Page 50 of The Guardian (Dark-Hunter 20)
Oh yeah. He wouldn't have a clue.
Maahes folded his arms over his chest. "In your day, Egyptians used kohl to protect their eyes from the harsh sun rays. Today, we use these ... they're called sunglasses."
Lydia took them from him and put them on his face. Boy, did I choose well. He looked great in them. She glanced back at Maahes. "Is that really why Egyptians did that?"
"It is indeed."
"Wow, and I just thought they did it for fashion."
Maahes didn't comment on that. "We need to get going. I have no idea where I'm taking you, but it doesn't seem wise to stand out here in the open when we have preternatural trackers trying to find us."
He made a really good point. "Where are going?" she asked.
Seth shrugged. "As long as it's not Azmodea, I don't care."
In that moment, she felt completely lost. She really had no place to go. Home was out of the question. Solin was MIA.
All she had were the two men with her.
"Hey now," Maahes said. "Don't be making that face. Okay? You start crying, I start crying, and I look like a total freak when I cry. Nothing worse than a big-ass man blubbering like a baby. Totally kills my chances with the women. You know?"
"I wasn't going to cry. But it was sweet of you to be concerned."
"No problem."
Seth scowled at the easy way they conversed with each other. Especially since they'd only just met. Worse was the jealousy inside him that wanted to punch Maahes straight in his arrogant jaw.
"Well," Maahes said finally. "I guess the best place would be mine. It's isolated and should be safe should something scary go down."
Lydia couldn't think of anything better. "It sounds perfect."
As they started to leave, she realized Seth had wandered off again.
This time, he was at the wall, looking at the parked cars lined along the curb. Smiling, she went to wrangle him.
As soon as she reached him, a car went flying by. Eyes wide, Seth jumped about ten feet.
She put her arm out to settle him. "It's okay, Seth."
"What was that thing?"
She answered him with a question of her own. "Didn't you see a car online?"
"No."
Maahes made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat. "This is going to get annoying fast if he freaks every time he sees something he's not used to."
Curling his lip, Seth started to attack. But Maahes caught him with what appeared to be a Vulcan death grip and pulled him into his arms.
Seth froze instantly.
After a few seconds, Maahes released him.
Staggering a bit, Seth pressed his hand to his forehead as if he was dizzy. He curled his lip at Maahes. "What did you do to me?"
"Brought you up to date. I don't want you pissing in a sink or doing anything else to draw attention to us. We need to blend in and not look like refugees from a badly written time travel movie."
Seth still felt sick to his stomach, but he now had a whole new vocabulary and an understanding about the world he was in. For that, he could almost thank the bastard.
Almost. He still really wanted to slug Maahes, though.
Lydia reached up and laid her hand on his cheek. The moment she did, he completely forgot about his need to put his foot in an uncomfortable place on Maahes's body. "Hey."
Seth looked down at her.
"We'll get through this. Trust me."
"I do trust you." And he did. But then he cut a glare to Maahes. "That son of a bitch is another story. I don't trust anyone who serves a god, and especially not one whose most celebrated epithet was Lord of the Massacre."
She widened her eyes at that. Her face pale, she met Maahes's smug look. "Is that true?"
"It is."
"Do I want to know why they call you that?"
Seth answered for him. "He's the hand of retribution. Ma'at's personal slayer for anyone she wants punished."
It didn't have the effect on her that he'd hoped for. Instead of being angry at his enemy, she was rational with him.
Seth hated rational.
"So he's kind of like you, then. I would think you two would get along."
The taunting smirk on Maahes's face was definitely not helping his mood. "I'm also the one invoked by the innocent to protect them."
Lydia sucked her breath in as Seth's eyes darkened in a way that let her know Maahes was about to bleed.
When he spoke, his tone was deadly calm and razor sharp. "But only when it suits you."
There was so much buried rage in those words that it made the hair on her arms stand up. When Seth had been wounded and in pain, he'd been scary.
Whole, even without his powers ...
He gave the full god in front of him a run for his money and Maahes knew it.
The cocky went straight out of Maahes as he caught Seth's meaning. "Are you saying you called for me and I ignored you?"
Seth didn't answer.
Instead, he brushed past him, driving his shoulder in to Maahes's and headed for the street.
Maahes frowned at her. "What didn't he tell me just now?"
