"What?" Diego sputtered when Doctor Hernandez told him. "No blood?"
"Not a drop, Diego. That's why I thought I should talk to you," the silver-haired man said with a sigh. "I know that you are always reading journals from Spain, and I thought maybe you had read of a disease that could explain it."
Diego shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not, Doctor. I hope it's not something that could pass on to other cattle. Don Fernado's lands are close enough to our own that our stock may be in danger."
Hernandez took a long drink from his glass of juice. "I admit that when Don Fernando asked me to take a look at the animal, I thought he was loco."
"I imagine you did." Diego had seen a human autopsy while in Spain. The man's neck had been broken when the authorities had hung him. The thought it being done on an animal struck him as odd.
The doctor leaned forward. "I think he thought DeSoto might be responsible."
"Really?" Diego frowned. "That doesn't sound like our dear alcalde."
"No," Hernandez sighed, "But Don Fernando lost all respect for the office of alcalde after Ramone abused it, and DeSoto has done nothing to endear himself."
"I understand that feeling." Diego offered his glass up in a toast, which Hernandez matched after a moment's hesitation. More than one man had been arrested for daring to insult the alcalde in the tavern. The small clinking of their glasses brought Victoria's attention to their table. Diego's heart smiled happily when she sat down beside him.
"Interesting discussion, gentlemen?" She poured herself a glass from the pitcher. Her face was flushed, and Diego thought she should be home resting, but her time spent at the tavern had increased since she hired Raul.
Hernandez shifted uneasily at her question, but Diego had no qualms telling her. She had seen and heard worse during her days as an innkeeper, and she was married to a scientist. "Zorro discovered a dead cow last night, and when Hernandez dissected it, he found out that it did not have any blood."
"How is that possible?" she asked, her eyebrows drawn into a frown. Her curiosity matched his. It was one reason why they were so well suited. Or one of the reasons why Diego had thought they would be.
"That is what we were discussing, my dear," he told her. "We don't know of any way it could be possible."
Hernandez chuckled. "I'm sure Zorro would let Don Fernando know in a different way if he had to do it over again."
Victoria's soft smile left her face. "What do you mean?"
"He rode right up to the front door and knocked!"
Diego saw Victoria's hand tremble before she hid it in her skirts. "But the alcalde was dining there last night."
"Exactly! The entire pueblo knew he was to be there-except for Zorro apparently." Hernandez chuckled. "I hear he gave DeSoto and his soldiers a merry chase. Mendoza said they had never gotten so close before."
"Zorro risked his life over a dead cow," Victoria said flatly.
Z Z Z
"A dead cow, Diego!" she exploded. He had the impression if she had been holding something in her hand it would have been hurled at his head. "You risked your life for a dead cow!"
She had been silent the entire trip home. He had grown used to it over the last few months-ever since Raul arrived and Victoria had nearly died protecting Zorro. Now, he wanted to laugh. She still cared. Maybe she did not love him, but she still cared.
"I did not risk my life for a dead cow. I knew I could outrace them," he told her.
She took a step back in surprise. "You knew that the alcalde and his troops were there."
"Of course," he answered, surprised she hadn't realized it before. He made it his mission to know everything that happened in Los Angeles—especially where the alcalde was concerned.
Crossing her arms, she turned away and walked to the window. "You deliberately risked your life for a lark. How could you? In case you have forgotten, you have a little one on the way."
"One thing you can be certain that I will never forget is that we are having a child," he said through teeth that refused to open. He forced himself to breathe.
She turned to look at him, her shoulders drooped in defeat. "I don't think you acted like it last night. Or do you want our baby to be born without a father?" She walked out of the room without sparing him another glance. Diego sank down onto the bed and wished for the happier times to return.
Z Z Z
Blood sprayed across her hand as the back of it hit Robert's face. "You imbecile! You left the cow for anyone to find."
"I'm afraid that is my fault," Innocenzio said, stepping forward from the shadows.
"Your fault," she snarled, grabbing him by the throat.
He somehow managed to nod. "I told Robert to dispose of it so."
She let him go, pushing him away from her. "I know you did not expect the doctor to do such a ridiculous procedure on a cow-"
"No, but I expected de la Vega would make sure it was thoroughly examined," he answered.
She turned to stare at him. "You knew that someone would discover the cow was empty of blood, and you still told Robert to discard the body in an obvious place."
"I want them frightened, on edge," he said, taking a step forward.
Her hand balled into a tight fist, and she barely restrained her impulse to hit him. "You want them frightened? Why? What makes you believe they would be frightened? This is not Romania."
He shook his head. "No, it is not, but everyone fears the unknown, my lady. I know now that my answers are here, but I also know this is the place of my enemies."
Her eyebrow arched. "Your enemies? You never said that even about the Devil's Fortress-a place where neither de la Vega visited."
His eyes gleamed with obsession. That gleam had been present ever since she told him about her encounter with a man bearing the last name of de la Vega. "One of them lies."
"You seem certain." She took a step closer. "Certain of a fact you have no way of knowing."
"I know." He walked closer, picking up her bloodstained hand. He brought it to his mouth and gently began to lick it clean. "Every since you told me the name 'de la Vega', the past has started to return to me. It's still hidden by a dense fog, but I know that de la Vega was my enemy. And I know he watched me 'die'."
She pulled her cleaned hand away. Was this jealousy or was he correct? Was he trying to prevent her from turning de la Vega into a vampire? Or was he just trying to find the answers he'd craved for so long? "You did not die there."
"No, my love," he answered. His beautiful eyes held her in their grasp. "I died in your arms, where I wanted to be."
"Simone and her brother brought you to me," she murmured, briefly lost in the past. They had often brought her goods from the prison. The guards for a few pesos would gleefully hand over the near dead, telling their commander that the prisoners had died and been buried. It had been the best time of eating in her life. She hated to leave, but after Innocenzio's conversion, she had feared that a prison guard would recognize him and take him back to the prison. Although, because of his clothing, it was hard to believe he had been a prisoner.
She wondered if Los Angeles had been his home. Perhaps it was time to talk to the alcalde or that sergeant. De la Vega had claimed those two went to the Devil's Fortress with his darling little wife to be. "De la Vega claimed that neither he nor his father went to the fortress."
"He lies," Innocenzio hissed.
She watched him for a moment. So confident of what he couldn't possibly know. "De la Vega does not seem the type."
Innocenzio rubbed his temple. Still so human acting. "I know. Some part of me thinks he's an annoying do-gooder while another part of me knows that he's more than he seems."
She thought of that delicious power she felt surround him. Power flowed from him like a giant waterfall. He was definitely more than this pueblo knew him to be. She ran her tongue over her teeth. Oh, to just be able to taste.
But she had important business in Los Angeles. Business that could not be endangered due to desire for a delicious morsel. Or desire for revenge on an old enemy of a lover.
In the blink of an eye, she withdrew her knife and pushed her lover into the wall. She inhaled the delicious aroma of iron as the knife cut into his throat.
"I rewarded Simone and her brother handsomely for bring you to me," she said.
He showed no fear. Foolish vampire. "I know."
She had finally agreed to convert her long-time employees after finding Robert. It made her nervous being in a new place with only a new servant to watch over her, but she had done it for him. She had to admit he was working out wonderfully. His haughty English attitude, the one only an English servant could perfect, kept most of the day employees too angry to ask questions.
"I reward people who treat me right." She pressed the knife harder. "And I punish people who treat me wrong."
Pain filled his eyes. Not physical. Not from the pain of the knife but from her words. Damn his too human eyes. "I never meant to wrong you."
"You put us in possible danger without asking me. Do not do it again." She hated to be harsh with him, but she had no desire to suffer her first lover's fate.
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I let an old anger guide me." His eyes held shame. She seemed to be the only one who could cause him to feel such an emotion.
She let him go and thought for a moment. "We don't have much time to discover your past. I presume that those you left behind suppose you to be dead. You truly believe this was your home?"
Her blond lover shuddered. "No, it was never my home. A prison perhaps. But I know this place. And I know the de la Vegas. I can find my history here, Tasia."
She stared at him for a moment. "I have made plans, Innocenzio. Plans that I cannot have upset at this late a date."
He closed his eyes and nodded. She grabbed his chin and forced him to look her in the eye. "We will find your history, if it is really here. But we will do it my way. And that way is very carefully."
He nodded, relief in those eyes. She turned to the silent man still standing beside the table. "Have you looked in the graveyard, Robert?"
Her servant nodded. He knew better than to wipe the blood from his face or even act like he was in pain. It was undignified. "Yes, madam, I have. The only memorial in the graveyard from the year Innocenzio was brought to you was for a young boy."
"Pity," she sighed. It would make it much easier if we had your name."
"A memorial? Why would they put up a memorial? They had no body," Innocenzio protested.
She laughed. "I know you don't remember your life as a human, but if you did, you would understand. Humans are strange creatures. They mourn loss, with or without a body."
"Perhaps they did not consider my death a loss."
She thought for a moment and then nodded. "Perhaps. Especially if you are right and this pueblo was your prison. De la Vega said that Victoria, Mendoza, and the alcalde went to the fortress. I will speak with the alcalde; he will eventually tell me what I want to know about the Devil's Fortress. He's a vain man who believes he is much smarter than he actually is."
Z Z Z
He felt her presence before he heard her exclaiming, "That is terrible!"
Turning, he could see her walking in the moonlight with DeSoto. The gossips in the pueblo were busy. A married woman and their leader caused much discussion but little action. No one had met her husband. Raul had only seen a man covered in a cape stagger up the steps when they arrived at dawn at the tavern, and too busy to notice anything when they left. The few servants who worked in the house stated that the poor man never left his bed.
Tasia. She had made her presence felt in their small society quickly. Her love of fashion and proper manners set well with a select group of ladies, and they had welcomed her into their tight-knit group. Diego remembered when his mother had kept any group from behaving as those ladies did.
He disliked spending any time with them. Which didn't explain the dreams. The fantasies that his imagination wove around that woman. The mere thought of having a conversation with her made him ill, but his body yearned to mingle. A fact that made him hate himself.
"Diego," she called as they stepped onto the tavern's porch.
"Tasia, Alcalde," he said as he nodded his head. He wanted to gather his wife and run far away from this woman.
"It's a beautiful night," he said.
She licked her lips, making them glisten in the moonlight. "Indeed it is," she agreed. "I think the view is spectacular."
Only years of manners forced into him by his mother, his father, and his tutors kept him from running away. "I see that you seem to be fitting in Los Angeles. Have you decided it could be a home?"
Her laughter promised delights he couldn't understand. "Perhaps. I believe Los Angeles will bring me something I've always wanted."
"Really?"
"Yes," she said, not bothering to explain. She turned to look at her companion. "Ignacio was telling me about the cattle. The poor ranchers."
Diego nodded, noting the false sympathy that oozed in her voice. "So far only a few have been affected, but it could become worse before it gets better."
"Have you and your father lost any cattle, Diego?"
He shook his head. "No, we have been most fortunate."
"Odd that it missed you," the alcalde mused. "Since the first one was found near the border of your land."
"As Diego said, we have been most fortunate," Alejandro said as he joined them outside.
Tasia's smirk seemed to say it was more than luck that was keeping the de la Vegas free of the plague bothering their neighbors. "Most fortunate. Victoria, it's good to see you again."
"Tasia," his wife replied. Diego knew he should look at her but he found it hard to look away from the siren.
"I was telling your dear husband that I might just make Los Angeles my home. The closest place I've ever called home was an area outside of Devil's Fortress. Diego told me that you once visited it."
Victoria's voice would have chilled a fire. "Yes, I did. My father died there."
"As did my predecessor," injected DeSoto.
"Your predecessor?" Tasia turned her attention away from Diego, and he inhaled a deep breath as if released from a tight net. "Diego did mention that the alcalde and someone else-"
"Sergeant Mendoza," his father offered.
"Oh, yes. Your predecessor." Tasia's lips lacked the all-knowing smile that usually resided there. "He was killed?"
"In a fall," Alejandro said. No one in the town had mourned his death. Even Diego, who should have been overwhelmed by guilt, had instead enjoyed the sensation of being free. He had even gone to France for a last spree before coming home to the new alcalde. He left expecting to be married to Victoria within a year.
"A fall?"
"Yes, from a tower at the fortress. No one knows why he was up there or how he fell." DeSoto's bored voice reminded everyone why no investigation had occurred. Zorro's name had never been mentioned; as far as Diego knew, Victoria and Mendoza told no one about the masked man's presence.
"How horrible," Tasia said. Her revulsion, like her earlier sympathy, lacked a certain heart-felt quality.
The guilt he had failed to feel immediately after Ramone's death occasionally haunted him now. The thud of his enemy striking the ground was one sound he would never forget. He looked over at Victoria and saw a flash of understanding before she looked away. It was enough to get him through the conversation.
Z Z Z
"Robert tells me that the hysteria in Los Angeles continues to grow," Innocenzio said to Tasia at dinner one night. The former Luis Ramone had continued his little game. She allowed him, even though she knew she shouldn't. Instinct, common sense as the humans would call it, demanded that they remain carefully hidden away. However, a part of her enjoyed it, too.
And the terror could be used to her advantage later.
She set down her glass. "Yes, it does. As you expected, the unknown has terrified them. De la Vega and the doctor are hard at work trying to explain it, but the good peasants have already found their own answer for the bloodless cows that continue to plague them."
Innocenzio raised his eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. She loved when he looked at her with expectation. He always expected her to have the answers. She usually did. "God has cursed them."
He laughed. His memories remained vague, but his growing knowledge of the area was helping him. And her. "God gives the blood, and he taketh away."
Nodding, she tried to smile. She should be laughing at the stupidity of the humans. Usually, she would. The silly creatures often amused her-so intelligent and so stupid.
"What is wrong, my love?"
She stood, waving Robert from the room. "We have discovered your past. You are slowly beginning to remember it. That pleases me." More than it should.
"But?"
"I thought it would have happened by now," she whispered. So many years of waiting. When the location had finally fallen within her grasp, she had thought the battle would start almost immediately.
"What should have happened?"
"The battle," she whispered, longing to share with him what had been her secret for so long.
"The battle?" Innocenzio leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "You are preparing for a fight. Is that why we have so many guests staying in various caves?"
Fury flashed through her body. "You know—"
"I have eyes, and I watch every move you make, my love. Besides I've noticed your subtle questions about my memory of the topography of the area." He stood up and walked behind her. He began rubbing her shoulders. She actually relaxed as he continued to massage her. She was not human, had not been human for more than five centuries, but this new one's behavior was rubbing off on her.
She forced herself to walk away from his touch. She could not afford to be vulnerable, especially now. The time was too close for her to be weak. She would soon have what she had always yearned for, what her first lover had told her she was destined to have.
"You can trust me, Tasia."
Her smile was bitter. "I trust no one, Innocenzio. Not even you."
He flinched. "I love you."
"Love is a silly emotion, and those who suffer from it do not always act in the best interests of those they love. If they did, the human race would be worth saving."
"Saving? From what?"
"Me," she replied, giving away more information than she intended.
He pressed against her and she could feel his excitement. "Let me help."
"Because you love me?" her words were mocking. She ignored how they tried to stay in her throat.
The flash of pain and anger she saw excited her, even as she felt cut from the pain. "No. Because I want to destroy these people. Just as they destroyed me."
Leaning forward, she nibbled on his ear. "Your memory has not returned. You don't know who is innocent and who is not."
"I don't care," he said, pulling her away from him by her hair. "I want to raze this pueblo to the ground. I want the de la Vegas watching as I do."
"You want them alive?" Disappointment danced through her arousal.
"Only long enough to know I helped destroy everything they love," he whispered and the disappointment left. His mouth crushed down on hers and she forgot about battles. For a little while.
Z Z Z
Aldrick smiled when he saw Esperanza stalk towards him. Most of his kind feared him. Even the humans treated him with cautious respect, sensing his power, even if they did not understand it. Those that did know and understood always trembled before him. Except Esperanza.
Which made her the perfect choice to replace him. If she passed the test. He refused to shiver. He had not felt cold for centuries, and he would not give in to the nameless dread that had plagued him for years.
It was time. The prophecy of the old ones would finally come to pass. Unfortunately, they had not bothered to say who would win the first battle.
"You know I hate the new world, Aldrick," she told him as she stopped before him. The cloak partially concealed her face, but he could see the concern there. She glanced over her shoulder. "There are too few people here. Too many who are willing to give in to superstitious fear. It is dangerous for our kind."
"Yes, I know, my dear," he told her as he started to walk. He headed towards the fountain. The sound of water had always soothed him, even as a child. A part of his mind laughed at his need. Cynicism was the trademark of an old vampire. He wondered if the realization he would soon die had caused him to lose that air of ennui. If Esperanza succeeded in her task, he would only have a mere century more to live. He wanted to enjoy those hundred years instead of being bored by them.
Esperanza stayed silent as long as she could. He hid his grin as he saw her slowly start to lose her patience. Well, not so slowly. "Why have you called me here, Aldrick? You said it was important."
She stopped walking and turned to look at him. Her hands were clenched and tightly held against her hips. Her cloak parted in the middle, revealing the lovely figure beneath that she usually kept hidden. Even after all this time, she could not forgive how men had treated her mother. "I won't let any man treat me that way," she had snarled at him once in those first few months he had trained her. Aldrick suspected she had a much harder time forgiving her mother for allowing men to treat her so.
"It is important. End-of-the-earth-as-we-know-it important."
Esperanza snorted. "You aren't the type to exaggerate, Aldrick. It doesn't suit you."
His eyebrow lifted, an old, barely remembered habit from his human days. Knowing the end was near really was having its effect on him. "No, it does not."
She lost her smile when she realized that he would not joke about something so important, but then he did not often joke about things that were unimportant. She wrapped her arms around herself. He knew she was refusing to give into a shiver, too. Being in control was even more important to her than it was to him.
"It is time," he simply said as he turned and walked away from her.
In a few minutes, she joined him at the fountain. He opened his eyes and studied her. She had been his student for years, but he suspected that she had even more power than he did. She was just unaware of it. It was time in more ways than one. After this battle, Esperanza would begin to realize her own destiny, even though some undefined instinct told him that she would only be a secondary figure in the battle directly ahead. A major player in the rest of the war. If she survived.
"Time for what?" she demanded, startling him from his musings.
He ran his hand through the cold water, wishing he could feel the chill. When he first became a vampire, the idea of not feeling cold or heat had sounded wonderful. Now he missed it. The years had showed him that there was always a cost. Every advantage had a disadvantage.
"For the battle between humans and vampires to see who should control the world." He continued to swirl his hand around the water, watching it flow around his hand. He could leave no lasting impression on the water, no matter how much he tried. He could only hope that vampires had the same lack of success with humans.
Esperanza shook her head. "I really wish you had a sense of humor, Aldrick. A nice, sick sense of humor."
"I do, too," he answered her. Sighing, he pulled his hand away from the water. He saw the moonlight reflecting in his finger nails. "I'd rather believe that the upcoming events were the wonderfully inventive tales of the old ones."
"Who is going to be the leader? I don't know of any one vampire that could lead the battle." She shook her head. "You have to be wrong, Aldrick. The vampires have been their own worst enemy. Fighting amongst themselves keeps-"
"Them at bay. Yes, I know, Esperanza. I'm the one who warned you to never trust a vampire. Remember?" He had taught her how to survive in their treacherous world.
She laughed, but the sound held no joy. "You not only warned me, you showed me by example."
She stood and walked away from him. He studied the graceful curve of her neck, how the moonlight played in her raven hair, the stiffness of her shoulders. He walked behind her and put his hands on her shoulder. It was the first time he had touched her in centuries. They had never, in all the years, discussed their short relationship.
"I did what I had to do to protect you," he told her.
"Right after you left, I lay in our bed as dawn approached and almost believed that lie to be true," she answered. Shaking her head, she turned and looked up at him. "Then I realized you were only doing what men do."
"I am not like the men who abused your mother," he almost snarled. Only she had ever had the power to get to him emotionally. Even as a human, he had distanced himself from others.
She stared at him for a moment. "Enough about the ancient past. About the-"
"Tasia," he answered.
Esperanza smiled. "She's been here in the New World for-"
"Where she has been steadily working out her plans, ignored by everyone but those whose attention she wanted. She has decided to lead a revolt against myself and the other ancients," he informed her.
"Without you watching over the humans," she realized, "then, she and her followers could take over the earth."
"Yes, she could and would," he answered her. "Humans are so easily manipulated by us, by our powers, by their own fears."
"But I thought that The One in Dark-"
"He is of age," he interrupted. It did not take long for new vampires to hear of The One in Dark. He was a legend in a people thought to be legends.
Esperanza looked at him in horror. "You knew when he was born."
"We sensed his power when it was added to the world. It was an incredible rush." He could still remember the tingling in his fingers, the pounding of his heart. He had known immediately what had happened, even as he knew what would one day center on the newly born human.
"Why didn't you kill him?" she demanded to know.
He put his hand on her cheek, and again yearned for the ability to feel heat and cold. "We did not even know where he was."
"But you could have hunted him down. I would have killed him for you," she said. "Aldrick, the ancient ones' prophecies said he would be a destroyer."
"Of us? Possibly. Or a destroyer of Tasia. Or perhaps something else entirely. Prophecies would be so much better if they spoke in plain language, don't you think?"
"Why take the chance?" He saw the concern in her eyes, and knew that at least some of it was for him. Even after all these years, after all the pain he caused her, she still cared for him. As he cared for her.
He tried to find the words to explain. "Esperanza, if we had tried to kill him, we might have led him to do what we didn't want to be done."
"I don't understand," she whispered. "If he were dead-"
He rubbed his thumb across her cheek and remembered the first time he saw her. He had caressed away a tear that night, but there could be no more tears for her. She lacked the physical ability to cry now. Advantages had their disadvantages. Disadvantages have their advantages. Balance. It was the way of the world.
"If he were dead, we would not know about Tasia's plan. A few months ago, all the ancient ones began to feel the power centering on The One in Dark. It led us to him, to a place known as Los Angeles, and to Tasia." He had been the one to realize what was happening. The others had wanted to deny it-some still were-but enough agreed with him. He would be allowed to send in Esperanza to help.
"Besides, if we had tried to kill him when he was a babe, we might have set in motion the very actions that led him to destroy us. A self-fulfilling prophecy," he finished.
Esperanza walked away from him and stared up at the moon. "Who are you all going to send in to stop Tasia?"
"You used to not be so slow to make connections, my dear," he said with a small joyless grin.
She spun on her heels and stared at him. "You cannot be serious. Me against Tasia? I'm but a baby compared to her."
"It is your destiny," was all he could tell her.
ZZZ