Unraveling Mordecai, Marisa Maichel [ebook reader .TXT] 📗

that she was going to die on November the first, of her sixteenth year.”
“That was the day that Nales…” I trailed off.
“Yes. I begged the Fates to kill me instead, told them I would do anything. I offered them all the money I had. They took it in exchange for letting me die in Sarah’s place.”
“She died you died from stomach cancer.”
“Yes. And I did. But then Samuel brought me back as a vampire with the aid of the witch goddess Hecate. Hecate has a vengeance against Aphrodite because of her beauty. Hecate is known as the Goddess With Three Faces: the maid, the matron, and the crone, and both the matron and the crone are as ugly as sin. There was also Hephaestus involved, but I won’t get into that. Now that I’m alive again, sort of, Sarah’s life is in danger again.”
“What? I can’t let her die!” I shouted. “She’s pregnant with our baby! She’s going to marry me!”
“No, she’s not,” Beckett said. “Not unless either you or I die in her stead. And I’ve already died once. I don’t know if I’ll be able to die again, and frankly, I don’t want to.”
I slowly inched away from him. He chuckled dryly.
“Relax, I’m not going to kill you. But I will say I don’t approve of this match. You’ve hurt her too badly. You broke up with her and had relations with another.”
“Beckett, I know, and it won’t happen again, I swear!”
“I know it won’t. Besides, if I die again, she won’t forgive me this time. Which means that someone else must die.”
“I’m not going to kill innocents.”
“I’m not talking about innocents. I’m talking about Jamie Williams.”
“The English bastard?! I’m all for that.”
“I don’t trust him, Reese. He wants something with Sarah. He chose her poem too easily, almost like he picked her out specifically. I was there during the taping of his interview. He kept thinking I hope she sees this. I hope she enters.”
I looked up at him. “How do you know what he was thinking?”
“There was a vampire behind the camera who can read strangers’ minds. She told me. And I have no reason to distrust or dismiss her claims.”
Was this my fault? Had I caused this? What if I hadn’t taken care of Sarah that day? Would I be with her?
“Your connection goes deeper than the Fates,” Beckett continued. “Your connection with my daughter goes down into your souls. You are twin flames, soulmates. Nothing can separate you, I see that now. I don’t like you, Reese, and I don’t trust you, but I know you won’t purposely hurt Sarah again.”
“I’ve never hurt her on purpose,” I breathed. “I love and adore her, Beckett. I worship her. I know I hurt her deeply, which I take full responsibility for. It was my fault. I’d rather she live than stay with me, though.”
He looked stunned at my words. “You do love my daughter,” he breathed. “But we can’t save her, Reese. You’ve already kissed her and I’ve already died for her. This baby will kill her unless you can turn her into a vampire.”
“I want to,” I said, “But she doesn’t want to become one, not yet. We have to wait.”
“No, you need to change her now.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Beckett, she knows what’s best for her. We like to think we do, but we don’t. Only she does.”
“Why, Reese?”
“What?”
“Why do you love my daughter?”
“Because she’s kind, funny, intelligent, and selfless.”
“And because she’s beautiful.”
“No. Like I told somebody else not long ago, I’d much rather she weren’t. She’s a goddess and I’m…well, a descendant of Hades. I’m hideous and selfish and horrible and I lie all the time and I’m the worst person in the world according to my parents.”
“Your parents don’t hate you, Reese. Mine do, that’s why they threw me out of their house when I was eighteen. I moved to America after that and fell in love with the daughter of an Italian immigrant and an Israelite immigrant and we conceived a beautiful baby girl named Sarah, after the woman in the Bible. My father was Christian and my mother believed in the Greek gods and goddesses. As for me, I know the truth. God exists, but so does Aphrodite. He may have created the other gods and goddesses, I don’t know. In real life, I was taught that God is very jealous and does not approve of other gods and goddesses or mortals worshipping them. I probably committed blasphemy by talking about it. Anyway, after I learned that Sarah was doomed and I exchanged my life for hers, I told Alicia what I’d done and we decided to have another child, and along came Sabine. We treated the girls the same, but we probably spoiled Sarah a little more, because we knew her time was limited.
“I know it wasn’t fair, and it backfired: Sabine turned into a brat, which made us resent her more. Sarah sort of became the favorite, but I tried to teach her morals, too. She absorbed them and learned morals quicker than Sabine did, which again, was probably our fault. Another thing I learned was that the Fates weren’t wholly responsible for my daughter’s eventual fate: Hecate was. She hated Aphrodite and wanted to curse all her descendants, so she did. All over a god who barely noticed Hecate’s existence.”
“Love is a funny thing,” I muttered.
“Yes, it is. Which made me wonder: was she really in love? Eros, Aphrodite’s son, also known as Cupid, is known as a mischievous man. I beseeched him and asked him some questions. He claimed he had nothing to do with it, but I didn’t believe him. I still don’t know the full story.”
I hugged myself. I looked at the time. An hour had already passed. I needed to go find Sarah and Jamie. But before I could, I got a call from Father.
“I had another vision,” he said. “But not of the present; this one was of an alternate future, or so I think. I spoke with Krauvas, and he consulted his tarot deck. He spoke with Hecate, or so he thinks, and he agrees with me. In this alternate future, Sarah is accused by you of having sex with Jamie, but it isn’t true-she was raped again, this time by him. He used magic to put the seeds of doubt in everyone’s minds, and everyone turns against Sarah eventually, and she commits suicide. It’s happening now in an alternate universe. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”
“Well, of course,” Beckett said. “What is Jamie doing now? Can you get a reading on him?”
“He’s acting like a perfect gentleman in our universe. He’s at the restaurant now, eating crab legs with Sarah.”

I made it to the restaurant in record time, but Sarah and Jamie were getting ready to leave. Sarah grabbed her purse, and Jamie put her jacket around her shoulders.
“Care to join me for a stroll along the beach?” he asked.
“I’d love to,” she replied breathlessly. That was me who should have asked her to take a walk with me. And anyway, she was wearing high heels, not walking shoes. I growled a little when she produced a pair of pink Converse sneakers and socks and put the heels in her other hand.
I thought about the other universe, the separate universe where I would lose Sarah. It would destroy me; did my other self not realize that? I carefully watched from a distance as he offered her his arm and they started walking. I followed behind, my steps as silent as a cat’s.
My heavy boots weren’t made for such light sand. I nearly fell in the ocean a few times. They walked a mile and a half, and Jamie stopped at a secluded spot on the beach. My nightmares about the ocean began to hit me. This wasn’t safe. Not at all. I sent Father a text.

Reese: How does Sarah in the other universe die?
Mordecai: She drowns herself in the ocean.
I nearly ran forward and snatched her up right then and there. But I controlled my instincts and stayed where I was. I found a bridge nearby and hid under it.
Sarah sighed daintily and stared out at the ocean.
“I’ve always loved the sea,” she said. “I used to live nearby. Daddy would always bring me out here and I would dip my toes in. Then I would chase the waves. Run back and forth. It made my dad laugh.”
“Did you live near here?” Jamie asked.
She hesitated. “Closer to Atlantic City. I used to play on the beach all the time with my friends. My best friend at the time was a girl named Kirsten. I think she’s married now.”
“Do you wish you had a different life?” he asked.
“Sometimes. Not different friends or family or a different boyfriend, but different experiences.”
“You’ve been with Reese a long time, haven’t you?”
“About two years, almost three.”
“What is it about him that you like?”
“Hmm. I think I like his kindness most of all. Like, he’ll be in the street, and he’ll see someone who needs food or shelter, and he’ll give them a hundred bucks straight out of his wallet. Without even a hesitation. Or he’ll see an animal in distress, and he’ll stop to help it. He loves his cats, particularly, especially Shadowfang.”
“Shadowfang? Where did that name come from?”
“The first time Reese watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, he thought that Gandalf called the Horse Lord Shadowfang instead of Shadowfax. It’s one of his favorite book and movie series.”
“What else do you like about him?”
“I really like his intelligence. Like, he’ll go off on a rant about how the U.S. government should spend money this way instead of that, or he’ll start talking about a specific animal and its characteristics. He also knows a lot of words, some of which I’ve never heard of or read. Sometimes my adopted mother says I sound like him when I talk.”
She giggled.
“Do you think I am like him?”
“I don’t know you well enough to really compare you two. I will say that you’re more old-fashioned than he is. Which is romantic, but I prefer a modern thinker when I date.”
She thought I was modern, kind, and intelligent? And I had begun doubting our relationship and her seriousness about it. I was an idiot. A pathetic, jealous, insecure, self-centered moron. I hit my head against the wood of the bridge, causing several spiders to fall. I tried not to scream as one landed on my head and I flicked it off.
I needed therapy. That’s what I needed.
I watched as they became silent again and gazed out to the dark blue water.
“Oh look, there’s some crabs,” Sarah suddenly said. I looked over at her. She was on her hands and knees, watching the little creatures as they grabbed plankton and minnows.
I might not have noticed it, if I hadn’t turned my eyes toward Jamie just then. He moved his foot at the exact same time Sarah started to stand up, and she fell facedown in the water.
I panicked then.
“Sarah!” I shouted.
“Oh dear, are you all right?” Jamie asked, his voice full of sugar.
“I’m fine,” Sarah said. “I must’ve tripped.” He helped her up, and she brushed off her dress. “I think one of the crabs pinched my finger, though.”
“The little cretins,” Jamie said. “I hope you’re not hurt. But look, now your pretty dress is wet.”
“It’s just a dress,” Sarah said.
“I insist on buying you another.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, no, it was my fault. If I hadn’t brought you out here, it might not