Six
The house Adonis took them to was in a rather nice neighborhood located on the upper edge of Buffalo. It wasn't that far from where she lived, or it wouldn't have been if she had a car, but it was still in an unfamiliar area of town. Plus, her reasons to leave the comfort of Riverside had all but disappeared with her parents, so while she knew the various locales that made up Buffalo, she'd never felt obligated to get a firsthand education on them. It had only taken a couple of weeks with Adonis to see her in more places than she had visited in the two months she had spent with Mitch. Yet another way his attentions were changing her. It wasn't a bad thing, not really, but change tends to bring one out of their comfort zones, and Erika liked being comfortable. In some ways, she was still getting over the fact that vampires existed.
Adonis pulled into the driveway of the house and went all the way into the back. He had turned off his lights as they had pulled onto the street. The moon was bright enough to provide ample light for him to see by, helped by the slight reflection coming off a layer of snow that had cropped up since night had fallen. Once the car was parked, Adonis led her to the side door and pulled a key down from a hidden spot on the tiny awning. "The house has some electrical issues that need to be taken care of before it can be sold," he said as he opened the door. "Nothing overtly dangerous unless you decide to start plugging things in on the second floor. The real-estate agent happens to live next door to me, so I swiped a few of his keys and made copies while he was out of town on vacation." He opened the door, went through, and immediately opened the door to the basement, which was just inside the threshold to the right of a small set of stairs that led up to the rooms on the first floor. Erika followed him down.
When Adonis reached the bottom of the stairs, he reached off to the side and flipped a switch. Two pale lights turned on, giving illumination to a basement devoid of everything, the sole exception being a heavily duct taped vampire doing his best to roll around in what looked like a very uncomfortable pose. The vampire was trussed up almost exactly like a rodeo calf, except his limbs were behind him instead of in front. His eyes and his mouth were duct taped shut as well. The vampire's nostrils flared and it sounded to her as if he was trying to scream. A difficult task to pull off through duct tape.
"I found this one hanging outside of a bar in South Buffalo," said Adonis. "Can't be more than a year old, so he should be easy for you to work with."
The vampire stopped his struggling and twisted his head around so his face was pointed toward Adonis. Erika couldn't be sure, what with all of the duct tape covering his head, but he looked as if he couldn't believe what was happening. She started taking off her jacket and turned to Adonis. "What do you want me to do?" she asked.
"Well, as I said, you need to try to mimic the state of mind you're in when your ability comes out. I think that's the first step toward trying to control it. Get close and try to find your center. Like we practiced." Early in her training, both Adonis and Mitch had made it a point to teach her how to "find her center", as they called it. It was a breathing technique designed to steady her pulse and get rid of any nervous feelings she might have had.
She cautiously approached the vampire on the ground, still not entirely trusting that he was incapable of causing problems. When he didn't move, she placed her jacket on the cold floor, and sat down on it, about two feet from him. Then she started on her breathing. It took a bit longer than normal, her heart was racing faster than it had been in the alleyway the previous night, but after a few moments she had it under control.
"Good," said Adonis from behind her once she had the proper pattern down. "Very good. Now try to reach out to the vampire with your mind."
"What am I looking for?"
"I'm spit-balling here, but I think you'll know what to do instinctively."
Erika closed her eyes to begin, but opened them again as the vampire chose that moment to start struggling once more. His nostrils flared and she could see his muscles bulge as he tried to break the bonds that held him, something that seemed more futile to her the more he tried. To her eyes it looked like Adonis had used at least two rolls of duct tape on him. He wasn't going anywhere.
She closed her eyes again and kept the image of him lying on the floor in her mind. Once she had him firmly lodged in her head, she reached out to him, searching for something. At first, all she saw was the dark nothingness of her mind. She pushed and pulled, tossed and turned, stood up and laid down the image, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes and growled in frustration.
"Nothing?" asked Adonis.
Erika shook her head. "I don't know what I'm looking for," she said as she turned to look at him. "All I'm getting from this is a fat lot of nothing."
Adonis contemplated her dilemma, then asked, "You know what happens when a vampire is killed, right?"
"They get sent back to Hell. At least that's what Mitch told me."
"He's correct. But do you know why?"
Erika shrugged. "Not really."
"It's because the demon is separated from the soul of their host. Without a host, the demon cannot live here on Earth, so a hole opens up and sends them back where they came from. Unfortunately, the residual backlash from being inhabited by a demon, even for a short amount of time, taints the host, and the body ends up getting sent down as well."
"And what happens to the soul?" It was a question she had never asked Mitch before. They hadn't gotten too much into the reasons vampires existed, especially since Erika had problems accepting that they did, in fact, exist.
"It goes where it was supposed to go in the first place," he said, waving the comment off. "But that's besides the point. See, I think your ability allows you to separate the demon from the host without leaving any taint behind. Vampire deaths are generally very chaotic. The death you give them is the opposite. The demon is sent on their way, and the host remains."
"So how does that tell me what I'm looking for?"
"I think you need to look for the taint. You need to look for what's not supposed to be there. And yes, I think it's possible for you to do so. Your ability has to be able to tell the difference between what is the demon and what is not, otherwise it would be just like any other vampire kill." Adonis motioned back to the vampire. "Go ahead and give it another try. This time focus on trying to see the demon, and not the man."
Erika nodded and closed her eyes. She brought up the image of the vampire in her mind, but this time she focused on blocking out the physical aspects of the image so she could see what was underneath. She bored her mind's eye deep into the body that the demon inhabited and sought him out. It was surprisingly easy. Once she knew what she was looking for, it made her wonder why she hadn’t ever seen it.
The best she could describe it was as if the body was murky. As if she was looking into a pond that had once been crystal clear, but that now had a sheen of oil on the surface detracting from the beauty. "I see it," she whispered, the moment seemingly profound enough to avoid talking normally.
Adonis didn't feel the same way she did, and let out a sound of triumph. "Can you do anything with it?" he asked, his voice eager.
"I don't know."
"Try."
Erika reached out and touched the sheen surrounding the body with her mind. It recoiled from her probing, presenting a clear picture of the host underneath. "It's retreating from me," she said. "Like soap on oily water."
Adonis paused, then said, "Get rid of it."
She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. The look on his face was almost fanatical and he hastily motioned for her to continue. She shuddered as she turned away and brought up the image. Then, with one swipe of her hand, she wiped the image clean. For an instant, she saw the oily residue of the demon hang in the air above her mental image of the figure, then it evaporated and was no more. When she opened her eyes again, the body in front of her was still.
Adonis moved forward before she had a chance to, and put his finger to the man's neck. "Gone," he said. He sat do
wn heavily next to the body, but didn't say anything for a long time.
Erika wiped her hands on her jeans. Even though the oily residue of the demon had only been an image in her mind, or so her line of thinking went, she still felt as if she had spent a few hours playing around in the aftermath of an oil spill. It was not pleasant. As she did this, she let the silence fill the room. Unbidden thoughts entered her head, almost as unpleasant as the feeling of the demon.
Was what she had done murder? A dead body lay on the ground before her, and she had caused the body to be. Was it a rescue? The body had been the home of a demon. It had corrupted the soul and caused it to be trapped in what amounted to a personal prison. There wasn't any doubt in her mind that she had done a good thing. But if a cop wandered into the basement, he wouldn't see it the same way. Which point of view was right?
"We need to find your range," said Adonis, his voice breaking the silence like a brick through a glass window.
The sound brought her out of her ruminations. "I'm sorry?" she asked.
"Your range. How far away you can be in order to make this thing work." He tapped a finger against his chin, then added, "And see how fast you can do it."
She sighed. More killing. More death. She recoiled at the thought, and said, "I don't think I can do this."
"What?" said Adonis. The look on his face was incredulous.
"There's a body here Adonis. I caused that body to be there. It might as well be murder for all that I got rid of a vampire."
"Are you serious?" he asked, his voice a hair away from yelling. "Is that your hang-up on all this?"
Erika didn't know what else to say, so she simply nodded.
"Unbelievable," he said. "Look, I don't know and I don't care what's happened in your life up until now. But you need to understand that you have this gift for a reason. If you don't use it, if you don't learn to get the most out of it, then you are squandering that gift. If you do that," he said, pointing at the body, "you might as well be dead too. So man up and get over it, because we've got work to do."
"Man up?" she snapped. "Man up? That's your solution? To just put everything behind me so we can focus on what you want out of me? How about what I want, Adonis? Huh? What about that?"
Adonis seethed, then took a deep breath and said, "All right then, what do you want?"
The question caught her off guard. It shouldn't have, the fake persona Adonis portrayed to her had always been accommodating, but it did. "I-I don't know," she stammered.
"Okay, since you don't know, and you've never given me any indication that you do know, wouldn't it be better to allow me to guide you in this? At least," he added, "for the time being. I gave you the power to stop this back at the pizzeria, and it is ultimately up to you if you decide not to go through with any of it, but I implore you, don't let your ability lie unused. It has the potential to do so much good, if only you'll see it that way."
He had her. And while a part of her continued to recoil at the thought of exploring her ability, and creating more dead bodies in the process, she couldn't deny its usefulness in getting rid of vampires. "So what's the plan?" she asked, her voice low.
"I'll need to get some more vamps to test this out on, but I think it'll be safer to do this with one at a time. Buffalo doesn't have a high population, so we'll have to spread it out a bit too. We don't want them going to ground too soon." Adonis looked up at her and smiled. "Don't worry, we'll get the most out of your ability in time." He paused and his smile turned sadistic, causing her to almost regret agreeing to continue. "Then we'll clean this city out."