My Master

by Aleera Anaya Ceres

  Esmeralda patted his hair down; it was hard with gel, and it curled at the back of his neck, just as Antonio’s did. She used to think that it was funny, how two people that looked so alike, could be so different. Now, she wasn’t so sure if it were funny at all.

  He pulled slightly away from her, still gripping her back and sniffled. “You know,” he said, regaining his composure, his eyes going back to that milk chocolate color. “You look like her. Except she had black hair.”

  For some reason, a blush crept up to her cheeks. She swallowed, remembering the time she’d walked into his bedroom and saw what she’d thought had been a picture of herself above his door, photoshopped with black hair.

  At the time, she’d wondered where he’d taken that picture. It hadn’t even been of her. She remembered when he’d given her the bottle of black hair dye, had told her she would look better. It had been because of that. Because he had wanted her to resemble his dead Soul Mate.

  Esmeralda asked, “What was her name?”

  “Esperanza,” he said. “It means ‘hope’ in Spanish.”

  Esmeralda rolled the name around in her mind. Esperanza sounded a lot like Esmeralda, add that to the whole ‘looking alike’ thing and it was no wonder Damien had created a fantasy about Esmeralda in his mind.

  “But now that I’ve gotten to know you…” Damien pushed away a stray lock of hair from her cheek, a gesture so simple and gentle and unlike him. “I realize that you are nothing alike, at all.”

  “Well, I suppose she would be impossible to replace, no matter how alike or how different. And since she died, and you’re dead, do you get to meet with her in the afterlife or something?”

  “I am afraid that it is impossible, and besides, I am not allowed to talk about the Otherworld with you, as you’re well aware.”

  Esmeralda shrugged slightly “So is that all you came into my dream to tell me?” she asked.

  “There are a few other things, the first one being that I know you are pregnant and my brother is likely to notice soon. The second is a warning from the Otherworld regarding Isis. Now, I know you are so keen on helping your best friend and saving humanity, but you should know that Isis does not have control over her own mind at the moment, and she will need your help remembering who she is, and what she is not. The third is a clue to their whereabouts; you’ll find his armies gathered at the Northgate mall right now. The fourth is just a warning. Be careful. I’ve met Caesareon personally and he was hell-bent on getting Isis back. He will not give her up easily.”

  Esmeralda stared at him quizzically. He’d met Caesareon? When? How? When she looked at him, the questions burning in her eyes, he merely shook his head. She parted from Damien and stood up, he followed, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand.

  She stared up at him; he had always been beautiful to her. There was always a sense of mystery to him. Before she had met Antonio she was told that Damien was her Soul Mate, and she didn’t have a problem with it before, he had been her savior, he had taken her out of that closet all of those years ago. Now that she knew the truth, she’d never think of him the same again. But since she understood him better, she figured it would be easier to sleep at night, without all of the nightmares.

  “It is time for us to go,” Damien said, resting his hand on her shoulder.

  “I have to wake up now?” She wondered. She was just having a better time in her dreams, but she knew that she had to get to Isis, and help her remember who she was, she supposed.

  Damien nodded. “Indeed,” he said.

  And Ezzy felt it, a little pull on her being, something calling to her. Her eyelids began to droop heavily, and she felt herself being lifted up. She supposed he was right—it was time. “Thank you, Damien,” she said, though she wasn’t exactly sure why.

  “And one more thing,” Damien said, reaching out for her, but she had already begun to fade, her hearing had grown thinner but she could still make out his words clearly, even as she woke up from her dream. His voice became a distant whisper, carried to her by the wind. “I always cared for you…”

  Esmeralda jolted up in bed, rubbed her eyes and stared around into the darkness. She vaguely wondered what time it was before she remembered her dream and what Damien had said to her. Caesareon was going to be at the mall? It didn’t make much sense to her. What could he possibly gain from going there? Surely he wasn’t going shopping or anything, so why? To get more recruits? That seemed the most likely answer.

  She tossed aside the blanket and jumped out of bed. Immediately, she was overcome with a feeling of nausea. She clutched her stomach and bent over, hanging her head between her legs and breathing in through her mouth.

  Baby, she thought, please calm down for mommy. It was like her child could hear her thoughts and obeyed, settling down instantaneously. She smiled and patted her swollen stomach, noting that it felt bigger than before, though she didn’t feel she had the time to pay much attention to that when there were so many more important things at hand.

  Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made her way to the bedroom door and out to the hallway. She saw the lights down the stairs were on, but the house was completely silent. Reluctantly, she walked down the steps to find her living room empty. She made her way to the kitchen, where she saw Maria, sitting cross legged on her countertop, in pajama shorts and a tank top, sipping synthetic blood from a juice box.

  Esmeralda didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that something was wrong. Maria’s big brown eyes said it all.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” Maria greeted her. “You’ve been asleep for a whole day.”

  Ezzy looked around. “Where is everyone?”

  Maria shrugged and continued sipping from her bended straw.

  Esmeralda’s eyebrows rose. “Where is everyone?” she repeated, feeling annoyed.

  Maria sensed her annoyance and looked up at her. “I told you, I don’t know.”

  Esmeralda felt a growl rumble out of her throat and she approached the counter, snatching the juice box from her hand and tossing it to the floor. She felt her annoyance and anger grow. “Maria, do stop lying to me because I am not in the mood. Where the hell is Antonio?”

  She sighed heavily. “He went back to see Agent Phillipe to tell her what he discovered about that Caesareon prick.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. “What did they discover?”

  “That Caesareon was controlling Isis’s mind—”

  “Well, duh, that much was obvious!”

  “Well they wanted to get down there and prove it and to tell them that he’s going to create an army and blah, blah, blah.” She shrugged her shoulders, clearly bored.

  “How long did you say I was asleep?”

  “We got here at around three a.m. yesterday, and right now it’s about nine p.m.”

  Ezzy stepped back frantically. “That means that Caesareon is going to be at the Northgate mall today!”

  “Wait, wait, wait, what?!” Maria hopped off the counter and gripped Ezzy by the shoulders.

  “Caesareon is going to gather his armies at the mall tonight! I have to go tell Agent Phillipe! She needs to get the cops down there now!”

  “How do you know this?” Maria shook her gently, but there was urgency in her voice.

  “Damien told me…”

  Maria made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat and pushed Ezzy away, all of her earlier gentleness gone. Tears overflowed from her big brown eyes, eyes that were much like her brothers, eyes she was sure they had inherited from their mother; Antonio had his father’s eyes.

  “Don’t you dare make jokes like that!” Maria demanded in an uneven voice, pointing a shaking finger at her. “Do not talk to me about my brother, how dare you?” Her tears burst forward and streamed down her face in large droplets.

  Esmeralda was surprised. Ever since Damien had died she had been worried about no one but Antonio. Never once had she stopped to think about what it had done to Maria, or even to Mr. Santiago fo
r that matter. Maria barely showed any emotion about the situation, so she never thought she was in pain.

  “I’m not lying…” Esmeralda whispered quietly, feeling the tears fall down her cheeks as well.

  Maria turned away from her, after what seemed like a long time of silence, she spoke. “They’re at the police station; he left about thirty minutes ago. You should leave now and go tell them what you found out, okay?”

  Esmeralda hesitated for a fraction of a second, but she knew she couldn’t spend all night there. She went over to Maria and wrapped her arms around her stomach, pulling her into a hug. Maria tensed as she did so, but only for a moment. She relaxed and sighed.

  “I’m sorry, Maria,” Esmeralda whispered into the material of her back.

  “Okay,” she sighed.

  And then Esmeralda left.

  “I thought I told you that you couldn’t be a part of this investigation anymore?” Agent Phillipe didn’t bother trying to hide her annoyance. She obviously seemed busier than she had been before. There were dark shadows under her eyes and her curly hair was in tangles and knots, making Antonio wonder if she had slept at all.

  “We have newly discovered information that we wish to share with you,” Mr. Santiago said.

  She raised her eyebrow, and beckoned them to go on.

  They explained their theory about Caesareon controlling Isis and about how he was going to control an entire army to—more than likely—rule the world.

  “Yes, but we already knew that part about him creating an army, remember? And there’s no way to prove that he’s controlling Isis, so you’re information is quite useless. Unless, of course, you’ve discovered his whereabouts or his next move, I suggest you leave because I have a lot of work to do.” She began to turn away when Antonio caught her forearm.

  “Wait,” he demanded angrily.

  Victoria narrowed her eyes at him. “If you do not remove your hand from my arm, I swear I’ll bite it off and shove it up your ass.”

  He let her go immediately, his chest contracting against his ribcage. For a moment he was reminded of another time—in Madrid—when he had met Katheryn for the first time. She had said something surprisingly similar to him. The memory brought tears to the back of his eyelids.

  “Antonio, maybe we should leave.” His father placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a light squeeze. But he didn’t want to. He couldn’t leave. He wanted to stay and help with the investigation and get Isis back so that Esmeralda wouldn’t be in pain anymore. So that Isis wouldn’t be in pain anymore.

  “He’s right,” Victoria said before turning around. “Maybe you should go.”

  Antonio opened his mouth to reply but a voice spoke over him.

  “I know where Caesareon is going to be tonight! He’s going to be at the Northgate mall!”

  He turned.

  It was Esmeralda.

  18

  The blood stains didn’t seem to go away. She scrubbed and she scrubbed but they remained beneath her fingernails, in her hair, it was as if it was all tattooed onto her being, irremovable. She scratched at her bare skin until she started bleeding, until shreds of skin came off. It would heal over just as quickly but she didn’t care, she wanted to scrub herself of everything. If only she could dig into her mind and claw out the memories of her murderous ways with the tips of her iron-like fingernails.

  Isis had been contemplating suicide for so long now. Maybe she could expose herself in broad daylight, burn to a crisp and get it over with. But she couldn’t, she was a coward, she didn’t have what it took to get out there and kill herself. It would have been like spitting in the faces of her mother and brother. How could she so easily throw away her own life when theirs was robbed from them?

  No, she was going to live. And she was going to kill Caesareon; she was going to avenge her family.

  Isis hardly slept during the day anymore. She was too afraid of the nightmares that flashed behind her eyelids when she closed her eyes. Anyway, sleep never came easily. Instead, she stayed awake, in Caesareon’s bed while he slept beside her, Demetria on his other side, frozen in his day sleep.

  She had wanted to kill him countless times, but she had been too afraid to do so. If she killed him, where would she go? Where could she hide? She had passed away opportunity after opportunity to slaughter him in his sleep.

  The good thing was that he never suspected she was awake during that time. He always assumed she was in her day sleep, as he was.

  And that had been his mistake.

  Because that day, his words were meant to taunt her; and they had. He had brought up her dead brother, her dead mother. He spat at her with venom and menace and humor in his voice and they were words that she would never forget.

  “I see no reason for you to mourn them.” He had said. “You have a new life, surrounded by your own kind. You are where you’re meant to be; you should rejoice. I doubt you can even remember their names. Can you Isis? Can you remember their names?”

  She couldn’t.

  Try as hard as she might, she couldn’t remember that. Only their faces, and even then, only the moments she had caught them in death. She couldn’t remember a time beyond the moment she had woken up. Only that she was Egyptian and that those two people, who were utterly familiar, were her family and she had killed them.

  She wondered if he had taken away her memories of them, or if it was some side effect of the change.

  She was gripped with rage.

  She hadn’t asked for this life, she didn’t want to kill humans and she didn’t want to fight, to have their lives hanging over her head by a noose, creeping around her like a shadow.

  No, she would get out of this life, she decided, if it was the last thing she did.

  Isis found the bone handled knife in the room, gripping it with trembling fingers, she went over to where he lay, peaceful, beautiful, as if he weren’t a total monster who had ruined her life. She sat on top of him, straddling him. Demetria barely even stirred. This will be the last time, she thought as she raised the knife over her head. This will be the last time I see your face, and she brought the knife down in an arc motion, stabbing him just below the heart.

  He didn’t move, but then again, he was in his day sleep and she wasn’t sure if he would have been able to feel it. Blood seeped out of his open wound; the sight startled her to her feet, leaving the knife implanted in his chest. He didn’t appear to be breathing, and she didn’t wait around to see if he was still alive; out of pure fear. She covered herself with dark cloth, from head to toe, and escaped in broad daylight, running away from Caesareon, without looking back.

  Isis rinsed the blood from her mouth and spit it to the ground.

  She was dressed up in gear again watching Caesareon pace the floor in front of her. She wondered what kind of job he would force her to do today, and she wondered how he would force her to do it. Whether he would control her—or what?

  “What’s the plan for today?” she asked in a shaking voice. The memories of the killings they had done still hadn’t left her mind. She hadn’t wanted to disembowel or behead anyone, but he had left her no choice.

  He stopped pacing and observed her. “Excited for the next stage in our plan, my warrior?” His voice was low and seductive, almost a cat’s purr. It was funny, she thought, he didn’t seem like a cat, or any species of feline. He seemed more like a poisonous viper, the kind that danced slowly and sensually out of a basket, just to trick the flutist and at the last minute bite them in the throat.

  “I’m merely curious,” she stated.

  He smiled. “Curiosity killed the cat, Isis.”

  “But satisfaction brought it back,” she retorted.

  He smiled, revealing his incisors. “I suppose you could look at your situation like that. You were a very curious mortal, my dear; it is what led you to me in the first place.”

  She frowned, mainly because she didn’t remember what had led to her changing into a vampire, and she was frustrated. She wante
d to ask him, but she feared he would lie to her. And thought it would be better if she didn’t know, it was too late now.

  As if reading her thoughts he said in an amused tone, “You don’t remember, do you?”

  She chewed her bottom lip and turned away. He was in front of her now, holding her chin in his fingers and turning her to look him in the dark yellow eyes. She had the urge to spit in his face.

  “Isis, it is best to keep the past in the past.” He kissed her lips. “You have a new life now.”

  She sighed. “I didn’t ask for this.” Tears prickled at her eyes. She turned away from him again.

  He smiled devilishly. “I know you didn’t, Isis. I know.” He stood up again and paced some more. A buzzing sound jerked his feet to a stop and he pulled out a cell phone from his pocket and pressed it angrily to his ear. “Is it done?”

  The voice on the other end of the line was a familiar one, but she just couldn’t place who it was, a memory began tugging at the back of her brain. She shrugged it off. It was probably the same person that had called him before, and that’s why.

  “Do not fail me or you know what will happen,” he threatened and hung up the phone.

  “Who was that?” Isis asked.

  Caesareon turned, eyebrow raised. It seemed that in that little conversation he had forgotten she was there. “No one that you need to concern yourself with, my dear. Now, we have to go to the mall.”

  Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Planning on shopping? You do need new outfits. Yours are just too retro.”

  He frowned at her sarcasm. “No. Tonight is the war, Isis. My armies are finally assembled and we are planning a full fledge attack on the mall tonight.”

  She stood up, her head spinning. “Surely there aren’t enough people? Shouldn’t it just be a minor attack?”

  He shook his head. “No, tonight I will go there and change all of the humans. The process from human into a vampire isn’t a long one, when they wake up I will set them against the human police force, and when they are unarmed, I will change them as well, thus this whole city will become mine. Afterwards we can begin to invade other cities until I control everything.”