Page 37 of My Master
“We may not know where he’s at, but we need to tell the cops anyway.” He turned to Maria. “I need you to watch over Ezzy for me.” Then he turned to his father. “And I need to know if you’d be willing to help me.”
Marco Santiago agreed.
17
Esmeralda was walking through a corridor, long and narrow, passing various closed and locked doors. The hallway seemed endless and scary, but sheer determination kept her running, trying to pry open every door she saw. She was looking for something, and she knew what it was, she only needed to know how to find it. No, not it: her. She could feel deep in her bones that Isis was in trouble, could hear Isis calling her name, calling for help. She needed to get to her, she needed to save her. She reached the end of the hall, to the last door. Taking a deep breath, Esmeralda twisted the knob, and the door swung open.
Darkness greeted her, but she didn’t feel afraid. Esmeralda stepped inside, only to fall into nothingness. Strange, how it didn’t feel like falling. Although she was aware that she was descending at a rapid pace, there was no crazy feeling in her stomach, no actual tangible velocity—all she felt was utter bliss. It wasn’t until she hit solid ground, slammed back into her senses, did she scream and slash out. She cried for her best friend, she cried for help.
Arms pinned her down and soft gentle hands wiped away her sweat matted hair from her forehead. The hands were dark and delicate, fingers long. There was a voice, singing to her in a different language, it was a slow song, one that she recognized immediately, same as the voice behind it; heavily accented and deep and rich. Esmeralda calmed instantly and he pulled her to his chest, singing into her hair.
He finished his song after a few moments and Esmeralda looked up into his eyes to thank him—and gasped. Antonio’s eyes were black, but this person that she was staring at, with his milk chocolate eyes and slicked back hair was not Antonio. She tensed and pushed him away, but his grip was tight, and he refused to let go.
“Esmeralda, wait,” he said, his voice soft and not at all angry. Esmeralda didn’t know what to do. She knew he would be able to hurt her, and she knew he was capable of it, but she asked herself if he would. She knew he’d only hurt her if she said something wrong, so she kept her mouth shut, stopped fighting, and stared at him. He sighed and loosened his hold on her. “I want to talk to you.” Esmeralda blinked at him. “I know you’re mad at me—”
Esmeralda pushed him away and scrambled away from him. Her mouth opened, gaping at him. “Mad at you?” she started incredulously. “I am not mad at you! I am completely, utterly, totally, entirely, irrevocably, absolutely and downright furious with you! You killed my parents, you tried to change me, Damien!”
Damien sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. When he looked at her again, his brown eyes looked sad and, remembering what Antonio had told her,he’s a liar,Esmeralda was gripped with fury. What right did he have to look sad, even it was feigned? He was a crazy killer, he had sent Rogues to murder her parents and he would have murdered her, too. He almost killed his twin brother—twice—he had no reason to be sad.
“You have every right to hate me.” Damien said. “And you also have every reason to leave, wake up…ignore everything I have to tell you. But if you will please consider my proposal? I really do need to talk to you.”
Esmeralda studied him, but couldn’t see past the evil façade, couldn’t see any truth in him. She didn’t even know if he was capable of telling the truth. And he was right; she didn’t have to stay here and listen to him, she could leave and pretend it never happened, go back to the real world and help in the search of Isis, something of extreme importance. But, if Esmeralda was honest with herself, she was a little curious at what he wanted to talk about. Then again, she had no reason to trust him and she owed him nothing…
“Please, Esmeralda,” he pleaded.
Slowly, she nodded.
His eyes lit up and he smiled, but that expression faded as soon as it came and he sighed, bending his head down and looked at his opened palms; he said, “I have done things I am not exactly proud of,”
Esmeralda narrowed her eyes. “Really,” she spat. “Tell me more.”
Damien shot her an impatient look. “Please do not interrupt me; it’s very rude, you know.”
Feeling defiant, Ezzy replied, “Really? I thought that trying to kill people was rude.”
Damien clicked his tongue but continued as if she hadn’t even spoken. “I feel like I have wronged many people in my life, starting with you.” Esmeralda stared at him, wide eyed. “I know that no amount of apologizing could ever make up for what I robbed from you. I stole your childhood, your memories, I stole everything. And I wish it weren’t too late, but I needed to let you know how incredibly sorry I truly am for everything that I’ve done to you.”
She was at a loss for words. Damien, the man who had killed her parents, nearly killed Antonio and the creator of the Blood Drug was apologizing to her. He was right, though. No amount of apologizing would bring her parents back from the dead, and she wasn’t even sure if he was telling the truth. He did seem sincere, but he had seemed sincere about a lot of things.
“You killed my parents.” She felt tears prickle at the back of her eyelids.
“Yes.” There was no malice in his voice, no cruelty, only fact.
“You tried to kill your brother.”
“Also, yes.”
“You tried to take over the world with Rogue vampires.”
“Actually, no. Do not stoop me to Caesareon’s level. I never wanted power over the world; I only wanted power over a certain few.”
“But why would you do that? Everything you did, all of those people you murdered…it makes you just like him!”
“Esmeralda, can’t you see?” He scooted close to her. “I wanted power, yes, but only certain power over vampires and vampires only. I wanted our race to prosper, to come into terms with our full power. So I created the Blood Drug, it was supposed to help the weakest of us become stronger. Unfortunately, my plan did not function the way it was supposed to.
“The drug was not supposed to make them crave more blood; it wasn’t supposed to make them kill. But it had already happened, it had already spiraled uncontrollably and there was nothing I could do about it. I was blind, Esmeralda, so blind, I only wanted to help, but I lost sight of what it was doing to the world around me. I didn’t realize who I was hurting—not really—and once I had started I couldn’t stop. I was too close to success, too close…”
“I don’t understand you,” Esmeralda said. “First you’re really sweet, then you act like some evil overlord of darkness, and now you’re apologizing, saying you only wanted to make the vampire race better. What happened to you, Damien? What made you like this?”
