Vampires Need Not…Apply? (Accidentally Yours #4)(59)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

He stormed over, lifted her by the shoulders, and shook her. “I’m not taking you anywhere! Not until you tell me how to get Ixtab back!”

Gods help him, he would torture this woman if he had to.

The woman, whose eyes filled with contempt, was about to speak, but she stopped. Her gaze gravitated over his shoulder. “Oh, horsefeathers!” She looked at Antonio. “You want to know how to get Ixtab back? Put your game face on, vampire. It’s showtime.”

Antonio slowly turned his head.

What the… hell?

Chapter Veintiocho

The three men, if they could be called men, stood just inside the doorway of the small makeshift basement lab. And while Antonio had witnessed many horrific things in his life, these creatures were far beyond his wildest nightmares. That said, he didn’t have time for this bull crap because Ixtab was all that mattered. He’d f**king had her all along, and he’d let her go. How?

“What are they?” He pushed Margaret squarely behind him.

“Maaskab,” she replied.

These were Maaskab? That night in Helena’s penthouse, Ixtab’s sister Fate had described them as powerful, evil priests. He’d envisioned men in black robes sacrificing rabbits and chanting spells in Latin over a cauldron. Fate had completely left out the part about their rancid bodies being covered in odoriferous black grime and their hair being ropes of foul dreadlocks dripping with blood. And their sizes…mierda del diablo. They were beasts bigger than any creature he’d ever seen.

Well, he could give a shit about their size because gods only knew what that sadistic bastard of a demon could be doing to Ixtab. “What the f**k do you want?”

The largest of the creatures stepped forward and pointed its vile, blood-crusted finger at Antonio. It wore nothing more than a loincloth made from some sort of animal hide and a necklace full of human thumbs.

Or are those big toes? Christ… what a pinche pack of locos.

“Give us the tablet.” Its voice sounded like nails screeching across a chalkboard.

Antonio looked down at the shimmering artifact lying on the floor beside him. Like hell he would. He’d rather die than hand over the only means to getting Ixtab back.

He placed his foot on top of the tablet and slid it a few inches back. “Pick it up, Margaret.” He had no clue if he could trust this woman who’d come through the portal, but clearly she was his best bet in the room.

He felt her move, even though his eyes stayed locked on the dangerous creatures, thinking through his options. Not many. They were in the basement of the house, and the only way out was through them.

“The tablet is mine,” Antonio growled.

The creature studied him with its soulless eyes—black irises surrounded by blood red. “Cimil promised it to us in exchange for helping the incubus. Where is he?” it growled, red spittle projecting from its mouth.

Cimil? The goddess who led him to the tablet in the first place?

“Don’t let them have it,” Margaret whispered from behind. “God only knows what they’ll do with it.”

No one, and he meant no one, was getting the tablet. Even if he had to drink these bastards to keep it. Gulp, gulp, motherfuckers.

There are three.

Sí, that is a pinche problema.

He quickly assessed. Could he use his speed to run past them? It was worth a try, because if he stayed there, he’d end up fighting them anyway.

Time to go.

He twisted and grabbed Margaret, clutching the petite woman like a football under his arm. They made it two steps before something plucked them out of thin air and whipped them to the cement floor. Antonio heard Margaret scream as his head smacked the ground, stunning him.

He opened his blurring eyes. Caray!

One of the creatures stood over Margaret and pulled a long, bloody dagger from its waistband. It raised the dagger over Margaret’s chest.

She held out her hands. “No! I am your king’s mate! I am your queen!”

The gargantuan creature paused and studied her for a moment. Whatever impression Margaret had hoped her words might have failed. The creature raised its knife and plunged. Antonio leaped and grabbed the Maaskab’s arm, stopping it a centimeter from her chest. The monster’s eyes widened and moved to Antonio’s face.

That’s when Antonio felt it: the darkness inside the evil priest. It snaked up Antonio’s arm, seared its way into his flesh, and sank into his veins. He’d never felt anything so vile, so void of life, so horrid. And it tasted…

… Fucking delicious! More…

The creature sank to its knees, leaving bloody tracks down its throat as it clawed and struggled to breathe. Antonio drank it in, feeling the creature’s energy sate his hunger and fill him with power. This was nothing like Ixtab’s sweet touch. This was like eating meat. Raw, bloody, delicious meat.

“Watch out!” Margaret screamed, scrambling from the floor toward the sanctuary of the corner.

An arm reached around Antonio’s neck and squeezed. He released the first creature and latched on to the new attacker with his hands. Delicious, succulent, dark energy poured in. How could something so horrid taste so good?

The creature dropped to the ground, lifeless.

Antonio looked up, ready for another meal, but he found only Margaret staring in wonderment. “How did you do that?”

Antonio looked around the room. He wanted more.

Margaret pointed toward the door. “The third one fled.”

Antonio closed his eyes and savored the sensation coursing through him. In all his years, he never could’ve imagined that killing something for sustenance could feel so magnanimous, so damned good, like he’d been born to do it.

No more soy milk for you.

Okay, except perhaps for the chocolate kind; that shit is good.

Panting, he stood and leaned his heavy frame into the wall, shaking his head. “Are you all right?” he finally asked the woman.

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Good. Now mind telling me who you are,” he said.

“Margaret O’Hare. I already told you that.”

Like that even came close to f**king explaining it. “Let’s start with the basics—why did you tell that creature you are its queen?”

She produced an awkward laugh. “Because I am?”

Great. I just freed the Maaskab queen. Well, at least they didn’t seem to like her much. That was something.

* * *

Killing time on the plane and catching up on her important secondhand eBay shopping, Cimil held up her phone and looked at the text message from Roberto. “Oh, thank the gods.” She sighed with relief. The incubus and Ixtab were sucked into the portal as she’d hoped.