Sun God Seeks...surrogate? (14 page)

Penelope sucked in a lungful of air. “Oh. Wow. Thank you.” She said to Helena. “Much better. How’d you do that?”

Helena shrugged. “It’s a gift. I do it with the baby sometimes.”

“That would be super helpful when I’m teaching. Could you show me how—”

“Penelope!” Kinich barked. He couldn’t believe the two ladies were pausing for a little chat.

Penelope blinked and then shook her head as if trying to dislodge something from her ears. “Right. Ummm.” Her face turned a ghostly shade of white. “Monsters! Oh my God! Monsters!” She jumped up and down.

“Calm yourself, woman.”

“Stop calling me ‘woman’! That’s so archaic. And annoying! You don’t see me calling you Minotaur despite the fact that—”

“Well, that would be ridiculous,” Kinich declared. “The Minotaur was a violent, misunderstood creature that should never have existed. Damn Cretans.”

Penelope blinked. “I—I was referring to the fact that the Minotaur has a giant bull’s head. Or was it a bull’s body?” She stomped her foot. “Dammit. It doesn’t matter! And stop distracting me. The point is, you’re constantly dishing your pompous bull crap!”

Kinich was inches from turning the woman over his knee and giving her a very, very nasty sunburn on her bottom. “Pen. El. Op. E. What happened?”

“Fine. But this conversation isn’t over, Minotaur!” She took a quick breath. “There was a blond man chasing me—he was huge. I mean huge! And I was going to go to my friend Anne’s house, but the cab pulled up, and it was her! Your sister. She started yelling, saying that I was doing it all wrong. That I messed up the future, and she couldn’t see it anymore!” Penelope paused and frantically fanned her face with her hand. “I don’t know! I don’t know what she meant! But she said I had to come back here or the world would explode or something. She pulled up to the curb downstairs—oh my God, why is your sister driving a cab? That’s crazy. Isn’t she rich?—and then I was going to run for it, but one of those monsters came out of nowhere! I screamed. I mean, there was nothing else I could do. Right? But when the monster grabbed me, the blond man showed up and tackled him—how’d he get there so fast? Am I in some alternate universe? This isn’t right. Then a van pulled up and these three guys in black leather jackets with fangs grabbed me. Cimil jumped out of the cab and tossed them, I mean…
tossed
them across the street—what the hell does that woman eat?—I ran inside the building and dove into the elevator!”

Kinich’s mind reeled through the frantically delivered story. It was like that time they’d played charades while blindfolded. Underwater. Again, with that poor, poor cat. He’d have to chat with Cimil about her stance on animal rights later.

Unexpectedly, Viktor sifted into the living room, appearing out of thin air directly in front of Penelope.

Oh great.
Kinich braced himself.

Penelope screamed at the top of her lungs and passed out. Kinich caught her in his arm and scooped her up.

***

For one brief second, among the ensuing chaos, Kinich experienced a profound serenity while holding Penelope in his arms. The tiny embers nestled deep inside glowed with euphoric warmth and not the usual hot rage.

Kinich’s mind sputtered and stalled like an old engine.
Bloody hell.
He couldn’t afford to become attached to this admittedly exquisite, statuesque woman. He had obligations to fulfill.

Yes, but haven’t you spent an eternity taking care of mankind? Fighting for them? Are you not deserving of a life of your own?

In the early days, watching over humankind was simple. A few pockets of humans existed, scattered across the globe. It was nothing the fourteen gods couldn’t handle. Or thirteen, really; Kinich had spent much of those earlier years—during the age referred to by the gods as “pre-calendar” because, well, there were no calendars—living in the human world, wandering. He traveled on foot to every corner of the world. Alone. Thinking. Loathing. It boiled down to one simple matter: His place in the world had been forced upon him with no end in sight.

Eternity. Eternity. Eternity. Shit.

Through the dank, musty jungles, through the frigid mountains and scalding hot deserts, he walked alone, lived alone, slept alone with only the sun on his face and his gnawing, unanswered questions to keep him company.

Where had the gods come from? Was the Creator a real being as Cimil claimed? If yes, then why hadn’t he or she spoken to him? Might be nice to know why he—Kinich—existed or if he was truly destined to live for an eternity, caring for humans.

But, alas, there would be no answers to these questions, nor would he find any semblance of peace in his soul until the Day of the Penance. That had been nearly five thousand years ago.

While standing on the scorching hot riverbank of the Nile in Giza, Kinich—known to the Egyptians as Ra, the Sun God—witnessed a great flash of silver light across sky. Within moments, his life force weakened, and through his otherworldly connection, he determined that his brethren had experienced the same.

Soon, they would discover that Earth housed a new species of transformed humans—six of them to be exact—who drank blood and roamed the night. They would call themselves the Ancient Ones.

Many centuries later, their folklore would state that the diminishment of the gods’ powers enabled the birth of the vampires. And that the vampires were the Creator’s punishment for the gods becoming complacent and lazy.

But were the vampires truly a punishment?

Kinich thought not.

Shortly after the flash of light, Kinich came upon a pharaoh named Narmer facedown in a pool of mud, too weak to move. Narmer, who would later settle in Spain and take the name Roberto—a very long story involving another of Cimil’s scandalous plots—had no recollection of what occurred. But when Kinich carried the man to his temple, there was no mistaking the animal-like fangs protruding from his mouth. Later, the man would devour the blood of ten slaves for his supper.

Shocked and intrigued, Kinich remained in Giza to observe the creature. He would learn what he could before returning to the gods with this startling news. This was when Narmer the Ancient One would become Kinich’s greatest teacher.

“Life is not static, Sun God,” Narmer would say. “The universe is in a state of constant flux. Energy exchanging, transforming, and evolving from one form to the next. The apple falls from the tree. The worm eats the apple and is eaten by a bird. The bird is eaten by a cat.

“Yes, harmony disguises itself, cloaks itself as a random event. But if one looks closely, the events occur with exquisite balance. Death, life. Struggle, abundance. Love, hate. Think of what would happen if any of these were to dominate or disappear. Even a lacking of sufficient evil might be detrimental. Humankind would grow complacent and lazy. They would cease the quest for enlightenment. Morals and spirituality would become obsolete.”

Narmer’s words pertaining to the ebb and flow of these various forces were nothing new. But exquisite balance? This was the key.

If the gods killed every soul with a blackened heart, then only the virtuous would remain. That would create imbalance. Imbalance would lead to destruction.

This is why he believed the vampires were sent to restore balance, to do the dirty work the gods could not: kill humans indiscriminately, the innocent included. And the gods? Their role was to ensure the universe remained in a constant state of equilibrium.

Sadly, however, balance would not be so easily maintained. Even the six Ancient Ones would face their own breakdown when one of Narmer’s brothers would split off and create the Obscuros—those vampires who preferred to kill innocents and only innocents. Narmer would eventually be forced to proclaim this act—one that he did not initially oppose—forbidden.

Kinich would also face challenges. After returning to his realm, the gods did not rally behind his new philosophy. This was because they had no laws, order, or values. They were a divine, powerful group of children, but he would change that. If he were to be stuck in this…this fucking role as a god for eternity, then, by gods, he would see his sacrifice mean something.

But that was then.

Now?

Now his own balance was in jeopardy. His inner demons, his buried pain for having been denied free will, it was catching up, awoken by one night with one human female—Penelope. Yes, after all these years, he once again desired freedom. To be human. To live. To die.

But this was not his path.

A demon to confront another day.

Kinich, as he’d been accustomed to doing since pre-calendar, buried his torment and manned up, as modern humans liked to say.

He glanced at Viktor who’d just made his grand appearance in Helena’s living room and nearly given Penelope a heart attack. “What the hell happened?”

Viktor, an ancient Viking warrior and force of his own to be reckoned with, narrowed his cobalt blue eyes. “I saved your woman from a Maaskab who was about to sift her away. That’s what happened.”

“She is
not
mine. But the effort is appreciated. And do you happen to know where my sister is?”

Viktor picked a piece of Scab hair from the leather sleeve of his long coat. “She went after the vamps in the van. Looked damned happy about it, too. Like she was going off to buy another Ginsu knife—how many As Seen On TV products does one goddess need, anyway?”

Helena, Andrus, and Kinich exchanged glances before responding with spontaneous, synchronized shrugs.

Viktor tossed the tiny clump in the wastebasket in the corner and shook his head. “Whatever. Point is—and I say this with all the vampire love in my cold, undead Viking heart—what the fuck, people! Did you not hear what I said? Obscuros? Maaskab? Together!”

Kinich’s stomach lurched, rolled, burrowed deep underground, and then sprang out of a dark, dark hole.

Uh-oh…

He shifted his weight. Penelope was light as a feather cradled in his arms, but he instinctively wanted to hold her even closer.
“We will leave for my desert retreat now. It is unsafe here.”

“Cimil told us they’d unite,” Helena griped. “Maaskab. Obscuros. Someone will have to come up with a whole new name. Do you have any idea how hard that’s going to be?”

Kinich raised a brow.

Viktor chimed in. “I vote for
Mocos
. It means ‘boogers’ in Spanish.”

Helena laughed hysterically. “Good one! Oh! Oh! I’ve got it!” Helena said raising her hand. “O’scabbies.”

“Perfect. Yes, very good,” Viktor regarded her with the affection of a proud father.

Andrus sighed and shook his head.

Helena scoffed. “What? It was funny.”

Andrus stared blankly.

“Ugh! You’re no fun,” she protested. “Let’s see if a trip to Sedona with Kinich will wipe that smugness off your face. I know how much you love hanging with vamps and Uchben.”

“Sedona?” Andrus said. “If Penelope is being hunted, you and the baby need to be as far away from her as possible. We stay here and let her go with Kinich.”

Helena’s vampire eyes gleamed with hypnotic intensity. “I want to see Niccolo. We. Are. Going. To. Sedona.”

“Like hell you are.” Niccolo’s large frame hovered in the entrance, his dark camouflage outfit and black hair, contrasting with the brilliance of his turquoise eyes—eyes that were once dark too, but had changed when his vampire days ended and he became a demigod.

Helena’s face burst with joy. “Niccolo! Oh my god! I mean—oh my demigod! You’re here!”

They shared a long, publically inappropriate kiss—tongues and hands flying everywhere. Once again, Kinich felt that same gnawing discomfort he’d had when in the presence of Emma and Guy.

“Uh-hum!” Kinich cleared his throat, but the two did not stop for several awkward moments. He glanced at Andrus, whose ego had clearly deflated.

Poor sap, still cares for the woman. You’ll never catch me degrading myself by pining for some female.

When they finally broke their lip-lock, Kinich asked, “How did you arrive?” Being an ex-vampire, Niccolo was no longer able to sift.

“Air Uchben. After your call last evening, I decided to check in on things.” Niccolo turned to Helena. “So you see, you aren’t going anywhere, my love.” Niccolo cupped both of Helena’s cheeks. “I am taking two days off and will spend them making your toes curl, followed by a long nap—yours, of course—during which time I will play with our little Matty and adorn her with kisses until you awaken.”

Without so much as a glance in Andrus’s direction, he said, “You are on leave now, soldier.”

As Andrus marched from the room, he snarled, “You’re welcome for my protecting your wife and child,
Niccolo
.” And by “Niccolo,” one could tell he meant “asshole.”

He is very good at doing that
, Kinich noted.

“Well, this has been fun.” Kinich bowed his head. “Niccolo, if you are not opposed, I will take the Uchben jet to my sanctuary.”

Niccolo glanced at Kinich and then at the dormant Penelope in his arms. “Ah, Kinich. I’ve always wondered if boring someone to death was possible. I should have known you’d accomplish the task.”

“So says the ex-vampire who wept like a baby at my sister’s feet, begging her to help him, and then ended up entombed in her piggy bank for three centuries.”

“Vampires do not cry! Everyone knows that,” Niccolo replied.

“Like a newborn baby, according to Cimil. She claims there are photos,” Kinich chuckled.

“So says the Sun God, who has over a million hits on YouTube. The midgets were a nice touch, by the way. Your idea?” Niccolo said sharply.

Dammit! He had no clue what YouTube was, but he’d throttle Cimil when he caught up with her!

“Niccolo. Kinich!” Helena scolded. “Have your pissing match on someone else’s time.”

“You are right, my little vampire. We must not waste a moment—it feels like there is a kickstand in my pants.” Niccolo pulled Helena into his body and began mauling her with his lips again.

One of Kinich’s eyes ticked with annoyance. Time to leave.

He turned toward the door still grasping Penelope in his arms, but Viktor prevented his speedy exit. “I’m coming to ensure you arrive safely. It is the least I can do after I failed you both.”