Born To Run

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It wasn't exactly ranting that Darien was listening to, despite the nature of their conversation. Maybe what he expected to see was a bit more of stuttering, eluding and general attempts on diverting the topic to something less serious, less personal. But Rowena was rather frank and clear in her explanation. As much as the Hekan appreciated it, he found the content of the whole monologue quite distressing. Maybe more than he would have liked. Frown that up until now decorated his forehead even deepened like bed of wild river, twisting and turning through soft ground. Choosing death willingly was a concept that Darien didn't understand. But then, that could have been because he fought to live for such a long time. However, despite all the troubles he had with understanding why Rowena chose this instead of trying to find another way, was underlined with something more delicate and subtle, that Darien in his struggle to comprehend Rowena's new dimension of suicidal techniques, didn't notice those shades of something familiar yet estranged due to years of isolation. The only thing that signalled its presence was the new imaginary heavy boulder on his chest that crushed his ribs every time, Darien thought about Rowena suddenly dropping dead on the floor.

"There is nothing heroic or romantic about what you're doing Rowena. Killing yourself willingly? That's like giving up on life itself. Maybe you have your reasons for that, but for all I know, nothing is worth that much to kill yourself for it," he said, hints of light indignation in his voice, yet he shrugged as if the matter wasn't the most important in the world. It was probably clear to both of them that the conversation was over and neither of them could add any more to it. Despite dismissing the topic easily, Darien was sure that this matter won't slip his mind that easily and that he would spend some time endlessly pondering on it. Maybe he took Rowena so much as part of his 'team' now, that he started to treat her as a true member. Whenever it came to protecting or dealing with mortal dangers that was posed to any of his team members, Darien always tried to find a way out of it and in 99% of the situations he figured it out. "I'll give you a victory dance once there is nothing around so that I don't make a fool of myself. You know guessing how much space is around you is quite difficult with just one eye." The ways in which he could change the tones of his voice was as quick and astonishing as the long dead Schumacher winning every F1 race. His words were light, almost joking as if he was trying to make his new handicap a laughable matter. Reaching into the first aid kit, Darien grabbed one of the bandages and wrapped it around his head in the MGS Raiden style. In the process, he noticed that his bracelet was gone. "Shit, the thing is gone. It must have dropped somewhere in the ruins." He said as he showed Rowena the now jewellery-free forearm. He quickly finished off the bandaging which then looked a total mess, making his hair sticking out in many directions. It was obvious that it won't last long and would have to be redone quite soon otherwise it would just leisurely fall of Darien's head. He knew and that made him annoyed as much as finally experiencing the full distortion feeling now that his eye was closed and covered. "We should go and get it back," said the one-eyed Darien, looking out of the window and trying to remember where he lost the 'precious' thing.
 
"Well, thank your for this informative lecture about sanctity of life. I was blind for all those cheerless, gloomy years of my existence, but now I've seen the light. Hallelujah. If I were a smoker, I'd quit this instant to spare my lungs unnecessary risk of cancer," the vampire exclaimed, sarcasm practically dripping from her words. Darien's critique of her choice insulted her; it wasn't like she cut her wrists daily emo-style like some brat screaming for attention. She also didn't find any joy in the fact her next birthday present should probably be a tombstone just for the sheer practicality. Rowena hungered for life and relished in the small pleasures it brought her; pleasures like an addictive thrill of hunt or the breathless moments full of intimacy right after sex. Forsaking her powers just to live longer, however, would have been like sending a tiger to the dentist and pulling out his teeth forcefully. The animal could survive if you fed it minced meat, but what was a predator without its primary weapon? A joke, and not particularly funny one at that. Vicissitude hurt Rowena in many ways, some obvious and other less so, but it was in integral part of her identity, an abusive relationship she never wanted to end. Darien had no clue how she felt about it; no human could ever understand the obsessive need to push yourself to the very boundaries of your limits, no matter the costs. The deadly competitiveness of the vampire society assured there were only two possible means of staying alive. Either you had to be so weak and insignificant nobody could deem you as a threat, or you simply needed to become such badass not even the clinically insane would tamper with you. No middle ground existed and Rowena would rather die than blend in with the shapeless crowd of cowards. She wished to discuss it with Darien more, to make him see her perspective, but he quickly drifted away from the subject. Maybe it was for the best.

The vampire awarded his effort to twist his handicap into a triviality with a smile, but the absence of lively sparks in her eyes led to it looking melancholic rather than happy; she knew it was a coping mechanism for Darien. Bargain or not, even the most hardcore masochist wouldn't go 'meh' over loss of his eye. The news about misplacing the essential artifact cast a shadow of annoyance over her face. "Surprisingly, since I haven't undergone an evolution like a Pokemon when it gathers enough experience, I am still a vampire, so I don't really get why you're using plural. You have to go back to collect it; I haven't noticed the bracelet nowhere near my hideout, so it must have fallen in the sunlit zone. If you don't feel comfortable going alone, we can just sit on our asses and play truth or dare until the twilight, but it would be safer for us to find it as soon as possible. Considering our luck, a hawk would probably swoop down from the sky and steal it in the meantime." Rowena leaned back as Darien went to the ruined temple to recover the trinket and closed her eyes. Her eyelids were suddenly horribly heavy despite not torturing herself with transforming her life force into fuel for her powers today. Excessive use of her eerie gift apparently wasn't needed for her energy to go down the drain anymore; ghosts of her actions had finally returned to haunt her. She felt like a dead battery which had been denied a chance to recharge properly. Too tired to form a coherent thought, the vampire forfeited her grip on consciousness and fell asleep. When Darien returned, the only indication of Rowena still inhabiting the world of living was her chest heaving up and down rhythmically.

You had to give one thing to Rowena; her inner alarm worked flawlessly since she woke up the moment the sun leaped over the horizon. It was a shame she didn't have a coffin to dramatically rise from. The scary stories about vampires being undead abominations that sought peace of the macabre box every day were obviously a clichéd product of stunted human imagination, but she actually owned one just for shits and giggles. "Damn, my back hurts like hell. Remind me to never sleep in this position again," Rowena yawned, stretching her numb limbs. The exhaustion had disappeared along with yesterday's worries, though she suspected it was a temporary improvement; such things never simply repaired themselves after certain point had been crossed. The vampire had always flirted with death, but actually being so close to it she could shake its skeletal hand was chilling. Of course, all her fears were masterfully hidden behind the mask of aloofness. Darien would likely come to the rescue with another deep commentary about self-harm again and frankly, Rowena would rather sit through a boring economics lesson than having to listen to that. "Fine, let's get out of here. Maybe we can actually arrive to Giza without accidentally awakening other slumbering gods or fulfilling some weird prophecy in the process." The engine roared as she skillfully navigated their car back to their former destination.

"You're always so awfully quiet, Darien," Rowena complained completely out of blue, her usual talkative mood back. "I've had longer chats with random maintenance men fixing electricity in my old flat. Say, how do you endure those long periods of silence? Aren't you afraid your vocal cords will shrivel and die, eventually creating a block in your throat that will suffocate you?" What could be a promising start of a profound philosophical debate was instantly interrupted by the vampire stepping on the brakes; something threw itself in front of the car and only her enhanced reflexes averted collision. Well, 'averted' wasn't the right word. Reflexes couldn't miraculously erase the force of inertia, so while the car slowed down considerably, it still bumped into the object gently. A terrified face of a young human woman was staring at them through the windshield; face that could have been quite beautiful, but years of humiliation and constant stress had sucked out all the charm from her features. "What the... I don't remember ordering a food delivery!" Rowena got out of the car swiftly to evaluate the situation, but she didn't get the opportunity to do much as the human immediately jumped after her like a mouse after cheese and hugged her knees. "Please... please help me. They... They've decided to wipe out our ghetto because an epidemic of tuberculosis broke out there. My entire family... I couldn't take them with me... Save them, I'll do anything!" Eradicating a whole city if the humans got violently ill was fairly normal; after all, the cure would be sinfully expensive and they bred so quickly the vampires didn't mind making a radical cut. Few weeks ago, Rowena would have slain the woman without hesitation for disrupting her personal space, but she suppressed her habits; instead, she just raised her hands in disgust as if a nasty worm was crawling up her leg and she didn't want to touch it. "Yeah, of course we'll paint even bigger targets on our backs just to save a bunch of strangers. Absolutely no problem here; we needed to fill our monthly quota of senseless altruism anyway."
 
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He should have thought about that. On the other hand, he was still somewhat baffled due to the recent happenings. So when Rowena so eloquently reminded him the difference between being a live vampire instead of a crispy fried one, Darien just muttered something under his breath before embarking on the quest of finding the bracelet. Recalling the way they came back, despite it being still a bit hazy, the Hekan scrutinized the ground as well as he could with his one eye. "Fucking...fuck." He swore grumbling as looking for something intently proved to be quite challenging so that he found himself nearly on his knees, narrowing his eyes like an old man trying to read a billboard sign without his 3 diopter glasses. Then finally he saw the damned thing, right next to the tiny pool of blood. For some reason he expected to see his eyeball too, just waiting there for him to be picked up and put back in his socket. "Fucking R..." he resulted to quiet grumbling, figuring out that swearing about the god that he was now the priest of wasn't the wisest thing. "Uh, whatever," he said more annoyed that he was back in the car and picked up the bracelet with his thumb and forefinger as if it was some disgusting creature whilst in fact, it just didn't want to touch anything that would trigger it to open and wrap around his wrist again.

Slump into the passenger seat of the car, the vehicle slightly bounced on the springs. "Hey, I got the...bracelet." Whispering the last word as he noticed Rowena not being among the conscious members of the world, he dropped the piece of jewelry into the small compartment behind the gear knob. 'Well, that's done,' he thought and looked back at his companion whose chest was gently rising and falling. Of course, being a man, chest in general wasn't his primary focus and Darien could feel his insides trembling not with fear or nervousness but with desire. Clenching his teeth, he looked away to re-collect himself and in the swift motion, he didn't guess the distance between his forehead and the window. A dull thump resonated in the car accompanied with muted curses of the kind that maybe even Rowena's jaw would drop. Well, one thing was for sure, he no longer felt the need to play with Rowena's perky breasts. It didn't seem like she planned on waking up any time soon, so Darien has decided to follow her example and he too went for a nap.

Though, his internal alarm clock didn't work as well, or it was not set on sun down setting, he did wake up when Rowena began stirring and talking. His own body was stiff, his arse numb, his neck aching. "Next, we're not sleeping in this bloody car," he replied as he, himself, stretched out as much as he could. Feeling great as a passenger, Darien couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever be able to drive again. It definitely would not happen any time soon, considering his bad coordination, but maybe, at some point in the future, he might sit behind the steering wheel and actually speed along those empty roads. His wishful thoughts got interrupted by Rowena's sudden complain about being a crap chat buddy. Sure it came as a surprise since it was usually his reaction to Rowena's own silence. Yet, before he could explain his apparent vow of silence, he nearly hit his forehead again as Rowena suddenly breaked. "What the hell Rowena?" Darien exclaimed and looked at the vampire female who was staring at something in front of the car. Yes, the first thought crossing through his mind was 'Shit, another lizard thingy' and 'Fuck, it didn't work' referring to potential failure in breaking the supposed curse or prophecy, or whatever it was. Looking through the windshield, he saw a female who had a certain charm about her. But considering that Rowena was already out of the car, Darien could see only the worst case scenarios in front of his inner eye beginning with Rowena tearing that human into pieces, to just checking if there was enough space for her to run the female over possibly fracturing every bone in her fragile body. Getting out of the car as quickly as possible and as adroitly as he could, Darien stood in the light of the headlight as well, listening to the story.

Quickly glancing at Rowena before his eye returned to the girl, Darien knelt next to her, placing a palm on her arm trying to somewhat gently pull her off Rowena's legs. "Hey, hey, calm down," he spoke in surprisingly quiet, somewhat attempting to calm type of voice showing that he might have done something similar before but that he wasn't 100% sure what he was doing. "We can't possibly save your family, because we are in quite a lot of trouble ourselves, but..." he said determindedly before the girl could protest any more: "We can save you, if you come with us." Apart from disregarding the fact that this girl could potentially be infected with tuberculosis, Darien felt it being his duty in helping this girl. Whether it was his newly gained role as a priest, or his compassion for anyone living in a ghetto, it was hard to tell. There was a certainty in his expression when he looked up at Rowena, indicating that he would put up a fight if she disagreed but that he was also willing to have some reasonable conversation with her, should she wish to.
 
There were numerous colorful ways how to aggravate Rowena, many of them rather obscure, but Darien had bet on the ageless classic this time; if raising her blood pressure was a contest, the judges would probably give him a 'solid' rating.The vampire stiffened as if her companion's words hurt her physically, her expression suddenly so savage that a Tyrannosaurus rex would look like a fluffy, cute pet suitable for children in comparison. It was the kind of grimace that had made brave soldiers plunge into the vortex of a hopeless battle to face certain death instead of risking their commander's wrath. What? So, I tolerate his naive hippie ideals, endure idiotic 'enlightened' speeches about my condition without cutting out his tongue, rush in like his damn mother whenever his ass needs saving and THIS is what I get in return? Complete and utter disregard, along with the seductive promise of loading more burden on my shoulders? Why, thank you, Darien, you always know how to brighten my fucking day! A nasty suspicion crept into her head; had he perhaps noticed her unwanted feelings towards him and decided it meant he could manipulate her by pulling the right strings like a person-sized marionette? No, no, no. Hell no. And so Rowena resorted to the art she had honed to absolute perfection; destroying semblance of any emotional ties through ruthless verbal lashing. The vampire freed her legs from the girl's grip harshly, kicking both her and Darien in the process, and stepped aside hastily as if mere proximity of the two humans sickened her. The young woman whimpered in pain, but Rowena wasn't about to apologize.

"Oh, excuse me. For a minute there, I thought that my opinion actually mattered - probably because of that 'partners in crime' thing - but that was apparently the first instance of the treacherous fata morgana deceiving my senses. Silly me, right? I'm sorry I haven't realized I've been demoted to your fucking underling," she hissed like a furious cobra. "But no, really, dragging along dead weight just to satisfy your Messiah complex is truly an idea worthy of your genius. 'We can't possibly save your family, because we are in quite a lot of trouble ourselves, but we can save you, if you come with us,'" Rowena adjusted her vocal cords practically mid-sentence like she had done while pretending to be Juliet in front of Christian during the masquerade, mimicking Darien's voice with frightening accuracy. The sound that came out of her mouth could easily belong to his teenage version or his younger brother; her powers were very versatile if trained properly, but ventriloquism wasn't exactly her primary focus when practicing and her decidedly female anatomy also had certain limits. Actually, the vampire would have been quite happy with the quality of tone she had managed to produce if blind rage wasn't re-directing her attention away from that small accomplishment. "A single line," she uttered in her usual mezzo-soprano, "and you fill it with so much comedy that tears threaten to burst from my eyes. Have you spontaneously started talking in a different language that just happens to sound like English and accidentally formed that sentence? Are you even listening to your own gibberish? Just in case you've forgotten, we're not traveling to the Happy Sunshine Land of Rainbows. How do you expect a human civilian - probably a tuberculosis-stricken human civilian, considering where she's come from - to survive when trained professionals like us are so busy trying not to die?!"

The girl didn't say a single word; she just stared at Rowena in pure terror, instinctively hiding behind Darien. Nothing suggested the two women would become best friends any time soon.
 
He could expect Rowena to react this severely as he realized, a bit too late, that previous discussion about this topic might have been a better tactic. Well, too little, too late now. So when Rowena started kicking about, Darien, being the protector of the weak, tried to block most of the vicious kicks so that the girl wouldn't get hurt that much. He didn't succeed entirely but he managed a bit. However, the pain inflicted on him, no matter the reasons, it made his own blood boil. Topped with the sickened expression Rowena gave to both of them, Darien just about managed to swallow the angry 'Oi' sound and lashing back out at her. Taking a deep breath, muscles on his jaw obviously standing out, Darien calmed himself down enough to blurt out at the girl: "Wait here," before going to face the nightmare.

"Partners in crime? Yeah, until we stab each other in the back, remember? And a messiah complex? Excuse me! I just sacrificed my fucking eye so that neither of us, especially you Missy(!), would not get chewed on by one of those lizards you so dearly love." Yep, his self-control was gone and Darien was retaliating just like Rowena was. In the back of his mind, he might have wondered if there was more to her sudden outburst apart from the imagined demotion to an underling, but clearly that matter was pushed too far back to fight its way through the mist of pure annoyance. Admitting that she actually had a point would be demoting to Darien himself. He was rarely mistaken but never completely wrong. Either way, it always somewhat made him miffed. Exasperation almost dripped from his pores. "For christ sake Rowena! Can just for once move beyond yourself and look at the world around you? Can't you see the way you can use her? During daylight, which obviously isn't your forte. She survived this far to get here, doesn't your commander instinct at least admit that?! God!" Darien exclaimed throwing his hands into the air and pacing few steps in the opposite direction before turning back and walking towards Rowena in a resolute pace. Darien could be frightening when he wanted to, but this was not the occasion. If anything, he was fixed on his vampire companion. Marching past the girl until he stood some half a meter in front of Rowena, looking down at her not in a demoting way, he whispered so that only she could hear. "I can't feed you all the time and the supplies we have in the car won't last that long either. Despite the fact that she might be infected can be your food source when that happens. Lower your fucking standards Rowena. This is worse than army. Discard her whenever you want, but for the sake of my own consciousness, not the fucking messiah complex you think I have, I am taking her with me." The determination in his expression was as real as the ground they were standing on and as heavy as the realization that he would not budge an inch on his decision.

Taking a step back, Darien breathed out as if he just got something of his chest. "This one is not your call, Rowena. You lack humanity so you were out of your league the moment you bumped into the girl." He said, knowing that those words might cut deep and sharp into Rowena's consciousness, but if they would count the amount of times Rowena has done that to him, the two of them would probably reach the conclusion that Darien was somehow in the right. Turning around as if he has just dismissed the issue, Darien walked back to the car and opened the back door for the girl. Gesturing with his head for her to get in there, Darien's eyes were fixed on Rowena the whole time as if he was making sure that she would not do anything that would even remotely put the girl in danger. Only part of him wondered if their partnership would have been this toxic and annoying haven't they slept with each other.
 
Every word was like a new dagger thrust into her heart; Darien must have rehearsed that little 'the reason you suck speech' for hours, otherwise Rowena couldn't explain how he had been able to hit every single sensitive spot. Of course he had to mention that cursed deal. It always came down to the simple and irreversible vow that they would duel to death once Book of Thoth changed its status from 'lost from the pages of history' to 'property of Rowena and Darien'; he loved flinging that fact right into her face when she least expected it. The thought of murdering the only person who had ever reached out to her when she had been so vulnerable instead of exploiting the weakness to stomp her to the ground and relishing in the fallen enemy's shame almost made her want to puke, but the Hekan was evidently looking forward to extinguishing her life. Missy? Did he just fucking call me 'Missy'? What is going to be next? 'Go make me a sandwich, sweetie?' "What?! Do you mean the lizard I killed for you because even my crippling phobia of anything even remotely similar to snakes didn't trump your general incompetence?" Unlike her companion, the vampire stood firmly in one place like an unyielding mountain, following his movements with her eyes only. One part of her wished to run away from that horrible argument before she would have the misfortune of finding out what he really thought about her, stick her head into the sand as a distressed ostrich and pretend it had never happened, but her stubbornness couldn't let her wave the white flag so easily. Rowena Finchley didn't retreat when things got heated, period. She also didn't show any signs of discomfort when her opponents landed a particularly painful blow; that would be like giving them tutorial on how to penetrate her defenses.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry I don't see benefits of handing out memberships to our weird relic-hunting club, especially since the member you're trying to recruit so hard is probably being pursued by police as we speak! Do you want to bet our lives on her questionable ability to cover her tracks? I'm going to say it once again, Darien; she is a civilian who got lucky, not a master of escapes. She wouldn't beg me - another vampire, for crying out loud - for my help if she could take care of herself! My commander instinct has nothing to do with that. Anyone with an ounce of common sense could understand it!" Why did he insist on attaching such enormous boulder to their legs? Did he think that their mission was too primitive for two badasses of their caliber and deliberately making it harder for them would be fair to preserve some arbitrary balance? Maybe he considered it gentlemanly to give all the bounty hunters looking for them a chance to catch up? "Worse than army?" Rowena spat out viciously, interrupting his angry tirade. Military had given her more than her own parents ever could; it had taught her the importance of discipline, allowed her to taste the sweet flavor of victory for the first time and persuaded her that she still had some value as a person, even though her only contribution to the society was becoming a ferocious killing machine in the sacred name of national safety. It had also planted terrifying nightmares into her head, helped her with developing so many unique mental diseases Freud would pay a lot of money to study her and turned all her successes into ash when they backstabbed her in the end. "Just a friendly advice, pal; next time you open your mouth, make sure you actually know something about the topic."

And then Darien dropped the bomb. Rowena blinked a few times and for a fleeting second, the Hekan could actually see the pain in her eyes before the mask of indifference concealed it. "So that's your actual opinion? That was a... very educational conversation. Thank you for your honesty, I guess." His concerns about her suddenly going batshit crazy on the poor girl just getting inside the car were entirely unfounded; she passed her mechanically and sat behind the steering wheel without further comments. The last sentence still rang in her ears, repeating itself over and over like a broken record. Accusing a vampire of not being human enough was hardly a traditional insult; the predators of the night were proud of not sharing the traits of that feeble species. Qualities like 'compassion', 'empathy' or 'sense of solidarity' probably served them well in the ghetto, but those attributes had brought them down from their former privileged position of the world's rulers to the very bottom in the first place. The vampires perceived them as a cattle, walking blood cans good solely for sating their hunger and then being discarded into shallow mass graves. Hell, most of them would have been flattered if someone told them they didn't resemble humans in any way, but Rowena had already grown out of that bias. Falling in love with one of those 'inferior dogs' usually did that to you. And now, after she had opened up to him, Darien essentially called her a monster unworthy of affection. Wow, what a plot twist. Someone I hold dear hurt me deliberately. It's almost as shocking as claiming there's a fucking snow in Antarctica. I'm hopeless. How could I mistake sex in time of emotional crisis for something deeper than basic instincts taking over? What's up with me? Maybe... maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Perhaps I needed this to snap out of that stupid obsession and start thinking straight again.

"T-thank you for saving me," the girl stuttered, finally breaking the icy cold silence hovering above the car. "My family... is probably dead anyway. They came so fast and... Sorry, I don't want to talk about it. I just wanted to thank you for your kindness. My name is Amy," she introduced herself and then lapsed into stillness again, not knowing what to say. The obvious tension between the unlikely pair of travelers made her feel uneasy and the vampire scared her even though she seemed rather harmless at the moment; Amy knew that was a facade. You could never be too careful around bloodsuckers. Rowena concentrated on driving, apparently hellbent on never communicating with Darien again. She didn't plan to punish him with silent treatment - if anything, he probably considered the sudden vacation from her constant bickering a reward so it would be a little counterproductive - there simply wasn't anything to say anymore. From now on, she would keep a healthy distance from him to save the pathetic little pieces of sanity that miraculously survived their interactions.

The moon was almost ready to swap positions with the sun when Rowena finally stepped on the brakes; they were in front of the same conveniently located cave that had provided them with shelter earlier. Not gracing Darien with a single glance, the vampire got out of the car to unfold her sleeping bag. She just wished to fill her stomach and doze off for the rest of the day. Needless to say, it didn't please her much when it turned out Darien hadn't been kidding about quickly disappearing supplies of blood; to her endless frustration, the packs Haji had donated were gone. Rowena certainly wasn't in mood to feed from Darien, but skipping food could be infinitely more damaging than asking him to keep up his end of the bargain. Her body needed the minimum of one meal per day to function normally, and she was likely speeding up the process of deterioration anyway by not eating more. Oh well. The vampire grabbed one of the empty packs along with the knife and put them on the ground next to her companion. "We're out of blood," she stated flatly, her expression neutral. Impersonal. "Since it's in your best interest to keep me alive until we find the Book, I'd appreciate your assistance. I'm not going to bite you because of those... unpredictable side effects, so use the knife." The last thing she wanted right now was Darien under the influence of sedatives in her teeth that somehow acted almost like aphrodisiac for Hekans. Thanks for that one, biology. No, really. The best feature ever.
 
For a moment there as he was looking at Rowena and the girl was getting in the car, Darien could see the rare appearance of raw emotion that Rowena showed very scarcely. But, it was an emotion that hit him hard and deep as well despite how upset he was. It was pain that rooted in the depth of one's being and the Hekan knew that he caused it. Not only he regretted his last words the moment he blurted them out, he now wanted Rowena to lash out, to submit herself to the anger. In that way, Darien would be able to carry on thinking that he maybe didn't ruin whatever it was the two of them had. Even though, he didn't usually suffer from regrets based on what he said, this would haunt him for at least as long as Rowena would look at him exactly that way, as if he was not even existing in her own world. Yet his rough manners and un-gentlemanly treatment of females stemmed from the time spent in the rebellion where he dealt mainly with man and those man just threw insults at each other like a rugby ball and if it hit hard and the bloke fell or got hurt, well, they always shrugged it off somehow because at the end of the day, they were all in for the same reason. They all pulled at the same end of the rope to reach the same goal. Not much should be different in the situation with Rowena, apart from the fact that she was a woman and he just proved himself to be a world-class douche bag. However, like every man he was hopeless and helpless when it came to apologizing or in general admitting that he was wrong. So he let the vampire pass him by, closing the door after the girl. Silently he went around to sit in the passenger seat, his expression not so determined anymore but it was the usual mask of impenetrability. He acknowledged the girl's gratitude with a nod of his head.

For the rest of the silent drive he looked straight ahead, not speaking or checking up on the new passenger or making any contact with Rowena. Yet his calm, expressionless face was only a mask. In his mind, he was somewhat fretting about the recent quarrel. It was worse than any they had before. More vicious, furious and somewhat lethal. What was he exactly afraid of? Just admitting that in his head made him want to physically look away and shove the thoughts back where they belonged, in the dark hole of self-imposed amnesia. But he did admit to himself that he screwed up. Their partnership was holding defectively from the very beginning, hanging only on a weak thread of trust and mutual purpose. Though, Darien did notice, over the past few days, that the two of them somewhat grew closer together. Not in any obvious, hand-in-hand way, but Rowena has proven that she could be trusted when it came to saving his butt. Also, the pain that he momentarily saw in her eyes wasn't the type of pain that a sworn enemy would display, was it? It was that type of pain that leaves a deep mental wound and heals over a very long period of time. Could it be that Rowena didn't regard him just as an enemy anymore? Her previous behaviour would definitely suggest it, especially the night they spent together which still haunts him sometimes in his dreams and make mornings for him terrible. Well, who would want to wake up with a solid erection without any chance of relieving oneself without being caught? Among all these speculations, there was one fact that Darien could not ignore. He seriously, royally and stupidly screwed up. The weak bond they maintained and somewhat protected was now severely damaged due to his short fuse that blew like New Year's fireworks right into his face. Furthermore, his only partner in crime was probably back on track on stabbing him in the back once they got the book of Thoth. He could not deny the fact that it was eating him up inside what he said and how it affected his vampire companion. He knew that in order to preserve, or hopefully restore the partnership they had, he would have to at least attempt to apologize somehow.

When the car stopped in front of the cave, Darien was nearly done with devising a plan on how he would apologize. But seeing Rowena leaving the car in such a stoic, distant manner, quashed all his hopes for some possible debate, or more like a stuttered 'sorry' with some whispered explanation of why he said what he said. No, he couldn't expect Rowena to forget the whole incident just during one short drive. That would be rather naïve. The girl got out of the car at the same time as Darien. "We don't have three sleeping bags so you will have mine for tonight." He told the girl while passing her the small bundle. The sky was slowly lightening up, heralding the prominence of sunrise, yet it was still quite dark as Rowena dropped a knife before him. He starred at her for a second or two as if he was trying to figure out what else was going on through her mind. The attempt of a joke that would slip off his lips under normal circumstances was now silenced by Darien sharply drawing in breath as he cut his wrist for Rowena to drink from. Extending the bleeding wound towards her, he waited for Rowena to start feeding before he whispered so that only she could hear. Not that the girl would be able to pick up on what they were saying anyway, as she was coughing a bit in the background. "The next closest ghetto is Beni Suef, if you want to drop off the extra weight." Some could call this a poor shot on hinting that he was asking for conciliation, others would just see it as a cheap try to smooth the rough patch over. Either way, there was something in the way Darien said those words, something that made the attempt even more sincere and good-willed, not desperate or beseeching, than any 'please let's be friends again' expression could have done.
 
The drops of fresh blood were shining on his wrist like tiny rubies, so beautiful and alluring; normally, she would have been grateful for the opportunity to taste him again, but the vampire was just cursing her stomach for not being able to digest anything else right now. Human trash literature, mainly the books for silly female teenagers that needed to get laid desperately, romanticized vampires biting their usually idiotic love interests, insisting you couldn't find a greater gesture of self-sacrifice. Rowena still stood by the opinion that feeding from someone was just about as romantic or deep as the bond between an obese American and a hamburger, but she couldn't deny that it felt different with Darien. More intimate. He gave her blood willingly, believing she wouldn't take more than strictly necessary for her survival, and the vampire respected his needs instead of asserting her dominance over him. Nothing about this could be classified as a mandatory predator/prey dynamic anymore; it was an incarnation of trust. Trust no longer present between them. To be honest, Rowena would rather eat the omnipresent sand and gobble up few sharp pebbles as an unorthodox dessert; it would have been easier than swallowing her pride to ask him for a favor after Darien had made it so clear he saw her as a trash. Still, killing herself via drastically incompatible sustenance didn't exactly dominate her list of heroic deaths that would look nice on her tombstone, so the vampire leaned over after a short moment of hesitation and licked the open wound.

The fantastic flavor filled her mouth, but her steel self-control didn't slacken this time. Rowena sucked on his wrist gently, using her soft lips and tongue to squeeze out the blood; even a small rupture caused by her teeth could destroy the original purpose of not biting him in the first place. It didn't even occur to her that her behavior may have seemed rather suggestive from someone else's point of view, namely from the perspective of the man who had proved he considered her at least physically attractive. She enjoyed the simple pleasure of stimulating her taste buds, letting the worries and pain fade away, but Darien's voice interrupted the sweet state of inner peace soon. Rowena looked up to him, her eyes dead and distant. Such statement had a good chance of provoking a vitriolic response from her - something akin to 'Really? I thought you maybe wanted to keep her as a bed-warmer' - yet in the end, it wasn't enough to awaken her from her lethargy. "If you say so," she muttered quietly. "Do whatever you want." Her tone didn't contain a dash of venom or vindictiveness; just a tired resignation of a person who really didn't care anymore. If one of her former subordinates witnessed that short exchange, they would probably request a genetic test to reveal the impostor posing as their commander. Rowena who actually didn't fight the entire universe just to control even the tiniest detail of the operation obsessively? What a nonsense! The vampire wiped away the remnants of his blood from her mouth, stood up and went to her sleeping bag, effectively terminating the dialogue. For once, she was actually thankful for the invisible parasite stealing her energy. Exhaustion took her into its loving embrace soon and the sleep came to her without any painful foreplay.

Her slumber was, oddly enough, tranquil and devoid of night terrors; her body had probably switched into an emergency mode, blocking out all the elements that would influence her rest negatively. She felt so deliciously refreshed it made her forget about yesterday's events for a moment, but once the reality settled in, it hit her like a hammer. Not waiting for any instructions from Darien, Rowena started packing their stuff in complete silence. Some people dealt with anguish through being loud, obnoxious and venting their frustrations through demolishing innocent items of daily use, but the vampire just withdrew further into her protective shell. Not even an earthquake of six magnitude would probably elicit a passionate reaction from her now. She moved back to the driver's seat wordlessly, started the engine and hit the road. Turning into Darien's personal chauffeur didn't bother her; the simple routine of driving at least occupied a small part of her mind and the softly vibrating steering wheel beneath her hands felt strangely calming. Those small distractions, however, couldn't snatch away her entire attention and Rowena found herself returning to their argument masochistically like a kid unable to stop scratching their scab despite knowing better. I'm just so tired of playing the relationship game that always ends in a checkmate for me. If there was a way to surgically remove her emotions so she could demote contact with her peers to cold, computer-like logic, she'd do it in a heartbeat. Then a sudden realization opened her eyes.

Wait. Why am I wallowing in self-pity as if a fiance left me at the altar? I have no right to feel so betrayed; he didn't promise me anything apart from murdering me to crown our triumph. It isn't his fault I keep misreading the signals, interpreting them as... I don't even know what. I'm nothing to him, and he's nothing to me. Hostility is to be expected between our races and my actions like capturing his former squad probably didn't inspire any significant change in that trend for him. 'Monster' is an accurate portrayal of my kind for humans. It's all perfectly understandable... And I should stop acting like a drama queen. I have to function normally. After all, they had joined forces just because of a shared goal; if Darien came to the conclusion she was useless to him, he could easily slit her throat when she fell asleep at the next stop. Rowena doubted he would actually do that - his silly morals always prevented him from choosing the easiest solution - but no oath could force him to endure her company if she became a nearly catatonic wreck just because of a single quarrel. They finally arrived to the ghetto of Beni Suef, and Rowena stopped in front of the main entrance. "Out," she growled at the girl. Amy just gasped. "I... what? What is this place?" The vampire resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Beni Suef. Your new home, unless you'd prefer to go with us so I can use you as a living trap detector in pyramids." The words worked like an incantation; Amy fled from the car so fast even Usain Bolt would be ashamed. The pair was alone again. "So," Rowena looked at the Hekan directly, "how is your eye and coordination? I imagine you'll have to actually climb the Sphinx and since it should to be done during afternoon, I won't be there to do it for you. You're the expert on riddle solving here; do you think it would be possible for me to climb the stupid thing at night, attach the bracelet somewhere on her body, disappear before the sun goes up and you would just watch whatever is supposed to happen from ground?" Her voice still lacked any traces of friendliness, but at least she was open to discussion now.
 
If the circumstances were not the same, Darien would think that Rowena was suggesting something with the way she sucked on his wrist. She sure tried to avoid cutting him with her fangs, but part of Darien wished for the accident to happen. At least it would help him escape the ever present, mind numbing pricks of conscience. Her reaction was that of resignation and that's what ultimately pushed Darien onto the track of apologizing. He could not saying anything back there and then due to the unwanted coughing audience and maybe even if there was no one there, Darien would not have said a word, just because at that moment the whole speech he had in mind was already forgotten and the Hekan was not one of those with the ability to blabber about thing not based on facts so that it would make sense. No, talking about emotions on spot was like...eating his own comrade just because there was no other food to be found. So he let Rowena walk away there and then, lying down on the cold ground and staring straight up at the lightening sky. 'Boy, I got myself into a big heap of crap this time,' he though as he attempted to sleep but not having a sleeping bag where he could easily slide far into so that the sun rays would not penetrate the dark, Darien knew that he won't be able to enjoy a nurturing sleep.

He was correct. He woke up countless times to the sounds of nature, to the sun being too bright despite being in the cave. Darien twisted and turned on the ground, grumbling to himself and silently envying the girl who had his only comfort in this world. He might have even cursed himself for being so forthcoming and 'gentlemanly'. And so when Rowena woke up and started packing Darien was only half asleep so he heard her moving about and that's what ultimately woke him up. He was already in a bad mood, because his body ached quite bad and he did not get enough sleep. Moreover, his bandage half fell of his eye and he had to re-do it himself, which was a nightmare. Accompanied by the sound of his own muttered curses, screeching joints and beginning of a headache, Darien didn't that much to pack so he went to the boot to get some food for himself, wordlessly passing a smaller amount to the girl. The drive itself was quiet and Darien did fall asleep again. Quite frankly, passenger's seat was more comfortable than rock hard ground and it was dark outside so no stupid light disturbed his peace until they suddenly stopped and Darien woke up into a short lived conversation between Rowena and their, now long gone, passenger. Straightening up a bit while rubbing his head, Darien listened to Rowena.

"I'll do it," he answered simply, even though he had no real idea how he was supposed to climb the sphinx without falling off it. His coordination still sucked, but it was not as bad as those few days ago. Darien still had a problem estimating distances on the side where his blind eye was, but his body started to adjust to it very slowly. He was more careful and more aware of his surroundings. "But listen Rowena, there is something I want to say," he started and just from those few words it was obvious that what was coming next was something that made him very uncomfortable or maybe unsure of how to act. Clearly, whatever he was about to say was not his forte. "About yesterday...I am not going to apologize for taking the girl on board. It's the way I have always been and I doubt that's going to change. But..." Rubbing his head again, it was crystal clear that Darien was somewhat lost like a teenager giving a speech in front of the whole school on the topic of sex. "But what I said, about you not having humanity...I was harsh. It came out sooner than I could have think about it and it came out wrong. I didn't mean to say it, I guess I was just worked up about a lot of things and your insistent need to have everything under your control just tipped me over." So far, so good, or at least that's how Darien felt about his primitive attempt on apologizing. Still rubbing his head, he continued: "I guess what I'm trying to say is that what I said yesterday, you shouldn't take it personally." That was it. Only in a remote part of his brain Darien knew that he actually didn't say 'I am sorry please forgive me' but at that point it was the closest he could get to those few words. Looking over at his vampire companion, the Hekan waited for her reaction, any type of reaction even if it was her clawing his eyes out. He just didn't want his 'apology' to meet the dead-like silence and expressionless Rowena.
 
'I'll do it?' Really? Has he developed sudden love for adrenaline sports that have eighty percent chance of him ending up squished on the ground? Rowena would be the first one to admit she didn't know much about the numerous joys of living with one eye, but the distortion in the perception of the space around him must have been more than distracting. He certainly wouldn't get to assume the position of the driver any time soon if she had any say in the matter; sure, her personal motto may have been 'caution is for the weak,' but gambling with their lives just so that Darien could prove to his ego he was just as capable as he used to be before the asshole god had stolen his eye just for the lulz sounded monumentally stupid even to her. Climbing the Sphinx also didn't look like a recommended rehabilitation activity for the unlucky folks with reduced visibility and she opened her mouth to protest, but the Hekan spoke first. Sure, go right ahead. There are some aspects of my personality you haven't criticized yet and I think they're starting to feel left out, so if you could devote some of your benevolent attention to them, I'd be eternally grateful. Rowena braced herself for another verbal strike, determined not to give him a peek at her emotional vulnerability this time, but the expected storm of rudeness didn't come. What he said, or more like stuttered nervously, wasn't exactly a full-fledged apology with a lovely bouquet and a box of chocolates thrown in for good measure, but it seemed like its distant relative; a poorer second cousin.

Rowena couldn't be more shocked if Darien pulled out three lemon pies out of his pocket, began juggling with them and asked her to evaluate his performance. This had to be some kind of mistake; nobody had ever apologized to her of all people. In fact, most of those who had pierced through her armor of aloofness had gone out of their way to confirm that yes, hurting her was their intention. They usually treated it like some major accomplishment. The vampire had wondered many times whether they played some twisted game based on antagonizing her with the winner becoming the one who could actually make her cry. 'Apology' was just a meaningless cluster of seven letters in her world, a mythical concept just like 'Excalibur' or 'Atlantis'. The former commander just stared at Darien in dumbfounded silence, her brain working on the maximum power to distinguish a malevolent trap skillfully concealed in the comforting words. Nothing turned up even after the third scan, and Rowena realized her quietness probably wasn't very encouraging for Darien. "Was that supposed to be an apology?" she inquired, a suspicion still lurking in her voice. Awesome tactical move, Rowena. Real smooth. He actually tries to initiate some sort of reconciliation even though he looks ready to melt in shame, and you blurt out something like this. Army was clearly waste of my talents; I should have been a professional orator. "Well, it wasn't that bad," she tried to remedy the situation quickly, "I'd rate it seven out of ten. For future reference, avoid shifting blame on the person you're apologizing to, though... I can see where you're coming from. Sorta." Rowena was prepared to deal with scathing insults, derisive comments and even physical violence, but politeness disarmed her.

"I know I can be rather... overbearing at times and I'd break nose of anyone trying to practice the same approach towards me, but keep in mind I'm not doing it on purpose. They used to pay me for controlling absolutely everything for longer than you've been alive. It's a job defect, not me being uppity just to spite you." Her 'sorry' also remained implied, but her expression - somewhat softer and more relaxed than usual - conveyed the feeling better than words could. And it was probably literal in Rowena's case; the unique gift of digging her own grave with her tongue whenever trying to demonstrate her emotion would surely transform the apology into a sophisticated jibe. "Let's not dwell on it too much. We have a tomb to raid," she ended the debate swiftly and got back on the road. The vampire knew that she should be angry at Darien for undermining her mission of categorizing him into the strictly black-and-white scheme of things, but knowing he actually cared enough to try and repair their relationship did feel nice. Still, I shouldn't get too attached to him. The reality is that one of us is going to die by the hand of the other, and attempting to forget that little detail wouldn't help anyone, least of all me. "Are you sure about that stunt with the Sphinx, Darien?" she asked out of the blue. "Slapstick comedy is hilarious, but now is not the best time for you to spend weeks wrapped in bandages like a mummy."

The rest of the journey passed quickly; nothing substantial happened, but Rowena returned to her usual talkative mood and displayed her impressive storyteller skills by sharing some funny anecdotes from when she had been just a regular soldier. 'How I tried to lure enemy troops into sunlight, got third-degree burns and almost died,' 'How I contracted flesh-eating bacteria in some remote jungle and almost died,' 'How the cafeteria workers once mixed some thinner into the blood supplies accidentally and we all almost died'; the tales were getting a little repetitive at this point and they grew progressively more disturbing, but she never failed to deliver them with a healthy dose of enthusiasm. Rowena was tired of the silence suffocating her like a too tight tie and those stories, no matter how juvenile, gave her a good excuse to talk without worrying about stepping on a metaphorical bomb in the process. To be frank, practically every topic was a mine-field when taken into consideration Darien's almost supernatural ability to confuse her to no end, so she appreciated the safety of turning him into a mere listener.The pyramids of Giza, the greatest achievement of Egyptian culture according to archaeologists and the biggest proof that all the pharaohs had been exhibitionistic loons obsessed with death according to Rowena, suddenly started to appear like a mushrooms after rain. They stood proud, untouched by the teeth of time, usually in group of two or three as a bunch of siblings too shy to disband and explore the world on their own. The Sphinx reigned over the landscape with a smug sense of superiority. The vampire parked the car in the shadows of the pyramids and stretched out. "Great. Looks like another day spent in car for me. Well, half of the night AND day, to be precise. Unless you have decided to try out plan B, of course. Well?"
 
Her expression was slightly perplexing. I mean, Darien could see Rowena's face and decipher the look on it but it somewhat didn't fit with the expected outcome. So for couple seconds the two of them were starring at each other as if they have never met before, or as if they just found out that the Book of Thoth was just a hoax and they have been through all the trouble for nothing. Well, maybe the latter would be a sweet wish that in the face of reality turned sour like a week old milk. "Oh well..." Darien stuttered as he was so bluntly asked whether he was just trying to apologize. 'Wasn't it obvious?' He asked himself, wrecking his brain to come up with an answer. Not that it was complicated but just to utter yes as an answer to that question would be somewhat...unnatural to say the least. With Darien's lack of expertise in that field and even less experience, he just wasn't really sure himself. However, Rowena was quicker, thanks god, and started her usual cope-with-the-mess-while-it's-fresh speech trying to smooth out the obvious ripple in the air called embarrassment. At least, she accepted the hybrid-like redress and Darien could feel the metaphorical boulder falling from his chest somewhere deep, deep down into the darkest flames of hell. Then, what came as even a bigger surprise then the fact that Rowena could unravel the entanglement of his speech was the fact that she somewhat explained her own reasons why she behaved the way she did. Darien was awed, but instead of showing that bluntly, he acknowledged it with a nod of head and a shadow of a friendly, possibly relieved smirk that disappeared soon after Rowena mentioned the climbing expedition again.

"Yes, I am sure. After all, I have my manipulation, I can use it to feel the area to my right where I can't see. And in the case I'd lose my holding...well, I try to defy the gravity," he advocated his case, throwing his arms to each side of his body in the what-else-is-there-for-me-to-do manner. Though, he seemed pretty confident in himself on the outside, and in fact he felt the same on the inside...a bit. Darien was using his manipulation occasionally since the 'trade' to feel his surroundings and it was somewhat effective. Of course, he could not use it all the time but when he did, he could pretty much make out what was next to him. His manipulation basically worked like bat's echo-location. By making a small space around himself tremble so slightly that it is hard to notice by human standards, Darien could feel the shapes around himself. He used this technique before, when he was on the run, but he never though that it might become a crucial part of his life at any given point. The rest of the drive was, well, uneventful if we don't count Rowena's constant recital of stuff that has happened long time ago. The only interesting aspect of those tales was that in each of them there was this hint of possible death or dying. It was as if Rowena's guardian angel was a masochist and lavished in putting its protege in constant danger. However, at last that arrived at the Sphinx which looked taller than Darien remembered, though that might have been only because he looked at it with one eye.

"No, I will be fine. Though, I will have a nap before the sunrise. So if you could wake me up the moment the sky lightens up so that I can see without having to use torch or anything, that'd be great," he answered and lowered down his seat to get the rest he needed. To tell the truth, no one would want to climb anything after being awake for the whole night so he might as well try to get as much downtime as possible. It took him some time to drift off but finally he managed and what seemed to him as only few minutes of sleep were actually solid few hours of uninterrupted slumber that managed to recharge his battery. With sunrise upon them Darien was already awake. As soon as the first promise of a new day was painted across the lightening sky, he got out of the car. With the bracelet in the pocket, the Hekan reached the Sphinx which despite having lost its nose had a perfect expression of invincibility. Well, with all Darien knew and could do, he was ready to penetrate that shield even a tiny bit.

It definitely was not an easy task to conquer the statue. Many times on his way up, Darien slipped and got saved only by sheer luck or his magic skills. Once he nearly fell down as his foot slipped and the support under his right hand gave away too, but somehow he managed to find another safe foothold whether it was due to his manipulation skill or god's intervention. The main thing was that he did not fall and splatter his insides like an abstract paint in front of this sandy son-of-a-bitch. Not being sure how high he was suppose to climb, he set himself an aim of the very top. At last, all sweaty and somewhat tired, with a pounding headache in his temples, he reached his destination and carefully sat on top of the Sphinx's head. Imagine him with a bit more dignity, straightened back and less of a dying expression, and Darien would even look like a conqueror. Taking the bracelet out of his pocket, he was once again clueless. "So I bring you up here...what should I do with you now?" And just like Rowena when she was examining the bracelet for the first time, Darien lifted it up into the sun rays to get a better look at some hidden detail, maybe some clue. The light danced on the jewellery, yet Darien hoped that his ordeal would be over soon. It wasn't fun sitting in the broad midday sun. It felt like being a lobster who was just thrown in water to boil for dinner. Then a sudden, bright ray of light rebounded of the bracelet somewhere into the distance. At first, Darien had to close his eyes due to the suddenness of the event, but he soon figured that having his eyes closed would cost him yet another climb up here another day, if he'd miss whatever was happening at the moment. Following the beam, he saw it pointing near a burial place somewhere west of the Sphinx, near an old burial place in fact. Committing the location to memory, Darien began his climb down on the other side of the Sphinx, leaving the view point of the car.

If he could have done, Darien wouldn't have taken his eyes off the location but climbing backwards was yet a technique to be discovered. Going by intuition he arrived at the place where the beam was supposedly pointing too. Only there was nothing special there. Just sand and wind and some terribly kept tomb. 'Not another riddle.' He prayed in his mind while looking around for yet another clue. Frowning and thinking, he started to walk around sending out pulses of his manipulation magic. Yes, he did turn himself into some sort of detector which in turn brought the fruit that it should have. Darien felt an inconsistency in the sand big enough to make him believe that he was standing in front of some hollowed out space under the sand. Being already tired from all the climbing, and the unforgiving sun, going back to the car just because there might have been a shovel, was eliminated from the possibilities even before Darien thought about it. Guessing his find was not buried that deep, it was not a problem to uncover it with the manipulation of sand particles. Yes, there was one too many of them, but hey, he had his powers for a reason. Uncovering an entering to a something that might have been a tomb, Darien was sure he found what they were looking for. With the sense of accomplishment he returned to the car. Looking at Rowena, there was this glint in his eye that more then hinted a successful outcome. "Have you ever wanted to be a tomb raider?" Then he went on describing what he has found.

((OOC: To be honest, I am too tired and busy to double check so I am really sorry for mistakes and errors.))
 
For a split second, Rowena toyed with the idea of simply disregarding his opinion, saying 'hell no' to his idiotic, possibly suicidal stubbornness and solving the Sphinx dilemma as she had described to Darien earlier, but the disapproving comment perished into nothingness before it reached her lips. "Yeah, sure," she heard herself say instead, "Your wish is my command and all that jazz. You probably know what's best for you... And even if you don't, well, it's not my spine, so protecting it isn't among my interests anyway." A complete stranger would surely get offended at such blatant display of unconcern, but anyone who had spent some time in her charming company could catch the joking undertone in her voice; the vampire's sense of humor was truly an acquired taste. Following Darien's example, Rowena did a favor to her severely tortured back and lowered her seat to get some comfort out of the provisional bed. It was fortunate she didn't have to sacrifice her much needed rest to keep watch; years in army had taught her to sleep with one eye open, both because of the ever-present threat of enemy ambush and certain shady comrades whose intimate experience with women was probably limited to virus-infested porn sites. Her reflexes would register even the slightest disturbance as if its loudness levels were comparable to those of a cannonade and send a clear message to her brain; 'wake up.' The fate had apparently decided to give them a break for once, because the night was uneventful and thus full of blissful, uninterrupted relaxation. It probably meant the forces driving this universe let them breathe freely only because their adventures were only going to get that much crazier, but she appreciated the short silence before the storm.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead!" Rowena shook his shoulder with gentleness of a butcher disemboweling poultry. "You've ordered a morning wake up call, so here I am. That Sphinx isn't going to climb itself, even though I'd definitely pay to see that. Anatomically impossible situations are like my cocaine. Not that I snort them or anything, but... well, you get what I mean. It's a good metaphor when you overlook that aspect," the vampire continued with her chatter, stumbling over her own words like a chronically insecure autistic person forced to play main role in a crowded theater. Truth was that she still didn't like the poor excuse of a plan they had and nervousness began to take its toll on her. Darien didn't have to tediously convince her of his ability to take care of himself - he had manifested that skill quite eloquently during the hunt for him and his old team that seemed to be so distant and disconnected from their current reality - but every single element in the equation spoke against him. The hellish heat of the desert. The missing eye. The desperate lack of any suitable climbing equipment. The fact that she couldn't be there to help. Rowena had never considered the not-so-harmonic relationship between the vampires and the sun to be a huge problem; anything even vaguely important happened during the night since enslavement of the human race and it was just a giant ball of hot gases that caused skin cancer anyway. She wished to walk in the sunlight without burning to a crisp now, though. Darien acted like a magnet for catastrophes.

He'll be fine, Rowena thought vehemently as she watched him disappear, but that didn't stop her pessimistic mind from painting the worst scenarios in front of her inner eye in vivid colors. It was all so irrational; the vampire could normally severe emotional ties for offenses as minor as the person in question stepping on her foot accidentally without blinking her eye, yet she couldn't get over Darien despite him giving her the most severe verbal beat-down of the century.How pathetic. Going back to sleep to preserve her energy would be the best course of action since she couldn't contribute to the success of their mission anyway, but Rowena was too worried to actually drift off to the land of dreams peacefully. Hyperactive imagination had helped her to overcome many obstacles in the past, yet it also had a nasty habit of preparing especially horrific nightmares for her whenever opportunity arose and her subconscious obviously wouldn't miss the chance to terrify her by showing her some gore-y shots of Darien's mauled body. Oh, great. My mind endured betrayal by everyone I've ever loved, being used as a guinea pig for years, exposition to numbing influences such as country music and when I finally snap, it's caused by a random guy. That's so deliciously anticlimactic. Rowena sighed and rubbed her temples; she had already forgotten that caring for someone could be such a hassle.

Then Darien's triumphant arrival ended the constant stream of gruesome pictures and she couldn't stop herself from grinning at the positive news. "So the real quest starts now, doesn't it? This is grand, Darien. No matter what happens now, no matter who wins in the end, we're standing at the dawn of a new era." The sheer magnitude of the consequences of their little treasure hunt hit her pretty hard; it's not that she hadn't been aware of it before - not at all - but it had seemed like such a desperate attempt to screw the destiny Rowena hadn't thought they would come close to completing their task. One of her instructors had once told her she resembled a gun; in order to feel accomplished, she had to be pointed at someone. Yes, the vampire would quickly fall apart without lack of direction in her life, without a tangible purpose, and seeking Book of Thoth was originally supposed to fulfill that craving. The jackpot is within our reach now. Funny.Even funnier was Rowena's realization that she actually wouldn't mind dying in their inevitable duel as much; sure, becoming a living god would be preferable to cold loneliness of the grave,but if Darien were to kill her, his next step would be bringing down the entire vampire civilization to its knees. She liked that outcome. Leaving such a deep mark - no, such a deep scar - on the world's face after her death fascinated her. It was still rather early, so Rowena packed some basic tools that would come in handy during every expedition and waited for the sunset, occasionally joking with Darien in the meantime.

When the danger of Rowena frying in the merciless sunshine passed, the improbable pair went to explore the tomb. "That's the entrance?" she asked, disappointment ringing in her voice. "I understand importance of secrecy, but it's so bland from architectural standpoint. I'd expect something more eye-catching from a secret dungeon that contains key to the concentrated wisdom. Didn't they have a sense of drama?" The vampire grabbed the ancient handle; the door resisted valiantly, but it succumbed to her strength soon.A more sentimental individual might have paused for a moment to think about how glorious it felt to be the first person to enter in god-knows-how-many years, but Rowena refused to waste time on such frivolities and jumped right in. The inside of the tomb was just as disappointing as the outside, maybe even more. They found themselves in a tight corridor; flashlight revealed faded hieroglyphs on the walls, but they weren't here for the breath-taking translation experience, so the inscriptions couldn't hold her attention for long.The air smelled of mildew and irritated her nose; every so often, she had to suppress a sneeze. "Geez, what a snooze-fest. Never in my life have I thought I would visit a place more boring than my old office, but it seems life still has some surprises for me in the store. Yay!" Rowena exclaimed in the most underwhelming tone of voice possible and marched forward. "You know, I was prepared for a lot of things. Futuristic machines straight out of a space soap opera, angry spirits trying to murder us for trespassing into their territory, mutated talking hamsters... But I sure as hell didn't count with boredom. Where's my action?" In the hindsight, it should have been obvious saying something like this was just tempting fate. Rowena took another step, but ominous sizzle accompanying the simple movement signaled that something was wrong. She flinched back instinctively and only now noticed that the floor of the section she had tried to access was covered in strange, black liquid... Liquid which almost ate her boot within seconds. "Oh... right. So much for the boredom, I guess. Any ideas how to get past this sea of acid?"
 
Her reaction could be compared to that of a kitty cat who found teat to feed of for eternity. It was not the cuteness of the creature, but the simple and unconditional solace that reflected in every facial feature and body language that it might as well bit a miniature of a victory dance. However, for Darien the whole situation bore an extra significant role. Maybe it was just for the peace of his own mind, or to close up the events of previous nights; either way, Darien felt as if he has proven himself to Rowena that he can be trusted, that he is worth some sort of twisted friendship. Call him a mental sadist if you please, but some occasions where he overstepped the boundaries and through himself and someone else into a valley of pain and despair, Darien always wanted to make up for that in any way possible. He was more than aware of the difficulties that he would experience during the climb, he was even sure at one point that death was the only thing that awaited him on the Sphinx, but all that was some sort of contorted test of Darien's conviction and maybe devotion to the cause - and he passed it. One of the rare, heartfelt smiles was creeping onto his face as Rowena carried on marvelling their discovery.

"What are we supposed to find in that tomb anyway?" He asked Rowena at one point because quite frankly he wasn't sure. With his team they didn't get this far in uncovering the whole myth and legend of where the book could be. I mean, they had information but it was tattered and before any of them could make any more sense out of it, Rowena was capturing the members of his team and chasing Darien down the streets of a ghetto. But now, it didn't matter. He was here and according to Rowena's reaction they probably made a revelation of the century. So he leaned back and closed his eyes. Even though it might have looked like he was going to sleep, he was just relaxing, entering some sort of meditative state in which he was still in touch with the reality but was regaining energy that he had lost during the climb. Therefore when Rowena got out of the car, Darien was almost as fresh as he was in the morning before the climb, but less nervous.

The disappointment on Rowena's face was almost comical. Expectations was a phenomenon that Darien denied himself so the looks of the tomb didn't evoke any reaction from him. He was apprehensive though. Whatever they were after in there was buried for a reason, and for the same reason it might be surrounded but countless traps. The focused look once again appeared on his face. His cold blue eyes had somewhat sharper tone to them and his facial features grew harder as well. Despite Rowena's outer demeanour of a discontented audience, the Hekan was sure that even her observation skills were running on full power. Yet, she managed to step into something that looked like rancid blood of the Alien. Shining his light onto the surface of the liquid, Darien just momentarily tried to figure out what it really was. 'No point in doing that. I need to figure out the way how to get over it." He thought to himself as the beam of light slid across the blackness of the acid over to the walls. The stone structure was already quite narrow so coming up with a solution wasn't a brainer at all.

"Time to find out if the past few days without regular workout took their toll on our physique," he said partially jokingly as he made his way around Rowena, place the bottom of the flash-light between his teeth. In a way, he was to demonstrate his way of getting over the unfriendly waters, but it was up to Rowena if she would follow. After manipulating his body against the wall, Darien ended up quite a few feet above the ground, definitely above the danger, in something that looked looked like a seated positing. He used his legs to take hold on the opposite wall, while his back was pressed against the other way. In short, he has just done what every kids does in the corridor of their home to upset their mothers and try out what it is like to be a pseudo-climber. Jerking his head to a side, he indicated to Rowena that he was to move out, in a way scouting the corridor up ahead and if there was any trap in the wall, he was the one to take the blow. That, of course, he figured out after his was couple moves over the acid.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long to get to a safe ground, but the length of the pool definitely was not something that could have been jumped, at least not by a human or Hekan. Finding his foothold, he took the flash-light out of his mouth and shined it back to where he came from trying to see where Rowena was.

"You ok there?" He asked and looked towards the corridor where they will have to venture. "I get the feeling that this was just a warm up."
 
Well duh, Rowena thought as she watched Darien getting ready for the feat of acrobatics, what did I expect? That he'd pull out a screwdriver, few components, a young inventor's manual and construct a freaking helicopter so I could fly over the dangerous territory without having to lift my finger? The vampire couldn't believe such stupid question as 'what are we going to do now' even escaped her lips; the solution couldn't be more apparent even if it slapped her right into her face and yet her brain malfunctioned spectacularly. Moments of temporary idiocy would be acceptable if she was enjoying a shopping spree in a mall with her imaginary friends since the worst repercussion for mistake in judgement could be a badly coordinated outfit, but price for not devoting every fiber of her being to staying vigilant would be much, much higher here. A single misstep could easily make her pursue new career as a slowly cooling corpse. Rowena was angry at herself for her deteriorating mental abilities, but drowning herself in ego-destroying self-criticism would be unnecessarily distracting, so she let it be. Everything had its time and place. "I fear to discover how horrid shape I am in," the former commander smirked while feeling the wall carefully. "It's all that damned car's fault; I should have run next to it instead of allowing myself to get corrupted with the wretched luxury." Mimicking Darien's method of climbing past the black liquid, Rowena landed on the firm ground safely without breaking a sweat.

"Do you hear painful screaming that would imply my flesh is currently being melted by the acid? No? Then you can safely assume I'm okay. You can use the same algorithm for future reference." Her tongue may have been as sharp as ever, yet there wasn't a faintest trace of malice in her words; in fact, it sounded a lot like her previous exchanges with Haji. A playful bickering between two fire-forged companions, not the usual surge of rabid insults meant to get under your opponent's skin and leave behind a gaping wound. "They were really nice to include such a warm up, though. It's just like a summer camp with the added benefit of freedom from annoying scoutmasters. Honestly, if I were to design this crypt, I would have gone for the flashiest, most damaging traps from the start. The tactic of eliminating my enemies at the first opportunity so they couldn't retaliate later has never failed me. Besides, why hold back when you're supposed to protect something so ridiculously important from falling into wrong hands?" Rowena aimed her flashlight into the darkness - which was mainly for Darien's convenience since as a primarily nocturnal creature, she could see just fine - and continued forward. The next corridor looked like the exact clone of the first one; the only interesting thing about it was the lack of anything even remotely engaging. "Either they're trying to ruin the psyche of trespassers by fueling the paranoia through suspicious inactivity or they want to lull us into false sense of security. Another possibility is that I'm mistaken and when we enter the next room, we'll find a feast held in our honor and signs such as 'Welcome, noble conquerors.' I wouldn't bet on it much, though. Just my personal opinion."

Despite all the talking, Rowena didn't actually focus on Darien much; she was constantly scanning their vicinity with her vision, endlessly attempting to unveil the mystery and prepare in advance for trials to come. And then the vampire heard a sound on the edge of her consciousness. Well, she didn't exactly 'hear' it in the traditional definition of that expression as her ears didn't really catch any stimuli. No, it was a premonition born of an extensive concentration, plenty of bad experience with various booby traps and general chronic distrust of her surroundings.Her body acted on it's own; completely out of blue, she turned around and pushed Darien out of the way violently just in time for him to avoid being squished by a massive stone block. Rowena, however, wasn't as lucky. She didn't even have the chance to scream before the boulder buried her underneath.
 
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Her sharp remark was met with a neutral gaze. Darien couldn't see any enmity in her voice; therefore, he figured out she was not disregarding his concern but in fact was taking notice of it in her own particular way. Just like with her friend in Cairo. Though, he didn't show it on his outer self, his inner self has just stepped up a few notches to the hypothetical heaven of butterfly feelings that Darien was denying himself for so long, and probably would still be until some sage would slap a bit of sense into his head.

"Egyptians were weird nation. I got it from some books but these people do things without reason, so I'd expect the unexpected," Darien offered his own point of view as they were making their way forward into the tomb. The air was getting stale by the step and Darien cringed his nose ever so slightly in distaste. Arriving at the neighbouring corridor, Darien was offered with a spectacular view of...nothing. All he could do was nod at Rowena's assumption but it was obvious that they were both in their own world of scanning the nearby area. Darien was using his flashlight, sliding it across the walls, ceiling and floor, trying to see anything out of ordinary. The lack of any detail, or any hint of presence of something abnormal gave away an uneasy feeling. Darien could feel there was something wrong with this place and just as he started sending out minor pulses with his manipulation. Just as a suspicious vibration was coming back to him, before he could figure out what it was, Rowena had her hands on his body violently showing him backwards. The utter suddenness surprised Darien more than the dark blur in front of his eyes. Because Rowena used quite a bit of force to move his body mass out of the way the flash light flew out if his hand, dramatically hit the ground, spun and stopped its light on what looked like a gigantic, untreated stone. The heavy breathing of a solely standing man was met with silence. In the mix of feelings in his eyes, that ranged from absolute alert to the look of a cornered cougar, there was this speck of disbelief.

"Rowena?" Darien called out, bending down to pick up his only means of seeing. Maybe he would have wished, that Ra took both of his eyes leaving him completely blind. the redness under the rock froze Darien in the crouching position as he landed his fingers on the torch. Someone shot down his butterflies and his consciousness made a nosedive. His old self, before he got so smitten by Rowena, would probably do a victory dance and press the boulder even further into the ground to make sure that whatever was remaining of Rowena has mingled with dust so much that if she would have managed to reconstitute herself somehow, she'd probably come out looking as a golem. Though, that was not the case for this, current Darien. He was gob smacked, his heart thumping hard in his throat, sweat nearly breaking out of his pores. He was short of panic attack but his tough training in the rebellion and his basic nature prevented him from loosing his marbles. Whilst the was a constant 'no' running through his mind, Darien forgot about the light and stood up. His body was already tingling with the magic so much that thousand needles were nothing compared to this. It is interesting what strong feelings of any kind can do, because in a matter of not even five seconds, the Hekan has smoothly lifted the boulder, jumped over the splatter, threw the boulder in the direction of the entrance but crushing it into many pieces possibly in desperation or anger. The corridor grew still, the only noise was Darien breathing which was not as heavy as before but it definitely was deeper. He wasn't sure how well can vampires regenerate but from what he saw on the ground, it would probably be a miracle for her to come out unharmed. Though, he could not see any bone or tissue that he was expecting. In his mind he was hoping that Rowena managed to do something, anything, to escape this deadly blow. Any one who would have been watching would notice the growing distress on his face with the hope slowly disappearing. 'If she didn't make it...how am I suppose to bury her?' What a genuine human thought.
 
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If Darien cared to learn more about vampire anatomy than just mere 'they die when staked', he would know that there was no way Rowena could survive such impact. Sekhmet had cheated during their creation, giving them physical strength and supernatural abilities far beyond that of even the most talented human, but the warrior goddess had also modeled her new race after mankind to an extent. The fact she had copied the older design shamelessly was both blessing and curse. The general similarity to humans - similarity and striking beauty that every bloodsucker possessed in spades - let them blend in with the crowd, win trust of the gullible prey and persevere for centuries in the world which persecuted those who differed from the norm with passion. Hidden in the shadows, the vampire race had endured witch trials and other dark passages of history with relative ease. The superb camouflage, however, was also their weakness; in the end, they were made of flesh just like their tasty snacks. Beings of flesh also had their biological needs. Despite myths spreading nonsense about vampires being undead monsters animated through impure energy, their hearts had to pound to distribute the blood, their lungs required oxygen and their nervous system had to direct the body correctly in order for them to live. They existed in absurd symbiosis of unimaginable power and utter weakness. The boulder was more than enough to kill any leech with Rowena being no exception... If our heroine didn't have a very specific set of skills combined with very harsh training.

She may have been too shocked to let out a scream, but any soldier who wasn't immune to stress affecting his performance would become a root inspector soon after his debut on the battlefield. Dissolving into her liquid form few nanoseconds before the rock could crush her bones, Rowena just thanked all the known and unknown gods that her pain receptors were momentarily deadened; her bond with pain had grown into something so harmonious she almost expected a marriage proposal from it, but the feeling of being trapped under tons of rubble still wasn't an experience she rushed to add on her CV. No! Bad Egyptians! This is not how you welcome your honored guests. Are you even familiar with the concept of sacred hospitality?! You're lucky you've been dead for thousands of years, otherwise I would fucking sacrifice my remaining time here on Earth to hunt down every single one of the architects responsible for this damned tomb and start a collection of their pancreases! Rowena ranted in her mind, trying to liberate herself from the debris. That was, of course, easier said than done. The liquid form prevented her from getting injured, but it also drained away all her physical strength. I'll have to crawl out... somehow. Without using my limbs. Or muscles. Or anything that could possibly help me in any way. I love my life so much. Then the weight pressing her to the ground disappeared; unless the laws of physics did a 180 degree turn and gravity spontaneously began repelling objects rather than attracting them, it was obvious what had happened. Darien. But... How? Has he sold his soul to devil in order to gain more raw strength? If so, why has he been ignoring MY requests? What a terrible customer service!

The vampire swiftly materialized from the pool of blood, coughing and spitting furiously. "Gah! Sand is so gross. I swear I've got it everywhere. Everywhere, even in places I didn't know I had." She shook in yet another coughing fit; it felt like someone was sharpening the insides of her lungs with a glasspaper. Fatigue suddenly overwhelmed her, so she leaned on the only source of stability guaranteed not to trigger any traps; Darien himself. The intimacy of that simple gesture somewhat startled her and for a moment, Rowena was torn between running away and stealing a kiss or two from him, but her rational side silenced both urges. She couldn't complicate their already messed up relationship more than strictly necessary. "Just... let me catch my breath for a while, okay?" she whispered, finally looking up at her companion. The worry engraved in his features surprised her. "Why the long face? Nobody is dying here... Well, except for me, but that's a longterm process, so it hardly counts. When you look at it from certain standpoint, our entire lives are just long foreplays before death anyway. Also, what was up with that sudden power boost? Not that I'm complaining since you've spared me from hours of pointless work, but are you on steroids?"
 
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The awful moments when someone waits for something to happen and seconds feel like eternity. Darien was starring at the bloody puddle and even his reason started to come up with explanations why Rowena was dead despite the lack of evidence of shattered bones, brain tissue and all the other inside just discolouring the perfect shade of red. Then in a blink of an eye, Rowena was standing in front of him, unharmed. Coughing but without a scratch on her skin. If she wouldn't have leaned against him for support, Darien would probably think that he was starring at a ghost. Yes, vampire's anatomy and all the things they could do, all that was still a mystery, an unmapped territory to Darien. Though now, as she was counting on him to hold her upright, a strange surge of various feelings overwhelmed the big guy's body and he found himself wrapping one arm around her waist, placing the palm of his other hand on the back of Rowena's head, forming something, that was probably the most gentle embrace which was however great in its significance. He heard her talking, he did register the words and understood them, but he didn't want to speak. The Hekan was overwhelmed with the flood of strong emotions, though in the whirlwind he started to understand one thing. When they would find the Book of Thoth, he was not going to ruthless and without a second doubt kill Rowena on the spot, he would negotiate. Killing her, at that point, seemed to have made Darien very anxious for a reason that he was slowly accepting. To put it bluntly, as he was hugging her, he knew that cared for her a tad bit too much to kill her with his own hands.

"Who knows, maybe Ra lent me some help," he answered to the question about steroids, still not comfortable or sure, to reveal his new internal discovery. Not being sure what Rowena would say or thing, he wanted to keep his mouth shut about it until he had some solid clue how his newly found infatuation would react. Releasing Rowena from his covertly emotional nuzzle, but still having his hands placed on her arms if she still needed some support, he looked her up and down again, like he did couple times before...well...basically every time she nearly died. The look of concern slowly dissipating into an amalgam of relieve and an attempt to distance himself from whatever sentimental give-away he might have committed.

"So if you're sure, you're ok, then I guess we should carry on in the raid and get out of here before this tomb decides to collapse down on us." With those words, he bent down to pick up the torch from the ground and shone it toward the further end of the corridor, this time scrutinizing every ounce of the rectangle passage. Despite his growing tiredness and headache, due to the heavy lifting and thorough crushing, Darien was sending out regular vibrations to scan the surroundings. After all, he still couldn't entirely rely on his one healthy eye.
 
Darien's hug was shy and careful as if trying to catch a butterfly with bare hands without damaging the creature's fragile wings, yet Rowena's heart skipped a beat. If a psychopathic owner of a betting shop held a gun at your temple and forced you to bet your entire life savings either on the unlikely possibility of vampires founding a human home for the elderly to revere the blood cans that actually survived the rough treatment long enough to see old age or on Rowena correctly identifying any emotion that wasn't desire to kill, you'd probably be a lot safer with the first option, but reading touches was quite a different story for her. Facial expressions were too individual to decipher easily, not to mention that you could learn to control them with minimal effort; doing the same with involuntary muscle spams, however, required both extraordinary talent and dedication to practice almost useless ability until passing out from exhaustion. Darien clearly didn't have either. The circumstances had compelled her to reach out to her colleagues for support many times. Their touches had always oozed disdain in nearly deadly doses and they had never failed to make her aware of the fact she was a burden, a good-for-nothing undeserving of breathing the same air as them. Darien embraced her instead and it felt so warm and sweet she just wanted to curl up in his arms, purring like a satisfied kitten. Yeah, that's a brilliant idea. Show him true depth of your delusions. You'll never regret it. What could possibly go wrong? The nonsensical need came and went. "Ra?" Rowena distanced herself from him a little bit, but remained close enough to see every detail of his face. "Do you mean the same Ra who took one of your eyes just because he could for a favor that very likely cost him nothing? His behavioral patterns so far don't really support this theory, do they?" she asked in a slightly suspicious tone. Interrogating her companion wasn't on the schedule, though, so the vampire put the mystery under the tag 'unsolvable'. Perhaps he really didn't know.

"Forget it. Feel free to brand it as a miracle if you're comfortable with this explanation, but don't expect me to bow down to your jerkass god. I have my own jerkass goddess, and I suffer from severe lack of piety all the same," Rowena laughed quietly. "And yeah, I'm fine. Let's move on," she responded, a strange softness glowing within her eyes. If he didn't care about her in the slightest, then he was an unrivaled master of pretense and that didn't really fit with his overall demeanor. Naturally. Am I really naive enough to think he would walk around with a neon transparent saying 'I'm a lying bastard' if he was one? No, he'd look just as ingenuous as now. Rowena could easily slide into a vicious cycle of insecurity, but now wasn't the best time to doubt her sole ally. Besides, she cherished the new feeling too much to lose it so soon after its discovery. And so they set out on their epic adventure again; well, to be honest, even a trip to the dentist's would be more worthy of the 'epic' adjective. The vampire's resolution to stay wary throughout their examination of the tomb didn't waver - the boulder almost killing her had cured her out of absentmindedness pretty fast - but apart of that incident, nothing important happened. Rowena got so bored she began giving various corridors descriptive names in her mind; things like 'That Corridor With Sort Of Reddish Floor' and 'Extremely Insignificant Hall With Extremely Low Ceiling.' When they stumbled upon a dead end, she had to employ all of her steel self-control not to scream in frustration.

"They can't fucking be serious. If this is a false lead, then..." Then I probably won't have time to find the real map considering the progress of my disease and that I have no idea where should I search. "Darien, be a darling and try probing it here with your mind. There must be something... A secret passage, a trapdoor, anything." She watched him monitor the room with visible nervousness, pacing back and forth, but luckily for them, it turned out there was an anomaly in the floor soon. Kneeling down, Rowena wiped away the thick layer of sand to reveal well-hidden trapdoor. "Something tells me we have just acquired our ticket out of Boreland. Ladies first!" she exclaimed and started her descent, cautiously testing if each partition could carry her weight before actually stepping on it. The fall itself probably wouldn't harm her much considering that stunts like jumping from a balcony were daily bread to her, but Darien also had to get down somehow and this was the safest method. Sure, the vampire could try to make him jump and assure him she'd catch him, yet he probably wouldn't be too happy about it. The monotonous climb lasted for about ten minutes; when they finally reached firm ground again, they found themselves in the middle of a large room. Dim light of the torches on the walls was casting long shadows and it didn't do a good job at illuminating the chamber, but the contrast between the previous areas and this one was sharp. It looked like some kind of treasury; majestic statues of gods with stern yet composed expressions, pieces of ancient pottery, colorful tapestries depicting famous legends and other trinkets that would probably make any Egyptologist pee himself on spot were scattered throughout the room without care.

"See? Now this is the kind of scenery I expected. Pretty, even if a little tasteless," Rowena smirked. Nothing on her face suggested it, but she was bathing in a sense of accomplishment. They were so close! "Our main problem is that we don't know the form of the key we're looking for. I am fairly certain the term 'key' is metaphorical because nothing is ever easy with Egyptians, so it can be basically everything in this goddamned section. I propose we split up and search alone; just notify me whenever you come upon something that sparks your interest. Something that stands out in any way. Got it?" A gust of cold wind suddenly blew through the room, making Rowena shiver instinctively. "You are not going to find anything in here," a deep voice resonated in their ears. She quickly turned around to behold the intruder, and the sight almost froze blood in her veins. There was a humanoid figure standing there; his torso belonged to a muscular man, his head to a white jackal. The bestial face couldn't quite convey emotions, and yet he managed to give them a disapproving glare somehow. "Mainly because the key isn't here. Many trials still await you; trials of magical nature. I am a guardian of this place, and Thoth has tasked me with separating candidates deserving of his wisdom from weaklings." The jackal bared his teeth. "I can tell both of you are fools. A man with dreams so ambitious they stretch out to the sky, but also someone who can't see beyond the tip of his own nose. A selfish woman who has played the game for so long she has lost herself. You wouldn't handle the Book's power. That being said," the jackal sighed, "none of you mortals possibly could deal with it without struggle. I'll give you a chance to convince me you're entitled to that honor. You have exactly three minutes."
 
Whether she believed his excuse for the sudden surge of power or not was beyond his interest at the moment. Most important thing was that Rowena managed to escape with a minor cough but apart from that unscathed. As they carried on, walking through a variety of corridors, each looking only a bit different than the previous one; each with its own trap which was fairly easy to get over. Therefore when they arrived at the dead end, Darien's reaction wasn't as drastic as Rowena's, who was clearly annoyed at the sudden, clearly impassable obstacle. Darien was using his manipulation every time they entered new corridor; a corollary of the boulder attack, so when Rowena asked him to scan the surroundings, he was already doing it, starting with the walls. It truly didn't take long before he found an inconsistency in the floor of the passage. Soon they dropped down even further below the ground, using not very reliable ladder, but the room they ended up in was something that even Darien hasn't seen before.

The hall or whatever it was, it was huge. High ceiling, wide almost as a football pitch and due to the accumulated treasure, Darien could not guess where the end of the room was. His eyes were wide, but not in greed or surprise but with the realization that if they were to find a key of uncertain form, size and appearance, they might as well live the rest of their lives in this tomb. Well, maybe not Rowena, but definitely him. Though what was more, was the fact that this place gave Darien the metaphorical creeps. Despite all the glow and glitter, there was an undertone of hostility that he couldn't see with his eyes, but felt it in a way that it made him feel like a cat that was facing a foe and roughed up its fur to seem bigger than the opponent.

"Yeah, I was about to say that too," he agreed with Rowena's proposed plan and was about to started walking away from his companion when the cold wind tore at his clothes. It wasn't the febricity of the wind that made him freeze in spot, it was the fact that there was no way in hell that this kind of wind would ever make it this far under the ground. His body was buzzing with magic, jerking at his nerves, asking to be released in a tornado of protection. Even his blind eye felt different in a way, but being covered by the bandage Darien could not touch it to see if maybe it was bleeding again. Shifting his head towards the origin of the voice, he didn't need two eyes to see distinctly that the interloper was short of being human. 'Anubis?' The Hekan asked himself and a minor shiver run down his spine before he realized that the mentioned god had black jackal head, not white one. Moreover, Darien never read or heard of Anubis guarding a meaningless, forgotten tomb like this one. Hearing the guardian challenging them, Darien gave Rowena a questioning look. Quite frankly, he wasn't sure what the two of them were meant to do. Negotiate with the guardian? Convince him that they were the best adepts? Moreover, did the jackal humanoid say about Darien that he couldn't see past his nose? Not being quite sure what was asked of them added to the fact that there were no carnivore scarab beetles trying to chew away their toes, the Hekan resulted to an attempt on negotiation.

"Maybe I can't see past my nose. Maybe I am limited in certain ways," he shrugged as if hinting that he was not proud of it. But in truth, at this point he would say anything to gain trust of someone who holds the answers. "But human's nature can be shaped. Ideas can be replaced and mind can shaped if only given the chance. Being who I am, trained Hekan and a slave in someone's eyes, having been through many things that I don't even dare to remember, I might have grown judgemental towards everyone and everything. But Thoth, he more than anyone should understand the potential and the good that his book could do in the hands of willing subjects." Words were pouring out of his mouth being shaped even before Darien got the chance to think about them. Not that he had talent for haggling. Usually his demeanour, or exhibit of his power served as enough of a convincer to get what he needed. However, it was different this time. Darien couldn't really try to scare the guardian, so he gave the negotiation the best shot he could have done. Things he said, some bits he genuinely believed. Yet, on the outside his expression was as neutral as he could get it without much inner interference of slight nervousness, uncertainty and being at a loss of proper techniques to verbally convince an opposition.
 
The jackal let out a short bark; the sound resembled a laugh, though you couldn't find a happiness in it even if you searched with a magnifying glass. "Yes, that is pure truth. Humans can change and do it quite often, usually for worse. Change for good is just like transformation of carbon into a diamond. The procedure demands a lot of time and very careful grooming for it to be successful. You have access to neither, and relying you'll grow into more eligible candidate would be preposterous considering the stakes. More importantly, you seem to think that concepts like 'good' and 'evil' exist in vacuum, which is a clear sign you're not ready for the burden that is Book of Thoth. You need supreme wisdom in order not to cause a disaster of unimaginable scope with the forbidden knowledge..." One of the most important things Rowena had been taught during her training period was knowing her place. The army had to work like a well-oiled machine and since brainwashing technology that would simultaneously break their spirit and leave their decision-making skills intact had yet to be invented, the instructors focused on hammering a simple theorem into the recruits' minds: 'If you don't know what you're doing, step the fuck away and let your qualified colleague handle the problem.' Even mildly qualified psychologist would likely diagnose Rowena with narcissism, yet her illusions about her own brilliance didn't apply to the art of diplomacy.

Pretending not to see her own awkwardness in that department would be the equivalent of believing she was a great socialite; in other words, complete and utter madness. The vampire was well aware of her unique gift of saying the worst possible thing at the worst possible time, so she vowed to keep her big mouth shut until Darien dealt with the guardian. That noble resolve, however, had been formed before the jackal started spouting such nonsense.A more forbearing person might have managed to keep silent, but in her defense, Rowena had never claimed to be especially patient. "Judging from your presence here and the fact you said you were supposed to 'pick worthy candidates', not 'kill all the trespassers', I assume the Book is obtainable, right? Or are you just trolling us? Because it's fairly unreasonable to expect wisdom of all things from anyone crazy enough to set out on such expedition in the first place. Honestly, if we were smart, we would have kept low profile, moved to some anonymous village and spent the rest of our lives scratching our asses out of boredom. Beautiful, safe boredom. Besides, as you mentioned earlier, we're mortals, not robots, so we're bound to screw up just like everyone else on this goddamned planet. It's in our nature. I can also guarantee you we are the saner participants of the 'Hunting for Book of Thoth' race, which... might not be much considering the other contestants, but at least it's something!" she spat out, piercing the jackal with her infamous glare. Her expression wasn't furious; no, the vampire seemed more like a teacher explaining to a particularly slow kid that yellow snow shouldn't be eaten. If someone bothered to write a book about proper etiquette towards godly beings, this behavior would likely serve as a 'never do this if you want to keep your organs where they belong' example.

The guardian of the tomb blinked few times in evident surprise; he had expected bargaining, irrational arguments and even begging, but definitely not Rowena-flavored defiance. "I should give you a lesson in humility, insolent child of Sekhment," he hissed, his fists clenching in anger, but then then his wrath somewhat dissipated. "You do raise interesting points, though. Insisting on perfection when your species are so prone to idiocy would be truly naive. Still, I won't give you my blessing just because you're not that horrible according to standards of your population. Is there anything else you wished to say?"
 
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