“The more intense the emotion.” Kyli's eyes flared at the injury she was inflicting on Zack. The pain increased. “The stronger it's received.”
“Yeah, I get that. Now stop already!” Zack pleaded.
“As you have witnessed, one can feel pain here without physical limitation. Your body can be torn in two, your entrails slew across the floor, and your heart impaled. You will not die here. There is no death inside the mind. Only in the body once the mind has given up from the torture within. If you want to die here, your body will allow you to in the real world.” Kyli's grim assessment of the reality in the dream world was sobering.
“So there is no release here?” Zack was getting it now. His grasp over the pain was taking hold of its meaning. Zack was having an epiphany.
“Not unless you will it. That is the only rule here, thought is power and power is will. The one with the greater will of thought is immortal, invincible, in here.” Kyli drug the blade through and away from Zack's shoulder, removing it from him. She swung the sword in a whip like fashion to shed the blood down onto the dirt. Kyli rested the weapon by stabbing it upside down into the ground before her. “You've completed lesson one. Emotion causes pain here. Good. Now for lesson two.” Kyli smiled and took a deep breath. She stared at Zack and remained still in a relaxed pose. Her arms parted slightly away from her body, hands open.
“What? What's lesson two? Am I supposed to meditate?” Zack laughed. The bleeding hole in his shoulder didn't think it was funny. It drew too much attention for Zack to ignore. “By the way, how am I going to take care of this?” Zack pointed to his left shoulder.
Kyli raised her left arm towards Zack. A green cloud enveloped her hand, then the entire arm. It was a flowing fluid, a thick mist of tangible formlessness. Suddenly and without warning the white cloud pushed forward, it pushed hard. The small cloud shoved Zack more than forty feet away, onto his back. His body bore a path that shown in the field as a tilling gone wrong. Blood strewn through bits of dirt and newly created mud was scattered everywhere. The mist had done the damage of a wrecking ball in half the time, with twice the energy.
Zack lay prostrated, breathing shallow at the end of the unearthed soil. Kyli relaxed, the mist disappeared into the palm of her hand. She leisurely walked over to Zack with a glaring smile on her lips. Kyli reached bent over with her arms crossed behind her back. Kyli's eyes were squinting in her devilish smirk. “That was your introduction to lesson two.”
“Killing me?” Zack was screaming at Kyli, half buried under a pile of dirt. “This is what you call teaching?” Zack held his shoulder, trying to ease the pain. “What the hell was that for?”
“Applied dynamic thought formed into a practical manifestation of energy.” Kyli helped Zack up with both hands and dusted the mud off of him.
“English.” Zack stared at Kyli.
“Okay, time to edify. Basically, I blew your ass away with my mind. But it's not all bad. Look.” Kyli pointed to the injury she had caused. The gaping wound was now gone. The fabric was still cut, but there wasn't any sign of other damage. No laceration, no blood.
“Red is offensive energy and green is restorative.” Kyli explained.
“But you used green!” Zack argued.
“Yeah, I know I did. Otherwise I would have killed you.” Kyli laughed.
In the distance, over the beach, the weather changed. The clouds stirred, a surge of rain fell from the sky, raining blood from the black folds above the ocean of red.
“What's that?” Zack asked.
“I don't think he likes me.” Kyli replied.
“Who?” Zack wanted to know.
“Never mind.” Kyli said to herself.
Zack decided to get things back on track. “Are there any other colors I should know about before you use them on me?” Zack rubbed his shoulder.
“White absolves destruction and stimulates creation. Black is the essence of carnage, it destroys. And blue, it's the protective color. You can use it to defend yourself.” Kyli playfully walked a few feet from Zack. She was balancing one of the ridges of dirt that had formed from Zack's wake.
“But how do I use it?” Zack was worried he might be able to figure out this part of Kyli's training.
“Think green.” Kyli suggested.
Zack thought the color green. Nothing happened.
“Okay. Think white.”
Zack did the same with white. Nothing happened.
“Blue?” Kyli was getting worried herself. There was something in the back of her mind that was leading her to believe Zack's color was more sinister.
Nothing happened.
“Okay. Let's stop there.” Kyli wanted to think about what the results meant to her and what it meant for Zack.
“But what about black?” The moment Zack said the color aloud, a thick cloud of black mist solidified around Zack's arms. Unlike what happened with Kyli, this mist wasn't fluid and hard. It formed a type of armor around Zack's hands and forearms with black thorns coming off of the multiple plates. “Kyli, what is this?”
The lightning crashed in the distance. The smell of the blood rain on the beach pervaded the field. It was sweeping inward, coming closer to Zack.
Kyli panicked. She didn't know what to do. The demon was reacting to Zack, even at the distance he was from the shore. It was acting through him, forming a weapon for him to use. Hoping he would use it against her. Kyli had to do something, quick.
Kyli rushed in towards Zack. Without warning she began to passionately kiss Zack. Coming to him in full embrace, expressing as much sexual feeling to him as she could manage.
The storm distilled, almost instantly vanishing back to the shoreline. The back gauntlets of thorny armor that were on Zack's arms disappeared when Kyli's lips touched his. Zack could feel Kyli's chest against his skin, her flesh against his body. Zack relaxed. Kyli kept kissing him. She was beginning to enjoy the act. She sighed, letting Zack exchange the physical passion she was exuding towards him.
Kyli peered over Zack's shoulder. Everything had subsided, the danger was done. It had been for a few moments.
“Kyli.” Zack pulled away to speak.
Kyli was still lightly kissing Zack's neck. “What?”
“Not to argue, but why are you doing this?” Zack was confused.
Kyli stopped kissing Zack's neck. There was a moment of awkward silence as she cleared her throat and stepped back from Zack.
Zack had done something wrong and he knew it. He should have let it happen. Zack had blown it. He decided to get on with the conversation. “You were saying.”
Kyli was breathing heavy. She had been turned on and she knew it. What was once just an act to stop Zack from using the gifts of the demon inside him, had become something else entirely. She just didn't want to accept it. Kyli stared at Zack. Slowly she calmed down enough to talk again as she regained her composure. “A person's nature determines what color they are and what they can use.”
“And which color are you?” Zack asked gingerly.
“Green.” Kyli said lightly. She was still in a haze from what had happened.
“Is that why you have an angel wing on your back?” Zack wondered. “Does it have something to do with the healing energy you use?”
Kyli hesitated. “Yes, something like that.” Kyli snapped out of her daze. “Lets' stick to the lesson. There's so much I have to teach you. So many things you need to know to get through this alive.” Kyli explained.
“How do you know all this? Aren't you only a year or two older than me? Who taught you to do all this? And how long have you been at this? This stuff doesn't seem like a talent that can be perfected over night, and you look very good at this.” Zack wanted answers.
“I'm precocious.” Kyli lightly explained.
“That's not what I'm asking. You look too good at this.” Zack asked again.
“Well thank you. I aim to look good at everything I do.” Kyli bragged.
“That's not what I meant and you know
it. Tell me who you really are and how you can do all of this.” Zack walked to Kyli with purpose. He reached for her arm and pulled her closer to him forcefully. “Are you really here for me?”
Kyli gazed deep into Zack's eyes with a longing, a yearning. It was tempting to answer his question bluntly, directly and without fear of what it might mean to those she had already secretly promised to. “I am here, for you.”
Zack leaned in to embrace Kyli. In a flash, she disappeared.
Kyli was behind Zack, they're backs now touching. She leaned against him. “That will have to be enough for you, for now. To believe me that I want to help you. Trust me, please, and leave it at that.”
Zack settled his thoughts, allowing himself to feel the motion of Kyli's breathing on his back. The slide of her spandex-like half shirt pressed to Zack's skin was overtaking his mind, melting away any questions that were still troubling him. He wanted to accept the fact Kyli wanted to help him, that she was there for him. Zack wanted to accept her as she was. Zack drew a large breath and sighed. Kyli chuckled, breaking the tension between them.
“Is this the part where you tell me it's not air I'm breathing in this place?” Zack smiled softly with his face still turned away from her.
“No, it's not.” Kyli put her weight into Zack's back, letting him support her completely. “It's the part where you say the words I need to hear in order for this to keep on going. The phrase that makes me, that makes us, able to trust each other again. The sentence you need to declare that assures me you'll take me for what I am to you and not what you might find later.”
There was silence. The sky moved, the wind blew, and the wheat shifted as the two stood. Zack knew what he had to say. The words were difficult, it meant that he had to accept something beyond his control. An idea Zack didn't enjoy. It meant that there were things that he was going to find out concerning Kyli, things he wouldn't like. That whatever she was hiding, she was hiding. Kyli wasn't going to tell Zack sooner, but later. There was something dark about her past that Zack actually felt in his chest. He was immersed in it as she laid against him. It was deep in her heart. Zack sensed it was shielded from him.
The demon offered the unspoken assistance to pry deeper, Zack refused it. He did not want to violate the barrier she had placed between them. Even though it meant that he would naturally come to resent it. Zack had to summon a part of him he had never used before. A portion of his personality, his soul, to forgive that which he knew nothing of. To let go of his doubt, to fully trust Kyli based on her actions. Not on what her motivations were or who she might be. To conjure faith itself. Zack searched, and said nothing at first. The words refused to leave his mind and travel to his lips.
“Please.” Kyli was trying to hide it, but the tears ran down her face regardless. “Say them for me. Tell me you'll be there even if you come face to face with my demons?”
The sound of the wet emotions striking the dirt at their feet was enough to pull Zack in, to give him that extra push to believe. Zack knew, right there, what he was going to tell her. “Kyli.” Zack held his breath, swallowed the courage on the tip of his tongue and said what his heart urged him to. “I've come to know you in a very unusual way. You saved me from the monsters I never knew existed. You've nurtured me, you've guided me. You have been there for me when I was lacking. That hasn't changed. Regardless of the words I am straining to hear your heart whisper, I respect your boundaries. I won't ask you. I won't press this any further.”
Kyli's crying had suddenly become less strenuous. She had calmed down. The fear was leaving her. Kyli breathed deep, nearly gasping for air. She was letting go of it inside. There was a smile of relief on her face. Zack was beginning to accept her, the very thing she was yearning for.
“It must have taken years to perfect what you've shown me here. I can accept the fact that you might be a little older than me, even if it is more than two years. Beyond that-” Zack gulped, slowly turned around, and embraced Kyli with both arms. Holding her back close to his chest, he began to speak again. “I trust what I know, and my heart knows you enough to believe in you. To see a connection to be cherished and not to cast it aside. I trust you, Kyli.”
Kyli turned in Zack's arms and looked only slightly up into his eyes. Zack seemed taller, more than the five foot nine inches she came to. “Did you get taller?” Kyli said with a faint voice. There was a weakness in her tone that lacked the emotional understanding to grasp the events Zack had laid in front of her. She was still flustered and it showed in her voice.
Zack chuckled with a glint in his eye and a choked throat. “What if I did? You gonna knock me down again? Cause I think I can take that now.”
Kyli and Zack laughed, enjoying the momentary bliss. A hint of laughter to liven up the seriousness of the conversation they were having.
“I just might, but not now. Now I'd settle for being held, and maybe a little more.” Kyli looked up at Zack again.
“What do you have in mind?” Zack knew exactly what she had in mind. He could hear her heart screaming for him to kiss her with the passion needed for her to truly feel it in her soul.
“This.” Kyli reached up with her lips.
Zack leaned in, letting Kyli gently press against him. He placed his right hand on her face, near Kyli's left ear, with care and purpose. Their eyes kept pace as the active stare communicated the words neither of them wished to say out loud. Zack caressed the back of Kyli's neck, massaging lightly the one place she held all her stress. Kyli melted in Zack's arms. She was no longer the aggressor. Zack was making his presence known to her body. Zack perched his chin to hers, and with great satisfaction planted his lips firmly on hers. The sensation that overwhelmed them was glorious, an explosion of joy and gratification.
Kyli's mental role in their relationship was relaxing. Her dominant nature gave way to the feelings of warmth Zack was instilling in her soul. Zack gently broke their contact. Kyli didn't know how to respond. She had never seen this much initiative from Zack before. Her bewilderment was foreign to her. She had been in control of her world and all of her past relationships. Zack should have been nothing more than another notch in her history of strange acquaintances and torrid affairs, but he wasn't. Zack was changing Kyli's perceptions. Forcing her to believe in his actions as opposed to when they first met. To see the man he was becoming and not the boy she first saw at a club. Zack was maturing and Kyli was liking it. She was becoming proud of him. Kyli was noticing the subtle changes in the way he carried himself. Even Zack's body had developed suddenly with the influx of blood she made him consume. He did seem taller, and not just in the dream world either. Zack was getting taller, manlier, even if it was just enough to show, it did. This excited Kyli. It revived her cold nature towards the line of work she had chosen to do for her father. The line of work she couldn't tell Zack about, the very secret she was keeping. The fact that she did not simply meet him randomly at a Gothic club. Kyli had planned to be in the right place and the right time in order to meet him. She was told Zack was going to be there that night and told to introduce herself to him. It was part of her job to get to know him. It was a secret she was afraid to reveal to him. The possibility of Zack's imminent death couldn't convince her, but his arms certainly had their sway on her. Zack's kind heart was affecting her in ways she hadn't protected herself against. She was confused, for one of the first times in her life. Kyli didn't know what to do. Kyli only knew that she liked it.
“Kyli, what's wrong? You're feeling regret for something.” Zack was spot on.
“You're right, but that doesn't make anything I'm thinking about better.” Kyli had a remorsefully guilty face. Kyli had led many people on in her life. Zack was proving himself in this moment and he didn't know it. He was giving her a reason to trust him, completely. “For not prying, you sure are aware of what I don't want to share. Some might call that cheating.”
“I call it innovation.” Zack was being smart. “A way to get to what I want.”
“Yo
u've changed Zack.” Kyli said softly.
“No I haven't, I'm still me. All of this is me. Remember you're in my world right now.” Zack was playing it off trying to be smooth.
It was working in Kyli's eyes. “No, you are different here. This place has changed you.” Kyli meant the words to be a compliment.
Zack received Kyli's comment as an omen. He knew deep down he was changing. Something inside him wanted to feast on the blood of every creature around him. Unknowingly, Kyli had drawn out a terrifying insecurity in the back of Zack's mind. He took it to heart and expressed only silence for a minute.
Oblivious of Zack's inner torment over the matter, Kyli continued. “I think this demon is trying to appeal to you with more than just power. He might be trying to change you as a peace offering. A token gift to appease and settle your insecurities about accepting him.”
Zack was alarmed. “What!? Like I would accept that!”
Kyli had struck a chord with Zack.
Zack heard a crackle of the storm in the distance and screamed at it. “I don't want what you're offering. Go to hell over there and leave me alone.” Zack's outburst startled Kyli.
Kyli stepped back. “I'm only saying that its gift is sincere. It wants to connect more with you. That's all.”
The storm flashed with lightning.
“No!” Zack realized how loud his voice had become and calmed himself as it echoed back upon them. He turned to Kyli, attempting to explain himself. “No. I don't want to 'connect' with it. It's brought me nothing except death threats, broken bones, and pain. The mere fact it's inside me means I am a potential harbinger of a real world apocalypse. I don't care what it gives me as a peace offering, I don't want to lose myself to it.” Zack paused, trying to catch his breath. “I can hear it you know. Constantly vying for my attention, my favor. Urging me to drink more, to thirst more. Telling me that if I drink the blood, I will feel better.”
“But he's right, Zack. You will feel better. You can't just starve yourself to death. You have to drink blood to stay alive. It's what we are. You can't ignore that easily.” Kyli was making a valid argument.
Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) Page 30