The Enemies of Vengeance

by P. A Ross

  "I think the drink is affecting you more than you realise. Is the answer not obvious?"

  "No. Your fast metabolism should burn off the alcohol in seconds. Whether it is your enhanced genetics or your magical power, you shouldn't be able to get drunk."

  Rip shook his head and sunk back more red wine. "Genetic abilities are hard to control as they are hardwired. However, as you know, magic can be manipulated and directed."

  I stared at him, the realisation of what he meant hitting home. "So you are choosing to be drunk? You are using your magic to stop yourself from healing."

  Rip sipped down the last of his drink, put the glass on the table and slowly clapped his hands together. He stubbed the cigarette out into the ashtray and then leaned back in his chair. His eyes glazed over red with the black slits in the middle, and he breathed upwards, flames shooting out of his mouth and a haze emanating around his body. He tilted his head back and sat up straight. The red glow of his face from the alcohol had gone, and his skin was a normal pale colour again. I opened up my senses and could feel sharp and concise thoughts, which were quickly blocked.

  "Finally, you have learned your first lesson. I chose to be drunk and I can choose to be sober. I can manipulate the magic to control my abilities. I can therefore blend in and enjoy a lovely bottle of red wine," he said and poured me another glass. "Now it is your turn to get drunk. This is your first training exercise."

  "Get drunk. Are you kidding?"

  "No, you drink. You will learn to control your powers. Stop yourself from healing, and the more you drink, the harder it will become. As you drink, you can answer some questions."

  "As I get drunk, you hope to interrogate me?"

  "Yes, you will loosen up and speak the truth."

  "I will play the game. But you must answer a few questions as well."

  "A question for a question, but only if you manage to get drunk."

  "Deal," I replied and we shook hands across the table.

  I raised my glass in the air and decided to gulp down the first glass. I focused my thoughts on not healing, but it was an alien thought and the alcohol burned off. Rip grabbed another couple of bottles of red wine.

  "Try again," he said. "But drink a little slower, we have all night. You should learn to enjoy your wine as well."

  I took another glass full and swallowed down a few more mouth fulls. This time I tried to enjoy the wine a little more. I was getting used to the taste. Again, I focused my thoughts on the alcohol but it burnt off all too quickly, leaving my head clear.

  Rip grabbed my arm and pushed up my sleeve. He flicked open a claw and slashed open my flesh, leaving a thick line of blood swelling to the surface. I gritted my teeth at the pain.

  "Focus your energy. Stop it from healing."

  The blood was drying up, the Dragan genetics fighting to protect itself. I tried to focus on the blood but to no avail.

  "How?" I snapped back.

  "I hoped it would be instinctive. You turned into a dragon. How? What did you feel at the time?"

  "I was in a rage. I had just found out they had killed my father. Thorn had shot me and I thought she was trying to kill me. I had just spent the last few weeks being mercilessly tortured. I was in a fury of anger and hate. I had never felt so explosive before. As the formula healed me and transformed me, then the rage within triggered the change, lighting up the Dragon genetics hidden within."

  "Your anger and rage fuelled you?"

  "As Thorn had taught me. She told me to use my emotions to drive my actions. To use it to focus my powers. Usually, I had to remember events and relive memories to drive my powers, but on that occasion it was immediate."

  Rip nodded his head. "It seems Thorn understands this power better than I expected. She knows how to use it to accelerate her Dragan powers."

  "So I need to get angry."

  "No. You need to fuel it. Anger is but one emotion, and in certain circumstances, it is a quick and available source. But we can't always rely on being angry."

  "Other emotions, like love?" I said and laughed. It sounded ridiculous considering everything I had been through.

  Rip drunk some wine and then contemplated the glass in his hand. "Why not?"

  "But we are dark creatures powered by dark magic. How can love be something that focuses our energy?"

  "Just because we are created by dark magic doesn't mean that we have to become it. All emotions have power. Love is one of the most dangerous emotions in existence. How many people have died because of love? The need to protect your loved ones. The justification of an act because of love. The jealousy of seeing the one you love with someone else. Crimes of passion resulting in murder. Love is dangerous and even more powerful than hate or fear. People commit atrocious crimes without regret and all in the name of love. The desire for love can result in terrible acts. Due to the lack of love, some people turn to darker thoughts. Love has a dark side beyond compare."

  I couldn't help but agree. We all seek love and peace, and when we don't get them, it can result in hate and anger. Even trying to get love or to protect it, people commit evil acts and justify them. "So I need to feel love to fuel my magic and prevent my genetics from healing."

  "You use whatever is at hand. If you feel nothing, then you are at peace and you are contented. It is but another emotion. What is it you feel now?"

  "Confused by this situation. But also pain from the cut, and background of fear and guilt from my encounter with Giles."

  "Then let's focus on the present. Don't invent your emotions or relive memories as it takes time. We feel something every moment of our lives. Focus on those emotions, don't block them off, let them run wild."

  I did as he said and relaxed, letting all my worries take hold. With them came my love for Thorn and sadness at not being with her.

  "Now imagine your magic as a light within you. Your emotions channels into a ball of light, making it burn brighter, sucking in magic from the outside. Do you see it?" I nodded. "Good. Now think of the outcome. Picture the wound on your arm staying as it is, your magic surrounding it and blocking the body's natural reaction."

  I could see a big ball of purple light, with fiery lines of different colours of my emotions sparking around and enlarging the fuel lines of purple magic streaming in from outside. The ball grew more violent, shaking around, sparks buzzing off it, as more magic channelled in from outside as my emotions of love and sadness opened the gateway. I then pictured my arm and the outcome of the wound staying open, and the purple light surrounding it, flowing from the ball of magic.

  I opened my eyes and looked at my arm, the blood welling back up to the surface and the stinging pain returning.

  "Well done. Now hold it."

  I kept my focus and kept the wound open. Once I had started, it felt easy to maintain it. In my mind's eye, I watched the purple sphere of light being fuelled from outside my body and then streaming off to my arm. My emotions were just the key to unlocking the fuel lines of magic.

  Rip poured me another drink. "Now I want you to drink, and use your newfound power to stop your body from burning off the alcohol. I want you to let it seep into your bloodstream and race around your body and mind. I want you to get drunk."

  I picked up the glass and tipped it into my mouth. At the same time, I watched the wound on my arm and kept the ball of light focusing around the cut, preventing my body's natural reaction to heal it. I let that same feeling spread around the rest of my body, blocking off my body's natural response to burn off the alcohol through its fast metabolism.

  I knew it would take some time or it would take a lot of alcohol to discover one way or the other if it was working. I decided to speed up the process by finishing the glass, pouring myself another and downing it again.

  "Hold on, young man. That is a vintage bottle. I will get you some spirits if you are intent on getting drunk quickly," Rip said and grabbed a bottle of Vodka from the side. He cracked open the sealed and poured it into my drained red wine gla
ss, tinting it pink. I grabbed it and sunk it back in one, swearing as it burnt the back of my mouth. I lost my concentration temporarily and the wound on my arm started to heal, the blood sinking back in. I focused again keeping the magic around the wound and holding back my metabolism.

  "Let's talk for a bit. There are things I want to know," Rip said.

  "Yes, let's talk. A question for a question. I have plenty of things to ask you as well."

  "That seems fair. But I get to go first. So the first question is, who do you love more, Thorn or Scarlett or Carmella or Amber?"

  "That's not fair. Are you trying to get me into trouble?"

  "I just want to understand your emotions. I want to understand the journey you went on so I can help you become a well-rounded warrior. It's important to understand a person's motivations to drive them to excellence."

  "I love Thorn the most. Surely that is obvious."

  "Not obvious. People love each other in different ways. I'm sure you felt something for all of them, and it felt different for every single one of them, but were they all love or were some of them infatuation."

  "Yes, I definitely love Thorn and I definitely loved Scarlett. Amber, I liked a lot and under different circumstances, it could have been something more. Carmella just used and tricked me."

  "You didn't love Carmella or feel something for her."

  "Carmella seduced me, she brainwashed me into wanting her. She played Miss Nice to Patrick's Mr Nasty. Whatever I felt for her, real or not, was purely induced through torture. I did feel a connection as her story seemed so similar to mine. When Thorn killed her, I felt some level of guilt, but that was just my heart talking. In my head, I knew she was twisted and evil. She allowed them to hurt me until I was broken to her will."

  Rip nodded along and sipped his drink. "Yes. But did you love her."

  "I just told you she used me and tricked me."

  "But did you love her?"

  I pictured Carmella, her brown curly hair and big almond eyes. I felt my heart beat a little faster and wound on my arm started to heal. I refocused and blocked off the healing again.

  "Not sure love is the right word. There was something even though I knew it was all a trick, but she didn't feel the same way about me."

  "Are you sure she didn't love you?"

  "I am sure. She wouldn't let them treat me that way if she loved me."

  Rip paused and stubbed out a cigarette. "Are you sure? She did save you. Maybe it was the best she could do under the circumstances. She needed you to give the Hunters something to be able to rescue you."

  "No. It was all a game to her. I thought she liked me because of my Dragan powers to seduce and our common history. But I am convinced it was a trick. The way she treated me at the end made it clear. I was just an asset to be bargained with. She loved Bramel."

  "And if Thorn had never come for you, would you be with Carmella still? Maybe you would have been completely in love with her and her with you. What may have started off as a relationship of convenience could have turned into something real. Two people both snatched from their normal lives and turned into monsters."

  "We are not monsters?"

  "So you don't see the Turned as monsters?"

  "I never said that. But they never asked to be turned. The Dragans did that to them."

  "We did. They did should I say. I have never turned anyone. So you won't fight them?"

  "Yes. I will fight them and kill them. Their thirst for blood drives them to evil acts. But inherently, they are not evil."

  "So how are Dragans different then. We must feed. We spill blood. We created the Turned. Are Dragans evil?" Rip asked.

  I stared at him, and then into the bottom of my Vodka glass and took another mouthful.

  "Survival. The instinct and desire to survive at any cost. This is why the original Mages and Dragons infused themselves with dark magic. It is why some of the Dragans created the Turned to win a civil war," I said.

  "Yes. And let me point out that Humans have committed worst atrocities to each other. It was humans that tortured you. From my point of view, it was humans that drove us to become Dragans in the first place. The Turned are a by-product of that event. So there are no blameless parties in this scenario. Humans have no right to act innocent in these events."

  "But it wasn't all humans, it was some humans."

  "Yes. It was also some Dragans, but not all that created the Turned. But you haven't answered my question. Would you still be with Carmella and be happily in love?"

  "I doubt it. It was clearly just a game to her. My powers of seduction had no effect on her. She only had eyes for Bramel. And Bramel only had eyes for Thorn."

  "But even if she didn't love you, do you think you may have fallen in love with her?"

  I shuffled in my seat and took another sip of vodka. "I don't know for sure. I felt something. But I had been brainwashed. I had started to see through it."

  "How does Carmella's seduction, brainwashing and her relationship with you, appear any different to the one you have with Thorn?"

  I glared at him. "The situations were completely different."

  "Are you sure? Thorn seduced you through the use of her powers. Carmella did the same but in a slightly different way. Your relationship with Thorn was one of convenience but became more. It could have been the same with Carmella. Can you explain to me what is the difference between the two of them?"

  I've never thought of their actions or the circumstances of our relationships as being similar. It was true what he said, both of them had seduced me, neither of them wanted me at the beginning. I will never know if my relationship with Carmella would have turned into something real. But I knew there was a difference. "Thorn never tortured me. I went there of my own free will."

  "Are you sure? She used hypnotic powers on you. She made suggestions about wanting her. How was that any different to what Carmella offered? At least Carmella told you what she wanted. She was more honest and open about it, but Thorn was deceitful."

  "I understand from a point of view it may seem that way. The difference is that I knew Thorn was trying to seduce me. I knew when I went to rescue Thorn, I was doing as she asked, but I didn't care. I wanted her to seduce me. I wanted to be enslaved by her. I never wanted to be seduced by Carmella, but she brainwashed me through pain and pleasure until I had no other choice but to give in out of pure survival."

  "You wanted Thorn to seduce you? You understood what she was trying to do and went anyway?"

  "Yes. I wasn't aware straightaway. But once I had time away from her it became clear. When I returned to release her, I was in Dragan form and her powers had no effect over me. It was my own choice to let her out of that cell. I knew what I was letting myself in for. I suspected she would either kill me or turn me into a vampire. Either way, I was happy to be enslaved by her dark power."

  "That is a big thing to admit. That you wanted to be controlled by her."

  "Lucinda made me see the truth of my dark desire. I had always thought of it in a romantic light of how Thorn and I came together. But the truth is different."

  "And Scarlett?"

  "Scarlett was my first love. If I hadn't been attacked and met Thorn, I would still be with her. But things happened, I had to change, and I shouldn't have involved Scarlett in my new life. She has paid the ultimate price of knowing me, she's dead."

  "So was Scarlett also older than you. Just as was Carmella and Thorn."

  "Don't start on the psychoanalytical rubbish. I got that from the Hunters, the inference I was seeking a mother figure. It is just coincidence they are all older than me."

  "You put your trust in older women. With Thorn, you wished to be seduced by her dark power and maturity. With Scarlett, I understand again she was older than you, more experienced and mature. And with Carmella the same again. You can deny it or accept it. You have missed the mother figure all your life. It would be no surprise that you would seek on an unconscious level someone to fill that gap. It doesn'
t mean that this is how your relationship now works. It just means it could have been part of the attraction to have a more mature woman in your life. That doesn't mean they mother you."

  "I don't go in for all that Freudian nonsense. Maybe I was seduced by Thorn's maturity and experience and power. Our relationship is nothing like that now. Maybe I enjoyed her taking care of me and looking after me in the beginning. I would hate that now. I'm growing stronger every day and one day I will be 100% Dragan. My powers will match that of Thorn's permanently. I have proved through my transformation into a dragon that I could be more powerful than her one day."

  "Interesting. You hope to replace her?"

  "Not replace her. I want to be her equal one day. But most of all I want her respect, which I will only get if I am her match or I am more than her match."

  "Do you think she doesn't respect you now? Do you think it is important that you are as strong as or stronger than her? Remember Thorn has met very few people as powerful as her."

  "Then maybe it is exactly what she wants. For someone else to be able to stand up to her."

  "You think she craves to be put in her place?"

  "No. That isn't what I meant. I suppose just someone to be her physical equal."

  "All relationships have physical inequalities and inequalities in money, intelligence and attractiveness. One person is always stronger than the other in areas. This is a fact of life. A Union is a partnership of common interests and brings qualities to the relationship the other may lack. Maybe you should just accept this part of the relationship. The imbalance in physical strength."

  "I already do accept the differences between us else we wouldn't have lasted together. Doesn't mean I wouldn't like to even things up a little. Anyway, enough of you twisting my words and analysing me. It's time for my questions."

  "Your questions will have to wait until tomorrow. For now, I want you to take that magic you have been using to hold back your metabolism and healing power of your body. Then let it surge into you, burning off the alcohol and healing your wound as quickly as possible. Focus that ball of energy and see how quickly you can heal."