“What's wrong? What does the name Salas mean?” Kyli wanted to know.
“When I was still young, I met someone that changed my life. This person helped me become the merchant I am today through her extensive knowledge of trade and tastes in certain regions of the world. She guided me as I became older. She was the one that suggested I get married and have a child. She was the one that came up with your name.” David's mind was fevered, he was running over all of the early time he had spent with this person.
“My mother didn't name me? Who did?” Kyli sat up on the edge of the couch.
“She once told me of a possession that had taken away her love. Although she would always talk about this person as if they were the actual embodiment of love itself. That this person, for ten years was the soul of her life. That one day her mind was taken by a demon. I thought she was saying it figuratively.” David said, while he was panicking over the implications.
“Who was it?” Kyli asked, jumping up from the couch.
“Cherry. And she said the demon's name was Salas.” David said with a revelation in his eyes.
“I thought Cherry was only as old as you are?” Kyli had been told the story of how Cherry saved her father from a bad deal about to get worse at the time.
“That's exactly what she said.” David spoke with intensity. “She lied. She knew him somehow.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” Kyli was at a loss.
“I'm going to talk with Cherry. You find Zack. Get him to fall in love with you, it will make all of this easier. Then search for a way to kill him without Salas knowing.” David disappeared, without sound or any motion at all.
Kyli knew what she had to do. “I'm just an assassin. I'm just an assassin. This isn't personal. I have a job to do, that's all.” Kyli repeated to herself as she put on a coat. It began to storm outside. “Oh, great. There had to be that too.”
* * * *
Two weeks passed as Zack spent more and more time in his own dreams with Salas. Months went by in Zack's mind. Salas became impatient with Zack, prompting him to begin to face reality once again.
Zack laid on his bed, spread-eagled, supine, slowly waking from his long, vivid dreams. There was a knock on his door. A light, gentle sound that reminded him of someone. Zack coughed, his throat was dry. He hadn't been drinking any blood, not nearly any food either. He had lost a noticeable amount of weight. He looked thin and frail. He appeared weak.
Zack said under his breath. “Come in.” He coughed.
“It's locked.” Kyli's familiar voice called out from behind the doorway.
Zack lifted himself up and out of bed, managing to get to the door and fall over after unlocking it. Zack was drained of energy. He coughed again. “Okay, come in.”
Kyli heard the loud thud to the ground and busted in. The door hit Zack in the left leg. He yelled in pain.
“That's not good Zack.” Kyli knelt beside him, examining his face.
“Wrong body part, Kyli, you hit my leg.” Zack reached for his left leg in pain. He held it despite Kyli still checking out his face.
“Never mind your leg, it's your blood I'm worried about.” Kyli reached into a black messenger bag she had been carrying. She pulled out a bottle of dark red blood.
“But it's my leg that hurts.” Zack complained.
“See, you're delusional. You're thinking like a human. That's why your leg is throbbing right now. You need to drink. Your body is probably eating its own blood supply to stay alive right now.” Kyli lifted Zack's head and popped the top on the bottle.
“But I thought you said a vampeal doesn't have to drink blood to live.” Zack asked as Kyli tipped the bottle back, forcing Zack to drink up.
“Normally, yes. But from what your dad has been telling me. You haven't eaten anything normal either.” Kyli waited for Zack to finish the bottle he was on.
Zack started to feel better. The color was coming back to his face. His teeth were jutting out as he drank. The taste of sweet milk running down his throat was nice. “That's not true. I've eaten.” Zack thought about it. “Just to know, what happens if I didn't?”
“You become weak, begin to die. And Salas takes you over that much quicker.” Kyli popped another top off a second bottle of blood. She could see the wheels turning inside Zack's head. She was getting good at reading his personality. “You can't live with just that, can you? You want to know why, if you are a vampeal, what does your nutrition have to do with the demon? Am I wrong?”
Zack looked into Kyli's eyes. She wasn't wrong. That was exactly what he wanted to know.
“The demon gift makes your heart beat less, but your blood quicker, more efficient.” Kyli went on as Zack finished the second bottle. “In the same way that Salas is able to change your body to suit his needs, your own blood is constantly acting to change you into what it wants.”
Zack put down the second bottle and gestured for another. “What does it want me to be?”
“A fine-tuned killing machine. It will even consume your flesh to further its own progress. That's why you of all people can't starve yourself. You crave more blood and that's what it needs in order to do all this to you.” Kyli said it plainly as Zack continued to chug back the blood.
Zack stopped, spit out what he had in his mouth and set the bottle down. “What? You're saying that even my own blood is out to get me? The less I drink, the more I die, and the more I drink the less of my soul I have? That's some pretty depressing news.”
“I never said I had anything good to tell you. I only wanted to talk and see how you were doing. That's all.” Kyli's simple intentions were easily seen by Salas.
“She's lying, Zack. How can you trust her now?” Salas whispered into the back of Zack's head.
“How can I trust you after what you let happen to me?” Zack stood up, walked to his bed and sat.
Kyli closed the door and sat next to Zack on his bed. Kyli thought about her answer carefully. Knowing that any falsehood was out of the question. The demon was monitoring everything they were saying and thinking. “You can't.”
“What?” Zack held his pessimistic remarks.
“You can't trust me until you really know who I am. I can't tell you anything now, not as I am. I'll be back in three days Zack. Then, please, listen to what I have to say.” Kyli got up and walked away from Zack. “Until then you're going to have to believe that I have something worth hearing.”
Kyli shut the door firmly, locking it into place. She was gone.
Zack didn't know what to think.
The phone rang.
Zack picked it up with hesitation. “Hello?”
“Mr. Giver, its Marin. I need to talk to you.” Marin sounded like he was in a hurry.
“What is this about?” Zack wanted details.
“A certain someone wants to thank you, personally.” Marin was being cryptic. It was unlike him.
“Who?” Zack asked bluntly.
A loud crack sounded on the other end of the phone. The phone had been dropped and hit the floor. There was some arguing. Zack could make out Marin's voice, but not the other two. One male, one female. The conversation was confusing. Marin didn't want to do something for the other two. It sounded like he was sticking up for Zack's end of it all. A moment later the phone was picked back up.
“Sorry about that, Zack.” It was Yugo. “What Marin was trying to say was he is coming over to get you in twenty minutes.
“Why so sudden?” Zack asked Yugo.
“Because there's only one name he said when he woke up and it was yours. Now get dressed, Marin will be there soon. Look for Ellen's limo.” Yugo wanted it to be a surprise. He left Zack with the same little amount of information that he had when Marin was on the phone.
Between Kyli and Marin, Zack didn't know exactly what each were planning. He decided he wanted to find out. This time he would get the answers he needed.
Zack threw on a clean pair of pants. Feeling better from the blood he drank a moment ago, Zack sprang through the
apartment. His dad was in the living room, watching television. He didn't notice Zack's door fling open, or the front door silently become ajar. Zack's speed was impressive, even to himself. He could feel Salas smile in the back of his mind.
Zack reached the lobby. Marin walked through the door as he got there. Zack hadn't taken much time at all to get downstairs. He was shocked to see Marin already there.
“Good to see you again Mr. Giver.” Marin said politely to Zack.
“How did you get here so fast? I just hung up the phone a few minutes ago.” Zack calmly walked up to Marin as he opened the lobby door for him.
“I ran.” Marin answered causally.
“From across town? You ran more than three miles in a suit, in just a few minutes?” Zack was finding it hard to wrap his head around the speed of a true vampire. To run that far, so quickly and to be unseen the whole way. It was still amazing to him.
“Yes.” Marin smiled. “I am very fast.”
They stood by the curb waiting in silence for a moment after Marin's little awkwardness.
Zack felt anxious. “So what's all this about? Who wants to meet me?”
Marin flinched, something that Zack wasn't used to. He resisted spouting out his real thoughts and spoke otherwise. “Yugo has someone he wants you to meet. Or rather someone has requested you personally.”
“Do I know them?” Zack turned to Marin, his eyebrows raised and bright.
The same look of frustration leaped over Marin's face. He wanted to admit to who it was, but continued to hold back out of sheer will power. “You've meet them before, yes.”
Ellen's limo pulled up to the curb, a few inches from Marin's toes. The passenger window rolled down. Ellen smiled at Marin.
“That was a bit close.” Marin said with descent in his eyes.
“I'm testing myself. My reaction speed has been improved so much lately. I wanted to show you the level of control I've reached.” Ellen explained as he unlocked the back limo door through the remote power switch.
Marin opened the door for Zack, staring at Ellen the whole way. Zack ducked inside the limousine. He sat in the same seat he did when he was picked up to see the psychic Bethany, weeks ago. Marin climbed in, sitting opposite Zack.
Marin seemed the same. Though as time went on Zack noticed little details about him that had changed. His skin had more color to it. He was almost radiant. Something had happened to him while Zack was away.
“Did Yugo do something to you?” Zack asked Marin directly.
Ellen overheard and grinned wildly. He said nothing.
“No, it wasn't Yugo.” Marin's face was straight laced. He wasn't talking.
“It's what I asked him to do. What he got volunteered to do.” Ellen remarked to Zack.
“What did he have to do?” Zack asked Ellen.
The limo pulled onto the road as Ellen replied. “He had to share his blood.”
“Don't say it.” Marin scolded Ellen.
“Don't worry, I won't tell him.” Ellen continued. “It's deeply personal to share one's blood. Let's say it frazzled him.”
“But what's the point? What does sharing blood do?” Zack kept up the conversation while Marin sat in utter embarrassment.
“It's a faster way of healing a downed vampire.” Ellen told Zack as he was turning the corner.
“A downed vampire?” Zack didn't know that term.
“A vampire that has been-” Ellen was cut short.
“Those are enough clues Ellen. Stop it and drive.” Marin shut Ellen down.
Zack, Marin, and Ellen didn't speak for the remainder of the trip to Yugo's place. The awkward silence was broken only by a pothole in the road just outside of their destination. The limo bounced down, then up. Zack alone swayed with the motion.
Zack steadied himself. “That was bumpy.”
Ellen and Marin said nothing. Resuming the cold feel to the journey Zack was on. They turned into the driveway. Large trees lined a long paved road. After a few solid minutes, the foliage opened up. There was a vast four story mansion to the left of them. The limo pulled up in front. Two men in suits were stationed at the entrance. They appeared to be vampires by how still they were standing in the light downpour of rain that had come over the area.
Ellen came to a stop and turned off the engine. “We're here.” He said while getting out of the limousine. He walked back to open Zack's door.
Zack and Marin climbed out. The two men said nothing to Marin, but ignored Zack entirely. The one on the right held the door as Marin and Zack came in. Zack looked back to see Ellen waving goodbye in the rain, his long black hair shielding his face from getting wet.
Inside, the mansion was even more luxurious than Malio's. Zack could see bronze statues of fictional vampires from history. Life sized figures made from the drawings of many familiar historical artists. Zack could clearly hear Salas informing him as he viewed each piece. There were even a few pieces that Salas refused to comment on. Zack heard nothing as he examined a scene of four vampires standing next to each other happily. Two women, two men, one of them Yugo, their arms entwined, smiling.
“Don't you have better things to look at? You know you were summoned here against your will right? What do you think Yugo has planned for you?” Salas whispered into Zack's mind.
Zack answered without making a verbal sound. “Someone wants to meet me, that's all. Besides, if I had anything to fear from Yugo, he would have come out with it by now.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Salas argued silently.
“This way Mr. Giver.” Marin gestured with an open hand, palm up to the double doors in front of them. “This is where he is.”
“Who?” Zack thought he was going to meet Yugo first.
“The one who requested you, of course.” Marin was being secretive as well as polite. “Don't worry, Yugo wants to talk to you after.”
Marin looked at Zack, letting him know that it was his door to open. Zack's personal voyage to embark on. He stepped up, gripping the handle with pure nerve. He closed his eyes.
The handle twisted. The door opened from the other side.
“It's nice to actually meet you Zack Michael Giver.” A tall man stood inside the room. His hair a dark brown, mid length a little short just off his shoulders. He had a pleasant expression on his face. He was honestly pleased to see Zack. He was in a dark brown suit with a white tie, white shirt, and brown shoes. His eyes were a brilliant full green, his words had a warmth to them. Soothing and reassuring at the same time. He was nothing like what Zack was expecting. Nothing like what Salas was making him out to be. He was an inviting vampire Zack had never met.
Everything appeared to be expensive on the stranger except for his taste for color. Zack could hear what Kyli would say in the back of his head. A slant on the white on white ensemble.
“Don't believe anything he says Zack. He is not to be trusted.” Salas immediately spoke up.
“There's no need to be afraid. You can tell him that.” The man said in a relaxed voice.
“Tell who?” Zack walked all the way in and replied.
“The demon vampire, Salas. You're his host, I've known that since I first heard your mind.” The unknown man said.
“You know his name?” Zack was intrigued.
“Don't listen to him Zack. He speaks lies. He doesn't know you.” Salas didn't want his voice to be silenced. He didn't want anyone to argue his opinion.
“Yes, I know his name. No, I'm not lying to you or him and he knows it.” The man could see that Zack was confused. “My name is Martin, of the Five Vampire Kingdoms.” Martin saw his reference wasn't ringing any bells in Zack's mind. “I was the fourth vampire.”
“Fourth vampire in what?” Zack asked.
“This is not someone you want to listen to Zack. Leave now.” Salas spoke up again.
“In the row. I was the fourth ringed vampire, Zack. I was the last one that Malio ensnared and captured. I had been there for about a hundred years when you walked in.” Martin'
s words hit Zack, hard.
“I can't read him Zack. You need to understand what that means to us.” Salas told Zack with an urgent tone.
“The reason he can't read me is my gift, Zack.” Martin said calmly, his explanation was poetry to the ear. “I am a psychic vampire that has the same basic gift as Salas himself. With one difference.”
“What?” Zack asked as Salas wanted to know.
“I've had a century to discipline my inner thoughts. Normally Salas should be able to read me. Normally his demon gift would overpower my own.” Martin closed the door behind Zack. “But there's one difference, I control my entire inner monologue. Salas does not since he has to actually talk to you in your mind. His words are an open book to me.”
“Then why doesn't he want us to talk?” Zack asked as he ignored the chatter in the back of his head that Salas was ranting.
“It's because Salas already knows full well who I am from what he's read of Malio's mind.” Martin sat down and gestured for Zack to do the same.
“Then if Salas only knows you from his memories, what reason does he have to hate you?” Zack asked.
“Malio's first hand experiences. Salas is diluted by Malio's point of view. Malio only remembered the bad things that I did to him, as he saw them. It doesn't matter that I ended hunger in all of the five kingdoms under my reign. That I brought about a lasting peace in my region. Malio could only see the negative results.” Martin's words resonated with Zack.
Zack had decided, Martin was telling the truth. “Then if you know all about me, what do you want?”
Martin's face smiled softly. “I thought that would be obvious. I want to thank you.”
“For what? I didn't do anything.” Zack wasn't the one that freed him or even rescued his body. Zack felt he did nothing to deserve Martin's thanks.
“You killed Malio. That very act saved me from his hourly torture.” Martin said with sincerity.
“Hourly?” Zack thought Martin meant to say 'daily.'
“Yes. Malio was particularly happy when he started with Teresa and ended with me. He spent ten minutes on each of us, then began again with every new hour of each day.” Martin recalled.
Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) Page 69