Being pushed by a jaguar into a cenote and almost drowning?
Finding out that the man who called my head his home for the last twenty-two years is a god?
How about finding out that my great-grandfather was one of them?
“I'm going to go with facing the Maaskab in Barolo. That was pretty awful.”
“And how did you feel right before the attack?” he asked calmly.
“Pretty pumped, actually. I'd just pummeled Cimil and she flew across the room. I felt powerful.”
He interrupted. “Did you say you hit Cimil?”
“Square in the jaw. She was strangling one of your guards,” I added.
“Have you discovered any other abilities?” Xavier asked.
“I’ve been wearing the necklace, and I haven’t really tried. So, no. I guess I haven’t.”
“And how do you feel since you broke your bond with Mr. Santiago?” Dr. Lugas asked.
Ugh. Did the whole world know now? Of course they did. With a communication network like the Uchben’s, there were no secrets. “I can take care of myself.”
Xavier mumbled a few sentences in Italian to Dr. Lugas, and then said, “That’s an excellent idea.”
Dr. Lugas stood up and left.
“Sorry?” I asked. “Did I miss something?”
“Let’s see if we can teach you to take care of yourself.”
I spent the next few hours hooked to an odd-looking box that monitored my brainwaves while they made me do everything from meditate to watch gruesome war movies. Nothing happened. Then they put on a slideshow. Every time an image flashed that made me mad, like some a-hole kicking a dog, Lugas and Xavier’s eyes lit up.
“Dr. Lugas, change the slides,” Xavier instructed.
Lugas nodded enthusiastically and opened up his laptop, which was running the images into the projector. With a few quick keystrokes, the pictures changed from photos of babies, flowers, war demonstrations, and other random acts of violence, to what felt like the evening news. A photo of a crowd beating a helpless shrouded woman in some Middle East country. Soldiers in some crazy African country firing on a group of helpless women and children. The images broke my heart and with every image, I felt angrier.
“Enough!” I blurted out. “Why are you making me watch this awful garbage?”
Smiling, Xavier turned the laptop screen towards me. It showed a real-time line graph that looked like it had just registered a ten-point earthquake.
“Yeah? So?” I stared blankly at the two gloating men.
“Emma. Don’t you understand what this means?” Xavier said.
Hello. Look at my face. “Not really.”
Lugas said, “Miss Keane, every time we show you an act of cruelty against someone innocent, your energy surges. Off the charts.”
“Okay?” I leaned back in the blue plastic-molded chair, my hands cupped in my lap.
“Emma, this is big. Huge!” Xavier was almost salivating. “You’ve got their strength.”
“Sorry?” I said, turning to Dr. Lugas. Maybe he could speak Emma-ese?
“You are a very, very strong human,” Lugas explained. “And now we know how to make more.”
“Super soldiers, Emma,” Xavier said. “Think of what that means. For us—for humanity.”
What?! Were they insane? “Oh no, boys. I don’t think so. You’re not going to use me to make Uchi-super-soldiers. Forget it. I’m not a baby factory.” Heck, I hadn’t even cut the ribbon on the factory yet.
“It doesn’t have to be you. It could be any woman. She only has to wear the necklace,” Dr. Lugas said, nodding at Xavier.
“No guys. What you’re talking about is wrong. And who says the children will grow up to fight on your side?” I argued.
“Emma, your energy only spikes when you see an injustice. It’s identical to the gods. They’re hardwired to protect. They’re incapable of hurting innocent humans.”
Right. Famous last words. But I could see arguing with the two was futile. “Fine. Whatever,” I said. “But so far, I’ve done nothing other than light up a screen. Pretty damned useless if you ask me.”
“With proper training, you could control it―fight like you did with Cimil,” said Xavier.
“Good luck with that. If I could ass-kick on demand, I would have done it by now.”
They exchanged glances and something told me they weren’t aligned with my point of view.
“Why don’t you give it a try?” asked Xavier.
“No.”
“You might be able to use it to kick Mr. Santiago’s ass, as you put it.”
Xavier was very convincing. “Fine, but this doesn’t mean I agree with your lame super-soldier idea.” I shut my eyes and tried to coax the energy out.
I focused, relaxing every muscle from my toes to the tips of my fingers, but after ten minutes, nothing happened.
“Sorry gentlemen.” I shrugged then yawned. Boy, being angry took a lot out of me.
“Not to worry, my dear girl, you simply require practice. Right now you’re tired. Let me take you back,” said Xavier.
I said my goodbyes to Dr. Lugas and left the clinic with Xavier. It was a beautiful day, late afternoon. I hadn’t realized how sorely I craved a moment of quiet, alone. Alone. The thought made me giddy. No voices, no bees, no one asking anything of me. “I think I’ll stay here for a while,” I said, pointing to a small bench in the garden courtyard with a cherub topped fountain. Xavier was about to speak when someone grabbed me from behind.
“Where the hell have you been?” piped Guy.
Xavier reached out his arm trying to pry Guy from my shoulders. “She was with me at the clinic doing tests. Remember?”
Guy growled, “The guards were to stay with her at all times. I gave specific instructions.”
“Let me go!” I tried to pull away from his claws, but he didn’t budge. “What the hell is your problem, you damned Neanderthal? I’m not your property.” I twisted and elbowed him in the gut, launching him back a few yards.
“Ow. That hurt,” he whined, rubbing his stomach.
Xavier couldn’t have looked more pleased.
“I guess I needed the right catalyst?” I shrugged and looked at Xavier.
“Nice. You’ve been teaching her this?” Guy asked Xavier.
“All in the name of science, my friend,” Xavier lifted his palms, face up.
“Well, take your…” Guy coolly stopped himself from whatever cruel thing he was about to say. “You’re needed back in the main hall. We’re leaving and you are on point to debrief the men about the jars.”
“We’re leaving?” I asked. “Now?”
Guy’s wild eyes were pumped with adrenaline. “We, as in myself and the Uchben. You’re staying here.”
“I thought you needed me.”
“Not anymore. The jars are keeping the other gods trapped in the cenotes, and the Uchben are perfectly capable of removing them.”
I was supposed to be relieved. Wasn’t I? But something unpleasant was gnawing at me. “I thought you weren’t leaving for a few more days. What happened?”
“We were only delaying so Xavier could have a chance to dig up information. He’s done that, and now there’s no reason to wait any longer. We have work to do.”
I could see he was hiding something. “There’s more. Isn’t there?”
The sun shined on one side of his face. The light made his eyes look softer somehow, like translucent, icy blue lakes, though his expression was hard. A fortress. He was in warrior mode and thinking about bad things, dark things. Maybe…death? And war?
Of course he was. I sighed. He was such a hopeless case.
He ran his hands over the top of his head and down the back of his neck. “The Uchben we sent ahead are missing. We think the Maaskab were tipped off.”
I gasped. “Why do you think that?”
“One of the Maaskab answered Tommaso’s cell phone and told us so.”
If this were any other situation, I would be
cracking a joke about a Maaskab talking on a cell. It would fall somewhere in the category of a vampire riding a unicycle. Just seemed funny.
“But it could be a mind game to make you second guess your own people. Tommaso could have lost his phone,” I offered.
“Perhaps, although not likely.”
“So, you think Tommaso is dead?”
“Very likely.”
How could he be so matter-of-fact about this while my heart was sinking? It was my fault. Guy sent him to Mexico because of me. Me. Never in a million years did I imagine he’d be in danger. I wanted to die.
My knees were about to take a siesta. “I—I’m not staying here.” I reached my hand out and steadied myself against Guy’s chest.
“You’ll only get in the way, Emma, and if Tommaso is dead, there’s nothing you can do.”
The tears began to trickle. “I’m not your property, Guy. You can’t tell me what to do. This is all my fault, and I should do something to help.”
People were now gathering around us to stare and take pictures of Guy.
“Emma.” He grabbed me by the elbow, dragging me across the courtyard. “I get it. You’re devastated. This is truly a horrible situation. But Tommaso was—is—a grown man and knew perfectly well what kind of life he’d signed up for. He accepted the risk. But are you so naïve that you’d believe he’d want to put your life in danger to save him? Or die needlessly? Are you so stubborn that you’re willing to forget those monsters at my villa? How about the pile of bodies they left behind?”
I wanted to vomit. “What about you?” I asked.
He stopped and turned to face me then laughed in that deep arrogant rumble. “Emma. Really. I’ll be fine. I’m indestructible, remember?”
“Yeah, famous last words from a man trapped for seventy years in a Mayan swimming hole. And, didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s a bad idea to tempt fate like that?”
He shrugged casually. “I supposed I heard that once or twice, but fate and I are old friends. Some might call us partners.”
Okay. Strange. But I didn’t have time to dig deep into that one. Pock-et.
“Guy?” I slipped my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. I inhaled that sweet and smoky scent, which gently infused the air around him. I guessed it was what a god in his position should smell like. Dark, delicious, and deadly?
“Yes?” He wrapped his arms around me.
“I want you to put it back...the bond.”
He pulled away just enough to see my face. He looked way too happy, one might even say, smug. Like he’d achieved some giant victory. “Why?” he asked.
I didn’t really know why. I felt like the tiny ledge of sanity I’d managed to perch on was crumbling. Tommaso, who at a minimum I considered a friend for having risked his life for me, was dead. My family was still in danger. My life was still in ruins. And as a topper to my chaos salad, I couldn’t stand being left behind. I wanted to go to Mexico and see this end myself. I wanted to hear the Scabs tell me what they’d done with my grandmother. I wanted to see them pay for everything.
“Oh, stop gloating.” I rolled my eyes.
He laughed loudly. “That’s my spunky girl.”
Girl? Impossible. He was impossible.
“Emma, I want you to know something. It has to do with what you said last night. Despite what you believe, I don’t know more about the circumstances surrounding Gabriela’s horrible fate. But I have every intention of finding out and punishing the Maaskab severely, for everything.” He looked away for a moment then stared down at me, as if willing me to see the honesty in his eyes. “I just wanted you to know that before I left.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “For telling me the truth.” Then a part of me thought about how great it felt delegating my revenge to Guy. I’d bet he was really, really good at it. The best.
“Come on.” He brushed his thumb affectionately along my lower lip. “We only have a few minutes; we’ll have to make it fast.”
Chapter THIRTY-TWO
“What do we have to do? You’re not going to make me sacrifice a little bunny or something?” I asked as we charged toward his quarters.
He laughed. “No, my sweet.”
There were two men I didn’t recognize waiting at his door. “Who are they?” I whispered.
“Jake, Alexander…this is Emma.” He gave them a nod. “They are tenth generation Uchben and will be looking after you.”
Jeez, seemed like there was an endless supply of brawny, fierce men around the place. They probably grew them in a garden outback. I smiled and greeted them.
“We’ll just be a minute,” Guy said. He pulled me inside to the sitting area then headed for the bathroom. He returned with a pair of silver sheers, reached around to the nape of his neck, and cut ten inches off his braid. The rest of his thick shiny hair fell around his face. He looked devastatingly handsome.
“Here. Hold this.” He handed me the braid. “Now turn around.”
“What? You’re going to cut off my hair?”
“Sorry. It was your brilliant idea to break the bond.”
I shook my head no. “Isn’t there another way?”
“Emma please, honey. It’s only hair.”
“Oh, Christ.” I turned my back to him and felt the swift execution of my red curls immediately followed by his soft lips and rough stubble brushing against my neck. Images instantly pulsed through my mind of his bronzed hard body sliding over me, his thick strong hands massaging my breasts, his hot wet tongue plunging in my mouth.
I shuddered and sucked in a deep breath.
As if reading my thoughts, he whispered in my ear, “I too wish we had more time, my sweet. There are many things I need to tell you…and to do to you.”
I shivered again. “Like what?” I said, my breath suddenly moving as fast as my pounding heart.
Again, he whispered in my ear, “Like ridding you of that nasty virginity.”
Oh, yesss. That sounded nice. Wait. You’re suddenly forgetting everything? You’re just ready to jump in the sack with him? I paused for a moment. No. I wasn’t. He didn’t love me. In fact, I had no clue what I really was to him.
“I meant—what did you want to tell me?”
He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me into him. His thick strong lips, his fierce eyes, and his black brows all worked together to form the breathtaking expression on his face. My heart swooned.
“When I come back,” he said, “we’re going to finish this.” He brushed the unruly curls from my face and kissed me softly before pulling me into him. He began reciting words I didn’t understand, nor could ever repeat. But they were beautiful, like they’d been created by the wind.
“What did you say?” I asked, tilting my head almost straight up to see his face. His height still fascinated me.
“The Prayer of Loyalty and Protection.”
“It was beautiful.”
“Tonight, you need to light a small fire outside and burn the hair together,” he instructed.
“Our hair? Why?” It sounded so…witchy. Would eye of newt be involved too?
He shrugged as if the answer were obvious. “We are sending a smoke signal to the heavens, proclaiming our bond.”
Wow. That wasn’t pagan at all. It sounded endearing and romantic. Then I remembered the entire Uchben clan was bonded, too. “How do you guys get so much hair?”
“Sorry?” he asked.
“The Uchben, they get your protection, too, don’t they?”
“It’s not the same. What I’ve given you is a piece of my essence, a piece of what humans call the soul. It weakens me somewhat, but it enables me to sense how you feel and ties me to you. I gave it to your grandmother when she was five, and I think you inherited it because you carry a piece of her inside you.
“The Uchben, on the other hand, have taken vows, binding themselves to us, to serve us, and to live by our laws. The penalty for breaking their oath is death.”
I guessed “tho
u shall not kill” wasn’t one of the gods’ commandments. They seemed more like an eye-for-an-eye kind of crowd. Case in point, Guy’s title. But he was clearly so much more than just the bringer of death; he had an abundance of compassion, which is why I suspected he bound himself to my grandmother. “Why my grandmother of all the people in world? Why did you choose her?”
He hesitated suspiciously. “I wanted to be able to track her after I killed the Maaskab. I needed to find out how she was made and why.”
“Seems silly to weaken yourself right before battling Scabs.”
He shrugged. “Well, no one ever said I was perfect or thought things through all the time.”
“You say your perfect all the time,” I pointed out.
“See how wrong I can be?” He grinned.
“Guy, now’s not the time to be flawed. Please, don’t do anything stupid. Those men, the Maaskab, I swear they’re not even human. They’re something dark.” I shuddered just thinking about the shadows hugging the Scab’s body.
He pecked me on the cheek. “Emma, I’ll be back in two days, and then we’ll sort everything out, and deal with…your situation. I promise.”
He practically floated from the room. If I didn’t already know where he was going, I would have guessed he was going to see his favorite soccer team, or maybe buy a new sports car. He looked utterly jazzed.
Yes, nothing like a little death and war to get the old god pumping.
***
Every time I felt like things couldn't possibly get any worse, they did. I found myself wishing I could go back one week earlier when all I had to worry about was a bossy man with a steamy voice living in my head and only one family tragedy to deal with. I'd give the rest of my curls to have that old life back. It's funny how things work out that way.
Now Tommaso was likely dead because of me. Guy was running off to confront the only monsters in the world who could actually harm him. My life and the lives of my family were at risk.
This time, I was not going to ask that stupid, fate-tempting question, “Could things possibly get any worse?” Because if I did…ka-blam! Fate would find a way to do it.
I spent the entire morning alone—well, except for the other gods whose lovely buzzing voices were still just as incomprehensible as before—pacing around Guy's quarters, cleaning up the mess I'd left on the patio from burning our hair, chewing my nails, and asking Bill and Ted, or Bing and Bong—whatever—about any updates from Command Central.
Accidentally in Love With...a God? Page 21