them!

      It didn’t matter that they were jackals. It didn’t matter that their kind had killed and hunted her kind for centuries. It didn’t even matter that they had kidnapped her. The two caged jackals were suffering. She had to try to help. The healer in her could do no less.

      She knew her coven sisters wouldn’t understand, much less agree. To them, the only good jackal was a dead or dying one. Then again, some of the Daughters had been around for centuries and had experience clashing with the jackals. Tia was young by the circle’s standards, having been born in the New World and with no firsthand knowledge of fighting the Sons of Anubis.

      “Okay.” She gave a sharp nod. “The first thing we need to do is make this place more conducive to healing. I don’t suppose we can move them?”

      He shook his head. “It took several of my men just to get them here. We caged them for their safety as well as ours. Does this mean you can help them?”

      “I can try.” She turned to face him. He really was a slab of a man, but in a very nice hot damn sort of way. It made her wonder what his jackal looked like. “I need to go home, get some stuff.”

      “No.”

      She bristled, even though she knew he wouldn’t agree. “I’ll come back.”

      He clearly didn’t believe her. “The answer is still no.”

      “What you want me to do is a big deal,” she spat. “I can’t just wrinkle my nose and wish them back to health! Did any of your jackals train with your healer?”

      “No.”

      “Do any of them possess any talent for healing or spell work?”

      “No.”

      “Are there any female jackals who can help me perform the chants to Isis?”

      He folded his arms, a stubborn expression crossing his features. “No.”

      She blew out a frustrated sigh and settled her hands on her hips. “Are you telling me no because it’s the truth or because you don’t want me to know? Because I gotta tell ya, if it’s the second reason, you truly suck.”

      The left side of his lips kicked up in a smile as if he found her pissiness amusing. She wondered if he’d smile if she kneed him in the nuts. “There aren’t any female jackals available to help.”

      Great. He was dooming her to failure before she even started. “Look. You want to save them, right? So do I, since that’s the only way I’m getting out of here. So help me here. Do any of you at least know of the ancient hymns and prayers?”

      He uncrossed his arms, just to cross them behind his back, military style. “We’ve kept up our prayers to Anubis, mostly for protection and guidance as we go into battle, prayers and blessings as we send the dead back to Duat, and thanksgiving when we return home safely.”

      Tia knew painfully little about the Sons of Anubis, but she didn’t think their war prayers would work, or their fellows jackals would have healed already and she wouldn’t be here. Still, she’d take anything she could get.

      “Okay. Maybe those will help to invoke Anubis. Do you have the right incenses, the right altars to make prayers to Isis and Anubis? If someone here doesn’t have a sistrum or know how to use it, I need to have my recordings. All of that stuff is at my house—you know, the sanctuary that you defiled and kidnapped me from?”

      “Yes, the sanctuary that had an entire wall in your sunroom dedicated to Isis?” He again folded his arms across his chest. “I had my men gather up many of your things. We were respectful,” he added when she opened her mouth to protest. “They have all been carefully arranged in the next room. And we have medical and spiritual supplies our healer left behind, in those cabinets against the wall. We can set up whatever you need.”

      The thought of these jackals manhandling her altar made her stomach churn. Her shoulders sagged. “Strangers, enemies, touching my personal stuff, my sacred things. I can’t begin to use them until I purify them again.”

      He didn’t offer an apology, not that she expected him to. Someone willing to kidnap a person wouldn’t give a damn about her belongings. “Can you start without those?”

      “Probably. I can at least try to find out what’s wrong with them.” She looked at him again. “If I do, will you let me go?”

      “Of course.”

      The words flowed from those gorgeous full lips too easily. “I would have your word, sworn under the watchful eye of the god you hold dear, that you will let me go once I heal your men. In return, I will swear to Isis that I will do everything I can to break the sickness that taints them. Deal?”

      Amber eyes bored into hers. She kept her gaze open, honest. She’d already shown that she was willing to help heal the afflicted men, but she wouldn’t be able to focus completely on what she needed to do if she had to worry about whether or not Markus planned to keep her prisoner, or worse.

      “Done.”

      “Okay.” Breath rushed from her lungs in relief. She’d have to accept his word—if he had meant what he had said about doing his sacred duty with the Lost Ones, then swearing to his patron god was no small thing. She had to believe he would let her go.

      “Tell me what happened to them.” She knelt on the floor beside the cage with the fully human jackal. Glazed eyes stared unseeing as minute tremors shook his thin frame. She spread her fingers against the bars, reaching for her healing ability. “You said something СКАЧАТЬ