Page 57 of My Master
Silence.
Someone touched her hand.
Isis wanted to reach out to the surface, to grip the person that was talking and drag them under with her, to hold that familiarity with her in the darkness that did nothing but envelop her.
* * *
“I like the name Katheryn,for a girl, but I’m not sure what Antonio thinks. He hasn’t really told me what names he likes. He was happy when I first told him but now he doesn’t even talk about it. I think he’s mad at me for rushing into battle in my condition.”
Condition? Esmeralda?
“Anyway, for a girl I like the name Katheryn, a lot. Or Josefina. It’d be nice to name a baby after my grandmother. Of course, I don’t evenknowif I’m having a girl yet. I haven’t gotten checked. I kinda want it to be a surprise.”
What the hell was she talking about?
* * *
“Isis,I wish you’d wake up. I miss you. Please, wake up…”
Isis was drowning in blood. Drowning in blood? Could that even work on a vampire? Well, she was drowning in it. The blood of all of those she had killed. And, hard as she tried to kick her legs and move her arms, she simply couldn’t reach the surface. It was like swimming through honey. Sticky and sweet. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but red, a veil placed over her vision. She opened her mouth to suck down air but all she received were swallows of blood.
And she saw images.
There was a boy, a twelve year old, scrunching his eyebrows together as he studied a bone handled knife. A woman with slanted eyes mixing scented liquids together. She saw flashes of every person she knew and cared about. Marco Santiago, accepting her into the Coven; Antonio, wrapping her in a headlock and giving her a brotherly noogie; Esmeralda, turning a confused face to look at her and then smiling in that cute way she always did.
And Esmeralda held her hand out, beckoning her forward. All Isis had to do was reach out…stretch…and she was pulled to the top, air filling her lungs.
* * *
Antonio watchedEsmeralda as she watched Isis. Sometimes he would leave the room and when he came back, Esmeralda would be talking to Isis animatedly. As soon as he’d step into the room she’d go silent, a sly smile on her face and she’d continue whispering to Isis in hushed tones. Half of the time he hardly paid attention, too caught up in his own mind. When hedidpay attention he caught snippets about the baby that Ezzy was carrying.
Ezzy no longer wore hoodies to hide it. Maria had brought her back a bag full of clothes; all T-shirts and sweatpants and tights, so she was proudly showing off her swollen belly. Oh, how he longed to reach out and run his hands across her stomach, to talk to his child. He didn’t know what was holding him back, maybe because Esmeralda had been practically glued to Isis’s bed since they had brought her to the hospital.
He sighed. The day wasn’t easily forgettable.
After Isis had passed out he picked her up and carried her outside to find that the FBSI had gained control over the situation. There was an ambulance nearby and he had gotten to it as fast as he could, only to find Esmeralda in the back of the van, unconscious, and bruised, Maria at her side.
He passed Isis off to a doctor and demanded to know what had happened. Apparently Ezzy had chased after him to the battle without a second thought. She was trying to go to the Rotten Banana when Maria had been forced to knock her out. As soon as Ezzy awoke, she was at Isis’s side, practically living there for months and Isis still hadn’t woken up.
The doctors said she suffered from exhaustion and trauma but he had never known anyone to sleep for that long. It made him wonder if Caesareon had left her with some kind of damage in her brain.
“Isis, if you want Ezzy to stop talking your ear off then you should seriously wake up.” Ezzy stuck her tongue out at him, making him smile. “Ezzy, you really should sleep, you look exhausted.”
She studied him for a moment before replying. “So should you,” she said. “In fact, you look worse than I feel.”
There was no point in arguing. She was right, of course. He hadn’t slept a wink for days, even when he was supposed to be in his day sleep, his body just wouldn’t shut down. He felt a pull at his eyes now, though. He walked over to Ezzy and kissed her forehead.
“I love you, Ezzy.” He almost imagined Isis waking up to roll her eyes at him. She didn’t, so he went back to the little couch and plopped himself on it. Daylight was on its way, he could feel it in his bones. Luckily there were no windows in supernatural hospitals. If there were, well, most of the patients would have probably burnt to a crisp. The only light from the room emanated from fluorescent bulbs that were so white they hurt his eyes, so white that they reminded him of the Otherworld.
This time, when Antonio closed his eyes, he fell asleep.
* * *
Another dream,another sunset, painted crimson against the sky. Antonio’s heart clenched and unclenched as he stared out at nothing in particular. The wind touched his bare skin, calming him in a manner that was foreign to him. It was always the same dream, every night, and he knew that this was just a dream as well. All that was missing was…
“Hello, brother,”
Antonio didn’t need to turn around and gape in surprise anymore; he was already used to his twin brother’s presence in his dreams. He just sat there, his legs dangling off the side of the rooftop, his hands poised behind him. “Hello, Damien,” he whispered in a voice that was surprisingly light. Damien sat down next to him, his legs dangling over the side as well.
