Doing his best to ignore the white-hot pain Imastious was causing, Geoffrey pushed back, isolating Imastious as best as he was able inside the limited part of his mind that had already been compromised.
Remembering the way that Melody had stifled his attempts to move around inside her mind, Geoffrey tried to do the same to Imastious, and was rewarded with a further decrease in the speed of Imastious' attacks.
The younger vampire started to try and push Imastious all the way out of his mind, only to realize, with alarm, that attempting to do so was draining his strength much more quickly. He would have to continue to confront Imastious at the slightly deeper level inside of Geoffrey's mind that had been their earlier battleground.
Settling back behind the defenses he had already constructed, Geoffrey watched as Imastious slowly made his way through the rest of the thoughts in the tiny portion of space that the younger vampire had surrendered.
Any question of what came next was answered a few seconds later as Geoffrey's thoughts began to take on a peculiar pattern. He'd never seen anything like it, but something was settling through the buffer he'd created. Whatever they were, they had to be created by Imastious. They were too ordered, too strong to be the kind of involuntary thoughts that he couldn't stop from passing back and forth across the barrier.
The only explanation was that Imastious had created some kind of suggestion and cloaked it as something that could bypass Geoffrey's defenses. Any questions as to what the construct was supposed to do were settled as Geoffrey felt his resolve to keep Imastious outside his mind start to weaken.
Maintaining his concentration as best as he was able, Geoffrey quickly found the construct scurrying from place to place--a spider weaving a web of apathy over everything it touched. A whip-like tendril of thought lashed out and splintered the construct just as another one tried to slide through his defenses.
Acting out of instinct, Geoffrey made his buffer more opaque and then disintegrated the second invader just as it exited the now more resilient barrier. Geoffrey knew he was running out of time. It seemed like Imastious had remade the section of Geoffrey's mind he'd been occupying into something that allowed him an easier time of working mischief.
Temporarily opening up a window into Imastious' territory, Geoffrey lashed out with another tendril of thought, aiming for the conduits of thought he could vaguely sense connecting Imastious' mind to his physical body.
The attack severed the closest link before losing most of its energy and bouncing off of the second conduit. Imastious gathered himself and countered with a blow to the younger vampire's defenses that left his head ringing and brought the barrier to within a hairsbreadth of collapsing. It seemed impossible that Imastious was that strong, but there was no arguing the strength of the blow that he'd just dished out.
Geoffrey tried to pull himself back together and strengthen his defenses, but heartbeats after the first blow arrived, he was hit with a second, equally powerful attack. Imastious seized on the fact that his opponent was now virtually defenseless and expanded his area of influence inside Geoffrey's mind.
Suddenly, as quickly as the conflict had started, it was over. Imastious withdrew from Geoffrey's mind, and Geoffrey opened his eyes just in time to see Imastious kick his door open.
"You should have left the door open, my child. It would have eliminated the need for me to destroy the lock."
Imastious' gaze as he finished stepping into the apartment rested on Geoffrey's face in a satisfied manner, so much so that the younger vampire snuck a look in the mirror.
He felt a flash of surprise at what he saw there. His face was covered with blood. Apparently the effort of trying to combat Imastious had triggered a nose-bleed.
Seemingly taking Geoffrey's silence for submission, Imastious shrugged and then took a seat. "Of greater worry is the fact that you tried to infiltrate my thoughts once again after already being warned not to do so."
Staring at Geoffrey with the dark, dead eyes that still gave the impression that they were able to see into his slave's thoughts, Imastious continued. "Luckily for you, I assumed that you simply acted out of ignorance and foolishness once again, rather than an actual desire to confront me. As you no doubt understand now, whatever tricks you've picked up in the last few weeks would do you no good in a true contest of wills. Had I thought otherwise, you'd now be a sobbing wreck with no sense of self, or ability to experience voluntary thought."
Geoffrey tried to remain silent again, but Imastious' eyes pried a response out of him. "Yes, I understand, it was a mistake."
The unblinking gaze regarding Geoffrey finally proved too much, causing him to drop his eyes rather than continue to look into the emotionless void that seemed to call his thoughts again and again to how tattered and black his own soul was becoming.
Geoffrey never even saw the blow coming; in fact the only hint he had of movement was a sudden rushing of air as Imastious lunged from his seat and knocked Geoffrey off of the bed where he'd been sitting.
"Yes, master. You will always address me as master. You've bought yourself some small amount of leniency because of your recent actions, but you're treading dangerously close to requiring disciplining once again."
The words caught at his throat like pins, but Geoffrey felt a presence building just outside his mind, and the thought of having Imastious inside his head again filled Geoffrey with an unexpected terror.
"Yes, master." The response was choked out of a throat so tight that the words caused an almost physical pain.
Imastious considered Geoffrey for a few moments longer before nodding. "Very good. You continue to show some small amount of promise. Enough to be spared destruction for the present at least."
The sense of menace just outside of Geoffrey's tightly-shuttered mind slowly dissipated as Imastious returned to his seat.
"I have another assignment for you."
Geoffrey eyed the packet that Imastious tossed on the bed for a heartbeat and then the fear started to rise inside him again, forcing him to reach over and open it.
"Her father nominally works for me, but he's become uncooperative as of late. It's time to remind him that although his services are really quite valuable, he isn't irreplaceable."
Geoffrey opened his mouth to voice some half-formed question, only to be preempted by Imastious, who continued with a grin that turned Geoffrey's stomach.
"Rather, he's completely replaceable, but his children are considerably less so."
After Imastious had finally left, Geoffrey found himself sitting motionless on his bed, staring at the photo of a smiling teenage girl which had slid out of the packet. Imastious hadn't found out about Melody yet, and would likely remain ignorant of her as long as Geoffrey continued to carry out missions for Imastious, but what would the ultimate price be for her safety? How could he kill someone so young, someone who hadn't committed any sin other than that of being born to the wrong parents?
**
Geoffrey's stomach had become more insistent over the last day. Enough that he knew he was running out of time before he started losing control.
Shifting his spotting glasses, the vampire scanned the cramped, one-way street, stiffening as his target came into sight.
She was right on schedule, just like always. He knew she'd go inside her building without any kind of delay. Her father was home now, but he'd be leaving in half an hour. She and her little brother would be spending the subsequent three hours alone until her mother returned home.
Geoffrey idly wondered if the fact that her father was always within three or four blocks of their home reassured the family that the children would be safe, even with no adults home to watch over them. After all, what could happen in the ten minutes it would take for him to get home?
A sharp pain shot through Geoffrey's stomach, but this time it wasn't the hunger, it was revulsion over what he was contemplating. Realistically, it was revulsion over what he'd eventually do. Geoffrey knew he would complain and resist, but he cou
ldn't see any way out of the situation. The priest was wrong. It wasn't that Geoffrey was unwilling to pay the price to do what was right; the problem was that the price required wasn't his to pay.
Geoffrey forced himself to shrug with a nonchalance he didn't feel. He was really going to do it. He hadn't known until that instant, but there wasn't any other way to ensure that Imastious stayed satisfied enough not to invade Geoffrey's mind. Geoffrey had done terrible things, but he wouldn't be responsible for Melody being killed, which was the least that would happen if Imastious ever got inside his mind again.
Now that he was abandoning his surveillance, Geoffrey decided to go ahead and complete the two tasks he'd been avoiding. They needed to be done before the hit, and each day he waited to do them increased the odds that Imastious would become dissatisfied with how long it was taking him to complete the assassination.
Fingering the thick roll of cash that Imastious had given him, Geoffrey descended the stairs and headed off towards one of the more disreputable parts of the city.
It didn't take long, once the vampire arrived, to find exactly what he was looking for. Two women, little more than girls really, both obviously uncomfortable still with the idea of selling their bodies. They couldn't have been involved in their new profession for long yet.
Geoffrey wasn't any more comfortable with being propositioned than the girls were with making their pitch, so the next step didn't go all that smoothly. Eventually, however, sums were agreed upon, and Geoffrey was led by the pair of trembling blondes to a nearby hotel.
Once inside the tiny room, Geoffrey managed to ignore the near-terror the girls were exuding for just long enough to mentally push first one and then the other into unconsciousness. It was hard to believe that anything would drive someone into doing something they were so terrified of doing. It would have been one matter if they hadn't been so scared, but they were. It didn't make sense, why didn't they just do something else? Surely they had other options.
Looking at the unconscious forms on the sagging bed, Geoffrey realized that he was stalling. It was time to just get on with it.
Neither girl was big enough to provide a full meal, at least not without risking their death. Together though they represented enough sustenance to drive the hunger away for a week, maybe even two.
As Geoffrey bit into a vein on the first girl's arm, the hunger flared up with a power that strained the absolute limits of his control. Geoffrey had a split second in which to worry that he'd waited too long to feed, and then rational thought fled, leaving Geoffrey alone with the seductive beating of the poor girl's heart.
Hunger was no longer a suitable description of what the vampire felt. What had started out as nothing more than an easily disregarded message of his body's condition had become something almost tangible. The need beat down on him with the hatred of the noonday sun and he knew he wasn't going to be strong enough to resist it.
Time slowed in step with the absence of thought, allowing Geoffrey to bask in an incredible sense of satiation underlined by an odd connection to his victim. The euphoric feelings lasted until the steady call of her heart changed in a subtle way that Geoffrey somehow knew meant the poor girl's blood pressure was dropping to dangerous levels.
That tiny change opened the floodgates to Geoffrey's mind once again. Gathering strength he didn't know he had, he tore himself away from the arm that had taken on an alarming pallor. If he could get the bleeding stopped he was reasonably confident that she would be okay, but the experience had unnerved him more than he'd expected. He'd thought by feeding sooner he'd be able to control himself, but he'd still come dangerously close to leaving her a lifeless husk.
As Geoffrey applied direct pressure to the punctured vein, he tried to understand what had happened. The key question was whether or not he dared feed on the other girl. Would it be easier to control himself now, or would he still be risking adding another murder to the weight his soul was carrying?
The strength of the hunger had been unnerving. It had gone from a symptom, like pain in a broken wrist, to something even more basic like the fact that the broken wrist was no longer able to support the weight of a textbook.
Geoffrey sat staring at the first girl long past the amount of time required to ensure that the bleeding in her arm had stopped. As the vampire watched the rise and fall of her chest, his gaze fought to drift up and fix on the almost imperceptible throbbing of her carotid artery. It was a torment and a relief all at once. A sign that she was still alive at the same time that it reminded him just how easy it would have been to go too far.
A sudden sense of despair descended upon Geoffrey as he realized he was too much of a coward to do anything other than go ahead and try feeding from the second girl. He wasn't man enough to kill himself, and the only other option was to embrace, to some extent or another, the monster that he was.
Moving mechanically, Geoffrey stretched out the second girl's arm and bit down. The coppery flood of blood triggered a brief flare of hunger, but it was only a shadow of what he'd felt before. Instead, the sense of connection he'd felt with the first girl came to the fore, bonding him to this new victim in a bittersweet manner he wouldn't have believed possible.
As his breathing synchronized with the girl's, Geoffrey's despair was replaced by sorrow for his victim. She was doing so much for him, providing him with continued life, but she hadn't offered it to him freely and he was leaving her with nothing in return.
This time Geoffrey was listening for the change in the girl's heartbeat that signaled it was time to stop, and it was a much simpler matter to pull himself away and staunch the flow of blood.
Looking down at the two girls, Geoffrey found himself near tears. It had felt like he'd been part of them, but it had been wrong. It was something that should have been given rather than taken.
The money the vampire had planned on leaving the pair suddenly seemed inadequate, but he wasn't sure what else to give them. What else did he even have to offer someone?
Without meaning to, Geoffrey's thoughts reached out to first one girl, and then the other, probing their minds, attempting to distill chaotic thoughts down to a picture of each girl's true essence.
It seemed impossible that someone could come to believe that they had so little value, but each of them really did feel that they had no other option but to sell themselves. The two of them had each other, but it didn't help, not really, because neither was a whole enough person to lift the other up.
Geoffrey had thought he was sad before, but the picture of despair painted by the minds he was now touching made his earlier feelings seem pale and selfish. He couldn't help himself, he couldn't really help Melody either, but he could help Sara and Tami. An artist and a dancer. Neither had ever lost their dreams and hopes, but they'd let them become so weak that they couldn't touch them anymore.
Geoffrey's thoughts were moving faster now, faster than he'd realized they could, as they spun through the darkened mind before him. He needed to get to the center just as he'd done with Melody's mom.
The pressure surrounding Geoffrey grew as he tried to fight his way deeper into Sara's mind. Unlike the last time, there wasn't any whirlpool in Sara's mind, no drawing of everything down to a place of twisted destruction. Instead all of Sara's energy was directed to keeping others out of her most secret, personal parts.
Suddenly Geoffrey bumped up against something simultaneously hard and yielding, and he reflexively matched himself to the barrier and felt the pressure disappear as if it were water parting before a surfacing swimmer.
Inside the perfect calm of Sara's center, Geoffrey began cutting away the belief that she was worthless, and building a new set of beliefs that would hopefully radiate out and wash away the darkness that constantly tore at her self-image. He started with the message that she was an important, valuable person despite what anyone else might say or believe.
Next Geoffrey weakened the cynical pessimism that seemed to be eating away like a cancer at her center. He co
uldn't get rid of it altogether, not all at once, but he removed the supports that gave it shape and form so that one or two tastes of success would be able to cause it to shatter and decay away into nothing.
Looking around at the tiny ball of light that was now positioned to take over Sara's center, Geoffrey felt as though something was still missing, and for some reason he thought of the priest. The priest had always been so calm, only calm wasn't quite the right word. It was more a sense of peace that had seemed to define him above anything else. Peace was good, but peace without some kind of motivating force would be nothing more than a different kind of slavery. A slavery of the mind that she wouldn't even know to resist.
Mindful of the fact that his strength was slowly being depleted, and that he still needed to do the same kind of work with Tami, Geoffrey worked quickly, expanding the ball of light out so that it was a pool of peace and calm that was too good for the tawdry world in which the girls lived their life.
As soon as the pool was satisfactory, Geoffrey reached out and created another construct, one that reached out to touch Sara's dreams. This construct would return her dreams to things of beauty that she would be compelled to try and recreate with canvas and paints. Hopefully in so doing, she would find something to continue to strive for.
Geoffrey paused for only a second to examine his work before diving into Tami's mind. The work was somewhat easier, as he now had an idea what he was trying to accomplish, but his strength was fading so quickly that he nearly didn't finish in time.
With the last of his strength, Geoffrey pulled back to examine the lattice of pink strands he had just finished. Watching the calm white light reflect off of the warmth of the lattice made Geoffrey's eyes tear up again. Perfect contentment opposed against exquisite anguish and an angst for perfection that would never really be achieved.
Suddenly, the rising sense of hope and contentment that Geoffrey had been feeling reversed with incredible speed. It was replaced with a despair as deep as anything he'd ever felt. Was he really helping or had he just doomed both girls to a tormented existence, one in which they'd never know the reason for their persistent dissatisfaction? Geoffrey didn't know the true limits of his abilities, or the possible, unintended consequences that could come of him playing God in such a manner.