Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.

From the previous chapter:

Dean's face brightened in understanding. "Pretty smart, there, college boy. Even in her spirit form, Sekhmet's a goddess and the 'normal' extermination methods aren't going to work against that kind of power. So, in order to level the playing field, we've got to weaken her…and the best way to do that is to subject her to her polar opposite…literally."

"She's a sun goddess, Bobby," Sam continued. "Blinding noontime heat is part of her power base. Cool her off and she's an ordinary, every day, hostile Casper that's vulnerable to the usual salt and burn tactics."

"But we don't have bones to salt and burn," Bobby objected. "She was a goddess. She never really had a mortal body to have the mortal bones, etc."

"No, she didn't," Dean agreed, "But in all of her forms she's had one constant…"

"The collar," Bobby said in wonder. "Remove and destroy the collar and you neutralize Sekhmet. Now all we have to figure out is how we're going to manage the Big Chill."

Sam smiled one of his lopsided grins. "I think I have that covered."

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One Jump Ahead of the Storm

Chapter 29: Prowler

Getting to his feet had been problematic for Sam. The movement exacerbated his rib injury and initially caused him to be lightheaded. But that was twenty minutes ago and Sam's desperation to finish Sekhmet off had pushed him to continue on with the hunt despite his discomfort.

The hunt had continued on in hushed determination, a factor that Sam was glad for. It was taking every ounce of Sam's concentration to beat down the pain that welled in him with every movement. Even breathing was escalating his agony, as a feeling of fullness had developed under his left ribs and was forcing him to take shallow, minced breaths.

Bobby had been quietly mulling over the strategy the boys had come up with when his concerns got the better of him. "I get the plan you two came up with," Bobby insisted, "but what I don't get is just how we're going to get Sekhmet to follow us to the veterinary facility."

"I don't have that worked out yet," Dean gloomily acknowledged. That was the one thing in their plan that Dean wasn't sure about. But what he was sure about was that he could feel he was losing more and more control over his muscles. If this hunt didn't go down soon, Dean was going to be no help to Sam and Bobby. Possibly, he might even end up being a liability.

Sam had lagged behind slightly. He was becoming winded trying to keep up and had stopped, bent over slightly, facing a large tree with his hands propped against its trunk. His head hung down between his arms as he battled to draw in more air, his eyes drawn to his left boot.

"I don't think attracting Sekhmet will be a problem, guys," Sam proclaimed breathlessly. Sam pushed back from the tree as the other two hunters turned in his direction. A wide swath of blood saturated the leg of Sam's jeans the whole way to his boot and small droplets of the sticky substance dropped occasionally from the cuff, splattering strange patterns onto his boot and the surrounding ground. "Looks like I've been leaving Sekhmet my own version of a trail of bread crumbs to follow. Something tells me she's gonna find us just fine."

Sam's earlier descent down the rocky height had reawakened the accelerated bleeding from his left thigh and shredded the pressure dressing that had been applied back at the house. The loose and ineffective dressing had done nothing to quell the flow of renewed bleeding.

"Jesus, Sammy," Dean chastised, "When did your thigh start bleeding so bad again?"

"Not sure," Sam whispered. "But we need to keep moving. We won't stand a chance if Sekhmet catches up with us out here. We need to get to the vetting area like we planned."

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The lioness thought she'd caught the scent of her prey on the wind. Now that she had climbed to the top of the precipice, she was certain she was on their trail. Even better, it was obvious from the tang of blood she detected on the air that one of them was wounded.

Wounded prey was easy prey, and easy prey made Sekhmet happy. She salivated at the thought of encountering her foes. The years she spent imprisoned with Ptah had only served to increase her bloodlust and the prospect of releasing the pent up emotion in the fierce onslaught of a lightning-fast charge, razor-sharp claws and gnashing teeth coursed ripples of anticipation through the cat's body.

Normally, a lion would need to stalk their prey to within one hundred feet or less before launching their attack. Only this cat wasn't your usual lioness. The rules of nature skewed under the weight of Sekhmet's status as a goddess. This animal possessed the wild, instinctual savagery and brutality of the lion, coupled with the deadly premeditative abilities of humans and cruel power of the gods.

As the trail continued through the forest, the space between splashes of blood lessened and the small pools of blood grew almost imperceptibly larger. Sekhmet understood. The wounded one was growing weaker, slower; the flow of blood greater. She decided to follow the blood trail until she got closer, close enough to push her prey; hurry them, exhaust them. Once she was certain where the trio was headed, she would circle wide and get ahead of them. A frontal ambush would be unexpected and give her the advantage of surprise.

As the wounded young hunter tired, she'd soon begin to exact her revenge. Yes, hunting him would be amusing, but really he was nothing more than a toy…an appetizer before the real entertainment. Even butchering the oldest hunter wouldn't satiate her murderous and ruthless yearnings.

Only the massacre of the human that had slaughtered Kahotep's mummified remains would quell the violent savagery that burned through Sekhmet's soul. She quickened her pace, careful not to get close enough for the hunters to attack, but close enough and obvious enough to alert them to her presence and push them into exhausting themselves. A roar of anticipated pleasure rolled from deep within the lion's chest. Soon, hunters, soon, Sekhmet thought as she made the decision to leave the blood trail behind in favor of maneuvering away and outflanking her quarry.

To be continued…


About the chapter title: The chapter title is from an early Iron Maiden song of the same name and made it's first appearance on their debut album in 1980. Although the story told by the song had NOTHING to do with the story of this chapter, I thought the song title went well with the fact that Sekhmet was on the prowl for our favorite boys!

I apologize for the short chapter, too. Seems my muse has left me with a rather awesomely sized writer's block. I'm really excited about the next few chapters, though, so I'm pretty sure I can churn out something a bit more substantial in the next few days.