Accidentally...Over?(60)

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.