Under Wraps: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Werewolves vs. Mummies Book 1) by J.A. Cipriano Page B

wrapping in her hand. A moment later, we were standing on the wall. Well, to be more accurate, she was standing on the wall holding me like a giant football-player-sized baby. I guess it was good that mummies seemed to have super-human strength.
    “Can you stand, or is it still too scary?” she asked, and while her tone didn’t contain any amusement, I still got the feeling she was making fun at me.
    I nodded, and she dropped me like a sack of potatoes. My head smacked into the rock and stars shot across my eyes for a moment. She turned, ignoring my plight, and stared out across the city.
    I slowly got to my hands and knees, careful not to approach the edge of the wall. It was over six feet wide, so honestly, it wasn’t hard to stay away from the edge. I moved into a sitting position and forced myself to look out into the complex below. The walls didn’t seem as high inside the place because I could see the sandy earth below. The compound was huge, filled with mini-pyramids and statues of what I assumed were gods.
    All around the courtyard, the animal-headed figures stood guard, brandishing all sorts of wicked-looking weaponry. The entire inside of the left wall was covered with a mural that depicted Ra on his sun-boat traveling down a river with a host of other gods at his side. It was done in a sort of pictograph so as it swept across the wall, the scenes changed to show them fighting off a massive black serpent with eyes like the void itself.
    As I stared into the snake’s eyes, a chill wriggled down my back, making me squirm. That was the creature my friend Lillim controlled. That was Apep, the deification of darkness and chaos. I swallowed. Seeing that picture on the wall made me very scared. How could someone think to control that?
    “Seems like you’re feeling better,” Aziza said, still not looking at me. “We better get down there before any sentries come.”
    “Sentries?”
    “Yeah, giant stone falcons that make sure people don’t scale the walls. If one sees us, it will sound the alarm, and all those statues will come to life and try to kill us. I’d like to avoid that.”
    I swallowed. “I would like to avoid that too,” I replied. “So how do we get down?”
    “The same way we got up here,” she said, smiling at me, and I swear to god she seemed amused by my plight.
    “Is there another way?” I asked, barely resisting the urge to roll into a ball and cry. Already my palms were starting to sweat and nausea was swirling in my gut.
    “I could throw you,” she offered with an evil glint in her eyes. “No?”
    I shut my eyes and focused on not hyperventilating as I fell from the top of the wall and splattered against the ground over and over in my mind’s eye.
    “I guess we could take the stairs,” Aziza said with a sigh. “But that’s way less fun.”
    I opened one eye and stared at her. Had she really just made fun of my fear of heights while we were standing a million stories above the ground? Seriously? Anger built inside me as she pointed to an alcove on my right. I turned and looked to see an entrance that was blocked by a simple wooden door with slats the color of old mud. It wasn’t even closed all the way. Through the partial opening, I could see stairs heading downward.
    “I will kill you,” I muttered as she walked past me and threw the door open without a care in the world. Wasn’t she worried about drawing attention to herself?
    “What if someone sees us?” I asked, crawling toward her because I didn’t want to risk standing, losing my balance, and falling to my certain doom.
    “I’m pretty sure it’s more likely that someone will see us standing out here in the open.” She grinned at me as she pushed the door open to reveal a torch-lined stairwell that led down into the inky darkness below. “Unless you’d like to stay out here. By yourself. With the falcons. On top of a giant wall.” She shrugged at me and made her way inside.
    “Wait!” I called, scrambling