Máax glanced over at Niccolo and the other soldiers who were preparing to detonate smoke bombs. He assumed those were what they'd used to knock out the gods during their summit meeting. Quite effective, yes, but putting his brethren to sleep would solve nothing. "Ain't gonna happen. Party, party, party!" The chanting continued.
Máax took a deep breath, attempting to vanquish his fury and find a rational solution, but there was no getting around it. Not this time.
"Enough! I hope you're all planning to live like hunted animals once you get out." Máax's livid voice echoed off the cement walls of the cavernous structure. "Because I promise, I'll spare no one on Team Cimil from my wrath. No one!" He may not have his divine powers, but he still had strength. And he was invisible. It completely freaked their shit out.
From the thirteen holding cells, his brothers and sisters stared with wide turquoise eyes. It was the first time-well, ever really-that he'd seen them quiet.
Yeah. That's what I thought. "I don't care how many times I have to say this, but let's get one thing straight: this fucking world ain't over until I fucking say it's over."
"Hey! You stole my ain't. That's my word of the day!" Cimil whined.
"Shut up!" Máax said.
Cimil crossed her arms. "You can scream all you like, but I know what I saw, Máax. I see us fighting. I see the end. It's completely pointless to try to stop it now. Game over! Party on!"
"And exactly who did you see fighting?" he seethed.
"Well"-Cimil scratched the corner of her mouth-"the vision merely showed me bits and pieces-kind of like ‘Chat Stew.' Joel is my backup mate BTW should Roberto ever perish. So meaty."
Roberto growled.
"What pieces did you see, Cimil?" Máax questioned impatiently.
"Well." She tapped her cheek. "I see the vampires fighting the Uchben, and I see the gods with mates fighting the gods without."
Oh, vomica no. "We wouldn't all happen to be inside a prison, would we?"
Cimil gasped and her eyes lit up, but she didn't reply.
"Cimiiiil?" Roberto warned.
Her mouth crinkled to one side. "Maybe?"
"Gods dammit, Cimil!" Máax screamed. "You mean to tell us that this entire time, your vision showed you this exact scenario playing out? This very scenario you've created? Did you ever stop to think that you were driving the apocalypse, Oh Bringer of the Apocalypse? Did you?"
She shrugged. "Oopsies?"
Máax hung his head. "We should've known better than to listen to you. Roberto, set them all free."
Roberto looked crushed. "Oh, my love guppy of destruction, is this true? And I helped you?"
Máax glanced at the large, ancient vampire and frankly felt a little bad for him. Women were so damned complicated; he felt his pain. "Roberto, she's the Goddess of the Underworld, the Bringer of the Apocalypse. Even when she wants to do the right thing, she cannot."
"Let them free," Roberto commanded his men in a melancholy tone.
The men quickly unlocked the cells and released the gods and four mates, Emma, Penelope, Maggie, and Antonio, who'd been holed up with their significant others.
Everyone gathered in the center of the cellblock, exchanging glances.
Cimil looked from side to side. "Dammit! This doesn't make any sense! You're all free, and there's no change. We're still going to die!"
Everyone threw up their hands and grumbled miserable thoughts.
"How do you know that?" Not like they could trust her visions anyway.
She murmured, "The dead don't lie. Except on leap day. That's not today. I checked."
For once, Máax saw the plain truth in Cimil's eyes, and she was just as heartbroken as everyone else. And though no one else caught it, Máax noticed Cimil rubbing her hand gingerly over her lower stomach.
Oh, saints. Cimil is pregnant? This just couldn't be. Máax's heart felt heavy and saturated, as if filled with lead. But if she were pregnant, then why was she advocating so strongly for throwing a party and giving up?
Perhaps she is not giving up at all. Quote, I am a complex creature, unquote. Was Cimil trying in her own way to fight the end? Yes, she loved parties, but she loved a happy ending more than anything in the world. It was her one saving grace. Even after she'd destroyed Chaam, she knew exactly how to save him. She'd personally given Máax the list of each and every woman who'd died, including where to find them prior to their deaths.
"Máax, I'm sorry." Cimil sighed. "I really thought I was helping."
"So what do we do now?" Niccolo asked Roberto. It was a damned good question. "The ship's going to sink, and we have no clue as to why."
Máax glanced at Cimil's tormented face, and his gut told him to roll with it. Somehow, goodness always managed to blossom from the wreckage of her wake.
"I suggest," Máax said, "we do what any family might and celebrate our blessings. We throw a party."
Cimil pasted on a smile. "We'll party like it's 1999! Except for Ashli. She skipped that year." Cimil looked at Colel, aka Bees. "Get your ass to Walmart. We've got decorating to do."
"I cannot believe I'm agreeing to this." But even Máax knew that sometimes, when all appeared hopeless, one simply needed to have faith.
Immediately after Máax had that flirty, young-looking vampire deposit Ashli in a room, the shocking events came crashing down. Being hunted by Death, the trip through time, becoming immortal, losing her home, Monkeyccino's-cringe-vampires, gods, and the now-eminent apocalypse, which could have been avoided had she not traveled forward in time. But that was the irony of it all. Now that she'd had time to breathe, she saw the truth and knew in her heart Máax had been right; she wouldn't have lived much longer had she stayed in 1993. Her dreams and near-death misses were proof of that.
So perhaps Máax really had done the only thing he could to save her. She just wished he'd spoken with her first instead of lying, and more importantly, she wished his choice to bring her forward hadn't meant derailing all hope for mankind.
Bummer.
Nevertheless, Ashli was determined to find a way through this and pull herself together. Of course, her version of being "together" reminded her of a Rice Krispies Treat, bits and pieces stuck together with artificially sweetened goo.
Until Máax came along, she reminded herself.
He'd offered glimpses of what it felt like to be alive again. To not feel, well, gooey and patched together. That was the other epiphany she'd had. She realized that she'd physically walked away from that car accident so many years ago; however, her inner chutzpah had not. Sure, she still walked and talked and breathed like a living person, but that's as far as it went. She'd completely closed herself off from the world. What had Máax called her? An emotional hermit who lived in the past. Well, he was right. And she didn't want to be that person anymore. If the world was truly about to end, she wanted to leave it feeling like she'd conquered her demons. But how?
You need to embrace life and take this new chance you've been given, even if it's a short one, she decided. Not that it meant she'd forgiven Máax.
There was a knock.
Boy, were the people around this parts friendly. In the last ten minutes alone, she'd had seven visitors.
Jeez. Ashli cracked open the door and peered into the hallway. A man with sandy-blond hair, medium height and build, wearing leather pants, stared down at her, grinning from ear to ear, flashing some major fang.
Another vampire? "Yes?" she asked, trying to hide her confusion.
"Just wanting to make sure you're all right."
"Yep." She smiled. Awkward.
"And wondering if you need anything?" he asked.
"Oh. Thanks, but no. I'm great," she replied.
He stared.
Weird. "Okay then." She began to close the door. "Nice to meet-"
"Do women prefer flowers or chocolate? I met a woman, and I'd like to ask her out, but I'm not sure which she'll prefer."
Seriously? "Uhhh … I really don't know. Maybe just ask her?" Ashli tried to close the door, but he stuck his foot in the opening.
"I can sift," he said.
"Um. Cool."
"If you help me, I can get you anything from anywhere," he added.
Getting weirder. "That's really generous, but I really don't think I can. Good luck." She closed the door and scratched her head. Was this normal behavior in this world?