Accidentally in Love With a God (2012) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff Page A

voice to that hypnotic, skull penetrating tone. “And you cannot go home. If they know you’re here, they’ll follow you.”
    “Ha! See!” I pointed at his face. “That just proves this isn’t real. Why would anyone want me? Me! I mean…if anyone thinks this”—I waved my hand down the front of my body—“is anything worth stalking, they’re off their frigging rockers.”
    A wicked little glow flickered in Guy’s eyes then faded. “I am not certain why they want you,” he answered, “but the insane do not need a good reason, Emma. The Maaskab are known to kill just for sport. They single-handedly brought down the entire Mayan civilization with their bloodlust.”
    “Thanks. I thought the Mayan alien abduction theory I’d read on the Internet sounded crazy. This makes waaay more sense.”
    “It’s not a joke, Emma. These priests are deadly. They are the reason I came: to wipe them out once and for all. And now, I’ve come to the conclusion they’ve been getting help from a traitor, one of my own. There’s simply no other explanation for their power, their ability to use dark energy, including trapping me for seven decades.”
    A shiver ran down my spine telling me, perhaps, this was real and not a dream. My pounding heart sure felt authentic. Christ, I just wished someone would start filling me on all of the other important details.
    “Who’s your own?” I asked.
    “There’s only one solution now,” he mumbled to himself, then turned to grab my shoulders. “Emma, I have to go.”
    Wasn’t this ironic? He wanted to leave, and now I didn’t want him to. Kick me. “What are you going to do with me?”
    “I’m going to call some people who will take you somewhere safe until I can come for you.”
    “How long?” I asked.
    “I do not know, my sweet.” He stared with his hypnotic, turquoise eyes and then brushed my cheek. “But you have to promise you won’t call anyone you know, and if anything happens, you can’t ever come back here. You can’t go home, either. Do you understand?”
    “No.” I felt the tears welling. All I wanted was normal. Friends, a great job, a boyfriend, maybe a little house with a vegetable garden. Normal.
    What did I get? Bloodthirsty Mayan priests. A menacing, half-naked, skirt-wearing “man.” Living on the run. Forever. Not frigging normal!
    Guy’s face contorted as he watched me begin to cry. “Emma, don't do that.”
    I punched him in the arm. “Don’t. I can’t help it! You’ve so fucked up my life. I’m never going to forgive you, and—”
    “What? I’m trying to save your life, woman.”
    “Then don’t leave without telling me.”
    “Telling you what?”
    “Everything! You owe me!” I felt the walls of my sanity crumbling.
    “Yes, goddammit! I do owe you. And that means fulfilling my oath to keep you safe until this is over.”
    “Oath? Wait…You’re not going to tell me, are you? You’ve been living in my head, torturing me with your enormous ego, driving me insane with your jealousy! Then, I apparently risked my neck to free you. But what about the truth? You promised me answers! You said you’d help me find out what happened to my grandmother!”
    Guy’s eyes narrowed. “Right now, there are bigger issues at hand—your irritating, little human life being one of them.”
    I slapped him hard across the cheek.
    A devilish smile crawled over his face. He chuckled. “And, lucky for me, I don’t answer to little girls, even ones who save me from cenotes. But if you do that again, I’ll happy to bend you over my knee and spank you.”
    Well. That did it. “Effing try it, Neanderthal. I’ll give your man-nuggets another taste of my knee!” I gave him an ineffective push.
    Guy grabbed both my arms. A numbing shock rocketed down my spine, causing my knees to buckle.
    Oops. I’d forgotten about that.
    He lifted me by the shoulders into the air.
    Then a grumble came from Rosa’s throat. “Will you two stop this childish