Death Conquers

by J. C. Diem

  Shaking my head, I shattered his hopes. “I’m sorry, she’s too dangerous.”

  “If I’m her master, doesn’t she have to do obey me? I could just order her not to hurt people,” he said in her defence.

  “And if you died?” Ishida pointed out. “Who would control her then?”

  Shoulders slumping, my minion conceded defeat. We stepped back out of the blast zone as he levelled his weapon and fired a single shot into his fledgling’s chest. She exploded three seconds later and bright red blood coated the walls. It quickly changed to sludge and slid to the floor, blending into the stain that was the rest of her remains.

  Geordie sidled up to me with sorrow in his black eyes. “We should have been keeping a better watch on your soldiers as they fed their flesh hungers.”

  “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Accidents happen.” I should know, they happened to me often enough. Gesturing for everyone to gather around, I made a short speech. “You probably think I’m cruel for not letting her live.” Gazes were averted, telling me that I was right on the mark. “You have to remember that our purpose is to keep the humans from harm, not to inflict it on them. If any of our kind shows signs that they are dangerous to humankind, they have to be eradicated.”

  Grudging nods followed my words. “It won’t happen again, Mortis.” Higgins spoke for all of my men. The ancient title sounded strange coming from the young American. He used it to remind his fellow fledglings that I was more than their sire and their leader, I was a creature that had been fated for a specific task. I’d created them to assist me in that task and they needed to realize that we had a higher purpose than just to survive and to feed our hungers.

  After our second battle with one of the monstrous octosquids, we were once again covered in purple brains and goo. Bunking down in the catacombs would keep us safe from being discovered but they lacked certain amenities, such as showers and food. If the world leaders truly wanted to help us this time, then they could start by finding us decent accommodation. It was the least they could do, considering we were saving their butts yet again.

  Remembering the satellite phone that I’d slipped into a pocket, I reached for it and hit the dial button. It barely had a chance to ring before it was answered. “This is Prime Minister Townsend.” Townsend was aiming for brisk but he sounded as excited as a kid at Christmas. He knew who was on the other end of the phone but he was surrounded by people and he was trying to be professional.

  “This is Natalie. We’ve taken down the second alien, but not without casualties. It went berserk and destroyed a small island near China before we could destroy it.” I gave him a couple of seconds to process that information. “The eight remaining octosquids aren’t going to be happy about this and they will probably retaliate again. Until we figure out which city is in danger next, my men need somewhere safe to rest.”

  Far less excited now, Townsend responded quickly and lowered his voice. “Thank you for informing me about the attack. I’ll notify the Chinese delegate privately.” His voice rose when he continued. “I have taken the liberty of readying accommodation for you and your soldiers. We’ll be waiting for your return.”

  There was no point dillydallying so I immediately teleported everyone back to the meeting room in London. Townsend whirled around and made a startled sound when we appeared behind him. He hadn’t even had a chance to put his cell phone away yet. “I must say, I wasn’t expecting you to arrive quite so quickly. This trick of yours is going to take some getting used to.”

  I glanced over Townsend’s shoulder at the Chinese delegate, who was listening to his cell phone intently. His expression remained stoic as he learned the bad news that the small island had just been destroyed. “I understand,” he murmured. “Do what you can for the survivors.” Slipping the phone into his pocket, he hesitated then approached us.

  It was automatic for me to bow to the man. Ishida hid his smile at the manners his people had instilled in me during my four month stay on his island. “Please accept my condolences for the suffering of your people,” I said in Chinese. I wasn’t sure which dialect I was speaking, but it matched the one he’d used on the phone.

  Bowing in return, the delegate graciously accepted my offer. “My government extends its thanks to you and your people for stopping the alien before it could cause any more damage to our cities.” We exchanged bows again and Igor elbowed Geordie before he could unleash a giggle at our rigidly formal behaviour.

  Gregor raised a brow at me. “It would appear that you have become somewhat of a diplomat,” he said when the delegate retreated.

  “You can thank Ishida and Kokoro for teaching me my manners,” I said dryly. “But I’ll leave the diplomacy up to you.” I’d learned a thing or two about how to deal with officials but I’d never be in Gregor’s league when it came to dealing with officials.

  One of Townsend’s aides approached us deferentially. “If you would follow me, we have transportation waiting to take you to your hotel.” He was a small, fidgety man and darted looks at us rather than meeting our eyes. It was common knowledge that we could bedazzle humans with a single look. There was no way for him to know that I could take control of his mind without bothering to meet his eyes at all now. As far as I knew, I was the only vampire with that particular skill.

  “Luc and I still have to return the boat to the dock for maintenance,” I said to our friends. “We’ll do that now and we’ll catch up to you soon.”

  I didn’t particularly want to be parted from our friends and allies, but it would be far less draining to shift two people rather than two hundred of them. None of the humans were planning on doublecrossing us, so I figured my small army would be safe enough for the short time that we’d be gone.

  Luc linked his arm through mine and I shifted us both back to the boat. It had drifted far enough away from the island that I could no longer see the town that had been decimated by the octosquid. Waves and the tide were pushing the alien out to sea. Seagulls circled overhead, not quite daring to land and taste the wealth of flesh that was large enough to be an island of its own.

  I took a few moments to search for the surviving octosquids and found their minds roiling in fury. The last of their kind, their instinct was to fight back before they were all gone. They were enraged that such small and insignificant beings were cutting them down so easily. They were also beginning to suspect that something other than the fragile humans was behind the attacks. At the moment they were too furious to plan a revenge attack but, once they’d calmed down, retaliation would be inevitable. If they couldn’t find us and exact their revenge, they’d settle for destroying yet another city that was full of the small but tasty civilians.

  Zapping Shadow back to the docks, Owens and his men were waiting. Townsend had called to advise them that we were on our way. The commander winced at the state of the boat and sent a swarm of men forward to fix the damage.

  “You’d better make the repairs as quickly as possible,” I informed my human puppet. “I have a feeling we’re going to need Shadow again soon.”

  Nodding, Owens flicked a curious glance at the small container that Luc was carrying then boarded the vessel to assess how extensive the damage was.

  Luc opened the case and offered me a blood bag. I accepted it reluctantly. Fresh blood would have been far better, but I didn’t want to waste the precious resources that had been grudgingly donated by the hospital. Biting into the plastic, I swallowed a single mouthful and grimaced. The liquid was lukewarm and tasted spoiled. “Gross,” I complained. “I think it’s gone off.” Only a few bags remained, but I still felt guilty about wasting them.

  “Then we’d best dispose of the rest,” Luc decided and tossed the bag that I’d punctured back in with the rest. The ice had melted and a couple of inches of water sloshed around in the bottom of the container. It was already beginning to turn pink from the blood oozing out of the punctured bag when he put the lid back on.

  I took Luc’s arm and sent out my senses i
n search of our people. Locating my army, I transported us into the back of one of several trucks. One of my soldiers swore beneath his breath at our sudden and unexpected arrival. Thankfully, no one had been startled enough to fire their weapons. They were too well disciplined and too well trained for that.

  “Is there any blood left?” Geordie asked when he saw the container in Luc’s arms.

  “There is, but I am afraid that it has expired,” my beloved told the disappointed teen as he placed the container at his feet.

  “I didn’t know blood could expire,” Geordie said.

  “Anything can turn bad if it isn’t stored correctly,” Kokoro told the teen.

  Her words rang in my head like a death knell and I had no idea why. All I knew was that she’d touched on something that was somehow related to my dream of the strange yet familiar monsters beneath the ruins. I kept the sudden sense of doom to myself. It was too vague to pass on to them anyway and we already had one problem to deal with. Why worry them further with yet another disaster that was yet to happen?

  The truck slowed down then came to a stop as we reached our destination. One of my men opened the door and we leaped to the ground. I tilted my head back to take in our accommodation. In the midst of being refurbished, the small hotel was empty of humans. A lack of twenty-four hour room service wasn’t a deterrent for those of us who drank blood to survive. As long as I had access to a shower and a comfortable bed, I’d be happy.

  Scuttling towards the door, the aide did a double take when he spotted me in the crowd. He waited for me to catch up before pushing the door open. “Fresh clothing is in those bags,” he said and pointed to a large bundle of packages that’d been stacked off to one side. “The upper floors are being remodelled, so your men will have to pair up two to a room on the first three floors.”

  I put his nervous fears to rest. “That’s fine. Pass on my thanks to your Prime Minister for the rooms and clothing. Tell him to call me on the satellite phone if he needs us.”

  Wringing his hands together, the aide nodded and backed away. Unlike his boss, he wasn’t a fan of vampires at all and was afraid to turn his back on us. My men began sorting through the packages, trying to find clothing to fit them. Another small bundle sat by itself. Wesley took a peek inside and handed it over to Kokoro. The former seer delved into the bag and took out a black leather jacket. It was far too small to fit any of the men, with the exception of Ishida and possibly Geordie. While his torso was longer than mine, his shoulders were about the same width.

  Kokoro raised her brows at me in enquiry.

  “Try it on,” I urged her, reading her surface thoughts that she wouldn’t mind taking the jacket for herself. She’d once worn a traditional kimono but had grown used to wearing more modern clothing.

  Ishida whistled in appreciation when his maker donned the jacket. Gregor’s grin grew decidedly lecherous when she withdrew a pair of tight leather pants from the package next. I wondered if the outfit had been intended for me, but I didn’t begrudge Kokoro’s interest in the leathers. We were a similar size and she’d easily fit into it.

  “I think this one is meant for you,” she said with a wink and handed me the shopping bag.

  Glancing inside, I was stunned to see a familiar sight. “Holy crap! I never thought I’d see this again.”

  “What is it?” Geordie demanded and pushed between Luc and me to peer inside the bag. “Is that what I think it is?” His hands reached in and pulled out a red leather outfit. It was nearly identical to the one that Ishida’s talented tailors had made for me to wear during my battle with the First.

  Ishida’s sorrow welled up before he could force it away. “Who is responsible for this?” Neither he nor Kokoro possessed the skill to work leather or to tailor outfits this well. That skill had died along with their people.

  Sending my consciousness across London, I zeroed in on a target and skimmed his thoughts. “It was Townsend.” Astonishment met my pronouncement. “He’s a closet vamp fan,” I explained. “He has a copy of the footage that was taken when Sanderson’s men and I attacked the First. One of the videos was taken before my suit was torn apart.” The Brit had fantasized about seeing me in the red suit for over a decade. Not in a sexual way, but more in the way that a sci-fi fan wanted to see a comic book character come to life. He’d personally paid a team of seamstresses to create the outfits in record time.

  “Is Townsend going to ask you to turn him into one of us?” Luc asked curiously. I sensed a hint of jealousy from him at the thought. He didn’t have a problem with me turning soldiers into my servants, but he didn’t like the idea of someone who might be obsessed with me becoming my minion.

  “I don’t think so,” I reassured him. “He’s happy just to interact with our kind and to do his bit to help his fellow humans.”

  Igor’s expression was doubtful at my assessment of the Prime Minister’s feelings towards us. “It is rare to meet a human who doesn’t want to kill us on sight. I find it difficult to believe that one would voluntarily want to be on our side.”

  “Not all humans believe that we are evil,” Gregor said. “Some remember that we have saved them on more than one occasion and are willing to give us the benefit of the doubt.” I wasn’t sure if he actually believed his own words or if he was just playing the Devil’s advocate.

  “We will see how they feel once we have saved them for a fourth time,” the Russian responded dourly. “Based on their track record so far, we can expect them to try to find a way to eradicate us once we have finished killing the giant jellyfish.”

  “That isn’t going to happen,” I said grimly. “At least not by the people who were at the conference,” I added slyly.

  Danton realized what I meant at the same time that Gregor did. “You may have befuddled their wits, but their compulsion to obey you will eventually wear off,” the monk warned me. Gregor nodded his agreement.

  My smile was both smug and nasty at the same time. “Their orders won’t wear off if I will them to be permanent.”

  Kokoro looked at me in astonishment. “How did you learn this skill?”

  I flicked a pained glance at Luc and drew my friends off to the side to talk in private. “I learned how to read minds while I was pining away for Luc in the mausoleum,” I explained as my men paired up and took the key cards that were neatly lined up on the counter. “I spent a lot of time in particle form, where I’m ninety-nine percent thought and only one percent substance. Without the distraction of a body, my subconscious took over and it started to wander.”

  “I take it your consciousness wandered to our meetings,” Gregor said dryly as the last pair of soldiers headed for the stairs. The aide dithered for a few moments, making sure he wasn’t needed, then darted for the door. He cast a final look over his shoulder then disappeared in an almost palpable wave of relief that he’d escaped with his life and with his wits still intact.

  “It didn’t take me long to realize that it was you guys that I was being drawn to,” I replied. “It was frustrating not being able to hear what you were saying, so I had the idea to possess one of you.”

  Geordie made a face. “Was it on purpose or by accident that you possessed me?”

  I’d told them this much so I might as well remain honest. “I chose you on purpose.”

  “I am not sure if I should be flattered or annoyed,” the teen said.

  Thanks to her former talents, Kokoro was better equipped to understand the process that I’d gone through than the others were. “Being inside Geordie’s body helped you to learn how to read his thoughts,” she surmised.

  I nodded, grateful that someone understood. “Once I figured out how to do it, it was easy to read everyone else. I just wish I’d known that I was reading Luc’s mind and that I wasn’t just hallucinating our conversations. As for my hypnotism being so much stronger now, I’m guessing it became powered up when I was infused with the nanobots on Viltar.”

  I’d been shot with around fifty syringes that h
ad been filled with a mixture of Viltaran blood and microscopic computers designed to turn their targets into alien clones. My veins had already carried an ancient infusion of nanobots that probably had saved me from being turned into a grey-skinned, hulking monster. It was strangely ironic that the Viltaran micro robots that had created our kind had made me what I was today, the weirdest and most powerful vampire that had ever existed.

  “Fate is responsible for the time that we’ve spent apart,” my one true love said. “It ensured that you learned everything you needed to know to face the battles ahead.”

  His thoughts echoed mine so completely that the sentiment might as well have been mine. I was still concerned that the powers that I’d gained still might not be enough. “I might’ve learned how to read minds and to control humans permanently, but I don’t see how that is going to help us to kill the octosquids.”

  Kokoro and Gregor shared a disturbed look. “Perhaps these skills are designed to tackle a threat beyond the one that we currently face,” the former prophetess said.

  A resigned dread filled the silence. I wasn’t the only one wondering if our task of saving the humans would ever be over.

  ·~·

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I knew it would be a bad idea to share the shower with Luc, yet I didn’t complain when he stepped inside the bathroom shortly after me. At first, I could only see him as an indistinct blur through the glass before I wiped the steam away and created a small window. I enjoyed the show as he gracefully stripped off before pulling the door open and stepping beneath the spray. There was just enough room for both of us.

  Taking the soap out of my hands, he lathered his palms and turned me around so my back was to him. His talented fingers started at my lower back and worked their way up, massaging my tension away.