Roberto picked up immediately. “Sugar cunt? That you?”
What a terrible name to call one’s mate. Surprisingly, though, it sort of fit. “It’s Brutus. I’m here on the tarmac in Sedona. Your wife is in labor.”
“Oh. Be right there! Tell her to hang on!”
Brutus ended the call, and in an instant, Roberto appeared, grabbed Cimil, and then disappeared.
Meanwhile, the hissing and screeching continued from the tornado of fire on the landing strip.
Brutus shook his head. He had no clue what was going on. (A) Roberto had just sifted, something vampires had not been able to do for years—a long story. (B) Cimil had casually mentioned the plague was over because of…Minky’s sex anger?
Maybe Cimil was lying again. Maybe she wasn’t. Only one way to find out. Go to the prison and see if the quarantined immortals were back to normal. Hopefully, he’d find Fina there and figure out what was happening with them. He honestly didn’t know what he’d done wrong.
He glanced over his shoulder at the twister of flames that showed no signs of letting up.
I really need to get a new job. This one was just getting too weird.
Fina figured that if she and Brutus weren’t going to work out, then there was no reason to deprive herself of the pleasures of the flesh. She’d remained pure for centuries out of loyalty and tradition, only to discover their belief system was a hoax, a practical joke instigated by Cimil. At least they were all free now. No more holding back. No more self-sacrifice for false dogmas.
Perhaps I, too, will find a mate here in the immortal prison, a male truly worthy of me. Brutus wasn’t who she thought, and she only had herself to blame. Her hot-and-bothered vagina had blinded her. Sometimes, I only think with my little button.
Well, now she was thinking with her big button. The one she could push and make shit happen.
The women found the prison entrance exactly where that fine, fine soldier named Andrus had told them it would be. Too bad he wasn’t single, because a tall, muscular man like that looked like he knew how to please a woman. The only thing that turned her off was how much he looked like Brutus—the turquoise eyes, dark hair, and strong body.
Whatever. All that mattered now was that whichever male she chose from this prison of quarantined singles had a cock and knew how to use it.
The women accompanying her cheered as the elevator descended. What made her nervous was how all of the security controls had been disabled and someone had spray-painted Do not enter! Danger! Turn back now! on the wall and signed it “–Z.”
I wonder who Z is…
The elevator stopped, and the shiny stainless steel doors slid open.
Fina and the eleven other women blinked, trying to digest what they saw. Everyone inside the nearly empty prison was quiet, sitting on the floor in the common area or in their unlocked jail cells. They were on laptops or phones. Their eyes were red and bleeding, not one of them moving.
“What do you think is happening?” said Jemma, one of the younger tribe members.
“I have no idea.” Fina stepped out and passed through the open gate. Carefully, she tiptoed around the immortals—at least she assumed they were immortal. Fina looked over the shoulder of one man dressed in fatigues. What in the world? She leaned in a little.
Fina wasn’t exactly sure what this was, so she checked two more immortals and returned to the women. “They appear to be on some program called Twitter and are writing mean messages about people—someone called the Orange Man and another they call Creepy Uncle.”
“Oh. I heard about that. The humans call it trolling,” said one of the women.
Whatever it was called, the infected prisoners seemed to be hypnotized by their activities, and these were not the evil, randy immortal men they’d hoped to find.
“It’s a bust.” Fina sighed, wondering where all of the prisoners had gone. From what Brutus had said, it sounded like there were supposed to be a few thousand immortals imprisoned here.
She shrugged. I guess no sex for me tonight. The remaining males were glued to their electronics. “Gods, and I really wanted to get laid.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Jemma. “And I really hoped to find a husband, yanno? All these pregnancy hormones are making me crazy.”
The other ten women agreed.
Fina frowned. “What do you mean, pregnant?”
“Yeah,” Jemma explained. “Why do you think we all left the village? No way were we going to be knocked up and working like the queen demanded. Time to kick up our feet and be pampered a little, yanno?”
“But I-I don’t understand. You’re telling me you’re all pregnant?” Fina winced, already knowing the truth. Her tribeswomen never minced words.
The eleven women nodded.
Well, I guess that whole thing about how and when we can conceive was a bunch of BS. Why was she surprised? Everything else they’d believed in turned out to be bogus.
“And the others who came with us on the plane?” Fina asked.
“All of us,” Jemma confirmed. “We are all carrying Brutus’s children.”
Fina pressed her hands to her stomach. I’m going to be sick. “I can’t believe this,” she muttered. “All of them. With my man?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jemma interjected. “Ten minutes ago, when we got off the plane, you said you didn’t want him anymore.”
“Hey. I already called dibs,” another sister barked.
Two more of Fina’s tribeswomen spoke up, screaming about how they had a right to Brutus, too. Suddenly, all eleven were arguing over him.
The elevator doors opened, and out poured another twelve sisters. The first group told the second that the whole prison-inmate-sex-partner thing was a bust. Then the second group began staking claims on Brutus.
This isn’t happening. Fina covered her face and groaned.
On the other hand, if they wanted to fight over Brutus, a man whose heart belonged to another, then who was she to stop them?
“Ladies!” Fina clapped her hands. “Since we are no longer bridled by Cimil’s falsehoods, I evoke the circle!”
Her sisters gasped and then began cheering. No one had called upon the circle for centuries, because Cimil had banned it. Fortunately, that horrible goddess no longer called the shots. They were free to practice the old ways, the new ways, the sideways—anything they wanted.
“Come,” Fina said. “Let us ask the hot man called Andrus where we might find lamp oil, lodging, and food.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Brutus felt torn. He wanted to look for Fina, but he also needed to check on his dog and Señor Gato. Andrus said the kitten had returned on a separate plane and had been placed in Brutus’s home after being passed along by Colel before her bees flipped. Andrus also reported that most of the prisoners had escaped and were down in the mall looting.
This is insanity! To top it all off, no one knew where the gods were, and that huge fireball outside continued spinning on the tarmac. Also, he saw zero signs of the plague ending. In fact, being here on base felt like he’d walked into a supernatural nightmare. He’d witnessed a group of were-creatures driving by in a Humvee. He’d seen vampires taking off in helicopters, going gods only knew where. He even saw some of the demigods, including one of his own men, loading up a truck with grenades—no doubt planning to terrorize some human cities.