Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban - Immortal Love

“Did Lucrezia love you?”

“I doubt Lucrezia was capable of love. Besides, I was eleven when I met her, a boy still grieving the death of his mother. How could she love me? I was her human pet, nothing more. Later, maybe she coveted my young body and the adoration she saw in my eyes. And so for a while, we were lovers drinking in each other: me in her beauty, she in the glow of my love for her.

“Until one day, she left me, without explanation, without saying goodbye. I spent the rest of my life longing for her, while she in turn took me as her lover or rejected me, only to taunt me again when I fell in love with someone else.

“And, all the time, Cesar watched us — either jealous or amused, I do not know — biding his time to avenge himself for the few moments of bliss Lucrezia gave me.”

“Cesar? The same Cesar who ordered you to kill yourself?”

“The very same. Cesar was Lucrezia’s lover and her brother. In life and after death.”

Of course. Cesar was Cesar Borgia, Federico had told me. Which made Lucrezia the infamously beautiful Lucrezia Borgia.

“Cesar made her immortal against the Elder’s wishes,” Bécquer explained. “Apart from beauty, she had no merits of her own. She was not artistically, nor scientifically gifted, and thus by the Elder’s rules, she did not qualify to become immortal. But Alexander, the Elders’ leader, loved Cesar at the time and allowed Cesar’s defiance to go unchallenged. Eventually Alexander moved on to other lovers, and Cesar continued his affair with Lucrezia. They were still together when I met her in Sevilla.”

“Is that why he hates you? Because once upon a time you and Lucrezia were lovers?”

“He hates me because Lucrezia made me an immortal against his wishes and, in his wrath at her defiance, Cesar killed her. He blames me for his actions.”

“If you knew he hates you, how could you believe him when he told you the Elders had sentenced you to death?”

“He believed me because I said the truth,” A deep, sarcastic voice answered from the door.

Letting go of my hands, Bécquer leaned forward, his body tense as if preparing for a fight. A fight he couldn’t win, even if he were not bedridden, because the man standing by the door, dark and beautiful like an angel fallen from grace, was Cesar.

And Cesar was immortal.

“The Elders want you dead,” the man said in heavily accented English as he stepped into the room. “I should know for I am one of them.”

“You want me dead, Cesar, not the Elders. Their sentence was to make me mortal.”

“And so you are, my dear Gustavo, quite mortal indeed. Unfortunately, mortals have a nasty habit of dying and so it is that a sentence to be mortal is equivalent, in my opinion, to one of death.”

With a speed that would have betrayed him as being immortal had I not already known, Cesar reached his side then turned to me. “But I see you have company,” he said, appraising me. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“You must leave.” Where Cesar’s voice had been sarcastic, Bécquer’s was cold. “The Elders are aware that you manipulated me, bending their sentence with your lies so I would agree to end my life. If I die today, they will hold you responsible. And if you hurt Carla, I will haunt you for all eternity.”

Cesar laughed. “Would you really haunt me for all eternity? How poetic. But, of course, you always had a way with words. While I was more of a man of action. As for your lady, Carla did you say?” He turned again to me. “I’m Cesar. Cesar Borgia, at your service.”

Grabbing my hand, he bent to kiss it. The chivalrous gesture an ominous sign, a warning that he set the rules.

Bécquer swore and yanked the IV tubing from his arm. I held my breath, expecting the alarm to go off. But it didn’t. The numbers in the machine were frozen, which meant we had once more stepped out of time. Nobody would come to help us now. Which really made no difference as no human would stand a chance against an immortal. At the thought, the fear inside me grew exponentially.

Unlike me, Bécquer didn’t seem surprised when his action had no effect. His eyes on Cesar, he ordered him to leave once more.

Cesar nodded. “I will,” he said as if he meant it. “As soon as you confirm that you’ll keep your promise to take your own life before Monday.”

“I won’t. You lied to me, Cesar, which means my word is not binding, for it was given under a false premise.”

“Isn’t it?” A triumphant smile curved Cesar’s pale lips as he turned toward the door. “Now you believe me? Now you believe your reluctant sire is an oath breaker?”

At Cesar’s words, a second visitor materialized by the door. It was Beatriz, I realized, as she glided forward and came to stand by Bécquer’s side.

I took a step back for nothing human remained in her face, the beautiful face of a vengeful goddess. But Bécquer, unperturbed as though he had expected her, returned her stare.

Gracefully, Beatriz sat on his bed and bent forward until their faces almost touched. When she spoke, her perfectly modulated voice was that of a lover. But her words were not of love.

“And what excuse do you have to break the oath you gave to me?” she asked him.

“I did not break my oath to you.” Bécquer’s voice was even and, although not loud, it broke the intimacy she had established between them. And so it was Cesar who answered. “No. You didn’t. You sent your lap dog to do it in your stead.”

“Is that so?” Beatriz asked.

“No,” Bécquer said. “I did not send Federico.”

“Liar.” Cupping Bécquer’s face in her hands, Beatriz forced him to look at her. Bécquer’s eyes turned vacant under her stare, then his arms grew limp.

“Stop it! He’s telling the truth.”

I reached for her as I screamed. Without looking, Beatriz swung her right arm and hit me hard on the chest, sending me crashing to the floor.

Fighting the blackness that threatened to engulf me, I opened my eyes. Cesar was looking down on me, his hand extended. He shrugged when I refused it and watched as I scrambled to my feet.

“No. You didn’t tell Federico.” Beatriz released Bécquer, who fell back against the pillow. Blinking repeatedly, Bécquer sat up. A sigh of relief escaped his lips when he met my eyes.

“You didn’t tell him,” Beatriz repeated staring at me. “But you told her.”

“He didn’t. I guessed it on my own.” I took a step forward, but Cesar grabbed my arm, holding me back.

Ignoring me, Beatriz bent over Bécquer and pinned him to the bed. “What else did you tell her?” she whispered, her voice tense with hate. “Did you tell her that you loved her?”

“Let Carla go,” Bécquer said, addressing Cesar. “She has nothing to do with us.”

“You’re right. She hasn’t. But I can’t let her go. She knows too much.”

“Cesar is right,” Beatriz added. “And anyway, why would you care what is to become of her?”

“Oh, I see,” she continued when he said nothing. “You think you’re in love with her, don’t you?” She laughed. “You are pathetic. After all the women you have seduced over the years, after all your broken promises, you still believe you are capable of love?”

“Come on, Beatriz. Kill him already. We’re wasting time.” Cesar sounded bored.

“Don’t listen to him,” Bécquer spoke, his voice even. “I have told the Elders that I changed you, as I promised, so they will let you live. But if you kill me — ”

“What about her?” Beatriz asked. “Will she lie for me too?”

No, the answer came to my mind unbidden. Anger spilling over the walls I was trying to erect to keep Beatriz from reading my feelings.