Vampires Need Not…Apply? (Accidentally Yours #4)(70)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“Who’s going inside to get him?”

Kinich looked uneasy, a fact that did not sit well with Antonio, but at this juncture, a little bout of nerves was no match for his determination.

“I will go,” Kinich replied. “This is why I asked Penelope to stay behind with Emma. It would make her very uneasy to witness what I am about to do.”

Probably a wise choice given the high concentration of evil vibrating through the air; it was no place for a pregnant woman.

“I think I should go down and attempt to cleanse him before bringing him up,” Antonio suggested.

Kinich scratched his golden-brown stubble, and his eyes flickered from turquoise to gray for a brief moment. “No, he may be conscious, and given his state of mind, he may resist you. I have a better chance of pulling my brother out.”

But the evil energy, even from outside, was extremely potent. “What will happen if you’re exposed to whatever is inside?” Antonio asked.

“I’m sure a few minutes of exposure won’t be fatal. Plus, I will have you and Ixtab to help me if anything happens. Yes?”

Antonio only hoped that Margaret would keep her word and deliver Ixtab as promised.

A caravan of black Hummers pulled up on the dirt road and stopped. Antonio immediately recognized the deities unloading from the vehicles. The man with ankle-length hair and the enormous headdress (that fit in the car, how?), the lady with the beehive hat, the one who seemed drunk (though he wore a toga today), Fate, and a few others whose names he didn’t remember.

“And I have them,” Kinich added, jerking his head toward his brethren. “They’ll make sure nothing bad happens.”

“You are certain you don’t want me to go in?” Antonio asked.

“You simply need to focus on your part: draining the darkness from Chaam’s body once we emerge.”

One of the soldiers called for Kinich. About twenty men at the top of the pyramid had erected a triangular structure with a pulley system. Kinich grumbled. “Wish me luck.”

Antonio hesitated to follow. Where was Margaret? She’d said she would have Ixtab freed before Chaam came out.

Gods dammit. Please come. Gods, he’d never felt so anxious or desperate in his entire life.

Antonio spun around, taking in the eeriness of the jungle skirting the base of the black jade pyramid. There were no animals, no birds, nothing but complete silence.

A gentle wind blew across his face. It smelled of daisies and vanilla. “Ixtab?” He looked toward the sky and treetops.

No response.

Was she watching him now? He closed his eyes, longing for the vision of her that once haunted him, but nothing came. No, if he wanted to see her again, he’d have to put his faith in fate. Not Ixtab’s sister Fate—horrible woman—but the fate ruled by the Universe. So where the hell were Maggie and Ixtab?

“You coming?” Kinich called out from above.

“Sí, I am coming.” Antonio climbed the large steps, feeling the energy radiating from deep within its bowels. He could not imagine being inside such a dark, overwhelming place, although his stomach disagreed and grumbled loudly. Well, at least he was hungry, because he had a feeling he was about to eat a very large meal.

Atop the pyramid, Antonio observed Kinich tying back his long golden-brown hair and then hooking on his harness. There was no fear or hesitation in his movements, which made Antonio think that perhaps after so many millennia of existing, there was little left that scared such beings. It was odd to think that someday he, too, might be thousands of years old. He could only hope to have Ixtab at his side for every moment of it.

Kinich positioned himself over the mouth of the black hole and winked before jumping feet first. The soldiers, all large men, held the rope easily and allowed its length to slide at a steady pace through the pulley system, down into the well-like structure.

After a minute, the rope slacked in their hands.

“Kinich has reached the bottom. He will pull on the rope once he’s ready,” said the largest man with cropped dark hair, who didn’t speak much, but seemed in charge given the way the men watched his every move.

“How long?” And dammit! Where the hell were Margaret and Ixtab?

“Should take a minute. He only needs to hook the other harness under Chaam’s arms,” said the soldier.

Antonio glanced down the face of the structure where twenty or so men stood at attention next to the deities who appeared to be…bored? The deity wearing the toga played thumb wars with the beehive lady.

Antonio shook his head. No. He would never fully understand these creatures.

A minute ticked by, then another. Antonio’s cell phone vibrated. Caray. He slipped it from his pocket. Penelope. He had to answer.

“Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay,” she said.

“He’s still inside the pyramid; I’ll call you the minute—”

“That’s the signal, men! Pull!” the Uchben leader yelled.

Diablos. This was it. “I’ll call you as soon as it’s over.” Antonio hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. As the rope came out of the hole, Antonio noticed how it had changed color, as if covered with some sort of black powder.

Finally the top of a blackened head emerged, but was it Kinich? Or Chaam? The men pulled again and the top of the second man surfaced. The two were harnessed together. Both were large and covered head to toe in soot.

The men quickly pulled them out and lay them both on the ground. Antonio hurried to the first man and brushed the black powder from his face. It was Kinich. The darkness immediately began to crawl inside Antonio’s fingertips. It was thick and sticky like molasses in his veins.

Qué sabroso. Delicious.

Kinich groaned. “That’s enough. Save my brother.”

Antonio stepped over Kinich and examined the other man. He was large, if not larger than Kinich.

Time to eat!

Antonio rubbed his hands together and placed them on the man’s shoulders. The taste was palatably different. This was caustic and vile, nothing like the others. Antonio wanted to pull away, but found himself unable. He began to choke and hack, feeling his own soul violently protest the invasion. Oh, gods. So much pain, so much destruction…

Suddenly, something slammed him into the cold stone platform. Antonio couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t speak.

“What the hell were you thinking, huh? Stupid, icky vampire!”

* * *

Ixtab placed her hands on either side of Antonio’s cheeks, pulling away the toxic poison. “Teen uk’al k’iinam. Teen uk’al yah. Teen uk’al k’iinam. Teen uk’al yah.”