Monsters
MONSTERS
Celine
The club empties with remarkable speed. Amara is the last to leave through the emergency exit, her eyes fixed anxiously on me. I ensure that she’s safely out of harm’s way before Cedric and I begin speaking.
I don’t want her to get caught in the crossfire if anything goes badly.
I steel my gaze. I can’t allow myself to get distracted right now, especially by a breather that I’m not even drinking from.
It was cute when she got jealous, though.
Attention, Celine.
“How lovely to see you again, brother,” I say, enjoying the furious expression on Cedric’s face. I hover a few feet in the air. I love to be above him, and he’s never been able to master flying the way I have. Xia and Damien flank me on each side. “To what do we owe this visit?”
“You know why I’m here, Celine,” he hisses. His vampire guard part but they stay close by. Smart of them. They must know that we staked the others. “Your day guard attacked the independent witches we were partnered with.”
“The witches who you ordered to make illicit substances, which you pedaled to my customers.”
“Business is business,” Cedric spits. “And your guard destroyed thousands of dollars of product!”
“Surely you could afford to lose such a measly sum. Unless your business is doing so poorly...”
His eyes narrow. “First you staked Lazarus’s progeny. Now you threaten our drug supply!”
“I obliterated your drug supply,” I correct, with a cocky tilt of my head.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Celine,” he says, his jaw tight. “You should be more careful. You’re smarter than this.”
“You don’t scare me.”
The club goes eerily quiet. Cedric steps out of the center of his vampire guard. Xia and Damien look to me, but I make a gesture that indicates they should stand down. I keep my dagger-stake close, and my reflexes are at least as good as Cedric’s. I lower, until I’m only a few feet off the ground.
He comes close enough to me that I can see the lines in his face, the firm set of his mouth, the arrogant twitch of his lips.
And the light purple hue of his eyes.
The eyes of a monster.
He whispers, low enough that only I can hear.
“I know you better than anyone, Celine. I know your weakness. And I will enjoy tearing away everything you love.”
I hate him. Not because of his threat, but because of his ignorance. Because he does know me better than anyone. Before he betrayed Tudor, before he betrayed our family, before he betrayed me …Cedric and I were inseparable. Practically twins. And he has already taken everything from me, by leaving us for Lazarus.
Because of his betrayal, I can never trust anyone again. And my fury is blinding.
All I want is to tear his head from his neck. To reach into his chest and pull out his unbeating heart…
And if I was the monster he is, I would. But instead, like the monster I am, I put my lips close to his ear, intimately, softly.
“ Show me your worst .”
Amara
I’m so glad the emergency exit door has a window. I’m not so glad that the window is narrow and almost impossible to see through. If I had my choice, I would have waited inside the club. But it’s too risky. The vampires could easily hear my heartbeat and sense my living, breathing body. It’s safer behind this door.
“O Hecate, Graceful Goddess, Wise One, please watch over Celine and Xia,” I whisper. “Make sure they don’t do anything stupid.”
I don’t know what I’m doing here. I could easily just go home to my safe, cozy apartment. This conflict has nothing to do with the witch covens, it’s not worth my spying.
But Celine…I just know she’s going to do something reckless. She already staked three of the Lazarus gang vampires, what if she takes out Cedric Ducharme, too? Lazarus would stop at nothing to get his revenge! Or what if she tries to stake Cedric, but he gets her first? There were so many vampires protecting him…
I clutch my bag nervously, checking for the thousandth time that my wand is there. If I hear any sound of trouble, I’m going in. I don’t care if it blows my cover, I’m not letting anyone else get hurt.
I squint through the window, but I can’t make anything out. All I can hear is the faint, repetitive beat of the club music.
Why do they have to play it so loud?
Then suddenly, a dark shadow falls over the narrow window and the door swings open, almost hitting me.
I scramble backwards as a shadowy, imposing figure fills the space.
She looks at me with surprise, but doesn’t speak.
“Oh, thank Goddess!” I breathe, looking Celine up and down. No blood, dagger still in the sheath by her ankle. “You’re ok!”
She frowns at me. “Of course I’m ok.”
“I just thought…” I swallow. Her expression is cold. There are new lines around her eyes. I didn’t expect her to be happy to see me, but I didn’t expect her to be so gruff, either. “I was worried about you.”
Something shifts behind her eyes. They shine like two dead, cold diamonds in the too-bright light of the emergency exit hallway.
It’s anger , but not a red-hot, burning anger. It’s a deep, radiating rage. A cold, horrible shiver goes up my shine. I’ve felt a lot of things in her presence, but this is new.
“I thought you were upset with me,” she says, her voice as lifeless as her body.
I shake my head, confused. That seems so long ago. “I…I was . But I shouldn’t have been. I was just a little jealous. Celine, what’s going…”
She pushes past me, up the stairs.
“Hey, stop!” I shout.
I tail her up the stairs. She’s impossibly fast, of course, but doesn’t seem to be going at her full speed. I’m worried that she might run off into the night. But when I push my way out the door to the back alleyway, she’s still standing there.
It’s a humid summer night. The wet ground indicates that it recently rained. There isn’t much moonlight, since the sky is overcast. A single, glaring orange light casts an ominous glow over the alley.
Celine is standing a few feet away, staring out into the night. But there’s nothing there. She looks like a trapped animal.
It’s so sad. Something inside me breaks.
“ Celine ,” I say. “Talk to me. Did something happen with Cedric? I didn’t know he was your brother…”
“Why are you here, Amara,” she hisses, without looking at me. “You should go home.”
“I…I don’t know,” I reply, honestly. “I don’t know why I’m here, but I know that I have to be.”
I’m surprised at the words spilling out of me. But now that I’ve started, I can’t stop.
“And I know…that I want to be here, with you. There isn’t anywhere else I want to be. And I’m sorry that I was upset before, and that I pushed you away. I was scared, but I wasn’t scared of you . I was scared of that feeling.”
The words are cathartic, but they produce an agonizing ache in my chest.
For several minutes, she stands there, silent as death.
When she speaks, her voice is otherworldly, the rasp of a demon.
“You should be scared of me, Amara. My brother…the vampires I’ve staked…I’m worse than all of them combined. You don’t know how long I’ve been a vampire. How many things I’ve done. You could barely comprehend…”
I step into the dark alleyway. I want to tell her that I may understand more than she realizes…
But Xia was right. If she finds out, I’m dead. I’m worse than dead.
She turns her head with unnatural speed, her eyes trained on me.
I stop in my tracks. I’m trembling from head to foot.
“ Go home, Amara .”
And she disappears, another shadow in the night.
When I get back to my apartment, I tumble into bed without turning on any lights or taking off my clothes.
And I cry.
Big, messy, stupid, embarrassing tears.
I feel strange and empty. I don’t understand why I’m so upset. Because I really shouldn’t be.
All right, I had a little crush on a vampire. It happens. It happens to people all the time. Maybe not as often to witches, but I’m definitely not the first.
But something else rips a hole in my heart. Something so profoundly sad that I don’t even want to name it.
We were building a connection. A connection I didn’t even realize. Not until it was torn away.
I’ve spent two centuries being strong. Fighting battles to protect others. Alone in my power and ability.
And I thought that maybe she…maybe she could understand that.
But I was wrong.
She’s not the hero who can understand me.
She’s the monster I have to slay.