by Marian Tee
“Calm down, my friend.” The headmaster’s voice was quiet. “I’m sure Katarina did not mean any such thing.” As he spoke, puffs of cold air came out of his mouth.
Alexandru started to speak, and Katarina held her breath while tension gripped the rest of the room’s occupants, all of them vigilant as they waited to see if Alexandru would snap.
No words came from Alexandru.
Her heart beating madly, she mustered the courage to look at him.
Oh.
Alexandru’s eyes were closed, his lips tightly compressed. She knew immediately that he was no longer with them, with a part of his mind locked with his pet through the blood bond they shared.
When his eyes opened again, fury swirled in its green depths. “I must go. My pet needs me.”
And then he was gone, his powers fully unleashed, its impact like a torrent of wind that left the humans falling to their knees with dazed expressions on their faces.
Katarina only had a moment’s hesitation before a rare sense of impulsiveness seized her.
She followed him, tracking Alexandru by his scent. It was the only way since Alexandru was moving too fast, making it impossible for Katarina to keep him in sight.
When he slowed down, she slowed down, too, and Katarina realized that they were at Key Moarte. She remembered then that today was the scheduled trip---
A scream spilled past her lips as fingers came out of nowhere, encircling her wrist and whipping her back. She stumbled to a stop and she screamed again in shock, this time upon finding Alexandru looming before her, with nothing to shield her from his powerful aura.
Leave now if all you have come for is to cause trouble.
Alexandru’s menacingly soft tone in her mind made Katarina shudder. It was like hearing a stranger speak, a terrifyingly volatile stranger and not like a man who had once loved her more than anything else in the world.
I come in peace, Alexandru. She dropped to her knees. It wasn’t just a sign of respect, it was also to acknowledge that he was the brother of the marquis and thus he, too, ruled over their kind.
She said in her mind, I am a healer, Alexandru, and your pet may need my help.
Silence, vicious and taunting, as if Alexandru was weighing how much he wanted her alive---
Her name is Zari, hunter, and I will not forgive you again if you ever speak ill of her.
Katarina bowed her head. Yes, milord.
She knew then he was no longer the Alexandru she loved, no longer the Alexandru who had loved her. But even so, she would not give up.
Chapter Three
ZARI
It had only been minutes since I came back to the hotel room when I felt the door open behind me, followed by a cool blast of wind coming from the outside. Since I knew air-conditioning units couldn’t walk, I had a pretty good idea what caused it.
“Master.” I turned around, and it really was Alexandru.
He came to me wordlessly, cupping my face and looking into my eyes. His touch made me tremble, and I stayed still as he ran his hands over my body, searching for any sign of injuries.
“I’m fine.” I didn’t want him to worry.
His gaze returned to my face, and I realized that my reassurance hadn’t done any good. I could feel his hands shaking. “You were burning,” he bit out. “I could feel it, even though I didn’t see your vision---”
Good, I thought numbly. Because he was the last person I wanted to know about my vision.
Shaking my head at his words, I cut him off, saying, “I was just…hot.” It was supposed to be a quip, but it fell awkward between us and when his gaze narrowed, I immediately looked away.
“What did you see, pet?”
I didn’t answer.
He cupped my face again, forcing me to look at him. “Zari…”
“I can’t.” The words were torn out from me, and suddenly I could see it again.
The school was burning...
Katarina was dying…
Guilt flamed into life, a fire that didn’t just burn me but crushed me under its weight, nearly bringing me down to my knees.
Oh God, had it all happened because unrequited love had turned me into a selfish and vindictive bitch?
“Just tell me this, and don’t fucking lie,” Alexandru said in a hard voice. “Were you in danger in your vision?”
Biting my lip to stop it from trembling, I shook my head slowly and watched my Master’s powerful body relax at my answer.
A sob rose to my throat, but I forced it back down.
If only.
If only it could be me---
Someone knocked on the door, and Alexandru stiffened, making me look at him in surprise. “What is---”
“May I come in?”
I paled.
Katarina was here?
“She came with you?” The words came out of my mouth in a hiss. “You’ve been with her all the time?” In the back of my mind, I knew that I was acting out like a kid, knew that the anger was my defense against the guilt.
Alexandru’s handsome face had turned rigid. “You know I’ve been in a meeting. Read my mind if you will. I’m not lying---”
“Why is she here?” I was shouting now. Outside, Katarina had fallen silent but we both knew that she was still standing there, hearing everything that was going on. The whole school may be outside for all I knew, but I couldn’t seem to make myself care.
I just wanted to be mad.
I wanted him to be mad.
So damn mad that he would punish me the way I deserved.
It was better than having him find out the shameful truth.
“What’s gotten into you?” Alexandru demanded. “You are not being your usual self---”
“And that’s what? Someone who just stands aside every time she calls for you?”
“You know it’s not like that.” Alexandru gripped my shoulders almost as if he was prepared to shake some sense into me. “All this time, you know I’ve been avoiding---”
“Really?” I let out a hollow laugh. “You’ve been avoiding her? Oh, that’s rich,” I spat. “You may be trying to avoid her, but we both know you weren’t really trying too hard---”
“Stop this.” A muscle started ticking in his jaw.
“No!” I shook my head wildly. “I want to hear you say it---”
The door opened behind us, and Katarina appeared in the doorway, a troubled look on her oh-so-lovely face.
Emotions warred inside of me.
Jealousy, bitterness, even hatred, but most of all there was guilt, and it made me want to scratch her eyes out, just so she wouldn’t accidentally see the truth in mine.
The thought left me paralyzed with shock.
Oh God, when had I become this evil?
“I’m sorry for intruding.” Katarina closed the door behind her. “But I thought you two should calm down---”
She thought we should calm down? Who cared about what she thought? She wasn’t part of this---
I shut that line of thought down, but the effort left me shaking.
Why was I so vindictive? Evil? Bitchy? Why?
“I’m going.” I wrenched myself out of Alexandru’s hold. I had to leave before either of them realized how low I’d sunk.
I only managed a few steps before he spun me back around. “Where are you going?”
“Somewhere, anywhere I won’t have to see you.”
He froze. “What the fuck’s wrong with you?”
“Why do you even have to ask?” I was screaming again. I was losing it, and the more he kept me with him, the more I’d lose it until I was nothing but an empty shell, a being made soulless by my guilt.
“Zari---”
“Let go of me! You want to be with her, don’t you? So be with her---”
“I never said---”
“But you’re always with her---”
“Because you keep pushing me away!” This time, Alexandru had shouted, too.
The vampire hunter who was legendary for
never losing his control, for always being so beautifully mannered, for never letting his temper get the best of him---
I whitened at the realization that I was the only one who had made him this way. Mortification flooded me as the knowledge that everyone who had heard us would have known the same thing, too.
Alexandru was pale, too. “Zari, I---”
I spun away.
There was nothing he could say that would change the truth.
This time, he didn’t stop me.
~~~~
Moping was something I had become really good at in the past months. I had the art of isolating one’s self down pat, with people generally steering clear once they had taken a good look at my face.
I had also developed a sixth sense for the best places to drown in self-pity, and at the resort I found it in the remotest part of the beach, a tiny strip of sand hidden behind the woods.
It was restful here, if not a little creepy. I would have been terrified if I hadn’t felt my Master’s presence in my mind, the blood bond between us giving me a sense of safety. It sucked, but it was the truth. I probably wouldn’t even have thought of venturing here if I wasn’t so sure Alexandru could be by my side in a second if I needed him to be.
Lying on the sand, I turned to my side and gazed at the woods. Autumn had just started, but the trees were all dead, branches thinning into leaf-less sticks. When I had passed it, there weren’t any birds either, as if the winged creatures knew only death awaited them here.
Time moved ever so slowly, and when I checked my phone, I was stunned that only five minutes had passed.
I slept.
When I woke up, Katarina was seated beside me, knees drawn up. She had her back to me, but I could see her shoulders were shaking.
“Katarina?” My voice was a low strained whisper. What would I do if she really were crying?
Wordlessly, she turned to me---
Katarina’s entire face was gone, leaving behind a gaping skull blackened by fire. Your fault, this is all your fault, YOUR FAULT---
She lunged for me.
I screamed.
ZARI!
ZARI!
And then I felt it, Alexandru shaking my body, hauling me out of my nightmare.
My eyes flew open.
Was I really awake this time?
“Zari,” Alexandru said hoarsely.
And then he was hauling me into his arms, and relief slammed into me as I felt the familiar heat of his body.
Thank God.
I didn’t even think of refusing the comfort my Master offered. I wrapped my arms around his neck as tightly as I could. I listened to his still-thunderous heartbeat, inhaled his scent, and pressed my hand against his chest. I did everything I could, feverishly, to assure myself that this was not another nightmare.
Before I realized what was happening, I had already started to cry, the tears falling silently down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry, pet.” My Master’s voice was raw. “I’m sorry for shouting at you.”
I shook my head against his chest. I deserve it. I didn’t dare speak yet. I was afraid if I did, I would find myself crying harder and the tears would never stop.
Guilt remained a crushing weight inside me, forcing me down into a bottomless pit of despair. I squeezed my eyes shut, but it was pointless. All I could see were my visions.
The school, razed to the ground…
Katarina, dying in front of me…
What if I really was the reason she would die?
What if she wasn’t the only one who’d die?
What if everyone in school died…and just because I was exactly what Rhapsody said – someone who loved a man who might not be able to love me in return?
Would I let everyone die just because of that?
My fingers tightened on Alexandru’s shirt. Master.
Alexandru stilled. What is it, pet?
I need to talk to Katarina. Alone.
Chapter Four
ZARI
That night, Katarina and I met in a private room in one of the resort’s restaurants. One of Alexandru’s guards accompanied me, and I watched silently as he performed a spell that would ensure whatever Katarina and I spoke of in this room, no one would hear.
The guard walked back to us and held out an empty chalice.
Katarina reached down, and I blinked when she came up with a pocketknife. Where could she have hidden that, I wondered absently. She was dressed in a one-shouldered tight-fitting gown, and I hadn’t even seen the barest outline of a knife under the silk.
I had dressed for the occasion, too, but next to her and her C-cups, I looked more like a boy pretending to be a girl.
Katarina noticed my gaze on her knife. As if she sensed my curiosity, she explained, “I hid it in one of my shoes.”
I frowned.
“I literally step on it all the time.”
What?
Pulling the knife out of its sheath, she said, “This one, I use for ordinary stuff.” She pricked her finger with the tip of the blade and a drop of her blood fell into the chalice.
I gulped. This was ordinary stuff for her?
“The knife on my left foot, on the other hand, that’s for killing demons. Its blade is dipped with poison.” As she spoke, Katarina twirled the knife in her hand before handing it to me, with the blade pointed at her for my safety.
I hesitated. Who knew if she had used preternatural powers to trick me into thinking that this was the same knife?
“Lady Zari.” Katarina’s voice was gentle. “Do you truly believe your Master would ever like someone able to commit cold-blooded murder without just cause?”
I took the knife from her hand. Pricking myself made me suck in my breath, and I was shaking by the time the guard walked away with my blood. “Thank you,” I mumbled as I gave the blade back to her.
The guard completed the spell with our blood and bowed to us afterwards before leaving. When we were alone, Katarina asked, “Alexandru says you wanted to talk to me?”
Something about her voice made me look at her. She hadn’t been…as cold as this before, when we first met.
“Are you actually angry with me?”
Reaching for her wine, she asked lightly, “Why do you sound so shocked?”
I shrugged awkwardly. “Probably because, I dunno…maybe because you’re centuries old, I’m eighteen, and it’s like getting mad at a baby?”
She laughed. “Oh, Lady Zari. You of all people should know that love has the power to make children of us all. Brats really, with the way it can make us selfish, greedy, and…” Her voice lowered a notch. “Shameless.”
My cheeks burned at the subtle dig, but I didn’t deny it. I had been shameless in the way I had blown up on Alexandru, and I would only act more like a kid if I couldn’t make myself accept that.
I said stiffly, “That’s not what I want to talk about.”
“I know.”
Again, she surprised me. “Y-you do?”
She nodded. “It’s been clear to me from the first day that you’re the type who dislikes confrontations.”
I tried not to grimace.
“You’re the type who’d rather suffer in silence than admit someone’s hurt you.”
“Congratulations then,” I said flatly. “You’ve got me all figured out.”
Her lips curved. “I do.” She paused. “Which is why I also know the only reason you’d want to talk to me is because of your visions.” Her eyes remained steady on me as she asked, “You’ve seen me, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” I was pale and shaking in my seat, doing my best not to remember, doing my best not to surrender to the crushing weight of guilt.
Silence.
“And it’s not good.”
Her voice was so calm. How could she sound so calm when I realize now that she really had figured me out, that she knew what I had to say even without me speaking a word? How?
“I’m sorry.” I choked the words out.
�
�I doubt it’s your fault.”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand---”
“No, Lady Zari. It’s not your fault.” Her voice turned gentle, and I remembered then that she wasn’t just the woman who I was jealous of. She was also a hunter, bound to protect the innocent, and a healer, committed to saving lives.
I remembered that she was a good person, and it was because of me a good person like her would die.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” My voice was thick with unshed tears. If Katarina weren’t going to seek comfort in tears, then I wouldn’t either.
“Lady Zari, I mean it. I’ve been around long enough to know the truth. If Death wishes to claim me, it will, and there’s no stopping it.”
“I n-never wished you were dead, Lady Katarina. I’d never---”
“I know.” She paused. “Do you…do you know when it might happen?” She held her hand out as she asked, which showed just how much she knew about soul seers.
Shakily, I reached out to grasp her hand.
~~~~
Burning hot, the flames dancing, rejoicing as it reached new heights and turned the world into orange.
Everywhere, it was orange.
In the distance, I saw the school.
I ran towards it even as the walls of the school crumbled, one after another. It was falling apart before my eyes, the roof crashing down, the floors giving out, and---
I covered my ears as I heard it for the first time.
Screams.
Hundreds of human pets screaming---
Burning---
Dying---
And at the center of it all was Katarina.
She too was screaming, burning, dying.
And it was all because of me.
I forced myself to move even as I sobbed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I tried to search for a clue, wiping the tears and ashes constantly from my eyes as I did. I had so little time left before I had to go back or burn with this world.
Praying for strength, I took a deep breath and jumped through one of the doorways. Fear engulfed me, my skin melting under the heat, but I ignored the pain and doggedly searched for a clue.
This was not real, I told myself. This was not real.
I stumbled towards the reception area, the pain crippling, and I started to gasp for breath.