Sun God Seeks...surrogate? (23 page)

Then Emma elbowed Brutus and spouted, “Okay. I’m ready. Let’s kill some Scabs and get my granny!”

Let’s go get my mother, and capture at least one Scab?
Those bastards would pay, but not before telling me how to cure Kinich.

She glanced over her other shoulder toward me. “Ready?”

“You better believe it,” I replied. “These clowns picked the wrong girl to mess with.”

***

I thought I knew what terror was—finding a giant fuzzy spider staring you down in the shower or discovering a mysterious curly hair in your salad after you’ve eaten the entire thing, for example—but nothing in my life compared to the moment I found myself hurtling through a black void on a moonless night toward Earth, scared out of my frigging mind, hoping my altimeter didn’t fail.

“Penelope? Are you there?”

Voices. I’m hearing voices. Oh perfect.
Dammit. This was no time to lose my marbles. Go figure.

“Penelope, please respond.”

The voice sounded like Emma.

Headset! Headset.
I sighed with relief. I pressed the transmission button on my neck. “I’m here.”

“Don’t forget Guy’s instructions: Wait for Brutus to signal you.”

I remembered every word. Once everyone was on the ground and in position, the Uchben would go in first. I’d stay behind until given the word—or a poke, since he didn’t really talk—from Brutus.

“Got it,” I replied.

The alarm on my altimeter beeped. Time to pull the cord and pray:
Dear Lord, or universe, or anyone out there powerful enough to save my unworthy, stupid ass, please don’t let me land on a power line, something sharp, or a really tall tree…

***

The dear Lord, universe, or other being powerful enough, had listened. I landed with a soft thump in a soggy, grass-covered clearing along with three other Uchben I didn’t know. One came over and helped me out of my harness, then pointed to a tall patch of grass several yards away. I scurried over and crouched.

It was the dead of winter, but the tropical air of southern Mexico was moist and heavy. The dank, earthy smell of the jungle instantly penetrated my nose.

Now, I know any normal person would wet themselves at the thought of jumping headfirst into this situation but, perhaps as a testament to my “exotic DNA,” my body buzzed with anticipation. Now that I’d decided not to take my situation lying down, I felt like I’d been born for this moment, to serve justice to these horrible beings who’d harmed the people I loved.

“People” you…love?

I loved my mother. That was a given. But did I love Kinich, too? We barely knew each other, frankly. Yet there I was, ready to put my life on the line for him. Yes, if my mom weren’t a part of this, I’d still be here.

It was a startling revelation, really. How had I gone from infatuation to soul-clenching lust to…love?

True love defies logic. That’s its signature trait.

Funny, people always said love was something that grew in both intensity and depth as you got to know a person, but I was never sure about that. Maybe the love is already there, dormant inside your heart, waiting for “the one” to unlock it. That would certainly explain how I felt; I loved him. I felt like I always had and I always would.

“Great. I’m in love with a comatose deity who has mixed feelings for me,” I whispered to myself. Could my life possibly get any more complicated?

“Penelope,” I heard Emma call out on my headset.

“Yes?” I whispered back.

“Um, don’t freak, okay?” Emma’s voice crackled over the tiny speaker in my ear.

“Well, since you put it
that
way, I’ll be sure not to,” I hissed.

“Point taken. Listen, Brutus is coming to get you.”

“Where are you?” I asked.

“I’m standing in the middle of the Maaskab village.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Everything’s fine,” she replied with a melancholy tone. “See you in a few.”

Wait. This so didn’t make any sense. They couldn’t have taken down the Maaskab that quickly. Was it a trap?

Oh my gods. Oh my gods…

The unmistakable, hulking shadow of Brutus emerged from the nocturnal shadows. He signaled for me to follow.

I scrambled over. “What’s going on?”

Of course, he didn’t answer.

“Nice time to pull the mute card, Brutus. I’m beginning to see why Emma has it in for you.”

I thought I heard him chuckle, but couldn’t be certain.

Brutus whipped out a machete and hacked away at the small branches while we slogged forward. With my night-vision goggles everything resembled a leafy version of
Tron
. “Brutus, you have to tell me. Please?” I begged.

He marched ahead at a steady clip until we arrived at another clearing. A group of twenty men, Emma, and Guy congregated near a small hut. Several men gripped flashlights and everyone frantically debated.

This didn’t look good at all. “What’s going on?”

Emma turned toward me. “Oh, Penelope. Listen—”

“Where’s my mom?”

Guy stepped forward. “She is not here.”

My heart trembled. “What do you mean, ‘not here’?”

Emma gently squeezed my arm. “The village is empty.”

No. No. No!
“Where’d they all go?”

“We do not know,” Guy answered. “Our satellites show this camp is occupied. Our people back in the control room also confirm they still see it as such.”

I flipped off my visor and looked around. “I don’t understand. How can they see Maaskab on the satellite, but there’s no one here? Have they hacked into your system?”

Guy shook his head. “Not likely. The Maaskab are not technologically savvy.”

Apparently not. This village reminded me of a pre-Hispanic version of the Renaissance Fair…but without the ale, hippies, or ouds.

“It is an illusion,” Guy said. “They are becoming more powerful with their dark arts by the day.”

That sounded bad. Really bad. “So what do we do? Are there other villages or places they could hide her?”

“I must return to my realm,” Guy stated acrimoniously. “I have a much better chance of spotting traces of them from there. I will also look for that goddamned sister of mine.”

“Cimil?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“If you find her, tell her I have a few bones to pick,” I griped.

“Get in line,” he responded.

“Do you have to leave?” Emma sounded on the verge of tears.

Guy cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply. She pulled back and whisked away a tear with her camouflage sleeve. “I’m sorry. I know the fiancée of the mighty God of Death and War shouldn’t cry.”

“I love you, Emma. Tears and all. I will see you back in Sedona and we will spend the entire day making love.”

“That would be nice,” she said in melancholy voice.

That was my cue to leave. I was in no mood to listen to their horny little plans, but then Guy turned to leave. I guessed he was heading to find a portal cenote thingy.

“Hey!” Emma called out. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Oh great. Are they going to have a quickie before he goes?

Guy stopped in his tracks, his back to us. Did he groan?

“Please?” she begged. “It will grow back.”

Grow back? Yikes. I so don’t want to know…

He turned slowly, his eyes glowing in the night. “Yes, my love. Of course.” He reached around to the small of his back and whipped out a large knife.

What the
hell
was he going to do with that?

He spun Emma and swiped the blade across her braid near the nape of her neck and then promptly cut off his own ponytail.

He held the braids to his chest and chanted toward the starlit sky, “In halach puczical, in uchucil, ca kaxah yokolcab ichi pixan.”

The air kicked up around us and as it did, my memory flashed to when Kinich last spoke to me.

My blood pressure plummeted when I realized he’d recited those exact words the moment he incinerated the Scab.

Guy quickly kissed Emma’s nose. “I suggest you don’t break the bond this time, my love.”

She lovingly brushed his stubble-covered cheek. “Never.”

He crouched down, placed the locks of hair in the dirt, and ignited the pile of strands. Brutus and the other men stood quietly behind him, staring in awe as the hair quickly dissolved into nothing.

My mind raced. What did it mean?

“Good-bye, my sweet.” Before you could say “flaming hair ball,” Guy disappeared into the jungle.

“Well. Time to go back to Sedona, I guess.” She wiped away another tear and began walking.

“Emma?” I trailed behind her like an eager puppy. “What did it mean? That phrase and burning your hair?”

Quietly, with an unmistakable sadness in her voice, she said, “My heart, my power, we unite in this world inside my soul—it’s a prayer, the Prayer of Loyalty and Protection.”

What a beautiful phrase. “And the hair?”

“It completes the ritual; it creates a bond between two souls. I guess you could burn another part of your body if you wanted, but hair is the least painless thing to lose.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. What do you mean by ‘bond’?”

“It creates a connection that enables the gods to keep track of you more easily. It’s like being tethered to their life force. With Guy, it allowed him to speak to me when he, well, his soul was trapped in the cenote by the Maaskab and…”

Emma continued to speak, but my mind detached from present time. It spiraled and swirled as it computed and calculated and put the pieces together.

Oh my gods!
Kinich.

CHAPTER 26

The long flight back on Air Uchben was the worst, most depressing wait of my existence. No one spoke a word. But what was there to say? The bad guys had outsmarted us, and everything we loved and cared about was on the line.

Strangely enough, I sensed that my mother remained alive, though I had no clue in what condition. But a hopeful little voice inside my head told me she hadn’t left this world yet and we still had time to save her. I clung to that thought like a lifeboat.

As for Kinich, well that was a whole other enchilada in the oven. My heart and stomach were vacillating between elation (Kinich tried to bind himself to me) and terror (I didn’t know what would happen when I completed the ritual).

When I arrived at Kinich’s home, I immediately went to the kitchen, found a pair of scissors and some matches, and then headed for his room.

No surprise, Kinich was in his bed, right where I’d left him. The doctor—that same young-looking man with short, brown hair—leaned over him, checking his vitals.

“Any change?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll come back this afternoon.”

I shut the door behind him and stared down at Kinich’s large form, peacefully resting on the bed. His bronzed skin had turned to a pale taupe. I sighed and dropped to my knees, placing a kiss on the top of his hand.

“Please, work. Please?” I looked up at the ceiling, fending off the tears.

I gently turned his head to the side and cut off his silky caramel strands. I rubbed the thick, soft hair over my cheek then placed it on his chest as I cut off my own ponytail.

My hair had never been my obsession, although my mom had always fussed over it and said it shined like obsidian. I think I kept it long only to make her happy.

It will grow back, Pen. It’s just hair.

I pushed my now chin-length hair out of my eyes and headed out to the patio. The first rays of sunlight tinted the night sky with an orange hue to the east. The surrounding desert was unnervingly quiet, as if the universe herself was holding her breath.

I looked to the sky and said a little prayer—to whom, I didn’t know—and placed the hair on the ground. I ignited the two bundles and watched them burn, knowing I’d break into a million pieces if this didn’t work.

The tiny fire fizzled out quickly.

Here goes…

“
Kinich? Can you hear me? Kinich?”

I waited, my heart thumping in overtime. “Kinich,” I whispered, “please, please answer me.

He did not.

Oh gods, no. It didn’t work. It didn’t work…

I felt like I’d lost Kinich all over again.

Exhausted from being up all night and the endless disappointments, I staggered inside and curled up against his cold frame.

CHAPTER 27

“Penelope, you look ravishing today,” Kinich whispered in my ear.

I snuggled against his warmth and wrapped one arm tightly around his waist. “I’ve missed you.”

“Not nearly as much as I missed you.” His body shifted on top of me. “We have some unfinished business…”

My eyes popped open and our eyes met. The frisky grin on his face told me what he wanted, but I asked, anyway; I wanted to hear him say it.

“What sort of business?” I whispered.

His lips were quickly on mine. The heat of his mouth shot straight into my stomach and made my girly parts perk up instantly.

I sighed with contentment. This was how I wanted my life to be. Him. Me. Our bodies touching.

Kinich unexpectedly stopped. He was now frowning.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“You’re wasting time. I need you here with me. Now. Do you have any clue how worried I was about you?”

“Huh? But I am here,” I replied, utterly confused.

“Penelope…
” he growled.

“What?”

“Penelope! Wake the hell up
,
”
he screamed.

My eyes snapped open. “No…!” I covered my face. “Goddammit! Not again!”

Kinich was still in his bed. Motionless. Cold. Frozen in time like Sleeping Beauty.

I slipped from the bed and staggered to the bathroom. The reflection staring back in the mirror was a sad and worn version of me. That’s because that’s what I was. I couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t have any strength left in my arms to keep throwing back the lemons.

How ironic, I thought. I finally understood why Kinich stopped believing his life would ever change and why he’d opted to survive, but not thrive. Exist, but not live. Everyone had their breaking points. Everyone. Even a powerful god.