Page 15 of My Master
Antonio was cradling his cheek in his palm, staring at Katheryn in disbelief. “Damien, I thought you said that spirits couldn’t touch us.”
Damien’s lip tugged into a half smile. “Yeah, I lied.”
Ignacio finally spoke, sounding overly calm about the situation. “Hey, Damien, how’s death treating you?” His voice held a tint of something in it. Sarcasm mixed with some sort of bitter hatred.
Damien shrugged. “You know, same old, same old.”
Ignacio snorted in disgust and turned back to Antonio. “Hey.”
Antonio took a step back. “Are you going to hit me, too?”
Katheryn tried lunging for Antonio again. “It’s what you deserve you little—” Ignacio held her back with one arm. She calmed instantly.
“Maybe later,” Ignacio said, patting him on the back. Katheryn snorted then, after taking a few deep breaths, she went up to Ezzy and hugged her tight.
“You’re so grown,” Katheryn whispered in her ear. Ezzy’s eyes formed tears again as she squeezed her mother back, afraid to let go, afraid that this would disappear beneath her fingers like smoke.
Her mother pulled apart but kept her hands on Ezzy’s shoulders. Her big blue eyes had begun to water. She blinked them away and moving nothing but her eyes, she looked down at Ezzy’s stomach then back up at her face. Silent words were exchanged between them.
Katheryn knew Esmeralda was pregnant. Is that why she had hit Antonio? Probably. She wondered if her dad knew.
She looked over to where Ignacio and Antonio were standing just in time to see Ignacio raise his fist and crash it against Antonio’s cheek, drawing blood and sending him flying back. Esmeralda winced but didn’t rush to his aid.
“Damn it, Antonio!” Ignacio screamed. “Why can’t you just act your age?” Without another word he turned around and hugged Ezzy tightly to his enormous chest. Ezzy wondered if she was imagining it or if he smelt like sunlight. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed.
“Such a beautiful reunion,” Damien sneered.
Ezzy could practically see the veins in her mom’s forehead pop out when she turned on Damien, slapping him hard across the face, leaving her handprint marked in red. “Don’t even talk to me, you low life bastard!”
Ignacio went to pull Katheryn away from Damien.
Ezzy was surprised; she didn’t know that her mom was such a fireball, or that her dad was this calm. In fact, she didn’t know much about her parents’ personalities. Sure, she had gotten the memory block off of her but only remembered that they were a loving family, only remembered from a child’s point of view, nothing specific. Antonio hadn’t bothered to offer up too much information about them, either.
“Let’s just all calm down for a second, okay?” Esmeralda touched her mother’s bare arm. Katheryn shook her off.
“You’re lucky you’re already dead, or else I’d kill you…” Katheryn sneered through her teeth.
Damien shrugged, not at all fazed by Katheryn’s attitude towards him. “There are worse things than death,” he whispered then turned his head away from them, apparently finished with the conversation.
Katheryn threw her hands up in exasperation. Ignacio wrapped an arm around her shoulder and leaned down to whisper in her ear. Esmeralda had barely caught what he had to say, straining her ear to hear. It sounded like,“Remember what we came here for.”Whatever it was that he said, it made Katheryn’s temper lower, and move as far away from Damien as possible.
“There’s so much I want to ask you,” Esmeralda said, following after her mother and sitting on the ground across from her. Ignacio sat to the left of Katheryn, Antonio was still standing, cradling his cheek, staring at them in disbelief.
Katheryn rolled her eyes and tossed her hair over her shoulders. “Well, sit down,” she commanded. Antonio obeyed cautiously, sitting next to Ezzy, but avoiding looking into her parents’ eyes.
“Now, I know you probably have a lot of questions,” Katheryn began, next to her, Ezzy’s dad nodded. “But I’m afraid those questions will have to wait.”
Ezzy felt a stab of disappointment. She had so many things on her mind, so much she wanted to ask. Like what they felt towards each other when they first met? Or how did Katheryn react when she found out that Ignacio was a vampire? Did they ever have any problems? There was so much she wanted to know…
“We came here for a reason, and it wasn’t just for your entertainment.” She continued. “In the spirit world they tell us that everything has significance, a purpose of some sort that will eventually expand into something bigger.”
Esmeralda looked at her with questioning eyes, wondering what brought this on, and what in the hell she was talking about. She waited patiently for more.
“Yes, spirits can be called into dreams, but only if they’re sent. If spirits are shoved into the dreams of the living, it is for a reason, or so we’re told.”
“So, you guys didn’t show up here because I thought you up and called out to you?” Esmeralda asked, disappointment beginning to wriggle itself into her again.
“We heard you calling to us,” Ignacio said gently. “It was a whisper, a small tug, pulling us forward, not enough to bring us all of the way through—”
