My Master

by Aleera Anaya Ceres

  It felt like déjà vu now, Caesareon at her side, taking her to a place that would only end in bloodshed. She wondered how he planned on controlling her, because every fiber in Isis refused to end someone else’s life. Maybe he would use that mind link they shared, or perhaps he’d just cut someone’s throat and watch her bloodlust take over.

  Her stomach grumbled. She hadn’t eaten in a few days. Feeding wasn’t something a vampire should ever put off. It wasn’t like when she had been human, with a few cramps here and there. No, it was much worse. When a vampire was hungry, it was as if their living essence were fading. Her mouth was dry, her lips cracking. She sucked on the blood from them but it did little to help her aching fangs.

  “Hungry?” Caesareon asked.

  Isis shook her head, but he knew that she was lying.

  “In a moment you will have your fill of blood, my warrior.”

  Isis felt the car jerk to a stop and a second later, the blindfold was pulled from her. She blinked away the darkness and looked at Caesareon. His eyes were flickering with anticipation but his mouth remained a thin line as he observed her. It looked as though he wanted to say something to her, to tell her something important. Instead, he pressed an unwanted kiss on her lips.

  “Time to go, my warrior.”

  Isis had assumed that this was going to be a stealth mission, get in, murder a few anti-supernaturals and get out of there. But Caesareon had to go and contradict her at every turn.

  Instead of sneaking into the back of the room like normal murderers, Caesareon made them all march in a wall formation towards the small building, Caesareon took the lead with Isis and Demetria flanking his sides.

  Isis had also assumed that he would make her go in as herself and watch as the hungry beast was unleashed, but this proved to be wrong also. Isis made a mental note to stop assuming things when it came to Caesareon. Instead, he slipped into her mind and guided her every movement with mental tugs and pushes. Every step she took, one foot in front of the other, made her feel like a puppet whose strings were being pulled.

  Behind the two women were other vampires, in the same red uniforms and brown boots. There were also werewolves, hunched on all fours flanking around at their feet. There were only a few of them but Isis knew that this was only a handful of his servants. She was sure there were more somewhere.

  Caesareon reached the front doors of the building, they were made of glass, he easily brought his fist out and the glass shattered into shards on the floor. Isis stared at his backside as he stepped through it, the glass still raining down like a waterfall.

  They all followed.

  There was a wooden desk with papers scattered all over it. A corded phone was dangling off to the side, swinging around. You didn’t need to have keen senses to know that someone was hiding behind it, probably clutching something silly like a wooden stake.

  She could feel Caesareon’s chuckle of amusement and then he turned around, with a quick flick of his fingers he commanded a werewolf forward. The large brown wolf inclined its head and in one great leap, jumped behind the desk. There was a scream and then the wolf appeared again, clutching between his teeth the collar of a woman. She flailed around in a pathetic attempt to get away.

  Isis was suddenly reminded of that little girl, her hair clutched between Caesareon’s fingers, the way he had easily killed her, if only it could serve as a lesson to Isis.

  The wolf tossed her at Caesareon’s feet. Panicked, she sat up and scrambled backwards, shuddering at the sight of them. And then she did something utterly ridiculous, she started praying.

  “God cannot save you now,” Caesareon said. “Praying is hopeless,”

  “He will protect me from you vile creatures!” the woman shrieked. “He will send all of you damned creatures to the pit of hell where you belong!”

  “And if you die?”

  “I will go to heaven!”

  Isis could practically feel Caesareon’s smile. “Well, when you reach heaven I would like you to pass on a message to your god.” He bent down to her level and leaned forward, his words carrying out to the rest of them like a vengeful promise. “Tell him that a war is coming and that even he cannot stop me.”

  She made the mistake of spitting in his face.

  To everyone’s surprise, Caesareon didn’t strike her. He simply stood and turned around and nodded at Demetria, then retreated back to Isis’s side. Demetria, all smiles, skipped up to the woman, who only glared in defiance.

  Demetria lifted the woman up easily by the throat, her feet dangling in the air. “Long live Caesareon,” Demetria said and then she brought the woman down and ripped her head off with her fangs.

  16

  “So what exactly is the plan, here?” Antonio asked. “You go in there, guns blazing, killing whoever stands in your way? Or is your plan better thought out?” Antonio watched Victoria strip down to nothing but a tank top and underwear. Since she was a werewolf, he knew that if she were to change suddenly it would rip the clothes from her body, so he guessed it would be better to go around naked on missions.

  “The plan is to get in there quietly and see if there’s anything shady going on.” She rolled her eyes at him. “We will not open fire unless they give us reason to do so. We’re the police force, not untamed savages, Mr. Santiago.”

  “And while you guys go out there and face possible death we’re supposed to sit and wait quietly in the car?”

  “That is correct.” Victoria pulled off her shoes. “Terrance will be in here protecting you in case anything gets out of hand. We don’t want to risk your lives. The only reason we brought you here is because you said if your friend is there then you guys are the only one’s she’ll trust.”

  Antonio nodded. It had taken a while to convince Victoria to bring them all along. Only after he made it very clear that Isis probably wouldn’t trust the police did they agree to take them...just in case. He could only imagine what kind of pain Isis was going through at this moment. He hoped this Caesareon prick wasn’t torturing her in any way. If he was, well, Antonio clenched his fists at his sides.

  Victoria noticed the gesture and gently said, “If your friend is in there, we’ll try to get her out as safely as possible.”

  Antonio agreed and sat back in his seat, his arm instantly draped over Esmeralda’s shoulders, pulling her closer to him. He found sudden comfort in her closeness, in the sparks her body emanated and closed his eyes, relishing in the feel of it.

  The feeling didn’t last long.

  Esmeralda doubled over, clutching her stomach in pain. She groaned and he was abruptly alert, holding her. “Are you okay?” he demanded. She took in a ragged breath and pushed him lightly away.

  “I’m fine,” she whispered.

  “It’s your stomach pains, again, isn’t it?” he asked. “We need to get you to a doctor.”

  “No!”

  He raised his eyebrows at her questioningly, and so did everyone else in the van. She coughed and cleared her throat.

  “Looking for Isis is the most important thing right now, okay?”

  He wanted so badly to argue with her. He wanted to haul her over his shoulder and carry her to the doctor’s himself but he knew she would resist and after all he’d done to her, well, he didn’t want to piss her off even further.

  “It’s time for us to go,” Victoria interrupted. Antonio looked up at her but she didn’t meet his gaze. Her eyes were fixated on Esmeralda, in fact, he noticed, everybody in the van was looking at Esmeralda but she didn’t even seem to notice. Her hands were bunched up at the stomach of her sweater and she was biting at her bottom lip ferociously. “We’ll keep you updated via microphone.” Victoria finally tore her gaze away from Ezzy and then she left, hopping out of the car with a few other members of her team.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?” Antonio turned his attention back to Ezzy.

  She smiled up at him, but he couldn’t help but feel that it was somehow forced. “I am a little hungry.”

>   And that surprised him. She had eaten an entire box of donuts and drunk a few cups of hot chocolate that Victoria had given her. She still couldn’t possibly be hungry, could she? He had never seen her eat a lot and he wondered why she was eating so much now. It was probably the stress, giving her an appetite.

  “Do you have any food in here?” He turned to Terrance, the agent who was guarding them. Terrance turned his head left, then right in a mocking sort of way, looking for food that wasn’t there then shook his head back and forth as a ‘no.’ Annoyed with the man, Antonio turned to Maria and his father. “You guys wouldn’t happen to have any food, would you?”

  “None whatsoever,” they said in unison.

  With a sigh Antonio wrapped his arms around Ezzy and told her, “Don’t worry, we’ll be out of here soon to get you something to eat, okay?”

  Ezzy mumbled something that he didn’t quite catch. Suddenly, a computer screen inside the van started beeping. Antonio stared at it as Terrance pressed a button and the screen came to life with Savvy’s freckled face and glasses.

  Savvy’s screen image regarded them with concern then he turned to Terrance. “Where’s Tory?” He pushed up his glasses.

  Terrance snarled. “Not here. What do you want?”

  Savvy snorted and pushed up his glasses again. “Okay, Mr. Jealousy, I just got a police report that was very interesting, complete with surveillance video and everything…” He laughed, or so it seemed, to Antonio it only sounded like a bunch of snorting rolled into one loud noise.

  “Get to the point,” Terrance growled in annoyance.

  “The point is, Terrance, you guys are wanted at 9453 West Rosehill Stream.”

  “Why?” Terrance leaned into the screen, Antonio could only make out his backside but he assumed that his face was expressionless, as it always seemed to be.

  “Because that girl you’re looking for? She was found on the surveillance video, caught up in a massacre. You might wanna get down there before people start contaminating the crime scene.”

  Antonio felt as though his heart had stopped beating in that instant. Isis was caught up in a massacre? Was she okay? What if something had happened to her? He didn’t think he’d be able to live with himself, and not to mention what that would do to Ezzy.

  He looked at her; her face had gone as pale as a ghost, her eyes wide with fright. Carefully, he slipped into her thoughts and heard them loud and clear. Isis, oh my god, Isis…

  Terrance cursed then clicked the screen off. He pulled out a little ear piece and practically growled into it. “Come back to the van, all of you, now!”

  A minute passed in silence when they arrived, Victoria burst the doors of the van open first, a glare on her face. “What the hell is going on?”

  “9453 West Rosehill Stream.” Terrance growled.

  Victoria narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t question it. She barked out orders for them to be taken there and hopped in with them, sitting next to Terrance. He filled her in with urgent whispers into her ears, which she focused on intently as she pulled on her pants. When he finished filling her in on what Savvy had said, she told him that there had been no trace of anyone in that abandoned building.

  All Antonio could think of was Isis as he held onto Esmeralda. He half expected her to break down and cry, but she kept her head held high, staring blankly at nothing and frankly, that reaction worried him even more.

  It took thirty minutes to arrive at the designated destination. It was a small building, yellow police caution tape around the perimeter. They all got out of the FBSI van in a rush and went inside of the building. Victoria had handed them all gloves and hairnets to avoid crime scene contamination.

  Antonio could only gape in horror.

  Savvy had been correct when he said it had been a massacre. Nothing but blood covered the tile floors, they were ankle deep in it, dead bodies and body parts were strewn around the room, but the most grotesque part of it all were the heads, separated from the bodies of their owners and staked on metal rods that protruded from the tile floors, as if they had been hammered in there.

  He did a sweep of faces. None of them belonged to Isis.

  “Oh my god.” Maria was the first to speak, covering her mouth with her fingers, staring at the scene with disgust. His father tensed next to her, looking around the place, Esmeralda simply held onto Antonio for dear life, she looked as though she might vomit.

  Victoria turned to the first officer she saw. “You!” she demanded. The man approached them, a look of horror on his young face. “What the hell happened here?” She demanded angrily.

  “We aren’t sure exactly, ma’am,” he said in a nervous voice. “We have a surveillance video with the culprits, and a very clear message sent out to supernaturals and humans everywhere. We have no idea who these guys are, though.”

  “Take us to see the surveillance video.”

  He nodded and motioned for them to follow him. They did so in silence until they were at the far end, in a corner, away from the bloody battlefield, but still in a spot where they saw it at full view.

  There were a few men who had set up a station with a laptop and they were leaning into it with their eyebrows furrowed together. They looked up upon their approach.

  “Show us this video.” Victoria moved around the table to look at the laptop with them, Terrance just behind her. Antonio stayed with Ezzy behind the table, their backs to the staked heads behind them. He wasn’t sure he wanted to stand in front of the laptop, knowing his eyes would be drawn to the grotesque scene. It was too disgusting for him to even crave the blood.

  Instead, he watched their reactions to the video. First Victoria’s, her eyebrows were crunched together, causing wrinkles to form around the edges of her eyes, and her features twisted into a mask of repugnance. The men around her avoided looking directly at the laptop, instead they rubbed their fingers across their eyes. Terrance, however, was looking at the screen along with Victoria, his eyebrows furrowed together—the only emotion Antonio had ever seen him show thus far.

  Victoria twisted the computer to face Antonio and Ezzy. “Can you identify anyone on this video?” She rewound it and pressed the ‘Play’ button.

  The video was on full screen, and in color. There was a woman behind a desk, sorting papers into a pile and speaking into a phone, when there was a shattering sound, almost like glass, but Antonio thought it might have been static. Then again, he saw the broken entryway and knew that it probably was glass.

  The woman behind the desk dropped the phone and scattered the papers, ducking behind the desk until she was invisible to the camera. As soon as she disappeared, three people stepped into the picture.

  The first one to approach was a man, tall and broad, with muscles bulging against his tight red and black gear—at least, Antonio thought it was gear. His hair was black and cut short, combed neatly; his eyebrows were dark and thick. There was a girl with short black hair behind him on one side, her mouth quirked up in a smile; on his other side stood Isis, her face an unreadable mask, and she was standing, immobile.

  The man made a movement with his wrist and a blur of fur jumped from behind them and over the desk, dragging the screaming woman out of her hiding spot. The wolf threw her at the man’s feet and then they began talking—something about god, and a message that needed to be sent—he wasn’t entirely sure because his stomach was clenching and unclenching.

  The woman spit in his face, he gestured to the vampire girl with the short dark hair behind him. Happily skipping up, like a child, the vampire lifted the woman up so easily, “Long live Caesareon,” and brought the woman’s throat in contact with her teeth. She chewed and she gnawed and in one fast movement, a head was severed, falling to the floor. Her lifeless body soon joined it.

  The woman turned around, blood staining her lips and around her mouth, she glided in front of the man and kissed him on the mouth before taking her place behind him. The man, Caesareon, Antonio had assumed by then, licked the traces of bloo
d that she had left on his lips.

  “Wolves,” he commanded his voice deep and sinister. “Bring me every human here—alive.”

  More balls of fur blurred against the screen, moving so fast that their figures could barely be made out. A minute later, they were back, each with a person, gripped by the collar, in their muzzles.

  “Very good.” Caesareon smiled. A few of the humans had fainted from fear, others were staring wide eyed, but the majority of them were spitting curses and yelling foul names. Caesareon looked particularly pleased about this. He half turned, to the side where Isis was standing, covering the side of his face so that the camera wouldn’t see it, but not before Antonio caught a glimpse of the way the blacks of his pupils swallowed the iris. “Kill them, Isis,” he demanded. “Satisfy your hunger, show them who is at the top of the food chain. Kill them now.”

  Isis obeyed.

  Antonio wanted to cover his eyes against the sight but he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Isis had stepped in front of the first human, she bent down, and much like the other vampire, ripped out his throat with her fangs, only Isis latched herself onto the human’s neck, sucking in the liquid until he stopped writhing beneath her and died. After taking the blood of the first, she took no more. She ripped the head from the second human, along with other body parts and tossed them around the room, spraying blood over the floors.

  Pretty soon, men and women, supernaturals of all kinds, were ripping off heads and staking them in the receptionist area. Antonio couldn’t believe it. Had Isis gone truly evil? Was she still doing this to save them?

  “No!” Esmeralda shielded her eyes from the scene she had just witnessed with one hand, with the other she pushed the laptop away, nearly causing it to topple over.

  Antonio was at a loss for words.

  “It appears,” Victoria said icily, “that your friend is now an accomplice to slaughter and we can no longer work with you in our investigation.”

  “No!” Ezzy yelled again, uncovering her eyes to reveal tear streaked cheeks. “That’s not Isis! I don’t care what that video shows, it’s not Isis!!!”