“But don’t the Maaskab want to kill me?” I questioned, whisking away the tears.
“Emma, they want to rid the world from these dictators. If you come with me, they’ll leave you alone; they won’t see you as the enemy. You’ll be able to go home, back to your life. Please, Emma, step away from the edge and come with me. I promise to keep you safe. Always.” His voice was deep and sincere. He’d never betrayed me, and I had no reason to distrust him.
“Please, my sweet,” Guy said in that lulling voice, sending shivers down my core. “I know I’ve hurt you, but I’ll spend eternity making it up. I can fix this. I can fix this hole I’ve created between us, the damage I’ve caused your life. I can fix anything, but I can’t fix dead! Do you understand? He’ll kill you, Emma. You’ll end up just like your grandmother, and I can’t bring you back!”
“Don’t you dare bring her into this!”
“Everything I’ve said is the truth. I know you can feel it. I have bonds with others, Emma, like Gabrán. But why can’t they hear me when you can? Think about it! The bond didn’t create our connection or my love for you. Or my jealously. You and I, we are meant to be together. I know you feel the pull, too.”
“Pheromones.”
“That only works when we’re in the same room. Haven’t you felt something even when I’m away? It’s because I love you.”
“How dare you! You expect me to believe that? After what you said on the plane?”
“I said those things because I realized how dangerous my world is for you. If it weren’t for me, you’d be somewhere safe right now. And this situation will only repeat itself. You will never be safe with me. I will always be the God of Death and War. But I don’t want you to leave me, Em. I don’t want you to die.”
I wanted to believe him. Gods, I did. But actions always speak louder than words. His actions told me he couldn’t be trusted. And his words were too perfect to accept as the truth; they were exactly what I wanted to hear.
“Break the bond, Emma. Say the words, and end it right now. Free yourself,” Tommaso pushed.
“I don’t know what to do. I can’t think.” I grabbed the sides of my head; the voices vibrated painfully inside my skull.
“Did he tell you how he killed Rosa and Arturo? Did he?”
“Guy, what’s he talking about?”
Tommaso and Guy started screaming at the same time, and with the voices, I could only catch every other word, but it was enough for me to hear that Guy had savagely executed them.
“Guy? Is it true? You killed that sweet old couple? My grandmother’s sister and her husband?”
Yes, but….
I couldn’t make out what words came next, but I heard all I needed.
I clutched my temples. “Stop! My head! Stop!” The voices were like daggers in my ears, drowning out everything else. Or maybe it was the sound of my heart cracking in two.
The phrase, “Kaacha’al lu’um, tumben k’iin,” suddenly floated from my lips a second time, my mind seeking escape from the torturous noise.
Then there was silence. Sweet, sweet silence.
***
I crumbled to the ground, trembling. Tommaso’s arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me away from the edge of the pool. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
Christ. What had I just done? Maybe I didn’t trust Guy. In fact, I felt downright confused and livid. But there was no way in hell I’d join Team Scab. For-get-it. I still believed they’d killed my grandmother.
“No, wait.” I pulled my arm away from Tommaso. “I’m not going with you.”
Though his face was obscured by the night, I could see he looked irate. “Emma, you’re coming with me. Don’t make this hard.” Tommaso reached for me as I turned toward the pool.
I was halfway over the edge of the cenote when something plucked me out of thin air. I found myself suddenly surrounded by trees, encased by two dark arms. The smell made me gag instantly. Ick. Fresh Scab.
“Release her,” said a deep, familiar voice. The Scab flung me to the ground and vanished right before my eyes. I instantly caught a whiff of black licorice as a menacing shadow emerged from the trees. “Emma, it’s so nice to meet you in person, although, I’ve really enjoyed our dreams together.”
I could barely see his face, but that part of my brain, which meticulously catalogs all things to be deathly afraid of, recognized it. Let’s see…lions, undercooked chicken, jumping out of planes at night while strapped to angry men named Brutus, dark alleys, venomous snakes, insane people with guns—oops, that’s me—and Guy’s brother: the sinister, sexual predator from my dreams. My brain hit the “Panic Now” button, big time.
Igniting the fire-ball in the pit of my stomach, I stepped backward with my hands extended. I was going to launch that evil deity into the next state if he touched me.
A movement flashed from the corner of my eye, and there was Tommaso, latching something around my wrist. “Sorry, Emma. Can’t let you do that.”
I felt cold hard stone pulse against my skin as the power drained from my body instantly. Black jade.
“Get her to the temple,” Guy’s brother commanded.
Then I knew, fate really did hate me.
Hiccup!
Chapter THIRTY-FIVE
“Well, great job, lover boy,” Cimil seethed. “What the hell was that? ‘I love you?’ Did you honestly expect her to jump to our aid with that sad line? Now we’re going to be stuck in this festering aquarium for eternity.”
“Shut the hell up, Cimil.” He’d meant every word he’d said to Emma, but it mattered little now; he’d failed her. and now those evil cretins were going to end her life. He could not face the thought of an eternity without her. And to think, she’d die alone, frightened, and believing he never really loved her? He’d go mad. He’d fucking go mad.
Dammit! How could he have so sorely miscalculated? Once Emma had made up her mind and gotten on that plane in Rome, heading for Mexico, Guy panicked. He thought of nothing but her safety. And how furious he was that the Uchben had disobeyed him.
But instead of telling her the truth, Guy decided that if she were to survive, she needed to go into battle filled with anger—easier to tap into her powers that way. That was one reason he’d said such coldhearted things to her on the plane.
He also knew that as much as he needed her, she deserved better. She deserved a normal life, to live in peace. That was not his world. Those were things he could never give her. He was the God of Death and War. He always had been. He always would be. And his mere presence in her life was a threat to her existence.
Cruelly pushing her away was the right thing to do. So he thought.
Gods dammit! Why hadn’t she listened and stayed in Rome? But she hadn’t, and when Tommaso tried to lure her to her death, Guy simply had to change tactics. Guy had to tell her the truth. He’d been tied to Emma since her birth, before that even. And although he didn’t quite understand why or how, she had become a necessity in his life. She was his fate—Cimil had even foretold it to be so.
Yes. He was silly to believe he’d be able to let her go. He’d had a taste of her light, her essence inside him. He realized that if anything happened to her, he’d spiral into a venomous rage so destructive that the Maaskab would look like a gang of unruly Muppets in comparison to the fucking apocalypse he’d bring to world’s doorstep.
“And where in gods’ creation is your pack of Uchi-morons?” Cimil barked, pulling him back from the precipice of his first panic attack ever.
“Shut it. I’m trying to think.” Guy didn’t have the faintest clue where Gabrán and his men were. They were likely fighting Scabs, but he knew his men could take care of themselves. Emma, on the other hand… “They’ll be here. Gabrán won’t fail.”
“That bloated sack of Scottish bull? Honestly, Votan, of all the people you could have picked to be your right hand for all eternity.”
“I’m very sorry that my choices displease you,” he said with bitter sarc
asm, “but you can hardly hate the man for refusing to be your pet, Goddess of the Underworld—
“Don’t call me that! I hate that title. And there is no damned underworld. There’s just Las Vegas, and that doesn’t count.”
“All right. Fine,” he continued, “since you’re such a plethora of knowledge, I’d love to hear your take on our current predicament.”
“Tisk, tisk. Up until now, I’ve avoided being caught and have been gathering information so we can wipe these bloodthirsty vermin from the Earth.”
“Did you manage to figure out why they want the Payals?” Guy asked.
“No...no. But I’ve been able to narrow down the Maaskab’s hide-out to one square kilometer.”
“Did you figure out which one of our brothers made the Payals?”
“Um—no, but whomever it was has been helping the skanky priests—teaching them.”
“We know that already. But do you know why one of our own would help them?” Guy asked.
“Well, not exactly. But they’ve been experimenting with those damned jars all over the place, and they’re really nasty.”
“How impressive. You’re a regular Goddess of Unsolved Mysteries,” Guy said.
“You laugh, but they’ve got this entire area warded with those damned black rocks. This jungle is an invisible labyrinth. And those malodorous priests have learned how to create temporary portals and sift in and out of thin air. They can move a hundred meters at a time, maybe more.”
Astonishing. So that’s how they were able to get the upper hand on the Uchben. Not even the gods could do that. “Anyway to stop them?” he questioned.
“No. Other than to snap their necks between sifts.”
“You’re a wealth of strategic information, my sister,” he said.
“Screw you, lover boy. Next time we face the apocalypse, I’m teaming up with Kinich. At least he has his own pyramid and knows how to handle the ladies.”
“Hah. You think the parrot god could handle Emma? She’s her own force of nature.”
“Yeah, and her life is as good as over if she doesn’t get away from Tommaso.”
The thought scorched his soul. “She will. She must.”
“And if she survives, my dear brother, what do you plan to do with her?”
“I’d been considering wiping her memory, her family’s, too, so she’d be free to live her life—find a mate, have beautiful babies, and grow old. But now, I don’t know. I can’t live without her, and I don’t know how to be with her. I took an oath to be the God of Death and War for eternity. How do I do that and give her a life? My world is nothing but violence.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Seems the girl can handle more than you might think. You should have seen the way she came after me. Perhaps you two are kindred warrior spirits.”
“I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Of course not, you’re too busy coddling her like a child. Well,” Cimil added. “Personally, I’d be more concerned with her mortality. Have you thought about that? She’s going to grow old.”
No. He hadn’t. In fact, he really hadn’t thought through any of this. He just knew he needed her. “What do I do?” Guy asked.
Cimil was silent for a moment. “First you save her. Then you might try asking her what she wants—let her decide her fate. Isn’t that what you’re always telling us we must do with the humans?”
Cimil was right. He’d been treating Emma like a child, and it always ended poorly when he did. No wonder she hated him. “You’re right, but I think she may have already made her choice—it wasn’t me.”
Cimil’s energy swirled around the cenote. “Well, can you blame her? You are an arrogant, manipulative, deadly—”
“I get the point. Can we change subjects? Perhaps focus on what we’ll do when we get out of here?”
“Certainly, my dear brother. And your loyal Uchben? What’s taking them so long?”
“I’m not sure.”
“How about that sweet little Chac? He’s still running around the jungle somewhere. Can you summon him?” Cimil asked.
Guy had tried summoning Chac the last time he’d been trapped in the cenote, but the boy was a wild creature and wouldn’t come near the water. Almost two centuries ago, the poor boy accidentally drowned in one of the cenotes right as Guy had been passing through. Taking pity, he pulled Chac to the other side of the portal, attempting to reignite the limp body with the light of the gods, but too much time had passed.
When Chac emerged from the cenote, the energy from their world flowed through his veins, but only a fragment of his soul remained. Guy tried to heal him and teach him, but it was useless. Now Chac wandered the jungle like a ghost, frightened by anything that moved. He would always retreat to the area near the cenote, like a rabbit to his hole, but never entered the water.
“I’m afraid not—”
A loud splash startled them.
“Bloody hell. What took so long?” Guy said. He looked at the frail, naked legs kicking under the water. No, it's not one of the Uchben.
In less than a second, Guy felt the familiar pull of the water spitting him out. He lay like a limp fish, face down in the mud, the water jutting from his lungs.
“Could someone please pull me out?” a voice echoed from below in the water.
Guy crawled to the edge of the cenote, panting. The sun was peeking over the horizon, giving the sky a grayish glow and just enough light for him to see the pale little man treading naked in the water. “Xavier? Is that you?” Guy called out.
“In the bare flesh, my friend.”
Guy grabbed a long branch lying to his side in the moist dirt and used it to fish the pale man from the dark water. “What the hell are you doing here? And why are you naked?”
“I was in the neighborhood shopping for jars, saw one floating in the water, and decided to go skinny dipping for it,” Xavier said in a deadpan voice, but no one was ever sure when he was joking or serious.
Xavier sighed. “I’m here rescuing you, obviously. And I didn’t want to get my clothes wet when I went to remove the jar from the water. With the humidity, it could take days to dry, and there’s a particular species of fungi—”
“Yes, thank you, Xavier. Very interesting, but why are you here?”
Xavier explained that after Emma had left with Gabrán, the satellite images had come in. With communications compromised, he quietly went to one of the chiefs and talked him into authorizing a plane. “I had to come in person and see for myself. We found the mine, and there’s something else. It’s a very large structure. A pyramid.”
“Who’s your friend?” Cimil asked with a saucy voice, standing in her fire-engine-red lingerie, ringing out her black cocktail dress.
Guy took an impatient breath. “Xavier, this is the infamous Cimil who apparently doesn’t know how to dress for the jungle or combat. Cimil, this is Xavier, one of our most prestigious scholars—who…simply isn’t dressed.”
Xavier, too star-struck to catch the comment or notice he was still nude, reached out his hand. “Cimil, I’ve always wanted to meet you. I’m a huge, huge fan. I know everything about you.”
“Really now?” She stepped forward and ran one finger down the front of Xavier’s chest.
“Y-yes,” he stuttered nervously. “You’re an avid fan of Tango, you love to play tennis with the God of Eclipses—even though, he always wins—and you love a bargain.”
“I have to admit a good garage sale does get my juices flowing.” She turned to Guy. “I like your little friend here, he’s amusing. Can I keep him?”
Guy cringed. “Did you bring clothes, Xavier?”
Xavier snapped out of his rock-star-trance and scrambled over to a tree where his clothes hung.
“We need men,” Guy said to Cimil. “But even if we manage to round them up, we’ll still be unable to tell the ‘Tommaso’s’ from the loyal Uchben.
“I brought twenty men. They’re waiting near the fort. But culling is quite easy,” Xavier called o
ut from the trees, slipping on his tan running suit. “Check their chests. All Maaskab bare the mark. They must perform the ritual of bloodletting to become one of them.”
That little old man was eccentric, but extremely bright. Guy might have to make him immortal before Cimil ruined him.
Chapter THIRTY-SIX
“This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.” I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping when I reopened them, the nightmare would be over. I was locked inside a medieval holding cell, complete with dank stone walls, a torch sconce, and a small bucket in the corner for what I imagined was supposed to be my toilet. Sad part was, there was nowhere to sit or sleep. Could that be because I wasn’t going to be here long enough?
“Effing great.” I threw up my hands and paced the eight by ten room, chewing the distasteful cud of my colossal mistake.
Earlier, after I’d realized that I was quite possibly the lamest person on the face of the planet for not jumping into that cenote when I had a chance, I peacefully went with Tommaso and the two Maaskab who’d appeared out of thin air behind me. I truly feared for my life, but tried to remain focused and mentally record everything I could: which direction we were walking, the direction of the sunlight, what kind of weapons the putrid monsters carried—anything I could to help me escape later.
After zigzagging through the jungle for over an hour, they blindfolded me and tied my hands behind my back. Without them free, I thought for certain the mosquitoes and gnats would treat me like their own private buffet. But then I’d realized the bugs hadn’t come near me since we set out.
So, that finally settles it! The trophy in the Evil-Eviler-Evilest Contest goes to—drum roll, please—the Scabs. Not even bloodsucking bugs wanted to get near them.
“Are you going to kill me?” I asked Tommaso.
“Walk, Emma,” he’d said.
“Why are you doing this? I know this isn’t you.”
He pushed me forward. “Walk.”
I remembered the four raised lines running across his chest like fleshy, speed bumps. “But they must have done something to you. Those scars.”
Accidentally in Love With...a God? Page 24