“She said something about her bees going nuts and having to drop off some man named Gato. Guess she got tired of Rys.”
Oh no. Her bees had flipped, too? Their connection was incredibly strong. There wasn’t a place on this planet where they couldn’t find her.
He looked over at Fina, and the two locked eyes. His urge to rescue Colel was still there, still embedded deep inside him.
“It’s okay,” Fina said reassuringly. “I know you have to go to her.”
He did have to go because it was what he did when he was needed. He showed up when no one else would.
He was about to tell Fina he’d be back, that he’d find her later once Colel was safe, but…What if there are no more laters?
“I am sorry, Fina, but I am needed,” he said. “I hope you understand.”
“I figured.” The disappointment on her face was well masked, but there was no mistaking the hardness in her eyes—the sign of a warrior sucking up “the suck.”
“Good. Because my destiny is deflowering a princess and enjoying every moment together.”
Her eyes lit up and her mouth flashed the most gorgeous smile.
“All right, you two lovebirds. Time to go. The ticks are tocking.” Cimil untied him. Brutus got up and ran to Fina, releasing her arms. Chaka and Cimil began arguing over the whole thing, basically the queen saying she would have Cimil’s head for this betrayal, and Cimil saying she was a goddess and could do anything she liked. “So there. Suck it.”
The moment Fina was up, Brutus was on her—arm banded around her waist, pulling her smaller lean body to him. He gazed into her dark eyes, savoring every drop, every ounce of the moment, and dipped his head. Just as their lips were about to touch, he stopped.
“What?” she asked.
The feelings he had earlier were real—the craving in his heart, the fire in his loins, the sense of knowing there was no finer woman on the planet. But if he kissed her now, he wouldn’t be able to stop, and this was not the place he wanted to deflower her. She deserved so much better. She deserved to have her feelings respected and her every desire delivered on, which he hoped included showing her a little disrespect in the bedroom with some dirty, dirty sex. If the world was truly coming to an end, why not? Why not make the dream they’d shared into a reality? Carpe diem, and all that.
Brutus got down on one knee. “Fina, you once said you owned me, and I would like to own you back. Will you marry me?”
She raised two dark brows. “Are you being serious right now?”
“You said you were not the sort of woman to engage in casual sex. You said you cared who you invited into your bed and whose seed you allowed into your womb—or something like that.” Not the exact words she used, but close enough. “I want you very badly, but I also want you to know you mean more to me than the savage animalistic fuckathon I have secretly desired from the first moment you stroked my cock.”
Fina gave him an odd look. “Umm…that’s possibly the nicest, sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“Is that a yes?” he asked, because the ticks were tocking, according to Cimil.
“Yes.” She smiled so brightly, it made his heart ache.
He stood and pushed his lips to her cheek.
She recoiled. “My cheek? But…”
“But nothing,” he whispered in her ear. “If I kiss you, I’m in you. And I want our first time to be perfect.”
She pulled back and beamed up at him. “Okay, then. No kissing.”
“Excellent.”
“But do you mind if I rub one out with Mittens?” she asked.
He crinkled his nose. “Yes.” Because…well, what the fuck was a Mittens?
“Just thought I’d ask.” Fina shrugged.
Brutus grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“How exactly?”
“Does it matter?” Walking, running, flying on Cimil’s horny unicorn. Anything was better than here.
She squeezed his hand. “No.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Turned out that Cimil had come prepared for once, but as usual, her methods reached the extremes. Since all of the healthy soldiers and vampires were busy, Cimil had called in a favor from her nanny to get her to the jungle quickly and get the rest of their party to the aircraft carrier.
For anyone not in the know, her nanny was a Maaskab, an evil Mayan priest who excelled in the dark arts. On the surface, it sounded like a terrible option for child care; however, the Maaskab were the first to flip, and being supremely evil meant that they were temporarily the nicest people on the planet. Her nanny was no exception. Quite literally, he was the “give you the dried-human-skin sarong right off his lower torso” kind of guy. Since that was about all they wore. Sort of like a diaper made of people hide. They also favored necklaces made from the thumbs of their foes and didn’t believe in bathing since they covered their bodies in a mixture of dried blood and soot made from black jade—a very powerful substance with all sorts of magical properties.
Anyway, Cimil’s nanny called a few friends to clear a nice spot in the jungle so they could land helicopters and get everyone to an Uchben personnel carrier.
Honestly, Brutus was impressed. For the first time ever, Cimil was all business, which, of course, made him worry.
Brutus found spare fatigues for himself and gray camo blankets for the ninety-three ladies who’d joined them on the plane. Cimil and her nanny were up front flying. Probably not the best idea, but he was rusty operating such aircraft, and Cimil flew all the time, so she said.
I wonder if she just meant she rides Minky a lot. Oh well, no use worrying about it now, right? He and Fina were free. The queen’s evil reign was over. Now he had bigger things to worry about. For example, figuring out why Cimil was insisting the world was coming to an end. Again. And he believed her. Generally, there was a sparkle of pure evil joy when she told them it was the end of the world. This time? Nothing.
Also, during a quick side conversation with Cimil, she’d said there weren’t enough mated couples to round up and quarantine the affected immortals. Nothing new. It was the reason he’d come on this mission to begin with. But now Cimil said the evil vibes of the immortals were rubbing off on humans, because the immortals were running around getting inside everyone’s heads.
There must be a way to stop this. He wondered why the plague even began in the first place. The gods believed the Universe enjoyed keeping everyone on their toes, but why would she want to end her biggest source of entertainment? Just doesn’t make sense.
This whole thing started right after the last apocalypse—when evil vampires and the Maaskab tried to take over the world. The good guys won, of course, but after the dust settled, there were some major wartime shenanigans to address. Cimil and Zac were at the top of the list of shenanihooligans and were banished to the human world for their many misdeeds. Their sentence included having to match up one hundred single immortals, which was supposed to teach them about love and compassion—something the two lacked. But right away, this new plague hit, and everyone assumed it was simply more of the Universe’s scheming.
What if the Universe had nothing to do with this plague? I know we’re missing something. Something obvious. A plague was a disease, and diseases had to start somewhere. A point of origin. Also, there was a vaccine of sorts (being mated and/or in love), which meant the Universe really couldn’t be out to end the world. If she wanted to end things, she wouldn’t give them all a cure. She’d send an incurable, horrible flesh-eating virus that would wipe out everyone.