Free Golden Hue by Zachary Stone

damned,”
     
    “Yes, you are,” he said. “Your very soul is hexed with a curse. When I kill you, your soul will burn in hell for all eternity.”
     
    I thought about his words and then asked another question.
     
    “So are you some kind of vampire hunter?”
     
    He laughed.
     
    “I guess you could call me that,” he said. “We prefer to consider ourselves as Knights of the Lord Jehovah.”
     
    I managed to stand up, but I was still weak. Leaning against a wall, I tried to point out an obvious, glaring contradiction.
     
    “If you’re some kind of holy warrior of God, why do you align yourself with foul monsters like Henry and his thugs?” I asked.
     
    He remained silent for a few moments before answering.
     
    “That’s a good question,” he said. “He’s providing me with information I need.”
     
    “About what?”
     
    “The vampire order.”
     
    “What do you want to do? Take out the empress?”
     
    He became quiet again.
     
    “Let’s just say that my order wants to refocus our efforts where they will do the most good.”
     
    “Look, I'm not some kind of monster. I’m actually a Christian. There are bad vampires out there, but there are also a lot of sick humans as well.”
     
    He stood up and looked at me.
     
    “Don't you dare call yourself a Christian,” he shouted. “You may have attended my church or even accepted Christ at some point in your life, but now you’re nothing more than an abomination.”
     
    “How do you know that?” I asked.
     
    “I know your kind,” he said. “Maybe I don't know a lot about your griffin heritage, but I know about vampires. All of them, at their core, are bloodthirsty beasts. They may pretend to be civilized or even go around doing good deeds, but in their heart they seek violence; they desire to kill.”
     
    “I'm not like that,” I said.
     
    He didn’t answer, so I decided to ask another question.
     
    “How did you weaken me?” I asked. “I feel like all my power is gone.”
     
    He walked up to the bars of the cell and looked at me once again.
     
    “The symbol on my palm is a sigil of heaven that drains your power,” he said. “When I activate it with the power of my soul, the red light makes you no stronger than any of us.”
     
    He held out his palm and the sigil started to glow. I could feel the red light weakening me once again.
     
    “You may accuse me of being a monster,” I said. “But you seem more like a witch than a preacher.”
     
    “What I do is not witchcraft!” he said.
     
    “It seems like witchcraft to me,” I said. “I've never met a preacher that knew how to cast spells.”
     
    “I learned my skills through intense study of the ancient texts,” he said. “My gifts are from the spirit of God, not Satan.”
     
    He stopped shining the red light at me, and I managed to walk to the bars of the cage.
     
    “How do you know the gifts you have are from the spirit?” I asked. “What if they aren’t from God or the devil?”
     
    “What if there are more powers in this universe than God and the devil?” I added. “Not everything we don't understand is evil.”
     
    “Your new age propaganda won’t work on me,” he said. “There’s one God, and his name is Jesus Christ.”
     
    “I believe that too,” I said. “Jesus Christ is the son of God. However, why do you lump all of us who aren’t human into one group? Isn't that judging us? Doesn't the Bible say something about that?”
     
    “You’re lucky I haven’t killed you yet,” he said. “What you did to rescue the young mothers from the maternity home has kept you alive.”
     
    The door opened again. A vampire walked in carrying a fighting, squirming little girl in his arms.
     
    “Put her in the cage,” Demetrius instructed him.
     
    I wanted to try and escape as soon as the door to the cage was opened, but I knew that I was far too weak. It was taking all my strength to stand; there was no way I could fight.
     
    “Let me