Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? (Accidentally Yours #3)(27)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

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 f**king 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?”