by Stefania Gil
Scout would take him without any problem. In addition, he preferred to go by horse considering he could move through the countryside without being seen.
He had been told before of the estate that became famous in recent months as a result of Isabel’s remodeling. It seems her sister was a well-known writer.
He mounted Scout and spurred him to walk.
The night was cold and Francisco could feel the wind burning the skin on his face.
He rode for a long time before he saw the road Rodrigo indicated when he gave the address. The truth was this estate was well hidden from the road.
He stopped at the property’s protection gate. The fence reminded him of 18th century houses, robust, elegant and efficient. He couldn’t find another way in so he pressed the red button in the security box a few meters from the door.
“Yes?” A woman responded.
“Good evening, I'm Francisco Peña, is Natalia here?”
“I'll let you in.”
The doors vibrated but didn’t open.
Francisco struck the red button again.
“Sorry, the doors didn’t open.”
The woman snorted in protest.
“Wait a moment, Natalia will open the door.”
“Thank you.”
Francisco stroked a restless Scout.
“What's the matter, boy? Wasn’t this what you wanted me to do? Now we must wait for—”
Scout whinnied loudly and rose on two legs as a branch creaked behind Francisco.
When he turned around it was too late. He realized it when he felt a strong puncture in his shoulder. He immediately recognized the sensation.
He was being paralyzed by the poison entering into his system.
He tried to defend himself against his attacker but didn’t succeed. Everything happened in slow motion, his muscles were freezing little by little preventing any movement.
He panicked thinking how acting on his feelings for Natalia led him to fall prey to the damn secret society again. Then he heard a car approaching.
Natalia.
His uncontrollably panic spiked unleashing his adrenaline enabling him to escape the man now dragging him into the darkness. He didn’t want anything to happen to Natalia but he didn’t know how to make that happen.
The poison was taking over more and more. He knew in a few seconds he would go into shock, convulse, and be unconscious for a couple of hours.
Natalia was trying to open the door.
He heard her shout his name.
He was desperate.
The man was gone.
Relieved, he submitted to the poison.
***
“Francisco!”
Natalia shouted desperately from inside the property.
Scout was at Francisco’s side, who was far from the entrance in the darkest part of the countryside.
He was not moving.
Natalia wanted to open the damn door at once, but the damned thing wouldn’t open even manually.
She impatiently dialed Isabel's phone.
“Something happened, come help me, please.”
She waited for what seemed like an eternity as she continued to try to get the door to open. When she could not wait any longer, she decided it was time to climb the gate and jump it. She did not know what had happened to Francisco, but it was not good considering he wasn’t responding.
She took off her high-heeled shoes and climbed the fence just as she did as a child on her grandfather's farm when she climbed the tallest trees in the area.
Of course, it was not the same to climb for fun rather for fear of what she might find on the other side.
The damned gate was quite high and when she was going to cross to the opposite side, she almost lost her grip on the bar. Considering the fall from that high would surely result in some broken part of her body, she didn’t think it would be a good idea to slip.
So with the greatest concentration she could manage, she climbed down quickly and ran to Francisco.
“Francisco, can you hear me?”
He lay on his stomach in the darkness. It was so dark Natalia could not tell if or where he was hurt.
She heard a car park in the distance. She knew it was Juan Carlos and Isabel coming to help her.
With a mixture of rage and relief, the damn door decided to open for Juan Carlos who ran from the property to her aid.
Natalia was already panicking due to Francisco laying so still. A white substance was spilling out of his mouth.
“He’s not reacting and it looks like he foaming at the mouth.”
Juan Carlos gaped at her in disbelief but immediately grabbed the man by his shoulders and dragged him to the SUV in which they arrived.
“I'm going to need you to help me get him inside.”
Isabel followed the order after opening the back door.
Natalia stood at Francisco’s feet and peered at Juan Carlos.
“On three.”
Isabel ran to them to help.
“One... two... three” they lifted him up and before anyone said anything, Juan Carlos stiffened on the spot.
His hands began to tremble and he looked like he had just seen a ghost. He was so pale, he looked like he was going to faint at any moment.
“What's the matter, sweetheart? Are you okay?”
Juan Carlos approached Francisco and dragged him toward the light.
His breathing was agitated and he began to shake in earnest.
Suddenly he erupted into tears over the unconscious man.
“Is it him?” Isabel asked in confusion.
Natalia didn’t understanding anything and all she knew was that if they didn’t take Francisco to a hospital immediately, maybe he would not survive and...
and...
Pain sliced through her at the idea of Francisco dying.
“We have to get him to a hospital, please.”
She begged them.
Juan Carlos didn’t stop crying and it seemed he was happy about Francisco while Isabel comforted him with tears in her eyes too.
“Please! I don’t understand. He’s going to die! We must go now!”
Natalia got into the SUV in the driver's seat and started the engine.
“Natalia,” Isabel touched her arm. “There is no hospital that can help him.” Natalia began to remember the fear she had when she was told she would never see her grandfather again when he died. How could she feel that way about a man she barely knew? What was this macabre game of fate? Her lower lip began to tremble, and Isabel regarded her with compassion, hugged her and said in her ear, “It will be all right, I promise. But we can’t take him to the hospital.”
12
Marcos couldn’t believe his luck ... and bad luck, too.
After being so bored, at last some action came his way.
The bosses didn’t pass on a decision about how to handle the immortal so he decided to take matters into his own hands when he saw him leave on his horse.
He loved technology and thanked the Lord for putting it at his disposal to watch over that cursed selfish being. He followed him and put on a guard on alert who was stationed in the vicinity of the Alcalá property.
He watched it all through that wonderful drone he kept operating. He was very surprised to see the man go on horseback in the middle of the night; he had never seen him do that before. Never. It was the perfect opportunity to take him unaware.
He would inject the venom and spray any observer sent for him. He could have completed his entire mission without being killed by the immortal.
The opportunity was magnificent and it seemed everything was in his favor when the man couldn’t enter the Alcalá Orange Grove estate due to a malfunctioning door.
He smiled.
It was then he positioned the drone near the immortal and threw the venomous dart.
They were in sync. If the woman had been a little later reaching the door, the immortal would now be with them since he alerted an elite team to help th
e observer drag Francisco into a safe hiding place in the darkness of the undergrowth.
A hiding place only they knew.
He wrinkled his nose when he realized he couldn’t complete the mission. The guardian did not have time to push him far enough before the blonde recognized him.
The bosses would not be so happy with him, but they would agree on how positive the whole episode turned out. If they saw him again, they would surely know the immortal still enjoyed his condition because the dart he was shot with had enough venom to kill any human being in seconds.
He smiled again.
They almost had him. They certainly alerted him with the quick movement, but it was also very true this man knew they were still out there waiting for one wrong move like tonight.
It wouldn’t be a big surprise to him.
The question hanging around Marco's head was what could have motivated the wretch to leave his villa and let himself be seen?
Would the woman in the video have anything to do with that, the way she screamed his name when he didn’t respond?
Interesting, he thought.
If that was so and the immortal exposed himself for a woman, there was only one thing to think, it was she meant more than any other person.
Was he in love?
Who was she? And most importantly, where did he find her while in solitude?
If his suspicions were correct, she would be the perfect bait to catch the accursed.
Marcos was happy. He began to hum a symphony to himself as he busily wrote a report to gather information on the new discovery.
13
Juan Carlos couldn’t breathe. He was so shocked by his sudden find he couldn’t snap out of his astonishment.
Isabel and Natalia helped him unload Francisco and bring him inside the house.
They laid him on the sofa in the living room.
Isabel checked the time and realized the guests would arrive soon. There were not many but no one could know what was happening.
“I'm going to cancel the party.”
“Can anyone explain to me why we did not take him to the hospital?” Natalia demanded answers.
Isabel looked at her and smiled sweetly.
“He’s going to recover, Natalia. Calm down.”
“You knew him?”
“No. However, Juan Carlos does, yes.”
Natalia looked at Isabel with confusion.
“We'll explain it to you later, now let me call the guests to cancel—”
“They poisoned him.” Both women turned to Juan Carlos, who detected the puncture wound in his brother's shoulder. He didn’t need to be a doctor to know the dart contained Belladonna poison and something else. He asked Natalia, “Was anyone around when you arrived?”
“No,” she said, shivering with a horrified expression.
Juan Carlos realized she didn’t know about his brother’s special condition.
“Don’t cancel the party, Isabel. We can’t do that, this is old and we don’t know who is behind it. They could be watching us and having a house full of people we know wouldn’t hurt us.”
Juan Carlos’ hands trembled uncontrollably. Thousands of memories regarding his confinement and torture came to mind.
Isabel nodded.
“We're going to take him to Carlota's studio and you stay with him,” Isabel told Natalia.
“It's going to be all right, Natalia. Nothing can kill my brother. We are going to tell you the whole truth later, but now, you are the only person who I trust with his care. Do you understand me?”
“I think so,” Natalia said, stunned. “Your brother? Who is he hiding from?”
“Very bad people I didn’t know still existed and yes, Francisco is my brother.”
They arranged him among the three of them and carried him to the old basement.
The basement had only one access door and no one could not enter through the windows.
Juan Carlos did not know how to feel so he chose happiness. At last he could reunite with the part of his past he missed so much: his family.
***
Two hours later, Natalia was about to suffer a nervous breakdown when Francisco finally began to show signs of life. The night was so strange, so unreal, she never imagined things could get out of control and worse than they already were.
She approached Francisco quickly.
“Francisco,” she touched his arm. All of a sudden she was flung against the wall, a searing pain slicing through her back and her air supply being cut off. He was choking her.
She opened her eyes abruptly to find Francisco in front of her with his pupils fully dilated. His nostrils flared brutally with each breath he took.
She wanted to say something to him, to beg him to let her go, but he had his big hand around her neck. Natalia was helpless and fragile. She watched Francisco transform from a man to a beast.
Then she remembered he was not a normal man.
What the hell was he?
She was about to lose consciousness when she saw his eyes change to a mixture of fear for what he did and compassion for the way he reacted. It was clear he was defending his life from something. He looked like a cornered animal that didn’t want to be trapped.
He kept her gaze. Her eyes began to cloud. Her body was giving way to lack of oxygen. She was going to die.
Instinctively, she placed her hands over his, and instead of pressing him to release her, she caressed him with what little strength she had left.
Francisco blinked a couple of times and stared at Natalia terrified.
She couldn’t give up. She applied a little pressure on his hands to release her. He reacted a couple of seconds before he completely choked her out.
She fell to the ground and remained motionless trying to recover. She inhaled several times and coughed until her breathing regulated.
Francisco squeezed her neck with so much force; she could still fill his hand there, trying to kill her.
“Natalia!” Juan Carlos entered just as she was trying to sit up.
“I'm fine.” She searched for Francisco with her gaze. She found him in a corner with his hands on his head, crying from terror and watching her with shame.
She kept him in her sights for a few minutes. At that moment Natalia vowed to protect him even though he tried to kill her a few minutes ago. She knew he had reacted with primal survival instincts. Natalia could put the rest together
By reacting, he ceased being a beast and converted to a poor defenseless animal who was deeply regretful of what he had just done.
Juan Carlos approached him and Natalia gave them space after noticing the surprise in Francisco's face.
Both men melted into a desperate embrace and tears.
She decided not to interrupt their moment. She was dying to hug Francisco too. She couldn’t understand how he had dominated her feelings even though they had not known each other long. How could such a thing happen? Was what she felt love? It couldn’t be, though she didn’t mind the idea.
“You survived,” Francisco said to his brother.
“We survived, Francisco, we did.” Natalia wondered survived what.
She had so many questions for them. She wanted to hear how they were brothers and did not know where the other one was. Were they separated as children? A kidnapping, she imagined. That's why they said they had survived. Yes, that was it. Natalia wanted to imagine they had been part of some experiment. That’s why Francisco could survive a powerful poison without medical attention. She wanted to find a reasonable explanation, but something told her she was dealing with a story that had little to do with real life and laboratories. There was more.
She was dying to know everything.
“They poisoned me, right?” Juan Carlos nodded. “They can’t know you exist. I can’t lose you again.”
“They found me.” Francisco studied him with horror and confusion. “I almost did not save myself, brother. We must talk about this calmly. I think you have a lot of explaining to do t
o Natalia.”
Francisco met her eyes directly and nodded.
“Where am I?”
“You're safe, you can’t leave here for the time being and I have to get back upstairs. Natalia will update you on the situation.”
They embraced again and Juan Carlos approached Natalia, “Will you be fine? —She nodded her head—. “If you do not feel safe for any reason, please tell me and I will stay with him.”
“He's not going to hurt me. He could have.” Natalia put her hand to her neck, he wasn’t aware of what he was doing.
Juan Carlos smiled gratefully and left them alone.
She got up from the couch and sat on the floor next to Francisco.
She put her arm around his shoulders and pulled him close as he gave way to sobs.
A few minutes later, he loaded her on his lap and hugged her so tightly, Natalia felt short of breath. At that moment she liked the way it felt. She liked how she felt when she was in his arms. She realized this was the best place she had ever been.
She sighed as she stroked Francisco's back tenderly.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered, still sobbing and squeezing her harder. “I didn’t realize it was you. I was blinded by the fear and all I thought was how I couldn’t waste time and had to attack.”
He kissed her cheek and Natalia felt a slight tingling inside.
Their eyes met briefly.
“You are very brave.” He smiled and she understood that smile could fix anything. “I was about to kill you and I thought you would be so terrified by my behavior, that perhaps you would not want to be by my side...”
“Shhhh.” Natalia put a finger to his lips and moved closer to him. She placed her hands on his beautiful face and placed a soft, delicate, sweet kiss on the lips. “I believed you would come out of your trance in time.”
He kissed her neck where his visible handprints remained. He stroked her flushed skin and Natalia thought she would be overcome by desire.
“What happened to you?”
He became slightly nervous. Francisco adverted his gaze and breathed deeply.
“What I'm going to tell you is not a joke. It's not science fiction and I'm not making it up in order to get out of telling you the truth.”