Zack lay in his bed, still and pensive. His eyes partially were open. His head turned to the left, staring off into nothing. He was breathing, barely. His body was enervated. Zack was dreaming. In a world where his current situation wasn't able to touch him.
Far from the edge of the shore, Zack sat down causally in a natural hot spring. His shirt was off, and a pair of red board shorts covered his lower half. Zack smiled, content with his environment. His actions were aloof.
“You know this won't last forever. You will have to face them eventually.” Salas walked up behind Zack. His flowing black coat settled around him. He shook his head slightly. “You don't plan on leaving, do you?”
Zack tipped his head back, his eyes closed to Salas. “I don't want to see them for a while.” He ruminated the night with Kyli. It brought a smile. "Here I can dream about what I want to."
Salas knelt down on his feet. “How many days has it been in the real world Zack?”
“How long has it been in here?” Zack asked Salas.
“Thirty four days.” Salas reminded Zack. “You're losing yourself in this world, Zack.”
“Isn't that the point?” Zack turned his head to Salas. “Aren't you happy that I want to spend more time here?”
“Time, yes. Months, no.” Salas wasn't happy over Zack's complacency. “You've only woken up to eat a few instant meals and piss. Don't you have any motivation? Isn't there something you want to accomplish? You've barely had any blood.”
Zack got up, sitting on the edge of the spring. “Listen. I've just been told that everyone I know has either lied to me, or knew I was going to die, and didn't bother to tell me. And I've been given you of all things.” Zack was getting whinny. “Some gift that was. You want to eat my soul and make everything worse. My girlfriend was spying on me, because of you!” Zack pushed his right index finger against Salas' left shoulder. It pressed in as he flinched slightly. Zack let up and calmed down. “I don't have a friend in the world right now. Why do you think I'm spending so much time in here?”
Salas sighed. “Because I failed you.”
“What?” Zack asked, stunned at Salas' quick change of attitude.
“I failed to share things with you. I've failed you, Zack.” Salas sat down, dipping his legs into the hot spring, boot and all. The water sizzled as his clothing touched it. Salas winced in a hint of pain. Something was happening that was changing him. Whatever it was, it was painful. “Zack, I can't help to think you know nothing about me. That through everything you've heard from Yugo and the others, you have some idea that I am evil.” Salas exhaled deeply. He was relaxing. “I may be a monster, but I still have a heart. I still have emotions, desires, goals.”
“What goals other than world domination do you have Salas? What could you possibly want that you can't take?” Zack asked with a fair share of lip added to it.
“An apology.” Salas said remorsefully.
“You want what?” Zack felt Salas had no right to ask for something like that. “What? From the hundreds of thousands you've bled dry?”
“For what they did to me.” Salas lowered his head. “Did Yugo tell you that the ritual was forced on me?”
“No, he didn't tell me that.” Zack sat solemnly, waiting for what Salas had to say next.
“The night we arrived, hundreds were there.” Salas recalled.
“We? You mean the other psychics that came?” Zack stood up.
“No, I mean my two brothers and I. The only psychic vampires that answered the open call for the elders' ritual.” Salas sighed.
Salas removed his legs from the water, Zack followed. They began to walk through the jungle of thought, to the shore.
“With the numbers the other types had, we thought we would all be chosen. Since our gifts were all unique and useful to them. The abilities to see the immediate future and to decode someone's past. Those were the things of legend in our age. Reading the thoughts of others was considered a simple, common gift for a psychic. You have to understand Zack, I wasn't even special in my time. I had no right to be chosen at all. I came to support my brothers.”
“Then why did they pick you?” Zack inquired.
“I was the last one to die, remember?” Salas reminded Zack. “That was all they needed. A strong psychic.”
The palm trees swayed suddenly. The ground shook under them. There was a disturbance in the waking world.
“What's going on?” Zack asked.
“You've spent too much time here.” Salas looked worried.
“Are you doing this? To try and get me up?” Zack was getting angry at Salas.
Salas stopped walking next to Zack. He reached for his left shoulder. His hand was gently tugging at his shirt to get him to halt. “No, Zack. You've spent too much time sleeping alone in your room. Someone has come to get you. You're going to wake up now.”
The world around Zack was turning to black. Shifting into a dark, formless place.
Zack was scared, he wanted more answers from Salas. “Wait! Will I see you again?”
Salas smiled as the light left him, leaving only his silhouette. “Of course you will, Zack. You are part of me.”
Reality melted to black, stripping all color and form from Zack's dream world. His eyes opened to a realm bright and surreal. He felt the weight of his body on the mattress under him. The texture on his skin was unpleasant. Zack had been woken against his will.
A tall, light brown haired man sat on the side of Zack's bed, shouting at him to get up. “Zack! Zack! Wake up! I need to talk to you. Zack. Zack!” It was John, Zack's father.
Zack rolled over to the left, facing the wall. He reached for a pillow to cover his head and block out the bright light that was hurting his eyes. It wasn't there.
“It's on the ground. It fell off the bed yesterday. You've been asleep for twenty seven hours Zack. What's wrong? Did something happen at that club you went to a few weeks ago? Did something happen between you and Kyli?” John was only being a dad when he asked Zack.
Zack didn't hear the questions. He heard the nagging. The request for the details that he could never actually tell his dad about. Things that if John really knew were going on, he would pack up and move to get them out of the way of the vampire that had kidnapped him a month ago. Zack was in a delicate place. He wanted to say everything, at least part of him did. Each time he considered it, he remembered what Salas said about his father. He wasn't willing to watch his only family look at him as an abomination. Zack didn't know what to do, or say to his father that obviously wanted an answer for what was going on emotionally in Zack's head.
“It's the girl, right? Kyli. She broke up with you, didn't she?” John had made a guess that wasn't not too far from the truth.
Part of it was the girl. Kyli had lied to him, taken information on him, and expected him to die at the hands of a twisted prepubescent psychopath. John was half right, if Zack gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Zack rolled back to face his dad. He opened his eyes. “Yeah, we broke up.” Zack placated his dad.
“So, she did dump you?” John said.
“No, it's more complicated than that.” Zack thought of the correct words that wouldn't freak his father out. “Kyli, lied to me.”
“Was it about how far she'd gone?” John said without hesitation.
“What?” The question was so quick that it didn't register with Zack. It hit a second later. “WHAT!?” Zack jumped up out of his bed. He meant to sit up, that action turned into him nearly flying out of bed and into a stand position. He was still underestimating his own strength. With a moment to collect his thoughts and think of how to explain his superhuman agility, Zack continued. “What the hell are you talking about dad? Are you really asking me this?”
John lowered his eyes, embarrassed for mentioning it. His thoughts stirring.
Zack had picked up on the fact that Diane and John had a fight about the number of men she had been with. It was as if Zack was hearing it directly from his dad's mind in
stead of Salas filtering it. His gift was changing. It was instant, direct, as fast as he could hear it.
“Well, no. I guess not. Sorry Zack, I didn't mean to say that.” John apologized. “So what did she lie about?”
“About who she was. Where she came from. Why she was at the club. Why she came up to me. Just about everything that our relationship was based on.” Zack was being overly dramatic to make up for the more dangerous aspects of the story he couldn't tell his father.
John pondered Zack's predicament for a moment. “Did she lie about her opinions of you? Did she ever laugh at one of your jokes? Or say that she liked something you did that she really didn't?”
Zack considered John's questions, searching for a few answers. “Well, no. As far as I know she didn't lie about any of that. Just about what I said.” Zack left out the facts of Malio planning to kill him and all.
“Then she only lied to you about the things that don't matter in a relationship. The stupid facts that brought you together don't mean anything. All that makes them good is the knowledge that they did bring you two together. The time you spend with her, the way she makes you feel, those are the things you need to reminisce about.” John had said enough to force Zack to reconsider his circumstance with Kyli. “Remember, a good girl is easy to find, bad girls are the same way. An easy girl is good to find, but a great girl is with you at the end of the game day.”
Zack didn't expect such an odd poem to come from his dad. “Where'd you read that?”
“From a calendar at work. It's this month's 'Words of Wisdom.' I thought it might help.” John's choice in comfort phrases weren't the most appropriate, but it had an impact on Zack. John could tell.
“Thanks dad.” Zack smiled and leaned in to hug his father.
John was glad he was able to still counsel his son. Something he thought was impossible at Zack's age. John patted Zack on the back. “By the way.” John looked Zack up and down. “Did you have a growth spurt? You seem taller to me.”
Zack's face flushed a pale, ghostly white. He didn't know what to say. The fact that a demon had slowly changed his body to suit its needs was out of the question. Zack drew a blank.
“Yeah, you did get taller. Hey, maybe you can even try out for some sports next year in high school. I'd love to see you get some trophies on that dresser of yours.” John panned the room. The dresser wasn't even level anymore, it was slouching away from the wall that was propping it up. “Okay, well we can always get you a new one.” John thought about the time when a girl broke his heart in high school. John had punched a tree to cope with the stress. He broke three knuckles in each hand and had to attend the first day of his sophomore year in double casts. “Well, that doesn't matter right now. All that matters is that you're alright now.”
Zack didn't want to say it. He was itching to blurt out the fact a demon was gnawing at the back of his brain. “Dad, I don't-” Zack stopped talking. He wanted to say it. Zack bit his own lip to hold back. A trickle of blood escaped down his chin.
“Zack, you're bleeding.” John quickly got up to get a tissue.
As soon as John left the room Zack closed the door behind him.
John turned around, knocking on the door. “Zack? What's wrong? Was it something I said?”
“No.” Zack said reluctantly. “It was something else.” Something he wanted to say out loud to himself. “I'll take care of this on my own. Don't worry. I just need a little time to clear my head.” Zack was able to hear Salas laughing in the back of his mind. He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Maybe, I am becoming a monster. Maybe I want to tell everyone what I really am inside. Maybe I want to let everyone know what I can do now. Maybe I want someone to recognize me for who I am. To see the monster and not look away when they realize the demon lurks behind my eyes.”
* * * *
The lights were out in Kyli's apartment. There was just enough light to let her flowing purple dress shimmer from the radiant street lamps glowing outside. She walked over to the switch, and turned the room on. Her dark toned dress was long, down to her ankles. It was low cut in the front and back, but a black cat suit underneath covered the rest of her body. The outfit was very flamboyant for her. On the edge of her own eccentric tastes. It fit her extremely well. Tight where it needed to be and loose near the rest. She smiled as she picked up Crystal's picture. He was the dress-maker from the dinner party Zack went to a few weeks ago. She set the picture down.
The door bell rang.
“Coming.” Kyli pressed a switch under the table she was standing next to. The front door, only a few feet from her, clicked open.
David Waterfield was there, Kyli's father. “Have you spoken to him since he ran out that night?”
Kyli sneered at David. “What do you think?” Kyli moved to the couch and sat down in protest. He was there to scold her and she knew it.
“You know you're not doing your job by sitting here alone. We are in an austere position here. You need to be over there, right now. He could-” David was cut off by Kyli.
“Could what? Accept the demon's invitation!?” Kyli wasn't happy thinking about the possibilities. “I know what would happen the more he talks with the demon. I also know what he's capable of.”
“Malio was a fluke. He would never be able to get close enough to kill you.” David was trying to reassure Kyli.
“No, dad. You didn't see what I did.” Kyli recalled the dream in which she witnessed Malio being desecrated by Zack. “The terror he instilled in that hardened and sick vampeal was unnerving. He was a god there. All he has to do is bite someone and they are forced into his dream world. Once there, it's over. The horror is that I can enter anytime he's asleep. Which means that if the demon considers me a threat, it will kill me. I can't defend against what he is. No amount of training could.”
“Are you saying you're not going to finish the job?” David appeared to be unhappy with Kyli's attitude.
Kyli considered her options before she answered. “I'm not saying that father.”
“But you're not saying yes either.” David was pressing the question.
Kyli thought about it. “To be honest, I'm afraid. If he gives in, if the demon continues to feed him info-”
“He is a job, Kyli. Nothing more, nothing less. All jobs have a degree of risk, a chance of death. He is just another job. Assuage him. When you are completely sure he's let his guard down, kill him and that will be the end of it.” David was being harsh with Kyli. “Do you remember that you chose to become an assassin under Marin? That Yugo wasn't going to accept you as you were? That I had to hand pick your current gift?”
Kyli didn't want to admit it. Her father was right. She was the one that wanted to right the injustices in the world. To save people from the evil that men were going to do instead of what they had already done. She enjoyed the idea of being able to defend herself with any weapon, with her bare hands. Even attack people and gain intelligence through their dreams. She had wished all this in her own head. David merely provided her with the means to get there.
“Is it wrong that I like him?” Kyli asked David.
“Did you sleep with him?” David got right to the point.
Kyli didn't answer.
“Then you already know.” David stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “He is a demon host. Within him resides a beast that could burn this world a thousand times over. A mind that can kill with a thought, within a moment. You saw it for yourself. God only knows what actually happens to the victims in the real world. For all we know the demon might take over his body and inflict that actual damage.” David reached into his jacket, he pulled out a file folder with several pictures in it. He tossed it on the coffee table near Kyli's feet. The photos spilled out and spread across the table. They were close up shots of Malio's body. “As far as we can tell, that's what he did to Malio. The demon is somehow able to control the physical form as he maintains a presence in the dream world. While the host and the subject are engaged mentally, the demo
n is able to command the situation through the host. Meaning that the next time Zack enters your mind, he could kill you, me, Marin, and everyone else directly related to this. You have to understand Kyli, his death equals our safety.”
Kyli zoned out. She knew she needed to kill Zack. “What if I can't do it?”
“If you won't do it. I know for a fact that Marin won't either. His contract was to deliver Zack to Malio and kill him if he resisted. He won't accept another contract on him after that. He is motivated, but he wouldn't risk his own life to feed random orphans. He's a recluse, not stupid. Yugo actually wants to teach him. Cherry doesn't give a damn either way. If everything goes to shit I know I'm not going to attack him. That leaves no one.” David was thinking, counting to see if they had a chance if they didn't execute him soon.
Kyli had an idea. “What about Grey?”
“What about him. He's human, Kyli. His aleatory nature may be assisted by years of proven skill. He may be ultimately trenchant in his methods, but he'd never have the opening to kill Zack. You've seen how he works. Always in the shadows, or in plain sight, undetected. He'd never reveal one of his covers for an assassination. That's not the kind of man he is. This is the demon's game if he chooses to take it.” David was making plans for the worst.
“Salas.” Kyli corrected David.
“Who?” David hadn't heard the name before.
“The name of the demon is Salas.” Kyli said casually.
David froze. “That can't be right. Is that the name you heard? Are you sure?”
“Yes, Zack referred to him as Salas. I'm sure.” Kyli was positive. “What does his name have to do with anything?”
David began to act. He was recalling some distant memory, a conversation he had with someone. He didn't respond.
Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) Page 68
