by V. F. Mason
Does he hate my father so much he barely controls himself with his anger? What could he have possibly done to him to warrant such hatred?
Swallowing roughly, ignoring the ache in my throat, I lick my lips before replying, wanting to pull him out of his hate, as it might cost me my life. “I’d rather die a compassionate human than be a heartless monster.”
He chuckles, cupping my cheek before sliding his hand into my hair, fisting it hard and pulling me forward so I have no choice but to follow the command, standing uncomfortably under the chains. Just one move forward will tug me back to the floor. “No need to be so dramatic, querida. No one wants you dead.” I blink in confusion at his words, and he rubs the line between my brows, my teeth gritting at his touch, but I stay put, wanting to hear what he has to say next. “Play by my rules, and you’ll be free.” His breath fans my mouth as he tilts my head back, our lips inches apart. “Or don’t, and you’ll be free.” He lets go, and I fall on the concrete, stilling the cry of pain.
“I—I don’t understand.” None of what he says adds up in my head. Why go through all this trouble of kidnapping and chaining me in his dungeon when he doesn’t plan to kill me and, in fact, promises me freedom no matter what?
Showing me the dark side of their life, introducing me to all the things they are capable of… does he expect me to just accept it and never report them to the police? The massacre in my house will be enough evidence to lock them all up for eternity!
“Paciencia, mi amor, paciencia.” Patience? Is he kidding me right now?
Going back into the middle of the arena, he claps his hands twice, and instantly the rattling of chains echoes as two rusty cages slowly slide down to the floor. I cover my mouth in shock when I see my father in one of them, bruised and beaten up, one eye swollen shut. He whispers something, his voice barely audible. The cage sways just a little bit above the floor, and he breathes heavily, resting his back on the bars.
“Let him go!” I scream, my nails sinking into my palms and probably drawing blood, but I don’t give a shit. “You almost killed him.”
“We didn’t do it, Briseis.” Octavius’s voice makes me shift my attention back to the benches.
“How stupid do you think I am to believe that?” Or did me sleeping with their best friend make them think I’m a fool who eats up whatever bullshit people dump on me?
“If we did that, everyone would have been dead.” Remi gets up and leans on the banister, pointing at my father. “We don’t leave loose ends.” Disgust prickles my skin, their words smearing me in such dirt even a long bath wouldn’t wash it away.
“I don’t believe you.”
“No me importa si nos crees o no.” Of course he doesn’t care if I believe them or not; the bastard thinks he rules the world with his horsemen—as if they are the true riders who came when the seals were opened.
“Let him go!” I repeat, and Santiago sighs, shaking his head.
“Querida, everything in this world has a price.” I freeze, his earlier words playing in my mind while he continues. “Your father’s life as well.”
“And what’s the price?” Dread coats my voice in anticipation of his horrible request.
“Cásate conmigo.”
Everything inside me goes still, my heart beating wildly in my chest while the ringing in my ears intensifies, and I’m sure I haven’t heard him right.
Hope like hell I heard him wrong.
He grins, lifting his palm up and pointing at the second cage to which I shift my focus, and my eyes widen when I see a wedding dress hanging inside. “Marry me, and I won’t kill your father.”
The words spill from my mouth before I can stop them. “Are you out of your mind? I won’t marry you!”
“I always keep my word. You’re free to go if you don’t want to marry me.” He fetches a lighter out of his pocket, flipping it through his fingers before putting a cigarette in his mouth. “But your father will be dead today.”
Shaking my head in disbelief, I whisper, “No. No.” And I do the one thing I promised myself to never do while subjected to the abuse of others. “Please, please don’t do this to me, Santiago. We won’t say a word to anyone. Please let us go,” I plead, my lips trembling while fear and shock from his proposition fills every pore on my body, creating a dreadful picture in my head of my future where life will be constant suffering.
Marriage to the monster, serial killer, collateral damage in order to fulfill a despicable plan in his head.
Whatever the hell that is.
No rational explanation exists here. If he truly wanted to serve revenge against my father, he would have picked Addison or Ava, his princesses. Not me, a bastard of a whore who he never gave a shit about.
Free to go?
A bitter laugh almost erupts from me, but I hold it back, too afraid to make a sound or otherwise I’ll go insane.
Santiago stays oblivious to my begging, threading his fingers in my hair, and pulls at it as I kneel in front of him. “Choose, Briseis. Our wedding or your father’s funeral.”
Endless memories of my father snap in front of my eyes, playing like a colorful movie on a projector showing me his angry face, remarks, the beatings, and snarls. His face twisted in a grimace when in my company, his wish for me to never have been born, and finally how I destroyed his relationship with my mother.
But try as I might, I don’t find any happy memory with him that could push me in the right direction.
My mouth opens to refuse his offer, let my father face the consequences of his life choices, but the other part of me, the one bleeding with compassion and conscience, doesn’t allow me to make a heartless choice.
It urges me to stay human despite being sired by a monster and to rise above it, even if it means marrying one.
No one should ever sacrifice their life for someone else, because people are ungrateful by default. Their greedy nature wants more and more of you until nothing is left. And then they move on to another victim of their selfishness.
However, what is a daughter supposed to do when her father’s life is on the line? More importantly, will I be able to live with it if I choose wrong?
“Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock,” Santiago says, snapping his fingers. “I’m waiting, Briseis.”
I finally utter my decision, each word scratching my throat anew and bringing pain, but it’s muted by the agony burning my heart. “I’ll marry you.”
Santiago
When a monster sires a child, his emotions toward it are a little bit different than of a regular father.
They live in their delusions about their absolute power, creating a world around them with pain, agony, and deceit where everyone fears them.
Feeding on fear sustains them for only so long though before their minds swirl with other ideas, each one of them more horrific than the other.
Most of them build empires on the bones of their victims, craving to leave a legacy in this world for generations to come, and that’s when the idea of a child crosses their mind.
Someone with their pure blood running through his or her veins, according to them capable of the same deeds they spring on innocent people, uncaring about the devastation they bring.
What I do know with certainly though?
Monsters might hurt and torture and rip apart their children… but they don’t ever leave them alone or without a purpose in this world.
“Santiago, think about the future. Actions and decisions should be planned in multiple steps ahead. If you want to catch your prey, give them irresistible bait.”
The full meaning of his words hit me after I had sex with Briseis, my mind foggy from desire I’ve never known before, and that’s when realization settled.
She wasn’t only my bait—oh no.
She was his as well… to lure me toward him, or rather to do what he so desperately craves and probably has planned for decades.
A dynasty with my fucking bloodline.
He didn’t even spare his favorite pe
ople who served him, putting them in the line of fire just so they could deliver the information about his daughter to me and spark my interest.
Even tonight’s massacre served as a decoy in order for me to speed up the process; he wouldn’t have sent such idiots to do the job otherwise. Plus, he punished Howard.
Andreas made me set my eyes on Briseis to get her pregnant and finally have his perfect grandchild, who he plans to drown in the pools of blood his legacy represents.
What he didn’t count on?
For me to marry his precious little girl… and as such make her a Cortez.
Andreas loves power and greed; however, his hate for anyone holding the Cortez name trumps all other emotions and ambitions of his.
He’ll lose his mind the minute he gets the news.
The emotional hunter is no longer a hunter.
And then?
He’ll come to collect her, hoping my seed’s already rooting inside Briseis.
Chapter Ten
“Lust is a powerful weapon.
While it travels through your blood, even a saint can turn into a sinner.
For who can resist its tempting pull?”
Briseis
From Flora’s Dairies
23 October
I’m trapped inside the Ivory Tower with no way of escape, waiting for this nightmare to be over while desperately trying not to get attached to the life growing inside me.
After my failed abortion attempt, I came home to discover Father had received an offer from Andreas to work on the architecture of a building in France. Dad jumped all over this idea, especially when it was mentioned the building would serve as an orphanage after its reconstruction. He announced our yearlong trip to France to me, happiness bursting through every pore.
I’d almost finished high school and had only two subjects left, which I could easily finish in the monastery. Due to his work schedule and where the building was located, Dad predicted we wouldn’t have been able to see each other much or at all.
The project was scheduled to be done by New Year, so I could come back and enroll for winter semester.
Knowing Andreas’s plan, I anticipated this request and numbly nodded at his joy, packing my stuff while writing a letter to Howard.
I couldn’t call him or face him for fear of telling him the truth about my condition. God only knows what he would have done to Andreas or me.
Or maybe I just protected myself, because I imagined I could go back to him once all of this was over and he would never know about this.
I lived with this belief in the monastery among the nuns who knew about my condition, while studying the subjects and reading books. I ignored everything about the pregnancy, even when the female doctor Andreas assigned to me kept talking about my progression.
The only thing I had to do was swallow all those vitamin pills, because Andreas wanted a healthy baby.
My days and nights were spent in dreams of coming back to Howard, his arms waiting for me and the life we would build together someday.
He still wrote me letters after I sent my address. They were full of poems of love and devotion, promising me a great future for us.
His words gave me solace in my despair and agony until…
Until a few months ago.
Until she kicked.
Until I saw the imprint of her tiny foot stretching my stomach, showing herself to me, and tears formed in my eyes from wonder.
Up until that point, the baby was nothing but the devil’s spawn, created in the inferno of my pain, sired by the demon himself.
After?
After, she became a baby, alive, moving inside me, and…
Mine.
I started talking to her, noticing her restlessness when I was silent and how she loved when I read books aloud.
How she would listen to me if I rubbed my stomach and asked just for a moment of reprieve from her kicking.
Suddenly, everything the doctor said was super important, and I followed every order, wanting her to be healthy.
And somewhere along the way, I started to love her.
Which brings me to now.
I’m terrified to give birth to my baby girl, or at least I think it’s a baby girl. There is no ultrasound here; however, she kicks the most when I call her she.
Where before I couldn’t wait for the delivery date, now I dread it with everything in me, fear sinking deeper and deeper into every cell in my body at the prospect of Andreas snatching her away from me.
I have no idea why he needs the baby so desperately, yet I know for sure he will destroy her life.
Andreas is a powerful man who will stop at nothing in order to get what he wants.
I sometimes think him raping a woman so easily is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his deeds.
Even the nuns and the doctor are so afraid of him, jumping whenever he calls, panic etched on their faces. He never steps a foot into the monastery; after all, men are not allowed inside. However, his demonic presence floats in the air, reminding me the devil is watching my every breath while waiting for his heir.
How could I possibly give him my baby?
Or worse.
What if he kills my baby the minute he sees its a girl and not a boy?
How do I protect my baby when its father is a monster?
19 December
The doctor came for her last visit before the delivery. She ran a few tests on me and checked me internally. The minute I saw a frown on her face quickly replaced by fear, making her eyes look like they were going to pop out, I knew something was wrong. Only Andreas has such power over their emotions, and he would kill them all if anything happened to my child.
She said the baby lies with her feet downward, and without the proper medical equipment, she doesn’t know how safe childbirth will be.
We can’t go to the hospital. They will ask a lot of questions, and for some reason, Andreas wants as much a natural birth as possible. According to him, his baby is powerful enough to persevere, no matter what.
Just like his baby in similar circumstances.
During his short phone calls, he always mentions some mysterious he as if he is competing with someone. At first, I thought it might have been Howard, but he muttered his name once.
Lucian.
I’m restless, not knowing what to do with this information.
A month ago, under the pretense of needing fresh air, I tried slipping past the guards to find police and make them listen to me. I should have done it back home after the rape, but Andreas manipulated me with fear. I numbly let him put me farther and farther in the cage inside my psyche where he almost convinced me the whole world would come apart if I opened my mouth.
I don’t want to play this game anymore, yet I failed at my attempt to escape. They caught me, and I expected Andreas to come with some punishment. To my surprise though, the nuns didn’t report it, just whispered to me to stay put until the baby arrives.
How can I though, if I might endanger her by staying put?
According to the doctor, there is the possibility of my death too, because if there are any complications, she won’t be able to help me.
This scares me too, leaving my child for Andreas. During these few months, I even accept the fact that I’m willing to stay at his side as long as he lets me be with her.
So after pondering it for several hours, I find the solution, the only solution possible in these circumstances.
I will do my best to free myself and my daughter from the monster.
And I hope with all my heart I’ve made the right decision.
After all, failure is not an option in hell.
Briseis
“Excelente,” he says and fishes out keys from his back pocket, dangling them soundly in the air before motioning with his hand for me to get up. The minute I do, he wraps his palm around my wrists, freeing them one by one with his thumbs and rubbing my sore flesh.
Slapping his hand away, I step back, glancing at
the light red bruises on my skin, and wince a little as they remind me of my childhood.
It doesn’t go unnoticed by him. “They won’t leave marks. We need to put ointment on them.”
“No need to pretend you care.” My father starts to cough loudly, his entire body shaking. “Dad,” I call, darting in his direction and grabbing the bars of the cage that sways at the contact. “Dad, do you hear me?” Extending my hand inside, I try to reach him but end up only gazing his cheek with the tips of my fingers.
“Briseis, Briseis.” His barely audible whisper surprises me, my eyes widening at him uttering my name of all people in this moment of despair. One of his eyes pops open, gazing at me intently. “It’s your fault. He came because of you. It’s your fault.”
Shifting back, my feet scrape against the concrete, and disbelief mixed with anger runs through me, my lips glued together, because otherwise my scream of frustration would echo in this place.
How is any of this my fault? I wasn’t the one who crossed a Cortez. Unbelievable!
“How typical.” I jerk when Santiago stands behind me, his breath fanning my nape, making my hair stand up.
Florian jumps over the banister, strolling to us and enjoying the show. All those women must be clueless to what kind of hideous person hides behind the charismatic man that is Florian.
“Your father is a piece of shit that isn’t worthy of your loyalty, but you struck the deal with the devil. You’re bound by the agreement.”
“If you think you’re the devil, maybe you should check yourself into a psychiatric ward. You’re whacked in the head.”
He spins me around and presses me against him, his brawny arm locking me in the strong embrace, and I push at the hold, hitting him hard with my fists.
He pays no attention to my resistance, throwing his cigarette on the ground where Florian steps on it, and rubs his knuckles over my cheek, the disgusting smell of nicotine hitting my nostrils. “Ah, querida. You can’t flinch at the touch of your fiancé.”