Joy led the way over to the couch not taking her eyes off the pink haired killer now inside her apartment. The woman's fangs were plainly visible in her mouth and she looked around as if admiring the art hanging in a museum.
"I don't have any blood here for you." Joy said to break the silence.
"Sure you do, eight quarts to be exact." the woman turned to Joy smiling wickedly. "But who's counting?"
"What did you want to tell me?" Joy asked fear cracking her voice. Nervously she sat on the couch while the woman sat on the opposite end. For a moment they just stared at each other in the dark living room and Joy got the distinct impression she was being sized up.
"I'm sorry about my reaction to you the other night, Darius has a way of bringing out those kind of emotions in me as of late. He decided quite a while ago that I was no longer of any interest to him."
"Who are you?" Joy asked her voice low.
"I'm called Whisper. My real name is lost to history even to my own memory. Darius saw to that. I can only hope now that I am rid of his influence that I can re-gain some semblance of identity."
"Are you here to tell me how to kill him?"
Whisper laughed humorlessly. "I could do that myself with hardly the effort I just don't feel like putting it forth. You're the only one who needs to worry about him here."
"So what am I becoming?" Joy could hold it in no longer, she had to know what was happening to her.
"Not one of me. I don't know to be perfectly honest, Darius has transcended us or so he believes. He has become a demon of sorts although not a true demon. Demons can only exist in spiritual form on this plane."
"What is he doing to me?" Joy burst out.
"So many questions. Since this is going to take a while do you mind if I smoke?"
"Go ahead Devon smokes in here all the time."
"But you don't?" Whisper raised an eyebrow as she pulled a cigarette and lighter from her purse. Joy handed her a nearby ashtray.
"For the ones you love you make sacrifices." Joy watched Whisper's surprise grow on her face as she lit up her smoke. "Let me guess, you're a vampire that is so old you've forgotten how to love?"
"Hardly, the final piece of the puzzle just fell into place. Who is Devon? Is he your fiance?"
"She, yes."
"Ahh Darius knows this I'm sure. Something else to use against you."
"Devon?" Joy whispered.
"Shes fine for now hes searching for other prey. More importantly, what are we going to do about you?"
"We?"
"The vampires. Humans can't be changed unless they are willing to, they only change partly but it always fades away over time. Darius seems to have found a way around that." Whisper inhaled a long drag of the smoke and let it float from her mouth naturally. With no need to take in breath the smoke lazily made its way from her lungs of its own accord.
"So I'm becoming a demon like Darius?" Joy fought back tears as the truth hit her like a sledgehammer.
"You're far into the change but its different in you somehow. Its hard to explain but if you were changing into a vampire I'd know exactly what was going on with you, right now I don't. As far as stopping it, its too late, I'm sorry."
"No you aren't." Joy hissed.
"Actually I am. You've got a long road ahead of you with no end in sight. Literally. Anyway, we've gotten off track Darius is probably the most dangerous creature out there to human beings. He has developed the power to enter into a human's mind and feed off whatever it is he feeds off of. You see Darius sold his soul to a demon named Lucifer."
"He sold his soul to the devil?" Joy looked at Whisper in disbelief.
"Not the one devil, no such thing. Lucifer, Satan, Devil, they're all out there but they aren't one being. See you need to understand one thing about them, they're just a demon like any other demon you may run into. Just because they're the most well known and have been around the longest don't mean shit. They only have power over you if you give it to them. Thats what I came here to tell you. If you want to beat Darius, if you want to kill him just imagine it and believe that it will happen."
"He can hold me into a trance, he can paralize me..."
"All in your mind." Whisper leaned in close to Joy so close they were almost nose to nose. Joy could smell the smoke from the cigarette in Whisper's breath, what there was of it and she could feel something else. A coldness that she had never felt before, the cold of death.
"You're not alive." it was more a question than a statement.
"Soon, you won't be either. No matter what. But if I were you, instead of becoming one of Darius, I'd become one of us."