Chpater seventeen

Somewhere deep in the heart of Egypt
Present day

 Sands, flowing forever over and over again across the ocean of barren land, hiding secrets for centuries before finally releasing them again from its cruel, dead embrace.  Deep within a tomb in these sands, one of those secrets is slowly waking.
 The sands may be warm, but the air in the crypt is freezing cold, dead from years of being undisturbed.  In the center of the main room of the tomb, lays a stone sarcophagus that no archeologist has ever laid eyes upon.  The room has been kept so air tight that not a single spot of dust can be seen anywhere.  Only one thing mares the perfection of the room, but the one being living in it has not noticed this in all the time it has lain there.
 The lid of the sarcophagus explodes upward, shattering against the ceiling before coming back to the ground in a shower of debris.  Hands, delicate, thin and white, slowly emerge, placing themselves on the sides of the stone coffin that has held them for so long.  Long, powerful claws dig furrows into the stone as the creature they belong to pulls itself out of its resting place.  The clothe that has covered it for so long has turned to nothing but tattered rags too weak to hold together as it rises from its grave, falling off its form to reveal the shapely figure beneath.
 Ishira rises from a long, deep sleep that she put herself into centuries ago when the world had become boring to her, hoping that things would be exciting and new again once she again decided to awaken and grace the world with her presence.  Well, that had surely happened.  She had sensed the joy of one of her creations, a joy that could not be explained in her mind, and she had waken to see what that joy might be, and what the cause of it was.  Without her, most of her creations shriveled and died, but this one seemed to finally be thriving in a world she did not exist in, had not even laid eyes upon yet, and she did not care for this, not one little bit.  What could have so much more power over her creations that they could rid them of the pain that her leaving caused each and every, last one. 
 She turned to look about her tomb to see that a single, grave robber had actually made it to the inner sanctum of her resting place, but he had been trapped by the locking mechanism she herself had put into the door.  If one did not know exactly how to open it, they would be locked in forever, or until someone who knew how to spring the trap came along and let them out.  Apparently, she had been a bit too late for this fellow.  Pity, she was feeling a bit hungry from her long sleep.  Looking upon the dried and empty corpse, she decided it had not been a waste after all.  He had been dead some time, but his clothes had not suffered the weight of time as hers had, and were still, more or less, in decent condition.  She pulled the homespun clothes loose from the body, and draped them over her own body, covering herself in a very acceptable manner, for humans at least.  She wondered slightly if they were still as afraid to show off their forms as they had been before she went to sleep.
     She moved to the door that had been the death of the man, and felt along the seams until her fingers came upon the catch that let the locking mechanism loose.  After that, the door slid easily enough out of the way, and she continued on down the long corridor leading to the outside world.  It did not surprise her to see a number of corpses in various stages of decompositions lining the walkway.  If one had made it to her inner sanctum, than it would only be reasonable to assume others had made it into the crypt, only to be stopped by other traps that the last one had been able to pass through with the help of his predecessors.  Men with wooden spikes running through them lay here and there, others with arrows in their breasts rested in other places.  A few holes ran the length of the corridor where an unfortunate traveler had stepped on the wrong stone and tripped the switch that activated the floor trap, causing them to fall to their death, several hundred feet below.  Ishira had not spared anything in the imagination when it had come to setting up her resting place, knowing it would be a long, long time before she would wake again.  Most of the corpses were bone, with a few mummified remains here and there.  She took this all in in a glance before heading out of the tomb for the last time, easily missing every trap that was left to spring as she went. 
 She came out into the night to see the gentle breeze of her beloved desert tossing the grains of sand here and there, scattering them about the landscape as it had done for millennia, and would continue to do for millennia to come.  She turned her head, listening to the murmurings in her head, the voices of all her children, trying to find the one that had found happiness without her.  Finally, she hit upon the one, Marius, her last companion.  How had he come to find such happiness without her?  How had he learned to survive without her?  Well, she would find that out soon enough, but first, she would have a look about this new world and see what wonders it had to offer her.
 Ishira took off into the desert, heading in the direction of Aswan, looking for some sign on how the humans of this era had changed.  The night passed, and she was forced to seek shelter from the sun by digging into the sand, making a safe haven for herself there, where she easily slept the daylight hours away.
 She awoke to find the tale end of a sand storm whipping about her, clawing at her hair and exposed skin.  Bits of sand sliced into her flesh, but she ignored these as she pressed against the terrible winds, fighting her way through the very storm that would have striped the flesh from any other being.  The cuts in her skin healed almost as quickly as they were made, saving the flesh beneath from the brutal cruelty of the sandstorm.  Grains got into her nose and eyes, but she ignored these, blowing them out or wiping them away every time they became too much of a distraction.  Her ears were deafened by the sound, but that did not stop her.  She used her mind to search out the area around her, feeling her way past the storm to the town she was headed to.  It lay along the Nile, taking advantage of the water for crops and fishing.  So, the people of her beloved country still worshipped, or at least appreciated, the Nile, the mistress of the desert, the only thing that had made sure that the human race could survive in this brutal part of the world.
 The sandstorm finally blew past, and she raised her arms to the night sky, overjoyed to see the stars and a full moon shining down upon her being.  The gods still loved her indeed.  She looked down to see that the clothes she had taken from the grave robber and been destroyed by the storm, but she was sure she would be able to remedy that soon enough, once she had reached human habitations.
 She came to the outskirts of the town to see that, yes, someone had left out their laundry to dry in the heat of the day, and had not gotten round to taking them in yet.  She took a robe that would fit her quite nicely, and wrapped it about her form before heading into the town.  As late in the day as it was, there was still a great deal of activity, since the people of the town would now be taking advantage of the cool of night to do what they did not dare do in the heat of day.  She listened carefully to the talk of the men, making sure they did not see her as she took in the language they spoke in, so different from the one she knew, but similar enough that it took her little time at all to learn it, a wonderful trick any ancient vampire was able to master, and one that helped them to blend in with the world around them. 
 She recognized those that were decedents of the Nile River, but there were others about, strange people who did not know the ways of the desert, who were flamboyant and arrogant in their ways.  These ones talked a different language most of the time, expecting others to understand them instead of accepting that they were the outsiders and should be the ones to learn a new language.  The men were rude, and the woman childish, showing off their wealth in a world there the world wealth and water had once gone hand in hand.  She found herself liking these new people, viewing them as the perfect prey.  There were so blinded by their own greatness, that she was sure they would never notice anything bad happening in their world.  She could pick them off with ease.
 She moved about the town, feeling her thirst nipping at her for the first time in hundreds of years.  Trying to decide what to hunt tonight, she decided it would be best to find a native, one who would not be missed at all, but whose body would not draw suspicions if it happened to be found in the morning.  To kill one of these foreigners would bring more attention to herself then she was ready to bring.  When the time was right, when she had discovered the land that they had come from, and could hunt them on their own soil, then she would taste of this new blood.  For now, she would have to be content with what refuse she was able to find. 
 She spotted a boy off on a corner, offering his body for money.  It was good to see that some things never change.  She made her way over to him, taking the purse of a rather uninventive man on her way, and stopped only inches from the boy.  In his language, she said, “Do you have any takers this night?”
 He shook his head, looking at her with adoring eyes.  “No, ma’am.  You are the first to approach this night.  One would think the night did not favor my sort of work this time.  It is usually not so slow.  I have a mother and brothers to take care of.  They need the money I make here.”
 She held up her hand to silence him, and bounced the purse in front of him.  “I would pay you quite nicely if you would but answer me a few questions first.”
 He looked longingly at the purse, then back up at her.  “I would happily answer any question you could have for me, beautiful woman.”
 She smiled before wrapping an arm about the boy.  She could feel his heart pounding beneath his young breast, and it was all she could do not to sink her teeth into him right then and there.  Pointing to the nearest tourist of the land she was curious about, she said, “Where is that person from?  I am unfamiliar with the type.”
 He stared at her in amazement and wonder.  “He is from America.  You have never seen an American?”
 Her eyes followed after the man she had indicated to the boy, never leaving his form.  “An American.  I have not heard of this land.  Where is it?”
 The boy continued to look at her as if she was something he could not even comprehend, and it was starting to get to her.  Was she to know every new country that had formed since she had gone to sleep.  “It…it is across the ocean, in the Americas.  You know, North and South America?”
 She shook her head.  “No, I am unfamiliar with these countries.  Are they new?”
 He shook his head.  “No.  They have been there for some time.  I cannot believe you have never heard of them.  The United States of America is known throughout the entire world.  Where are you from?”
 She dangled the purse before his face, and said, “That is none of your concern, and if you would like your payment, I suggest you stop asking questions I do not wish to answer.”
 “I understand,” he said, reaching out towards the purse, but she snatched it back to hold it against her chest. 
 “Now, would you like to earn your money.”
 Nodding, he followed her down the alleyway.  She took him, and pressed him against a wall, running her lips over his soft neck.  He moaned against her, and she swiftly drove her fangs into his throat.  It had been so long since she had last fed, that she had drained him off all his blood in a matter of moments before letting his body slip to the trash strung alley.
 Turning back the way she had come, she swung the purse by its strap, thinking of what she would need to do next to find this new world the boy had spoken of.  She had a great interest in new things, and these…Americans sounded as if they could be entertaining…after she had dealt with Marius, that was.