I opened my eyes, seeing the blurriness fade away from my vision. I tried rising up, but four chains held me down. My arms and legs were bonded on a stone table inside a stone chamber. Pretty enormous like a theater with four pillars at the corners. Torches hung on the pillars, giving enough light to light the entire ancient structure. Behind my head, a staircase stood toward an open archway at the top. The only way out.

I pulled the chains, but somehow I couldn't pull myself free. Why wasn't my werewolf super strength working?

"It's no use," a handsome echoed, "those chains are stronger than you."

My heart raced when Tyler approached me in a black robe. Dark eyeliners spread around his eyes, making him appear Egyptian. "You can't escape from me."

I grinned while surprised at the same time. "Tyler….. What are you doing?"

"I am not Tyler. My real name is Nex. The former bodyguard of Queen Sahir."

My mouth hung. "You're the mummy?"

He nodded.

My lips trembled. "But-but you look human!"

Nex rubbed his fingers around his chisel face. "This is my living form. But my undead form is unsatisfying to look at. To maintain my natural appearance, I had to steal life from the living in this town."

I widened my eyes and glared. "So you are the one who murdered them?"

Nex clenched his fist. “I have no choice. If I didn’t suck their essences, I wouldn’t remain on this plane.”

I shook the chains. They felt so heavy like freaking boulders! “Why are you doing this?”

Nex smiled. “Because you are Nathifa. My Nathifa.”

I narrowed my eyes, confused. What the hell did he mean by that?

He stroked my hair. “Before I met my fate, I chanted a spell to revive me when I felt the presence of my love. When you approached my sarcophagus, I tried to call you, but you ignored me. To find you, I broke loose and sacrificed a few humans to adapt to the new age. I learned everything from my victim’s essence. I learned your language, culture, and technology. When I discovered your school, I disguised myself as a new student so I could watch you. Waiting for the right moment to bring you here.”

I glanced around. “What is this place?”

Nex stared at the ceiling. “The town’s tomb yard. A cemetery, they called it.”

The chamber must be a burial room deep inside a century-old mausoleum. Indeed, it was the perfect place for the mummy to hide.

“Why do you think I am, Nathifa?” I asked. “I’m not Egyptian!”

Nex glanced down upon her. “You were Nathifa. You have her image, her hair, and her voice. You are her reincarnation.”

I felt like my mind has totally fallen into a blender. I heard about reincarnation in class before. I assumed it was only a made-up myth to help people get over death.

If I could reincarnate, I would prefer to become a dog so I could live a comfy life in a nice house. But if I was an Egyptian princess, does that still make me a princess?

Oh my god! I am totally a princess cheerleader! Too bad I couldn't remember my Egyptian past.

I sucked my lips. “But I can't remember anything!"

Nex rubbed my head, smiling at me closely. “You will. After I sacrifice you.”

My breath turned cold. Oh god… Oh god!

Nex bent down and lifted up a mummy off the floor, which he stole from the museum. It must be his lover, Nathifa!

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How totally amazing the wrapped corpse still appeared to be fresh when Nathifa was buried for a thousand years. I wondered what Nathifa looked like before her death. Was she beautiful like me? Did she have dark hair or blonde hair?

Nex must have totally loved her, but he doesn’t have the right to turn me into his princess. “I should warn you, I am not totally human.”

The Egyptian boy chuckled as he laid his dead girlfriend next to me. “I know.” He pointed his finger at the chains. “That is why those shackles are silver. My people used them to contain the supernatural with silver. If you transform, your sacrifice will be quick.”

Damn, I hated silver! Worse than eating chocolate! But why aren't the silver chains hurting me now?

When I touched a silver bar in science class, it burned the shit out of me! Did my body grow immune to silver unless I transformed? Make up your mind, stupid weakness!

I swallowed my saliva down my throat. “How are you going to kill me?”

Nex held up a golden dagger. The handle has a jackal head with ruby eye sockets. “This dagger will summon my love into its blade when I stab it into her body. Then once I stab you next, the blade will enter your body to remove your soul and replace you with her soul. She will return while you take her place in the Afterlife.”

I gritted my teeth. "Hell no!"

“But death is only the beginning. You will not dissolve to oblivion. If your heart is pure, you will live in a world of paradise for eternity."

I shook my head. “No! I want to live! You can’t do this to me!”

Nex laughed. “Yes, I can.”

“But why do you want her so badly? What makes her life worth more than my life?”

Nex narrowed his catty eyes. “Because I love her.”

“Murder is not love.”

Nex clenched his teeth as a tear dripped down his face. “I know….. But it is necessary. What I did to her was a mistake! I cannot rest in peace until I undo my mistake.” He pointed his dagger toward my face. “You are only her living shell. A body she deserves more than you.”

My heart raced, but I kept my glare on my captor. “Do you totally think Nathifa will accept you killing an innocent girl?”

Nex glanced at Nathifa’s body. He rubbed his hand across her bandaged face. After he sniffed, he glared back at me. “After I resurrect her, she will have no choice.”

He closed his eyes and held the dagger against his chest. While clenching the dagger, he mumbled in strange words, probably chanting an Egyptian spell.

I still couldn’t move. What else could I do?

Nex held his dagger over Nathifa’s body and plunged the blade into the mummy’s chest while chanting the spell. The blade glowed yellow, like a candlelight, and moaning a voice entered the dagger. Could that be Nathifa?

He must needed the body to draw Nathifa’s soul back from the Afterlife. When he kills me, Nathifa will enter my body and possess me. No more Jessica! Only Nathifa, walking around as a modern-day sixteen-year-old girl.

Nex raised the dagger up, smiling at its spiritual glow. He walked over to my right side and raised the blade over my chest. “Nathifa! I offer this body for your return! Please come back to me!”

I shook my entire body, no matter how weak I was. “You bastard!”

When Nex thrust the dagger down, a ball of energy struck his chest, pushing him to the floor.

I looked up. Salina and Kevin raced down the stairway.

My heart calmed down to relief. "Kevin! Salina! Oh thank god you came!"

Nex rose and paused when Kevin pointed his crossbow at him.

"Stay back!" Kevin shouted.

Nex gritted his teeth. "You meddling fools! How did you find me?"

Salina approached over my head. "A little magic tracked you down, Toilet Paper Man."

She shot two bolts from her fingers, zapping the shackles off my wrists. After she zapped the other shackles off my legs, I slid off the stone table and hugged her.

"Thank you! Thank you!" I sobbed.

Salina rubbed my back. "For a monster, you sound like a pussy."

I glared at her. "Whatever!"

Nex held up the dagger, stepping back from Kevin. "Your mortal weapons cannot harm me!"

Kevin kept aiming with one eye open. "But can you handle the pain?"

Nex hissed and tossed the dagger toward me. Crap!

I caught it before it stuck my chest. Thank god my fast reflexes returned! I totally recovered quickly.

Salina shot her electric bolt toward Nex. Her attack shocked him, twitching him. He gritted and his eyes flashed white.

He dropped to his hands and feet, shaking his entire body. However, his seizure wasn't all that happened.

His body grew big while his muscles expanded. His clothes disappeared as wrapping bandages appeared across his hulking form.

Salina stopped, staring at the mummy in shock.

He rose on to his rotten bare feet. The bandages covered his entire body, except his head, which was shaped as a jackal head with beaming white eyes. Eight foot tall with gorilla arms and a hunched back.

Holy crap! He was a werejackal! A….. Mummy werejackal!

And I couldn't believe I almost went on a date with that thing! How totally wrong.

I glared at Salina. "You are supposed to stun him! Not turn him into a furry pro wrestler from Hell!"

Salina gulped. "I tried. Okay?"

I hissed through my teeth. I guessed I should transform too, or else nobody will survive.