Accidentally in Love with…a God?(Accidentally Yours #1)(22)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

I swallowed hard. “Will someone please explain what the hell is going on?” I whined.

Rosa placed a warm hand on my arm. “Your grandmother, Gabriela, was born here. She was my older sister. The Maaskab want you because like her, you are a first born female. You carry the bloodline of—”

“Enough!” Guy slammed his fist on the table.

Enough? I carried something in my blood. Guy’s “bad people,” who I assumed were the Maaskab, wanted me for some horrible reason. And this woman was apparently my missing grandmother’s sister. But he was yelling “enough”?

“You have no right,” I screamed. “I need to know what’s going on!”

Arturo shook his finger at Guy. “You’ve brought the girl back here! The Maaskab probably spotted her already. And what they can’t see, their wards will detect.”

“She’s in no danger from a few crazy priests as long as she’s with me,” said Guy.

“Humph!” huffed Rosa. “You arrogant fool. Where have you been, locked in a cave?”

“Actually, a cenote,” I pointed out.

“Since 1940,” added Guy.

I turned to him. “Since 1940? Why am I not surprised you left that detail out?” I did some quick math. That would mean he’d met my grandmother when she was a small child.

Guy flashed me an irritated look. “Sorry to have forgotten such an important detail, Princess Emma, but I was busy…being cursed underwater!”

“So? Why the hell does that matter?” I replied. “It’s not like you were doing anything other than annoying the crap out of me…” my speech trailed off as my mind hit a wall. Had he really been trapped underwater for seventy-plus years? What the hell was he? And what the hell was going on? This couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t be. Maybe I was still back in New York, lying comatose in a hospital and this was all a dream.

Rosa shook her head. “The Maaskab have grown. There are thousands now—not including those who are loyal to them. The only thing keeping this girl safe was that they didn’t know she existed. But now, that’s likely over, and they’ll track her.”

“Sure. Why the hell not?” I threw my hands in the air.

“Haven’t the others been trying to stop them?” Guy asked cryptically.

“Others?” Rosa questioned. “What others? We haven’t seen any of you for sixty years, maybe longer.”

Guy rubbed his stubble covered chin. “I need to return,” he said. “I have to find out what’s happened to them.” He stared down at me, his bright, turquoise eyes narrowing in contemplation. “I need to put you somewhere safe. You can’t stay here.”

“This insane conversation is going nowhere. You people aren’t interested in giving me any answers, so I see no point in sticking around, either. And since I’m pretty sure none of this is real anyway, I’ll just be dreaming my way home now. If I’m not dreaming, then I’ll need a good shrink. There are plenty in New York.” I started for the door.

“Emma, this isn’t a dream,” he lowered his voice to that hypnotic, skull penetrating tone. “And you cannot go home. If they know you’re here, they’ll follow you.”

“Ha! See!” I pointed at his face. “That just proves this isn’t real. Why would anyone want me? Me! I mean…if anyone thinks this”—I waved my hand down the front of my body—“is anything worth stalking, they’re off their frigging rockers.”

A wicked little glow flickered in Guy’s eyes then faded. “I am not certain why they want you,” he answered, “but the insane do not need a good reason, Emma. The Maaskab are known to kill just for sport. They single-handedly brought down the entire Mayan civilization with their bloodlust.”

“Thanks. I thought the Mayan alien abduction theory I’d read on the Internet sounded crazy. This makes waaay more sense.”

“It’s not a joke, Emma. These priests are deadly. They are the reason I came: to wipe them out once and for all. And now, I’ve come to the conclusion they’ve been getting help from a traitor, one of my own. There’s simply no other explanation for their power, their ability to use dark energy, including trapping me for seven decades.”

A shiver ran down my spine telling me, perhaps, this was real and not a dream. My pounding heart sure felt authentic. Christ, I just wished someone would start filling me on all of the other important details.

“Who’s your own?” I asked.

“There’s only one solution now,” he mumbled to himself, then turned to grab my shoulders. “Emma, I have to go.”

Wasn’t this ironic? He wanted to leave, and now I didn’t want him to. Kick me. “What are you going to do with me?”

“I’m going to call some people who will take you somewhere safe until I can come for you.”

“How long?” I asked.

“I do not know, my sweet.” He stared with his hypnotic, turquoise eyes and then brushed my cheek. “But you have to promise you won’t call anyone you know, and if anything happens, you can’t ever come back here. You can’t go home, either. Do you understand?”

“No.” I felt the tears welling. All I wanted was normal. Friends, a great job, a boyfriend, maybe a little house with a vegetable garden. Normal.

What did I get? Bloodthirsty Mayan priests. A menacing, half-naked, skirt-wearing “man.” Living on the run. Forever. Not frigging normal!

Guy’s face contorted as he watched me begin to cry. “Emma, don’t do that.”

I punched him in the arm. “Don’t. I can’t help it! You’ve so f**ked up my life. I’m never going to forgive you, and—”

“What? I’m trying to save your life, woman.”

“Then don’t leave without telling me.”

“Telling you what?”

“Everything! You owe me!” I felt the walls of my sanity crumbling.

“Yes, goddammit! I do owe you. And that means fulfilling my oath to keep you safe until this is over.”

“Oath? Wait…You’re not going to tell me, are you? You’ve been living in my head, torturing me with your enormous ego, driving me insane with your jealousy! Then, I apparently risked my neck to free you. But what about the truth? You promised me answers! You said you’d help me find out what happened to my grandmother!”