Ark of Blood

Chapter 2

2

Oxford, England. 9.43am

“You’re not well enough to leave,” the nurse scowled, holding the discharge papers just out of reach. “You need to rest.”

Dr Morgan Sierra smiled, attempting to move the conversation on as fast as possible.

“The doctor signed off on it, and I’m feeling much better. Really.”

Morgan felt that the nurse could see right through her as she tried to veil the pain in her eyes, but she was determined to get out of the hospital today. ARKANE Director Marietti had secured her a fast release when they had received news of the events at the Museum in Cairo and she wanted to get started on the investigation. The nurse nodded.

“Then I’ll put some extra dressings in your bag with the painkillers because you need to take care of that wound. You’re not superhuman, you know.”

Morgan felt the throbbing in the half-healed knife s***h on her left side. She’d had worse injuries though and carried old scars from her life in the Israeli military. The memory of previous pain enabled her to endure what she was feeling now, and yet this throbbing went deeper. The man who had stabbed her had been transformed by a demonic curse and she still felt somehow tainted by his evil.

“Can I see Jake before I leave?” Morgan asked, hesitation in her voice.

The nurse smiled. “You can sneak in,” she whispered conspiratorially. “He’s still in an induced coma, but you can at least say goodbye.”

“Thank you.”

Morgan walked slowly down the corridor.

She hated hospitals but this was a private wing and more like a hotel with attentive staff. The hushed white noise of machines and low hum of voices permeated the hallway and she wondered what news people were being told. How had their bodies betrayed them today? Her own was bruised and battered from the battle in the bone church of Sedlec, but she knew her limits. There was a margin of grace between physical collapse and a will driven by the need for revenge.

Her father had taught her that the warrior doesn’t only fight when he feels like it, when the stars are aligned and when his belly is full. The warrior fights because belief and passion in his cause stir the body to action, for physicality is a mere shell around what the will can achieve.

Morgan smiled. Her father had hated hospitals too.

She reached Jake’s room and paused, willing his eyes to be open when she entered. She turned the handle and walked in.

ARKANE agent Jake Timber was lying on his back with eyes closed, tubes twisting into his veins. His face was composed, the bruises there were only mustard shadows now, his cheekbones sharply defined by the liquid diet he was fed. Morgan knew that under the sheets his physical body was wracked by crushing injuries from the bone church. The coma gave him time to heal, but she could only see a shell of the vital man she knew. This body was not her partner, the man she had fought and killed with. Her Jake was in limbo, waiting for the eventual recombination of his mind and physical self.

Morgan sat down and put her hand next to Jake’s on the bed. It seemed strange to touch him now, even though she wanted to, but they had maintained such a professional distance when working together.

Jake was responsible for bringing her into the Arcane Religious Knowledge And Numinous Experience Institute from the dry world of academia, where she had studied the intersection of psychology and religion. Now she was part of the living, breathing mania that accompanied these subjects in the real world.

ARKANE had given her a glimpse into a world beyond the headlines, where what she studied revealed a truth in humanity, an edge where spirit and science collided. ARKANE worked in the shadow space, dealing with mysteries arising from religion, psychology, the supernatural and unexplained. And despite how battered her body was, and how torn apart the knowledge she possessed made her feel, Morgan now lived to solve those mysteries.

“There’s been an incident in Egypt,” she said to Jake, hoping he could hear her. “It’s Natasha El-Behery. She didn’t disappear after Sedlec but retreated to Egypt and now she’s committed a high profile murder at Cairo’s Museum of Antiquities. Marietti’s sending me because of our unfinished business with her.” She paused. “And because of you,” she whispered.

Morgan took his hand and squeezed it, then laid it back on the bed and stood, walking towards the door. She glanced back. “I’ll get her, Jake. Be well.”