The Demon of Egypt: Nala's Side by Amber Riel (good beach reads .txt) 📕

          “Just fight.”  I spun the two daggers in my hand as I waited for Imhotep to prepare.  He took for what felt like ever.  I yawned out of boredom.

          “Ready?” he asked as he looked at me.

          “Of course, moron.”

          That ticked him.  He swung on dagger toward me as I blocked the attack.  I took the other and went to cut his side but he stopped me with his second dagger.  “Oh and no killing me,” he replied.

          I growled as I swung the other dagger and he blocked again.  I took the dagger in my left hand and went to knock the dagger out of his hand when he quickly knocked mine to the floor.  I snatched the one out of his hand and we knocked all of the daggers to the ground.  I had my human claws in his neck.

          He held up both of his hands as if he was surrendering.

          Someone started clapping from behind me.  “Bravo, bravo,” Niki said as he entered the room.  “So that jerk who’s boss, sis.”

          I smiled evilly at Imhotep.

          “This is cheating, Nala,” Imhotep spoke with a bit of an edge in his voice.

          “But I’m being human, Imhotep,” I replied.

          “A girl your age choking a man my age isn’t normal.”

          “It is if the girl is stronger than the man.”  I threw Imhotep to the ground.  “Pity…. Tell your friends you’ve lost to a girl…. That’ll get you a good laugh.”

          “Not if I tell them that it was you…. Everyone knows about your inhuman abilities.”  Imhotep left the room as Niki walked over to me.

          “We have a ball to prepare for,” Niki told me.

          “I hate balls…. All they do is show me that I’ll never find a man worth the time to keep.”

          “Well, father wants all three of us there,” Niki replied as he helped me pick up the four daggers.  “It’s for his engagement.”

          “Of course…. Why does he decide that now’s the time for a wedding?”

          Niki shrugged.

          I went into my closet and searched for a dress.  I figured that my father would want his kids to look nice for the ball, which I could care less for although I would find some way to ruin the perfect night.  I pulled out a dress made of gold material.  The collar of the dress was made out of beads which would cover my shoulders kind of like sleeves.  It had a small but noticeable split off to the bottom left side.  It was long, but when I wore it, the dress fell down to my ankles revealing my feet.  It was a beautiful dress and was perfect for the not so perfect night. I hurried behind my dressing post and quickly changed.  When I walked out from behind the dressing post, I noticed that the Grim Reaper stood near my door.  “You sick freak…. I was changing.”

          “I saw nothing,” he replied.

          I raised an eyebrow.  I didn’t believe him.  “Whatever.”

          “I’m serious…. Besides that changing area you have hid everything so if I wanted to see everything then I would have just stood there the whole time…. Believe me…. I’m the angel of death…. I’m not entertained by young women changing.”

          “Yea right,” I muttered.  “What do you want anyways?” I asked as I walked over to my vanity and sat down.

          “Checking up on you…. You should watch your back, your highness.”  He vanished without another word.

          Yea, yea, I thought.  I began fixing my makeup.  The one thing I hated about being the princess was all of the time I had to spend dressing up and placing makeup on so I could look good for the humans.  It wasn’t something I was particularly fond of.

          The night of the ball, I walked into the ball room and noticed that my father stood by his throne, laughing and talking to his future bride again.  This time the room was filled with others.  Simba stood at the left far in of the room, chatting with a group of humans.  Servants were serving the guest as they should have.  Even my cousins, who I wanted to kill off one by one.  Other family members who I could care less about.  The other guest were people who lived in Egypt…. Other Egyptians…. My night was going to be very painful.  I just about everyone on the guest list.  The music played in the back ground, although I could barely hear it over all of the humans talking.  I snarled my lip, trying to stay calm.  It kind of hurt seeing all of the human women with the men…. It wasn’t fair that they could be so happy were as I was so miserable alone.

          “Sis, you might want to join the party,” Niki said as he walked next to me, surveying the place.

          I shook my head.  “No…. This to me is wrong.  I can’t enjoy this.”

          “I know,” Niki sighed, “but it’s for our father.”

          I shook my head again.

          A girl with long, dark brown hair who looked to be a servant or peasant walked over to us and grabbed Niki’s arm.  “Dance with me, Prince Niki.”

          I raised an eyebrow.  He was as bad as I was and yet the women still wanted him but none of the men wanted to mess with me.  I was confused.  It was like I was some kind of plague or something.

          Niki had been caught off guard and before he could actually reply the girl dragged him down into the ball room.

          Imhotep took his place.  He smiled evilly as if he knew my thoughts.

          “I don’t get this how come none of the men want me but the girls line up for him when he’s no better than I am?”

          Imhotep looked at me and raised an eyebrow.  “Maybe if you wouldn’t threaten to eat them, they might be willing to dance or purpose to you.”

          I pretended to laugh at Imhotep’s remark.  “Not funny.”

          “It’s true…. Here,” Imhotep said, holding out his hand.  “I’ll dance with you, your royal highness.”

          “Dance with you?  I rather take my chances with a king cobra.”

          Imhotep dropped his head.  “It’s only a dance, but you can’t eat me.”

          “That’s the fun part…. Everyone’s too busy to notice the cannibal.”

          Imhotep bit his lip.  “I’m trying to be nice…. You can try to do the same unless you’re too conceited for that?”

          I rolled my eyes.  “Fine,” I said, taking his hand, which I had to resist the wolf urge to attack out of hunger for the human flesh.  I had to fight with my inhuman.  It wasn’t like with the cat where I could attack as a wolf without the humans realizing it was me.  I actually had to behave as a human.  Imhotep placed his free hand around my waist as I placed my free hand on his shoulder.

          “Remember we’re dancing, not feasting.”

          I pretended to laugh at his mocking words.  He led as I followed.  I hated every moment.  I looked around the room as I noticed everyone else was dancing to.  I hate this, I thought.

          Vanessa wore my dress and was dancing with no one.  She looked as if she were my mirror image, while I was dancing with Imhotep, she was dancing a vampire’s invisible reflection.  It was kind of awkward to watch.  “One, two, three…. One, two, three…. One, two, three….” She whispered as she counted.

          I rolled my eyes.  “Would you knock it off?”

          “I dancing,” she replied.

          “You look like an idiot.”

          “I’m enjoying myself, which you should be doing.”

          I rolled my eyes again.

          “Imhotep is a good dancer.”

          I stuck my tongue.

          “Admit it…. This will be one of the few times you’re not threatening to kill the man.”

          “It’s embarrassing…. I have to dance with a man who I hate….”

          “Well, if you weren’t so horrible, you’d be married now…. To a good man…. And you would have children…. Children…. God’s gift to us….”

          I narrowed my eyes.  “Why are you so weird?”

          “I’m you…. Remember?  Everything I do reflects back on you and everything you do reflects back on me.  The whole split personality thing.”

          I shook my head.  “Would you go now?  I like to have a miserable thing without all of these extra troubling problems.”

          Vanessa sighed.  “Fine.”  She vanished.

          I looked at Imhotep who was giving me a strange look like I was crazy or something.  “What?” I asked.

          “Are you feeling okay, princess?  You seem to be lost in some sort of daze…. Realizing that I’m attractive,” Imhotep laughed, jokingly.

          “And you call me conceited.”

          “I was joking.”

          “Still…. The thought is sickening…. Besides, I look at you like food and I would still eat you if I could.”

          Imhotep shook his head, knowing that our hatred was just getting worse.

          I continued to follow Imhotep in the dance when I heard that high pitch scream.  I let go of Imhotep and fell to the ground, blocking my ears from the sound.  I felt the eyes of the humans watching me.  I looked up at Imhotep and he stared at me with his eyes narrowed and arms folded.  I could tell by his expression that he thought I was up to some evil trick.  I began to growl.  I slowly felt myself transforming into a wolf like creature.  My hands fell to my sides as the screaming had stopped.

          The humans stared at me with fear in their eyes.  I knew what they were thinking.  They couldn’t speak because of the fear.  I looked around and noticed Anubis, the Egyptian God who protects the dead or leads the dead to the afterlife…. Something like that…. Honestly, I could have cared less about our beliefs…. He was a demon and apparently he was after me as well.  He walked over to me and looked me up and down.

          I watched as the humans, except for Imhotep, fall to the ground, bowing to the pagan god.  And they call me a demon, I thought.

          Anubis stopped in front of me and looked me up and down.  There was evil in his in human eyes.  “Death,” he said as he locked his black, dog like eyes with mine.  He reached out to me and touched my face with his human like hand which felt warm.  “Princess.”  He started to bow, which confused me.  “Inhuman like us…. But you mock our ways.”  He moved his hand from my face.  “Unloved…. Alone…. Time will come for you…. Join us…. My bride.”  He looked around at the human population then turned back at me.  “You’re time is near.”  He leaned closer to me touching his black jackal like wet snout to my nose.  He revealed his teeth.  “Evil.”  The demonic god vanished without another word and I looked around, angrily toward the humans.

          I started growling.

          “Be careful, princess,” Imhotep’s voice said.

          I ignored him and jumped a human man who stood at a good distance away.  I started tearing him