The room suddenly filled with Penelope's private guards. They looked like they'd been chewed up and spit out by a large Maaskab blender-tattered, dirty clothes and bloody faces.
That explained what had taken so long; they must've been outside fighting more Maaskab.
The men pointed their rifles at Emma's unconscious grandmother. Zac, God of Who the Hell Knew and Penelope's right hand since she'd been appointed the interim leader of the gods-yes, yes, another long story-blazed into the room, barking orders. "Someone get the Maaskab chained up."
Zac, dressed in his usual black leather pants and tee combo that matched his raven-black hair, turned to Penelope and gazed down at her with his nearly translucent, aquamarine eyes. "Are you all right?"
Penelope nodded. It was the first time in days she'd felt glad to see him. He'd been suffocating her ever since Kinich-
"Oh, gods!" They'd completely forgotten about Kinich!
Her eyes flashed up at the clock.
Tick.
Sundown.
A gut-wrenching howl exploded from the other room. Everyone stiffened.
"He's alive!" Pen turned to rush off but felt a hard pull on her arm.
"No. You've had enough danger for one day. I will go." Zac wasn't asking.
Penelope jerked her arm away. "He won't hurt me. I'll be fine. Just stay here and help Emma with her grandmother." She snatched up the two bags of blood from the floor where Helena had dropped them.
"Penelope, I will not tell you again." Zac's eyes filled with anger. Though he was her right hand, he was still a deity and not used to being disobeyed.
"Enough." Penelope held up her finger. "I don't answer to you."
Zac's jealous eyes narrowed for a brief moment before he stiffly dipped his head and then quietly watched her disappear through the doorway.
She rushed down the hallway and paused outside the bedroom with her palms flat against the hand-carved double doors. The screams had not stopped.
Thank the gods that Kinich, the ex – God of the Sun, was alive. Now they would have a chance to put their lives back together, to undo what never should have been-such as putting her in charge of his brothers and sisters-and she would finally get the chance to tell him how much she loved him, how grateful she was that he'd sacrificed everything to save them, about their baby.
This was their second chance.
She only needed to get him through these first days as a vampire. And orchestrate a rescue mission for the God of Death and War and the General of the Vampire Army. And deal with the return of Emma's evil granny. And figure out how to stop an impending apocalypse set to occur in eight-yes, eight!-months. And deal with a few hundred women with amnesia they'd rescued from the Maaskab. And manage a herd of insane egocentric, accident-prone deities, with ADHD. And carry a baby. And don't forget squeezing in some time at the gym. Your thighs are getting flabby!
"See? This Kinich vampire thing should be easy," she assured herself.
She pushed open the door to find Kinich shirtless, writhing on the bed. His muscular legs and arms strained against the silver chains attached to the deity-reinforced frame. He was a large, beautiful man, almost seven feet in height, with shoulders that spanned a distance equal to two widths of her body.
"Kinich!" She rushed to his side. "Are you okay?" She attempted to brush his gold-streaked locks from his face, but he flailed and twisted in agony.
"It burns!" he wailed. "The metal burns."
"I know, honey. I know. But Helena says you need to drink before we can let you go. Full tummy. Happy vamp-"
"Aaahh! Remove them. They burn. Please," he begged.
Oh, saints.
He would never hurt her. Would he? Of course not.
"Try to hold still." She went to the dresser, pulled open the top drawer, and grabbed the keys.
She rushed to his ankle and undid one leg, then the other.
Kinich stopped moving. He lay there, eyes closed, breathing.
Without hesitation she undid his right arm and then ran to the other side to release the final cuff.
"Are you okay? Kinich?"
Without opening his eyes, he said, "I can smell and hear everything."
Helena had said that blocking out the noise was one of the hardest things a new vampire had to learn. That and curbing their hunger for innocent humans who, she was told, tasted the yummiest. Helena also mentioned to always make sure he was well fed. Full tummy, happy vampire. Just like a normal guy except for the blood obviously.
Penelope deposited herself on the bed next to Kinich with a bag of blood in her hands. "You'll get used to it. I promise. In the meantime, let's get you fed. I have so much to-"
Kinich threw her down, and she landed on her back with a hard thump and the air whooshed from her lungs.
Straddling her, Kinich pinned her wrists to the floor. His turquoise eyes shifted to hungry black, and fangs protruded from his mouth. "You smell delicious. Like sweet sunshine."
Such a beautiful face, she thought, mesmerized by Kinich's eyes. Once upon a time his skin had glowed golden almost, a vision of elegant masculinity with full lips and sharp cheekbones. But now, now he was refined with an exotic, dangerous male beauty too exquisite for words.
Ex-deity turned mortal, turned vampire. Hypnotic. He is … hypnotic.
He lowered his head toward her neck, and her will suddenly snapped back into place. "No! Kinich, no!" She squirmed under his grasp. Without her hands free, she couldn't defend herself. "I'm pregnant."
He stilled and peered into her eyes.
Pain. So much pain. That was all she saw.
"A baby?" he asked.
She nodded cautiously.
Then something cold and deadly flickered in his eyes. His head plunged for her neck, and she braced for the pain of having her neck ripped out.
"Penelope!" Zac sacked Kinich, knocking him to the floor. "Go!" he commanded.
Penelope rolled onto her hands and knees and crawled from the room as it was overrun with several more of Kinich's brethren: the perpetually drunk Acan; the Goddess of the Hunt they called Camaxtli; and the Mistress of Bees they called-oh, who the hell could remember her weird Mayan name?
"Penelope! Penelope!" she heard Kinich scream. "I want to drink her! I must drink her!"
Penelope curled into a ball on the floor in the hallway, unable to stop herself from crying. This isn't how it's supposed to be. This isn't how it's supposed to be.
Helena appeared at her side. "Oh, Pen. I'm so sorry. I promise he'll be okay after a few days. He just needs to eat." She helped Penelope sit up. "Let's move you somewhere safe."
Penelope wiped away the streaks of tears from her cheeks and took her friend's hand to stand.
The grunts and screams continued in the other room.
"I can't believe he attacked me, even after I told him." Tears continued to trickle from Penelope's eyes. Why hadn't he stopped? Didn't he love her?
"In his defense, you really do smell yummy. Kind of like Tang."
"Not funny," Penelope responded.
"Sorry." Helena braced Penelope with an arm around her waist and guided her to a bedroom in the other wing of the house.
Helena deposited Penelope on the large bed and turned toward the bathroom. "I'll get you a warm washcloth."
Ironically, Penelope's mind dove straight for a safe haven-that meant away from Kinich and toward her job, which generally provided many meaty distractions, such as impending doom and/or anything having to do with Cimil, the ex – Goddess of the Underworld.
"Wait." Penelope looked up at Helena, who'd become her steady rock of reason these last few weeks. "What happens next?"
Helena paused for a moment. "Like I told you, Kinich needs time to adjust."
Penelope shook her head. "No. I mean, you heard Emma's grandmother; without Niccolo and Guy, we can't defeat the Maaskab. We have to free our men."
"Well-"
"I know what you're going to say," Pen interrupted. "We can't release Chaam, but-"
"Actually," Helena broke in. "I've been meaning to tell you something."
"What?"
"We've been looking for another way to free them, and I think we found it."
"Found what?" Penelope asked.
"A tablet."
Glossary
Baktun: Twenty cycles of the Mayan calendar equal to 144,000 days or approximately 394 years.
Black Jade: Found only in a particular mine located in southern Mexico, this jade has very special supernatural properties, including the ability to absorb supernatural energy-in particular, god energy. When worn by humans, it is possible for them to have physical contact with a god. If injected, it can make a person addicted to doing bad things. If the jade is fueled with dark energy and then released, it can be used as a weapon. Chaam personally likes using it to polish his teeth.