“Her name is Moira.” Salas said with a longing in his voice.
“Moira, I've heard that name before. Wasn't she one of your hosts?” Zack recalled what he could.
“Just watch.” Salas instructed.
Three men at the end of the street, at a corner, began to scheme. Their thoughts were loud and blatant to the young woman. Zack and Salas could hear them clearly as well. They intended to harm and murder her in the nearest alley. The woman turned, saving herself from their makeshift plan.
The memory changed. Salas stood still, waiting for the memory to form. The woman was sitting now. In a large pub, by herself she was eating and drinking quietly, not disturbing a soul. The room was filled with the townspeople. More than fifty were present.
“What is this? What's going on?” Zack looked around.
“It will explain itself. Listen and watch carefully.” Salas told Zack to shut up politely.
The inner voices of the people around Moira grew loud. She shouted, “Stop it! You're all talking at once! Stop it!” Her outburst silenced the room. “No, please, you're still too loud! Everyone, please!” Moira was talking to herself, practically screaming it.
A shadowy figure appeared over her left shoulder. A cloak of black thorns gave way to a memory of Salas himself. He spoke to Moira. “It's the gift Moira. I've told you that before. The more you use it, the greater it will open their minds to you.” Salas whispered into her other ear with a quick movement. “Especially if you don't want it to. It will force its way into who you are. With each act, it will become intuitive, instinctual for you to use.”
“But I can't help it.” Moira said out loud to Salas.
“Careful, always answer me without words. Otherwise they will become suspicious. You need to drink more, Moira. This is happening because you haven't fed. You are a vampire now Moira. You need to drink blood.” Salas was informing Moira of the destination of her current actions.
Moira concentrated, replying to Salas in her head. “I'm not going to do that, I told you already. If I drink blood, you'll change me, I won't be myself anymore. I don't want that.”
“Than this is the alternative. Madness by population.” Salas laid the grim truth on Moira.
The building around them, the whole of the memory dispersed and reformed once more. Moira was now walking down the same street. The same band of men were waiting at the end of the street, ready to pounce on her. Moira had made it nearly there and was about to turn when she heard their thoughts. They were planning to drag her in from where she was. Moira screamed out, the men were a good distance from her, seemingly doing nothing wrong.
“They're going to mug and kill me! Help! Help!” Moira ran away, back up the street.
The men weren't stupid, they had expected her reaction. They called out “Witch! Witch! She's been seeing the future!” More slanderous comments soon followed.
The memory collapsed, returning to the serene beach in a haze of mist and smoke.
“So that's my fate, eh? To be set on fire by a mob.” Zack joked. He didn't see the point of Salas' fable.
“No, Zack. You won't burn. We will never burn. If that were to happen to you, they would notice how the flames wouldn't touch you. Then they would begin to use more extreme methods of executing you. Things that would work.” Salas told Zack.
“Was Moira actually set on fire that night, Salas?” Zack feared the answer.
“No.” Salas continued. “It was two nights later when the mob tracked her down. She had sought shelter in a supposedly abandoned building when she came across a family.”
“You mean she-” Zack was worried.
“Yes, they tried to run to alert the mob and she accidentally killed them. Not realizing that there was a young baby in the other room.” Salas explained.
Zack's heart sank. He knew where this was going.
“It took twenty seven hours for Moira to give in to her needs. Eventually, she was hungry enough to forgo her morality.” Salas smiled. “When she came out of the building crying over what she had done, she was instantly drug out to the mob. She almost didn't resist. Moira was tied and bound to a large tree trunk shortly after.”
“And that's when they burned her?” Zack asked.
“They didn't get the chance. Orhn saved her life.” Salas sighed. “You do understand, right? The need for blood. The less of it you have, the more this form of the gift will affect you. It will eat you, far sooner than I.”
“Then I'm dead either way?” Zack wanted to give up again. A feeling of hopelessness hit him.
“No, I've told you before. You can live a long life through me.” Salas knew that his temptation would not work on Zack, not now. Not the way he was pursuing it. He clenched his right fist. He had decided that withholding certain events he had been through, wouldn't be the best way to keep both of them alive. “There is another way.”
Zack had his head bowed down, mulling over his options. “What?” He said while holding his own face in his hands.
“It's about what Crescial said. About the letter.” Salas admitted there was far more to it than he wanted to acknowledge. “The other demons all have their own separate agendas, but many years ago, I was approached by one that offered to teach me a new way of existing.”
Zack lit up. “Who? Was it the girl in the letter?”
Salas laughed with hesitation in his voice. He wasn't sure if he should tell Zack. He remembered the feeling of standing in the girl's presence. It was a physical pressure that he was able to feel in his flesh. This women, this awakened demon vampire had reached a level that he desperately wanted. Salas had always yearned for the power she had found and held onto. The memory sent him back to the moment when he first saw her.
Salas had just taken over Love's body. He was with Rebekkah in a nameless village somewhere in eastern Asia. Rebekkah had gone to sleep for the day. Salas was sitting guard near the opening of the small hut they had constructed. The boulder Salas had pulled into place to block the entrance was more than sufficient to protect them from anything that came along.
It meant nothing against her. The stone barrier shifted in front of Salas' eyes. There was no mental chatter to speak of. Whoever it was, they were calm and collected enough not to second guess themselves before attacking him, or so Salas thought. The rock seemed to melt away as Salas watched a young woman walk through the cut opening in the granite. Her medium blond hair was the same hue as Love's. Her thin frame mirrored a likeness to Love's as well. She smiled at the recognition of their similarities. The smile was not reciprocated in Salas, the moment he saw her cold, solid black eyes. Salas knew what she was, awakened.
Salas flinched back.
“Don't worry, Salas. I haven't come to kill you or stop you.” The woman calmly said in a soft, confidant voice. She had come there with a purpose she was about to share. “My name is Sophialla Ashmore. I am an-”
“I know exactly what you are by the shaking of my hands as I unconsciously brace myself against the rocks behind me. You are the very abomination that I have prayed to become for the last four and a half thousand years. You are a fully awakened demon vampire. The epitome of my dreams, incarnate.” Salas' arms were still shaking as he backed into the hut.
“You are completely right, Salas. But you have no real comprehension of the void that divides our current power. Your body understands it because its physical vessel hasn't been altered by you enough. You are not in sync with her. She is only a puppet to you. Love abandoned her flesh to you, nothing more. You are wasting your existence in her.” Sophialla told Salas.
“Then you have come here to end my path?” Salas was ready for whatever Sophialla may do, but his body wasn't. He remained shaking, uncontrollably.
“I said I have no intention of killing you Salas. I've come to tell you there is another way to kill Fear.” Sophialla's words were gold to Salas. She could tell he wanted to hear more. “Taking Love after what Fear did to her was inevitable. I saw that coming, and I'm not even a psy
chic.”
“Are you mocking me now?” Salas didn't enjoy being made fun of.
“No. I'm only telling you I saw it coming.” Sophialla continued. “I have existed as I am now for several hundred years. If I wanted to, I'm telling you that I could have killed all of the elders many years ago.”
“Then why haven't you?” If you're helping me now, why haven't you done this all yourself?” Salas wanted justification to what Sophialla wanted with him. He was trying to pry out her intensions. He heard only silence in her mind.
“I want something else to happen. A result of all the elders dying and all of the demons awakening.” Sophialla had a clear plan.
“And that part you're not going to tell me.” Salas understood Sophialla's intentions now, she wanted to use him. She was going to help him to help herself. “And if I say no?”
“All I have is time, Salas. Far more time than you do by your habits.” Sophialla was calling Salas sloppy and he knew it. “I am offering you a way to merge with your host instead of consuming their soul to fuel your efforts. I am offering you a choice.”
“Like I would ever bend to another will. I don't compromise, Sophialla. I thought that if nothing else you would have picked that much up while you researched me. I will kill Fear in my time, my way. With help from no one else. I don't care what your plan is, it's not for me.” Salas was set in his ways. His own physical fear of Sophialla didn't matter. He had come accustomed to gaining an advantage over his hosts. If he was assisted now, it wouldn't be his revenge against Fear. He would feel cheated. “Are you done here?”
“Yes. I can see I'm only wasting my time on you as you are.” Sophialla turned back. She stepped through the rock again. “In a few hundred years you will be in a different situation. For now, gaze upon my awakened abilities and weep at their effect.” Sophialla walked away.
Salas peered out. Sophialla was gone. The landscape however, showed unnerving signs of her presence. The earth, as far as Salas could see was warped. Dirt, stone, trees, clay, everything had been pushed back to clear a path for her. There were no marks, no impact points to speak of. This was a result of her gift. She had separated the obstacles around her and made her own way to Salas directly.
Salas' hands steadied themselves, Love's body was settling down. Salas would remember Sophialla's offer for the rest of his life.
Within Zack's dream world, Salas recalled the tale. Catching Zack up on part of his past.
“I don't understand, Salas. Why didn't you take her offer?” Zack wanted to know.
“How would you feel if someone else married Kyli and had children with her?” Salas cut immediately to the point by slicing through to Zack's emotions.
Zack felt the pain of imagining the scenario play out in his heart. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Sophialla would be the one taking my dreams from me. Just like you don't want someone else stealing your goals in life. Fear and the other elders are mine. I see Sophialla as a rival, not a solution.” Salas laid it down for Zack.
“Did she ever tell you what merging would mean?” Zack asked Salas.
“No, but I got the idea. You know me enough to realize I don't compromise. It wouldn't work out.” Salas explained himself, he didn't like that idea at all.
“Then what now? How am I supposed to face everything out there?” Zack gestured to the world outside.
“With me of course. But that doesn't matter right now.” Salas smiled.
“Why?” Zack knew something was up.
“She's here and you need to wake up.” Salas clapped his hands together.
* * * *
Zack woke up. He could feel the warmth of a smooth hand on his face. Zack slowly opened his eyes. The blur shifted to a rough image of a girl sitting next to him on his bed. Her light brown hair was long and perfectly straight. Her dark green eyes came into focus as her face did. It was long, ovaled and beautiful. Her skin was an olive, comforting hue. She was tall, sitting with a plain black shirt and a tan long skirt. Zack had no idea who she was.
“Who are you and what are you doing in my room? How did you even get in here? I had the door locked.” Zack looked at his bedroom door. It was still closed.
“I knew you wouldn't recognize me, Zack. As to how I got in, that should be obvious.” The girl's voice was very familiar to Zack.
Zack knew this person. He couldn't place her though. He concentrated, unconsciously holding his breath.
The girl leaned into him. Hugging him tightly. She was hot, physically. Zack still didn't know who she was. She held him, taking her time to feel the pressure of their skin against each other. She whispered softly into his right ear. “Do you know how to live a long happy life?”
Zack shook his head no.
“The trick is to keep breathing.” The mystery girl said quietly as she kissed Zack's ear lobe.
Zack inhaled deeply. A flood of cherries and lavender swept over Zack's senses. He knew instantly who this girl was. “Kyli?”
“Took you long enough. And I thought the black shirt was a dead giveaway.” Kyli popped back up and smirked.
Zack sat up. “What's going on?” Zack ran his fingers through Kyli's hair, over the back of her head.
Kyli seemed to purr. “Mmmmmm, that feels good.”
“Is this a wig?” Zack ruined it.
Kyli swatted Zack's hand down. “No, it's not a wig. It's my own hair.”
“But it's straighter than before, and brown.” Zack was digging his grave.
“This is my natural hair color. I wanted you to see the real me.” Kyli explained.
“And your eyes? Contacts?” Zack threw another shovel load past his shoulder.
“No, the blue eyes weren't contacts. These are my real eyes as well.” Kyli thought about what Zack was going to say next. “And yes, this is my natural skin tone too.”
“Well, what's going on? I can understand hair dye, contacts, and a tan, but why?” Zack wasn't getting it all. He climbed into the grave and sat in it.
Kyli was not happy. She had to start from the beginning. “Zack, listen. I didn't dye my hair, I never have. I've never had to. I don't wear contacts. I've never needed a tan in my life. This is my real skin tone.”
“Then why are you dressed like this?” Zack sat as the dirt around him quickly collapsed and buried him alive in his own words.
Kyli slapped Zack with a swift left back hand to the cheek. Zack went down, planting his face into the bed.
Zack popped back up, confused. “What was that for!?”
Kyli folded her arms. “For someone that can read minds, you can be truly clueless sometimes. Tell me why.”
Zack thought about it. He opened himself up to Kyli.
“This is her gift.” Salas whispered to Zack. “What you are seeing is the real her, unaltered.”
“This is your gift? But I thought you were able to enter the sleeping dreams of others? Something similar to me.” Zack could hear Kyli's mind. “This was your original gift, wasn't it? But how is that possible?”
“This is the gift I received at puberty. For a couple of years I tried to become Marin's apprentice with no result. Finally, my dad intervened.” Kyli sighed, this was upsetting her.
Zack placed his right hand on Kyli's left. He gently squeezed it to remind her he was there for her.
Kyli shed a single tear from her left eye. She wiped it off and continued. “You need to understand, my gift takes three days to work. As an assassin, that's just not practical. What I have is called a minor chameleon ability. It's a type of alteration. It's minor because of the extent I can push it, also due to the time it takes me. My dad could see early on that it would only hurt my chances of Marin accepting me.”
“Marin had to accept you?” Zack wondered why there was an application process.
“Yes, if I wasn't up to his level, it might endanger him. The idea was that if he trained me, I would tag along and participate when I was ready. Kind of like a shadow at a new school, bu
t with killing.” Kyli smiled and another tear fell. “I told you I was good with weapons, remember?”
“Yeah, you did.” Zack wiped the tear away this time.
“My dad decided that the only way I would be safe and useful is if I had a different gift.” Kyli lowered her head. “So he found another vampeal with a useful gift. He traveled to where she was. He was away long enough to witness the solar eclipse there. When he returned, he had a Redgold crystal.”
“That's what Malio did to gain all of those gifts. I thought Redgold was too taboo among vampires for someone to just make it openly.” Zack didn't know why David would do this to his own daughter. To force Kyli to take a gift that wasn't hers.
Kyli raised her head. “It is. Having a piece of Redgold means that someone died. It's worse than fresh blood on your hands. It's illegal in our world. But my father needed me to be viable.”
“So you took it and your other gift was the result.” Zack surmised.
“Yeah. After that, Marin taught me. He didn't seem to want to know why I had another gift. He never shunned me for it, but he never acknowledged the change either. It was unspoken to him. A secret that he simply understood. I still don't know if my father ever paid Marin. Honestly, I've never had the strength to ask him myself.” Kyli sighed again.
“No, I don't think Marin would have ever taken you if he didn't think you were worthy to be what you are. I've seen you Kyli. You are good.” Zack smiled and lifted Kyli's chin up with his left hand.
“Do you want to know what the messed up part is?” Kyli sniffled.
“What?” Zack was too caught up in Kyli's eyes to hear it from her mind.
Kyli dry swallowed, tears were pouring down her face as she spoke. “All I wanted to do was to make my dad proud of me.” Kyli leaned into Zack for a hug. “I wanted him to acknowledge me, who I am, my gifts, my talents.” Kyli burst out crying.
Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) Page 71
