Snow Heart (5 page)

Everyone in the room jolted their attention to the young woman as she entered the room. Angel was right behind her until taking her place at an empty side of the table. Nieves didn’t hesitate to join the kind, gentle Angel.

“Whoa.” Dan held up his hands at the hysterical girls. “Aren’t you forgetting something, Angel?” Dan quickly sat down at the corner between her and Wilhelm. “Like how much Alric hates his birthday?”

Wilhelm smacked a hand against the back of Dan’s head. “Good going, Dan. We will have to explain everything to her now and Alric will not like that.”

“Explain what?” Nieves’s words were easily overlooked.

“It’s not my fault,” Dan barked. “She shouldn’t be here in the first place. This is Macter land for Macter’s only and if I can recall correctly she isn’t a Macter.”

Wilhelm was just about to smack Dan when Angel beat him to the punch.

“Idiot,” she hissed. “I’m ashamed to call you friend.”

“Now, now,” Rusuto calmed them down. “Since she’s living here we have no right to keep secret the Macter Family Curse. Nieves is one of us now—trapped behind these wretched walls.”

“Trapped,” Dan laughed. “Angel and I go to school in the city. We’re not ‘trapped’.” Dan rolled his eyes at how overdramatic Rusuto was being.

Rusuto laughed gently. He was definitely the kind and caring type. He took Nieves’s raised hand in his. “I am quite apologetic. You see, Nieves, many years ago our ancient ancestor fell in love with a beautiful maiden. For many months they spent time together until finally he proposed to her. When the beautiful bride arrived at the altar, she stood there abandoned. She waited many hours for him in the cold winter’s snow.

“When she discovered that he had left her there for another woman who was rich, the maiden bride was absolutely enraged. In actuality the maiden was a fox guardian who protected the very land we are standing on.

“She ordered the foxes in her kingdom to search for him and bring her meant-to-be husband back to the land. When he arrived she placed a wicked curse upon his family. Every child of the Macter family, born on the night of a red moon would—”

“Enough,” Wilhelm blurted. “We shouldn’t explain anymore.”

“But,” Nieves interjected, “Why are birthdays forbidden?” The story explained very little.

Rusuto ignored Wilhelm’s protest and stated kindly, “Alric’s curse is different from all the others.” He moved his hands to the side of his face as if admiring something. “Once, every twenty-one years, a child is born to be the Head of the Macter Family. That child—”

Angel sighed, admiring her daydream. “I can’t wait to see how it ends. I bet Alric falls in love and then the curse will be lifted from our family.”

“Me?” The voice was so lifeless it made Nieves’s bones ache with fear. “Fall in love?”

Everyone directed their attention to Alric standing in the doorway. His hands were tucked neatly into the pockets of his black suit pants, hair dark and slightly in a mess.

“Don’t stop on my account,” Alric said without bothering to sound an emotion. “I love it when people talk about my curse. In fact I encourage you to announce it on public television so the whole world knows what I am. Please, Rusuto, continue.”

Alric’s bitter tone drew everyone’s gaze to the lacquer table before them. Nieves felt slightly fearful of Alric—especially after she had escaped his possible torture. Yet, in her heart of hearts, she could not hate Alric.

Angel, the kind hostess, was quite insulted. Alric had rejected her offering—the head of the house rejected her kindness. “Oh okay.” Angel slowly sat down again lowering her gaze to her hands.

Rusuto lifted his tea cup. “We don’t have much,” he told Alric kindly. “I’m sure we could give you something, Alric. We have a large variety of snacks. Dan has always been a junk-food eater.”

Dan raised a brow at the challenge.

“I’m not staying,” Alric repeated.

Wilhelm felt slightly torn between the two opposing forces: the one who owned his heart—Rusuto—or the one who owned his life—Alric. He gave a soft sigh. “Come, Nieves. There’s no reason to fight this.”

“You bet!” Nieves nodded her head and hugged Angel like she would hug a little sister. Though Nieves wasn’t sure if she could keep that promise she prayed that it would be up held one day.

Nieves, without further word, walked towards Wilhelm and the hate-filled Alric. The Head Macter turned around, leaving for the front door. Wilhelm, who had been so kind to her, gave no effort at all to comfort Nieves.

CHAPTER 6

The car ride, Nieves felt, was far too quiet and awkward. Instead of keeping quiet—while sitting between two tense men—Nieves found herself asking, “Since your birthday is coming up, we should throw you a party.”

Wilhelm’s entire body tightened with anxiety.

Had Nieves not been listening to the explanation? Or was she suicidal?

“Sure,” Alric muttered, not really caring the slightest. He had his right elbow propped up against the door, hand under chin while he stared out into the darkness. He seemed to be contemplating deeply about something.

“Great!” Nieves turned to Wilhelm. “We should invite everyone. You’ll come won’t you, Wilhelm?”

Wilhelm didn’t know he was nodding—his thoughts were too scattered. “Alric,” he thought to himself, “agreed to a birthday party? He must be ill.”

“Where should we hold it?” Nieves asked Wilhelm while he was in deep thought. She quickly turned to Alric and asked the same thing. When Alric did not reply she grew a concerned expression. “Alric?” Nieves moved to see his expression more clearly. “Alric?”

He glowered at her from the corner of his eye. “What?”

“Nieves,” Wilhelm called, realizing that the Head Macter was not in the mood to be messed with. “For what reason are you living on Macter land?”

Nieves had been asked that question many times—so many times that she began wondering why it was such an extraordinary deal. “I live here because of Boris.”

“That’s just the remnants of what my sister used to be,” Nieves muttered. “It’s just an empty body Boris commands around. Erika’s heart died when my parents died. Ever since she hasn’t been the same.”

Wilhelm would have nodded his head if an icy chill hadn’t run down his spine. Alric’s little warning that no answer would be spoken. Alric had a plan of torture just waiting to bury the girl, Nieves, under.

The car pulled to a stop, releasing Wilhelm of his anxiety. “I should head home to the office and clean-up. I’ll check up on the two of you tomorrow.” He threw the car door open and slid out as calmly but quickly as possible.

“Bye,” Nieves’s small voice replied.

The driver opened Alric’s door.

The head of the family got out of the vehicle without a word and turned to the frozen Nieves. She was still trying to run over the ideas in her head. Nieves slowly slid out of the vehicle with a weak smile. With Wilhelm gone, she felt slightly afraid and abandoned. Alric was planning on harming her—much worse than Boris could ever accomplish. If that were the case, was she strong enough to run away, this time escaping to the city and away from Alric’s control?

“You have nowhere to go,” Alric told her, obviously reading her expression.

Nieves felt a twinge in her heart while following him up the rock garden steps onto the porch where the sliding paper door stood idly by. The doors seemed to sneer at her in a taunting way.

“That’s not what she told me,” he said in a whisper too morbid for a human to ever produce. “She never wants to see you again. You only get in her way. She begged me to take you away from her—begged me to kill you.”

Nieves yelled, “That’s not true!”

Alric spun around—he knew she was breaking under the heartache. In fact, he was enjoying it up until the moment he saw her eyes. They seemed to be the echo of a hallow memory trapped in Alric’s own mind.

“She loves me,” Nieves mumbled. “I know she does.” Blinded with pain, Nieves stepped backwards away from Alric and his sneering paper doors. “Liar! Erika loves me!” Her foot slipped off the edge. Alric leapt forward and for a moment—just a split second in time—she thought Alric called out her name.

Alric reached out to catch her but it was too late. He slipped, falling into the sand of his rock garden. “Nieves?” he whispered getting to his knees.

She let out a moan, her head bleeding profusely.

He noted the dark stain on one of the rocks that were scattered about the sand—the only white one among the jagged black rocks, large enough to reach a man’s knees. She’d fallen on the smooth one, he noticed with relief.

He couldn’t quite understand why he was relieved. Alric told himself it was only because he’d be able to inflict more torture on the girl better if she were actuality alive. A healthier victim would be more of an entertainment than a weak and dying victim.

†

“She’s lost a lot of blood,” Wilhelm informed professionally. “I’ll need to have her moved to the infirmary as soon as possible.”

“What reason is that?” asked Alric, far too impatient with the doctor.

Wilhelm heard Alric’s aggravation quite clearly as he had trained himself to do, and remained calm in order to keep his voice smooth. “Nieves may have a concussion. If that’s the case, someone will need to wake her every hour. Her vitals are stable for now and the transfusion went well but…” His eyes moved to the inside of Alric’s room. “She’s very weak.”

“She’ll live,” Alric stated, though it was meant to be a question.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

Alric pressed his back against the door’s framework. “Then there is no reason to move her, now is there? I would enjoy waking her from sleep—it might just make her angry.”

“Angry?” Wilhelm muttered. “Of course,” Wilhelm thought silently, “Alric’s only concern is the suffering of others.”

The doctor slid his hands into the pockets of the white hospital jacket. “And you, Alric? How are you feeling?” His concerns about Alric could never be diminished. Alric’s weak health, after all, was a part of the curse. Wilhelm’s calling as a doctor never failed to keep him concerned about those around him.