Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) (72 page)

Zack's heart dropped.

“At least at first.” Kyli lowered her head and sat back down. This time in Zack's lap. “Things have changed. They've gotten complicated.”

“You were going to kill me? You were hired to kill me?” Zack asked, looking up at Kyli. “You couldn't have just let Marin do it? You were actually going to go through with it?” Zack's face sank.

“No, not after I got to know you.” Kyli leaned into Zack. She put her left arm around the back of his neck.

Zack held Kyli naturally, placing his arms around her waist.

Kyli exhaled. “Not after the other night, especially. I even had a fight with my father over it.”

“Really?” Zack was amazed, his mood brightened.

“Really, he of course wanted you dead, I wasn't willing to execute you. I wanted you to have a fighting chance against Malio. So I contacted Marin and told him what I was planning.” Kyli was laying it out for Zack. She was confessing everything.

“Did Marin honestly want to spare me as well, or was that your idea?” Zack was getting strategic about his questions now.

“No, Marin just happened to have the same line of thought I did. He made up his mind after he met you at the concert. We both truly liked you, Zack. We didn't want you to die, but we couldn't go back on either of our contracts.” Kyli took a deep breath in preparation for what she was about to say next.

Zack beat her to it. “You're an assassin as well. You've been doing this as Marin's apprentice.” Zack was hitting the nail on the head.

Kyli was silent. Feeling completely open and vulnerable.

“You've been doing this for a while too.” Zack searched his mind, as more of Kyli's thoughts came flooding in. “You've been doing this for a long time.” Zack stopped, processing the memories he was seeing. Scenes of Marin training Kyli more than a decade ago forced Zack to a realization.

“Zack, no. Don't say it.” Kyli pleaded. “Don't say it out loud.”

“You're not sixteen.” Zack said the words that damned Kyli. She had lied to him every step of the way. What Salas had told him was right. Zack had no friends. Kyli was a false persona that he had come to like, even love. Zack was alone and now he knew it.

Kyli was unsure of what to say. She had willfully lied to Zack. She had made him believe who she was. Kyli had made love to Zack while leaving her heart at the door of their relationship. The truth was that she was a spy and an assassin working for her father, that she had learned from Marin. She was a facade. Nearly everything she had told Zack was a lie. Only the smallest details of herself were true. Not even the friends Zack had seen at the club were real. She had come into his life with as little information as she could, the rest she forged to please Zack. Kyli was a liar.

“How old? I want to know how old you really are.” Zack asked the one question in the back of his mind. He wanted to know just how far of a gap the chasm before them was.

“Twenty six, almost twenty seven.” Kyli said as her throat sank. Her eyes watered. “Zack, I'm sor-”

Zack got up and didn't listen to the rest. A hatred began to well up inside him. Zack had been betrayed. The distance between them grew as he walked out of the mansion doors.

Kyli didn't follow, thinking she would make the situation worse. She knew that where ever Zack was going, Salas would at least keep him safe now. Kyli understood that even Salas knew that allowing Zack to die after all this would be pointless. Kyli let him go.

Zack walked across the lawn and off Malio's estate. There were no guards to stop him, and no security contingent on killing him if he escaped.

Kyli was distraught, her fallacious actions had taken their toll. She decided to go downstairs to see the progress her father and the rest were making. Kyli had gotten to the entrance when a hand slammed down, grasping the frame.

“At least these corpses are light.” Grey's voice called out.

Yugo popped his head out from the hatchway. “Yes, even a human can carry one thanks to Malio's unique torture methods.”

“Ah, what he did wasn't that bad. I could think of a few other things by the looks of it he never tried.” Grey argued the art of torture with Yugo.

Yugo dismissed Grey's commentary. “Regardless, I worry that most of them are not worth saving after all this time.”

Kyli backed up, letting Yugo climb out. He was holding one of the ringed vampires with a noose tied at the neck.

“How much time were they down there?” Kyli asked Yugo.

“We're not sure how long Malio's been at this estate, doll.” Grey hopped up, chiming in. Grey was holding another ringed vampire on his back in the same fashion Yugo was. He wasn't having any trouble with it at all.

“But it sounded like you knew how long they've been captive?” Kyli asked Grey.

“Ignore everything he says, Kyli. Marin found the dates personally. Grey is just causing trouble.” David came up to the kitchen.

“Then how long?” Kyli asked David.

“Which one?” Cherry asked Kyli as she joined the group. “Malio captured them all at different times during his life.”

“The oldest of course. All I've ever heard about Malio was that he was a talented lunatic when it came to his obsessions and torture. That he was a very sick and gifted individual. Besides that, I have no clue what he was like as a person, or even who these people really are. Now tell me, how long has the oldest one been down there?” Kyli asked Cherry.

Cherry didn't answer. She turned around to help Marin with one of the two ringed vampires he was carrying by himself.

Marin answered Kyli. “Three hundred years. All with extensive forms of daily mutilation by Malio.”

“How did they survive?” Kyli didn't believe it. “If they were like this the whole time, how is that possible?”

“Malio kept them supplied with enough blood to heal the repetitive injuries he inflicted upon them. I found logs of everything he ever did to them. Meticulous notes on how they reacted and how much pain they felt.” Marin paused.

“But I thought Malio didn't have any psychic gifts. How did he know how much pain they were in?” Kyli blurted out, demanding more answers.

“He devised a system where he marked how much they recoiled, moaned, writhed in pain, and for how long. He used the rings as a way to measure the vibration of their reactions on a scale. There are thousands of entries. He recorded everything.” Marin explained. “Malio took great pleasure in remembering the days when they gave up. He drew pictures of their before and after positions of their bodies. He understood the exact minute each of them stopped thinking they would survive. Malio even celebrated the day they stopped screaming by cutting their tongues out and fed them to dogs, which he later ate.”

“Then we really did get rid of a monster, didn't we? To think that we can withstand that much punishment and remain alive. It's heartbreaking.” Kyli said to everyone, bewildered at the thought of her own eventual Rite of Redgold.

“Us, not you. A vampire can survive almost indefinitely. It's humbling to know that our weakest attribute is our mind.” Marin looked at the non-responsive bodies before him. “They are a grim reminder that we can be broken. An obelisk stating that Malio found a way. Thankfully we were able to put a stop to this.”

“But it wasn't us. We used an abomination to kill this monster. Rather, Kyli nurtured him so that it would kill Malio.” Grey put light on the fact that Kyli was trying to get away from the issue at hand.

“It's done. That's all that matters.” Cherry said to Kyli to help ease her mind.

“Actually, it's not.” Grey spoke up again.

“He's right. We were expecting them to kill each other, remember? Now we have something worse to contend with. If we let it continue, he could kill us all.” David brought the doom back to the conversation.

“If, and only if, it gets to that. For now he's not worth killing.” Yugo stepped in. “Besides, getting his blood on our hands was the central fear that made us choose this path to begin with. We all wanted Malio to be the one to kill him, thereby washing our hands of it. We can't get involved too deeply here, remember that.”

“But what of Kyli?” Marin asked the group.

“Kyli, you should forget about him.” David suggested. "Whatever your mendacious actions. He's not worth it now."

“No, she shouldn't.” Yugo argued.

“And why is that exactly?” David argued.

“Do you really want to give Zack a reason to hate people right now? Whatever their relationship is now, why burn him emotionally? Why stoke the fire in his heart that the demon is trying to create? Shouldn't we be helping him confront the demon, instead of leading him right to it? Remember, the longer he lives in this body dormant, the longer it will take before we have to kill him and see him resurrect in someone else. By letting him live in peace for now, we encourage the continuation of our own long uninterrupted lives.” Yugo's point was absolute. No one wanted to die early because of this.

David no longer had a stopping point to argue about. He was going to let Kyli do what she wanted, against his own better judgment.

Yugo smiled. “Kyli, go to him. Patch things up. Live the happy life instead of a cold mission for once. You are being given a choice here. Do what makes you content.”

“In other words, be a good girl and run along, kid.” Grey pushed it. “The grownups have work to do.”

Everyone looked at Grey's crass remark. He was right, but none of them wanted to admit it. The four ringed vampires needed to be brought back to David's club to be tended to. They needed to be revived for answers.

Kyli left, parting with her pride at the door.

In the kitchen, the group continued to discuss the end result of what was to happen next.

“Does Kyli know about Damien?” Marin asked David.

“She said that the demon mentioned him. Though I doubt she knows who he is, or his real part in all this. She's only heard a name so far. That won't pose any danger to her.” David responded.

“And if it does? Are we really going to protect her from Damien? With Malio dead. She is the next logical candidate.” Marin argued with David.

“What choice do we have? She's one of us, remember? Are we supposed to turn our backs on everyone that Damien singles out?” Cherry made a valid point. “If not, where does it end?”

“With all of our heads on a platter.” Grey laughed, his comical cynicism knew no bounds. He truly was ribald.

“Shut up Grey, we don't need to be reminded of that. Damien's theory of creating a force to rival the demon vampires was never apodictic. Kyli is an option. She has to be. Damien could kill us all, no one here can hold a candle to him. Yugo might have a chance, besides that, we're all the walking dead in his eyes, and deserving of it.” David ranted.

“Yes, but then again, he didn't tell Malio everything, now did he?” Yugo spoke up.

“What does that matter?” David was angry.

“If he expected Malio to kill Zack tonight. Wouldn't he have told him what he was really up against? Why keep Malio in the dark about the demon gift's full powers?” Yugo stated.

“How the hell am I supposed to know?” David yelled at Yugo.

“Malio was still in an inchoate stage. Maybe Damien didn't tell him because he didn't know.” Yugo smiled. “There are secrets that the demons whisper. Secrets that are told only to their hosts.” Yugo adjusted Martin's body onto the center of his back. “Damien didn't prepare Malio because he didn't know what Salas could do. That gives us the advantage, not him. Besides his age, Damien has no real gift outside of his focus.” Yugo turned to Marin and tilted his head and smiled. “Sorry, Marin. Present company excluded, our gifts give us the power to oppose him more than he would give us credit. If we can teach Zack-”

David cut Yugo off. “-YOU ARE NOT TEACHING THAT MONSTER!!!” David closed the gap between them. He was forcing his hand around Yugo's neck while screaming in his face.

Everyone froze, not sure what to do. Everyone, except Marin. He had moved slightly quicker than David and arrived in time to have both his hands on either side of David's heart, ready to kill him if he actually harmed Yugo. The situation was tense. Cherry backed off, not wanting to choose sides. Grey took a second to realize exactly what was happening. His eyes were just catching up. Before he knew it, there was a grim scenario unfolding.

Yugo managed to speak even though David's hand was squeezing as hard as he could. “Now, now. I believe ultimately that is my decision, not yours. Having your daughter woo him is the extent of your manipulation. I can offer him control of the demon, not subjugation. Do what you will, David. If both of us die here, Marin will only hunt your daughter down to close up all the remaining loose ends of our past interactions. I know deep down he doesn't want to do that. She's been such a great student all these years.” Yugo stared at David. “Grey will finally run out of ways to avoid death's call. And Cherry will probably take full ownership of all your joint assets annulling all the influence you once had. When all the blood has been spilled and washed away, Marin will tell Zack everything. All about you, about Kyli, about all of us.” Yugo lowered his gaze against David. “I know you don't want that to happen.” Yugo sighed with a sense of sarcasm. “It would also mean that another demon would reincarnate. Do you really want that to happen?” Yugo stared into David's eyes with a taunting expression. “Well, do you?”