“Penelope,” I heard Emma call out on my headset.
“Yes?” I whispered back.
“Um, don’t freak, okay?” Emma’s voice crackled over the tiny speaker in my ear.
“Well, since you put it that way, I’ll be sure not to,” I hissed.
“Point taken. Listen, Brutus is coming to get you.”
“Where are you?” I asked.
“I’m standing in the middle of the Maaskab village.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Everything’s fine,” she replied with a melancholy tone. “See you in a few.”
Wait. This so didn’t make any sense. They couldn’t have taken down the Maaskab that quickly. Was it a trap?
Oh my gods. Oh my gods…
The unmistakable, hulking shadow of Brutus emerged from the nocturnal shadows. He signaled for me to follow.
I scrambled over. “What’s going on?”
Of course, he didn’t answer.
“Nice time to pull the mute card, Brutus. I’m beginning to see why Emma has it in for you.”
I thought I heard him chuckle, but couldn’t be certain.
Brutus whipped out a machete and hacked away at the small branches while we slogged forward. With my night-vision goggles everything resembled a leafy version of Tron. “Brutus, you have to tell me. Please?” I begged.
He marched ahead at a steady clip until we arrived at another clearing. A group of twenty men, Emma, and Guy congregated near a small hut. Several men gripped flashlights and everyone frantically debated.
This didn’t look good at all. “What’s going on?”
Emma turned toward me. “Oh, Penelope. Listen—”
“Where’s my mom?”
Guy stepped forward. “She is not here.”
My heart trembled. “What do you mean, ‘not here’?”
Emma gently squeezed my arm. “The village is empty.”
No. No. No! “Where’d they all go?”
“We do not know,” Guy answered. “Our satellites show this camp is occupied. Our people back in the control room also confirm they still see it as such.”
I flipped off my visor and looked around. “I don’t understand. How can they see Maaskab on the satellite, but there’s no one here? Have they hacked into your system?”
Guy shook his head. “Not likely. The Maaskab are not technologically savvy.”
Apparently not. This village reminded me of a pre-Hispanic version of the Renaissance Fair…but without the ale, hippies, or ouds.
“It is an illusion,” Guy said. “They are becoming more powerful with their dark arts by the day.”
That sounded bad. Really bad. “So what do we do? Are there other villages or places they could hide her?”
“I must return to my realm,” Guy stated acrimoniously. “I have a much better chance of spotting traces of them from there. I will also look for that goddamned sister of mine.”
“Cimil?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“If you find her, tell her I have a few bones to pick,” I griped.
“Get in line,” he responded.
“Do you have to leave?” Emma sounded on the verge of tears.
Guy cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply. She pulled back and whisked away a tear with her camouflage sleeve. “I’m sorry. I know the fiancée of the mighty God of Death and War shouldn’t cry.”
“I love you, Emma. Tears and all. I will see you back in Sedona and we will spend the entire day making love.”
“That would be nice,” she said in melancholy voice.
That was my cue to leave. I was in no mood to listen to their horny little plans, but then Guy turned to leave. I guessed he was heading to find a portal cenote thingy.
“Hey!” Emma called out. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Oh great. Are they going to have a quickie before he goes?
Guy stopped in his tracks, his back to us. Did he groan?
“Please?” she begged. “It will grow back.”
Grow back? Yikes. I so don’t want to know…
He turned slowly, his eyes glowing in the night. “Yes, my love. Of course.” He reached around to the small of his back and whipped out a large knife.
What the hell was he going to do with that?
He spun Emma and swiped the blade across her braid near the nape of her neck and then promptly cut off his own ponytail.
He held the braids to his chest and chanted toward the starlit sky, “In halach puczical, in uchucil, ca kaxah yokolcab ichi pixan.”
The air kicked up around us and as it did, my memory flashed to when Kinich last spoke to me.
My blood pressure plummeted when I realized he’d recited those exact words the moment he incinerated the Scab.
Guy quickly kissed Emma’s nose. “I suggest you don’t break the bond this time, my love.”
She lovingly brushed his stubble-covered cheek. “Never.”
He crouched down, placed the locks of hair in the dirt, and ignited the pile of strands. Brutus and the other men stood quietly behind him, staring in awe as the hair quickly dissolved into nothing.
My mind raced. What did it mean?
“Good-bye, my sweet.” Before you could say “flaming hair ball,” Guy disappeared into the jungle.
“Well. Time to go back to Sedona, I guess.” She wiped away another tear and began walking.
“Emma?” I trailed behind her like an eager puppy. “What did it mean? That phrase and burning your hair?”
Quietly, with an unmistakable sadness in her voice, she said, “My heart, my power, we unite in this world inside my soul—it’s a prayer, the Prayer of Loyalty and Protection.”
What a beautiful phrase. “And the hair?”
“It completes the ritual; it creates a bond between two souls. I guess you could burn another part of your body if you wanted, but hair is the least painless thing to lose.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. What do you mean by ‘bond’?”
“It creates a connection that enables the gods to keep track of you more easily. It’s like being tethered to their life force. With Guy, it allowed him to speak to me when he, well, his soul was trapped in the cenote by the Maaskab and…”
Emma continued to speak, but my mind detached from present time. It spiraled and swirled as it computed and calculated and put the pieces together.
Oh my gods! Kinich.
CHAPTER 26
The long flight back on Air Uchben was the worst, most depressing wait of my existence. No one spoke a word. But what was there to say? The bad guys had outsmarted us, and everything we loved and cared about was on the line.
Strangely enough, I sensed that my mother remained alive, though I had no clue in what condition. But a hopeful little voice inside my head told me she hadn’t left this world yet and we still had time to save her. I clung to that thought like a lifeboat.
As for Kinich, well that was a whole other enchilada in the oven. My heart and stomach were vacillating between elation (Kinich tried to bind himself to me) and terror (I didn’t know what would happen when I completed the ritual).
When I arrived at Kinich’s home, I immediately went to the kitchen, found a pair of scissors and some matches, and then headed for his room.
No surprise, Kinich was in his bed, right where I’d left him. The doctor—that same young-looking man with short, brown hair—leaned over him, checking his vitals.
“Any change?”
“I’m sorry. I’ll come back this afternoon.”
I shut the door behind him and stared down at Kinich’s large form, peacefully resting on the bed. His bronzed skin had turned to a pale taupe. I sighed and dropped to my knees, placing a kiss on the top of his hand.
“Please, work. Please?” I looked up at the ceiling, fending off the tears.
I gently turned his head to the side and cut off his silky caramel strands. I rubbed the thick, soft hair over my cheek then placed it on his chest as I cut
off my own ponytail.
My hair had never been my obsession, although my mom had always fussed over it and said it shined like obsidian. I think I kept it long only to make her happy.
It will grow back, Pen. It’s just hair.
I pushed my now chin-length hair out of my eyes and headed out to the patio. The first rays of sunlight tinted the night sky with an orange hue to the east. The surrounding desert was unnervingly quiet, as if the universe herself was holding her breath.
I looked to the sky and said a little prayer—to whom, I didn’t know—and placed the hair on the ground. I ignited the two bundles and watched them burn, knowing I’d break into a million pieces if this didn’t work.
The tiny fire fizzled out quickly.
Here goes…
“Kinich? Can you hear me? Kinich?”
I waited, my heart thumping in overtime. “Kinich,” I whispered, “please, please answer me.
He did not.
Oh gods, no. It didn’t work. It didn’t work…
I felt like I’d lost Kinich all over again.
Exhausted from being up all night and the endless disappointments, I staggered inside and curled up against his cold frame.
CHAPTER 27
“Penelope, you look ravishing today,” Kinich whispered in my ear.
I snuggled against his warmth and wrapped one arm tightly around his waist. “I’ve missed you.”
“Not nearly as much as I missed you.” His body shifted on top of me. “We have some unfinished business…”
My eyes popped open and our eyes met. The frisky grin on his face told me what he wanted, but I asked, anyway; I wanted to hear him say it.
“What sort of business?” I whispered.
His lips were quickly on mine. The heat of his mouth shot straight into my stomach and made my girly parts perk up instantly.
I sighed with contentment. This was how I wanted my life to be. Him. Me. Our bodies touching.
Kinich unexpectedly stopped. He was now frowning.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You’re wasting time. I need you here with me. Now. Do you have any clue how worried I was about you?”
“Huh? But I am here,” I replied, utterly confused.
“Penelope…” he growled.
“What?”
“Penelope! Wake the hell up,” he screamed.
My eyes snapped open. “No…!” I covered my face. “Goddammit! Not again!”
Kinich was still in his bed. Motionless. Cold. Frozen in time like Sleeping Beauty.
I slipped from the bed and staggered to the bathroom. The reflection staring back in the mirror was a sad and worn version of me. That’s because that’s what I was. I couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t have any strength left in my arms to keep throwing back the lemons.
How ironic, I thought. I finally understood why Kinich stopped believing his life would ever change and why he’d opted to survive, but not thrive. Exist, but not live. Everyone had their breaking points. Everyone. Even a powerful god.
“I’m sorry I judged you Kinich.” I hung my head over the sink.
“I forgive you, now that you’re awake. Did I mention you snore like a lumberjack with a sinus infection? It’s quite disturbing.”
My eyes popped out of my head. “Kinich?” I looked over my shoulder, right and left, but I was alone in the private world-class spa with mini-waterfall.
“Yes?” he answered.
Holy devil’s food cake. I looked up and down, side to side. No one there.
“Oh goody. ’Cause dreaming about him every single night just isn’t enough.”
“Every night? How intriguing. Are we naked?”
There it was again. I held my breath. “K—Kinich? Is that you?”
“I think I will ban everyone else from using my Mayan name ever again. I only want to hear you speak it. Just you with that sweet voice.”
I couldn’t breathe. “Is it…really…you? Or am I dreaming?”
“It is I. What took so long to complete the ritual?”
I leaned over to catch my breath. “I had no idea that’s what it was—holy crap! Is it really you?”
“Did you not tell everyone of the incident?”
“Yeah, but I sorta forgot about the part when you said that weird phrase.” I couldn’t believe this. I staggered into the bedroom and stared down at Kinich’s body. “But you’re on the bed. I’m looking right at you. Where are you…um”—what is the right way to say this?—“calling me from?”
“Apparently, the universe still holds some surprises. Even for an old deity.”
“Sorry?” I asked.
“I am right here. With you.”
“Again. Sorry?”
“I am…inside you.”
***
When Kinich attempted to open his eyes but failed, he instantly knew something was amiss. Slowly, he explored the physical sensations around him. Toes, finger, lungs, he could feel them all, yet was unable to take command of his movements.
Was he paralyzed? Dead?
The last thing he recalled was being in the swimming pool with Penelope, of touching her plump, firm breasts, and of being on the verge of spilling himself in her eagerly pumping hand. The desire for her had been so potent that his body literally ignited. Then, as he had been about to contain the flames, terror swept across Penelope’s lovely face.
He couldn’t see the Maaskab, but the rank smell wafting in the air was unmistakable. The Scab stood behind him, and whatever it was about to do wouldn’t be good. Likely a bit painful, too.
Yet only one solitary thought occupied his mind: He wanted to protect Penelope but couldn’t. Not again. Not fucking again.
And with that moment of utter helplessness came a startling transformation deep inside his immortal soul.
Like a hard blow to the gut, he realized that if given the choice, he would let mankind perish, sacrifice his very soul, if it meant saving her.
Impossible.
How, when the gods were hardwired to protect humanity, could he feel this way? He did not know. But he did. The invisible chains had snapped, his soul free to choose which lives he valued more. Free to live, to love, to wish for a different life and possibly obtain it. And at that very moment, he wished to never be separated from Penelope ever again.
But surely the Maaskab was about to kill him. And surely the priest had come to take her away.
There was but one solution: the Prayer of Loyalty and Protection.
With his light tethered to hers, he stood a chance of tracking her down once the cenote rebuilt his form.
He spoke the words and prayed the Maaskab behind him was close enough to touch…to kill. At the very least, he would buy Penelope some time before more showed up.
He reached behind and felt solid flesh and bone.
Contact.
Then there was darkness. Nothing but darkness. Until the sound of Penelope’s sweet voice came crashing through the abyss, sighing his name in her sleep.
“Penelope, wake up. Can you hear me?”
There was no reply for several moments. Perhaps his light was in limbo. But when he felt his body move of its own accord, his eyes unable to see a damn thing, he realized he was hitchhiking inside another body. Indeed, the universe had a sick, sick sense of humor; he was inside Penelope.
“Be careful what you wish for,” he mumbled.
“Huh?” she asked, her voice frantic.
“My last memory, before the Maaskab appeared, was wishing to be inside you.”
“How’s it even possible?”
“It’s quite easy to wish to be inside you—”
He noticed the sensation of heat spread across his own cheeks. She was blushing.
Amazing. He could sense her body?
Yes. Heat on her face, cold in her feet, and…hunger? He’d never felt hunger, but it was a sensation deep within her belly that radiated out through every cell of her body. She was famished. Starving.
He instan
tly angered. There was no reason on earth for her to go without, to deprive her body of nourishment.
“When was the last time you ate?” he asked.
“I had a grilled cheese and ice cream a few hours ago. Couldn’t sleep. Is it really you?” her voice quivered as though she were on the brink of tears.
A few hours? Were human bodies always so needy?
“Yes. It is truly I.”
“Are you sure? Because I dream about you all the time. Can you prove it?”
He couldn’t help but wonder what her dreams might be like. Were they similar to his? So tantalizing, so graphic, the details so remarkable that he tasted her on his tongue. Even now, with little effort, he could visualize every sensual, feminine curve of her body: her soft inner thighs, the gentle slope of her back that flowed into the most deliciously round, firm ass he’d ever seen. He could recall the color and exact shape of her pink nipples, of her heat as he filled her repeatedly and came inside her—dammit, man! Stop that. Think of something godly and boring like picking lottery winners.
Not working…dammit! His mind pulsed with lust.
But despite his unrelenting desire and shocking, inexplicable transformation, the irony and bitterness of his situation lurked menacingly in the shadows of his mind.
He could not be with her, even if he wanted her with every molecule of divine energy in his soul. Because two simple facts had not changed: One, the apocalypse was coming. And if he, his brethren, and their allies failed to stop it, life would cease to exist—Penelope’s life included.
Two, he was a god. Simply put, he lacked the ability to give a human heart—Penelope’s heart—what it needed to thrive. They were two different elements existing in two different realities of the same world. Fire and ice. Reason and passion. Responsibility and desire. Opposite ends of the spectrum. And if he acted upon his feelings for her or attempted any sort of relationship, he might end up destroying the very thing that he admired: her spirit. She would always be left wanting emotionally.
You will overcome this irrational urge to be with her. Do your hear me? You will, goddammit. You cannot afford any distractions.
“Well?” she said. “I’m waiting.”
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