Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) (91 page)

He didn't understand what had been done to him. His unease lead to a voice whispering in his ears. It said in a dark, ominous tone. “Yugo.”

“Yugo, my name is Yugo Demetrius.” His voice crackled as he spoke. Flashes of Damien entered his mind. Scenes of a battle played in his head. One name came to him. “Salas.” He remembered what happened. What Salas did to him. That he had died and was buried. “Then how am I-”

“Alive?” The still faint voice whispered to Yugo, cutting his thought short.

“Who is that? Where are you? I died, what did you do to me?” Yugo searched around him for answers that weren't there.

“I resurrected you from what little was left. You and I made a deal on your dead body. In that moment you became mine. You want to know what I did to you? Where I am? Who I am?” The voice paused. The silence overwhelmed Yugo's mind. “I am a demon that lives inside you. I have given you life in exchange for consuming the majority of your soul.”

The news hit Yugo hard. He was indebted to this voice, this demon for his life. “You mean you're one of the demon vampires that was made immortal six thousand years ago? You're one of the demon gifts that nearly killed my only friend? You're the source of my alteration ability?”

It said with a rasp in its voice. “Yes, I proudly am.”

Yugo put his left hand to his chest. “Then I have nothing, living for you-” Yugo's hand clenched, freezing before he could tear into his own heart.

“You don't get to make that choice.” The demon had stopped him. “You will live.”

“For what then? What motivations could you possibly give me?” Yugo wanted a validation for the shell of a life that he was cheated into.

“Salas was able to completely over power both you and Damien with ease. After only ten years of blood. Think of what you could do with my abilities? A lifetime of use.” The demon was tempting Yugo. “Think of the lives you could save. The destiny you could write for yourself in the history of this world. Think of Damien. Remember his goals, his plans, his ideals. You still want to make him happy don't you?”

“I'm now a host. I should have the strength to end my own life knowing what I've learned about you.” Yugo was reasserting himself.

“But you don't want to do that, do you?” The demon was reasoning with Yugo. It was slowly winning. “With the power I offer, with the gifts I wield, I will build your dreams. I will construct your desires into reality around you. I offer a choice. Live with me, or die without me.”

Yugo's very breath was shuttered by the question, the decision. Every possible outcome ran through his mind at once. He could do no wrong in death. He could also do great right in life. Yugo had his answer.

“I'm glad you've chosen. Now I shall take the memories you no longer need. The thoughts that will only cloud your future resolve.” The demon voice spoke with an absolution to him. He had expected this result.

The demon blackened Yugo's mind. Erasing Salas, Damien, Fear, Rebekkah, and Love from his experiences. Only the drive remained. The push to save those around him by harnessing the other demon gifts and their hosts. The desire to train and hone them into a force that would one day serve a higher purpose. An agenda to correct the mistakes of the past.

Yugo began to walk with lassitude. The demon was feeding the information on where to go and what to avoid. With the sun beating down above him, Yugo smiled in the warmth of the otherwise cold day. He continued forth, untouched by the once deadly light, he was free as his body was forever enslaved.

Fear and Acceptance

Light blue walls surrounded a room in disarray. The shelves had been ripped down, paint chips had flaked off in small piles on the ground. A once neat and tidy black desk was littered with hand drawn images of a red ocean with a face in it. A small, insignificant figure stood on the shore line, afraid of being eaten. The television had layers of dust on it, showing weeks of neglect. The brown dresser in the corner had been broken. Its four drawers snapped in the middle, slumping downward. Clothes had been strung all over the room, a dark gray shirt hung from the door handle as it cemented the appearance of the room. The whole room had been trashed.

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 instead 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.”