Diego watched as his father twirled Victoria across the dance floor. His arms ached to hold his wife. He wanted to be the one to dance with her. Taking a sip of wine, he remembered their earlier dance. Conversation had been stilted. Movement had been jerky. He had been fifteen the first time he danced with Victoria, so why was it so hard, so unnatural, now?
She laughed at something Don Alejandro said to her. Diego's heart beat quicker. Natural laughter and joy were something she seldom shared with him anymore. Even in the bedroom, they had lost that special fire. Watching her, yearning for her, he wondered if he would ever find that with her again.
A hand touched his shoulder. His muscles tensed. He recognized her scent. Tasia. A woman whom he loathed for her attitude towards life. Unfortunately, he also lusted after her with an intensity he could not even begin to understand. He forced a smile to his lips.
"Your wife is looking radiantly beautiful, Don Diego," she told him as she stood beside him. A shudder coursed through his body at the sound of her voice.
He took a sip of his wine. "Yes, she is." She did look radiantly beautiful. Her stomach was rounded and her face fuller, but Diego thought that pregnancy suited Victoria. She glowed. As long as he was not close to her. When she was with him, she lost that sparkle.
"A wonderful party, Doña Tasia." Diego had never been so happy to see Ignacio DeSoto in his life. The alcalde had been escorting Tasia to various social functions for the last two months. Her bed-ridden husband never left the hacienda nor did he entertain guests. Many believed it would be a matter of weeks, if not days, before Tasia was a widow. DonAlejandro had said at breakfast that he believed DeSoto to be in love. Tasia, on the other hand, seemed more amused than anything. It was obvious to all that she had no special feelings for the man to whom she was married.
Diego's manners reasserted themselves. "Yes, it is a wonderful party, Doña Tasia. It's good to see everyone laughing again."
DeSoto sighed. "Yes, I am getting tired of hearing about dead cows." His eyes dared Diego to utter a word of protest. DeSoto had met with several of the largest land owners in the area. He'd ordered his lancers to explore every inch of the affected areas for some sign of an animal that could drain another of blood.
Of course, DeSoto's precautions were done with the utmost secrecy. He'd even written the governor's office requesting aide. So far no one had admitted that the government was researching the cause so diligently. As long as the losses remained small, the leaders of the area were going to pretend there was no problem to help maintain morale.
"It is the talk of the area," Diego agreed.
"Yes," Tasia agreed with a grin on her lips. "Everyone is talking about the bloodless creatures. I have to laugh at all the precautions the peasants are taking."
DeSoto laughed with her. "Yes, they can be a superstitious lot."
Diego gritted his teeth. Taking a deep breath, he forced the muscles in his jaws to relax. He barely stopped himself for snapping hypocrite at the alcalde. "The caballeros are just as frightened, Alcalde."
"Well, everyone fears the unknown," Tasia agreed with the usual smile on her face. Diego didn't bother to correct her. People feared starvation and the destruction of their livelihood if the cattle died. "The peasants have taken things a little far however."
DeSoto nodded. "Salt across the threshold seems to be the newest way of keeping out the blood taker."
"I've heard some mention vampires," Tasia whispered.
DeSoto's laugh boomed across the room. "Yes, I've heard the same silly rumors myself."
"It almost appears as if someone wants us to believe that vampires actually exist," Diego muttered, frowning.
"Diego, this is a party," said his father as he approached with the smiling Victoria on his arms. Her husband noticed the strain around her eyes and lips, but he doubted anyone else in the room thought her smile was anything but genuine. Even though they had never discussed the pueblo's newest resident, Diego was certain she disliked Tasia even more than he did. "You should be smiling."
"I apologize, Father; we were discussing-"
Alejandro held up his hand. "I know, and I don't want to discuss cattle anymore."
Victoria chuckled. "That's odd. I thought ranchers always talked about cows."
The small group laughed. Tasia looked up at Diego and put her arm on his arm; Victoria's smile grew more strained, but other than that small sign, there were no visible reactions from her at the sight of another woman touching him. She once got in a food fight over him; she used to blush and shake her head when she recalled that incident, embarrassed by her actions. Now, she didn't seem to care about him at all. Of course, she had been fighting over Zorro then. Diego apparently wasn't worth fighting over.
Their eyes met and held as Tasia asked Diego to ask her to dance. DeSoto and Alejandro both frowned as Diego politelyacted as he was directed and led her out to the dance floor, but Victoria appeared unconcerned. Diego's anger at her lack of response was turned towards himself as soon as Tasia stepped into his arms.
The now-familiar lust nearly overwhelmed him. He pulled her closer than was proper, and the smell of her bath water danced across his nostrils. Her skin felt deliciously warm beneath his fingers, and her eyes were as hypnotic as the sea. He wanted to lose himself in her body. Even in the middle of a crowd of his friends, with his wife and father watching him, he ached to carry her off to a bedroom and remove her clothes.
He hated himself, and he hated her.
"Diego," she said. He found himself leaning closer to hear her; her voice sent shivers up his spine. Why was he feeling this way with her? A woman he didn't even like. His marriage was suffering right now, but did that really explain why he was so attracted to Tasia?
"Don Diego, if I may," DeSoto interrupted. Diego managed to look away from the woman in his arm through strength of will alone. He glanced at DeSoto in confusion, only realizing after several seconds that DeSoto wanted to dance with Tasia.
"Of course," Diego said, stepping back. The air in the room suddenly felt cooler. Tasia frowned as she stepped into DeSoto's arms, but she was soon smiling again as he twirled across the dance floor. Diego glance to where his family had been standing; his father was standing there alone, a glass of wine in his hand and a glower on this face.
Diego scanned the room and found his wife on the dance floor. In Raul's arms. Resisting the urge to go punch the man in the face, he turned on his heels and left the room. Maybe the cool night air would help clear his head.
Z Z Z
He found Mendoza slumped over in the gardens. "Mendoza!" He shook the sergeant and let out a relieved sigh when his friend moaned. Scanning the landscape for any signs of intruders, he saw only the darkness of night and a few trees and shrubs.
Helping Mendoza to stand, he started asking questions. "Did someone attack you?"
"What? Oh, no, no," Mendoza said, sitting down in a nearby chair. He leaned heavily on the table and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.
Diego bit back his frustration. "What happened, Mendoza?" If there was going to be an attack, he needed to be heading towards his own hacienda and changing into Zorro.
"Oh, nothing, Don Diego." Mendoza wrung the handkerchief in his hands and then tucked it into his pocket. Diego thought he saw the Sergeant's cheeks darken.
"You were unconscious, Mendoza."
The sergeant looked to where he had been laying and sighed. "You won't say anything to the alcalde will you?"
"Mendoza, maybe you were attacked. He needs-"
"I wasn't attacked."
"Sometimes head injuries-"
Mendoza moaned. "I fainted."
"You fainted?" Diego sat down in the chair across from his friend. "Why would you faint?"
"It's a dark night. And it's scary out here."
"Mendoza," he said, leaning forward. "You are made of sterner stuff than that."
The sergeant's shoulders slumped. "I thought I saw a ghost."
Diego blinked. "A ghost?"
Nodding, Mendoza said, "Sí. The alcalde ordered us to patrol the grounds since so many caballeros were going to be here tonight."
Diego barely kept himself from rolling his eyes. He had ordered the patrol to impress Tasia with his power. No one had any doubt of that fact. "Yes, I noticed the increase in guard, Mendoza. It made me feel a lot safer knowing you were out here."
The slightly-round man beamed. "Thank you, Don Diego. Anyway, I heard a noise, and I was bravely approaching where I heard-"
Diego managed to hide his smile, knowing that Mendoza was braver than he believed, but he would have been shaking in his boots and praying the entire time he approached anything that frightened him. "Of course you were, Sergeant."
Mendoza lowered his voice to a whisper. "That's when I heard him, Don Diego. I heard him say my name."
"Who, Mendoza?"
"The alcalde."
Diego frowned. "The alcalde's been inside dancing, and he's hardly likely to leave you lying on the ground."
Mendoza shook his head. "No! Not this alcalde. Luis Ramone."
His stomach dropped at the sound of that name. Diego had been the only one to see that man die, not that the innocent man sitting in front of him knew that fact. Zorro had been playing with his old enemy, never truly appreciating the danger the man was in until Ramone fell to his death.
"Ramone is dead," Diego snapped, knowing that his anger was being directed at the wrong person.
"I know, Don Diego. Madre de Dios!" Mendoza cried, crossing himself. "A ghost. I heard him say 'Mendoza?' like he wasn't sure it was really me, and when I turned I saw him standing right there!" He pointed towards the kitchen entrance.
Diego started to say something more when a Corporal Gomez appeared. "Corporal? Would you mind staying with the sergeant while I go get you both something to drink?" The two men eagerly accepted his offer after he promised not to say a word to DeSoto.
"First vampires and now ghosts," Diego muttered as he stomped towards the hacienda. "What's next? Werewolves?"
Z Z Z
Esperanza sighed as she settled down on the blanket. She was deep inside the cave, deep enough the sun would not reach her when it rose in a few minutes. She put a hand beneath her head and studied the poster she had taken off of a wall in Los Angeles.
Roaming through the pueblo as a dirty peasant woman, she had attracted little to no attention. The alcalde of Los Angeles, dressed in a full-dress uniform had sniffed his disapproval of her appearance as he had strolled into his office. While she stared at the poster, she half-way listened to a couple of soldiers talk about a party, and how a young married don had danced much too close to a woman, a woman the alcalde was apparently courting.
Esperanza snorted as she thought of that conversation. Gossip. Centuries after her "death," humans were still the same. She remembered her mother being the focus of gossip. When she had been a child, Esperanza had to endure the taunts of other children and the cruelty of the women. Her stomach still twisted at the memory of walking down the street and having every woman turn their back to her. She had been an innocent child, even if her mother had been sleeping with most of those ladies' husbands.
Men were all the same. Even Aldrick, who had not been a man in centuries, had ended up using her. She was still angry with herself for allowing him to get so close, but the past was the past. She needed to focus on the present.
While the humans thought their risqué gossip was the most important news event in their life, she knew the meeting being held in Los Angeles soon was vitally important. A meeting that would decide the fate of the world, if the ancients were correct in their prophecies.
She knew the man printed on the wanted poster was either the answer to the world's dreams or its biggest nightmare.
If he joined forces with Tasia . . .
Tasia. Now there was a name that apparently could strike fear in the ancients. They were centuries older than her, but she was almost as strong as them. Why she was so powerful was the stuff of whispered rumors in the vampire world. The love of gossip was such a strong human fault that even death could not end it.
Esperanza rubbed her forehead. She didn't suffer from headaches anymore, but she still went through the motions when she was stressed. Why had Aldrick and the other ancients chosen her? She had never displayed any of the strength that Tasia had displayed from the moment of her transformation. They had both been transformed by ancients, but she had none of the drive to learn all of the dark arts like Tasia.
Dark arts. "The One in Dark. Well, at least they didn't make that too complicated," she muttered to the piece of paper in her hand. "Seems like they would've called you The One in Black, but then prophets would be out of business if they were plain speaking, wouldn't they? All I have to do is find out who you are, Zorro. And then I'll kill you."
Z Z Z
Alejandro walked into the library and barely avoided colliding with Diego. With practiced ease, he pivoted around the younger man who was lost in a book. "Diego," he said.
His son looked up and blinked. "Father."
Grasping the gloves in his hand, Alejandro gritted his teeth. "I want to discuss Tasia."
His son's eyes didn't meet his as he said, "Tasia?"
"Yes, Tasia. The lady you danced with last night."
Diego flipped a page in the book, but Alejandro knew he wasn't actually reading it now. "I danced with several ladies last night."
"Including your wife."
Alejandro noticed Diego's hands tighten on the book. "Yes, but so did you and Raul and a number of other men."
"Diego, the way you danced with Tasia-"
Diego snapped the book closed and rubbed his forehead. "Father-"
"I understand temptation, Diego." He resisted the urge to yell at Diego, knowing that his son wouldn't listen to a lecture. And he did understand, even if he could not accept.
Diego stared at him, his mouth gaping. "Father-"
Alejandro knew his smile was not a happy one. "I loved your mother, Diego, but I am a man. And a soldier who was away from home for long periods of time."
He hated seeing the disappointment in Diego's eyes. His son was so different from him, but Alejandro had never doubted having Diego's respect. "I never gave into the temptation, but I often yearned for a warm body beside me, a caring ear to listen while I rested between battles. I never gave in because I knew the comfort would only last for a few fleeting moments, but the guilt would last a lifetime."
Diego starred down at the book. Alejandro saw his son's jaw throb. "I don't even like Doña Tasia. She's a snob and has a streak of cruelty in her that I find offensive."
He closed his eyes briefly and gave thanks that his son wasn't enamored with the woman. His assessment of her character agreed with Diego's. But character and lust were not always joined. "But you want her." Diego said nothing. "Son, I know your marriage is not as happy as you would like, but-"
Diego's laughter was shallow. "Happy? We're expecting the first of those grandbabies you always wanted, Father. And in all those requests and hints you dropped over the years, you never said I had to be happy."
The gasp behind him was soft, but Alejandro heard it. He turned and saw Victoria standing there. Her hair and dress was immaculate, as it always was now. When she had first married Diego, her entire style of dress had changed-she was, after all, a caballero's wife now-but he had often caught her with her hair down and her feet bare when she and Diego walked out in the garden. And her laughter had bounced off these walls at all times, day or night.
Now, her laughter was as tightly held within her as her hair was in that bun. "I'm going to the pueblo," she announced, pulling on her gloves. She said nothing about her husband admitting he was unhappy in their marriage, but then, she was an intelligent woman. Anyone with two eyes could see that they were both miserable.
"Are you going to the tavern?" Diego asked politely.
"Yes," she answered with a thin smile on her lips. "Raul needs help today."
Alejandro turned and looked at his son as Victoria left. Diego tossed his book down. For one moment, he looked as if he wanted to tear the room apart, and Alejandro briefly felt like he was looking at a stranger. Then, Diego closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and exhaled. "I have some experiments to finish. If you will excuse me."
He left his father standing alone, aching to offer comfort, but unsure how to do so.
ZZZ
Even with her sensitive hearing, Esperanza failed to notice the lady approaching her. She flinched when a bowl appeared in front of her. Steam rose from it, bringing with it a delightful aroma. For a brief moment, she wished human food still tasted the same to her.
She looked up at the woman offering her the food and was surprised to see compassion instead of scorn. Humans were usually uncomfortable with reminders that others were not as fortunate as themselves. Most of the citizens of Los Angeles had been careful to avoid her when she walked into the pueblo after sundown, but a few had given her warnings about the alcalde. None had offered her nourishment or comfort.
And from what she had overheard earlier, the woman in front of her was the wealthiest woman in the area. Wealthy in her own right, she had married the second wealthiest man in the area. Who happened to be the son of the wealthiest.
"I do not have the money to pay, Señora."
"I'm not asking for payment. You need to eat, so eat," the woman said handing her the bowl and a spoon.
Esperanza felt grateful for the gesture even though she had no need for food any more. At least not this type. "Thank you," she said, thanking her benefactress for reminding her of human kindness.
"You're welcome," she said, sitting her very pregnant frame down on the step next to Esperanza.
"Your outfit!"
She waved her hand. "It's unimportant. You look as if you could use a friend. I'm Victoria de la Vega."
"Esperanza," she replied, offering no last name. It had been decades since she needed one, and she felt no desire to lie to this kind lady. "And I don't need a friend."
"Are you sure? You look as if the weight of the world is on your shoulders."
Esperanza almost winced. Was it so obvious? "I thought the weight of the world was on your masked bandit's shoulders."
The smile left Victoria's face. "Zorro? Yes, he does seem to believe the weight of the world is on his shoulders alone." Was that bitterness clinging to those words?
She carefully tasted the soup. The smell told her it was a wonderful mix of herbs and spices, but the flavor failed to appear on her tongue. "I heard people talking tonight. They said you used to be closed friends." Was that the reason for her bitterness?
Victoria nibbled on her lip and then nodded. "Yes, we used to be friends."
Esperanza paused only a moment before taking another bite of her soup. She had thought that this woman would be more of a threat than a help in her mission to destroy the masked man. "You are no longer friends?"
Victoria's eyes strayed across the empty plaza. "I don't know."
Esperanza sat up straighter, lowering the bowl of soup. "You do not know if you are friends?"
"No," she said sadly. "I don't know what we are anymore."
"Rumor has it that you married another."
Esperanza did not understand the smile that flashed across that face. "Yes, I married Diego instead of Zorro."
She heard the sadness. "You regret it? Not waiting for Zorro."
Victoria's smile showed all the signs of being forced. "Another rumor you heard? That I was still in love with the masked hero of Los Angeles? Well, the gossips are wrong. I have no love for Zorro. Sometimes, I don't even like him."
Her instincts told her the words were true. Odd. None of the rumors spoke of the young tavern owner being anything but enamored with Zorro. "But do you trust him?" she asked as she carefully sat down the empty bowl.
Victoria was silent for a moment. Esperanza could see the tension in the other woman's shoulders before she stiffly turned and looked at her. The other woman apparently saw something on Esperanza's face. She shifted her body away and her hands clenched into fists. Questions burned in her eyes and the earlier welcome was gone. "Trust him? Of course I trust Zorro. He is a hero."
Esperanza made a decision to trust this woman. She needed to know, to understand. Why would a man who apparently was willing to even lose everything-even the woman he loved-to help save the innocent, help Tasia? "Even hero's can make mistakes. Or decide to stop being heroes."
Tears that were not shed reflected in the moonlight. Victoria shook her head. "No, you don't know him. He will never stop being a hero. It is who he is."
"And yet you do not like him."
Carefully using one hand against the wall to help her stand, Victoria grasped the empty bowl and stood. "What I feel for Zorro has nothing to do with trust, Señorita."
To her own amazement, Esperanza tossed caution to the wind and asked the question that was pounding in her brain. "Would you trust him with the fate of the world?"
Victoria studied her for a moment. "I trust him to always sacrifice himself for the good of everyone else."
"I'm not sure that I can take that chance."
The spoon rattled in the bowl as Victoria's hands shook. "Who are you?"
"A friend."
Black hair fell from a tight bun as Victoria shook her head. "You're not a friend if you are a threat to Zorro."
Esperanza smiled. "I thought you did not even like the man. Besides, one man is not that important compared to the world."
"Sometimes one man is the world." The love Victoria felt for her masked hero dripped from every word.
The two women were silent for a moment after that revelation. "Well, perhaps you like him more than you think." And with those words, Esperanza turned and walked towards the land surrounding the pueblo.
Z Z Z