I’d thought that when I got rid of the males, things would change. The women trust me, but I’m still the youngest of the group. And so I’m still treated as a child.
“It is her destiny to release us from the curse,” says Itzel.
“I know,” says Zuma. “But that doesn’t mean she has to act like a sacrifice.”
Oh, the irony. The women in our history were given as sacrifices to gods. But they also ruled. There were times of harmony before colonialism brought in the patriarchy and destroyed our matrilineal history.
I tune them out again and let them lecture on. I’ve only ever wanted a lecture from an actual college professor. I want to sit in a lecture hall on an uncomfortable hardback chair and scribble down notes with different colored pens. But nope. I’m going to be changing the diapers of a supernatural baby instead.
I know there are thousands of women who go to school and raise a family at the same time. I even pointed out that I will have a literal village of women to help me raise my child. But that didn’t sway them either. I’ll still be barefoot and pregnant.
Well, not barefoot. Zuma did gift me with a nice pair of heels last month. Not that I’ll get to wear them anywhere except, maybe, the delivery room.
Thoughts of the delivery room take me back to how this child will be made. With a man trapped in a room not too far from where I’m standing. I press my lips together, seeking any hint of Virius’s taste on my mouth.
He’s there. Just at the center of my lower lip. I tug the flesh I find there into my mouth and pull at the skin.
There is a note of the sweetness of the ripest grape. The robust smoke of wood. And a hint of iron, but there’s no metallic taste.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a vision of him. He’s standing in that ridiculous shirt featuring a caricature of my culture. The jeans are off, but the chaps still hang around his thick thighs. Peeking out from the leather of the chaps is Frankie. He raises his head as though he’s looking for me. That single eye finds me, and a dollop of precum beads at the tip, as though Virius’s dick is salivating.
Damn, I’m hard up. I should probably take Zuma’s advice and jump Virius tonight—if I can get him to let me ride him. He’ll probably be more amenable now that Pia has a dagger at his throat.
Wait.
What?
I blink. Then I blink again. I’m not fantasizing.
Virius stands on the other side of the cave. Pia is behind him with a dagger at his throat. A bead of his blood trickles down his thick neck.
“Drop the knife, Pia.” I’m moving as I talk, but I falter at Pia’s next words.
“He’s trying to escape.”
My brain is beyond considering how Virius escaped the locked room. It focuses only on the one word: escape. He was trying to leave? He said he wouldn’t. He said he’d stay.
Maybe I should let him go. If he’s not here, then he can’t impregnate me. If I’m not pregnant, then maybe I can go to college. And if he doesn’t fulfill the prophecy, then he can’t fulfill the part where he dies.
I give the voice in my head a rough shake. Neither of us can escape this prophecy. Destiny always finds you.
It doesn’t matter what he wants, just as it doesn’t matter what I want. Virius is going back under lock and key, and we are getting it on. He’s going to put a baby in me whether he likes it or not.
All around me I hear feminine gasps. For a second, I worry that I’ve said that out loud. But I quickly realize that not a single eye, human or jaguar, is on me. Every female in this room is looking at the monster swaying between Virius’s thighs.
Frankie is lifted high, with no hand from Virius. That cheeky snake leans a little to the right, and then to the left, as though he’s dancing to an unheard snake charmer’s tune. Then I realize Frankie is swaying in time to my beat as I march towards him and Virius.
“I wasn’t going anywhere,” he says when I reach him. “I thought I heard you in distress.”
Once again, I’m brought up short. The man is my captive, and he thought he was coming to save me? He has a real hero complex.
“Now I see why she might want to anticipate the full moon.”
I’m not sure I know who said it. But I know they all are thinking it now that they see what Virius is working with.
“Are all vampires hung like that?”
“I don’t know, but I want to find out.”
I slap Pia’s hand away from Virius’s neck. I glare at her, flashing my eyes. She’s older than I am—all of them are. But she bows her head in deference.
Unlike wolves, jaguars don’t have a hierarchal order. They are mostly loners. The only time they spend together as a pack is when they’re raising cubs. Otherwise, they’re highly territorial.
Pia’s lucky I only slapped her hand and didn’t bite it off. I take Virius by the upper arm and turn him so all the others can see of him is his ass. I only barely hold myself back from dropping trow and peeing on his leg. Only barely.
Now that they’ve all seen who he belongs to, I give him a tug to leave. Virius is larger and stronger than me. I know I would have no pull over him if he didn’t want to go with me.
