Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? (Accidentally Yours #3)(76)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

She sighed. “Philippe will never bite me again.”

“No. I’m sure Viktor would never allow it.”

“Likely, not,” she said. “But even so, Viktor turned me last night. Philippe won’t want to drink me, anyway.”

Wha-wha-what!? “Vampire? You’re a vampire?”

“Surprise?” she said with an awkward smile.

“Okeydokey.”

Add fallen angel turned vampire to the species list.

CHAPTER 41

After a very long drive to clear my head, I pulled Kinich’s jeep into the garage, trying to make as little noise as possible.

I looked at my watch.

Eleven forty-five. Almost midnight.

I’d successfully avoided Zac the entire evening, and wanted to keep it that way. I’d had just about enough drama for the day and was seriously looking forward to celebrating New Year’s by calling Anne and Jess who were likely about to pass out. Not only were they two hours ahead, but they generally started celebrating the New Year’s in November.

Heading for my room, I tiptoed through the living room.

The front door abruptly flew open and in sauntered a tall man dressed in a tailored black suit, his jet-black hair pulled into a ponytail. His black eyes resembled voids of light against his pale skin.

Oh gods. Please. No more! No more drama for today!

I immediately readied to pummel him with a nice ball of fire, but then noticed he held an unconscious man, wrapped in a cloak, in his arms.

“Who the hell are you?” I spoke with a sigh. More drama wasn’t what I wanted, but I knew a heaping helping was coming my way.

Cimil, wearing pink pj’s with yellow duckies, appeared at my side, glaring with an unspoken fury. “That piece of shit is Narmer.”

The sinister man smiled, displaying two sharp incisors. “Oh, now do not forget, my dear Cimil, you made me change my name to Roberto. Right after you had me tattoo your portrait on my back and move into your Spanish abode to be your love slave.”

“I was going through a phase! You can’t hold that against me!”

His eyes narrowed. “I vowed to return the favor—to repay you for the humiliation I endured, my sweet, darling Cimil.” He strolled to the center of the room, where we stood, behaving like he owned the place.

“That video is awesome!” she exclaimed. “It’s a triple-X classic! You’re just mad because I stole the show with my hot-pink chicken suit!”

“Ha! Don’t you wish!” he chuckled with sadistic arrogance.

Cimil scowled. “Whatever! So what the hell do you want?”

He blew her a kiss. “I told you, Cimil: revenge. Eye for an eye. Tat for a tat.”

“Roberto, I wasn’t aware that you’d made taking hallucinogens into a competitive sport. How very unvampy of you.”

He made a little pout with his lower lip. “Very well, if you do not wish to play, then I will let your brother die.”

Brother? Die?

Roberto tossed the man to the floor like a lifeless sack of potatoes.

My eyes filled with horror as I realized who it was. “Kinich! Oh my God!”

I scrambled to the immobile bundle and rolled it over. Kinich was pale and emaciated. I put my ear to his mouth. “He’s not breathing!”

Emma appeared in the room and rushed to my side. “What the f**k does he want?” she screamed at Cimil.

Apparently everyone knew Roberto—uhhh, Narmer—but me.

“You dirty son of a vampire bitch!” Cimil barked.

Roberto tisked. “Language, my dear. Language. There are children present.” His gaze flickered toward me and then Emma.

“Language?” Cimil cackled. “I’ve got language—”

Roberto raised his palm to silence her. “Cease with the posturing, my little dove. The clock is ticking. So what will it be?”

She growled, looked down at Kinich and then back at Narmer.

“I’ll get you for this. And if I don’t, my clowns will. And if not them, then my unicorn.”

He laughed. “Oh, my little turnip, how I love you so. I would expect nothing less.”

“Quit your yapping and save my brother,” she ordered.

He dipped his head. “Very well.

I wanted to kick that smug smile right off his pasty face.

He floated over and motioned for me to move.

Protectively, I hovered over Kinich’s body. “What’s he going to do?” I looked at Cimil.

“He’s going to make Kinich a vampire,” Cimil explained, all too casually for my taste.

“What? No! I won’t let you touch him!” I didn’t want Kinich to die—gods no—but the one and only thing he’d ever wanted was to be mortal. And after seventy thousand years, he finally had it.

Roberto made a theatrical bow. “As you wish. But it is Kinich who came to me and struck the bargain.”

“Bargain?” I asked.

“Yes, he and I have been in negotiations for over a month. I was to kill my brother Philippe and he would deliver Cimil. Kinich came to me last week to finalize the deal. He offered his new mortal life as insurance.”

My mind scrambled. “Kinich had you kill your own brother? He let you do this to him? But why?”

Cimil gazed upon Kinich’s limp body with affection. “Very clever, my dear brother. We shall engrave your portrait in the Summit Room, right next to Kathy Griffin.”

“I’m not following,” I said.

“Philippe, who we’d been hunting for eons, was the maker of the Obscuros,” Cimil explained. “Roberto killed him, thereby snuffing out his bloodline, including any Maaskab who’d been turned.”

Philippe? The Philippe? My mother’s tormentor was the maker of the Obscuros? Son of a bitch was lucky to be dead, because what I wanted to do was much, much worse.

And Kinich gave his life to have him killed, to have all of the Obscuros killed.

Holy crap. The sad irony started to sink in.

Why hadn’t Kinich told anyone? Why keep it a secret?

Because…you would have stopped him.

Christ! I would have. And since he had no powers, there would have been nothing he could do to fight me, either. But if he had stayed, we would have lost the battle. We would have lost everything. My mother included.

Now, more than ever, I felt low and unworthy of any affection Kinich held for me. Because he had put me first. He’d put us all first. I had just been too blinded by my own selfish desires to see it. I should have trusted him.

I moved out of the way. “Do it. Turn him.”