“What are you trying to say, Zac?” Tula whispered.
“I’m trying to say that…that…” His heart was breaking. That he wanted to be with Tula more than he wanted to wear these black leather pants, in which he looked really cool. “I’m saying that every step of the way, Cimil has been right. Not ‘right’ in an obvious kind of way, but nonetheless, right. She said you would die if I pursued you. She said I would destroy you if I acted selfishly and tried to make you mine.”
Tula’s blue eyes filled with tears. “I-I don’t understand. Are you…dumping me?”
“No, sweetheart. I would never dump you. But a man must recognize when he is defeated, when he doesn’t have the answers.” Zac exhaled. “I think for the first time in my existence, I must do what she says and leave you alone.”
“Zac! No!”
“Tula, I’ve lost you more times than I can recall. And now I realize that if this was meant to be, if our love is meant to last, then I must stop intervening. I am only getting in the way!”
Tula looked at her tiny white flats. “I don’t agree. Not even a little. But if that’s the way you feel.” She shrugged, clearly wounded.
“No, my love. It is not how I feel. Not even close. If it were up to me, you’d have your body; we’d be married and fucking nonstop for months. You’d be happy and laughing every day because that would be my one and only mission in life. But as it stands, I cannot have that. I cannot offer you that. Hell, I’m owned by a unicorn! And I must be man enough to recognize the truth.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “Which is…?”
“I am a fool who has much to learn, and if I am smart, I will admit it. I need to get out of my own way and trust the Universe.”
“The same Universe who put us in this place to begin with?”
“Yes. Because she’s the one who brought you to me, and that makes her infinitely smarter.”
“Fine.” Tula huffed. “Then I guess this is goodbye.”
“No. Never goodbye, Tula. All you need to do right now is conserve your energy and wait.”
“For what? For the world to blow up?” She threw her arms to her sides.
“I will call for you. And when I do, it will be because this is all over and your body is waiting—I am waiting.”
“I hope you’re right.”
He wouldn’t dare promise her anything. It was his arrogance that had gotten them to this dire place.
“I hope so, too. I love you…” Tula disappeared right before his eyes.
Gods, I hope I’m right. Because the last time he’d listened to Cimil, he got into a lot of trouble. He’d ended up banished in the human world. On the other hand, getting in trouble had brought him to Tula.
“Where is everyone?” Zac looked around the empty meeting hall, ready to play ball and stay out of his own way, but this wasn’t what he had in mind.
He poked his head out into the long hallway that led to several offices and the elevators. Two human Uchben soldiers in black and gray camo strolled by.
“Hey, anyone seen my brethren?” Zac asked.
They shook their heads.
“Not for a few days, sir,” said the tall one with cropped blond hair. “But I understand that three of the unmated gods are quarantined in our prison, and the others are all out on missions, leading the teams to round up the affected immortals.”
Huh. Okay. I guess I missed that memo while I was at Club Minky. “How about Cimil? Seen her?”
“No, sir.”
“Any idea where Gabrán is?” Gabrán was the Uchben chief and the one who would likely be coordinating communications with all the teams.
“He’s quarantined, per Votan’s orders.”
Yes. Of course. All of their best immortal Uchben would be. For everyone’s safety.
“How about Brutus?” Zac asked.
“Hasn’t returned from his last mission, sir,” answered the second man, shorter with black hair.
“Then who’s running the show?” Zac asked.
The two soldiers exchanged awkward glances.
“No one? No one is running things?” Zac’s eyes went wide.
“We’re not sure. We went out last week to help with the efforts in New York City. We lost most of our men and had to retreat. We came back here with only the few vampires we’d managed to capture, and have been trying to scrounge up another team so we can go back out there.”
This did not sound good. “How many soldiers have you found on the base?”
“Besides the ones in lockdown? None,” replied the tall blond guy.
“None? Did you call the other bases? Italy? Hong Kong? Paris?”
“We put out alerts to everyone. None of the Uchben are answering. We assumed everyone’s too busy to check in, or they’re immortal and put themselves in quarantine in their own jails.”
This was a disaster. They had many non-immortal humans in their Uchben army, but they were no match for crazy demigods, vampires, and other supernatural creatures who might have flipped. Without the aid of the immortal Uchben, the rest of their army was useless.
“Okay. I will go to the prison and see if anyone there has information.” There had to be a few sane people in quarantine since many had been locked up as a precaution.
He was about to ask the two men to come with him, but to what purpose? If all of the gods and immortal soldiers were dead, flipped, or locked up, then they were all screwed. Two human soldiers wouldn’t make one difference. “I hear there’s a good movie on this afternoon at the mall—The Gods Must Be Crazy.”
“We’ve already seen that one. The live performance. But thank you, sir. We’ll be in the barracks.” The two men walked off.
Zac headed in the other direction, feeling a cold, dark sensation creep over him. Goose bumps erupted on his skin the moment he stepped outside and started toward the entrance to their underground prison, which was separated from the rest of the compound and several stories down.
Something was definitely not right. It’s as if I can feel the evil vibes growing stronger. Like a giant festering boil about to pop. He reached the heavy steel door and placed his palm on the scanner. The lock popped, and he stepped inside the small room to await the secure elevator down.
Zac scanned his hand a second time and poked the button. Gods, why does this room feel so cold? The elevator arrived and the doors slid open. He stepped inside and immediately noted an odd smell. Like…cotton candy or something sweet mixed with pot. That’s funny.
He hit the button for the main prison floor about five stories down. As the elevator sank, the strange sensation grew stronger. Darkness. Evil. Rage. His body was being bombarded with all of them.
The doors slid open, and Zac felt his immortal heart slide down and grab his leg, quivering in terror.
“Dear Gods. Dear Gods. What is happening?”
Immortals of every kind were fighting, fucking, screaming, climbing the walls—literally. The sex fairies had several men tied up and were reciting bad poetry to them—at least it sounded bad to him, about flowers and fluffy bunnies and such. His brother K’ak was throwing lightning bolts at the vampires. Vampires were chewing on demigods. Demigods were strangling each other. Quite a few of the group were huddling in corners with iPhones and laptops, doing gods only knew what. “Who the hell gave them internet access?” Not a good idea.