A distant voice insistently calling her name pulled Kagome back into consciousness.
Groggily, she sat up and tried to figure out where she was and where the voice was coming from. Looking around, she realized that she was still in the cave and surmised that she must have passed out due to the thin air in the small room.
Slowly, she stood and as she was about to dust herself off, she felt a weight in her hand. Looking down, she saw the gem she had found still gleaming brightly though not pulsing like she foggily remembered it doing.
Her mind raced to fill in the gaps of what happened after she had picked up the jewel, but it was hazy, unclear, and dream-like. The only thing that she could remember were a pair of piercing citrine eyes and a wicked fanged grin.
Again, the voice called her name, breaking her concentration. However, looking around she knew that no one else was in the room with her. It dawned on her then where the voice had been coming from and she reached for her cb radio.
After letting them know she was okay and a brief explanation of what she could remember, combined with what she assumed had happened, she placed the radio back in her back-pocket and exited the room.
In her haste to leave, she never noticed that the candles that were once haphazard and unlit, were now upright—wicks smoking softly from recent use.
The other anthropologists had been trying to reach her for hours, unsure if she was alive or dead, they had scoured the cave's tunnels looking for any sign of her. Yet, they had completely missed the tunnel to the far right of the cave, that would have led them straight to the blue eyed beauty, and the altar room.
They had assumed the worst until she had finally responded and found themselves relieved that another crisis had been averted.
By the time she had emerged from the altar room and back out into the mouth of the cave, it was almost morning. The sun was beginning to crest over the Turkish mountains and light the morning sky in beautiful shades of amber.
She recounted what she could of the altar room and was excited to hear that the others had also discovered something in their perusal of the cave's tunnels. The others had found an old tome unlike anything they had ever seen.
It had graphic depictions of the various Gods and Goddesses of the citadel's temples sacrificing mass followers to some sort of monster.
Like something out of a Mayan nightmare, there were gruesome etchings of hearts that had been ripped out and offered to the creature, as the Gods looked on in delight. The souls of the fallen all swirled together to form something, but what was unclear.
They had tried to make out what that something was, but it was as if someone had burned that part of the tome.
Making it utterly, and frustratingly, impossible to make out.
The book itself was in a language that none of them knew and that posed a problem. So, after carefully preserving it from the elements they took their findings to the recently released Dr. Azeem. Who, after being cleared by the hospital had come back to the dig sight to check on the others' progress.
Since Kagome had been the only one to observe the altar room and was also majoring in ancient languages, they had decided as a group to have her lead this exciting new finding.
Anticipating that the young upstart would go above and beyond expectations in order to make a name for herself within their community.
Was it wrong to use her this way? Probably.
Yet, they all agreed that while she focused on that, they could finish excavating the rest of the citadel and hopefully uncover more hidden artifacts.
While true, that the book had been fascinating in appearance, they had done enough digs to know that the story it contained was probably a recount of some bloody war or mythological folklore of how the city came to be.
Though interesting, their time could be put to better use than uncovering whatever story the book told.
They were certain that if Kagome had found an altar room than that meant that a burial chamber wasn't very far off, and they intended to find it. It was something that would be considered the find of the century and why should some upstart graduate student get all that glory?
Together, they made their pitch to Dr. Azeem and he wholeheartedly agreed. Completely unaware of the others true intentions, Kagome was ecstatic to be given such an opportunity.
Dr. Azeem had reached out to a colleague who was an ancient languages and folklore expert. He had arranged for Kagome to meet with him that afternoon, after she got some much-needed rest.
With the rest of the morning off, she bid Dr. Azeem and the other anthropologists good bye and headed back to the home she was staying in for the summer.
After setting her alarm, and a quick shower, she ran her fingers over the gem once more.
Maybe this expert I'm meeting can point me to some sort of gemologist. I really would like to know what kind of jewel this is, she thought idly.
Sighing, she placed the pinkish reflective stone on her nightstand and before her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep.
She found herself back in the altar room—only it was different this time. It was well lit and painted in bright golds and deep reds. There was a mantel made of solid copper with the God Anu holding a book etched into its borders.
On the mantel, sat a large stone goblet and some sort of sacred knife with a craved ivory handle and jewels embedded in its hilt.
Both, candles and incenses burned bright and cast the room in a smoky golden glow.
Looking down Kagome took in that she was still clad in her very modern soft pink nightgown, in the middle of the obviously ancient room. It was like she had traveled back through time to see how the altar room once was, and she found it breath-taking.
"It used to be quite beautiful, don't you think?" Asked a husky baritone against the shell of her ear.
Turning, she was greeted with those same piercing amber eyes and wicked fanged grin. He was tall with full pouty lips and broad shoulders as long silver hair fell gracefully down his back. Her eyes raked over his shirtless form, taking in the way the soft material from the cream colored harem pants he wore clung to his defined legs. Taunt muscles, slightly tanned from years of exposure to the sun, shifted and bunched as he straightened his posture.
Inky black scriptures strikingly covered his arms, chest and up the sides of his neck, in the same language that was written in the book they had found.
Noticing her stare at them, he ran a hand over them. "Solomon's curse," he softly addressed, breaking the hypnotic spell she had been under.
Flushed, she nodded her head, then shifted her attention back to the room.
"Why am I here?" She whispered aloud, not really expecting him to answer.
"Because I want you here," came his matter-of-fact reply. "I wanted to show you how it all looked before it became what you saw earlier."
Walking up to the mantel she traced its cool surface with the tips of her fingers, marveling at its beauty.
Slowly, the handsome stranger approached her and once he was near, he wrapped his arms around her form. His bare chest pressed into the thin silky fabric of her nightgown as he pulled her close to him.
She should have been frightened—should have pushed him away. Instead, she found that she liked the warmth of his body against hers.
"3000 years I sat here, waiting," he mumbled into her ear. "Waiting for this day—this moment. Freedom tastes so much sweeter when gifted by such a Goddess."
His hands inched down her body until they reached the hem of her nightgown, as his lips found the tender spot between her neck and shoulder and gave it a gentle kiss.
"Who are you?" she asked, aroused but equally confused. Her mind was becoming muddled and hazy and though she knew that this was some sort of lucid dream, it felt entirely too real.
He felt entirely too real.
His hands snaked up her nightgown, gliding sensually up her legs, across the planes of her stomach to cup her breasts. His dark laughter rumbled in her ear and sent both a chill down her spine and warmth in her belly. It was a weird feeling, being both afraid and aroused by something so small as a chuckle.
"I can't tell you who I am, but—" he began, as he nibbled on her ear and used his body to push her further against the mantel. "I can tell you what I am."
"Wh—what are you?" Kagome moaned, hating herself for waiting more.
She wanted to feel him buried deep within her—desired his lips to touch every part of her body. She ached to feel his muscles bunch and coil at her touch. She craved it so bad that it became an almost physical discomfort.
She could feel herself throb with need and desire; it was so strong that it threatened to overwhelm her.
"A Djinn," he moaned softly in between using his tongue to trace circles into the soft skin on her neck.
Roughly, he turned her around so that they were now face to face and used the momentum to lift her so that Kagome was slightly seated on the mantel.
Quickly, she found her arms were embracing him and her legs tightly wrapped around his slender hips. His hands had found their way to her hips again and had taken her nightgown up for the ride. The silky material bunched around her waist as she shamelessly ground herself into him.
Djinn—Djinn, she thought. Where have I heard that term before?
She could feel him growing more and more aroused by the second as his attentions shifted from her neck to her breasts.
The longer she pondered the term he had said, the thinner the haze became in her mind and the clearer she could think. Until it struck her what that term meant.
Reaching down, she lifted his head from her breast with a wet pop of his lips. Looking into his eyes and seeing the look he wore of absolute hungry turned her on even more and she wondered if she should just let the whole thing go and enjoy her dream.
However, she decided to ask anyway, even if she felt silly about it. "A Djinn is like a genie, right?" Already she could feel her face heating up with embarrassment as she awaited his answer.
Nodding, he smirked. "Something like that—more or less. It has always fascinated me the many names you mortals come up with for beings far older than you," he added offhandedly.
"Does that mean that you grant wishes?" She asked curiously.
"I have been known to," he agreed elusively.
"And I freed you?" She pried a little more.
"Yes," he grinned darkly.
"So, then I get 3 wishes, right?" She asked carefully, suddenly unsure of herself.
Raising an eyebrow, he queried, "and who told you that lie?" Scoffing a bit, he slid up her body to stand at his full height before her. "There is no limit to wishes unless I wish for there to be and I do not grant them to those who free me. Unless, I am feeling generous," he explained.
"Oh," she uttered crestfallen. Bowing her head in awkwardness, she tried to temper her mortification.
Smirking, he hooked his long lithe finger under her chin and lifted her head until their eyes met.
"However," he purred in that deep honeyed baritone of his. "There are other—more pleasurable things then simple wishes that Djinn can bestow upon those that free us."
Passionately, he claimed her lips in a fiery kiss that left her breathless and turned the warmth in her belly into an inferno.
In the blink of an eye, she was splayed across the mantel like a sacrificial offering, as his body covered hers. Pulling away from her sinful lips, he peppered her arm in kisses that led all the down to the tips of her fingers.
"What is the name of my Goddess?" He asked ardently, as his tongue danced around her fingertip before pulling the entire finger into his mouth. "So that I may worship you like a slave worships his Eahil."
Before she could answer, she heard the beeping of her alarm.
"We shall resume this game soon, rest assured," he whispered in her ear. "And once you have told me your name, I will have you aching and begging for a pleasure your mortal body has never known. Until then, wake up and remember everything you experienced here."
Darkly he chuckled as fog thick and murky over took the entire room until Kagome couldn't even see her own fingers in front of her face. Then everything began to clear, and her eyes slowly drifted open to see that she was in her own bed in her room.
Her covers had been tossed onto the floor and her nightgown was bunched around her hips. Looking down, she noticed that the pearlescent gem was resting lightly between her thighs.
Hastily, she jumped out of bed and grabbed some clothes. She needed to get dressed and meet the expert.
She needed to explain to some one what the hell had just happened. She only hoped that since he was an expert in Mesopotamian and Babylonian folklore, he would be less likely to think she was crazy.
On her way out the door she passed by a mirror. She had been trying in vain to convince herself that what she had experienced had been an intense lucid dream.
However, as she gazed at her reflection and the dark purple marks that looked a lot like bites between the space of her neck and shoulder, Kagome had the chilling feeling that she may be in over her head.