The Return | Cricky [C]

Chapter XII: Asylum

"I know you," Asher's voice trembled. He watched Tesla with all the fear in the world. All the fear someone like him was capable of having, that is. "There was a painting of you at the asylum."

Tesla, on the other hand, couldn't have been more unfazed. "I'm surprised he hasn't burned it by now. Nevertheless, I left for a reason."

"That's not the story I heard." A hint of Asher's razor sharp tongue cut it's way through the fear. Somewhere in his mess of anxiety, he began to remember all the rage he'd gathered as he'd rotted away in a prison cell.

"It was... An amical separation. You, of all people, should understand, the Warden feared my potential, just as I'm sure he feared yours. And you, of all people, should understand his potential." Tesla gestured to me. "A demon's power trapped in a vampire's body."

Asher's brows furrowed. His eyes jumped between the two of us as he unraveled the riddle. "You think if you can kill Chris, you can kill the Warden?" He scoffed, "I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius. They don't even use the same magic. And even if they did, Chris barely has a handle on his powers."

Tesla pulled a dagger from seemingly nowhere. His hand faster than my mind, the pain tore me in two before I could even register what had happened. A scream managed to escape my mouth before the adrenaline flooded in.

"I've suppressed his vampirisms. All he has is his demon power." Tesla ripped the dagger from my stomach, a string of black blood following. With my strength zapped, I felt it as a human would; A deep, searing pain that robbed me of all my breath. Through the pain, I felt the cool touch of moonlight. That brilliant white light, the same one I'd saved Rosanna's life with, danced through my mind's eye once again.

I couldn't feel any blood wetting my skin. The dull hum of a pain now relieved thudded through my muscle. Though I still fought for my breath, I was starting to understand what had happened. My demon lord powers acted on their own to protect me. My wound, unable to be healed by a vampire's power, had been patched by a demon lord's.

"Light constructs. It may not be the same power source, but it's the same result. I don't need him to be as powerful. Unraveling the innerworkings of his biology, that is where his value lies. Wouldn't you like to know, just for once, what it felt like to be truly free?"

"I am free-"

"As long as you run from him, you are never free." Tesla said, "Does one measly vampire really mean that much to you?"

It was a good question. This path of redemption Asher had been stumbling his way through, this was some kind of test the universe was throwing at him. And, unfortunately for me, he would fail. It wasn't easy. Through the haze of my pain, I could sense his trepidation. His eyes searched that room like a cornered animal searching for an exit and only growing more anxious when there wasn't one to be found. And when all that anxiety boiled over, he did as he'd always done; He chose himself.

Asher disappeared in a puff of smoke. The lingering sulfur deepened the uneasiness in my gut. The world started to bend, becoming more out of reach with each passing second. I fought to keep hold of reality and somehow convince myself the pain wasn't that bad and the drugs weren't that effective. In the blur, I may remember hearing Tesla speak, though not to me, and nothing I could retain. Then it cut to black.

Sometime later, I awoke to a piece of myself I'd long since forgotten. It seems almost impossible to picture myself without tattoos and piercings—I'd never felt more comfortable than I do now, but I'd lived a lifetime and a half long before any of that came into fashion. Believe it or not, I once lived among humans. Before all the leather and paten, there was wool trousers, cotton dress shirts and suspenders. The shortest I'd ever allowed my hair to be, still jet black as it was slicked back.