A deep chill descended on Jason's body when a black smoke burst out of the demon's maw and entered his mouth. His lungs filled with smoke and brimstone. A searing burn flooded every cell of his body, causing Jason to flail about in a desperate bid for freedom. But the demon tightened his grip. Tears slipped from Jason's eyes, the pain unimaginable. His vision blurred as the pressure in his skull skyrocketed. The wails of the forsaken filled his ears. The memories of everyone who died in the town flooded him. The way they died and how the demon ripped them apart in a hungered frenzy which lingered for millennia.

The stark reality hit Jason before he succumbed to the pain. The demon was becoming part of him, filling the empty void left by Oz. Alaric had played him...

With every muscle twitch, Jason groaned. A throbbing pain echoed through his skull with each beat of his heart. It took him several minutes to muster up the courage to open his eyes, scared of what he might see. Slowly, sunlight stabbed him in the eyes as he stared up into the cloudless blue sky. The smell of burned grass and brimstone still lingered in the air. Jason tried to heave himself off the ground, but in doing so, his hand clamped down on something hard. Jason turned his head to his left. The crumbled remains of the demon lay next to him. In his hands was a burned out piece of coal that slowly withered away.

Jason dropped the piece of coal and scurried away from the monstrosity until his back hit cold, metallic steel. It was a car, but not just any car. It was Alaric's black SUV. Jason had company. A company of twelve vampires surrounded him and the burned-out remains of the demon. He expected to end up as a corpse in this situation.

"Good morning, my pet. How did you sleep?" said a voice that boiled Jason's blood.

Jason's glare landed on Alaric as he stood against the bonnet of another SUV, smoking a cigarette. Plumes of smoke slithered out of his nostrils and into the crisp morning air. Jason shot up from the ground, surprisingly fast, and bolted for Alaric. He wanted to wrap his hands around the mother-humper's undead neck and listen as his bones snapped one-for-one. However, Ludwick stepped into Jason's path and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him back.

"Know your place," said Ludwick. His words reminded Jason of his father's, always talking down to him as if he meant nothing.

Jason balled his free hand into a fist and cocked back, hitting Ludwick in the face. He was under no illusion that he didn't stand a chance against the vampire. However, much to his surprise and Ludwick's, Jason leveled the bloodsucker to the ground with a sickening crunch of bones. Ludwick lay still on the ground, unmoving. Several vampires hissed and flashed their fangs at him. Three of them flitted forward, but strangely, they began moving in slow motion.

Move to your right. A voice echoed in Jason's mind. His legs obeyed as he sidestepped the first vamp and kneed the sucker in the stomach. The second one closed in from behind. Swerve left and jab. And so did Jason, sending his attacker into a wall. The last attacker didn't fare any better and in a few seconds, the vampire crashed into the side of the SUV.

What did Alaric do to him? He was stronger and faster than the vampires. No matter what they did, he could anticipate their attacks and counter them effortlessly.

"Bravo!" said Alaric, with a giant grin on his smug face. His applause echoed throughout the dead town. "I'm really impressed."

Jason turned his attention to the man responsible for his predicament and lunged at him again. He wanted to get to Alaric as fast as he could. That's all he wanted, to kill the fuck with his bare hands. In an instant, Jason disappeared in a plume of ash and appeared in front of the startled vampire. Before Alaric could open his mouth, Jason clamped his hand over it. The vampire punched him in the face, but Alaric's punch had no effect on Jason. Jason began squeezing the fucker's jaw. Alaric's eyes bulged. He tried getting out of Jason's grip, but for once the vampire didn't stand a chance.

"Enough! Stand down and let him go, Jason." Ludwick's order found his ears. Jason fought against the command, but his body failed him and obeyed.

He released the vampire.

Alaric rubbed his jaw and glared at Jason. "It would seem you're stronger than I thought you'd be." A grin spread across his face. "I'll just have to be careful with you in the future." Alaric straightened his suite and disheveled hair and walked off toward his car. "Let's be off."

"Fuck you!" Jason said. "I'm going nowhere with you."

Alaric turned on the spot. "Well, you have no choice. I own you and as long as you're leashed, you'll obey me. Come."

Jason dug his bare feet into the soil, fighting the collar around his neck. It didn't burn anymore, but the seal fought him for control over his body. Jason hissed out, groaning as he kept his feet planted on the spot. He wanted nothing to do with the fuck and his band of undead twinks who sucked his dick at every turn.

"Come on! Get a move on," said Ludwick as he strutted past Jason, rubbing the back of his neck. An enormous bruise decorated his right cheek. Despite the strain on his face, Jason smiled. "Lesley! Throw the hellspawn a robe. He's making me horny looking like that."

Just then did Jason realize he was as naked as the day he was born. But that was the least of his surprises; his body had grown and packed on muscles. His body looked better than when he was an alpha.

A black, silky robe hit Jason in the face. Although he quickly covered himself, Jason remained rooted to the spot. The collar they had on him wasn't as effective as it was before. Alaric must have sensed it, and then turned to Ludwick.

"Command him together. We can ask Selene to heighten the enchantment on the collar when we get back," Alaric said. Ludwick nodded. "Come and climb into the car." They both shouted together, doubling the power.

With a hiss and blackened eyes, Jason stumbled over to the SUV. The urge to kill them both became an unbearable itch he so desperately wanted to scratch.

"Don't attack us or talk." They commanded Jason again. "We'll talk back at the house," Alaric finished.

***

Throughout the entire ride back toward Alaric's shithole of a mansion, Jason tried to fight the noose they tied around his neck. It didn't work. He wanted to decorate the interior of the car with their entrails, but his body sat on the seat waiting for another order like a well-trained pooch. The smirk on Ludwick's face told Jason all that he needed to know; they enjoyed the power they had over him and there was nothing he could do.

However, a bigger concern weighed heavily on his mind. Ludwick called him a hellspawn. Those words tied knots in his intestines. Was he possessed? It explained why the corpse of the demon laid beside him and not the other way around. For the first time since Jason woke up, he sensed the gaping hole left by Oz filled with a sinister force.

Before Jason could lose his mind over the fact that he carried a demon in his chest, the SUV came to a screeching halt. Ludwick pulled Jason out of the car and escorted him up to the foyer of the mansion, where Alaric's second bitch in command waited for them in a tight-fitting red dress and white high-heels. Selene smirked when her eyes landed on Jason. She strutted up to him and placed her manicured talons on his chest. Jason flinched, wanting to get as far away from the witch as possible.

"So?" Alaric walked past Jason and stood next to the witch. "Is it done? Did we succeed or do we need to worry?"

Her brown eyes flashed a glowing white before reverting to normal. A pulse of energy rippled through Jason's body. "It's done. The power has been transferred, but luckily there's no nasty passengers hiding within." She removed her hand and walked toward the entrance of the dungeons.

Jason wanted to ask what the fuck they were talking about, but his damned jaw didn't budge. He was still under their command.

Ludwick and Alaric both commanded him. "Come."

Jason reluctantly followed the cunts down into their play pen, dreading what they had in store for him. His life had taken a serious nosedive, and he saw no way out of his predicament, not while they had their leash around his neck. At a steady pace, they made their way to Selene's lair, where she directed Jason to sit on the same torture chair he sat on days earlier.

Jason hesitated in front of the weatherworn chair, wishing it would burst into flames.

"Sit," came another command from the choir of two.

Jason's feet dragged their way to the damned chair. He sat down, and then the leather bindings that hung from the chair coiled around his waist, chest and limbs. Jason clamped his eyes shut. Not again, please... not again.

Alaric chuckled and said, "Open your eyes, my pet. We're not going to harm you."

Yeah, right. And your mother didn't suck cock during the dark ages. Jason hit back mentally. He didn't comply with the vamp.

However, seconds later, his eyes shot open when he felt a pinch on his right arm. Selene had inserted a needle into his forearm that was connected to two blood bags. Fuck! They're going to bleed me dry. Jason pulled against his restraints and flailed about. Muffled screams escaped his clenched jaw as tears ran down his face.

"Calm down," Alaric called out, walking up to Jason. "We're just taking your blood. It won't harm you. You'll replenish the blood back as quickly as we can take it." His word did nothing to quell Jason's fears. He didn't give a fuck, they had no right to do this to him.

Another needle pierced his left forearm, but this one had four IV bags filled with clear fluid in them. Jason continued to huff and groan. His breathing became erratic as his heartbeat shot through the ceiling.

Alaric gripped Jason by the jaw and said, "Shush!" The vampire began stroking Jason's cheek with his icy hand. He flinched away. Alaric huffed and said, "Speak."

The single command didn't work, so Ludwick reinforced it. "Alaric told you, you may speak."

Jason's jaw slacked. "Get me the hell out of here, you crazy fuck!" spat Jason. His voice grew louder and deeper as his anger rose. Where did that come from?

Alaric stepped back. "My, my, you're grouchy this morning."

"Go stake yourself." Jason hit back.

Ludwick's laughter filled the chamber, finding Jason's retort funny. However, Alaric tsked and strutted back to his allotted sitting place, next to a table that had a young girl strapped on it. Bite marks littered her neck. She must have been the local snack bar for the crazy fucks that scurried around the chamber. Alaric twisted her neck and bit down, earning a stifled cry from the poor girl.

"Fucking savages," Jason muttered as his stomach churned.

"Funny coming from a demon spawn. That's right, my dear pet." Alaric wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth." You're a demon now..."

"Bullshit!" It wasn't possible. He was a human.

"It's true. The moment the demon entered your body, the seal around your neck activated and banished the demon back to the underworld but left its power behind."

Alaric chuckled at his confusion and continued with his speech.

"When a demon enters a normal human with a healthy soul, they always fight for control. Two entities can't inhabit a body that was made to house only one." He lifted his index finger in the air for dramatic effect. "Usually when a possession runs its course, either of two things happen. A priest exorcizes the demon out of their victim's body or the demon crushes the human's soul and takes over.

"But the kicker to a possession is that the body wasn't created to house a demon, so the body deteriorates and dies, eventually. In your case, however, you had a half a soul that the demon attached to and merged with. Its intent was to fuse both of your minds, but I wasn't in the mood of having a demon turn you into a merciless killer—"

"Why? You already filled the position?" Jason's eyes scanned over Alaric's face.

"Touché." He bowed before Jason. "Anyhow... back to the topic. When Samael tried to merge with your soul. The enchantment ripped his conscious away but left his powers behind. The poor sap is back in the underworld, stripped of all of his powers and it will take the prince thousands of years to build them back up again."

"Why would you do such a thing?" Jason wanted to get to the root of the vampire's madness.

"Power, isn't that obvious?" Alaric smiled.