Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) (13 page)

Zack told Kyli how his very weird night unfolded. From the dream about her in a field, to the one about being trapped while listening to unknown people talk. Zack detailed everything so that Kyli would understand how he was feeling. Kyli sat back and picked up the phone. She ordered room service for the both of them as Zack kept talking. Kyli was paying attention to everything he said, though she didn't look it.

Zack was getting frustrated. “Did you hear anything I've said? Or do you just not care?”

Kyli hung up the phone and turned to Zack with a sour face. “You poor boy, did the freaky vampire scare you.” Kyli coddled Zack by hugging him on the couch with one arm. She was sitting with her back leaning into the couch. She held him with a squeeze.

“I'm serious, Kyli. I couldn’t even see him move, he was beyond fast. There wasn’t even sound when he bore his hand into my arm. It was unreal.” Zack was flustered. His vision blurred, he started to sway. Zack put his right hand to his head.

“He
was
a vampire. It sounds like an old one at that.” A bell rang outside the door, their food had arrived.

“That was quick.” Zack commented.

“I know. For all the shit I give them, they treat me very well most of the time.” Kyli brought the cart into the living room and removed the lids. “Dinner is served.”

A pile of eight large, rare, and bloody steaks were divided among two serving plates. They appeared to be prime cuts that were each in excess of twenty ounces.

Zack frantically responded. “This is what you ordered me? I can't eat this. It's not even cooked! There's blood all over it!”

Kyli stood, motionless with a cold look on her face. “Gratitude is not just a word, it can be expressed as an emotion too, you know.” Kyli cut off a piece of steak and skewed it up with a fork. She waited for Zack’s next words.

Zack chose to speak. “But-”

The moment Zack opened his mouth, Kyli shoved the piece of food down his throat. Zack recoiled back. Slightly choking, he gagged on it. Kyli struck him in the chest to help him swallow. It worked. Zack got the steak down and stared at Kyli as he recovered.

“See. Good isn't it?” Kyli smiled.

Zack coughed. “It's horrible.” Zack spit out the blood from his mouth. He didn't actually taste the steak. He was complaining more than anything. Zack licked his lips.

“Now you’re not leaving until you eat all of these.” Kyli commanded.

Zack was chewing and felt something was off. The steak wasn’t cooked. He had made the argument, but thought they were merely very rare. He was eating warm raw meat. A wave of overwhelming nausea hit him. Kyli stepped back as the small piece of steak ended up on the floor in a puddle of not-so-fun fluid. After its return trip, Zack coughed.

“Are you trying to kill me? I told you I can’t eat this stuff, it makes me, well.” Zack gestured to the floor. “Do that.”

“Do you see your leg? Do you know why it’s not infected right now? You've spent several hours in a cold chair with two open wounds. Don't you think it's a little odd that you haven't caught something from that dirty warehouse room yet?” Kyli was upset with Zack. She crossed her arms in protest.

Zack examined his calf. There was dried blood, but no signs of puss or even dark, dead blood. The wound had stopped bleeding. It had closed under the bandages. Yet it was never treated except for being washed and set by Kyli.

“Normal people don’t survive injuries like that Zack and laugh about it the same day. Not after that long without treatment. It would have clotted and killed you by now. That thick of blood would have been sent directly to your heart and caused it to stop. Do you know why that hasn't happened?” Kyli barked at Zack.

Zack slowly shook his head.

“It’s the blood Orhn poured on it. Your body has already made some progress. We just need to help it along at this point.” Kyli relaxed. She cut another piece of steak.

“How?” Zack’s stomach was settling as he hunched forward.

“You have two options. You can clean these plates off with your tongue until their spotless, or you can do it the hard way.” Kyli grinned devilishly. She poked the cut meat with her fork. “Well I can do it to you the hard way.” Kyli held the piece of steak up.

Zack didn't like option one. “What’s the-”

“-The hard way is waiting until your body needs the blood to function and you end up attacking anyone that's near you.” Kyli lowered the fork, setting it down on the platter.

“Okay, that doesn't sound that bad. I thought you were going to force it down my throat.” Zack took a deep breath and realized what she meant. “Wait. By attack, you mean bite?” Zack had concluded.

Kyli responded with a cold tone unlike herself. She unfolded her arms, slumping her shoulders. She was disturbed about the subject. “No, I mean viciously ravage until you severe their mortal coil. You will take everything from them. When you’re done they’ll lay there dead at your feet. When that happens and I assure you it will, you’ll actually feel full and giddy from the experience. Outright happy that you have your mind back after the constant biological starvation you had put yourself through during the past week of scratching your eyes out from the sick dreams. After it’s over, they’ll be dead. And you’ll feel better for it, even if you don’t like it. Even if it makes you want to scream out loud in agony and curse your soul for what you've let yourself do to them.”

Kyli turned away and headed to the bathroom. A few tears shimmered as she passed out of Zack's view. Kyli flipped the light on and shut the door with a slam. This was something personal. She spoke not as a bystander, but as a former aggressor. In Kyli's past, there had been a person close to her. A human that died by her inability to recognize what she was and what she was becoming. Zack could see that Kyli didn’t want the same thing to occur with him.

Zack wasn’t sure what he should do, he knew that consoling her might go well. Though not eating the food would be ignoring the very moral of her story. So he sat, picked up the knife and fork, and sliced. He ate one bite at a time. Methodically, carefully, and with lots of added streak sauce poured over each bite. He tore through four steaks until he felt sick. Zack truly was squeamish of a wet steak. He hated to eat anything that felt alive. He was doing this because of how Kyli reacted. Against his own free will, he continued. Eventually Zack became very tired. Several hours passed and he blacked out on the couch.

The sounds of Kyli in the bathroom crying gave way to delusions in Zack's dreams. Visions of clouds and blood swirled in his mind. The words and actions of the day mixed together in an ocean of memory. The scenes deluded Zack’s worries and cares. Soon the events didn’t matter and the trouble that had found him easily faded away. The world became silent. He was alone in the void of the moment. A desolate beach with no one around. Solitude. A red sea, splashing at the sand. Black clouds traveling across a flashing sky. Lightning ripping moments of turbulence for Zack's eyes to see.

“Did the aroma of her blood entice you? So much effort intricately examining her throat?” Zack knew this dark voice. It called out from the shadows of his mind. “Do you think she doesn't know what you really are? That you were the ephemeral demon in that warehouse room, not Orhn.”

Zack knew this feeling, the pressure as it weighed on his nerves. Hatred was a taste in the back of his mouth. Seething, licking at Zack's subconscious doubts and worries.

“There are few creatures that will ever know the terror I wield, that you presently wield. Blood is the fuel that burns through your veins. I am the match.” The sound emanated from all around Zack.

Zack said nothing. Holding his tongue out of more than caution, he was gripped by these words.

“Did you like the vision of her throat torn out? The serene meadow brushed back to reveal her slaughtered body?” The voice was pressing Zack. From beyond the shoreline. From far out in the red ocean before him.

Zack refused to answer. His will was coming back to him. A small perseverance was returning.

“Eventually you will crave the flow of fresh blood from every heart that still beats. Eventually you will call to me.” The voice rang through Zack's ears without sound. It was prying at him.

Zack bit his lip, trying to shut the message out. Cold fingertips slid over the back of his neck. Sending stern chills through Zack's body.

“It comes slowly at first to all who dare to taste. The feeling of power, the pleasure of lust, the pain of immortality. Everything will slow as you drink it in. The wine will last, the meat will abound, the blood will flow. Once you awaken me, once you accept me. There will be no confusion to the course, no hesitation to cause doubt. You will be mine, and behind your cold eyes I will force you to perform.” The ocean rumbled, waves were crashing at Zack's feet.

Zack screamed out, seething with anger. He was suffocating from the steady whisper. It was gnawing at him, causing Zack pain. He turned around, slowly. Not knowing what he might find.

Nothingness sat waiting for Zack.

“Focus Zack.” The voice called.

The sky began to rain black liquid. It soaked Zack. The voice was toying with him. Zack's anger gripped his thoughts.

“Your emotions are good, they will serve me well in my war. The contender within your own body. A stage that we will play the motions we must. Anger will prime your flesh to do my bidding. Cementing my puppetry over your life. The hatred I provoke in you shall be the key to the gates of my personal Avalon.” The voice sighed. “If they let you live.”

Zack steadied himself, trying to calm down and resist the demon’s influence over him. He was being attacked. His mind forced into complying with each wish, each word the voice was spewing out. Zack hated it. He wanted the voice to stop. He said softly and without essence. “Stop.”

“Petty attempts to stave me off are futile to no measure. Greater men have tried and greater still have succumb to my lush dreams. I will show you horror. I will show you pain incarnate. Blood with no end. You will be trapped with no other route less my gift, my key cast in blood at your broken feet.” The voice breathed heavy in the distance. The rain stopped.

Zack squinted, looking out into the abyss of the nightmare and saw nothing.

“Blood tells. It changes what you are inside. The hunger that resides in you is a pitcher waiting to be filled. You will watch it rise and I will watch it overflow and spill. Let yourself slip, become what we both feel you are.” The rumbling voice waited. “You won’t last long with her. You can smell it already, calling you, tugging at your white virgin teeth. Rip, tear, rend, and enjoy swallowing her silken blood like smooth warm milk. It will only take time until you accept my offer, until you accept
me
.”

The same cold fingers slid across the back of Zack's neck. Smoothly clasping his throat. Lips pressed to Zack's left ear. A breath without wind spoke. “Until you need me.”

The Island in the Pale Still Water and the Fleeting Humanity Within It

Zack awoke to Kyli. She shook him hard, trying to wake from an apparent nightmare he was having. Zack was sweating, panting. He spoke, clear as day. His eyes were firmly closed. “I will never need you!”

Kyli stepped back and let Zack fall forward and off the couch. “Then that's all you get.”

Zack opened his eyes as he hit the floor. He wasn’t tired, not dazed at all. He felt better, much better. Despite landing on his face. Zack's body was light, almost springy. He looked around the room. It was bright, but his vision was still blurry. The sun stung his eyes through the blinds. Though Zack didn’t have to squint for some reason. He pushed his glasses up his nose.

“Kyli, are you there?” Zack looked around, the whole room was blurred. “Why are my eyes so out of focus?” Zack was randomly searching for her as best as his eyes would let him.

“You're very considerate for saying what you did just now.” Kyli crossed her arms and began tapping her right foot. Waiting for Zack's answer.

“What? What did I say? I had a bad dream. I was resisting something, screaming out to it to go away and leave me alone. But I couldn't say it out loud. It was disturbing.” Zack propped himself back up on the couch. “Sorry. I didn't mean to say it to you.”

“Thank you.” Kyli accepted Zack's apology and uncrossed her arms. “To answer your question. I’m right here, and I’ll help you after you drink this.” Kyli handed him an insulated cup with a lid and straw. It was blue and white, with the same cloud pattern as the room.

“Are you sure you know what’s wrong?” Zack asked, his vision wasn't getting any better as he rubbed his eyes.

“Yes, Zack. Have I lied to you so far?” There was something about Kyli’s intentions that Zack didn’t want to trust. She was holding back.

“Well, no. I guess not.” Zack sniffed the end of the straw. “What is this?”

“Cranberry juice.” Kyli said in confidence.

The cup smelled of a heavy cream. “I don't think that's what it is.” Zack contested Kyli's gift.

“If you don’t drink it, I won’t help you. Take it or leave the hotel.” Kyli’s tone was stern, she was giving Zack a real ultimatum.

“Okay.” Zack took a sip from the cup. It didn’t taste like cranberry juice. It was cold like juice, but thicker, smoother. There was a slight film to it, like drinking thick chocolate milk. Whatever it was, it tasted good, very good, and wholesome to Zack's tongue. It filled his appetite and satisfied his thirst. “What is this? It's good.”