Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) (12 page)

“Yes?” Zack was being cautious not to say too much.

Kyli dabbed the wet towel lightly over Zack's leg cleaning it carefully as they continued. “Honestly, do I look like I care about spilled blood?” Kyli was solemn in her tone. She was thinking about something else again.

“What's wrong?” Zack asked Kyli as he saw the edge of her lip begin to curl. “Wh-”

Zack was interrupted by a fast, powerful pull on his lower leg. Zack's right arm fell back, trying to brace himself against falling. There was a significantly louder popping sound, followed by a shifting and grinding in Zack's leg. Kyli had set his fracture by hand. She did it so quickly that Zack didn't actually have time to feel any pain either.

“That hurt! What the hell?” Zack was angry at Kyli.

“No it didn't.” Kyli contested.

Zack moved his toes. No pain at all.

“See. You're fine.” Kyli smiled again.

“You're far too good at that.” Zack reluctantly complemented Kyli.

“Yeah, I know.” Kyli put down the towel. She started wrapping Zack's leg with a clean bandage.

“Anything else I should know about?” Zack was almost afraid to ask.

“Yeah, there's a lot.” Kyli placed Zack's legs down on the carpet. She moved closer to Zack's left arm.

“Like?” Zack dared to ask.

“I told you the truth when I said I was a vampeal.” Kyli ripped the fabric from Zack's arm. She reached for another small towel.

“Yeah, whatever that is.” Zack dismissed what Kyli was telling him.

Kyli dipped the towel and sloshed it. She practically threw it into the bowl and pushed it into Zack's wound. “You better be careful. I have many weapons to help me dispose of your body if I ever needed to.”

Zack winced in pain, but didn't comment on it. He decided to focus on what Kyli said. “You don't have all these hung up for that, do you?”

“So you can catch on.” Kyli eased up on Zack's arm while placing the soiled towel into the bowl.

“Then why would you-” Zack paused mid-sentence. He had a feeling what she was about to say.

“Bad vampires.” Kyli said it casually.

“What?” Zack felt a crack in his left arm. He flinched out of reflex. “Hey! You could have warned me.”

“Now what fun would that be?” Kyli had set Zack's left arm and returned her hands to her lap without Zack noticing, she was fast.

Zack leered at Kyli like a child at its parents after a vaccination shot at the doctor's office. He was angry, but happy it was over. Zack continued. “What do you mean by bad exactly? Are they evil vampires? Like demons or something?” Zack wanted to know what he was dealing with. He certainly thought Orhn was evil enough.

“Really?” Kyli looked up into Zack’s eyes and continued taking care of the rest of his arm. She wiped the remaining blood off his skin. “Is that all you’re asking me? If there are goodies and baddies in the vampire world? Seriously?” Kyli clearly didn't like Zack's line of questioning.

Zack adjusted his glasses. “It’s a valid question. I need to know.”

Kyli wrapped Zack's left arm in a light bandage. “Vampires are people too, Zack.” Kyli said with a funny twist in her voice while being overly dramatic on purpose. “There are good people, bad people, and average in between people. Vampires can never be labeled as any one type. They’re merely people like the rest of us.” Kyli pulled the bandage tight, making sure he would feel it. “Do I have to give you a morality lesson along with all this? Or are you getting the big picture?” She reached for a tongue depressor and some tape from the kit.

“So, Kyli, do vampires dream?” Zack asked out of context.

“What? You're kidding me, right? Where the hell did you come up with that?” Kyli was progressively in a losing fight with Zack. He was taking things in too slowly for her to talk calmly. In general, he was pissing her off.

“It was in a movie.” Zack said timidly. “You know, they said that vampires never have to sleep. So I thought dreaming for a vampire was impossible.”

“Okay, you have a good point there.” Kyli finally accepted his question, yet answering it as mysteriously as she could for the sole sake of playing on Zack's fears. “Dreams are the cradle of the imagination, and the seat of our power. Without rest and blood, there would be no gifts, no vampires, and we would surely all go insane from the inner torment. If we didn't dream, we'd be awake for twice as long during our endless lifetimes.”

“Then you need blood, what, every couple days?” Zack was curious.

“No, it's diurnal.” Kyli used a big word.

“What?” Zack had no clue what Kyli meant.

“Daily.” Kyli sneered at Zack. “You really didn't pick up that much vocab. in school, did you?”

Zack changed the subject back. “So you do dream then?” Zack was missing the point of Kyli's little rant. Both of them.

“It means you'd feel a hundred by the time you reached fifty.” Kyli huffed and stared at Zack. “Are you done?”

“Kyli.” Zack said with a question on his mind.

Kyli rolled her eyes.

Zack thought how he should ask this most important next question. One that had been gnawing at his mind since the car ride. He didn't want to offend Kyli, but he had to know for sure. Zack took a deep breath. He sat forward, turned to Kyli and spoke. “What are you?”

Kyli wrapped Zack’s finger in place. “I’m the other, other white meat.” Kyli said with a near straight face before cracking a large smile.

“Really, I want to know. You said you weren't a vampire. I know what they are. Somehow you were able to find me. You survived a nearly fatal run in with a walking nightmare of a man and you were able to pick me up with one arm. You said you were a vamp of some kind. But what does that mean?” Zack wasn't sure if he had upset Kyli or not.

Kyli stared at Zack, waiting to answer him. “Zack, I’m the one that saved you. I spotted you in a dark night club. I found you in an abandoned warehouse after you'd been abducted. I'm the one taking care of your broken little body. Isn't that enough?” Kyli looked at Zack and sighed. He wasn't accepting it as a full answer. “I’m a vampeal, Zack.”

“What does that mean? I don’t know what the hell a vampeal is! Or for that matter what that freak who tortured me was.” Zack lowered his head. “Please, explain this to me in a way I can relate to.” Zack was pleading for Kyli to help him get a grip on what was going on. In the last 24-hours, he’d met her, he had an eerie dream, and was abducted by an insanely strong guy that almost killed him. It was not one of Zack’s better days.

Kyli stood up, went to the kitchen and gathered a few things from a dark cherry cabinet that was refrigerated. Kyli took out a small red pack and closed the door. She came back to the couch and set the chilled pouch on the coffee table. Kyli placed a small bucket and a knife down as well. “This is what a vampeal is.” Kyli said bluntly and with force.

Kyli picked up the knife, placed the bucket under her forearm, and drove the blade suddenly and completely through the middle of her left forearm. Her blood spewed out into the bucket and ran down the knife tip poking through the other side. Kyli didn’t flinch, not one iota of pain was shown on her face. It was like she was carving a turkey. There was no hesitation to it, no moment of contemplation. She just did it, making sure Zack was watching.

“What the hell are you doing!? I didn’t ask you to cut yourself!” Zack lunged forward and tried to get up and prevent her from hurting herself further. He ignored his leg entirely in doing so.

“This is what a vampeal is.” Kyli held her arm out, the knife still completely through her arm. The blood began dripping down the blade slower and slower until it finally stopped altogether. “This is what I am, Zack.” She took the knife out with one quick pull.

Zack was transfixed as he saw the blood in Kyli's arm solidify. “Does it hurt?” He continued to see the skin as it closed. There was no scar that formed, it was clean and immediate.

“Yes, but it’s more like an ache than the searing pain that you would think. As you can see, it takes a lot to kill one of us.” Kyli took up the pouch and bit into it, drinking the dark red contents.

“What do you mean, 'one of us?' You're the vampeal.” Zack's mind trailed off as he wondered what she was doing. “Hey, what is that you're drinking?” Zack had a growing suspicion of what it might be. He just didn't want to admit it to himself.

Kyli flipped her head back, arching her body as she finished the last drop. Zack couldn't help fixing his eyes to her buxom shape. For a moment he didn't actually care what it was.

“Had an eye full yet?” Kyli said as she tilted her head forward again. A trickle of deep red liquid was on the left side of her upper lip.

“What?” Zack was still dazed by what he saw.

”It’s not cranberry juice. I can tell you that much.” Kyli laughed and showed her fangs to Zack.

Zack said it aloud, more to himself than to Kyli. “Its blood, isn’t it?”

“Keep your eyes on my arm.” Zack was keeping his distance from Kyli. “Not from there.” Kyli grabbed Zack’s shirt and dragged him closer. “From here, closer.”

“What am I looking for? What’s so unique about-” Zack’s eyes widened at the sight of Kyli’s face. It became brighter. It nearly glowed with a healthy blush. He lost his squeamishness and checked her neck. The torn skin, the deep tears in her flesh had already disappeared completely. Zack pulled Kyli closer to him. He brushed the dried blood away from her neck and stared. Zack was amazed. He was holding Kyli tight and examining her while his breath ran across her skin. Kyli's skin was warm to Zack's face as he stared at her.

“Are you enjoying this?” Kyli prodded.

Zack didn't seem to hear the question. He was too set on Kyli's skin to care about anything else. Kyli really was a, “Vampire.”

Kyli wiggled loose from Zack's grip. “Vampeal, not vampire. Don’t insult me. I can walk in the sunlight just fine most days, thank you.” Kyli could tell this was going to take a while to fully sink in. she decided to explain more of the reasoning behind the sudden healing of her wounds. “Autonomic localized anesthetic.”

“Huh?” Zack was still studying Kyli neck for any other changes.

“It's one of the first things a vampeal learns physiologically.” Kyli told Zack.

“You can learn to do that?” Zack was astounded, but still checking out Kyli’s neck. He was fascinated by her now. It went beyond attraction, Zack was hooked.

“Yes, but if I knew this would prompt you to pay this much attention to my neckline, I would have done this earlier.” Kyli mentioned as Zack was unknowingly caressing her neck.

Zack was treating her gently, sliding his finger tips back and forth over the area. It was giving Kyli pleasant chills that were dancing along her side and back. She was beginning to shiver from what he was doing to her. It was light, sensual, and intimate. Everything Kyli liked in a private moment.

Kyli closed her eyes and let him work. “Either way, I like what you’re doing.”

Zack stopped and Kyli sighed. She had been thrust back into the conversation again, unwillingly.

“As for the numbing effects, it seems that you’ve already learned that trick.” Kyli pointed to Zack's leg.

“Huh?” Zack looked at his broken left leg.

“I don’t think this will be as hard as I thought.” Kyli said with a hint of optimism. She watched Zack put a little weight on his foot. “See what I mean.”

Zack moved his leg around and didn’t feel any pain. Zack said in a loud voice. “What the f-”

Kyli interrupted Zack. “-Hush now, the hotel is full tonight. We can't have you cussing randomly out loud.” Kyli snapped up and held her hand over his mouth to mute him. “It’s a sign that you’re turning. That's all. With my help, it'll be tonight.” Kyli let her hand off.

“Why can’t I feel the pain in my leg? It’s wiggling, but I can’t feel any pain. I know it's broken. I heard the cracking. I can even feel the bone waver when I shift it. Same goes for my arm.” Zack leaned over and touched his foot. He still had feeling in it, but there was no pain. “This isn't right. Why can’t I feel my very broken limbs Kyli? This isn’t normal!” Zack raised his voice.

Kyli placed her hand tightly over Zack's mouth again. “It is for a vampeal.”

Zack looked into Kyli's eyes. She was waiting for the recognition that he wouldn't yell out again before she let him go again. Zack nodded slightly. She took her hand off.

“But I’m not a vampeal.” Zack argued in a quiet tone.

There was a knock. Two hotel menus were slid under the door.

“You will be.” Kyli got up off the couch. She went over to the door and grabbed the menus that were delivered.

“I think you've made a mistake. I’m human.” Zack continued.

“Keep telling yourself that, it might work one day.” Kyli looked through the menu for something special as she sat the other one down on the table in front of Zack.

“I am.” Zack pleaded to Kyli. “I'm just an ordinary kid that can't get a girlfriend.”

“Not for long.” Kyli paused. “And not if you want to live much longer.”

“Things like that don't change overnight.” Zack was getting worried. “What do you mean?”

“You need to tell me what transpired Zack. The smallest detail might give us a clue to find out why Orhn kidnapped you. Every word Orhn said. Every action he took. For some reason he didn’t kill you Zack. It's apparent he wanted to and then he changed his mind. We need to figure out why. Tell me exactly what happened.” Kyli tossed the menu on the coffee table next to the other. She sat down to the right of Zack. “Let's begin.”