Hostile Genus: An Epic Military Sci-Fi Series (Invasive Species Book 2) Ben Stevens (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

“As Chief Aide to Warbak, I was tasked with the lion’s share of the day-to-day operational tasks. While Warbak plotted with demons and tortured people, it was I who actually oversaw the fundamental operations. It was I who actually kept the Ziggurat running.”

Miller, who had given up and had been stewing in his morose defeat, suddenly perked back up. He felt as if his cybernetic parts were malfunctioning and sending jolts of electricity into his flesh.

No. No way. He can’t be serious!

“What is your point, sir?” Monroe asked.

“My point, ladies and gentlemen, is this. If you would allow it, I would like to volunteer my services to you as a fellow council member. I can help you get this city back to running. It would be my honor. It would be my penance.”

Miller sat frozen, knowing that any objection he made at this point would fall on deaf ears. Hating every second of it, wishing to everything in the universe that this was all a bad dream, he watched as Monroe called for a spontaneous vote. Words were spoken, hands were raised. More words spoken, more hands raised. The council voted to make Matiaba a member of the ruling body of Home, six to four.

Maya, if you’re alive, please hurry home!

16

New Puebla was abuzz with rumors and excited preparation. News hawkers and gossipmongers worked to intrigue and titillate the population as tirelessly as the laborers who had been assigned to construct the stage in the town center that would accommodate Lily Sapphire’s first concert in New Puebla. Between the certain knowledge of Lily’s show two days hence and its attendant anticipation, as well as the whispers that New Puebla’s king, Don Luis Fernando, would be taking a new wife, nobody in the city could talk about much else.

Like the proverbial circus that accompanied the bread in countless civilizations before it, pop music and celebrity relationships filled the imaginations and conversations of every tired soul in the city-state, giving every one of them a mental respite from their otherwise bleak existence of repetitive labor and flat futures.

Among the more hushed whispers traded in the human and vampire circles of New Puebla were ones centered on King Fernando’s current wife, Sofia. What was going to happen to her? What did she think of all this? Was she being replaced, or would she have a higher position as wife numero uno? Was Lily going to be a wife or more of a mistress? If mistress, was she Señor Fernando’s alone? Or was Sofia the type of girl to enjoy having a female plaything too? Many suspected she was. And on and on. If there was a variation of the scenario one could imagine, then it was being speculated about over the daily tilling of garden beds, the grinding of maize, the breastfeeding of babies, the quaffing of cerveza and mescal, and the construction of the stage.

As for Don Luis Fernando, he could barely restrain himself. After proposing to Maya and showing her his deepest, darkest secret in the catacombs of his palace, he had escorted her back to her suite and reluctantly parted ways, for dawn was quickly approaching.

Rather than send for her, he returned to her suite the following dusk. Ratt and Lucy kept their distance and did their best to behave like the slave chattel that Don Luis would assuredly see them as while Maya received their host.

He behaved as though possessed with an urgent need. He wanted to turn her then and there, demanded even, and then, having been rejected, resorted to begging.

Maya played him like a pro and told him again to wait until the next night; that she wanted to be taken in front of the whole populace, at the climax of her show.

For a brief moment, Maya wondered if Don Luis’s animal urges would overcome his gentlemanly restraint and force her hand. Even with Lucy at her side, she did not think they could easily make their escape from the heart of the city in the dark should they be able to take him, or at the very least, stun him.

And force her hand it would, there was no doubt about it. Luckily for her, Don Luis conceded defeat and promised to abide by her wishes, waiting until the next night.

The two days and nights following Maya’s tour of the city were frantic and busy for Maya and every one of her guardians. Ratt was the busiest of them all. He did his best and proved to be worthy of his position as guardian. Maya occupied the attention of Don Luis while Ratt and Lucy worked tirelessly to “prepare for the concert.”

Jon and Carbine, too, prepared for their role in the grand finale of Lily’s show, though most of their time was filled with the creeping dread-like frustration that comes with waiting for the inevitable. Brave they were, but nervous too. Carbine tried to hide it behind stupid remarks and jokes, but Jon knew his friend too well. On the side of a small mountain overlooking the desert valley and city within, Jon existed in a state of near meditation, trying his best to lull the butterflies in his stomach to sleep with the rhythmic sounds of his deep, slow breaths.

Being unable to communicate back to Maya was the most excruciating part of the entire ordeal. Jon was stressed out, that was for sure, but he could only imagine the trepidation that Maya, Lucy, and Ratt were feeling—wondering, hoping that Jon and Carbine had not only heard their report, subsequent plans, and periodic check-ins, but were prepared to act when the time came to do their part. For if Jon and Carbine dropped the ball, then all would surely be lost, and the show scheduled for the next night would be the last performance Lily Sapphire would ever give, goddess or not.

And so, the time ticked by as uncomfortably as the siesta-inducing heat of a New Puebla summer day.

Of all the different variations of