A Vampire's Prisoner (Part 20)

Chapter 20
Kira was gone by the time Kasey woke up.
"She always does this," Daemon explained, shrugging indifferently. "Sometimes she stays for a week, sometimes a few hours." She was like a stray cat, he told her. She came and went according to her mood at the time. But she never, ever, was in the same place twice.
"What's actually going on between them?" Kasey asked. "Kira and Taro, I mean."
Daemon raised an eyebrow. "Honestly? Karma."
Sephan came back later the next night. Just reappeared out of nowhere like he'd been there all along. Kasey nearly dropped her glass of water when she stepped out of the kitchen and saw his ghostly figure standing there in front of her.
"Jesus, Sephan, you scared me," she breathed. "Where've you been?"
Sephan cocked his head to the side, confused.
"Where'd you go?" Kasey repeated. "You know Kira just left. She was looking for you. Hey, you okay?"
Sephan still didn't answer- just stared at Kasey with wide, blue-green eyes. A thin smile flashed across his ethereal face. When he spoke his voice was different- too fast, too sharp. "Kasey."
Kasey's voice took on a genuine tone of worry. "Yeah, hey. You sure you're okay?"
"Luscious."
"...what?"
Suddenly the vampire blinked, and his expression flashed into one of sheer horror. "I'm sorry," he said, "now isn't a good time."
That was the last Kasey saw of him that night.
It was without a doubt- Sephan was acting weirder than usual. But he wasn't the only one. Taro was just as bad, Kasey found out. When she found him he was laying face-up on the front lawn.
"...okay, I'll bite," she began, shutting the front door and strolling over to where he lay. "What are you doing out here?"
"Thinking."
Kasey sat down beside him, pulling her sweatshirt tighter in the chill autumn air. "...'bout what?"
"Stuff."
"Kira?"
Taro sighed, pushing himself up on his elbows to face her. "Do you have any idea how frustrating it is? I mean, I don't even know if she's alive until she shows up at our door. She'll be gone for months at a time-!" He waved his hand in frustration. "It's just...it's nerve-wracking." He sighed.
"...don't tell me," A smile began to twitch onto her lips at the thought. In a sing-song voice she whispered, "Taro has a conscience."
She nearly fell over when the vampire hit her in the shoulder. "Shut up," he grumbled. "It's complicated."
Kasey glared at him. Taro stuck out his tongue. "She means a lot to me," he went on, arms folded behind his head, gazing upward. "I can't explain it."
"Love at first sight?"
"Nah," He shook his head. "I wanted to fuck her at first sight, if that counts. But it was far from love. Jesus Christ, the first night we met I broke her ribs and she fractured my jaw in three places. That girl is vicious. Ever have a stiletto shoved into your temple? Yeah. It hurts."
"And you got together anyway?"
He shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a masochist."
"And thus began the epic crush."
"No." Taro sat up straight, eyes focused. "It's NOT a crush. I love her."
"I don't think what you two have is really considered 'love'."
"You don't understand," he insisted. "I can't even explain it. It's like...I just feel good when I'm with her. No matter how wrong we are for each other...I can't help it. I love seeing her smile. Seeing her happy. It's like, if I only had her, I wouldn't need anything else. It's weird. I don't like it. Honestly, it makes me feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. It sucks. But that's how it is. You don't choose who you fall in love with."
Kasey stared at the same swirling mass of blackish clouds above, turning that over in her mind. Maybe that's why love was so unfair- because it didn't let you pick who you wanted. Maybe that's why no matter how impossible you tell yourself the chance is, you're still drawn to that person anyway. Was it fate? Destiny? Were some people just damned to be a beautiful tragedy?
"We could never be together," Taro said. "We're too much for each other. We're too much alike. Everything about herself that she hates she sees in me, and visa versa. There's no logic to it- no reason. We're fucking horrible for each other. It's more than either her or I can take. But we do it anyway. In small doses. It's more like a cocaine addiction than any kind of love I've ever seen."
Kasey smiled, her thoughts drifting. "But love conquers all, right?"
Taro gave a weak laugh. "Not always. Sometimes it just kills you."
Kasey thought about that for a while, too...and no matter how she reworded and sugar-coated it, she knew he was right. Love can't save you. But it can kill you beautifully.
A few days passed, and things were getting strange.
The first thing Kasey noticed was the fire. It was everywhere on the news. Arson outbreaks all over the city. Front lawns in stucco suburbs. Towering billboards above busy highways. Sapling trees scattered throughout parking lots. Anything that could burn in the city of cement and glass went up in flames. Wooden bus stop benches. Street sign posts. Palm trees lining the streets. Wood. Plastic. Everything that could catch flame.
The city was on fire.
Then the murders began. Mangled bodies torn to pieces. The police could find no pattern to the killings. The victims were unrelated. The best they could come up with was that the murders were at random- part of a bloodthirsty rampage by a deranged psychopath. There was no evidence. No fingerprints. Nothing.
They didn't connect the murders to the sudden outbreak of fires. But Kasey did. She also noticed that during all this bloodbath and chaos, Sephan was nowhere to be found. She had a feeling she knew what was going on...and that she wasn't the only one.
**********
"White cheddar macaroni and cheese. ...That sounds so good right now."
Kasey laid face-down on her bed, stomach grumbling angrily. The last thing she had eaten was half a mandarin two hours ago. She was hungry.
A few days had passed now. Taro still sulked and wandered aimlessly around like a child thats lost his mother. Daemon told her not to pay any attention to him- he always acted weird after Kira left. Sephan came and went now like a ghost- disappearing and reappearing at random times and always without a word of explanation. He seemed almost like a zombie now.
Daemon and her had seen three movies in the last five days- in all of which they sat in the back and made snarky comments while flicking popcorn at people's heads in front of them. Daemon had better aim than she did. Kasey thought back on the memory with a smile.
"You don't choose who you fall in love with."
Don't even start thinking like that. No way. Okay, so maybe she had a crush on the tainted vampire with the rockstar smile and warped sense of humor. So what? It was just a stupid teenage crush.
Just a crush.
Her stomach gurgled, reminding her again of how incredibly hungry she was. Stupid crushes could wait. Right now she needed food. Lots of it. Slipping out the door, she headed down the hall for a quick kitchen break. Her eyes caught on the charcoal-haired vampire at the top of the stairs. She grinned. Taro.
"Hey Taro," she called. "You know if we've got any mac-?" Suddenly she stopped. Taro snapped his head back and stared at her with glassy black eyes. He cocked his head to the side, watching her with a wide, unblinking gaze.
"Taro?" she rasped. "...you okay?"
The vampire's jaw snapped open, bearing two razor-edged fangs, and let out a screeching hiss. Kasey stood, frozen, as his lips pulled back in a ravenous smile.
When vampires lost control, they went into hunting mode, Daemon had once told her. Their body readjusts- their pupils dilate, turning their eyes black, soaking in every movement you make. Their muscles react faster- making their movement sharp and twitchy. Whereas they normally floated across the floor like ghosts, they would begin to move like spiders- too fast, too sharp, smooth but somehow slightly off. There was a reason why movies always portrayed vampires as scary, he had said. Once rationality was removed, they were nothing less than monsters.
Kasey remembered the first time she had seen one of them lose control. The first week she was there Taro had ripped into a girl on the couch downstairs...and when he lifted his head from the bloody mess his eyes had changed.
Kasey was terrified of him then, and the feeling hadn't lessened any now.
It could be brought on by a few things, he had said. Starvation. Intense emotion. Rage. Things like that, if strong enough, could make a vampire snap.
And when they did snap...best run as fast as you can.

"Taro," she tried again, voice shaking. "A-are you okay?"
The vampire took a step forward as she stepped back. She could see his muscles tensing, waiting, watching her, like a cat ready to pounce. "Come on, Taro, this isn't funny. Stop it!" He kept getting closer, though- slowly, carefully...testing her. His gaping black eyes blinked in static flashes. His milky lips slid open, spilling whispered murmurs too fast to understand.
"...Taro?"
He stopped, shoulders low, hollow eyes set on her like a target.
That's when she ran.
Her lungs constricted, leaving her gasping for breath as her legs pumped as hard as they could to get her away from the hungry vampire behind her. She didn't hear him coming, but she knew he was. Fumbling with the doorknob for only a second, she swung it open just enough to squeeze inside. She had barely made it in before a translucent white hand shot through the opening and wrenched her back out, kicking and screaming, into the hallway.
"Taro, it's me!" she screeched, trying to claw her way out of his grasp. "Stop it! Don't you remember me? It's Kasey!"
Taro's fingers dug into her arms as he pulled her in close. He held her so tight she could feel her ribs cracking, her spine bending in. He raked a soft white hand down her cheek, his nails leaving bloody trails in her skin. "Kasey." His voice came out sharp and echoed. Kasey felt her spine crushing in further. If he didn't kill her he was going to paralyze her. Tilting his head curiously, he watched the beads of blood filling up the scratches on her face.
Without warning Kasey felt her neck snapped to the side, pushing down on her shoulder. "Stop!" Her strangled voice barely rose above a whisper. Taro's fingers still tore at her skin, ripping open scratches and gashes on her neck. Her bones cracked in his inhuman grasp. He was going to tear her to pieces.
Then she locked onto a pair of bright, blue-green eyes.
"Sephan!"
He stood frozen at the end of the hall. He watched her, wide eyed and curious, but empty of emotion. "Help me!" Kasey screamed. But Sephan merely observed. Unsympathetic. Unfeeling.
"Sephan! Please!"
Taro's fangs ripped into her shoulder and shredded down to her collarbone.
"SEPHAN!" Kasey's cries became hoarse and frantic. "Help me!"
But she received no response in reply. Sephan stood silently and watched while the vampire sunk his fangs into her bloodied skin and got ready to open up her throat.
Suddenly the pressure collapsing her ribcage was lifted off; the blades digging through her skin pulled quickly out. Kasey took in a gasping breath as Taro was pulled off her. She was met with Daemon's frantic eyes. "Get downstairs," he urged. "Now!" With blood spilling down the front of her shirt, Kasey ran. Cal met her at the stairs and quickly hurried her down before taking off to help Daemon.
Daemon slammed Taro against the wall with a sickening crack. The sound of his skull colliding with plaster made Kasey flinch.
"Cal," he called. "Take care of this. Be right back."
Kasey could swear she saw Cal smile when he dodged a vicious bite from the crazed vampire and slammed his fist into his pretty fanged face. Then again, that didn't surprise her. Meanwhile Daemon rushed her toward the steps, pressing a hand firmly to her shredded shoulder. But before they could get to the staircase Kasey got side-tracked.
Daemon tried to drag her past Sephan, but she stopped. "What happened?" she demanded, voice rising. "Where the hell were you? You just stood there! God damn it, he was going to kill me! What were you doing?"
Sephan's expression suddenly changed. Amused apathy flashed into a dazed state of shock. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I'm so sorry...I...I can't be here right now. It's a bad time for me. Sorry." Eyes full of frantic apology, he was gone as quickly as he had appeared. Daemon tugged Kasey down the stairs, still holding a hand over her bleeding shoulder.
The wounds weren't life threatening, but Daemon still had to use his blood to heal them. The burning sensation of poison entering her blood stream still made Kasey squirm, but it was better than an open gash. Once the bleeding had stopped, Daemon took her into the library and shut the door behind them. "You know you're lucky," he said. "It could have been a lot worse. You still okay?"
She nodded, her fingers tracing lightly over her bandaged shoulder.
"You can't hold it against him," the vampire said softly. "He's not himself."
"I know. I don't blame Taro."
"I was talking about Sephan."
Her brow furrowed. "Oh."
"It's not his fault, really."
"How is it not?" she shot back. "He just stood there watching. Like he was enjoying it."
"He's not himself right now," Daemon said soothingly.
Kasey paused, then asked in a low voice, "What's wrong with him?"
"This happens every now and then. He'll be fine in a while. But for now...just don't hold it against him, okay? It's complicated."
"Is he okay? I mean, like...sanity-wise."
Daemon was silent for a while. "It's complicated," he said finally.
"...how long as he been like this?"
"A long time. It hasn't always been this bad, though. Some days are better than others."
Kasey felt her bandages again. "...am I going to get sick like last time?"
"...would you still love me if I told you yes?"
Kasey groaned.
Pulling himself up, Daemon perched on the edge of the thick wooden tabletop beside her. "I...I'm really glad you're okay. I mean...when I saw Taro, and saw the blood, I thought..." The rest of his sentence died away in an exhale. "But yeah. I'm really sorry about all this." He turned to her, eyes pleading and innocent. "Would it be completely selfish to say that I'm glad you're here?"
That made Kasey smile. "I don't know, I think I'd miss you if I left." She laughed. "But I could definitely go without the bite marks."
Daemon sucked in his bottom lip, fingers drumming anxiously against the polished tabletop. "...Kasey?"
"Yeah?"
He began to say something, but stopped. "...I'm really glad you're okay."
She shrugged. "I've had worse."
"I'd really miss you, you know. If you left. Well, you're going to leave eventually, but...you know what I mean."
Kasey looked up at him- their faces inches apart, eyes unmoving. "Yeah. I do." They moved closer, eyes locked, leaning in. Kasey's heart raced. Her fingers gripped the edge of the table to keep herself balanced. She felt his hand slide across her own- his soft, milky skin sweeping over hers like silk. God, he was perfect. His dark brown hair fell faintly into his hazel eyes; porcelain lips slightly parted- the face of a rockstar. A vampire. She could hear her own heart's wild thumping inside her chest. Her nerves tensed.
He pulled away suddenly, making Kasey nearly fall over onto the floor. "So," He cleared his throat, eyes wild. "Um, I think we can probably go back out now...I'm sure Cal's got everything under control."
Kasey coughed, her cheeks turning a brilliant shade of rosy pink. "Yeah. Sure. So, uh, you wanna...?"
"Yeah. We should, er, probably..."
"Yeah."
They spoke only in awkward murmurs as they quickly left the room.
Cal had locked Taro in the basement. By the amount of blackish blood smeared on his hands, Kasey assumed he'd done a lot more than that to him.
"Don't open that," Cal commanded when Kasey stopped to eye the heavy, barred door. "No matter what he says, don't touch it. Got it?"
"You shut him in the basement?"
"It's for his own good. Also, I hate him. Hopefully he'll fall down the stairs or something."
Kasey rolled her eyes. Figures.
For the rest of the day Kasey stayed clear of the ominous door. She hadn't seen Sephan for hours. She could only assume he had left again. Daemon played videogames with her for a while, but seemed oddly silent. Then again so was Kasey. Neither of them said more than two words to each other the whole uncomfortable time. But every now and then she'd catch him watching her- contemplating something.
Hours passed. She peeked around the corner to check on the door every now and again, just to make sure it was still locked tight. In a weird way she was almost friends with Taro now; but she had no desire to be around him when he lost control. In fact if he somehow got out, she had a kitchen knife ready and waiting beside her. Just in case. They may be somewhat-weird-friends, but she would have no problem stabbing his eye out if he tried to eat her.
Her latest door check, though, was different. This time she heard a voice. A smooth, innocent voice- Taro.
"Kasey? Kasey, you there?"
She stepped lightly across the floor boards and pressed her ear to the door, listening.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I...I can barely even remember what happened. I can't believe I let that happen. I'm so sorry, Kasey. Are you alright?"
"...Taro?"
"Hey, open up the door." His fingers tapped evenly on the other side. "I'm fine now."
Kasey didn't move.
"Come on," he pleaded. She could almost imagine those innocent eyes of his staring back at her. "It's creeping me out in here. Can you unlock the door? God, Cal really hit me hard... I swear he broke something. Aw man, I didn't break anything on you, did I? I can't remember. I'm so sorry, Kasey. Open the door, please?"
Slowly, Kasey reached out for the lock.
A slender white hand wrapped around her wrist before she could unlatch it.
"Ah, ah," Daemon warned. "Never trust a vampire." With that said, he banged his fist against the door. A growling hiss sounded from the other side.
"Let me out or I'll kill you." Taro's voice shifted back to the sticky echo sound. Kasey grimaced.
"We'll tell you anything you want to hear," Daemon told her. "as long as it means getting something for ourselves in the end. We really are despicable creatures." He watched the door, his nose wrinkled in disgust.
"I guess that's twice tonight you've saved me," Kasey murmured. "I owe you."
Daemon grinned. "I'll keep that in mind."
**********
"Daemon?" Sephan sat, legs drawn up protectively, eyes wide and bloodshot, staring intensely at the blank wall. "I think it's happening again."
Sephan had returned right before sunrise. No one knew where he had been. No one asked. Lately he had been doing that a lot. Slipping in and out of sight, disappearing for days at a time...always without a word of explanation. But that wasn't strange- not to Daemon. He knew. He was silent at first. Finally, he murmured, "I know."
"I did something bad."
Daemon sat beside him, but kept his eyes locked on the same blank spot Sephan watched so intensely. "You killed a lot of people," he said softly.
Sephan tensed- his eyes turning a glass black. "They deserved it," he hissed. "They needed to die. I had to. Had to do it. They deserved it." His unblinking eyes grew even wider; his fingers twitched as they picked madly at the cushion. "Not my fault," he seethed through razor-edged teeth. "They deserved it."
Daemon could always tell when this was about to happen. He would get anxious, paranoid; his hands would twitch and his eyes wouldn't close; his smooth sentences would become choppy and incoherent. He knew what was happening. He waited patiently, silent, as Sephan's eyes slowly faded back to a washed-out blue-green. "You just don't understand," Sephan murmured. "That's all. You just can't see it. But it's there. Always there. Just can't see it."
Daemon nodded sympathetically. He was right- he couldn't see. He couldn't see the shadowy things that flickered in and out of focus, clawing and slinking in and out of Sephan's peripheral vision, taunting, watching, threatening to invade if he closed his eyes. Only Sephan saw it. And so he stared straight ahead, unblinking, thinking that if he looked right at them and acknowledged their presence, the blood and teeth and decay would become tangible.
But no matter how hard he tried to make the ghosts go away, there was always a swirling blackness, inky and suffocating, just barely visible out of the corner of his eye.
"I thought about killing Kasey today," he said, eyes blank, voice empty of emotion. "She was talking to me. And I wanted to kill her. Rip into her throat and watch her bleed. I wanted to crush in her skull until her eye bled. Tear her apart. For a split second, I hated her more than anything in the world. I wanted to see her die." He paused, expression still frozen in wide-eyed apathy.
"I think I need to leave now. It would be for the best. I don't want to hurt her, Daemon- but I will. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault," Daemon comforted. "I know that. Look, we can do this- you don't have to leave. I'll help you, yeah? And-"
"I don't think that's a good idea. I can't stay here. Not now. It's for the best."
Daemon's jaw opened and shut soundlessly as he scrambled for something to say. True, he had Kasey to protect...but he needed to protect Sephan as well. He needed to keep him here, keep him from killing, from falling apart. From going insane. He needed to be with him to remind him of reality and tell him the monsters weren't real. Just like he always did when this happened. Just like he had since high-school. It had only gotten worse with the vampirism. Now it was scary. Deadly.
"I'm not crazy." His gaze finally broke and he looked at Daemon with desperate eyes. "You believe me, don't you?"
"Of course."
Sephan smiled a crazed, crooked smile, eyes stretched wide. "Thanks." He rested his head on Daemon's shoulder, once again focused solely on the empty wall. "I'm not crazy," he murmured.
Daemon nodded. "I know."

Never trust a vampire;; love can't save you---<3

That's it for part 20-
I actually got this one out pretty fast. I've been writing like crazy, man. x______x
My motivation is through the roof. Anyway, the interview will be out soon. :] Thanks for all the questions so far. <33
Drop me a comment, yeah?
Love,
Kali
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