My hand starts to shake and the gun with it. “You trapped us here like them, didn’t you?”
Isla lifts her hand up and looks at it in the firelight. Blood drips down her fingers and palm. She flicks it off her hand when it reaches her wrist and stands.
“Yes, and none of you fought it. Only your mother. She was…trouble.”
The world narrows down, it’s like I’ve put on goggles that are blacked out except for two small pinprick holes.
Your mother.
“What did you say about my mother?” I whisper.
Isla doesn’t answer me. Instead she looks up at the ceiling of the house and starts talking. “When I was young, I came here from the East Coast. Our family hails from the Atlantic, but you already know a version of this story.” She smiles and looks down at me. “We’ll skip to what you don’t know, granddaughter.”
Julian moves to come to my side but stops when I flinch. “Maris. We have to go. Now. Don’t listen to her.”
“Silence, vampire. We’re having a discussion. We’ll get to you in a moment.”
Julian is quiet. He glares at Isla and I know it’s whatever magic he said that I had. The Siren’s Call. “How are you doing that to him?”
Isla tucks her hand behind her back and turns to the fire like I didn’t say anything. “Now, I came here because I’m royalty. I was meant for the throne, just like you. But the thing with princesses is they refuse to let themlive. I didn’t want a throne. I wanted the world. I felt the longing the way you do.”
“How do you know what I feel?”
Isla looks over her shoulder at me and smiles. It’s such a gentle smile, the curve of her cheek, the barest tilt of her lips. It’s the smile my mother used to give me when we shared a secret just for us. How do I see the people that have mattered the most to me in Isla? It’s like she shifts, second to second, wearing their skin before she’s her again. The living manifestation of the portrait above the mantle.
“I know it because I’m in you. Every woman of my blood was made for a reason.” Her hands go to her belly and she looks down at where she touches her sea-soaked nightdress. “Not just as my offspring but as my connection. My tether to this world. I made you from my essence. I feel you through that. Just the way this house is my anchor. The guardians carry me with them as well. Every soul and thing in Vesper House is connected to me. Mine to control.”
“Just like my mother?”
“Don’t rush the story, Maris.” She drops her hands from her belly and looks at the fire. “Where was I? Oh, yes, the connection between us. It’s a beautiful piece of magic. Every emotion you have, very nearly any thought you have is mine if I want it. I’ve looked as I pleased but nothing has ever really stuck out to me. Not until him,” she turns back to face me and points at Julian.
“This vampire has complicated things but I see now it’s for the best.”
“What does Julian have anything to do with it?”
Isla glares at me. “I told you to stop rushing the story. Now shut up like a good fucking little girl before I rip your tongue out. It’s not like you need one to sustain me.” I watch as my great-great-great-great-grandmother turns into a monster. She’s all monster right now. Outside I hear the sound of a car crashing and a scream. Gunfire follows but I don’t look away from Isla. She’s like a snake poised to strike.
“I made you. I made this house. I made them,” Isla points at the shadows still swirling like obedient dogs at her feet, “For one reason and that reason was to keep me alive. You might be thinking how? How would anyone do that, and it’s very fucking simple when all you need are four willing sacrifices. Andeveryoneis willing when you’re a Siren. The guardians were men once, remember?”
I nod because she’s bitchy enough to attack me if I say anything. I’d shoot her but she hasn’t told me the one thing I want to know. My mother. How does she play into this? I’m not saying a word until Isla tells me what she did to her.
“Good, you’re learning. You know, out of all my descendents you’re the most like me. You’re cunning and ruthless. It hardly took anything at all to push you over the edge when it came to that intruder.”
This time I can’t stop myself. “Intruder?”
“Yes, the one who thought they could come into my house and get away with it.” She crosses her arms and smiles at me. Isla presses a finger to her neck and slowly draws it across her throat. “You handled him perfectly, Maris. Even if you’re mostly human, you are so much like me. It’s astonishing really.”
“That was you?
“It was. Didn’t you ever wonder why it felt like someone else? Like you were possessed?” She’s right. I felt like I was someone else. The rage at seeing my home destroyed had made me blind, irrational, that’s what I’d told myself. It had been Isla all along. “I was the influence you needed, the little push to do it but I didn’t make you kill the second one. That was all you.”
Julian moves. He’s trying to get me to look at him but I don’t. I keep looking at Isla. “Go on, your story isn’t finished.”
“You’re right, it’s not. I'll get to the good stuff. This reunion is starting to drag, isn’t it?” She points at me. “And don’t worry, when we’re done here I’ll leave you to your house. Safe as a bug in a rug.”
I can sense she’s not saying what else she’s going to do but still I stay silent and wish Isla would get on with it. I chance a look at Julian. He’s still silent per Isla’s command but he’s watching me.
Run.
