Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) (15 page)

“Is that all you wanted to ask me? That’s so disappointing.” Kyli dismounted from the couch and sat onto the edge of the coffee table. Her legs crossed as a further sign of her exacting abilities.

Zack was ashamed by his own actions. “Are you upset I attacked you?” He wanted to flex this surge of power, but he didn’t think Kyli would be able to react like that. Zack was unsure of why he did it. Thinking possibly because Zack needed to test what he could do.

“No. But you’re about to make it even between us.” Kyli was hiding something. She was smiling too big not to.

“How?” Zack faintly tilted his head and raised one eyebrow.

“Look at the cup.” Kyli pointed with one outstretched finger.

Zack examined the splash from the spilled cup that had spread across the floor and next to the rear leg of the table. It was dark and red, thick and slightly congealed. He thought it matched the theme of the room well.

Kyli smiled as she placed both hands under her chin. Her eyes grinning with glee and satisfaction. “It wasn’t cranberry juice.”

Zack instantly vomited. Hurling a small amount of liquid next to the previous accident.

Kyli burst out laughing, falling back onto the table. She rolled side to side. To Kyli, this was hilarious.

Zack wiped his mouth, coughed a few times to clear his throat. “Was that blood? Did you make me drink blood?” Zack eschewed blood.

“Bingo.” Kyli rested on her back. Caching her breath from the heavy laughing fit she had just finished. She coughed and sat back up. Kyli had laughed hard enough to turn her cheeks red. Zack wasn’t sure if she was getting a kick out of it, or actually was enjoying how he chose to convey his revulsion to blood.

“What? Is this what you consider fun? You tricked me into drinking animal blood.” Zack spit into the pile on the floor. “That's really sick you know.” Zack didn’t like being made fun of, let alone being pranked.

“I find it humorous that you loved the taste of blood, but threw it up when I told you what it was.” Kyli made a solid point.

Zack thought about it for a second. Kyli was right. He did like it. He had nearly finished the entire cup before their conversation. Zack saw that Kyli was still smiling. “There’s more isn’t there?” Zack took a deep breath.

Kyli nodded.

Zack didn't like where this was going.

Kyli eye balled the blood on the floor. “It wasn't from an animal.”

Zack threw up again. Small bits landed by Kyli's right foot.

“That's attractive. And you were showing so much promise too.” Kyli frowned adding a facial pout as a joke. Tilting her head to the side as she looked at Zack. “But enough with the jokes.”

Kyli got up and removed the lid from last night’s room service. She stood by it with one hand gesturing to the remaining meat. Kyli did not appear to be pleased. “There’s about a hundred dollars of top-choice steak here that went to rot because of your cute little aversion.” The cold steak was sitting in the same place as Zack left it. “Look at your leg again.”

Zack put a hand on his leg, rolling the pant to see the newly healed skin. There was no puncture site, no scar, no blood.

“The raw meat mended the bone, the blood healed the flesh.” Kyli slammed the silver tray cover on the steaks.

“Does that mean I'm invincible?” Zack dared to ask with fear of how Kyli might demonstrate her point.

"I can always defenestrate you if you'd like to find out." Kyli stood strong, waiting for Zack. "We are seven floors up."

"Could I really live through that?" Zack was astounded.

“Is that all you can think about? You wasted the meal I was gracious enough to give you. Is that all you have to say?” Kyli was demanding an answer.

“Um, no.” Zack couldn't think of what to say.

“What's the matter? Can't think of a reason why you did it?” Kyli tapped her foot. “Then can you tell me what you're thinking about right now at least?”

Zack thought about it. He spoke honestly. “I'm afraid of what you might do to me.”

Kyli's expression didn't change. She wasn't amused.

“Should I just leave?” Zack was prepared for the worst.

Kyli stepped closer to Zack. With a straight face, she leaned into him. “Nope. I'm just fucking with you.”

Zack nearly collapsed. “Good. I hate to see you get truly angry at me.”

“Want to try?” Kyli flashed her eyes to the nearest katana. “You're pretty close to pushing it.”

Afraid of what Kyli might do, Zack backed off. “Not really.”

“Good to know you can be subservient when I need you to be.” Kyli sat down on the couch. “No, you’re far from it compared to an actual vampire. However, as a vampeal, you can take a lot more punishment than a normal person. You can die. It only takes more to kill you.” Kyli got up and handed Zack the phone.

“What’s this for?” Zack was too busy thinking over how he survived to fathom why he would need to use a phone. Orhn could have easily killed her if he really wanted to. Especially from what Kyli had said. Zack wondered if there was more to their fight than she was letting on. “Kyli, are you sure Orhn attacked you?”

Kyli's face froze. She wasn't in the mood to play around with him over a fact. Kyli walked into her bedroom. She quickly came out with the pink heart leather choker she had been wearing the night they first met. Kyli tossed it onto Zack's lap. It had been shredded. The metal had bite marks in it. It was covered in Kyli's dried blood.

Kyli's eyes said it all, but she said it anyway. “Is there anything else I need to prove to you?”

Zack shut up, completely as Kyli continued.

“Back to the phone.” Kyli pointed to the phone beside the choker. “Call your father and let him know you won’t be home for a few days.”

“And what am I supposed to say?” Zack began dialing.

“Tell him you met a girl, and will be staying over at her place.” Kyli instructed Zack.

“And when he starts to raise his voice? What then?” Zack held the phone to his ear.

“Make sure you tell him my dad is next door. Tell your dad he'll keep a good watch on us all the time.” Kyli reached for the destroyed choker in Zack's lap. Her right hand graced his leg.

Zack smiled.

“Are you sure you have time to be thinking about that right now?” Kyli scolded Zack.

The phone rang once and immediately picked up. Zack froze as he thought of his dad worrying where he was. He had never done anything like this before. He dreaded what his dad was going to say.

The answering machine played the recorded message Zack and his father had made a while ago. It meant that John was on the line with someone else. Zack's father had set it up that way.

Zack clicked the off button to the phone. “He's already on the line talking to someone else.”

“That's good. It means that he isn't as worried as you thought.” Kyli was optimistic.

“Or he's calling the cops and speaking with the missing person's detective right now.” Zack was beginning to sulk.

Kyli didn’t want to wait for Zack to break his comatose expression. She planted the phone back in his hand and walked off to make them some breakfast at the cook-top in the kitchen island.

“So what now? I just call him? And tell him what exactly? That I’m a freak?” Zack was hesitating again.

“Hit redial until you get through. This is not as bad as you think it is, Zack. Tell him you're okay and we'll go from there.” Kyli set a skillet on the stove.

“I say I'm fine and that I'm a freak?” Zack reiterated.

“We are not freaks, Zack. You are not a freak. You are different and as long as you control your diet, no one will ever find out. Think of it as diabetes.” Kyli set some eggs out on the counter with milk, orange juice, and bacon.

“So you’re telling me that I have diabetes? As far as I can remember diabetics don't bite people when their blood sugar is off.” Zack had a panicked pitch to his voice.

“It's like any other blood imbalance. You have to control it to remain normal.” Kyli smiled.

“This is not anything like another blood imbalance.” Zack argued.

“Are you sure? How many blood imbalances do you know about?” Kyli affirmed his opinion by gesturing with the spatula. “Now you’re starting to regain your old self. You're thinking more about being right than about the actual condition you're in.” Kyli smiled again.

“My old self? You just met me. How do you know how I was like?” Zack was holding off redialing his dad. He was still scared of what he might say. Zack kept talking.

Kyli turned up the heat and got back to cooking. “I’m not telling you.” Kyli refused to make eye contact with Zack. “Are you going to make that call?”

“What? Why?” Zack got up and sat at the bar side of the kitchen island.

“How do you like your egg? Sunny, over easy, or runny?” Kyli was completely ignoring his question.

“Don’t ignore me, I’m being serious. How do you seem to know everything about me?” Zack had become paranoid from all that was happening.

“It’s part of my gift.” Kyli cracked an egg into the pan. “Now call your dad back.”

“What gift?” Zack pressed the redial button and held the phone to his ear again.

“My vampire gift.” Kyli cracked another egg.

The phone rang once and went directly to the machine. Zack hung up and placed it on the counter. “I thought you expressively said that we weren’t vampires, that we were vampeals?”

“We are vampeals, but vampires aren’t the only ones to receive dark gifts from the virus that affects us. Or at least that’s what my dad has told me over the years.” Kyli added a splash of milk to the eggs in the pan.

“What can you do exactly?” Zack calmly asked. He wasn't worried about talking to his father anymore.

“I can cook damn good eggs.” Kyli smirked and kept cooking.

“You know what I mean. What can some of these gifts do? What kind of things can you really do?” Zack was curious to find out what Kyli was capable of.

With a straight face Kyli replied. “Stop the world from turning.”

“Really?” Zack thought she was kidding. He laughed.

“No, really. Or at least a few of the gifts have the potential to. There are some very powerful gifts that can do everything from kill people to take over their minds. It’s a very different world we live in Zack. As a vampire or vampeal, alteration gifts are the most powerful. They are the types that are physically dangerous to nearly everyone.” Kyli sighed.

“What is it?” Zack saw Kyli was losing her cheerful spirit. “You don't have one of those gifts do you?”

“It would have been much easier if I did. Sadly, I have a psychic type gift.” Kyli seemed depressed about the nature of her gift.

“But you still make do, right? I'm sure your gift is amazing. It's how come some random vampire hasn’t attacked you already. Isn't it?” Zack wondered.

Kyli perked back up. “Who's to say they haven’t?” Kyli tasted a piece of egg, and added a little orange juice to them. “It’s all about remaining hidden. Not what you can do. If no one knows you’re a vampeal, no one can kill you.”

“Who would want to kill us exactly? Besides Orhn of course.” Zack needed to know what else was coming for him.

“Just about everyone.” Kyli reached for a teaspoon of sugar. “We're not exactly considered upstanding genetic pillar of our race you know.”

“What does that mean?” Zack was lost.

Kyli added the sugar to the eggs. “We're half-vampires Zack. That means that one of our parents was a vampire that chose to mate with a human. To a human, there may not be anything wrong with that. But to a vampire. It's taboo. It means that one of our parents didn't think the vampires in their life were good enough for them and decided to resort to a human instead.”

“So that means my dad already knows about vampires?” Zack was shocked. He didn't think his dad would withhold something like that from him.

“No, probably not. Most vampires that mate with a human do so under the guise that they are also human.” Kyli flipped the eggs.

“But wouldn't he know?” Zack thought about it.

“And how would he know? If she didn't tell him, what exactly would tip him off?” Kyli tilted her head to the left. “Did you think I wasn't human when you first met me?

Zack knew the answer immediately. “No, of course not.”

“And you wouldn't have known if I hadn't told you. That's what probably happened with your mother and father. A few years of fun. A lie that she worked nights and then you came along.” Kyli pointed to Zack.

“Enough about that. Besides, we don’t get the kind of gifts that vampires will kill you over. At least not without good reason.” Kyli flipped the eggs again.

“Like what?” Zack worried.

“Trespassing, back talk to someone older than you, and the obvious spilled blood in public.” Kyli chuckled. “But you have to be an idiot to do any of that.”

Zack was silent.

“All vampeals get are simple gifts or the occasional focus strength enhancement, nothing that would ever make us a threat to a real vampire. We just have to keep in line, or at least upwind of them, and we’re okay.” Kyli took two glasses out of the cabinet.