Dark Lover

Zass - Part 9

I sat opposite Mika.  The cruel smile he was showing just looked plain wrong to me.  The expression didn't belong on that face and I shifted in my chair as I tried to resolve my feelings of revulsion towards the personality sitting in front of me and the love I felt for the man behind that look.  I couldn't see any evidence of Zass in his eyes and yet his real smile reminded me so much of the man I desired.  Yes, still.  Even though it wasn't my Zass looking at me from across the table.  Could I take his life if there was no hope of Zass ever returning?  In that moment I wasn't sure.  I still believed that Zass was in there somewhere and I really wanted to focus on reading him, but it was pretty much all I could do to just sit there without giving anything away in my expression.  I knew far too well how good at reading people Zass was it would only follow that Mika was as well.  Iris said I had time.  I wondered how much I actually had left.

"So Blondie, what do you want to talk about?" He asked me.

I grimaced.  I really was starting to detest that name.  He smiled briefly and then raised his eyebrows. 

"Actually," he said, "Just tell me how come you're not dead."  He pointed to his head, tapped it and said, "Inquiring minds want to know."

I looked closely at him, looking for any hint that there was someone else still in there, and when I didn't find any evidence of Zass, said shortly, "Vampire blood."

"Oh." Mika frowned, his smile dimming and I wondered why.

......

The struggle against the walls of the sphere was harder than Zass had imagined.  Although Zeus had enlarged it to the point two people could fit inside, making it bigger and the walls thinner was more of a struggle than he had anticipated.  Building the sphere in the first place had been easy but it seemed almost impossible to change it now.  Was it too late?  Had Mika won simply because Zass had left it too late to challenge him?  No, Zeus would have told him.  Zass struggled on, sweat running down his forehead and his muscles straining, pushing against the shell with his mind was taking it out of him.

Zass fought his way back, forcing his self-imposed prison larger until he was able to see and hear his surroundings again.  Keeping his presence from Mika was another thing that was taking it out of him.  He needed something... he needed Scott, he needed his blood.

He heard Scott's answer to Mika's question and wondered why Mika had wanted to know why Scott wasn't dead.  It wasn't like Mika wanted to do anything but kill him.  Or did he?  Mika was so intent on his own thoughts, he hadn't noticed that Zass was no longer curled up in a small ball locked deep in his mind.  He hadn't seen Zass's mighty struggle to break free of the darkness, the conversation with his Father, the hope flare and his newly refreshed determination to regain himself and reclaim Scott.  Mika assumed Zass was no longer a problem and so, was ignoring him.  Much to his folly.

When Zass heard that Scott had been saved once again by Vampire blood he was concerned.  It wouldn't change their relationship, but it really depended on who the Vampire was that had helped.  Someone less savoury might try to use the blood running through Scott to control him.  Scott was bonded to Zass, but the current state of that bond was in question.  Zass couldn't test it or Mika would know he was 'waking up'.  He really needed to reclaim Scott for himself, drink him down again and give Scott his own blood again.  Zass waited for the conversation to continue, biding his time and gathering his strength for the fight that would come when he demanded control over his body again.

It would take all he had to hide out and allow Mika control.  He wanted to badly to show Scott there was hope.  Because from Scott's expression and the way he was fingering the empty sheath where a large knife had been, Zass began to worry Scott had given up.