Marisa Chenery: Her Eternal Warrior

Tor returned home after he left the Luxor. He had no idea how it had gone from him just wanting to watch Kenna from a distance to asking her out for dinner that evening. He hadn’t been able to stop himself. Just being near her again, he hadn’t been able to think straight. Speaking to her had made him want more than only staring at her from afar.

In his very long life, Tor had never wanted a woman as much as he wanted Kenna. He wasn’t celibate by any means, but he usually slept with women who didn’t want a serious relationship. Ones who were quite happy to fall into bed with him to scratch an itch, then not see him for a month or more, though recently that hadn’t really satisfied him.

Inside the house, Tor headed to the upper floor and to the room he’d set up as a small temple to Anubis. He worshipped the god of the underworld every day, leaving food and drink on an altar. This way it kept the bond between him and Anubis strong. Not that Tor had any problem with that since Anubis was part of the pantheon of gods Tor had already worshipped from the time he was a small boy in Egypt of old.

He pushed open the door to the room and stepped inside. Tor had painted the walls in a shade of brown that reminded him of the stone used for the temples in Egypt. The artifacts placed throughout the space were just as ancient as he was, all dedicated to Anubis. Some, like the pieces of stone with hieroglyphs carved on them, hanging on the walls, were old, but were purchased in the 1920s when the British had come to Egypt to excavate tombs. Back then the pieces found had been sold instead of being given to the Egyptian people. Tor had purchased anything he’d found that referred to the god of the underworld. At least in his possession they’d remain in the same condition as the day he’d bought them. He respected the rich culture of the land of his birth. Even though he no longer lived there, and hadn’t for many years, Tor still considered himself Egyptian.

Tor.

He stood straighter as Anubis’ voice filled his head. “Yes.” Only inside this mini temple was Tor able to communicate with the god.

While you are out hunting evildoers, you need to stay extra vigilant. Another one of my warriors has tangled with a demon who has escaped the underworld. There are more out there, hunting you and the others.

“How did they escape the underworld? I’ve never had to worry about their kind in the mortal realm before.”

I don’t know. Nor do I know how many escaped. The one that my other warrior dispatched had a couple of spells in his arsenal. One locked my warrior in his half-human and half-jackal form. The other was a spelled dagger that prevented him from healing, causing him to remain weak and vulnerable. Just be prepared if a demon finds you.

“I’ll be on my guard.”

And one last thing before I go, if you find your mate, ease her into your world.

“Mate?” This was the first Tor had ever heard Anubis say his warriors would have one. “How will I know a woman is mine?”

You’ll know. During intimate moments a change will come over you. An urge that will be hard to ignore will accompany it. You must resist until the one meant for you knows and accepts what you truly are.

With that, Tor felt Anubis’ presence leave him. He shook his head. The god of the underworld could be cryptic at the best of times, and this must be one of them. A mate? The thousands of years Tor had lived as a warrior of Anubis, he’d thought he’d always remain alone. The idea of having a woman of his own hadn’t been an option as far as he was concerned. He was immortal. What mortal woman would want to stay with him when she’d grow old and die while he remained the same? Obviously, that wouldn’t be an issue if Anubis wanted Tor to bring his mate into his world. At least that was what Tor thought the god meant by all that. Was there a chance Kenna was his? His reaction to her made him think there was a possibility. But he’d have to wait and find out.

Leaving the temple, Tor shut the door behind him, his thoughts turning to the demons Anubis had warned him about. It did not bode well for mortals to have those creatures roaming free amongst them. Demons were cruel and vicious, took joy in the pain of others. If one was to actually find Tor, he’d be more than happy to send the demon to the underworld to face Anubis. The spells gave Tor pause, though. He had no magic available to him to counteract whatever the demon would use on him. The gifts Anubis had given Tor were immortality, the ability to shape-shift to take down evildoers and send them to the underworld and to will any weapon he needed into his hand. Magic spells weren’t part of the package.

With time to kill before he could go back to the Luxor to meet up with Kenna, Tor decided some sword practice was what he needed to make the hours pass more quickly. He headed for his room to change into some other clothes. He’d have a strenuous workout, then take a shower before getting ready for his very first date. And if he was lucky, he’d get a chance to see if Kenna could actually be his.

Kenna had to force herself to stop looking at the clock on the computer screen in front of her every few minutes. It wasn’t going to make the end of her shift come any sooner, nor have Tor show up.

For the rest of the day, she’d only gone through the motions of what were her duties at work, her mind half the time a million miles away, focused on the man she looked forward to seeing again.

Twenty minutes before Kenna’s shift was to end, her manager, Carol, came behind the reception desk to talk to her. Carol was part of the reason Kenna loved her job so much. The other woman was a dream to work with. Having started at the bottom and working her way up to her current management position, Carol didn’t look down her nose at any of those under her since she’d been in their place at one time. She was also about ten years older than Kenna.

“So I heard you had a bit of a run-in with someone who wanted to give you a hard time,” Carol said.

Kenna knew exactly who Carol referred to—the man Tor had chased off. “How did you learn about that?”

Her manager chuckled. “I received an irate phone call from him. He wanted me to suspend you without pay, and to make sure guests like the one who was rude to him were never allowed in the Luxor. I’m interested to hear about this other man.” Carol winked.

Kenna smiled and shook her head. “I can’t believe the idiot called you, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since he didn’t want to take no for an answer, no matter how many times I told him it was against hotel policy. I’d thought for sure Tor would have shut him up.”

“Tor, huh? I take it this is the guest he talked about?”

“Yeah, though Tor isn’t a guest. At least I’m pretty sure he isn’t. I’ll find out once he takes me out for dinner at the end of my shift.”

“In that case, I’d better hang around to see this knight in shining armor who saved you from the idiot. So what does Tor look like?”

“Tall, dark, handsome, and as Nick would say, built like a brick shithouse.”

“Oh, he sounds delicious. I can always go for some eye candy. You know old married ladies like me need to get some of that every now and then.”

“As if you don’t have any of that every day. I’ve met your husband, remember? Malcolm is gorgeous, and you know it.”

Carol laughed. “True, but I can still appreciate other good-looking men.”

“That’s true,” Kenna said with a laugh.

“And I think your tall, dark and sexy just arrived,” Carol said as she jerked her head to a spot behind Kenna. “Wow. With that tanned skin and dark looks, he really is exotic-looking.”