Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series)

by Virgil Allen Moore

  Zack's attention returned back to the table. David was stressing over the calamity of people fussing around him. Grey was telling dark jokes again and Cherry was laughing her ass off out loud. Ellen appeared to be turning a bright shade of red. Crystal was cracking up as well, right along with Grey. Marin was leisurely eating his dinner and calmly paying attention to Grey's sick stories. No one took notice of Zack's misplaced attempt of talking to Kyli.

  “Now Zack, what exactly do you plan on doing for the next three days?” Grey asked.

  David raised his head.

  “You're saying I only have three days? To live?” Zack's throat dropped.

  Grey smiled. “If it were me, I would want to do anything and everything with everyone I wanted to.” Grey tipped his hat up a little with his right index finger. “And yes, kid. You're gonna die in three days.”

  “You had to say something, didn't you Grey? You can never keep your damn mouth shut, can you?” David snapped at Grey.

  “Three days, seriously? That's all I've got?” Zack turned to Marin.

  “He can't tell you kid, that's why I did.” Grey spoke up.

  “Grey, you're an ass.” Kyli said.

  “Yeah, doll, I know.” Grey replied.

  “You'll have to excuse our wry friend, Zack. He usually doesn't converse with normal people.” Cherry defended Grey.

  Zack became flushed. Feeling his mortality inch closer to him was one thing, this was another. In a couple of words, Grey had shortened his remaining lifespan.

  “I think that ends the night.” David announced. “Everyone, let's go home. I'm sure Zack needs all the time available to him now.”

  Zack wavered, leaning side to side.

  “Are you okay?” Kyli asked.

  Zack didn't answer, a pale color flooded his face. And like a light, he went out. Zack fell off his chair and onto the ground, unconscious.

  * * * *

  “Don't fear the vampeal. He is only a twisted attempt to hold shut the gates of hell I will unleash upon this world.” The demon spoke to Zack.

  Collapsed, on the ground in his own dream world, Zack could feel the demon's breath. It knelt before Zack's ear. Even in his dream, Zack felt the impact of the floor on his body as he passed out at the dinner table. Zack opened his eyes to see the demon next to him. He displayed the same splendor he did when Zack had first met him.

  “Just what the hell am I supposed to do? It's not Malio that's going to kill me, it's Marin. He's a full blooded vampire!” Zack said apathetic to his own situation.

  “But he likes you, doesn't he?” The demon argued.

  “Yeah, but he's already said he's going to kill me anyway. It doesn't matter what I do against him.” Zack held his head and sighed.

  “He won't kill you.” The demon smiled and helped Zack up to his feet.

  “He told me so. And he doesn't look like the type to lie over this.” Zack dusted himself off, as the sand fell off his pressed slacks.

  “He won't kill you. He's found a friend in you, Zack. You're as precious to him potentially as Ellen is. He'll never kill you, it's not in him.” The demon professed.

  “How do you know? Did you read his mind?” Zack asked.

  “Oh yes, that's exactly what I did. I read it at the same time you did. The night Marin killed the psychic Bethany.” The demon said.

  “How? Even the psychic couldn't read him. He's a focus vampire, his gift makes him immune to all that.” Zack wanted an explanation.

  “He's going to take you there, and let you go free into Malio's estate. He won't actually kill you. He's going to talk Malio into killing you himself. Allowing you a fair chance at life and letting him get out of a contract he would have never taken if he knew what you were.” Zack slowly absorbed what the demon was saying. “Do you remember how Marin reacted when you told Kyli what I said to you?”

  “No.” Zack replied. “When?”

  “At the table. 'Swallow the blood like milk.' Didn't you see his face as you said it?” The demon reminded Zack.

  “He seemed a little shaken by that.” Zack recalled.

  “Oh yes he was. Yugo had told him to listen for that sentence.” The demon confessed. “Moira must have told him about it.”

  “Who's Moira?” Zack thought the number of bad guys was increasing too quickly as is.

  “Someone that died a long time ago. You don't need to know, you need to live. I need to live. It is for that purpose that you will walk away from Malio's estate unharmed. I will ensure it.” The demon smiled fiendishly, as his dark brown hair seemed to rise with his delight.

  “Who are you? Are you really a demon? Some devil from hell that just happened to possess me? How do you know all this?” Zack dared to asked the question. He wanted to know what to call him.

  “I am the pariah of my kind. I am known as the black rose that shadows the night in a shower of opaque pedals. My skin pricks, my limbs lash, and my teeth rend. I am the one that other monsters fear. An abomination among the demons, I am the eternal terror they harbor within themselves every time they tell my tales. I am horror incarnate.” The demon lowered his head slightly and cleared his throat. He covered his mouth with one hand, concealing his lips. “My name is Three.”

  “Three? You have a number for a name? Were you part of a line up or something?” Zack joked.

  “No.” The demon said with a slight flare, insulted by Zack's assumption. “If you want an actual name, I can't give you one, they stole it from my memory during the ritual. In the Sumerian language, they called me Salas.”

  “A ritual? You wanted to become a demon?” Zack asked.

  “No. I did not want this. I wished for another life. As for what I was doing there, I was an initiate, an apprentice. Hoping to join them in their conquests. To become one of the elders.” Salas confessed to Zack.

  “Elders? How long ago was this?” Zack was asking too many questions.

  “It doesn't matter now, forget it.” Salas ended the subject.

  “Salas, that's not bad.” Zack commented, changing the tune of the conversation. “It suits you.”

  “It means three in Cuneiform.” Salas informed Zack.

  “What's Cuneiform?” Zack asked the obvious.

  “I'm sorry, for a moment I dismissed the fact you are still young and don't really know anything.” Salas sighed in disappointment.

  “Oh, so you're still just a number.” Zack said with a flat tone.

  “Yep.” Salas replied with the same abruptness.

  Zack laughed. “So if you're an intern, what else is out there?”

  Salas resisted the compulsion to murder Zack. “Nothing. I was used in a ceremony as a sacrifice to gain immortality.”

  “But aren't you already immortal? You are a vampire aren't you?” Zack asked.

  “I wasn't, and I was, but I'm not anymore.” Salas answered cryptically. “I used to be a vampire.”

  Zack sat down, crossing his legs to get more comfortable. “Explain, I've got all the time in the world here.”

  Salas sat down next to him and created a small bonfire with a flash of his hand. They relaxed, basking in the heat. “It began with blood. The need and the realization that given enough time, all of us would bleed the world dry, eventually killing ourselves.”

  “Who? Other vampires? Other demons?” Zack asked.

  “The original elders. I wanted to be one of them, and this initiation was to solidify my position in their alliance. Now I execrate them.” Salas told Zack.

  “Then how did you get the name Salas exactly?” Zack inquired.

  “There were two others that wanted to join at the same time I did. Each of them, old and censured vampires, powerful psychics as I was.” Salas lowered his eyes to the fire.

  Zack pressed on. “So there are two other demon gifts like you? I mean I know Yugo has one, so that makes just one more out there we don't know about.”

  “So, Yugo does have one of us? That's good to hear.” Salas seemed brighter when he found out
. This was welcome news to him.

  “You didn't know? But he brought me into his world, you were there weren't you? I mean you always seem to tag along and butt in, why not then?” Zack blurted out before he had a chance to control his tongue.

  The flames roared up and caught Zack's right shoe on fire.

  Salas grinned as Zack dashed to put out the flame. “Don't talk about me as if I haunt you, I am not dead. I inhabit you.” Salas paused, then turned to Zack again. “And there are seven of us in total, not three.”

  “Seven? You said there were only two other psychics with you, that makes only three. If you were the third to get there, where did the others come from.” Zack asked with more tact this time around.

  “You're misunderstanding, Zack. I was named Salas not because I was the third to arrive, but because I was the third to die. You have to know they wanted only strong applicants. Their way of proving this was to tear the hearts from our chests at the same time and see which one of us died last. I was number three, hence my given name.”

  Zack said nothing, having a new respect for the demon before him.

  “After they resurrected me with their gifts, I was chosen to be a part of their ceremony to gain true immortality.” Salas stopped.

  “Why are you telling me all this? Don't you want to take me over and litter the world with corpses?” Zack asked Salas bluntly.

  “You put it very well, Zack. Yes and no. I want to kill and bath in the blood of my enemies, your enemies. You see Zack, that's not everyone. That's just a few hundred people to slaughter.” Salas' argument wasn't very convincing. “Think of everyone that has ever wronged you, dying a gruesome death before your feet. To hold their throats in our hands. I offer you this. The feeling of true absolution for the transgressions brought upon you in the past.”

  “And if I don't want to kill people?” Zack proposed.

  “Everyone wants to kill someone in a moment of anger.” Salas said coldly.

  Zack wasn't buying it. “Not everyone Salas.” Zack smirked a little. “Well, not every time at least.”

  Salas smiled, pleased at the fact he was getting through to Zack. “Finally, that's the smile I saw in her eyes. You really do have a dark side to you Zack, I can tell. There's a part of you, deep inside that laughs at all this, that enjoys the idea of killing. That lusts for it, even if it's momentarily.”

  Zack held his head and shied away, not wanting to admit anything.

  “You are still young yet, you don't know pain, you don't know loss. You will. You'll come to learn the ways of the world and the people in it. You'll come to know the many flavors of the personalities you devour. You'll learn as you drink their blood. The blood will taste fresh, it will be desirable. You will want it. You will crave it, as I do.” Salas ranted.

  “And if that power alienates my friends and family?” Zack wondered.

  “They never have to know.” Salas offered a reasonable excuse.

  “And if I end up walking out of a gut wrenching car crash that kills everyone except me? Emerging without a scratch and caked with fresh blood, what then?” Zack suggested.

  “Their minds won't be able to accept it. No one in their right mind would actually believe a real vampire exists, especially one of my caliber.” Salas was pleased with his answer.

  Zack thought about what Salas had said in the past, about his offer, about his threats. “What exactly do you want to do with me, through me?”

  Over-zealously Salas responded. “It is not 'I', it is 'us' that will be creating a life to spawn legend.”

  “You mean more killing, don't you? Ripping the heads off of anyone that stands in my way, don't you?” Zack returned to the fire, coming to his senses finally.

  “More like tearing out the entrails of the first aggressor to strangle the next.” Salas smiled. The imagery brought back clear memories of a life long gone and buried, a life he missed.

  “That's not helping your cause you know.” Zack sighed.

  “I'm just informing you that the day will come. Someone will hurt you, they will threaten to kill you. When that happens, I will be there waiting. Ready to answer your need and slaughter the one before you.” Salas told Zack.

  “Is this one of those sooner or later speeches?” Zack rebuked.

  “Sooner than later. Zack, Malio is only three days away. Without my help, you die. I've seen it.” Salas was confident of his statement.

  “Now you're a fortune teller, huh? I thought you were a psychic.” Zack said.

  “I am a force of power that has come to know how the foregoing events will eventually pan out. From where you stand the future is a shadow without definition.” Salas tilted his head and grinned. “From where I sit, there is no such shadow. The light penetrates all, and the future is clear as the hand before you.”

  “And you're certain of this?” Zack asked.

  “If I didn't see it for myself, I wouldn't be so concerned for your life.” Salas didn't have any compassion for Zack's plight, only for his continued existence.

  “You mean 'your' life. You wouldn't be telling me this if it didn't affect 'your' life.” Zack corrected Salas.

  “I said exactly what I meant, Zack. I am immortal, you are not. Your death is an inconvenience for me, not a hindrance.” Salas was callous in his statement, showing no remorse for the fate he foretold.

  Zack became nauseous, this was not setting well with him.

  “Through you, I have the chance to redeem myself, Zack. Fate has gifted me to you and you to me. We are one for your life and part of mine. Together you have a chance at power and I have a bid at atonement. At the end of your life, time will pass and I will be granted a fresh audience for my cause. My question is Zack, at the end of your life, will you have obtained that power, that freedom? I will always get another chance, you will not.” Salas was cold.

  “And if I die before I get the chance to ask?” Zack looked at Salas.

  Salas turned to meet Zack's eyes. “Then you die and I go away for another three hundred years.”

  A pit in Zack's stomach tightened. He was no longer nauseous, he felt sick. If it actually came down to it and Zack had to choose, he wasn't sure of his answer. He knew that giving himself to the demon wasn't right, it was evil after all. It wanted to kill everyone, and it could if given the chance. But Salas was not the demon Kyli and Yugo had painted him to be. He was cruel and quite odd, but not completely evil. He wanted to help himself and Zack at the same time. Zack thought there was nothing wrong with that. He couldn't find fault with Salas' logic either. This was something that needed pondering. Zack needed the time he didn't have. Malio was going to kill him in three days. The demon knew it, Marin knew it, Kyli knew it, and Zack feared it. Zack didn't have the strength to fend Malio off, or even attempt to overpower him. The mental training was impressive, but Zack wasn't sparing with a 400 year old vampeal. Malio would be different. Zack would be defenseless against him, he didn't like it, but he needed Salas. Zack needed the demon's strength.

  The sky above Zack flashed, changing color from black to blue, then white. A pulling sensation was tugging at Zack. He was coming to, back to the real world again.

  “It seems they want you back.” Salas remarked. “Maybe more than I do.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Zack yelled out loud at Salas.

  Zack swung at Salas, attempting to grab at him and stay in the dream world to ask more about what was actually going on. Salas faded into thin air as Zack's fingers met his face. It was the same type of illusion as when he was locked behind the closet doors in the dream he had, the same night he met Kyli. Zack thought it was odd, something like that couldn't be a simple coincidence.

  The background faded away as it transitioned into Kyli's apartment. Zack had been taken back to her place. He didn't know how much time had actually passed. Normally, the dream world time passed quickly and the real world stood still as long as it needed to while Zack remained within it. This didn't seem to be the case. Zack
looked around, at the room, at his clothes. He was changed out of the tuxedo and into a black long sleeve shirt with black lounge slacks and white socks. The silver glasses his father, John had given him were on the white coffee table. Hints of his red blood remained on the feathers. Zack sat up and reached for them. He could have sworn he had left them in his room at his dad's, but there they were. Zack held his head with the other hand. He felt groggy, like he had been asleep for longer than a few hours. As his hand met the glasses, his fingers fell through. He tried again, the glasses were there clear as day, but Zack couldn't grasp them. There were some papers sitting under them on the table. Scattered photos and document folders lay tossed in a slight effort to analyze them. Zack leaned forward and shifted his focus to the papers before him. He picked up the photo under the glasses as they disappeared. Like smoke passing through the room, they faded away. The photo was large and distinct. It was a tapestry of a black rose. It looked like a coat of arms of sorts, very elaborate and artistic. The thorns reminded Zack of what Salas had said. It reminded him of the shadowy thorn armor he adorned while fighting Kyli in the dream world. The image was familiar to Zack, but he had never seen anything like it in his life. There was a strong feeling that this was important and that Zack needed to examine the rest of the documents closely.

  A rustling came from Kyli's bedroom. The faint sound of her humming was enough to let Zack know she hadn't noticed he was awake yet. Silently Zack read the first lines of the sachet under the photo. Zack had an idea that Salas was trying to tell him something without knocking him out again.

  The paper read: 'over the last 1200 years there have been many references to the figure described as the Black Rose. He is never mentioned to be one man, but many. Coming to the same groups of people throughout a distinctive time line to accomplish a singular goal. At the time of this writing, we do not know what it is pursuing. We do know that is needs to connect with its host first, since it has tried to do so with each incarnation.'

  “Zack!” Kyli's voice shouted as she walked into the living room naked. Her long wet black hair, thinly covered her breasts and was laying gingerly over her lower body. She was not happy at Zack. “Zack! What the hell are you doing? That's private!”