Chapter Three

The bathroom was cramped, the air heavy with moisture and heat. A towel wrapped around his waist, Spike emerged from the shower and stepped into the dingy hotel room, drawn by the sound of Drusilla's voice. She had been quiet for the rest of their journey to Egypt, in a kind of deep trance from which she woke only infrequently to share with him something about hedgehogs and silver tea sets.

He stripped off the towel and dabbed with it at his face and neck. The heat of Cairo was unbearably oppressive. The sluggish ceiling fan that served as the Osiris Hotel's air conditioning system offered little relief from the climate of the Egyptian capital.

Under the cover of night, he had helped Dru from the hold of the cargo ship. They were met on the docks of the Suez Canal by members of the Order of Aurelius. Acting on instructions from Malik, the vampires brought them to the Osiris where they'd spent the last two days resting while trying to locate another of Laibach's chosen ones.