Death Conquers

by J. C. Diem

  The unwanted visitors jostled together and I took Millicent by the wrist. With the picture of an underground area foremost in Millie’s mind, it was easy enough to hone in on the exact location that she was aiming for. Wide eyed at what was a familiar underground parking lot for her when we teleported, she stared at me suspiciously. “How do you know about this place?”

  “You have no idea what I do or don’t know,” I said with a cold smile. Thaddeus flinched and hunched over the bundle he was carrying. I flicked a curious glance at him but was distracted by Millicent thrusting her chest towards me. She used her breasts like weapons, but I wasn’t a man and they held no power over me, apart from slight jealousy that she was far bustier than I’d ever be.

  “Well,” she said briskly. “I can’t say that it was a pleasure to meet you, but I’m sure this will not be the end of our alliance. You will have need of us again one day and perhaps you’ll be more courteous next time.”

  “Don’t bet on it,” I responded then whisked myself away before she could say anything to anger me further. They’d had their chance to become part of our team and she’d blown it for all of them. Our numbers were small but we’d have to make do. I needed people who could work together, not a bunch of superior snobs who looked down on everyone else. My tolerance levels were far lower than they’d once been. To be truthful, they hadn’t been all that high to begin with.

  Geordie’s eyes were shining with admiration when I returned. He lurched forward to hug me as soon as I appeared. “Thank you, chérie. I know I can always count on you to stand up for me.” He gave me a hearty kiss on the cheek then stepped back.

  Igor gave his apprentice a sardonic look before turning to me. “I am surprised you did not just kill them,” he said to me.

  “I thought about it,” I replied honestly.

  Luc was studying me closely. “Why didn’t you?”

  Uncomfortable beneath the scrutiny of so many, I shrugged. “I’m supposed to be the leader of our kind. What sort of ruler would I be if I killed everyone that I didn’t like?”

  Ishida answered that question. “You would be a tyrant. My people suffered beneath many such monsters before my maker began to choose our Emperors.” He slanted a sly look at Kokoro.

  She looked at her former ruler in surprise. “How long have you known that I am your maker and that I was the one to choose our rulers?” she asked the teen. She was as close to being aghast as I’d ever seen her. Even when she’d still been able to read minds, she hadn’t known that her closely guarded secret hadn’t really been a secret at all.

  “I have always known that you were my creator,” Ishida said with a shrug. “I remember well the night that I lay dying from a fever. You came to me and told me you would save me and that I would become the next Emperor.”

  “I did not think you remembered that,” she said quietly. “You have never once let on that you knew my true relationship to you.”

  “As for you choosing the rulers before me, I overheard you speaking to the elders one night,” the teen said. “You thought your meetings were a secret, but my guards knew and alerted me to them. I attended one of your gatherings in secret to ensure that you were not plotting against me. When I saw you were merely concerned about our people as a whole, I decided not to interfere.”

  Gregor couldn’t have been prouder of the child king’s deviousness if the teen had been his own son. He gave Ishida a quick hug and Ishida allowed it. Their small family had grown stronger while Luc and I had been absent.

  “Have you come up with a plan to deal with these aliens, Gregor?” Danton asked.

  No one was surprised when Gregor nodded. “We have yet to see the actual size of our adversaries and can only rely on Natalie’s dream. Her vision gave me an idea that I would like to try, but it will require some preparation.”

  “What equipment will we need?” Igor asked.

  “I believe explosives would be our best bet.” That was the answer I’d been expecting. We couldn’t fight the octosquids with our bare hands. “We will need to find a large number of weapons,” Gregor elaborated. “We will also require suitable transportation.”

  “You mean a boat,” I deduced and received a nod of confirmation.

  “Can you sense where the aliens are right now?”

  “They’re spread out all over the place. The closest one to land is lurking near the UK.” The dream of being on the submarine as it was being torn in two was still fresh in my memory. I wondered if the vessel had already been eaten by the octosquid or if the sailors were still alive.

  Gregor’s fist came to rest beneath his chin as he thought through his plan some more. “We need to locate appropriate weaponry first,” he decided. “The boat will be fairly simple to organize.” He turned to me. “Do you think you will be able to locate someone who can help us?”

  “Yes, but it might take a while. It’ll be easier to do if I go into dust mote mode.” Geordie sniggered at my phrasing then started when my clothes dropped to the floor in an empty pile.

  Teleporting to the UK was the easy part. Finding someone who could direct me to a cache of suitable weapons was harder. Performing a quick sweep of London, I found some soldiers and scanned their minds to see if any of them knew more about the type of weapons that we needed. Jumping from mind to mind, I narrowed the list down further and finally came to a stop.

  Coalescing behind my target, I studied him without his knowledge. The physical requirements for soldiers must have slackened while my friends and I had been in outer space. He was maybe two inches taller than me, which would put him at five feet six inches. His mousy brown hair was rapidly receding, making him look ten years older than he actually was. Skimming his mind, I found he was thirty-one and had been hired due to his intelligence and knowledge of weaponry rather than for his fighting skills. I also gleaned his name.

  Leaning forward, I tapped him on the shoulder. Letting out a startled shriek, he swivelled his chair around and goggled at my misty body. Only my head remained solid. “Are you a g-ghost?” he stammered.

  “No, Steve.”

  His eyes went even wider that I knew his name. “Are you an alien?”

  “Technically, yes.” I’d started out as human, but the alien nanobots in my veins had transformed me into something far stranger. “I need your brain.” Steve’s hands went to his head and he shrank away from me. “Calm down,” I said and rolled my eyes. “Your brain on its own won’t do me much good. I need the knowledge it contains.”

  Before he had time to scream, I whisked him back to France. Falling to his knees, he stared up at the group surrounding him. “Everybody, this is Steve. He’s going to tell us all about the neat weapons they’ve been stockpiling in England.”

  “B-b-but I can’t,” our captive whispered. “That would be treason.”

  Luc reached down and hauled the terrified human to his feet. “You do not have a choice,” he said as he stared deeply into my captive’s eyes.

  Going limp, Steve nodded jerkily as he fell beneath my beloved’s spell. “Yes. I’ll tell you anything you need to know.”

  Danton’s brows rose. It was almost unheard of for us to be able to bamboozle someone of our own sex, unless they were sexually interested in us. All seven of us that had returned from Viltar had changed in several ways. Being able to hypnotize any human we liked was just one of the perks.

  Luc guided our informant to a chair and the others took seats on the couches as I poured my particles back into my clothing. I took a spot on a couch between Luc and Geordie as the question and answer session began.

  ·~·

  Chapter Fourteen

  Steve turned out to be a font of information. The Americans weren’t the only ones that had created weapons which could be used against our kind. The Brits had also designed guns that could rapidly fire explosive rounds. They were more powerful than ordinary grenades and could be fired at a much faster rate. They hadn’t yet had the chance to use them in the field. We’d nipped both
vampire invasions in the bud before the fledglings could increase their numbers enough to take over the world. Only the military in Russia, Africa and the U.S. had been involved. This time, the threat wasn’t going to be contained to a small part of the world. Everyone was going to be affected.

  It was a good thing the Brits had remained wary even after we’d been kicked off the planet. They had stockpiled enough weapons to stop another hostile vampire takeover attempt. The weapons would have come in handy when we’d been battling the droids and Kveet imps in the United States. But that war had also been halted before other countries could become involved.

  “Where are these weapons stockpiled?” Gregor asked our compliant captive.

  “In an underground facility on the outskirts of London,” Steve replied.

  “Is the facility under constant guard?” Igor enquired.

  Nodding, Steve elaborated. “Soldiers are on perpetual patrol around the grounds and cameras have been set up to watch every entrance.”

  “What about inside where the weapons are stored?” Luc asked.

  This time, Steve shook his head. “There is no need to have guards inside. It’s impossible to get inside without the proper authorisation. Only three men have access to the facility and you’d need their eyes and fingerprints to use as verification of their identity.” Then he remembered that I was able to transport myself to another location in the blink of an eye. “Then again, I guess you could just pop inside the place any time you want.”

  “How many of these weapons were made?” Gregor asked.

  “Several thousand guns, plus hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition,” was the prompt reply. “There are also other types of explosive devices, similar to the ones the Americans designed, as well as a few other fairly standard weapons.”

  Leaving the bamboozled human to sit quietly on his own, we drew aside to discuss our options.

  “We need to know more about our adversaries,” Gregor said and turned to me. “Have you tried to read their thoughts?”

  I hadn’t yet because I didn’t want to tip them off that we were aware of their presence. It was necessary now so I sent out my senses. We knew practically nothing about the octosquids and how their bodies worked. I had no idea whether these weapons would be powerful enough to kill them or not.

  It took only seconds to locate the behemoth that was slowly making its way towards the UK. Its thoughts were so different from ours that it was difficult to sort through the barrage of information. I caught images of its home world, when it had been stolen as an infant. Far larger than Earth, its planet was predominantly made of water and had once teemed with aquatic life. Considering the size the octosquids grew to, even their planet could sustain only so many of the creatures at once. They tended to stake out a territory and defend it to the death. Any infringement on another’s turf resulted in an inevitable battle.

  “That’s interesting,” I murmured.

  Geordie was nearly dancing on the spot in anticipation. “What did you learn?”

  “They’re a bit like feral dogs. They each pick a spot and attack any rival that dares to encroach on their turf.”

  Gregor factored that information into his plan. “That is interesting and this knowledge might come in useful. What do you know of their physiology?”

  That required another trip into the mind of the mammoth. I grimaced when I found what we needed to know. “They are really, really hard to kill. They heal almost as well as us, if more slowly. They have the capacity to grow back any body parts that are destroyed, but it takes time. They don’t have a respiratory system like we do. They don’t have a heart, lungs or any other vital organs to destroy. It seems that they’re really just a big stomach with hundreds of arms.” My report didn’t exactly lift anyone’s spirits.

  “What about their brains?” Ishida queried. “If they can think, surely they must have a brain.”

  “They do, but it is located above their stomach and deep inside their bodies. We’d have to carve our way through their flesh to reach it. Also, I’m pretty sure their brains are roughly the size of a large city block.”

  Danton blinked and shook his head. “You mean their brains aren’t just the size of a building but an entire block of buildings?” At my nod, trepidation filled him. “How can we possibly prevail against creatures as large as this?”

  “By strategically using the weapons that will soon be at our disposal,” Gregor responded. “Did the Prophet give you no warning of this threat at all?”

  The monk shook his head slowly. “He did not mention this particular danger.” Our gazes locked for a moment as we both remembered what Danton’s master had warned me about. Deal with one problem at a time, I told myself. The problem was, while one disaster was playing itself out, another always seemed to be lining itself up next. What could be worse than ten gigantic aliens that are intent on eating everything on the planet? My inner voice was morose and I had no answer for it. If there was something worse than this ahead, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know about it.

  “We should return our informant to his workplace before anyone notices that he is missing,” Luc suggested. “We should also begin to retrieve the weapons while Natalie’s soldiers are still resting.”

  Steve came at Luc’s call and we gathered into a circle and joined hands. I transported us all to an underground building that was at the foremost of our captive’s mind. The massive warehouse contained countless rows of metal racks that stretched twenty feet into the air. Large silver boxes in various shapes and sizes lined the shelves. Igor cracked one open to reveal guns similar to the ones that General Sanderson and his men had used. These ones were smaller, lighter and could hold more ammunition.

  While the others began hauling containers down from the shelves, I whisked Steve back to his office. Sitting him down on his chair, I stared into his eyes and felt Luc’s hypnotism fade and mine take over. “Go back to work and forget you ever saw me or my friends,” I ordered.

  Nodding jerkily, Steve swivelled his chair around to face his desk and returned to the task he’d been performing when I’d so rudely kidnapped him earlier. He began whistling cheerfully even before I disappeared.

  The others had stacked an impressive number of boxes in neat rows on the floor when I returned. I’d never tried to shift anything inanimate before and I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to pull it off. Given how many boxes there were, I decided to try to move them directly into the cells in the catacombs. There wouldn’t be enough room for them on the courtier level. Putting my hand on one of the stacks, I concentrated on taking the containers with me. A second later, I appeared in one of the cells. Grinning that the boxes had made the trip with me, I teleported back to the UK.

  Geordie was waiting for me when I returned and he was also grinning at my success. He held up his hand and I high-fived him. He didn’t flinch away from the direct contact with my holy mark. The teen trusted me implicitly and knew I’d never hurt him.

  I turned to the next stack and Igor made a motion for me to hold off on transporting them. “Let’s try something.” He and Luc nudged two of the rows together until the boxes were all touching. I was willing to try shifting them all at once and placed a hand on both rows. It was just as easy to move both bundles into the cells.

  Everyone was smiling at my success when I returned. “I believe this will go much faster than I’d anticipated,” Gregor said.

  By nightfall, we’d appropriated as many weapons, ammunition and explosives as our small army would be able to carry, plus some extras. Igor, Geordie and Ishida disappeared into a tunnel that led further into the catacombs. They wanted to test the weapons but they needed to move far enough away that they wouldn’t accidentally bring any walls down beneath the main area.

  The rest of us climbed up to the upper levels. My minions would be waking soon and I wanted to be there when they did. They would be hungry and we’d have to find them food before we embarked on the risky plan that Gregor had thought up. He’d ke
pt it from everyone so far but he was unable to shield his surface thoughts from me. As always, his scheme was brilliant and I wasn’t about to ruin the surprise that he had planned.

  ·~·

  Chapter Fifteen

  Higgins was the first of my servants to rouse. Unlike a human, he didn’t wake up groggy and was fully alert and on his feet in an instant. Several lamps let out a soft glow that was far more welcoming than oppressive darkness would have been. The others began to wake as a distant explosion made the floor tremble.

  Reaching for a weapon that he didn’t currently have, Higgins looked around in alarm. “What was that?” All of his senses had become enhanced with his death and the blast sounded much closer than it actually was.

  “That’s just Igor and the two boys trying out the weapons that we’ll be using against the octosquids,” I told him as his comrades began to wake.

  “Oh.” Relaxing, Higgins examined his temporary home. “Where are we?”

  “We’re in France. We’re in the catacombs where the vampire Court used to be located.” Before most of them had been lured to the First and I’d killed what was left of them, I added mentally. All of the men were awake now and listened in on my explanation. “There used to be a mansion above us, but it was destroyed. This level is where the courtiers lived. The servants’ quarters are on the level below this one and beneath that is where the food was kept.”

  “Was kept?” Charlie complained. “I was kind of hoping for breakfast.” Several of the men laughed then seemed surprised that they still could. This was all very new to them and they weren’t going to get much of a chance to settle into their new roles as the undead. We had battles to attend and instinct told me we’d be deep in the middle of our first skirmish with a gigantic alien soon.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find you a meal before we embark on our boat ride,” Gregor reassured the men.