The Blood King (Wattpad Exclusive Version)

The God and the Monster

***You can buy this book at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords. Just search for Eternal Darkness, Blood King by Gadriel Demartinos.***

March 7, 2005 - Miami, 6:45 PM

It happened right after I took the girl, the same girl whom my vigilante tried unsuccessfully to save.

 I was flying over the sea, falling in love with the night all over again when the voice talked to me; but this time, the message was different, very familiar and personal. It made me suspend my body in midair for a moment, so I could digest it. It called me in a way that I hadn’t heard in more than a lifetime, a way that only the few who knew me well used to do; but they were long gone now, dead, all of them.

 I kept looking, waiting, but then it kept its silence.

 I was not imagining things. I knew what I heard was true. That voice, no longer a whisper, clearly called me “the thief of all thieves.”

 In my disappointment, I ended up at an empty highway bridge near the sea.

Feeling dizzy and mad, I screamed for the voice to show itself but got no reply. Finally, I had had enough.

 I need to see the old man, I said to myself.

 It had been years since we last saw each other, not because of lack of time—if there’s something I have, it’s time—but for lack of interest. I don’t like the old man. I can’t quite say what it is about him that I can’t tolerate, there are so many awful things; but I guess it’s because I believe he’s a monster of the worst kind. The kind who never realizes that he is a monster.

 I had stopped for over a decade in the West Coast, visiting. I thought he had died, until a couple of years back when I picked up his scent. Somehow, he had followed me to Florida, and even bought a property in Miami-Dade County.

There’s almost an obvious unwritten rule about those we choose to turn. They need to have certain qualities; experiences; and, above all else, the stamina and courage for immortality.

 The old man didn’t want to admit it, but I knew he was seeking the opportunity to become immortal. Our “friendship” has always been one-sided. He always waits for my call, and I would seek him out only as a last resort. That’s fine with him, but it bothers me. I will admit that beyond all the things we have disagreed on throughout the decades, he has proven himself by assisting me on more than one occasion. Still, I can’t forget the things he has done. There are minds that I should never get inside, because the dark secrets they keep are too horrible, even for someone like me.

I will also never forget that he once saved my life. I don’t owe him anything. We are not friends. We are two dark forces that use each other from time to time. At that moment, though, I needed him. I needed his uncanny skills as a spirit master, or as people nowadays call his kind, a necromancer.

I found him in the semidarkness of his living room. How appropriate, I thought. He almost had a heart attack when I emerged from the shadows of his modest living space. Beethoven was playing, Sonate Für Klavier und Violine N.3 Es-Dur Op.12, the melody was king inside the room. For all his flaws, the old man has exquisite taste when it comes down to the arts.

My ears picked a marked missed palpitation in his cardiac rhythm. I smiled, knowing that his end was finally near. He stared at me in silence for a while. I felt him trying to get inside my mind. For the longest time, that had been his life’s mission; and every time, I rejected him.

In this game called life, there are individuals born with certain abilities. These same skills can be developed in all of us. When I was turned, parts of my brain were awakened, parts that most people never get to use. The ability to control people’s will, to move matter from point A to point B, or to read minds is not beyond us if only we learn to use the part of our brain that controls and manages our core energy. That same core energy is what some call the soul.