Vladimir Masters, Billionaire Vampire Chapter 3
The blue monster gazed at his hands. He marveled at how in control he felt. He couldn't feel Vlad's power that had lasted for an agonizing two decades and some change. After all that time, he could feel his own consciousness take over the body he inhabited. It did not feel like possession where he only felt like a visitor. He felt like he was home. His hands raked through his hair lovingly. He smoothed his hands over his face and body. It was so tangible. He was no longer a spirit floating through one's mind. He let out an unstable breath. The way the air felt on his lips and the way the temperature of the room affected him for once was maddening. It all hit him at once.
Danny watched Luther explore Vlad's body. He felt a cool unease about this whole situation. The man before him had characteristics of Plasmius and Vlad. It was unsettling of how unfamiliar the thing before him interacted with his own body. A man who seemed to have awoken from a coma gaped at his figure and the world around him. Danny feared speaking. Luther was vexed by his own embodiment to pay him any mind. He had let him go in favor of exploring himself and revelling in the control he had over Vlad's body. Danny took the opportunity to inch away. Bit by bit, he moved slowly. He kept his eyes trained on the thing before him. He waited for the lunge, the break of stability of the already unstable moment.
Suddenly, the monster chuckled softly. "I really have done it." He focused his gaze on Danny who was only slightly further away. The fanged grin creeped back onto his face. "Daniel. I finally get the pleasure of meeting you. Not in a spiritual sense but physically." Danny gulped. His palms accumulated sweat from the distress of what his mind conjured. Would the thing eat him? Would it hurt him?
However, the blue thing extended his hand. "I said, 'I won't bite'." He said. Danny eyed the clawed hand. The black nails glistened from the artificial light that came from the florescent bulbs. They appeared sharp but had no real length. Danny let out a breath. He took a leap of faith and closed the small distance between them. He shook the man's hand. The grip was firm and when he let go it was not immediate . It lingered unlike Vlad's. Vlad's handshakes had never lingered. Luther's was a snake that left the feeling of a slither on a person. However, Vlad's was brief and businesslike. A person could tell that Vlad never wasted any time doing what had to be done. If he dallied, it was because he was bored or wanted entertainment. The red eyes piered into Danny's very own. The teen felt as if the older halfa could see right through him. He felt unsettled yet again.
"Where's Vlad?" Danny asked. His voice shook nervously. He could tell that the man before him was not his old friend. It was a presence that Danny had only ever felt when Vlad was immensely angry. However, this spirit was calm for the moment but still disturbed. The man shrugged. He turned away from Danny and moved carefully around the room. Every step felt uneasy. He had floated for so many years. The space before him felt heavy but he could not let Danny know that. He tried to remember how to walk normally. Gravity. It ceased to exist in the other world.
He decided to opt for the bench in the bathroom. "I do not know." Luther mulled over his short answer. "Maybe, he's in the same limbo I've been trapped in for decades." A smirk graced his face. There was a sense of victory that he felt from saying that. Danny's face scrunched in confusion.
"Limbo?" The teen inquired. Luther nodded.
"Limbo. Neither here nor there. Somewhere in between but never stable. Imbalance. A disturbance in equilibrium." Luther tucked a lock of hair behind his ear. He reveled in how grand that felt. Soft, silky and ever so importantly tangible.
Danny weighed his next words carefully. He didn't want to anger the spirit. "So, is he okay?" Luther shrugged again. "What do you mean? He's a part of you right?" He could feel his anger growing. "You're a part of him." Luther grunted.
He glared at Danny. "I never asked for that. I never asked to be a part of the prison that is Vladimir Masters." He stood and felt his legs shake slightly. "I never asked to be a part of that obsessive, pitiful, pathetic excuse for a man." He spat. Danny was taken aback. Luther's hands were clenched in fists. His chest rose and fell. "I walked this earth for a millennia before I had become a victim of angry villagers and the dreadful sun. Then, my soul wandered. I wandered for I do not know how long and then I was taken from the spirit world and trapped within his mind." He pushed past Danny and out of the bathroom. He viewed the lab before him. "I've watched him obsess over all consuming revenge for years." Danny followed him. The older led a path to the ghost portal. "I've watched him get blackout drunk, turn suicidal… Tear himself a part." He finally reached the portal. He placed a hand on the cool metal. "Piece by piece."
Danny was speechless. The silence between them hung wet and cold. Freshly washed laundry hung to dry. Vlad internalized most things Danny had realized. He had always thought that Vlad was just cranky about not being able to get with his mom. However, he had soon realized that Vlad had been troubled for more than half his life. Luther loved how void of heat the metal was against his warm hand. "You saved him." The sentence was foreign to Danny. He had avoided Luther's figure in his vision. It felt awkward to look at someone who was not who they really were. However, the man was back in his line of sight after the claim. "Before you, he was so lonely. His companies, wealth, women, men, ghosts. Nothing gives him joy like you do." Luther shook his head. He could never understand.
"W-why?" Danny stammered. "I always used to annoy him and foil his plans." Luther turned to face Danny. His eyes searched Luther's. "We came to a truce maybe a year ago, but before that, my friends and I gave him hell." Danny's eyebrows were furrowed and still contorted in confusion.
Luther came forward and placed a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Purpose. He had purpose again." Danny looked down. His fists clenched. He couldn't believe how he was so oblivious to that.
Danny clenched the older man's shirt. "Bring him back." Luther shook his head. "Bring him back!" Danny's eyes flashed green. Luther's lips formed into a snarl. He pushed the teen away. Danny glared Luther down. He felt a fight rising.
"I just told you how long I've been trapped!" He roared. "I'm not going back. You cannot and will not make me. If I have to wring the life out of you, I will." It wasn't a threat. It was a lethal promise. The monster turned tense. Danny could feel pure power emit from the man. Vlad's escence was never like that. It was never so concentrated and direct.
The younger halfa backed away. He didn't know what he was faced with but he knew that it would be better to evaluate his opponent's strengths and weaknesses before he dove forward and got himself killed. "This is not over." He promised. He transformed into his other form. Luther grunted and smirked. Danny phased out of the lab and out of the mansion. He flew over it and to the sky. He decided that he was better off going to the ghost zone and researching what had just happened.
However, before he could do that, his ghost signal alerted him to a strong presence. Before he could even react, the wind was knocked out of him. He could feel his body being pulled at an alarming rate back to the ground. He phased through the mansion's roof and the third floor but not long after he felt the brunt of the ground on his back. The air was sucked from his lungs again. He wheezed and tried to breathe again but a heavy bare foot stomped on his chest and caused him to cough violently. He squinted and glared towards his attacker. Luther stood above him with an unamused expression. The demon grabbed Danny by his uniform and lifted him easily into the air. "I did not say that you could leave. Little. Badger." Each word of the pet name was emphasized with two hard smacks which rendered Danny unconscious. He transformed into his human form and was limp in Luther's grasp.
Luther dropped Danny and stared at his listless form. The older mulled over what to do next. When an idea came, he grabbed the teen again and phased them into the lab again. He hauled Danny over his shoulder and to the ghost cellars where Vlad kept his subjects. He tossed Danny in one with the knowledge that it was both ghost and human proof. Danny rolled into the prison and settled to a heap on the concrete ground. Luther shut the door and phased to the living room. He collapsed onto the couch and covered his face with his hands in frustration. He leaned forward and held that position while he thought. After minutes of thinking, he felt an unfamiliar vibration and sound in his belly. His mouth felt dry and like it was filled with cotton. After a moment passed, he remembered the feeling. Hunger.