Chapter 2 - Revenge is cold, blood is hot

It was as if he floated up from dark and cool water to the lighter and warmer areas of the surface. The dark below him had been calm and soothing, but he knew he didn't belong there so he crawled for the light to break through the surface of his sweet unconsciousness.

He opened his eyes slowly to face the soft and gentle light of the setting sun through heavy yellow curtains. He clung at those precious moments where complete blankness reigned his mind, when he didn't have to deal with the actions of last night. And with a pang it was all back. He rush up to a sitting position, hand desperately clasped at the sides of his head as if he could stop the memories to bloom into his thoughts. His breath went short and fast and his heart raced. The blood that wetted her hair, all the blood. And she was- It took him some minutes to calm himself down to the point where he could explore his environment. He lay in a bed, fully clothed with an equal fully clothed person next to him, fast asleep in the dim half light. With a sudden action of instinct he pulled out the rusty knife he normally kept hidden in his worn down boot. It was more a sharper piece of iron than an actual knife, but nonetheless it sank deep into the shirt covered breast of the sleeping man. And again, and again, and again. As he was sure that the man had stopped breathing he rolled hastily down fro the big bed, his scrawny and trembling feet wouldn't hold his body, so he crawled more than actually walked to the wooden door.

Locked.

A slight panic rose in his guts as he again and again tried to to open the door, jolting the doorknob desperately.

"Geez, all the holes. You know? That shirt's rather expensive."

He froze. His entire body froze like his brain, which was just able to fire that thought 'That can not be real!'

"Aw and it bled too!"

The young boy spun around, back firmly pressed against the door, eyes wide in shock. There stood the figure of the man he just thought he had killed high against the dim twilight of the yellow curtains.

"You're no human," escaped his breath, as if his thought just left his mind through his lips. The man halted in his doings of examine his ruined shirt and looked up.

"No, I'm not. But I never said so, though. Anyway you never gave me the chance of introducing myself. You were too busy stabbing me. But that place there where you're sitting seems a little uncomfy, so why don't you come up and take a seat here with me at the table?" He flashed the shivering boy a warm and brilliant smile.

"You're like the monster who killed my mother...!" The smile broke down like a mirror hit by a brick.

"I see, for you it has to seem more comfy down there..." he muttered to himself. "To be more accurate, dear boy, I was the monster that killed your mother three years ago. I recognise your eyes." Said eyes grew even more and he started to scream.

The man flinched at the sound and put one finger in his left ear. With a sigh he moved fast to the boy and grabbed him on the shoulders to place him on one of the stools that surrounded the small table. The took the opposite seat.

"There. Will you please stop screaming? It really hurts my ears," he told the boy with a hurt look.

The boy, who had been silenced by the sudden action from the man, stared with wide and hard eyes into the nothingness. In all their beauty they seemed like drops of frozen glass, lifeless and empty.

The man sighed again and massaged his forehead with three fingers. "Well, first of all, my name's Demyx. Demyx Coerdu la Quaorix. And you are?"

"...Zexion."

"Zexion, your mother's been deathly ill, you know? She had been infected with syphilis and there wasn't left even one week fro her. In great pain... but I have to admit that I had not known that she had children..." His tone was soothing and full of earnest remorse.

"What is it exactly that you call yourself?" Came the sudden question. Zexion's eyes were still focused on the table. Demyx was a little startled by the sudden change of character from the boy, but after all he was now behind the shock and had time to observe the situation.

"I claim to call myself a Vampyr, but your English language describes my kind as vampires."

"So you drank my mother's blood and killed her that way to survive on your own?" Well, that boy sure was able to analyse the things, so Demyx just nodded.

"... I knew she was ill. She never told us, but we knew... You stole me my last week with my mother!" He fixed the vampire in a cold glare, which made him flinch. Demyx didn't know how to reply to this. It was true that he had once killed that women in order for his own life to continue. He normally tried to feed on people who's lifetime had come to an end. The body from the purple haired woman had been so full of illness it's been a wonder that she still had been able to stand. Yet he never drank from women with children, he didn't want to load the fate of orphans on his shoulder as well.

"Then make it fast please!" The statement pulled him out of his thinking.

"Er, what?"

"You obviously came for my blood, so make it fast please. I don't think of leaving that world in too much pain."

"What makes you thinking I want to kill you?" He asked in a serious tone.

"You are a vampire, aren't you? You drink blood to survive. And since I don't have anything left in this world, I'd rather like to leave it." His voice had trembled at the memory about his dead mother and sister, but his last statement had been firm and strong. Demyx couldn't help, he burst out in laughing.

The child threw him a look which was a mixture of shock, anger and hatred.

"Aaaaah, sorry kid! It's just that I never expected that reaction of yours!" He had to laugh even harder at this.

"Ok, cards on the table... aw don't give me that look! I'm sorry I laughed, ok?" He cleared his throat. "Ok... it is indeed true that I'm in need of your blood, but I also need a human servant-"

"So you took me yesterday night from those men?" He cut the vampire again in mid sentence.

"Why, uh, yes? Why?"

"I suppose I have to thank you here for that." Again Demyx was just startled by Zexion. Then a dark frown wandered over his features.

"There is no need to thank me. I saved you out of my own purpose, for my own goals. There was no generous or noble meaning behind. I need another human servant and I need your blood. I fear this is the only reason I saved you." Silence reigned the little room. The dim yellow light changed into a darker orange one. Perhaps it had been one of the few clear and bright days in London and he had overslept the whole day?

"Like I said. Make it fast," Zexion again broke the tension.

"I don't want to kill you."

"Then why-"

"I'm in need of something in your blood... and I need it on a more... regular basis..." Zexion fell silent on this.

A vampire. He was mildly surprised that he wasn't shocked at the proclamation of that man... Demyx he called himself. But he'd seen way too much bad things in this world to not to deny the existence of devils and going along with that – vampires as well. Since he could remember there'd been just him, his sister and his mother. And the great bale that surrounded them. First his mother'd been taken away. And now, yesterday night in front of his very eyes, his sister too. If he was a vampire, why hadn't he saved his sister as well? Something in his blood he had said. What was he? A tree from which you can suck sweet juice as long as you feel to?

"So you want to be the tick that sucks on me constantly?" Demyx shifted uncomfortable and scratched the back of his head. But Zexion gave him no time to answer. "If I do as you like, what's in it for me?"

Demyx really didn't knew how to deal with the child. His frame was so childish and fragile, the cheeks still showing the last traces of baby fat, but his will and his mind were those of an adult. Of an rather cold-hearted adult to say. He hadn't expected the boy to react like this. He had prepared himself for screaming, for tears, but not for this.

"How old are you Zexion?" Demyx asked with a gentle voice from which he knew it sounded old and mature in human ears.

Zexion looked up briefly and met the vampires eyes for a second. "I'm no child, if you think that," he was close to hissing his answer, "I'm 15 years old."

Demyx made a humming noise in the back of his throat and looked at a point in the corner of the room while he absently stroke his flawless chin. "But still very young," he commented absently. It was now that he started to listen on his surroundings again. Of course it was stupid for a vampire to neglect his hearing, the amount of hunters was huge these days. He listened closely to the rhythm of the beating heart of Zexion. It raced like a chicken, which was about to run away from a butcher. Somewhat his eyebrows managed to rise any further. There was no visible sign of the tension that ruled the child. He'd seen brave men giving in to him.

"You know what I am, do you?"

"You're the death that took my mother and the silent witness to the murder of my sister. I indeed know who you are. You're a monster who kills human." Again a heavy silent settled itself over the two as Demyx listened to the heartbeat, which had increased even more with the short speech. Really a human. So unpredictable.

"If you agree to serve me I will, of course, pay you. On a weekly basis. You will live in my house along with the other humans that are in my service. I thought about a bi-weekly meeting between you and me. That contract'll stay until your 18th birthday. You may add some other demands if you like." His tone was casual know, so unlike his previous cheery voice. He clearly saw that a heavy river of thoughts crossed Zexion's mind.

"You said this is an offer. A legal contract."

"I will try not to coerce you into something. But I can't promise something, either."

Demyx thought about the sweet salvation from his agony by the sheer smell of the boys blood. Zexion opened his mouth but closed it again, rethinking his sentence again. As he finally started speaking his voice was monotone and even Demyx couldn't see what emotions hid under the surface.

"If I become your servant, you will pay me for my work. Whatever that will be." Know he looked the vampire straight in the eyes. "But my blood has a higher price." Demyx nodded at this. "I have two, no three requests. First you have to teach me how to read and write." The blond haired man quirked one single brow. He never expected the boy, as eloquent and silver-tongued as he was, to be an an alphabet. But after all these times were still dark times.

"I will make sure that you get a good education. In every subject you like to choose."

"Second," he continued as if he hadn't heard the words of the other. But now his voice started to tremble, though his face stayed stoic Demyx could see the great pain behind those purple eyes. "...m-my sister... I want her to be... b-burried properly. I don't know what they've done with her... body... I know of course the stories...-" Demyx cut the boy short with a simple "Okay" to prevent him from hurting himself any more. Zexion took some deep breath to calm himself.

"And your third request?" The vampire asked about some time.

Again Zexion looked him straight in the eyes. Little tears glittered in them and a wet streak was visible on his pale skin. But Demyx felt as if massive stone stared down on him.

"You are a monster. And if I give you my blood I won't be much better. A monster kills people and I order you to kill those men. In exchange for three years of my live."

Demyx stared back, his eyes equal as stone like the boys. They looked at each other for a long time. It was as if they searched each others souls for something, just something.

"Your requests are accepted," his silent whisper filled the room. Zexion's eyes widened as the words reached his ears, his soul. It was an eerie voice, an inhuman one. His heart beat faster than ever in his lifetime before. And with brute force it hit him, as he clasped his small hand into those lanky fingers. He just sold his soul. And that monster would eat him alive.

I swear Demyx' last name is a pain in the ass! He gave himself the name some decades ago. It is a little riddle. Coerdu la Quaorix is pronounced Cordulacrux and if you take some letters COerDU LA QUAorix you get cordula aqua which means 'water heart' in latin (yes, I know the correct form would be cordulae aquae, but that would've far more complicated than it already is!).

I really like this fiction and it's getting longer and longer. At this time I'm working at chapter 9 and I'm still far away from the middle!

Because of the asking of a friend who said "How could you not give Zexion's sister a name!" I gave in and thought about a name. I mixed the letters of Ienzo and got Zione. I hope that satisfys you all who thought the same.