Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? (Accidentally Yours #3)(17)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Okay. The best plan of action was to get as far away as possible, then go to the police.

I started running again, my bare feet ice cold and wet, toward the subway station. I rounded the corner to my right. The monster emerged from a side street directly ahead with his back to me. How the hell had he ended up in front of me?

I made a split-second decision to turn back the way I’d come. I ran one block then hooked to my right down an alley.

Shit. Shit. It was a dead end. Why had I gone that way?

I turned around and darted back out to the street, thinking I’d simply continue running until the next block. But the moment I emerged from the alley, the bastard was there again. Again! But how? How?

I dashed back into the alley but stopped halfway down its length, panting and on the verge of an epic freak-out. Where do I go? Where? Where? Think dammit. Think, Penelope!

It was a dead end for Christ’s sake. There was only once choice: Hide behind the dumpster in the middle of the alley.

I bolted toward my sanitation sanctuary, crouched, and tried to calm my breathing. But with the city’s eerie silence, a mouse scratching its privates could be heard for ten blocks.

Oh please, God. Oh please. Help me, I prayed silently with my hands clasped.

You’re agnostic, Penelope. Think that’s gonna really work?

Doesn’t hurt to try…

Then it struck me. Cimil’s handbook.

It had read: Do not open the door for people who don’t identify themselves. Run in the opposite direction of rotting stench. Do not hide behind dumpsters.

What the hell was going on? Was she some sort of psychic?

And now what would I do? I was hiding behind the dumpster. Just like Cimil had instructed not to.

Hide inside the dumpster.

No. I can’t. This was New York City—there could be anything in there: rotten food, broken glass, a dead body.

You idiot. You’re going to be the dead body if he finds you.

Oh hell. What had I done to deserve this?

I slowly peeked around the edge of the dumpster toward the main street. Coast was clear for the moment. I slipped on my boots, lifted the heavy, plastic-molded lid, and slipped inside.

The stench was—freaking instant-gag-reflex smells of hell!—the most god-awful thing my nose had ever witnessed. Old fish and rotten eggs, mixed with something dead. Thank the universe for small favors such as winter, because had it been summer, my tossed cookies would be joining those smells.

Regardless, I pinched my nose and clamped my eyes shut.

Find a weapon. Anything. A glass bottle, a lid to a tin can, anything.

Oh, I hate you, I argued with myself, and your practical advice!

I reached out my hand, instantly finding something squishy and wet.

Ew, ew, ew.

I stretched my hand a little farther and found something long and hard. I wrapped my fingers around it and—

The lid flew open. My reflexes instantly took over, and I sprang from the dumpster, swinging with everything I had.

An arm reached out in midair and caught my wrist. “Penelope? What the hell are you doing inside there?” Kinich’s towering mass stood before me, barefoot and shirtless.

Kinich!

I was never so happy to see anyone in my entire life. I jumped and flung my arms around his neck. “Oh, thank God!”

I instantly felt my body hum with delight. His smell, his warmth…Touching him felt like being bathed in a euphoric tropical wave complete with magical seahorses and mermaids and…endless orgasms?

He gently pushed me away and crinkled his nose. “Jeez, woman. You smell awful.” He glanced at my hand. “And why are you holding that?”

“What?” I looked at my right hand. Yes. I was indeed gripping a stale baguette.

How very deadly.

I dropped it to the ground and began rattling on about what had happened. Kinich stared at me like I was insane.

But wait. “Not that I’m ungrateful—hell, I’m so happy to see you, I would name my first child after…I can’t believe I said that.”

He frowned.

“How did you find me?” I finally asked. “And what happened to your clothes? Are you okay? You must be freezing.”

Kinich considered my questions, clearly thinking long and hard about his answers. “I heard your scream and—”

It happened so fast, my brain simply couldn’t process it.

Kinich flew to one side and landed with a smack! on the cement. The monster was on top of him trying to wrap some sort of bumpy-looking rope around his neck. Kinich grunted with pain for a moment and then screamed, “Penelope, get back in the dumpster!”

“But…”

“Do it now, woman!”

I didn’t know what else to do, so I obeyed.

As soon as the lid thumped down, a burst of blinding light flashed outside. My eyes instinctively squeezed shut, and I turned away to shield my face from the heat seeping in through the tiny gap of the heavy lid.

Then, it was over, and I heard Kinich moaning.

I slowly peeked out and saw him lying on the cement. A pile of ash covered his half-naked body, and the monster was gone.

CHAPTER 10

My mind shuffled through all the possible explanations of what I’d just witnessed. Someone had put LSD in the public water supply, hoping to create the next Steve Jobs?

No.

Matrix the movie was real, and I’d lived through a binary blip?

No.

Asleep?

No.

Deep coma? Not on your life.

Well, poop! This can’t be real! Give me something. Anything! I don’t want the only plausible explanation to be that I’m crazy. That would suck. Badly.

Penelope, maybe now’s not the time to figure it out.

Kinich writhed on the ground.

“Oh hell.” I climbed from the dumpster and rushed to his side. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? How do I help you?”

His anguished expression seemed only to worsen. “Just…ahhhh”—he rolled to his side, then back again—“give me a second.”

“Oh, okay.” My hands hovered over him, eagerly awaiting any instructions.

After a minute, his face relaxed and his breathing steadied. “Help me up.”

“Um—sure.” I stood and latched onto his hand—it was boiling hot—and began pulling him up. With a few awkward grunts and heaves he was up and steadying himself on my shoulders.

“We need to get you somewhere safe,” he said, his voice low and raspy. “More might be coming.”

Demons on whole wheat toast! There are…more?

He yanked me by the hand and started for the nearby street. He muttered something unintelligible under his breath.