Chapter 8
Delmar Eduardo's Side

I grabbed Remi's arm and headed straight for the car. Pretty soon we were making tracks on the highway. She seemed dazed, confused, distracted. Not like herself in any rate.

"You okay?" I asked urgently.
"Yeah."
"Then what the hell were you doing?"

She shook her head in bewilderment.

"I really don't know. Delmar… I think he has a power over me. I don't think I did anything out of my own accord when I was with him. I really don't think so."
"You don't?"
"Yeah."

I stole a glance at her for a second. Then, out of nowhere, I hastily put an arm around her and kissed her forehead. It took us both by surprise, but surprisingly, she didn't reprimand me.

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Mallory Fontaine's Side

I have to get some dirt on this girl. She's too dark for there not to be something fishy going on. Kevin would never believe me. He seems to think I'm crazy or something. I'm not crazy. He's been treating me too nicely these days, like he thinks I'm going to spontaneously combust. And however much I try to warn him about Remi, how I have this feeling that she's hiding something, how she's dealing with that riff-raff, Delmar, the more he pats me on my head like a little child. There must be something to prove I'm right. I know I'm right.

And so, once again, I found myself in the studio, snooping around.

As I was walking, again I bumped into Kevin.

"Mallory, what are you doing here?" he said in a frightened voice.
"Um… Nothing really, I just like it here."
"Were you looking for me?"
"No… not really."

He looked at me with concern weighing heavily on his eyelids. He took my hand.

"Come with me Mallory."

I felt a flurry of hope flutter through me. He led me to an empty conference room and locked the door. He sat me down on a chair.

"Mallory, tell me something. Do you think you're alright?"
"What do you mean 'do I think I'm alright'?"
"I mean are you feeling okay?"
"Yes, Kevin, I'm fine. Can't I wander around the studio if I want to? Or do I need your permission for that as well?"

He sighed and reclined slightly.

"Mallory, do you have any idea what you've been doing these past few weeks?"
"I've been living in your house. I've been tidying up like a good fiancée should - "
"You're not my fiancée, Mallory."
"Kevin, I know that. But someday you are going to ask me. You are, aren't you?"
"No, Mallory. How many times must we go through this? I don't love you in that way Mallory. In fact I don't think I ever did. You don't have a future with me. So please forget about it. Why aren't you trying to establish yourself? You can't just depend on me, you know that. Be independent. Be Beyoncé for crying out loud."
"Kevin, stop that," I yelled, tears brimming up in my eyes, "How can you be so cruel to me? I have something to tell you about your little poster girl, she's not all she's cracked up to be."

There I got it out. He looked completely shocked.

"Oh, that's what this is all about? What the hell do you think is wrong with her?"
"Maybe if you stopped screwing her you'd find out."

Kevin stopped dead in his tracks. He looked very hard and long at my face. Then his expression grew serious.

"Listen, I am not an idiot. If you are trying to ruin a perfect business relationship as well as a dream of mine, you have another thing coming. And for your information, I have never met her, talked to her or been with her outside of the professional forum. I am making her into the most controversial star that ever hit the airwaves, and making myself a pile because of it. And just because you've gone schizophrenic and maniacally jealous, doesn't mean you spoil things for me, understand?"
"KEVIN! Something is up with her. She isn't normal at all. Trust me Kevin, I have this feeling…"
"Bullsh*t Mallory. Plain bull. You do also realize that you tend to go into outrageous and irrational tantrums and then forget that they ever happened? You do realize that you are not all up there yourself?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Mallory, I've been noticing things. You're schizophrenic. And it's not an insult. You are. So excuse me if I don't believe in your 'feelings'. Now get out of this studio."

Stunned, I stood up, still open mouthed and blinking like a fish. I walked from the conference room and up the hall. As I walked, I picked up a conversation on the other side of a door.

"Delmar, have you talked to Shezrae about this?" came a deep, female voice - Remi.
"No, but what exactly was your plan?" Delmar answered.
"You know, what Shezrae said. I told them about the Promenade, told them have an open party, find new blood. They're hungry you know. And restless too."

Who was this 'them'? And what kind of 'new blood' did they want?

I stopped in front of the door and pressed my ear to the wood.

"You think they'd actually buy that, coming from you?"
"They did already Delmar."
"Remi…you're a fugitive of the Underworld."
"Who cares? Do you really think that these people can unify themselves against someone? There's already too much distrust among them. Besides, it's a party, not a call to conversion."
"That's not what you said a few days ago."
"Yeah, well, I've changed my mind."
"I hope you're right. So what time to tell Shezrae?"
"Around 9 pm. Next Friday."

I walked away from the door with a triumphant smirk on my face. Underworld, new blood. It all made sense now - Remi was a vampire, or at least she thought she was. And I was going to catch her in the act - and take Kevin with me.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Remi Osuna's Side - 10 years earlier - in Trinidad

I was in my room, on my bed. The fan was on, yet it only blew hot air around the room. I could hear the frogs chirping outside, one was directly outside of my window. A jar of salt ready and waiting on my table, I sprinkled a handful on the back of the nasty amphibian, and shut the window quickly as it began to jump in agony and pain. Soon it keeled over and died. I lay back on my bed, my chemistry books open to the covalent bonds that would never reveal their secrets to my thirteen-year-old mind, and pretended to study for my end of term exams.

Soon there was a knock on the door, and to me it was ominous. I closed my eyes and swallowed.

"Who is it?"
"Jason. Open the door, nah, Remi."
"What yuh want?"
"I want to ask yuh something."
"You could stand right there and ask meh."
"Look, gyul, just open the damn door, nah," my brother's voice took on a deadly tone, and I couldn't refuse him entry any longer.

I went to the door of my cramped room and let him in. He stood there, a skinny eighteen year old, but he had the ability to make me believe anything. But I knew this was wrong. I knew it was. I had to do something about it.

"Jason, yuh have to stop doin' this to me. It not right. At all."

He sucked his teeth rather loudly.

"Gyul, doh play you is Miss Strong Ting, yuh know. At least I never ram dis ting up yuh pussy and be grateful for dat."

"You'se one nasty nigger, Jason. I cah believe you is meh brudder. Get out meh damn room."

He sent a stinging blow across my cheek, so powerful it knocked me to my bed. I felt tears prick behind my eyelids. But I refused to cry in front of him.

"Yuh well want to cry now, eh?" he spat, "Listen, doh get fass wit yuhself, yuh hear? If you even tink about tellin' anybody about dis, is you go dead wit me."

He was unbuttoning his fly hastily and was straddling my chest area. Soon I felt his member in my mouth, and I barely heard him shouting his demand that I suck. I was too busy drowning in my shame and his semen.

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Remi Osuna's Side - Present Day

I was once again, in my room, on my bed. Except this was not Trinidad, and there were no frogs tormenting my nightly rest. There were other things for that here.

I wept and I cried, tears pouring forth like rain. Jason was a bastard. A sick, perverted, incestuous bastard. It was his fault I was here, alone, in this position. It was his fault I ended up thousands of miles away from home, in an apartment in a country cold as ice, with my life in danger of the Underworld.

Was it really my brother's fault though? Or was this just my destiny? Couldn't there be millions of other girls who could fit this role perfectly? Why me? Why me Lord? Why?

Chapter Nine

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