Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) (71 page)

“What? That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't I have to be a vampire to be a demon vampire? Besides, how do you know for sure that he even did something to me in the first place?” Zack was defending himself. He was defending Salas.

“Do you want a mirror?” Kyli asked, her eyebrow raised.

“What has that got to do with anything?” Zack didn't understand, he didn't know he had changed as much as he did.

“Then how about this?” Kyli walked back up to Zack. She took hold of his left hand and placed it on the center of her chest. “Here. Feel the rhythm.”

Zack could feel fast pace of her vampeal heart. The one hundred and thirty beats per minute were almost hypnotic to him. “Yeah, I can feel it. What does that have to do with me?”

Kyli placed Zack's hand onto his own chest, to feel his own heart. “Now listen.”

“I still don't see what this has to do with me. What does feeling the sound of my heart have to do with any-” Zack stopped. A moment had passed, Zack hadn't heard anything. He waited. A second at first, then half a minute. Nothing. No sound, no rhythm, no beat. His heart wasn't pumping blood anymore. “Kyli, what's wrong with me?”

The question was oddly humorous to her. “You decapitated a four hundred year old vampeal with your bare hands in your first month. I'd say there's a lot wrong with you to be able to do that.”

Zack stared at Kyli with a face that was not pleased.

“Are you still you?” Kyli had to look up to see Zack's eyes from where she was. He was taller than her now.

“I don't know. I feel different, I look different. My mind is still here, but it's changed a little. I don't know how to put it. I think he's in my head a little more now.” Zack was worried.

“And he'll be there from now on. You'd better get used to it.” It was Yugo. The voice came from behind Zack's right shoulder.

“You mean he won't ever go away?” Zack turned to face Yugo with the right side of his body.

Kyli's hand was still on Zack's hand over his chest. He pulled her close as a reaction, out of instinct to the unknown.

Kyli whispered in Zack's left ear. “See, you're in there. No one else would have thought about me like you do.” She was being kind, trying to coddle Zack's mind.

“I'm glad you were able to help yourself, Zack. I must admit, this is a little flashy for you though.” Another voice came from behind Yugo. The figure stepped out of the darkness. It was Marin, nearly grinning with excitement after seeing Zack was alive.

“Yes, we all came after Kyli called. She said that there would be a need for help.” David spoke up. Walking into the dim cave light next to Marin.

“All of you came for me? Were you all that worried?” Zack asked.

“Actually no.” Yugo answered Zack's question immediately.

“If any of us were really concerned about your safety, we would have walked down here with you as you met Malio. No, this is about something entirely different.” Marin explained.

“What?” Zack was confused again.

“Them.” An unknown female voice said from across the cave. “We all came here to extract them from this place.” The voice traveled closer. A young woman was walking down the metal steps. “If you haven't figured that out by now, we're going to have a few problems here.” She positioned herself behind David. “You know-” The young woman poked her head out from around David's shoulder. It was Cherry, from the restaurant. She was amused by Zack. “Wow. You have grown, now haven't you?” Cherry scanned Zack before returning to her line of thought. She cleared her throat. “Well, then.”

“She means that we've come to release the four vampires being held captive by what now remains of Malio.” Marin elaborate.

“Yes, now that you've killed him so effectively we can rescue them.” David was being condescending towards Zack. “Thanks to your
gift
, you were able to make it seem easy. You don't even have a scratch on you.”

Zack felt his chest. The damage that Kyli had done to him was healed. He hadn't consumed any blood, but the marks were gone just the same.

Yugo walked over to the first ringed vampire. He wiped the dusty, blood-encased nameplate, exposing the lettering of the copper plaque. It read “Teresa of the Two Vampire Kingdoms.” Yugo stepped over to the next victim. It read “Phillipe of the Third Vampire Kingdom.” The third plaque read “Timothy of the Fourth Vampire Kingdom.” The last one read “Martin of the Five Vampire Kingdoms.”

“Let's just get this over with. Cut them down.” David was getting antsy.

Cherry walked up to David, placing her right hand on his chest. “Relax, do we even know who these vampires were?”

“I don't know.” David turned to Cherry, then to Zack. “But I would bet he does.”

Everyone turned to Zack.

“What? I don't know-” Zack's headache returned.

Zack did know, Salas had made sure of that. He had tricked Zack into wanting the information earnestly. It was his way of indirectly communicating with Yugo. Salas wanted Yugo to know that Martin was the only one worth saving, worth redeeming. Martin had the chance to be an asset in the future.

Zack thought about his choices and what to say. He didn't have much of a way around delivering Salas' direct message. “Martin, the one you want is Martin.” Zack had been used, again.

“And the rest, Zack?” Yugo asked, opening his hand to point to the others down the line.

“They deserved this.” Zack's cold words echoed as he said them. No one was expecting him to reveal such a harsh truth. Zack was correct, but the way he said it was disturbing. He honestly meant it.

Kyli leaned back, away from Zack.

“What's the matter, Kyli? Does Zack looks as well as acting the part, turn you off?” David was being cruel. He knew how much this was troubling her.

“You can be a son of a bitch, can't you David? Just because the kid's shirt's all bloody and he's a bit knocked upside the head, doesn't mean you can treat him like the shit on your shoes!” Grey interrupted as he stumbled into the lower deck of the cavern laboratory. He made his way next to Zack and put his arm around his back and squeezed Zack's left shoulder. “Isn't that right, kid? You're just a little beat up after beating this guy to a pulp.”

Grey's comments were awkward as usual. He did break the tension in the room, making light of the only factors that no one was talking about.

“For now, let's get them out of this place. We'll take care of the details later.” Yugo began to unfasten the clamps on Martin's body.

Marin, Cherry, and Grey moved to do the same with the other three vampires. David wasn't budging. Yugo turned to David, he was displeased.

“No.” David crossed his arms in protest. “If I'm going to be nursing them all back to health. I want more than the contract amount.”

Zack heard a voice in the back of his head. It was Salas. “Offer Malio's estate treasures. Appeal to David's cupidity. The combination is zero, zero, zero, one.”

Zack spoke up, out of turn. “You can have Malio's private treasury.”

David squinted at Zack. He moved too fast to register. He was now in front of Zack. A full three inches shorter than him, looking up. “You may have grown, and that is a novel idea. However, without the code, it isn't going to happen. Even if we break into his vault, the old ones like him never actually hide things in safes. They bury them, usually with a map set up on a grid. The combination would still be needed to find the location. Otherwise it's useless.”

“Buried treasure? Really?” Grey cracked the easy joke.

“Zero, zero, zero, one.” Zack said automatically.

David scoffed. “You would know, wouldn't you?” He sighed. “Well I guess this means I'll have to work for my payout then.” David accepted and joined the others in unshackling the ringed vampires.

Kyli pulled Zack upstairs to the kitchen entrance. She was careful about how she held his hand. She was tugging more on Zack's left wrist than his hand. It was impersonal, she was still disturbed by him. Kyli was afraid.

“Zack. We need to talk.” Kyli sat down in one of the bar stools.

Zack stood silent, partially dazed.

“You've changed, Zack. I want you to know.” Kyli sighed and looked deep into Zack's eyes. “I saw you.”

“You
saw
me, do what?” Zack didn't know what she was talking about.

“I saw you killing Malio. I saw you tear into him, cutting him into pieces. I saw you enjoy it, Zack. What the hell is going on inside you?” Kyli's voice was pressed, on edge.

“It wasn't-” Zack was stopped by Kyli's hand over his mouth.

“-Don't you dare tell me otherwise Zack. You had him impaled. You kept killing him again and again. What kind of sick freak does that to someone? What kind of person enjoys something like that?” Kyli was choked up.

Zack was about to respond. His mouth was closed, his mind was now open to hear more.

“Freak, she called you a freak. Just as I said they would.” Salas was poking at Zack again. Kicking him while he was down.

“How far has he gotten into you Zack? Can he talk to you freely in there?” Kyli tapped on Zack's forehead with her left hand. “Don't you understand that if you lose to him, not only will you die, millions will die. Hundreds of millions of people will know your face as the last thing they see before he takes their lives with your flesh. Is that something you're prepared to live with?”

Zack slid Kyli's right hand off his mouth. “That's the joke isn't it? I can't live with it.” Zack was becoming righteous. “If I let him in and drink all the blood he wants, he'll devour my soul and consume the world. Yeah, I get that. But if I do nothing, really bad people will find me, and use my blood to bring an even greater disaster upon the world.”

“And what exactly is worse than killing a nation's worth of people?” Kyli rebuked.

“Well, you don't have to be a smart ass about it, you know.” Zack returned fire.

“I do if it means the death of so many people.” Kyli was shouting in Zack's face.

“That's what I'm trying to prevent.” Zack raised his voice, standing closer to the stool.

“Funny, I thought I was trying to stop the end of the world by dating you.” Kyli screamed at Zack.

“Do you kids need a room?” Grey yelled from the underground hatch. “We can hear everything, you know.”

“I thought people these days used cars more for that kind of thing.” Cherry added with a calmer tone.

Zack could hear snickering coming from the cavern. Marin was chuckling.

David didn't think it was funny. “Don't go there.”

Zack stared at Kyli, with a blank distraught expression on his face. “What did you say?” He combed over what she had said.

Kyli had let slip her reason for being with Zack. She had alienated him and lost her footing in their relationship with one sentence.

“Is that why you came up to me that night? You knew what I would become. You knew about the demon gift before I did!” Zack was picking up on everything now. Salas was letting more and more of his power seep into Zack. It was a bid to gain more trust, it was working.

Kyli leaned into Zack. “Please, keep your voice down. I can't let Yugo know more than he already does.” Kyli hushed Zack, she escorted him back to the front lobby of the mansion.

Yugo yelled out as Kyli and Zack were leaving the kitchen. “Too late. We'll have to talk about that later though.”

Yugo had heard everything with ease. They all had. The entrance to the cellar laboratory was a funnel for sound.

Kyli ushered Zack to the front of the mansion. She sat him down, choosing to sit on the arm of his chair rather than on his lap directly. Zack noticed the difference. He could feel that she was distancing herself inside.

“Kyli, are you breaking up with me?” Zack came right out with it.

Kyli hesitated. She was thinking about it. She was considering her options.

Zack thought that this was something a person shouldn't have to think about. From his experience, when a girl needed to think about it, it wasn't in order to debate the issue in her mind. It was to come up with a non-disruptive way of delivering the bad news, never the good. He was becoming overwhelmed with the gift Salas had instilled in him. To know how she truly felt towards him was unsettling.

Zack had put it all together. Now he wanted to keep the pressure on Kyli to get more answers. “When did I become your assignment instead of your boyfriend?”

Kyli was hurt by Zack's question. She lashed out with fire. “When did I ever say you were my boyfriend? You were always an assignment, Zack, from the start.”

“And now? What am I to you now? Still a face in a picture that was given to you the day before? Do you still consider me too dangerous to let live?” Zack was picking up more from the back of Kyli's mind than he was realizing.

Frustrated, Kyli bit her lip. This was painful to her too. She was conflicted, not knowing what she actually wanted to do. If she desired Zack for who he was or not. She spoke, a partial decision in her eyes. “Zack, you are always so hard to predict.” Kyli sighed and gritted her teeth. She got up and turned to Zack in an offensive manner. “Yes, you were a job. Another face to track down and kill.”