Page 54 of My Master
After a click…itended. All of her memories, every moment in her life, the change, she remembered all of it. She let go of Antonio and turned to the man that ruined her life: Caesareon, herMaster. His eyes were blazing.
“What the hell are you doing, Isis? Kill him! I command you to kill him!”
She saw the way his pupils throbbed but were unable to attain her. For once, he had lost Isis. For once, he had lost all control over her.
“You can’t command me to doanythinganymore.”
His gaze wavered into panic, soon replaced by fury.
Isis stood in a face off against her creator, feeling all of her own fury, all of her rage pour from her. She had hated him before but what she felt now—it went beyond that in every way imaginable. She wanted him not only dead, but to suffer in Hell.
“You can’t control me anymore. I broke free of your chains, Caesareon. I am yours no longer.” Behind her, Antonio coughed and jumped to his feet next to her. He was rubbing his neck.
“Glad to have you back.” He offered her an encouraging smile.
She nodded. “I’m glad to be back.”
Caesareon threw his head back and laughed. “You think you two can beat me? It would take an army to attempt to bring me down, and even they would fail.”
Yet Isis saw doubt in his eyes. Something was weakening him. She could care less what it was, only that it was happening and she’d use it to her advantage. “We’ll see,” she muttered and wanted nothing more than to rush forward and rip his bastard throat out, to tear his head from his body and pull him apart, limb by limb. But she had to calculate his every move or else she’d end up dead. She was almost positive that this time he wouldn’t keep her alive.
Caesareon’s eyes throbbed, tried to pierce her but she felt nothing. It was like an invisible force field had covered her mind and his attempts bounced off and away from her.
“It’s not going to work anymore…” Isis said smoothly. “I suggest you stop trying.”
Caesareon glowered at her. “So, I give you the life of the gods and this is how you choose to repay me? To team up with this…” He shot a distasteful look at Antonio. “…human loverin an attempt to kill me? I see how deep your loyalty runs, my warrior.”
“I’ve never been loyal to you!” she spat. “I hated you the moment I set eyes on you. I despised you even more for what you made me do to my brother. You killed my mother, didn’t you? Sucked her dry? Burnt my village to ashes? Forced me to kill my brother and then tried to use me for your own selfish purposes!”
Caesareon smirked. “Do not tell me you didn’t want it. Do you remember how sweet his blood tasted? How the first drop of it only made you crave it all the more? You could not resist the temptation your little brother provoked. You have only yourself to blame.”
Isis growled her rage and, despite her earlier logical reasoning, she charged at him, baring her fangs. Only inches from him, he laughed and gripped her by the hair and yanked it, hard. She grunted in pain and twisted in an attempt to break free.
He caught her by the throat and pulled her to him, her back hitting his chest. He grazed his fangs against her neck and she struggled against him. Antonio ran to her aid, his silver dagger—that she was sure he had hidden within his boot—gleaming with a vengeance in his right hand.
“Take one more step and I’ll put her in your path,” Caesareon warned. Antonio stopped. Isis groaned. Caesareon laughed. “Oh, Isis, you were always such a fool…”
“Fuck you!”
He smiled against her flesh, pulling her hair to the side, baring the right side of her naked throat. “I remember when I first changed you.” He kissed her throat. “Your blood was marvelous…” His fangs nicked her, she felt a sharp sting, and blood. “Do you know why I chose you?” His tongue darted out and licked her blood. Isis shivered with revulsion. “I chose you because, even as a human, you were able to resist me. Nothing has changed. You are the most tempting creature I’ve ever come across.”
“And you’re the most nauseating creatureI’veever come across.” Isis grabbed his hand and used it to lever herself off the ground, swinging herself upwards in an arc in an acrobatic stance, causing his hold on her to loosen. She held onto his shoulders for leverage and landed behind him on her feet. She brought her knee up and jammed it against his spine.
Caesareon bent over but didn’t cry out. Isis hadn’t expected him to. She jumped on his back and grabbed him by the sides of the neck, prepared to twist, and he flung her off of him. She fell back, skidding across the tiled floor.
She sat up and saw Antonio lunge for him, silver dagger in hand. Caesareon faced off with him, gripping his bone handled knife—no, nothisbone handled knife, buthers,her little brother’s. She had only a moment to wonder how he had gotten it.
Caesareon swung the knife at Antonio’s chest, snagging his T-shirt, tearing a hole in it. Antonio’s foot lifted up into a kick on Caesareon’s chest that sent him stumbling back. Isis hopped to her feet and went to join Antonio in the battle.
She splayed her foot out to knock him over. He jumped up dodging easily, performing a perfect back flip and landing behind Isis. He kicked her in the back of the knees and as she fell forward, grabbed her by the back of the collar. He stabbed the bone handled knife into her shoulder.
Isis screamed in agony. Behind her, Caesareon laughed and twisted the knife around in her flesh before pulling it back out. Isis clutched her shoulder, the pain sent a spit of fire down her entire side.
“Isis!” Antonio called out to her. Isis paid him little mind. She was gripped with her own cold fury. She was letting him get the best of her and she couldn’t let him do that. She was forgetting how to fight, keeping her mind angry and therefore narrow. She needed to focus…focus…
Slowly, Isis stood up and turned to face him. Her wound had already begun to heal; she could feel it knitting together. She controlled her breathing, glared her Master down. He was smiling at her in that wicked way, one side of his mouth tilted past his gums only to reveal the glint of sharp teeth.
“Fighting is futile, my warrior. You cannot rise against me; no one can.” He brought the blade of the dagger up to his lips and he swiped his tongue across it, wiping it clean.
